Weekly Crusade Reports

[Schlitzaf]

I’ve been thinking for awhile, given all else. We have army threads, about well armies. These tended to highlight focus discussions on modeling, painting and otherwise. Battle Reports (myself included) tended to be sparse and generally discussions are about the praise of the battle.

 

We generally don’t see well discussion of the battle. And sometimes we see the same discussions crop up time and time again. Mordian recent thread tangent discussion about Crusader Squads demonstrate this the best. I am hoping to create this thread for a weekly write up of battle reports. Focusing on the battle, armies, and critiquing one self and each other; how do we become better players.

 

1) ‘Detailed’ Lists (specifically for the Templar side) and what Mission.

•More Specifically just a general list of what in the army not a fully detailed inventory. So if someone says tide, you know if they mean 3+ Tide Squads (12+ men) or spamming MSU Crusaders for example.

2) What did or didn’t go well, and why.

•Often said battle plans never survive contact with the enemy. Well why? Did the plan succeed or why did it fail?

3) If you won or lost?

•And why? Please avoid the ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ dice. One of my friends, whose is a superb 40k player has won games where he didn’t pass a single armor save. Or in generally had ‘abysmal’ luck but still managed to stomp.

 

And finally 4), while this isn’t a thread for competitive only. So feel free discuss battles where you took ‘subpar’ units (for sake of example a Chaplain or Terminators). Skipped the following portion for the tl;dr explanation.

 

But if you take for example a Chaplain, w/o Pack, and someone suggests shaving points to run a Captain. You should not respond by saying “I run what I think is cool, efficiency be damned”. Or object to any list critique because “I run what I like”.

 

But to restress this isn’t a thread for competitive players only. Just because someone taking a less efficient choice (Terminators) doesn’t mean you should go and advise “just drop them”. Unless you think there is a unit that could do what Terminators are doing but better.

 

If they are running naked walking Tactical Terminators, a reasonable suggestion would be aggressors. An unreasonable one “be drop them Terminators are bad”. Basically what I am trying to say. Likewise, if in your report turn 5, you need to fallback to win or draw (deny the warlord kill etc) but choose to “let’s fight”.

 

Answer “for fun!” If someone critiques shouldn’t be your defense (it can be true however). Likewise, a critiquer should explain why that decision wasn’t the best or if the reason isn’t clear. Ask. A classic case would be withdrawing = draw. But let us say EC fighting Archon w/Shadow, tied game or even your down a point, and it’s kill points. While it might be unlikely, the decision to stay and fight has an impetus behind it.

 

Tl;dr

1) If you post feel free to be critiqued, tactically, strategically and list building. The excuse of “for cool or fun” is not valid (it can however be the explanation for a course of actions or list decision. Meaning while true doesn’t excuse you from poor list building decision).

2) The right to critique, isn’t the right to demean. Your critique should critique not ridicule. Explain why x is bad and y is good. And be prepared to defend your statement.

3) We are here to improve ourselves and other. While you might be taking a unit because cool or fluffy, another player might not know why x was bad or y is good. That why while “is cool/fluffy” can be the explanation. It cannot excuse you, because this lets the reader know that is x is bad, and you took it because cool/fluffy.

 

Sorry for long opening post, I’ll try and get my battle from yesterday up to serve and as example