Q: Pre-Battle Discussion w/ Opponent

[MrCharisma]

Just to confirm that this isn't a reference to the comments in the First And Last UK Tournament blog thread,  but general commentary around the topic.

Personally, I'm reflecting on how I set the tone of my battles and how I can improve based on the comments. For large tournaments, I'll often bring lollies/candy to share through the games to help keep the energy levels up and offer to purchase my opponent a drink if I take a short bathroom/drink break. 

It's been interesting to hear what other players are doing, and really like the idea on how these initial actions can help set the tone for the battle. I traditionally tell my opponents the overview of my army and some of the headlines. I really like @Thomas Lyons idea of sharing scrolls, and @#SteveJames's early clarification if certain terrain pieces like hills count as cover. 

Like @bottle , I run the Celestial Hurricanum. As this unit becomes more and more common I'll check to see if my opponent is familiar with the unit and either provide the headline as a friendly reminder, or more detail if they haven't experienced it. Units like the Carmine Dragon which are rare, I'll ensure to give a much greater explanation. 

 

[Okami]

This is how my Pre-Game goes with players i have never gone up against before:

1 - I Say hey how you going.

2 - Look at the army they pull out and kindly ask them pass me a printed/digital copy of there FINAL list with Artefacts

3 - Pass mine over and i say this exactly "If you have any questions on what I run, what my battalions, artefacts etc do. Please ask now" This is important as my army has heaps of tricks and i get over saying the same thing over the time what it does. Also with Sylvaneth being a popular army in AUS next to Tzeentch not alot of people ask and think they know what it does.

4- I ask them all the questions about there general command ability, trait and artefacts. I ask what there battalaion does, I also ask if they have any units with high mortal wound output or high rend. As that helps me decide what to kill first of. I don't ask them for there tactics I just ask what the warscrolls are. 

5 - I then Start downloading the warscrolls of their army (Except Battalions)  as i double check if they are rolling correct, I have had issues in the past with players making up warscrolls and saying there unit hits on a 3+ when really they hit up on a 5+. So yeah i do that now. 

I don't like people pulling fast ones on me. Yet i'm open on saying to people that I will explain to you what my army does if you ask. I will answer honestly and pass them my battletombe to show them that i ain't making up rules. However i dislike when people Charge my Treelord ancient and then try and re-treat when they realized they can't take him down. Then i tell them they can't because of his battalion and they get salty about it, when its there fault for not asking about it. Its your fault for not asking as I'm not going to tell you what to avoid straight away when i meet them across the table. So yeah people hate how i do that not being open straight away but its a tactic of mine and my build to do certain things i'm not going to tell my opponent to avoid stuff. So if you want to know what to avoid just ask simple questions of what things do and have and to avoid this problem. 

No one should feel like that have to tell them what there army tactic is or what there usual move they do. But its okay to explain what battlaions do, what artefacts give and traits because all that mixed in creates a scenario that your army will be going up against and probably won't win but its up to you as a player if you want to take the risk. 

[Ollie Grimwood]

I'd say that while one should absolutely tell an opponent what a unit does there's no onus you to tell an opponent what you're going to do with it. I'd also say describing how units synergise isn't something you'd have to tell an opponent.

 

At the events I've attended for AoS every opponent has asked me if I'm familiar with their unit rules and offered to inform me without me even needing to ask the question.

 

I will also take the step of reminding an opponent of their own special rules during the game if they forget, for stuff that they should be using in the circumstances, bonuses from banners, extra mortal wound saves or ignore wound rolls for example. Stuff that is "on" all the time. I'd also remind them of stuff they've activated. In a tournament I wouldn't make suggestions on when to use optional skills though that is up to them.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nico]

I think 5 minutes is about right. The problem is that it takes far longer to explain all the abilities of an army (imagine doing this for Sylvaneth or a Hosts Duplicitous to a wholly new player). 

I usually ask if they've played the army before and adjust accordingly (or say it's like Army Z, with difference Y). I offer to show them any Warscrolls, but reading 10 scrolls for the first time is not viable time wise).

It's got to be a highlights reel:

For KO it might be:

I can Deepstrike this ship and contents to 9" away. I'm not going to say "You should deploy an outer chaff wall, then a second line at 3.1 inches back, then another line 6" behind that so I cannot land Riggers anywhere."

I get army wide rerolls of 1 to hit and wound vs Flying units, but I can change this buff to a different random buff with These are Just Guidelines footnote.

The Khemists buff the shooting a lot and debuff your melee attacks.

The Admiral gives a Battleshock immunity bubble while he is alive (don't bother explaining the 3-way Command Ability you never use).

Any Battalion buffs.

....

I doubt you would have time to explain the Drill Bill and the Thunderer retreat or how a Drill Cannon does splash damage.

Frankly much more detail isn't going to sink in before the 3rd game of the Saturday (or might distract from what's really important).

It would be easy to misdirect someone's attention (inadvertently or otherwise) - e.g. Talk a lot about Archaon's 2 pages of rules, but actually your opponent should play as if he doesn't exist.

 

 

[Terry Pike]

6 hours ago, Deathmaster Snikch said:

For the record I didn't withhold anything and I explained what my Warpseer did.

You told me about the spell and his ability in combat. There was no mention of a shooting attack at all. If there was I would most certainly not have put the gaunt summoner opposite the warpseer. You may have explained the shooting attack in other games, in our game you didn't even mention the tail shooting attack he has (which I knew about from using a Deciever many times).

Its happened now anyway, people have said their piece, you made your blog about not playing in the UK again, which has since been removed. Best off just letting this whole scenario go and put it behind you.

 

[Jack Armstrong]

I think this is a really good topic.  I think like most things in gaming it should be a two way discussion but also responsibility.  i.e. neither player should feel duty bound to explain everything his army can do and how his opponent can beat it!

I always just start the game by asking my opponent a couple of key questions:

- how far can unit x move/charge in total with any available buffs/abilities/spells

- what is this units total effective range - i.e. it's movement and shooting total ability with any buffs/abilities/spells

- have you got any abilities that allow you to free move/teleport/redeploy/move out of sequence, etc

I rarely care about this unit has this many attacks at rend this.  I find that out before I charge it or before I choose my shooting targets.  As long as you know ranges then everything else is up to you.  

[Caffran101]

If its on the warscroll / in the battletome and someone asks you about it then tell them - it just saves time.

I do also think its good gamesmanship to explain auras that buff / debuff your opponents army. I felt a little stung in a previous game where my opponent didnt tell me (likely that he forgot as he was a really nice guy) that wrathmongers also increase your own models attacks by 1. As I havent played with Khorne this was something that I wasnt aware of - or even something that I knew to ask about.

 

The irritating question is when someone points at a unit and asks "is it any good?", I usually show them the warscroll and let them make their own minds up.

[RuneBrush]

I tend to be fairly light-hearted about the whole discussion.  I'll see if my opponent is familiar with the units I'm using and explain any clever shenanigans - so Blood Warriors attack after being killed in combat, Mighty Lord is very powerful etc..  All of my warscrolls & battalions are on cards so I'm happy to pass them over and let my opponent read etc.  I won't necessarily state every little nuance, artefact and rule if my opponent seems happy with what I've put down and comes across as knowing the rules.

Against my opponent, I'll usually state my experience against them - "my brother plays Nurgle daemon so I know what most of the bits do" or "I play against Stormcast at my local club so know you've probably got some 2+ re-rolling 1 saves in there".  My basic premise is that I won't be a d**k if my opponent isn't.

Odd little shenanigans are fun to find out with a "wow, that's really powerful".  If my opponent keeps launching rules upon me that they've kept to themselves, then that's the point where I might pause the game and ask them to explain exactly what each unit does again.

[Deathmaster Snikch]

I don't check this much but what's done is done 

 

New edition new rules and I don't even live in the uk anymore so move on 

[Chris Tomlin]

This thread wrapped up discussion 3 weeks ago. I don't see any good coming from further replies. Thread locked.