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Anyone play against themself?


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Besides Tzeetch players, obviously...
But seriously, does anyone try out different army compositions and strategies by running a simulated battle where they play both sides?

I definitely feel like I need more practice more, but I tend to be quite busy, as do my friends. Thus times when we are actually free for a game aren't always that regular. While sat on the bus back from losing disastrously this afternoon, I started wondering whether I could reenact the battle later, and try out a few different tactics and army lists.

I figured that it might be a bit tricky to keep everything in mind, but so long as I roleplay both general's accurately, and don't favour one side or the other it might just work. Using a battleplan would help in this regard, since it would set the two sides objectives in stone.

I'd know what the other player was planning and thinking, but I don't think that would be as critical in Warhammer as in some other games. After all I've rarely had games where It wasn't fairly obvious to both players what the other was doing or planning at a given point (This might be less true with competitive players, but in my social circle we often have more or less a running commentary as we go, discussing our hopes, plans etc.).
 

So does anyone do this? What are the potential pitfalls? and have I gone mad?

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I have done it a few times for 40k (don't have the armies yet for aos).

I find the biggest pitfall is really wanting to see what happes if x does his big thing.

When trying a new list you do want to see it work some sometimes you would do a sub optimal thing to make sure there is the opportunity for it to happen.

While this is well and good to see if that effect is worth it, you also have to do it a couple of times to see how easy it is to stop. To do it properly you have to propbably run the lists against each other 3-5 times to see how it works.

 

Anyway this is the same sort of thing as playing a teddybear picnic as a child, everyone does it. Just your teddybears are plastic men and your picnic is killing everyone ?

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As said the key problem is that because you are playing both sides you see the game differently. Even if you play your best as each side you still know what the other player is thinking. Any kind of deception, trickery, confusion etc.. is straight out the window. You already know the powerful combo that the opposing army has and will use and where and when it will likely be used. 

I think its a decent way to mess around and see how the game mechanics are and reinforce how you play, remembering that if you make mistakes no one will catch you out on them besides yourself so it can also reinforce bad play practice. You might even get sloppy with things like movement which could bleed over to your regular playing without you realising. 

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I had a spare morning today, so gave it a try. It worked pretty well, more so than I expected to be honest. It wasn't the most tactically complex game, but I was able to make sure that I always wanted the side I was currently rolling for to win, which was the main thing.

It would be tricky to do a large battle I think. But I reckon it will be a useful tool for getting a feel for small 1000 point armies. I picked two forces I didn't know that well, and found it much easier to get to grips with their rules playing it out than if I'd just read the scrolls.
The downside was that I occasionally lost track of which round and turn it was during combat phases. Some sort of tracker is definitely in order!

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I play against myself. Fantastic for learning your armies, and although you 'know' what the enemy is going to do at all times, sometimes the death star combo attack fails, leaving you in a position where you genuinely have to think about how to beat yourself on the counterattack.

If I ever play against someone using an army whose rules I'm familiar with, I can often work out what they're going to do, making it not much different to playing against myself anyway.

In short, there are a lot of pros in there, including:

1. Learning your army's unit capabilities and what they do.

2. Working out/reinforcing good synergies.

3. Getting to grips with abilities/spells and what is most effective against certain types of enemies.

4. Learning Matched Play battleplans. This is a big one for me.

5. Seeing the effects of realm rules.

Cons:

1. So ronerrryyyyyy. 

2. You know what you're gonna do, kinda. You'd be surprised how often you can outmanoeuvre yourself.

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