Finishing games with death....

[Opposix]

I recently attended a 5 game tournament (crimbobo) and had an absolute blast with my death army.

Out of the 5 games I played I only managed to reach turn 5 once. I am still relatively new to Aos 2 and playing death, however I felt that the horde nature of death was partly responsible for this.
My list isn't even full on horde either I was running one block of 40 skelletons and 20 grave guard. The rest was all hero's, 10 black knights and 6 spirit hosts.
I was using movement trays, I grouped my dice in blocks of ten to speed up rolling, I was actively trying to play quickly by avoiding decision paralysis and just getting on with it (often at the expense of good tactical desicions...) still I found it difficult to get past turn 3 by dice down.

The main areas I identified as contributing to this were:

1. Having to roll so many dice.

- often I was having to roll 50-100 attacks with my grave guard, skelletons and black knights, then with van hels rolling them all again, then opponent armour saves.... The sheer number of dice being rolled took a significant amount of my turn up. As the attacks are all low quality this often only results in a few wounds going through relative to the amount of attacks.

2. Piling in

- Movement trays are all well and good but when it comes to complex pile in moves they can't really be used. Piling in 40 skelletons around scenery and enemy models while being fair and accurate takes time (not to mention it's backbreaking over 5 games) some turns I was doing 40 skelletons and 20 grave guard, that's a lot of models...

3. Hero phase

- having so much to do each hero phase can also take time, healing units with grave sites/hero abilities, casting 5 spells and resolving all of them. Using a command ability to res and redeploy a previously slain unit.


By the end of the tournament I felt worn out with the amount of work playing death entails. I felt frustrated with the amount of unfinished games I had played either to my own or my opponents detriment. Thinking back im not even sure where I could have saved time to give me any chance of reaching turn 5.

Does anyone else have this issue with death? If you have any tips or advice I would be extremely greatful. As much as I like my army the experience left me questioning whether I would take death to a tournament again.....


P.S. Thank you for taking the time to read, rant over lol!
 

[Honk]

I think you’re right, playing a horde competitively is tricky. 

Judging from your post, you are actively trying to play fast, so if time constraints come around, that’s just tough luck due to the nature of a tournament.

try to get faster, the rest has to cope...

[SoulBlightDryad]

Looks like you are taking the appropriate steps. Just keep practicing and study your own rules and stats well. You will get there. 

[CaptainSoup]

I agree it looks like you are doing what you can to make sure your games are as smooth as possible. Practice really helps gets you in the groove of how your army works and with that it will make your phases go by faster.
 

One thing I've done for my Death army is create a list of notes for what I can do with what models each phase. That way I know I'm doing all I can in each phase (Hero in particular) and I won't have to think about if I missed anything.

[Honk]

3 hours ago, CaptainSoup said:

create a list of notes for what I can do

Sounds like a solid idea... all the extra stuff, I usually have all my warscrolls printed out, together with the spells, abilities and artifacts. Kept together on a maximum nerd clipboard... so I can have a quick look it just toss it to my opponent, if any questions arise.

[LJ26]

Since skellies mostly hit and wound on 4s and if I have to roll 100 dice I'll usually ask if we can run the averages and my opponent can roll their saves. (I don't know if this is despised bc it's a game of rolling dice but with that many dice you will always roll the average out). Even if I can save 5 minutes it adds up. I also time my own turns to 25 minutes. Never have asked an opponent to do the same. I do know most people not conscious of this problem can take a long time with their turns so it might not even be your fault at all. I also try to rush set up before the timer starts if possible. Because set up can easily take up 30 minutes with pleasentries. Its hard rushing set up with out coming off as a try hard though. 

[jobume]

I use the GW dice rolling app for all dice rolls over 30 dice. I always ask my opponent if they feel okay with it before the game. In 15 tournament games no one has said no. That saves a lot of time.

[Saxon]

Print out a summary sheet on an A4 or A3 sheet of paper with the main things you need to remember. It saves you flicking through the AOS app on your phone or the battletome looking for what you want. I think it's even more important for death with a lot of hero phase action. I use it for free guild. I have taken a lot of screenshots from the AOS App and broken them down into each phase from hero to combat/battleshock. That way I have a quick reference to what I have for my units in each phase. It's very helpful for buffs I have based on unit size and from the general and it's also helpful to see what abilities I can use in each phase. I will be doing the same once my GLoN army is built up enough to play with. 

I think the more enjoyable games are games where people know their rules, so knowing what to do and how to do it speeds the game up and you have less frustration from opponents. I play a nurgle opponent regularly and he is very poor when it comes to the cycle of corruption and knowing how to use his spells with Rotigus. I get very tired of watching him read his book every turn to work out how to do plague squall. It makes the game run for too long

[Saikological]

On 12/9/2018 at 11:38 PM, jobume said:

I use the GW dice rolling app for all dice rolls over 30 dice. I always ask my opponent if they feel okay with it before the game. In 15 tournament games no one has said no. That saves a lot of time.

Thats a nice idea. Is that the Warhammer 40k Assault dice app?

[Honk]

On 12/10/2018 at 4:17 AM, Saxon said:

I get very tired of watching him read his book every turn to work out how to do

That’s called psychological warfare...

crushing your opponents spirit by seeing you recount those 53 dice from the skelli attack

tempting him to believe your mysterious extra rules concerning curroption points, by reexplaining and re-evaluating them every turn

starting the turn with a long hard stare at the table, breathing like a bull in heat, before rummaging through your print outs and studying possible spells and command abilities.

Explaining to be used spells and abilities in detail, with fluffy effects, then reassessing the situation and starting all over again...

Demand the victory of he has to leave the store, because those 10 skellis will turn the tide in your favor.

if i cannot win, I will at least have broken his will to fight again after a 3 hour skirmish game.

then wonder why nobody plays with you anymore 🤣👍

[Saxon]

9 hours ago, Honk said:

That’s called psychological warfare...

crushing your opponents spirit by seeing you recount those 53 dice from the skelli attack

tempting him to believe your mysterious extra rules concerning curroption points, by reexplaining and re-evaluating them every turn

starting the turn with a long hard stare at the table, breathing like a bull in heat, before rummaging through your print outs and studying possible spells and command abilities.

Explaining to be used spells and abilities in detail, with fluffy effects, then reassessing the situation and starting all over again...

Demand the victory of he has to leave the store, because those 10 skellis will turn the tide in your favor.

if i cannot win, I will at least have broken his will to fight again after a 3 hour skirmish game.



then wonder why nobody plays with you anymore 🤣👍

We are going to start doing chess rules where you have a certain amount of time for each thing or we spend all day on a 1000pt game. Unfortunately, its a lack of effort to learn rules on his part and not a tactic at all. I currently play freeguild, my GLoN army i'm going to start over xmas. 

I like a good, quick game and can't handle people who take forever to get their stuff organised.

[Honk]

4 hours ago, Saxon said:

We are going to start doing chess rules

May I interest you in a 3 minute 2k  Blitz Game 😄 

but in a tournament format something like a 15 min turn clock might be something. Tricky that your opponent has pileing in and attack too...