Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III

Three tough games and lots of tough lessons to learn. Here's what I've learned about my army and playstyle:

Tactical Inflexibility


With some things I'm really stuck in my ways. Listening to Andy and Michael talking between games 2 and 3 really made this stick out to me. They had come up with a plan to stop Michael's Rhinos being surrounded by Scarabs, hence blowing up and taking the occupants with them. Instead of deploying in the Rhinos, the Grey Hunters walked behind, thus getting cover from the vehicles but not risking being trapped inside. Also Michael talked about the fact he'd placed his Rune Priest with his Long Fangs in that game rather than with a Grey Hunter pack as he knew he wouldn't need the psychic defence. I never do anything like that. My Rune Priest always goes with the same squad regardless of whether that is the best place for him or not. My Wolf Scouts always deploy Behind Enemy Lines in every game.Yes, it's a cool rule but it's not always advantageous. I am also fixated by my Long Fangs being able to shoot every turn. There are definitely times when it might be better for them to move to another position so that shooting is easier the next turn. This is definitely something I need to think about if I want to step up to the next level.


Counter Attack Units


I have two counter attack units in my list - the Dreadnought and the Lone Wolf. Their job is to prevent my firebase from being attacked. However in all three games they both went merrily charging up the board and in all three games I lost a Long Fang pack in close combat. In the first game the Lone Wolf should definitely have been around when the Blood Crushers arrived. In the second game it was probably right to charge them forward to try and get them into contact with the Land Raiders. However, in the third game my Lone Wolf was busy trying to kill an immobilised Land Raider instead of protecting his mates.

Leadership

I failed 4 Leadership tests in the first game, 2 in the second and another in the third. Now, one of those was against Ld10 and that was just unlucky. However, it has made me realise that Ld8 isn't all it's cracked up to be. Normally, I'm okay making the tests and I could pass it off as just a bad day but 7 failed tests is bad news (and that doesn't even include Counter Attack tests) There are two clear options here. Either I can take some Wolf Guard and bump up that Leadership to 9 or I can tell my dice that I'm rolling for armour penetration as that always seems to guarantee that I roll low.

I also learned a few things about attending a tournament:

Check then Re-check

As I was getting my minis out at the start of the day I realised that I was missing a Grey Hunter! Potential disaster. Fortunately my army lives at my girlfriend's house and she was only a ten minute drive from the venue. However, since she was working the night shift on Saturday I don't think she was very happy about being woken up. So, even though she'll never read this I'd like to pass my undying gratitude to Rachel.

Clean those ears out

For the entire duration of my third game against Matt I kept calling him Nick. I'd like to blame this on my hearing (I failed my hearing test during my medical for my current job - all those years standing in front of amps on stage take their toll) and my lack of sleep.

Don't moan about lack of sleep

I wasn't very happy at having to get up at 7:00 on a Saturday. It's bad enough doing that in the week and as we all know weekends are for lie-ins. However, when Chris told me that he had to get up at 3:00 in the morning to get to Warhammer World as he lived the other side of Norwich it rather put some perspective on matters. Too much perspective as Spinal Tap might say.