Your Weaknesses as a Player

[Commissar Piotr]

Evening Gents

I think that Mark does make a assumption that is not always so good. To have a general rule to never allow -2 shots is generally good and a good point to start out with.
The decision to allow a -2 shot is something that is learned later in the progression and I think that many of the guys looking at this thread would be more helped with the general idea of what to do and not get confused with the figuring out when to allow it as that tends to make players think in the line of:
"Well, if I am lucky this will be a great move"
As soon as you hear yourself think "lucky" you are probably not doing it the best way. The art of playing ASL well is very much about not trusting to luck but insure against your opponents luck so that when your opponent gets lucky, it does not harm you too much.
Anyway, my point is for the newbies to start out by setting up some general rules for your play, for example to not allow -2 shots against you. That way you will get to understand the game without suffering too much from luck.
In time you will see from other players that they deviate from the general rules you have yourself and that is the time to ask for an explanation why they did make the decision they did and you will get closer to see when and how to make those decisions.

 

[Pitman]

You cannot have a "general" rule to "never" do something. One is conditional, the other absolute.

The bottom line is that sometimes you HAVE to suck up -2 shots. Telling newbies that they can avoid this is just misleading them.

The advice that you CAN give novices is to tell them to analyze their feelings when confronted with the desire to make a move that will risk a -2 shot. Are you making this move because you think you must take a risk in order to "turn things around"? If so, then it is likely that the move is a bad move. You are far more likely to turn things around through competent, consistent play than by taking ever greater risks. But, are you considering this move because the only realistic way to get your forces where they need to go in order to win the scenario is to risk that -2 shot? If the answer to this is yes, then you can go through the following questions: 1) have you examined all other alternatives? 2) are there tactics you can use (smoke, diversions, etc.) to minimize the risk of making that move? If the answers to these questions are "yes, and there appear to be none" and "yes, and I have tried them" (or "no"), then you may have to go ahead and make that move.

But even if you make that move, there are smart ways to do it and dumb ways to do it. Do you only need one unit to survive, or do you need others? If the former, then DON'T move in a stack and make sure that the first one to move does not move in such a way that residual is placed where all your other units must follow. If you need multiple units to survive, then you have to analyze the stack situation. If residual is likely to put all your units at risk, no matter how they move, then you may want to go ahead and move as a stack, taking the chance of just one die roll, as opposed to multiple ones.

 

[Legion]

So is it a question of tactics or rules being supreme in understanding the ramifications of the above example of -2shots?

 

[R.S. Barker]

I guess that is what separates the average players from the consistent winners, knowing what to do and when to do.

In regards to newbies - Isn't it more a case of not knowing the rules more than of knowing what to do and when to do it ?

Case in point, as a newbie, I can't tell you the overwhelming sensation I get when trying to read through the rules, and then sit down by myself and figure out it applies to a counter, or a set of counters.

Then you throw in all the other rules, and I for one amd less concerned with a -2 modified shot than actually following what I'm supposed to do. :nervous:

 

[Pitman]

Rules are definitely important. But typically the rules don't tell you how to take advantage of them. They tell you how to stack, for example, but they don't tell you when to stack.

Typically, what good rules knowledge gives you is more opportunities. How to take advantage of them is something that you have to learn.