Last week I wasn’t able to make a post discussing a list that I have, in fact I failed to make a post at all. There were two reasons for that, first is that my real life simply got in the way and second is that I did not have a list I was confident enough to talk about. This brought about an important concept when it comes to building a list for yourself which I missed or failed to understand when I first started playing Warmachine. The concept of “grinding games”, so I won’t be discussing a list again this week but I will next week. This week I would like to talk about the concept of “grinding games” with a list.
When I first started out playing Warmachine I had a Mk2 battlebox that had Stryker1, a Lancer, an Ironclad and a Charger. I then escalated rather quickly to buying a minimum unit of Long Gunners second hand. Then I bought a unit of ATGMs with the UA, then Defenders, then Hunters and so on and so forth. Escalation to increase your types of models is never bad provided that you have the proper finances to do so. However this is the point where I felt that the concept of “grinding games” would have aided me.
Having a decent array of models at my disposal to build different lists with and multiple casters to play around with as well, I found myself jumping from one list to another. One caster to another only playing one or two games with each list before moving on a new list. I found myself doing this because I was becoming frustrated with my lists not performing the way I wanted to. Being frustrated with a list for not performing well is not uncommon, however my approach to dealing with the frustration in hindsight was not optimal. The optimal way I think for one to address the frustration of lists not performing as expected is to keep playing a single list, even if it is not performing the way you expect. When you play games with the same list over and over even when you lose over and over you still learn things. This is what “grinding games” is all about, playing games not just to win but to learn why you lose.
How many games one should grind before one makes changes typically depends on the player, but what I personally do is play around 5 games with a list before I make changes to the list. The 5 games gives me enough experience with the models in the list as well as the caster to make informed decisions of what needs to be changed in the list, what are the inherent weakness to the lists and what are its strengths. I then make changes and play another 5 games without changing the list and repeat the process. I do this until I am satisfied with how the list performs.
Grinding games may not be for everyone. I just wanted to share my personal experience when I was starting out in the hopes that it can help other new players who may be having the same frustrations as I once did.
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