Need professional help: How to stop yourself taking bad list

Step 2, commit publicly to a reasonably compelling pair of casters and play them for 6 months.

Commit!

(You have until the end of September. I give you dispensation to wait until the new themes drop).

What are you playing anyway? Sorscha 2 and Old Witch 1 out of theme?

We all have problems.  Go on.


First of all, you're being vague.  Your vague question post is going to get vague answers.


Creating a good army list that works well for you is part of being a good player.  Notice I used the word "creating" instead of "using"?  Where are you getting these poorly performing army lists from?  If you are getting them from the internet - stop it.  What is one man's gold is another man's garbage.

So, you say that you are taking poorly performing army lists.  If you know that they are stinkers, then why do you continue to use them?  Seriously!


This makes no sense to me.

I'll say this to you:  If you haven't created the army list that works well for you, getting "any practice with actual good lists" is a moot point.  Find the right army list for you, then get your practice in.

Guilty as charged 

To elaborate, I don't look for lists online *ever*. So they are all things I'v come up with, usually based around: 'I really like this caster and want to play it competitively...'

Hi,

Something that improved my list writing as really working out the goal of the list and what factions you want it to play into before it is finished. This lets you streamline the list much better. So for me, the process goes something like:

1) What is the other list? If any, this might be the first list. In which case I'd probably start by working out what are some boogymen in your meta and start with a list you feel gives you a game into that. If this is the second list, work out what your first list feels weak against.

2) Pick a caster that seems to have some tools to deal with whatever is needed, as per question 1. Looks at their abilities/spells/feat to gauge how they'll do.

3) Look at the themes, are there any that will help the caster you've chosen deal with the match ups you're aiming for? However, don't feel you have to play in theme, even now. Khador especially still has some combinations that make out of theme play very tempting.

4) You now have a goal, a caster and a theme (or not). What armies are you likely to see on the other side of the table as a Khador player? Think about what you're opponent is going to be looking at and have a think about how their faction will deal with the problems you are presenting.

5) Start adding jacks, units and any other key models that helps the list in the match ups. Don't add stuff like utility solos yet, you want to flesh out the main body of the list first.

6) You should now have most of the list. Look at what the list still feels weak agaisnt with regards to what you expect to see and look at adding some small units or solos that help in these areas. This is where you get a bit more focussed. Look at things like mechaniks, Saxon, Orin, Eiryss, eliminators etc. Make sure they add to the aims of the list, you don't just chuck a solo in because you like them.

7) Play the list against anything at all. Take a note of what each model/unit does in the game and ideally write yourself a battle report. Did each model contribute as you expected? Is there something else you could have in the list instead that will perform better?

8) Make small changes, if needed. Change a solo out, swap a devastator for a destroyer, that sort of thing. Don't make sweeping changes to the list, and try to change one thing between each game instead of lots of things at once.

9) Keep playing it into everything you can! Find the strengths/weaknesses or little interactions that you'll only get from playing the list a bunch. Even if you think something will be a bad match up try it anyway, see how the list does.

10) Go back to the beginning. Does your list meet it's goal? How does you're second list now compare? Do they cover everything between them?

As a general note, I see a lot of lists that tech for a particular problem within a faction, but not the rest of the faction. The typical one right now is worrying about Ghost Fleet, but the list can't deal with Dark Host. Try to make a list that covers the faction where possible, and if you have to have a list to cover one match up try to make it as solid as possible into the rest of the faction.

Hopefully that's a good starting point! If it's useful I could try taking one of my current/future lists and running it through that process as an example?

Cheers,
Dave

The problem might be simply that you're playing the list into things it wasn't designed for in that case. While I did say above that you want to be playing it into everythnig to practice the list, you do also need to play it into the things it wants to see in order to check it works as intended.

What's your other list? Sounds like instead of changing OW1 you might be narrowing down on what list two needs to deal with, namely Cygnar, Menoth, Trolls and Skorne. However, I could see an argument for honing the OW1 list to play into Trolls due to the feat being useful against their infantry.

So, with that in mind, what's your other list? Actually, how do they both stand just now?

Cheers,
Dave

I don't see the problem here!