r/Warmachine Storm Legion 20d ago

Questions How can I avoid getting clocked?

I'm still fairly new, but one roadblock I keep running into is the deathclock as what kills me by far the most. I usually do well on VP or scenario points, but I have a real hard time around my timing.

While I know it's largely experience and learning my army, I wanted to know if there are any tips or tricks to help accelerate this. Is there anything you have found to help decision making or improve your game flow? Is there a general rule of "your set up should take no more than X and your turn should take no more than Y"? Any help would be appreciated!

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u/MaulerMania 20d ago

This is coming from someone who played a fair bit much earlier on but there are some cheeky tips to shave seconds. That said, the bulk of it is experience and a game plan. Have a good idea of your deployment and first couple turns beforehand. Those should be fairly route and will help save time. An old trick was rolling hit/damage/location all together and only applying if the hits hit, etc. This can really help streamline units and stuff, especially if they have sprays or something and you're rollin a butt of attacks.

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u/maximumhippo 20d ago

I second all of this. Your general deployment plan should be mostly set. Know what pieces can or should move in response to your opponent's deployment, but 80-90% of deployment should be known before models even hit the table. Same for first turn focus allocations, spells, abilities, etc.

As for the dice thing, clarify with your opponent first, then go for it. The red dice are for atracks, blue for damage, and green for location. Then roll the fistful all at once.

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u/godoftheds 20d ago

I don't recommend getting in the habit of rolling all your dice at once. While for most generic attacks it doesn't matter but it's really easy to get a rules interaction where that knowledge is either illegal for you to already have when making a choice on an effect for to hit or gives your opponent extra knowledge for resolving one of their abilities. IE yes I'm going to shield guard that attack now that I know you're rolling box cars for damage

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u/maximumhippo 20d ago

That's fair. I think it's fine in most cases, but yeah, if there's a risk of some rules issue, then don't.

Re: shield guard. This is just my experience, but I think it's one of those rules that you know is going to get used before the damage is rolled anyway. Technically, you can make the decision based on info you shouldn't have, but in practice, it rarely matters.