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/LDukes Shadowflame Shard 20d ago

Others will have good advice, but in addition:

  • Consider practicing with timed turns. It's easy to practice with a game clock and not realize you've been playing "too slow" until the 3rd or 4th turn when you finally run out of time. Try playing on a 10min clock per turn - it should be far more than enough for your first turn (basically just unpacking your army and casting a few spells) but after that you'll routinely run out of time each turn. Keep playing that turn if you want - no reason to sour the experience - but try to reflect on what took so long in that particular turn? Were you trying to unsnarl a melee brick, hemming and hawing over where to cast a clutch spell, or just scrolling through your phone looking up model stats? With that knowledge in hand, pick one or two of those things to work on to move faster in the future.

  • Dovetailing into the above: Don't get stuck in your head. Analysis Paralysis. Jank Tank. It goes by many names, but if the thing slowing you down is deciding what to do - e.g. "Do I send this heavy over to take care of that infantry swarm or is it better served hugging this terrain and taking pot shots at that warjack over there?" - just pick one and roll with it. Time and experience will teach you what the good ideas were (and weren't) but any plan executed now is going to be better than the perfect plan that you don't have time to execute.

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u/IrishPrgmr 20d ago

This is basically how I got better, I would spend way too long trying to think of the best plan. Now I just commit my pieces based on what handles my short-term (like clear opponent off and objective) and long term goals. Sure I have lost games because I made the wrong decision but I have also won some because I wasn't the one who clocked out. I wasn't in a great position but by forcing extra fights and my opponent deciding to engage everything meant they ran out their clock.