Once the bump party happens the matches slow to a crawl. Once you start having to mark things to see if you can make that 3 bank through someone's swarm you might as well just call time right then. If you're flying a Z-95 swarm you have to deal with target locks also. Against certain things like super Dash, if you don't concentrate on him from the first engagement you kind of can't kill him because you won't have enough time to.
Do I just play slow, or what?
60 minute matches are pretty bad for the Swarm.
However, the problem you're having is stated in the first sentence:
Once the bump party happens the matches slow to a crawl.
Swarm wants to do one of two things:
A) Engage entirely at Range 1, concentrating fire with a single ship, which should result in the removal of that ship from the game
B) Use Blockers to keep threatening ships in place while the rest of the swarm gets behind it, gets away, or blows it away at Range 1.
You should not be fearing the 'bump party'. You should be using it to your advantage.
There are about 3-4 different topics being addressed here, so let me address them individually:
Once the bump party happens the matches slow to a crawl.
When playing a swarm, expect to bump. You shouldn't think of this as bad playing on your part, particularly if it gains you a significant position on the board and keeps your opponents predictable. While the planning phase can involve a bit of thinking, the actual mechanics of moving ships should be straight-forward in most cases.
If you're flying a Z-95 swarm you have to deal with target locks also.
I'm not really sure what this is meaning to address, unless you are referring to measuring the distance for target locks through intervening models. In most cases, the template can be eyeballed from above for a quick "yes/no" decision on target locks. When it gets to the point when you have to move models to check, you should be able to deduce that any ships within a certain range can acquire a target lock, and any ships beyond your current ship are outside of target lock range.
Against certain things like super Dash, if you don't concentrate on him from the first engagement you kind of can't kill him because you won't have enough time to.
I would say that concentrated fire should be applied to most ships; it just happens to be that certain classes of ships take more damage than others. Spreading out damage across the enemy forces leaves you vunerable to more return fire.
Do I just play slow, or what?
For most swarms, the opening moves are pretty straight-forward. These rounds should go by fairly quickly, barring any unexpected maneuvers from your opponent.
It's expected for more thought to be required after the initial round of combat. You have to assess how many of your forces actually remain on the board, their current positions, their activation order (subtle but very important in a swarm of mixed PS values), the expected positions of your opponent's ships, and based on all this determine the best (or at least acceptable) locations for your ships. This is where the game will slow down. However, an extra couple moments of planning your moves out is better than making a long string of mistakes for the round.
As a swarm player, expect your ships to die first. It's vital that you don't get discouraged by this! If you accept defeat too early, it will be reflected in your planned maneuvers. Stay vigilant, and fight to the end!
I didn't get the impression that he felt bumping was bad, just that it is slow. The actual mechanics of moving can be very tedious when there is a lot of bumping. Marking where 3 different ships are so that you can move them out of the way just to get a template close to the moving ship, and then trying to figure out which ships are overlapped and how far to move something back and then putting the moved ships back in place all takes significantly more time than just moving a ship in open space.
If you are moving 6 headhunters, all with target locks, you have to move the tokens as well, and keep track of which token goes with which ship. All that takes time.
I also don't get the impression he was discouraged or thought he was playing poorly, he just wanted to know about time issues. It really almost seems like you two were responding to a completely different post.
Edited by ForgottenloreMarking where 3 different ships are so that you can move them out of the way just to get a template close to the moving ship, and then trying to figure out which ships are overlapped and how far to move something back and then putting the moved ships back in place all takes significantly more time than just moving a ship in open space.
Which is, I suspect, why the rules say not to mark the ships and just estimate as best you can. A lot players (myself included) mark ships to improve accuracy, but there comes a point where the time you would lose is more important that getting the location of the ship(s) 100% right.
Oh.
Are you now running into 'auto lose' problems with the feedback swarm too?
This is a surprise ending!
Oh.
Are you now running into 'auto lose' problems with the feedback swarm too?
This is a surprise ending!
?????? To whom is this addressed?
Oh.
Are you now running into 'auto lose' problems with the feedback swarm too?
This is a surprise ending!
?????? To whom is this addressed?
To me. After the Phantom nerf was revealed, but before it went into effect most of the players in my group decided to all run Phantom Decimator in an event to troll me. I had to face it in all three rounds with Soontir and 2 Defenders and I had an absolutely miserable time lol. Afterwards I created a thread on these forums expressing how annoying it was to run a 'fun' list to just get stomped by obnoxious power lists, with me resigning myself to playing nothing but 7x Feedback Array Scum Z-95's.
I wouldn't say this is an autolose situation. Autolose is playing swarm vs. pre-nerf phantom. Losing to super dash is annoying but it's actually in the realm of possibility to kill one with a swarm.
My swarm flying abilities have been lacking of late. I think I'm going to make 7x Black Squadron my go to squad. No special abilities or auras to stay in range of, just pure flying. Should allow me to get more practice in playing lean time wise with a swarm, and also will help me practice not bumping my own ships as much. Not the best swarm, but that's not the point and with less to think about I might have more time to think about basic positioning and tactics. Also I can run 7 of the Black Squadron promos, the most beautiful ship card in the game.
Yes, thank you.
Obsidian Squadron still is my fav list.
But 60 min rounds are ass. 90 are best ... at least 75.