Lessons learned:

Don't trust what anyone says on forums.

Why?

First thing that comes to my mind would be all those useless squadrons with nothing to do. Did you or do you believe that Squadrons are useless?

But the forums have said that squadrons are useless, and that squadrons are not useless. I can neither trust nor distrust both at once. WHAT DO I DO?!

But yeah, there is a load of old rubbish on here at times, like any other forum. Good stuff too though.

What to do?

Play more, hang of forums less!

Related to the "don't listen to what you hear on the forums" advice, I might change that to "consider critically what you hear on the forums." Observations, particularly from good players or posts that are well articulated and provided evidence or examples are particularly useful. Unfortunately, most posts on forums do not meet those criteria. I find this to be particularly true when it comes to models that are not yet in wide circulation. Kneejerk responses to new models are often inaccurate and based purely on statistics and perceived uses, and so everything hasn't been really tried or figured out just yet. I often find this to be the case with models that offer something new to a faction but otherwise appear to be a little underpowered*, and those kneejerk responses are often fairly negative. Please do not let forum consensus drive you away from something. Try it for yourself. Give it thoughtful consideration. You'll often find that careful applied experience reveals a lot more nuance than some random person's kneejerk reaction and simply taking kneejerk reaction as fact will diminish your appreciation of the game and can discourage you from the enjoyment of trying new things and learning new things for yourself. This is true of a lot of competitive games and their respective forums.

* Example: the Raider-I; alternatively, back when I played Warmachine,** Protectorate of Menoth got a unit of light cavalry that were derided but I saw potential, played with them, and found them to be quite useful in the right builds. Guess what unit is being used consistently in PoM army lists nowadays?

** Protip: don't.

Hehe, Warmachine forum warriors leave this place in their dust. You'd think every poster was a world champion based on how certain they are of the idiocy they constantly spew over those boards.

I like Warmachine still, but the forums....good lord.

Hehe, Warmachine forum warriors leave this place in their dust. You'd think every poster was a world champion based on how certain they are of the idiocy they constantly spew over those boards.

I like Warmachine still, but the forums....good lord.

which is sad because, apart from X-wing and Armada, I haven't encountered a more balanced game

I'd actually say Warmachine is far more balanced than either at high levels. The top tier meta is FAR less narrow than X-Wing for example, which has 1-2 winning builds at a time. Not perfect ofc, but probably the best i have found.

It has....other issues however. But thats neither here nor there in relation to this topic really!

(This one might have been obvious to others)

In Fire Lanes and Contested Outposts, there are just as many objective points to win Rounds 4-6 as there are 1-3. Often enough, your opponent's only planning for them in the first half.

(This one might have been obvious to others)

In Fire Lanes and Contested Outposts, there are just as many objective points to win Rounds 4-6 as there are 1-3. Often enough, your opponent's only planning for them in the first half.

Yes! Had an opponent overfly the station with his ISD's. He got tokens for turns 1 and 2. My CR90, which did nothing else all game, snuck around and got tokens for turns 4,5, and 6.

nothing is trivial.

Its very easy to not put a lot of stake into your objectives or obstruction placement. I learned very quickly this will straight lose me games and that I am not devoting enough time in the dojo (tub) to these aspects of the game.

When you have killed your enemy's Most Wanted Flagship and suffered only minor shield damage, don't fly after his remaining Corvette into the field of obstacles with your Most Wanted Flagship.