10 hours ago, Trizzo2 said:

Keep Control is so important. Every aspect is but I feel as though many games are needlessly lost by failing to do this.

You all might know it as "greed".

snip

You hit the nail on the head there. That's exactly what it is, "greed."

You get greedy for that kill, or something tasty comes along and distracts you with something else to chase. I bombed my last game by getting greedy chasing Shara Bey with Zertik Strom. I sent in a spare TIE Bomber for Strom to 'vampirize' as reroll fuel when all I had to do with sit pretty with him and Brace everything Shara had to offer for three more turns and deploy the Bomber offensively against weakened GR75s - easy. But no, I got greedy, got to suffer three 3 dice blue attacks from Shara per round instead of one, and lost the Bomber AND Zertik to some rotten, fickle red dice rolls. Lost the match by handing my opponent 24 points all for the want of downing his 17pt ace. I could have finished smashing up a damaged 18pt GR-75 instead.

Despite what Michael Douglas says, greed is not good, people!

Similar to Chess, know the odds.

I dont think at the table, I just do. I know when to stop and pause and think, I know when to ignore a ship that the odds say I cant kill. I dont calculate the odds there and then, I just know.

An old english teacher I had used to say that the great chess masters never thought about their moves, because they had seen every situation before and new how to react. Similarly, I know exactly how much pressure it takes to kill each type of ship, its not something I think about, its something I have enough experience to know. Every game I analyse afterwards how it went, and learn from it.

45 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Similar to Chess, know the odds.

I dont think at the table, I just do. I know when to stop and pause and think, I know when to ignore a ship that the odds say I cant kill. I dont calculate the odds there and then, I just know.

An old english teacher I had used to say that the great chess masters never thought about their moves, because they had seen every situation before and new how to react. Similarly, I know exactly how much pressure it takes to kill each type of ship, its not something I think about, its something I have enough experience to know. Every game I analyse afterwards how it went, and learn from it.

All very true but this article is for newer or less experienced players to use. Master chess players may not think at the table but do they teach their students that? I know several people that are excellent at chess and they play without pause most of the time, unless someone makes an uncalculated move, but all the chess Teachers I have talked to (never took classes as a kid but as a gamer adult I have run into many interesting people) they do tell their students to do something very similar to this.

The best ear chess teacher I meet was my son's chess coach who is a ranked master. And he always taught people to stop and think about how the board is unfolding. Until it becomes second nature you should absolutely stop and think and even then as a master player don't be over confident and underestimate your opponent and their moves.

Not outright disagreeing with you but you are making the game sound Too easy to play and that those who have to stop and think are below respect. That may not be your intention but wanted to just say that not everyone can play at that level.

Maybe my first line was too short.

Know the odds. Know by thinking and pausing, until you know. Just know

6 minutes ago, Ginkapo said:

Maybe my first line was too short.

Know the odds. Know by thinking and pausing, until you know. Just know

That is the mastery level to reach for. Most won't reach it though.

You do realize I am trying to say your a master player at a level most won't reach if that is how you play. A round about way of complimenting you.

It's like when upper level scientists are discussing physics like it's common knowledge to the public.

Finally had a chance to really sit down, reread the article and think through it.

First, I think the basic outline is a great way to help players acclimate to the game. I come to Armada from having studied the game of chess back in my high school days about 5 hours a night. Yes, I had no life. That's alright. It wasn't like there was anything else to do. I've played a variety of strategy games in a variety of formats since then. One of the problems that any player faces when approaching a strategy game is that the game is giving off an absolute ton of information. In fact, it gives off so much information that none of us can process it all well enough. That's how players lose the game, and how even top players can talk about mistakes they made in games that they won. The key there is that the best players have a system for processing that information, a mental checklist much like that described in the blog post. The first step to getting good at the game is creating a mental checklist that you constantly do throughout the game and then create the habit of doing that every time you're at the board. So A+ for addressing this point.

I wouldn't mind doing a series of articles on developing and utilizing tactical awareness. What players mean by saying, "Can you fly it well?" That's a matter of knowing exactly what your ship does, what your enemy ships can do, and knowing how they interact with one another. So we almost need a separate set of articles beyond say the introductory articles (which are quite good) on Biggs' website about the individual units and their potential in the game, which can then build into how different units interact with one another in a much larger fleet. A fleet, after all, is really much more than the sum of its parts, and a well built fleet provides the right tools to offer a path forward in almost every match-up.

Overall, I enjoyed the article (including the opening quotation.) and look forward to seeing more. I may get a few of my own out eventually.