first game/rookie mistake

[planet psyrum]

Played my first game of 40k today, and damn I'm hooked. Who knew pushing plastic dudes and rolling dice was so much fun.

I started this thread to make myself feel better after making a rookie mistake. I play necrons and i played against orks today. The mission was kill points and deployment was dawn of war. I was already at a disadvantage because we both had 9 kill points, but his squads were quite a bit larger. So i went into the game thinking to have him walk in foot to me while I shot him up. I stuck a unit of warriors in the center of the board that had veil of darkness. He deployed his big unit/hq right infront of them 12" away, i thought perfect. First turn I veiled them out of their and had some pretty good distance between us to about him up. That was good until I made two rookie mistakes. First and the worst, was he shot a krak missile at my squad of heavy destroyer and destroyer lord. I took the wound on a heavy destroyer, who failed, then took a morale check which I failed, and then ran off the board. There goes 28% of my 1000pt army. If i would have put it in my lord none of that happens. Plus he got 2 killpoints right there, which he won by. Second rookie mistake, not knowing about the waaagh! I was jammed up against my board edge with his big bad unit closing the gap. I figured i was 13-14" away, and that I should just shoot once instead of moving up and rapid firing, thinking i had one more turn. NOPE, he waagh!ed and there went another kill point.

Help me feel better, what was some of your first game/rookie mistakes?

[Yriel_The_Angelic]

Back in the olden days of the beautiful 3.5 Chaos Codex i had a Night lords army. They had stealth and for some reason i NEVER put them in cover. Every game i would lose because A) I never put them in cover and/ or B) when they were in cover i forgot bout the stealth rule .__.

[gruebot]

Well, I've been playing for a long time so its hard to say. But I guess I'ld have to go with underestimating my enemies forces or overestimating my own. This usually hapens with Space Marine Scouts. Whenever I play against them I don't bother going after them cause they never hit. Thern somehow my opponent is able to get one or two VERY lucky(in my opinion) game changing shots out of them. but when I run them(with camo cloaks & Sgt. Telion in a building with bolstered defense from Lysander) they still miss every shot & die rediculously easily! And for some reason I all ways go back to that unit and think "Mabey this time they'll - WAIT A MINUTE! That unit SUCKS!"

[Yriel_The_Angelic]

Well, I've been playing for a long time so its hard to say. But I guess I'ld have to go with underestimating my enemies forces or overestimating my own. This usually hapens with Space Marine Scouts. Whenever I play against them I don't bother going after them cause they never hit. Thern somehow my opponent is able to get one or two VERY lucky(in my opinion) game changing shots out of them. but when I run them(with camo cloaks & Sgt. Telion in a building with bolstered defense from Lysander) they still miss every shot & die rediculously easily! And for some reason I all ways go back to that unit and think "Mabey this time they'll - WAIT A MINUTE! That unit SUCKS!"

I have to agree with you.
Me: Scouts? psh they're a push over.
4 turns later
Me: I CANNOT! believe that 5 man scout unit tied up in close combat my obliterators for 4 turns! *face palm*

[Toaster36]

I've never had much issue with strategy, but when I picked my first army I wanted one that was good at assaults so I picked 'Nids. I quickly found out that I despise painting and maybe a horde army with a 20+ step painting process was a bit much for my first army.

My genestealer heavy force performed great in the tournaments and campaign at my FLGS back in 4th despite the fact practically my whole army was just coated with black primer. Recently I started a Necron force and am not going to make the same mistake. They will be fully painted before I even base them to play with.

Learn from your mistakes. C'est la vie.

[Silverclaw]

You really should not feel bad about making mistakes in your first game, everybody does it and it is the best way to learn and get better.

[Mr. Furious]

I was so bewildered(and a little drunk) during my first game that I don't remember much. I know I borrowed some Blood Angels to play with, I know I was completely lost and thought that no one could ever possibly learn all of the nuances to this game and I distinctly remember laughing my butt off and having a great time.

As far as remembering any mistakes I made.....that was many beers ago and I try to focus on the positives

[Headrush]

I play BA, and in my first few games I'd put Mephiston way out in the open during deployment and run him straight up the middle of the table. He didn't live too long

[Drunkencorgimaster]

I came to the tournament wearing white and it was after September. Then I used the salad fork on pasta. Then I made an elephant joke, and it turned out there was a guy standing right behind me who was one of John Merrick's grandkids. Man did I feel stupid!

[gythku]

When i started playing i asked my friends for a debrief of the game, most players are willing to help you or at the very least they like to sound right and tell you what you did wrong.