Playing Well With Others, Part Deux

Crow can be delicious when it has the right spices.  It seems I should have given the team league a little more time before making a judgement.  Since my previous post, I've gotten another pair of games in.  Something has been different these past two weeks.  Game lengths have shortened.  Pairings seemed to fall into place.  Game play has gotten quicker.  Overall, everything seems to be running a lot smoother. 

At the risk of jumping to conclusions once again, I can only assume that this has something to do with a learning curve.  Four thousand point slug fests are still present but have mostly given way to 2000 or 2500 point games with two players to a side, or one player taking on two.  This takes things one big step towards being more manageable.  I also have to give the players credit.  After just a couple weeks of experience, they seem to be showing up with multiple lists for whatever they might end up having to play, rather than building a list on the fly and obsessing over points for an extra half-hour.    During games, phases seem to flow a lot more smoothly.  There's more communication between players in the dead spaces of the game, so when the action starts to get thick, both players are active when they can be.  There's a lot less of the, "Well, let me see what you do there, and then I'll make a decision on where to shoot."  Total game time is still a little longer, but not noticeably so.  It's going to be interesting to see if there's more to the curve, or if we begin to plateau.

Another bonus is adding to the list of armies that I've gotten to play alongside.  Orks aren't exactly the most tactically complex army, and pairing them with Chaos Marines isn't a force multiplier.  In contrast, Eldar and Dark Eldar are quite a bit squishier.  Add to that the speed and guns my teammates brought to bear, and suddenly it felt like teamwork.  Things started to click.  I had a role to fulfill.  Be resilient.  Push forward.  Apply pressure.  Get stuck in.  I can do that.  Games were less about simply pushing towards combat because my team's assault forces didn't cover the whole front of the board.  Planning became a thing.  Tactical options opened up.  My teammates and I worked together to achieve a mission.  It felt good.  It felt really good.  Hopefully there is more of the same on the way.