So there's been a bit of a lapse on the blogging front. Well, quite an epic lapse on the blogging front. It's not been a fun few months from a personal perspective, and that's made it next to impossible to string a coherent sentence together. And before anybody (probably Jason Foothill) says anything, yes that is different to normal...
I was originally planning to post an article on getting ready for your first event. What you need to bring, what to look for etc. But before you take that step, there is something you need to be ready for – playing on the clock.
First and foremost, don’t rush into clock play. It’s something you should only look at once you’re confident enough with the rules to be considering going to events, and you complete your games in around two hours. But if you feel you’re ready, go for it!
Should you come from the Warmahordes world, you’re probably used to clocks by now. To the rest of us though, the clock is a new thing to be regarded with suspicion. “What the **** is that and is it going to cost me points?”
The short answer to that is that it could possibly cost you points, and it will definitely make you think more about your play. But having gone through a few games on it now, I can honestly say that having the thing there does actually add to the experience. It removes any possibility of slow play, something which can blight competitive games, forcing both players to make their decisions relatively quickly.
How does it work? It’s actually relatively simple. In a competitive game of Guild Ball, each player has 45 to 50 minutes of clock time in which to play the game. If you’re doing something with your team, your clock will be running, and likewise for your opponent. If like me you remember the days of Garry Kasparov v Nigel Short on Channel 4 with the pair of them hitting the clock button once they’ve made their move, it’s not that different. Once you’re done with a model, hit the button on the clock, and your opponent is up.
Just one reminder – remember to press the damn button to put your opponent on the clock! I am terrible for forgetting to do that, and I’m on the verge of getting a tattoo on the back of my hand that reads ‘CLOCK! WANKER!’. I still haven’t ‘clocked out’ – the phrase for when you run out of time before the game is over – but I’ve come a lot closer than I should have done.
There are times where the clock is paused, namely kicking the ball out, the maintenance phase and if a rules query comes up. Don’t worry if you need to look something up as that won’t be on your clock time.
Another thing to keep an eye out for are counterattacks and other similar moments when your opponent interrupts your turn to do something. When that happens you should make sure that they’re on the clock not you. Otherwise (not that anyone would actually ever do this, but as a hypothetical situation) they could sit there shaking their dice for half an hour running you out of time. You don’t want that happening – clock time is a valuable thing.
If you do run out of time before the end of the game, this is known as ‘clocking out’. It’s not the end of the world but it will really ratchet up the pressure. Should this happen, your opponent gains 1VP at the end of each of your activations, and you only have 60 seconds per activation. Go over this, it’s dice down immediately and your opponent takes over. Like I say, it’s not world ending, but be aware that clocking out isn’t a fun thing to have happen.
For all that, even as a rookie I haven’t yet clocked out in any of my timed games. It was initially a worry and for the first couple of games I was acutely aware of the sound of ticking, Thereafter though I’ve been fine. Other than pressing the button (CLOCK! WANKER!) I don’t tend to dither anyway. My opponents have 3 times, and to be honest I was winning those games anyway so it didn’t make much of a difference.
One thing that I have found that seriously impacts your clock management is whether your team plays football or is there for a punch-up. Going for takeouts, you could need half a dozen rolls per player you want to take out, and your opponent has the chance to counter or defensive stance. Scoring a goal is mostly positional play and then one dice roll - I know that’s a gross oversimplification and that positional play is very tricky to pull off, but I stand by the principle. As a Union player I find myself with much less time on the clock playing a veteran Rage ‘raargh kill everything’ game, compared to playing the beautiful game with Brisk3t.
For that reason, in an event I’d probably look at playing for 1 goal and 4 takeouts with a veteran Rage or Butchers team, or playing for a 1-4 game to use the technical term. Getting a goal will take the pressure off needing to steam through the entire opposing team. With football players, like Brisk3t for Union or the Fishermen, you’re probably going for that 3-0 (3 goals, 0 takeouts). Most teams, though, will be aiming for 2-2 if they can, or least looking like that's achievable.
So hopefully, o handy reader such as you are, this has been a useful introduction on the clock. Ultimately it’s a familiarity thing – if you know what you want to do and you can do it, you have absolutely nothing to fear from the clock. And having it there means you can avoid those horrible games where time is called and absolutely nothing has happened. Y'know, like any game involving Mourinho's United...
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