Rule #1

Mathhammer is just one skill in a large skill set that a player must have to be a good player. In fact it isn’t even the most important one. I don’t claim to know all the skills that make a good player but I would rate mathhammer pretty far down on the list, trailing such things as knowing what your army and the enemy army is capable of, knowing the rules, tactics, strategy, deployment, etc. However, mathhammer can be used to influence or shore up deficiencies in almost all of these. If you find yourself facing a new opponent you can sit down and crank out a few numbers before the game to give you a rough idea of what you might be expecting from that opponent. If you aren’t quite sure how to deal with a threatening flanking unit, a quick number crunch can show the unit that is most likely to be able to deal with it. Being quick on your mathhammer feet can help a lot of aspects of your game and point you in the right direction, but it isn’t everything.

We can look at it in another way – good mathhammer is a good way to make up for lack of experience. Veteran players just ‘know’ what units can counter which units from watching and playing countless games. However we don’t all have the luxury of years of experience and the next best thing is a good application of mathhammer.

Unfortunately there are many, many bad applications of mathhammer out there, mostly due to unrealistic assumptions or missed assumptions. Such things as: enemy terminators are going to come charging coverless at my plasma, assaulting troops are going to stay a leisurely 12 inches away from my gun line for two turns, and my heavy weapons won’t have to move or won’t be engaged the whole game are all completely unreasonable things to assume. Any conclusion is only as good as its assumptions. Bad mathhammer can actually hurt you, making you believe something that just isn’t true.

So for all of you out there thinking that you don’t need mathhammer, unless you’ve seen every combination of every unit and every strategy out there I can guarantee that a proper application of mathhammer can up your game. And for those you wading exclusively in mathhammer and wonder why you’re still losing most of your games, try getting some other important tools in your toolbox. And always, always, always know and check your assumptions when mathhammering! In fact, that’s Rule #1 of mathhammer, the most important one.