Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here to educate you with some vocabulary!

As many of you know, I really dislike painting. It’s not that fun to me and seems more like a chore. I drag my feet and really only get things done as I get closer to a tournament and I need the stuff to be painted. One of the things I actually do enjoy doing is list building. I have fun coming up with new armies when there is something new that grabs my attention, especially when there is new chaos stuff. Also, when a new idea springs into my head about wanting to use a model or unit and seeing how I could make that work. This usually involves something from Forgeworld. The more choices there are in a codex, the more possible combinations become available. Between warlord traits, relics, psychic powers, and stratagems, there sometimes seems like an endless amount of possibilities. What can sometimes happen is that you start to suffer from “Analysis Paralysis”.

What is Analysis Paralysis? It is simply being unable to make a decision. It is a term I first heard when talking about board games, and the people who play them. It results when a person cannot make a decision in a timely manner. They spend a lot of time thinking about their moves over and over again. They never come to a final decision, or if they do it takes a really long time. You see this often in 40K. Whether its during deployment, at the start of the turn, or during a certain phase, we all know people that take a long time to make decisions as they may feel that each one is crucial. This even happens during the list building phase. I mentioned how some armies have a plethora of choices(and pinatas). There are so many good choices that it can sometimes cause a player to constantly change their army either to be able to fight every possible matchup, or to use all of the new toys available. This can be very frustrating for some people. So what can you do to break someone, or yourself, out of it?

There are a few things that can be done. In terms of using alot of time to make decisions, use a chess clock or other time keeping device. We already see it in tournaments, but how about using it in your casual play? I’m not saying it has to be 3 hour games but do set a time limit and ust the tie piece. This will help show the player, or yourself, just how much time they are using during the game. It will hopefully help them want to play faster and make quicker decisions. You can see a good example of this is Blood Bowl. They use a timer for each turn. It helps a lot in making quick decisions and in forward planning during your opponent’s turn. In a game where every decision matters, the timer really does help. As for the army building, I would advise to just go with a list and see how it performs. I’m not going to lie, you will lose a lot of games. As long as you learn what worked and what didn’t, then that loss will give you valuable information. As you play more games, you will further refine the army and end up with an army list that you will know will do what you originally aimed for.

That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know your thoughts, and ways that you think a person can break out of the Analysis Paralysis, in the comments section. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!

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