If you’re like me, then you’ve made your share of mistakes during games of WARMACHINE and HORDES. Sometimes they are strategic blunders or tactical errors, times when we are simply outplayed by our opponent.

I lose all the time to mistakes like these, but the ones that frustrate me the most are the absent-minded mistakes I make because I can’t reliably hold all the details in my head while I’m planning a turn. With everything there is to keep track of in a game, I often forget to reserve enough focus/fury for spells or the order in which I need to activate my units. I also forget to actually pop my feat during the feat turn. (Nobody else has done that one, right?)

I’m going to share with you the simple tools I use during play to keep track of the mundane game details that always seem to trip me up. These tools are easy to make, are customizable to your play style, and using them helps me concentrate fully on strategy and tactics. That way, I can continue to lose games the way they were meant to be lost: making poor battlefield decisions and getting thoroughly crushed by my opponent.

FOCUS ALLOCATION CARD

By nature I’m a visual person (easily distracted). Keeping multiple sets of numbers in my head confuses me if I‘m preoccupied with planning all of my turn activations. I made this card to help me plan my resource management. During my control phase I use each of the four sections on this 3˝ x 5˝ card to track how I want to spend focus. I put one token on UPKEEP for every upkeep spell I want to maintain. For every spell I need to cast, I put the correct number of tokens on SPELL SAVE. There is no spot for warjack allocation; I just put the tokens on the table next to the appropriate model. The AVAILABLE box is the remaining focus I can use for over-boosting or casting additional spells. When after upkeeping spells, I move the AVAILABLE and SPELL SAVE tokens next to my warcaster’s base. During my turn, as I spend focus, I put them back on the SPENT box.

Because casting and upkeeping spells works the same way for focus and fury, you can use this same card to manage your warlock’s fury in HORDES. The SPENT section can be especially helpful since it shows the safe amount of fury to generate with your warbeasts.

ORDER OF ACTIVATION TOKENS

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve screwed up because I spaced out on unit activation order. These simple tokens can be made out of just about anything: scraps of paper, unused faction tokens, or even dice pips. Mine are simple cardboard circles I found around the office and numbered with a felt pen. At the beginning of my turn I place the “1” token next to the model or unit I want to activate first. Then I place the “2” token next to the model or unit I want to activate second, and so on. They’re crazy simple, but these little devils have helped me avoid a lot of silly mistakes.

FEAT! TOKEN

One of the more frustrating mistakes I make is planning to use my feat on a given turn . . . and then completely forgetting to use it. I chose a distinctive marker to place next to my warcaster while planning the feat turn. When I activate my warcaster, the marker reminds me to use my feat, and once I’ve used it I pull it off the table. I chose something bright and conspicuous to make it stand out on the tabletop. I also wrote FEAT! on it because I’m just absent-minded enough to forget what my reminder is supposed to remind me of.

I commend all the players out there who can keep the dynamic details of WARMACHINE and HORDES straight in your mind while you play. However, for those who need a little help at the table (like me), I hope you find these tools useful.

Happy gaming!