I'm always spouting off about how you need to learn your army. If you've read it once, you've probably read it a hundred times here.
This time, we're going to cover the rules.
The rules are there for a reason, no doubt about that. But these days, they're more of a framework for me than they are hard and fast laws to live by. I do agree with Col. Corbane when he posted that you should at least make an effort to learn the rules. He suffers from what is apparently a widespread disorder known as MES. Poor guy, I hope he pulls through it.
You see, the problem is this... it's not that there are tons of rules, it's just that some of them (the rules) aren't written as clearly as they need to be for certain kinds of players to get them through their thick skulls.
When I saw Arcadia Prime's post on The Inverse Law of Arguments Mattering, I sat there and weeped. I've actually seen people arguing like this. In fact, there were times when I was caught up in this very thing myself. It's part rules-interpretation, part thick-headedness.
These days, I don't argue over the rules anymore. There's two reasons for this. First, because of who I choose to play against. Gone are the games against opponents like this. Now I play against like-minded players. And second, because I'm too lazy to fight for a fraction of an inch anymore. Maybe I'm just getting older.
I do my part to know the rules just like every good player should though. I keep the big rulebook by my bed and occasionally flip through it at night before nodding off. I look at the pictures for the most part, but I do thumb through the front of the book where the actual rules are every now and then looking for loopholes like this.
I'm not even going to get into the myths and urban legends about 5th edition like Sons of Taurus has done here. That's another whole can of worms.
But I do like to stay at the top of my game you know. I'm actually so bad at remebering the rules (especially deployment), I've got to use my own cheat sheets. You would think that I would have the stuff memorized by now since I wrote the things up.
So I have a 3 "rules" recommendations for you readers...
1. Learn the rules, but don't look for loopholes.
2. Don't fight over a fractions of an inch.
3. And give your opponent what you would want from and opponent.
Don't get me wrong, rules are important, but the game is more than just the rules. There's a reason the first thing you see in the "rules' section is three paragraphs about the bigger picture and keeping things in perspective. There's a great quote by Skcuzzlebumm that I stumbled upon once that sums all this up and it goes like this...
I'm off to read my rulebook now.
