The OODA Loop
Some time ago a man named John Boyd (more about him later) came up with a concept known as the OODA Loop. The idea is that every time you make a decision and act on it, you follow 4 steps. You observe the situation. You orient yourself to the situation. You decide what to do about it. Then, and only then do you act on that decision.

John Boyd was a Colonel in the Air Force. His Energy-Maneuverability theory radically changed fighter design and resulted in the F-15, F-16 and F-18. However, what really interests us is the effectiveness of his OODA Loop. Colonel Boyd and his OODA Loop are credited with largely developing the strategy for the invasion of Iraq during the first Gulf War. The shock and awe that the Iraqi army felt was not the result of American firepower (though that didn't hurt.) Instead it was a result of being inside their decision loop. By the time the Iraqis realized there were tanks behind their lines, the tanks had already achieved what they needed to do and moved elsewhere. If you want to read more (and in a more entertaining style than mine) please check out Pope John and the Supersonic Cathedral.

Boyd's realization was that there are 3 mental steps per physical step. Let's look at this in real-life terms and then in 40k terms. You see (observe) the drunk driver speeding toward your car. You start thinking about (orient) how to avoid being hit. You choose (decide, duh!) to hit the brakes and let the drunk fly past you. You stomp on the brakes and the drunk goes speeding by. Three mental steps to one physical. I'll use a 40k analogy to further the point. You note the enemy LandRaider full of Terminators speeding toward your lines. You don't want them to make it to your lines, but you can't focus enough firepower to stop them this turn. You decide to stall them for a turn by throwing a vehicle in their path. You drive a nearby Rhino up to the LandRaider and turn it sideways 1 inch away from the hull. The enemy LandRaider can't move forward during its movement phase. It focuses its firepower on the Rhino and destroys it, but it has wasted a turn of movement.

The OODA Loop is an important observation, because it shows how we make decisions and the discrete steps of each one. It also shows us what steps our opponent has to make in a contest of decisions. In addition, knowing the steps allows us to potentially improve our speed as we cycle through our OODA loops. If we can cycle through our loop sooner than they can cycle through theirs, they will end up lost and confused. Here's another analogy for you.

Imagine two fighters. Both move off the center-line as the referee says go. They are each striving to angle their body toward the other, to present the smallest target and bring their best weapons (fists and feet) to bear on their opponent. The fighters begin to circle, but A is a half-step ahead of B, just a moment outside the range of his attacks. B tries to quicken his pace, but A has already moved past that point and is in the periphery of his vision now. B turns further to catch A, but A anticipates him and makes a half-step back. This leaves B presenting his smallest target and best attacks to where A used to be. Meanwhile A has his best attacks facing B's wider and less-defended front. Before B can re-orient himself, A fires an attack into his unprotected midsection. B wasn't just out-maneuvered, he was out-thought. Because A was cycling through his decision loops faster, B kept looking for A where he used to be.

How do I use this?
Okay, so how do we use this? A turn-based game limits OODA. Thinking faster and making faster decisions doesn't directly help if you have to wait for your opponent before you can take your next action. It will help more directly in timed tournaments where you might otherwise not get to finish the game. Similarly, speed games will be most affected. However, there is a way to use the OODA Loop in standard 40k to make your game better.

The best use of OODA in a turn-based game is for saving time for the important things, which are decisions and actions. With more time for decisions, you can make them under less pressure. With more time for actions, you can take time to make them more precise and make those inches count. With that concept in mind, let's take a look at each part of the loop and understand how we can speed it up.

Observe
This is where you notice the issue at hand, whether it is a speeding drunk driver or a charging LandRaider or a circling fighter. Paying attention helps a lot. Try not to get distracted during your game and focus on the situation at the moment. It also helps if you can try to anticipate what issues might arise and where they might come from, which starts to lead in to the next step as well.

Orient
This part is where you orient yourself to the problem. You see the issue and come up with options. If you are familiar with the issue ahead of time, you'll already know what the best options are. In addition, if you anticipate threats ahead of time, you can plan ahead, saving time in this step.

Decide
This is the first step where you can use the time saved previously. You can use some of that saved time (from experience and anticipation and focus) to give you more time to weigh your options and select the best one. By reducing the time pressure, you can make better decisions. Alternately, if you want to save your time for the actions, you can concentrate on faster decisions. If you have done your work in the previous steps, you should be able to narrow your list of options down to the best one or two. At that point if there is no best choice that is obvious, simply select the one that least disrupts your other plans and go with it.

Act
Finally we get to the action part where the rubber hits the road, or the minis hit the tabletop as the case may be. Saving time in the previous steps allows you to be more precise in your movement, so you can take advantage of inches here and there. Alternately, if you are trying to save time here, you can increase the speed of your mechanical actions. Repeated patterns speed things up. In addition, if you take time to plan out an order or pattern of your movements (Move this one first, then that one, etc.) then you can make sure that you won't miss something or skip a step when you try to do it more quickly.

In the second part to this article, I'd like to talk further about using the OODA Loop to predict and direct your opponent's actions. When I've written it, you'll be able to find it Here.

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