I talk a lot about list building and a lot less about list playing, that's mostly because I tend to write these with war-room and/or FCU open while I'm screwing around with my lists. That said how you play a list is more important than list construction. This is stuff you should be aware of before you start a game.
How are you going to spend focus
Have a plan with what you are going to do with your fury. Most casters have some upkeeps they want to get out, some don't have enough focus for all of them. Warmachine casters need to balance their desire to get their spells out with feeding their jacks. If you want your jacks to run that's less focus for spells. Generally you want to make sure your defensive upkeeps are out as turn 2 there is generally some engagement, shooting if nothing else. You also need to think about where you want your caster. If you cast spells you can't run but you can charge. If you are going to fail your charge you need to cast spells before your caster moves. That's important because then you need to make sure you have line of sight to the things you want to cast spells on. A common mistake I see and have been guilty of making in the past is to put your caster between two heavies which then means that you cannot see any of your units and can't put any upkeeps on them. Now I will put a model from every unit I want an upkeep on next to my caster. It's also a common mistake to put a caster who wants to get up the table, say one with a good control feat behind your jacks. That pretty much forces you to walk first turn. Your jacks need to go first because they are in the way and then aren't in range of your upkeeps. You can't fail a charge and cast so you have to charge and attack your own model or walk up and cast. That 3" can make a huge difference. Some casters don't need to get up the table but some really have to. Some of my troll casters actually just put fury on the krielstone and run to get a better position on the table.
Know where your support models go
The choir for menoth move 6" and have to be within 3" of a jack. Most of the good Menoth jacks (except the Vanquisher) are SPD 5. If your choir starts behind your jacks and the jacks run 10" you can't protect them from shooting. If your choir goes first (and are trapped behind your jacks) gives then no spells and they run then they will be out of range next turn which is much worse. If you want to use your choir first turn (and if your opponent has ranged attacks you do) then your choir has to be front line besides your jacks. Shepherds in Legion have the same problem. This also applies to basic stuff like which support models need to stay near what models. Again with Legion Shepherds need to be a lot closer than Forsaken to remove fury so I use Forsaken on me melee beasts and shepherds on the ranged beasts. If you collect souls, you need to be near models that will give you souls (in menoth again your reclaimer collects souls but some units like errants have defensive abilities that stop soul collection), if you give a unit hunter in your command range you need to deploy with that unit. The Thrullg is a great late game model and it has advance deploy, you generally want to sit it behind your units not out in front of your army where your opponent will just shoot it. Janissa is another one, if she runs she can't put down a rockwall, this is OK sometimes but if you go second against a fast list or a list with a lot of ranged attacks then you need the rockwall up. Janissa can't put it that far forwards. She moves 5" and the wall has to be completely within 5", if your beasts run their full distance she can't put the wall in front of them. Every faction has stuff like this. You need to be aware and know if it applies to you.
Know roughly how your army will set out
This is the one that gets the most variation as you want to pick favourable match ups for your troops. You want gun mages with deadeye across from the Kayazy, winterguard or iron fangs not across from the conquest they can't move. That said you should have an idea of what goes where, what goes in front, what goes behind, what goes out on the flanks, what needs to stay near your warcaster, etc. Look out for aura or command range abilities and also remember abomination. It's a common cryx mistake to deploy models that are not fearless near the deathjack. Eiryss too can block focus allocation to your own jacks if you aren't careful.
Know your match ups
Know what kills infantry, what kills heavies, what kills high arm, what kills high DEF, what kills stealth, what needs to steer way clear of fast reach troops, what needs to hide from Eiryss and Gorman, what wants to kill Eiryss and Gorman. If they aren't across from the thing they want to kill don't be afraid to run your models sideways first turn especially if you are faster than your opponent.
Know your order of operations
You should never have order of operations problems on turn 1. If you know what order things need to happen in at least for the first turn then you should place your models accordingly. Don't block in a model that needs to activate first. You are going to be activating things in the same order for your first turn in pretty much every game you play with the list so you should know it. First turn other than the support models that I've mentioned above the other thing is usually pathfinder. Fell callers, Rhupert, saxon orik and a few other models have the ability to give out pathfinder. You often have some rough terrain in or just in front of your deployment zone, these models need to be free to activate, move where they want to be and give those units pathfinder. Don't block them in.
I think that's it. I feel like I've missed something though.
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