Worst conduct experience?

[Kastor Krieg]

I could go at length as I've worked at several hobby stores with gaming tables in them, but one that has stuck with me until this day was a guy who was... I dunno. Slightly disturbed, highly medicated, very simple? I have no idea. But he wasn't unpleasant, at first he seemed like a regular guy off the street, came in and showed interest, made some nice comments about the store's nicely painted minis, etc.

Teaching him rules was proving to be a challenge though, so I went light on them and gave him a demo - I have ADHD myself and I know it's hard to focus sometimes. New place, new game, strange people, stark light, so on. But that wasn't the worst, by far. During the demo game he obviously got to kill a lot of my dudes and he insisted on putting them neatly to the side. I was like, fine, that's nice and respectful.

What I didn't realize though and what turned out by the end of the game, was that he got into his head that he won the minis he killed. That this was some kind of a trading game where you get to take home what you killed or something. And by then it was absolutely impossible to explain to him that it wasn't the case. He wasn't even angry, just in complete denial of the game's social contract and the more we've tried to explain to him that "no, sorry, we cannot give away a set of pro-painted demo models, but he's welcome to purchase and paint his own", the more... sad he got. I barely managed to get to a compromise with him, gave him a few pushfit minis, promised to teach him to paint and that he could always play with those minis if they're not in use at the time, if he showed up again. He never has.

He didn't seem through most of the interaction like a special needs person - until the "conflict" came up. It was just so completely and utterly weird and one of the worst because of how confused I was afterwards and unsure whether I foiled a weird scammer's plan of snatching a nice army from us or almost hurt a person whose emotions I didn't realize I had to work around.

[Marshal Mittens]

The main behavior I have noticed, personally, is cheating, mostly by rolling hard to read dice and collecting them quickly, claiming more hits/wounds/saves etc, and also people who know the rules and bend them, feigning ignorance, but always in their favor. People who also seem to build armies that are 10-40% more points than the agreed upon limit. 

I mostly play with chill awesome players, we let each other do things we forgot on our turns, are very sportsmen like, but occasionally I play rude people from outside my group.

Most of the time, problem players are the complete package, they usually smell bad, are often rude, and cheat in one way or another.

Playing people I know and using battlescribe fixes the biggest issues I have encountered. 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

47 minutes ago, Captain Idaho said:

OK I got a bad one...

I was at a 4th edition 40K Throne of Skulls (maybe 5th... I'm getting advanced in years) and my first opponent had about 40 different types of dice of all colours, styles and sizes. For his Vindicare Assassin he had a white die that was mysteriously lucky and then turn 3 I noticed it moved erratically and I said "what's the deal with that die"? To which he picked up the multitudes of dice that he left scattered on the table and I never saw that again.

Since I was young back then I let it slide but as a 38 year old I'd sure as hell wouldn't now!

And the worst part of it? He got a job later that year in the Warhammer World store and even made it into a pic on the GW Jobs website!

I will never understand the point of cheating in a game. Especially if there’s no real prize for winning.

are you so broken as a human you need to get the warm fuzzies from winning even if you don’t deserve it?

honestly having to cheat to get a win would make me feel even worse about myself.

[Slave to Darkness]

Had a lot of games with people who swiftly pick up all hits before anyone else can see, thats caused more arguments than templates supposedly did, now we remove misses instead. Also had one muppet who tank shocks your troops by actually driving the tank into the unit breaking them. I got him back by putting a ton of liquid laxatives in his pint and nicked all the toilet roll out of the mens toilets. 

[Guest]

I think the thing that puts me off playing the most is playing against people that are so childish they insult your choice in armies, then the worse part is they play it off as humour or jokes.

 

 

[Ahzek451]

I have quite a few, but I'll share the one that popped into the noggin:

First time at the U.S. LVO tournament a few years ago. My first game I was matched against (at the time) a so called famous youtube player. The only reason I knew this was because someone else I knew at the event was playing on the table next to me and leaned over to whisper this knowledge. I don't know who it was as I never bothered to look into it. I was ignorant at the time. He showed up with....not a converted army. Nooooo. He was playing "space wolves" using the golden sigmar boys from AoS. Needless to say, it was extremely hard to follow what was what, but I powered through it and lost. At the time, I recall that he was friends with some of the judges and that it was considered ok to have this kind of proxy. Although I wish I would have been more vocal about the situtaion, I ultimately let it go. And noticed that events like this started to "tighten" the rules around this sort of thing after that. Clearly other players at the event thought it was  too. 

But I do recall feeling that is was a dirty thing to do and that someone like himself should have known better. 

Edited September 20, 2022 by Khornestar
Please don't dodge the swear filter

[Slave to Darkness]

15 minutes ago, Brother Captain Arkley said:

I think the thing that puts me off playing the most is playing against people that are so childish they insult your choice in armies, then the worse part is they play it off as humour or jokes.

 

 

Crush them on the tabletop and make them eat their words. Makes the victory sweeter.

 

Some of my toughest games have actually been against the sons of Guilliman, when I banter with Ultramarine players it literally is just banter, I actually have a lot of respect for the boys in blue and those that collect them. But I do admit Ultramarine players do get a LOT of unnecessary hate where I have even got into arguments defending them on FB, Discord and in my local Gee Dub. Maybe sometimes I joke too much, I just thought most of my jokes are trynna be light hearted, a laugh a day keeps depression away and all that, but as someone who suffers with a broken brain I didnt really think if my banter could be the thing that makes someones day from a meh one to a :cuss:ty one. Sorry guys, Ill try better.

Actually, have you got a army thread here? Keep seeing you pop up in threads but I dont think I have seen any of your minis yet. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I remember one time at LVO versus a Tau player one of his Riptides had no arms and he was using cheap terrain for an aquarium as a fortification. Of course the shenanigans started almost immediately with him changing what he had said were the weapons for the armless Riptide. I immediately called over a judge. The judge took one look at his army then DQd him right there… felt great.

[MARK0SIAN]

43 minutes ago, Slave to Darkness said:

Crush them on the tabletop and make them eat their words. Makes the victory sweeter.

 

Some of my toughest games have actually been against the sons of Guilliman, when I banter with Ultramarine players it literally is just banter, I actually have a lot of respect for the boys in blue and those that collect them. But I do admit Ultramarine players do get a LOT of unnecessary hate where I have even got into arguments defending them on FB, Discord and in my local Gee Dub. Maybe sometimes I joke too much, I just thought most of my jokes are trynna be light hearted, a laugh a day keeps depression away and all that, but as someone who suffers with a broken brain I didnt really think if my banter could be the thing that makes someones day from a meh one to a :cuss:ty one. Sorry guys, Ill try better.

Actually, have you got a army thread here? Keep seeing you pop up in threads but I dont think I have seen any of your minis yet. 

To be fair, I think there’s a big difference between just taking the mick out of armies regardless which is just childish and having some genuinely friendly banter about the armies. 

In either case, it’s always fair game when you run into the guy who’s running the latest hotness with the paint still wet and claiming they’ve always liked this army lol

[Furnace Lord]

My worst was just some fool who couldn't lose with dignity and got worked up enough to try to start a fight at the next table. It was very uncomfortable as he got more irate as his game wound on and he kept taking hits. As soon as I saw it was going to be a fight I moved to intervene only to be beaten there by the store owner and several regulars, all of whom were former or active soldiers. I was reasonably new and didn't know that detail but they ended the encounter and made him quietly pack up and never return.

You meet all types at your flgs, I guess. They were all very nice people and I was pretty young, healthy environment to learn good tabletop manners.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Furnace Lord

[Helias_Tancred]

I used to play at my local GW store and another one in the area I live. Mostly it was cheaters, and it boiled down to either not knowing the rules well-enough (forgivable), or on purpose (unforgivable= rat bastid dirt bag sorts). Back during 7th I did play a game at my local GW store vs a guy who was very WAAC and cheesy, although he wanted to play a more friendly game that day. Sure? I showed up with a fluffy 2k BA list, he with his traitor Guard list. The game was anything BUT friendly. He had figured out a nearly unstoppable list against a marine player, he had tons of cultists, plague walkers, aegis defense line, a couple leman russ's riding around outside his double bubble wrapped core of his army which was a bunch of those Guard long range artillery units T8, like S10 maybe? etc. He had some other buffs going on with this bubble wrap rings, and in summary I couldn't touch those guns, while each round he had enough firepower to remove a Blood Angel unit, and seriously decimate another. He used Testor models of U.S. Army 155mm howitzers proxi'd for those guard artillery pieces, and the GW manager didn't say squat about it lmao! After the second round I ended it, telling him it was a joke of a game and I have better things to do with my time than get suckered into a WAAC game with a fluffy 2k BA list. I lived much closer to the store than he did, and he was pissed that he "wasted a long drive" to come play. lol. Choices have ramifications. There was another guy who played there that was dying to play me, around that time again back in 7th edition, definitely WAAC, and he played Eldar. We agreed to a mid-day small game of 1000 points. He brought a Wraithknight to it. lmao. Only time I played him.

 

I haven't played a random person in a game store for years, and I like it that way. Theres an unfortunate ratio of noise to signal in this hobby. I have a small(er) circle of friends I play 40k with and it's been great. I generally play in my home since I have a painted realm of battle board (OOP RIP) and tons of finished terrain. A couple of my friends also have a setup in their home. IMO that is the best way to enjoy the hobby, in your home and with a trusted circle of gamer friends. It also helps insulate you a bit from the on-going GW rules & codexes issues.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Eilio Tiberius

[Grotsmasha]

3 hours ago, Slave to Darkness said:

Actually, have you got a army thread here? Keep seeing you pop up in threads but I dont think I have seen any of your minis yet. 

You can find quite a few very well painted examples in the 12 Months of Hobby thread in The Forge.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Grotsmasha said:

You can find quite a few very well painted examples in the 12 Months of Hobby thread in The Forge.

Noooooooo!!!!! Secrets!!!! :P

[phandaal]

Not any one experience, but we had a beginner's league at my FLGS that somehow got populated by experienced players running roughshod over new people. Guys would bring their noob crusher lists and send little Timmy with his Indomitus Necrons packing by turn 1.5.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

Haven’t played in a store in over 20 years, so this was my worst experience in a store in a long time.

fairly minor but just wanted to share it.

 

2 dudes were already playing a 3rd watching. I set my armies down on an empty table, and after a few minutes the 3rd asked what I brought and how much, so I told him 90PL BA, and 50PL guard.

one of the dudes playing butts in saying “points is the standard” I just told him I was aware, but since I wasn’t even sure I wanted to make the drive I just tallied up PL a few hours before. Then they went in on trying to explain to me how unbalanced PL can make games…as if GW has done a fabulous job of balancing the game via either metric…

 

that was mildly annoying.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

5 hours ago, Eilio Tiberius said:

I used to play at my local GW store and another one in the area I live. Mostly it was cheaters, and it boiled down to either not knowing the rules well-enough (forgivable), or on purpose (unforgivable= rat bastid dirt bag sorts). Back during 7th I did play a game at my local GW store vs a guy who was very WAAC and cheesy, although he wanted to play a more friendly game that day. Sure? I showed up with a fluffy 2k BA list, he with his traitor Guard list. The game was anything BUT friendly. He had figured out a nearly unstoppable list against a marine player, he had tons of cultists, plague walkers, aegis defense line, a couple leman russ's riding around outside his double bubble wrapped core of his army which was a bunch of those Guard long range artillery units T8, like S10 maybe? etc. He had some other buffs going on with this bubble wrap rings, and in summary I couldn't touch those guns, while each round he had enough firepower to remove a Blood Angel unit, and seriously decimate another. He used Testor models of U.S. Army 155mm howitzers proxi'd for those guard artillery pieces, and the GW manager didn't say squat about it lmao! After the second round I ended it, telling him it was a joke of a game and I have better things to do with my time than get suckered into a WAAC game with a fluffy 2k BA list. I lived much closer to the store than he did, and he was pissed that he "wasted a long drive" to come play. lol. Choices have ramifications. There was another guy who played there that was dying to play me, around that time again back in 7th edition, definitely WAAC, and he played Eldar. We agreed to a mid-day small game of 1000 points. He brought a Wraithknight to it. lmao. Only time I played him.

 

I haven't played a random person in a game store for years, and I like it that way. Theres an unfortunate ratio of noise to signal in this hobby. I have a small(er) circle of friends I play 40k with and it's been great. I generally play in my home since I have a painted realm of battle board (OOP RIP) and tons of finished terrain. A couple of my friends also have a setup in their home. IMO that is the best way to enjoy the hobby, in your home and with a trusted circle of gamer friends. It also helps insulate you a bit from the on-going GW rules & codexes issues.

Even when I had friends none of them played 40K. That sounds like the dream.

I currently have a room that’s used mostly for hobbying like almost exclusively used for 40K lol.

just don’t know anyone to play with.

[The Unseen]

I've had several cheaters, but the one unique one that was fairly recent, I had a guy who only stopped complaining (in a whiny tone) about the game when he stopped to take a breath. He was playing Crusher Leviathan *before* that got changed, and I was playing sisters for I think the 3rd or 4th time. He told me sisters were broken OP, that blessed bolts was ridiculous for doing 6 mortals, and that I had too many multimeltas. Tabled me turn 3, and that didn't stop the complaining, until I packed up my stuff and was leaving. Thankfully he isn't a local player.

[Brother_Angelus]

I played Bolt Action for a number of years, in local events and larger national ones. Always did reasonably well, which unfortunately paired me with the same guy at every.single.event.

A short list of his 'quirks':

*An Advance is 6" and a Run is 12". He'd consistently move 8 or 16 and get pissy when corrected. He once had the gaul to explain he used to play High Elves in WHFB and was confusing their cavalry movement characteristics... in WW2... with infantry

*Intentionally forgetting modifiers to hit when shooting, and getting pissy when corrected

*Swapping figures with specific weapons around for an advantage because he'd put them in the wrong spot by mistake, every time it was important to do so

*Having certain dice for rolling attacks and different ones for rolling morale or command checks

*Bolt Action uses a variable unit activation system, where you blind draw a dice from a bag, and the colour dictates whose unit gets to activate. Players alternate who draws each turn. On his turn he would consistently draw 4+ of his own colour before any of his opponents colour came out, even in situations where he had less dice in the bag.

*At the end of a particularly contentious game between us, he confidently exclaimed "Well, we could add up the score, but clearly I've won, so lets just shake on it". After counting up the score I was one VP ahead, which counted as a draw.

 

He was generally exhausting to play against, and very often won events through relentless low grade cheating against guys who lean to the historical/fluffy end of the spectrum and didn't want to cause a fuss. It just left a bad taste in so many people's mouths, but was never blatant enough to be dealt with until after events were finished.

I dropped out of the game solely as I couldn't waste another 3hrs policing his nonsense. A few years later he got caught doing all of the above against some young kid by their parent who was watching and told to cut it out. Then, finally, got caught in the act by a tournament organiser and banned, nation wide, for a couple of years. I sadly still haven't gone back to the game, but I'm happy for the people still playing that they don't have to risk standing on that landmine for a while.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Brother_Angelus

[Claws and Effect]

Heresy related here. 1.0 rules (it's relevant)

Was at a narrative event and had a guy deliberately deep strike a Termite Assault Drill under a unit of mine to disembark a plasma squad right next to Corax on turn 1 before I got to move anything. In 1.0 Heresy you could only snap fire at Corax unless he is the closest model. So his plasma squad unloaded 20 AP2 shots into a model with a 5+ invuln save. Naturally he died. 

I later found out after I happened to stumble across it in the FAQ (which was 2 years old at the time) that you cannot intentionally deep strike a Termite under a unit to force them to move, it can only happen when it scatters. He had to have known that and been counting on me not knowing it because I mentioned that I'd never played against a Termite before. 

I'm still annoyed by that a year and a half later. He killed almost a quarter of the points of my army with an illegal move. This was during a doubles game which we lost partly due to my most powerful unit being killed before my first turn. 

[Helias_Tancred]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:17 PM, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Haven’t played in a store in over 20 years, so this was my worst experience in a store in a long time.

fairly minor but just wanted to share it.

 

2 dudes were already playing a 3rd watching. I set my armies down on an empty table, and after a few minutes the 3rd asked what I brought and how much, so I told him 90PL BA, and 50PL guard.

one of the dudes playing butts in saying “points is the standard” I just told him I was aware, but since I wasn’t even sure I wanted to make the drive I just tallied up PL a few hours before. Then they went in on trying to explain to me how unbalanced PL can make games…as if GW has done a fabulous job of balancing the game via either metric…

 

that was mildly annoying.

 

Thats a beef I have with many in the hobby, its like a gamer nerd disease.... either too immature, too much gamer peen ego, just socially ignorant, or all of the above? They don't know how to give their .02 in a friendly way, and then politely shut up and carry on. 

They can't do that. They have to engage in a never-ending argument until they "win."

I don't waste my time dealing with those sorts.

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Eilio Tiberius

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

1 hour ago, Eilio Tiberius said:

 

Thats a beef I have with many in the hobby, its like a gamer nerd disease.... either too immature, too much gamer peen ego, just socially ignorant, or all of the above? They don't know how to give their .02 in a friendly way, and then politely shut up and carry on. 

They can't do that. They have to engage in a never-ending argument until they "win."

I don't waste my time dealing with those sorts.

 

 

 

Yeah, I feel like I cut them pretty short with my tone.

I ain’t got time for that kind of condescending gate keeping.

 

[Helias_Tancred]

Definitely. Those sorts, as E. Gary Gygax used to call them, "barracks room lawyers", you just need to shut them down quickly. Ignoring them and getting back to what you were doing usually works. Every once in a while you just have to be blunt with them.

[Magos Takatus]

I know when I first picked up the game in the early 90's I was an ultra-competitive git that would argue everything, however I have mellowed considerably at the gaming table and enjoy the spectacle of a game more than the outcome. The problem I have now is that I struggle to remember all the rules or I misremember things. When I play I defer to the opponent since their grasp of the rules is far more solid. I am mortified if I make a mistake and having developed a degree of social anxiety I only play with friends. I think I'd be too much of a liability picking a game with another random player at this point.

I don't think I've played against a particularly bad player in my time. The examples here are pretty harrowing though.

[phandaal]

On 9/19/2022 at 1:25 PM, Eilio Tiberius said:

After the second round I ended it, telling him it was a joke of a game and I have better things to do with my time than get suckered into a WAAC game with a fluffy 2k BA list. I lived much closer to the store than he did, and he was pissed that he "wasted a long drive" to come play. lol. Choices have ramifications.

Played a "casual" 1k pt game last year with a fluffy Greenwing list vs a Tsons player. He chose to bring a Mortal Wound firehose list with a bunch of Terminators and a big unit of teleporting flamer guys.

He got first turn. After his second turn of pointing at my models and telling me how many to remove, I told him OK, good game. He seemed genuinely surprised and asked if I was sure, so I pointed to the couple of units I had left and told him he was going to remove those in the next psychic phase. He was not happy. I think he really did expect me to just sit there while he basically played with himself using my models as his target dummy.

Not like it would have been that much more of my time wasted, but it is the principle that counts.

[Rik Lightstar]

1 hour ago, Magos Takatus said:

I know when I first picked up the game in the early 90's I was an ultra-competitive git that would argue everything, however I have mellowed considerably at the gaming table and enjoy the spectacle of a game more than the outcome. The problem I have now is that I struggle to remember all the rules or I misremember things. When I play I defer to the opponent since their grasp of the rules is far more solid. I am mortified if I make a mistake and having developed a degree of social anxiety I only play with friends. I think I'd be too much of a liability picking a game with another random player at this point.

I don't think I've played against a particularly bad player in my time. The examples here are pretty harrowing though.

Hertfordshire in the early 90s, it's quite possible we crossed paths at some point....

Rik