Tabletop Etiquette: How to Lose Graciously

We've all been there. Your squad of Space Marines (or Boyz... or Necron Warriors... or Gaunts...or Fire Warriors...whatever) have just, against all odds, destroyed a crucial piece of the enemy's army and claimed an objective, whilst taking minimal losses themselves. The situation has repeated itself several other places across the battlefield also. The enemy squads are falling back, their heavy support has been decimated, and that irritating enemy flier was finally shot down by a lucky missile. In a single round of shooting the momentum of the entire battle has swung in your favor and now it's a downhill battle. Time for your command squad to retreat to the back, break out the lawn chairs and kegs, and start planning the after party. But then it happens.

Your opponent turns into a whining little butt hole.



Every crying opponent I've ever had



"That would never happen in the books!" "It's easy when you have loaded dice..." "Figures... my army never wins. I don't even like this game anymore." "Your army is so broken!" "That doesn't even make sense." All are common utterances from any populated gaming establishment. Your opponent's demeanor goes from open and excited to regressed and irritable like the "crybaby" switch has been flipped in their brain. The op ponent will then proceed to suck all manner of fun and excitement out of the remaining turns of the game, crying all the while about how the rules of the game are so unfair and how his army needs an update and blah, blah, blah blah.

This phenomenon is quite common, and can be a real bummer for everyone involved in any given game - ESPECIALLY for those of us who don't have time for more than one or two games of Warhammer 40,000 per week or month. This behavior is childish and unsportsmanlike, but can be mitigated very easily by keeping a few key thoughts in mind.



Certainty of defeat? Awesome!



Firstly, remember that the game you're playing is....a game. It's meant to be enjoyed, not to feel like work. It's totally possible to get completely crushed in any given battle and still have a good time so long as you stay positive. I think that if you agree to play a game with someone else then you have a responsibility to the other player and your community to remain positive and upbeat even in defeat.



Secondly, remember to use your lopsided defeat as a learning experience. Sure, your Necron Immortals may gave just been killed by a mob of Gretchin, but if you pay attention to the exact situation that has befallen your army then you'll be able to learn how to defend against that particular flanking tactic or whatever and you'll end up being stronger for it and may lead to you winning your next game.

Fighting Space Marines. In a swamp. Still not complaining.

Thirdly, and most importantly, sack up. This is a wargame. Emphasis on WAR. In the grim darkness of the far future there is no hope for a crybaby. The game of Warhammer 40,000 IS very much based on skill, tactics, army composition and planning, but it is ALSO a game of chance and happenstance, where a single round of good or poor dice rolling or a single missed step can spell doom for you entire army. The reality of Warhammer 40,000, even in the books and "fluff", is that sometimes the Space Marines get overrun by Tyranids, sometimes the Ork Waaagh! is destroyed by a Necron super weapon, sometimes the Sisters of Battle are outgunned by renegade Imperial Guard, sometimes the Tau are outgunned by Dark Eldar, and sometimes things, plainly and simply do NOT do as planned. The outcome of any given game rests on a knife's edge, any any number of factors can tip the balance. To quote The Big Lebowski, "sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you". 






It's important to make friends in this hobby.



If you can follow these very basic rules and make them a part of your gaming persona, then you will undoubtedly be better for it. Not only will you come to enjoy your games much more than you previously did - even in defeat - , you will also start building a positive reputation for yourself within your hobby community. People will actually ENJOY playing games with you and you'll find that other will always be willing to grab a quick pick-up game with you or invite you to join their tournaments or gaming leagues.



In short, the ability to play and lose graciously and with a bit of class an decorum will undoubtedly increase the quality of your hobby experience. Or you can be that guy that everyone in the hobby centers despises and avoids. The choice is yours.

-Matt-

P.S. - This blog is dedicated to the memory of a guy named Jeff who used to come into my old GW Hobby Center. Jeff, you were the living embodiment of everything that an unpleasant opponent could possibly be. Because of you, I have something to strive to never become. You also provided me with a small light at the end of whatever gaming tunnel I find myself, because no matter how unpleasant an opponent of mine gets I can always tell myself "well... at least he's not as bad as Jeff. Jeff, I hope that all of your armies are brutally sodomized by Slannesh Daemons in the Warp forever. 







Lost and Found: How Hobby Burnout Happens, Part 1

I've been thinking a lot about the Warhammer 40,000 hobby lately, and I think I'd like to share some of those thoughts with whomever is kind enough to have a read here at A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy.

Now, I've had something of a love/hate relationship with Warhammer 40,000 for quite a while. I started the hobby nearly 12 years ago, and when I got into the game it was awesome! It was affordable, the local community was huge and full of good people who were excited just to play the game, collect and paint the models! I got into the game with a Space Marine Tactical Squad, a Rhino and a Space Marine Captain with a Power Sword right after my very first demo game at Ga mes Workshop Great Lakes Crossing. From the moment of my first beginner game I knew I was hooked. Every time I got paid from my McJob I'd get a new box of something and after a few months I was swimming in Space Marines.

Life was awesome (hobby life, that is). I collected Space Marines exclusively for longer than I can remember... it must have been at least 5 years. It was the only time in my hobby career that I remember having multiple painted armies (all of them were Ultramarines... but I had 3 or 4 distinct "themed" armies.) It was also the only time I recally being so passionately into the hobby.

But soon it all came crashing down because I started collecting other armies.

A new Tau rulebook came out and I thought they were frakkin' awesome! I bought up a bunch of Tau, painted them, got them on the table and started playing games. And I got totally spanked on the battlefield. Why? Because they didn't play like Space Marines. So I started to add things to my collection to make them MORE like Space Marines. "Fire Warriors are Toughness 3 and 4+ armor? Pfft. I'll take minimum troops and lots of Crisis Suits! Then they'll be the equivalent of Space Marines! Yeah!"

Soon I had about 2,500 points of Tau and I was totally depressed. I had won probably... 3 out of dozens of games. I started to lose faith in my army and my skills as a player. Because I started to lose so often, I started to avoid playing games. Because I didn't play games very often, I found little point in painting my armies. Because I had no interest in painting, I lost the inclination to buy and collect and soon.... my hobby was dead.

And it died for a stupid reason. It died because I had already found my army and my chosen play style, and was trying to force a different army with a different play style to be just like Space Marines... and when I think about how ridiculous it all was I sort of want to kick myself for causing my own hobby burnout.

My point here is that for some people it is sometimes better to focus on a single army and project rather than multiple different armies and multiple different projects. What starts as a simple exlporation into the varied aspects of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby can quickly end in flames and frustration.

Right now I have been super focused on building and painting my Eldar army and I'm making more progress at a greater rate at a higher quality than I ever have before in my hobby. If any of you reading this are experiencing this type of frustration, maybe do yourself a favor and take step back, get back to your original hobby roots and stop yourself from being so busy inside the hobby. Play a few games or, if you're more interested in the hobby side of the hobby, paint or convert something.

Calm down with your hobby. You might be glad that you did.

My Triumphant Return!

So... I've returned to the Warhammer 40,000 hobby after an extended hiatus.

Oh, and I've started blogging again. But more on that later. Or maybe not. We'll see.

Anyway, earlier this year I decided that I was going to put together a small Blood Angels army. Nothing huge, just 750 points of red death. I completed a 10-man Assault Squad as well as a totally awesome Land Speeder. Everything was going well and then... I got burned out.

....just like my hobby. *sniffle*

And I'm not talking your average garden variety hobby burnout. I'm talking a Games Workshop hobby burnout so deep and severe that I began cleaning out my subterranean hobby lair, putting all of my models on Ebay and the like to sell, and started to consider myself a guy who didn't participate in that hobby anymore.

Where hobbies go to die.

It was bad. I even started collecting and playing Warmachine/Hordes to fill the void. It's actually a pretty damned fun game system. I'm going to keep up with that, and it will be represented here in the blog. I sold nearly all of my Warhammer 40,000 models and accessories. Space Marines, Tau, Orks, Chaos Marines, Daemons and Necrons were all sold. I even sold my tape measure, carry cases, dice, templates and my 6th edition rule book. I was out. Done. Finished. Kaput. Also, I was several other phrases for the word done that I don't even know.

...and also nerdy. Very nerdy. And depressed, angry, tired and done. ...so really, just regularly nerdy...?

But then something happened - Games Workshop went ahead and updated the Tau Empire with new models, new rules and created a new release buzz that was so huge and far reaching into the worldwide hobby community that I began to feel the effects. I became curious after seeing a picture of the new Tau Riptide on a Google+ community that I'm a part of. I... had to know what it did in the game. I had to know the effect it was having on 6th edition Warhammer 40,000, and I had to know all of the associated rules for it. I hit the internet and had all of my answers within the hour. Then I had to see it in action for myself, so I took a long lunch break at work and headed up to my local hobby store. And there it was - a Riptide in all it's painted (sloppily) glory, destroying some poor bastard's Orks. It was a thing of beauty. I thought it would be awesome to start a new Tau army.

...if they could do this, I might actually start the army. 

But then I remembered that I hate the Tau. They have a lame back story, and they have vertical slits in their faces that closely resemble female genitalia. ....and no amount of badassery is going to win out over "I have a vagina for a nose" with me.

Seriously! Slaanesh daemons would literally fuck their faces! How can you not see it!?

I was discouraged again. Then I heard rumors that the Eldar are being released soon... and I thought to myself... "I've been trying like hell to sell some Eldar that are in my basement... maybe I should just keep them!" And keep them I did. I took those Guardians and a War Walkers that have been lurking in my basement forever and assembled them. I even traded some old Warmachine 'jacks for even more Eldar. And in recent days, to solidify the fact that I really am well and truly devoted to collecting and finishing a new Eldar army, I purchased the Avatar of Khaine model from Forge World - the one with the spear. I've always wanted to paint that model since my very first days working for Games Workshop (longer ago that I care to remember) and I really look forward to it.

Stargate: Iyanden

And that whole tirade brings us to now. This past week I've been working on a unit of 10 Eldar Guardians with a Scatter Blaster. I've been experimenting with a highlighting technique that I picked up from one of my fellow painters. It's quick and dirty and effective, and I love the way it looks so far. I'm going to keep doing it for the whole rest of the army.

They're a work in progress. Shut up.

I also just celebrated my birthday, so I've got a bit of extra $$$ in my pocket. Add to that the fact that I've been trying like hell to sell off the last vestiges of my Chaos Space Marines army and I'd have to say that I'm ready to make some damned purchases.

This perfectly conveys my hobby spending habits.

I wonder what I should buy first? I'd be open to any suggestions for a starting Eldar army.

Also, taking a cue from my friend Jay over at Jay's Workshop, I think that I'm going to start posting a Unit-Per-Week, along with some of my thoughts about Wargaming, Warhammer 40,000, painting, modelling, thoughts about the 40k universe and background, rules concerns, and even some stuff about my Warmachine/Hordes experiences because to date I've had nothing but positive things to say about WarmaHordes.

Anyhow, I'll be sure to post here again soon.

~Matt~

The Red Thirst

I've been painting for a few days now, and rather than get sick of it - like what has happened with every other project I've started since taking off the Power Armor - I'm hungry for it. I'm very motivated to paint now, and I'm moving forward quickly with my Blood Angels project. I think, perhaps, it's because I find it challenging to paint white and red. Or perhaps it's the rich background found in the Blood Angels codex, but I'm totally hooked by these new Space Marines. I officially have the Red Thirst, and I don't forsee it going away any time soon.