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Fortunately, I've never faced a Timmy on the gaming table, but having played plenty of fighters, DotAs, and other competitive games, I'm very familiar with the 'paper is OP, rock needs buffing, scissors okay.' attitude.

I'm way more familiar with a Timmy variant that has the models but not the attitude. I often run into these guys in pickup games at the GW.

They aren't WAAC type guys, but they acquire and include the most powerful models on cool factor alone. The Stormsurge is just the shiniest new thing and they're determined to use it in a 1500 point casual game against someone they just met. Its almost as though the casual low-stakes nature of a pickup game makes them care less about balancing the sides. These guys will ask in all seriousness if anyone minds playing their 5-knight list, as if they wouldn't dream of playing it in a REAL game, but since we're just goofing off, why not?

They aren't notorious cheaters, but since a unit's cool factor and reputation (rather than strategy) drives their purchasing, they may be a bit fuzzy on the rules or exactly how it fits in their force.

They also aren't masterful tacticians because their army tends to be cobbled together from glitzy high-profile units without much top-down planning. They've never had to cut their teeth on an underpowered force, nor did they lovingly build it up from an HQ and 2 Troops.. They can be a little surprised when they lose to someone's superior tactics or more cohesively planned force, but they generally aren't jerks about it.

For the record, I have no problem playing these guys... I take it as a challenge and occasionally give them a shock and something to think about in terms of a coherent army build and solid tactical plan. It gives me a taste of units and formations I'll probably face in my more serious club games. As long as they aren't whiners or cheats, bring it on.

Experiment 626 wrote:

I challenged him to put his balls where his mouth was, and bring his Sisters to fight my Drop Guard. (note: 4th edition at the time, and I played pure Deep Striking IG from the amazing doctrine codex - yes I am absolutely a crazy person!)
.

Chuckle. nothing crazy about that 626! I remember 4th ends drop troop guard. Built right, they were one of the most brutal builds of that edition, and surprisingly, went completely under the radar. I can probably count on one hand the amount of times a properly built drop troop guard army didn't one turn an army in 4th. Drop troop guard, when done right were a sight to behold!

Hq platoons with mass- special weapons (flamers, meltas, plasma, and plasma pistols) and attached sentinels with improved comma and heavy flamers.
3x min vet squads with mass plasma and plasma pistols.
3x fa squads of sentinels (Iirc it was 3 fa slots, 1 in each), each with improved comma and h.flamers.
Platoon squads, with platoon hqs with mass special weapons and plasma pistols, and Reg squads basically there to cheer lead
.if I remember right, he could even fit in a few special weapon squads with demo charges.i remember him taking a melta platoon and a flamer platoon.
This was also with the doctrines: iron discipline, close order drill(+1i), drop troops, veteran squads and special weapons squads.

Basically I remember a list that wasn't there one turn 1 (none of the 'if you've got nothing on the board, you auto-lose' back then), and couldn't there fore be shot, and could drop in almost the entire army (imprived comms) and one turn pretty much anything with the best part of about fifty special weapons (not shots... Weapons...) it was obnoxious. Broke a lot of hearts!

pm713 wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
I read threads like this, and I think "Why does anyone play Timmy?"

"Timmy" sure won't enjoy when he rolls up and no one agrees to play him. When he asks why, simply inform him.

My situation is that he's turning up to a game which is basically "The game starts at 3 and we'll make teams when you arrive. Bring 1k points." No choice is provided.

Well you could walk away. Repeat that couple times and maybe he gets a hint.

I know nobody can keep me in game I wouldn't like to play. Simply not playing is preferable option.

tneva82 wrote:

pm713 wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
I read threads like this, and I think "Why does anyone play Timmy?"

"Timmy" sure won't enjoy when he rolls up and no one agrees to play him. When he asks why, simply inform him.

My situation is that he's turning up to a game which is basically "The game starts at 3 and we'll make teams when you arrive. Bring 1k points." No choice is provided.

Well you could walk away. Repeat that couple times and maybe he gets a hint.

I know nobody can keep me in game I wouldn't like to play. Simply not playing is preferable option.

Negotiate. If that does not work then quit.exe.

Restore to a previously working version or giveup.jpeg

I don't get it. Timmy knows you're not playing for cash prizes, right?

 Skinflint Games wrote:
I don't get it. Timmy knows you're not playing for cash prizes, right?

Ego is worth as much, if not more than, cash to Timmy.

 Blacksails wrote:
All this story screams to me is that you should always have a list with point values before a game, and that people only get one chance when they cheat. Truthfully I don't know why you would play him knowing he cheated, regularly and blatantly.

This pretty much sums it up. Why do people keep playing blatant cheaters and TFGs over and over again, outside of leagues/tournaments with mandatory opponents to play?

I see nothing wrong with playing to win, but cheating is pretty bad.

While deffinetly not timmy worthy i have started to wonder whether im edging into "that guy" territory because i like my cool shiny toys and want to use my cool shiny toys and even when i cant really see that much of a problem with my cool shiny toys i still seem to win more than lose.

I've never caught anyone deliberately cheating (that I can prove, anyway), but I've seen people play special rules wrong. In our local group, we have one guy who usually runs Ad Mech War Convocation. That is a powerful army build, but not completely broken, and it is beautifully painted. The problem I have, is that while the Canticles apply to the whole army (like the stealth + shrouded thing), the Skitarii BS/WS buffs only apply to the Skitarii units, not the whole army, yet this guy runs it as though they apply to the whole army (someone familiar with Ad Mech please correct me if I'm wrong about that). I'm not sure if the guy is deliberately doing it wrong or if he really misunderstands, but it's annoying.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Blacksails wrote:
All this story screams to me is that you should always have a list with point values before a game, and that people only get one chance when they cheat. Truthfully I don't know why you would play him knowing he cheated, regularly and blatantly.

This pretty much sums it up. Why do people keep playing blatant cheaters and TFGs over and over again, outside of leagues/tournaments with mandatory opponents to play?

Bc some of us don't get a choice, and others get repeatedly shoehorned into it. Sometimes I wonder if you've actually met people.

 Selym wrote:
Bc some of us don't get a choice

You always have a choice. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play a game of 40k. If a game against someone is a miserable experience (as described by the OP and others) just don't play them anymore. Play a game against someone else, or do something other than 40k.

Unfortunately sometimes in order to get a game in we have to deal with these sorts of people.

In my case, I make it into a different style of game

When you know you have a Donkey Cave of an opponent coming up, it gives you the freedom to test out your most evil of things against them. Try that weird formation you'd never use against someone you'd want to have a good time on. Brush up on those misforgotten rules with odd interpretations.

Make it fun again, for you. Unfortunately, that person isn't into a fun game experience between two people, so sometimes you need to find the fun yourself.

Oh man, I'm loving this thread. I wish I had some better stories to contribute. I *thankfully* haven't had to deal with any Timmys since I was a teenager. Everyone in my current gaming group behaves like an adult, which is odd, because now that I think back on it, almost all the Timmys I'd encounter were way older than me. This didn't strike me as odd then, but now that I'm 32, the idea of trying to pull any of that on a teenager is INSANE.

Anyway, here's the best I've got.

-some old fart who was a total Timmy used this excuse for never wanting to actually play anyone "I only play for armies, if we're going to play a game you need to wager your army. I've won ten armies doing this and that's why I own every army"
Uh-huh

-CLASSIC Timmy maneuver that I've seen happen but have never fallen victim too because I'm not a dunsky:
Timmy has a shooty army (tau or guard or dev heavy ultrasmurf army), Timmy is facing a melee army. Timmy convinces opponent they should play on a 6x4 board, deploy on the short side of the board, but still only deploy 12" up so they start the game a full four feet from each other.
I've got an Ork buddy I've been playing with since like 2001, and the one time he fought Tau in like 2003, this happened. Was hard to watch.

-another old man Timmy I had to deal with when I was a kid (he was probably in his 30s), the kind of guy who would CONSTANTLY brag to the kids in the gaming group about EVERYTHING, which again, now that I'm an adult, I can't even fathom trying to impress a 15 year old. That makes as much sense as getting my cat to think my outfit is 'cool'.
So dude would brag about EVERYTHING constantly.
"I'm making 70k a year (USD circa 1999, very respectable) as a chemical engineer", yet he was always milling about our FLGS, not just on evenings or weekends and he ended up working at our local GW for quite some time.
"My girlfriend has F cup tits" ignoring the fact that this is because she is extremely obese.
You get the idea.
I'll let you guess how infuriating he was to play against. This is circa 3rd edition, and we had to get into an argument when I used the newly released calidus assassin rules against him
"the c'tan phase sword ignores invulnerable saves"
"but invulnerable saves can't be ignored, says right here *points to line in 3rd ed rulebook"
"but the c'tan phase sword specifically says 'ignores even invulnerable saves' see? *I point to the line in the assassin codex*"
"but the whole point of an invulnerable save is they can't get ignored! that's what an invulnerable save is!"
I'll let you guess how badly this circular argument devolved.
Also had a real hard time convincing the guy that twin linked weapons don't double their shots.
Also had him flip out on me when we played against each other in a GW event that was geared towards small squads of infiltrators and had very special rules, one of which being you could re-deploy your infiltrators 12" away from the enemy. So naturally I took a squad of melee scouts, deployed 12" away and charged first turn. He FLIPPED OUT.

Oh man, like I'm getting a laugh here, but I don't even know what I'd do if I had to deal with someone like that now. I'd probably just give them this look and it would all be over:

 Peregrine wrote:

 Selym wrote:
Bc some of us don't get a choice

You always have a choice. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play a game of 40k. If a game against someone is a miserable experience (as described by the OP and others) just don't play them anymore. Play a game against someone else, or do something other than 40k.

Some of us are good friends with these people when they aren't playing 40k.

 Pouncey wrote:

 Selym wrote:
And I thought Dave was annoying.

Ever asked Timmy why he cheats?

From my experience with video games, people who make a habit of cheating frequently don't view it as cheating at all. They believe that any advantage they can actually get is a justifiable increase of power. Likely people who cheat in tabletop games view their cheating as simply that if they're able to get it by you, then it's a legitimate tactic.

Man, you should have seen the cheat script forums for The Division before they started banning people. People were complaining, with a straight face, that while they had paid for their cheat program so it was totally fair, this new cheat program that had been launched for free was really ruining the competitive level playing field of PvP.

The logic these people work with is either autistic or too brilliant for me to understand. I honestly cannot wrap my mind around it.

 Selym wrote:
Bc some of us don't get a choice, and others get repeatedly shoehorned into it. Sometimes I wonder if you've actually met people.

I've been there where I don't get a game in for years, and if I do, its probably a one off chance. I've also been in small groups where sometimes my choice is to play the guy I don't want to and not play.

In the case of MoO's opponent, given the choice between playing him and not playing that night, or even for much longer if I can't find anyone else for months if not years, I will gladly and always choose not to play.

Personally, I consider my time too precious to waste with these sort of people. I barely know the game well enough to use my own army effectively without having to worry about getting stuck with someone like this.

Sadly, the fear of running into someone like this is actually why I play so little 40K in the first place, I think. And reading how some folks react to this sort of player (though it seems justified), just makes me even more hesitant to play against someone I don't know really well. I guess I'm just not comfortable with the power level of 40K itself :( .

Timid, not Timmy player.

 Walnuts wrote:
I'm an adult, I can't even fathom trying to impress a 15 year old. That makes as much sense as getting my cat to think my outfit is 'cool'.

Walnuts, thank you for this line alone. I want to put it in my signature because of it's pure awesome.

I'll say, I had this experience as well when I was younger first starting 40k. A lot of it revolved around anything that would beat their armies was considered "Cheesy and Beardy" and they would constantly berate you for not having fully painted armies or armies not painted up to their caliber of paint style.

Some Timmy behavior I've come across (thankfully mixed amongst a large quantity of individuals over the years, no singular person.)

-Crying Cheese why taking cheesier units
-Poor Winners (sometimes even worse than poor loser)
-Screamers (Not the Tzeentch kind, the ones that just yell things loudly. I get battlecries, but we're adults and I'm a 4 foot table away from you.)
-The Paint Elitist. You may have worked your bum off trying to paint something, but some dude can just never be impressed.

 IronMaster wrote:

 Walnuts wrote:
I'm an adult, I can't even fathom trying to impress a 15 year old. That makes as much sense as getting my cat to think my outfit is 'cool'.

Walnuts, thank you for this line alone. I want to put it in my signature because of it's pure awesome.

I dunno, man. I wouldn't show myself dead in anything my cat hasn't approved of.

 Purifier wrote:

 IronMaster wrote:

 Walnuts wrote:
I'm an adult, I can't even fathom trying to impress a 15 year old. That makes as much sense as getting my cat to think my outfit is 'cool'.

Walnuts, thank you for this line alone. I want to put it in my signature because of it's pure awesome.

I dunno, man. I wouldn't show myself dead in anything my cat hasn't approved of.

This is why I'm a dog person. My dogs don't judge me based on clothes.

 IronMaster wrote:

 Walnuts wrote:
I'm an adult, I can't even fathom trying to impress a 15 year old. That makes as much sense as getting my cat to think my outfit is 'cool'.

Walnuts, thank you for this line alone. I want to put it in my signature because of it's pure awesome.

Thank you! V flattered


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Purifier wrote:

I dunno, man. I wouldn't show myself dead in anything my cat hasn't approved of.

Ahah, yeah after I typed that I was like, 'wait, if my cat actually did think I looked cool that would be adorrrrableeee'

I almost feel like I am that "Sad Panda" guy where I mainly play with my friends but still show up to see the odd games (without rules comments).

Speaking of a "group of friends" my Timmy was a particularly stealth one.
Seemed really nice.
Hard nosed when it came to rules (sure that is ok).
Made every appearance of being a "competitive" player which I am fine with.
He was one guy among a 5 guy group of friends I got to know.
I was the new guy so was used to getting hammered during games and I usually got paired against him oddly.
Nice as all heck as long as he won.
Then the fateful day arrived that I won.
Then stuff I was fielding was "cheesy" when little changed from when he was winning I just knew my rules better: less stupid mistakes.
Then I noticed he started showing up later, see my stuff on the table ready to go and he would pull out his list (I found out later he had multiple).
He got VERY upset when I fielded a different army unannounced (IG/AM, BT:SM, GK, INQ, CSM) I had a few.
So, I got a few surly moments many a time, he wanted to arrange custom "fun" "scenarios" for a while but had that edge towards his army.

I think he well and truly snapped when he wanted to field a formation for "fun" and he had new representative models so we said sure.
He printed on card (colour both sides!) a "Carnival of Pain (Apocalypse)" all on little round dowel stands his entire army.
The purpose of the game was for 4 of us playing at the time to play an Apocalypse game with all our models for the epic greatness of it all.
He only saw how that formation could pull out a win so models are secondary.
I made the mistake of mentioning that I had my poster of a Titan around somewhere...
Oh yeah, I had nothing in my list that could put a dent in that nasty formation so it did it's job BUT we won on objectives but he kinda did a rage quit near the end when he saw the writing on the wall.

When he wrote me off as someone to never play against was funny-strange.
He said he would teach me how to play Mordheim one day.
I should have gone to Las Vegas that day: the dice gods were insanely good with me (plus I also read-up a lot on the game: I learned a few things about not learning from him).
I beat him six times in a row.
He was stubborn and had to do one more game each time (I think getting one win would have worked for him).

I made the mistake about mentioning our "strange game" with our group when we were together and he started yelling at me, shouting me down, not letting me say one word about it."
Never saw him again after that.

 Elbows wrote:
I read threads like this, and I think "Why does anyone play Timmy?"

"Timmy" sure won't enjoy when he rolls up and no one agrees to play him. When he asks why, simply inform him.

Here is your answer. "Shunning" aka "social pressure" will improve his behavior or better yet, avoid you having to deal with it.

Or you can do what a Texan would do.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
I read threads like this, and I think "Why does anyone play Timmy?"

"Timmy" sure won't enjoy when he rolls up and no one agrees to play him. When he asks why, simply inform him.

Here is your answer. "Shunning" aka "social pressure" will improve his behavior or better yet, avoid you having to deal with it.

Or you can do what a Texan would do.

Drink off?

 Verviedi wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
I read threads like this, and I think "Why does anyone play Timmy?"

"Timmy" sure won't enjoy when he rolls up and no one agrees to play him. When he asks why, simply inform him.

Here is your answer. "Shunning" aka "social pressure" will improve his behavior or better yet, avoid you having to deal with it.

Or you can do what a Texan would do.

Drink off?

Marry their cousin?

 Verviedi wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
I read threads like this, and I think "Why does anyone play Timmy?"

"Timmy" sure won't enjoy when he rolls up and no one agrees to play him. When he asks why, simply inform him.

Here is your answer. "Shunning" aka "social pressure" will improve his behavior or better yet, avoid you having to deal with it.

Or you can do what a Texan would do.

Drink off?

No way. We all know a Brit can drink entire continents of nonBrits under the table.
Jackalope roping contest. He who wins gets to use the special dice for the next game.

I'm also going to assume a common trait, although this does not always indicate a timmy, is if they ALWAYS go for table rather then objectives.

Seems to be a common thing among timmies. But its also a common tactic in tournaments so.

We have one Timmy that we run into now and then, although i have never gotten a chance to fight him, because im still building my 1850 list.

He always runs tau, has 2+ riptides and some how always ends up with missions that play on a 4x6, deploying length wise so he gets to shoot at you for 6 feet until you are within rage of him.

Additionally his marker lights always seem to stack a whole lot more then normal.