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Disagreements on rules, displays of horrible sportsmanship and attitude and horrible manners have all been sited as reason to "just not play somebody." So out of curiosity for how much the internet mimics real life (which usually isn't terribly much), how many guys do you personally know that, outside of a tournament or some weird "forced" interaction, you just wouldn't play against? I have 3 that I wouldn't play unless I "had to" on my list and about 4 more people I would be hesitant to play against locally. So Dakka, what's the consensus?

Yeah there are a couple local people that I just refuse to play against. Not to be rude I usually just keep my army in the car and just bring what I am painting in with me, or I just say I don't have the time. Mainly I don't play those people due to their attitude and conduct during the game.

I admire how you just say no.


I'm a insensitive brute so I'm often nasty towards people that act like you described. But I am civil, to people who act it, it's more of a retaliation towards rules Nazis and TFG.

I can only think of one guy that went on my 'do not play' list... and that was back in 2nd edition. He had a very shaky grasp of the actual rules of the game, could not distinguish between actual rules and the ones he had made up from thin air, and was just... strange.

When I first started playing often outside of my close friends that got me into this hobby I played in ard boyz at my flgs. my last round I played against a member of the club that hangs there for a second place spot. after the game I realized that he cheated through the whole game (forgetting rules, arguing about my armys rules and not letting me use them, gate of infinity no scatter & no becon for the win). Later upon discussing the match with other members of the club I found out he believes that it is just a tactical advantage if you do not know his armys rules. Thay said if I got to know him he was a good guy and as I learned the rules he would follow them more. Cheating is cheating is cheating. I see him quite often at my flgs and refuse to ever play that dusch again. I dont want to interact let alone play with someone with such loose morals as often those morals bleed into other aspects of their human interaction. So to answer your question one.

theres a group of 3 12 year olds at my local GW, always bickering between each other etc. To them i can easily just say no, but then theres the super nerds, i know im a nerd, but the wierd ones really scare me :S

Good day,

There was one guy in the group I used to play with that thought he knew all the rules and most of the time (70% to 80%) he was dead wrong. I hated playing with him cause he would argue until he was blue in the face and then even after we would show him he would argue the fact once the game was over - ugh.

Whenever I knew he was going to be there I wouldn't go - got so that the guy whose houes we would play at wouldn't tell me till after I got there cause he knew once I got there I wasn't gonna leave.

Thank you,

TheFirstBorn wrote:theres a group of 3 12 year olds at my local GW, always bickering between each other etc. To them i can easily just say no,

While playing against young kids all the time can get a little old, the only way they'll learn to be better gamers (better at the game, and better at the behaviour associated with it) is to be given an example to follow.

I've been playing star wars miniatures and YuGiOh with a young nephew on a pretty regular basis over the last couple of years... and in that time he's gone from a 'cheat when you can get away with it' and 'throw a tantrum when you're losing' sort of attitude to generally being a pretty good opponent.

While it's obviously a little different when the kids aren't actually related, it's still worthwhile to help them improve.

I have a couple. But they are all younger than 12 and mostly play against each other anyways. Most of them are fine, and I would entertain a request for a match (as I have in the past) but this one kid... *makes angry strangling motions*

I won't flat out refuse, but I tend to shy away from SM armies. Especially of the Ultrasmurf persuasion. It's just so much more fun to play against non-MEQ armies when so many others play SM.

@ Insaniak, however much i wish i had the mental strength to help these guys, my patience with them has worn incredibly thin. These guys have basically started ruining the whole experience of going to the store, constantly nagging me with questions and asking me about army lists, and i mean constantly, after the manager has told them many times that they need to start bringing their codex's and rule books, or just use the stores and look it up for themselves.

there was a guy in the d&d minis group that was horrible to play against. he'd use tiny dice and pick them up before you saw the results rolled on his corner of the table, consistently get rules "wrong" only in his favor (despite using them correctly in other week's games when it suited him), and cheat all the local kiddies out of their $$ valuable pokemon/magic/collectible minis by pretending to be their friend. i only played him once and i pretty much tabled him in the first turn because he very aggressively placed his army, gave me first turn after miscalculated no LOS for a first turn maximized fireball... and then rolled badly for all his saves... and THEN wanted a take back for the initiative he gave up. lol, i obviously said no.

I can only think of two players in the last two years who've ever stuck out like this. One of them was a really immature 14 year old who used loaded dice and "forgot" rules when it suited him. Another one was a guy who picked up his dice quickly so you couldn't see them, yet reporting that there were a rather high number of statistically improbable successes. Weird thing is, he would only play ME. Probably because I never called him on his stuff. And then he started calling me at work which was just plain weird.

thechosen1 wrote:I can only think of two players in the last two years who've ever stuck out like this. One of them was a really immature 14 year old who used loaded dice and "forgot" rules when it suited him. Another one was a guy who picked up his dice quickly so you couldn't see them, yet reporting that there were a rather high number of statistically improbable successes. Weird thing is, he would only play ME. Probably because I never called him on his stuff. And then he started calling me at work which was just plain weird.

Why did he have your phone number?

I have a group of very good friends who I have known for a very long time (over 10 years). They all game but are far too competative and very rigid with the rules, so much so that I refuse to play them because I just don't enjoy our games. They know this and are cool about it. We all still socialise together, but I steer clear from gaming with them.

As far as gaming against randoms, I have only walked away from a game once, because the guy was using loaded dice. Having said that I have never been given much other cause to want to walk away from any other games. I probably would though if I came up against someone who was down right rude.

As a general rule I won't play kids.
If you are not at least in your late teens I won't play a pick up game with you. If you are not old enough to shave, then you are not old enough to play 40k with me. Yes, I know there are supposed to be some young players out there who are mature and skilled for their age, but the rarity of the exception help to prove the rule in most cases. In any event children annoy me in the best of circumstances. So I simply do not play with them.

Outside of that I'm pretty easy to get along with. I can only think of one guy in our local group that I would probably make a polite excuse to avoid playing due to his extremely arrogant personality combined with a "know it all" attitude and power gaming play style. But in any event in our WFB/40k community I tend to play over 90%+ of my non-torny games with five or six friends who make up our "Old Fogie 40k group".

Now over in my historical wargame club on the other hand, I do have someone I simply will not play against and would probably take a forfit in a tourny round if I were ever paired up with him. This guy is a far leftist to the point of being a moonbat and is extremely militant about it. He's aware of my politics (I'm well known to be far right in my political and social views) and he has actually said to my face that people like me are "what's wrong with this fascist country" and that I should just kill myself and make the world a better place. Also, because of my job (I'm in corrections) I'm a "fascist opressor". Needless to say we don't get along and I won't even speak to the clown let alone game with him. For the best really......

TR

I rid a FLGS of one of TFGs, he was the sort that played Blood angels, Eldar, Space wolves, and finally Necrons, for all the wrong reasons, an absolute power gamer, who prided himself on "table-ing " anyone by turn 3 ( or so he constantly boasted ) his lists were borderline at best, and when playing younger players ( he was around 35+ish), he stretched and exploited every rule he could.

The owner of the store decided to lure this miscreant player into a wager ( one that would not appear to be harsh or out of hand to any other regulars, the owner was very careful of his image as impartial. ), One day while the TFG was again spouting about his unbeaten record of wins, and how he would be expanding his newest Uber-kill list.
The Owner set him a challenge, a 6000 pt battle, and if this guy could win it, he would recieve around $600.00 in store credit, and a permanet 40% discount in the store, but if he lost , his gaming privilages would be revoked at the store and at any events it ran ( an it ran alot of them ).

So this guy agreed to it, and the owner asked me to play him, ( I am no spring chicken, and primarily enjoy the building and painting side of the hobby. ), since I owned a Vast Ork army, that could easily accomandate a 6000pt through down.

On the appointed day TFG showed up with his mega tooled blood angels army, and I put around 600 orks on the table ( it was a city fight on a 8 X 12 table ), the spectacle drew quite a crowd, and almost everyone there was rooting for my Boyz, I had so much good karma beamed my way, the Boyz did not disappoint, not only did they defeat him, but came within 4 models of tale-ing him.

But to his credit he did honor his end of the bargin ( not that any of the other regulars would have let him forget ), a year or to later he returned hat in his hand and asked to be allowed to start gameing again at the store, and the owner said he could...if he could beat my new IG armored army.

BTW : I have nothing against Blood angels, space wolves, Eldar or Necron armies or players, it was just the way TFG used them. ( end of disclaimer )

There are a couple of folks who show up now and then at the local GW. One's a kid and one's an adult.

The kid basically abused the rules as much as possible. He was adamant his (last edition) Warrior Squad could split up and join three units but only counted as a single kill point. That they were included in the Gaunts Without Number. And that it was impossible to earn a kill point because each squad came back, so they weren't dead.

All this in a 300 points game. Longest game of my life too...even when I won he followed me around, arguing constantly that he'd won really.

The other was another guy, at the same event, who fielded three HQ's (when I noticed he apologized, and I gave him the OK...it was all in good fun, right?) asked to be allowed to move something he forgot in his shoot phase (resulting in the loss of a Vindicator for me) and argued with the event organizer that his HQ's should be immune to a scenario special rule where I could control them for a turn.

As soon as my turn came and I tried to do something, he argued and argued I couldn't. So I shrugged and packed away and haven't played him since. I'm lucky enough to have a good reputation in the local GW so I rarely want for an opponent.

Out of the 1000 or so people I've played against, I can only think of two that I wouldn't want to play again. One guy was really slow on the uptake and the other was the quintessential TFG.

There isn't anyone in my local group that I can think of that I would completely refuse to play. There are, however, some people that I just don't enjoy playing against. It seems over the last two years or so the competitiveness of our store has just gotten a little out of hand. People are constantly looking for new ways to break the rules or combos that are 'unbeatable'. It's almost imposible to have a friendly 'beer and pretzels' style game anymore. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that one of our guys placed in the top 10 in the country in last years 'Ard Boyz tournament.

Haven't met someone yet who I absolutely will say no to, luckily.

But we've got this Space Wolf/High Elf player who's getting pretty close, hasn't bought his Army Book and every time I've gotta go ask the manager if I can borrow a copy (He's cool with it, though). Bends rules slightly as well, but I mean, he's got good intentions, and if I'm feeling like a friendly game, I'll get in a game with him.

Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
But to his credit he did honor his end of the bargin ( not that any of the other regulars would have let him forget ), a year or to later he returned hat in his hand and asked to be allowed to start gameing again at the store, and the owner said he could...if he could beat my new IG armored army.

And?

It'd be a bit harsh if you won and turned him away without giving him a second chance.

Emperors Faithful wrote:
And?

It'd be a bit harsh if you won and turned him away without giving him a second chance.

Well unfortunatly he did not want a re-match, at least not against me, I personally think the store owner was glad to be rid of him, since all the fellow realy did was annoy alot of people, and game-bully little kids.
But the first game was a pretty good draw for the store, perhaps the owner should have cashed in on it...sold tickets, or concessions.

Last I saw of TFG he was playing at a local GW store, and had seemed to have cleaned up his act abit, although I did see him playing against some little ones again..but oh well .

So far there is only one person I will refuse to play. I played him in the second round of a tourney. Instead of paying attention to what the objectives where he was to worried about kill points. It was the end of turn 4. He would have had a minimum of a tie and a possibilty for a win. He started complaining about having a head ache then about having to pick up his girl friend. I tried telling him what was up with the game. About his chance for a win and all. But he littrally picked up his IG and started throwing them into a box. Spilled his soda and did not even clean it up. Then walked out. If I want to deal with that I can play my 8 year old grandson. Now he is on his third army. I think he believes its the army that is bad and not him. People have tried to help him but he does not want to listen. It is no wonder he is banned from tournaments and events at other local stores. Would I play him in the future? Yes if I could see a change in him. I play for fun and am easy going. But come on, grow up!

TheFirstBorn wrote:theres a group of 3 12 year olds at my local GW, always bickering between each other etc. To them i can easily just say no, but then theres the super nerds, i know im a nerd, but the wierd ones really scare me :S

There's a guy locally here who has built one of those floating skull things with the telescoping monocle that he brings with him when he comes to the store to play.

He's in his late 20's.

It makes me uncomfortable to be at the same table with him....

Saldiven wrote:

TheFirstBorn wrote:theres a group of 3 12 year olds at my local GW, always bickering between each other etc. To them i can easily just say no, but then theres the super nerds, i know im a nerd, but the wierd ones really scare me :S

There's a guy locally here who has built one of those floating skull things with the telescoping monocle that he brings with him when he comes to the store to play.

He's in his late 20's.

It makes me uncomfortable to be at the same table with him....

Thats not weird that is really cool.....

But yes there is a time and place...

In about 10 years of gaming I've only had real problems with a handful of players. There are about three that I would probably pass on for other players but if no one else was around and I was jonesing for a game I'd play them.

People change, and some that I've had friction with in the past seem to have mellowed as they age... but then again so have I.

And for Trench-Raider... you're not supposed to let the Lefty get the win by bowing out of the game... you're supposed to make HIM bow out. Think Patton here.

At the local gaming shop there are a couple of situations for me where I just won't play.
1- i don't play kids. i just don't want to deal with it, they don't know the rules, and when i do have spare time for a game, i just don't want to teach instead of game

2- i mainly play tournments, i won't really play people who are adults/ late teen's but learning or, openly do not know the rules. if its a really slow night, maybe i bend on this, but only if i'm asked and the person seem's like a good guy.

3- there are 2 people i flat out will not play at one local shop, because they both cheat, miss measure, and roll dice without you being able to see the result. i've paid my dues playing them for fun, they are nice people, and i've even confronted the cheating but don't get it.

4- at that same shop there are 2 other people i won't play against. both are just horrible sportsmans, they constantly quit on games turn 2 if it isn't going their way, or if mentally they are out of the game. my reasoning is simple: i play rank and flank skaven, if i'm going to deploy 15-18 units PLUS characters, it better be more than a 2 turn game! Even if i'm getting my army hammered, i'm at least playing through to end of turn 5 because i got my army out

njpc wrote:At the local gaming shop there are a couple of situations for me where I just won't play.
1- i don't play kids. i just don't want to deal with it, they don't know the rules, and when i do have spare time for a game, i just don't want to teach instead of game

2- i mainly play tournments, i won't really play people who are adults/ late teen's but learning or, openly do not know the rules. if its a really slow night, maybe i bend on this, but only if i'm asked and the person seem's like a good guy.

If you take the time to nurture some of these people into playing by the rules and knowing the rules then you get better attendance at tournaments and better quality of players at your local store.

Admittedly you need a certain personality type to teach people how to play. If you don't have that personality then you should NOT be teaching. Having raised a few kids and having been a teacher for years it's something I can at least tolerate and keep good cheer if not actually enjoy it.

There are a couple people that I won't play in the area. One is a holier-than-thou gamer that is obssessed about comp (But pay no attention to what I use or what my son uses) and is quick to attack the character of anyone that has a different rules interpretation, even though I've seen him use shady ones as well. If I ever ran into him at a tournament, I'd just conceed.

There's only two guys that I refuse to play against. One takes the hardest, cheesiest lists known to man, even though I got quite an earful for taking two Plasmaguns in the same Bike Squad (apparently cheesy?). The other guy is just a jerk who rubs it in your face every time he wins and gets really mad when he loses.