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 Talizvar wrote:

Gloating behavior is maddening anywhere it is found.
Would it make it any less irritating if a co-worker points out he got a bigger bonus at work than you?

There will always be someone getting paid more than you and pointing it out. This is a thing that happens as is dealing with sore winner, sore losers and people with annoying habits of all kinds.

If you can learn to modulate how much you care about what other people do, say and think it is much easier to be positive about situations that might otherwise be negative.

When I started playing warmachine. The guy who I was learning from was for the most part letting me win. Doing so in such a way that I didn't realize what he was doing. I let him on to this fact, at which point gen told he wasn't going to be hold back. At which point he pull out a competitive list and kicked my rear so hard I didn't win for months.

Moral of the story, the gauntlet has been thrown. Bring out your best. Don't hold back you have him hooked, now reel it in. Let your actions speak

An example of a high order winner doing it right:

I remember starting at a new work and this guy would play chess during lunch.
I loved the game and asked if I could play him on occasion.
I started noticing he was doing strange moves and I could not figure out why.
Later on, I found out he was one of the top 10 Polish chess champions way back when or something equally insane.
I asked him about not utterly destroying me when playing.
He said:

"I am trying to get the board in a certain configuration I want, I try to get you to move to the places I "need".
Sometimes you wiggle off the hook, it is both maddening and gratifying getting to that goal.
I play "normally" when the pattern is reached." (note: not near as cool without the thick polish accent).

Which explains some of those nasty lightening ending wins.
He is an awesome man and I was so happy to get to know him.
Smart as heck, worked for our R&D group and was famous for his statements during meetings:
"Thees is bull sheet! Eeeat is crap! We do thees way annnd not speeek of thee old waya again."
We asked him a couple times to say some phrases from "The Count" on Sesame Street.: "One! One! Multiplexer Ah! Ah! Ah!"... awesome.

How to be FAR smarter than someone and yet find a way of "going easy on them" without actually doing that.
Being a bat crazy European with a wicked accent does not hurt either in making it all acceptable.

Smack talk is a time honored tradition amongst good friends. It's entirely possible your friend feels this close of a connection with you. I'd try returning the favor. "Oh yeah? Let's get a rematch, chief. I'll beat you so badly they'll make a Lifetime Original Movie about it." "Of course you won; I gotta give you a couple underhand lobs every now and then or you'd just start crying and never play me again."

If he can't take it as good as he dishes it out, then it isn't bonding over trash talk, he's just a bell end. Cut him out and move on with your life.

 Commander_Nightflier wrote:
When I started playing warmachine. The guy who I was learning from was for the most part letting me win. Doing so in such a way that I didn't realize what he was doing. I let him on to this fact, at which point gen told he wasn't going to be hold back. At which point he pull out a competitive list and kicked my rear so hard I didn't win for months.

Moral of the story, the gauntlet has been thrown. Bring out your best. Don't hold back you have him hooked, now reel it in. Let your actions speak

Literally how everyone's first Warmachine games go. The teacher deliberately loses the first few then the gloves come off and it's like a year before you're good enough to beat an experienced player.

This is what OP should do. Just let him make his own lists which will likely be terrible due to his lack of experience then just play him as you would anyone else.

Like others have said, clobber him.

Once I get to know someone, I gak-talk with them just 'cuz. For my close gaming group, it's just the done thing.

We've played games so long, that there's no "real" ego in it. You have good, bad, fun, slog, all kinds of games. The reward in winning is lording it over everyone else until you get beaten next. Or cutting away from their victory by pointing out how their victory is hollow, until you win.

Turn a total fluke win into a story of epic genius.

You had a flawed plan from the get go? He's playing Eldar, it didn't matter what you did in the first place, dirty pointy-ear. Playing on easy-mode he is.

For me, it's part of the social after-party. Re-establishing the pecking order of who's good at what. I think that for us, it's like other people gambling on sports. The result of the game is interesting, but it gives us a "prize" to play for. A momentary position of being king of pebble mountain, but king none-the-less. Don't you forget it.


To that end... not everyone gets that. Not being accusatory, but it is my experience in playing with people on the spectrum, that they don't get "verbal rough-housing", and tend to take it personally instead of good-naturedly. I've encountered a large number of such persons, over the years. I adapted to that, and changed the way I engaged in that by actively letting them know it's just good natured fun, and they're welcome to swing back. I put the kid gloves on, but it still lets me play back and forth after the game.

I'd suggest trying to hit back. If your opponent is being "mean" about it, they'll likely sulk, and then you'll know. If they redouble the effort, and start making wilder claims... you know you're just messing around.

I read things like this and figure people can't be this serious.

In every game there is a winner, and a loser. By playing a sub optimal list you have decided to be the loser, so own it

If you get tired of being the loser, maybe try winning with a winner list, instead of bringing a loser list. Then you can be the type of winner that you feel a winner should be and not rub it into your friend's face at all.

Next game, make him field the Space Marines.
Swapping armies is the kryptonite of a large percentage of players.