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This is something I run into frequently, playing Dark Eldar competitively. Some pairings are just a bad match-up. It might be terrain, my opponent's list, and/or the scenario. Usually its a combination of all these things (Mech IG and flyer heavy-armies come to mind) . Point being, some games its just obvious by turn 3-4 that I'm not going to win, and its not even possible to achieve any points for the game at all. At this stage, I'm inclined to concede the game, and go get my opponent and myself a beer, and wait for the next round.

Its not really Rage Quitting, or at least I don't think it is. I don't get upset when this happens, its just the nature of the beast, so to speak. However, sometimes my opponents' get quite upset when I do this; or at the very least, they seem "let down".

So my question is this:

Do you consider it part of the social contract of GT's to allow your opponent to continue rolling dice, while you sit there doing little more then systematically removing your army from the table?

I try to never quit the game if I can avoid it. The last time I quit a game of 40k, I was my opponent's turn from being tabled anyways. My Space Marine army was down to a lone TH/SS Terminator in his Land Raider ride, and had 2 Vendettas and 2 Melta Vet Squads staring him down... And that was just within 12 inches of him... I had basically done nothing to his army and new I couldn't win. At that point, I basically had nothing to do, I walked away from the table to grab some water as he fired into my squad, blew up the Land Raider, and I basically ended the game right then and there. (without making my Termi's armor save).

I think that TOs for the most part have "concession" rules where if you concede the game, your opponent gets full battle points? In the Malifaux scene, they average the points earned in that round, and assign those to a person who won a game by concession, to prevent someone from getting massive victory points when they may have only gotten 3 or 4 at most.

I consider this to be Very Poor Sportsmanship. I.e. Quitting in the face of defeat.... Play the whole game to its conclusion, Everytime!! I realize Quitting has become vogue for the younger generation, "things not going YOUR way, JUST QUIT" and frack off to everyone else. Finish the game you may learn something new or get some really lucky dice rolls. Sticking it out and finishing the game Even if you are losing is the Mature way to Play.


I have played games where half way thru it was discovered my opponent had an illegal squad, and example is a IG opponent who had a heavy weapons auto cannon squad that just chewed up hulllpoints off my killakans, he should have never had had it, I still finished the game, leaving the units on the table. I asked for a rematch and the guy never obliged, (hence forth he was declared "Cheater-Heretics" but I gave him an opportunity to redeem himself



And to your Question, YES, if you have given up then atleast allow your opponent the satisfaction of Blowing your Army OFF the Table. and finish, even if that means allowing him to roll and you just remove models. (i seldom have time to play two games in a day, so if my opponent is a quitter, I have just wasted my one afternoon to play and go home to look after my one-year old

I have never done this in a tournament, but have had an opponent do it (on the bottom of turn 2.) It was the last game, we were both out of the running and he was just getting hammered. So he asked if I minded just calling the game.

I think that is the issue at hand, you should ask your opponent, offer to buy them a drink if you want. If you are really not having fun, there is no obligation to finish playing but asking your opponent if they mind is a nice thing to do.

To me though for this to be ok you really have to be getting hammered, not just seeming like you are going to lose the mission.

I agree with Breng. I don't think their is necessarily an obligation to finish your match. But at least ask if your opponents cool with it. They paid good money to play games and sometimes it's not jus about winning but actually playing. I've only quit once in 20+ tournament games, and it was against a good friend just before the lunch break. He had tabled me to the point where I had 2 models and he his 80%+ of his army left on turn 3. So we called it and ate some food instead. Both of us were totally cool with that as well.

In a tournament, the only time we have ever called a match was when it was a stalemate and we had run out of time. Objective rushes and sudden twists of fate can affect the points at the end.

In friendly games, sometimes we have called a game because it won't go any further. No troops, ineffective weapons, or just being too tired to continue.

But there is a rather tiring trend of younger players who call games early, and some do it strategically. Last night a guy called a game because he had to pick up his girlfriend, and declared victory, even though they hadn't played a full turn, just ended on his.

I feel you should play to the bitter end, but I don't judge others unless they are being a baby. You never know what might happen at the end.
One tournament I had some space puppy scouts(5) charge last turn a unit of blood angels lead by the Asssometing angel guy. I managed to pull him off an objective and survive two rounds of CC. I screwed him out of first place.
Another friendly game I only has 27 grots left by round 3 and they managed to go to round 5 against two 8 man Plague Marines trying to kill them. I even killed a couple in shooting and then more in CC before they went splat. While not wins they were interesting and even fun to play to the end.

As someone who espouses competitive 40k as much as hobbying, in no situation should the game itself boil down to "win or quit." The game is a social one, first and foremost; it's why we're not at home playing Command and Conquer v20 by ourselves.

Conceding a game to get a brew with your opponent or continue socializing further is acceptable in some situations, but you want to find out how much it impacts tournament results. That's to say, in many formats even getting TABLED by your opponent does not guarantee max points if in doing so he loses the ability to control every objective or keep his warlord alive, etc. etc. When that is the case, conceding max points instead of giving it the old college try in the face of certain defeat can have a negative impact on the rest of the tournament field that is in contrast to how things actually would have gone.

I would simply caution that while your opponent's fun is HIS responsibility, and not yours (you aren't really ever "responsible" for someone else's emotions, though good human beings one would think would try to look out for them), it is good sportsmanship to show respect for your opponent AND for the entire tournament field enough to make sure quitting early is not going to harm the results unnaturally, or ruin your opponent's day.

That said, there is no 'Standard' that is going to be out there that you can look back to and say DON'T FEEL BAD OR BE ANGRY, THIS IS NORMAL I'M ALLOWED! It's not really "normal," or considered kosher ... BUT, if conceding wont' harm the results of the event, and if you can do so in a sportsmanlike way, it's not ENTIRELY abhorrent either.

As with any social interactions, you should seek as much information as possible (passively and actively) to make an informed behavioral decision that leads to your own (and, if you care, your opponent's) comfort and satisfaction with the social outcomes.

I've been in the exact same scenario the OP describes.

in 5th edition, deldar vs IG leafblower was not just an uphill battle, it was usually a masacre. By the end of the 2nd shooting phase, I was just demoralized.

I think if you're not having fun, don't play. I've never conceeded a game in a tournament, there's usually some incentive to get *some* points.

But, giving up after turn 2 is not being a "baby". I've also been on the other side of this equation. Being the player who is tabling someone in turn 3 or 4 isn't fun either. All you can do is try to rush through your turn and be as polite as possible about killing the last couple squads on the table.

If it's no longer possible to get any sort of points, and certainly if a player is no longer having fun, there's no point to continuing. It's better to end it there than continue pointless die rolling and start a new game or just hang out.

If however conceding would majorly impact an event versus staying and fighting it out, I'd stick it out.

I've been on both sides, I've been ruined by opponents so thoroughly that continued play was pointless, and crushed opponents likewise. I recall specifically a game against DE with my mech IG in 5th, everything went my way, I seized on him and left him down 12 vehicles and nearly half his infantry after the first turn of the game (multilasers GOOOOOO). That's not much of a game at that point, he conceded and we tried it again with my CSM's which he defeated.

I tend to play things out so I can get more of those "WOW" moments of ridiculousness that dice games allow but I've had opponents withdraw from a game. Sometimes we get a drink, sometimes they drift off, once in a while we play a second game. Just depends on the situation.

Breng77 wrote:
I have never done this in a tournament, but have had an opponent do it (on the bottom of turn 2.) It was the last game, we were both out of the running and he was just getting hammered. So he asked if I minded just calling the game.

I think that is the issue at hand, you should ask your opponent, offer to buy them a drink if you want. If you are really not having fun, there is no obligation to finish playing but asking your opponent if they mind is a nice thing to do.

To me though for this to be ok you really have to be getting hammered, not just seeming like you are going to lose the mission.

I like this way of doing it, asking for their permission beforehand. Quite honestly, especially if you're going to be playing a crapton of games in a single day, and this was a game smack in the middle, it's nice to get a decent break. You know your army and list best, and whether you still have a fighting chance. Taking that 10 or 15 minutes might save you some voice for the next game, get a drink/buy them a beer, take a nice bathroom break (especially if you need to drop an Apocalypse one), grab a beer, and what I like to call After-Action Review, or AAR.

This is so important for me to learn as a player, I feel. I like being critiqued on my list and my playing style, and it often surprises my opponents for their thoughts. There's only so much your own FLGS can help you with that kind of stuff, and ultimately the playstyle from another part of the country/world might be so drastically different to what your local area does that it is nice to get a refreshing view on your army. In the long run, this is going to be more beneficial to both you and him (and might help you in your next match-ups), and who knows, you might make a friend?

Thank you all very much for the thoughtful replies. Next event in my area is in August, I'm going to endeavor to finish all my games.

Thanks again for all the insight. I appreciate it.

I say in a tournament, never concede. It kind of gives full points to the opponent in which you could of had as well. Also kind of view it as not a good thing to do, so I tend to fight until the bitter end. But that is just me though.

To those who keep saying never to concede, would this include situations such as getting three quarters of your army tabled in turn one? Theoretically speaking, of course, to avoid the answers of "I WILL NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN".

I for one go to tournaments to get 'good games'. I have under no delusions that i will 'take it all', especially at larger events like Nova Open. I am paying a lot of money to come and get my 6 to 8 games. My 'games' are precious because of the lack of gaming scene in my area. If it was all about the prizes, i would have stayed home and spent the money on 40K related crap. My expenses tend to usually be more than the biggest prize at the tourney.

So ask yourself, did you really come and think you would win it all? or did you come for the opportunity to play against new opponents with hopefully different armies than you normally play?

If you have a chance to to turn it around with what you got and get some sort of moral victory or at least get some points for the tournament to deny the opponent, then I say never concede (then again my main game is Warmachine/Hordes so comebacks are a little more common, although I have done it in 40k/ Fantasy before. YMMV).

Only main reason I would ever concede if me or my opponent had a emergency that came up or something came up that had to to take my or my opponents attention away, then yes, I would concede then. Then again, that is my thought on it, and my experience so take it with a grain a salt a bit.

Scenario: Maybe a dozen or so DE Warriors in 3-4 man squads, and a Venom or 2 left on turn 4. Your opponent has a Heldrake or some IG tanks and infantry left.

Your opponent has won, there not much you can do. Given the way splinter weapons work, you can't even try to run around to the rear armor and glance his stuff to death. There's really no amount of lucky dice rolls that will result in even a draw.

These are the situations I was referring to. Your opponent already has MAX points (granted, some formats insist that your opponent actually be able to secure all of the objectives to gain max points).

All the talk above about young/immature players quitting early...; I actually think its pretty immature for opponents to want to continue to play, purely for the sake of shooting at you with utter impunity.

Most of my friends love to say, game over, as soon as the possibility for them winning is gone...
It bothers me... but what can you do?

It's a strategy game. Recognizing that your opponent has outplayed you and maneuvered you into a position that precludes anything other than a crushing defeat, acknowledging that he has outplayed you and conceding to go to the bar feels very sportsmanlike to me.

Playing it out and insisting on making him table you strikes me as akin to that guy who refuses to acknowledge touches in fencing.

Give credit where it is due (to your opponent), accept that you got owned, and go grab a cocktail while you see if he can explain he he beat you in hopes that you learn something about whatever mistake you made or vulnerability you exposed.

I think the bigger problem than scoring is simply that you and your opponent have paid good money to get in a set number of games. So yes, conceding a game halfway through is poor form. Let your opponent have the game he paid for, even if you don't much care about yours.


I've also had some of my most entertaining games where one of us has been staring in the face of complete annihilation just to have that one last unit that just refuses... to... die...

Which would have been missed if we had simply called it the turn before.

I too think you should finish it out in a tournament. There's been plenty of very good reasons mentioned already, so there isn't any need to rehash them. (Insaniak's post pretty much summed up my opinion on the topic.)

I think you should always finish games. Very hypocritical fir me to say as I have conceded (never out of rage though) before. As said before you never know how it will turn out. I managed to kill most of a DE and a CSM army with a 3 wound KoS pretty much by herself.

If you can't win, can't even score points, then there is NO point in continuing the game - as regardless, your opponent WILL score max points anyway.

So given the options of conceding and awarding my opponent maximum points versus not being able to do jack to prevent my opponent getting max points, and not having a fun game either way, I'll go with the former option.

There is no shame in not fighting a battle one cannot win.

It's easy to just play your turns very fast when you're already hosed. There's no real reason to quit unless your opponent takes a long time and you're just bored.

I agree that the fact that your opponent payed for that game is the biggest factor. Always ask if they're ok with calling it in a tournament, no matter the situation. I would feel incredibly cheated if my opponent just decided to quit without asking how I felt about it.

I've been on both sides of the inevitable defeat, and I say conceding defeat is perfectly acceptable as long as the outcome is inevitable (IOW not just ragequitting because you lost a unit on turn 1). As the winner it isn't fun to keep rolling dice against my opponent while they unhappily take models off the table without being able to fight back, and as the loser it isn't fun to be forced to keep playing even though it's perfectly obvious what the outcome is going to be. Just end the game and move on to the next one.

This of course is an argument in favor of using straight win/loss/draw scoring instead of margin of victory systems that require you to keep playing and run up the score on a defeated opponent instead of just ending it once the outcome is decided.

I'm pretty stubborn so I typically play games out to the bitter end, trying for "moral victories" and just playing to have fun. Ironically though, the one time I offered to concede the game to my opponent was in the championship round of a local store tourney. He politely declined and I actually pulled out the win!

Never say "never", right?

Some armies either win big or lose big.

A good example is DE beasts. I can tear the heart out of a friend's army by wrecking his beasts squad. If I fail to do so, I have a farsight bomb overextended and well within charge range of some pretty ferocious beasts.

Of course, I'd have to roll pretty badly on 28 S5Ap5 attacks, 14S6Ap2 attacks and 8 S8Ap1 attacks not to kill a 350 point squad.

I always find it a bit annoying when an opponent quits right before your big multi charge you spent the entire game setting up.