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In our playgroup we have a player who (to not go into full detail) pretty much gives up on a match the moment they see things not going their way. And I dont mean winning, I mean the opponent just KOing their models in their units.

Its gotten quite annoying, and I doubt talking to them about it will fix the issue. Should I be intentionally taking things easy with them, or is this just reason to plaster their force?

By the by, they play necrons.

Kill his army harder, don't tolerate passive aggressive tantrums like this.

Just refuse matches with them if you can. People tend to stop whatever negative behaviour they're doing when they can no longer get matches with anyone. If that doesn't work, then at least you don't have to play with them regardless.

How old are they?

pm713 wrote:
How old are they?

I have a mate like this in his mid thirties he starts losing he pays more attention to his iPad than the game .

He hates my death sworn after he charged in 3 units and my guys minced them, bitches about them all the time so I'm building another two squads because I feed on his salty tears.

Do you know if he is having a bad time in life generally or just on the table?
Sometimes, people want too much from their tabletop time, like reinforcement when life has them down outside of the hobby, and losing just gives them another kick in the face.
If this were the case, and IF and only IF you like the guy, as a person, and otherwise enjoy his company, then I would play easy until his self-esteem is healthy.

In a campaign I played not long ago, we had a player very similar to what you are describing. I struggled to decide what exactly to do with them. I knew I was going to have to play them on three different occasions. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to change my play style because of the way they decided to conduct themselves on the battlefield. I played them the same way I would have played any other person in our campaign and just tried not to let their play or lack there of get to me.

I wish I could tell you that it was an enjoyable experience, but I would be lying. All I can say is that I got the games over with and moved on. He wasn't asked to come back to our next game group because of his attitude, I can only hope that he realized, though I doubt he did learn much.

 vaklor4 wrote:
In our playgroup we have a player who (to not go into full detail) pretty much gives up on a match the moment they see things not going their way. And I dont mean winning, I mean the opponent just KOing their models in their units.

Its gotten quite annoying, and I doubt talking to them about it will fix the issue. Should I be intentionally taking things easy with them, or is this just reason to plaster their force?

By the by, they play necrons.

My brother-in-law can be this way. He's happy on his turn and eternally pissed during anyone else's.

I found that the best way to deal with it is either to ignore it, or work with him better beforehand to find out what he wants from the game. Part of my brother-in-law's enjoyment in the game comes from winning despite the odds, and so even if he dislikes losing forces, he likes winning more, so getting a bit salty is actually part of the experience for him. He'd love to have a game where he just marched over his opposition, but he knows that won't happen. At the same time, my brother-in-law isn't actually looking for a tactical game much of the time, but rather to see his forces acting "as they should". Though he wouldn't admit it to himself, he's a fluffy player through and through. In these cases, rather than playing Matched Play, your player might benefit from playing Narrative Missions, Power Level, and creating a story more than fighting and winning. Find out if that's the case and try to have a game their way to see if that helps!

Stop playing him, and let him know why. Not in a rude or mean way, but just tell him you're not enjoying games with him - or he's too negative and saps the enjoyment you have during the game. A little feedback never hurts.

Thanks for all the advice and stories! Its given me lots more insight

There's nothing wrong with conceding when you're very clearly beaten. The manner in which you concede is a whole different story, of course, but still - if the game is over, the game's over.

Tournaments are nice for this reason though, if you're playing ITC combined missions. I encourage people not to surrender, to try and claim a few points if possible. The last time that happened, one of my opponents finished third (he won the rest of his games after me), and the reason he had a tiebreaker was because of the points i pushed him to get.

 vaklor4 wrote:
In our playgroup we have a player who (to not go into full detail) pretty much gives up on a match the moment they see things not going their way. And I dont mean winning, I mean the opponent just KOing their models in their units.

Its gotten quite annoying, and I doubt talking to them about it will fix the issue. Should I be intentionally taking things easy with them, or is this just reason to plaster their force?

By the by, they play necrons.

Is this a Necron player thing? Sounds exactly like someone in my game group. It didn't go away, but it got a lot better when we stopped feeding into it - just letting the rage thing happen and carry on as if it hadn't. I think he noticed and apologized after about a game of it.

I've found players going "on tilt" to be one of the biggest issues with people playing the game. I try to keep a poker player's perspective about my game: if I take a good, favorable move, with good odds in my favor and I know those odds, but it doesn't pan out through luck, it happens. It doesn't make it the wrong move. I only ever get annoyed when the parameters of the mission are set up such that the game was a foregone conclusion from minute one (several of the Konor missions bothered me for this reason).

But a lot of people seem to fall victim to a level of frustration that's just on a little hair trigger if they feel like their units or yours aren't performing the way they should in their head. This is pretty common with people who play the more elite armies in my experience, who expect their heroic units to be able to move mountains and throw tantrums if they get unlucky, or even if things work out the way they statistically should. I know one guy who runs terminators every game, and never fails to pound the table and exclaim "COME ON" any time a 1 shows up on the dice - even if its a situation where he rolls 12 wounds and 2 1's come up. His stance is that Terminator armor should be so awesome and impregnable that no small arm should be capable of getting through it, and it's stupid that he has to roll a save at all against anything that isn't a plasma gun or stronger. And that's just..not the way the game works, or has ever worked. But in his head, it's the way it *should* be.

I just try not to play people like that in a competitive environment, and they're often much friendlier if you go out of your way to ensure you're playing a silly, fluffy game that isn't any kind of tournament standard. The last time I played my particular guy, I made sure to craft a mission around our shared fluff that would allow for his favorite heroes - if they died - to go out in a heroic last stand, and he was in a good mood because we both got to dust off terrible models that had sat on the shelf for ages and play around with them.

I have a friend that refuses to take play my Daemons after a used a pair of blood thirsters and a trio of khorne princes against him in a 1500 game back in 6th.

I just slapped him around with grav cents instead after that! :p

The most concerning part of this story is 'paying more attention to his iPad than the game.' Unless he is looking up rules, this is just rude.

Remind him he is there to play a game, not browse the Internet. You would appreciate his attention.

A friend of mine once decided to build a list so broken he'd win by turn two anyway to show our complainer what real destruction looked like.

Some people have a hard time with losing.

Watch any FLG video with Reece. He's quite jolly when winning, but when the dice don't go his way, he becomes very salty. He's not a poor sport by any stretch, he just acts... well, salty.

I definitely play with people who get salty when turns don't go their way. They expect to win- they've set their expectations on winning, and when reality does not meet those expectations, they handle it poorly.

Sometimes there's a bad beat-you roll all ones, etc. But it's a dice game. There's no "should" in dice games.

It's hard not to be upset when losing. Its not like its an amazing experience.

However losing to certain people can still really be fun. So maybe take a look at what you're doing and if you can make things more enjoyable.

You might to ask the player if they are willing to continue. I play with a lot of more experienced players , and I've had to become used to yielding after turn 2. When it's clear who the winner is and they get bored. I had an opponent Monday that was clearly agitated after my list bounced of his centurions (I struggle with 2+ armor saves). It was another time I had to yield after turn 2. I was seriously worried my opponent was going to wander off if I pushed for third turn.

 rhinoceraids wrote:
It's hard not to be upset when losing. Its not like its an amazing experience.

However losing to certain people can still really be fun. So maybe take a look at what you're doing and if you can make things more enjoyable.

This is a fair point. The person you're losing to makes a huge difference. I usually try to apologize for people's bad luck, or go out of my way to point out how much better things would have been if they nailed or a roll, or if i didn't get really lucky here, and here.

I mean at the end of the day, the primary goal in any game should be that everyone has fun. That's why we play. I've found it is more the people that change whether or not that happens.

I used to be super competitive but basically since 8th started I've focused a lot more on having fun and making sure that my mates are having fun. Losing still sucks and I still complain when things aren't going my way but it's through a joke. Or if I'm feeling really Jolly I will even give a fist pump when they obliterate a unit with 1/4 the firepower it should have required - or make 5 5++ saves on 5 fortunes from mortal wounds.

I'll premise this by saying sometimes nothing helps.

That said your attitude while playing makes a big difference. If they are having crap dice, acknowledge it. If things are really are beyond being able to come back in the game suggest a re-rack if it is early (did you turn 1 kill 1500 points of his army?) If he wants to concede and re-play a game go for it. It also helps to "cheer" when things do go well for him, did he finally manage to kill Magnus? Make it a big deal even if in game terms it doesn't matter (your up 15 vp to 4, but he has accomplished something big and fun). At some point learn to pull your punches (are you up 15-4 in a casual game) try to feed him some fights he can win, and make them into a big deal "My ork commandos are going to try to take out your plague marine squad, they really want that objective."

Essentially emphasize the narrative. It won't always help, some people are un-reachable, but if you set that as your standard atmosphere for a game things remain interesting longer.

I remember testing out 7th WHFB awhile ago. I experimented with what I subsequently learned was a fairly standard "Holy Order of the Steam Tank" build while my opponent was running Khalida Archers.

The Tomb King army was overcosted and strongly dependent on Incantations to buff it, granting extra move actions, shoot actions, etc. Ditto fear for forcing routs on foes they outnumbered, etc.

However, since I ran a War Altar, 2 Wizards and a Warrior Priest, I had enough dispel dice to "turn off" the main TK crutch. Since my army had incredible speed, my opponent could only get a single round of shooting off before I was on him, and because his army was Undead, he couldn't flee or shoot as a charge reaction. My Steam Tank subsequently rammed into his skeleton archer block wirh Khalida in it, crunched through half the unit via impact hits, then finished the rest with crumble casualties. Khalida's curse went off, but a bunch of S2 hits meant nothing to a Steam Tank.

All in all, it was one of the more demoralizing games I've played, and it fundamentally boiled down to a mismatched faction calculus (Defensive shooty with overdependence on buff magic, versus lightning bruiser with strong antimagic), and a lack of real play options to counter. He did have a Bone Giant and some "Heavy Cavalry" (the name is a blatant lie), but the army was too slow to truly counter.

 Elbows wrote:
Stop playing him, and let him know why. Not in a rude or mean way, but just tell him you're not enjoying games with him - or he's too negative and saps the enjoyment you have during the game. A little feedback never hurts.

Sorry but this made me laugh. Can't think of anything more brutal that sitting someone down and saying. "Sorry, I don't want to play you any more. I don't enjoy the games as you are too negative and sap the enjoyment out of it" hahahaha. Say it whilst maintaining direct eye contact then just stand up and walk away. hahahaha.

If I were you I would just try as hard as possible to destroy him and then laugh in his stupid face for getting worked up about a stupid game using toy soldiers.

 Hollow wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
Stop playing him, and let him know why. Not in a rude or mean way, but just tell him you're not enjoying games with him - or he's too negative and saps the enjoyment you have during the game. A little feedback never hurts.

Sorry but this made me laugh. Can't think of anything more brutal that sitting someone down and saying. "Sorry, I don't want to play you any more. I don't enjoy the games as you are too negative and sap the enjoyment out of it" hahahaha. Say it whilst maintaining direct eye contact then just stand up and walk away. hahahaha.

If I were you I would just try as hard as possible to destroy him and then laugh in his stupid face for getting worked up about a stupid game using toy soldiers.

Dude, that makes you sound like a really immature jerk you know. This isn't just a "stupid game" using toy soldiers, its a hobby. We're supposed to be playing together to all have fun. People put huge investments of time and energy into this hobby, and then to just have the game part be a demoralizing gak show is soul crushing. Yeah, the guy sounds like a poor loser, but there's a lot to be done to mitigate that. And if you're playing with your friends you ought to at least give some semblance of a gak as to whether they're having fun or not, or you'll only ever get games a tournaments.

How do you know that talking to him would not work? It might be worth broaching the topic with him in a non-judgemental, friendly and low-profile way. Without knowing him and your level of friendship its very hard to make solid recommendations, but I think that dealing with it is best the solution. Communicating with him is better than patronizing him, passively-aggressively hammering his army on the table or shunning him.

In my community, we have a few that are sort of like this, one in particular who can get pretty bad.

The best course of action could actually be taken during the game. Ask him if you guys should take a break, get a soda, something to break the flow so he can refocus. During that time, broach the subject.

Sometimes the game has to stop and you have to help the other person have fun. It can be difficult, ESPECIALLY when you're in the middle of having fun.

(Unfortunately, said player similar to the OP's was my last Age of Sigmar Tourney fight. I'll admit I was a hypocrite and utterly crushed him all while he slammed dice and cursed the sky.)

I played my mate last night orks against my wolves I made the mistake of picking maelstrom I forgot how much I hate those random cards.

Tons of fun I lost on points because my mate got lucky with turn one card draw and I drew crap impossible to complete but I didn't bitch or moan about it.

Its okay to not enjoy losing but its bang out of order to try and ruin the other guys enjoyment because he's winning.