Personal rivalry amungst your gaming group? aka romulus's musing for the week :)

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

Now i know this can extend to the tournament environment scene as well as local groups. What i am interested in talking about this week is rivals. While this is a game and we all try to have fun there has to be a part with in each of us that enjoys when you beat a particular opponent or when you spend several hours scratching your head replaying your moves trying to figure out what went wrong and what happened to your brilliant game plan. I know i for one have developed 2 separate rivalries over my gaming career. ( i will state that both of my rivals are my best friends so there is no malice) I have one buddy who just makes evil evil lists. They are not un-fun to play against but they are always very challenging and come at you so many way's its always taxing. These are the games where when you win its truly satisfying and when you loose you sit down take a look at your list then the game itself and spend a night scratching your head going damn. This is what i consider a rival who pushes your list and your tactics as well as your grasp of the game.

Then i have another buddy who its like red vs blue and there is a healthy rivalry. heck maybe unhealthy when you can read back a series of text's and realize he describes what happened to your chapter master he just killed or you look at the wall of text you sent to him describing your wolves turning his necrons head's into drinking mugs. This is what i call the healthy in game banter that to some other could be considered crude and offensive but amongst yourselves is all in good fun. (there may or may not even be several pictures floating around of marines roasting inside a land raider or high elves being blasted apart by a skull cannon)

So i was wondering if this is typical behavior or if i just know a bunch of sick puppies lol

[Joe TwoCrows]

So i was wondering if this is typical behavior or if i just know a bunch of sick puppies lol

Yes

[Lost Vyper]

Yep, i enjoy bashing anyone in our FLGC and the feeling is mutual...but the two veterans are most rewarding to win thou, you get that extra swag :)

[Kaptain Badrukk]

Two of my group are in a Dystopian Wars arms race, every time one of them adds to his force the other adds slightly more. One such experience saw them drop £150-200 each at the local FLGS when we went in to get the 2nd edition rulebook.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

I know fo me while the behavior can be called juvenile i know its all in good fun and honestly makes the games alot more interesting. i know once upon a time there was a rather heated debat on just what happened to tha tau who had been captured by orks.... it was quite commical as we had a discussion about orafices and exactly what an ork warboss would do to them. needless to say the tau player was not entirely pleaseed but next time he win's i'm sure he will have his own idea as to what hi will do with his ork prisioners.

I think ias long as its all in good spirits ( even though sometimes i'm sure you dont really want to hear it as your army is being destroyed) that it's just that in good spirits. it makes the game commical and entertainning at the same time. It makes it so that when you look back on a particular game or a particular event that happened then you ge that small chuckle or that satistfed feeling knowing you won or that the particular event was amusing. Heck i know i had to and still do listen to the lament of my chapter after my chapter master was killed inside his landraider with his whole unit not once but 2x in the summer... there were picuters hell there still are pictures somwhere. For me i can look back at it and chuckle then use it to fuel my determination to kill me some more orks :)

[Pssyche]

I have a hardbacked folder with clear pouches inside that I keep my FAQs, Experimental Rules, Army Lists et al in.
My main opponent over the years is a Genestealer Cult/Tyranids Player (in that order) of many years standing.
He was suitably impressed when I put a photocopy of a particular page from Codex Tyranids 3rd Edition into the front cover pouch of my Folder for everyone to see.

It was the page "Know Your Enemy" that was done in the style of a WWII Aircraft Recognition Poster, except with Tyranids and Kill Percentages allocated to areas on their respective silhouettes, and notes on how dangerous each species was.

Now whenever I play him, I occassionally look at the chart, then inspect his models, look at the chart again, then silently walk away around the table nodding sagely to myself whilst stroking my chin.
And this carries on all game.

It's all part of the ritual of our rivalry and what makes it so much fun, although nothing will ever beat his reaction when he first saw the Chart on my folder's cover.
That was priceless.

[Arkhan Land]

When I play the narrative is key and issuing challenges is my favorite part "YOUR EMPEROR SEWS SOCKS THAT SMELL!" but always keep it respectful and mutual!

[chromedog]

I don't do the rivalry thing.
They aren't my rivals. I can respect my rivals. :D

[Cactus]

A couple of my friends and I have some healthy rivalries. We have names for each other's models (I call one of his sniper's Lee Harvey Oswald and another model who always dies, "Scissors" since he just runs forward to get shot.)

He frequently reminds me of how my treeman was taken out by 40 points of skaven slaves.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

@ CACTUS
I'm with you on that i can say it does lead to some serious commical events. i recall gazkull being run down and killed by gretchin once :) i remember in a long term campaign being told that using gretchin to screen was the uber cheese. i recall wazdakka punching a warhound titan in the face and earning a titan kill :) i can think of alot of things.

I will say i do remember the wins dread the losses and when they loses come rack my brain trying to figure out if it was list or tactics or a combination of both or if it was just ****ty luck. i know this month's army is my guard so they are off to a stellar start 0-2 as of this weekend double losses to tau... i really hate tau...odd point costed units and i'm honestly sick of solid shot ammunition that ignores cover or drones being as tough as a space marine.... but alas i know when i do manage to crack that nut the victory will be all the sweater. the first game i annhilated him but failed to kill his last scoring unit the 2nd game i had to call if things just went south from turn 1 and it was not worth while playng through the victory was certain for the filthy cow people.

[Bob821]

I only have play in a small group and can honestly say there is nothing but very frendly rivelry between me and 4 of the other 5 players... The 5th player though... Now there is a problem. To start with he is my younger brother. At 29 and 27 we are not kids... But still... In 5th my Blood Angels spent years kicking his fishy bum from one end of the table to the other. In 6th sadly (for me) the tables have turned. When we all get together to play me and 'our kid' always play last for fear of it kicking off and ruining every ones night! Luckly for me the other members of the group are childhood friends and dont get to flustered by our frequintly pathetic behavour.

He is just so Damn unreasonable. He missreads rules and gets angry if I mention it to him. If I ask him to show me a rule in his codex which he so frequently missinterprets and he is correct the waves of smugness make me feel sick. When the rules and the Codexs fell in my favour I took all sorts of fun lists to 'give him a chance' he has never repaid the favour! Always taking the latest trend in Ultra Tau spammed copied off the internet taurnamnet winning super list! Argh! I am angry just thinking about that smug little face of his as my assault squads wither under his over watch fire... Stupid Tau! Stupid Brother! Stupid 6th! Stupid over watch with supporting fire!

OK big breath. I'm calm now.

Of course he would say the same about me. He is wrong though.

Does anyone else have a rival who ruins the game for them? And if I'm being honest probably ruins it for them too.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

For me it depends on the game. usually the games go pretty smoothly but every once in a while certain arguments come out from certain players. A scatter dice that even when scatters some how is beneficial for your opponent but not for you. measurements that seem to go an extra inch or two it all depends on what happens. for my i will admit this weekend went 0-2 same list vs tau first game lost on my scoring units were dead while he army was dead minus 1 troop and one annoying command unit and drones. that one was a disappointing loss but it was down to the last turn. game to came after watching a DVD of strike back to break up the day. game 2 was over by round 2. At that point it wasn't even close to being the end of the day but i just couldn't stomach tau cheese any longer so i threw in the towel. for me it was about salvaging the remainder of the night for him its an edition and a codex that he is winning with as opposed to loosing or drawing. Mostly the arguments stay civil but sometimes they break down. it all comes down to the environment. last edition i didn't even play my grey knights and my wolves got a month's worth of use before i put them away after hearing the endless winning and complaining about how this was broken or that was cheesy. What i can say is take it as it is. this edition will continue to favor tau until their is some massive shift in the edition. (which i highly doubt we will see) So what you can do is do as i am doing. use it as a challenge and a chance to work on sportsmanship.

What i tend to do is try and get another player to act as a judge and an arbitrator. when something comes up some one else will pop in take a look weather its line of sight. ( yes it does put your buddy in the hot seat) It's not the best set up but then again they don't always write the clearest of rules.

I know i can probably commiserate with you when it comes to the bloody cow's... Between solid shots that ignore cover and line of sight to a massive wall of over watch to T4 drones to paying practically nothing for upgrades (1pt darksun filters i'm looking at you) to their other shenanigans. But alas right now you have to pretty much keep running your face into that brick wall or dimply don't play him. those are the 2 options. i know me I've begun to bring in forge world to change things up.

I know that if i just toss out the last game and focus on the first game i can say it was enjoyable it not a little disheartening but still enjoyable.