The Face

[Cyberscape7]

I have faced the temptations of pulling 'the face' and have found a cure...
Replace your opponents chaos marines with Imperial guard...

[BuFFo]

My opponents nearly always lose hope during the first turn or two, only to not play the game at their best, only to realize they COULD HAVE won when turn 5 rolls by if they bothered to give damn.

[Lord Anubis]

I think when most people get "the face" it's far more a product of the person they're playing with than the game itself.

Yeah, we all make mistakes and get bad rolls. If you've got someone decent across the table from you, though, every game is fun. That's why I can usually laugh or even cheer when something God-awful happens in a game with my friends.

It's when you're stuck playing across from some single-minded, zero-personality type that the face comes out, because what was a bad hour of gaming from the start is only getting worse.

[Lerra]

I was playing in a 2v2 this weekend, and my partner was using his brand new vendetta. First game, the rear stabilizers fell off. Second game, the model fell off of its base and a wing broke. Next game the other wing and a door fell off. That's the best example of The Face I've ever seen. He looked like a kicked puppy, poor bloke.

[LadasN]

Usually, when a game just doesn't go my way, I'll sit down and litterally say CRAP lol. Then I'll try to take the game back BUT usually when it gets to crap its all over lol. It's all fun and it makes my opponents smile and laugh so its all good .

[Madjob]

"The Face" usually affects me when the opponent starts being condescending. We're not stupid. If you beat me, just beat me and win. Don't sit there and try and sugarcoat it in an effort to get good sportsmanship points. You're not that good an actor, and I'm not stupid enough not to see through it. But yeah, it's happened to me.

While it's a bit off topic I can't pass up an opportunity to comment on a strange phenomenon related to what you've said.

I'll get to turn 3 or so of a game, and I've been doing good but it's very much a situation where the right moves in the right places can turn things around. Yet, incredibly, my opponent is in the pits when it comes to their spirit of competition. A few things didn't go the way they'd hoped or planned, and the fight just completely goes out of them. In those cases I admittedly end up doing the sort of thing you're complaining about: I try and encourage them, maybe even point out things that could be done to salvage their game. It's not that I think they're stupid, I just have trouble comprehending why they lost hope so quickly and want them to have a good game when one is possible for them. I've had several games where I actually got through to them and they went on to beat me, which is just fine.

As far as my own personal experiences with 'the face', it doesn't happen very often and it's usually not a matter of frustration so much as I completely go blank on what to do next in my turn if I find myself running out of options to even attempt for a draw. So I'll end up staring at spots on the board intensely without saying a word for some time until I finally come up with something, even if it doesn't satisfy me.

[LadasN]

[QUOTE=Madjob;47915]I'll get to turn 3 or so of a game, and I've been doing good but it's very much a situation where the right moves in the right places can turn things around. Yet, incredibly, my opponent is in the pits when it comes to their spirit of competition. It's not that I think they're stupid, I just have trouble comprehending why they lost hope so quickly and want them to have a good game when one is possible for them./QUOTE]

That's happened often to me on my friday game night. There's one guy who does this almost every friday when he starts to lose and the game becomes no fun at all.

[LemanRussCommander]

Oh the face.... Why oh why foul dice gods? How can my guardsmen kill a deamon prince but fail to kill a single ork boy with volley fire!!!! I haven't met many players that give me the face, but i've gone through my share of dice...

[Rogue428]

While it's a bit off topic I can't pass up an opportunity to comment on a strange phenomenon related to what you've said.

I'll get to turn 3 or so of a game, and I've been doing good but it's very much a situation where the right moves in the right places can turn things around. Yet, incredibly, my opponent is in the pits when it comes to their spirit of competition. A few things didn't go the way they'd hoped or planned, and the fight just completely goes out of them. In those cases I admittedly end up doing the sort of thing you're complaining about: I try and encourage them, maybe even point out things that could be done to salvage their game. It's not that I think they're stupid, I just have trouble comprehending why they lost hope so quickly and want them to have a good game when one is possible for them. I've had several games where I actually got through to them and they went on to beat me, which is just fine.

Not really what I was talking about. Sounds like you're just trying to help the guy have a good time. What I mean is when someone says something like, "Oh man, your dice just betrayed you. Sorry about that." When it had nothing to do with the dice and more something to do with the 10 nob bikers he just smashed a normal IG unit with. That kind of annoys me because there was no way my normal IG guys could have won. I'd just appreciate if they'd say it like it was, "Wow, those IG didn't stand a chance." I'm okay with that. My ego isn't tied to the tabletop.

What someone else wrote about this happening due to opponents they are facing is spot on. I've been tabled in turn 2 (yes it was quite a feat!) but it was by a good friend of mine, and while I was shaking my head about how he pulled it off. We were both laughing about it.

[DarkLink]

As a Grey Knight player, the type of utterly hopeless games that can result in the Face are pretty much inevitable in 5th ed. The sort of game when first turn your opponent manages to immobilize/destroy one of your LR's, then does the same thing to one of the others next turn, and then gets perfect scatters to wipe out your now exposed squads with his vindicator, and he saves ALL your return fire, and you fail every cover/armor save...

BTW, nice avatar LadasN