Sportsmanship and 'rules of engagement' in group battles?

[JohnCS]

Question on what are reasonable rules of order and conduct during large multiplayer battles.

My son and I went to one of the GW store 'tyranid attack' battles today with about 20 players on a 4x18 table. We're relatively new to 40k (though experienced in other systems) with about 2 months & 4 prior battles under the belt.

During the opposing team phase we might have 3-4 players simultaneously shooting at out units. A few times while we were resolving one shooting attack we'd have a couple other players roll all their shooting and interupt with "I shot you and you loose 3 models and need to roll an armour save on the fourth" or similar. I insisted they wait and re-roll all their shooting once we finished with the previous player. One person got fairly bent out of shape, asked why I questioned their integrity, etc...

So were we out of line? We went there to have fun and learn the rules further. Having someone just tell you 'you units dead' doesn't seem give the battle immersion factor that equals fun to us, and we sure don't learn anything about the opposing units from our perspective. Granted its a timed turn and we're not quick (lots of crib-note checking), but we had to wait for tracking down opposing players in our shooting phase also (if nothing else cause we didn't know their unit stats). Grand prize was a poster they didn't even have in yet, so it wasn't exactly a high-stakes game.

We're not upset about it, but sure would like to know if we violated generally expected guidelines for expediency. Are there any 'unwritten' procedural rules for these types of games? We don't have the Apocalypse rules, though they didn't apply to this game anyway.

[Faultie]

If you wanted to watch your opponent roll his to-hit and to-wound dice, I don't see the problem.
If he got bent out of shape, maybe you should be suspicious about the rolls.

[DarkLink]

You've got a right to know your opponent is not cheating. As complicated as such large games can get, it's always best to make sure your opponent knows that you're rolling dice, and what those rolls are for. Your opponent should do the same for you, as well.

There's a good reason why such large multiplayer games aren't the norm. They tend to get very confusing.

[scadugenga]

I've noticed that most large GW store multiplayer games are lousy with poor sportsmanship. The worse are the apoc type games where cheating seems to be beyond rampant.

You had every right to request that they wait and reroll the dice so you can observe the roll.

I have a group of friends who routinely choose to play "team" battles instead of a series of 1-on-1 games, so good etiquette is fully observed.

IE: If you have more than one player targeting a single opposing player (regardless of whether or not it's the same unit) courtesy should be applied and you wait until one person's shooting/assault/whatever is resolved before proceeding with your own.

If I was in your position, I would've done the same thing. However, if they got bent out of shape about it. I'd point out that, while this is a game about sci-fi plastic toys, it does require a certain level of maturity. And then point out if they can't seem to grasp the concept of maturity, perhaps they should try playing a clix game instead.

But then again, I'm becoming more irascible in my ripening years.

[SombreBrotherhood]

Besides, any given unit of yours has to be shot by any given opposing unit one at a time. So your opponents need to decide who's going to do their shooting first. For what it may (or may not) be worth, I would have chipped in on your side, regardless if I was your ally or not.

[Aldramelech]

Goodbye

[Tarrandus]

I guess I'm in a minority, but personally I think you are making a big deal out of nothing.

I play a lot of team games, usually 2v2 or 3v3, so is not quite the same as quite a large battle, but this is pretty much the norm how we play. If I'm finishing up something with another unit, and then an opponent informs me that a unit took wounds from another units shooting, I'm not going to doubt him. Having the player you are shooting at watching every roll just slows things down too much in team matches.

You may thing somone got bent out of shape for nothing, but he seems pretty justified to me. If I was shooting and had some pretty good rolls and then whoever I shot at made me re-roll, I wouldn't be happy, especially since there is a potential for a shady player to conveniently 'forget' to watch whenever you make a good roll.

Hopefully as you grow more comfortable with the system and different units stats team games will get easier

[Aldramelech]

Goodbye

[Tarrandus]

I don't have my rulebook handy so you may have to enlighten me about page 15.

I'm not sure where rules come into this, but I do seem to rember a rule about 'having fun.' If you don't think team games are fun, don't play them. If you do think getting to game with a whole bunch of people at once is fun, you might have to be a little looser with the rules and just trust that people don't cheat. Seems to work for me

[Aldramelech]

Goodbye