It happens, sometimes a lot. Rule disputes, angle disputes, how well you translate the direction of a scatter die, distances, templates, dice rolls that rules did not get applied to and have already been picked up, and the lords of luck all contribute to some amount of tension and discontent between either yourself and the game, or yourself and your opponent. Nobody wants to be that person, the rule monger, but many of us (or at least myself) may jump on someone misusing of a rule like CoR to a flank. Aside from the obvious, "remember that it is just a game", what other strategies do you use to calm your nerves. As well, when you find yourself on the other side, dominating your opponent either through supreme strategy or excellent luck, do you just watch them smolder, offer your opinion (which will likely be scoffed at), or make a very risky move to increase the excitement and give them a chance to come back into the match? This all would apply to friendly matches, I don't play tournys so the mentality for that would be totally different. But when my opponents start throwing their miniatures into their box (instead of packing them away carefully as they should) I cant help but feel bad. Maybe I should not have brought 3 sallies and a death Slann. I myself have began trying to pick an obscure theme or strategy, one that is not balanced or widely accepted as being competitive, and then run with it. It makes for an interesting game, but I still end up feeling more defeated than I should when I lose. I envy the players at my shop who can come with beastmen and britonians every time, get crushed every time, and still laugh the whole game. I am also lucky to never have had a crazy opponent who starts yelling (I play at a shop that has a lot of Magic the Gathering, and some of those kids are NUTS!) Your thoughts, experiences, stories about crazy players, ect.
First off, why is your Brettonian friend losing all of his games? That army is still super competitive, if a bit boring. As for the Beastmen, that's another matter... But on your thoughts, I have this: I am a player who started playing in garages, then moved to Local Game Stores, and now play primarily in tournaments or on UB when practicing for tournaments. In general: I have found that Garage and LGS play is the most likely to develop 'hurt feelings'. I found this to be because players are more likely to tailor lists (very hurtful if that is not the plan of both players, or if one army is already better matched vs. the other - imagine a DE player playing against a HE player where the DE player tailors his list and the HE player does not!). I've also found that the opportunity for one of the two players to miss an important, game-changing or game-losing rule goes up, and that some common courtesies of game-play are more likely to be missed. When I'm in those games against garage players who don't get to play very often, I'll say things like "Moving this unit here allows my unit over here to have a possible flank charage; was that your intention?" This allows them the opportunity to shuffle that move into a more favorable position for them (and allows me the ability to up the skill level of my opponent for my practice too ). Also - and I think this is a very important point - you and your opponent really need to be on the same page about what a game is trying achieve. If you are practicing for a tournament, for example, and he just wants to try out his newest Carnosaur - maybe you should let the model see combat, and focus on playing the rest of the army as if the Carno wasn't there. If he's trying out a weird tactic, give him a chance to see if it can develop a bit (I'm not saying bend over and expose yourself to it, just, don't kill the key piece to the plan on Turn 1 - if you can help it). Open or closed list is also a very important point. Hurt feelings go way down if you play open list. It allows the player to focus more on the strategies and tactics of the game/maneuver/magic than just getting the right tricky magic item into the right place at the right time. I provide my opponents a copy of my list AND I describe where/what things are as I am deploying them. I also tell my opponents to ask questions about my gear at any time, and I'll gladly describe/show them what it does. If you're going to your LGS, and you don't know what kind of army to expect, since you don't know who you'll be playing - bring multiple lists! That way you can talk about what list to bring against your opponent with your opponent! Most people want a fun game that is challenging for both sides. If you play someone who just wants to stomp your softest list into the ground with his hardest cheese, then thank him for the game - and don't play him again. I know that can be a hard one sometimes, because our community is so small. If everyone approaches that player the same way, then he will eventually leave, or change their attitude. My biggest disappointment at LGS's were the players who stomped on players new to the game, but never took those 'mean' lists to tournaments (local or Grand) to further test their skills, and didn't share any information with the person they just beat (or it was bad info, whether intentionally or not). I would try to come in occasionally to play those people and beat them with balanced lists to show other new players that it could be done, but I only had so much time available to do that, and it didn't help. Those players would go back to using their unbalanced lists, and would beat up on new people without helping them understand the tools/methods needed to beat them - which really stagnated everyone's growth. Having said that, this behavior is not unique to those environments, and it happens at tournaments too. In some cases, those mistakes are more costly/hurtful. I had a tournament game a couple of months ago, where my Brettonian opponent would yell a word every time his dice rolled for armor and ward saves because he wanted them to succeed. I was 'whatever' about it at first, until it was 'proving successful' and he continued to do it - through the whole game. Also, I was having terrible luck throughout (Dimensional Cascade turn 1 on my first spell - HE's), and he didn't need any additional luck on his part to be successful. In the end, I started getting a really sour demeanor towards the whole thing, and was not having a good experience at all. After the game, we talked a little bit, and I mentioned that the fact that he kept yelling for every die roll was a bit too much, imo. He apologized, and what I realized was that I had the opportunity to say something earlier in the game, and though it might have hurt his feelings a bit at that moment, it probably would have been a more enjoyable game for both of us from that point on. That's my stories/thoughts - hope it was helpful.