Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here once again to get something off my chest, and its not the crumbs from my last meal
With less than a week to go, the Las Vegas Open is just around the corner. Hopefully you have all been able to upload your lists properly to the Best Coast Pairings app. For those that didn’t bother uploading your lists, too bad, so sad(not). With over 700 players, from around the world, attending the 40K championship alone, there are a lot of different metas coming together. In addition, there are a lot of different ways to play coming together. I don’t mean the 3 ways that Games Workshop says to play. What I am talking about is the way different areas play certain rules. As we all know, Games Workshop’s rules are not the most concise. Just remember that the way you have been playing, although thinking it is correct in your area, may not be the way other players, or even the judges, play a rule or interaction. So don’t be mad if a ruling is made against you!
I have already written a few articles about rules interactions. For more enlightenment see my Assume the Worst, and The Judge is Always Right articles. Both these articles highlight ways that you can mitigate the disappointment and rising rage by taking these to heart. In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of rules in this game we love to play. There are times that we are simply playing a rule the wrong way. Another reason could be that, in order to speed up game play, a lot of times we combine actions. This result in us missing some obscure tricks or traps that can occur when you play at a slower, or more deliberate, pace. Just because a judge rules against your interpretation, you shouldn’t fly off the handle and yell at the judge, or call them a colorful set of names.* All this will get you is a reputation, and most likely a yellow card, or maybe even a red card depending on other circumstances.**
I get it. A lot of people’s plans for their army may depend on how you have been interpreting a rules mechanic. it may seem like a big waste of time when you are told that you have been playing a rule wrong. In addition, we are all human. There are times that your opponent was playing the rule wrong and you were actually right. There are even times when (gasp!) the ruling by the judge is later found out to be incorrect. Unfortunately in both cases there really isn’t much for you to do other than inform them of the mistake. Much like the NFL, we cannot go back in time and reverse a game once the scores have been reported and the next round begun. Its best to learn from this, in any case, and use it to make yourself a better player, and person.
That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know your thoughts, and your best rules disputes stories, in the comments section. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!
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**No maybe about it
you forgot to /hillybilly accent on/off commands while writing this =D
I know events and tourneys take time to setup but this attitude that judges are always right is kinda crap. WAAC players exist and they are unethical and can be downright cheaters in their rules lawyering. This means that Judges are your last line of defense against the stupidity of some competitive gamers. However, judges are human too and they can make mistakes. However, we seem to be trying to create a paradigm where you just have to ‘grin and bear it’ when you get screwed by someone else’s incorrect interpretation of the rules. For super events like the LVO maybe work on a system of appeals or challenges similar to other pro style games. That way you have some protection against bad calls. Even in smaller events get walkie talkies or something and parlay with other judges to ensure you come to a reasonable ruling. If then you have exhausted all your options and still were ruled against then yeah, you shouldn’t get mad. You at least had due process and a fair shake and if you were still ruled against then you were likely wrong (or you were the WAAC player above) and you should live and learn from it.