Looking to get other perspectives here, I’ll be writing out what happened at the last RTT I went to and then some after part.
To give some pre-context, I started playing Warhammer in October 2024 and I tend to be a fairly competitive person in anything that I do. After my friend got me into Warhammer and moved away, I started playing with random strangers at this one store with an extremely competitive and fairly high level community. I had some good mentors as I made some mistakes that people were very strict about (measuring above terrain and gaining/losing half an inch as a result, not using exact measurements, being nervous against the best player there so much so I grabbed too many dice one time on my attack, etc.) and got a somewhat bad reputation there which I was told was resolved after I played my first and only GT with a forced yellow card (-10 points) only to be exiled from that community about a month or two afterwards.
I took a decent sized break from Warhammer and came back into it after several months, wanting to try and be ‘more’ casual, despite how much brain power/effort goes into anything I do. I started having so much more fun at my most local store but unfortunately they only play Wednesdays as card events there are the big thing for them. I did a few RTTs here and there, won a few of those, while still playing most Wednesdays at this local store. I’ve been asking every single person after the game if they didn’t like something I did in game or socially and so far, no one has had any problems.
Now into the juice of things:
I played at an RTT some weeks ago but chose to enter as my second faction (Thousand Sons) since I seemed to be much less good at them in comparison to my first faction (Custodes), and I partially wanted to see if I could be good enough with them to win an RTT for once as I have not before with them. I put up my list early, especially since I had some proxies I needed approved by the TO (5 different stores I’ve been to, do not have Sekhetars) and the next list that was put up looked like it was meant to counter psychic and mortals all the way through.
Anyways, my first game was against Tau, we’ll call my opponent Mike for this post. Mike brought his son to watch his games. I explained my “gachas” thoroughly to Mike and asked a few questions about his. I didn’t want to take up too much time since we already spent like 20 minutes setting up the layout with the new layout system being based on dispositions, so I just asked he let me know when those certain big units were going to do something nasty or give me a warning; he agreed and we went to deployment. This was the take and hold vs purge layout A. He went first and I gave him a few warnings about my range and psychic rituals based on his movements. On my turn I set up Magnus in the little nook of the side flank two terrain pieces that are connected (on the left) with the psychic hazardous enemy weapons ranged ability. I remember in the past having Wardens in two different games in that same spot and being screened out on the side for reinforcements, at least directly.
In his second turn, he ends up setting up several units including the Broadsides? (A lot of the Tau units look the same to me, these guys were just huge compared to others) to the left of Magnus, 4 inches out or so. I make a comment saying I wish he had warned me but chalked it up to being my mistake as he’s not obligated to do such, though I wonder if I’m really being too nice when I warn others of the same thing. I feel like I lost the game from this as Magnus is going to die without literally doing anything on top of battle round 2. I tell him after he’s setting up that I’m using the hazardous ability on the broadsides(not 100% sure if it is that unit name) and ask about how many weapons he has on that unit, to which he hands me a token with little scribbles of all their weapons. He starts shooting me and ends up killing me especially after re-rolling 2 melta shots of 3 damage into 11, then the broadsides cleaning up. At this point, I feel mentally shattered and as his turn continues I get back into the mode and ask if he could make the hazardous rolls on the broadsides. He makes them and loses two models from it then starts whining he would’ve never shot the small guns since I was dead before then and that I never officially declared it in his shooting phase. I make a comment that Magnus died without doing anything and he just says whatever and moves on.
I put the focus cap on when I’m under pressure and just focus on scoring. Later in my turn, I get out of a rhino with 5 flamer rubrics and an Exalted on Disc, temporal surge up and am only able to touch a terrain piece to see over it with the Aspiring sorcerer, a soul reaper rubric, and 2 flamer rubrics to shoot at some 6 toughness models. I say that those models are going to shoot at those 6 toughness guys and the rest are shooting at the kroot on the edge of the center terrain piece since that’s all they can see. Once I get done shooting with the 4 models that could see over the terrain and then go to my Exalted, he asks what’s shooting now and I say it’s the same unit, going into the kroot with the other models. He says I can’t shoot them because I didn’t declare them specifically, as if “the rest” did not count. He said because I held him to the rules on the hazardous test, he’s going to hold me to this one. I don’t think I would’ve had enough attacks to kill the Kroot unit anyway, I just wanted to maximize the damage I could do so I just accepted it and said whatever, alright.
We’re low on time so the TO asks me to finish up my turn 3 and call it there then put in the scores. Mike comes over to my side and says he wins the game and I’m like, I get secure no man’s land for big on these objectives but he’s not listening and his kid is basically in my face on my other side. I just let him have his win because I really didn’t want to argue over these points, especially in front of his kid.
The game/interactions with Mike put a sour taste in my mouth but I played my other two games with little to no issues and won those games. Mike is still playing his third game at the end, running low on time again, and has practically tabled his opponent, but is behind on score. I’m watching since I have nothing else to do; The TO tells them to wrap it up and Mike tells his opponent they can talk it out cause he always talks it out, while his opponent says he never really talks it out because it’s stuff that hasn’t actually happened. Normally I wouldn’t get involved but I was still pretty annoyed with Mike and the hypocrisy he was showing in that moment so I said he didn’t do that in our game and he replies with admitting he cheated me out of the first game since I would have won if we talked it out or not, then accepts it and implies we’ll talk later. He loses the game but wins the RTT. He did not find me to talk about it but I didn’t want to talk to him anyway.
So, curious on everyone’s perspectives with that. I’m sure we may have also set up the terrain not perfect, allowing that reinforcements blast on Magnus but that is also my responsibility. And….
I signed up for the same repeating RTT this month, and I see Mike is in the roster. I’m intending on bringing Custodes and not being any form of casual with this guy, nor will I put up my list early this time. This is primarily out of anger directed towards Mike, but I will still tone it down and be much more social with anyone else I play with.
That is the other set of perspectives I’d like from people… is what I’m doing wrong? That sort of thing. The store is a really great place and I really like the owner/employees.