""I don't understand why you did that."" Topic

Did you ever tell your opponent that after a game?
Yeah. Rub it in, Baby!
Of course, you can only use that if you beat him. It's kind of lame if you lost the game.

General part of the post-mortem discussion. We have picked each other's nrains after a game.

No. But I do have a lot of "I don't know why I did that" moments.

Grelber

"I don't understand why you did that" is more often said to teammates during the recrimination phase

Turn Sequence:

1) Movement
2) Ranged Fire
3) Recriminations
4) Close assault
5) Morale
6) Gloating

Extra Crispy,
You forgot 7) time out on the field for whining;although recriminations would be allowed as a league sanctioned turn sequence substitute. H

John the (soi-disant) Greater used to refer to the period immediately after a game as the "braggadocio et recriminatio" phase.

LT

Isn't either the dice commiseration phase "Dude, your/my dice really sucked" or the accusation phase "Dude, your/my dice were on fire" a formal part of most games?

I'm with Grelber;

"…I do have a lot of "I don't know why I did that" moments."

I have had people say that to me after I soundly thrashed them and about the move that actually broke their defenses no less.

I'm with Grelber, too.

Post-game discussions seek to understand each other's tactical analysis, so we do ask, "why did you do X Y Z?", but not in the toxic format of "I don't know why you did that".

Isn't there supposed to be a phase where you complain about your dice?

I believe in chivalry and sportsmanship in the game. This depends on circumstance and context. If a player is a newbie to the game and the rules and he is obviously making an egregious mistake, I will tell him ahead of time. If he's an old timer I will generally let it go, but in cases of physical difficulty I will accept his intention. For example, he wishes to shelter a regiment in a woods, but he construction of the model of the trees does not allow him to fit the entire regiment into the woods and one part sticks out. I believe there is an alternate reality when we game the alternate reality soldiers in that alternate reality obey the orders of their officers and take cover in the woods. That the model on the field can't do this is something we look over.

On the other hand if someone is trying to hide four tiger tanks in a potted topiary at a shopping mall…

My turn 8). "Oh why did I do that?" That as my opponent is about to flank me and roll me up like a cheap cigar.

All my games have a personal turn 8.

Andy

More likely to be "I don't understand why I did that" to be honest :-)

Once the local group was doing a large Hydaspes Game with the DBA. One of the members was given the task of guarding the ford at the original campsite of the Alexandrian force. The Alexander player, and the rest of his entourage told him not to attack across the Ford because he could not win.

The rest of the Alexander force was making good headway against the Indians. Then the camp guard player charged across the Ford. He did throw a six and his opponent only a one, but he lost given the odds against him. The Indians then came across the Ford and hit the Alexander troops in the rear.

After the game his comrades said "we don't understand why you did that?" The odds were completely against you. He said in all seriousness, "I thought I might get lucky. "

This pointed out an interesting aspect of wargames . Unlike in real life when "miracles can happen", in wargame it's all strictly by the odds. You can only "get lucky" up to a certain point.

I love multi-player games. They always seem to bring that element of "" that you don't get in one-on-one games.

Once I had command of some Polish knights in the centre of our line, so I just charged. They were Poles after all. So two bounds later the players to either side noticed that I was _way_ in front of their battle lines and I got the eye-rolling and the "what are you doing?" "You've ed it" comments.

Anyway, the Poles basically smashed though the enemy centre. I think they ended up on the enemy's edge of the table looting the baggage.

Cheers,
JohnG

The best of those stories is when it's a brand new player who doesn't even realize that their success was a statistic impossibility :)

Don't forget 8) the anecdote phase, cause of many a non-completed game.

Of course, you can only use that if you beat him. It's kind of lame if you lost the game.

Nah, I see it happen all the time both ways. Including the aforementioned asking your partner. Ignoring the cases where one of my children attacked me with patricidal glee (hey! that's a good band name …) independent of whether it was in their or their side's best interests, it is informative.

The best response I have received was from SWMBO after successfully employing a very low probability of success tactic against me, "There wasn't a long-term option with decent odds. I'd rather be trounced early than put the effort into being trounced later."

I like the fact that tons of historical events that we celebrate have employed this strategy. Rather than lose by being ameliorated over time, make a desperate last stand (or, in her case, assault). Over the top, boys!

There is a chap in our gaming group who reguarly, after thrashing his opponent in a one sided battle where the odds are stacked against him, has to be told, firstly that he has actually won, and then what victory conditions he has met… tends to be a sore point for his opponent for quite a long time afterwards.