"At what age do you stop having mercy on newbies?" Topic

Giving newbies a break should start at the age of 9. Mainly because up to the age of 8, they'll roll whatever is needed to win anyway. Like my son taking out Tiger tanks in a Battle of the Bulge game with mortars. Three of them in one turn.

I propose a limit of being extra nice at two games. Then they're on their own.
After the age of 18, one can assume that they know how to read rules and show no mercy. Under that age, they will whine and complain.

If they own their own figures, all is fair.

Oh. You mean the age of the newbie. Right, not what I was thinking.

Between 2 and 4 games, depends on complexity of rules and scenario. After that, learning to deal with losing is part of growing up.

I have a friend whose philosophy is, first take out the kids, then take out the women folk. His rationale? He has consistently found that they are the most dangerous opponents.

Only kids can roll a 7 on a d6. Or 11 sixes in a row.

NO MERCY!

Having had kids destroy me so many times at show games I've adopted the attitude of no mercy! Other than that if someone is new to a game that I know well then I'd give them a chance to change their minds for a game or 2.

I was playing Seapower 2 with my older brother once. It was a Graf Spee chase. I got Uber lucky and Strasbourg managed to run across GS in sloppy weather. We met obliquely. He had a good chance to scoot off into the soup if I didn't nail him straight away.

In Seapower you roll 10 color faced dice, 3 faces blue. 2 orange, 1 red. Unless you are super close only reds hit. I cut loose with my 13". Clean miss. I angrily try with my 5.1s. 6 red faces. Seapower doesn't factor penetration, so all I really could have done is shred his superstructure and open deck mounts, but it did something like 40% damage.

These moments are rare and wondrous. He resigned.

If they're old enough to tell me what's wrong with the rules, they're fair game.

Authentic newbies--not necessarily kids--lost because someone dropped 30 or 60 pages on them (or maybe didn't even give them a copy) deserve some consideration regardless of age. Stryderg may be about right, though I don't think four games would even get me close on Napoleon's battles. But, again, no copy.

After they beat you a couple of times.

Not age so much as experience.

My experience with my kids and now grandkids is that by and large it's you who needs the help, not them!

Seapower has armor penetration rules to my recall but that aside

under 12 3 games tops
over 12 2nd game is pull no punches. They don't LEARN to play if you allow them to mulligan forever

We have one guy that still needs to be told what dice to use in D&D to this day

A few years back I picked up Wings of Glory and a few extra planes for me and my 10 year old grandson to play. He flew his planes like they were drunken pilots so I had no clue what he would do next. He beat me in 8 of the first 9 games we played and I didn't show him any mercy on any game. Like mentioned above never game with kids, unless they're on your side.

I will explain how the rules will affect his action f he s new to the ruleset

It depends how much of a GIT you are. Persnally I play for entertainment, if its a beginner I will help them in their thought train. To me its pointless destroying a newbie he gets a poor game and to be honest its like cheating, you win but not having tried so "victory" is not a word you can use , good grace prevents me from saying what it actual is but its not complementary. I would far rather help the newbie and then have a sporting chance of losing as then I have had some fun as well. Now playing an equal ther is no quarter given but that is understood by both sides and makes victory if it comes well deserved and acknoledged as such by both sides.

No age. No mercy. Giving someone a biased experience that they will need to unlearn later is not merciful.

Mercy – Compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. [OED, 1st definition]

Within the context of a wargame, it is within your power to neither punish or harm your opponent. By not having experience, a newbie is not committing a transgression needing forgiveness.

That doesn't mean you just roll over someone who has no chance of participating evenly in the game because of lack of experience. Rather than self aggrandizing and creating some artificial construct of mercy, coach the person with significantly less experience. It is far more challenging (and thus, more rewarding) to coach someone without compromising your approach than to just throw the match so you feel better.

Under that age, they will whine and complain.

Then they need to learn a lesson about how to behave in public.

All of our group are adults. That being said a number of years ago a new chap joined the group. After a few games he was still learning the various rules we were using. One game I wiped out his entire force on turn 2. I could have told him not to do what he was doing, but I didn't.
He sat around the rest of the evening.
After that, if he was going to make a bad move, I would tell him. After a few more months he was up to speed.

I once played a DBA comp game against a lad of maybe 10 years old, his eyes barely made it above the table top (OK I'm making that bit up).

The little guy knew the rules pretty well and had a decent battle plan that could plausibly win the game.

I thought about deliberately throwing the game to him, but that would disrespect his skills as general.

So I decided to show him no mercy and defeated him – afterwards pointing out some options he might have taken in the game to improve his position.

David the Evil Brown

I'd rather grow interest in a game that I like by helping new players and hopefully gaining additional future opponents than worry about winning.

Everyone is different. Some players catch on right away while others take awhile to get it. The more complex the game, the longer that takes.

Too many times I've seen a new player get taken advantage of by an experienced player whose only concern is winning. The end result is the new player never plays that game again and the other guy can't wait to regale you with a roll by roll replay of how he crushed his opponent.

I don't play in any competitive situations but if I did I would play to win.

Mercy ? I played against four-year olds that wiped the floor with my armies and went on to attack and invade other tables and still won. We had to restrain some of them or they would have ripped out my spine Mortal Kombat style.

There is nothing scarier than a four year old saying "Vae Victis" from between clenched teeth and running their finger across their throat with a look of murder in their eyes.

I've had mine handed to me by some rather young critters while gaming.

No Mercy! I am 0 for 2 playing Memoir '44 with my 12 year old grandson! :-)

NEVER!!!