Ugh! Know your core rules!

I swear! I've had nothing by bad in so many pick-up games as of late. My CLGS is supremely sub-par just to start. Terrible tables that rarely actually measure to 6x4, and never have painted or textured surface through-out. I suppose that's fine if you like to have all your battles on Planet Particle-Boardia. I'm growing weary of that through.

The A-#1 kick in the soft-bits is the people I've had the chance to play against. So far I've encountered no less than three regulars that either routinely forget rules, twist rules, make up wargear, or are still playing freaking 4th edition because they haven't fully learned 5th. The last bit seems to be fairly common. So far my best games have actually been with fairly new players. Like me, they've learned only 5th, and thus tend not to adamantly demand they're right about some crusty rule that might be as old as 3rd edition!!!

Yesterday, I had TWO games ruined by one made-up piece of wargear. I don't own every codex, and I've been playing for less than a year, but when I'm playing against Mr. I've-been-playing-since-Moses-started-40K, I tend to yield on a lot of the armies that are foreign to me. This has resulted in MULTIPLE disasters. Let me describe my most recent disappointment.

My lowly 1000 points of Orks found themselves facing down a Necron gun-line. I honestly had very little hope of survival. I managed to struggle forward, losing most of my army in turn 2. I had only my group of 20 'Ard Boyz (had to take them as that to make up the points) and my big-bad Warboss. I managed to call a Whaagh! and make assault. I spread out my boys into multiple unit combat. I was stuck in with a group of 10 Warriors, 10 Immortals, and a Necron Lord. I had positioned myself such that I could allocate most attacks against the Warriors, and my Warboss' attacks against the Immortals. The result was EPIC! I managed to cause an unsaved wound differential of 12! SUCCESS! My opponent had his back up against the table edge to try and give his gun line the best chance of whittling me down. This now was backfiring hugely as he was about to fail leadership with his two big point units; Immortals and his Lord. I was ready to fist-pump all the way home when my opponent announced that he had taken some wargear on his Lord that made him Fearless along with whatever unit he joined.

WHAAAAAA!

Now, not knowing the Necrons, I just assumed that was correct. HUGE MISTAKE! He promptly made most of the saves for the additional wounds, and began his turn. He used the Veil of Shadows, pulling his Lord and Immortals out of assault. His devastated Warrior squad only saw three make their "We'll Be Back" rolls and were forced to join a nearby Warriors squad that was not in combat. This left my Orks out in the cold. I was immediately hit by a Monolith template weapon killing 15 Boyz. The remainder were gunned down by the Immortals.

When I got home I loaded up my Necrons PDF codex (Shhhh!! Don't tell anyone) and I couldn't find ANYTHING that would make them fearless. Quite the opposite! I found the explicit explanation of why they DO take leadership tests despite being Undead Zombie Space Robots for the Future. GAAAAHHHHH! Ruined game! What's worse, we played another game and he repeated this SAME violation on me, claiming this imaginary wargear. What's worse, he wanted me to take a negative modifier after one assault because he "Outnumbered" me. WTH guy! Even I know that was a 4th Edition rule that wasn't in 5th! What sucked was that he INSISTED it was in the codex and took 10 minutes to look for it... IN MY RULE BOOK!

To summarize: I love 40K... I hate 40K players! KNOW THE CORE RULES PLEASE! I don't CARE that you were around when GW invented Space Marines! I don't care that your army hasn't seen a new codex since tight-rolled jeans were in style! I WANT YOU TO READ YOUR RULE BOOK!

*sigh* I feel better now. Although I'm never playing that guy again.