Cheating

Warhammer 40,000 is a game – and like all games, there will be those who will feel the need to cheat. In a game like Tic-Tac-Toe, it’s easy to spot a cheater, and easy to spot a mistake. If someone puts down an extra “O”, you’ll probably see them do it, and the symmetry of the game will be thrown off (there’ll be more “Os” than “Xs”, which is impossible).

However, as a game becomes more and more complex, and has deeper and deeper layers of play, cheating can become more and more difficult to spot and differentiate from making a mistake.

Take this classic cheating move:

Model A, the furthest up model in a squad, starts 13” away from an opposing squad. After moving, however, you find that he’s within 6” assault range. The model somehow was moved up 7” instead of 6”.

The Base Jumper:

Most Commonly: New Player

Reason for Cheating: Didn’t know – Stretching the Rules

Chances of Rehabilitation: Good

The Base Jumper measures the distance to move from the front of his base, but then moves the model up to that point so the back of the base touches. Nearly 1” is gained. The Base Jumper may not even realize that they cheated – they may be thinking of it as a clever way of bending the rules.

Corrective action must be taken immediately to teach them the correct method of measuring distances from models. Usually the Base Jumper learned this mistake from a friend. If someone more experienced is doing this, though, they are trying to exploit your unawareness to gain an advantage, and then it’s truly cheating. If they try to argue it, direct them to the rulebook, it actually shows a visual representation enforcing the correct way to move models.

Warhammer 40,000 is not a computer game. There is no system that forces a game state upon players. It’s not a Magic or Poker Tournament either, where a judge watches over everything and ensures that the proper game state is maintained should a blunder be made. No, at its core Warhammer 40,000 is a casual format where the players must be their own judges.

Which brings us our next villain…

The Rules Lawyer:

Most Commonly: Experienced Player

Reason for Cheating: Win by a thousand pin-pricks

Chances of Rehabilitation: Moderate, Good with group support

The Rules Lawyer is a gamer who seems to know every rule, backwards and forwards. They despise taking out the actual book, and claim that the rules support all of their actions, and then take a fine-tooth comb to everything that you do and argue the same thing back. A great example would be Line of Sight. They’ll argue to death that the current “any part of the model is visible” rule means, for them, that they can effectively shoot your entire army – and yet at the same time will flat out deny and force a “Hand of Fate” roll to see if practically anything you have can see him – and if you can, you can bet he’ll push for 3+ and 4+ cover saves as much as possible, while you’ll get 4+ and 5+ saves in return. The rules lawyer is kind of like the Joker – he forces you to have to become something you’re not, a rules expert. However, there’s another way out. Become part of a larger gaming group that supports the actions and rules you want to take. Since Warhammer is a casual format, house-rules are a great way to settle situations that you might find odd or out of place (myself, I still love Area Terrain, since the board – to me – is simply a representation of the game state, and can never perfectly depict how the terrain really looks).

So how do you identify the cheater? It’s very difficult in Warhammer – in part because a lot of this game is occurring simultaneously, your attention may be diverted, and you may not remember the rule that’s being broken.

With cheaters, it’s like playing a game of ball-and-cups. If you miss their move for a moment, they can pull a fast one on you. I guess this is a good time to bring up the most common of all cheaters…

The Dice Master:

Most Commonly: Anyone

Reason for Cheating: Tactical Advantage

Chances of Rehabilitation: Low

The Dice Master is perhaps one of the most nefarious of all the Villains. The Dice Master is a true illusionist. While your attention is focused elsewhere, they will pull a fast one, and before you know it – a losing dice roll is now a winning dice roll. Most often this is when the opponent’s back is turned during a die roll, and they’ll just shift the die so that it succeeds rather than fails. They may also pick up failed rolls when a lot of dice are rolled, preferring to roll next to additional dice already on the table to effectively gain more rolls. The worst ones, and the ones easiest to spot, are the ones who roll a bunch of dice, and then effectively “hide” the results by scooping them up faster than you can really see them, or who roll behind something so that you can’t see how much was rolled. The only way to defeat the Dice Master is to be vigilant at all times – but you can still be friendly when doing this. Stand beside them, enjoy the excitement of the dice-rolls, and make sure they’re always present for YOUR rolls so that you create the atmosphere that EVERYONE must be present for ALL rolls.

The crux of stopping all cheating though, is to nip it at its bud. Don’t let it slide. Create a gaming atmosphere where cheating simply isn’t tolerated. If the Rules Lawyer is creating a problem, get the whole group to enforce some simple house rules. Having someone who really knows the rules truly very well is excellent to have – but don’t be afraid to deviate from the book if you want! My group allows you to ask what a squad is carrying, and motivates people to openly acknowledge confusing conversions or proxies before a game starts without prompting. At the same time, I know another group that is the polar opposite to this – keeping all information hidden at all times. Neither is truly right or wrong, but neither group would appreciate the pressures the other puts on them (one side thinking its unfair to give the opponent more information than they would actually have, and the other thinking it unfair NOT to give the information on something to avoid cheating).

Oh… one final Villain…

The Pariah:

Most Commonly: Unknown

Reason for Cheating: Extreme Ambition and Lack of Morality

Rehabilitation: Pariah status if ever caught

The Pariah brings the worst form of cheating imaginable in a dice game – tampering with the dice to make them rigged. There do exists methods for doing this – from weighing dice (drill holes in the side opposite of the one you want to land, fill with lead, paint overtop) to misshaping them (heard a rumour of melting them in a microwave or oven to just barely make them slightly rectangular). You can tell a Pariah by the fact that they reserve special “lucky dice”, that they never use any dice but their own, and never offer to let you use the lucky dice. Proving it is a different matter, and one I’ve thankfully never had to do.

If you catch the Pariah, denote them the Pariah status and never game with them again. Teach them that cheating this bad is the lowest a person can go (most effort to cheat, high effect, impossible that they did it by accident, hard to catch them again in the future, most likely to use rigged objects in other games). If you ever do find this villain, punch them in the face for me.

Hope this helps you identify future villains!

(PS. Note, I do run a Dirty Tactics article. Dirty Tactics might not win you any friends, but they are completely legal actions that do not even stretch the rules. What they do allow, however, are actions for best effect that, although perhaps not realistic, are 100% legal and highly effective.)