Going to the Dark Side...

[Sorck]

I suppose if the people you're playing against have no tactical sense then you could still win with a rather large handicap (as long as you keep your tactical sense and the dice gods don't decide to hate you).

... What.

Ok, new plan. They get 2500 points each, you get 37 points and a small pile of flour.

Seriously though, how is that even possible? Were they just utterly terrible or something?

Given that I've managed to lose 250 points in a 4500 point game, whilst my opponent was massacred, it doesn't sound impossible if against the right players. I've also won a lot of 3000 vs 4000 games by a large margin. (i.e maintaining at least 2000 points whilst massacring the opponent).

[Waaaghpower]

At this point it's getting frustrating, though. It's not even a testament to my skill, just a displsy of their incompetence. At my LGS, my talent ois treated a bit like a gold standard, even though I don't think I'm that stellar of a player. So, anytine ddecent competition comes in from outside the seven or eight patrons of the store and beat me, I look incredibly dumb and they look lime 40k Jesus.

[Sorck]

I suppose that's always a problem with gaming at a local level. You're limited by who's around you.

You could always point some other people in the direction of some tactics?

[Waaaghpower]

I suppose that's always a problem with gaming at a local level. You're limited by who's around you.

You could always point some other people in the direction of some tactics?

I've tried. I swear I've really, really tried. One, who for the sake of the example I'll call Daemon, (Guess why,) seems to learn, but he's also really new to the game. Another, though, who I'll call Tonny, hasn't listened to a word I've said.
After losing about 10 games in a row with Deathwing terminators, he doesn't decide to change his tactics. He complains that my army is broken and I'm too good. After 20 losses, he starts proxying other armies in instead.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Damn, waaghpower, what's the address of this store?! Sounds like a fun place to rack up the WL ratio! xD

My LGS is pretty tame, but thankfully I lose as much as I win. I think your only hope is literally to start teaching people tactics, in my experience a lot of people will listen and try and learn from it.

However, I know from trying to help people kill Tau that it can be hard to disassemble and tell an opponent how to pick apart your army, and not automatically move to counter those weaknesses as you always would. For me, people have gone pretty shooty, which is the best way to deal with Tau until you get into fisticuffs range. Still, I don't play to lose, so I end up adapting and countering as much as possible, for some armies, especially slow-moving Chaos lists, this can be tough to beat.

[Waaaghpower]

Games Workshop: Blue Ridge Crossing. Ask to play Tony.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Hehe, that address points me to Kansas. As I currently live in England, I'd ask you not to hold your breath on a game! 

[Waaaghpower]

Hehe, that address points me to Kansas. As I currently live in England, I'd ask you not to hold your breath on a game! 

Awww. I was hoping a decent player would come along.
(Technically, there are one or two good players who come regularly, but one plays Tyranids and doesn't have a lot of models, (Meaning it's dreadfully easy to plan for,) and the other hardly ever shows up.)

[silverfuge]

If it was me I would table the comp in the league and use that as a platform to demonstrate how weakpay to win is. For me someone saying I could have won if I wanted to leads me to think "whatever" unless I know the person. (Me and a couple of vets throw lots of games if we think the guys a noob), however winning I think lends weight to your arguement.

[Waaaghpower]

Fun related story: The same guy who I beat in the 2500 versus 5000 game (Well, one of them) wanted to play a 3500 vs 4500 game. I agreed, saying I'd play Space Wolves. He asked if it was okay to Proxy a lot. I said sure. He double checked that a third force organization chart was okay, since it's such a big game. I said sure, since it's just a casual fun game. He told me he is bringing 9 Helldrakes.
EDIT: After thinking about it, I'll just politely decline the game.

[Saulus]

When playing chess against a friendly and superior opponent with the intent of BOTH improving their skills one needs to look at the current situation.

First we will assume that the superior player is simply not attempting an early game strategy and facing a late game one that would fail every time (a strategic loss, not a tactical one). For our comparison we are assuming in warhammer that neither side has such a flaw.

The superior player will no doubt have a victory inflection point, where the game goes from even to a clear advantage. Taking the inferior queen and one other power piece for example. This will happen several times over several games. The inferior may choose to halt play at this point to restart the game, or perhaps cease further replays after enough iterations as the same outcome happens with multiple strategies.

This paradigm results in a series of games that stop being educationally relevant past the victory inflection point. The inferior can no longer effectively play the game as the superior player presses the advantage held until the win. At the same time the inferior player is not challenged, having bested the opponent under even conditions, one assumes that with continued play with advantageous conditions the decision making is obvious and uninteresting.

What is essentially needed for improvement of both players is that the inferior player needs practise in a situation where they are limited in pieces, but have have an overall advantage, a late game situation that they never reach and never get to play. The superior player would need a situation where there is a definite advantage for the opponent due to a flawed early game and now they must catch up.

The solution is simple if the inflection point can be identified. At that point, the players switch teams. The superior now plays catchup and how to work with limited resources, the inferior is in a novel superior environment and gets a chance to learn a late game that they never reach.

This application could potentially be even better in 40K as random chance will cause the superior player unintended early game sacrifice that they must be adept at recovering from, just as it may give the inferior player a novel late game that they should learn how to press.

The 'hard part' is finding where that point lies to get the most out of it...but yea.