GW Grognard – Introduction – Star Action: Bitch

Adam

6 years ago

Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here to kick off a new weekly article for Frontline.

For a bit of a backstory I have been gaming for a long time. I started with 54mm Napoleonics when I was about 9 0r 10, which my uncle painted, and got my first set of armies from an ad in a comic book (15mm American War for Independence, if you’re curious). I been playing GW games since about 1988. Started with Adeptus Titanicus and then, naturally, moved on to Rogue Trader. I have played every edition since.

Before I begin, let me get you familiar with the term “Grognard”

Definition of grognard

plural -s

1 : an old soldier

2 often capitalized : a soldier of the original imperial guard that was created by Napoleon I in 1804 and that made the final French charge at Waterloo

3. (games, slang) Someone who enjoys playing older war-games or role playing games, or older versions of such games, when newer ones are available.

French, from grogner to grunt, grumble

I certainly qualify for the old part, but I was never a soldier, nor did I fight for France during the Napoleonic Wars. This just leaves the 3rd definition for which I greatly qualify, and I do grumble a lot. This series will focus on things that grab my attention and/or have an opinion. In other words, grumble.

For my first article, I’ll be talking about a player move that a lot of us have done, or have seen your opponent do. We call it in our area Star Action: Bitch.

The term actually 0riginates from Warmachine/Hordes, if anyone remembers that game. A star action/attack is a special move a model/unit has that other models/units do not have. Star Action: Bitch happens during the course of a game when you’re opponent starts to complain. They talk about how bad their dice are, how good your army is, how lucky you are, etc. They usually say things like:

“Man, my dice are rolling cold, no wonder I’m losing”

“Of course I’m losing, you’re playing xxxx army”

“I’d be doing better if you hadn’t killed unit xxxx”

“What a surprise, all my units are dying” (/sarcasm)

As the games progresses the comments get saltier and you usually begin to feel bad for your opponent. This sometimes may affect the decisions you make during a game. This feeling you have doesn’t last as, by the end of the game, you both realize that the Star Action: Bitch player, despite all his grumblings to the contrary, has actually won the game and you lost. This immediately causes your opponent to activate his next special move Star Action: Soothe.

**It’s only going to hurt for a second**

Star Action: Soothe is the complete opposite of Star Action:Bitch. In this instance, your opponent begins to say things that compliment you, and your army, in a way to ease the pain of the loss (and having to listen to someone complain about/to you the whole time). They will typically say things like:

“Oh man, that was a really close game”

“I was really lucky to get that power/charge off”

“Not sure what else you could have done”

“You played a really good game with that army/unit”

The real benefit of this special action is that it is not done to soothe you, but actually done so that their conscience can be reassured that they weren’t just being a salty AF jerk just moments before they figured out they had just won.

All that being said, it happens almost to everyone. It has happened to me on numerous occasions. I’m not proud of it but sometimes it gets the better of us. So what can you do about it? Simply ignore it. Don’t let them complaining affect how you play your game. Stay the course and, win or lose, you’ll know that it was affected by their special action.

Well, that’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed it.Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!

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