I considered that, but I doubt it. I think its really just a combination of us going easy on him and lucky dice in his favor. We've been hoping he would pick up the hobby but he's perfectly content to use our toys and beat our heads with them. If I werent on the receiving end of it, I would think its funny. There's this developing theme in our gaming community of the "******" gamer. In my 40k meta, theres a guy that is similar to this. He doesnt paint his models, doesnt know or care about the fluff, always takes the most winningest lists he can find online and REALLY gets in people's face. He talks like a gangsta when he starts winning and it makes people crazy. he turns his ballcap backwards and his trademark is saying "Learn your codex yo!". This guy crushes people, he's won best general at two local tournaments. Welcome to polite Canada. haha

Leave ALL references to that INFERIOR game out of these forums. Ive spent THOUSANDS of dollars on that hobby the last 20 years, and a couple hundred on X-Wing in the last 2 and have gotton LIGHT YEARS more enjoyment out of X-Wing than I have or ever will out of 40K. X-Wing is supported by a superior company, has a superior set of rules, and in general the people that play it are not d-bags, wich have permiated 40K for FAR too long. Mini-max, and a company that stiffs its customer base ruined that game. X-Wing is in a class all its own. As are the people that play it. YES we have all played against d-bags in X-Wing too, but at least they are playing the best miniatures game out there, so there may be hope for them.

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Not in the least. I have spent thousands of dollars in the last 20 plus years on GW 40k, 5 armies, codex books, rules editions, accessories that become obsolete each new edition, terrain, cases, metal, resin, fine cast, plastic, paint. Thousands. X-Wing is more enjoyable. Fantasy Flight Games seems to so far not be the company Games Workshop is. The 40k rules set is not superior to X-Wing. Even against other miniatures games with small units and vehicles, 40ks rules cant compete. X-Wing IS the best miniatures game out at the moment. GW is great at packaging a great looking product. Fantasy Flight is great at that too, and making a great game.

I actually have a theory about 'beginner's luck'.

I argue that beginner's luck has little to do with the beginner, and more to do with the sensei. The sensei unwillingly applies complex strategies to the game. Why? Because they have trained themselves to compete against opponents of similar skill. They expect complex strategies to be thrown at them and prepare to counter.

A beginner does not have these strategies in their repertoire. When they play they simply push their pieces around the table. The sensei subconciously counters these blundering moves with a well structured counter. Only to find the next move to be another blundering attack.

In short, the sensei overthinks the extremely basic manouevres and over complicates their own game. Applying high level strategies against completely non-existent tactics.

This reminds me some of MtG play. One BIG rule when playing a newbie is NEVER bluff. You send an attack his way while "pretending" you have some answer so he doesn't counter only to have him counter your STUPID move because he has never seen why his plan wouldn't work. The counter to that is when the newbie does something you think is stupid BUT because you know the game so well and see what he could do you automatically assume that is what he's up to and let it pass; later you figure out that "evil genius" really made a stupid move and you let him.

He's probably been secretly playing on vassal for months, and then comes trolling your store pretending to be a noob with no ships to play with and beats everyone handily.

Aren't those the ones that scare you. Some new guy walks into your store and clearly has no idea how these "tournament" things work and may not be totally prepared. You think "easy kill" only to sit down across from him and discover that while he may not know the meta-meta game he certainly know the game and also has a good concept of the meta-game.

My first minis tournament I went 5-2 (all swiss) and ended up 4th out of 30+ people. It certainly wasn't "beginners luck" when it came to playing.