I think at most your opponent should suggest that you concede. But if you refuse, it is bad sportsmanship for him to press the issue. Besides--though it may be a rarity in real life, great art teaches us that the moment you feel that your complete victory is assured, your opponent will shoot something hot and painful up your exhaust port.

I also think that in a tournament, you shouldn't concede. I have conceded a few friendly/causal games, mainly when the odds were pretty clear and to allow more time to play more games. Yet again, just last night I was tempted to concede when my B-Wing was all alone, with no more shields, facing a Lambda (also without shields) and a TIE Fighter... but was able to pull it off! :-)

In friendly play I will concede.

In a tournament never because the points matter.

Conceding is fine for friendly games when you want to start another game, other time constraints, etc... But in a tournament game you should play to the last ship is destroyed or time runs out. You are there to play, not concede. I could see conceding in a tournament so that you have time for a much needed bathroom break by you or your opponent (make your opponent choose, conceded defeat or urinate in your pants! LOL)

I've also been in the situation where I have one lone ship left facing off against 4 and it seemed a concession was due but we decided to play anyway. Then there were 3 enemy ships, then 2 enemy ships, then 1, then none. If you have any ships alive on the table, you stand a reasonable chance of winning.

I have in another game system tournament (rather friendly than serious tournament) offered my opponent that he concedes and we go dinner at Lonestar Steakhouse on my dime. This was for 1st and 2nd place. He chose to play on and paid for his own steak that evening. LOL

I've actually had a couple (casual) games against failedparachute where I was going to concede, for being outgunned, but he convinced me to keep playing, and the game ended up close. For me, part of it is a feeling of, sure heroic last stands are cool and all, but pointlessly sacrificing your troops for no possible gain is a horrible waste.

I have one other reason I'd concede, this one specifically for tournaments: Especially when I've been playing for a long stretch, I tend to get agitated, so having another few minutes to cool my heels can be welcome. If the game is sufficiently lopsided, I'd consider conceding for that.

[insert "Eye of the Tiger" here]

I see your eye of the tiger, and i up it to...

I would say your opponent was a bad sport and trying to force a win.

Absolutely 100% this. It is absolutely ridiculous to tell someone "It was hopeless, you should've conceded"! I'm sorry, do I still have red dice on the board? Do you still have ships I can shoot? THEN I CAN STILL BEAT YOU. In fact, next time you should come back immediately with "If YOU want to concede right now, I will accept."

My attitude in every tournament is always, "I'm here to play [X-Wing], so let's play!"

I used to play 40k against one of my friends, and it turned out that he was the sort who would concede if he thought the odds were heavily against him, whilst I'm the sort who will usually try and fight on.

Now, my friend started to get frustrated at how I could sometimes make amazing comebacks from such situations, whilst he couldn't. The answer was simple: Any time he could have made such a comeback, he'd already conceded.

Prince Humperdinck: Surrender.

Westley: You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept.

Except we now have quoted official tournament rules that state it is bad sportsmanship to not concede when defeat is inevitable...

Except we now have quoted official tournament rules that state it is bad sportsmanship to not concede when defeat is inevitable...

Not true, just because something is considered good sportsmanship, doesn't mean not doing it is bad. There is a place between good and bad.

Also how you define inevitable is going to change with each person, and is up to each person. Just because someone thinks defeat is inevitable, doesn't mean the other person has to agree.

This is especially true with MoV, because conceding can really impact your MoV when you could still destroy more of the other guys ships which helps you even if you don't win.

The rules are also set up in a way to never promote a concession as your MoV is helped by your ability to keep ships alive or kill an extra ship or so. Even when in a definitely poor position the rules promote playing on. Additionally, in a game involving dice the possible existence of a real inevitable defeat is such a small chance that the rule will rarely apply.

Not conceding is one of the things that separates a strong player and a weak player. I've been playing competitive games for a long time. During that time, I've seen many a player essentially beat themselves because they conceded when a match wasn't as "decided" as they or their opponent thought it was.

If there is time left, you keep playing. Its in the winner's interest anyway. A "total point kill" sets you higher on the tie breaker list. If your LGS doesn't do tie breakers, they probably should start. Makes things a lot more cut and dry than simple win/loss record. Especially if you have small tournaments.

It is considered good sportsmanship to concede defeat when there is no reasonable chance of victory.

Reasonable is defined differently by different people. If people make reasonable decisions and are not jerks about it, then they should have the choice. Forcing concession jerk-ily should not be encouraged. There are enough jerks in competitive gaming that we don't need to give them "sanctioned" jerkiness.

What, no children of the 80's?

Quitters never win and winners never quit.

Maybe you millennials might recognize:

Never give up! Never surrender!

Prince Humperdinck: Surrender.

Westley: You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept.

A Princess Bride quote on an X-Wing forum ... what next?

Anybody else seen 'A bridge Too Far'?

British - I'm sorry, we'd like to, but we can't.

German - What?

B - We haven't the proper facilities to take you all prisoner. Sorry, but I can't accept your surrender.

G - ...

B - Was there anything else?

G - *shakes head, walks off wondering what just happened*

If there is nothing on the line and I want to move onto something else I may concede a game when the situation looks bad enough. If there is anything on the line, tournament placing and sometime even just pride, I will keep on playing. I even have a crazy story about concessions and what they mean.

Back in college I'd play chess in the dorm with some of the guys. I'll admit I won more than my share of games but as inevitably happens I had a bad day and was losing against someone I normally would defeat. How badly was I losing? I think I was down to a King and one other piece vs. his King, Queen, and an army of Pawns. Ok, that situation was dire but I was making a go at winning until he took my last piece leaving me no way to win! At this point there was no reason for me not to concede but my opponent would not accept saying he wanted to completely destroy me by turning all of his Pawns into Queens. I could do nothing to stop that as he advanced his last pawn across the board giving him EIGHT Queens; the irony here is that because he would not accept my resignation and I knew his plan I was able to place my King in a safe square on the board but immediately after he got that last Queen all the spaces around my King were now threatened. I wasn't in check yet but can not move into check so the game was forced to end in a Draw. My opponent turned what would have been a clear victory into a shameful display as our game had attracted an audience.

The moral is simply that if you have something to play for you should keep playing in most cases. However, there will be times the odds are overwhelming stacked against you (although less so when random dice are involved) so concession should be acceptable. Finally, IF you are ever offered a concession make sure you take it; there is nothing worse that seeing the "impossible" happen just because you're too proud to accept a minor charity.

+1 to the obvious that MoV matters, so for tournament play you never surrender, especially if you have a chance to destroy more of your opponent's ships even if you can't win outright.

Mnx posted a video of a Vassal match with Wave 5 ships. It came down to Corran vs. Rear Admiral. That's tough. Corran was just running away. He never did anything but try to recoup shields via r2. I think at that point, he ought to have conceded.

This was for the latest Team Covenant tournament, and MoV matters. Even more pertinent, is that at the end Corran was actually about to get the Admiral in arc before he got turned into space dust.

Except we now have quoted official tournament rules that state it is bad sportsmanship to not concede when defeat is inevitable...

It's still up to the player to decide what constitutes a reasonable chance.

To quote a great warrior: NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS.

If you have a mechanic to recoup shields there is absolutely no way you should be conceding. You are just an odd swing in dice away from being back in it. Especially with Corran who can get two shots in and then go evasive for the next round and swing back in for another pass.

I must admit that as the individual who made the OP, I am very pleased to see that I am not the only one who feels that conceding in most cases is not appropriate - not to mention the fact that it is not poor sportsmanship.

I had someone PM me and continue the conversation, and they mentioned that sometimes they wish their opponent would concede near the end, especially if it wasn't even close, as he would have liked to have used the additional time for bathroom breaks, get something to eat, etc.

Now, I am not outing this individual, but in response (as there were similar posts in the first few pages of this thread), I will say this ... you know going in that the match can be X minutes long. You should be prepared to play the entire time, and not expect that you will have free time for extraneous things ... quite frankly, I think you should plan better and be prepared always to play the full time.

I have absolutely no sympathy for someone who has a lead (insurmountable or no), and expects a concession from me, so that they can do other things ... as if their time is more important than mine.

I have absolutely no sympathy for someone who has a lead (insurmountable or no), and expects a concession from me, so that they can do other things ...

Under the old system before MoV there was a stronger case to be made for conceding the game, because if you're down to one ship that has 2 damage on it already, and the other guy has a YT-1200 with full shields... you're not going to win. But under that system there was no advantage to playing out to the bloody end, because it didn't have any effect.

Now, I am not outing this individual, but in response (as there were similar posts in the first few pages of this thread), I will say this ... you know going in that the match can be X minutes long. You should be prepared to play the entire time, and not expect that you will have free time for extraneous things ... quite frankly, I think you should plan better and be prepared always to play the full time.

This is nice in theory, but in practice some TOs don't leave enough time in the schedule for those things. Rounds start as soon as the previous round ends and the TO can get the new pairings posted, so if you want to do anything between rounds you need to finish your game early.

I have absolutely no sympathy for someone who has a lead (insurmountable or no), and expects a concession from me, so that they can do other things ... as if their time is more important than mine.

Treating people like their time is more important than yours is called "courtesy", and it goes both ways. If I'm at the end of a game and really need to fit in a bathroom break before the next round, of course I'm not going to appreciate your "I totally have a shot at killing that undamaged Chewie with this A-wing in the next 6 minutes!"

I agree that the scenario in the OP - pushing someone to concede - is pretty bad form, but this is drifting into a self-righteous "YOU SHALL RESPECT MY FIGHT TO THE LAST BREATH NO MATTER WHAT!" that I'm not really comfortable with.

Courtesy is a two-way street, as is sportsmanship. You're well within your right to play out the game to the bitter end, but that's a far cry from it being the pure and noble thing to do in every possible situation.

To quote a great warrior: NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS.

I hear that fellow has gained a lot of weight lately.

Regarding the original question. I think it's right and proper to concede when the result is clear and ending the game immediately would have common benefits; either being able to have another game quickly, or - in the tournament context - to have some time to clear your head and prepare for the next match, rather than being rushed by the clock.