Hooray! You're off to a 40K tournament. Maybe it's your first, or maybe it's your 50th. Maybe you've yet to win a competitive game, or maybe you've got so many trophies your name is spoken in hushed whispers when gamers gather at local stores.

Ask yourself: What type of player do you want to be?

Do I want to win at all costs? This is not an article about that. I can't help you there.

There's currently a pervasive thought that the top players at 40K tournaments are mostly out to win by any means they can, and that the winner of a big GT is usually the guy who screws over his opponents the most. Understandably, this kind of image is one that dissuades people from coming to events. While the majority of people who go to events are there to have a great time, meet up with friends and push little models around, it is true that in recent years there has been some kind of drama surrounding the players at the top tables. That's not a good image for our hobby, and to show people that it doesn't have to be that way, Nick asked me to put together the following article.

This is an article about playing well and being a decent human being (a Gentleman, or Gentlelady, I suppose) while doing so. Not about how to win. The two are not mutually exclusive, and it is certainly possible to do both at the same time. At the risk of self-aggrandizing, I should know – I've done it.