The greasier the nerd the less sportsman-like I become.
My old A&A crew had one of our own who was a total D-bag he was a friend of my best friend and we didn’t get along in anything much less A&A. Yep I was a total rules lawyer with this guy. He thought he would kick our arses because he was a veteran D&D player….NOPE! Mind you, we had an A&A session EVERY Friday. ROFL He left Russia wide open and I literally took one tank and captured Moscow! He picked up the said German tank and threw it at the table as hard as the tall-skinny jack-ass could, it bounced off the table and hit the radiator in the room. The clink was so loud it sounded it was hit with a pellet gun. Now I’m not the best A&A player but I was damn sure better than him and that’s all that mattered that night.
OTOH I’ll point out mistakes and strategy to my opponent depending upon ability. Stray dice or wrong rolls for the most part will fly by and re-roll. Out and out cheating get will get you kicked out. If someone plays like an A-hole they’ll get treated like one.
Last story: OMG this one guy came over bought pizza and soda all the while talking trash for weeks about how he would school my crew on how to play A&A. Board was set up he played Russia lost Karelia G-1 and quit. Wouldn’t come back. Didn’t want to just start over. Nope he left and looked like he was going to cry.
Okay one more: Guy from my friends high school wants to play with our group. Big AD&D, Mech Warrior, Fortress America Guy. Bragged how he used world maps and Battleship pieces for A&A House rules. We set-up a game for friday. He wanted Germany so we said okay. He takes Karelia first turn and then proceedes to start moving survivors into Moscow for another attack. We’re like,“Hey wait you have to wait until your next turn!” HE’s like “WTF!, you guys don’t use house rules?” We told him there was no way in hell we play with rules like his. He got bent and stormed off. He didn’t talk to my buddies who went to his school for a while.
Had a lot of good times with A&A Classic through the first half of the 90’s.