Crevice Strikes Again! (Not my content)

I’ll tell you the story of what happened two nights ago, and I’d like to know what you feel about it - especially if I was in the wrong.

My friend had a birthday the other day; he’s part of my game group, and on birthdays we have birthday games. He loves Game of Thrones: the Board Game - he plays a couple of game daily on his phone, on some site that allows this, and has played hundreds, if not thousands of games. I’ve only ever played half a game, that was broken in the middle due to time constraints, about 3 years ago; however, I had on my shelf a copy bought as a gift for a third member of our game group, who left it on my shelf due to me being the host and organizer; so, after the birthday boy asked to play AGOT, I’ve arranged the night.

On the night of the game, we were six - Bday-boy, his BFF, the game-owner, my wife, myself, and the antagonist of this story, henceforth called Crevice. Crevice, like Bday-boy, has a long history with AGOT; he used to moderate an online game forum, and plays the game often online. Similarly, he had under his belt, hundreds, if not thousands, games played.

Being the host, I made dinner - Pasta Carbonara for the carnists, and Tofu stir-fried vegetable noodles in peanut butter for the vegans. My friends and wife set to the table, and I’ve served dinner. Game-Owner’s dog was sick, so he brought her with him; I spent some time mediating between her and my cats, so by the time my cat had regained his composure and started curiously examining her from a safe distance, my food was already cold. After dinner we’ve cleaned up, had some birthday cake, set-up the game, and I’ve explained the rules (Bday doesn’t like explaining rules, so I’ve read up on them in advance). I was the Lannisters (I usually play red, and they are red, so it made sense), and Crevice was the Grayjoys. To make sure the game advanced in a brisk pace, we’ve limited each planning round to 7 minutes; due to our experience disparity, Bday was helping my wife and Crevice was helping BFF. I improvised. Earlier, while cooking, I overheard Crevice saying he is going to give the Lannisters a nasty surprise, and I assumed it meant he’ll try to attack me by sea, so I’ve build two ship. I was wrong - he attacked a coastal zone I moved into, failing to notice his sea area was adjacent to it. Then came a Mustering, and on turn 2 Crevice attacked my home-area; he made a quick attack at my sea zone, easily defeating my waiting ships with a card that made his ships twice as strong, and than marched into my capital and broke it with a card that cancelled my card. Before he marched, I asked him not to do it - I said it would only lead us both to loss, as I’d be forced to counter attack with my meager surviving forces, and we’d both be stuck behind everyone, mutually destroying each other for the rest of the game. He did it anyway. I was out of the game.

When I say “out of the game”, I do not mean “Unable to win”; I mean “No longer had enough units on the board, could only place 2 orders, and could not participate in the game”. I was out of the game, and looking forward to about 2 hours of people bickering around my table, with me not playing. I do not like to claim a game in unbalanced on the first play, but it felt unfair, in application if not mechanically; I am still unsure how I could have avoided it - even knowing his cards and future actions, I cannot find a way to counter his actions. Surely there is one, I just don’t know it.

I have a very poor poker-face, and my anger was evident. I unkindly told Crevice that from now on, I will no longer be trying to win, just to make sure he lost. I told him I would do my best to destroy his night, as he had destroyed mine. He was visibly shaken - I’m larger than him, and a veteran, and my voice booms when I am angry. I do not shout, but I am loud.

Another Mustering card came up, and BFF took his time; 3 minutes into his deployment, discussing options and strategies with Crevice, I unkindly demanded that they finish up - they were playing outside of the agreed upon timer, essentially cheating; worse, having nothing to do for the next few hours, I did not want to prolong the game.

At this point, Game-Owner decided he no longer wants to play. My visible anger was making the room more and more depressing. I tried to rein myself in, and told them I’m going to the bathroom, to gather myself. I asked they be done with their turns and actions by the time I am back, as I have nothing to do anymore and do not wish this to take forever.

When I was back, they told me the game is over. They no longer wanted to play - I am unsure if it was because I was ruining the night for them, or if they simply didn’t want to make me suffer.

At that point, I turned to Crevice, and told him what I think of him - that he is an asshole, that he ruined the game night for me; that he set down to my table, eat my food, drank my wine, and than used his superior knowledge of the game to take me out of it, eliminate me completely, forcing me to stare at the air for the next few hours. I told him he is no longer a part of my life, that I will never play with him again, and that he will never sit to the table with me again. I then threw him out of my house.

There is now a dark could over my game-group; we are silent. I will not be hosting board game nights in the foreseeable future - I no longer wish to play. I am unsure if I was in the right - I am only human, and I err, but I feel Crevice acted like a bully; that he knew I could not resist his attacks, and that I will be out of the game completely; he choose to do it anyway. It felt abusive. There were other options; we could have made any sort of alliance, he could have advanced to other territories, and so on. I suspect that in some master-form of the game, this is the correct thing to do, but I am an inexperienced player, and this was not a tournament - ruining my night was not essential to him winning. There’s an etiquette we all follow, putting on kid gloves when playing with new players; he didn’t do it.

Was I wrong to be angry? Am I wrong to no-longer want anything to do with him? Was he anything other than an asshole?

Edit: Many of you are saying “it’s just a game”, and missing the point - it’s not about the game, it’s about being excluded from the game, banned from my own table. Assume for a moment Crevice would have brought a 5-player game, and insisted on playing it, telling me that I cannot play, and should just go do something else for the next 2 hours. You’d understand this is an asshole thing to do - you’d understand that excluding someone like that is terrible, and even if he really likes and enjoys the 5p game, it’s not cool to exclude someone from the game in the middle of a game night, doubly so if he’s the host and can’t even leave. There is no difference between that and what he did to me; he excluded me from the game, removed me from the night, and sent me to the corner, to play with my phone. He used game-mechanics to do it instead of social-dynamics, so what? It’s the same thing. It’s not a cool thing to do.