Email in: The Moral Question (not Morale silly)

AN interesting e-mail and point raised by SnaleKing:

"Hi kirbs, this crossed my mind the other day.
This is the age-old question of morality: if your opponent makes a mistake that cripples them, and helps you, do you correct them?
Say, he has a hydra with clear, no-cover LOS to a rhino: and forgets to shoot with it. "Well, assault phase!" Do you correct him? do you say "Ok, better resolve that combat!" or "erm... you forgot to shoot your hydra."
Now, in friendly games, yes, obviously. But in tournaments? What if the rhino could get its troops to an objective next turn?
The quality of your opponent is also a factor: a baby seal? A superior general(Orca)? Someone in between? (walrus? better than a baby seal, worse than an orca. I dunno, I think we should rate players by comparing them to arctic mammals. Ima narwhal. funky-looking but dangerous)
What if the tourney rates sportsmanship? Is the victory more important than the sportsmanship
points?

I think it's important to be nice to new players: one dead rhino this game, he'll come back to the FLGS. Good trade.
Anyway, interesting thing to ask your bad self, "what would I do?"

-SnaleKing"

In friendly games, I agree 100% - even in serious practice games or whatever, the point is to learn or have fun with shits and giggles. This is particularly important when practicing IMO and depending upon whom I'm playing with, we'll talk about each turn as it unfolds, etc. At a tournament though... well I guess it depends a lot on the player and situation.

Personally, if someone forgets something (i.e. to shoot something or a rule [regardless if it benefits them or myself], etc.), I'll remind them or if we both forget and the game hasn't moved on (i.e. forget to shoot a unit and assault moves have already been made), I'll let my opponent shoot regardless. In this regard, it's simply ensuring both sides are getting full advantage of the rules. When a game finishes we want the end result to be a proper application of skill within the ruleset, not who remembered the most rules correctly!

In terms of giving tactical advice however - most tournament games I won't do this unless the opponent is really new and then I'll not only go through what I'm doing but what they might be able to do with their army as well. This obviously depends upon whom I'm playing - if they aren't likely to take such a conversation well I'll just keep my mouth shut or recommend small things at the end of the game (or not depending upon the person).

In regards to sportsmanship - it doesn't matter. I'm going to be myself (which is an individual with a dry wit, over abundance of ego but otherwise rather pleasant I like to think :P) and remind my opponent of rules and/or give advice if I believe it is appropriate to do so. Getting a good sportsmanship score isn't a motivator for this, it's simply what I feel is the correct thing to do.

In regards to what other people do - the only thing they should be doing is ensuring the game is played by the rules. If you don't want to give your opponent advice, that's fine and I know some people may think that pointing out someone hasn't shot something isn't reminding them of the rules but having a game end without a full army's potential realised can be a bit of a bummer.

Anyway, floor's open for what everyone else thinks ^^.