Originally Posted by
Erik Setzer
Yeah, your anecdotal evidence is everything, right? Because your group enjoys it, it's gotta be the best thing ever and no one disagrees except jerks?
See, that's what makes me dislike AoS more than the rules or models or anything else. I can see the potential for fun, but I can also see the flaws. But if someone points out the flaws, they're rabidly set upon.
The "average" gamer damn well *does* care about making a good list that can compete. They wouldn't bother playing the game unless they thought they had a chance to win, and the mind is generally driven to try to win when you're competing. And this is a game, with a defined winner, so EVERY BLOODY GAME is competitive. Stop claiming that only 0.1% of games are "competitive." If you want AoS to not be a competitive game, petition Games Workshop to remove definitions of victory from the rules. Heck, even bashing tournament people makes you sound ridiculous, because you assume anyone who participates in a tournament is a WAAC player.
I've seen multiple locals selling off their armies because of AoS. Some people have enjoyed it, but usually it was either people who house ruled it to create balance - meaning they're playing a modified version of AoS - or people who were actually those WAAC style douchebags, who love the game now because they can unbalance the heck out of things and it's totally legal. You don't have to "TFG" it. The stock rules allow anyone to unbalance the game, often by accident. Claiming that a game with no balancing mechanic is automatically balanced because it ignores the idea of balance is, well... it makes my brain hurt.
It's a nice beer and pretzels game. If GW wasn't already showing they want to gouge the heck out of prices, I'd recommend it to people who want something to fill in 30-45 minutes here and there. But since the game's first releases already include $10-a-piece infantry, a $33 infantry character and a $40 infantry character (but he has a pet!) in locked poses, a $33 piece of plastic on a string to measure (because a measuring tape isn't good enough and GW has to charge four times what other companies would), and a $40 dice cup, and the rules are aimed at things like using only GW terrain, which means all your nice cheap homemade terrain is useless and you better buy a bunch of expensive chunks of plastic, even if the trees don't look as good as doing a small patch of forest with Woodland Scenics trees. To say nothing of the $74 book which seems to be the first in a series. See, AoS is a nice $25 game, or a nice free game you play with cheap models. AoS as a game trying to use premium product prices? No.
If I want to pay a ridiculous amount for a broken game, I'll go find EA's latest offering and grab all the DLC. There are plenty of people who like that, too, and will eagerly defend paying $200 to get what should have come in the $60 game.