Casual versus Competitive

Sorry I haven't had a chance to post much lately - it's been a very busy week heading into July and the ATC is right around the corner. I think the game and how we play it is changing. I see more and more players shifting towards a casual attitude about the game with all the crazy things happening and the rapid release of new rules which seems to be occurring on a weekly basis. It's all about formations now and their crazy rules. I'm still a big fan of the CAD (combined arms detachment) and think objective secured is still a big deal.

No matter what anyone might tell most everybody likes to win but it's not as big a deal for some as opposed to others and that's a dividing line which as I said seems to be shifting more towards a casual attitude and that's okay. It's next to impossible for everyone to keep up with all the new rules so we must be more accepting of what we don't know - it's just the way it is now and in that regard it looks like GW is winning their war versus competitive gaming and lack of support for tournaments. I'm not here to say it's necessarily a bad thing - just simply making some observations where the state of the game and hobby seem to be headed.

Lately I've been seeing a steady decline in the number of players attending local tournaments - partly I think it's due to a few really nasty armies most feel they have no chance to beat... Flyrant spam is one of those right up they on top of the list and it just seems like if you tailor your list to deal with it you're going to have problems with the other nasty lists. I'm predicting Tau, which is supposedly the next new codex to release, will spell the end of Flyrant spam and good riddance. I play a competitive army so I can't knock others too much but mine does have some inherent weaknesses that can be exploited. Flyrant spam is an anti meta army - most players aren't taking much in the way of anti air plus Tyranids have access to cheap troops that don't give up any victory points. We will have to wait and see if the Tau has anything to say about this soon.

All in all it's a good time right now if you play 40k but I'd love to see the tournament scene begin to grow again. I remember back in the days of fourth and fifth edition walking into a hobby shop to see over 20 players ready to roll dice... The good old days for me.