4 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

Once again, I find the “forced divide” between “casual” and “not” somewhat insulting... ?

Completely agree. I really don't understand why people ITT are feeling the need to make all these assumptions and cast aspersions on people who like the game for different reasons.

WTF, you guys. This kind of divisiveness how you kill a community, not grow it.

4 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

Once again, I find the “forced divide” between “casual” and “not” somewhat insulting... ?

i mean, what is Casual? What does it mean, what are it’s implications, what is lacking, how far do you take it?

There is a line, though it's fuzzy.

We have a very casual game group in north Austin and we generally build narrative and experimental lists for our regular game night.

But there are a few players who are there to hone their tournament lists for regionals/worlds. Any game between them and a casual player is little more than a seal clubbing.

There's room for both types of player in our game group. But hyper-competitive lists are a different breed from casual lists and it's best that everyone involved knows what they are getting into when matching up for a game.

2 hours ago, IronNerd said:

What saddens me reading this thread is how many people play Armada like X-Wing and just look at what gets killed. Objectives are (in my opinion) so much a part of this game that I feel like it isn't even Armada if you're playing a deathmatch. First player advantage is CRAZY if you aren't factoring in thhe objective, plus it's just way less fun (again, my opinion).

I think part of this comes in that a lot of Armadas objectives are not really win conditions on their own. They are more about positioning and deployment advantage and killing things faster than real let me do x and score 200 points to win. Fire lanes is probably in that realm, maybe capture the VIP and Salvage run?

4 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

Once again, I find the “forced divide” between “casual” and “not” somewhat insulting... ?

i mean, what is Casual? What does it mean, what are it’s implications, what is lacking, how far do you take it?

I mean... in Casuak games, does the FAQ apply as standard? I mean, it is literally the TOURNAMENT FAQ... does that make things any more or less casual? And thus, will I be accused of not being casual if I request it? (Answer is yes, by the way, as I have...)

i guess i just look for a definition of casual, when inherently, it is not readily or easily defined...

I always tend to take casual as not being at a tournament. If I'm not playing in a tournament I'll probably let folks do missed opportunities if it's not too far gone or not put down markers and measure movements more by eyeball. If I'm at a tournament I dont ask for missed opportunity redo, I I want movements and bumps to be more precise.

1 hour ago, draco193 said:

I always tend to take casual as not being at a tournament. If I'm not playing in a tournament I'll probably let folks do missed opportunities if it's not too far gone or not put down markers and measure movements more by eyeball. If I'm at a tournament I dont ask for missed opportunity redo, I I want movements and bumps to be more precise.

Sure, but this doesn't really have anything to do with the question "do you play for MoV?" This is a question of "do you play casual games with a stick up your ***?" This is the kind of assumption I'm talking about.

Where do people get this idea that you can't both drink a beer and relax during the game and also count the score at the end of the game? Maybe this is just my lack of background in shtty communities showing through. When I play Scythe, nobody complains about how I'm a super-Scythe-gladiator when I want to add up the scores at the end of the game.

34 minutes ago, Ardaedhel said:

Sure, but this doesn't really have anything to do with the question "do you play for MoV?" This is a question of "do you play casual games with a stick up your ***?" This is the kind of assumption I'm talking about.

Where do people get this idea that you can't both drink a beer and relax during the game and also count the score at the end of the game? Maybe this is just my lack of background in shtty communities showing through. When I play Scythe, nobody complains about how I'm a super-Scythe-gladiator when I want to add up the scores at the end of the game.

I don't think anyone is saying that. I mean, how else would you know who won a game of Armada that was close? I think OP is really asking whether you play differently in a tournament setting vs Saturday night with your buddy. I'm always courteous, but in a bad match up with my buddy I'll likely look for the best way to engage and say **** the torpedoes if I think I might be able to do something cool. In a tournament I'm much more likely to disengage a bad situation and preserve points.

Edit: Which I mean to say on a Saturday night I might be more willing to preserve points if we're tallying up mov vs just seeing who has more points. The aim of winning changes in which you're playing with.

What if it doesn’t though?

i mean, here’s the problem...

... if I say “ I don’t play any differently on Saturday night as I do in tournaments...”

how many people will assume I am an uptight rules-mongering arsrhole in every game I play? That all I am doing is playing to win?

Becayse that is the result of the inherent divide... it doesn’t matter what side you are on, there is a perception that you do something different or wrong... that’s ehy you are in that side compared to some other people.

I hate the fact we have those implications. I hate the fact that MY initial response to someone using the term “casual play” strikes me in the negative.

In the end...

I play to Rules.

I play to MoV.

I play to relax and enjoy myself.

I play to get direct human communication.

I play to tell an awesome story, even if only in my own head.

and finally...

I almost exclusively play in tournaments.

I play Casual with my dad every 2 weeks or so. We bought all our big collection together (rebel for him, imperial for me) and we play for fun. I was brought-up in a board game centric family and really enjoy the thematic trash talk haha. So we text to each other during those 2 week breaks (rebel scum and etc.) . But when we play, We play as loyal as possible and we ALWAYS look at a rough MOV to know where our match stands and then we shake hands.

A 6-5, 7-4 match is always followed by congratulatory compliments on both ends and we don't really calculate seriously if it goes more than that because taking a beating is enough, we don't really need numbers on it.