WAAC vs Casual Competitive

So, in my first rambling in this here blogsphere, I am going to discuss my opinions about the differences between Win At All Costs vs Casual Competitive.

First, What is Win At All Costs, or WAAC for short. For those that are either new to the game or have never heard the term before that's where, when your sitting down to build your army lists for any game system that you play, be it 40k, fantasy, warmahordes, etc, you sit down with one purpose. You don't care that you will lose friends/game mates over it, you just want to win, and win big! You want to use a nuclear bomb while everyone around you is using sling shots.

I am going to get this out there, I am totally against WAAC type armies and players. If you want to do anything in your powers to win at a game of toy soldiers then why are you even bothering playing. It takes the fun out of the hobby and makes everyone around you hate the living hell out of you. That being said, I will keep this article as bias free as I can get.

Now, Let's define what I am calling, Casual Competitiveness. This is different from WAAC in that you still want to win, or have a strong chance of winning, but you still want to give your opponent a chance of winning, and still make a good game out of it. Using the example above, your using a pistol to everyone else's slingshot, but your running around without any armor so that it's easy for them to get a lucky shot on you if your tactics are bad.

This is, in my opinion, the best way to play these games. You can still have fun without being "that guy". The guy that no one wants to play because you know that he'll make you go cry into a corner for your mother. You can still do decent in a tournament, while still having your opponent's and the tournament organizer wanting you back in subsequent years.

Now, some tournaments do promote that WAAC attitude. An example is the former Aardboys tournament system that ran for years. This "atmosphere" promoted such things as The Teclis show, or DJ Thorek and his drinking buddies, the list goes on. The tournament rewards even promoted these by giving away basically a full army for first place. always wanted to start that very expensive skaven or orcs and goblin army? well, borrow a "plug and play list" and go to that tournament. There was no such thing as Sportsmanship, or Painting involved, just battle points. If you knew that you were going to play in the tournament up against 100+ people, you weren't going to take your fluffy list. After all, why would you want to waste your tournament entry fee if you know that you aren't going to win.

This is where Casual Competitive comes in. Useful in local tournaments, campaigns, etc. You take for example, instead of the unkillable dreadlord, Cauldron bsb, dual hydra, horde of executioners, and a level 4 shadow mage with enough redirecting units and shots that would make people cringe, taking only a handful of the listed items like only one hydra, no cauldron etc. stuff that people would normally look down upon.  In my dark elf tournament list that I have recently decided to flesh out by october due to no local or semi short distance tournaments that I am able to attend or even that are being held around my local area I have limited myself yet I still feel, due to me running variations of this list in our local Blood in the badlands campaign, can be very competitive without making me seem like a pure asshat. I am not running an unkillable lord, or a cauldron of blood, and only one hydra (mainly due to me only owning one hydra) in the list. I do have a pendant in the list, because let's face it, anything less would be uncivilized, I do run a level 4 and a level 2, without the sac dagger, but I also have a bsb on foot, which is quite unheard of in a lot of dark elf lists I have been reading on the internet. Will I win the entire tournament in october? no clue but I know that I'll have fun and still have a good chance of winning.

I am more than happy to read people's comments about the debate of WAAC vs Casual Competitive and also on topics that I might write up in the future. I will try and answer all the comments.