The Three Scenarios
I very much think the difference in scenarios matter. I used to play in a league where we were all just a bunch of happy n00bs playing away and enjoying the random and extremely unpredictable influence of the special play cards and in which we'd all have been quite happy to see teams do "fluffy" things, whether they won or lost. That's the first scenario.
To be fair, that's the expectation you hold as a n00b after reading the ruleset and the fluff. You expect flings to not stand a chance, you expect nurgle to have serious scoring issues, you expect the humans to be versatile and competitive. (All of which seems
slightly at odds with the very competitive CRP rendition of BB.)
Enter the notion of tournaments and deciding who's best, which is a reality far from the fluff. No injuries, no progression, no winnings. All in an attempt to isolate the perfect situation to determine who's best (+ a tad most lucky, obviously).
Now, this is a very different reality in which I completely understand why balancing would veer towards statistically determined standards and where the (im-)balance proposed in the current new BB ruleset is hard to swallow. That's scenario two.
And the same goes for scenario 3, which is leagues like my current league, the ECBBL, where you have loads of tourney players and a great sense of the games not being played for fluff as much as for other more tournament-like purposes. Most of us really want to win; therefore not winning because the other guy gets better cards or spends everything on inducements without me being compensated inducements-wise becomes extremely hard to swallow.
The Effort of a Championship
So, the way I see it, it's all down to setting. Most people on this forum are probably playing for the latter reasons, but out there in the wild hopefully more people will play to the fluff, have a great time and not worry too much about someone spending two seasons first building a team, then building a bankroll and then splashing out on winning the league, only to then lose those two season's worth of
effort (I take it players can't be re-hired if you resurrect your team for a later season, and that a n00b team cannot win the league). Spending a year or two building a championship effort doesn't seem off-fluff to me, at all. Plus:
- No wizard
- No mercs
- No star players
So you can get what - 2 bribes, an apothecary and a reroll? Ooooooh. Scary.
Just a Little Side Rant About Subs
On a side note, to me, part of the implications of having a very predictable BB (ex. cards etc) is that you need your subs less, which is something I hate about playing in non-fluffy settings. Oftentimes people will speculate with the inducements system (fling-style) or be happy to rely on journeymen or min-max and I just hate it. I think forcing everyone to have more capable players, emphasise their team's capabilities as a deep and forcing a greater reliance on one's bench are all good things. (Even if I do think the cards are a bit out of balance...and that the current selection is way too small even for a 10-14 game league like the ECBBL, fx.)