Competitive miniature game thought for the day:

“Net listing” is a good thing. It allows slightly more casual elements of the community to play with more competitive builds without having to make their own. #gamieperkins

Historically this comes up against the notion that list building is a skill that forms part of the ‘prestige’ of winning tournaments. I don’t have anything against that, to me it’s just optional, like how soft scores should always be (painting & modelling).

If someone WANTS to put 100s of hours into making a completely custom army list and take the credit for its creation when they win. Cool! Go ahead! But your army list will be put on the internet and people will use it, like it or not. It’s a natural part of gaming.

If anything you’ll become even more famous for its creation if you can get people to say ‘oh you’re is using X’s army list’. But in addition to this it actually has a good effect on community building.

Taking a different example. I like Hearthstone. I’m maybe slightly better than average at it but I’m nothing special and I play it relatively casually. I don’t enjoy deck building in HS but I love taking a popular deck and tweaking it to suit me. It’s the same in miniature games.

In an established miniature game you often get to a point where 80% of archetypal builds are identical and it’s that last 10-20% where people can customise to their particular taste.

It encourages people to play who otherwise might not because they can’t get over the hump of learning to build their own army lists. Additionally, through playing proven army lists they may start to learn how to make their own.

In summary, don’t get offended if someone net lists or net decks. It’s actually a really good thing for table top games and growing their communities.