Tavern Talk: Comp in Fantasy

Tournaments are a very interesting and popular way to play Warhammer, giving an individual the opportunity to play games against players from around the country or to try out different format.  The tournament might be fun, but the organisers often find a need to change how the game is played.  These changes come in the form of restrictions, such as 'no double rare choices', 'maximum of 12 power dice per magic phase' or they might be the outright banning of certain items ('no power scroll').  Many tournaments come out with large rules packs full of restrictions, others have none at all. 

The question is how do you feel about comp'ed tournaments?  Do you view these restrictions as important to balance out the game, or are they just a pointless dumbing down of the rules?  What do you like or dislike about these comp'ed tournaments?  What are your experience with them?

Before I get into this specific topic (Comp in Fantasy) I'd like to take this opportunity to dance on the grave of 40k Comp.  5 to 10 years ago, it was taken as a matter of course that any 40k tournament one attended would have some kind of incredibly lame comp scoring, oftentimes as arbitrary as how beardy the TO and his buddies thought your list was.  Luckily, thanks to a newer generation of players, TOs and internet pundits, comp is basically dead in the United States tournaments.  While there are a few big tournaments left that have winners determined by softscores, all the tournaments that really matter have switched to separating softscores from the gaming either by totally eliminating them or by making two separate awards.  And I couldn't be happier.  Tournaments should be a place to test your mettle and skill, not a circle jerk of intentionally soft lists.

With that said, let's talk about Fantasy...

1.  I feel that Fantasy isn't special.  We all (mostly) agree that comp has no place in 40k, and it is the same in Fantasy.  The old guard don't want to adapt their lists to 8th Edition, nor do they want to master a new ruleset.  So they try to gimp the rules system (power dice) and then gimp the metagame (banning equipment or characters.)  Sorry, the game is as the game is.  Some things are more powerful than others, that's how it's going to be.  We will have to put up with Teclis until the next HE book.  As of right now, my recommendation is to PLAYTEST against Teclic/BoH lists and figure out how to beat them (it can be done, duh) instead of figuring out new ways to comp your tournaments so you epic 7th Edition VC list can still win games.

2.  Put me in the 'pointless dumbing down of the rules' camp.  Beating Teclis or Power Scroll lists is like beating Nob Bikers or Mech IG.  You learn how to do it through practice, and you move on.  By coming up with these inane restrictions they are simply preventing people from having to learn how to actually play the game the right way.

3.  As you may have guessed, I dislike the concept of comp'ed Fantasy tournaments.  I've played in both, and I vastly prefer non-comped.  The comped tournament is essentially a non-tournament.  It's a series of 'friendlies.'  This is fine, if that is what the players want, but at least in the US, players increasingly want good, clean, fair, and competitive tournaments where the winner is determined on the tabletop.  As a smaller community, Fantasy tends to lag behind 40k but I am certain that 5 years from now Fantasy tournaments will most likely not have any of these last vestiges of comp.