Battlefront Issues A Retraction...Sort Of

After 3 entire days of non-stop criticism from FOW players, the Battlefront staff issued a retraction to their earlier "all-BF model policy" at official tournaments...sort of. The ruling is now that 50% of the entire force most be composed of BF models. What's really galling about this is the following however:

Although we were not clear enough about this last week we did not consider die cast planes, scratch built models or objectives (assuming they are the right size), terrain or models we do not currently make to be covered by this.

How would anyone in a position of authority at a gaming company implement a blanket ban on non-brand models and then claim that they are "surprised" that players didn't magically know that "certain kinds" of non-brand models would be allowed? The mind boggles, since their precise wording was:

The final change we are making is that from the new season all the events we run with will be only allowing Battlefront miniatures to be used... although it seems childish to draw a line in the sand and say, “If you want to play at our events and support the FOW hobby, you should not be bringing other people’s models along,” it is absolutely that simple.

Now, unless one is psychic, the casual reader of that quote shouldn't be faulted in their belief that only BF models are allowed at BF-sponsored events - since that is precisely what the above quote implies.

*Sigh*

In any case, personally I'm OK with this policy and I think it's reasonable. However, this entire situation could have been avoided, so long as BF was straightforward and clear in their prior ruling. None of this had to happen and it's created a minor PR disaster for a company and brand that were in good standing amongst the gaming community.