One of the key facets of BattleMaster is the fact that your actions have consequences. The butcher will present the bill. You can lose everything. Make the wrong choice, and your entire realm can be wiped out. This is the spice that makes the stew worth eating. Would you really want to play a game where no matter what you did, your adversary always stopped just a hair from wiping you out, and let you recover your strength so you could just do it all over again next week?
If I had this mentality when Enoch was Regent, SA would have been dismantled, more than a few people would have quit, and you would have been up in arms that it was 'not playing with friends'.
I agree that it is unwarranted for people to say Astrum/Morek don't know how to play BM, but it is equally unwarranted to say Asylon deserved it. Asylon got dealt an exceptionally !@#$ hand by unusual circumstances. If you think 'the butcher's bill' includes GM interference then one of us really is playing the wrong game and should leave.
