As an outside observer here (never played Star Wars Minis, but have played a lot of other minis systems), it sounds like the real problem is that the GAME sucks for casual play. The balance is poor, there are good pieces and bad pieces. Casual people want an even game, which due to their small collections are mostly bad pieces.

The Vset simply casts this problem that's always been there into the light of day making it harder to ignore. Now you've got it right in your face because most of the Vset is "good" which makes the high percentage of old "bad" models stand out. You can't play a team of mostly bad models against someone with mostly good models, so you have to either ignore the Vset or embrace it. You can't really mix them with mostly bad models successfully, you'll get your ass handed to you.

What you want for casual play is an environment where balance is pretty good so that you can run whatever you want, with a wide variety of models being viable. Its an exhilarating freedom, you're right to want it. People with big collections could do that already. Casual players with small collections made due and it worked because nobody had enough good models to really break it. Now for the first time you get what sounds like a pretty flat (power-wise) collection of models. It's what you always wanted, you can pick & choose from a wide collection of stuff that's EQUALLY powerful so you can use what you like. Don't get hung up on whether it's still compatible with your old stuff. Take the handful of good models you had before, put them with the Vset, and rejoice in a superior new casual gaming environment.

I liked what someone said on the thread on another website, where someone was criticising the v-sets. They said:



I think, if you were used to playing in an environment where the best squads (so squads like Rebel Han Cannon, Imperial Black and Blue, Republic Yobuck swap, New Republic Solo Charge, Separatist Lancer) were being used before the v-sets, the v-sets are awesome as they introduce lots of new options at that high power level. They also make sense, and are a logical continuation of the game.

But if you liked mucking around with the mediocre/casual/older pieces from the Wizards of the Coast sets, there aren't many pieces from the v-sets on that level, so the v-sets do seem overpowered in comparison.

I wasn't involved in my playgroup right from the start, but by the time I started playing, a lot of the more committed players were reading Bloomilk and other boards, and were aware of what the best pieces in each faction were, and what combinations of pieces worked well together. So the v-sets just felt natural to me, and I think they're great. I feel like I've said this a lot, but I much prefer an environment where I don't just play against Rebels and New Republic all the time.

Vast improvement to me. On the whole, the Vset pieces are more fun, more balanced, and the cards are even better quality than the WotC cards. On top of that, no new minis means the game keeps going but it doesn't cost as much to keep up.