Ability to talk about armies...

So from the same conversation last night with Miggles who believes the following:

If you don't play an army you can't talk about its tactics, army builds, effectiveness in relation to itself and others, etc.

Uh wtf. Just because I don't earn a ton of money and can buy an army for every codex out there (off the top of my head there are 16 or more) doesn't mean I can't talk about every single army. How on earth do you expect to go to a tournament and not play competitively if you don't understand every other army out there. You don't have to play them all the time to be able to talk about them. Sure with most people it helps but if you understand 40k you can look at a codex and understand what's good for that codex and what's not.

You don't have to be Stelek and pick up and book and whip out good and balanced lists within a day but you don't have to play the army 100 times before you understand it. Playing with an army is going to give you a much more intamate understanding of how your force works yes, you'll have to think less about what to do and your responses to threats will be faster and more comprehensive, just like any specialisation. However, you don't NEED to play the army to be able to understand it or talk about it. I haven't used Vespid. Ever. Does that mean I don't know they are a crap unit? I've never played Necrons but does that mean I don't know their codex is medicore at best and most people who play it don't understand T5 + WBB + res orb generally equals a WBB roll compared to T4? No. So pull your head out of your ass Miggles.