I've not even looked at the ice toolchain, however IMO tutorials and documentation is where Lattice fails.
I've got a MachX02 board, and I've pretty much given up with it, as tutorials are minimal (I ended up finding some random one via googling that at least got me flashing a light), and documentation seems to be non-existent.
When I get time, I'm going to get either an Altera or Xilinx board, as tutorials for them seem alot more plentiful, then I might venture back to Lattice.