[tehwalrus]

I tried to use a Cyanogenmod phone over the summer without google play services (I couldn't get it to install).

I used the Amazon android store, which has many of the same applications as the play store. However, most apps I installed crashed on first launch due to (I assumed) lack of play services.

It was a very crappy experience which lasted only about a week before I switched back to a handset where the gapps flash worked correctly.