DC Area EDIT AND MORE! Spring/Summer Charity 40K League; Summer Charity BBQ

*EDIT* Looks like there's very real potential for more than just the DC area. Matt Cerino, who runs the awesome Stomping Grounds store in PA, is on board to drum up interest and co-run things by hosting some PA and/or potentially NJ divisions of players, with play among them in that region during the regular season and spots in the finals.

Well, it's getting to be that time again!

First off, looks like we're starting to ramp up for a DC Area 40K League. This will probably use a combination of NOVA Open and ETC missions due to the timing, along with NOVA army construction rules (Which I suspect will be very similar to ETC ones).

Anticipate we'll establish divisions based in part upon geography. Also, if enough people show interest outside of the DC area (e.g., some of the groups like Stomping Grounds), I have no problem adding "Distance" divisions. We'll host an 8 or 16-player final depending on the size of the league.

League timeframes are likely to be April, May, June, with the Playoffs/Finals occurring either in late June or early July. # of games and length of league will also connect somewhat to the # of players.

It is highly likely this will be a Charity League, with registration fees being both minor and going to the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation, probably directed toward the Breast Cancerl Research Foundation. We would use the NOCF in order to ensure the maximum value of funds goes to the charity, vice being lost to taxes and other snafus (there are more than you would imagine!).

Additionally, though we missed it last year, we're going to run another Charity Summer BBQ Tournament. This harkens back to the founding days of the NOVA Open back in 2009, where we started playing on picnic tables with 32 folks from around the DC area. We ran one again in 2013 with attendees coming from as far away as Connecticut. Look for a return to the outdoor charity BBQ sometime in late June / early July of this year.

If you're interested in participating in either the league or tournament, please e-mail me with said interest at mvbrandt@gmail.com as we start to gauge it correctly.

East Coast Takes Las Vegas ... Gauntlet Down for the Westies to Take NOVA

Congrats go out to East Coast regular Sean Nayden for taking the Las Vegas Open with his Lictor heavy Nid list.

Congrats also go out to Nick Nanavati for a really class act move during the Finals.

Last but not least (in fact, 2nd of 256), congrats go out to Nick Rose for kicking butt with - like Sean - a very unorthodox list that largely ignored the options available with Forge World and Super Heavies / Gargantuans.

Last year, several of the Frontline Gaming guys joined the regular West Coast attendees in kicking butt and threatening the top table regions of NOVA, all of them finishing in top brackets. Can they take the next step this year?

East vs. West 2015 - Round 1!

I just wanted to send a good natured good luck to all the East Coast folks I know traveling out to the Las Vegas Open for this weekend's 40K GT.

Along with the NOVA and AdeptiCon, LVO completes the trifecta of the three truly "massive" 40K GTs held in the United States. This isn't to fail with acknowledging nearly-as-large events like DaBoyz and more, but these three probably get the most "press" on a regular basis.

Lately, there's been a lot of back and forth (in a fun way!) about the East Coast vs. the West Coast in terms of where the best 40K players are secreting themselves away, and a lot of Easties went out West this year.

We're hoping to see a lot of the West travel back across for the similar format of the 40K GT at NOVA (2 detachment, w/l/d centric, etc.), a push that was spearheaded by the LVO's own Reece Robbins, Frankie Giampapa, and Geoff Robinson last year, among many others.

Good luck to all this weekend, and may the best coast win! :)

40K GT Ruling Finalization - Plus

Registration went ... really, really well yesterday. It's still ongoing today, of course, and over the next 7 months leading to NOVA. But we sold more yesterday in 4 hours than we did in all of February 2014. Lots of things are selling out, folks. SuperNOVA bags sold out - all 100 of them - in exactly 51 minutes.

For the 40K GT ...

Forgeworld ...

... is legal, but all Forgeworld units, items, etc., carry a 0-1 restriction. This applies at the unit, item, etc. level. If you find a way to apply Forgeworld rules or items or anything else to a non-Forgeworld unit, that unit is considered Forgeworld for purposes of the 0-1 restrictions.

This will become more refined as we go forward, to prevent loopholes. More importantly, we will be spending the next month assessing major problem units and, where necessary, excluding them from the GT.

The rationale here is three-fold. There's still a lot of evidence (and we'll be watching other FW-inclusive events like LVO, especially since a lot of hardcore list-crackers from the East Coast are attending this year) there are some major problem FW units. Still, there are major problem units throughout the game. There's a lot of evidence the game gets more complex and difficult to prepare for if you add FW ... but GW is adding more complex and multi-source rules to the game nearly every week as it is.

Either way, we'll keep special note of rules as they release and rules at present and curtail *major* problems as/if needed. This won't be a rolling process right up to the start of Round 1. We plan to finalize any restrictions by March 1, alongside the release of a fully updated FAQ and Mission Pack. Anything thereafter will be focused on new release rules.

Lords of War ...

... are legal if they are not a Super Heavy or Gargantuan Creature. Yup. The feedback wasn't very positive even about Knights last year, but in the events we allowed them (mostly casual to boot) they were aggressively shot down as being undesirable, to the point the Narrative's been considering either no Super/Gargs or a very restrictive list of them. We'll be keeping them out of the GT for this year. That said, Codex/non-SuperHeavy/Gargantuan Lords of War will be legal without issue (i.e. Logan). ALSO, KNIGHTS WILL REMAIN LEGAL.

Army Construction ...

... will simply be restricted to no more than 2 Detachments. Some Formations/Detachments *could* in theory be restricted, evaluated by March 1 (and ongoing for new ones) in the same fashion as Forgeworld above. Adamantine Lance is in the crosshairs right now, and we're taking time to playtest and look at the Decurion Detachment.

NOVA Open 2015 Registration Open at 9:30AM This Morning, US EST Time, February 1!

http://novaopenstore.com

You won't be able to register/login until registration opens.

Good luck tryin' to get your SuperNOVA bags in time!