Whiskey & 40k

6ed Update Stuff

2012-01-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/425996.page

That information is, by everything I'm hearing, probably far more accurate than viewing the "leak" as an unequivocal truth in and of itself.

Expect more dramatic "absences" among other crazy experimental rules (that weren't playtested at the time of the leak's creation) by the time you see "real" 6ed.

PSA only, and my $.02

Invitational Update, CONFLICT GT Qualifiers and Congrats

2012-01-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

Just a quick shout-out / congratulations to

Andrew Gonyo and Alex Fennell

for their successful 1st and 2nd place finishes at the Conflict GT this weekend, and subsequent qualification for the relevant two spots into the 2012 NOVA Invitational.

Andrew bested Alex by a handful of points, and the two actually tied each other halfway through the event. Perhaps a rematch awaits them in August ...

1. NOVA Invitational 2011 - Nick Nanavati & Aaron Aleong
2. NOVA Open 2011 - Gabe Dobkin, Allan Hernandez & Tony Kopach
3. The Battle for Salvation 2011 - Eric Hoerger & Neil Gilstrap
4. DaBoyz 2011 - Nick Rose & Nate Stevens
5. The Mechanicon 2011 - Simon Leen & Mike Ludwig
6. Feast of Blades Invitational 2011 - Thomas Reidy & Kenneth Boucher
7. 11th Company GT - Kyle Cox & Devin Schafer
8. The Conflict GT 2012 - Andrew Gonyo & Alex Fennell
9. St. Valentine's Day Massacre 2012 - (2)
10. Bay Area Open 2012 - (2)
11. The Indy Open 2012 - (2)
12. AdeptiCon 2012 - (2)
13. WarGamesCon 2012 - (2)
14. The Bugeater GT 2012 - (2)
15. IFL Road to the NOVA Invitational 2012 - (1)
16. TBD NOVA Open-Run Preliminary Event 2012 - (1)
17. TBD Remaining Spots (2)

5th Edition vs. 6th Edition for NOVA 2012; PSA

2012-01-15T05:24:00.000-08:00

Folks,

Just a quick PSA in response to a few questions we've received. The NOVA plans to play this year as the last major national GT for 5th edition.

The only way this will change is if 6th releases MUCH earlier than July (or even June), because we don't want players who are already committed financially and otherwise to suddenly have to make odd choices about army changes, etc., nor do we want to have every game hung up with "everyone, even the judges, are still learning all the odd rules questions people can come up with."

This is also in part due to the fact that all information we have access to states there's no substantial evidence for what rules will be in 6th at present. The Leak as far as our homework and person-to-person networking can say is not a leak at all, but a fake (or at the very best, an extremely early Alpha full of rules that have since been removed).

So, prepare for the NOVA's 40k GT, Invitational, and Trios event with 5th edition in mind. The NARRATIVE may take pieces of or even entire games from 6th edition *if* it comes out in time, for certain playertypes (i.e. narrative singles vs. doubles).

- Mike

NOVA Invitational 2012 - Changes and Initial Events Qual List

2012-01-03T06:47:00.000-08:00

Good Morning All,

For 2012, there are a few changes to the way the NOVA Invitational will be played and organized.

Instead of having our players participate in 5 games in a single day, all of them tough and high intensity, and then have to compete in 8 more over just 2 days to follow, the changes to the format are as follows:

Rounds 1-3 only are used to determine Best Overall/Renaissance Man. Rounds 4-5 are Final Four elimination rounds.

Round 1 occurs on THURSDAY NIGHT, August 30. Players have no other games that day, so it's a single round on that evening. The game will start at approximately 6:30 and go until 8:30, giving players time to wrap up and get as good a night's sleep as they desire.

Rounds 2-3 occur on Friday MORNING, starting early and wrapping up by noon. At this point, there will be only 4 undefeated participants.

Rounds 4-5 occur Sunday AFTERNOON, after lunch and the culmination of the 40k GT Final Fours (for each of the 16 brackets).

So, an Invitational player who participates in the Invitational *and* the 40k GT will play, at most:
1 game Thursday evening
2 games invitational and 2 games GT on Friday
4 games GT on Saturday
2 games GT finals on Sunday AM and 2 games Invitational finals on Sunday PM

So far, several players have already qualified for the 2012 Invitational, and many more are yet to be determined.

The events we will be inviting from are:

1. NOVA Invitational 2011 - Nick Nanavati & Aaron Aleong
2. NOVA Open 2011 - Gabe Dobkin, Allan Hernandez & Tony Kopach
3. The Battle for Salvation 2011 - Eric Hoerger & Neil Gilstrap
4. DaBoyz 2011 - Nick Rose & Nate Stevens
5. The Mechanicon 2011 - Simon Leen & Mike Ludwig
6. Feast of Blades Invitational 2011 - Thomas Reidy & Kenneth Boucher
7. 11th Company GT - Kyle Cox & Devin Schafer
8. The Conflict GT 2012 - (2)
9. St. Valentine's Day Massacre 2012 - (2)
10. Bay Area Open 2012 - (2)
11. The Indy Open 2012 - (2)
12. AdeptiCon 2012 - (2)
13. WarGamesCon 2012 - (2)
14. The Bugeater GT 2012 - (2)
15. IFL Road to the NOVA Invitational 2012 - (1)
16. TBD NOVA Open-Run Preliminary Event 2012 - (1)
17. TBD Remaining Spots (2)

I'm leaving a couple of spots open for a variety of up and coming GTs, hence to be determined before we commit; also looking at West Coast events like the Broadside Bash, etc. There will be several smaller but strongly attended events we'll use to identify alternates, with final fallback on alternates going by performance to returning NOVA Invitational 2011 players who will be at the Open regardless.

The prizes will remain the same this year - $1,000 cash for the Renaissance Man, $1,000 cash for the Tournament Champion. We may tweak the weight of Appearance Score to properly account for only 3 rounds contributing to that score (that meaning, with the way our scoring by percentages work, there's a greater gap between 3-0 and 2-1 than there was between 5-0 and 4-1 last year; as a result, we need to make sure appearance scoring weight goes up a little to properly reflect a true 50-50 split, instead of just an on paper 50-50 split).

Happy New Year, Registration Open - All Events, Narrative Info Upcoming, Sorry for Delays!

2012-01-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays to everyone.

2011 saw the NOVA Open go from a 40k and Fantasy GT with 128 players doling out about $6000 in prizes to a full on multi-system vendor containing 400 attendee $40,000 in prizes convention. We're looking to be even more awesome in growth in 2012, with a lot of time spent also polishing and refining the events we already offer.

The entire NOVA staff will be joining to help felt sideboards and tables this upcoming Saturday, in fact ... SIDEBOARDS for you to put your displays and minis and dice and snacks and drinks and the works on while you game. Plus, yet more room between you and fellow gamers.

As for the blog, while I had a terrible December in terms of finding room to post ... we went from just over 100 followers to over 250 ... and I'm grateful to have you all reading through this. Anticipate an ENORMOUS upswing in content for the new year, and new authors. More importantly, look for everyone to help shape and provide input on the development of our new evening gaming system for 40k and other events ... new missions, new formats, new stylings and new plans for you all to help us shape in the same way you as a readership helped shape the development of the now worldwide-used "NOVA Style" of gaming and tournament design.

REGISTRATION FOR ALL MAJOR EVENTS IS NOW OPEN, FROM OUR NARRATIVE TO OUR FLAMES OF WAR TOURNAMENTS TO WARMACHINE/HORDES (NOW DOUBLED FROM LAST YEAR) AND WARHAMMER FANTASY (ALSO DOUBLED FROM LAST YEAR).

Warmachine/Hordes, Fantasy, and the NOVA Open 40k GT ALL SOLD OUT IN 2011. Please make sure to grab your tickets while you can; over half of our 40k GT registrations so far are from NEW ATTENDEES - nothing guarantees prior attendees a spot; first come first serve!

Those who are on our e-mail newsletter, look for a fancy newsletter heading out later today; those who are not, e-mail novaopen@gmail.com and ask to be!

Best regards for the New Year all ... I'm STOKED about what's ahead for my personal life, and for the NOVA ... it's really become a passion of mine, and of the entire NOVA staff, as we've watched everyone really fall in love with the event each year, and have a blast while there. It's nothing short of our driving spirit to see everyone have another fantastic time this year ... and I also can't wait for all the fabulous times and fantastic memories and friendships I'll build with the NOVA crew and staff getting ready for the next event all winter, spring, and summer.

Next up on the posts, we have an introductory blog post from our Flames of War Tournament Organizer, Scott, and a massive post on the Narrative Event for 2012. You will ALL love this - it's built for everything from soft and casual gamers to hardcore competitors, and perhaps most importantly, for your friends and family. Ever have a spouse or a good buddy not want to come with you to your gaming weekend? Well, they'll be able to support and drive the crafting of the narrative story and the success of their spouse or friend's assigned faction by participating in a PHOTO SAFARI of Washington, DC on Saturday, September 1, while most 40k attendees are participating in the 4-round day of the GT. This event is an effective guided tour of some of the touristy awesome and local-known-only best spots in DC, one taken by solving the riddles and puzzles of the challenge, and getting your photo taken at the key spots contained within.

Anyway, much more to come ... can't wait for 2012.

Thanks ALL of you for making 2011 the great year it was.

- Mike

NOVA Open 2012 GT Registration Open! Additional Information on GT Schedule and NEW Narrative Event!

2011-12-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

click to enlarge

Good Morning,

Registration for Weekend Badges and the Warhammer 40,000 GT for 2012 is now open.

The NOVA Open occurs from Thursday evening, August 30 through Sunday evening, September 2, 2012.

A huge variety of events and activities is on the offering for this year, and more information for every event will come out as we go forward, such as for Infinity (mentioned a few days ago on the blog).

For Warhammer 40,000, an integrated and comprehensive weekend full of events is available, highlighted by the GT. Some highlights for next year are included below.

Please Carefully Review the Following Flyer for Improvements to the Hyatt Regency Hotel

More Time for Rounds, More Time to Relax

The NOVA Open's schedule for 2012 is much friendlier to the more casual gamer. This combines well with the format we use for pairing and scoring ... further gearing our event toward ALL player types, all within the same event.

The draft schedule at present for the NOVA Open 2012 40k GT is as follows:

Friday, August 31, 2012

Up until 1:30PM, all day check-in and paint judging

2:00PM - 4:30PM - Round 1

5:00PM - 7:30PM - Round 2

Saturday, September 1, 2012

7:30AM - 10:00AM - Round 3

10:30AM - 1:00PM - Round 4

1:00PM - 2:00PM - Lunch break, Bracket Splits and Record Resets

2:00PM - 4:30PM - Round 5

5:00PM - 7:30PM - Round 6

After Round 6, the Final 4 for each bracket advance to Sunday's Final Fours. Renaissance Man will be determined after 6 rounds instead of 8. All players will be able to continue to participate in organized competitive or casual gaming on Sunday morning if they wish, or they can sleep in and enjoy the day, check out DC, or whatever they feel up to. Players no longer in the running for Generalship awards within their bracket will not be required to continue.

So, in a nutshell - 6 rounds mandatory instead of 8, 2:30 minute rounds instead of 2:15, and only a single day of 4 rounds in a day even for Final Four attendees. Plus those in it for Ren Man and the like are evaluated based upon 6 rounds instead of 8.

All 40k All the Time - "Nighthammer" - Integrated Experience

For those of you looking for the most comprehensive and universally appealing 40k experience out there, we're proud to add our night project to the 40k offering. Internally referred to as "Nighthammer" while we finish hammering out details and processes and missions and the rest, this will be a comprehensive all-player-style-integrating 40k experience covering Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, as well as Sunday all day and Saturday during the day for non-GT players.

A couple of highlights to anticipate for "Nighthammer."

- Unique, balanced, fun and interesting scenarios fine-tuned to player styles and narrative gaming

- A weekend-long, club-involving, mass-results-incorporating story unique to the NOVA's style and geographic location ... results of all game styles - from competitive tournament games to casual narrative games to "Gladiator-esque" (ref: AdeptiCon) Apoc-inclusive games - will be incorporated in the overall story

- Custom designed terrain built to the tune of some of Washington DC's most iconic memorials, with table layouts and structures designed to evoke the feel of battling for the future of our nation's capital

- Comprehensive social enhancers ranging from swap meets to drink specials, all designed and aimed at integrating and bringing together players after a long day of gaming for a blast of an evening every single night

Many of the NOVA's "side" 40k tournaments will occur amidst these evening events, including:

- The NOVA Invitational's Round 1 will be Thursday Evening

- The Warhammer 40,000 Trios Team Tournament will occur Thursday and Friday evenings, and Sunday afternoon

- Narrative Singles and Narrative Doubles Gaming will be added covering Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and Sunday afternoon

- Additional offerings and side events, to possibly include 6e if it is released, across the evenings

- Drop in organizer-assisted gaming for all player styles - competitive gamers deployed to square off against other competitive gamers, all the way to hobbyists with gorgeous armies deployed to square off on scenic tables with other hobbyists fielding gorgeous armies

Saturday DC Narrative-Tied Scavenger Hunt

- For hobbyists looking to participate in evening narrative gaming, but not wishing to participate in the GT on Saturday, we'll be building and directing an event through our Nation's Capital during the day on Saturday. The results of this event and the teams sent out for it will have an impact on the continuation of the Narrative Gaming for Saturday evening. Explore the city with missions in mind during the day, and battle across its iconic monuments at night!

Hotel Reservations - Make sure you reserve your hotel rooms now; the weblink is on the NOVA Open's frontpage. We'll be once again holding our multi-thousand-dollar hotel cash raffle, and you get more raffle tickets the earlier you reserve your rooms.

There's a GREAT deal more information to come on the NOVA Open 2012, so stay tuned to the website, facebook, blog, twitter, forums and more as we move forward for the best NOVA Open ever!

A Note on Scarab Freak-Outs

2011-11-29T07:39:00.000-08:00

I have no affiliation with the Southern California Adventure Racing Buddies ... but the organization's name is funny.

Hey all,

Just a quick PSA that the probability is nearly 100% that any major FAQ and tournament out there is going to confirm all scarab swarms spawned in a given turn are spawned at the same time, and thus cannot be placed more than 2" from any scarab swarm base that was there at the beginning of the turn.

So, while some of you out there are laughing and playtesting away with the ability to create the Scarab conga line of doom ... it's not actually going to be something you can do at tournaments unless GW specifically FAQs that you CAN. That's to say - even if GW doesn't FAQ that question in its Necron FAQ, it will still be played per the above in any major GT you attend (INAT, NOVA FAQ, whatever) once all is said and done.

So ... I strongly encourage the pointless arguing to stop, and the playtesting and playing to occur at a more normal pace. It's just silliness.

Re: Entropic Strike timing ... I play it as it is written, which is to say the armor reduction is applied immediately following the hit (and therefore prior to the armor penetration roll, which is separate from the roll to hit). This makes Scarabs even more exceptional against vehicles of all sorts ... but freaking out over this isn't probably a necessary thing.

Necron actively struggle with ranged anti-tank, and Scarabs oddly enough ARE ranged anti-tank (in that they can rapidly and effectively disable or damage multiple tanks in the early phases of the game, in a way that does not expose critical units to counter-punches, and in a way that doesn't take until Turn 5 to be applied, a la Tyranid Monstrous Creatures). If you significantly reduce the effectiveness of Scarabs with overreactive FAQs or "homebrew" "this must be what they meant" playstyles, you'll quickly find Necron struggling against top tier "parking lot" armies. A handful of single shot Eldritch Lances walking around ... a couple of over-priced over-fragile Triarch Stalker shots and some AP- Annihilation Barge fire is going to kill a tank or three, but it's not going to level the playing field against 9-Chimera/3-Vendetta melta-spamming IG lists ... or Razorback and Long Fang spamming wolf lists. Necron need Scarabs to better build them for all comers win-loss tournament play. Blame the odd design choices in the rest of the Codex if you wish ... or lament the more mandatory nature of the unit ... but take care not to try and eliminate the only super-reliable option they have by over-home-FAQ'ing or over-complaining ... b/c you'll wind up with a lot of unhappy Necron players excoriated for "just taking scarabs like everyone else" or nerfed into Tyranid/Demon levels of Codex struggle against the broad field of an all-comers tournament.

Just my $.02

Infinity is Coming to NOVA 2012

2011-11-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

We are pleased to announce the addition of Infinity to the games played at the NOVA Open. Infinity will make its entry at the NOVA Open 2012 with a 16-person Infinity ITS tournament run over two days. We will be using missions from the Infinity Campaign book due for early 2012 release.

What is Infinity?

Infinity is a 28mm miniatures skirmish game simulating combat and special operations in the near future. Infinity’s miniatures exhibit a futuristic aesthetic characterized by high levels of detail and dynamic poses. In addition to free, downloadable rules, there is a detailed wiki available for those looking to learn more about the game and universe.

What if I’m already signing up for another big event at NOVA?

We’ve organized the schedule so participants can play in both the Infinity tournament and other events, including Warmachine/Hordes, the Warhammer Fantasy GT and the Warhammer 40k GT. The first two rounds of the Infinity tournament will be played on Friday morning, August 30th. The Final Four will then play on Sunday afternoon in Rounds 3 and 4. We will use a similar “Day 2 Brackets” style to the NOVA Open Warhammer 40k GT, ensuring players compete meaningfully for prizes and recognition on the 2nd day of the event. This system earned high praise at the NOVA Open 2011, and we will continue that trend and many of the same themes of fairness and reward for all player types with Infinity events at the NOVA 2012.

We will also be running demo events over the course of the weekend. Have a friend who’s playing in the 40K/Fantasy/Warmachine/Malifaux/Flames of War events that’s interested in learning about Infinity? Bring them over to the demo table, and we’ll be glad to show them how it’s played.

What else?

Tickets for the event will go on sale January 1, 2012. Tickets will allow you to game on both days of the Infinity tournament, as well as put your name in for the results of Corvus Belli’s ITS system. Prize support will be generous, coming from a wide variety of sources and sponsors.

If you’re new to Infinity or a seasoned veteran, sign up for the first NOVA Open Infinity Tournament and test your skills!

Personal Reflections - Codex: Necrons, quickhits

2011-11-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

Well,

After a lot of playtesting and vassal and brainstorming and the like, I figured I'd do a quick rundown on how I feel about each unit, and where my lists are at personally right now.

Necron were my very first 40k army since returning to the game from a brief bit of playing in High School. So, I had a bunch of Necron models lying around, and we've gotten a fair # of games in here and there, plus via Vassal.

Anrakyr the Traveler - This is my favorite HQ. He's cost appropriate for what he does, works just fine in a Command Barge, and his "vehicle control" is actually reliable (in a way that something like Chanegling never was). Movement talented players will find using Overlords w/ Scythes in Command Barges pretty simple, and they're pretty darned useful to have around. Anrakyr is the best of these, though you don't want to do any other special character in a barge.

Most important thing to consider when weighing him vs. other Overlords is Anrakyr in a Barge =
1 unit of Immortals gets SLIGHTLY better; this actually can be semi-useful in a larger unit w/ a warscythe lord attached for your "advance" troops ... they aren't going to fight anything especially dangerous any better than regular Necrons, in that they are going to die horribly, but S5 attacks and a warscythe will allow them to punch most basic marine type units in the face pretty good (Esp. led off by tesla carbines). Don't underestimate this in a list built with it a little bit in mind.

An Overlord w/ Warscythe, Barge, Tachyon Arrow is 210 points
Anrakyr w/ Warscythe, Barge, Tachyone Arrow, Control Vehicles, Buffed Immortals is 245 points

Can you find 35 points in many lists to give you the power to control things like Psyfleman dreads at least once in a game, and to slightly (ever so slightly) improve one of your Immortal squads? Um, yeah.

Imotekh - There are a lot of internet know-it-alls out there posting in as contrarian and loud a fashion possible about how awful Imotekh is ... chillax please. His lightning bolts are plenty relevant and useful for a long-range-meh army, night fight is valuable and replaces one Cryptek's worth of points (55) plus a 2nd overlord to enable a 2nd Cryptek, and of course this means you can keep that "Turn 5 backfield objective protection" solar pulse for Turn 5 either way. He's not over costed because of this, though he only works in certain lists. You lose a Scythe Command Barge by having him, but you do gain Phaeron. His lightning bolts are absolutely worth a single Eldritch Lance, and his night fight is stronger than a single Solar Pulse in lists that aren't long-range-shooting intensive at all. Take out 55 for the Eldritch Cryptek w/ Pulse he replaces, and take out the Phaeron you'd buy in a list with a Phaeron'ed unit, and you're looking at a 150 point Overlord with 2+/3++. It's fine. Just don't put him in lists simply because ... put him in lists he belongs in.

Most of the other lords and such - Trazyn has some value, and his value will increase when 6th rolls around and Deathmarks become better (scoring Deathmarks that doubletap on the move, thanks). The rest of these special characters kinda suck, as far as I'm concerned. Nemesor's abilities are fun but I don't think you'll see a lot of good use out of him ... he doesn't have the same pros as Imotekh, but still costs more than an overlord would, and doesn't have a warscythe ... so you lose the value of command barge flybys.

Speaking of which,

Command Barges - These suckers are your win-machines. Hidden power fists, meltaguns, psycannons, sanguinary priests, Coteaz, and a million other things are perpetually at a 50/50 chance of being allocate one-shot without a save when a fast AV13 skimmer 24"'s over their heads. Scarabs will roll over 10-man marine squads with a fist ... if you flyby gank the fist first. You'll be able to dakka down FNP BA ... if you cut down the Priest. Two command barges gives you 6 swings, to boot. We already know they gank tanks just fine with their +2d6 rear armor hits, but the key to these units is their ability to single out giant pains in the ass for Necron ... hidden pfists, sanguinary priests, coteaz, etc.

There are obviously plenty of times where you aren't going to be able to just run your Barge over enemies ... they aren't going to let you, or you won't be able to without sacrificing your lord inherently to the return fire, etc. It is often a good idea to give the Lord a Tach arrow, to have one of the lords be Anrakyr, and to enjoy having just a couple more Tesla shots on a durable platform. This sucker is a great unit ... and its mechanics amplify with player skill in a very gratifying way.

Crypteks - These guys are good for Eldritch Lances on backfield scoring warrior units, and for Solar Pulses. If you want to get creative and do other things with them, be my guest, but that should be reserved for the player types that really don't need my input. 2 Crypteks means you can solar pulse away your opponent's alpha strike ... and also means you can do it twice in a pinch, or protect your backfield scorers from lategame firepower to clear them from objectives ... probably the most overlooked advantage by the average player. They also of course couple with 3+ cover and small sizes to protect Scarabs from a desperate alphastrike by opponents who really don't want their psyback spamming, dreadspamming lists to get disintegrated by them.

Lords - There's nothing wrong with a warscythe lord in a unit or two, especially if you wind up with a furious counter-attacking immortal unit ... which suddenly gives you a power fist that doesn't go at I1, and helps ensure your wussy immortals can actually win a midfield combat against a marine-heavy force on rare occasions ... this can actually come in handy if you are facing something like blood angel jumper spam w/ a few priests, b/c these types of armies can get up in your face, murder whatever vehicles you have with melta, and FNP through your teslatorrent ... whereupon you have warscythe barges to target some priests, a lord with a scythe in an immortal unit to suicide target via base-2-base another priest, etc. etc. You won't use these nearly as often as a few Crypteks of course.

Elite

This section of the FOC is the one upon which the largest dumperoonie was taken. It is not strong.

Triarch Stalker - This sucker is ... well, not very good. Open topped AV13 with a 2 shot 24" missile launcher. Yes, it's AP1, I know ... but it's not a two-shot multi-melta in the way it would be for an army like marines, and it's on a vehicle. In order for it to be anything more than a very expensive double-missile dreadnaught, you need to be within 12" of your target ... which means you're readily target-able by return melta fire from a huge array of armies out there, and your own vehicle is extremely fragile.

It is additionally expensive enough and unique enough in the dex that any kind of opposing ranged anti-tank fire is going to be leveled at these guys ASAP, should their firepower actually be threatening in the first place. They're too expensive, they don't shoot very hard, and they twin-link an army's worth of equally lame long-range traditional anti-tank fire ... whoop dee doo. Don't try to build a max-long-range-shooting army with Necron, or you will end up disappointed in Necron.

Praetorians - 1 attack, I2 and no invul on assault jump infantry? Blah. These are crap.

Lychguard - It would make so much sense if they shuffled some things about between this selection and the one prior. Give Lychguard jump packs, and enable them to hitch a ride on a command barge in squads of 5 ... or swap weaponry and gear around so Lychguard are simply jump-capable, and Praetorians have a longer range AP2 shooting attack that's a power weapon, as a counter-assault-capable unit that can actually fire while trudging along the board.

The problems with both of these units are related to the really awful dedicated transports Necron have ... but I'll hit that up when I cover Dedicated Transports.

Deathmarks - I suspect these will be amazing in 6th edition. For now they are crap.

Flayed One - Call me crazy, but for cheap I can actually see taking a squad or two of these and outflanking them to attack long fangs and/or tie down gundreads and other sorts of shenanigans. They really aren't all that expensive for 15 S4 attacks on the charge, even though they are really easy to kill, and Ld10 + RP will occasionally help you stick around for a combat or two that you lose by a model or two. These are "bad" in the same way Mandrakes are bad, and good in the same ways ... and as such there's actually occasionally reason to take them, especially since there's nothing else in the barren wasteland of Necron Elites. If for some reason you feel like having a few affordable models in your list that can outflank into someone's backfield ... go ahead. I haven't been finding myself with spare points to include a squad in most of my list builds, so please don't translate this to me saying Flayed Ones are good. I just think people will put them to good use if they have 5-10 of them in a handful of list archetypes.

C'tan Shard - 3 Psyfledreads statistically kill 1 with a round of fire. Lots of people have 3 psyfledreads. You can only put the ranged anti-tank weapon on one of them, for an absurd points cost. They still use really tall impossible-to-easily-hide models. They cost a crapton. They are WAY less durable as a result of T7. No, it won't matter as much for the weapons that need 6's to wound T7 or T8, and I'm not talking about lasguns. I'm talking about multilasers, psycannons, psybolt razorbacks, missile launchers, autocannons, psybolt autocannons, lascannons, plasmaguns, plasma cannons, plasma rifles, meltaguns, grenade launchers, hell WHATEVER .... every attack in the game S6-S9 just got better against C'tan, and that's a huge quantity of the current metagame's firepower and combat power. AND if you want them to e very good at all, they really didn't drop in price all that much. When I heard you could take 3 C'tan I was excited, b/c I love monstrous creatures. When their points and stats came out I was very disappointed. Fortunately, the Heavy Support section would save me later on.

Troops

Warriors - These guys are cheaper, but they are dramatically weaker. They still are effectively very short-ranged, and their firepower is not all that effective (Even with gauss) unless they are in large #'s and attached to a Phaeron. I'm not saying you can't do this, but I think they're kind of an underwhelming unit in all respects if you want them to be offensive at all. The best use for Warriors right now = filling out your Troops in points-restrictive builds with 65 point scoring units that you can hide in backfield and/or attach lances to. Most opponents won't be able to take focus off Scarabs and Spyders to kill them, and if you think they will just reserve those units.

Immortals - Unfortunately there's no strong ranged anti-tank in Troop for Necron, and this applies to Immortals as well, but Tesla Carbines are extremely good anti-infantry firepower, and the Assault nature of the weapons is a very important component to keeping your Immortals out of combat longer w/out losing firepower in the process. This also obviously combines with the assault nature of Eldritch Lances when you take a few to up your "hope I get lucky and hurt a tank" firepower.

Personally I've been enjoying taking 2 larger Immortal sqauds and 4 minimum warrior squads for scoring, though sometimes it's more 4 immortals / 2 warriors ... all very list dependent.

Dedicated Transports

Night Scythes - So Night Scythes are how you get Tesla Destructors when you use your Heavies on "NOT Annihilation Barges." Night Scythes are also how you contest objectives and periodically try to transport small squads to objectives. Night Scythes are just plain AWFUL as dedicated transports. Fragile, easy to see (They will indubitably be on the large valk flyer bases), hard to cover, and with 24" range firepower ... they're everything bad about Twin-Assault Cannon Razorbacks, but even worse in that they knock their occupants back to reserve when they are killed, are less likely to have cover while also being able to fire, etc. They also of course cost 100 points, which is pretty damned pricey for such a fragile platform. You're paying for some really weird crap here ... like 12" to move and shoot all with a vehicle that only has 1 weapon, the ability to move 36" (but no better cover save for it), and a fancy transport option that they really didn't think through. Even giving the option to "emergency disembark" with a dangerous test or something when it's killed would have been a perfectly fine fix, i.e. as the aircraft is going down the Necrons leap through the portal .... but the way it is now makes it not wise to ever use it to carry things unless you desperately need to race after an objective or something. Still, they have twin-linked Telsa Destructors, and twin-linked Tesla Destructors rock (Will talk about with Barges).

Ghost Ark - Look, I know some people are all about these, but ... a 115 point slow-moving melta-fragile open-topped transport with NO meaningful firepower whatsoever and whose occupants at best are going to have a single S8 shot at absurd points investment (at least 215 net points for 5 warriors + lance cryptek + Ark) ... is TERRIBLE. YES, they create this durable scoring unit ... but you're just as durable walking on from reserve with 5 dudes and hiding behind a wall or something near an objective, and walking over to it late with help from your 2nd Solar Pulse to keep from getting shot off. It's not like if a blood angel army full of meltaguns or something is in your lines ... you're going to somehow be just fine hiding in your ark. There are some rumors that point to being able to score ONLY from within OPEN TOPPED TRANSPORTS in 6e ... and look, that's cool, but Necron aren't wanting to score from inside their transports right now anyway, because their transports are pretty bad, and way too expensive. Pass. Deal with being afoot, and having lots of high pressure units to advance at someone, and having good suppressive and anti-infantry firepower, and learning to keep units not in transports alive. Not that hard. Bandaiding bad playing/moving skills with 115 point quasi-durable transports = not wise.

Fast Attack

This is the money slot in the dex, IMO

Canoptek Wraiths - Wound allocatable, affordable units with solid WS/BS, S6 shooting attacks, lots of S6 rending attacks, multi-wound, jump back moving, terrain ignoring badasses. Many, many lists are completely justified taking a unit of 6, or a unit of 6 with particle casters, and letting them do their thing. They also make a legitimate "mini" deathstar in that they are FEARLESS, which is huge. Unless they FAQ entropic strikes to the end of the phase or end of combat swings or end of initiative step, they are also an excellent support unit for multi-charging scarabs in a pinch ... it's one thing to throw a bunch of scarab bases at vehicles with S3 against "I hope I reduce each vehicle enough" ... but it's another thing to have a bunch of equally multi-chargeable S6 multi-attack bases coupled in with that roll on reduced armor in case you whiff your entropic rolls on a few of your targets.

HERE'S an important tangent point. The Necron army has a ton of good anti-infantry firepower ... enough to punch a hole in most bubblewrap with relative ease. It also has units in Scarabs and Wraiths that are very fast moving and also very good at racing forward, multi-charging and instantly ganking or disabling large #'s of vehicles all at once. The traditional sound logic that "close combat to kill vehicles" is bad DOES NOT apply to Necron. You can do it on Turns 1 and 2, you can do it from a long distance away, and you can do it without sacrificing any of your anti-infantry firepower, large #'s of points, or scoring units. This is so dramatically different from every other codices' "close combat anti-tank" that you need to consider it, play around with it, and give it a shot.

Canoptek Scarabs - Akin to the above point, Scarabs are the heavy lifting anti-armor of the codex. Tachyon Arrows and Lances and Wraiths and Spyders in a pinch may let you deal with things like Land Raiders, but Scarabs are what let you deal with vehicle-spam armies quite readily. They are also amazing vs. dreads. They are also quite durable and fine against marine units that aren't force weapon or power fist enabled (and as above mentioned, Command Barges can pretty reliably help you deal with the power fist issue). One of the things to note here is that they will as often crush the odds as fail them vs. marines, b/c of the sheer # of dice and attacks you roll ... 10 scarabs charging 9 marines who just lost their powerfist (even grey hunters) are going to throw 50 attacks, 25 hits, and about 8 wounds ... and 9 counter-attacking grey hunters will throw 15 attacks for 10 hits and 6.67 wounds ... and you're going to get the charge on them reliably. This is a combat the Scarabs will invariably win, but they are just as capable of throwing 10 or 12 or 15 wounds w/ that charge ... and if they t hrow 0 you really don't care, b/c you lose 2-3 bases at most after res and the rest are done. These guys are tank maulers ... and they are MULTI-CHARGE kings due to their charge range and base size ... it's not unusual for a movement master to pull off multis against 3-4 rhino hulls despite an opponent spreading them some, and to kill or disable all 3-4 on one charge with a healthy 8-14-model Scarab unit (depending on Spyder spawns). It's also not hard to bang holes in even durable bubble wrap when you have a 12" charge to take advantage of whatever holes are made.

Tomb Blades - I never find room for these in my lists due to Scarabs/Wraiths, but they are plenty fine units for their points and firepower. Sad kinda. Crammed Fast Attack.

Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers - Similar to Tomb Blades in terms of rationale for not taking. Unfortunately Necron are too expensive to try and make a traditional "shooty" list with ... 3 x 3 Heavy Destroyers and 3 Triarch Stalkers = 990 points, and your firepower is pretty crappy and fragile at that ... 630 for 3 stalkers and 3 solo heavy d's ... still bad. Stop trying to build Necron this way, you will be disappointed.

Necron are much more like what Nids would be if Raveners were 15 points with a 3+ cover save, and had entropic strike, and you could take like 10 in a squad. Everybody would take a shitton of Raveners, and screw "all you have is Hive Guard" when you can chuck that many tank-murdering wounds across the board lickety-split. You also would not bother trying to shoehorn in crappy overpriced super fragile ranged-anti-tank Harpies ... or crappy overpriced ranged anti-tank Tyrannofexes. Starting to feel me?

Heavy Support

I like the HS slots here ... lots of the units are interesting or worth taking

Canoptek Spyder - Killa Kanz, but cheaper and way more durable and easier to give cover to and better in combat and not one-shottable and wound allocatable and able to create 15 point scarab bases and can't burn out (Even though they can take wounds) and quite capable of running over several of the things that scare Necron combat wise. Plus they are great places to hide valuable characters you don't want to run away or go anywhere.

Spyders are the absolute badasses of the dex. They are slow as crap, they won't fight anything until late game, but so what? 6-9 spyders will break the back of most opponents and what they have left in a close game, and they'll power up your scarab swarms to stupid levels early game. Anyone who has played the 26 vehicle ork list, shot the crap out of it for 4 turns, laughed at someone trudging across the board with it, and then confusedly wondered what happened to their army at the bottom of turn 6 while staring at a couple of banged up Kanz wandering around in their backfield ... well, Spyders are going to do the same sort of thing for Necron armies that you shoot up and laugh at for 4 turns, only to suddenly have yourself broken in half with a bunch of wounded Spyders wandering around in your backfield. These are "win-loss tournament" Necron armies' wet dream. They are, in the same vein, terrible in battle point / massacre tournaments, b/c very often they'll only really help seal a close game, ensure a win, etc., vs. race forward and clear a board or shoot someone away. If you are one of the handful of very inaccurate internet players who believe 40k is simply a shooting game ... well, I can understand why you wouldn't like Spyders. I can also understand when you blame your tournament losses on bad dice, or when you base your opinion upon winning at your store all the time or having a "mostly good" tourney win-loss record, etc. This isn't meant to be inciteful of angry retort from said player type ... just insightful about Spyders. They are great.

Annihilation Barges - If you have slots not used on Spyders, or an army build that doesn't at all work with Spyders, these puppies are cheap, durable, and hit really really really hard. Pick up a few dice, and start rolling twin-linked tesla destructors against ... oh ... Rhino chassis, and Venom chassis, and the like. I need say no more.

Doomsday Ark - Awful. Unreliable, inaccurate large blasts on platforms that can't move to fire them and are probably also going to be low enough to the ground that crap's going to persistently be in the way, forcing you to move and reducing you to a S7 attack that's worse than a twin-tesla-destructor. Apply warscythes and scarabs to land raiders, torrent to terminators, and don't take one of these expensive crappy things.

Monolith - I'm sadface about the Monolith. It used to have the Doomsday Ark's large blast, but better ... Ordnance that can be fired on the move and is S9 AP1 under the hole (which, if you're shooting vehicles, was always all that mattered ... you either missed and were S4 so who cares, or you hit and the hole was over the target, so it was AP1). The gauss on it was nerfed badly, the main gun was nerfed badly (no more ordnance, no more S9, no more AP1 even under hole, etc.), the teleportation capabilities were nerfed badly, the durability was nerfed horribly ... should I continue? This went from great to crap. You could still take a trio of them and hope you run into someone so "meta" they go without melta ... or something ... in their Imperial army, I guess ... but even other Necron armies are going to laugh you off the board with things like ... scarabs ... and stuff.

Doom Scythe - The best anti-whatever gun in the game, bar none ... on a flying razorback that sits where cover isn't really possible, and doesn't have something machine spirit like to enable firing while maintaining a cover save ... and that costs a LOT of points. These are cool, but putting them to good use is going to be more a matter of hoping your opponent is stupid or fails dice rolls against it ... than a matter of you being able to skillfully apply it. I wish you could pay even a significant quantity of points to turn the Triarch Stalker's Heat Ray into a Death Ray. C'est la vie.

Such is my unit review. Here's the most recent list I playtested with ...

Anrakyr the Traveler - 165

Catacomb Command Barge - 80

Overlord w/ Warscythe, Sempiternal Weave (2+) - 115

Catacomb Command Barge - 80

Royal Court - Cryptek w/ Lance, Solar Pulse; Cryptek w/ Lance; Lord w/ Warscythe, Mindshackle - 150

Royal Court - Cryptek w/ Lance, Solar Pulse; Cryptek w/ Lance

10 Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines, Pyrrhian Eternals - 170

10 Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines - 170

5 Warriors - 65

5 Warriors 65

(Lord attaches to Pyrrians for QuartersVP, "most" advanced unit - still not crazy about CC)

(Crypteks attach to 10 Immortals for late-game pulse holder, and 3 warrior units, with 1 warrior unit typically in reserve for backfield scoring / staying safe)

10 Scarabs - 150

Annihilation Barge - 90

Just my $.02 as ever ... I'm no smarter or savvier than most of the other decent gamers out there, but I hope it's been helpful to some, or conversationally provocative to others!

NOVA Open 2012 - Date and Initial Announcement, Registration Opens Dec 1, 40k Event Initial Round-Up

2011-11-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

Click for a larger view.

The flyer above went out last night to all NOVA Open registrants from last year. We're planning on opening registration on December 1, to give people as much lead time as possible for acquiring cheap plane tickets, making proper travel arrangements, etc.

There are a number of changes coming in 2012, and a number of improvements. It's in our fundamental mission and set of goals to always make the next year better in all ways than the year prior. We'll be sticking to that for 2012.

Take careful note of the various comments on the flyer - while we are returning to the Hyatt in 2012 (our biggest source of mixed reviews), we've teamed with them to address nearly every major concern from 2011 ... from beer prices to cell phone reception, they've pulled out all the stops.

The 40k GT will likely be moving to a different format ... based on user comments and thoughts, and on the notion of giving people more time and more relaxation, and not burning people out quite so much.

The GT is looking to start later on Friday afternoon, to give locals a chance to simply take off work a little early, and give travelers the chance to arrive on Friday instead of Thursday PM if they need to, and still make the start of the GT. The first two rounds will occur on Friday night, with the 3rd and 4th rounds on Saturday morning before the Lunch break. During Lunch, we'll split down to brackets just like last year after Round 4, with Rounds 5 and 6 being the first two rounds of the sub-brackets.

Renaissance Man will be determined by 6 rounds, instead of 8. More importantly, only the Final Four for each bracket will be required to play on Sunday morning. Continuation of a wide variety of evening trios, unique and narrative events from Thursday-Saturday will combine with Sunday only events to give 40k players not in each bracket's Final Four a huge range of competitive and casual gaming opportunities to continue throughout Sunday.

Narrative Gaming
The NOVA crew is busily working on a fully developed narrative gaming experience for the entirety of the NOVA Open. The Narrative track will be woven in among a variety of events in the weekend, and the overarching story will be built with a "setting" of Washington, DC. Our Minister of Terrain is busy planning with us to actually build out a variety of tables matching our nation's capital, and incorporating scale / half-scale versions of some of the most iconic monuments and landmarks of the city.

Narrative gamers will not only be able to participate in a unique, finely-tuned (we've been working on the framework for this quietly for a couple of years) gaming experience ... they'll also be able to participate in Washington, DC "scaveger" style competitions throughout the city during some of the days of the event. These excursions will directly impact and tie in with the overall gaming narrative.

There'll be more on the narrative opportunities at the NOVA as we move further, but expect an awesome product for those looking to take a less competitive, more immersive approach to their participation in NOVA 2012.

Longer Rounds, Food Lines, Extended Breaks are all things we're finalizing to help ease your experience and strengthen your ability to finish rounds, and be less stressed in getting around to your next games.

Note - Less $$ - Some of the biggest keynotes you should take from the Flyer are: Hotel Room Nights from $110 -> $85/night; Daily parking from $25 -> $12.50/day; Internet from $10 -> $5/day; Cell Reception installed throughout hotel, including gaming space; $4 beer.

Flames of War, Infinity, Expanded Fantasy and Warmachine/Hordes, Seminars, A Full Independent Painting Competition

It's important to the NOVA that we expand into something more than a 40k event with smaller side events. Warmachine and Hordes will be expanding to 64 slots, Fantasy will be expanding to 64 slots and will be adding weekend-long gaming events and opportunities. We are finalizing plans to add a 32 player Flames of War tournament. We've begun discussions with Corvus Belli to bring fully supported Infinity gaming to the NOVA.

There'll be much more to come in the next few weeks. Looking forward to seeing all of you back, and plenty of new faces for the NOVA Open 2012, which will be the biggest and best NOVA yet. Please continue to keep an eye on the website, the blog, the forums, and more as we get closer to next year's NOVA ... your input has always shaped how we build our events and plan our formats, and it will continue to be used as such.

Infinity, Flames of War, Terrain, Appearance, Warmachine/Hordes, Fantasy, and More Will All Be Blogged About This Year. Our various event heads are all signed on to participate in the blog, our newsletter, and the website; look forward to all of these subjects being discussed informatively, and in discussions for your feedback.

That's it for my "off the cuff" initial notice!
- Mike

Texas Update

2011-11-07T12:24:00.001-08:00

Drinking in Roanoke tonight, the stockyards on Tuesday night and the East Side of Dallas on Thursday night.

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Texas oh Texas

2011-11-07T06:56:00.001-08:00

I'll be in Texas M-F this week. Will be working on some quality blog posts as time allows. Anyone residing within the DFW area or in reach of it feel free to let me know and we'll grab lunch or drinks or something.

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Feast of Blades UStream

2011-11-06T05:23:00.001-08:00

All

I meant to get this up sooner, but it's just been one of those weeks. Passing of close ones and all.

Chandler spent a lot of time on the phone with me and undoubtedly many others leading up to the Feast this year, whose invitational component has a lot of elements that will remind the average viewer of NOVA and AdeptiCon in both missions and format. All signs point to Feast being an annually excellent event, so keep it in mind.

Some well known players are going at it over there right now; check out their ustream:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/feast-of-blades-top-table

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NOVA Open 2012 - Brewings and ... Details Soon

2011-10-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update for you all.

It's looking possible that NOVA Open 2012 will be Labor Day weekend 2012, for a variety of reasons - August 30-September 2 or so.

Dramatic improvements on all fronts, and an increase in the # and variety of events offered are all in the finalization to development stages.

Expect a significant offering as well for more casual and narrative loving gamers, as well as seminars and the addition of major painting competitions for pure hobbyists. There's a TON in work, but we're getting close to formal announcements.

NOVA Brewfest Fall 2011 and New Necron Thoughts

2011-10-22T06:55:00.001-07:00

Well today is the Fall version of the NOVA Brewfest. This is a biannual reliably awesome good time outdoors with music food and of course brewze. I'm a little under the weather so will be the light drinker of the crew today ... but there are still a good handful of highly touted consumables I'll be targeting with my limited "under the weather" tolerance.

New Necron are going to pose an interesting conundrum for the 40k metagame/community as a whole in that they are like to be a finesse army. The nature of scarabs and relatively anti-tank-incapable Troops that also get rolled in combat and ride expensive or strangely operating transports will combine to force players seeking broad Necron success to master the movement phase and its nuances more than ever before.

Can you effectively apply entropy to enough vehicles in vehicle spamming armies to make your warriors anti-tank capable and thus compensate for the very Tyranid-like dearth of FOC-wide reliable ranged anti-tank? Can you master the movement phase well enough to keep your troops out of combat yet also in play on the board for widespread objective grabbing?

The dex will be a very potent one in the right hands, but trust it will be the precise opposite of GK's "point psyflemen psybacks and dca's at things" playstyle.

I'll be drinking brewskis but I'm interested in what the more focused among you has begun to think about how Necron can play ... I know I've already ordered tomb spyders and scarabs off ebay to supplement my existing collection.

Necron were ny first army, and I've been waiting for a new dex to inspire me off Strakenguard. Here's hoping ...

Mike

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Necronballs - For anyone who hasn't seen it yet

2011-10-14T11:24:00.001-07:00

New Necron releasing formally on the 5th of November looks like. The new Necron Lord looks kinda re-re- tho.

Other of the Necron leaks accumulated here, with first cred to Beasts of War: http://natfka.blogspot.com/2011/10/leaked-necron-pics-are-here.html

My personal fave so far is the Overlord (one on left; one on right I believe is a Cryptek):

Hey Jawaballs!

2011-10-13T12:58:00.001-07:00

This is my payback for the scurrilously photoshopped image he provided of me in the following BOLS post:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/10/40k-battle-for-salvation-gt-jawa-report.html

IT'S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG. I HEARD SANGUINOR TOUCHED YOU IN NAUGHTY PLACES WHEN YOU SLEPT!

Love ya Chris,
- Mike

Battle for Salvation Day 2 Bat Reps - Gold Bracket / Finals

2011-10-12T14:05:00.000-07:00

Alright, to continue ...

After my Round 1 loss, I successfully fought back up into the "Gold" / Championship bracket for the BFS. I scored well on sports and appearance, and earned nearly all possible quarters/objectives/vp in rounds 2-4, so I knew I had a "shot" at Best Overall. Best Overall was determined at BFS based purely upon the first 5 rounds, after which players were eliminated and Ren Man / Overall scoring ceased. So, I had to win my first round in the Gold Bracket.

My opponent was to be Jorge Ruiz, a fairly successful BA player from the NE region, and a NOVA Invitational attendee.

Let me refresh on my list:

Company Command Squad w/ Straken, 2 Meltas, Reg Standard, Med Kit, 2 Bodyguard, Astro
Dozer Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer

Marbo

5 x Vets w/ 3 Melta, Shotguns, Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer

3 x Vendetta

Jorge was running the following:

Mephiston
Reclusiarch with I forget what

Sanguinary Priest w/ Power Weapon
5 x TH/SS Terminators

Death Company x 7 w/ Power Fist, Power Weapon, Rhino
9 Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Power Fist or Weapon (I don't know), Rhino
5 Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Twin-Linked Ass Can Razorback
5 Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Twin-Linked Ass Can Razorback

2 x Speeders w/ MM/HF

2 x Autolas Predators

This is actually more of a nightmare style list for me than I really want to deal with, for the simple reason that if he can get his Death Company, Assault Squad w/ Priest, and Mephiston across the board at me ... they in addition to an "I'll probably cross just fine" Mephiston were going to ruin my day, especially in the mission. I have a lot of meltaguns, and Straken can handle A squad/threat just fine, but when you hit me with 5 deep striking th/ss terminators *and* Mephiston *and* death company w/ a reclusiarch *and* a full assault squad ... well, things get hairy in a big damned hurry. Alex Fennell used this very fact against me last year at the BFS to nearly take me down in the Semi-Finals.

SOOOOO ... onto the game. Dawn of War / Kill Points, and I forget who won the roll but I went first.

Al'Rahem and Marbo reserved b/c they were required to
Straken and his 5 Chimera Vet guard rolled on Turn 1 on the left side of the board. The 3 Vendettas "fast moved" on, relying on cover saves and dawn of war to stay safe.

Jorge banked perhaps on Al'Rahem not arriving on Turn 2, so he rolled onto the board with everything but his Speeders (simple reserved) and his Terminators (deep striking). He put one rhino (assault marines) and one razorback (assault marines) in front of a 2 wide / 3 deep choo choo cover train, doing his best to place the middle LOS blocking terrain (a bastion in this case) in between my Chimeras/Vendettas and him. He put his Autolas predators in the back, with the 2nd razorback and the death company rhino in the middle. Hmm, I'd better make a Vassal image here ...

So the problem for Jorge here is Al'Rahem arrived on the Top of 2. My 2 left-most Vendettas skiffed upfield some to get open sideshots, my central Vendetta skiffed right some, my Chimeras adjusted a little, and Al'Rahem came on in the bottom right corner, with open Multilaser shots on the side of his back Rhino (Death Company) and back right (from my perspective) Pred.

9 Multilaser shots can be surprisingly reliable, and they were so here, getting just open shots on the back pred and blowing a Lascannon off, and on the Death Company Rhino. I shot the DC Rhino first with them, and wrecked it, spilling the DC out so that they were closer to Al'Rahem than to my core ... trouble for the DC in this sense. I also immobilized the lead right Assault Marine rhino (9-man + Priest) and Vendetta fire wrecked the back left (from my perspective) Predator.

This left him with a lascannon down on one pred, two assault cannon razorbacks alive and well, an immobilized rhino, a dead death company rhino, and a dead pred. Mephiston is there in the back.

In Jorge's Bottom 2 he decided he could / would try to get 6 kill points by balls to the wall'ing it at Al'Rahem and company. Mephiston wing and ran through the ruins and avoided dangerous terrain successfully. The Death Company walked and ran straight at Al in the bottom right corner. The Assault Marines got out and joined in, also running across midfield toward Al.

One of two speeders arrived, as did the Terminators. He plopped the Terminators down between Al and the Chimera core, hoping to help further box him in. The speeder came on my far right, his far left edge, and knocked out one of Al's infantry chimeras with a solid long range multi-melta shot.

His Assault Cannon razorbacks moved up to the middle, and shot along with the preds for a net damage result of blowing a lascannon off my middle Vendetta, which I was naturally quite alright with.

On Top 3, I huddled further back in the corner with Al'Rahem and prepped to fire Multilasers off at more kill points (like the newly arrived speeder), and kept the guardsmen who were knocked out of Chimera in a position along the edge right side back, to further kite the Death Company out of material position (other than chasing Al and company).

Multilaser fire succeeded in immobilizing the newly arrived Speeder where it would do no more harm, and Vendetta fire succeeded in knocking out the other Predator.

Bottom 3 Jorge perils'ed Mephiston on boxcars, and walked him upfield a little more. His Death Company, Assault Marines, and Terminators further trudged toward Al, but my shuffle back had kept me at least another turn out of any kind of charge range, and everything ran rather slowly. His assault cannon razorbacks both sped up right into my face and popped smoke, hoping to get out and cause trouble in bottom 4.

His 2nd speeder arrived on Bottom 3 also, but missed with its Multi-Melta at its target Vendetta.

Top 4 I adjusted Straken and the Veteran core to unload a bunch of meltas on the newly arrived Razorbacks, shuffled Al back just a tiny bit further, and aimed my "only 2 left" Vendetta lascannons at Mephiston, who was stuck in the open. This Vendetta earned its worth well above and beyond the call, and plinked both Lascannons successfully into the exposed Mephiston, dropping him to 2 wounds left. The other 2 were too far away from that side of the board to shoot at him, so took aim at his Land Speeder and Assault Cannon Razorbacks, and succeeded in doing absolutely nothing (cover does work sometimes). Between multilasers, heavy flamers, meltaguns, and the like, I de-meched one of his assault squads and blew the assault cannon off his other razoback. My Al multilasers had little worth shooting at, so they fired at the immobilized speeder and immobilized assault marine rhino for kill points, but only blew the heavy flamer off the immobilized speeder.

Bottom 4 the Assault Marines, Terminators, and Death Company continued to trudge toward me, and Mephiston ... well, he boxcar perils'ed again, reducing himself to 1 wound and winding up sorta kinda still in the open, instead of flying and fleeting in to mess up Al'Rahem and co. At this point by shuffling into the corner as much as possible I had Al'Rahem in his Chimera, a guard squad on foot, and a guard squad in a Chimera all slightly out of Terminator / Assault Marine / Death Company charge ranges, and Top of 5 coming up with a big kill point lead.

His assault marines in the middle, the ones who were previously de-meched walked up to a Veteran chimera next to Straken's Chimera and whiffed. They charged it with Krak grenades and immobilized it. Meanwhile, the other 5 got out of their weaponless razorback and shot at the 2-lascannons-left Vendetta, but only succeeded in taking off a 2nd lascannon. That Vendetta now had weathered a meltagun, a couple of rounds of predator/assault cannon fire, and had done 2 wounds to Mephiston, while only losing 2 lascannons.

His Speeder that I whiffed on zoomed fast to center to contest the central objective, hoping to force the game to secondaries and tertiaries if the game ended on 5, as he knew by now he was either going to lose or barely tie kill points.

Top 5 came and I lined up all of my spare meltaguns not holding objectives on his 10 assault marines in center, and the weaponless razorback, to ensure I had the kill point situation under wraps under the presumption he would nail Al'Rahem finally on Bottom 5. I raced one of my back left vet squads across the board with a 12" chimera move, flip/pivot, disembark and run to grab his side's top left objective. I hopped the other back left Vet squad out to hold my back left objective, and put their Chimera to use firing at whatever popped its head up. I skimmed my two left most Vendettas further around the corner of the bastion to shoot at the semi-hidden flat out moved speeder. Straken's Chimera tank shocked over the middle assault marines to contest the central objective, and Straken got out to shoot meltas at the same fast moving speeder. In the process he tried to stop the tank shock with his sarge, which had a power fist, and he went splat (Rolled a 3 on the pen roll).

I had 3 unused squads of Vets in the middle, and Marbo (who arrived on Turn 1 and had been hanging out with the Vet core b/c he didn't want to be an easy kp, and had no real good targets). They bustled over and blew up the weaponless razorback and the 5 assault marines who'd gotten out of it to shoot my near-weaponless Vendetta.

Speaking of which, Al'Rahem ... knowing his fate one way or another ... got out of his Chimera nad moved to within 12" of the stumbling Mephiston ... he ordered Fire On My Target on himself, and did 2 melta and 1 plasma wound to Mephiston, who went to ground with his last wound and promptly made all 6 3+ saves. Mr. Lone-lascannon Champion Vendetta meanwhile had lined up a single shot across no cover with his final lascannon at Mephiston in case Al missed, and sniped Mephiston away. Good job, Crackerjack.

I rapid fired my 2 al'rahem guard squads into the Terminators, successfully killing one (hooray), and used the surviving basic guard squad chimera to fast move onto and contest the objective in Al's corner just in case (though by now I had 2 objectives controlled, and only a speeder and 4 assault marines in the way of the 3rd at mid field).

Speaking of which, my third Vet Squad (whose Chimera had been immobilized by the middle assault marines) got out and shot down all but 1 of the middle assault marines, and would charge and kill the last thereafter. Straken and the Vendettas combined in some capacity (I don't know which actually had the kill shot) to dust off the flat outed speeder at middle, and the vets consolidated off killing the last assault marine in middle to hold the middle objective. I now had vets on the top left objective, vets on the bottom left objective, and vets protected by Straken on the middle objective. I was up on Kill Points, and Jorge had an immobilized weaponless speeder, 4 terminators, 5 or so death company, and 7 or 8 assault marines (scattered multilaser fire by this point had tweaked a few of these out, as softer targets ceased to be).

The game wound up going to 7, but it was just gunning things down and mopping up as part of scoring as much as I could for Ren Man consideration there at the very end.

Jorge was one of the nicest and most fun opponents I faced all weekend, and his army was a bad match for me in seriuosly ugly fashion if he could get across the board. Unfortunately he didn't pop all his smoke in anticipation of Al'Rahem's arrival on Top 2, and that was what spun the game out of reach in the end ... with one of his hammers struggling the wrong way across the board, it forced him to support them in chasing after Al, and a pair of assault squads in razorbacks weren't enough to hold off and deal with a Straken-supported veteran core.

I think also that a lot of his list depends on perhaps obsessive focus fire on the Predators distracting people, and I did my best to resist that ... I took shots where I could, but only after de-meching his two key rhinos. Jorge mentioned maybe using Ravens or Raiders to get his Death Company across the board more reliably, but IMO the Rhino works just fine ... just need to be a little more careful with how he presents it as a target. Also, this is another game (I've played a lot of them) where the value of having a bunch of "trash" Multilasers can't be overrated ... they can and will bang up a rhino or two here and there over the course of each turn, and that's more than enough in most cases to break up a person's game plan and get him ad-libbing.

I think a lot of people might look at Jorge's list and go DEATH COMPANY WHAT?! The truth here guys is they are a pretty affordable hammer unit, and their uncontrollability becomes less of an issue when you can chuck 'em at something in a rhino while ALSO chucking Mephiston, 5 Terminators, and a proper Assault Squad at that same enemy core ... it's one thing to kite and deal with 7 death company and a reclusiarch. It's another altogether to deal with those AND terminators AND assault marines AND Mephiston all at the same time ... suddenly 20 meltaguns doesn't feel like enough. When you put them in the hands of someone like Ruiz or Fennell or others who can typically get 'em all across the board and into you, you really wind up in a trickier situation than the mathhammer would suggest before you know it.

Since this was a pretty long report, I'll hold off on the other two for subsequent articles, as I must be away for the evening!

Quick Recap and Short Batreps - Battle for Salvation GT

2011-10-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

Alright, while some of this is fresh in my mind, I'm going to do a rapid fire recap of the blow by blow and overall impressions of the event.

First off, a couple VERY minor critiques ... and there'll be some ENORMOUS accolades in follow-up ...

1) Create and disseminate in advance a tournament FAQ (even if it's just to say: "Use INAT" or "Use NOVA FAQ" or whatever). While nominally it is admirable to go with a "Rules as Written" stance, I think we all are aware there are some grey and fuzzy areas throughout the rules even with the GW FAQ's in play. Answering them only when they are first asked creates unfair situations where two players finally play who see a rule differently, even if they've each played it "their" view / vision of it all the way up until that point in the event. If you answer the big fuzzy questions in advance via a released document, you avoid this.

When you make a ruling on one of the fuzzies in Round 6 on a player who has played it the way he normally does with no opponent complaints Rounds 1-5 and say "well that's how we play/rule it" ... it doesn't help him much when it's changed up mid-game, or would have influenced his selections. It also isn't fair to his opponent to rule in his favor on that issue - i.e., you can't very well go "well, we'd screw you if we ruled that way now, so we won't ..." etc. etc.

Long and short, there are too many fuzzy important questions in warhammer 40k (unfortunately) to not give your players a clue on them ahead of time. It influences unit selection, army build, playstyle, etc., and often actually comes up in play at the worst imaginable times.

2) It's arguable that the NOVA put too much terrain toward the center. I would suggest many of the BFS tables put too much terrain off in the corners. The more toward the corners you place terrain, the more wide open / shooting gallery you make your boards, and the less useful a significant % of your 25% coverage is for the average players. The terrain was sound, and there was a lot of it per table, but it was effectively way too little in most games b/c so much of it was shoved off into the corners of the boards. Finding a middle ground is good. I may have some photos on my phone that can help show this, or I'll snag some from other post-event coverage. Terrain creates a shadow behind it from the p.o.v. of firers; when your terrain is way back off toward the corners, you advantage armies that deploy and shoot across board ... and I suppose you advantage like, wolf scouts or something, and Manticores that can hide behind those deep corner pieces and shoot at wide-in-the-open models everywhere.

Everything else the BFS did was great ... I liked it a great deal, and would go again and again so long as my schedule and energy levels sustained. Prize support was just right for the # of players, there were a lot of raffle giveaways (I got a captain off those, that was cool). Most importantly, the BFS operators are AWESOME people. The venue was in a good location for getting food and drinks post-day.

I wonder if 7 rounds is necessary for 64 or less players, as 3 rounds Saturday would have enabled better socializing post-event for a larger # of attendees, but it was no big deal either way.

On Friday we got in evening-time, and spent the evening drinking brews and bullshitting at BWW with Jawa, Bob, Shaun (Sean?) Kemp, Fishboy Johnson, Bob Evers and a host of others I'm forgetting b/c I'm forgetful. Something I love about the circuit is the connectedness of folks, and the genuine joy you see in familiar faces' eyes when they see you and come up to shake your hand.

Saturday morning things kicked off, and the first round was the worst mission for my short-ranged high-KP army - Dawn of War Kill Points.

Here's my list, as I finally went with:

Company Command Squad w/ Straken, Carapace Armor, 2 x Vets w/ Meltaguns, Vet w/ Reg Standard, Vet w/ Medkit, 2 x Bodyguards, Astropath
Dedicated Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer, Dozer Blade

Guardsman Marbo (and boy am I glad I chose him)

Infantry Platoon w/ 3 Dedicated Chimeras w/ Hull Heavy Flamers
Platoon Command Squad w/ Al'Rahem, 2 x Guardsmen w/ Meltaguns, 2 x Guardsmen w/ Flamers
Infantry Squad w/ Meltagun
Infantry Squad w/ Meltagun

5 Veteran Squads w/ Dedicated Chimeras w/ Hull Heavy Flamers
Veteran Squad w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns
Veteran Squad w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns
Veteran Squad w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns
Veteran Squad w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns
Veteran Squad w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns

Vendetta Gunship
Vendetta Gunship
Vendetta Gunship

Round 1 I drew Brad Nichols' Deathwing. This is not a good match-up for me on the mission. He has 4 easy kill points and 7 extremely difficult kill points, especially for my army (which does the majority of its heavy lifting up close and personal, wearing someone down but trading kp).

Belial w/ SS/TH

2 x Typhoon Speeders w/ Multi-Meltas (not squadron'ed)
3 x Bikes w/ Power Fist, 2 Meltaguns
Attack Bike w/ Multi-Melta

5 x Deathwing Terminator Squads w/ Chainfist/Stormbolter + 3 x TH/SS + 1 x TH/SS/Cyclone

Godhammer Land Raider

Brad won the roll to go first and rolled onto the board somewhat evenly spread across, with his Godhammer on a far side. I rolled on in a corner opposite with Straken + the 5 Vets, and reserved the Vendettas.

When the Vendettas started to arrive, they would take down the Speeders for Kill Points. His attack bike and bikers rolled on and failed to kill smoked Chimeras, then died in return. His Godhammer and missiles would kill Vendettas over time, and as the game started to fade it was about even on VP and KP, and we were working on tying the various other objectives.

We were given various different game end-times at various points, and this resulted in the game being called despite their being more time left to start a new turn, b/c of confusion here. The net result was a game Brad himself said he didn't want - one where we both played "weird" b/c of Kill Points. He won by 46 VP on final tiebreaker at the artificial deadline, but we rolled to continue the game and played out the rest to see what would happen, which was a several hundred VP finish in my favor. Basically at the bottom of 5 Straken, Al'Rahem and some vets charged Belial and his surviving couple terminators, won the combat, but couldn't get the last wound off Belial or the last 2 terminators down. By Turn 6 both died, but the artificial game end prevented that mattering.

This was a great game / great example of me doing all I could with a bad mission, and Brad doing what he had to do, and the game coming down to fractional time and dice ... aka two peers battling it out in a close one that was going to go either way by a nose hair. Against many good opponents over the weekend, this would become a redundant theme.

Round 2 vs. Blood Angels (I don't have my army lists in front of me and can't remember for sure, but I think his name was Chris)

Really nice opponent, his list was:

Librarian on foot w/ Shield, Sword

2 x Sanguinary Priest w/ Power Weapon, Jump Pack
Sanguinary Guard w/ 3 Infernus Pistols, Banner

2 x 10-man Assault Marines w/ 2 Meltaguns, Power Fist
3 x 5-man Assault Marines w/ Infernus, Meltagun, Plasmaback

3 x Baal w/ Twin-Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter Sponsons

I won the roll to go first and took it, in Spearhead - Quarters - Objectives - Kill Points. I deployed the Vendettas centrally with every intention of scouting, and deployed Straken and his Chimeras centrally.

My opponent deployed his Baals in front of his Razorbacks, with all 6 models hiding behind the central hill and at the edge of their deployment zone. He put his 2 Assault Squads in reserve w/ the priests attached, and put the Sanguinary Guard in reserve, all 3 squads deep striking.

I scouted the Vendettas so that they were in good open firing positions on his vehicles, with each Vendetta in a different location in case he tried to deep strike meltaguns onto them. He proceeded to steal the initiative; we talked about whether he was committed to stealing, since he would be giving up cover against my first round of fire to take covered shots against my flat out Vendettas, but he went with it. The other issue at question was the mission (primary and secondary being advantageous if going 2nd). The sum limit of his fire was 3 twin assault cannons and 3 lascannons, and the odds aren't THAT great to pen a vendetta ... his total odds after cover saves were 1.39 pens and .17 glances ... with my return fire being doubled on multilaser and surviving vendetta fire due to no cover on him. He could have used his Baals' Scout move to firmly screen his razorbacks, and smoke, so that my first turn fire would do nothing, and leave me pants down (or force me to take a more cautious route).

My Vendettas and Chimeras proceeded to start de-meching and disabling his mobility and firepower by the Bottom of 2.

On Top 2 his Sanguinary Guard arrived in a deep corner going after 1 Vendetta, and one of his 10man ASM w/ Priest arrived in an opposite corner going after a 2nd Vendetta. He shot a little at the third Vendetta and knocked a lascannon off, and shook one of my Chimeras. The Sanguinary Guard killed their Vendetta, and the ASM immobilized theirs.

Bottom 2 saw Al'Rahem and Marbo both arrive thanks to the Astropath. His 10-man ASM w/ Priest hadn't "Run" in order to shoot their meltas at their now-immobilized Vendetta target, so Marbo had his job. Meanwhile Al'Rahem rolled on in the other corner right on top of the Sanguinary Guard, ready to unload 4 meltas a plasma pistol and a bunch of trash on those guys, which were not covered from the angles I arrived by.

This is the point where the game started to go pear shaped for him. Spare multilaser fire immobilized and/or killed his remaining plasmabacks, Vendetta fire disarmed and/or killed all but one of his remaining Baals, Marbo's demo charge more or less waxed the assault squad out of functional merit, and Al'Rahem killed 3 of the 5 Sanguinary Guard, including all the infernus pistols.

The game ended with a Turn 6 tabling, and I lost a couple hundred VP (this was one of Marbo's only times dying).

Round 3 was against an interesting Elysian Guard list that was very nicely painted

His list:

Company Command Squad w/ Carapace, Officer of the Fleet, Astropath, 4 Plasmaguns, Plasma Pistol (Commander)

6 x Vet Squads w/ Lasguns, 3 Meltaguns, Carapace Armor

3 x Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolters
2 x Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolters
2 x Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolters

This was on a WIDE open board, with any meaningful terrain jammed in the corners. I deployed Straken and his 5 Vet squads in a corner, figuring I was going to get de-meched but having a plan from the get-go that is akin to turning your head into the rain. Al'Rahem, Marbo, and my own Vendettas were all naturally reserved, and my opponent was going first. He deployed everything, and killed or immobilized 3 of my Chimeras with his 3 vendetta units.

I started getting out and moving with the squads that had been blown or immobilized out of their Chimeras. Turn 2 he stunned a fourth Chimera and killed 2 more. So, I now had a stunned chimera, an immobilized weaponless Chimera, an immobilized Chimera way in a tight corner, and a fully de-meched force of flak armor veterans and Straken run run running up the right side of the board toward midfield. BUT he'd elected to hover over midfield aimed into the corner at me in order to take that 2nd turn's fire, which was what I needed. Al'Rahem arrived.

Al came on BEHIND 2 of his 3 squadrons. 2 of Al's Infantry Chimeras rolled 6 on preparing to multilaser rear armor on the squadron of 3, and Al himself rolled 12, spun and disembarked within 6 of the rear of one of his nearest squadron of 2 Vendettas.

I also had a Vendetta arrive.

My Vendetta immobilized one of his Squadron of 3 out of the sky (dead due to squadron rules). My one immobilized multilaser chimera shook one of his squadron of 2 furthest from me. Al'Rahem's Infantry Chimera multilasers shot and rear armor killed another from his Squadron of 3 in the middle (leaving 1 w/ command squad alive), and Al'Rahem used bring it down on 2 meltaguns and his plasma pistol to gank both of the vendettas in the squadron nearest him.

So, Top of 4 began and I'd made a game of it thanks to Al. He had 2 disembarked vet squads on the left near Al's jazz, one of them pinned. He had 2 vet squads still embarked in a shaken and open vendetta near the right back, closest to where Straken and his beat up horde of foot veterans were running toward. He had a single vendetta in the middle that emptied its command squad to go try and order the pinned fellows back into the fight.

In the process of trying to deal with the sudden spurt of threats facing him, my one stunned chimera freed up and Straken hopped in, whereupon it promptly raced up into his deployment zone and smoked. Marbo arrived and bombed a full carapace vet squad w/ his demo charge and "hit" ... killing I think 9 of them. Al'Rahem's Chimera barbecued the vet squad he'd de-meched the turn prior. Straken's vets were freed from taking much fire and advanced toward midfield, and used their meltaguns to bring down one or two of the surviving Vendettas at long range with orders.

Straken would eventually mow through two vet squads, and when all was said and done my Vendettas arrived later on and finished off his last Ven or two. He had a banged up command squad alive at the end, with the rest of his army dead. For the 2nd game after the first round loss, I picked up nearly full VP, 5 objectives, and 4 quarters. I figured if I could max it out again, I could in theory make it back into the top bracket, or help my chances at Renaissance Man.

Round 4 vs. Simon Leen's gorgeous Blood Angels jump army using Seraphim models.

Simon's army was pretty straightforward:

Librarian w/ Jump Pack, Unleash Rage, Shield of Sanguinius

2 x Sanguinary Priests w/ Jump Packs, Combi-Meltas

4 x 10-man Assault Squads w/ Jump Packs, 2 Meltaguns, Power Fists
1 x 5-man Assault Squad w/ Jump Packs, Power Weapon, Infernus Pistol, Meltagun

1 x 5-man Vanguard Veterans w/ Jump Packs, Meltabomb/Storm Shield, Power Fist/Storm Shield, Power Weapon/Storm Shield, Nude Dude, Nude Dude

3 x 5-man Devastator Squads w/ 4 Missile Launchers each

Spearhead deployment with me going first (the only game I'd end up going first all weekend, due to the seize on me in round 2), Quarters/Objectives/Kill Points

He deployed his 4 10-man Jump Squads in lines one in front of the other along his deployment edge behind the central hill. He spread his devastators about in cover in the back. He deep struck his 5-man ASM squad and his Vanguard Vets (with Divine Intervention).

I scouted all 3 Vendettas sideways up the board until they had wide open shots on his front assault squad ... I think he probably could have been a little less "right on the edge of deployment" an d had them obscured better by cover. He popped shield but lascannon and multilaser fire killed 6 of 10, rendering the squad relatively harmless. Problem solving Simon's list wasn't hard, though the list itself was a major pain for me, b/c most of the damage I Could do to it would have to be done up close and personal with Straken and meltaguns ... meaning I was going to get hit by a lot of assault marines with furious and fnp. Giving me 25% of his assault marines open to lascannon fire on turn 1 was a huge boon, b/c it took that much more threat out of the game. The 4 survivors would hop behind a pillar and get set for quarters/objectives stuff later on.

His turn 1 he jumped up behind the hill and shimmied a little with slow run rolls, getting set to try and multi-charge all my Chimeras on Turn 2. I felt like I would oblige that ... I much prefer people krak grenade and punch my chimeras to meltagunning them and charging the occupants. Straken's auras and tons of meltaguns are such that I'd rather the Chimeras get banged and the vets get out and shoot things / charge things, than lose entire chimera + vet squad chunks at a time.

This worked ... by lining up my Chimeras he jumped across and mass multi-charged several of them with his 3 10-man squads (I think I killed 1 model with a multilaser on turn 2 ... a deep strike of 5 assault marines killed 1 of my vendettas and devastators killed a 2nd and shook the third, which skimmed flat out for cover on top 2). So, 29 assault marines, 2 priests and 1 libby hit my lines. The Vanguard also arrived, but scattered out of divine intervention range and into a nice little clump of 5 models.

His multicharge killed 1 Chimera and banged up a couple others. Bait taken, I suppose.

Top 3 I had 3 assault squads in front of my 5 vet + straken core, a 5-man assault squad off away a bit that had just downed a vendetta, and a vanguard squad a couple inches behind his assault marines. Marbo and Al'Rahem arrived.

Al came in off in h is own deployment corner, and started multilasering down devastators and controlling his rear. Marbo dropped a demo charge on the vanguards and a couple of nearby assault marines who happened to eat the blast. It killed several of the vanguard and the assault marines it hit.

I tank shocked half an inch into two of the assault squads that had multi-charged one of my chimeras, and this broke the game open. One squad was fine, the other - with his Librarian attached - broke and fell back a bunch toward his board edge. My surviving Vendetta immediately gave up any crazy ideas of shooting something and skimmed flat out 24" right next to their path, so that they'd fall back off the board with another couple of turns. I crossed my finger it would survive his devastators shooting at it.

Every meltagun shot up one of his 2 remaining assault squads, clearing it, and also finishing off the Vanguard.

So at this point he had a 5-man ASM squad w/ infernus + meltagun near my "chase" Vendetta, a 10-man assault squad somewhat near it that had been part of the multi-charge with his surviving priest attached, and a few increasingly banged up devastator squads now having to deal with Al in their backfield, plus the 4 ASM surviving from the first turn lascannon volley.

I'd lost a Chimera and 2 Vendettas.

He knew he had to try and save his Assault Marines, so he jumped backward with his last 10-man squad and priest toward the Vendetta, jumped at it also with his 5-man squad, and aimed all his devastators at it. His fleeing marines fell back to within 3 or 4" of the board edge, and within a few inches of center as well due to the stretched out position they wound up in off the multi-charge prior to breaking.

All his devastators, the fleeing marines' meltaguns, the 5-man meltaguns, the 10-man meltaguns succeeded in deweaponizing and immobilizing the Vendetta, which he subsequently charged. I think he probably should have used his 10-man ASM to go block off my other units from doing what the Vendetta was doing (aka get close to and chase off another 30% of his army's punch), but he fixated on the Vendetta. The charge killed it due to immobilization, but it did its job.

Al'Rahem was also totally unmolested, b/c the Devastators had to fire at the Vendetta.

Top 4 came, and I ran Marbo over to within 6" of the fleeing assault marines. I raced Straken upfield as well just in case, and got him out so he could shoot at the 10-man ASM not yet broken/damaged if Marbo ran far enough on his own.

Several other vet squads that were still in-tact proceeded to move up and get ready to add their melta fire to the survivors around the wrecked Vendetta.

Al' advanced further upon the devastators and such, and positioned on his deployment zone objective, while one of his squads broke off for the isolated objective next to my deployment zone. One of my vet squads stayed back on my deployment objective (I wanted every objective / quarter).

I killed several of the assault marines from the big squad, and a couple from the small squad, and all passed morale. I killed some more devastators, and killed his 4-man assault marine squad with Al and co.

In bottom 4 he in desperation c harged his sang priest + surviving assault marines from both squads (10 and 5 originally) into Straken, and banged straken up pretty effectively, but not completely ... Straken killed a few marines in the process, dusting off the smaller squad. Devastators didn't really do anything, with 3 survivors from one of the 2 remaining squads (the other suffered casualties and broke off board) charging Al'Rahem and 10 guardsmen, and losing over the remaining rounds to Al's power weapon hits.

I charged a vet squad and marbo into the fight w/ Straken and the assault marines, and ran some vets up to the top objective. That eventually wound up with a cleared fight, Marbo finished the sang priest and straken finished the marine bodies. I poured tons of fire into his last devastators, one of which survived through the end of 7 to deny me 65 more VP.

Simon's one of my favorite opponents ... he has a great attitude, he tends not to make to many mistakes, and he is just plain fun to play against. This is one of my least favorite match-ups believe it or not ... I even labbed against it some, b/c I have a local buddy who runs a nearly-identical list. He just made a mistake in deploying a squad too exposed, and a mistake in multicharging chimeras instead of popping them and charging their occupants with Meltaguns. My next opponent would be the last one after Simon to buy any baits I laid out, and that would make life harder.

This ends my Day 1 recap. I'll cover the quarter, semi and finals in a follow-up post.

BFS Day 2

2011-10-09T05:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday:
Round 1 loss on final tiebreaker by 46vp to deathwing in kp dow
Round 2 win max vp max quarters max objectives in quartets spearhead vs mech + jump hybrid ba
Round 3 win 1800vp 5 obj 4 quarters pitched objectives vs vendetta meltavet guard
Round 4 1935 vp 5 objectives 4 quarters win vs mass jump angels with devastators (simon leen) ... couldnt get last devastator

In Gold/top bracket vs Mephiston mech ba J. Ruiz and am the 4 seed. Only 3 undefeated and I'm the high seed 3-1.

Joining me in top are
Mannahin's CSM (4-0)
Holliday's GK (4-0)
Somerville's Guard (4-0)
Nanavati's Tau (3-1)
Ruiz's aforementioned BA (3-1)
Gilstrap's GK (3-1)
Hoerger's vanilla sm (3-1)

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Here at the Battle for Salvation

2011-10-08T04:04:00.001-07:00

Trying out blogger for android and getting ready to head over. Here with locals Mike Somerville Eric Hoerger Mark Aksel Ryan Holliday etc. Spent last night drinking and socializing at bee dubs with Joe Johnson (fishboy), Bob Evers, Sean Nayden, Nick Nanavati, Sean Kemp, Chris Jawaballs Dubuque, Ed Pissclams Miller, Bob Sinnott and many others.

I come to the BFS to support Ed and the guys who are always there to help me out, and to connect with the great social environment present.

I anticipate 2-2 today ... that's my gut feeling at any rate.

I'll try to update during.

My final list is

Straken kitted with Dozer
MARBOOOOO
5 chimera shotgun meltavets
Al and his two inf squads in chimeras
3 vennies

Till I'm able to post again ... happy Saturday all.

Mike

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Mantras for Tournament Attendees - BFS Incoming

2011-10-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

So as I get ready for the BFS, I begin my standard internal tournament prep.

Here's how I go into each game:

1) This is an opportunity to develop a connection with a peer, a fellow gamer and hobbyist, a fellow human being. If nothing else comes out of this game, let a positive connection come out of it.

2) This is an opportunity to play a game you enjoy.

3) Do the best that you personally can do.

4) Care nothing for the outcome, presume your opponent is excellent and will take you down.

I go into every game looking to make a connection, expecting to lose, and seeking only to compete with myself in an effort to be at my best - socially, ethically, competitively, and overall as a human being.

Here's another good one for you all ...

At the NOVA, a player in attendance got into a bit of a scuffle with his opponent during the course of the game. Things started off that way b/c his opponent did not pop smoke at the end of each vehicle's movement, and then at the end of the movement phase went "these all popped smoke." This is technically illegal, but is a bit of a throwback to the game's history, and is the way a lot of people play it. Instead of allowing this, the player flatly refused to permit the popping of smoke after the fact.

There are some players who are so focused on the game and not the experience of competing against a peer ... they will NEVER permit anything like this to be fixed. They won't even allow it once and ask for playing more specifically by the rule thereafter. I AM NOT THIS GUY. AS a general rule, if you forget something and it's more or less just after the fact, I'm going to let you go back and do it. If I win, I want to win against you having a good game, and you at your best doing what you intended to do. If I lose, I want it to be doing the same - that's to say, I certainly would like the same behavior in reverse.

What kind of gamer are you? Do you ruthlessly act unforgiving of all your opponent's simple gaffes? Do you see the game as an opportunity to develop a friend first and win at warhams second?

I fully anticipate losing a few games this weekend at the BFS; it's a tough crowd and I'm looking forward to some tough games. I know I'll come out of each game on friendly terms with my opponent (if I Can at all manage it), scoring highly on sportsmanship, and winning only if I meet or beat my best possible performance, and get a little fortune and favor along the way.

PS - I know Jawabals and I and several others will be getting brews together in the Palisades Center on Friday night of the BFS ... anyone care to join us?

Battle for Salvation Incoming

2011-10-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Well, back up to the Battle for Salvation this year in just a couple of days now.

The BFS is a 7-game, 64-player GT held up in New York. I attended last year, lost Renaissance Man (Best Overall) by .01 points, and took Tournament Champion (solo undefeated up the brackets) while tackling some of the better players around, including Simon Leen, Bill McFadden, Alex Fennell and Andrew Sutton.

I got MAD lucky all over the place last year, and I don't anticipate the same good fortune this time around. Looking forward to getting some good games in, and anticipating that someone (or multiple someones) is going to take me down this year at some point on Day 1.

My guard army is in a bit of a shambles right now with a ton of banged up / broken models I haven't been able to fix up in time, so I'll be borrowing portions of Andrew Gonyo's very well painted Imperial Guard. Since the paint job won't be mine, I'll be bringing that to the attention of appearance scorers at the very beginning of the event when I'm judged. If they follow the NOVA approach, I'll be scored as standard for Ren Man scoring, but ineligible for individual appearance awards. Just as well, b/c Andrew's got some gorgeous models in the army.

This caused a bit of a mental segue for me into wondering how many people simply play dumb on this sort of thing, and don't mention to the appearance scorers that the army wasn't painted by them at all.

Anyway, I'm still trying to zero in on the final list I'll use, and the final points expenditures I'll make if I go with the guard again ...

My guard army at present looks something like:

Straken + 2 Melta + Banner + Medic + Carapace + 2 Bodyguard + Astropath + Chimera w/ HHF - 345

5 x Meltavets w/ Shotguns, trips melta, Chimera w/ HHF - 775
Al'Rahem w/ 2 Melta, Chimera w/ HHF - 175
Inf Squad w/ Melta, Chimera w/ HHF - 115
Inf Squad w/ Melta, Chimera w/ HHF - 115

3 x Vendetta - 390

Last year's BFS list, sans 85 points (2 bolt pistols and the GK BC w/ Hood). So, the question continues to be where to spend those 85 points ... I've ranged from giving dozers to a couple chimeras and picking up Harker, to picking up flamers on Al'RAhem's squad (2) and a Hydra. I'm up for input here if anyone would care to.

The Grey Knights list I'd use would be much more akin to some of the ones I posted a while back.

New Authorage; Tourney Style: On Passive-Agressive Judging

2011-09-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

Attention readers - I'm blessed by a large staff of fellow NOVA volunteers, and a large group of friends. To a degree, I'll be hosting guest author writing from among that and other groups, to help enhance the quality and readability of the blog, and increase the amount of quality mateiral for you all to read on a daily basis.

A guest post by Morgim Dark of http://23lines.com

I AM THE JUDGE!

There are two very broad stances when it comes to judging a gaming tournament, specifically when the game's mechanics and ruleset are somewhat loose (i.e. Warhammer 40k). At the NOVA Open this year we tried both differing styles of judging, and the results were interesting.

Active Refereeing

The first style is actively refereeing a game. This style is very uncommon on the tournament gaming scene as it does not lend itself to larger, Grand Tournament-style events. However, the NOVA Invitational offered us the perfect opportunity to engage in active judging given the small number of players involved and the amount of prize support on the line.

Simply put, active judging is where staff actually get involved in the game itself, closely monitoring the play and ensuring that each player plays as close to the rules as possible. This may include correcting over-movement, proactively clarifying a rule, or even determining movement itself as in the case of a multi-unit assault.

Active judging is difficult as each table judge may have a slightly different take on the rules, have varying levels of experience, or even have a biased view of certain participants. NOVA staff did their best to level-set expectations through a comprehensive FAQ, well-informed judges and a strong, overall tournament judge. Still, even those measures can't guarantee the exact same experience with active judges across multiple tables.

You have a problem with my ruling?!

Passive Judging
The second style is passive judging. This style is far and away the most common and lends itself to a gaming system that is part hobby and part competitive. Passive judging relies largely on the players to know the mechanics of the game and be able to resolve issues at the table as they arise. It also assumes that when a player has a concern or question that cannot be readily resolved they will actively contact tournament staff for resolution.

Passive judging does require active involvement from the tournament staff but not at the same intimate level as active judging. For example, if I overhear two players resolving an issue with a dice roll, I would not jump in to correct the situation. The players have decided on an amicable resolution with no need to pull in a judge - all the better within this style. More importantly, if you only jump into the games you hear things from, the field is inherently unfairly judged as a result.

And everyone left happy!

Moreover, in a tournament of any real scale, judges cannot be everywhere at once and certainly do not have a full view of every game being played. For example, I overheard two players discussing Jaws of the World Wolf and one mentioned the power killed several Crisis Suits. Given that Crisis Suits are normally a subset of Jump Infantry this should not be possible.

However, I held my tongue and approached his opponent (the Space Wolf player and a friend of mine) and asked whether he really used the power on Crisis Suits. In fact, the Crisis Suits referred to by the Tau player were XV88s (Broadside suits) which are not Jet Pack enabled. Had I said anything at the table, I would have blundered into a situation in which I had no prior knowledge (i.e. that Jaws had targetted Broadsides) and just confused the game for the players.

I have heard and do understand the frustration from GT tournament players who would like judges to take a more involved role. But at the level of the NOVA GT (200+ players), any more direct involvement in games would be ineffective at best and game changing at worst. That is not to say judges should not be accessible and there are certainly ways to ensure that tournament staff is approachable.

In Summation

In the final analysis, 40k as a tournament game does rely on the social contract between players - judges are really there to ensure consistency across all the games being played and to monitor for any egregious abuses of said social contract.

For more insight on tournament style check out my other NOVA entries over at http://23lines.com - Morgrim Dark

First Turn Purifier Charging Shenanigans

2011-09-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

James asked this question in

James not Jim said...: Hi, I'm still pretty new to 40k and I'm curious about this part "purifier first turn charge shenanigans should I so choose / should I be going first and someone give me the chance (deploy rhino sideways, pivot and move 12" in scout move, disembark 2" from door to back of base, move 6 charge 6 ... 26" range from deployment edge" I thought the unit of scouts didnt pass that on to the vehicle they were in, and also I thought you couldent assault on the same turn you disembarked from a rhino?

Most of this question is answered by the rules, but I did some vassal graphics just to show how to do it for anyone who hasn't figured it out. The notional is a squad of 10 purifiers in a dozer rhino in conjunction with a GM. Purifiers are fearless, and will tend to be toting a hammer 2 psycannons and 2 incinerators ... this makes them a better unit for the task of first turn disruption if you're going to try it than most ... but, for the record, I think the times you should first turn charge like this are EXTREMELY RARE. Your opponent almost always has to do something stupid with the way he deploys, b/c you can only reach about 4" into his deployment zone (in pitched battle) ... this is nice and all, but not perfect, and you're still shoving a unit (and possibly 2 independent characters) forward into your opponent's army ... so you'd better get a lot back for doing it, as they're presumably going to take a beating.

BUT, anyway ... a unit with the Scout USR confers it upon its transport, per the Scouts rule in the BRB USR section. They also confer the ability to Outflank upon it, per the Outflanking rules in the BRB playing a battle section. So that covers that.

While the Rhino counts as moving in the pre-game, and on turn 1 if going 2nd (For hitting it in CC, etc), you count as stationary once your turn starts, so you can disembark from the rhino, move 6", and assault. You can always assault the turn you disembark if you disembark BEFORE the vehicle moves (or pivots). So, since you do your move with the Scout, you are good to go for assaulting.

Here's a pictorial of how to go about it "best" ... I find that opponent's most often will deploy forward foolishly with a deathstar that's not transported, something they want to get across the table and threaten you with, i.e. Nob Bikers (and don't worry, I'm not saying Nob Bikers are a pain in the ass to deal with at all here). Click to expand the size of each photo and see the writing in it:

The one funny thing worth mentioning is that the armies you most want to do this to are the ones who are most harmed by the actions required to avoid it. A foot horde ork army does not want to jam all of its guys 5" back into its deployment zone ... nob bikers and thunderwolves don't want to start further back (though the TWC care less due to the nature of the army that usually surrounds them, and their role in it, plus their larger charge range). Yadda yadda.

EDIT - As an addendum, it's also possible to advance only one model as far as possible, a 2nd model max back from him, and the rest of the swords 2" back off that one ... when you advance into combat, you'll have a ton of models that are much closer to midfield, and only 2 who are closer into your opponent's deployment zone, yet all your special weapons will still be engaged due to your opponent's combat reaction moves. Coupled with a half decent consolidation back out of combat, you'll in many situations be able to basically sneak into your opponent's deployment zone, gank one of his [key] units, and consolidate right back out ... taking your 2 casualties in combat (and even hoping for them) on the only models that would have wound up close enough for him to counter-punch back at you with.

2nd Edit - You probably can't do the Coteaz force weapon activation and have it affect the unit; up for debate, but I think that part is a little off.

Welp, enjoy.

Staying With Zee Guard? Continued BFS List Ponderations

2011-09-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

I always ponder a lot of lists before an event, like most people do ...

Current guard list ponderation =

Straken + 2 Bodyguards + Medic + Carapace + Standard + Astropath + Chimera w/ Dozer, Hull Heavy Flamer - 355

Veterans w/ Harker, 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns, Chimera w/ Dozer, Hull Heavy Flamer - 220
Veterans w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns, Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer - 155
Veterans w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns, Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer - 155
Veterans w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns, Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer - 155
Veterans w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns, Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer - 155
Platoon Command Squad w/ Al'Rahem, 2 Meltas, 2 Flamers, Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer - 185
Infantry Squad w/ Meltagun, Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer - 115
Infantry Squad w/ Meltagun, Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer - 115

Vendetta - 130
Vendetta - 130
Vendetta - 130

Harker gives added flexibility, both defensively (potential to infiltrate as scout prevention, scoring, stealth, heavy bolter to give some use in backfield, etc.) and offensively (highly reliable anti-armor / anti-infantry outflanking unit independent from Al'Rahem and still scoring, with good value in Quarters).

Dozers will be more useful in an event which will likely be [even] more terrain heavy than before. I could alternately drop the dozers and the pair of flamers on al'rahem to pick up some sort of additional thing at 30 points (additional advisor in straken's squad for more wound allocation, demolitions for harker or another unit, power weapons in various places ... um ... RATLINGS!).

Like most lists I build, it's intended to compete, hang in there, and be involved in the late-game for the win in all occasions.

Upcoming Events - Battle for Blob's Park; Battle for Salvation list updates

2011-09-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

So, a couple of events are on the near horizon ... this upcoming weekend is the

Battle for Blob's Park

It's run by the Inner Circle guys ... and it's basically a single day fun as hell GT in a biergarten. Can't be beat.

Following, in the 2nd (formally) weekend of October, is the Battle for Salvation GT.

I'll be attempting to head to both ... for sure attending the Battle for Salvation, with 3 boxes of our hills in tow. I nominally have to defend my title from winning last year's BFS, but just like last year I have a hunch I'll get knocked out of a couple games. I don't think people will be caught off guard again by what looks like a bizarre and/or esoteric list (i.e. charging veterans and straken).

More photos from the NOVA ... set-up, and trios and other sorts of things like Day 1 awards

http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdux/

Here's another list I'm looking at for BFS:

Grey Knights Grand Master - Nemesis Force Sword, Incinerator, Psychotroke Grenades - 195
Inquisitor Coteaz - 100

10 Grey Knight Purifiers - Nemesis Force Hammer, 5 x Nemesis Force Sword, 4 x Psycannon - 285
Rhino Dedicated Transport w/ Dozer Blade - 45

Venerable Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Twin-Linked Autocannon, Psybolt Ammunition - 185
Venerable Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Twin-Linked Autocannon, Psybolt Ammunition - 185

5 Grey Knight Terminators w/ 3 Nemesis Force Swords, 2 Nemesis Force Hammers, Psycannon - 225
5 Warrior Acolytes - 4 w/ Laspistol/CCW, 1 w/ Laspistol/CCW/Meltabombs - 25
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammunition - 50
5 Warrior Acolytes - 4 w/ Laspistol/CCW, 1 w/ Laspistol/CCW/Meltabombs - 25
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammunition - 50
5 Warrior Acolytes - 4 w/ Laspistol/CCW, 1 w/ Laspistol/CCW/Meltabombs - 25
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammunition - 50
5 Warrior Acolytes - 4 w/ Laspistol/CCW, 1 w/ Laspistol/CCW/Meltabombs - 25
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammunition - 50
5 Warrior Acolytes - 4 w/ Laspistol/CCW, 1 w/ Laspistol/CCW/Meltabombs - 25
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammunition - 50

Dreadnaught w/ 2 x Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition - 135
Dreadnaught w/ 2 x Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition - 135
Dreadnaught w/ 2 x Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition - 135

So, what have we here in the permutations department.
We have plenty of long range durable units to add fire support and take down transports / etc. We have the ability to outflank a squad of 10 purifiers with proper kit (and a dozer so they don't get stuck on terrain outflanking). We have the ability to render purifiers scoring, put them afoot, and attach coteaz and the GM. If they are outflanking, or scouting forward, Coteaz and the GM have a Grey Knight Terminator unit they can join instead.

I have BS5 multi-meltas and a heavy psycannon squad to deal with land raiders in a pinch if I have to ... I also have a spread of hammers that can up to S10, including one master-crafted. This helps with things like TWC stars that will also be torrented.

The acolyte squads are a little more durable, with meltabombs to make lazy players sweat and stop tank shocks on objectives. Additionally, if I get into a combat pinch with a lot of threats in my lines, I can use the purifiers as one combat unit, the terminators as another, and the GM and Coteaz can attach to 5 acolytes ... much better than 3, b/c it lets me base power fists and the majority of enemy models with the acos. If the acos survive being swung at, each is throwing 3 attacks up to S5 on the charge with double-hammer, and they are preventing any serious damage to Coteaz and the GM, who throw up to S10 and S6 power weapon attacks each respectively.

In scoring requirement situations, I can score up the Purifiers and possibly the Venerable Dreads, giving me a large variety of advancing, mobile, durable scoring units that are legitimate combat threats, and are extremely difficult to charge thanks to sanctuary and psychotroke grenades. The venerable dreads are also excellent tanks for boyz mobs and the like, buying the purifiers and coteaz free time to eat through units at a time.

I have plenty of torrent, plenty of firepower, tons of scoring, maneuverability with outflank, and even purifier first turn charge shenanigans should I so choose / should I be going first and someone give me the chance (deploy rhino sideways, pivot and move 12" in scout move, disembark 2" from door to back of base, move 6 charge 6 ... 26" range from deployment edge). This is especially useful against armies that have light mech, b/c you can carefully plan it so that you charge vehicles and the like with most of your purifiers, charge only one or two into an infantry unit demeched by psyfleman fire, and leave a combat-stuck threat in the middle of an opponent's army on Bottom 1.

Thoughts?

What Does a Tournament Record Mean? Is it OK to Lose Due to Something Besides Dice? Propping Yourself Up on the Internets ... OH and some BFS Lists

2011-09-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

So, here's a heck of an intro:

I've never lost a singles tournament game, anywhere, ever.

It's true. SARCASM WARNING - By my stupendous awesomeness at 40k I've never lost a tournament game against another player. At AdeptiCon Team 2010 my partner and I lost my 4th round team game. That's my only loss of any sort at a tournament.

What does this mean?

Nothing. I'm just lucky. The law of averages says there are plenty of players out there as good as me, or better than me, and they all will beat me a good # of the times we play together. WE haven't even all played together.

At the Battle for Salvation GT last year, I played Simon Leen, Jeff Frederickson, Bill McFadden, Alex Fennell, and Andrew Sutton (among others). All of these players would independently qualify for the NOVA Invitational. I beat them all. Many of them I beat on lucky dice rolls or things going my way. They were all my peers or perhaps better.

You will NEVER hear me EVER claim to be a SUPERLATIVE at anything, b/c I'd be flat out wrong. I'm a very good 40k player, I'm comfortable with that, and I don't really wish to be anything else. I feel NO ONE ELSE should seek to be, either.

I see a constantly increasing occurrence of a strange internet phenomenon ... or maybe not so strange ... of people propping themselves up as skilled / elite 40k players, sharing oodles of advice on how to play and what to do and what lists to bring ... and then when they lose, blowing up with excuses and perhaps less than cordial reasons why on the internet.

Here is all I kinda want to add as a thought ...
While Warhammer 40k does involve rolling dice to determine many of the outcomes, there are significant components of the game that are either not dice based, or involve mechanics that can mitigate the impact of dice. If you choose to play a list that does not account for the mitigation of "bad luck," or that does not focus on components of the game OUTSIDE of the dice (i.e. using clever movement and pacing, avoiding overcommittal early on, taking advantage of LOS blockage with "survivors" or entire units, etc.), you are periodically going to face games against your peers where your dice absolutely blow.

Please, for the love of mary, stop blaming the dice. We've all had crappy dice games aplenty, many of them playing the "usual suspects" at our local gaming stores or in our house-bound gaming groups. The people we typically beat that lead to us having a "firm" self-opinion and posting on blogs about how great we are or trying to teach people ... well, we beat them with or without bad dice b/c they often aren't as good as us. If they were, and beat you all the time, you'd think you weren't so hot comparatively.

Either way, the point here is - when you lose to bad dice, it is almost always still your fault, and your opponent's fault. It's not the fault of Lady Luck. Your opponent was in a position to beat you if your dice weren't "to the odds," or you took a list and/or played in a way that left you extremely vulnerable to poor odds, etc.

This also has relevance to HOW to build a list for tournament play ... taking a pure MSU list that presumes it will get even marginal odds over the course of a game is all well and good, but it is often the type of list that will win "unless my dice suck." Well, that's a bad list in a lot of senses, for tournament play ... b/c in a longer-game-set tournament, chances are your luck is going to suck at some points and be great at some points (and thus we get the averages). If your list can't survive through the crappy luck games ... well, that's not really luck's fault.

I know I'm rambling some here, but to bring it all home ... I'll be attending and competing at the Battle for Salvation GT again this year. I think I'm bringing Grey Knights this time around, and my list will be or be based off one of the lists that follows. Because this is a great, tough event ... I'm sure I'll face some peers while I'm there, and it's going to be anybody's game. Best believe if I DO lose, even if it's to "a single roll of the dice," it's going to e credited to my opponent being a peer, or being superior. I'll analyze any mistakes I make (And will do my best not to make any), I'll be sad for any bad dice rolls, but if a bad dice roll is all it takes to screw me, it's b/c my opponent was right there with me every step of the way. If I'm counting on a single roll of a 3+ to let me win by going to Turn 6 ... he's just as much counting on a single roll of a 1-2 to let him win by stopping at 5.

Be magnanimous in defeat, build your lists to be less susceptible to odds, and when you lose ... and you WILL lose ... for WHATEVER reason ... give credit for it where due, befriend your opponent (because that's all either of you will really deeply remember about the game), and try not to be a douchecanoe starting internet flamewars across the web over it after the fact.

Great example, btw, is Sandwyrm from The Back 40k. He was caught off guard by the height and quantity of LOS blocking terrain at the NOVA, and had some games that came down to very close calls as he fought his way to 4-4. That said, here's a perfect quote in light of all that from him:
"So all I did was trade a good list that I knew well for a mediocre one that I didn't because I was insecure. My fault."

His recent post with the Gonzo journalist image topper is full of a lot of commentary that acknowledges some of the WHY behind losses (i.e. terrain, self, dice, whatever), but doesn't take credit away from his opponents in the process, and doesn't defend inappropriate choices or actions as being flawless and only upended by bad dice or bad opponents. Hell of a good man for the approach, and everyone still knows he's a well above competent gamer.

When some of the guys out there promote themselves too much, the ego burst on loss is catastrophic and visible ... and you can't deal with it but to make up excuses, insult people, etc., and everyone ELSE is ready to jump on you for being imperfect.

This is how you can see some people go like 10-3 over a weekend, yet still be "upset." What the heck?

Can we point at Blackmoor as a paragon of bright here also? I think 10-3 is precisely what he went at the NOVA this year over the Invitational and GT, losing in the final round of the GT, and you know - he seems by all accounts to be quite happy about what he did, as he should be. Mad props.

Anyway, here are some list variants and rationales I'm looking at for BFS:

1. Purifier Spam + My Standard Coteaz Core

Grand Master w/ Psycannon - 220
Inquisitor Coteaz - 100

(1/3) Venerable Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Twin-Linked Autocannon w/ Psybolt Ammo - 185
(2/3) 10 Purifiers w/ 2 Psycannons, 2 Incinerators, Hammer - 265
Rhino w/ Psybolt Ammo - 40
(3/3) 10 Purifiers w/ 2 Psycannons, 2 Incinerators, Hammer - 265
Rhino w/ Psybolt Ammo - 40

(1/6) 3 Acolytes w/ LP, CCW - 12
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammo - 50
(2/6) 3 Acolytes w/ LP, CCW - 12
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammo - 50
(3/6) 3 Acolytes w/ LP, CCW - 12
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammo - 50
(4/6) 3 Acolytes w/ LP, CCW - 12
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammo - 50
(5/6) 3 Acolytes w/ LP, CCW - 12
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammo - 50
(6/6) 8 Acolytes w/ LP, CCW; 2 Acolytes w/ Meltagun, CCW; Death Cult Assassin - 75
Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammo - 50

(1/3) 5 Purgators w/ 2 Incinerators, 2 Psycannons - 140
Rhino w/ Psybolt Ammo - 40
(2/3) Dreadnaught w/ 2 Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo - 135
(3/3) Dreadnaught w/ 2 Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo - 135

In Kill Point missions, the Purifiers are going to probably stay together, and scout / outflank (optional)
In Objective Missions, they'll probably combat squad into 2 cannons / 3 swords in Rhino + 2 Incinerators / Hammer that can walk behind LOS terrain or hiijack a Psyback.

The Purgators are just an extra gunboat, and yet another unit that Coteaz or the Grand Master can "hop" to in order to give it just enough combat and LD boost to deal with any sort of MSU unit that gets close enough to eat up in combat.

Nominally, Coteaz and the Grand Master will deploy on foot with the 11 model Henchman squad of 8 acos, 2 acos with meltagun, and a death cult. Together, this unit can expertly dissect most things for a couple of reasons; 1) the model count permits - even when charged - applying the independent characters to the enemy models I want to fight, instead of getting them based by high strength power weapons (though S7 and lower can be semi-tanked by the 3++ GM); 2) inherent casualties on the acos in combat + stubborn 10 leadership + ATKSNF will very often let me intentionally "draw" a combat on the turn I charge something scarier, and thus hide in combat until 2 full rounds are done; 3) double hammerhand turns S3 acos into S5 acos with 28 attacks on the charge, turns the deathcult into WS6 I6 S6, turns the GM into WS6 S6 I5, and turns Coteaz's hammer into master-crafted S10.

The Grand Master has a psycannon so that most/all of my units are still pumping out mobile firepower to help demech/mess with opponents.

The 3man acolyte squads are almost always going to be reserved and walking on ... their psybacks are there to provide fire support, and help move combat squadded purifiers around, and provide movement blocking against land raider lists, etc. etc. They aren't there to explode with 3 hapless T3 5+ saving bodies inside. I'm quite happy to Communion acos off the board even longer too.

Finally, the Psybolt Rhinos ... I could turn a couple of them into Psybacks, but this is bad for a couple of reasons. First of all, I can't outflank 10 purifiers in a psyback ... but I can outflank them in a Rhino, and put 2 S5 shots into the side armor of chimeras, or into DE vehicles, or into trukks, or just into infantry ... and can also fire 4 psycannon shots out upon arrival (or fire 2 incinrators into a vehicle flank, or whatever).

The point of the Psybolt rhinos is to let me stay bunkered and firing as long as possible, and to scout or outflank full purifier squads, and keep them bunkered in KP missions ... these are all relevant, and it's trading a little bit of on-paper-optimization for a wider and more reliable series of choices in practice.

Ugh, this is a long post ... so more to come in time re: BFS list development.

Fantasy and Trios Results, Blogroll Update

2011-09-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

Seriously, sorry about the delay!

I've also added all surveyed attendees of this year's NOVA who listed their blog when inquired about ... on the blogroll. If your blog isn't up there and you'd like it to be, my bad! Just tell me to!

40K TRIOS TEAM TOURNAMENT RESULTS

FANTASY GT RESULTS

Response to Tasty Taste at Blood of Kittens, Liars are Liars; Bring the Hobby as a Whole Together, do not Divide it Further

2011-09-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

Tasty posted a large article that is primarily full of lies and false assertions about the NOVA.

While we take constructive criticism very seriously, and will spend a great deal of time addressing those concerns about the NOVA brought up, the facts do not lie about the real response and experience people had, or about how our format and system works.

As such, I've copy and pasted my reply here, because Tasty's own words cannot stand up to facts and reality, and I want to ensure they are properly read.

As a disclaimer, while I care little for Tasty or BOK, I care greatly about those who might read his blog and look no further, and thus not know any better. This response was primarily for them.

Tasty's article: http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2011/09/12/meat-for-meta-when-dashofpepper-wins-best-sportsman/comment-page-1/#comment-13129

My response:

http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2011/09/value-of-surveys-fantasy-and-40k-tt.html

Tasty is one of the largest fools on the planet, because he is incapable of admitting he was wrong, or is wrong.

The NOVA specifically caters to the “average” gamer … the format is designed for it, which is why our strongest responses came from our most average or below average players in the overall competitive/skill front.

You’re embarrassing yourself, Nick. The vast preponderance of facts all stand in stark contrast to your statements, and you’re not even good at spin. Constructive criticism arose, and a TINY fraction of attendees flat out didn’t enjoy themselves … better believe I’ll be spending a good portion of my life this year on addressing even those concerns, for nothing but the betterment of attendees … certainly not for profit or personal glory.

Brandon Vallee, of the White Scars blog, was one of only two people to give a below average rating to the NOVA on our survey, out of every single player surveyed. His close compatriot, blog-mate and co-attendee Eric (who Brandon stayed with in the DC area) had naught but fantastic things to say. That’s also where the strength of it all comes in – while you have a handful of bloggers to point at, or commiserates … I have a detailed survey done of the ENTIRE ATTENDEE BASE, to include now over 180 responses (204 40k GT players, to show you how comprehensive a response it is) and rising. You are a complete failure, while the NOVA will continue to succeed.

Why? Everything we do is geared, planned, constructed and driven toward the constant goal of improving the experience of *every single attendee,* while providing a FAIR environment in which competitors, hobbyists and simple attendees alike can win prizes, fun, and friendships. This is why people who went 0-4 on Day 1 won prizes for generalship. This is why a random attendee got lucky and won $1,000 cash. This is why attendees have said things about the NOVA such as:

“NOVA has set a new standard for the social aspect of the tabletop wargaming hobby.”

AND this is why the NOVA will continue to be a success, and leverage facts and a staff comprised of fundamentally good human beings toward the betterment of our hobby as a whole.

To those who would listen to Nick without investigating the facts or sharing your concerns with the actual organizers, feel free to post here or send me an e-mail – I’m happy to correct any misconceptions, and will use only facts and data to do it … to show you a format designed better than almost any to reward and encourage participation in ALL style of hobbyist, and to show you a budget and plan oriented entirely around the joy and satisfaction of those people who bless us by attending. Do not buy lies, deception, and outright slander. For instance: his statement above that people left on Sunday after losing a game, b/c they had nothing left to play for. Nick has NO IDEA what our format is, our bracketing system on day 2, etc., and thus is completely unaware of the fact that everyone’s records were wiped clean on the 2nd day, and even the 0-4′s competed only against their peers for generalship prizes on Day 2, as well as constant raffles, etc.

Of our $30,000 in prize support (almost exclusively from sponsors), $2,500 went to the Invitational Tournament Champ (5-0), Invitational Renaissance Man (50% appearance, 50% competitive), GT Tournament Champ (8-0), and GT Renaissance Man (50% appearance, 50% competitive). The remaining prize support went exclusively to raffles (tickets awarded by LOSING games, presubmitting lists), cash raffle (tickets awarded by staying at the Hyatt), and all of the other events, including bracket winners within the 0-4, 1-3, 2-2, and 3-1 record sets on Day 2. The Invitational had 32 attendees, out of 400 total at the event. That’s 8%. It received 8% of the prize support. Tasty is a liar, or simply ignorant.

I care little for Nick, who I have e-mailed in the past to ask for a more positive relationship (to no reply). I do care greatly for those of you who read his posts and simply do not know any better … take a path of positivity and openness, and of connection in our hobby … not one of divisiveness and shitting upon the hard work of others.

The Value of Surveys; Fantasy and 40k TT Results Incoming

2011-09-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'll have formatted Fantasy and 40k TT results up later today. Invitational results still incoming from the scoremaster. Apologies for the delay here.

So, the survey we put out for the NOVA has a very high percentage response rate by now, and provides some very valuable input from the players themselves ...

Here are a few highlights, for your consumption

Several people are complaining about the terrain at various venues, loudly! Let's look at what the participants as a whole thought:

Asked whether players would like to play with the same amount of LOS blocking terrain again? 93% said yes.

Asked opinion about the terrain as a whole?
87% said it was Good or Excellent; 95% said it was Average, Good, or Excellent

What about cheating / sportsmanship / slow play / etc?
Asked about their experiences regarding opponents compared to the norm at the NOVA,
77% said Above Average
98% said Average or Above Average

What about the Independence Center as the Game Hall?
81% Very Satisfied or Satisfied
94% Neutral, Satisfied, or Very Satisfied

Other than a few more complaining sorts, the response to terrain, game hall, and sportsmanship was overwhelmingly positive!

What about the Hyatt as a whole, though?
62% of those who stayed at the Hyatt were satisfied or very satisfied with their rooms / room rates for value ($109/night)
17% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied
The rest were "neutral"

What about the Hyatt food?
26% were satisfied with the food
42% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied
The rest were "neutral"

So, this is more telling - not very high marks for the Hyatt for value ... over the comments you're able to sort of see that people felt it was a nice hotel, and a nice gaming venue, but too nickle-and-dime, and the food was either slow or expensive (or both).

When asked whether the NOVA was better than expected, as expected, or less than expected ...
77% said "Better Than Expected," and 97% said "As Expected" or "Better Than Expected." Many of those 20% saying "as expected" also specifically stated thereafter in their comments that they expected it to be awesome.

What about value for cost? 99.3% said Fair, Neutral, Good, or Excellent. 96% said Neutral, Good, or Excellent. 85% said Good, or Excellent.

Demographics? 94% of our attendees are over 22 years old. 50% are over 30 years old. Interesting.

How did we do in terms of keeping things organized?
87% said Excellent or Good
96% said Neutral, Excellent, or Good
100% said Fair, Neutral, Excellent, or Good
0% said "Poor"

Finally, when ranking the NOVA on a scale of 1-5, where a 1 was "Fair" and a 5 was "Off the Charts" ... 85% said 4 or 5; 97% said 3, 4, or 5. Nearly half voted it a "5."

So are the handful of negative blog reviews reflective of the majority? Not even in the slightest ways imaginable.

Do we have a lot to improve on? Hell yes! The best part of this review was the contribution of constructive suggestions for improvement. Nothing beats a positive suggestion given by a guy who enjoyed himself, but wants to see it be even better next year. My kind of comments.

A couple of choice "Single phrase summations" of the NOVA that tickled my fancy ...

Awesomefunweekend! (that's one word right? :))

Tough friendly opponents, Beautiful armies, unparalleled terrain, Competitive scoring, What all 40k Tournaments should be.

It was the best experience I could have had for my first GT. Thanks Mike and crew!!

Captures the GW GT spirit with a modern competitive edge.

NOVA has set a new standard for the social aspect of the tabletop wargaming hobby.

The NOVA was the best tournament I have attended in twenty+ years of running and playing 40K events.

Volunteers and Key Personnel Sought - NOVA 2012

2011-09-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

Interested in participating in the NOVA 2012 from the organizational and operational point of view? Looking for comradeship with local gamers and peers? Send an e-mail to mvbrandt@gmail.com and cc it to novaopen@gmail.com

We're processing the results of the surveys sent out, and have received a TON of responses so far already! Overwhelmingly positive, constructive, and useful.

We'll be holding our staff appreciation meeting and kick-off for the 2012 planning year on September 18 - Staff, check your spam folders and e-mail in-boxes if you haven't received the evite and responded to it yet!

If you're interested in participation next year, attendance at the thanks and kick-off is extremely important (if not quite mandatory). Let us know! We have tons of sponsors hopping on board already, tons of feedback to process and improvements to make, plans to lay and events to flesh out ... it's a full year planning cycle this time around! I might even wind up dropping the word "Forgeworld" upon you all.

Thanks again to all for this year's NOVA and all its successes and lessons learned. Additional stats are forthcoming for Fantasy and the Invitational and Team Tournament, plus other side events. Questions are being answered as fast as we can throw them out there. Eventually we will return to your regularly scheduled Whiskey 40k blog programming, as well.

If you enjoyed the NOVA format, make sure to check out the Battle for Salvation coming up in about 4 weeks. Much of the "Whiskey Crew" (my informal titling for the local crew of in and out gaming peers and buddies) will be in attendance, and I'll be up there either to help and support the BFS guys, or to defend my title from last year's BFS GT.

Photographs and Surveys

2011-09-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

Attention NOVA attendees - we sent out a survey today; if you'll take a few minutes to fill it out, check your spam filter for it due to mass e-mailage, etc., we'd appreciate it - we take feedback VERY seriously, and will actively use it for next year.

To the people who have already filled it out - your OVERWHELMING positive response is extremely gratifying, and your HUGE contribution of constructive pointers and ideas for next year is extremely USEFUL. Thank you all!

Our Sunday photographer Beth (also an excellent artist, check out her art), has started finalizing some shots ... and I've created some flickr galleries. Some highlights included below in this post.

Players
Armies
Staff
Fantasy Armies and Players

Army finalist photos and other sorts of things all incoming!

NOVA Open Warhammer 40k GT Results! Appearance Mid-Awards Delay Explanation

2011-09-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Just a quick rundown, and then the all desired stats sheet.

Renaissance Man, Overall Track Winner - Gabe Dobkin
Tournament Champion, Generalship Track Winner - Tony Kopach

I'm identifying brackets by their Day 1 record, rather than numerically. Generally, the later you received your losses, the higher your bracket was within same win-loss record.

4-0 Bracket Winner - Tony Kopach
3-1 Bracket Winners - Ray Tautic, Andrew Sutton, Alex Fennell
2-2 Bracket Winners - Jorge Ruiz, James Watkins, Simon Leen, Will Pauley
1-3 Bracket Winners - David Key, Daniel Pardo, Bill McFadden, Mark Ferek
0-4 Bracket Winner - Todd Cornell

Heart of Gold - Sportsmanship - Justin Hilderbrandt
Justin was chosen randomly from among the 16 or so tied for tops; I'll re-collate those names when I get an opportunity. Random 2nd and Random 3rd among the best were Sean Nayden (who won the Heart of Gold in Justin's absence), and Stephen Chase (of the 11th Company Podcast)

A QUICK EXPLANATION!

In the middle of the awards, after giving Joe Johnson his award for Best Conversion for his Salamanders Commander, I paused the awards to confer with the Appearance Judges still there. The Chief Appearance Judge, Geoff Redding, had to leave by that point to catch the last Metro out of dodge.

Gabe Dobkin rightly won Best Army Appearance, Chris Dubuque rightly won Best Single Mini, and Joe Johnson rightly won Best Converted Mini. The problem was, I'd initially not planned on awarding major awards to the same person twice - since Dobkin won Renaissance Man after Appearance Winners were decided, I was trying to see if we should award "down" ... unfortunately doing so would also screw up Single Mini and Conversion, as Dubuque and Johnson were very close to the "best" choice in Overall Army Appearance.

We did NOT change any of the awards, in the end, because it was too late in the process and the winners really were the best of the bunch - the Appearance Judges took a great deal of time to select them, and the right thing to do was stick with the true winners, even though this meant Dobkin went home with a TON of swag :)

So, re-congratulations to the appearance winners ... we should have some stronger photos of each of these coming soon ...

Best Overall Army (Sum of All Parts) - Gabe Dobkin, for his Cobra Commander Army

Best Single Mini (Well Beyond Crayon) - Chris Dubuque, for his Sanguinor

Best Single Conversion (A Miniature Frankenstein) - Joe Johnson, for his Salamanders Commander

Finally, the results, with Codex Attached ...

In general, here is how each codex performed, pending one army I still need to fill in that I'm trying to track down the list for:

6 x Black Templars (26-30) 46.4%
22 x Blood Angels (97-79) 55.1%
6 x Chaos Daemons (16-32) 33.3%
6 x Chaos Space Marines (16-32) 33.3%
5 x Dark Angels (23-17) 57.5%
14 x Dark Eldar (58-54) 51.8%
6 x Eldar (21-27) 43.8%
32 x Grey Knights (140-116) 54.7%
21 x Imperial Guard (88-80) 52.4%
3 x Necron (11-13) 45.8%
10 x Ork (39-41) 48.8%
27 x Space Marines (96-120) 44.4%
25 x Space Wolves (106-94) 53%
6 x Tau (18-30) 37.5%
10 x Tyranids (34-46) 42.5%
4 x Witch Hunters (15-17) 46.9%

AND THE RESULTS!

When using the excel sheet and sorting, your Overall Standing is found by sorting the Renaissance Man column. Your Generalship Standing is found by sorting the Competitive column. Obviously Appearance Standing is done by the same for the Appearance Column. I've printed a few PDFs and linked those to make some of the sorting easier for those who don't want to fiddle around in excel.

Renaissance Results - Simple

Appearance Results - Simple

Competitive Results - Simple

All Ratings and Appearance Scores on One Sheet, Sorted by Competitive Rating

Master Results Sheet in Excel

Eliza Mary W@tkins

2011-08-31T12:53:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give a big congratulations to James and Samantha Watkins on the successful birth of their baby girl and firstborn child.

James and Sam worked tirelessly to support the NOVA this year. They were there almost every single day we worked on terrain and tables and the like. Sam sat 9 months pregnant and stuffed swag bags. James repeatedly got staples and paint and all sorts of other things all over himself helping us drybrush and base paint and form and cut and build a million hills and buildings and everything else.

These are two of the finest people I've ever been blessed to know. They mean the world to me, and I just have to share my excitement and joy at the growth of their family with ya'll.

FYI and Jazz - Results Soon

2011-08-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

Some quick hit results.

40k Open GT, field of 206 after Irene drops
Overall Track:
1. Gabe Dobkin
2. Tony Kopach
3. Bob Evers

Generalship Track:
1. Tony Kopach
2. Allan Hernandez
3. Devin Schafer (sp)

Also will have pics for these, but ...
Gabe Dobkin's Cobra Commander Guard army won Best Army (Sum of All Parts)
Chris Dubuque's Sanguinor won Best Single Mini (Well Beyond Crayon)
Joe Johnson's Salamander Commander won Best Conversion (A Miniature Frankenstein)

All bracket winners, full results, paint scores, etc. etc. etc. for all events should be releasing in the next couple of days.

Off to the NOVA - LIVE FEED LINK - REPOST PLEASE

2011-08-24T04:50:00.000-07:00

All bloggers, forum posters, etc., please repost this and keep it "alive" all over ... you can tune into the NOVA Open Live Feed starting tomorrow at around 6:00PM, and it'll be "up" for the majority of the Open thereafter, including the Whiskey Challenges on Thursday night, Invitational all day Friday, and the Open on Sat and Sun.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-11th-company

2011 Whiskey Challenges! Roommate NEEDED!

2011-08-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

EDIT: Brother Loring, a British or Welsh or some odd fellow, is looking for a roomsharer for the NOVA. He'll be flying across the Atlantic on short notice ... anyone able to share? Need to know ASAP! E-Mail mvbrandt@gmail.com

So, this year has a bevy of Whiskey Challenge match-ups for ya'll to enjoy at event and from afar via live cam ... here's how they pan out in no particular order:

PS - I apologize for the lack of polish on the writing here ... I am going CRAZY with a million little nitnoids to wrap up here in the last day before I move into the Hyatt for the NOVA.

1. Dash of Pepper, Justin Hilderbrandt, of Dakka infamy, GT fame, and They Shall Know Fear blog
vs.
Troy Esposito, who posts on Dakka as Grimwulfe

These guys are going at it Dark Eldar vs. Space Wolf. Troy took up Dash's challenge that NO Space Wolf player can possibly beat his Dark Eldar.

2. Stelek, aka Andrew Sutton, of Yes the Truth Hurts
vs.
Mike Somerville, a DC local who took "Best Guard" at the Throne of Skulls, and has the St. Omerville Blog

Andy and Mike have gone at it a little on YTTH, as Andy criticized Mike for even talking about "winning" "Best Guard" at Throne of Skulls. There's also talk of Somerville possibly bringing Footdar ... or perhaps Necron? Or maybe he'll just attempt to show Stelek what Best Guard really means.

3. 11th Company Podcast vs. 40k Radio

I think they are playing for pinkslips. Whichever side wins, they take over the other side's podcast! Or ... maybe they're just playing for cash. Either way, I hear Romeo waffled out of competing, and put in his right-hand-man Kyle. Pat Higgs, the chief interview guru for 11th Co, is taking them on using his Daemons. Or I think he's using Grey Knights. WHO KNOWS. Either way, expect shenanigans aplenty.

4. Chumbalaya, aka Jeremy Chamblee, of Blackjack and Hookers the Blog
vs.
Xaereth, aka Adam Tricola, an Invitaional qualifier, blogger at Delusions of Grandeur, and Dark Eldar fellow of ill or high repute (Depending on who you talk to!)

These guys are not only playing each other and hailing from geographically disparate areas of the country, but they're sharing a room together at the hotel. I don't know if this will be a deathmatch or a love fest ... I'm kinda grossed out either way.

5. Targetawgs, Andrew Gonyo, Multiple 2010/2011 GT winner or high placer, multiple Invitational Qualifier, and guy with a pretty purple army
vs.
Yermom

Well, he calls himself that; also known as boy wonder Nick Nanavati, of the Brown Paintbrush blog

These two know each other ... much the worse ... and I think they're both even playing Grey Knights. May the psyflespam begin! At least they both paint gorgeous armies!

6. ManBoyGenius, aka Rob Baer, aka SpikeyBits ... who blogs at the Spikey Bits blog, and is well known on the tourney circuit
vs.
JAWABALLS, because I had to caps it, aka Chris Dubuque, of the blog ... well ... Jawaballs, plus Games Day Banner wins and Heroes of Armageddon and other sorts of artistic and competitive fame

Chris and Rob apparently go way back, but haven't played in some time (since Rob lived up in the Long Island, NY area of the world). Two GT regulars going at it.

7. Eric, aka Eric Hoerger, of the White Scars Blog and the DC area
vs.
Stillfrosty, aka Brandon Vallee, also of the White Scars Blog

Both of these guys are using variant White Scar lists against each other ... and they both post for the White Scars blog ... and they don't actually know each other in person (yet) ... Stillfrosty is also qual'ed for the Invitational the next day.

8. Sandwyrm, aka Keith G., of the Back 40k, a very popular blog and a well-known guard player ...
vs.
Fritz, aka Fred Feddeck, of Fritz40k/The Way of Saim Hann, also a very popular blog and a very well-known esoteric list / Eldar / etc. player ....

These two well-known names from the blogging / internet world should have an interesting game together ... mobile guard against ... perhaps ... Tyranid. Unless Fritz wants to bring a different list for the Challenge match.

SWAG!

2011-08-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

EDIT:

Awesome awesome wrecked Wave Serpent / Ruins terrain, brought to you by James Watkins and Bob Likins (the Rogue General Hunter). These guys were with me every step of the way on the terrain build, and really spearheaded it in some key ways. Bravo ...

So, we have over $26,000 in total prize and swag bag support this year. Yeah.

We honestly got a very late start on sponsor pursuit, but we had a bunch of great ones hit the surface to help us out.

There are a TON of things in our swag bag, and I'm not going to show you pictures of most of them, but I thought I'd share a couple ...

Pulled from a post I made on Dakka:

Swag is rolling in, mass project stuffing the bags tomorrow ... sorry for photo quality, it's a crappy 'old' Droid.

NOVA Swag Bags (reusable goodness): http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IMG_20110819_150100.jpg

New objective (left) next to last year's objective (Right) ... collect 'em each year ... Loser of Game 8 gets 2, Winner gets 3, there'll be 5 on every table (and we have backups in case of shenanigans, natch): http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IMG_20110819_152256.jpg

Partly sponsored by Warstore, double-LED + laser pointer all metal keychains (these are sweet, and way cooler even than last year's long-lived pointers): http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IMG_20110819_161425.jpg

SpikeyBitz / NOVA logo shot glasses: http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IMG_20110819_123911.jpg

There is a TON more in every swag bag ... scenic bases and magnets and snacks and tons of bitz and all manner of goodness. Don't want to give EVERYTHING away.

Up for a spontaneous trip? A small handful of 40k GT spots left due to last minute drops, plus there's the trios team tournament, malifaux, warmachine (Each with just a couple spots left), and just a ton of open gaming and fun stuff to do!

Appearance Scoring Explanation and Rubric for the NOVA 40k and Fantasy Events

2011-08-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

These are the final drafts of the Appearance Scoring Rubric / Explanation for 40k and Fantasy events at the NOVA 2011.

http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Appearance-Packet_final_draft.pdf

http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Appearance-Scorecard_Warhammer_NOVA_2011_draft_v_1_0.pdf

Just to keep the images rolling, here's a shot of one of our more esoteric foam-based pieces ... a bunker that's been busted through by a Devilfish:

Ruins and Upcoming Posts

2011-08-15T05:09:00.000-07:00

Many new posts coming this week, including sample NOVA Open battle reports, updated FAQ and final packets for the Invitational and Trios Team, plus a couple of editorial revisions to the primary GT packet. Fantasy final packet will also release, and we'll re-up the Malifaux and Warmachine/Hordes Packs.

Information on the DC Bar Crawl and other things will also be up here.

As far as ruins go, here's a link to Bob Likins' Rogue General Hunter blog ... Bob's one of a handful of guys who've given countless hours to helping the NOVA finish making up for an unexpected terrain donor loss only a couple of months ago ... we now have over 1010 pieces of 40k terrain ready to go for the 2011 NOVA Open ... crazy. Here are a tiny handful of them ...

http://roguegeneralhunter.blogspot.com/2011/08/nova-open-buildings-preview.html

Warhammer 40,000 Final Mission Packet (Draft), NOVA FAQ v3

2011-08-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

Please review, playtest, enjoy, and reply with any curiosities or questions or typos!
Note that amendments made for typos/etc. will show up in the guide books for each attendee in appropriate final version.

Mission order will not change. Final Team Tournament and Invitational Packets are being dusted off.

NOVA Open Final 40k GT Mission Packet
http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2011-GT-Missions-v1.pdf

NOVA FAQ v3
http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/NOVA-FAQ-v3-prenova-draft.pdf

AUGUST 1 - PACKET DAY!

2011-08-01T04:22:00.000-07:00

Final rules packets will go up today for 40k. NOVA FAQ v3 will go up today.

Yesterday we finished 100 buildings and area/scatter terrain pieces. The 40k tables will be populated with 896 pieces in total of terrain.

Yowsa.

Here's a rando snapshot of a few of our simpler / foam / foamcore pieces ... (which still look pretty nice!)

And here's a rando shot of some of us felting tables in 100 degree heat. I'm in the green. The things we do for ya'll!

Also, we're contemplating releasing an item-generic budget for all to peruse ... thoughts on doing so? We still field some people thinking that $100 for a 40k spot is too pricey, that we must be pocketing a profit. I'm not sure if it would be a positive or negative thing to share with the general viewing audience exactly how much we are makin ... er, losing on the NOVA 2011 :)

And because it's a good day, here's a lol for the day:
http://www.explosm.net/db/files/Comics/Dave/comiciwannagrowupnew1.png

NOVA Invitational Update - Invitational Alternate "Application"

2011-07-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

Good Morning All,

The NOVA Invitational is nearing full in terms of available spots being awarded. There are several alternates who will be contacted over the next week or so to confirm that their spot has come up.

When all is said and done, there will probably be a couple of other spots available. So, how do we go about handing these out? Well, it's application and lottery time.

If you'd like to participate in the Invitational, please e-mail me: mvbrandt@gmail.com ... and we will continue individualized discussions there. In your e-mail, please include:

The 1750 Point Army List you would bring
Your general RTT and GT experience over the last year
Whether you are already attending the Open for the GT
No salesmanship or pitch.

In other news, a certain game involving paths and wars and being of similar scale to 40k and coming in the future may be showing and even giving away some of the earliest possible looks at its new miniatures at the NOVA this year. Only a handful of 40k spots and hotel rooms remain ...

Cold Hard Facts - WHY Do You Attend a Large Tournament?

2011-07-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

In a little over a month, 256 40k players are going to compete in the NOVA Open's 2nd Annual Warhammer 40,000 GT.

Within 2.5 hours of the start of the GT on Saturday morning, August 27, 128 of them will have lost a game.

How many of those players do you think are attending with hopes of winning it all?

The day before that, 32 players who have all WON OR PLACED HIGHLY in GT's and highly competitive RTT's around the nation will compete in the NOVA Invitational. Every last one of them wins most of his games at home on a daily basis. Every last one of them has some major tournament chops. Sixteen of them will lose a game by 10AM on Friday morning, August 26. One of these illustrious tournament winners will lose 5 in a row to start their NOVA Open experience.

It's easy to attend a GT and win. It's hard to attend a GT and lose. As I prepare, I don't have as much time to write complex blog posts as I'd like ... or to put things out there in the blogosphere that really get reposted over and over and make a splash. What I CAN do, however, is continue to share the thoughts that really stick out in my mind as I prepare.

It KILLS me as a TO and a [hopefully] relatively nice guy that half of my attendees will lose right off the bat.

But will they? Will you? I think what's important when you attend something large and competitive and full of players ... is to keep in mind that you're at a large, competitive event full of players. While only a single person AT MOST will go 8-0 at the NOVA Open GT, every last person will get 8 great games of 40k against their hobbying peers.

Why are you attending? How will you feel if you're the one guy who goes 0-8 at the NOVA? How will you feel if you're the one Invitational attendee who goes 0-5? "There can be only one" goes both ways ...

SPOTS RUNNING OUT - HOTEL ROOMS RUNNING OUT

2011-07-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update

The NOVA's got 4 Fantasy spots left only, and less than 20 40k spots left.

Our DC Bar Crawl is beginning to take firm shape, with bar sponsorships/drink specials already committed to for our attendees by Science Club and Rocket Bar, with many more in negotiations to solidify the deals.

NOVA Open 40k Prep Newsletter #2, New Sports Scoring, Draft Appearance Rules and Rubric

2011-07-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

2ND NOVA OPEN NEWSLETTER.

THIS SUCKER IS LONG - READ IT!

This will go up on the site, and be e-mailed to all 40k attendees. Organizers for the other events *Should* be getting newsletters/heads-up e-mails to their attendees in relatively short order.

Excerpted, glance at our Sports Scoring this year:

New Sportsmanship Scoring
Instead of asking players to rate each of their opponents better or worse than others, we will be implementing an “Excellent, Average or Terrible” sportsmanship system (Often referred to as "Pass/Fail"). Repetitive Terrible marks will risk your score, ability to continue the specific event, and invitations to future NOVA Opens.

To prevent gaming the system, our judges and organizers will aggressively handle repeat Terrible marks on a case-by-case investigative basis. People out to undermine the enjoyment of fellow gamers or focused on damaging an opponent’s score out of spite, will be addressed seriously.

Players tied for the highest total number of Excellent marks will receive special acknowledgment, and eligibility for our Heart of Gold sportsmanship award. Even if you do not befriend every opponent, we require you put forth your BEST effort toward the social component of our shared hobby.

I've also included below links to DRAFT Appearance Scoring Rules and Rubric as put together by our 40k Chief Appearance Judge, Geoff. He may poke me for putting up a draft but <3 Geoff!

DRAFT Appearance Rules 2011
DRAFT Appearance Scorecard 2011

Random Game Length for NOVA "Final" Missions ...

2011-07-12T05:04:00.001-07:00

So, we last year used RGL 6-7

I'm considering three options for this year at present -

1) RGL 6-7 again
2) Standard RGL 5-6-7
3) Variable RGL; 5-6-7 for Pitched/Spearhead; 6-7 for Dawn of War

Which do YOU think works best, and - more importantly - why?

Hotel Rooms, and a Hill

2011-07-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

The Hyatt Regency is selling out. It is free to reserve your hotel room. Please reserve it now. Stop forgetting! I know exactly what the slackers are doing, b/c I can often be one too - you say to yourself, "when I get home I'm going to reserve that hotel room." Well, forgetting to each day is costing you raffle tickets and risking you losing out on a room!

If you immediately went searching around for "superior deals" and found $99/night or similar at the Motel 8, you're not saving much; the regency is $109/night for double rooms or king rooms!

We've been building a metric crud ton of terrain ... here's a random WIP hill shot:

Any hill such as this will count as 4+ area terrain, in addition to maintaining significant LOS blockage from various angles.

Hence slow postage!

Building Terrain - and ... THE BLACK LIBRARY / GAV THORPE

2011-06-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

We'll have more on how they'll be involved, BUT The Black Library will be at the NOVA Open 2011, along with advance copies of Gav Thorpe's new book! Plus, if that wasn't enough, Gav will be there all weekend long hanging out with us. True to form with the NOVA's style, they'll be involved with us socially as well, from evening hang-outs like the Whiskey Challenge to our planned DC Bar Crawl.

The 2nd 40k preparatory newsletter for the NOVA Open will go out either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

We had a terrain build day on Sunday, this one focused mostly on cutting assembling and sand flocking pink foam hills.

These suckers will all be classified as 4+ cover area terrain, and are pretty effective LOS blockers, built out of variable level assemblies of 2" pink foam.

Beer, good company, barbecue, a pool, and hot wire cutters. Good times!

Doesn't it look like they're having all kinds of fun?

WIP on a very tiny # of zee hills

Tim Williamson, of the Tau of War, and Heroes of Armageddon project ... and my beautiful Highlander shinin' in the sun behind him ... why did I put it so close to a painting project? Bullet dodged through luck alone!

I'm incapable of looking non-goofy, so I fully commit to it ... thumbs up and all

Long ways to go on the terrain we're working through; this year one of our terrain/table loaners had to drop out due to personal struggles, so our budget had to "flex" (/sigh) to handle a massive surge in what needs to be self-provided ... we've got it totally covered, and the long-term net benefit is that we will have all of the terrain and tables we need in future years self-provided and ready for yearly refurbishment and upgrade by the time 2011 wraps up.

Sorry for the slow updates, but the NOVA 2011 is a ton of work!

Throne of Skulls $.02, Differences in Formats, Competitiveness, Evaluativeness, Fairness ... Getting Along

2011-06-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of an extension of a post I made on Dakka Dakka, in a discussion about the recently held Throne of Skulls championship/finals in Las Vegas, which by all accounts were extremely competitive, very well run, and a ton of fun for those involved.

Any tournament can be competitive, regardless of format. People often mix up the notions of evaluative and competitive. I.E. a tournament's competitive SIDE should in a vacuum fairly evaluate the best player in THAT tournament for THAT weekend, and the path to achieve best player should be appropriately predictable ... perceivable consequences is a phrase often bandied about.

Long story short, for the competitive side, a player should be able to say "If X, then Y." If I Massacre every game, I win, for instance.

In a NOVA, AdeptiCon, Bay Area, etc., type event - you're going into it knowing flatly that if you win every one of your games, you'll win the event's competitive track, period.

In a Battle Points and Margin of Victory type event, you're going into it knowing that the more you win BY, the better your chances of winning, unless someone beats people even MORE than you ... this is in the VACUUM sense of tournament theory LESS ideal than the first set, but still - you only will lose because someone else flat out did BETTER; that's to say, your final placement is not impacted by those who performed worse than you, only by those who performed better.

In the Throne of Skulls format, the water gets muddied even more because your final placement is not necessarily at all related to who does BETTER than you, but to how well your peers BELOW you did. Hence, you're getting quite far away from the simple notions of perceivable consequences, self-determination, and the ability to win by ... winning.

As I said earlier, I think Throne of Skulls sounds like a resounding success for those who attended, but it is not very accurate or appropriate to throw up the hands and lump ALL tournaments in together as equally evaluative or "fair" in giving players control over their own destinies.

Such control is not necessarily valuable - to the originator of the Throne of Skulls format, it was not valuable at all; generally, it was irrelevant whether players had much control over their own fates. That's OK, because it's openly stated that's the case - the format blatantly makes clear that your final placement in the overall competitive track will be in many ways divorced from your own personal success .... winning all your games helps you, but guarantees you nothing. Too bad so sad, yatta yatta.

Competitiveness is determined by the closeness of the field; if Michael Jordan in his prime were to compete against me in the most FAIR field possible at Basketball, he'd murder me so horribly it wouldn't even be funny - the fact that the format in which we played was fair and even and balanced and evaluative is irrelevant to COMPETITIVENESS ... such a match would not be competitive at all, despite the fairness of the format.

Similarly, if everyone playing in Throne of Skulls was a highly competitive player with a strong list and a lot of skills, the event was like to be EXTREMELY competitive, whether or not the final placement of the winner was his fault or the fault of his peers.

It's important, I think, that when these types of discussions start to heat up, we all take a step back and realize that there's a) a big difference between competitive and evaluative, and b) TOs are the ones with the rights to choose what is and isn't a valued function of their format, and as long as they are very clear well ahead of time about how things will pan out ... well, more power to them and try not to jump their case so much; it's not as if they've deceived or harmed you in any way.

This is most especially the case when evaluating Throne of Skulls ... the field was certainly competitive, and the event was extremely well advertised and clear in how it would play out. Beyond that, Ed and co threw an amazing time by the feedback of all who participated, and mostly great players won awards. I think it's a good point for all of us to call it a success, shake hands on differences, and look ahead to the next big events

Terrain to Expect at the NOVA Open - 40K; Thoughts on Terrain in Tournaments in General

2011-06-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

I WROTE THIS ARTICLE FOR KIRBY'S BLOG, 3++ IS THE NEW BLACK, AND WAITED FOR HIM TO POST IT THERE TO CROSS POST IT HERE.
To begin any discussion about tournament terrain, the first and most important thing to do is read Games Workshop’s own commentary on terrain for Warhammer 40,000. You may or may not always like what GW does with its company or rules, but we love and play this game for a reason … so let’s see what they say about the game.

As a general rule in Warhammer 40,000, the more terrain, the better the gaming experience. If you use too little terrain, games will be short and not very satisfactory, with too much advantage going to the player who gets to shoot first. For a balanced game, where close combat troops have a chance to get into contact with the enemy without being completely blown away in a couple of turns, we expect that about a quarter of the total playing surface should have terrain on it. The assumption here is that if terrain pieces are roughly 12” by 12”, then six or seven pieces are needed to fulfill the 25% recommendation on a standard 6’x4’ table (of course these dimensions are approximate and terrain features like woods should not be square, as irregular features look much better!).

In your terrain collection there should be a good mixture of types. An equal division between terrain which interferes with line of sight and provides cover (Such as woods or ruins), terrain which provides cover, but does not block line of sight (such as barricades, craters, scrubland and low rubble), and terrain which blocks line of sight completely (such as hills, rocky outcrops, buildings, etc.) makes for good tactical play. It is best to build your terrain collection with this in mind, otherwise the game balance could be seriously affected. Terrain that completely blocks line of sight is particularly important. Too much of it and your ranged firepower will be seriously impaired favoring assault troops; too little and the game will turn into a shooting match, with very little movement or tactical choices.

Alright … so we have a couple of things to work with here; terrain that obscures line of sight, terrain that doesn’t obscure line of sight, and terrain that completely blocks line of sight. We also know special attention should be paid to terrain that does block line of sight completely – not too much, not too little.

I actually would put your TYPICAL tournament terrain as “trees” and “low hills” covering the same category as barricades, craters, etc., with ruins and dense trees and taller hills covering the “interferes with line of sight” component, and true LOS blocking buildings and much taller hills being true line of sight blockers. Contrary to what some people will say, if your rhinos and chimeras and such cannot hide behind a piece of terrain, it is not line of sight blocking terrain for purposes of Warhammer 40,000 5th edition (A very vehicle heavy edition, as we all know). The same applies to monstrous creatures. I’m not sure if every LOS blocker should shield over-sized vehicles like Land Raiders and Vendettas, but you should at least be able to hide your transports and/or smaller vehicles to some point on the board.

Games Workshop hits on it themselves somewhat, but the biggest issue with tournament balance and gameplay is the viability of alpha strike armies … armies that by reserving when going 2nd, or deploying when going 1st …. Are simply built to overpower an enemy starting with the first turn of shooting. When you do not play with enough terrain as a general rule, you find more and more players that talk about these sorts of armies as “overpowered” and in other ways inappropriate. Good examples of this are pure missile and razorback spamming “Razorwolf” Space Wolf armies, typical “leafblower” styled long-ranged Imperial Guard armies, Darklight and/or Venom spamming DE armies, and the like. It should be no wonder that when you encounter players who use a full GW-suggested quantity of terrain in every game, they’re a little flabbergasted that these lists alone seem to garner so much ire from the internet. Now, do not mistake the notions of MSU and redundancy as being where we are going here – there are plenty of lists that leverage the tried and true strategy notions of redundancy and MSU, but do not rely entirely on long range fire and alpha striking.

The caution goes in both directions here, however – you as much do not want to encourage gunline alpha strikes BEYOND their intended balance, as you do not want to encourage pure assault armies to go beyond their intended balance.

What is the intended balance? Well, GW with its beautiful 2 paragraphs on terrain tell us more about their intent for the game and their desire to actually have balance than they do almost anywhere else. The general point here is they WANT balance.

So how do we assist this in a tournament setting?

First thing’s first – we need to minimize the differences from table to table. While it is impossible for every table at a tournament to be identical and equally fair (At least at a larger event) resource-wise … and frankly excitement-wise … it IS possible for every table to have the same basic terrain format. For the NOVA, we’ve extensively playtested and tournament-run with an “x” formation of larger terrain pieces, and a couple of smaller items. We want the terrain itself to cover about 25% of the board, and be a good mix of types. Here’s a sample chucked into a board quarter marker on Vassal.

We need at least one piece that completely blocks line of sight … and if one is where we’re going with that, it needs to probably go in the center of the table. “Centering” your main line of sight blocking terrain accomplishes a couple of things very quickly. First, an alpha striking army needs to make the difficult decision of deploying “split” into corners if it wants clear fire to all parts of an opposing army; if it chooses to castle or deploy centered, it’s going to have to contend with line of sight blockage. This single piece of terrain alone is the first BIG step in balancing out alpha strike long range vs. close combat and/or short range styled army builds. You do not want to go too far here – if you place your large LOS-blocking or partially los-blocking piece in the center, you need to leave the areas to the left and right to it more wide open; this presents the tactical challenge to both players of how to address crossing / preventing the crossing of the board – center with cover and LOS blockage, or sides with openness but division of forces / sacrifice of the mobility advantages the center offers. If you put los blocking pieces ACROSS the center at even intervals, you’ve instantly harmed the balance of the game TOO much in one direction – close combat armies, jump armies, etc., can all cross the board in whatever capacity they wish … all choices are equally safe.

The next thing we need to do is place the remainder of our terrain for TOURNAMENT BALANCE purposes. It is reality that in a larger setting, people rarely have the willingness to run around a long row of tables by choosing the OTHER side of where they randomly wound up upon arriving at their table assignment. You do not want the entire flow and balance of the game to fall upon the comfort or feasibility of where players are in a row of tables, and their ability to lug their army all the way around it. For this reason, you want the terrain to generally be fair for both players REGARDLESS of table side or deployment style. Dawn of War is less important to factor in here than Spearhead and Pitched Battle. To keep things square here, our 4 remaining larger pieces that provide at least some LOS obscuring is to place one in each quarter of the board, nominally around the center of the quarter. This is the final piece of the puzzle in encouraging games to be tactical, and balanced regardless of pure firepower, in that it enables a player to deploy covered if he/she so chooses. This protects the player with foresight from getting blown off the board or forced into unwilling reserves simply off the “who goes first” dice roll, or the initiative seize. We’ve also offset them away from “lining up” with the larger LOS Blocker in center, so if a closer range army wants to heavily utilize these offset pieces for cover on deployment, they are going to have a more difficult path across the board if they want to stay covered. Choices, and the freedom to play without the terrain inhibiting or helping you to an unfair degree, are what we’re going for here.

Finally, we’ve got a couple of small pieces to round out the 25% and give the board tactical depth … the “safe” bet is to place them centered along the long table edges, and aligned with the centerpiece. You don’t want these particular pieces to be too LOS-blockish … some is ok, but mainly they should be lighter area terrain type items.

The result is a board that looks something like this for either Quarters or Pitched Battle deployments:

The most important catch with all this is to do what you can to accomplish the MINIMUM first on all boards. Acquiring and providing roughly equivalent terrain across the length and breadth of a large tournament is one of the most difficult and expensive prospects facing a tournament organizer, but it is also one of the most important things to the success of a Warhammer 40,000 event. Even at the 2010 NOVA Open, we had some boards that did not match the format above, and those were often the cases where you heard about it from players … they felt the boards in some capacity let down their playing experience. While the majority were quite good, our hope and plan this year is to ensure ALL of our tables are up to the standards we set forth.

One way or another, the point here is the same point one really applies anywhere in tournament preparation – analyze, think, playtest, and litmus test all of the various components and notions of a tournament if you are going to run one. Do not hamfistedly throw together random missions, do not simply scatter terrain randomly about every board, do not print out your scoresheets the night before and flick a few copies around the tables and suggest people “share.” Apply attention to detail, and an honest willingness to accept critique and use what you can of it to make your event better (without sacrificing your vision or fun).

Sallow me to add yet anotherREMINDER for the NOVA Open 2011 (http://novaopen.com). At this point, we still have about 35 spots left for our Warhammer 40,000 256-player 8-rounds-for-all GT. Thousands in prizes and even cash, nice little swag bags, and gamers from literally around the world await the intrepid attendee, plus social outings and events in the heart of the capital of the United States of America. For questions or input, you can reach me at mvbrandt@gmail.com or through the NOVA’s website (again, http://novaopen.com) … hopefully this was a helpful guide to setting up your terrain at home, or in a tournament setting, to the betterment of the game and a more fun experience.

RESERVE YOUR HOTEL ROOMS NOW - YOU'RE LOSING FREE RAFFLE TICKETS BY DELAYING, AND IT'S FREE TO RESERVE. RAFFLE TICKETS = CHANCES AT UP TO $1,000 CASH!

Grey Knights "Core" Shenanigans, How Far Can You Stretch It?

2011-06-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

Before I start - RESERVE YOUR HOTEL ROOMS FOR THE NOVA, DARNIT! They are selling pretty quickly, and those of you who I know to simply be waiting to perform a FREE reservation are costing yourselves nothing but possible room rate, and raffle tickets for the $2,000 cash raffle. Seriously, it's not complicated, go click: HERE

Trust me, it's in your best interests to reserve your hotel room (and doing so is FREE) now. :)

So,

I've found that you can do a lot with a GK list if you make the "mandatory" core as follows (and this is "duh" to some people by now) ...

Coteaz - 100
5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Psyback - 85
5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Psyback - 85
5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Psyback - 85
5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Psyback - 85
5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Psyback - 85
5 Acolytes w/ Storm Bolters, Psyback - 85
Psyfleman - 135
Psyfleman - 135
Psyfleman - 135

That's 1,015 points, and gets you 18 twin-linked S6 shots, 60 s4 storm bolter shots, and 12 twin-linked s8 ac shots, and it's 9 vehicles and 31 infantry models. This is actually quite sufficient to "tangle" with most armies, and it's difficult to table, but more importantly - you have 985 points to burn.

You can also "save" 120 points total by dropping each aco squad to 3 guys w/ bolters ... and I'd never go lower than that; you'd be surprised how little they get focused on with any real effect, and how effectively they are chucking 15 bolter shots at marine squads or the like ... every kill is a bonus.

Nominally, you do not want to supplement this core with something fruity or silly or over the top, but ... could you? Would it really hurt your capacity to compete ALL that much if you threw in an absurd deathstar or something similar? Fiddle about with it yourselves, if you're of a mind ... and you might be surprised. Even 10 paladins w/ apothecary and Karamazov doesn't actually ... "Fail" when combined with this, and ... well, it can be.

A lot of people are "hesitant" to do a Coteaz list b/c they don't want to be following the crowd or whatever, but the simple fact is that a Coteaz list doesn't HAVE to be a "Coteaz" list ... you see a lot of those, with each henchman squad backed up by meltaguns and death cult assassins, trying desperately to pull off what a simple mech meltavet straken build does better for IG (aka mobility, shorter range firepower advantages backed up by long range reliable firepower, and ability for every squad to charge and dust off opposing squads w/out requiring FF support from other units).

This type of list is actually spending as little as 895 points on your "mandatories" and having between 1105 and 985 points to spend on ... well, whatever the heck you WANT your list to really be.

Food for thought, though I know a lot of folks are already "here" with their build processes.

NOVA Open Volunteers - Judges, General Staff

2011-06-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

Afternoon all,

If you at any point volunteered to staff all or portions of the NOVA Open this year, please send me an e-mail reminding me.

If you are attending the NOVA Open, but do not wish to participate in the 40k Trios Team Tournament, and potentially have interest in helping us rules judge on FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2011, please send me an e-mail to discuss.

If you are a wargamer or are interested in wargaming and would like to or are attending the Open, but are not sure about participating in any of the actual tournaments, let me know - we can always find a use for players or interested parties who are looking for something to do!

Volunteers gain whatever special perks we can shuffle their way, including extra disconts on certain wargaming products / websites, annually unique staff shirts, free swag bags, and a free weekend badge.

We're starting to get into staff scheduling, so now's the time to volunteer if you're interested in helping out. We could use every hand possible! It's hard work running a major GT/convention!

My e-mail address is mvbrandt@gmail.com

- Mike

What Sorts of Lists Are You Planning for the NOVA Open 2011?

2011-06-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

Where are some of you at in your list development process? Share in the comments ... you know, if you aren't one of those who plays it all close to the vest.

In the meantime, here's a list I've been fiddling about with in proxy games ... on the GK front:

Inquisitor Coteaz - 100
Malleus Inquisitor w/ Psycannon, TDA/Hammer - 80

5 x Purifiers w/ 2 Psycannons, Razorback w/ Psybolt Ammo (Psyback) - 190
5 x Purifiers w/ 2 Psycannons, Psyback - 190
5 x Purifiers w/ 2 Psycannons, Psyback - 190

3 x Acolytes w/ Bolters, Psyback - 65
3 x Acolytes w/ Bolters, Psyback - 65
3 x Acolytes w/ Bolters, Psyback - 65
3 x Acolytes w/ Bolters, Psyback - 65
3 x Acolytes w/ Bolters, Psyback - 65
5 x Acolytes w/ Laspistol, Close Combat Weapon; 2 x Death Cult Assassin; Psyback - 100

5 x Interceptors w/ Psycannon - 140
10 x Interceptors w/ 2 Psycannons - 280

Psyfleman Dreadnought - 135
Psyfleman Dreadnought - 135
Psyfleman Dreadnought - 135

Acolytes very frequently sit in cover and actually shoot bolters at things, when you know your opponent isn't going to be able to afford bothering to shoot at them.

Land raiders you say? If one, spam w/ psycannons ... you have plenty of other crap to kill everything else; if more than 1, block and focus fire, you can afford to sacrifice psybacks blocking it b/c his army won't have enough otherwise to compensate.

What are YOUR lists looking like these days?

Malifaux Players Packs!!!

2011-06-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings readers and NOVA Open Attendees!!! As promised, we have more news on the NOVA Open Malifaux tournaments and events. Two of the tournament players packs have been uploaded to the NOVA Open site and can be grabbed below in this post.

Through the Breach
First we have Through the Breach. This is is the "Classic Malifaux Tournament", which we expect will have the highest attendence. “Through the Breach” is intended for Malifaux players of all ability and experience levels. This means that players of all skill levels will be facing off with their crews. Please be understanding of this when it comes to playing your game. High levels of sportsmanship are expected from all players.

So what have we done to encourage newer players to participate in this tournament? More importantly, what makes this welcoming for players of all levels? First, we have expanded the time-limits of each round to allow new players to feel un-rushed and enjoy the game. There is 15 minutes at the start of each round allowed for choosing your crew and setting up the game. Players who are ready to play during that 15 minutes can start their games when they are ready. The tournament rounds will each be 85 minutes long. That's right, 1 hour 15 minutes per round to play. This should allow for a steady pace for both players, and give space for all players to make choices during the games. 10 minutes before the end of each round the TO's will announce the end of the round coming. When this announcement is made, players should do everything possible to complete the round they are on and not begin another round.

Lastly, NOVA Open Malifaux judges and Wyrd Miniatures Henchmen will be roaming the tournament tables to answer questions and help out new players. The Henchmen and Judges will not interfere in games, but will be able to provide quick answers should questions arise or players look a bit confused.

Players pack available here.

Midnight Madness

There are some of you out there who know your the best players in your local scene when it comes to Malifaux. Your opponents are constantly asking you to bring "Easier" crews and stop stomping on their throats. Midnight Madness is the event for you. “Malifaux Midnight Madness” is intended as a highly competitive, single elimination Malifaux tournament. This tournament is intended for highly skilled Malifaux players who bring their highest level of tactics, skills, and sportsmanship.

Overall, Midnight Madness is sure to be a joy to watch, as 8 of the best Malifaux players at the NOVA Open 2011 pit themselves against each-other to determine the best of the best. We plan to have larger prizes here, but you should bring your best and play your hardest. We welcome all players, but this is not safe for newbies.

Players pack available here.

Registration
All NOVA Open events can be registered for here. The weekend Malifaux pass provides access to all Malifaux events during the weekend. Please also register on the forums and post in the Malifaux section for those who will be attending events. This will help add you to the Malifaux Updates that will begin coming out soon.

More updates will be incoming as the time draws closer. We are working out some final details for "Bad Things Happen" (Our Daily Achievement Event) and "Bayou Five Card" (Our multi-player scrap). Some of you may also have seen the following on the Wyrd forums:

Messages through the Aethervox indicate that there may be a confluence of Wyrd Developers at the NOVA Open 2011. Keep your 'voxes on and stay tuned for updates

Fantasy GT at the NOVA Open 2011

2011-05-31T07:24:00.001-07:00

From my post on Dakka ...

FANTASY - 2500 points, no restrictions, 32 player initial offering (expandable to 64); 5 rounds 2 days (3/2), NOVA pairing and styling (overall heavily weighted by soft score, general simply w/l), but with margin of victory (no draws) and battle points for the Overall Component.

GT tickets for Fantasy are $35, in addition to your weekend badge (compare to $65 for the 8 round 40k GT). TICKETS UP. Lots of Fantasy interest has been expressed while we've been preparing; please purchase your tickets quickly; we cannot open to 64 unless we get strong filling and waitlisting over 32.

DRAFT PRIMER PACKET for review / input / critique / etc.
http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/NOVA-OPEN-2011-Packet-fantasy.pdf

Event is put on/staffed and brought to you by members of the Inner Circle Gaming Club, operating primarily out of Maryland. http://www.innercirclegamingclub.com/

NOVA Open - Trios Team Tournament Draft Packet and First 40k Newsletter

2011-05-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Amendment from long-publicized basics - 1,000 point limited FOC (1 HQ, 1-3 Troop, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 Fast, 0-1 Heavy) and 2,000 point normal FOC for each team member.

Each team member will play 2 paired games and 1 solo game over the course of the 3 rounds, for 6 games total.

Clicky clicky, and feedback welcome.

http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Primer-2011-TT-Primer-v2.pdf

- Mike

PS - I'll send the following out to 40k registered attendees tomorrow:
http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Newsletter-1.pdf

Grey Knight List Development - Update; New NOVA Open Site!

2011-05-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well, based upon playtest, and actually playing lists I like to play (maneuverability with fire support and 6 scoring units seems to be the way I often go), I've been most recently playing with the following list .... and, actually kinda enjoying it.

Let's see if ya'll can dissect where the strengths of it are and gameplay approaches ...

Inquisitor Coteaz - 100
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor w/ Psycannon, TDA - 80

5 x Purifiers w/ 2 Psycannons, Psybolt Razorback - 190
5 x Purifiers w/ 2 Psycannons, Psybolt Razorback - 190
5 x Purifiers w/ 2 Psycannons, Psybolt Razorback - 190

3 x Warrior Acolytes, Plasmaback - 92
3 x Warrior Acolytes, Plasmaback - 92
3 x Warrior Acolytes, Plasmaback - 92
3 x Warrior Acolytes, Plasmaback - 92
3 x Warrior Acolytes, Plasmaback - 92
2 x Death Cult Assassins, 2 x Warrior Acolytes, 3 x Warrior Acolytes w/ Meltaguns, Chimera - 135

5 x Interceptors w/ Psycannon - 140
5 x Interceptors w/ Psycannon - 140

Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt Autocannon - 125
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt Autocannon - 125
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt Autocannon - 125

In NOVA News, we still have 40k GT spots left (though they continue to dwindle steadily, and are into the 200's), and there's a new website up ... feedback and glitch-identification welcome ... http://novaopen.com

- Mike

Pairings, Is 1 Loss Acceptable, Etc.

2011-05-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

So, we're continuing to develop things for the NOVA, and work is kicking my butt to boot!

I'm not kidding about the website update, nor about the team tournament primer ... both are almost finished.

Big question comes up, though, what if we don't have precisely 256 players? Once we get past 128, 8 rounds are required one way or another, but what if we have less than 256? What if we have considerably less? What if we have 256 but 6 people no show the day of and we don't have replacements?

All good questions :)

The answer is this - we play it out anyway. We still break people down into appropriately sized brackets, we just include the highest seeded 3-1's in the top bracket of 16. This means it'll entirely be possible at the 2011 NOVA for someone to win it all in spite of a loss, if we don't have precisely 256 participants. Is this bad, however? Well, no - the winner will still have played the Kevin Bacon game of beating everyone at the event, and will still be the legitimate top finisher.

So, the other question is, how do we do pairings and seedings? Well, first off - we're going to random pair within your win/loss bracket on Day 1, excepting for people you've already played. As usual for this type of system if someone no-shows, odd # overlap may result in different records playing each other once or so on the edge of a bracket, but this is actually the same as in any system.

Your total score/results from day 1 will yield the appropriate seeding for your 2nd day; once seeded, that will REMAIN your seed for the 4 rounds of sets of 16 throughout that day. So, even more than ever, the first day is purely to seed and class you, and the 2nd day is where the wins and losses count most.

Input / thoughts / questions?

NOVA Updates - New Website Incoming as Well!

2011-04-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Afternoon all,

Some major updates for the NOVA Open, that will be reflected on our new website when it goes live within the week!

Warhammer 40,000
The NOVA Invitational is set at 1,750 points (AND ONLY THE INVITATIONAL)
The NOVA Open GT remains set at 2,000 points
The Team Tournament Primers and Formal Points/Org Settings will release this week

Warhammer Fantasy
Fantasy GT tickets will go live within the week; we'll set the cap at 32-64 players, with 5-6 rounds, split casually on Sat/Sun; this subject to change based upon final scenarios, being produced by the Inner Circle Gaming Club

Malifaux
Malifaux ticket now grants a massively improved suite of events for Malifaux attendees, as follows:
"Through the Breach" - 30ss Malifaux tournament (Players Pack to follow before the end of May)
a. 30ss, declared faction
b.Friday, 10am - 6pm
c. 32 slots

"Bad Things Happen" - Daily Achievement League (Players Pack to follow before the end of May)
a. Achievement based prizes for playing Malifaux games
b. Friday round & Saturday Round

"Bayou Five Card" - Malifaux fixed/unique crew Mega Battle (Players Pack to follow before the end of May)
a. 25ss, declared crew
b. Saturday, 11am - 3pm
c. Rotating game access (to be explained in the players pack)

"Malifaux Midnight Madness" - Single Elimination Midnight tournament (Players Pack to follow before the end of May)
a. 35 soulstone, fixed faction
b. Saturday/Sunday, Midnight - single elimination
c. 8 slots

Full information on the Malifaux events coming via Bill Anderson sooner than later! He'll post it up on Whiskey.

Additionally, subtle rumors indicate a major Black Library author may be making a weekend-long appearance amidst a series of events at the NOVA Open 2011 ...

Notional - Tourney Hammer vs. Store Hammer ... Reliability vs. Min/Max

2011-04-20T07:28:00.001-07:00

So, let's take a look at a couple of lists, and identify what the differences are:

1 -

Njal Stormcaller - 245

6 x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-Melta, Power Fist - 258
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85

8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150

5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115

2 -
Rune Priest w/ Lightning, Jaws, Chooser - 110

6 x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-Melta, Heavy Bolter Razorback - 178
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85

5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150

Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70

5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190

Now, which of these lists is better?
One list has a character with saga of majesty and some whacky powers, plus the full toolkit if psychic abilities; it also has large more combat-ready grey hunter squads (though they have no higher firepower really).

One list has 3 more plasmabacks, 3 more speeders w/ mm/hf, an extra razorback, just as much firepower in every single scout and hunter squad, and still has psy defense and a chooser.

Having been through and organized / watched through several serious, competitive GT's now ... here's my thought: Contrary to internetism, the first list is MUCH better for a high caliber GT player. The 2nd list is much better for convincing yourself Min-Max is the way to go, beating people at your store (even if they are good) regularly, and playing above your skill level in a tournament.

Note - I'm not saying one is better, period, but for someone who is good enough to beat his opponents skill-wise, the first list outperforms.

Why?

Well, it's more reliable. It can be boiled down argument-wise into that - his squads of grey hunters hit harder if they have to, take a hit harder, and are less vulnerable to unlucky allocation sniping out their LD9 or melta weaponry. He has the ability to re-roll failed morale with Majesty off the edges of Njal's Rhino, which actually makes the 6" aura fairly decent (especially combined w/ the flexible disembarkation of friendly rhinos). He still has reliable double melta to pop transports and vehicles when the situation demands. He will win games by a smaller margin as a general rule.

For the 2nd list, in a perfect world where the odds are rolled it can be much better. The problem is, if a couple of squads fail unlikely LD tests, there's no protection. If a squad takes a handful of armor saves, it can rapidly lose its melta weapons instead of its bobos. If a few lascannons miss in a row, you've rapidly got wasted points down on the field. If you get knocked out of position or de-meched at the wrong time, or ganked outside the odds ... your squads can't take nearly as much of a beating, nor can they react as well to having to fight against easy odds.

Where I'm going with this is the age old excuse you hear of someone's dice just failing him in a key tournament game. You see this happen a lot - where someone has this min-max awesome list, and it's not his list that failed him, or his skills, but he failed a disproportionate number of LD rolls, or he kept losing only the key weapons to allocation, or blah blah blah blah blah. Knock it off. While bad luck can and will happen to the best of us, min-maxing a list can be the quickest way to win MOST of your games anywhere, but lose on occasion to that bad luck, instead of having the list insulation to give yourself resilience to it. This is where you get into internetism - you play all the time with your min-maxed list, winning big most games, and you can readily and easily blame the losses on ... luck.

Look at the recent performance of people who play with lists more like the former ... while luck certainly will always play a factor in a game where dice determine the results of most actions, and I'm not at all suggesting you can completely remove it, wolf lists patterned off the first one are in position if PLAYED WELL to win nearly every game they participate in, even if by the squeakiest of margins.

As more and more tournaments take the lead of the NOVA, and shift over to W/L or W/L/D, and as winning becomes the priority over massacring baby seals, you're going to see more and more success of lists that don't succumb to bad luck. This is even more the case now that less and less tournaments allow for a near loss due to said bad luck, if you can capitalize on it by using your min/max list to massacre your other opponents for higher BP.

Food for thought, but food that has served people well ... it's a theory of list building that helped me run 3-0 at AdeptiCon 2010, and 7-0 at the Battle for Salvation 2010. It's a theory that helped Tony K run 7-0 at the NOVA Open 2010 and 8-0 at AdeptiCon 2011. Might just be something to it ... especially when some of our higher profile wins came against players who would thereafter point out the streaky failrates of their units ... due to ... bad luck ...

BUSY! GK and Addendums

2011-04-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

So I'm getting closer to a GK list I'm happy with; I've been bad with my blog postery, but that should pick up in the next week or so.

I may, however, end up spending a fair bit of next week in Nairobi, Kenya. If that happens, more blog delayage.

In the interim, here's the current iteration of GK listage that I'm zero'ing in on ... trying to have "just enough" long range fire support for early suppression, coupled with a strong midfield presence, good counter-punch capability in a pinch, and the ability to outflank into things like MSU armies and long fangs and the like if the opportunity presents itself. So how do we start to get there?

Inquisitor w/ Servo-Skull, Terminator Armor/DaemonHammer, Psycannon - 83
Grand Master w/ Psychotroke Grenades - 190

Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband - 3 Multi-Melta Servitors, 3 Warrior Acolytes, Chimera - 97

10 Grey Knight Terminators w/ 2 Psycannons, 4 Daemon Hammers, 4 Halberds, Brotherhood Banner - 475
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260

Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125

So, why the multi-meltas on the dreads instead of Psyfleman? Well, I want the dreads moving up more aggressively ... not that they can't with the psyfleman upgrades, but the multi-meltas become increasingly important, b/c they have a strong impact on your ability to actually KILL transports ... psycannons are very good at putting damage results down, but the AP1 helps a ton, as does the +2d when the going gets tough.

Why the Grand Master? Besides being able to roll with the Terminators on occasion, he's there for Scout. Outflanking GK squad? Going to be useful. Hell, outflanking Terminators could be useful. Also useful ... scout moving the terminators up, so that they are like to start firing full bore from midfieldish on turn 1. Also useful .. scouting up a rhino or two of GK. The GM will start off riding in the Chimera most likely, but he'll join whatever squad needs him, typically the termies to apply Psytrokes and add Hammerhand to the auto-ID banner (this helps a great deal against annoying things like TMC's).

Hopefully you can see where I'm going here; lots of scoring bodies that can all combat squad; plenty of firepower; enough vehicles to get up into midfield, late game move block, help shield and take punches, etc. Plenty of multi-meltas to deal with land raiders, and to deal with reliably killing vehicles and saving psycannons and storm bolters for the chewy interior. Yatta yatta yatta.

At AdeptiCon

2011-04-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

hanging outside the main ballroom if anyone wants to open game ... have terrain. under the weather, gonna hit up chitown in the afternoon, yatta yatta. commence the shit giving for not playing in the champs mobile posting

Adepticon Team Tournament - Final Lists - Team Whiskey & 40k

2011-03-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

Not a very good picture; we need to really re-take with the display board added; suffice to say, spearheaded by the painting of the more talented members of our team, but with contribution from all, the armies look REALLY awesome together.

The force is predicated on a Great Scourging immediate post-Heresy expedition of recently committed Vostroyans and a group of Space Wolves. Every wolf model has been heavily converted with forgeworld, maxmini, chapter house, green stuff, multiple GW plastic kits, etc., to look large, active, "in motion," and very Heresy era. The IG army is ENTIRELY Vostroyan, and props to Kevin for his significant work on so many metal models. Final count for the lists is 174 infantry models, 18 vehicles.

One of the more interesting conversions we did was in relation to the Razorbacks. There were no Razorbacks yet for thousands of years still at the time of the Heresy, so anyone running Razorbacks in a Pre-Heresy army without conversion is ... well, not fluffy at all. So, we envisioned Space Wolves as just the type to crazily hang out the top hatch of a bounding rhino and fire lascannons or double tap plasmaguns out of it on the move. Hence, the conversions have accurately placed weaponry and double wolves sticking out of the tops of standard rhino hatches for the Razorbacks. All appropriate clarity and weapon placement maintained, of course :)

Here are the lists ...

Imperial Guard Army #1
Mike Brandt
Team Whiskey & 40k
Adepticon Team Tournament 2011

HQ (1/1)
Company Command Squad - 235
Includes:
Command Squad - 50
Company Commander Upgrade to Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken - 95
2 x Veteran Upgrade to Meltagun - 20
Veteran Upgrade to Regimental Standard - 15
Veteran Upgrade to Laspistol/Close Combat Weapon - Free
Dedicated Transport - Chimera with Hull Heavy Flamer - 55

Elite (0/1)

Troop (3/3)
Veteran Squad - 155
Includes:
Veteran Squad - 70
3 x Veteran Upgrade to Meltagun - 30
6 x Veteran Upgrade to Shotgun - Free
Dedicated Transport - Chimera with Hull Heavy Flamer - 55

Veteran Squad - 155
Includes:
Veteran Squad - 70
3 x Veteran Upgrade to Meltagun - 30
6 x Veteran Upgrade to Shotgun - Free
Dedicated Transport - Chimera with Hull Heavy Flamer - 55

Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad - 45
Includes:
Platoon Command Squad - 30
3 x Guardsman Upgrade to Flamer - 15
1 x Guardsman Upgrade to Laspistol/Close Combat Weapon - Free

Infantry Squad - 60
Includes:
Infantry Squad - 50
2 x Guardsman Upgrade to Autocannon Heavy Weapon Team - 10

Infantry Squad - 60
Includes:
Infantry Squad - 50
2 Guardsman Upgrade to Autocannon Heavy Weapon Team - 10

Fast Attack (1/1)
Vendetta Gunship - 130

Heavy Support (1/1)
Manticore Rocket Launcher with Hull Heavy Flamer - 160

Imperial Guard Army #2
Dave Gonzales
Team Whiskey & 40k
Adepticon Team Tournament 2011
HQ (1/1)
Company Command Squad - 170Includes:
Command Squad - 50
2 x Veteran Upgrade to Lascannon Heavy Weapon Team - 20
Veteran Upgrade to Regimental Standard - 15
Veteran Upgrade to Laspistol/Close Combat Weapon - Free
Add Regimental Advisor - Astropath - 30
Dedicated Transport - Chimera with Hull Heavy Flamer - 55

Elite (0/1)

Troop (3/3)
Veteran Squad - 155
Includes:
Veteran Squad - 70
3 x Veteran Upgrade to Meltagun - 30
6 x Veteran Upgrade to Shotgun - Free
Dedicated Transport - Chimera with Hull Heavy Flamer - 55

Veteran Squad - 155
Includes:
Veteran Squad - 70
3 x Veteran Upgrade to Meltagun - 30
6 x Veteran Upgrade to Shotgun - Free
Dedicated Transport - Chimera with Hull Heavy Flamer - 55

Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad - 50
Includes:
Platoon Command Squad - 30
4 x Guardsman Upgrade to Flamer - 20

Infantry Squad - 60
Includes:
Infantry Squad - 50
2 x Guardsman Upgrade to Autocannon Heavy Weapon Team - 10

Infantry Squad - 60
Includes:
Infantry Squad - 50
2 x Guardsman Upgrade to Autocannon Heavy Weapon Team - 10

Infantry Squad - 60
Includes:
Infantry Squad - 50
2 x Guardsman Upgrade to Autocannon Heavy Weapon Team - 10

Fast Attack (1/1)
Vendetta Gunship - 130
Heavy Support (1/1)
Manticore with Hull Heavy Flamer - 160
Space Wolf Army #1
Tony Kopach
Team Whiskey & 40k
Adepticon Team Tournament 2011

HQ (1/2)
Rune Priest with Jaws of the World Wolf, Living Lightning - 100

Elite (2/2) *EXTRA ELITE SLOT
Wolf Scout Squad - 85Includes:
5 x Wolf Scouts with Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons - 75
1 x Wolf Scout Upgrade to Meltagun - 10

Wolf Guard Squad - 134Includes:
1 x Wolf Guard with Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs - 48
1 x Wolf Guard with Power Fist, Combi-Melta - 43
1 x Wolf Guard with Power Fist, Combi-Melta - 43

Troop (3/3)
Grey Hunter Squad - 170
6 x Grey Hunters with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 90
1 x Grey Hunter with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Wolf Standard - 25
1 x Grey Hunter with Meltagun, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 20
Dedicated Transport - Rhino - 35

Grey Hunter Squad - 170
6 x Grey Hunters with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 90
1 x Grey Hunter with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Wolf Standard - 25
1 x Grey Hunter with Meltagun, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 20
Dedicated Transport - Rhino - 35

Grey Hunter Squad - 1504 x Grey Hunters with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 60
1 x Grey Hunter with Flamer, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 15
Dedicated Transport - Razorback with Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasmagun - 75

Fast Attack (0/1)

Heavy Support (1/1)
Long Fang Squad - 1904 x Long Fangs with Missile Launchers - 100
1 x Long Fang Pack Leader with Bolt Pistol and Close Combat Weapon - 15
Dedicated Transport - Razorback with Twin-Linked Lascannon

Space Wolf Army #2
Kevin Comer
Team Whiskey & 40k
Adepticon Team Tournament 2011

HQ (1/2)
Rune Priest with Jaws of the World Wolf, Living Lightning - 100

Elite (1/1)
Wolf Guard Squad - 119
1 x Wolf Guard with Power Fist, Combi-Melta - 43
1 x Wolf Guard with Power Fist, Combi-Melta - 43
1 x Wolf Guard with Combi-Flamer, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs - 33

Troop (3/3)
Grey Hunter Squad - 170
6 x Grey Hunters with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 90
1 x Grey Hunter with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Wolf Standard - 25
1 x Grey Hunter with Meltagun, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 20
Dedicated Transport - Rhino - 35

Grey Hunter Squad - 155
5 x Grey Hunters with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 75
1 x Grey Hunter with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Wolf Standard - 25
1 x Grey Hunter with Meltagun, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 20
Dedicated Transport - Rhino - 35

Grey Hunter Squad - 150
4 x Grey Hunters with Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 60
1 x Grey Hunter with Flamer, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon - 15
Dedicated Transport - Razorback with Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasmagun - 75

Fast Attack (0/1)

Heavy Support (2/2)*EXTRA HEAVY SUPPORT
Long Fang Squad - 190
4 x Long Fangs with Missile Launchers - 100
1 x Long Fang Pack Leader with Bolt Pistol and Close Combat Weapon - 15
Dedicated Transport - Razorback with Twin-Linked Lascannon

Long Fang Squad - 115
4 x Long Fangs with Missile Launchers - 100
1 x Long Fang Pack Leader with Bolt Pistol and Close Combat Weapon - 15

One Way Around Leadership ... GK List Notional #5,063

2011-03-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Fairly straightforward purifier spam

Inquisitor w/ psycannon, servo - 83
4 Acolytes w/ Bolters, 1 Acolyte w/ Storm Bolter - 27
Chimera w/ hull heavy flamer - 55

Crowe - 150

5 Purifiers w/ 2 psycannons, Plasmaback - 220
5 Purifiers w/ 2 psycannons, Plasmaback - 220
5 Purifiers w/ 2 psycannons, Plasmaback - 220
5 Purifiers w/ 2 psycannons, Plasmaback - 220
5 Purifiers w/ 2 psycannons, Plasmaback - 220
5 Purifiers w/ 2 psycannons, Rhino - 180

Psyfleman - 135
Psyfleman - 135
Psyfleman - 135

So, what's this thing have going for it ... well, it still disembarks at midfield psycannon wise; you can keep one squad in rhino if you want. The Inquisitorial chimera is moving 6" and firing psycannon once it is in position. Against long range armies that try to play stand-off, you've got 5 lascannons and 12 twin-linked missile shots from 8 units (aka at up to 8 targets). This is the primary reason you don't go with pass/psybacks instead of plasmabacks ... you don't need dinky lil s6 shots (b/c Chimeras blow everybody up, right?), and you don't need more 24" range fire to try and jam into midfield and properly cover the board ... you need the ability to rapidly reach out and touch zippy armies that will try to put the hurt on your boyz while keeping the 24" guns out of range as long as possible.

GK List Development - Karamazov is ... Mandatory?

2011-03-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

So here's the deal ... Ld9 is a 1/6 chance to fail.

Grey Hunters with a wolf guard in 5 man squads and razorbacks clock in under 200 points for the whole shebang, and are intended to be scoring and/or one-shot wonders very often ... they don't need to stay alive, endure much damage, or engage the enemy continuously.

Grey Knights aren't like this. If you're trying to just jam 5 man squads into razorbacks, you're playing the wrong codex. You can do this with purifiers, but stick 'em in rhinos instead of razorbacks, and still ... I don't think you're as good as you think it's going to be.

More "pure" GK armies are strong in that they very reliably can get to midfield, from where nobody can "run away" from them (I'm looking at you, internet heroes who think DE and Eldar and the like can easily play keep-away from the GKs' 24" primary range) with any material effectiveness. Once t here, though, they are at their best DISEMBARKED into cover, sometimes shrouded, and firing tons of S5 and S7 rending downfield at whatever they want, while daring an opponent to run in at them and have to deal with I10, S6 power weapons at a librarian's leisure, or tons of fire and then charges from S5 power weapons without a libby. It's a hairy proposition, letting a GK get to midfield on you.

Here's the problem, though - you're going to lose knights; you're going to lose a lot of them, in most games. They're just power armored marines. This is actually ok, b/c of how hideous a pair of psycannons are, and how hard it is to drill down into them when covered, often shrouded, and in a larger squad (5-man squads = you lose psycannons long before you want to, purifier lovers). What's not OK are leadership tests. You're not running cheapy little squads here, boys and girls ... you're running squads that are almost guaranteed to be in excess of 250 points each. While their firepower and combat capability (especially with proper buffs) is quite good for this cost, shit hits the fan when a canny opponent with a lot of MSU vehicles and such (especially ones with speed) swamps your army with models and you fail break tests, either due to repeated tank shocking or unlucky vs. 25% casualties (and again, you'll be losing knights, and taking 25% casualties, it'll happen a lot). Do you trust a single terminator save with the fate of an entire terminator squad? That's what you do when you trust a single Ld9 test with the fate of an entire PAGK squad.

ATSKNF is nice, sure, but if an opponent is smart enough to realize your weakness and pound it, he can get ird of squads and watch 'em roll off the board, and you won't be able to afford this the way a lot of more MSU'ed armies can.

Now, warning, I fail LD tests like it's my job, and I always take LD reliability and endurance. Problem is, the Grey Knights lack it. They really don't have much in the way of "I'm safe from breaking." What they have is Karamazov, and since GK are a midfield firepower dominance army, a single 12" aura is pretty effective at "my whole army re-rolls failed LD tests."

What are Karamazov's strengths?
He's an independent character now, which means he's joining squads (and looking really silly, towering over everyone)
Relentless twin-linked multi-melta (big deal, esp. for melta-less gk trying to deal with a raider or two without having to burn a ton of psycannons into it)
T5 means if you want to run a pallie death star, you gain incredible resilience against things like DE Lance Spam, where single wound lance hits can be repeatedly allocated to Karamazov's 4+ or 3+ cover save without fear of losing 100+ avg. value models to instant death.
Run with a Grand Master, and he's a S5 master crafted power weapon on an IC, which means you keep him away from their power weapons and eat several marines or whatever. Run with a Librarian, and he's up to a S7 monstrous creature basically ... pretty cool.
His squad chooses to pass/fails morale, which also means no fearless saves, b/c you still choose to pass or fail, it's not "automatic."
He's also the ONLY way to make GK deathstars unbreakable (paladins, GKT, whatever).
He has rad grenades, which ... I have no idea why, but, bonus!
Beyond anything else, he gives power armor spamming GK armies Leadership durability.

What are Karamazov's weaknesses?
He has no invulnerable save
He's not eternal
He can't ride in a transport

He has some other things good ish and bad ish, like his orbital, but I don't think you'll use it all that often, or any of them all that often. He's going to pop tanks with a 8/9 to hit multi-melta, he's going to kill basic anythings that get near him, and he's going to make your GK army a lot harder to get rid of.

Where am I going with Karamazov lists right now?

List Option #1

Karamazov - 200
Grand Master + Master Crafted Psycannon + Master Crafted Nemesis Force Sword - 230

10 x Grey Knight Terminators w/ 2 Psycannons - 450

10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280

2000

List Option #2
Karamazov - 200
Grand Master + MC Psycannon + Psychotroke - 240

5 x Paladins eclectically kitted, including brotherhood banner, dual master crafted psycannons, pair of master crafted hammers, master crafted falchions; total cost of - 440

10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280

2000

List Option #3
Karamazov - 200
Librarian + Shrouding, Quicksilver, Might, 4th power (undecided) - 170

10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons - 240

10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280
10 x Grey Knights w/ Psybolt, 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 280

Psyfleman - 135
Psyfleman - 135

See if you can figure out exactly the point of the various changes in list; the Grand Master's best ability is not so much to make something scoring (IMO), as it is to get d3 power armored squads in rhinos up to midfield and smoked before the game starts, dramatically enhancing (even if you only roll a 1) your ability to start putting the hurt on gunlines or zippy opponents like DE.

Supporting the NOVA / Thoughts on Tournaments

2011-03-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it was an interesting week at work, I wound up in Texas for most of it (Fort Worth area).

I'm back at work again this Saturday, and though I'd drop a quick note on an important subject.

There are a LOT of people out there who very vocally support the NOVA, and I appreciate that. The one problem, guys, is make sure you keep things in the context of actually supporting us. What I mean is - if some fella near you starts up a GT or RTT or whatever and does not use a NOVA styled format ... be very careful about browbeating the poor fellow about how much BETTER the NOVA is ... it's fine to love it, I'm glad you all do - we work as hard as we can to make it great, and to make it constantly better. That said, tournament organizers are a prissy bunch (I know, I'm prissy as heck!), and we as a general rule don't like our events shat upon or strongly contrasted with OTHER events.

SOME TO's will take deep offense when this sorta thing happens, and they tend to start talking, and they tend to share with others that they are upset, and it isn't good for the hobby at all.

The NOVA is a great format, and I hope it continues to get better and better; I'm flattered when other events follow suit! That said, events are great because their TO's care about the way they are pulled off, and have a passion for the format they present; rather than lambasting an event because it "isn't" NOVA ... encourage ALL events to be as great as they can be, while staying true to the foundational ideas of their organizers. So, support the NOVA ... I really appreciate it ... but don't tear DOWN other events. It just isn't good for any of us.

A reminder, by the way - if you're planning on signing up for the 40k GT, you should! We're running out of spots.

- Mike

Grey Knights Thoughts

2011-03-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Alright

I've had a chance to play some actual games with the new Grey Knights, and to Vassal it up a fair bit with them.

I think, first of all, that the internet is - as usual - starting off on the wrong foot. There are a lot of bad lists going on out there. I still think I'm figuring out what's right for me personally, and there'll be more time spent toward this goal as time goes on ... c'est la vie. The thing of it is - many of the units are quite expensive "built right," and so when you're going through your list you wind up with armies that are strong enough, but aren't using much variety and certainly aren't going to be ticking off all the strong units in a single list; so, variety will result from high points costs, b/c you aren't going to have a lot of cookie cutter builds I don't think.

Over the weekend, I tried out a couple of things:
1) 10 man Grey Knight Squads (combat squad an option) w/ 2 psycannons, psybolt, master justicar hammer, Rhino; this squad is very shooty, only "ok" in combat (I mean, power weapons at S5 is good, but, they really don't have a LOT of attacks)
2) Psyflemen dreadnoughts and venerable dreadnoughts; these guys are hard to kill b/c of where they'll be situated (namely, not in the way of meltaguns), but people who run Riflemen know this; Venerables get banged up, but are very hard to outright kill (though at 195, they pay for it). I tried one particular list using FIVE ... 2 Venerables and 3 Regulars; while good on paper, I didn't like having quite that many; I think 2-3 is the sweet spot, as fire support for an advancing core of power armored guys toting 16 s5 and 4-8 s7 rending shots per unit, with Rhino support.
3) Vindicare; he needs to be protected, b/c he is too much of a threat, and he is VERY EASY TO KILL. Putting him in a hiijacked rhino cost me a turn of fire, but I didn't care ... by Turn 2 he was in a safe position messing people up. While I can see using him against infantry targets with some regularity, he'll most often shoot at tanks. I rolled over 20 on the pen rolls with some regularity. The average roll penetrates a land raider.
4) Several other things, that I didn't like as much. I also liked having a teleport homer summoning shrouding librarian like you would not believe. It frees you up to over extend with your power armored hammer, and have the Libby with a foot psybolt squad heading toward center, offering supporting fire, and he just yoinks squads back toward objectives and key positions at leisure. We kinda knew he was going to be money, but he's REALLY money; I also seem to always roll "3" for cover saves on vehicles when he has shrouding up, prompting me to believe shrouding is supremely awesome. Well, it probably is anyway.

Here's a list I'll be playtesting *next* ...

Grand Master - Psychotroke Grenades, Incinerator
Librarian - Shrouding, Might of Titan, Summoning (Might and Shrouding are required; not sure on Summoning for this list yet)

10 x Purifiers w/ 5 Halberds, 2 Hammers, 2 Psycannons, Psybolt, Rhino
Vindicare

10 x Grey Knights w/ Master Hammer Justicar, 2 Psycannons, Psybolt, Rhino
10 x Grey Knights w/ Master Hammer Justicar, 2 Psycannons, Psybolt, Rhino
10 x Grey Knights w/ Master Hammer Justicar, 2 Psycannons, Psybolt, Rhino

Dreadnought w/ 2 x TL Autocannons, Psybolt
Dreadnought w/ 2 x TL Autocannons, Psybolt

So, as a general rule, you'll see the Grand Master give Scoring to the Purifiers, and the Purifiers themselves will be walking/running into position with the Grand Master and Librarian attached; unit is very combat capable with pairs of hammers, Hammerhand as needed; plus, it shoots like crazy (psybolt is pretty darned good). The Purifier rhino is for combat squadded GK, or more often - the Vindicare. Vindicares aren't hard to kill; it can make a lot of sense to scoot them forward in a hiijacked Rhino; you give up a turn of fire, but with shrouding and smoke on Turn 1, and other threats thereafter (plus it being very hard to FF a rhino with Vindi inside to actually get at him in a single turn w/out wasting fire), he's going to put the hurt on from a safe position.

The Psyflemen dreads are good, but I've found in test that you don't want to overload on them.

The Grey Knights are *very* shooty, and those squads are solid; they aren't really combat dudes, but when they are, I think it'll be b/c you've got the 5-man squads combat squadded w/ 2 psycannons, as advance/support fire; and you'll have the other 5 in Rhino w/ the Hammercar as a little s10 beat stick wherever needed. BUT they aren't MUCH of a beatstick; that's why you almost have to go with psybolt (and hence go with 10 man squads combat squadding to get 2 5man) for the GKSS, b/c they just don't have enough attacks to be a combat capable squad. Psycannons are also just as good as you'd expect.

Warmachine and Hordes @ the NOVA Open!

2011-03-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

The organizer for Warmachine/Hordes at the NOVA is Nate Oesch, supported by input and staff support from a large crew of WM/H experts and press-gangers as far away as New England. I've included an introductory post here to the HUGE amount of WM/H stuff going on for every day of the Open.

WM/H tickets are now available for sale at the NOVA Open website. A weekend badge still gets you access to the NOVA Open, and a WM/H ticket gets you access to every single event involving that game system that happens over the course of the weekend. One rate, all events!

1. Introduction – What is Warmachine/ Hordes?

2. Never played? Come get a Demo!

3. Weekend Long Events

4. Tournaments

1. Introduction – What is Warmachine/Hordes?

Never heard of Warmachine/Hordes? Heard the term but no idea what it is? May I direct your attention to HERE. Warmachine/Hordes are fast-paced and aggressive skirmish level battle games set in the steam-powered fantasy world known as the Iron Kingdoms. Players take on the role of elite soldier-sorcerors known as warcasters/warlocks. Though warcasters/warlocks are formidable combatants on their own, their true strength lies in their magical ability to control and coordinate mighty warjacks/warbeasts.

2. Never played? Come get a Demo! (Does not require WM/H Pass)

All weekend long we will have demo tables set up for those who have never tried the game but would like to find out what the game is all about. We will have demos available for both Warmachine/Hordes. For those who don’t know, while they are separate games, they are compatible with each other and are intended to play against each other.

3. All Convention Long Events

These Events will be going on throughout the course of the Convention.
            Blood & Steam Battlegrounds – This is the casual/pick-up game portion of the Warmachine/Hordes events that will be taking place. Want a rematch of a tournament loss? Chance to play with a longtime friend from another state? This is the place to come! Also, players can earn achievements throughout the weekend by accomplishing varying tasks while playing on the Battlgrounds, such as play against 5 different opponents, play a player from another state, play using 4 different casters, etc. We will track players achievements throughout the weekend, with the top 4 qualifying for the Championships on Sunday. Each achievement unlocked earns you a ticket, which can be cashed in for prizes throughout the weekend!
            Custom Table/Scenario Contest – Want to re-create a historic battle? Want to see what it would be like if Colossals were still used on the battlefield? Now’s your chance to do so. For those interested in constructing their own custom scenario tables, we will be having a contest to see who can construct the best table/scenario similar to Gamesday Tables. In order to compete in the contest all you have to do is register your table with us to reserve space and bring your table!
            Grind Ball World Cup – Throughout the weekend, anytime you play a grind scenario your result and number of goals scored will be recorded. At the end of the weekend, the player with the most wins will be awarded the Grind ball World Cup!

4. Tournaments

Note – Since there aren’t individual tickets to each tournament, but rather a single WM/H pass that allows you access to all of our WM/H events, to reserve your spot in a particular tournament e-mail nate.oesch@gmail.com to reserve your spot once you have purchased your WM/H pass. You cannot reserve your spot until you’ve purchased a WM/H pass. There will also be on-site registration. If the 32 spots in a particular tournament fill up and there is demand for more, there is a possibility of expanding the field.

Thursday Evening – Grind Ball World Cup Kick-Off Event! (Note – Grind Scenario, not the Boardgame)

Size - 35 Points

List Restrictions - 2 Lists

Timing Restrictions - Chess Clocks, Death Clocks, Accelerated Time Limits

Scenario Restrictions - Grind Scenario Only

Start Time - 9:00 PM

Rounds - 4 Rounds

Spots - 16 Players

This event will kick off the Grind Ball World-Cup that will be running all weekend.

Friday Evening – Highlander Tournament

Size - 35 Points

List Restrictions – 2 Lists, Highlander Format (See Description Below)

Timing Restrictions - Chess Clocks, Death Clocks, Accelerated Time Limits

Scenario Restrictions - None

Start Time - 6:00 PM

Rounds - 5 Rounds

Spots - 32 Players

This tournament will use the Highlander Format. A player may bring 1 Unit of Infantry, 1 Unit Attachment, 1 Solo. The remainder of their army can be made up of Warbeasts/Warjacks, but only 1 iteration of each Warbeast/Warjack (i.e., 1 Ironclad, 1 Defender, 1 Lancer, etc.)

Saturday Day – Softcore Tournament

Size - 50 Points

List Restrictions – 1 List Only

Timing Restrictions - Hardcore Time Limits

Scenario Restrictions - Killbox Only

Start Time 11:00 AM

Rounds - 5 Rounds

Spots - 32 Players

This tournament will use the Hardcore Format without the painting requirement. Each player will have 7 minutes per turn with one 3 minute extension during their 60 minute match. No mercy!

Saturday Evening – Doubles Tournament

Size - 50 Points Total per Team, 25 per Player

List Restrictions - 1 List per Player

Timing Restrictions - Chess Clocks, Death Clocks, Accelerated Time Limits

Scenario Restrictions - None

Start TIme - 9:00 PM

Rounds - 4 Rounds

Spots - 16 Teams

Double your pleasure, double your fun! Character restrictions apply (i.e. both armies cannot contain the same character). Armies will count as friendly, but not friendly faction unless they are of the same faction.

Sunday Morning – NOVA Open Championship

Size - 50 Points

List Restrictions - 2 Lists

Timing Restrictions - Chess Clocks, Death Clocks

Scenario Restrictions - None

Start Time: 11:00 AM

Rounds - 4 Rounds

Spots - 16 Players (Must Qualify for Championship During Convention)

The top 4 players from the Highlander Tournament & Softcore Tournament Qualify, as well as the 2 best teams from the Doubles Tournament, and finally the 4 players with the most achievements earned in Blood & Steam Battlegrounds. These 16 players will duke it out for the NOVA Open Warmachine/Hordes Championship Title!

Sunday Morning – Caster Madness

Size - 41 Points (No Warcaster/Warlock)

List Restrictions - 1 List

Timing Restrictions - Chess Clocks, Death Clocks, Accelerated Time Limits

Scenario Restrictions - None

Start Time: 10:00 AM

Rounds - 5 Rounds

Spots - 32 Players

Bring 1 41 point list with no warlock/warcaster

For those who don’t qualify for the NOVA Open Championship but want to finish the weekend with a bang, than this is the event for you. Construct your 41 point force with no warlock/warcaster built in. Then, each round a warlock/warcaster will be randomly assigned to each player, whether it be from another faction, or even another game system. Every wanted to see Stryker lead the nation of Khador to victory? This is your chance! In cases where a Warcaster is leading a Hordes faction or vice versa, Fury will be counted as Focus and vice versa.

Bad Attitudes and Dread Babies!

2011-03-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

Here we have pictured the brand new Grey Knight Dreadknight Model, which is SUPER BADASS, AM I RIGHT?

Hero of the Imperium right there.

Also, just going to go ahead and call it on the PSYFLEMAN DREAD being a mainstay in army lists after the Infant Transporter of Doom (ITD). Not mine, mind you, but, definitely in a lot of them ... reinforced aegis for GK gunlines + quad twin-linked s8 shots / turn on a non-shake/stunnable platform.

I think the GK codex is going to be really good and really bad. First, the ability to affordably spam 70+ S7 rending shots with good range per turn in a meta-bucking mostly foot army is ... well, going to be problematic for a lot of basic players for a while.

I think it will have a ton of builds, and that's a good thing ... there won't be a "this is the best" and there won't be just a smallish handful. I also think it will be somewhat easy to build a competitive enough build ... there will be a lot of armchair generals and commenters who suddenly think much more highly of their abilities ... and that's fine. Also, psyspam will prove problematic for "pure" MSU armies that rely on cheaped out shooty transports and platforms (like razorback spam). Psy defense becomes a bigger deal, but not THAT big a deal ... it's more that if you have really strong psy defense and can keep it alive, GK are going to freaking hate you.

In other news, Blood of Kittens posted up about the winner of the St. Valentine's Massacre, and basically went on a mini-rant since it was Guard, suggesting the list probably had all the "standard" Guard list inclusions, and was a big yawner, yatta yatta.

What is the problem with people these days in this hobby? That approach to just starting off with antagonistic and negative viewpoints still resides, and I swear it's getting old. Why not just congratulate the winners and say good show on an event that was well-received by those who attended? Why the need to editorialize with bullshit presuming it was a "boring" list and implicitly condemning the winner? It's that kind of needlessly negative crap that makes Tasty a hard person to trust with articles and data about your own events. It's that kind of needlessly negative crap that makes this hobby such a turn-off sometimes.

It's Ash Wednesday, and I'll be following last year by giving up booze outside of with meals (as I tend to prefer a beer or two with dinner to a coke or two with dinner, just for the taste), and never in great excess even at meals. Since I'm hardly a perfect Catholic, and just like last year, I'll be suspending this for Adepticon :)

Upcoming Events - Adepticon, Colonial GT, Etc.

2011-03-08T07:36:00.000-08:00

Morning all,

Well, it's been busy at work, I was sick all last week, and some free time is invariably being spent on Adeptiteam prep.

Speaking of which, Adepticon is just around the corner ... easily the largest 40k event of the year is the Adepticon Team Championship, bringing together 440 players for a one-day Saturday event. Adepticon has also dramatically improved its 40k Singles offering this year, moving from a very indeterminate 3-round battle points system to a largely single elim 4 round + 4 finals rounds format. They've taken a page from the book of Epic with multiple accomplishable objectives per round, where wining more of the objectives than your opponent secures a win for the round. Ties are still possible, with the top 16 players from Day 1 (a Friday) advancing to Sunday's Sweet Sixteen finals. This event sold out quickly, and I got one of the spots; I'm still trying to decide if I'll participate, and in what capacity.

Lists I've considered bringing range from "competitive" to "lolzybad"

i.e.

Straken + Proper Kit + Chimera + Dozer - 325
Yarrick - 185
10 x Ogryns - 410
6 x Meltavets in Chimeras - 930

Is an example of lolzybad, throwing the vets and chimeras and Straken that I already have prepped/painted/etc., and adding a hilarious full size foot squad of Ogryns led by Yarrick. I've actually built and painted 3 of my converted up River Trollgryns already, and just have to finish painting The Commissaur, a Yarrick counts-as represented by a Skink with a massive power axe and an Angelus bolter, holding the same pose as Yarrick.

If I didn't want to get any more River Trollgryns built up, I'd go with something more like:

Straken + proper kit + Chimera - 315
Yarrick + 3 Ogryns in Chimera - 370
5 x Meltavets in Chimeras - 775
3 x Vendettas - 390

Again, shoehorning in Yarrick and the Ogryns while filling out with models I have painted and ready to go.

Alternately, I could go with a standardized 1850 straken guard build:

Straken + Standard Kit + Krak Grenades + Astro + Chimera - 350
Grey Knight Brother Captain w/ Hood (Last Hurrah for this guy) - 81
Guardsman Marbo - 65
2 x Meltavets w/ Shotguns, 3 Meltas, Chimera, Bolt Pistol Sarge (yar!) - 314
4 x Meltvates w/ No Bolt Pistol - 620
3 x Vendettas w/ Heavy Bolters - 420

So I have pondering still to do in this category of things ....

In other news, if you aren't going to Adepticon (or even if you are), the week immediately afterward is the Colonial GT. This is a major legacy event in New England, and they've added 40k this year; it's piloted by the gregarious, and ever affable and competent Chris Nanry, and it also has a couple of free 40k GT and Fantasy GT tickets for the 2011 NOVA Open. GO.

Old Stuff Day - Two Old Faves

2011-03-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm going to choose these two because OTHER people did; little too much ego for me to post what I think is my best, after all.

Inspired by http://www.warhammer39999.com/

First, GETTING OUT OF THE PROBABILITY POOL

And, then, reposted in full glory, this one got posted all over the darned interweb:

I was reading a post or two over at MKerr's blog, Chainfist.com. He reminds me of some other players I know in that I believe we are probably very similar PERSONALLY, but are very different in what we EXPECT out of other players - especially strangers.

The Concept of Needs, and Emotional Maturity

All of us need things in life. We need food, we need water, we need breathable air. Needs are variable ... and sometimes they are just "wants," but it's important to note that emotionally, needs are pretty flexible, and immensely different from person to person.

Some people need to be loved, others need to be respected, others need to be treated as if they are awesome, etc. When these needs are not fulfilled, negativity results - people feel unfulfilled, unhappy, angry, sad, a variety of emotions that most human beings do not wish to reside in (with exceptions ... let's avoid the exceptions for now, as this is more a lead in to a discussion about gaming, than a discussion about psychology).

It is of paramount importance to note that I believe expectations are not the same as goals or needs. You have a goal to have fun, you need people to behave a certain way toward you, but you CANNOT claim emotional maturity while simultaneously EXPECTING other people to fulfill your needs, or behave a certain way toward you. This is fundamentally true - not everyone's needs are the same, and so there is no set "way" for a person to act toward others that is "acceptable" and fulfilling of everyone's needs universally.

Instead, it is everyone's responsibility to be authentic to themselves, to be true to themselves, and the responsibility of those they interact WITH to decide whether or not they fulfill acceptable needs.

To wit, you meet an attractive woman at a bar, and you get her number. You're clearly attracted to each other, and there was some positive chemistry. You get together a week later for dinner, and find out that she's a liberal and you're a republican getting ready to run for senate; she hates black people and you believe everyone is Homo sapiens, period, no sub-species; she likes base-jumping and sky-diving, and you have a fear of heights. What will you do? She's hot, she's still into you (b/c she's not an authentic person, presume), she'd totally be your girlfriend. Should she be? Of course not, you are all thinking ... it obviously isn't going to work, you are fundamentally in disagreement on major issues. You need a supportive, non-racist girlfriend who enjoys keeping her feet on the ground.

OK, so let's take it a step further back, and you'll start to see where I'm going with this. You're single, you want to date, you have an interest in girls who don't enjoy dancing. You're also extremely allergic to techno music. It causes your hair to stand on end. Will you attend a techno club looking for girls? NO YOU WILL NOT. Furthermore, if you were to, and were to loudly proclaim the terrible nature of the music and wonder why they won't turn it off for you ... you're just about the biggest retarded, immature dick out there. Seriously.

Let's segue to gaming.

You go to your local friends' house for your weekly gaming group. Ever since you first went, everyone has taken really casual, laid back, helter-skelter battleforce-style army lists, and everything has been well painted. The group enjoys drinking a few brewskis, and you meet up beforehand at the local dive restaurant to bullshit, laugh, and set the mood for a fun night of 40k. Upon returning from the dive restaurant, a "new guy" one of the other attendees decided to bring places down his spray-primed army of power cheese doom. He complains that he can't really ever make the restaurant b/c it unsettles his digestive system to eat anything other than broccoli, and kindly asks you all to not drink in his presence, because he's vehemently against alcohol. In game, he rules lawyers everything, punks your casual list face in, and criticizes your painting while rambling about how great his army will look "when he gets around to it."

Will you invite him back? Of course not. Your gaming group has a clearly established standard, a clearly established social contract. Behave this way - this is why we hang out together, this is what we all enjoy. If you cannot conform to this, don't expect to be welcome!

OK, so how does this compare to your local game store, then? Suppose you the player in the above example want to attend the local game shop. You show up, and check the window - nowhere does it say whether people there drink beers, play with painted armies, are rules lawyers or use power lists or play casually or what, etc. You walk in, and see a bunch of powerful unpainted armies on the tables and people barking and laughing and competing intensely. You walk into the store further, and ask someone for a game. A giant, stinky douchey guy walks up and goes "WHAT'S YOUR ARMY?!?!" "Why, I play footdar! (sorry, dudes, I couldn't help myself)" and he replies with a big grin and "haha, sure I'll play a game, lol, do you mind if I proxy some stuff??" When you say "proxy, what's that?" he laughs in your face.

Aimlessly, starting to feel a little peeved at this dude, you regardless set up on the table ... BUT WAIT, "WE HAVE TO ROLL FOR SIDES FIRST MAN, AND THEN TERRAIN AND MISSIONS AND SHIT, RAR" ... it gets worse and worse. You keep playing.

What is your problem, you retard? Why the hell did you keep going with starting this game? Is it your opponent's fault? Is he a big flaming jerk? Maybe. Is he to blame for you not having fun? NO. You ignored every signal, and kept on walking right into it.

Didn't your geek brain have some giant mental image of this going off every 3 seconds?

NO, it didn't, b/c you're not emotionally mature enough to walk into an environment not comprised entirely of people identical to you. Sorry, it's true.

Your JOB in life, to attain happiness, is to understand what you need and to see your needs fulfilled. It is not the responsibility of others to make you happy. The big fat stinky douche in the above example is not out to destroy your fun - he's out to be himself, quite unabashedly might I say. Good for him. YOU'RE THE REAL JERK if you spend the game pissed off, hating the guy, and talk shit about him for years afterward to your buddies. It was your choice to ignore every sign and retardedly accept the game with him. What did you think was going to happen?

NOW, here you are, wizened by the experience, getting ready to sign up for a tournament.
On the tournament front page, it reads this:

NO SPORTSMANSHIP. NO PAINTING. NO RULES JUDGES WILL BE PRESENT. SATANIC WORSHIP MAY OR MAY NOT GO ON IN THE BACK ROOM. Your prize is a cookie, that the tournament organizer has taken a piss on, to ensure it is contaminant-free (go NH3).

Are you going to sign up and attend? If you do, are you going to be all pissy when your opponents don't practice sporting behavior, are running unpainted armies, and rules lawyer you into the ground with no judge-based recourse? IF YOU'RE THINKING YES, YOU'RE STILL RETARDED.

The NOVA Open is an event with sportsmanship scoring, a detailed (and soon to be far more detailed) set of expectations of opponents, prizes and rewards for people regardless of their competitive finish, PLUS prizes for people doing well on the competitive front, a 3-color minimum painting requirement, and much more. Should you expect someone at the event across the table from you to be your best friend, happily getting along with you in all rules discussions and game chat? THE ANSWER IS STILL NO. You should expect them to follow the required expectations of the tournament, PERIOD.

If you want your opponents to be friends, game with friends. If your opponents turn out to be friendly, and you get along, and could be friends with them - AWESOME, but rest assured that strangers are still strangers, and not all people get along, nor should they be expected to.

Every game has a social contract ... but that varies from game to game, player to player, environment to environment. It's not static, the same for all. Sado masochists should not expect everyone else to be a sado masochist. Straight people should not expect everyone else to be straight. Catholics should not expect everyone else to be Catholic. Americans should not expect the whole world to love America.

Friendly, affable gamers should not expect every stranger at a tournament to be a friendly, affable gamer. Do I personally wish everyone was? Sure. But if I attend an event full of strangers, I'M THE IMMATURE JERK TO BLAME if I'm disappointed when everyone doesn't embrace me as their best friend and amicably solve every single discussion we have.

95% of the people you run into at the NOVA Open I'm sure you'll get along with just fine ... I'd bet my money on it. When you run into that 5% who are just so wildly different from you that you'll never see eye to eye ... for the love of all that is good and kind don't blame THEM for it. You are as different from them as they are from you, and that's NOBODY'S fault.

Your fun is your responsibility. That's why you don't invite the douches back to your gaming groups. That's why what you don't do is invite them back and argue with them / belabor them into changing who they are.

Celebrate differences, and avoid environments full of different and new people if you can't.

My $.02
Loving and being considerate of others is NOT expecting a social contract of them that they didn't sign. You're just as douchey as them once you do.

Throne of Skulls - Attend or Don't Attend?

2011-02-28T10:32:00.000-08:00

So, each of the Indie Circuit TO's received a special invite to participate in the Throne of Skulls tournament in Vegas in June.

What this means is that if I want, I can head to Vegas for a long weekend in the summertime, play some 40k with folks, yatta yatta. So what should I do? What would you do?

We can all agree the format for Throne of Skulls is not for hardcore competition, and is not well designed for a competitively evaluative tournament between many of the country's stronger players ... but is there anything beyond that worth considering? It surely will involve a lot of fun people, and a lot of competition regardless by virtue of the skill of those attending.

What to do ...
- Mike

NOVA Open 40k 2011 - Primer Missions!

2011-02-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

Feedback away; please playtest where possible, as opposed to just the kneejerk (i.e. those who never really playtested the Quarters mission, and so kneejerked thinking it was better for MSU than Deathstar, which it isn't).

Read 'em and go!

Malifaux at the NOVA Open??? Damn Right!

2011-02-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

What is the Malifaux I speak of? I have to take a moment and wonder if you have spent time in a very dark cave lately. Regardless, lets jump into the explanation and we can all get caught up.

First let me start with the introductions. This is Bill, host of the Gamers Lounge Podcast, Author of the Dead Tau Project Blog, Staff at the NOVA Open 2010 & 2011, Wyrd Miniatures Henchman, and most importantly your host and TO for the NOVA Open Malifaux tournament this year!

So what is this Malifaux I speak of? Who is Wyrd Miniatures? These are simple questions to answer initially, which becomes deliciously complex as you dig deeper. Simply put, Malifaux one of the hottest new Skirmish Scale games to hit the market recently, and it is produced by Wyrd Miniatures. Malifaux as a game had its initial market release at Gencon 2009, and has been growing like crazy since then. This year at Gencon they had a "Privateer Press" like line waiting at their booth on opening day for all the new goodies.

Quoted from Wyrd Miniatures directly:

Based in an alternate Earth, Malifaux uses Gothic, Steampunk, Victorian horror with a dose of the wild west to inject fun and depth into the magical lawlessness of a world rife with monsters, necropunks, manmachine hybrids, gunslingers, and power-hungry politicos. Actively using character-driven stories to define the world of Malifaux, seek your fortune in this fast paced and brutal 32mm tabletop miniature skirmish game. Assemble your crew and stake your claim!

So, simple entry point with a normal "Tournament level" crew sitting between 5 and 8 models. Each model has a set of special rules that they work with, and each crew is led by a master. The largest departure from "typical" mini-wargames is the use of cards opposed to dice!

So, now you know a little bit about Malifaux, and you should be aware that one of the Premier US Malifaux tournaments will be held on Friday at the NOVA Open 2011! So what can I tell you? First off, at this point (Mid February) we are still nailing down all the particulars on the event, but I will share what I can.

We will have 16 3x3 Malifaux tables with full terrain, which will look absolutely fantastic. (as a note, Malifaux tables use ~60%+ terrain coverage) This will allow 32 players to compete for the top spots of best Overall Malifaux player and Best in Faction at the event. I can also confirm we will be running a 30 soulstone Scrap. This means that you pick your faction, which stays the same throughout the tournament, and then get to “buy” your 30ss crew each round. I am aiming for 90 minutes per round, so plenty of time to really rock your opponent and achieve your strategies and schemes.

That’s something else that’s important to point out. For those who are not as familiar, Malifaux is not just a game of killing your opponent! In fact, in some cases it is possible to table your opponent and STILL LOSE THE GAME! This is a game of objectives, which are split into known Strategies (the primary objective) and hidden Schemes (secondary objectives). Accomplishing your Strategies and Scheme’s is more important that just punching your opponents crew in the face! It certainly makes for an exciting game.

So with that introduction, I look forward to seeing a packed house at the NOVA! Registration is currently open and I expect tickets to start moving quickly. I will continue to provide updates here on a fairly regular basis as the details clarify and the date creeps closer.

Hotel Raffle Incoming - NOVA Open Lodging

2011-02-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

Quick little PSA -

We're still working out the details of how we'll run it, but expect that there will be a raffle for those who reserve and actually stay in a room at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. The # of tickets you get for the raffle will be directly relevant to how early you reserve your hotel room (which is a free reservation), plus you'll have to actually stay in it when go-time arrives :) (we'll do the drawing on Sunday of the Convention).

Prizes may range as high as 1 x $1,000 cash prize, and 4 x $250 cash prizes, for those who win the raffle drawing. So, if you're coming to the NOVA in 2011, grab a hotel room now using the room block link on the website, which I'll duplicate here:

NOVA OPEN HOTEL RESERVATIONS

Staying at the Hyatt Regency during the convention is HIGHLY advised regardless of where you're attending from (even locally). In addition to the actual tournaments occurring there, there will be bar socials, evening events, 24 hour open gaming, various competitions and side events, vendors, and the like all happening around the clock. Beyond that, the hotel has free shuttle provision to the Metro, and to Reagan National Airport, so you can avoid any parking fees or difficulties if you're a local OR a traveler by flying into Reagan or metro'ing from the DC/MD/VA region directly to the hotel.

We'll have full details on this one, and a lot more, very soon, but the long story short for now is RESERVE YOUR HOTEL ROOMS EARLY. Not only does it guarantee you a room, but it advances your chances at winning significant cash prizes simply by staying at the Hyatt during the Convention. This will be limited to those whose name is on the reservations (so, if you're splitting rooms, you can figure out how to split potential winnings, or get your own room!).

Army "Cores" - Variety Via Inflexibility

2011-02-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

So, not that I do tactics/list-building articles with any gusto or regularity, but I thought I would share what I do as sort of my "baseline" when building lists.

First thing I do is determine which components of my list are likely to always stay the same, and turn them into a "tax" of sorts on a list build ... in the case of my Imperial Guard, there are a couple of things that factor into this:

1) Models I like that look the best
2) Units that reliably function for me in a variety of roles

For my Imperial Guard, this boils down to the following building blocks that I really don't like to part with:

1) Straken + 2 Meltaguns + 2 Bodyguards + Carapace + Medic + Banner + Chimera - 315 points
- The reason for taking this is multi-fold; one, it gives me a serviceable combat unit for counter-punching, holding things up in a key moment, and "breaking" the backs late-game of shootier armies that foolishly eschew combat of their own
- Two, it gives me the auras I need to stretch my resources and get more out of the rest of my "core" and my army as a whole - 12" from the edge of his Chimera I get re-rolls of failed morale and pin tests (HUGE for guard), furious charge (my guardsmen charge like space marines), and counter-attack (which often doesn't come in handy against MEQ all that often due to initiative, but is huge against other guard units and the like)
- I'll OFTEN take an Astropath with this unit, maybe 75%+ of the time, as it helps with outflankers and keeping Vendettas alive ... but it's not MANDATORY for me in my core, so I don't always take one

2) 4 x Vet Squads w/ 3 Meltaguns, Shotguns, Chimera - 620 points
- This is Straken's "honor guard" of sorts ... it gives me fully assault weapon equipped (remember furious charge) scoring troop units with a total of 40 models in serviceable tank transports, and it gives me a dozen more meltaguns, for a 14 melta core ... this lets me shoot anything I really need to shoot
- I have the points costs memorized for 5 and 6 meltavet squads ... 775 and 930 ... but they aren't "mandatory" ... love 'em or hate 'em, 4 meltavet squads with aura support are a critical component of any mechanized, mobile, closer ranged guard list ... and that's what I most prefer to run

3) 2 x Vendettas - 260 points
- Try as I might, I often find Vendettas to be the best choice to support my army builds ... I may wind up with Ogryns, or Demolishers, or more Meltavets, or Al'Rahem ... but whatever happens, a couple of Vendettas to reserve or start on and bang up enemy mobility or silence/kill opposing long range shooters like Autolas BA preds or even opposing Vendettas just is too much of a big deal, and Vens are SUPER reliable at this ... against AV13 (preds) a Vendetta's damage odds are 3 x 3/4 (to hit) x 1/2 (to cause a damage result) ... it's just ... reliable. You don't have as strong a set of odds to your points level as you do with something like a Hydra perhaps, but the flexibility of the platform is just too good to pass up. I never expect them to live, either, but - and especially when I take 3 - I'll usually add an Astropath to the cost so that in games against shootier opponents, quarters deployment games, etc., I can reserve them and bring most on Turn 2 in better / safer positions, or lanes where their targeted tanks don't have cover

So, when you look at this, my personally assessed "tax" for building an IG list is a hefty 1,195 points ... I think a lot of us do this subconsciously, and it takes "effort" to get outside your personal core ... and it's related to more than just what's "best" ... lots of people like to listhammer on the net, with things they'll never personally buy or even own. 4 of my vet squads are really well painted for me, 3 of my Vendettas are really well detailed up for me, and my Straken squad looks good and is characterful. I want to use these models either way, and when I vary the list up (like I did adding Al'Rahem and the Brother Captain for BFS) it makes painting a lot easier when you've got a solid core.

It's also frankly easier when going 1850, for instance, to know that what I'm REALLY working with is 655 points ... and no real FOC restrictions.

What is YOUR "core?" And don't fret - NOBODY sticks to it all the time no matter what, but realistically we all have those building blocks we just can't stomach living without ... what are yours?

Boozy Cliffnotes of 2011, Super Bowl Time

2011-02-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

OK, first thing's first ... annual Super Bowl party at the family house is upcoming ... this is always a banging time, and we have food and booze and quizzes and pools and good times and good people and giant 6X" tv's and the like ....

We're still trying to figure out what "team theme" cocktails we'll have for the Packers and the Steelers ... but in the process of looking, I've come across something very commercial and sell-outish but very useful for your home bar and bartending aspirations ....

Ty Ku

This stuff is pure marketing, but it's actually pretty awesome ... it's a simple 20% mixing-oriented liquer (though you can drink it chilled and straight) that combines Soju and Sake with about 20 different fruits and such ... it's absent some of the sulfite/etc. boozy accompaniments that exacerbate hangovers, and is anti-oxidant/etc. rich ... a "healthy" liquer ... but the point here isn't that it tries to be healthy. Instead, it has solid, reliable flavor that's not too over the top or sweet (at all ... it's totally opposite of the crap that is Hypnotiq) ... and the bottle itself is a major selling point, with a pressure button on the bottom that, when the bottle is lifted, releases and causes a green LED to light up the contents. Kinda cool.

Regardless, it's a colorful and useful liquer for mixing ... i.e. an Irish Happy Ending, which is 50/50 Ty Ku and Scotch.

Moving onto the good stuff, beer ... there's a few I'll pick up from Norm's to ensure the quality of options at the Super Bowl party extend beyond Miller and Coors Lite.

Smuttynose Finestkind:

This stuff is pretty hoppy, but it's a truly world-class IPA, and my IPA of choice if I want a crisp, refreshing, solid booze to quaff while watching a game.

For those who aren't as big on the hoppiness, try:

This stuff is like Boddington's, but a lot better ... and eminently quaffable.

If you just want a simple beer, as usual, I strongly recommend going with Session ... it clocks in relatively low on calories, but it's going to have more fun and a better taste.

You know ... nothing more to say about this beer; I've talked about it before, but it's "the shit" to drink, and it usually clocks in at only around a buck a bottle ... and from a very high quality brewery like Full Sail.

There are tons to go with ... but I'll leave it there. Gotta figure out which cocktails to do for the Super Bowl ... may simply go with Margaritas for the Packers .... but still need something for the Steelers.

To give you guys context, last year for our Super Bowl party we did Blue Raspberry martinis with rock candy swizzle stick and raspberry garnishes for the Colts, and Espresso Martinis for the Saints ... obviously some of us drink beer as a priority, but there are a lot of gals and such that attend this event also ... so it's one more little thing to help enhance the fun. Any suggestion on Steelers drinks? Would like to avoid doing Espresso Martinis a second year in a row ...

Invitational Points Size - Discussion Topic - 1500? 2000? 1850? 1750?

2011-01-31T07:50:00.000-08:00

So, here's what's going on ... I received an e-mail from one of the invitational attendees, and allow me to share it in shortform:

Hi, Mike.

Just noticed from an earlier mail from you that you have not yet gone firm on the points for the invitational. I'd like to put forward the case for using 1,500 pts, a' la the UK GT circuit. I'll keep it simple since this is a subjective matter and just about every point has a very valid counterpoint to it.

In a nutshell I think there are 2 main reasons for using 1,500. The first is logistical and the second is psychological/tactical.

1. Logistics wise its going to be easier to finish 1,500 point games within the time duration even if someone does try the slow setup / slow play routine...

2. Psych/tactics wise is that the game is different at 1,500 than 1,750 and 1,850 because 1,500 points makes players make sacrifices about their army selection. Guard is a great case in point - at the lower level people just can't have everything they want and have to decide if the manticores are worth more than the vendettas or hydras or if the psykers are worth more than taking Al-rahem... 1,500 will also get people out of their comfort level a little which I think makes for a challenging event.

In case you think I'm pitching 1,500 because thats what I play at I've not played at this level since 2009 and all the events I play here are 1,750 and up :)

Anyway, my two cents...

So, here are some "counterpoints" in broad reply (I don't have too strong a feeling on this yet)

1) 2,000 points is too large one way or another, I think; not everyone is qualifying at that level, and frankly that's pushing it for 5 games in one day

2) Less than 1,500 and higher than 2,000 are both impossible levels, and outside of the recommendations for a balanced game from the Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook. It actually suggests 1500 or 2000, but contextually, you can presume they mean "anywhere between those ranges."

3) 1,850 is my most firm thought at present; it gives you flexibility, room, but is a tad smaller and more restrictive than 2,000, plus it's at about the sweet spot medium between the various qual events, that range in size from 1750-2000.

4) 1,750 and 1,500 are pretty "small" in terms of army build flexibility; certain lists certainly come "more" into their own at these various ranges, though I think the codices themselves all remain fairly competitive (or, at least, in about the same spot on the curve)

Popular opinion is less important to me here than cogent, meaningful, constructive commentary ... also, negativity? Well, hopefully by now it's known how I feel about THAT.

Keep it constructive, and comment away; remember, the Invitational will be an extremely competitive field by nature, and the Renaissance Man and Tournament Champion each take home $1,000 cash.

- Mike

What Is the Perfect Game of 40k? Also - Sisters of Battle to Buy!

2011-01-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

So I was chatting over on 3++ Is the New Black earlier, and shared in conversation what I saw as the perfect game (at a tournament, or anywhere) ...

Bottom of turn 7, game about to be decided by a single dice roll on a single dude on a single objective.

Two players started the game not really knowing each other, and are now talking to each other like old friends.

Lists are strong, but instead of "cookie cutter" are custom tailored to each player's strengths and preferences.

Both players are using ALL components of their rules affably, but to the max ... movement shenanigans, perfect model placement, ANY LOS = LOS, even interleaving models for cover before that was changed. No avoiding rules of the game, but no belaboring them either, with no antagonistic view of them from either direction - simply playing the game.

Both armies are fully painted to the best of their operator's ability (if he's a crappy painter, they look crappy, but they're still fully painted).

The majority of the game is the two players speaking together, laughing, joking, talking, etc. ... not silent-pants angrypants "super serious" pants 40k.

This is my perfect 40k. What's more, if it's a tournament, the VERY NARROWEST of victories does nothing to harm the winner's chances of advancing, and the loser isn't all upset or pissed off about it.

In my opinion, tournaments that encourage and reward mismatches, massacring people, etc., DISCOURAGE the above game from occurring (they don't prevent it from happening, mind you, they simply discourage it). Same can be said for checklist sportsmanship, where players are simply trying to "game" the system to guarantee the checkboxes are filled out instead of actually trying to be good, affable, memorable human beings.

A lot of the NOVA, at present and in the future, is designed toward achieving games like the above ... not achieving seal-beating massacre-oriented activities ... not checking boxes and moving along ... but encouraging close, tactically deep games where even when it's not "super" close players are able to force ties down to tiebreakers and have "closer" results ... and where friendship and camaraderie and experiencing all of the hobby takes precedence over sullenly pursuing one component.

Hobbyists who only want to game, and don't even try to paint their models? This is a hobby, not just a game. Don't play 40k, play a computer game or Risk or Magic. that said, it's your right to consider the painting/modeling not a mandatory part of the hobby ... just respect and appreciate that NOBODY has to agree with you.

Hobbyists who only want to paint, and like to belabor people that bring strong lists? This is a hobby, not just artistic expression. Don't participate in 40k, just paint 40k miniatures if you really like them. That said, it's your right to consider the gaming not a mandatory part of the hobby ... just respect and appreciate that NOBODY has to agree with you.

Hobbyists who are incapable of appreciating and respecting those who enjoy the hobby in different ways, who can't treat their opponents with respect and the consideration you would show a peer ... you don't belong in the hobby at all. Seek a social life that will teach you the skills you require to properly interact with others.

Everybody gets into the hobby in their own way ... but seek to advance your skills and love of the hobby to an embracing of ALL of it ... that's what 40k is ... it's not JUST a game; it's not JUST a painting/modeling activity, and it's above all a SOCIAL experience. You can play computer games facelessly over the internet. You can paint in the privacy of your own home not talking to anyone. You can't really participate fully in 40k if you only participate in tiny components of it, or if you eschew the social component.

Food for thought, I suppose.

In other news, my buddy John who also is my floor boss for the Open (and one loud, big dude) is selling his large Sisters of Battle army. It's a fair bit off the going rate for this much pewter; take a gander, if you're of a mind or happen to be looking: http://cgi.ebay.com/Warhammer-40K-Sisters-Battle-Army-/320646032603?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa7fe2cdb