Wednesday, July 27, 2011

NOVA Invitational Update - Invitational Alternate "Application"

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 ...

Friday, July 22, 2011

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

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 ...

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

SPOTS RUNNING OUT - HOTEL ROOMS RUNNING OUT

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.

Friday, July 15, 2011

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

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

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

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

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?

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Hotel Rooms, and a Hill

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!