Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Tickets for Charity - NOVACF Final Push - Odds Good, Tickets Cheap, All Money to Charity (Doctors Without Borders, Fisher House Foundation, etc.)

So the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation raffle drawings are Sunday.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO TO THE NOVA OPEN TO WIN.
WE SHIPPED ONE OF LAST YEAR'S CHARITY ARMIES ALL THE WAY TO TASMANIA.



Also, these are some of the sweetest armies you've ever laid eyes on.

You get the raffle tickets here: http://novaopenfoundation.org/?tcp_product_category=raffle

We raise the big monies for the charities.
Everybody is le happy.


There are more nids than in this picture, it was a halfway there shot, you'll see them in the (bad) photos below

So they also all come in sweet-ass KR Multicases that are one of the kind with custom art army logos on each:


(PS FOR THE FIRST TIME THERE'LL BE A DEDICATED KR BOOTH WITH PROPER FOAM AND SWAPPABILITY AT NOVA!})

And we had some fun setting up a scene from the Battle for Maccragge on a table with these before we put them in their case for good:



Yup, they come with sweet custom templates (and blast markers)




The armies will be on display at NOVA, where you can buy more tickets in person.
There's an incredible array of silent auction stuff as well.
There's also more armies at the site, go check 'em out.
Also, these are camera photos, so ...

Scythes of Behemoth Tyranid Force:
Walking Hive Tyrant
Flyrant w/ Double Devs (standard popular layout)
3 Hive Guard
Custom Tyranid Prime w/ Norn Crown
40 Termagants
20 Gargoyles
8 Genestealers
3 Lictors
2 Trygons
2 Hive Crones
Carnifex
Venomthrope
6 Tyranid Warriors


Blood and Honor Ultramarines Force:
Marneus Calgar (Terminator version)
4 Honor Guard
Dave Taylor's famous (literally) Tyranid Hunters Land Raider w/ Carnifex Trophy
3 Thunderfire Cannons w/ Techmarine
3 Storm Talons (skyhammer, fully LED LIT)
10 Scouts + Telion (5 sniper, 5 ccw/bp)
10 Tyranid Veterans / Sternguard
30 Tactical Marines
Drop Pod
3 Grav Cents
Devastators and various other heavy weapon marines

and probably more that I'm forgetting

Plus, again, each army comes with custom templates/blast markers, KR Multicases, etc.

Dude, stop reading now and give a little to charity while giving yourself a shot at a win. You can buy as few as 10 raffle tickets for $10, or as many as






Monday, August 25, 2014

Quick Hitter - Online Registration Closes Tomorrow for NOVA

There are only about 25 unsold GT tickets.
There are only a couple of unsold Warlords Narrative tickets.
Warmachine has maybe one all event pass? Otherwise sold out.
X-Wing singles championship sold out, not much left in the rest.
Fantasy has only one ticket of 64 left.
Infinity and Malifaux have room left, but not infinite (heh).
Blood Bowl has some room left.
Flames of War has some room left.
Many of the Seminars are nearly sold out.
There are no more swag bags left.

What's the point here? Signing up day of is risky business.

Can't wait for the fifth annual NOVA Open!


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience (And Other Seminars)

So there are a bunch of Seminars at the NOVA Open this year, as has been increasingly the case.

To be honest, I think there are 33 distinct ones, ranging from building and lighting your own terrain and building and lighting your own display board before the events start, to how to get your army from primer to tabletop quality in the best way possible.



One course I wanted to call out to attendees, especially those experiencing their first "big" tournament, is the Hitchhiker's Guide to a Successful GT Experience. This course will be in our awesome small auditorium seminar room, where most of the courses are taught, and will include about 45 minutes to an hour of "lecture" on some highlights and key points of what to expect from a GT, and how to get the most out of it, followed by the remainder of the time in panel and informal discussion.

The folks who will be lecturing are myself in a moderating role, and guests like Andrew Gonyo (Captain of Team America and an extremely well-vetted tournament player) and Reece Robbins (successful West Coast player, tournament organizer, and owner of Frontline Gaming retail store, podcast, and website). Chip Boyd of Torrent of Fire will also give some time on how to get the most out of the Torrent of Fire app, how to use it properly for reporting your games, how to use it to check on other games, etc.

There aren't TOO many spots left in this class, and it's capped at 20, but if you haven't registered yet and will be there on Thursday evening, the class is from 5:30-7:30 and we'd love to have you, so sign on up!

Check out all the NOVA seminars here: http://www.novaopen.com/?page_id=5615

These classes are - in many cases - scheduled to allow those participating in various tournaments and game systems to ALSO attend seminars, so don't feel you shouldn't go look and see just because you're in the 40K GT or similar. Additionally, please note several courses are sold out or nearly so, our first year with broad sell-out issues in Seminars. Of special note as nearly gone is From Primer to Tabletop, which is an excellent beginner/intermediate army-level-painting course, taught by award winning artist Caleb Wissenback.

NOVA Open Fantasy, Warmachine/Hordes, X-Wing Tickets - Do NOT Wait Until Day Of, Nearly Sold Out

This is just a quick PSA, as I know in the area each year some people have shown up the day of to play in events within Fantasy and WM/H, and may think to do the same for X-Wing this year.

X-Wing has plenty of all pass room left, but the Singles event is NEARLY sold out (counting all passes as reg'ed for it, + singles-only registration), which is the Saturday event.

WM/H has nearly 70 unique registrants (all passes + a la carte event purchasers), and is nearly sold out for the main Steamroller and the event in general. This is after selling out previously and us opening more spots up. If you are a local WM/H or traveling player and assuming you'll be able to show up and play in all events, please please please correct your thinking and reg in advance. Nobody wants to turn you away or say you can only hope to get in here or there.

Warhammer Fantasy is in the same boat, nearing 60 registrations and with only 64 spots, and that's a HARD CAP THIS YEAR. We started with only 32, and doubled down when it sold out way early. But we cannot make more room.

9 Days to NOVA.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

One Spot in the $2,000 Cash Prize NOVA Invitational

Hello all,

Just a quick hitter here. We have *one* spot open in the NOVA Invitational, as well as a couple of alt spots in case of last second drops. Think you have what it takes to go up against some of the best in the world (this year's Invitational includes 5 international competitors)? Email your interest and the list you'd take to mvbrandt@gmail.com post-haste.

 - Mike

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Gaming Mats on the Cheap If you Preorder for NOVA Pick-Up - Mats in action, and a Note on Malifaux at NOVA

SO, I got in a game against a local buddy the other night and we finally got some good pics of painted crews battling it out with awesome terrain on one of Frontline Gaming's Mega MATS.


This is the NOVA Open's "Frostland" terrain layout for Malifaux this year. It's been an interesting thing, but we basically were able to put a 5-year veteran terrain crew and con resource set behind a terrain design process that we vetted past Mack Martin and Justin Gibbs during design, to gain their input / etc.

My buddy Shades prefers asymmetrical layouts, especially for pick-up gaming, so we rearranged it, but at NOVA the Malifaux winter boards are some of the symmetrical ones (they aren't all symmetrical), and will look like this:


What's cool is the board was made even more aesthetically pleasing by the fact we played it on one of the Mega MATS (a 4x4 Cobblestone board, just with the 3x3 marked off).

There were some highlights from the game, and I'll get to those. If you want a Mega MAT, one of the big downsides is that unless you live in California, it's going to cost you about $20 for shipping. They're basically giant mousepads, and are highly resistant to water or damage, and they also roll dice really well and push minis smoothly. These seem like small things but they actually are pretty rad. I don't tend to "hock" for products, but if I believe in them, I will.

To wit, KR Multicase. We've even worked it out so that we'll finally have KR for sale at NOVA this year, and we've gone so far as to procure foam tuned to the SuperNOVA VIP bag purchasers armies of preference, so that they can use their buy-one-get-one-free yearly bonus (a gift from KR) on them.

So to talk about the Mats at all, it took a lot of me actually messing with them to be like, alright alright alright, these are cool.

Anywho, you can get them from the NOVA Open store at their retail rate, but with 0 shipping by picking them up at NOVA. THAT SAID, YOU CANNOT BUY THEM AT NOVA. YOU HAVE TO PRE-PURCHASE THEM BY 11:59PM AUGUST 17.

So, yeah, don't show up at NOVA and be ticked that we don't have stock for you. It's expensive to ship, as just highlighted, and this is a test year. Reece and Co from Frontline are showing up at NOVA, and they'll bring as many Mats as pre-sell through the NOVA site. You get to pick exactly which style of mat you want during the checkout process.

Go here to buy.

Back to Malifaux. We basically built the Field of Dreams for this year. If you build it, they will come hopefully rings true, but hope is not a strategy, so we've done a lot to make sure whoever does show up for a new, first year event has a pretty incredible time. To level set, most of our skirmish level games in their first year see about 15-25 people show up. Malifaux seems to be pacing ahead of that, but one never knows!

So, we built incredible terrain, we are bringing Mack Martin and Justin Gibbs, who together made the game (Justin works for Wyrd, Mack is a freelancer with background at Wyrd), we'll have some of the things as swag and available that you otherwise can only get at GenCon or by waiting for October or later to purchase. We'll even have signed copies of the new rule/fluff/scenario book, Crossroads.

So whoever shows up for Malifaux is going to have an incredible time, and that was the idea. Four days of organized and open gaming, intimate face-time with the people who designed the game, awesome swag, and the best Malifaux tournament terrain on the planet (I'll stand by this).

The other Malifaux layouts for this year, just FYI ...





As for the individual game, I really had a blast ... Shades made a couple of tactically risky maneuvers, and his Cards made him pay for it. I, as is the norm for me, played like a close-to-the-vest panzy with my eye only on trying to get 10 points, and my cards rewarded me for it with repeated double-negative all-severe flips and the like.

I also learned that Burt Jebsen hiding in a mass of Bayou Gremlins and with multiple +Ram suit auras stacked on him ... is a total Master murderer. Because of his native ram, he's always doing 3/4/5 ... but if you add Lenny and a Skeeter w/ Somer's do it like dis aura down adding another ram, and if you flip or cheat in a ram ... he's doing 6/7/8 per hit on a Ml6 attack with Reckless. If said Master tries to target him, you just say "nah punch that Gremlin instead." So ... yeah, that's a thing. This was also the primary reason I won, as I was able to severely injure Marcus with three attacks from Burt, then cheat the I flip w/ Trixi and dust him off with Som'er, who was hovering nearby. I even turned him into a piglet, I believe.

Shades learned some good lessons about how to deal with a turn1-summon crew (I summon 5 models on Turn 1 by burning whatever stones / cards I need to toward the task, then get on with the game and do not tend to summon anything else unless tactically it's called for), and we rematched at the regular Malifaux Mondays to a much tighter finish.




I need to get me a Burt and finish painting my crew ... that Miss Terious is my counts-as Burt for this game #embarrassingproxies (but at least she's really well painted!)


Sunday, August 10, 2014

Narrative Warlords Tweak - Tzeentch Daemons

Previously, Tzeentch Daemons (prior Whiskey article) had a power where they auto-passed psychic tests, which does not work all that well in the new edition.

Keep in mind that within the Narrative, these "supplements" are almost exactly like GW ones, in that they are optional. The referenced changes only apply if you elect to use a Narrative Supplement. If you prefer to run the list more by the book or in another fashion, you are free to do so within the Narrative event.

Chaos Daemons are now:


Fateweaver’s re-roll may only be used for rolls to hit, to wound and saving throws
The Grimoire of True Names may never improve a unit’s invulnerable save beyond a 3+
Malefic Daemonology MAY NOT be taken by any Chaos Daemons models

Khorne: If your army (including Allies) is comprised entirely of Daemons of Khorne, all models gain Assault Grenades and Feel No Pain (5+) against shooting attacks.
Slaanesh: If your army (including Allies) is comprised entirely of Daemons of Slaanesh, all models gain Assault Grenades, and the Shred special rule.

Tzeentch: If your army (including Allies) is comprised entirely of Daemons of Tzeentch, all psychic powers may be selected instead of rolled for randomly.

Nurgle: If your army (including Allies) is comprised entirely of Daemons of Nurgle, all models gain Fleet and the ability to Run regardless of the Slow and Purposeful USR.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Updated 40K Narrative Supplements in Total

For any that aren't aware, there's this awesome 40K event at NOVA called the DC Narrative. This year's working title is "Descension," as it covers a very dark moment in the changing cultural facade of both Humanity and the Virtue.


After some updating, and the addition of Orks and Astra Militarum, here are the updated Codex Supplements. Pulled directly from the final Narrative primer (being finalized): (CLICK TO CONTINUE)

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Army Construction Rules - GT/Invitational, Narrative, Trios; Final Primers

The GT/Invitational construction rules have been posted for a while, but they in short are:
  1. You may not select more than 2 total Detachments, and must contain a Primary detachment
  2. You may not select more than 1 Combined Arms Detachment
  3. If you do select a Combined Arms Detachment, is must be your Primary detachment
  4. All Formations, Codices, and Dataslates published by 8/1/2014 are considered legal
  5. Forgeworld rules will not be legal for 2014, though are likely in some capacity for 2015
  6. You may select 0-1 Fortifications from the following:
    1. Aegis Defense Line
    2. Imperial Bastion
    3. Skyshield Landing Platform
    4. Firestorm Redoubt
    5. Vengeance Weapons Battery
  7. Conjured units are not considered part of an explicit Detachment. As a result, benefits from your Warlord such as Conqueror of Cities and benefits granted by being a part of a given detachment do not apply to Conjured Units. Furthermore, as a RAW clarification, Conjured Models interact with other models as per the Allies Matrix, regardless of the Faction that summoned them.
  8. You may not use Lords of War or Forgeworld Rules. Expect these to be reassessed for 2015.
  9. Allied detachments may be selected from the same Faction as your Primary Detachment
The Narrative construction rules are:
  1. Your list must follow the Battle-Forged rules from the 40K Rulebook and Codices for a 2,000 Point Army. All official GW Dataslates and Formations will be allowed during the Narrative and will be used as written by GW.  Stronghold Assault and Escalation are also allowed in accordance with 7th Edition.
  2. Forgeworld/Imperial Armor rules and units are LEGAL, but Apocalypse-only formations are ILLEGAL.
  3. Lords of War are LEGAL.  
  4. However, Fortifications, Gargantuan Creatures, and Super-Heavy Vehicles using a Hellstorm template or blast larger than 5” may not reduce cover to less than a 5+ when resolving wounds against a model that is not a Gargantuan Creature or Super-Heavy Vehicle.

The Trios construction rules for the Singles / 2000 Point Variant are:
  1. Unbound or Battle-Forged, no restrictions (Forgeworld/etc. allowed)