As promised (and yes I know I'm about a week later than everyone else. Sue me, I work a lot), I'm going to do a quick run down of the Good, Bad, and Ugly from NOVA 2011. But before I do mine, I direct you to my good pal Gramps' review here, for he covered a lot of what I wanted to cover, and so I'm going to touch on some things I saw he left out. Without further ado:
The Good:
1). The Players - I had an phenomenal weekend playing with a group of great guys. All were fun to talk to and game with. This weekend epitomized the Gentleman Gamer archetype we long and crave for in this hobby (and the archetype that GW aims for). In all 8 of my games there were never any rules disputes, arguments, whining, moaning, groaning, or other conduct unbecoming of a gentleman. Even when my dice abandoned me in 2 games and I was getting stomped, I just laughed it off and shrugged my shoulders with the "oh well" look. My opponents did likewise, and even after our games we often would hang out between rounds and shoot the shit (regardless of whether I won or he did). So kudos to Mike for encouraging an atmosphere of competitive, yet friendly, play.
2). Terrain - I just want to double tap Gramps here. All the tables had beautiful and plentiful terrain. Initially after NOVA some of the terrain on some of my tables left me miffed because it LoS blocked me out the ying yang. In hindsight though, even with the terrain what killed me in those games was horrible dice rolls coupled with some tactical errors on my end, not the terrain.
3). Support - I was amazed at the prize support and vendor support. I mean 4 day weekend getaways and up to $1000 cash prizes? Dammmmmmmmmmmn. Let us not forget also the random raffles everyday where you could win some nice schwag. It was definitely a well supported and funded event. As for the vendors, having Spikeybitz, Warstore, and Battlefoam right there with a complete stock of anything you could need was awesome. I won't lie, I fell in love with Spikeybitz at NOVA for I was able to grab 3X FW Elysian Vet Squads w/ Shotguns and an Elysian Command Squad for around $110. Now if you're thinking how's that a deal, go to FW website, put those 4 items in your cart, and then tell me what the price is (hint without shipping I saved around $30 right off the bat). Oh and then add shipping, and you'll see why I was pumped. On account of Spikeybitz, I am now (finally) restarting my Elysian AirCav army using FW models. Plus, as I showed in an earlier post this week, I can now start doing some fun conversions to one of the squads to make them my Necromunda gang. I felt like I drank a gallon of tiger's blood, I was so winning at that point (not literally winning because, well I went 3-5).
The Bad:
1). Delays - I'll reiterate what Gramps said - the Day 2 delays were...annoying. Did they affect me personally? No as my posted opponent was always the one I ended up fighting. What was annoying was the different brackets having different start times, being told to "wait 10min to start", which then morphed into "wait 15min to start", and finally became "OK start now!" (this is a severely abridged summary using some hyperbole, but it was true we were told twice to wait 10 and then 15 minutes to start in our bracket during Game 6). The other unintended side effect of all these delays was that it cut into our break time. Between Game 6 and 7 we had at most 40minutes to grab something to eat, relax, and get ready for our next game. Now factor into this 40minute break the fact that the nearest food establishments that were reasonably priced and decent (i.e. not McDonald's) were 5-10minutes away you're "break" is looking more and more like a brief pause. This leads me to......
2). Venue - The hotel was...meh. The gaming area was decent (though it could have used slightly bettwe ventilation / AC); it was large and had plenty of space to accommodate all the players, was well lit, and was out of the way from regular hotel traffic. So why was it bad? The upstairs bar/restaurant was out of control expensive (which didn't matter after Game 3 cuz I was hot on a losing streak and needed my 2 extra strong Bombay Sapphire and Tonic's to make Game 4 bearable....more on that later), the nearest eateries, both fast food and sit down dinner, were around 10minutes walking distance away, and the clientele there that weekend left something to be desired, and no I'm not knocking on the Vietnam Vets. They rocked. Anyway distance to sustenance + delays + short breaks = not a lot of "down time" in between rounds.
The Ugly
1). Playing - Mainly my playing in games 2, 3, 4, and 8. I played like hot garbage and made some stupid mistakes. Oh and it doesn't help when your dice decide to mock you and only come up as 1's, 2's, and an occasional 3. Stupid dice. I blame Kirby for not getting me his super cool loaded pink dice in time :)
Whew this went longer than I had hoped. On account of that, I'll start my BatReps in my next post, going over Game 1 and 2 in a mix of Stelek, Hulksmash, and Blackmoore style - short, sweet summaries where I critique how I played in the end. To help with this, here's my NOVA list (and some more photos of the army!):
2000pt Varyags of Miklagaard VII
HQ
Wolf Lord Tyr - Thunderwolf, Storm Shield, Wolf Claw, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman, Saga of the Warrior Born - 265
Rune Priest Odin - Chooser, Living Lightning, Tempest's Wrath - 110
Elite
3X Wolf Guard - 3X combi-melta, 1X Powerfist, 1X Wolf Claw, 1X Thunderhammer - 129
5X Wolf Scouts - Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen - 100
Troops
7X Grey Hunters - Melta, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
7X Grey Hunters - Melta, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
7X Grey Hunters - Melta, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
5X Grey Hunters - Melta, Razorback - 120
Fast Attack
2X Thunderwolves - Storm Shield, Thunderhammer - 160
Typhoon Speeder - 90
Typhoon Speeder - 90
Heavy Support
6X Long Fangs - Pack Leader, 5X Missile Launchers - 140
6X Long Fangs - Pack Leader, 5X Missile Launchers - 140
6X Long Fangs - Pack Leader, 5X Missile Launchers - 140
Total: 1994
and...
Apologies if the pics are blurry, I used my phone camera because I just recently discovered my normal camera has been lost/stolen..oh well. First pic above are my scouts and my Long Fangs. The next pic are my sqiads with the TWC in the foreground and the Typhoons in the background. Last photo are my TWC...the Wolf Lord is on the left.
