NOVA Review

While I am still recovering from this year's NOVA, I thought I would put together a quick review/overview post. Pic dumps to come, as well as more detailed BatReps, but for now, if you're just looking for some pics of the armies at the event, I suggest checking out all of Greggles's pics over at Feed Your Nerd.

We arrived at the hotel in the early evening and hung out Wednesday night, which included me playing the guitar in the NOVA Open Charity Lounge for about an hour with Mike Brandt. On Thursday, we got up and headed down to the 40k hall for the Invitational, where I met up with my opponent, Alan "Pajamapants"Bajramovic and his Eldar and Daemons list. Alan won a close-fought game, and I felt pretty confident going into the GT after that game and feeling that I played it pretty well.

After the game, I had a chance to wander the hall a bit and check out the sights including the amazing 11 foot Star Destroyer in the X-Wing Hall.

That evening I built and lit a display board for my Necrons with Eric and Chris, and had that ready to go for paint judging as well.

Work in Progress

On Friday, I walked up to my table for game 1 to see one of the guys from the Display Board Seminar, Brian, who was playing a beautiful Tyranid army. Unfortunately for Brian, I have tested my list pretty extensively against just this matchup, and having been on both sides, I don't know how the Tyranids can win. That said, Brian was a great opponent and we had a great, fun game. I was very flattered when he told me later in the weekend I was his favorite opponent; not sure there can be higher praise, win or lose.

For round 2 I came up against an Eldar list in Hammer and Anvil. I had some PTSD seeing four wave serpents lined up across a long slog, but once the dice (and Scarabs) started flying, my confidence in the matchup grew and it ended in a resounding win.

In the final game of the day, I got a rematch against EJ, who was my first round opponent at Forge the Narrative back in February. His list was very small, with the main punching force revolving around 5 flying monstrous creatures: Fateweaver, Be'lakor, and 3 Tzeentch Daemon Princes. EJ seized, which made my progressive primary difficult, but having last turn I was able to consistently negate his scoring, resulting in a close fought victory, and a third great game for the day.

As a great day of gaming ended, the pairings for day two were posted, and I was pretty excited to be matched up against Frontline Gaming's Frankie and his beautiful Minotaurs Battle Company. As we rolled up day two, Frankie was a blast to play. He had the advantage early, but slowly my Necrons' durability began to show through and I turned the tide. I think it helped that I got this matchup on this mission, but in the end I was able to win a close win against a great opponent.

I entered the first bracket, having gone 4-0, and my first game was against Mike Vagenos, who is someone I've talked to at length at events, but we've never had a chance to play. We were both excited for the match, and doubly excited to be on the Twitch live stream. I was actually able to go back and watch the past broadcast (our game begins around the 3:30:00 mark)


Watch live video from Torrentoffire on Twitch

You can watch the whole game unfold, but it came down to some clutch decisions and dice rolls for me to pull out a narrow win and move on. It was an absolute blast, though totally draining and I felt a bit braindead going into my sixth round, where I was matched up against Brett (aka TombKing on Dakka).

I wish I could say the game was close, but it wasn't. Brett accurately pinpointed my biggest mistake, which was that I let off the pressure early, leaving him to sit and snipe my forces from afar, and concentrate down the couple units I did push forward. My dice were pretty atrocious as well, but between my mistake and Brett perfectly capitalizing on it, had they not been terrible it would have been a more respectable loss, but a loss nonetheless.

I finished the day by taking my army back to second round paint judging, which I was happy to be a part of. It was also around this time I realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast and was starving. Todd and I went out to eat after judging was complete and I crushed two full meals.

On Sunday I woke up just totally mentally drained. I wasn't looking forward to playing two more strenuous games, and decided to drop and hang out and relax instead. Of course, I couldn't completely avoid gaming, and Parsons and I threw down a few turns of an army swap game, which was absolutely hilarious.

I'm glad I stuck around for the award ceremony, as I won highest single contributor to the NOVA Tabletop Olympics, and will get my name on the Tabletop Olympics Trophy for years to come. I'm also looking to recruit team members to try to win the overall team title, and defend my crown.

No, I don't get to keep the Trophy. 

In the end, I exceeded my goals an expectations for the weekend, and had a total blast. I finished in the top 10 Overall (in Renaissance Man scoring), and unexpectedly made the top bracket. I do slightly regret dropping on Sunday, but that's in hindsight; day of I was too mentally exhausted to go on playing at that level, though I would have had a chance to play against some of the friends I made over the weekend.

I also owe everyone a bunch of posts, both about the details from NOVA, all the pictures I took, as well as my progress on some recent commissions, including an entire army I painted in three days before NOVA.