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Post-Nova Open Thoughts

8/31/2011

6 Comments

 
What a weekend!  It was more than I could have possibly imagined.  For as long as Nova Open remains, I will make the attempt to attend it.  This tournament is the flag-ship in competitive 40k and it has done a damn good job in maintaining that.  Let's hope that it continues to improve (though, there isn't much on that front!) and be a shining example of what is good in this great game.  I wanted to start my post-Nova discussions with my thoughts on the event itself, with a bit of other stuff thrown in as I think of them.  Battle reports are coming, I promise.  And yes, I will trash myself, don't worry.  ;)

Let's start with the venue itself.  The Nova Open event was hosted by the Hyatt in Crystal City.  It was a very short distance from the Reagan Washington National Airport, which was excellent because I didn't want to pay for a rental car or taxi.  The courtesy shuttle worked perfectly.  200ponies (Bill Early) and his wife was kind enough to allow me to stay with them in their room over the weekend, which saved me quite a bit of money even though I split costs.  Great people, those two.  200ponies managed to go 4-4 with my "Templarbubble" list, so that was good too.  :)

The hotel was very nice, but it wasn't without problems.  They charged for EVERYTHING.  Internet, replacement bathroom items, upgrading your room with mini-fridges, etc.  Yes, the room didn't have a refrigerator.  Inconvenient to say the least.  Then the fact that the hotel shut the AC off every day at 7pm, when it was hot and humid all weekend...also annoying.  When you account for the 200+ people crammed into the event hall without AC, it gets hot pretty damn quick.  Sweating bullets mid-way through the last game both days.  The hotel also didn't have all of the six elevators running for some reason, so it led to very long lines waiting to get to our rooms.  But overall, I thought it was a pretty good place to hold the Open.

The very first night there (Friday), I wanted to finish up my army for the tournament, as a few things needed to still be done.  I was super stressed out about it, because I was worried that I wouldn't get them done in time.  However, I was conned (it didn't take much...lol) into participating into the Nova Open Barcrawl.  In a nutshell, it was a competition that involved going to a lot of bars and drinking lots and/or visiting lots of DC monuments.  Rode my first subway, so that was cool.  Got ourselves up to Chinatown and just enjoyed each others' company.  While we were still doing the stuff on the list, we kinda threw that to the wayside to socialize.  lol!  We got back pretty late, but Ms Ponies helped me finish my army.  Even stayed up a little later to finish assembling a Typhoon when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer (at this point, it was about 3 days without sleep).  But we got everything all done to the required standards in the nick of time, so special thanks goes to her for that!

The people at the event were very nice.  Got to meet Stelek for the first time and he's a very nice guy in person, albeit a little arrogant.  He does have his quirks, but we all do.  Spent some time talking to him and I have no complaints.  But I also got to meet several other great guys.  200ponies, Nikephoros, Nyhil, and Mcdmk2 are amongst the internet personalities, but that really is a small fraction of the people I got to know there.  I even had about a dozen players come up to me randomly and introduce themselves as readers of the blog, though I had no idea who they were.  Darn stalkers (Just kidding.  I love ya guys. ^_^ )!  These guys knew me by sight and name, which humbled me greatly.  Guess I cater to more players that I thought.  In addition, there was a distinct lack of dude funk and I really appreciated the fact that our hardcore gamers didn't exhibit this trait.  It really would have dampened my mood if I was playing someone who radiated bad personal hygiene.

My opponents, for the most part, were also excellent to play against.  Almost all of them were a joy to converse with and simply enjoy the game we played.  Special shout outs go to Joseph Metcalf and John Stiening (pretty sure I spelt that right).  Both were phenomenal opponents and I highly recommend anyone jump at the chance to play them.  I even got the chance to grab a bite to eat with Joseph (after our game).  Challenged him to a rematch, but we weren't able to pull it off.  lol!  I'll get you back one day!  ;)

The tournament itself was ran near flawlessly.  It held to the published schedule almost exactly, with the only interruptions being due to people dropping out of games without notifying the judges.  While it is definitely a compliment, that same adherence to the schedule cost me lunch on my second day.  My opponent in Game 6 had dropped, so I (plus several others) had to be reassigned a new opponent.  To get everyone re-seeded and assigned properly, it took about 30 minutes.  While they allowed us to stick with our 2 hour games, they refused to move back the start time for Game 7...essentially giving me 20 minutes to eat since it took 5-10 minutes to pack my army up.  Needless to say, because there wasn't anything close enough to the hotel to grab food in 20 minutes, I ended up going to the gift shop and overpaying for a bag of nuts so I'd not starve to death. 

The event seemed to be understaffed, but they did damn well for who they had.  This was primarily due to the hurricane.  However, once I got stuck in the back room for day two, I saw a lot less of the judges.  Fortunately, I didn't ever need one, but had the need been there, I would have wasted precious game time trying to find one.  On the other hand, the score keepers had the new pairings for each round out freakin' fast.  With such a complicated ranking/pairing system, those two have to get some mad props for their work.

Last, but not least, the games.  Overall, I went 3 (W) and 5 (L) in the tournament.  But that is a very deceiving record, as nearly all my games came down to the last couple or THE last roll of the game.  It was that way in 4 of the 5 losses.  I very easily could have gone 7-1 had those dice gone my way instead of my opponents.  But I'm not bitter at all.  These games were so close.  I was thrilled.  There was nothing better for me than to have such excellent, close games against great opponents.  It is why I play 40k, so it didn't even matter to me that I lost 5 games.  You'll see more detail on the games themselves soon.

The one thing I didn't like, was the terrain.  To put it simply, it took my army out of the running very early on.  I was at a very clear disadvantage because 4 of the 7 pieces of terrain completely blocked LOS on everything but the largest miniatures out there.  That meant my army's prime strength, shooting, was drastically reduced in power.  In fact, I'm fairly certain that I had less than 5% of all my long range shots all weekend hitting non-cover saved targets.  EVERYTHING had cover or was blocked from line of sight by the terrain.  It forced me to revise my tactics completely, but I did the best I could with whatever the game/board gave me.  Had I not have the experience I had with the Black Templars and the gunline list, I surely would have lost every game I played.  It becomes obvious how hindered my list was when I tell you that I won a game scoring a paltry 215 victory points. 

The problems with the terrain only got worse as the event wore on, as players seemed to push the terrain more and more clumped in the middle.  This pretty much killed any open fire lanes and the ability to be maneuverable safely.  Had I known what I do now about the terrain, I'd have made some changes to the list to account for it.  But its okay, as the terrain really is a minor complaint in a very excellent weekend.  However, I'm happy that I wasn't the only one who was annoyed by the terrain (more here).

As you'll notice in the battle reports, I feel that the gunline list needs some revisions for next year's Nova.  These types of list were severely disadvantaged, so I will rectify the issue for next year.  I found myself not using the Crusader squads all that much, especially since they usually found themselves riding in a razorback all game.  Bill and I talked about some list changes for both of our lists, so you'll see posts later about them.  My DDP list would have done extremely well in this tournament, as would the MSU PotMS list.  But one cannot have everything!  ;)

Anyway, expect the battle reports soon!  Good night all!
6 Comments
drathmere link
8/31/2011 12:01:24 am

Thanks for the shout out! I got some black templar bits in my bits bag, so maybe I'll put my BA on hold to paint up a tribute squad or something.

I was really impressed by the pairing system as well. Every game on day 2 was down to the wire. Our game was ridiculously close. I also think that the back room was the best best place to game, since there seemed to be a better sense of humor there. The top tables looked like stress factories. We got the opportunity to meet new people and push some toys around without all of that.

There is an advantage knowing what the terrain is now. We can adjust our lists accordingly, taking siege shields on everything that can take them. The PotMS BT can buy is perfect for a tournament like this, where you have to split fire amongst multiple small fire lanes, and giving you BA like fast tanks when needed. I would love a critique of my army when you do the battle reports. It will be interesting to see if what I perceived as my most valuable units meshed with your target priority.

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Algesan link
8/31/2011 01:11:55 am

You know, you just managed to put me off on going to NOVA with the issue with the Hyatt. I'm sorry, but I can go to a Motel 6 or even one of the local "sleezy sleepers" where you can pay by the hour and have AC all day with fridge, coffee maker, extra towels, etc., etc., etc. for a cheaper price than you paid. MVB might actually be able to put the site out for bids in several other locations and get a better deal.

Supposedly the terrain was supposed to be fixed, but I noticed that it wasn't on the table one camera and I wondered why they had not at least taken a Sharpie to the board to outline the actual terrain position. In one game, at the end a player actually called for a judge to remeasure and reset the center terrain piece because it had been bumped by other players and after adjusting it the little bit, one player was moved just out of contest range of the center objective which gave the win to his opponent. If all the terrain was marked, then when you do bump it, it is easy enough to put right back where it belongs. A side issue I have concerns 40k players in general.

If you buy the fancy battle board set (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440312a&prodId=prod730814), and set it up with a center hill with no bushes or trees or anything tossed on top of it, then nobody will ever thing about calling it a 4+ cover save terrain piece, but if someone tosses a built hill that sits on top of it, then suddenly it is 4+ difficult terrain. While it looks just like a hill! I ran into that at the 'Ard Boyz tournament and it was more of a hit on my opponent than me because he wanted to set up on one but didn't want to have to take the difficult test for his vehicle to pull off of it. I pointed out that it was just a grass hill and unless he wanted to move over the side "cliffs", I couldn't see how it was even difficult or cover (unless you were behind it).

IMO, MVB should give up on the "all the same terrain, placed the same way, all the time" concept and simply go for 25-30% coverage and roll scatter dice for each piece on each table. It would make deployment so much more interesting than semi-clone tables with maybe one piece of terrain that might be important to one side or the other.

Reply
200Ponies
8/31/2011 02:56:14 am

@Algesan: Don't let the negatives about the hotel dissuade you! Despite being a money-void, The hotel staff was incredible to us. They discounted our first night's stay because none of us actually were able to stay in the room that night (Stupid Irene) and they transferred our rooms when plans changed and we needed to house our dog for the night.

Also. Thanks Bob for being patient with all of that crazy hotel shenanigans. Loken loved you!

Regarding terrain: After about the second or third game everyone I played didn't care what side of the table they were on. This is a big benefit in terms of time savers for shuffling around a big table. Big negative in terms of interest. I only had one game where the BLOS was absolutely ridiculous (a center building that was BLOS to all of the MCs my opponent had. Like seriously. Everything but the tippytop of his trygons.) but I had a lot of games where the terrain was woefully inconvenient. Aquarium pieces that were impossible to put your miniatures on so we used spare templates and dice to mark miniature position seemed to be fairly common. I spent almost all of one game with both armies main units represented almost entirely by dice until we finally got them into the little gully between terrain features.

I'm looking forward to getting in a few games with the amended list this week. I've got a couple small change iterations I want to test (variations on the Las/plas squads, squeezing in tank hunter, fitting dozer blades on the forward operating rhinos, going 8/2 and 6/4 with the claws) but I'm -very- pleased with where it is at.

Perhaps I should actually sit down and write about my experience!

Reply
200Ponies
8/31/2011 07:21:17 am

Addendum!

I don't want it to sound like the terrain was so terrible it was unplayable. It was just in some places inconvenient. it seemed like on every table I played at (and I ended up at one table two games in a row) there was a piece of area with weird brushes on it that made it impossible to fit a terminator base onto the terrain.

That said, everything else Laeroth said is absolutely true. This is an incredible event and hopefully more independent organizers will learn from it. I've -never- been to an organized play experience in any competitive game and had eight straight games of fun. That says a lot.

Reply
Algesan link
8/31/2011 08:47:39 am

It didn't look unplayable at all (although I would have made sure that all the basic transport vehicles could drive to and around the center bit without a terrain test) and, in fact, I actually liked the setup compared to what I usually see, which is maybe something in the middle left/right/center and the rest closer to the edges for that "sit back and lob firepower at each other" feeling.

I just would suggest that for next year, use some kind of randomization on the tables to have varied terrain setups. Not fair? I don't think so. If you haven't tried it, get five decent sized chunks of terrain and maybe a couple of little ones. Put one big one in the center of the board and the other four in the center of the quarters. If you use a couple of small ones, put them in middle left/right. Then roll scatter die and 2d6 and move the terrain as appropriate (a "hit" means it sticks) and see what you get.

Wildest setup I saw was one where everything shifted towards my opponent's side of the table. Then we rolled for deployment and I chose the "open" side even though my units would have done well in most cases with the cover the jammed side have, but I saw a shot to channel his vehicles down the one open path to the center and exploited it. All it took was a couple of wrecks/immobilized and everything he had was a parking lot stuck out of my range while I could pound him unmercifully.

Reply
200Ponies
9/1/2011 05:09:49 am

Boom! #99 out of 206!
GO PONIES GO! TOP ONE HUNDRED!

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