Last year I went to the Nova Open and was very disappointed. I was expecting something like Adepticon and with my expectations so high I was dissappointed. I also was trying to play an new game. I now know that Infinity is not my style and this year I decided to play some 40K because it is what I know.
There were several different games going on from the Grand Tournament to the Trios Tournament to the Narrative. This doesn't even cover the Apoc games and 30K events. I chose to play in the Narrative. More on that in my next post.
Overall I had a good time. The players I met were nice and laid back. The tables were nice with some interesting terrain sets. It looked like the 30K tables had some really great terrain while the 40k ones focused on easily mass produced. There is nothing wrong with this since they had good amount of Line Of Sight blocking pieces which is my biggest complaint when I go to a lot of other tournaments. They also have a ton of tables. I would guess over a hundred total just for 40k.
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| you cant' see through the center terrain pieces but ruled that they are easily moved through. nice buff for some mobile units Sucks for gun lines though.. |
When I got there I walked around drooling over all the cool big models. I saw several warlords, even more Reavers and a few warhounds spattered around the tables. I was disappointed on the number of flying hive tyrants that I saw but that is the competitive way to play Tyranids.
It was also disturbing on how many multiple Knight armies or Stormsurges were being used. I guess we have entered the age of the Knight in 40k.
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| Fellow Blogger Greggles ork army. 2 knights!!!! but made up with 2 gorkanauts |
While I was disappointed with all the knights, I did see some cool armies. My favorite was a Mechanicum list that had 2 dominars. I was so envious of this list. Maybe one day I will make a Mechanicum list but not anytime soon. At least, not until Forgewold is sold locally. I just don't like big purchases and that is the only way to do Forgeworld and not get spanked on shipping.
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| small but mighty |
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| Those Dominars smash face. |
There were also some nice converted models out there to drool over. I played against an old school Necron army. They had all metal models except for a ghost ark, a Stalker and the C'tan. pretty cool and well painted.
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| I nice old school Necron list with a custom C'tan |
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| Puppet's War Knights. I think they were standing in as knights though they look more like riptides. |
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| Look a Heriodule! so cuuuuute. |
They added in a smaller Star Destroyer to go with the huge one from last year. I am not sure which class it is supposed to represent. it was cool though.
The vendor hall was cool. The bit guy was pretty expensive. There were some MDF sellers there that were doing some great work. Unfortunately most of it were dice trays and army trays. Army trays are cool if you only have 10-20 models but when your troops alone fill the tray it is time to look for other alternatives.
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| A cool resin castle piece. If only I needed castle pieces. |
Finally there was the painting competition. There were some cool models here. If I did a better job of taking photos you would see what I mean.
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| This is what I will do if I ever get an storm surge. |
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| A cool paint scheme for Skitarii. |
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| I want to make these into ork Dreads. |
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| A very cool diorama |
So my final verdict on the Nova Open is rather positive. I had a good time playing in the narrative, I meet some cool people and talked a lot of shop. I am glad I went.
In the next post I will talk about my games in the narrative. Finishing with a few shots of my Necron force.
Have a good one.
