NOVA Coverage: Games 1-2

The first 4 games of NOVA determined your bracket seeding.  I knew I didn't have enough practice with my army to truly go undefeated... with that said I wasn't going to let any confidence keep me from trying.  I ended up going 2-2.  It seemed like my wins tended to be big ones (as many armies couldn't handle the flyer / wraith punch), and I had two very close losses.  I made a couple of big mistakes that cost me.  Here's my lightning fast recap of my first 4 games.

Game 1

My first opponent was a great local named James.  He brought a Vulkan list with Ultramarine colors.  The twin-linked melta definitely had me worried (as one big hit will vaporize a flyer) but ultimately I knew if I played it safe I should be fine.

The mission was Kill Points (win by 3), Quarters, then Objectives.

My army can do very well with Kill Points, so I played it safe.  I decided to bait my squads on foot behind the aegis defense lines for his Sternguard drop and then run my wraiths away until the flyers did enough damage for them to play clean-up.

Here's how we deployed.  I retreated with the Wraiths until turn 3 (and the flyers arrived).  I'm drawing a complete blank on whether this was the round where I had horrible re-rollable reserve rolls (and only 1 or 2 flyers came out) or was it my game against the Tyranids... my fault for not writing down!

Both Wraith squads worked their way around the board clockwise.  One squad ending up in the far left back quarter (in case it went to quarters) and the other holding the middle to jump out on the remnants.  My flyers did the damage they needed to do, destroying armor.  It went very fast, I felt sorry for my opponent with the melta shots he did get through he rolled 1's on the damage results table.

We did have one remaining stearnguard model go 7 rounds of combat with a 5 man immortal squad before he finally went down.  

We called the game after turn 5, and wrapped up the game in a little over an hour.  The kill points were in the 12-2 range. 

Game 2

Up to table 4.  I was matched with Alex Fennel, a great player.  We had a very tight game throughout and he was a joy to play against.  Highly competitive games do not need to be a boring grumpy affair.  We took time to point out when each other missed something obvious and kept the game moving.  I'll feel fortunate that one of my two losses were to the overall tournament champion.

This mission was the modified hammer and anvil deployment with Quarters, then Objectives, then Kill Points.  I had a hard time grasping the quarters at this point (eventually got the hang of it).

I deployed in the back portion of my board expecting my flyers to do the dirty work.  I went too cautiously and should have overloaded a side to allow my flyers to thin the herd on the other.  Alex had a great balanced necron force with a grey knight allied contingent of a strike squad, inquisitor and dreadknight (damn you dreadknight!)

Alex's MVP's by far were his scarabs, mind shackle scarabs (on his lord) and his Dreadknight. I had a unit of wraiths and destroyer lord tied up by a dreadknight that just wouldn't go down.  He smartly kept challenging my unit and since my lord cannot take an invuln save, I had to continue to refuse.  Ultimately with 1 wound left he escaped and put a hurt on me!

The last turn, the dreadknight shunt moved to my back quarter, killed all 5 warriors in the corner with a sucesfull flame template (could have failed one to-wound), and presented a target that tipped the corner to his favor.

The scarabs were able to make it to my back line and tie up my troops, keeping my units on the wrong quarter.  The mindshackles on Alex's lords caused my lord to self-destruct!  I just couldn't line up charges the right way in this game.  

There was a congo line of immortals to my objective that I made a huge mistake on how I targeted them, my flyer came in the wrong direction and with the new "pick closest to-wound" meant I left a troop on an objective.  In the end, there wasn't too much on the board left (except my flyers) from either side.

We had to quickly get our 5th turn in which meant I couldn't push to a 6th and put more shots in by my flyers.  It was a well played game by Alex and he won 3 quarters to my 1.

It was his "mastery" of his army (he has been playing it for awhile) that has inspired me to work on my necrons more to get practice on honing my experience with an army.  I think I'll see some more of my flyer / wraith force.

Next up games 3 and 4!

Crusader "Titan" Kickstarter - Check it out from Dreamforge

If you haven't gotten the chance to check out this kickstarter, please do.  These "titans" and infantry are seriously awesome looking and most importantly plastic.  I'm chipping in to get two of the crusader versions and one of the mortis along with some weapon variations.

Dreamforge Crusader & Infantry Kickstarter

The infantry are top notch.  If we allowed more alternative miniatures I would be all over them, but I play in a lot of games workshop sanctioned events and at this point I don't need a ton of miniatures I can't use in games.

They have 4 days left to go!  Pledge if you can.  I'm excited about a potential stretch goal of  an awesome looking APC.

Necron Flyers at NOVA - Caught on Film!!!

After my first game at NOVA I started paying attention to all of the flyers.  I had some time between the rounds since I finished early so I figured what better way to count them down then go on a photo scavenger hunt. I tried to capture all of the Necron flyer armies that had at least 3 flyers.  I threw mine into the mix.  I counted at least 14.  One wasn't painted and I didn't grab that one.  Here are the pics!

Yep they were all over the place.  Many people just haven't had the experience to go against them or brought the right tools to deal (or ignore them).  It was a bit of an unfair advantage to me.  Honestly it makes me feel guilty playing the list, but we've seen others that have had their day...

- Rhino Rush
- Lash Princes
- Godzilla
- Guard Leafblower
- Nob Bikers

When any of these hit the scene everyone freaked... later they were countered.  Balance will be restored!

Back from NOVA - Coverage

Ah, recovered from NOVA.  Had a great time although I brought home a nasty cold that I'm finally recovering from.  I thought it was pretty funny that the first thing my wife asked me when I sat down was "are you done with this stuff for awhile"? Five minutes later I guiltly started assembling space wolves.  What can I say, I have a hobby addiction.

Before I get into my NOVA coverage, I had a thought. I have a very bad habit of working frantically on an army and the minute the major tournament I prepare for is finished, I shelve the army and begin working on the next.  What this means is I never really master an army which makes every tournament a frustrating one as I learn to tackle my opponents and learn the strengths and weaknesses of my own.  I think I will make a change this year.  I'll continue to work on additional projects but I am not going to put down my pseudo-flyer wing.

Back to the coverage...

Here is the finished army in all of it's glory and the custom army list I did.  Since the "soft scores" aren't as important at NOVA it's not that big of a deal, but I still like the little touches.

The Good

• NOVA went a lot more smoothly this year.  My biggest issue was that pairings were not done alphabetically last year, this year it was fixed which improved things drastically.  Lighting was a bit better but still portions of the hall were very dim.  I thought it went well between rounds and everything stayed on time for the most part.

• The mission packet was awesome and easy to follow as usual, I love how they do the scoring tear pad.  Missions were easy to follow and clear.

• I'm glad they brought back the bracket system which kept things competitive although I wished they would let people play the full 8 games.  I was lucky enough to go to my final game in my bracket (and won) so I got 8, but even if I didn't I would have enjoyed playing all 8.  For me, this weekend was a chance to get competitive games in and I would have been disappointed had I not gotten the chance to play on Sunday.

The Bad

• My only real gripe was the awards ceremony.  It took two and a half hours (plus) again.  I am all about cheering on the winners and celebrating a job well done as well as thanking the organizers.  What I'm really tired of is listening to raffle winners being read for 2 hours.  Honestly, it was tiring.  To top it off, bracket winners weren't even announced.  For the raffle, it would be cool to do 3 to 5 things, the really big stuff.  I just don't get why it had to drag on.

• Fully painted armies was not enforced (not sure if it's a rule or not).  I'm not looking for beautiful armies, we all have various levels of skill.  I just want the basic three color minimum and basing.  I played against one non-painted army and I saw about a half dozen.  Some were not even primed.  When you spend the money and time to go to a major tournament, it takes away from the enjoyment of the games to play against bare plastic.

• Missions were weighted way too heavy on quarters.  And since in 6th edition only ground troops (scoring and non) can hold quarters, there were definite advantages to designing certain infantry lists, as well as going second.  I did not bring a list tailored to NOVA and had a great time regardless.

With that said I had a great time.  I played 8 awesome opponents and was lucky enough I never had one of those "moments" in a game; you know those awkward / angry times.  It was a fun filled weekend and I think they'll only get bigger and better moving forward.

I went 6-2 over the course of the weekend.  My first 4 games were 2-2, so I was put in bracket #5 (I think on the high side of 2-2's).  Through the next 4 games I won my bracket of 16 so I came home with a nifty medal and a laugh as my prize was a necron flyer.  Too appropriate.

Here are the articles I'll be doing on NOVA.  I get caught up on my games, so my battle reports will be brief (I tend to forget to take pictures and notes and I'm caught up in the moment).

- Games 1-2
- Games 3-4
- Games 5-6
- Games 7-8
- Necron Flyers... the countdown and pictures of all I saw!
- Cool army pictures

Stay tuned to see these throughout the week!

Necrons for NOVA: Finished 2k!

Ta-da!  The finished displayed army of my Necron force for NOVA.  Here are a bunch of finished pictures of the army.

As you can see, I always like to make custom objective markers for my army.  I picked up some necron looking bases from Puppet Wars Miniatures, they make perfect objective markers.  I also made a necron looking homing beacon out of a necron shield and wraith weapon.

Tuesday I'll be creating a "pretty" looking army list to print out for the con... only a few days away.

Here's the final list I'm taking.  I just need to stay away from that damn harlequin archon eldrad death star.

HQ: Destroyer Lord with Weave
HQ: Destroyer Lord with Weave
Troop: 5 Immortals
Troop: 5 Immortals
Troop: 5 Warriors
Troop: 5 Warriors in Night Scythe
Troop: 5 Warriors in Night Scythe
Troop: 5 Warriors in Night Scythe
Fast: 6 Wraiths with 3 Whip Coils
Fast: 6 Wraiths with 3 Whip Coils
Heavy: Annhiliation Barge
Heavy: Doom Scythe
Heavy: Doom Scythe

Display Board for NOVA

As my previous portable display boards have proven, I preach the mantra of sturdy and light.  It needs to be functional (I have an elaborate display board for my "local" rolling display cart).  Since it also needs to fit into my large suitcase, my portable display boards work out to 24" by 18".  Because of this, I can't put too many things on it. 

Here's the structure of my board.  I forgot to take pictures before this step but basically I cut wood trim into a box and put a 1/4" base.  All was glued together with a hot glue gun.  I then put pink insulation foam in and hot glued that to the bottom and sides.  This creates a very sturdy and light base.  I then took Spackle and filled the gaps.

After letting this dry, I decided it would be easier to put my brown house paint down before I added sand.  That way pink foam wouldn't show through any missed spots. 

A storm was brewing outside, so luckily my wife was around to help me put a layer of glue and sand down.  I first sprinkled some course rock down then added playground sand.  Dusted it off and quickly brought it inside before the rain. 

I then went back over with the brown house paint.  Since I didn't want to wait around forever I used a hair dryer to speed things along.  Since it has been 15 years since I had enough hair to even blow dry my hair (or let alone comb it) it's good have my wife around for supplies!

The next step was a drybrush of a desert yellow style house paint, then finally a bleached bone color.

I then did two coats of a high gloss black paint around the sides.  Just like my miniature bases, I prefer doing black rims around the bases.  The high gloss allows me to handle the sides better as well.  The added benefit of the trim is that it is curved allowing me to easily pick it up off of a table.  Finally I'll add in felt pads on the bottom to protect the gaming surface.

I'll be posting pictures of the final army in its finished glory!

Necron Flyer Wing Finished!

Cue dramatic flying music... theme song from "Top Gun"... RIP Tony Scott...

The 5 flyers are finished.  Here are my 3 Night Scythes and 2 Doom Scythes.  To help identify the Doom Scythes (outside the big prism gun) I painted their main fuselage blue. 

I snapped some pictures of them on the sanded (but not painted) display board I'll be transporting to NOVA.  As you can see, I alternated which panels were turquoise in which were metallics to add some variety.

They have been doing great, I just need to keep practicing which flight vectors to go to get maximum carnage.  I'll be running 4 instead of 5 on this weekend's 1,750 tournament.  I would love to get rid of the aegis defense lines and the communications relay, but I don't want to take any chances.  It's really good to have them all in at once to overwhelm the opponent.  I hope I can get at least one game against another full flyer list to practice between now and NOVA.