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Hello!

So, I'm finally awake and alive and (possibly) capable of playing some games! Hurrah!

My journey started at 7am UK time yesterday morning (2am EST) with a delayed flight from Heathrow, a missed connection at JFK, a handy standby seat to get me down to Reagan, and by the end of that I was a bit too collapsed to actually play in the first game of the Narrative. Plus, I had a wee but of painting and assembly still to go.

NOVA OPEN GT LIST (Tau Empire, 1850)


NOVA OPEN NARRATIVE LIST (Tau Empire, 2000)


I went down to the gaming hall to check out the Trios and the Narrative starting - my god, there are a lot of Tau and Eldar. I think maybe every other table had a riptide-heavy Tau force. Wraithknights seem to make a huge appearance too. I only saw ONE Ork army across the whole thing. Crazy. I feel like maybe I should have bought the Arbites instead to even things out, but hey - at least I'M not taking Riptide spam (horrible, horrible models).







Now it's Friday morning, and my army is (almost) done, and I'm ready to go. More updates as we go through the tournaments.

good luck ian hope you have a good time

How do the tables look; your snaps indicate a bit sparse?

though I guessing that isn't too much of a problem for Tau.

Have you found any of the other Brits yet?

Good luck and to use the Amurikan melt some face for Blighty!

Hey Ian awesome start to the GT against you. Well deserved win!

Chancetragedy wrote:
Hey Ian awesome start to the GT against you. Well deserved win!

Thanks - that was a really fun game, actually - didn't think I'd pull it off at the start!

-----------

SO, it's Saturday morning. Here's the events hot off the press from Friday. I started with a wander around the room, as all the armies were out for appearance judging. It quickly became evident that there was stiff competition - look at the massive spoilered link. They have armies that look good from a distance AND up close! Mine only work from a distance. But I liked checking out how many people were stopping at my army to marvel at the conversions, and I got lots of compliments, so all good...





I should also point out that the composition of armies is obviously heavily influenced by recent codexes. There are a LOT of Tau and Taudar. You can't really tell this from the images in the spoiler, and that's because I took photos of all the pretty armies, and a lot of the Tau/Taudar armies have obviously been rushed / proxied to be ready for this tournament. Insert competitive player joke here.

From a quick tot-up of the leaderboard, just under 20% of all armies here are Tau, and another 10-15% seem to be Eldar. Over the whole tournament, there's a 1 in 10 chance I'll be playing a Tau/Eldar combination at any time! Other well-represented armies include Necrons and Chaos Daemons, and there's a good spattering of Space Wolves and CSM. Hardly any regular Space Marines.

I've not played against new Eldar at all and have no psychic defense and no monstrous creatures, so playing Tau/Eldar is probably my worst matchup. Chaos Daemons confuse me generally (I haven't updated my Daemons to the new book yet), so I'm not too thrilled about playing them either. So, let's see what happens and if I can avoid the Warithknights, Riptides and other action figures that seem to dominate 40k at the moment....


ROUND 1
vs Stephen Burris (Necrons)

So, first game was against Chancetragedy (above) with his pretty competitive-looking Necrons with Grey Knight allies. Three annihilation barges, three Flying Pastries, some small Warrior squads, two squads of Wraiths and a couple of tooled-up Lords, plus a Strike Squad and a Dreadknight. The game was Kill Points. I was a little apprehensive, but mostly happy not to have been started with one of the Tau/Eldar players.

He started by jumping the Dreadknight forward and flaming a load of my Fire Warriors, but this was swiftly taken out, along with the Annihilation Barges, by the massed gunline. I had to do some pretty tricky jumping around to stay out of the way of the Wraiths (teamed with a 2+ Lord), and they gobbled up a fair amount of Fire Warriors and, in the end, my Commander's squad. But by that point the whole thing had become a blood bath and neither of us had much left on the board. In the end, I won by three KPs - the minimum needed to get a win!

A really fun opponent and really close-fought game all the way through, with a nice fuzzy feeling when Stephen said "Oh hey, you're ArbitorIan from 'ArbitorIan & Panic'?" - WE ARE INTERWEB CELEBRITIES NOW! Man of the match goes to one squad of Kroot who, with the aid of a couple of markers, managed to turn up from Reserve, rapid fire at the Grey Knights, and kill 4!

RESULT : WIN 17-3






ROUND 2
vs Eddie Miller (Tau)

Second game was against Ed, who I had met before at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre a few years ago. Then, he was playing Salamanders, but this time he brought his amazingly painted Tau army. Two riptides, three Skyrays, two small squads of Pathfinders, two Ethereals and then six squads of 15 Kroot with Hounds and Oxen. Again, I was nervous. The game was Hammer & Anvil deployment and Big Guns Never Tire with Objectives (primary) then Kill Points (secondary) and Table Quarters (tertiary).

I set up in a castle on my end in the usual way, but Eddie got one over on me early on my deploying EVERYTHING out of range of my guns. He had 72" Ion Accelerators, but I only had a few 60" missiles, and everything else was 36" or under! It was obvious from this that I wouldn't have a chance of winning on Objectives, so the mission became to try and score more Kill Points while defending my two objectives. I send the commander and the fusion guys forward as a distraction, and brought the Tau in to support, which took a lot of the fight over to one side of the table, around one of his objectives. Obviosly, all the Fusion suits and the Kroot died in the end, but it had been enough of a distraction for a few more squads to be taken out, and as we ran out of time at turn 4, I won on secondary.

Again, a really fun game with a great opponent and a very close, tactical game all the way through, which I didn't expect to win.

RESULT : WIN 13-7






ROUND 3
vs Jeremy Veysseire (Tau/Eldar)

Gah! I knew it was only time, and Jeremy was my last matchup of the the day, an Invitational player with Tau/Eldar - I knew this would be tough. He had three Riptides, one supported by a Farseer on Jetbike, a Wraithknight, two Tau Commanders with all the goodies - one giving a riptide a C&C node and MSS, the other leading some Warp Spiders to give the a 2+ save model. One Wave Serpent with Dire Avengers, and a squad of Jetbikes to grab objectives. The game was The Relic with additional objectives, but we kinda ignored them!

The game was a loss from the start - I spent the whole armies firepower to get rid of the Wraithknight in the first turn, but there were so many Psychic invulnerables and re-rolls that, for the rest of the game, I couldn't quite kill the Riptides, and my forces were being whittled down turn by turn. By turn three, I'd lost almost everything and succeeded in taking out another Riptide and most of the Warp Spiders, and by turn five I'd been tabled!

So, that's what happens when you get two wins in a row - you end up against someone with an army that massively outclasses yours!! Jeremy was a great guy, and we had beer afterwards - but the game was a loss from the start - I don't really think there was much I could have done differently (maybe starting my Fusion suits on the table instead of allowing them to DS and get intercepted).

RESULT : LOSS 0-20





So, after the game I went down the road to eat a huge pizza and drink beer. Look! It was really good.



I was exhausted, and kinda expected that I'd miss the Narrative again and just fall asleep. But upon returning, Mike persuaded me to go grab my army, and I ended up in this in-character mission briefing!



Which I then realised was THE WRONG ONE! I'd unwittingly gone to the wrong briefing and now knew the plans of the enemy (I'd assumed 'Virtue' meant 'generally good armies', DOH). So, having ruined the concept of secrecy, it turned out there were an uneven number of players anyway, so I got the ringer anyway. Since he had already fought on the non-Imperial side, I switched to the Imperial side and everything was fine.


NARRATIVE GAME 2
va Kyron (??) (Imperial Guard)

So, my opponent had been ringing all day and was a bit exhausted, and was fielding an army he'd quickly made up at the start of the day. He had a squadron of Russes, a battery of Basilisks, a Vendetta and a few veteran squad. I was feeling the jet lag kick in, and was fielding an army that were always REALLY GOOD against Guard, so it was kind of a one-sided game. Leman Russ were wrecked by Fusion Blasters, the entire Basilisk battery taken out in turn one by Markerlights and Seeker missiles, and the rest of the army whittled down over a few turns to practically nothing. I lost my Commander's squad in the first turn to Battlecannon, but other than that emerged mostly unscathed.

A fun game with a fun opponent, but we were a bit tired, and I felt a bit bad that it was so one-sided.

RESULT : WIN for IMPERIAL





So far it's been great fun - the tournament is obviously REALLY well run, the scoring app is really handy, and everyone I've played against has been nice. I've done better than I thought (I'm placing 57 out of 226), but at the end of this morning we get bracketed, so I might have a look at who is above/below me and see is that affects how I play the next game. I don't want to creep into a too-strong bracket and end up playing Taudar and Daemons for the next two days!

yeah,
Are you drinking for free? mr Interwebs Celeb in America! Ha!

Great Photos - I wish I was there
The quality of other armies looks amazing.
Except Sealife Army... They are not GW figures!

Your new display base looks great for your army, very nice.
The tourney halls looks really good, enough space?
The terrain looks like you get 25%-30% coverage? although it's in very large lumps, which I guess speeds up games.
With the open fire lanes and the fact that 6th ed 40k is shooty biased, I expect the gun line armies like yours should do very well.

Good luck going forward!

Panic...

 Panic wrote:

Your new display base looks great for your army, very nice.
The tourney halls looks really good, enough space?
The terrain looks like you get 25%-30% coverage? although it's in very large lumps, which I guess speeds up games.
With the open fire lanes and the fact that 6th ed 40k is shooty biased, I expect the gun line armies like yours should do very well.

Yeah, the terrain is MUCH more sparse than we're used to. Fair enough, they had to build a fuckton of terrain, but it's still pretty much an open board. Definitely an advantage to the shooty armies. There's plenty of space in the halls, and plenty of halls. I haven't had a chance yet to have a wander around - maybe tomorrow. I might have a look through the vendors bit this lunchtime on a hunt for Necromundans. Anything you want? There's a lot of vintage model sales here...

yeah,
I look forward to your reports!

If they have cheap Cawdor models to grow the gang let me know? (can also be used as cultists in 40k )
Or maybe a Scavvie gang..!?

Panic...

Top notch job so far, keep it up! It's especially impressive with a "mostly 5th" tau army without any riptides.

It's awesome to see a European hobbyist come to America for one of our big events, do so well, and enjoy it as well. You guys have a great story to tell and hundreds of readers eager to follow along. Following your path on torrentoffire has been a highlight for me.

Great job on winning some tough pairings and finding time to report despite a long flight and nonstop gaming.

Thanks guys. It seems I have a problem. And that problem is... ELDAR.

ROUND 4
vs Nick Robinson

So, Nick had brought a Wave Serpent heavy Eldar list - five or six Serpents each with a small squad of Avengers in, led by an Autarch, plus two Fire Prisms. For flavour were some Swooping Hawks, some Dire Avengers, and some Pathfinders outflanking.

Again, I ran into the same problem as before - my threat range is effectively only 36" and I'm Tau, so my instinct is to castle up behind my lines. This was an Objectives game with Vanugard deployment, so all Nick had to do was stay 36" away for the first few turns, ignoring cover with his Serpent Shields, and most of my drones/troops were whittled down. He had a good 2nd turn incursion into my backfield, which distracted me for a turn, and my reserves neglected to show up until late in the game (Fire Warriors getting Serpented off the Comm Link).

It was a great game, and Nick was fun to play against - refusing to use any Psychic models because they're too much hassle and pointing out the many things I kept missing. Really nice guy all round, and great entertainment! However, I would have had to play a risky far-forward game to have stood a chance against the list, which I didn't do, so the rest of the game was a bit predictable and I got tabled again. Damn space elves!

So, two for two and now I'm bracketing into the lower area, which is probably a good thing - with any luck I won't see any more Tau/Eldar and I can play some games against other armies! Woohoo! Lunchtime!

RESULT : LOSS 0-20






On the plus side, Nick raved to the judges about me being very sportsmanly, and a few minutes later one came up to me with a gift voucher for the shop! This tournament gives out presents for being EXTRA NICE! Amazing. Being as I got it for being nice, I blew it on some NOVA gifts for gaming buddies. Now we can drink NOVA branded beer while making BatReps...



Also, you should see this - KR have just given themselves a license to print money with this - I'm seriously considering blowing a chunk of cash on yellow foam for my four Tau boxes..!




ROUND 5
vs Brandon Boyer (Necrons)

First round after bracketing, and I find myself in second place for Bracket 10. My opponent is Brandon, who has bought Necrons - a squad of Wraiths and a Destroyer Lord, three Ghost Arks full of Warriors, three Annihilation Barges and a Triarch Stalker. The mission was Objectives with additional Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord, etc, and we played Hammer and Anvil.

The setup was predictable, both deploying behind our Aegis. Learning a bit from last game, I pushed mine as far forward as possible, and sat there in cover. In the first turn, I took out the Triarch, two Barges and knocked three points off the Ark. In the second, the Wraiths and another Ark went down and his Wraiths and Lord had been killed by massed fire followed by massed Overwatch. By turn five, he only had two Warrior squads left, holding his two objectives, and I had my two remaining troops holding mine. I held back til we ran out of turns, knowing that I'd win by a point for Slay the Warlord.

Of course, what I SHOULD have done is pushed forward to kill the remaining warriors, but I didn't read the mission pack properly. In the end, my slim win gave me only 13 battle points, when I probably could have got 17 or 20, but hey ho - a win is a win.

RESULT : WIN 13-7

yeah,
Huzzah for being nice!
Fancy beer glass deserves some fancy beers I'll be sure to get some!

Don't eat the yellow foam!... No wait...
It looks great.. yoinked your scoop to the front page
You should definently get some.

Also congrats on game 5's Win also you don't want mega points or you'll end up playing Taudar again!

Panic...

It's OVER! Here's the final results...


ROUND 6
vs Andrew Blackwell (Space Wolves)

Andrew had a pretty scary Space Wolves list, but no Runepriests. Also, he's a Dakkanaut, and recognised the army from our Battle Reports! He had three full squads of Grey Hunters, two Rhinos and one in a Land Raider with the Wolf Lord, a few Lone Wolves, a couple of Long Fangs squads, three Thunderwolves and a small Grey Hunter squad in a Drop Pod. The mission was The Scouring with all the Objective in a line in the middle.

This was the only Imperial army I faced in the GT, and since I knew how it all worked, it went unsurprisingly well. Andrew opted to be wolfy and charge at me. I opted to be Tauish and stand there shooting, and carnage was wreaked. The Wolf Lord's whole gang and Land Raider was taken out in one turn. Rhinos were popped early. The Thunderwolved dies trying to charge the very well-supported Fire Warriors, and at the end I had tabled him.

Andrew was a really good, fun, opponent, and the game was pretty fast - I felt quite bad that I was up against an almost perfect army for mine, and that the defeat was so thorough. Oh well... :(

RESULT : WIN 20-0





ROUND 7
vs Bryan Hazler (Tau)

So, I was up against the other top-of-bracket contender - Bryan with his standard Tau army. Three Riptides (made form some sort of Gundam thing), standard Commander with all the bits, some missilesides and five squads of Kroot. I felt like I'd played this army twice times already. The mission was EVERYTHING - Objectives, Kill Points and Secondary Missions all in one pot. The deployment was Vanguard.

Yet again, I fell foul of the usual problem with my army with Vanguard deployment - range. I pushed forward this time as much as possible, starting all the suits on the board (because of Interceptor), but still couldn't quite get the range I needed to make things like Markerlights useful. And, having to start the suits on the table meant I was lacking in my usual delivery method for AP1 (and you need a lot of AP1 against Riptides). In the end, we just about made turn 4, in which my entire army still couldn't take the last wound from a Riptide, which then jumped to contest, and meant he won by a large margin.

Bryan was a fine opponent - definitely more of the 'tournament/competitive' sort, but good to play against. He'd had some sportsmanship problems in previous rounds and an accusation of playing slowly, which I didn't really notice in-game. Of course, after the game his previous opponent (who made the complaint) came up and asked me a few things - did he take ages to set up (yes). Did he swap table sides, making us all pick up our models and move around the hall (um...yes). Did he disappear off before the game to go and get water (umm....yes). I dunno - the setup and start of the game definitely took much longer than normal, but I didn't really notice any slow playing. On the other hand we only got to turn 4, which might well have cost me the game, and I then watched him do all the same things to the guy he faced in the next game! Anyway, in the end, a major defeat for me. Not a tabling, but big enough to get the same score. Bryan placed top of the bracket.

RESULT : LOSS 0-20




ROUND 8
vs Craig Sniffen (Necrons)

Last game and we're fighting it out for third/fourth place in our bracket (that's bracket 10 of 14, so quite low down!!). I play against Craig, who had another Necron army. Two Annihilation Barges and a Lord on a Catacomb Barge, Monolith, lots of Warriors, small Immortal squads in three Night Scythes, various Crypteks and Zandrekh. The game was straight objectives.

I've got quite good at playing Necrons this tournament, and the game proceeded as normal. I deployed back in my deployment zone and missiled the hell out of everything, popping the Barge and killing the Overlord on the first turn, and then bouncing through the rest of the army over the course of the game, before finally swinging round a flank and taking an extra objective to win. Only a few warriors and the Monolith was left on the board.

Craig was great fun - again, I always feel a bit bad when my army dominates, but he took it all well. Again, he'd heard about my army, and his army was exceptionally well-painted - a really good scheme with old-fashioned Necron Raiders.

RESULT : WIN 20-0






I then went shopping for a few bits, and took a photo of all my purchases and swag. I was one of the first 400 here, so I got a swag bag containing some GF9 fantasy tokens (maybe useful for KoW later), a Nova Shot Glass, a Nova Laser Pointer, a small bits bag, some Amazing Magnets, some Zombie Girls, some Secret Weapon bases, a Nova Carabina and a box of Magic cards (given away to someone who might use them). I then bought myself a Nova beer mug to drink my beer out of, and found my final third Throne of Judgement (for the Arbites) and some White Scar bits in the bits boxes. I also picked up a Platformer set, as those are really hard to find in the UK. Not to mention that, for being one of the first people to post that KR foam pic on Facebook, I've won myself a case full of custom coloured foam!



So, prizegiving is in a few hours - I think I place third in my bracket, but I'm not sure if this includes Sportsmanship scores and Painting, so there's still a chance I might have pipped the post. My painting score won't be incredible, but it should be a good few points higher than both the second and first placers, and I'm pretty sure my sportsmanship has been maximum for all games. I also bought a laod of tickets in the charity auction, so there's a slim chance I'll win a fancy anew army...

yeah,
I'm so going to this next year!

I like how they rank the brackets - and you've done well.

Your prize and stalls haul look lovely.
Every game sounds like you've met the perfect opponent who loves the game!?
Then next game you meet a nicer person who loves the game too!

I also want my internet fame manifested by real people!!!!
Although i never win many games... So I should possibly bring grots for the giggles? The last tables are after all my style!

Panic...

Sweet! Always love your stuff. Thanks for sharing.

I like the Imperial Fist pod army and the Sealife Daemon army.

Aaaah, so it's all over. Here's how I did..

Results

Here's how I did over the whole tournament, with battle points per round and total battle points

Round 1 -- vs Necrons -- WIN -- 17 -- 17
Round 2 -- vs Tau -- WIN -- 13 -- 30
Round 3 -- vs Tau/Eldar -- LOSS -- 0 -- 30
Round 4 -- vs Eldar -- LOSS -- 0 -- 30 -- Moved into Bracket 10 (of 14) after this
Round 5 -- vs Necrons -- WIN -- 13 -- 43
Round 6 -- vs Space Wolves -- WIN -- 20 -- 63 -- At this point, 2nd place in bracket
Round 7 -- vs Tau -- LOSS -- 0 -- 63 -- Bumped down to 3/4th place in bracket
Round 8 -- vs Necrons -- WIN -- 20 -- 83

So, I came 146th of 223, and 2nd place in my bracket (the bracket winner was the Tau/Gundam guy). Of 8 games, I won 5, and my three losses were all really big, and all to either Tau or Eldar. The biggest issue I had was my limited 36" threat range and a lack of AP2 weapons to counter big, long range models like Riptides. All three losses were in deployment styles that magnified the range problem. Of my wins, three were quite hard-fought, equally matched games, and could have gone either way (I'm surprised I won round 2, since that had all my weaknesses compounded). The other two were easy wins based on list balance.

I was scored 50 for painting and I'm pretty sure I got full sportsmanship points (Really good tabletop quality/themed army, but not a contender for second-round judging), but it turns out these scores have no effect on the bracket results (more on that later).


Conclusions/Thoughts

The tournament was FUN. I had a really good time overall, and it's astonishing how well it's run and put together. There were hundreds of gamers there and everyone seemed to feel looked-after and knew where the were going to be at what time. The event ran almost perfectly on time. There were lots of odd distractions, from the charity raffles to the bits stores in the basement, and as I went through the three days and met more and more people running it, it became clear that a lot of their families were involved in some way - either manning shops, or playing Ringer. It managed to keep a small, local feel while being a massive, massive event.

Pretty much everyone I met and played was lovely - really nice guys, even at the more competitive end, although a tournament of this size means people tend to stay in the groups they travelled with. Mike was great - seems like a really nice guy with his head screwed on about what players actually want - he knew I'd travelled pretty far, and was always asking how it was going and if I was having fun. I was sorry I missed the Narrative so often, but the GT turned out to be more than enough 40k for me in one weekend! My army also got an amazing reaction - it was great to watch how, even when it was just sitting on a table between rounds, people would double-take or stop to look at it. I had a lot of compliments, and a lot of people recognising me/it from this site and coming up to shake hands.

The Torrent of Fire app is a really great idea too - a Wordpress database site that everyone can log into to check the current results, and find out what table/opponent they have next. It went down once, but I think the time gained in all the other rounds more than made up for that.

The pace was fast - I can't believe some people played 16 games of 40k over the weekend when I was struggling with doing 8 - and I was engaged all the way through - until maybe the awards ceremony, which was lovely but went on for ages. Wargamers do NOT make good public speakers! I think maybe it would have been a better idea to find the best public speaker/crowd controller and have them do all the awards, rather than asking each individual tournament judge to come up, explain their event (in the case of Warmachine and Capitol Palette, this took ages) and then mumble through the results. On that note, the level of prize support was OVERWHELMING. It's amazing how many prizes were given out, how many extra raffles there were, how many charity auctions. A lot of them went to the same people, partly because of the scoring system and overlap of certain events (invitational guys making up the top bracket of the GT, for example), but there's not much any tournament can do about that.

The hall we played in was huge, spacious, air conditioned and easy to access. The tables were all well-made with small sideboards (must remember not to bring such a huge display board next time!). I did find the two terrain layouts a bit weird though. Both were sparse by my standards - I realise they had to build a lot of terrain, but this was spare enough to affect games. There was also an 'alternative layout' which seemed to consist of 'pile all the scenery in the middle with nothing at the edges' - I'm not sure of the thinking behind that. All the scenery looked decent, with some great pieces on the Narrative boards. The only annoying thing was some area terrain made of stringy grass stuff, which caught on all the models and got all over the table...


Scoring (and my only suggestion!!)

The NOVA system of scoring deserved some discussion as well. The fact that it's bracketed was one of my main draws - I'm never going to be a top-bracket player (I just don't like Riptides or Eldar, okay ), but the bracketing system meant that there was still a chance of me playing competitively all the way through - it's a really elegant way of allowing players with less-competitive armies to play at an equally competitive level to the top tables.

The only thing I thought was a bit disappointing was that the painting and sports scores have no effect on lesser brackets - which means that, unless you're one of the two best painters in the room, or you're already in the top bracket, your painting scores are completely irrelevant. Let me explain...

The tournament's 'big prize' is Renaissance Man (best overall) which is 50/50 Battle Points and Appearance. This is one of the things I like about NOVA - that this is considered the big prize - and it's a great idea. However, you're obviously only gonna get it if you get almost perfect Battle Scores and Appearance Scores, so you're already in Bracket 1. Then there is 'Tournament Champion' which is based on Wins and Battle Points (i.e. winning Bracket 1), and then there are two prizes for Best Painted Army.

If you're not in the running for those big four prizes (and I'm not!!) then you have the Bracket Champions, but rather than taking into account all scores, these are scored the same as 'Tournament Champion' - on Wins and Battle Points only. This has two effects...

First, if you know you're not going to be on the top tables (and I'm not) and you know you're not the BEST painter in the room (and I'm not), then you might as well bring an army of grey plastic! There's no middle ground - if you're not the best in the room, your painting/sports scores are irrelevant. Usually, in a tournament, your soft scores would go towards your overall score, possibly bumping you up or down a place, but in NOVA that only applies in bracket 1. If you're in any other bracket, soft scores are discarded.

Now, I wouldn't actually bring grey plastic, because I like having a nice army, and I enjoyed all the attention it got, but it would be great if the bracket scores were more like mini-Renaissance Men rather than mini-Tournament Champions (or there were both). This would give a much more rounded tournament experience to those in lower brackets, which is surely the point of the bracket system in the first place?

The other effect is making people leave early. By the end of round 6, you already know if you're in the running for winning the bracket (if you won rounds 5/6). This means that, the next morning, a lot of people leave, as they know they have no chance of winning. But lots of those players have amazingly painted armies, and are really fun to play, they're just not the competitive sort. I'd argue that including soft scores in 'bracket champion' would keep these people around longer, because they still have a change of winning on points.



But yeah. That's my only suggestion (apart from 'let Scooter read all the award results' and 'don't make terrain out of silly string') from three days of gaming, in a fun environment full of fun people. I'll definitely try and make it back next year if I can!

An entire weekend devoted to who can gunline better, eldar, tau or tau-dar? Ugh...

At least you got some nice swag from it, and, more importantly, had a nice time.

 Ailaros wrote:
An entire weekend devoted to who can gunline better, eldar, tau or tau-dar? Ugh...

At least you got some nice swag from it, and, more importantly, had a nice time.

Yeah, that's something no tournament can really control without going down the route of Comp. I had the lots of games against Necrons, which, due to their range, aren't really a gunline army, but I would have liked more variety. I'm hoping something comes out in the next couple of Codexes that makes relying on monstrous creatures a risky idea for a tournament - much as the Tau Codex, while not removing flyers from the game, certainly moderated their inclusion.

There were relatively few flyer-spam lists at NOVA, probably because of this risk. As soon as a codex comes out that is amazingly good against monstrous creatures, or against psykers, we'll see the Riptides and Daemon lists become too risky, just like Vendetta guard have become in this. Not sure what anyone can do against Serpent spam, though.

The NOVA missions also moderate the gunlining a bit - they all have a massive objective-grabbing element - hence so many Kroot!

The other effect is making people leave early. By the end of round 6, you already know if you're in the running for winning the bracket (if you won rounds 5/6). This means that, the next morning, a lot of people leave, as they know they have no chance of winning. But lots of those players have amazingly painted armies, and are really fun to play, they're just not the competitive sort. I'd argue that including soft scores in 'bracket champion' would keep these people around longer, because they still have a change of winning on points.

People dropping out is unfortunate, but tough to avoid. I've played in NOVA the past three years, and they have flip-flopped a few times on games 7 and 8. Two years ago, everyone played 8 games. Last year, you only played games 7 and 8 if you were still alive in your bracket. This year brought back 8 games, but lots of people dropped once they were officially out of the running--which is understandable. 7:30 AM on Sunday makes for an early morning, especially if you have a drive/flight home later in the day. I don't blame people for not showing up for rounds 7 and 8, and I wouldn't have either, had I lost. However, I do think having the option of these games is nice. Some people would like to see it through, and if you are around anyway, why not play some 40k?

As to your paint idea, I have some personal qualms with the weight (in prizes, not in perception) given to the Ren Man and other painting based awards in big events. I know plenty of big name players that have sunk $1000+ into a fantastically painted army. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this. However, there is no way to verify who painted a particular army. So what happens is that people can end up "buying" an award. I suppose one could argue that monetary disparity factors into the competitive aspect of 40k as well, but I tend to think that is something that can be mitigated a bit more. No one can pay to have someone play their army to a major award. It is impossible to stop that from happening on paint awards.

I did see your Tau randomly while walking around, and love the yellow. The bases were really cool as well. It is good to read that you had a great time. I've always enjoyed NOVA, and can't recommend it enough. There is definitely a reason that it has risen to such prominence in such a short time.

Well, the problem is that you've filled the room with a bunch of people playing the easiest lists they can field. It's the desire to win without effort that will push people into just one or two basic lists, regardless of what those lists happen to be. I doubt you'll find much variety at a tournament, no matter how they try and rig the rules for it, not due to the rules, but due to the kinds of people who play there. I guess the best you can hope for is that the rules will at some point encourage something other than gunlining so that if it's just the same list at every table, at least you'll be able to see something more interesting.

Glad you had fun at NOVA. I'm considering going to NOVA next year.

And props for getting out your BR's and Nova experiences so quickly. Good to be able to read those reports, even if just summaries, and so soon also.

 ArbitorIan wrote:

There were relatively few flyer-spam lists at NOVA, probably because of this risk. As soon as a codex comes out that is amazingly good against monstrous creatures, or against psykers, we'll see the Riptides and Daemon lists become too risky, just like Vendetta guard have become in this. Not sure what anyone can do against Serpent spam, though.

I have a theory about the disappearance of the flyer at NOVA:

1) Nova missions focus on objectives and grabbing table quarters. Flyers have trouble with this (with the exception of necron flyers).

2) The competitive players who last year ran necrons have jumped onto the elder/tau/taudar/eldau bandwagon. Yes, those same players who were running necron flyers last year are instead running the 3 newest codices instead (eldar, tau and daemons). It's not because they are afraid of all the anti-flyer weaponry, it's because they prefer to run the newest armies, who happen to also be very, very good armies. So what we are really seeing is a shift from the most visible players (mainly the top-notch players such as those in the Invitational) from the dominant crons to the dominant tau and/or eldar.

Thanks for sharing, I really liked the reports!

JGrand wrote:People dropping out is unfortunate, but tough to avoid. I've played in NOVA the past three years, and they have flip-flopped a few times on games 7 and 8. Two years ago, everyone played 8 games. Last year, you only played games 7 and 8 if you were still alive in your bracket. This year brought back 8 games, but lots of people dropped once they were officially out of the running--which is understandable. 7:30 AM on Sunday makes for an early morning, especially if you have a drive/flight home later in the day. I don't blame people for not showing up for rounds 7 and 8, and I wouldn't have either, had I lost. However, I do think having the option of these games is nice. Some people would like to see it through, and if you are around anyway, why not play some 40k?

As to your paint idea, I have some personal qualms with the weight (in prizes, not in perception) given to the Ren Man and other painting based awards in big events. I know plenty of big name players that have sunk $1000+ into a fantastically painted army. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this. However, there is no way to verify who painted a particular army. So what happens is that people can end up "buying" an award. I suppose one could argue that monetary disparity factors into the competitive aspect of 40k as well, but I tend to think that is something that can be mitigated a bit more. No one can pay to have someone play their army to a major award. It is impossible to stop that from happening on paint awards.

Glad you liked the army! I'm also one of those players that will stay to the end, but I appreciate that some people might not want to.

However, surely we can agree that more people staying around for longer is a good thing? The bracketing system encourages this - if there were no brackets, imagine how many people would leave after game 4! As it is, people stay around until at least game six. I'm suggestingin that point that, if soft scores were included, more people would be eligible for bracket prizes even after game six, and thus be motivated to stick around.

Ailaros wrote:Well, the problem is that you've filled the room with a bunch of people playing the easiest lists they can field. It's the desire to win without effort that will push people into just one or two basic lists, regardless of what those lists happen to be. I doubt you'll find much variety at a tournament, no matter how they try and rig the rules for it, not due to the rules, but due to the kinds of people who play there. I guess the best you can hope for is that the rules will at some point encourage something other than gunlining so that if it's just the same list at every table, at least you'll be able to see something more interesting.

I'm not sure that's true. While there were a lot of tau/Eldar, my bracket included DE, Marines, Wolves and GK. So, it wasnt entirely gunline not to mention Daemons). I agree that a lot of people had obviously rush-finished a new, competitive army, and that is a down side of any tournament, but if you don't like that, then the bracketing system mitigates it somewhat - the further down the brackets you go, the less 'flavour of the month' there was.

jy2 wrote:
I have a theory about the disappearance of the flyer at NOVA:

1) Nova missions focus on objectives and grabbing table quarters. Flyers have trouble with this (with the exception of necron flyers).

2) The competitive players who last year ran necrons have jumped onto the elder/tau/taudar/eldau bandwagon. Yes, those same players who were running necron flyers last year are instead running the 3 newest codices instead (eldar, tau and daemons). It's not because they are afraid of all the anti-flyer weaponry, it's because they prefer to run the newest armies, who happen to also be very, very good armies. So what we are really seeing is a shift from the most visible players (mainly the top-notch players such as those in the Invitational) from the dominant crons to the dominant tau and/or eldar.

I think both those points are true to an extent (and certainly influenced the makeup of the top tables), but the vast majority of people there had no expectation of being in bracket one with those guys - yet still they took no flyers. So, probably a combination of the two. The top,bracket of 'current best armies' had no flyers because, as you said, everyone was fielding the newest (no-flyer) codices, but the rest of the tournament also fielded reduced flyers because of the obvious meta shift.....

I share your sentiments on the drop outs. I'd be seriously disappointed if I paid to play 8 games and my last 2 opponents just quit. I agree that adding in soft scores encourages players to stay in, becuse there's always a chance to slingshot up despite a loss or two. But that's not NOVA's thing. They want the "winners" to rise to the top (except ren man). The sad result is an insane amount of drops. I couldnt believe the amount of drops when I was following torrent. I've been to 4 battle point based GTs and never seen half that many second day drops.

Anyways, glad you enjoyed the event and took the time to share so promptly.

I can see why so many people have dropped out. It is downright exhausting, especially for those who played both in the Open as well as the Invitational. That's upwards of 13 games and against really competitive and good players (at least for the Invitaional participants). You've got to be an Iron Man to compete in both and to finish in both as well!

And that's not even including all the partying in between....

Very nice reports - thanks for posting all the pics! Glad you could make it! Your comments about the lack of terrain are funny - in the past some people felt there were too many LOS-blocking pieces of terrain. Then the fact that there would be LOS-blocking terrain in specific positions became a factor around which lists could be built to take unfair advantage - which brought about the hex terrain placement as a counter so the terrain would not be relied upon to be completely consistent. I'd like to see pics of your typical terrain setups for comparison sometime.

On the topic of reducing drops: NOVA prize packages are pretty big - each one consists of several items. I personally think reducing the top prize packages by 1-2 items and the raffle items slightly and offering low-level prize support for in-bracket 'rennaissance man' or to 2nd/3rd/maybe 4th place would be an incentive for folks not to drop out. Don't get me wrong or coming across as thankless: it's nice to get things in a raffle - nice to get swag - but those aren't replacements for *earning* something in competition, even if it's something small. But since everyone complains about the length of the award ceremony already.... then again, if more people won, maybe the trade-off of a bit longer time wouldn't be so bad.

yeah,
Nice reports Ian.
I think the mini renaissance men would work out...
Master renaissance man - 2nd renaissance man - 3rd renaissance man etc...

The problem is that a person scores low in bracket 1 might have a lovely army And a better score than those in bracket s 2-8... yet get nothing.
I think the other thing to remember is that it's a tournament and that only so many people can be given awards... or the awards start to lose value.

 JGrand wrote:
As to your paint idea, I have some personal qualms with the weight (in prizes, not in perception) given to the Ren Man and other painting based awards in big events. I know plenty of big name players that have sunk $1000+ into a fantastically painted army. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this. However, there is no way to verify who painted a particular army. So what happens is that people can end up "buying" an award. I suppose one could argue that monetary disparity factors into the competitive aspect of 40k as well, but I tend to think that is something that can be mitigated a bit more. No one can pay to have someone play their army to a major award. It is impossible to stop that from happening on paint awards.

I think who painted the army is less important at a gaming tournament than a painting tournament.

I paint my guys but I acknowledge that not everyone has the time or skill to do this.
Should we penalise those who buy painted armies??
I think most of us would prefer it if we were inclusive of those people too! Why be mean! It's not like the player is buying a Golden Daemon!

If someone is rich and spent $1000 for a lovely army should he receive the same score as someone who brings a grey hoard... Or be rewarded for giving people a good game against an attractive army.

 hyv3mynd wrote:
I share your sentiments on the drop outs. I'd be seriously disappointed if I paid to play 8 games and my last 2 opponents just quit.

Surely you could just play someone else who's opponent also dropped out in a bracket above or below? I think you'd always be able to find a way to get your 8 games, if you want them?

Panic...

 hyv3mynd wrote:
I share your sentiments on the drop outs. I'd be seriously disappointed if I paid to play 8 games and my last 2 opponents just quit. I agree that adding in soft scores encourages players to stay in, becuse there's always a chance to slingshot up despite a loss or two. But that's not NOVA's thing. They want the "winners" to rise to the top (except ren man). The sad result is an insane amount of drops. I couldnt believe the amount of drops when I was following torrent. I've been to 4 battle point based GTs and never seen half that many second day drops.

Anyways, glad you enjoyed the event and took the time to share so promptly.

There were not an insane amount of third day drops. Why do people keep guessing at this? Also, everyone who wanted 8 games got 8 games; you simply got paired against your closest peer. Exactly like in basically any other tournament.

As far as winners rising to the top, NO, that's not all we care about. I think most people who attend would disagree. Ian's idea about bracket ren men is actually a great one. We gave three massive prize packages for appearance. We gave two massive prize packages for competition (one of them BATTLE POINTS). We gave one super massive prize package for the combination. It's not all about winners rising.

11 People had emergencies of some sort after Friday, told us about them (a couple after the fact), and did not return, out of 227. 36 people voluntarily withdrew per the rules allowing them to if they saw fit after Saturday. Yes, we DESIGNED a withdrawal round after Round 6. If you wanted 8, we guaranteed it. Rounds 7 and 8 only mattered for each bracket champ. YES we can consider bracket ren men ... I like the idea

Most people would have STAYED and played if we hadn't permitted and designed a withdrawal. Most of the 40k attendees checked into the award ceremony (We have a check-in process now, so we actually know exactly who was at the awards). We gave them an out b/c we didn't want to FORCE people to play 8 games, and some people like a more traditional 6-round GT. So, we gave that to those who wanted it.

After Round 7, MANY people asked if they could do vendors, seminars, or watch the final round game. The head judge unilaterally within his right said YES. We also then made sure anyone without an opponent was paired with one if they wished.

So, NO we didn't have a massive / insane amount of drops. NO people did not get jipped out of 8 games. Rash conclusions are rash.

Ian - it was AWESOME meeting you, and I'm glad you had a good time ... your feedback is great, and I hope you'll also share it candidly on our survey when it goes out sometime this week.

Best, and I hope the rest of your trip to the states goes well.

- Mike

Hey Ian! Saw you in the line for the final Award check in, we chatted about that cricket themed army for a bit (I also hope you got what I think was your Tau ethereal from the Lost and Found, I picked it up at one of the narrative tables)

I just want to echo that the entire event was well run and went smoothly except for that one hiccup that's been beaten to death. I'm one of those people that looked at a 7:30AM game, and a drive to upstate NY starting at 9pm, and decided to sleep a little more. And then waltz in at Game 8 and got paired with a random Tyranid player who also wanted a game and had one of my best matches in the tournament.

I'll also say that Mike was incredibly down to earth, and looked after every event it seemed. My name was left out of the narrative, I asked him about it without knowing who he was, and it was fixed in short order. Only later did I look over to see his face on the Torrent of Fire board and go "Oh. Ohhhhhh"

([rant] Also, damn TauDar [/rant])

-Harley

Damn, i missed out (was traveling for work, and couldn't go.)
Maybe next year I guess.
Glad you had you had a great experience over all. And it sounds like you had some excellent sports in terms of oponents, which is a blessing in of itself.