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To the point of the hotel, make sure to reserve your rooms now as well as purchasing your GT tickets.

We will be holding our multi-thousand-dollar cash hotel raffle again in 2012, with raffle tickets awarded in proportion to the # of nights you stay factored by how far in advance you reserved them.

To the point of the hotel - as mentioned earlier, there was a fair bit of nickel-and-diming done in 2011 ... which is why we worked with them to reduce hotel rates from $110 to $85/night, sliced parking and internet and beer rates in half, and got them to install full cell phone service throughout the hotel's convention space, among many other improvements.

Redbeard wrote:

Blackmoor wrote:
You had to pay for internet. Big deal, so you had to use your smart phone or go without for a weekend. Really, no internet for 3 days is such a big deal?

The only problem I saw with the hotel was that parking was a bit high.

Both of these are indicative of an establishment that's trying to nickel & dime their customers. I've traveled across the country on my bike several times, and even the smallest mom&pop inns offer free wi-fi these days. Pay extra to park at a place you're staying? They're being deceptive about the actual cost to stay there, and that makes people angry. They get away with it because business travelers, who probably make up most of their clients, don't care as they're expensing it.

That is exactly right. Hotels in Downtowns and other business centers jack up there prices and because most of their clientele are business travelers on expense accounts. Since companies are paying for it, and not people, it is just part of doing business in a hotel close to DC.

Parking is different though, they have a free shuttle from the airport and every place that is near an airport you have to pay for parking. At Adepticon you have to pay to get from the airport to Lombard IL and so is that a hidden cost?

Additional GT and Narrative 40k Information:

http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2011/12/nova-open-2012-gt-registration-open.html

Excerpted here:

More Time for Rounds, More Time to Relax

The NOVA Open's schedule for 2012 is much friendlier to the more casual gamer. This combines well with the format we use for pairing and scoring ... further gearing our event toward ALL player types, all within the same event.

The draft schedule at present for the NOVA Open 2012 40k GT is as follows:
Friday, August 31, 2012

Up until 1:30PM, all day check-in and paint judging
2:00PM - 4:30PM - Round 1
5:00PM - 7:30PM - Round 2
Saturday, September 1, 2012
7:30AM - 10:00AM - Round 3
10:30AM - 1:00PM - Round 4
1:00PM - 2:00PM - Lunch break, Bracket Splits and Record Resets
2:00PM - 4:30PM - Round 5
5:00PM - 7:30PM - Round 6

After Round 6, the Final 4 for each bracket advance to Sunday's Final Fours. Renaissance Man will be determined after 6 rounds instead of 8. All players will be able to continue to participate in organized competitive or casual gaming on Sunday morning if they wish, or they can sleep in and enjoy the day, check out DC, or whatever they feel up to. Players no longer in the running for Generalship awards within their bracket will not be required to continue.

So, in a nutshell - 6 rounds mandatory instead of 8, 2:30 minute rounds instead of 2:15, and only a single day of 4 rounds in a day even for Final Four attendees. Plus those in it for Ren Man and the like are evaluated based upon 6 rounds instead of 8.


All 40k All the Time - "Nighthammer" - Integrated Experience

For those of you looking for the most comprehensive and universally appealing 40k experience out there, we're proud to add our night project to the 40k offering. Internally referred to as "Nighthammer" while we finish hammering out details and processes and missions and the rest, this will be a comprehensive all-player-style-integrating 40k experience covering Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, as well as Sunday all day and Saturday during the day for non-GT players.

A couple of highlights to anticipate for "Nighthammer."
- Unique, balanced, fun and interesting scenarios fine-tuned to player styles and narrative gaming
- A weekend-long, club-involving, mass-results-incorporating story unique to the NOVA's style and geographic location ... results of all game styles - from competitive tournament games to casual narrative games to "Gladiator-esque" (ref: AdeptiCon) Apoc-inclusive games - will be incorporated in the overall story
- Custom designed terrain built to the tune of some of Washington DC's most iconic memorials, with table layouts and structures designed to evoke the feel of battling for the future of our nation's capital
- Comprehensive social enhancers ranging from swap meets to drink specials, all designed and aimed at integrating and bringing together players after a long day of gaming for a blast of an evening every single night

Many of the NOVA's "side" 40k tournaments will occur amidst these evening events, including:
- The NOVA Invitational's Round 1 will be Thursday Evening
- The Warhammer 40,000 Trios Team Tournament will occur Thursday and Friday evenings, and Sunday afternoon
- Narrative Singles and Narrative Doubles Gaming will be added covering Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and Sunday afternoon
- Additional offerings and side events, to possibly include 6e if it is released, across the evenings
- Drop in organizer-assisted gaming for all player styles - competitive gamers deployed to square off against other competitive gamers, all the way to hobbyists with gorgeous armies deployed to square off on scenic tables with other hobbyists fielding gorgeous armies

Saturday DC Narrative-Tied Scavenger Hunt
- For hobbyists looking to participate in evening narrative gaming, but not wishing to participate in the GT on Saturday, we'll be building and directing an event through our Nation's Capital during the day on Saturday. The results of this event and the teams sent out for it will have an impact on the continuation of the Narrative Gaming for Saturday evening. Explore the city with missions in mind during the day, and battle across its iconic monuments at night!

Hotel Reservations - Make sure you reserve your hotel rooms now; the weblink is on the NOVA Open's frontpage. We'll be once again holding our multi-thousand-dollar hotel cash raffle, and you get more raffle tickets the earlier you reserve your rooms.

There's a GREAT deal more information to come on the NOVA Open 2012, so stay tuned to the website, facebook, blog, twitter, forums and more as we move forward for the best NOVA Open ever!

Dumb question...how many points is the GT? I'm not seeing anything on the fliers and I know there were discussions about moving it to 1500.

Oi! I thought it was on the site. My bad!

2000 points will remain, though we've expanded round lengths to 2.5 hours each.

as usual mike is pulling out all the stops to provide one of the best gaming experiances in the country. On top of that an incredible effort was put in to reducing all of the costs for the players plus gaming tweaks that are put in to make the tournament experiance more enjoyable.


Tons of support from myself and the rest of the BFS crew.

btw what are your target #s for 40k this year mike 256 or bigger ?

great job mike

ed

256 for 40k, and up to 256 a night for Nighthammer's various events.

We're also targeting:

64 for Fantasy
64 for Warmachine/Hordes
32 for Flames of War
16 for Infinity

We're adding a full on appearance competition a la Crystal Brush / Golden Demon / etc.

We're adding a few entry-level seminars.

We're adding ... a lot. Again.

Looking forward to hanging out again ASAP Ed!

Booo...yaaaa....Tix purchased and hotel room reserved!!...See everyone there...Might even bring my daemons again!!...to let opponents curbstomp them...lol...

Sweet! It'll be rad to see you again Kevin. Even if you DO bring Daemons.

Is there a way we can register and guarantee a ticket like last year, without yet purchasing the ticket? I can just see my mom going "Why do you need to spend $100 on a warhammer tournament almost a year in advance?"
(BTW, Mike, this is Andrew, the kid who competed in the invitational. I'm not an older guy living with his mother )

Andrew, you played pretty awesome last year in a big, tough field!

Unfortunately we can't extend holds at this time.

Also, as an update for all, we sold a substantial % of our GT tickets last night. Fortunately not quite AdeptiCon sell-out rates, but I'd suggest obtaining a ticket for those sure they are attending sooner than later.

MVBrandt wrote:Andrew, you played pretty awesome last year in a big, tough field!

Unfortunately we can't extend holds at this time.

Also, as an update for all, we sold a substantial % of our GT tickets last night. Fortunately not quite AdeptiCon sell-out rates, but I'd suggest obtaining a ticket for those sure they are attending sooner than later.

Thanks, it was tough facing 5 Grey Knights players out of 13 games. This year I'll probably bring more balanced, probably Space Marine or Necron list; Daemons just drop too easily against some matchups (Dark Eldar, Grey Knights).

How many tickets have sold so far? If it's a large amount, I'll go ahead and buy mine now, if not I think I'll hold off for a little. Also, weekend badges can't sell out, correct? I'm going to hold off on getting one of those on the off-chance that I make the Invitational again.

Per your question, a significant number of our GT tickets have sold at this point. I do recommend purchasing one if you are surr you are attending. I don't think we'll sell out in the next few days, but the pace and high number of new attendees already = we will sell out.

When I'm no longer mobile phoning it, our multinedia chief has rightly asked me to post up our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Check em out / like / follow.

Bought mine the other day. Figured I might as well eat the cost now and ensure my spot. This and Adepticon are my two can't miss events of the year.

When are you expecting to put up Fantasy tickets?

Fantasy, Infinity, Flames of War, 40k Narrative, and almost all other tickets / ticket options will be up for sale on January 1, 2012.

A newsletter will be sent to all registered newsletter recipients announcing as much as a reminder. You can request to join our newsletter by e-mailing novaopen@gmail.com

Keep close eyes at the website, blog, here and elsewhere for info on the Fantasy GT, plus increasing amounts of detail on our 40k evening events ... they're shaping up to be unique, fair, fun and awesome.

Significant website updates at:

http://www.novaopen.com/

Lots of incoming information about a variety of events.

Sneak peak at how some of the narrative missions MAY shape up can be gleaned by perusing this OLD post at Whiskey40k ...

http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2010/09/novacalypse-test-drive-missions-for.html

Having tried it for the first time at the Battle for Blobs Park, I'm not sure if I can stomach 4 rounds in a single day... perhaps I'll make it out for Warmahordes, though!

RiTides wrote:Having tried it for the first time at the Battle for Blobs Park, I'm not sure if I can stomach 4 rounds in a single day... perhaps I'll make it out for Warmahordes, though!

Definitely everyone has a different way of enjoying the hobby - and all the games in it. That's why we've built the NOVA for 2012 so it literally hits every type.

More info will be up about them shortly, but check into the Narrative and Nighttime 40k gaming opportunities when they are fully detailed out by Jan 1. The opportunity to game in a more relaxed (but still evenly-matched) environment in the evenings and Sunday afternoon, as a complement to something like Warmahordes activities (that are also all weekend long) might be right up your alley, without having to play the one day of 4 games at the GT.

For those that ONLY want to have to play a single 4 game day ... well, the other 2 days of the GT are only 2 games each for just that easier reason.

My point wasn't that I have a different way of enjoying the hobby just that 4 games in a day is a lot. Being local, I would have preferred to have 3 games on Saturday followed by 3 on Sunday, with the "champions" playing on Monday.

Obviously, that's really hard for people to plan for who have to fly in... but it doesn't change that it's what *I* would like

I would have also preferred 3 games on Friday followed by 3 games on Saturday, rather than 2 then 4- imo, it's just a lot easier to handle. I know you've already thought that through and I won't beat a dead horse, but it's definitely a marathon for the majority of people to play 4 large games of warhammer in a day... and I would have considered it had the schedule been less grueling (and I know you've tried to make it roomier- but it's still a bear).

I hope to make it out for the warmahordes, though! The guys I talked to had a great time with it last year.

Bump -

Registration continues unabated by the holidays; 30% of our registrants so far are NEW/First Time attendees. Keep that in mind if you're a returning player in terms of acquiring tickets while they're still available.

Of note for this year as further improvement to the 40k events, we'll be adding SIDEBOARDS to every single 40k table. No more teetering your models on tables and what-not; you'll have a polished, properly prepared surface at least 1 foot wide next to your gaming table in all cases (which will also afford you more space in between the gamers to your left and right).

Hmm. While its nice to see a tournament scheduled this far out and it would certainly be easier to get to than many US tournaments. Plus its pretty dang close to ETC. Its just hard to plan that far out. I will probably not know to many definite plans for that part of the year until End of Feb. Is there a refund policy if I was to buy a ticket and at least a few months out find out I cannot make it?

Sideboards is a fantastic idea! I've grown spoiled with mikhaila's 8 foot tables (leaving 2 feet leftover for use as a sideboard during a normal fantasy game) and it's amazing how convenient it is. You don't know what you're missing until you've tried it .

So yeah, that's a great addition!

Great news Mike! Sideboards make a HUGE difference. Not only for comfort of the players so they are not having to constantly reach under the table but also for game play. If your display board is right next to the table you will be able to play much quicker!

If you can bump the space to 2 feet wide, you will allow army displays to be dropped there.

Here is link to a pic of our sideboards > http://www.themechanicon.com/1/wp-content/uploads/WR2010_1013-012.jpg

We did these up after seeing what Battlefront did to all the tables I built for them for their FOW tournaments and it is a huge boon.

The Mechanicon boards are quite well known for how awesome and integrated they are! You guys set one of the highest standards for polishing the nuances and details of the presentation of your event.

We're still working through the budget on whether it'll be 1' or 2' sideboards for this year ... always a tricky thing running what I think is now the 2nd largest pure wargaming convention in the country in terms of managing the high cost of our hobby and keeping rates as low as possible for our attendees (my partner often nicknames me "Santa Clause!"). I don't know HOW the boys at AdeptiCon manage the nuances and details of their vast quantity every year, but I suppose that's why I and 1500+ others of us keep going year in and year out.

Last year we cleared 400 attendees, and guaranteed the first 400 swag bags with their weekend badges. We'll be doing the same this year, so keep that in mind all ye registrants.

We also have some really big surprises coming up in 2012 on the vendor and sponsor front, so keep your eyes peeled here and on the website/blog.

Historicon and some of the other HMGS events are quite large, like Fall In and Cold Wars, you younger guys just forget about them since you play those new fangled games.)

That said, most historical cons aren't providing the scenery at all, the players and gm's bring it, so it's not a fair comparison at all to the work that's needed setting up tables for large events like Adepticon or Nova. Historicon is organized sort of like the sacking of Rome was organized. All the barbarians registered and got tags, but after that it's a free for all.)

Haha Mike you're right i always do forget! Not a big deal for me - superlatives are meaningless. My only point in the guessing was it's a Lot of people and logistics to manage affordably.

Didn't know that about terrain for those events either ... kinda fascinating it works in light of how much people complain about terrain they don't even have to provide.

Historicon is about as varied in terrain as you can get. Basically GM's and clubs sign up to run events, anything from tournaments to one shot, 2 hour games. They run from 7am to 4am. After midnight has a large amount of scenarios that involve drunken pirates and barbarians looting villages. Participants seem to drink a lot and get into character.) Every group shows up, sets up terrain, runs an event and tears down. Hundreds of events. People always packing stuff up, carting it in and out, and setting up for the next game.

I've seen clubs show up with 6' x20' gorgeous layouts to recreate a small civil war battle. Everything to scale and amazing to play on.

Then for Ancients tournaments you'll see a hundred guys playing just all roll out 6x4 matts or piece of colored tablecloth with some felt for the most minimal 'scenery' you've ever seen.

Scale ranges from 6mmm to 12" figures. Some games use rules you might have heard of like DBM, others are an unholy mishmash of rules from 40 years ago blended with homebrewed stuff. No event is the same in anyway. Flames of War is even considered 'not really historical' by many people attending, since you don't always play Germans vs. Allies, or on matching terrain.)

Definitely worth going, if only to see different scenery and games, and bring lots of alcohol. I think this next year is down towards Baltimore/VA.

Our January 2012 Newsletter includes tons of information on registration, new events, the opening of reg for all events, our new broad-sweeping Narrative 40k event, and other things.

For those not on our e-mail listing, check it out here:
http://www.novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/NOVA-Open-January-2012-Newsletter.pdf

I guess I no longer have my invite to the invitational.
http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2012/01/nova-invitational-2012-changes-and.html