NOVA 2016 40k Trios & Narrative Thread (Sep 1--4; Washington DC, USA)

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**tjkopena**

Kill Team leaders, prepare for contact! This year's NOVA Open wargaming convention (Sep 1--4; Washington DC, USA) includes a new event track: 40k Narrative Recon Squads. Participants will fight fun, casual, thematic Warhammer 40,000 skirmish battles driven by and feeding back into the ongoing, multi-year NOVA 40k Narrative. This event is not itself a tournament, but if you're at NOVA this year for any of the tournaments or other main events and want to get in some 40k skirmish games, we'd love to have you join us!

Skirmish

The event uses the free, fan-made but well tested, Recon Squad 40k skirmish rules. These are very similar to Games Workshop's classic Kill Team variant but updated for 7th edition rules and balance. Recon Squad games are small, fast, intense firefights between individual grunts. Players field armies of at most 200 points, with several restrictions on armour, wounds, and other aspects to keep the focus on everyday warriors and squad leaders. Each model then acts independently in the games, moving and fighting on its own. Reflecting each squad's status as veterans dispatched on critical special missions, several models are also given specialist traits representing advanced skills and abilities. It's a whole different way to play 40k, very fast-playing and tactical, but using the same core mechanics you already know and the models you love.

The format also gives an opportunity to play units that are thematic and fun but don't necessarily make sense in standard 40k. For a prominent, very appropriate, example, many of you have no doubt picked up a copy of Games Workshop's Deathwatch: Overkill board game released just last weekend. As a free supplement to that release, Games Workshop has made available 40k datasheets and formations for Deathwatch Kill Team Cassius and the Ghosar Quintus Genestealer Cult. Kill Team Cassius in particular doesn't seem to be an obviously strong unit for standard 40k, but both side's units are extremely well suited to Recon Squad so this is a great chance to get those amazing models on the table at NOVA! Whether fielding those or your own creation, with so few models in play this event is also a great opportunity to focus on hobby aspects and lovingly paint a masterwork squad or field a highly customized, unique leader.

Narrative

Central to the event are eight thematic missions, some of them asymmetric, such as Assassination, Excavation, and Installation. In their alliance strategy meetings on Friday and Saturday, Warlords in the main NOVA 40k Narrative track will select several of these missions they want achieved to gain specific advantages for their team in the campaign. Players in each Recon Squad event will then choose from that list for their alliance and lead their squad in that mission. Their success or failure will then impact how the larger narrative campaign unfolds.

Notably, the new 40k skirmish track has been organized as four separate events. Players are able and encouraged to sign up for one, multiple, or all events as they please, with no disadvantage to themselves or their alliance for hopping in and out. This is therefore a great opportunity for players that want to participate in the highly popular NOVA 40k Narrative but cannot commit to attending the convention for the entire weekend or are focused on other NOVA events such as the 40k GT or other game systems. The schedule also permits those already participating in the 40k Narrative to throw in a few skirmish games and deepen even further their engagement with the storyline, while also potentially attending seminars, shopping the vendor hall, or just catching a break from all the action.

Rules and Sign-Up

Registration is open now, and details for this track are available in the 2016 40k Narrative Recon Squad primer. That guidebook has just been updated with the full rules for all eight thematic missions, so give it another look even if you already have. Suit up and kit out, sergeants, a new mission just came in!

(cross-posted to Campaigns)

**tjkopena**

Final bump for these new events at this year's NOVA---hope you'll join us!

New to NOVA this year, the 40k Recon Squads are a great addition to the schedule for those that want to cram in as much fighting in the grimdark future as possible. Recon Squads are a simple, fast way to play 40k at a skirmish level without learning a whole new ruleset. Closely patterned after Games Workshop’s classic Kill Team variant but updated for 7th edition, players will lead a small band of everyday grunts and their squad leader, who move and act individually but otherwise apply largely standard 40k mechanics. Squad lists are up to 200 points, with a number of restrictions applied, so most consist of just a handful or two of models. This small forces fighting makes the action much more personal and gives a lot of character to your models as they carry out heroic attacks and valiant sacrifices.

With current sign-ups there will be a handful or more games each round, all fighting to complete unique special missions and secure strategic objectives chosen by the 40k Narrative Warlords. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can participate in one, two, three, or all four Recon Squad rounds in any fashion you choose, joining in wherever they fit in your convention schedule. A new event primer PDF has been posted with all rules and missions collected in one place, so check it out and register today. For those that have signed up, keep your squad training as it’s dark and dirty out there in the 41st millenium, and you never know when just one trooper might be able to change the fate of billions!

**RiTides**

I think it's fine to have a separate thread from the main logistics Nova Open thread for these cool events, but let's just keep it to one, please

Here's some great info on the Narratives event at Nova:

tjkopena wrote:
Last minute invite to anybody on the fence about this year's NOVA 40k Narrative, coming up fast now on Sep 1--4 in Arlington, VA, USA. As usual, there is the Warlords option for those that really want to get into it, and the Nightfighters track for those participating in other events each day. New this year we will also have separate Kill Team styled games linked in to the larger campaign, for people that just want to get in some fast, narrative 40k during lunch or dinner.

The core of the Narrative will be the same missions we used for our very successful LibertyHammer event earlier this summer in Philadelphia. I think they're pretty unique in 40k play, so hopefully of some interest even if you can't join us. There's a writeup below, and you can find full details in the linked event primer. We will also be putting together a separate campaign packet afterward much like the skirmish campaign we put out earlier this year. Along with that I'm also considering a Kickstarter for low-cost models enabling these narrative missions and campaign. If that's of interest to you, please drop a comment or message.

Thx!

-------

NOVA 40k Narrative Campaign: Sep 1--4, Arlington, VA!

*Warlords and Nightfighters, Virtue and Humans, the time is almost at hand!* The final event primer has been posted. In it you will find the core of one of the most innovative, fun 40k Narrative experiences to be had this year. We hope you’ll sign-up and join us!

Background

Coming into 2016, the ongoing NOVA story has advanced. Surviving remnants of Humanity continue to struggle on in a fringe existence. Three centuries on, however, the battle for Earth continues to have consequences for the Virtue. Questions raised by its unprecedented defeat have reverberated slowly but momentously throughout the millenia old society. Now it stands at the crux of a new age, either moving strongly forward from its greatest internal test yet, or facing the unknown if these doubts continue to unravel the threads of its might.

Missions

At the core of the campaign are nine missions, five of them strongly themed: Shuttles crash to the ground, comms facilities are attacked, convoys ambushed, supply depots raided, and VIPs assassinated. These missions require special game pieces, all of which are being 3D printed for this year’s NOVA. Players in each alliance will alternate choosing among these missions for their games each round, so players will get some choice in the missions they want to attempt over the course of the campaign.

Mission scoring also now features a list of secondary objectives from which players will choose each game. This allows players to adjust scoring scoring to suit their army and strategies. For example, in a mission to control objectives, such as Supply Depot, one player well suited to holding ground might double down on objective markers by choosing the Frontline secondary, while their opponent, less able to hold ground and facing numerous troop units, tries to balance out the objective styles by choosing Meat Grinder.

An Imperial Guard convoy is waylaid by the Swords of Dorn, desperate for supplies.

Civilians

Fame and Infamy mechanics have also been totally reworked for this year’s campaign. Each game will feature civilians, again represented by custom markers 3D printed for NOVA. Civilians are NPCs, with players choosing to slaughter or protect them, even potentially using them as meat shields or escorting them to safety. In doing so they will garner fame and infamy and establish their reputation as either wanton butchers or great heroes.

The combination of civilians and thematic missions brings a whole new feel to 40k, emphasizing that the campaign is not happening in abstraction---specific missions are being conducted, cities are being burned, the galaxy is on fire.

Scouts protect a civilian.

Campaign

On top of all that will be the strategic choices made by the alliances and defining the campaign. In addition to choosing missions and tables each round, matches will be put toward specific strategic effects as the Virtue and the Humanity continue their ongoing fight. Covert missions and secret stratagems and resources will also be thrown into the mix, allocated to the players most capable of enacting them or facing the toughest matchup. Warlords will also get to choose objectives and missions to be fought out in the new 40k Recon Squads skirmish events happening between Narrative rounds.

Sign-Up Today!

We still have plenty of slots for both Warlords and Nightfighters to sign-up. Warlords get 6 great battles from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon. Nightfighters will join them on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings following the NOVA 40k GT and other events. Between those games we hope you’ll join us for one or more Recon Squads skirmishes, for which you can register for one or more in any fashion you please. Across all these events we’ll no doubt see many brilliant tactics, brave sacrifices, and crushing defeats in a narrative-full campaign as we fight it out between the Virtue and Humanity and together write the next chapter of the NOVA 40k Narrative storyline!

And the Trios event is also quite cool and unique to this event! See below for more:

tjkopena wrote:
Last pitch for NOVA 40k Trios: A Smash Hit for 2016! With just about two weeks still to go, registration has crushed previous records for the event. Well more than double the usual number of teams have signed up, with 21 teams/63 players registered at the moment.

For those that haven’t made the plunge yet, 40k Trios is a great way to kick off your NOVA convention by battling alongside two friends in a fun, casual tournament. Players register and compete in teams of three. Over the course of three rounds each player battles once on their own using a full size army list, and twice using a smaller list partnered with each of their teammates. This gives players a chance to field all their usual toys, and requires them to be able to fight on their own, but also ensures two great games with your buddies. 40k Trios is held on Thursday, kicking off the convention, so it does not overlap with any of NOVA’s other great 40k events except the Invitational. There are still team slots remaining, so check out all the details in the event primer and register your team today!

For the brave warriors already signed up, it’s going to be a hell of a day! Notably, we’re up against hard time constraints as many Trios players as well as the event leads need to immediately transition to the NOVA 40k Narrative beginning its first night round right afterward. This shouldn’t be a problem, but we are asking everybody to be on the bounce. Please read through the event primer beforehand, have trays to move your armies around quickly between rounds, and please show up in time to be unpacked and ready to start instructions and pairings at 10am. We’ll be calling out time remaining throughout each round, but please also keep the clock in mind. At 2.5 hours each the rounds have plenty of time to get in a full game without excessive rushing, but not to lollygag unduly.

All told, this year’s 40k Trios should be a great start to this year’s NOVA convention. It’s a fun, unique format for team gaming---one of the most rewarding ways to play 40k---and with so many teams signed up it should be a great tournament with a lot of amazing armies on display and new friends to make. We hope you’ll join us!

I'll be attending this year with the ModCube booth, looking forward to seeing you all there

. Make sure to give your Dakka handle so I can place a username to face, too!

**tjkopena**

RiTides wrote:
I think it's fine to have a separate thread from the main logistics Nova Open thread for these cool events, but let's just keep it to one, please

I don't actually particularly mind, but like a lot of these kinds of actions on Dakka that doesn't make sense as a moderating decision, and there's a larger point that hopefully someone somewhere in the leadership is thinking about.

Why lump them together? What have you gained? You've really just impaired the ability of readers to find and discuss what they want. It's not like the bytes cost Dakka, nor does it cost readers time to ignore what they don't care about in the forum listing---being able to do that is actually really really helpful! In contrast, shoving disparate threads together mushes topics and forces readers to wade through a bunch of stuff they don't care about, or, much more likely, to simply miss out on things they do care about by not realizing it's buried in that thread. It's exactly the same logic as why it makes sense, as you note, to have separate threads from the main NOVA thread. That thread's about general NOVA topics and in practice is usually dominated by 40k GT discussion. So it makes sense to have a separate Narrative thread, just like it also makes sense to have a Trios thread as it's completely distinct and attracts a very different and sizeable audience. Would you make Warmachine and Infinity events share a thread just because they had the same organizer? Seems so. The skirmishing is indeed closely connected to the Narrative, but as noted is targeting players focusing on other events who just want to drop in for some lunch/dinner time 40k.

In fact, carrying those points further, I hadn't posted here previously about the Narrative because it's not a standard tournament and this forum isn't an ideal fit for it. But earlier this year Dakka unceremoniously just dropped the whole Campaigns forum one day and moved the contents into here and the general forum. Why? What did that accomplish except make it more difficult for people interested in campaign and narrative play to find each other, follow those topics, and have interesting discussions? From my perspective, I was forced to post here as the best fit after that whole forum got deleted, and now I'm getting hassled for posting here?

Again, threads don't cost anything, and they only help people identify content of interest to them. It's also not the case that most of Dakka's forums, including this one, are such busy, active places that topics being paged out of the listings is a real concern. The tell here is that merged and shutdown threads aren't deleted or de-listed, just closed. If the argument is they're incurring readers' time scanning forum listings, search results, etc., then they're still doing so. Given that, what is really being accomplished except moderators moderating to show they're moderators?

This isn't a big incident, and maybe there is some non-obvious rationale, so please carry on as you see fit. But it's hard to see these kinds of actions having any real logic to them when you think about what's actually important: Enabling readers to most efficiently navigate content and best use their time. There doesn't seem to be much rationale toward that end behind many thread closures, mergers, standard conventions (one thread each for non-GW manufacturers' releases throughout all of time, really?), or the organization of forums (no sub-forums for tournaments/events of different game systems?). That lack of consideration for the most valuable resource, time, detracts from the ability of busy people to use and enjoy Dakka. Something for moderators & forum leadership to think about; I would love for Dakka to be better than it is.

Thx

**RiTides**

Tj, efficiency and navigability are exactly what it's about - players interested in Narrative are also quite likely to consider Trios and Skirmish, all of which are cool rulesets and event formats!

But if we had a different thread for each event type at GTs, we'd just be inundated and it would fracture conversation too much. I thought your posts deserved their own thread separate from the main Nova thread, though, because it's obvious you've put a lot of effort into these and they can be discussed separately from the main thread given all the content you've produced.

I would love to discuss this further with you via PM - we put a lot of thought into the forum reorganization, for instance, but not everything worked out perfectly as we'd hoped (my poor Kings of War forum just hasn't caught on!). If you have suggestions, please let me know - but let's take it offline from this thread so folks can post here about these events at Nova

. Looking forward to meeting you there, as well!

**tjkopena**

Some photos are up!

40k Trios: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjkopena/sets/72157673409703586

40k Narrative Warlords, Nightfighters, and Recon Squads: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjkopena/albums/72157673410801676

**tjkopena**

Recap of the 40k Trios Team Tournament:

http://www.rocketshipgames.com/blogs/tjkopena/2016/09/nova-2016-40k-trios/

**MVBrandt**

The nova open campaign badges on that marine army are amazing.

**RiTides**

I heard fantastic things about the narrative event from folks playing in it, sounds really well done!