The NOVA Open has come and gone.
Heres a (not so) quick summary of my games:
I ran Dark Angels, the classic thunderhammer/storm shield/cyclone Deathwing list. Take from that what you will. I've been playing Dark Eldar since 6th dropped and have been frustrated trying to fit that square peg of an army into the round hole that the game has become. I was ready for a change of pace, so I opted to take last years list, chuck Ezekiel in there, and go for it. No playtesting? No problem...
Game one was vs. a space marine list that would have been better in fifth. It had a bastion, which my thunderhammers could not penetrate, but a squad of termies glanced the contents into red paste. The rest of the army followed suit.
My game two opponent was Space Wolf player Pierre Daze. This was one of the toughest and closest games a played during the event, but was also quite fun. Daze was a great opponent whose Wolves eked out a a victory on turn 6.
Saturday morning my round three opponent came as something of a surprise. Stelek: the internet personality 40k players love to hate. His list was a Grey Knights mech spam with Space Wolf allies that produced an ass-load of firepower. In a head-to-head fight, I think my terminators could have rushed him and probably crushed his vehicles, but I needed to hold objectives, fight for kill points, and try to control table quarters all at the same time.
Stelek was not the total douche he is online. I had to ask him to check line of sight again and again, and he seemed to think he deserved cover a bit more than I did. The real reason the game was not fun was because I was playing an assault army vs. a torrent of fire gunline. This does not work well in 6th. He shot me up, slowly but surely, until I had so little on the table I could not hope to win.
After loosing to Stelek I played a combo Blood Angels/Dark Angels list. I thought I had this one in the bag, but my entire command squad disappeared to a single shot from a Vindicator on turn 2. Even then if the game ended on turn 5 I would have won. It didn't, and my opponent wisely crammed Mephiston down my throat, contesting the objective I needed to win.
Game 5 was against Ork player Ted Crawford. This was, hands down, the most enjoyable game I played during the course of the event. Ted was running Nob biker led orks with a fair number of battlewagons, boyz and lootas, all of which were impeccably painted. Ezekiel shone in this one, repeatedly force weaponing nobz, and giving me the advantage I needed to win. The game was low-pressure, like a garage game between buddies. I hope I get to play Ted again, he was a great guy with a great attitude.
Game 6 was against Hans Cote and a Dark Eldar/Eldar army. He plays at Battleground in Plainville, MA, so we were familiar, but had not played each other. This one looked like it was going to be a challenge. Hans was running three Voidraven Bombers in addition to Eldrad and all manner of Eldar and Dark Eldar pew. I think, in the end, I won because of the massive piece of terrain in the center of the table. It allowed me to hide my command squad in the center of the table where they could hold an objective and threaten anyone who came close. Quarters was the primary. We tied that (this is generally my plan with such a small army in a tiered objective game) and I won on objectives.
Ezekiel was a pimp daddy in this game. Twice he moved through cover, busted into the danger zone like the Kool-Aid Man, and charged units of warriors coming to contest the objective, wiped them out and then retreated back out of sight thanks to high consolidation rolls. He eventually died to prescienced scatter lasers, but more than earned his points.
Game 7 was against last years NOVA GT finalist Allan "Blackmoor" Hernandez. Blackmoor was running a Dark Eldar/Footdar list that had clearly not performed as he had planned. He told me that he had not even playtested it. I think there is a chance I could have won this game on my own merits, but poor dice doomed me before I ever had a chance. Ones were popping up left and right, either when shooting multiple crack missiles at units of a few spread out Dire Avengers and failing to wound, or failing 2+ armor saves. At the end of the final round Allan made what appeared to be a series of atrocious blunders, running warriors off objectives, and forgetting to move jetbikes. It turns out, however, that he did not want to play another game; an airbrushing class he had signed up for was pending, and a win meant he would miss it. Whatevs I'll take it. I was tired, but was into playing another game.
My final opponent was running a Necrons/Orks combo. This game was for the top spot in our bracket. It was a hard fight that in the end I lost due more to my ignorance of the Necron codex than anything else. FYI: it is a bit on the douchy side to not include the wargear descriptions with your list, especially if you are printing it from army builder. Ultimately, however, its my fault for not asking if I don't know what something does.
Oh well live and learn.
Tomorrow I'll post a bit more about the event itself: how things were run, the missions, how it compared to last year's NOVA, and to Adepticon.
Stay tuned...
