Frankie’s Adventure at NOVA Open.

Frankie here, aka the Greatest 40K Player in the World, to relate my experience at the NOVA Open game convention.

So this year Team Zero Comp made the trip to the East Coast to attend the Nova open for the first time. Flight took a long while but once we got there, talk about an easy trip. You get off the plane and hop onto a shuttle that takes 3 minutes to get to the hotel, haha. The hotel was amazing and the tournament was well run and very organized.

We showed up on day one knowing that we would be facing some tough lists. I brought my Dark Eldar/ Eldar list and wasn’t expecting to do very well considering how many Imperial Knights we were expecting. But, when the pairings go up the competitive adrenaline starts flowing!

Round one I pulled white scars. Luckily one of our teammates plays a similar list all the time so I was prepared. I get first turn and deploy pretty aggressively banking that he wouldn’t seize. My opponent scouts foward right behind these two large line of sight blocking pieces of terrain that every table had in the center. He had a Stalker and a Hunter on my flanks and two rhinos staying back with 5 man squads inside. My opponent rolls to seize but was unsuccessful so BOOM!, here comes the pain. I was ready to kill some bikes =) After my turn of shooting I ended up taking the gun off the Hunter, doing a hull point to the stalker and killing two bikes. Well that was a bit of a wet noodle in a sword fight. His turn one, he jumps through the walls and moves around my flanks killing a Venom and a Ravager. Well this isn’t going as I had thought it would. By turn three I was in trouble, Khan and his command squad hit and ran right next to my Wraithknight to kill him. If he goes down I will be in deep crap. Luckily I make all my cover saves and am able to ping pong around the table with him killing bike squad after bike squad with Prescience. Vect killed the whole command squad and the rest of my army cleans up and allows me to control all six objectives at the end of the game. Great opponent and we both had a lot of fun during the game. Dark eldar/ Eldar 1-0

Round two starts and I am really nervous since I would be playing someone that is 1-0 as well. I pulled a brutal Tyranid player that had brought 3 Hive Tyrants, 2 Crones, 2 Exocrines and 4 units of Warriors. I saw the three Hive Tyrants and just knew that I needed first turn and really needed to get an alpha strike. Deployment was Hammer and Anvil which makes it difficult for my army to get the ranges it needs if people deploy defensively. I luck out and my jedi mind tricks work, my opponent won the roll to go first but gave it to me, Bahaha! I deploy to alpha strike and my opponent makes a big mistake and deploys everything on the deployment line. Turn one I kill a hive tyrant and bring the other two down to one wound. He flys forward and kills two Venoms, exactly what I was scared of. One turn two I release the kraken and am able to kill an Exocrine and both Hive Tyrants. We decide to call it after turn three when I finish off the other Exocrine and two Warrior squads. Bad luck on my opponents end with rolling terribly on armor saves but he made a large mistake on deployment as well. Awesome guy though and I was able to make him laugh the whole game. Dark Eldar / Eldar 2-0.

Round three this is the game that separates the boys from the men. I pull an army that I was a little worried about: 3 Wraithknights, 2 Imperial Knights, Farseer with the Laughing Mask and junk for the 2+ re-roll, and a couple Jetbike units. He wins the roll to go first…. shit this could be a fast game especially since he got Fortune and Invis. I get infiltrate which I take advantage of and infiltrate Vect, the Farseer, and Guardians in a large line of sight blocking terrain that is in the center of the table. We shake hands and I roll the dice to seize….. 6 hahaha Vect you beautiful son of a gun!! My opening turn went better than I could have hoped for, I was able to kill an Imperial Knight and a Wraithknight with my first round of shooting. My opponent didnt make a single save on his Imperial Knight poor guy.

His turn one he jumps forward and makes me jink with a few Ravagers as well as killing a Venom. I was also able to stop the Fortune he tried to cast on his Wriathkngiht. My turn two again goes better than I could have hoped I am able to kill both Wraithkngihts. My Guardian squad jumps out and nukes one with Prescience, and my Venoms are able to take down the other Wraithknight. His turn comes around and gets Invis off on the Imperial knight. Along with killing one of my Ravagers and a Venom with the Jetbikes, he charges my Wraithknight and punks his ass. My turn comes around and I make a long charge to his Farseer with Vect and friends. Vect puts the good old dark eldar beat down on the Farseer. My venoms are able to kill both Jetbike units. The Imperial Knight makes combat to Vect and ends up stomping out the entire unit, dang-it. But Vect was able to do a hull point before going down. Over the next few turns we are playing a kill point mexican stand off as we are tied. Turn five ends and he is able to hold on with one hull point left. If the game ends I lose and that will be all she wrote. Luckily the dice rolls up another turn and I am able to bring down the knight with a blaster to the side armor. Great game we had a blast and was extremely close all the way to the end. Best game of the tournament hands down. Dark Eldar 3-0.

Now we get into the real cheese of the tournament as the next game will decide who makes it to the top 16 bracket. You will have to wait and I will finish this tale of love, sorrow and war in the next few days. Go Team Zero Comp!