Hi all, here is my final wrap up of the NOVA narrative. At this point it was my third day of gaming and it was really starting to wear me down. I was on the fence about staying for Sunday as I had a five hour journey back and I was starting a new job on Tuesday. Pushing that all to the back of my mind I threw myself into the games.
Game #6 vs Will
This game had a real cool set up where I was trying to take over a temple while my opponent was trying to complete a ritual. Sadly I took over the game very quickly as my opponent was new to Crusade and hadn’t updated any of his units from the beginning of the event. At the start of the game I had 25 Crusade points to his 4. I was a little annoyed as my opponent was very salty the whole game. He was obviously a little overwhelmed by all the book keeping, so I felt for him, but the constant barrage of negative comments was a little annoying. Regardless he was bale to achieve one of this secondaries so I think he got something from the game. It was also a quick game so that gave him time to update his roster.
Game #7 vs Jason
This was a really intense game. Jason (apologies if I got your name wrong, I have a question mark in my records haha) had a beautiful army and knew how to get the most out of his units. This mission was a little confusing as the planetary mission could only be achieved by HQs while the board mission could only be completed by Ob sec units. While I have some anti-tank in my list Jason did a good job eliminating it early on (it was a little easier given that a lot of his armigers were hitting on 2+). He also pulled off a great charge onto my Disco-lord who did 20 wounds but Jason played the strat that allowed him to fight on top bracket and pummeled my main threat to his army. While I killed both of his characters by turn 2 his endless armigers swept most of my units off the board. Fortunately, I was able to use my last obsec unit to claim an objective earning me a narrow tie on the board mission while easily getting the Planetary mission.
Game #8 Vs John
Given that John hadn’t played many games in this event I was a little worried that the battle would be a blood bath (and it was, just not in the way I feared). John had a very odd list but also one that was pretty effective at using. Early on we decided our warlords would duke it out in the middle of the board and, since we got to pick our planetary mission for this round, selected a crusade mission that forced you to move forward (it also added 8 objectives which, when combined with the board objectives meant there were 13 objectives on the field). While my warlord got pasted on turn 2 (even with amazing save stats a few bad rolls can do you in) I was able to overrun his back line while he did the same to me. By the bottom of turn 4 I had a narrow lead and only the Chosen, the drill (badly damaged), my Master Executioner and my Disco-lord left. Tom had his Centurions and a 5 man squad left in my back field. I decided to make things interesting by charging Tom’s Cents. with my Disco-lord. He did get over 100 shots in over-watch but only did 2 wounds. Thinking I had this in hand the close combat didn’t go great for me. even with all my attacks I was only able to kill 2 Cents who immediately punched my Disco-lord into next week. I was now in a pickle. I didn’t have any real way to kill the Cents and they were positioned in such a way to allow them to kill the degraded drill and get the ME in combat all while staying away from the Chosen. It was then that Tom intervened.
One of the fun things about this event is that there were ways to interact with other boards on the same, or even different planets. You could get a relic to portal-gun forces onto other boards or you could launch airstrikes.
Recall this board:
When we were dividing up players for this planet one of my trusted lieutenants insisted that he play on this board. You see Tom had a plan, hinging on him going first, that would see him achieve the most difficult feat possible for the mission. Players needed to collect certain supplies, pilots, ammo, fuel, and control the central tower to launch any of the above vehicles. Tom, the mad lad, fully committed to this plan setting up a bizarre conga line off drones, chaos spawn and pox-walkers. With single-minded efficiency Tom was able to get Stormbird airborne in remarkable time, triggering it’s effect on the rest of the planet. You see, when any aircraft is aloft any other player can spend 3 CP to call in a once-per-game strafing run on their opponents.
Fortunately for me Tom achieved this exactly as the combat phase with the Disco-lord ended. I did apologize profusely to my opponent as I immediately spent my last cp to call in a strafing run on the cents. finally putting them down after a barrage of lascannon and heavy bolter shots. However, my opponent was a very good sport and got a bit of a laugh out of it. He had still won the board mission and took consolation in the depths I needed to sink to in order to scrounge a win. We both agreed it was a great game and had a nice chat afterwards.
After this game I couldn’t think of a better way to end the event and so took one last look around as I packed up. I really enjoyed the painting competition and a few of the excellent models are included below.
While the dog was pretty happy to see me, I think her uncle pampered her throughout my absence and my fears of any lasting damage were quickly assuaged.
Wrap Up:
I was pretty happy to leave the event with a lot more stuff then I took to it. I thought their swag bags were pretty nice (I got an upgraded one as I registered early)
I also availed myself of the vendors and picked up some great old fantasy models (also not pictured were 3 lance formation movement trays!). I also splurged on some more Night Lord characters as an indulgence.
Overall I had a great time, if I had to condense my thoughts on the event into a few points it would be the following:
- Chris did an amazing job developing the event and setting up the missions. The system was complex and overwhelming at first but grew on me as a way to ensure everyone can wiggle something of value from their games
- I think there were 3 too many games in the schedule. I felt chained to the table as from 9:30AM-12:30AM I would usually have only 2 free hours for lunch and dinner. The event became all-consuming, but it’s one of the first of it’s kind so I don’t fault them.
- I think people only need to bring 2 list options, three only added to the book-keeping and burden on the players.
- The multiple levels of control, by planet and overall helps focus players and I liked how balanced everything was, and how previous events could impact future games.
- I felt some missions were a little unbalanced, but when you are creating 24 from scratch not every one will be a winner.
- I think some of the work we did dividing up into teams can be done ahead of the event, but the structure worked well to take some of the load off of Chris and distributed it more evenly.
In summation, I had a blast and created a lot of memories I will cherish as life starts to intrude on my regular playing time. I really hope to be able to play at the next event and I am curious how the game will evolve between now and then. Thanks again to Chris for running the event and all the other players who came.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
