NOVA Wrap Up/Battle for Salvation Tourney

By UltraBob,

Well now,

I have a lot of info to write about. I failed to post more updates about my army like I wanted to, but I did end up getting the army painted to play at NOVA. Which is a success seeing how I had really only a few weeks to do so. Now the army is clearly not finished, BUT, I am proud to say it looks really great on the table top. I spend a ton of time on the actual Marines, which ironically, barely see the table because they are usually mounted! :D

The left pic you can see my display board. Simple, looked good and got the job done of transporting my models around for the day. It was really simple to make. Its just foam board, half inch thick. They sell like 2x2.5ish ft rectangles at Michaels for 3 bucks. I bought a can of textured spray paint for 5 bucks. This instantly textured it, and then used some paints I had already owned to color it. The frame was about 5 bucks at the Christmas Tree shop. So for under 15 Dollars I had an effective display board. Oh and the rocks were given to me by John DLR from our club. I just dry brushed them!

The Pic on the right is my army in action. You can see the marines have been taken to the next level, where my tanks were just base coated and dry brushed. I did this because I needed to get them up, but now they are primed for further work.

BTW I dont think I painted more for a tournament in my life. My hands and forearms were falling asleep from keeping my models up at my eye level for so long. Dont remember where I found this pic but that was pretty much me August 12th at midnight lol:

So In the morning of the 13th, Danny Internets, Ed, and Eddy Jr, met up at my house. The drive down to Virginia was fine. No real issues with traffic. It really wouldnt have mattered because we were all really pumped to see how this weekend would go.

As Im sure you all heard from others NOVA feedback, the Hotel, Expo Center, Staff etc. were great. Thanks to Mike Brandt and all the people who helped make this event possible. Having run tournaments before I can tell you that level is no easy task. It was executed really well.

We met up with Chris when we reached the hotel.

The Friday night events were a spectacle. From the fact they were live streaming games (warhammer is a spectator sport now), to the "Celeb" turnout, everything was great. Now Im not a drinker but some like that option. Everyone was having a blast.

On to Saturday, I think I will write up Battle Reports for my 4 games, but all of my opponents had relatively competitive lists. Everyone came with the intent to win, yet none of them played to waac. It was really refreshing to play 4 COMPETITIVE games with great opponents at a tournament.

The main thing about Saturday, again Im not gonna really comment on much because most people know all about NOVA by, was that it was FUN. No one I played, saw playing, or had friends play, was a Jerk. Plain and simple, everyone had a great time playing 40K.

At the end of Saturday I was 3-1. I think I was around 24th place overall. I had gotten killed in the Renaissance Man side of the tourney because of paint. Now, my army was not done. But there was paint on everything. I fully blame my lack of points here on Brother Captain James. He said he had painted Ultra Typhoons and clearly from the pics above were lacking. So I think I got a big fat 0 on the "Are all your models painted to the 3 color standard" box.

Well either way I wasnt in the running for best painted, and Dan and Chris both took 1st and 2nd respectively in the Ren Man Competition. Dan got a sweet trophy and some loot. Not too shabby for BFS.

That Brings me to my next topic. At the club, we had been planning a GT for Columbus day weekend. We wanted to wait and see how the NOVA was run before we made any decisions on format. Clearly, this is a progressive move towards a more competitive tournament scene. SO we are emulating Mike Brandts idea and going with a NOVA style GT here in NY.

So for all you out there who wished you could go to NOVA but couldnt, here is a chance to experience some competitive games.

battleforsalvation.com

This link will explain to you, everything you need to know for the tournament. We have some hotel accommodations as well for you out of towners. We have our primer packet with scenarios up so you can start to practice. This is something I plan on speaking about soon.

Final thoughts:

NOVA was a huge success. Every event has its flaws and NOVA did too. There was some issues of the points accuracies of one players list. Albeit very small. There were also a few complaints about the function of the Impassable terrain as some of you may already be aware of. These are all correctable things, and Im sure the NOVA staff will address them for the future. It doesnt take away one bit that this was the best, competitive event for Warhammer 40k in recent history. Perhaps ever. Grats to them. Now onto Battle for Salvation.

Road to Nova 2010-List Version 1

Tonight I will be playing a practice game with my good friend James. Using most of the stuff I have built right now, I am attempting to build a competitive space marine list. Now in this list I am using Marneus Calgar. I don't really think hes worth his points, and I have only used him once or twice since the codex came out. However, I think he has some potential because of his "God of War" rule. This is the rule that allows your whole army to choose whether they want to pass or fail any morale test.

When I have used him, and to my knowledge, how people play him in our area/club, they treat this rule as subject to the "No Retreat" rules in the 40k Rulebook. Basically if I lost combat and choose to pass, I would have to take wounds (similar to being fearless). This was kinda like the old synapse creature rule where they passed any morale test while under synapse range.

The Nova Open, however, came out with their own FAQ for the tournament. In my opinion they cover a decent amount of material and still make it manageable to be read in about 15 minutes. For the SM codex they say that the GoW rule is not subject to No Retreat wounds. Do I think that Calgar is worth 265 points? No not really, but I feel that with this ruling, and the right list surrounding him he can be pretty effective. Im not dead set on using him, or any character for that matter, but I do want to give this a try.

Some benefits that I see by taking Calgar:
-Passing all tests and not being subject to the No Retreat wounds gives me many tactical options that aren't really available to other SM armies. If I am facing a tough complex unit like Blood Crushers, Nob Bikes, or Seer Council, I can charge with a tactical squad and terminators. I charge with tacticals first and engage many models; then charge with terminators engaging one. Only tacticals will get owned and termies will get all their Thunder Hammers off. This tactic im sure is well known and explained best here:
http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2008/11/how-to-kill-nob-bikers-seer-councils.html

Now, Stelek warns that you will end up losing combat but the amount of damage you cause will be great enough to compensate. With Calgar, I wont lose anything valuable. At most a tactical squad.

-Also, leadership modifying abilities, like Psyker Battle Squads are useless against my whole army. Not just a squad thats fearless but the entire army. But most importantly, I still can fail, if I want to.


So what I'm saying is that, I think that Calgar can give me a boost that no other Character can give me, despite being the same points as a land raider. The list I plan to try out tonight is version 1. Here it is:

HQ) Marneus Calgar: Armor of Antilochus........................................265

HQ) Librarian: Null Zone, Gate of Infinity.....................................100

Elite) Assault Terminator Squad (6): Thunder Hammers, Storm Shields............240

Troop) Tactical Squad (10): Meltagun, Missile, Sgt. Combi-melta, Meltabomb.....190
-Drop Pod: Locator Beacon....................................45

Troop) Tactical Squad (10): Meltagun, Lascannon, Sgt. Bolt Pistol, Chainsword..185
-Rhino.......................................................35

Troop) Tactical Squad (10): Meltagun, Lascannon, Sgt. Bolt Pistol, Chainsword..185
-Rhino.......................................................35

Troop) Tactical Squad (5): Sgt. Combi-flamer...................................100
-Razorback: Twin-linked Lascannon............................75

Fast) Land Speeder: Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer...................................70

Fast) Land Speeder: Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer...................................70

Fast) Land Speeder: Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer...................................70

Heavy) Predator: Autocannon, Sponson Lascannons................................120

Heavy) Predator: Autocannon, Sponson Lascannons................................120

Heavy) Predator: Autocannon, Sponson Heavy Bolters, Hunter Killer Missile.......95

 TOTAL POINTS = 2000


Depending on what Im facing, the mission, or whether or not I go first, I can deep strike the speeders for their flamers or if I have to meltas. If I go second with this army, I have enough marines to prevent an alpha strike, but then again I don't have a death star unit to be that worried about. The terminators will generally always teleport in. That's where Calgar's teleport homer will come into use. Either that or the Beacon on the Pod. I will most likely stick Calgar in the Drop Pod because it will give me a threat early against something like Guard or Tau where I am the aggressor. I think games where I need to hold back will be slightly more difficult. I will post up a bat rep sometime this week. Any comments are welcome!

Current Tournament List

Over the past few months I have been playing in a bunch of tournaments, none with marines though because of painting. I rocked the Nid'z at the past few Brothers Grimm tournaments and took 2nd and 3rd to my surprise.
This is an army that's almost complete. Just gotta build the predators and well...PAINT!

HQ)
-Librarian: Terminator Armor, Vortex of Doom, Null Zone=125

Elite)
-5 Assault Terminators: 2 Lightning Claws, 3 Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields=200

-Dreadnought: Multi-melta, Stormbolter=105

-Dreadnought: Multi-melta, Stormbolter=105

Troop)
-Tactical Squad: Meltagun, Missile, Sgt. Power Fist, Combi-melta; RHINO=245

-Tactical Squad: Meltagun, Missile, Sgt. Power Fist, Combi-melta; RHINO=245

-Tactical Squad: Meltagun, Missile, Sgt. Power Fist, Combi-melta; RHINO=245

Heavy)
-Land Raider Redeemer: Assault Cannon, Sponson Flamestorm Cannons=240

-Predator: Autocannon, Sponson Lascannons=120

-Predator: Autocannon, Sponson Lascannons=120

TOTAL POINTS=1750

Let me know your comments and ideas!