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| Harald Deathwolf there killed a lot of Screamers. |
I went 1-2 the first day, 0-3 the second, and 2-0 on the third. I played 4 games against Space Marines, which I think ended up being a bit of an advantage. Or, at least, I think I learned enough from the first 3 Space Marine games that I was able to win the last one.
I learned two important things from these games. First- my Imperial Knight is amazing and I don't know why I waited so long to run him. The second is that Centurions are stone cold killers. They were so rough to deal with, and they did some mighty blows to my Knight.
The missions were very different this year. At the beginning of each game, you got to choose between two primary missions and three secondary missions. For the most part, the difference between the missions was the first was scoring at the end of the game, and the second was scoring cumulatively throughout the game.
With my drop pods and the giant base of my Imperial Knight, the cumulatively scoring missions made the most sense. I dropped the pods on/near the objectives and just played it out from there. It obviously could have gone better than 3-5 (I was really hoping to do better than last year) but I had a really nice time.
I did quite a bit less this time around, just the GT. There weren't any seminars that really appealed to me during my free time, so I just played. Although, I did enter my converted Rune Priest into the painting competition. The competition, especially in the single figures, was fierce. There were some truly stunning pieces that were entered.
Unfortunately, other than the big step up in the painting competition from last year, the rest of the con side was still rather lacking. There were less vendors and a lot less variety of items available. I was looking for some interesting individual pieces to paint, and there really was mostly Games Workshop minis (and a ton of Flames of War stuff).
I actually ended up coming home with spending money leftover, which I didn't even think would ever happen. I did leave with a Malifaux starter and a handful of cool metal Space Wolves. But I didn't find anything particularly inspirational to paint, which I was really looking forward to.
I had a great time, but NOVA still really is more focused on the tournament than anything else. And after going to Adepticon, I know that's not what I'm looking for in an event right now. I really want to try new games and get exposed to things I haven't seen before.
So, I probably won't be playing in the GT next year. Instead, I'm going to GenCon. After all the hype about it this year, and seeing all the events that went on, I am very excited about it. They're only a few weeks apart, so I can't do both. I actually reserved a hotel already and everything. But NOVA is so close that I'll probably show up and do some seminars anyway.