Contastic

Like the last two years before it, NOVA comes to my neck of the woods with great fanfare. The largest convention I am part of running, the Press Gang has put a swath of events that I am excited to run. With players from all over the world coming in to play at their massive GT, it is great to have players from all over the US come and play in the WM and Hordes events that are put on.

New and Improved

I know its said often, and about many things, but I think this years schedule is the best we built. After some strong feedback from the community and a very sleep deprived crew, we took a hard look at what we had been running and just took it back a little bit, while also adding the Champions format. We had a spot in the morning, so we created a little breakfast machine, and then with Theme lists being shot into the sun, we had to replace that with something different, so we created the Iron Feast format. We’re also powering on with speed machine and even spelldraft.

So, that’s the schedule. Its pretty simple, when it all comes down to it. Each day has a solid Competitive tournament, with other excellent tournaments around it.

Thursday

Thursday is the Team Tournament. with up to 64 slots, this could, though it won’t this year, be a huge event. 6 rounds, counting the finals on Friday, and 100+ people could really be an amazing event in years to come. Its also an extremely popular event around here on the East Coast, and a fun start to a weekend.

Friday

Friday clearly has the most events. Its a jam packed day, no matter what your playing. Competitive minded players can play in one or both of the Masters Qualifier tournaments, with the top 8 after three rounds going on to play in the finals on Sunday. This is the first year doing an Open event, where anyone can enter and play in the 7 round event. It has received a large amount of praise from players who want to get masters games in and get ready for the coming tournament on Sunday. I really look forward to these continuing to be the Marquee events for the NOVA Open.

For those less inclined to punch each other in the face until they fall over, Breakfast Machine is a great way to start the day. With Breakfast food, coffee and quick, fun Warmachine games, its a solid way to warm up in the morning.

The afternoon starts out with the brand new and extremely popular Champions Tournament, the first limited format that PP has created. With a roster limited to four Warcasters or warlocks. It runs late, with 64 slots open, and the finals on Saturday evening, but it is sure to be an awesome event, with our own Hardcore Last Dance Master Craftsman Devon as one of the Painting Judges.

The Tier tournament, now gone from the hallowed halls of Privateer Press events, has been replaced with an experimental IRON FEAST  tournament. The first of its kind run at nova, it is a grueling test of skill and cleverness. Starting with 150 points of troops and jacks alongside Three Warcasters and their Warjack points, each round you get to build your army, tailored to the other players revealed Warcaster, much like a Gauntlet Round game. However, once you use a model or unit, it is considered depleted, and cannot be used again until all the models in the army have been used at least once. Put another way, they are removed from the pool, and replenished on the fourth round. This means that you’ll have your complete allotment of units and casters for round four, but so will your opponent. A true test. 

Saturday

Saturday is easily the both the lightest and the hardest day. If you’ve been playing the last few days and plan on Iron Gauntlet, this could surely break you, but if you’re at the event to relax and have a good time, Saturday is a great day for it.

First up, early in the morning, the vaunted Iron Gauntlet tournament.  Last year players came vast distances to participate in the NOVA opens first official Iron Gauntlet Qualifiers, and this year it is our most popular event with over a score of people signed up to play knockdown, drag-out fights with full painted armies. It should be a glorious event with extremely awesome crowd appeal.

The two less cutthroat tournaments of the day are some fan favorites. Spelldraft, one of the coolest formats to come at the end of MK II, is being tweaked and adapted to MK3. We’re steadily working on the spells and animus that we can give out to completely shatter the game and make playing against Cryx Unbearable again. After that as the weekend starts winding down, we put a little pressure on with Speedmachine an extremely fast paced (3 minute turns!) small army event. Its quick, brutal, and a ton of fun. 

Sunday

Sunday is the day to kick back, relax, and either watch some extremely hard fought and excellent games of Warmachine in the Masters Finals, or to throw down with some of the original insanity that is the Who’s the Boss tournament. While the Masters is a qualified for tournament, the Who’s the boss is open to all, with three rounds of mayhem and insanity with cross faction, cross game casters doing all sorts of completely unbalanced things. It is sure to be just as good in MK III as it was last edition.

Sponsors!

Finally, I’d like to thank the fantastic and awesome Sponsors of our events, who have provided an overabundance of prizes for Iron Arena games (oh, you didn’t know there was Iron Arena TOO?)  Tectonic Crafts Studios, Muse on Minis and KR Multicase will all have booths at the show, and I’d be remiss to not thank Miniduels, Secret Weapon Miniatures and Greenman Design for their contributions.

Hope to see you there!