Some NOVA Pics

Wow, it's been a while.  I went on an unintended 40k 3-and-a-half month hiatus, which I'm now sad about because it meant that I took a break from playing the game entirely, missing several tournaments, lots of opportunities to game and hobby with friends and also the opportunity to finish up my armies and play in this years' NOVA.  Being only about an hour away from DC, and the fact that I am moving later this year means that its unlikely that I'll ever get the chance to go again to NOVA on the cheap... sadface.

That being said though, me and a couple of pals from my gaming group went over to check out the scene for a day, of which I snapped a few pics.

It was quite the experience to walk through a GT and see all of the fully painted armies, and neat conversions that had been done.  I also saw a few of the "internet celebrities" and players that are known by name for their consistent performance in tournaments.

Entering the tournament hall, seeing around a hundred games going is quite the sight.

Alex Fennel was sporting Pink-dar with Tau allies.  He has a similarly painted Necrons and Grey Knights army that I remember seeing pictures of last year.

I forget his RL name but user HulkSmash was at NOVA sporting a drop pod list with really awesome counts-as drop pods that looked like drills coming out of the ground. Lol his army gave off a Bioshock vibe (probably just the drills/Big Daddys haha) - I found it quite beautiful.

There was a heavy Chaos Demons presence at NOVA and I wish I had snapped more pictures.  This pic, despite being a little blurry was using a couple really cool alternate Tzeentch greater daemon models.

This was a really well done Nurgle Army with Tau Allies that I was a big fan of - I don't remember the fellow who was running this list, but he was using Vortex Beasts as counts as fiends (an idea that I had a while back but didn't follow through on due to lack of $$$), and had used green stuff to make "Doom 3" style growths all over his models.

                                          

The vendor section was also pretty neat, although smaller than I'm used to (I've frequented board game conventions in the past, this was a first for me).  The main attraction seemed to be the Bits Guy who had traveled out from Ohio and set up shop on the bottom floor of the hotel.  He had bins full of "singles" of just about everything you could want including vintage rogue trader stuff.

                                          

The Jawaballs guys were also there selling their painting tutorial DVDs and also displaying Jawaballs' fabulously painted (sadly now in sore need of a codex update) Blood Angel army.

It was a good time, I am planning on posting a light analysis of the tournament results later - sadly no lists yet to look at, but from what I saw, Tau and Eldar were out in abundance, followed by Chaos Daemons, Chaos Marines and Necrons. Apart from Dark Angels, marines and guard armies seemed rather few and far between (being as that Space Marines are about to get their huge update, it made sense).

Overall, it was a nice refresher and recharge to get motivated to painting and playing again.