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| by Danny Internets | August 23rd, 2010 - 8:30 am
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I first met Nick a few months ago during this year’s ‘Ard Boyz Preliminaries at The Only Game in Town (Somerville, NJ). In fact, we actually squared off against each other in the final round with him playing reserves-based Tyranids and me with my Imperial Guard. Nick is an very skillful player who is knowledgeable not just of the weaknesses of the opposition, but also of his own army, a refreshing hubris that I believe enhances his play greatly.
In term of the army, Nick plays a Fatecrusher list with a typical core and some atypical filler, but at NOVA he was able to beat the odds (or at least the internet’s odds) and win the majority of his games, edging yours truly out of a spot in the championships by 0.01 points! In fact, Daemons performed well across the board, with at least two (or three?) of three players going 3-1. Obviously insignificant from a statistical standpoint, it remains anecdotally interesting in the most mech-dominated tournament atmosphere I’ve ever seen.
Oh, and did I mention that he, like Tony Kopach, is only 16? You’d never know it from looking at him though (I thought for sure he was in college). That just makes his success here all the more extraordinary.
Nick’s Chaos Daemons:
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| by Danny Internets | August 20th, 2010 - 5:54 pm
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I met Chumbalaya (aka Frodo, apparently) during the Whiskey Challenge on Friday and to my surprise we ended up squaring off against one another during the third game of the tournament! While I may have burnt down the Shire, Chumby was able to beat his other opponents so savagely that he managed to secure himself a spot as one of the top 3-1 finishers of the day and continued on to day 2.
Chumbalaya’s list is noteworthy because, in conjunction with the other Space Wolves lists posted, it showcases the wide variety of build types open to the codex for competitive play. Even the better army books only feature two or three competitive army types, however the Space Wolves can pump out just about any variation of mech, semi-mech, or full infantry and retain the potential to crush face. This army demonstrates the last of those variants and doesn’t contain a single vehicle, instead relying on in-your-face threats such as Thunderwolf Cavalry and Lone Wolfs to dictate target priority backed up by an assload (scientifically accurate term) of BS4 krak and frag missiles.
Frodo’s doom squad went a little something like this:
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| by Danny Internets | August 20th, 2010 - 8:30 am
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Justin Hilderbrandt (aka Dashofpepper) is the last but not the least of the NOVA Open players to go undefeated at the end of the first day. While I don’t think particularly highly of Orks, Dash clearly knows how to play them as evidenced not only by his performance in the tournament, but by his (extremely) narrow loss to Stelek’s Space Wolves during the Friday night Whiskey Challenge.
Note that Dash takes an unconventional build here, opting for more Battlewagons over what have become modern staples of successful Ork armies, such as Killa Kans and massed Warbuggies. Perhaps the most unconventional element is the huge mob of (15) Burna Boyz in a Battlewagon. Because Battlewagons are open-topped the template can be placed touching any part of the vehicle when fired…and multipled by 15 since there’s no limit to the number of models firing out. If you let that unit survive you can kiss a full unit goodbye every turn – nothing short of Plague Marines survive 80-100 S4 AP5 hits.
Lastly, I learned one more nuance to this list in the brief dealings I had with Justin over the weekend. Initially I thought that Ghazghkull would ride with one of the Boyz squads (the one without the Big Mek) to diffuse the threat levels more evenly across the 3 wagons, however Dash told me that he puts him with the Burnas because it’s more valuable to have a powerklaw in each vehicle to make use of the boarding planks.
And the last of the Tournament Ace lists is as follows:
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| by Danny Internets | August 19th, 2010 - 8:30 am
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I didn’t get a chance to play Samuel Penson’s Space Wolves, but I did watch parts of his games against Dashofpepper’s Orks and Nick Nanavati’s Daemons. Sam went undefeated on Saturday, however the 88 player format left an odd numbered 5 gamers with perfect records at the close of the day. In order to trim this number down to 4 it was necessary to have the two lowest seeded players battle for the right to keep playing in the finals. At 8 am Sunday morning Sam and Justin (Dashofpepper) played a randomly selected mission; Dash bested him and Sam went on to play in the 3-1 bracket.
Like Tony Kopach’s winning list, this one features Njal at the helm, but with less emphasis on Troops and heavy reliance on large packs of Thunderwolf Cavalry. But perhaps the most striking thing about this army is the complete absence of Long Fangs.
And the full army list:
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| by Danny Internets | August 18th, 2010 - 11:30 am
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If you’re reading this it’s likely that you’ve already seen Stelek’s widely publicized list over at YesTheTruthHurts, but for the sake of completeness I’m going to post it up here as well, along with a couple of pictures.
I have to admit that after reading Stelek’s list I was left scratching my head as what makes it tick, but seeing it function made things clear. This list is extremely balanced and is a veritable Swiss army knife of 40k resourcefulness – it’s got everything it needs to deal with any situation that can be thrown at it. Unsurprisingly, this wholeheartedly supports Stelek’s assertion that take-all-comers armies are the ones that win tournaments in 5th edition.
On to the list:
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| by Danny Internets | August 18th, 2010 - 8:30 am
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The following it Mark Ferek’s Blood Angels army (painted as Crimson Fists) which not only managed to completely own my IG, but take it all the way to the championship game against Tony Kopach’s Space Wolves.
Also worth of note, Mark managed to best Dashofpepper’s Ork’s in the closest and most exciting game I’ve ever witnessed, which ultimately came down to a single die roll to decide which table quarter Mephiston would claim as he straddled the line at the end of turn 7.
Mark Ferek – Blood Angels – 2000 points
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Mephiston |
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Librarian – Shield of Sanguinius, Fear of the Darkness |
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5 Honor Guard – Meltagun x2, flamer x2 |
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Rhino |
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5 Honor Guard – Meltagun x2, flamer x2 |
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Rhino |
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| by Danny Internets | August 17th, 2010 - 1:30 pm
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Now presenting the alpha dog Tony Kopach and the Space Wolves list that won the 2010 NOVA Open:
Tony Kopach – Space Wolves – 2000 points
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Njal Stormcaller |
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Wolf Lord – Runic armor, power fist, storm shield, saga of the bear, wolf tooth necklace, thunderwolf |
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Rune Priest – Chooser of the slain, living lightning, jaws of the world wolf |
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3 Wolf Guard – Combi-melta x3, powerfist x3 |
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5 Wolf Scouts – Meltagun |
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8 Grey Hunters – Meltagun, mark of the Wulfen, wolf standard |
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Rhino |
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7 Grey Hunters – Meltagun, mark of the Wulfen, wolf standard |
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Rhino |
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7 Grey Hunters – Meltagun, mark of the Wulfen, wolf standard |
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Rhino |
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5 Grey Hunters – Flamer |
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Razorback – Twin-linked lascannon |
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| by Danny Internets | August 17th, 2010 - 10:30 am
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It’s been a big year for me in gaming. A couple of months ago I managed to win the ‘Ard Boyz Semifinals at Brothers Grim Games in NY and this past weekend I clinched the Renaissance Man award at the NOVA Open hosted by Mike Brandt in Virginia. For those who don’t know, the Renaissance Man award is the equivalent of Best Overall at a traditional GT, which combines both soft scores (appearance and sportsmanship) and hard scores (game outcomes) into an overall ranking. At the NOVA Open both the Renaissance Man (Best Overall) and Tournament Champion (Best General) were awarded an invitation to the Games Workshop sponsored Throne of Skulls tournament in Las Vegas in addition to a boatload of other loot: Warstore voucher, Back-2-Base-ix voucher, an Ork Stompa, and a ticket to Adepticon 2011!
Not that I expected to have a serious shot at either, but getting the Renaissance Man award really came out of left field for me. Honestly, no one was more surprised by the result than I was. Hell, the only reason I was even paying attention was because I expected Jawaballs, Nick Nanavati, or Hulksmash to win it. I almost didn’t bother taking my army back out for paint judging because at no point did I think I was in contention for anything other than Tournament Ace (going 4-0 in the first day).
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| by Danny Internets | August 17th, 2010 - 8:30 am
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With the NOVA Open officially at an end it’s time to post some of the results (also available at Whiskey & 40k), make some people e-famous, and make known what lists were able to break faces and egos at the most competitive 40k event that has ever taken place in the United States.
Event Awards
Renaissance Man (Best Overall) – Dan Matulich (aka Danny Internets)
(Click here for army list)
Heart of Gold (Best Sportsman) – S. Chase (tied with Dan Matulich)
Greater Than the Sum (Best Army Appearance) – E. Furman
Well Beyond the Crayon (Best Single Miniature) – T. Williamson (aka Old Shatter Hands)
A Miniature Frankenstein (Best Converted Miniature) – D. Brown
Renaissance Man? More like Renaissance Dan. No one in the room was more surprised than me to hear my name called for that one. Winning my ticket to the Las Vegas invitational tournament by means of an award that I typically deride as a nonsensical measuring stick for competitive events made the irony almost palpable. As Chumbalaya and Dashofpepper later told me, I’ll probably never hear the end of it.
On an unrelated note, the Eldar army that won for Greater Than the Sum was unbelievable. Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to check out the other appearance winners.
Tournament Awards
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| by Sir Biscuit | July 20th, 2010 - 8:30 am
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It’s something I’ve always had a hard time trying to quantify. I’ve been making lists for a long time, and it’s become sort of instinctive for me: this element needs fire support, this one needs melee protection. It’s always better, however, to know the logic behind your thoughts. Knowing your thought processes and yourself is essential to growing as a 40k player. (Not to mention as a person!)
To understand what makes a unit good in a given list we need to understand two things: what strategy is, and what a force multiplier is.
Strategy contrasts with the similar concept of tactics. Quite simply, a strategy is the overall battleplan, while tactics is the movement of individual units. The general idea of refusing the flank and concentrating your forces on one side of the board to roll up the enemies flank and take their initial objective while contesting the midfield ones is a strategy. It doesn’t account for the minutia of movement and engagement on anything but the broadest scale. The actual movements of models in that game is tactics.
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Email Danny Internets
TastyTaste: After about the first 15 comments I thought to myself wouldn’t it be fun to calculate the average...
Tyr'sVanguard: I suppose I get belligerently drunk too often to be a champion… :(
Dashofpepper: Hod, that has nothing to do with my success. The flash cards on the other hand, have everything to do...
Hod: @Dash Sex good. I think thats sacrifice enough. Though one thing you do present that has been the staple of...
yermom: I guess thats why im only 13th. I spend far too much time with females!
Green7: Why havenbt they ever put in the results for BoLScon ? Paul Murphy would be ranked #1 if they did. I talked...
Yur Ahlozer: wow fail.
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