Thursday and Friday of Labor Day weekend, Tom and I rode up to the Nova Open to play in the friday 1500 point Early War tournament. We got there fairly early Thursday night and took the opportunity to get some gaming in!
First we watched a game of Dropzone Commander between Scott and James. They've only had the minis for a few days, but the ever prolific Scott (of
Itty Bitty Soldiers fame) already has 4 starter factions painted up! In this game, we watched Scott's
Terran UCM vs James' Shaltari. James hasn't yet had a chance to paint up his own Shaltari, but you can look at Scott's on
his blog.
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| Shaltari infantry search a building |
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| A UCM dropship and APC navigate the streets |
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| UCM infantry searches a building |
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| the Shaltari ship is narrowly visible |
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| Terran forces advance |
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| The Terran tanks press home the attack |
I have to admit that I really really like the Terran models, but really dislike the Shaltari. The gameplay didn't strike me, but I was watching a small game. To be fair, 600 points of FoW isn't all that excited to look at either. The game was interesting- infantry is super slow! It's all about the dropships! I might have to get Scott to give me a proper demo in the future.
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| The Shaltari ship |
After DZC, Tom and I played on Scott's Polish Lancers vs Soviet Strelkovy table. A full AAR will be forthcoming, but you can see how it played out when Scott played it
here
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| So many soviets. |
Near the end of the evening, Alex joined us for a game of Saga. He brought his Welsh and I ran my Normans. Check out the full AAR over on
The Tapestry in the next few days!
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| Normans vs Welsh |
After a solid night of hanging with Tom, Scott, James, Alex, and "Throck Morton" of
Throck of War fame, it was time to get some sleep before the tournament!
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| Kevin's Afrika Korps won best painted |
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| My Frenchies |
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| Tom's Panzers |
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| My first game vs Byron's Czech Panzerkompanie |
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| Byron's 8-rads were a thorn in my side the whole time! |
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| Cell mates. |
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| My 2nd game against Alex's Carri. |
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| French infantry holding an objective |
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| Panhards! |
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| The Laffly ambush in game 2 was devastating |
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| Here they come! |
My game 3 was so intense I must've forgotten pictures! My opponent, Chuck, was a great guy. He was heavily influenced by some of the lists Tom and I have run in our Early War games and played very well. The tournament must have been brutal, for I went 4-3, 5-2, 5-2 and that put me on top!
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| One of the prizes |
In all, Tom and I had a great time. Kudos to Scott and the rest of the NOVA Open event. I will definitely be returning next year!
