With the rumor of SteamCon US being in Nashville, TN late September, early October, it does not look like I will be able to attend SteamCon. For some reason I was thinking it will take place again in December, but I should have realized that the World Championships will be taking place this year at SteamCon UK and that is in November so SteamCon US needs to be before the UK. I had already made plans with my wife to visit Willamsburg, VA the first week in October, so there is no way I will be able to do both.So bring on the NOVA Open 2018. Nova Open 2018 will be taking place August 30th - September 2nd in Arlington, VA (just outside of Washington DC). Nova Open is in it’s 9th year and has become the largest East Coast miniature wargaming convention. I am already attending AdeptiCon (probably the largest and in the Midwest) so why not the largest on the East Coast. The drive is not too bad, about 9.5 hours. So the plan woud be to leave Wednesday night and drive throough the night so that way we only need a hotel room for Thursday-Saturday night.
The hard decison now was what events do my son and I want to play in. NOVA Open has a 3 Man Team Tournament for Warmachine/Hordes. I asked my friend here in Michigan if he would be interested in playing on a team with us and he was excited. So the Team Tournament took care of our Thursday events, now I had to decide on Friday-Sunday.
I spent this past weekend looking over the schedule of events and descriptions and trying to decide what we want to play in. I was going back and forth and finally came to a decision this morning and registered for our events. The Thursday Team Tournament is scheduled to end around 1:00 AM Friday morning, so I was thinking I did not want an all day event or one that started too early on Friday. I was thinking maybe Breakfastmachine on Friday and then Champions for WM/H on Saturday, but I elected to enter in the Guild Ball NOVA Open Championships Qualifier on Friday. Then we will do Breakfastmachine on Saturday and finally Speedmachine on Sunday.
Thursday 8/30
WM/H 3 Man Team Tournament
Friday 8/31
Guild Ball NOVA Championship Qualifier
Saturday 9/1
WM/H Breakfastmachine
Sunday 9/2
WM/H Speedmachine
If we have any downtime and feel like playing more games, we can then do some Iron Arena games for Warmachine/Hordes. I feel most of the downtime may be spent in the Vendor Hall though.
I decided on Guild Ball for Friday for a few reasons. 1. We will be missing SteamCon US. 2. I am sure that when my son moves here in June we will be partaking in some WM/H leagues and local SteamRollers, so a different game for variety would be nice. 3. Again when my son moves here we will also be getting some more Guild Ball in, it will be nice to look forward to a Guild Ball event and prepare for it. 4. Finally, it will probably be our last Guild Ball event for Season 3, Season 4 will start up in November at SteamCon UK.
So NOVA Open will be our next big event after this weekend AdeptiCon. Once we get back from AdeptiCon, it will be time to priortize my painting queue for what I need done for the NOVA Open.
Wow! Only 3 more days until I leave for AdeptiCon 2018 and I am really excited for it. One of the benefits (actually probably the only benefit) of moving back to the Midwest is that I am now in closer driving distance to many more Conventions. When I lived in Arizona, it was the Las Vegas Open and Kingdom-Con were the main conventions (California does have a few more but not as big as these two). Though I have never made it out to Kingdom-Con in San Diego, I did make it to the Las Vegas Open twice and may plan to return to the LVO in the distant future. Now living once again in the Midwest there are a lot more choices within a days drive with the obvious one being AdeptiCon. Now it is just a matter of having the funds to attend all these events.
I decided to change it uo a little bit from the recent Trollblood’s and Minion models and paint up another Guidl Ball model for the Blacksmith’s Guild. Here is ‘Cast’, an Apprentice Winger for the Guild. On the charge or with some support, she can really put out some damage.
Cast
Cast
I have one more Trollblood model for the week, and today it is a ‘Stone Sribe Elder’. The ‘Stone Scribe Elder’ is a Command Attachment model who is used with a Unit of ‘Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes’. Each turn the ‘Stone Scribe Elder’ can use one of three effects that can benefit your army. The one that I am liking is called STONE STRENGTH which is while within the Protective Aura, friendly Faction models gain +1 STR.
A Light Warbeast that currently costs 10 points that can pack a punch and here we have ‘Troll Axer’. ‘Troll Axer’ is a MAT 6, DEF 12, ARM 17 Light Warbeast who has a RNG 2, P+S 14 Great Axe. ‘Troll Axers’ Great Axe also has THRESHER which allows him to make one melee attack against each model in its LOS. This is very helpful where he can go and charge in on some light infantry and easily clearing out 2-4 models with his threat range. ‘
Back to a little painting with my Hordes Trollbloods army. I am working my way down a ‘Doomshaper 2’ list that I will like to try out in the “Storm of the North” Theme and it is very Warbeast heavy (actually I currently have 3 lists for this Warlock and all are Warbeast heavy).
I check Facebook and Twitter quite frequently throughout the day, and this headline from Privateer Press I just missed. I do not know if Privateer Press even announced it on social media or my Facebook algorithms are just off. 
Back at SteamCon UK and US, Steamforged Games came out with a new friendly gaming format called “Rookie League”. The idea is to start with a player from a lower level and after each game he earns experience and his card gets better and better.
Well last night I got to play ‘Barnabas 2’ once again vs ‘Kolgrima 1’ and once again ‘Barnabas 2’ has not really dont too much for me. I cannot get him to battle for him to really do any damage. At least this time I did not lose by clock, but lost by Assiassination at the top of Turn 3 (Trollbloods went first). ‘Kolgrima 1’ kept on using FREEZING MIST and placing 4 3” AOE cloud effects that blocked anything ‘Barnabas 2’ can charge into. When ‘Kolgrima 1’ finally got close enough she then used multiple WIINTER’S TIDE to reduce ‘Barnabas 2’ to 1 damage box and his ‘Earthborn Dire Troll’ then charged on to finish the job (though it was much harder for the Earthborn to hit Barnabas 2). WINITER’S TIDE from ‘Kolgrima 1’ got to ignore SWARM and EXECRATION OF BLACKEST NIGHT that ‘Barnabas 2’ had on himself.
The countdown continues, only 10 days till I am headed for AdeptiCon and I am really looking forward to attending it. Although I wish I would have gotten in some more practice playing Warmachine/Hordes and some Guild Ball. I was unable to get in a game of WM/H last Thursday night, but the plan is to get in a game tonight. It will probably be my last game before heading to AdeptiCon so I better soak up as much knowledge as possibel tonight.
