The dust settles across the Nova Sector. Talara, Ayega Hive, Nova Prime, and countless other points of interest lay in ruin. Loyalist victory would have meant putting a limiter on the Warmaster’s ability to bring his forces to Terra. The fighting was intense, with participation of every Astartes Legion documented across the war zone. In addition, countless Mechanicum, Solar Auxilia, Militia, and even Titan Legios and Knight Houses exchanged blows. Trying in their own way to tip the scale in the Emperor’s or the Warmaster’s favor. But like all things, the brutality would come to an end and ultimately, after days of bitter conflict, Horus found himself the victor. The dust is settled, for now. Ready to be disrupted next year when once again, the Nova Sector becomes a brutal warzone.
It’s been a few weeks since The NOVA Open wrapped up for 2024 and after some introspection, I’m happy to report that the NOVA Open Convention continues to top itself in being the hobby highlight of my wargaming career. I say this as a pure Heresy Player (including Legions Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus) who has turned the NOVA Open Convention into his annual “big event”, his Super Bowl. My third year attending and I can only conclude that I absolutely adore this convention and am writing this article to share my thoughts and feelings on something that has turned a small (no pun intended) hobby of mine into something that I think about every single day.
What Is the NOVA Open?
Starting in 2009 as a 32 person outdoor-charity-bbq tournament in Northern Virginia, The NOVA Open has grown into a North American staple and the largest convention for tabletop gaming on the East Coast. With nearly 4000 attendees this year (a 20% increase from the year before), the NOVA Open is in that sweet spot where the benefits of a large and well organized convention can be seen without immediate agoraphobia setting in upon entry. The last two years have been held at the Washington Hilton in (take a guess) Washington, DC after the convention outgrew its previous space at the Hyatt Regency in Northern Virginia.
This year, the con lasted for four and half days (August 28th through September 1st) bringing its attendees together to participate in 130+ seminars, the Capital Palette (NOVA Open’s Painting Competition which saw over 800 entries this year), and most notably over 350 events spread across 55 categories (excluding art classes). Highlights include a massive 40K and AoS GT, Middle Earth, Necromunda, The Old World, Shatterpoint, Infinity, BattleTech, and (most importantly of course) my beloved Horus Heresy (again including Legions Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus).
What Is NOVA Open Heresy?
Since 2016 (as far as I’m aware or can find reference to online), The NOVA Open has hosted Horus Heresy games of various sizes. Records are a bit tougher from nearly a decade ago but it’s exciting to see that between two editions, the game is not only going strong but ever expanding! The launch of Heresy 2.0 led to a large spike in players (myself included) with roughly 180 players taking part in the various Heresy events this year.
Expanding from last year, Heresy Team hosted 16 events in 2024, 2 of which being Legions Imperialis (the first events to sell out this year for NOVA Open) and another for Adeptus Titanicus. Four of the events were Zone Mortalis (ZM), but we also hosted a sold out Doubles Event and a Mega Battle – *The Penultimate* that had 19 players (~60,000 points on the table) who brought their Titans, Primarchs, Super-heavies and everything else in their display case to throw down on the table.
For those curious (shout out to stats guy), faction breakdown for the last few years are as follows. I find the drop off of Imperial Fist and Iron Warriors to be notable this year and as a temporarily retired Imperial Fist player myself, I (and my opponents) found games with other armies to be a lot more enjoyable.
What makes NOVA Open Heresy so special comes down to a few things. First, a single team of Event Organizers (EO’s) have been working together for years here. While individuals take the lead on their respective events, there is a consistent culture and collaboration across all the games that makes the experience really come together. Second, this core group of EO’s and the regular players who have made it a habit to come back each and every year create a community that is special and distinct from the majority of the other game systems found at the convention. No matter the time of day, there will be a large group of players and EO’s in the Heresy room that while having known each other for years are just as welcoming to new players and faces.
You’ll find me in the Heresy room for nearly every single minute of the weekend (often until 2AM or later) and I absolutely love how strong the social side of the system is for our players. There is no “competitive event” for the Horus Heresy at the NOVA Open. Sure, wins and losses are tracked and the EO team will share narrative updates based on whether the Loyalists or Traitors are winning but you will not see an award for “1st Place”. While this doesn’t remove “feels bad moments” in their entirety, the stakes feel a lot lower when the player community is here to simply roll dice, laugh at crazy moments, and show off their painting and modeling progress to friends that oftentimes were last seen in person last year!
My Time as a Player
This year, I split my time evenly (mostly) as a player and EO. From a player standpoint I took part in 3 events, Thursday Morning Centurion, Saturday Doubles, and the Penultimate. This was probably my favorite year as a player to date as usually when I go to large events I experience at least 1 game that leaves a bad taste in my mouth but I’m happy to say that I enjoyed all 7 separate games of Heresy that I got in over the course of the con.
For Thursday Morning Centurion I started off with a 2K list of my 2024 hobby project, The Black Hounds. The Hounds are a Celtic themed, loyalist, World Eaters Recon Company that have been a labor of love and the topic of a few different posts that I’ve made at Goonhammer. Nearly complete and about 3k points painted this year, I have a few more units left before I say the army is done which I’ll then wrap up with a dedicated article here. Until then, see some photos below.
The Centurion event has a few limitations to dreadnoughts, vehicles, and the like but is effectively just a series of 2K games that are meant to keep spooky things like Primarchs and Fury of the Ancients far far away. I had three games in which I was paired up against Death Guard featuring Typhus (crushed me), a really cool Dark Angels army (also crushed me) and then some Alpha Legion featuring Fire Drakes (who just so happened to have crushed me). I had a blast every single time. Three great opponents, three great armies, and three really fun games. Ultimately I went 0-3 for the event *but* I came away with a win that I’ve been chasing since I started this hobby, Best Theme.
Thursday night I EO’d an evening of ZM games followed by a day of running LI events from 9AM through roughly 12AM. This was really special but something I’ll elaborate further on in the next section.
Saturday Morning I paired up with a friend of mine to take part in the 3K Doubles Event. Both players bring 1500 point lists and partner up to play 3, 3K games over about 8 hours. Time is tight here and having an extra set of players on a table doesn’t always help but its a lot of fun when all 4 players match up and “vibe” well. The most fun games of the weekend took place here.
My partner brought 1500 points of Mechanicum to go alongside the Hounds and ultimately we went 1-2. Game 1 we fought a really cool combined army of Luna Wolves and Shattered Legions, Game 2 features some GORGEOUS Emperors Children and Imperial Fists, and Game 3 had us paired up against some other local friends who brought a combo of Night Lords and Demons partnered with Word Bearers (and Erebus) and Demons. The first and third games were rough (from a points scored point of view) but honestly my partner and I hadn’t put a lot of planning into our combined list and that is definitely a lesson learned for next year. Either way I had a great time in both games and really didn’t mind the losses. Our second game though was extremely close with terrain playing a huge advantage. My infiltrator heavy list paired with Thallax gave us a lot of advantages in controlling the board and some mission unique bonuses to objectives let me score points just a little better than my foe, granting me my one proper win for the convention.
After the day’s event wrapped, a bunch of us got together, had dinner, and then made it back to the Heresy Room around 9pm to join in on the Penultimate. A massive event, and as stated 60K+ points on the table, I was really thrilled to get my army involved here. The EO team tracks wins across each Heresy event with the winning factions getting an advantage during the mega battle. If I remember correctly, loyalists gained a bonus to Initiative and Weapon Skill while traitors received their own perks and had the ability to drop Apocalypse blasts down on the table ruining the plans of Titans, Primarchs, and Superheavies alike. Each player can bring up to 3K points of stuff without any force org consideration and can join one end of the table in a massive ZM board or a 5 table long open field of battle that includes all the big stuff.
My Black Hound Praetor and 20 Rampagers would have done extremely well in the ZM table but papa Angron and a bunch of Dinosaur demons were on the big side of the table and boy do the Black Hounds enjoy a hunt. Over two to three turns my loyalist World Eaters not only killed three Arch-Daemons but also put down the Lord of the Red Sands himself. What else could I want? The Megabattle was ultimately a victory to Traitors but with a lowly Rampager slaying an Arch-Daemon, I walked away from the Penultimate with another prize – “Big Game Hunter” meaning that my unit had the largest point differential from the killing and killed models.
In conclusion I really had a great time as a player this year, three events felt like a good middle ground compared to the 5+ that I had entered years prior and with a few reps at NOVA Open under my belt, I have made some really great friendships that made convention downtime be more enjoyable. As mentioned earlier, we have a really great community in the NOVA Open Heresy room and frankly the benefits of the convention get better each year as one’s involvement in that community grows with it.
My First Year as an EO
As mentioned, what was really special for me this year was that it was my first as an EO. This year, there was a shift of a number of the Heresy EO’s and as such I was asked to run one of the 4 Zone Mortalis (ZM) events that the team would be hosting this year. Additionally, in partnership with another EO (Andrew), we brought Legions Imperialis to the convention.
Many of the events follow a similar script year to year and as such I had a good idea of what ZM games should be like and what works or doesn’t work for the convention and our players. Terrain is relatively “easy” as well with a bunch of tables created last year + a few other sets that we borrow from our community making the 10+ tables doable.
Overall the event went well with players enjoying my missions and just experiencing a great evening of hanging, rolling dice, and laughing at some crazy moments. The event was set on an Orbital surrounding one of the Nova Cluster’s planets with Mission 1 based on securing control of it’s weapon systems and then second focusing on firing said weapons (objectives). When firing you roll a D6 and there is potential to score no VP’s or Double on a 1 or a 6. Well one table had a player breaking all odds and rolling nearly 5-6 “Double VP’s” leading to a huge point difference for the table and basically cementing the entire event in their faction’s favor. I’ll have to think more about these situations next year but also these crazy edge cases are fun and lead to good stories during or after the event is over.
We wrapped the event by giving out prizes, and letting players walk around selecting their favorite army for both traitors and loyalists who each received a prize as “Best Army”. While Loyalists or Traitors can win an event, I try to keep individual prizes more focussed on the more artistic side of the hobby. That being said, I always keep my eyes open for a “best sportsman” that isn’t a required award but is ready to be acknowledged when a moment or player stands out from the rest. I was extremely appreciative of the positive feedback received at the end given that this was my first event at the NOVA Open. I had a lot of nerves leading up to the convention starting but getting Thursday wrapped up gave me a much better headspace for the day of back to back LI events coming next.
Bringing LI to NOVA Open
With this NOVA Open being LI’s first showing (given that the game is less than 1 year old) there were naturally a lot of additional hurdles to go through from an EO standpoint. Terrain and things are always going to be a factor but the fundamental concept of what an Legions Imperialis event looks like is still pretty unknown. Games Workshop has ran a few, Adepticon had one, and a few smaller events have occurred but the broader EO community hasn’t really come to a conclusion for what is the appropriate size or format for LI.
The game also is in need of a FAQ. A lot of sections of the book are ambiguous or contradictory and the *Independent* rule is personally the bane of my existence. With a number of known issues here, Andrew and I were unsure if we should go into the events with a list of house rules or just let things go and see what comes up the day of.
Despite these challenges, the scale of the game is amazing and I really feel that the 8mm scale lets you bring battles of the Horus Heresy to life. Losing a game of 40k epic as a Space Marine player meant that your Chapter was going to have to spend the next several hundred years rebuilding itself (narratively speaking) but with Heresy, bring 100+ marines to the table and lose them all. Who cares? 28mm is still my preferred scale to paint, but from a gameplay perspective I really enjoy what you can do on the table with LI and it was a privilege to run the convention’s first LI events. 28mm lets you play through a firefight, but 8mm lets you play battles.
Ultimately, I would say that the events went pretty well. After spending hours on terrain, debating mission design, and formats, Andrew and I came to a couple conclusions that we brought going into the convention.
- We need a variety of tables, not just city fights using GW terrain.
- 1500 – 2000 points is the LI sweet spot and anything higher will be impossible to run a multi game event for.
- The game is extremely top heavy with deployment + turn 1 taking a long time.
- It’s year 1, and even though we have opinions of house rules or interpretations of rules, we should keep things hands off and let players come to the event with minimal EO adjustments to the game.
- Many players have gotten less than 5 games of LI under their belt. Be aware of that and accept it.
With the above in mind, we designed a mission packet that basically used the official rulebook missions (resized to a 4×4) and had a day event of 2 x 2000 point games. For the evening, we kept the tables the same size but chose to go ahead with 1500 points instead. We additionally had secondary objectives predetermined and had prizes around some of them. Who scored the most Carnage across the event as an example.
For the day event we were sold out and had a truly great range of armies show up. Solar Aux were underrepresented despite being the online boogieman faction and while some lists made my eye twitch at first glance, I was overall pretty happy with everyone from a sportsmanship standpoint. Games were also pretty smooth from a rule standpoint but I do think varying levels of player experience meant that whoever felt more comfortable with the rules probably led debates on rule interpretation during their respective games. If both players can agree on things and are okay playing together, that’s fine with me.
At the end of the day event Andrew and I agreed that we were correct in our conclusions. It was good that we went with book missions and did not mix a lot up for year 1. A lot of players were new to the game and some were even playing their first games at the convention (I can say that those players had a blast) which was exciting to see but also did bring challenges with game time. Most of the 2000 point games were slow, with deployment and turn 1 taking over 1.5 – 2 hours meaning that many games only went into turn 2 or 3 by the end of the allotted time. Specialist formations also tended to slow games down with drop pods causing an additional time spike when figuring out correct deployment. The day event lasted from 9-5pm and I think 2 x 2K games was still cutting it close and having both games at 1500 points would have been better. Perhaps this will get better but a big thing for next year is finding ways to speed up deployment and that first turn for players. LI is very killy and naturally very top heavy as by turn 2 or 3 you have lost enough of your units that the game picks up speed, but investing 60% of the game time into turn 1 is not ideal.
By the end of the event we got a ton of great feedback from our players, they enjoyed their games, and we were overall very happy with the results of LI’s year 1 event 1 for Heresy. See some pictures below of some of my favorite armies or moments during the day.
After a dinner break, I was back in the Heresy room setting up again for LI Evening. Going into the event we had always planned it to be 1500 but points but I did experience a significant drop off of player participation during the evening event (despite a high number of tickets sold). The evening events are always more casual with a higher rate of people opting to stay out in DC for a long dinner instead of rushing back to the hotel. Some of the other day events also ran long, impacting a portion of players that definitely saw LI as their second or third priority of event that weekend. With a smaller group of players we chose to change up the evening event from 2 x 1500 point games to a single 2v2, 3000 point game for the players. This meant that each player brought their 1500 point list to the table but with a partner faced off against another pair.
This in hindsight was a choice that I have mixed feelings on but I thought it was better to get 1 good game in that evening instead of 2 smaller ones. Often at evening events, after game 2, its close to 11pm and players have lost a lot of steam. But even then it was clear that game speed as I mentioned from the Day Event was still an issue and I should have probably just kept the event to 1500 points to keep the ball rolling.
Either way, the players had fun and with the smaller pool of participants at night, I was able to make it so that every player walked away with a trophy or a prize for being there. I want to thank everyone who showed up to LI (day and night) as it was really cool going through the motions of the event together. I look forward to seeing a lot of repeat faces next year as well.
Until Next Year
Well there you go. Like I said, this was a great NOVA Open and really a blast for me as both a player and Event Organizer. This was the first year where I was truly proud of the army that I brought with me for 28mm Heresy and I was thrilled to see the effort put into the events pay off with a lot of happy faces from our players.
As a player, I had a lot of goals this year to come out swinging, level up my hobby, and make it to the convention with an army that might win games, but most of all showed off the time and effort that I have put into getting better at the painting side of the hobby (which is really my favorite part). The force failed to win a lot of games but I was thrilled to see the progress that I had made this past year as a painter acknowledged.
As an EO, I wasn’t sure if this would be something that I would like to do again. But if anything, I’m more excited than before, and really want to put in the time next year and further develop the Heresy events. I welcome any and all to join us next year or at the very least, come by and take a look at what we are doing in the Heresy room. It’s a different energy from any other system at the NOVA Open and while I’ve tried my best to present that, you really need to come check it out for yourself!
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