NOVA Open: My Curious Excursion

As I've mentioned plenty of times since starting this blog, I'm new to the whole tabletop miniatures gaming hobby. I am having a blast, and it has become something of a consuming pastime, sometimes scarily crowding out my interest in other things that might have once captured my imagination and arrested my attention.

So it stands to follow then that I decided I should go today to check out the biggest miniatures gaming convention in the Washington, D.C. area, NOVA Open. I liked the backstory of how the convention started as a big BBQ in a local fella's backyard, drawing about 32 players for an afternoon of fun back in 2009. It smacked of just the kind of community-building inspirational success story that's hard not to like.

Unfortunately, that homegrown spirit and sense of fun wasn't in much evidence today as I roamed around the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Virginia (just across the Potomac River from D.C.).

The last time I was in that hotel for a conference was a few years ago as an attendee at the annual Society of Scholarly Publishing convention. I remember having a boozy lunch with my good pal and publishing colleague John Neikirk. Despite the hundreds of academics and academic publishers, it was considerably less somber than my visit to the Hyatt today.

I went in suspecting that this might not exactly be my crowd. An earlier look at the scheduled games list over the four day convention left me hard pressed to find a one that intrigued. Between that list and the photos of past events, it was clear that this was a heavily Games Workshop-centric gathering.

After attending four other wargaming conventions in the past year (two Historicons, Fall In, and Barrage Con), NOVA Open stood out as more than a bit weird, with table after table of people playing the exact same game. Attendance was quite high, and unlike the other conventions I'd attended this past year where I usually felt at the young end of the spectrum, today at the decrepit age of 48 I definitely felt like I pulled the average age upward.

I guess the first clue of what to expect was right in the title, "Open," making it clear these game were going to be focused on competition and tournaments. 

Very focused.

And the competitors? A legion of serious young nerds playing one flavor or another of Warhammer 40K or Star Wars X-Wing. There wasn't anything like the variety of games found at the other cons I’ve attended, where one table will have a civil war battle, the one next to it will have giant robots battling across a futuristic metropolis, and the next one after that will feature a sprawling miniature dungeon.

Nope...NOVA was giant rooms cramped with row after row of tables with people all playing the same basic game. Periodically an announcer over the PA would officiously indicate that a game session had begun.

What I didn't see was any real frivolity, guffawing, cheers of victory, or theatrical groans of defeat. I saw a lot of twenty- and thirty-somethings hunched over games hurriedly extending tape measures and earnestly marching exquisitely painted miniatures across their mock battlefields.

All of this seriousness was off-putting in an unexpected way. I wanted to shake some of these folks and tell them, "Loosen up! You're playing with toy space marines!" It made me fear what impression a bystander to one of my games might take away. Hopefully they would see a lot more smiling, back slapping, and general jocular camaraderie than I witnessed today.

Another thing I saw was way too many feet. Wargamers should not wear sandals.

On a more positive note, I did see some lovely terrain and beautifully painted miniatures. I'm not a big fan of the Warhammer or GW aesthetic, at least not the one that has dominated for the last 25 or so years. Like these gamers, it takes itself way too seriously, with its dark and pretentious tone seeming to overcompensate for something. 

(Note that I am, however, a fervent fan of early Warhammer and Citadel miniatures, what I understand is now known as "Oldhammer," a term I presume coined to allow us grognards to draw a demarcating line between the good Warhammer stuff of yore and the oppressive, faintly fascistic current aesthetic. A glance through my blog will reveal quite a weakness for these characterful Oldhammer sculpts that do a great job of striking the proper balance between fun and fearsome.)

Despite quickly concluding that NOVA Open wasn't really my scene, I still did take a lot of photos of terrain and battlefields for future ideas and inspiration. I'll share some of them below. (click on any to enlarge.)

This was a decent way to get a water effect for a river: simply use a plastic sheet with a colored cloth beneath it.

I always like the idea of playing on a Laketown-style board. The little ice drifts are a nice touch.

Really nice fast moving water effect on this river with the only way across by foot being some fallen tree trunks. The picture below shows how this is practically handled in game with a translucent acrylic strip bridging the river above those fallen trees.

Lovely 4'x4' board with some neat gradual elevation from the left to the right side up the hill to the little stone structure in the corner. I'd like to build more slopes and hills into my own skirmish games to broaden some of the tactical choices in battles.

Cool ships that, even more impressively, seemed scratch built. You'll surely have noticed by now the NOVA Open branding on the table alongside every battlefield. The con oppressively splays its name not only between every battlefield, but sometimes on the very mats themselves atop which the battles are fought. Gotta say, that started to feel obnoxious.

Look! A Star Wars game! And another. And another. And another. And another. Wait!....nope, and another....filling an entire room.

Warhammer 40K...the Leni Riefenstahl Commemorative Edition.

Am I allowed to make fun of this guy's weird steampunk wizard outfit?

A girl? Who let her in here?!?

Hey! There's another one. This one looks like a girlfriend, though... 

No, this young man and woman weren't exchanging phone numbers for a possible illicit rendezvous after the convention. I believe they were making sure they properly recorded each other's player IDs for the tournament's judges to verify their new ranking

This battlefield structure obviously lit up, which I love in scratch-built terrain, but I couldn't find an outlet to plug it in.

Look at that terrible NOVA Open branding right there on the battlefield! Grrrr!

I will note that there were definitely more women playing at this wargame convention than any other one I've been to so far. That goes in the "Plus" column for NOVA Open, I guess.

 

Vendors

Perhaps just as disappointing as the game variety was the rather paltry showing in the vendors' area, something Historicon and the other HMGS conventions excel at. There were a few dealers, but I suspect because everybody plays the same three games at this convention, there are only so many vendors out there with stock that would appeal to this niche audience. And there was certainly no equivalent to Historicon's Wally's Basement, the popular flea market area where any attendee can sign up for a stall for a couple of hours and sell off or trade their excess terrain, miniatures, and rule books to one another.

That said, I probably got my most enjoyment from interacting with some of the folks exhibiting in the vendor's area today, including a winning British lass named Sophie who chatted me up in line at the pizza-by-the-slice truck parked in front of the Hyatt. She was there running demos of some new Warhammer card game (see last photo above for a shot of their demo area).

I also particularly enjoyed talking to Matt Barker from New Zealand, who was at the con representing his company Printable Scenery, from which I've purchased a couple of large collections of digital 3D files in the recent past (Winterdale and The Lost Islands). I had yet to actually have a chance to print any of them on my 3D printer, so it was good to see a large display of them--many painted--at their booth. Below are some photos...

My Loot

I knew that I wasn't going to play any games today, but I was determined to at least find some stuff to add to my growing pile of wargaming gear.

While a couple of my fellow Scrum Clubbers own Firelock Games' Blood and Plunder, I probably won't pick it up unless the Second Saturday gang falls in love with playing it. That said, I've been slowly accumulating pieces for a sea-based adventure, and so I picked up a handful of these "miscasts" Firelock likes to sell for about half price at these wargaming shows. I'll slap some paint on these and start cogitating on a scenario we can use these in. 

I've been curious about this game since first hearing about it, but the way Lucid Eye structured its pre-order campaign turned me off, and so I originally passed on it. One of the vendors had a reasonable price on the rulebook, cards, and the minis, and since I wouldn't have to pay shipping from the U.K., I'd save a few bucks that way, too. The vendor excitedly told me "This is Rick Priestley's latest rules!" I didn't know who that was, and had to Google him when I got home. I guess he's a big deal in Warhammer circles...

Parting Shots

Well...I now have a better idea where I do and don't fit in the world of wargaming. While I'm not always thrilled by the preponderance of historical games there are at the HMGS conventions, I can always find enough enjoyable sessions in other genres (fantasy, sci-fi, post-apocalypse, zombie survival) to ensure I can play a couple of fun games each day on the weekend that I carve out to attend Historicon and the like.

From the moment I paid my $20 entrance fee at NOVA Open, I knew where I fit into the proceedings...my name badge spelled it out loud and clear.