NOVA Prep and Personal Game Theory

Pulling back the curtain a little bit, I tend to write the title up top when I start a blog post and then just go with it, hoping for it to guide me in a semi-coherent manner towards a goal. So wish me luck.

Okay, here goes:

To follow the order of the title, let's start with NOVA prep.

Check it out here: http://www.novaopen.com/

The NOVA Open is an annual gaming convention hosted in Washington D.C. with a focus mainly on tournaments and events for tabletop games produced by Games Workshop and several other companies. I'm not much for conventions (mainly because I'm not much on crowds of people) so I haven't attended very many, but for some games they become a type of haven, producing a centralized location for us nerds to get together and play particular games. I've attended several CMON Expos, which were fun when they were small and shared space with their miniatures games, but lost their luster for me when they began to focus almost solely on their board games and attract more attendees. I've attended Adepticon once, and I think that may have been enough for me on that particular convention. And finally I've attended NOVA once, in 2017, and though I was only there working for CMON's booth and helping represent their Dark Age line (having just released the Skarrd rulebook, which I wrote some of the fiction for) I was considerably impressed with both the layout and the atmosphere of the convention. It was spaced out and comfortable, and it had a different attitude about its events. NOVA isn't the type of convention where you put down unpainted/unfinished models on the table with your ridiculous list designed only to crush in tournaments as quickly as possible.

So, after not attending any conventions whatsoever in 2018, I decided that I really want to go and veg out for a whole weekend in 2019 rolling dice, and that NOVA should be the one for me.  Assembling a crew of like-minded locals, we set our sights on the myriad of entertainments in our future. Deliberations began, with some difficult decisions to be faced by avid omnigamers like myself and Wargamer Ramblings (I look forward to his NOVA prep update!). Ultimately the entire crew managed to find a single offering we could all agree on, with the rest of the weekend seeing us pair off or go on our lonesome way to play the other games we enjoy.

For me, I have 4 distinct projects I need to complete (and get in some practice games for) over the next 6 months or so.

1. Warhammer 30k Zone Mortalis 1000pt list - This will be either Mechanicum (as teased in blog previous) or Word Bearers. I am currently undecided. :/
2. Guild Ball standard 1-day tournament list of 6 models
3. Aristeia! tournament requiring a team of 4 
4. Infinity: After Dark event models, but point values for the event aren't listed as its a narrative event where we build the lists on the spot, so I'm going to assume a 300pt list roughly 

 All in all, easily doable, but I have a horrendous habit of getting sidetracked and excited about other projects, so...

I'm currently in a state of limbo on #1, so I've got some more research to do for that one.

For #2, after a day of deliberations and attempting to save money and read about the meta and blah blah blah, I took a deep breath, and with a clear head ordered the team that has made me feel excited about the game in the first place: The Minor Guild associated with the Engineering Guild, The Miner's!

Mechanical arms! A robutt! A mole! A driller tank! I love it alllllllllllllllllllll...

For #3, I actually was a bit caught off guard. I've heard of Aristeia! before, of course, but never really given it the time of day. But after a quick discussion about it (wherein someone else said they were interested in it, I googled, and promptly followed the shiny pictures over the cliff) I realized it was absolutely necessary for me to sign up for the event. The game itself is an anime/Overwatch inspired gladitorial arena pseudo-board game, which is cool, but it's the aesthetic that sold me. You can build your team of 4 from any of the available sets, but until I know more about the game, I'm going to try to stick with this set:

A robutt! A paladin! A wizard! A furry! By their powers combined... I dunno, like a quirky anime show or something? I won't lie, robot was like 80% of this decision.

And finally #4, for the Infinity: After Dark event, I think I'm going to work on some USAriadna forces. I have several I could choose from in my collection, but I think these will be the most fun in a narrative-game type of setting, which is without a doubt my favorite way to play.

The original starter army for the faction is shown here, but I'll probably swap some things out for fun.

And so with that, we're probably at a good transition point into the second part of the title...

Personal Game Theory.

This is coming from a bit of an epiphany I had the other night while "playing" a game of Kill Team down at the local store.

Phil, my dude, I know you read this, so know that I'm gonna blow you up a little here. But also know it is without malice and I love you homie.

But damn.

Okay, so here's a bit of an explanation with a breakdown of the game. Phil asked if I'd come down this past weekend to get in a game of Kill Team with him, which sounded rad and I was available, so down to HobbyTown I went. Phil had been playing a game with another local player when I arrived (whose name I'm not sure I ever learned, I apologize other local duder) and so when they finished, I just sat down and said something along the lines of "alright cool man, set it up however you like and pick a scenario, I barely know the rules and you're the experienced player here."

Look, that was my mistake. I own that.

If you've looked at my past blogs, you've seen that I play Orks. And whether you know me personally, or if maybe you were able to infer about me what type of gamer I am from those posts... I'm not a rules/gamey/competitive type of player at all. I build and paint models because I have an unhealthy obsession with super cool toys, and I play games to create interesting and entertaining stories with those toys. Winning/losing isn't so much important as having a fun time and making entertaining choices. I would much rather have my Orks die horrific deaths or fail their mission spectacularly while entertaining antics are occurring than I would enjoy winning a boring game.

For set up, the board was turned so that the long sides were between us, no terrain was added to the sparse layout that was already present, and Phil declared that our mission was to get our Kill Teams across the board and off the opponent's board edge. I thought to myself, Hey, cool! I play Orks, they want to run forward and try to melee anyway... I can make this fun.

And then Phil put down his Eldar, and for the first turn proceeded to shoot the absolute shit out of my Orks as they found themselves unable to both move forward to cover in the sparse environment and return fire with their shitty orktastic pistols. Making matters worse, the layout also left the majority of the Orks without an avenue to move into the Eldar forces for melee without first standing in the middle of an open road for a turn. There was only one spot of cover in the middle where, if I rolled a 12 to charge, an Ork could make it across the gap to melee. A small group of grots with a couple of Orks tried to move up the side of the board towards the single Eldar model that had moved forward, hoping to get into melee and be safe from the onslaught of gunfire, but they either didn't roll high enough or were gunned down by Eldar overwatch fire. Again, I thought to myself, Well... okay... this is okay, it's first turn. And then he's got to try to begin completing the mission as well, so I'll keep trying to rush forward and maybe I'll roll well enough to tie something up in combat as we get closer to each other.

The view of the board from my perspective. Deployment was a box in the bottom-middle. By the time this photo was taken, the line of grots off the mat to the side had already been shot down after they tried to advance on that right side of the board. 

Oh cool, a gun emplacement. Let's run at it! This will be fine.

Nope. Nopers. Nope nope nope.

Like any smart Eldar player who would want to win a typical game, Phil only moved 2 of his models... 1 laterally to line up better shots, of course, and the other being the lone Eldar that had previously moved forward actually retreating back to his teammates so that he would be out of charge range. Failing to roll the boxcars (that's double 6's to the rest of you) I needed to cross the gap with each of my Ork Kommandos, they again had to sit and get blasted to pieces in cover, or move out into the road and hope the luck gods would carry them through. Beep Boop decided to channel his inspirational character R2-D2 and chance sitting in the road for a turn, but he was immediately blasted to pieces. Several more Orks were summarily shot down while hiding in cover, killing over half of my force, and ending the game with a break test at the end of turn 2.

So back to my point on Personal Game Theory. Did I have a point? Shit.

When we play these tabletop games, unless we're playing in a structured environment like a planned event (and still even then, I suppose), each participant is going to come to the game with a different set of expectations for how things are going to go. And I don't mean expectations of winning or losing, but in how the game itself is set up and the attitude of it. I, for example, do not take any game "seriously" unless I am participating in a tournament with the express purpose to win. At that point, aside from common courtesy and manners, we are playing a game with a strict ruleset and guidelines and our ability to think on our feet, execute a plan, achieve an objective, etc., within the confines of that ruleset is the goal. At any other time, I'm going in to a game where a rulebook is like a really strong suggestion, but ultimately things can be changed or altered to ensure the fun times for both players. I'm there to hang out, laugh, roll dice, and create a fun story.

It's true.

But that's just what I'm bringing to the game. And assuming that the other participant(s) in the game is coming to the game with the same mindset is, and will always be, my mistake. My fault. So I can't be mad, or upset, or whatever at Phil for playing the game with his own plans and intentions and expectations for how the game will flow. I can't even assume he had the mindset to "kill kill kill win win win" despite the game having turned out that way, because it could have just been a series of unfortunate circumstances for the Orks that carried them down the path of ruination.

There has been a lot of talk in recent years, what with the rise of podcasts and all that, about the notion of there existing a type of "social contract" when two people are going to play a game. In that contract, everything about the game is considered, whether it's the models themselves and the level of hobbying necessary to play (assembled models? painted models? proxy models? stand-in pictures for models?), the ruleset/edition of the game you're going to play (8th edition? including the new rules from this supplement/codex? using the online errata?), to the mindset and attitude of the game itself (win at all costs/competitive? learning/training/preparing for an event? "beer and pretzels" dice-rolling silly funtime? telling a story in a roleplaying game fashion?), and all manner of minutia to consider. And when we game with a certain group of friends or local players, we tend to fall into comfort zones of knowing what to expect both at a certain venue and from particular players themselves.

Our hobby is an oddly social hobby filled with all manner and types of personalities, and we need to make sure that if we're willing to come to the table and play, we also need to be ready to adapt our expectations so that each participant is going to have a good time... otherwise what's the point?

...and now, too, I know that Phil's the type of dude who's gonna bring an airsoft rifle to a water balloon fight.

SO WE GON' PLAY FER REALSIES NEXT TIME, PHIL. GET READY.

Moment of Self Reflection

It's been a week.

No, I don't mean that in the sense of time passing.

I mean, like, damn... it has been a week... and that "week" was an adversarial, personified deliverer of misery and difficulty.

So no, I've not really continued on with any immediate projects. Hardly any of the mechanicum dudes have been assembled. I've not managed to paint any more corridors. I've not flocked any more trees. I did work on a little bit of terrain (which I'll get to in a minute), Hankleford continued his adventure at a Saturday night D&D session, "eldritch blast"-ing some gnolls into oblivion and providing a wonderful and much appreciated reprieve for me, but mostly I've just been recovering from illness and dealing with some personal issues outside of work.

Personal lives are funny, in this age of constant sharing and uploading ourselves for the entertainment and criticism of our technologically savvy peers. You see all of this information about other people, some of whom you know well, some you've maybe never even met or had a single conversation with, but all of it is what they want you to see or know about them. There isn't really a definite "line" of when it becomes too much and weirder yet, no one is requiring us to look at any of it anyway.

Don't worry, I'm not trying to prepare you, oh delicate reader, for some truth bomb about myself or some juicy gossip about my life. I'm just talking. Unpacking my mindspace a little bit.

I try to take life as slowly, as patiently, as I possibly can. I have a family (like, a really fucking great family) that I try to be very conscious of in this hyper-busy world. All of those sayings about time slipping through your fingers or flying by or whatever... they're all true, of course. But I think people say those things with an intent at remorse, at frustration in trying to trap time or to go back and experience things over again, and that's just not how I want to live. Experiences are valuable in and of themselves, but hanging too long onto any single experience potentially damages one's ability to enjoy the value in the next experience.

For example, every Christmas with children can be magical, but living this Christmas in a way of just trying to re-create last year's wonderful experience isn't allowing the changes over the last year to shape this new experience, and instead is trying to force new things into an old mold; this will result in an experience which ultimately comes up short compared to last year, and probably cause enough negative reaction to ruin things.

Or maybe a better example for this blog, let's say you play a really engaging game of 40k with a good friend, and the scenario and dice rolls and decisions and attitudes culminate in one of the best gaming experiences you ever have. Like, just one of those magical game sessions that defines our hobby. Once that session is over, it becomes one of your defining memories of the game. It does not only you, but your opponent, an incalculable disservice to attempt to re-create that experience over again instead of allowing new (and potentially equal, but different) experiences to occur, because the re-creation will never live up to the memory of the original.

I read a really fantastic extrapolation of this idea recently in C.S. Lewis's novel Perelandra: "This itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards... was it possibly the root of all evil? No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself - perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defense against chance, a security for being able to have things over again, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film."

I think the more modern, recognizable term for this is "mindfulness" which, I'll admit, even makes me cringe to type it. But it's not without merit! How many times have you or a good friend been frustrated and mad at a new edition of a rulebook, or at the new players at game night, etc., etc.?

Of my hobbies, I read quite a bit. It's probably the thing I do the most in all of my "downtime" activities. Typically we're talking anywhere between 7-10 books at a time (yes, seriously... I get bored otherwise). And I don't mean just internet articles, nor do I mean only "literary junk food" (a term a former mentor of mine enjoyed using for entertaining fiction, which I disagree with, but that's for another discussion), but also a decent amount of philosophically-laden content. Not necessarily "self-help" style, but works with the intent of self reflection and evaluation. Sometimes I agree with it, sometimes I vehemently do not, and sometimes it seems valuable enough to me to inspire change in my outlook.

Here is a great one I came across recently in The Four Agreements:

We've all seen or heard this many different ways at this point, I'm sure. "Words have power." And that's absolutely true, in a fashion that is nearly indisputable (well, intelligently so, anyway... some folks will argue any point I suppose). But this notion that our very words, with that power, create our reality by shaping our contracts and agreements with any/every one... it's pretty heavy stuff. Every word I use here, every comma, every pause or punctuation or phrasing structure, all of it, shapes the future I have with the reader, as well as the future the reader has with other people. It's like the "butterfly effect" taken to a new extreme. Consciously, subconsciously, it doesn't matter. Whether you agree, or disagree, are ambivalent, even apathetic... it doesn't matter. The ripple in the stream still occurs. So be impeccable with your word; do not create those ripples recklessly.

I could carry on, and I kind of want to... but I think I've gotten the first Assembly cleared enough from my mindspace just now to shift gears.

Hobby wise, as I said above, not much action has been taking place. I've been slowly piecing together my shoebox full of GW terrain pieces from the old Cities of Death stuff. I made a sizable trade for them years ago and never got around to building them, but now that my son is showing interest I figure the time is ripe for building that shattered city.

Were I to give a review of these pieces... I dunno, maybe like a solid B? Or even a B-? These pieces turn out some really nice looking stuff, but the time investment necessary in making sure the walls line up is considerable or your next piece simply won't fit very well and will look shitty. They looked originally to be very forgiving and error-proof... but that is simply not the case. I'll be able to turn out some pieces I'm happy with, certainly, but I really thought it would be easier/faster than this.

Playability is key for me. Miniatures need a place to stand securely, and players need to be able to reach in and move them without too much trouble.

I'm specifically building tall structures with a variety of openings on them, well secured to a foundation, with the intent of constructing bridges that I can set up between them on the table. Should be great for Necromunda/Kill Team style play!

Other than that, I finally saved enough money on the side and caught a good deal on a starter for the new version of Monsterpocalypse! My buddy/cousin (for real, cousin... it's a funny story) Kevin, who is one of my favorite people, has some true passion for this game and I'm really excited to finally get to play it with him. Giant monsters and robots and city destruction and all that is right up my alley anyway! I'm sure there will be some updates on these soon, too. Or I hope so, anyway. I very much want to play this game with only painted models.

Robots were my choice in a starter faction, of course.

Be impeccable with your word!