‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Five Lessons Learned From The NOVA Open
Let’s talk about some of the big take aways from the NOVA Open and the last several months of Warhammer: The Old World.
Warhammer: The Old World has been out in the wild for 9 months now. We’ve all been playing games and getting to know the system. I’ve been lucky enough to get in a ton of games and have been watching the community grow and discuss how the game works and should be played. The other week I was also lucky enough to get to play in the NOVA Open GT, one of the largest ToW events we’ve had so far. The event firmed up some thoughts I’d had and confirmed a few more. So today, take a look at some big take aways from the event and the last few months of ToW.
5. The Game Needs Comp Right Now
In the past I’ve come out as not being a huge fan of comp. In particular I don’t like the rule of three. Now NOVA had some pretty hefty comp as seen above. And in several discussions, I mentioned that I was not a huge fan of some of it. In particular, I felt that within the first six months of the game, it was too early to have effective comp. Now while I stand by that, I will also admit that I was wrong about the game not needing any comp. I think as things stand the game really does need some form of comp.
Was NOVA comp that way to do it? Maybe not. I even had a good talk with the NOVA TO about it here. Not all of the comp was relevant to the game. It hurt some armies, hence why almost no Orcs showed up, and helped others, including myself.
But all that being said, the game needs something. Right now, there are some big issues with uncomped events and spam. Both of units, and in particular magic. Large monsters, and yes to a lesser degree, Pegasus Knights are issues, but I’m not sure comp solves them. While the NOVA comp isn’t the comp I would have picked, I do think it most likely made the event more fun for the players and can be considered a success. This is something I was wrong about.
4. Infantry Don’t Matter, And That’s An Issue
This likely isn’t news to many, but infantry doesn’t have a huge role to play in the game right now. Right now the game is run by monsters, cav, flyers and magic. Those are the really relevant things in the game. That’s not to say no one is taking infantry, but by and large infantry heavy armies did poorly and infantry light ones did well. When infantry is relevant, it’s normally due to a trick. Skirmishers, Stubborn and Unbreakable infantry has some role, even if its mainly as a tarpit. TK and VC of course, have the best infantry as they get to be both Unbreakable and can be healed. Still, in general, the infantry that is working is a support unit that allows the other elements to do their job. And that was with NOVA missions trying to push infantry.
3. We Are Still Figuring Out Missions
The Old World is a still a new game. One of the things I feel we’ve lost a little bit of from Warhammer Fantasy is some of the institutional knowledge on running events. We are all kind of feeling things out again and figured out what works best with the new game. A big part of that is the Old World missions. I’ve always thought missions were one of the coolest parts of going to a big event. You get the chance to play something different and unique. This was always a draw of old WFB events with events having cool ideas. One of my favorite was GT GW put on in Dallas in the early 2000s that had players bring an extra 250 pts of Dogs of War to use in 1 or 2 missions.
My cav in the process of claiming an objective
Missions are also a way to add in a soft form of comp, not hard rules, but incentives to take certain things. For instance, some of the NOVA missions had objectives that core units, and units with banners, had advantages to claiming. In theory, this provided a space for infantry blocks. In reality, I was able to just kill any enemies that got close and use some skirmishers to hold the objectives. We are still clearly figuring out the missions, as I’ve seen from a number of events.
I think most players don’t want super complex 40K-style missions, but do like some cool objectives. You just need to make sure that they can all be scored, NOVA had an issue where one objective required you to make an enemy fall back in good order or break, which was impossible to score vs three of the armies in the game. Overall missions add to the game but we are all figuring them out still.
2. 2500 Pts Is Too Big
I’ve talked before about what size I think its best to play the game at. As have we all. In the past I came down on 2500 pts as being a good size, and NOVA and a number of events are held at that size. Well… I was wrong. I think 2500 pts is just too big and I’ve got a few reasons for that. First is simply time. NOVA had three-hour rounds and a lot of people were not finishing those. I only finished two full games, and those were the ones I basically tabled the other player early. I didn’t see people slow playing, but games were just not getting finished.
Partly that’s due to it being a new game and people learning. But it’s also a complex game, and one in which stuff doesn’t die as fast as in most other GW games. Units linger longer. It takes more time to resolve.
On top of that I think 2500 pt armies are just too big. Most of the games I played and plenty I saw basically had two lines stretching across most of the table fighting. It doesn’t help that the game rewards for you for going wide. This means there isn’t a ton of room for big flanking moves. Ambushers and scouts have a lot less of a role. Some of the games tactics go away and its a bit more of a just charge forward thing.
Lastly, I at this point size you aren’t making as many hard choices in list building. You want two of the best thing? Sure take it. A dragon and a decked out wizard? Yep have em both. Some people like the larger armies and the freedom, and I get that, but I think 2000 pts makes for tighter armies, and forces difficult choices in list building.
1. We Have A Really Great TOW Community
I’ll end this on a high note. Over the past 9 months The Old World has built a really amazing community. I’ve been a part of it online and in person and it’s been great to see it growing and expanding. The best part about it how wonderful everyone is overall. This is a just a great, kind, and supportive community. The players at NOVA were all amazing and friendly and loved the game. People were willing to dress up and clown around. While people brought hard lists, there simply weren’t a bunch of try-hards or WAAC players. I had amazing games and I think most other people did as well. We have amazing players and painters and just great sports.
Compared to past events I’ve been to and those for other games it really feels like the community has come a long away. This is a really fun group. Maybe it’s that it tends to be an older group, or we are all just happy to have a game back that we missed for so long. Maybe games and gamers have evolved. But we’ve got something really great and here and I’m excited to see where we all go in the next few months. If this is kind of crowd that shows up to big events, then Warhammer: The Old world is really going to keep on being something special.
Let us know what you think about big events, down in the comments!
