I was able to pop over for another Nova Open for a few hours. Maybe it's my advanced age and temperament, but for the first time, I felt this convention wasn't aimed at me at all. In past years, there was often more variety in the games - yes, even a few historical ones. But this one is so laden with Warhammer junk, it was a tad hard to stomach. Sure, there were tons of nice big games with equisitely crafted "stuff" piled high all over. Over detailed, garish colors -- all put together well, demonstrating many hours of craftsmanship, but ugh, so ugly. And worse, everyone's revealed preferences were not my own. It's kinda like books; "readers" all have books in common, but a wide spectrum of tastes within that almost creates different sub-hobbies. "Music lovers" is the same - one could find two self-proclaimed music lovers who wouldn't stand each other's auditory choices. Tabletop gaming, too, is reaching a point for me where a certain section of the hobby is mostly repellent in terms of content. I'm what I like to call a Sci-Fi and Fantasy sympathizer, but the path this convention has gone down has left me in the cold. New this year was a large section devoted to Trench Crusade. For this, I am also a sympathizer, not exactly a fan, but again, woof, so ugly.
Table clutter, too, struck me as contributing to an aesthetic nightmare - a technicolor yawn over everything.
On the plus side, I will credit NOVA Open for contributing to the excellence in the painting hobby. The competition is always spectacular, but it included a few political-themed entries that I find distasteful. I felt a lot of the space was more politicized this year than normal, which is a shame. I hobby, often to get away from cultural war garbage that has either spoiled or retarded the advancement of a number of areas of interest of mine, from books, comics to RPGs. It's a pitiful state and is actually killing off the possibility for the creation of many things I once enjoyed.
Let's start with the contest entries. For many gamers, just getting the basic colors correct and in the right places is peak achievement. For competition painters, it's about light. Where is it coming from, what kind of light is it, and how would it play over the surfaces I am painting? That's the heart of it. You'll see what I mean below. Look for Object Source Lighting and Bounce Lighting in particular. The latter is a trend I see rising in importance. Painters who can pull that off effectively will score well. Not all of these demonstrate these techniques; many are just neat models:
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| A WW2 thing! |
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| The plaid is what caught my eye on this one. |
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| Bounce light at its best - marvelous! |
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| Firelight from below - neat! |
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| I do like Bretonnians, though I'm more of an Empire man, meself. |
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| Dank, and dreary - is this my style? |
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| I love these modified "hamlet" buildings from Warlord. Can't resist sharing them again this year. |
I didn't go in with the intent of documenting ugly tables. I just politely skimmed those areas. I snapped a few though of what seemed popular. But, as I've suggested, this is not my hobby.
This was a display among the vendors of some cool ancient-themed models.
The exhibitor area on Friday was not overwhelming like the rest of the con, but underwhelming. The guy with bins of Citadel bits seems to have given up on the Hilton location, and my local chain, My Hobby Place, also wasn't there. I'm mostly interested in stuff coming out of the UK and didn't see anything new or tempting at all until I found one guy selling Krautcover basing products. We lamented the predicted impact of tariffs and were both concerned about it. For the present, though, a lovely exchange was made, and I got my hands on the hard-to-get-a-hold-of A Tale of Grimdark, and an excellent one for beaches (pirates), and yet another for forest floors. All will be featured here later.
Don't get me wrong; there is a lot of energy, passion, and life at Nova Open. Nothing like it existed when I was coming up. The kids today probably cannot appreciate the scarcity of readily available minis. The occasional hobby shop or via mail order was it. Today, one is spoiled for choice, and a regional con is just one of many options for this kind of material. The star of historical gaming seems relatively underlit in comparison. I'm very open to being spoken to, but heard no voices -- little to tempt me, and a lot to annoy me. Screw you clouds! Get off my lawn!
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