Getting excited for NOVA!

So after a crazy 8-9 months of travel, changing jobs, and moving, I am finally ready to get back to geeking out with tabletop and board games!  While I will be playing X-Wing at NOVA (subject for a different post), I have had a blast playing 40K!  I know there is a lot of doom and gloom regarding Games Workshop right now, but I haven't had this much fun with 40K since 5th Edition!

I spent the last two months playing in the Road to NOVA 40K League in Northern VA and Maryland, which was an absolute blast!  I was rocking a full Drop Pod army which seems to suit my play style really well and got to play five great games against five great opponents in the area.  Every game was a nail-biter (minus the one against Werner where he crushed me with his Decurion) and it was amazing to finally have a chance to just play some 40K after such a long hiatus.  I actually went 4-1 and missed out on the final Top 8 by a single battle point, so I was very happy with how it went!

On Saturday, I decided to take the updated Space Marine Codex for a spin at the NOVA Charity BBQ.  I may do batreps later, but since I didn't take pictures, they honestly would be pretty boring.  However, the list was:

Calgar (WL)
Tiggy
2 Full Tactical Squads with Melta, Combi-Melta, Multimelta, Meltabombs, and Drop Pod
2 Half Tactical Squads with Melta, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs, and Drop Pod
10 Scouts with Combi-Melta and Meltabombs
2 Devastator Centurions Squads (3) with Gravs and Omni
3 Fast Attack Drop Pods

I started the day with an absolute dreadful crushing by Brad (who is a blast to play with!) and his Daemons/Daemonkin.  I played terribly and he played a very tight, focused game.  But it was good to get that out of the way early.  The second game against Greg's Ork Mech-Mash was honestly the most fun I have had in 40K in a long time!  Greg does a much better job of describing the battle, but it featured epic moments (and failures!) on both sides.  The final game was against a triple Vindicator list, but my initial drop completely devastated his army and we called it on Turn 2 or 3.  Overall, it was an amazing day of 40K!

So after all of these 40K games, I am completely jazzed for more 40K and especially NOVA!  The new Space Marine book has a ton of competitive options, and honestly, I don't know where to start!