Note for Attendees -

Our final mission and rules packets for all events will be professionally laid out and published in hard copy for you within full color Guidebooks at the NOVA Open 2016. Leading up to the event, the Primers are presented in the following format in order to enable event leads to keep registered and prospective attendees up to speed with changes and updates as efficiently as possible.

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Please e-mail novaopen@gmail.com with any questions!

Version - 1.2 (7/15/16)

Change Notes

• New Horus Heresy Legion Astartes: Age of Darkness book rules WILL be used!
• Each player is limited to three of each consul type in their force.

2016 Horus Heresy Big Blam Primer

Planetfall: Horus Heresy Big Blam
Friday, September 2, 2016

Overview

Following the conquest of nearby Euthenia, The traitor fleet proceed onto Hephaestus IV, quickly overwhelming the Imperial fleet in orbit. With its entire surface covered in natural and artificial spires, the only location on Hephaestus IV large enough to land an invasion force is the Glass Fields of Charis.Following an immense planetary bombardment, the The Warmaster’s forces descend in Stormbirds, Drop Pods and the massive transports of the Legio Titanicus. Meanwhile, the outnumbered defenders of the Forge World emerge from their shelters with their own Titans and super-heavy tanks forming their front lines.

This mega-battle will pit the largest and wildest units of the Horus Heresy against each other in a massive, multiplayer event!

Schedule

The Horus Heresy Big Blam is a half-day event of 5 turns, from 5 pm to 11 pm on Friday, September 2, 2016.

Format

Planetfall: Horus Heresy Big Blam will feature a single, FRIENDLY, large format game. Players will be split into Loyalist and Traitor, so that each side has an equal number of players. We’ll certainly try and accommodate everyone’s first choice, but it may happen that you don’t get first pick.

Forces

All Forces are to be taken in blocks of a maximum of 1,000 points. There are no force organization or limitations to follow and players may bring as many blocks of 1,000-points as they like. Have 5,000 points? Bring it and we will do our best to fit it all on the tables! All units from the Horus Heresy books and all units on the Forge World website will be allowed, including units with experimental rules. Note: New Horus Heresy Legion Astartes: Age of Darkness book rules WILL be used, please update lists as needed!

Players are strongly encouraged to bring as many Titans, Knights, Super Heavy Vehicles and powerful Heroes as they can, filling in with vehicles and Elite infantry. As an incentive, players will receive Tokens of Favor for including certain kinds of units. These tokens will provide powerful benefits in the game.

Players will receive a Token of Favor (Up to a Maximum of Three) for each of the following included in their army:

• Lord of War
• Vehicle with four or more Hull Points
• Character with Three or More Wounds

Players will have one Token of Favor deducted from their total for each of the following included in their army:

• Troops choices composed of models with a single wound.

Players without any Lords of War are still encouraged to participate in this event! If you have a typical 2,000-point Space Marine Legion army, we recommend bringing a 1,000 point list made up Independent Characters, Elite infantry and vehicles… and melta bombs, lots of melta bombs!

RESTRICTIONS:
Each player is limited to three of each consul type in their force.

Materials

Each player must bring typed, printed copies of their army lists for the tournament staff and your opponents. We suggest one copy for the event organizer and one for the table.

Each player must also bring any dice, templates, appropriate rules or printouts, and markers you need to facilitate playing your army.

General Rules

This Battle will follow the fluid nature of mass warfare in the following ways:

A Landing Commander will be chosen from each side before setup. These players will then have ten minutes to negotiate between themselves to determine who deploys first.

Each side will have fifteen minutes to deploy, any units not deployed by that time automatically enter reserves). Once both sides are deployed, a single roll of very large dice will determine which side takes first turn.

Each turn will run 45 minutes. There will be warnings made every ten minutes during the turn, and a final five minute resolution phase to end the turn.

During the course of the battle, random events will occur to showcase the dangerous and confusing nature of large formation warfare. Be prepared.

Mission Objectives

Each Landing Commander will be issued a series of secret objectives to be assigned to their team-members. Scoring of these objectives will be recorded into the Roster of the Dead at the end of the game to determine the victor.

Battle Results

A sheet will be provided to the Landing Commander to collect the Roster of the Dead at the end of each turn. This sheet will be used to determine which side controls the landing fields at the end of the day.

Sportsmanship

This is a FRIENDLY event and players are expected to abide by high standards of sportsmanship to ensure that everyone will have fun. With multiple players over a large field, it can become an overwhelming act to handle your forces; be prepared to be patient and considerate while opponents roll buckets of dice and look up rules for units they don’t get to use very often.

Painting

Beautifully painted armies are an important component of our hobby and as such, all armies MUST be fully painted and be composed of Horus Heresy era models and/or appropriate conversions. Event organizers will be reasonable about interoperating this rule but do not show up with a standard Warhammer 40,000 army and expect to play in this event.

Awards

There will be awards but they will mostly be of the absurd variety. Do not come to this event expecting to win. Consider this mega-battle be a lesson on the futility of war.