Cam Dub VII - The Force was strong!

Grand Moff Tarkin leaned in to meet the gaze of the trembling stormtrooper captain Wotfudboy.
"We have a new target... a sporting target."
The captain gulped. He didn't like the sound of where this was going.
Tarkin held eye contact for a moment longer, then turned with a sigh to address the towering presence of the Sith Lord Darth Vader.
"Vader" Tarkin breathed, "You will take command of our best troops and make your way to Cambridge... but drop by Detention block AA-23 first and take that annoying Wookie with you!"
Vader turned to depart, beckoning the captain to walk with him.
Captain Wotfudboy, feeling the need to sound more confident, spoke as they marched down the station's corridor. "I'm positive we will succeed, my Lord."
Vader stopped abruptly, turned to Wotfudboy, and in his most menacing tone said "I hope so, Captain, for your sake. Purplegoo is not as forgiving as I am."

Following the success of team Wotfudgoo at Cambridge Double Trouble VI where we came in 2nd, Phil (aka NAF Tournament Officer - Purplegoo) warmly accepted the challenge of carrying me again this year.

On the morning of the Rugby World Cup final in Japan, I made a dedication to England by painting roses on the chests of the stormtroopers... sadly, it didn't do the trick for England!

However, this year I had the honour of choosing his team's race - Chaos Dwarves, and the roster (although Phil tweaked the skills to suit his game play).

Nerding in full swing...

I went with Norse this time, ticking another race off the 24, and went with an 'interesting' build... 11x linemen (Stormtroopers), 1x Norse Runner (Darth Vader) and the Yeti starplayer Icepelt Hammerblow (Chewbacca)... also with 2x Rerolls and 1x Fan factor.
To me it looked like a stronger line up this year with some absolute corkers of teams. My good pals Darren and Andrew were teaming up as HowlingFrodo and playing their 26th race of Demons of Khorne, and collected their patches to mark the occasion.

Not to be mistaken for a father & son team! :)

Along with last years winners, BestersSquadron, I thought some potential title winning teams included Gritter & Wulfyn - 'Grulfyn', Lycos & Joemanji - 'Something, Something, Bastards', vmcat & J_Bone - 'VMboner' and scs.sam & greymurphy42 - 'Dead in a Ditch'.

To add some more interest to the day we had a Camdub Bingo to check off, including making a Handoff, being sent off, double 1 GFI, but also things like Purplegoo swearing at his laptop and Schmee having a pint in his hands. All fun :)

Matchup one vs team 'MadGoblin' - Wotfudboy Loses, Purplegoo Wins - Wotfudgoo Draws.

The_Hobgoblin fully animated

James brought Big Nose Bob and the rest of his beloved Ogres to the fray, deciding to go with Tackle Ogres instead of Block, which against Norse is totally useless... except they just weren't! I won the Fame roll, but lost the kick off and kicked to the Ogres. By turn 3/3 both sides had expended all their rerolls (which tells you something about the quality of the game play!). Before I knew it I was 0-1 down by 5/5. This was followed by a Throw a Rock which killed one of my Guard linemen.

After failing to get anywhere in the first half, I tried to think positively for the second half, but we just couldn't make any progress. A recurring theme for the entire weekend was that the strength 6 / Frenzy / Claws starplayer Yeti simply could not hurt anything. Sure, Chewbacca pow'd enough times, but he rolled 7 or below on armour time and time again. That being said, he did take a lot of hits (usually... read on dear reader!) and survived.
Sadly, despite making slow but steady progress up the field, Darth Vader (the resident Norse Runner - MA7 and Dauntless) made a dash for it but was caught up with by 4 angry Snotlings who then downed the dark lord, spilling the ball and stopping any chance of a score as one of the sidestepping little gits was protectively caged by his mates. It says it all that without any Ogre/Snotling block on the pitch I made just two casualties. The game finished 0-1 (2-1 cas) and my weekend was off to a very disappointing start!

Matchup two vs team 'The Mega Powers' - Wotfudboy Wins, Purplegoo Draws - Wotfudgoo Wins!

I was determined to make a better fist of it this time and turn my week around at not disappoint team Wotfudgoo any further, but then a Norse-off was drawn against (another!) James. I won the kick off and received, but then James got Perfect Defence. The first blitz roll for James resulted in a double skull, rerolled, casualty... ouch! Then James played the ace up his sleeve... Boomer Eziasson! This bomb lobbing menace rolled not one natural six, but two, and removed 2x linemen from the field each time. This was a disaster! However, my some stroke of luck my vastly reduced team managed to score, ending the half 1-0.

The second half saw James score quite quickly allowing me plenty of turns to get score a winner, which I did! The match was played in a good spirit though, and I was pleased to come out the victor in this Norse-off, 2-1 (3-2 cas). With my win and Phil's draw the team won!

Matchup three vs team 'VMboner' - Wotfudboy Loses, Purplegoo Wins - Wotfudgoo Draws

I've now played Val (vmcat) five times now and he has got the better of me on three occasions. Sadly for me, this game was one of those occasions. Val received and I was 0-1 down by the end of the first half, with 3 dead linemen (including a guarder). I just couldn't escape the deathly clutches of the all-block Khemri Tomb Guardians. There were some fouls in there which didn't escape the ref's notice, sending two skeletons from the pitch, but there were plenty in reserve.

I managed to equalise into the 4th quarter, but despite taking down the ball carrier, the ball spilled favourably for Val, and my next dodge with reroll that needed to cover the likely scoring candidate failed. Next thing I know, Val is apologising and making 2x 4+ pickup and handoff rolls to win 1-2 (0-3 cas). That one hurt. Had the dodge worked he would have needed a 4+ 5+ and blitz. Hey ho. Next time Rebel Scum! :)

Curry night at Nivedyam!

All of us hoping our pre-ordered food will arrive soon! Great gurning Mr_Frodo!!

Schmee took all our orders for a curry during the day, and we had a pretty good turn out. The food did take some time to arrive, and I'm sure there were some bill shenanigans, but generally we had a good evening... as you can see the team England were holding council at the far end leaving the rest of us to get on with it.

Matchup four vs team 'Dead in a Ditch' - Wotfudboy Wins, Purplegoo Draws - Wotfudgoo Wins!

There were a few tired heads and slightly ruffled stomachs from the night before, but day two commenced pretty much on time, and Phil and I were up against SCS Sam and his brother Gareth (aka greymurphy42).

Gareth had brought a particularly evil undead team, which included a multiblock stabbing Assassin. Gareth won the kick off and opted to kick to me. The crowd weren't that moved as neither of us got Fame. I made it 1-0 but the Dark Elves almost equalised by failing a pass handoff after using up a reroll earlier in the move. And that's the way it stayed.

I want to report a knife crime!

There wasn't too much more to describe really as I just could not break any armour, including that of the seemingly invincible elf Assassin who survived multiple blocks and blitzes to stay on the pitch and make 3 stab kills, including one very dead Icepelt star player yeti! 1-0 (0-0). With my win and Phil's draw the team won!

Matchup five vs team 'Zayless' - Wotfudboy Wins, Purplegoo Wins - Wotfudgoo Wins!

Ouch, Dwarves! Garth had some nicely painted second edition dwarves, along with a couple of 3rd edition troll slayers (who had surefeet! - they were here for the surf, obviously!). Double ouch when they got +2 fame as well. And I was facing Boomer Eziasson again, but he wasn't quite as effective this game. I received, and after having killed a Troll Slayer, I managed to score 1-0 at turn 5/4. Boomer was sent off along with his coach who clearly irritated the referee.

The dwarves received, and despite a throw a rock against me, I managed to pile a lot of pressure on them, while moving a lineman in to range should some good dice happen and the ball end up in my hands... and it did! 2-0 at the end of the first half.
When the second half kicked off, I got Perfect Defence... it was game over for the Dwarves. I managed to get the ball and score, and even had a chance for a fourth, but the game finished 3-0 (2-1 cas), with the Norse breaking dwarven armour regularly (sadly low injury dice though). I was on 2 wins for the day, and with Phil winning his game it was a clean sweep.

Matchup six vs team 'BestersSquadron' - Wotfudboy Wins, Purplegoo Wins - Wotfudgoo Wins!

Team Wotfudgoo had managed the perfect 'submarine' play after an average first day... we were going into the final game with last years winners as title contenders! The final match was a bit of a blur against Jack's (aka VultureSquadron) Norse. So much so that I forgot to take the usual prematch photos, so thanks to Jack for sending through this picture of his team!
Jack smashed the Fame rolls and got +2 fame, but I received. I managed to both score and just about hold off an unlucky attempt to equalise by Jack at the end of the 1st half - he'd made all the other rolls, but having used his reroll, the final GFI was destined to fail... and it did.
I had managed to KO his block Yeti early on as well as the Mighty Blow Runner. However, the Yeti was back when he equalised in turn 5/6.
And then the rain fell... and the ball was kicked deep into my half... This was going to be tough. Just to add to the pressure Purplegoo turned to me and said, despite him winning his game vs Besters, "Wotfud... I think you'll need to win your match for us to go top!"... And I had been playing for a draw having seen Phil's winning game. Oh dear!... and to pile on even more pressure, other coaches were beginning to crowd around as they finished their matches. With Phil singing "Oh Wotfud boy!"... and Val suggesting I use the force I started to make inroads up the field. I managed to leave two troopers in range of the end zone, but Jack had positioned and covered well. I needed a lot of luck, but could not predict what happened next...
The following occurred without a reroll. I made a lineman GFI twice to cover the Yeti, allowing my other trooper in range to blitz his way out and GFI once to the end zone. Icepelt then 3 dice blocked one of Jack's Norse out of the way, having to use Frenzy and another 3 dice to knock him over... clearing the interception chance. Darth Vader now had to dodge (3+) and GFI once to make a long pass, which he managed... but the long pass was inaccurate!... But the ball bounced around in the rain going first diagonally away from the catcher, then back up next to him... I needed a 7 for the ball to land back on him... And I did!... wow... Turning to Phil we exchanged incredulous looks, knowing I needed a 5 to catch it now (inaccurate & rain)... Muttering oaths to the Emperor and the Dark Side I shook the dice cup, and revealed... a 5! OMG.
Jack was crestfallen and I was shocked, all to the sounds of amazement from the crowd. And with the planets aligning for those dice I shall never curse Nuffle again!! Jack and Besters will be one of my team mates at the UKTC in York, so I hope all is forgiven as Team Wotfudgoo win the tournament!

Results

Happy winning team

• Team/Duo Winners - Wotfudgoo
• Runners up - Grulfyn
• Best Individual Coach - Gritter
• Best Stunty - Joemanji
• Best Painted - Wotfudboy
• Rising Star - ThomasW
• TDs - Monkeyrage
• CAS - JBone

Team/Duo final standings
(presented as an average, so multiply by two)

Individual coach final standings

Summary

The Force was strong!

It was a nice to be awarded the 'Best Painted' for my team. I only had them for a week or two, with 3x stormtroopers arriving 3 days before the tournament! I think head judge Schmee must have been seduced by the dark side of the force. I like them, and certainly that drew interest from other coaches.
I was also quite pleased to be able to make up for the upset I caused the young lad Thomas W last time around by exchanging the lizardman team I had selected that Thomas had his eye on for his prize for best newcomer... I'm sure he'll be fielding those with aplomb quite soon!
All in all it was a good weekend, making up for the first day results of 1/0/2 with 3/0/0 on the 2nd day, finishing on 4/0/2 which is one of my best tournament results. In retrospect I probably deserved a draw against Val but Jack also deserved a draw against me, but I should have done better in my first match... clearly the team needed a warm up game and a tough team talk from the coach (and the threat of being stationed on Hoth for the rest of their miserable lives!
I enjoyed being surrounded by friendly coaches, the venue and food & drink was great, the curry was alright too, and it all made my first tournament win (even if it was supporting the fabulous Purplegoo) pretty special!