NAF Champs '23 - 11th with Dwarves! (& Sevens)

 

Preamble

This is not my first NAF Championships... and it's certainly not my first blog of the event. I first attended in 2017, then again in 2019 and 2022... and I know this doesn't make me a long-running attendee by any means! The patchy attendance was in part down to Covid and also down to the fact that my wife's birthday falls in May... and the prospect of saying "Happy Birthday love, but you're going to play second fiddle to a weekend of board games" would put pay to almost 20 years of marriage quite quickly!

Having covered the majority of the usual stuff about the venue, hotel and location in previous (linked above) blog posts, I'm going to try and concentrate on the games. However, this will also be a slight change in approach as I kept my note taking to bare minimum because (a) there simply wasn't the room on the table for my notetaking and (b) time pressure and (c) simply wanting to concentrate on the game... so the style may be a bit more 'loose' (and probably inaccurate!)... so I'm writing this as close as I can to the weekend, whilst the memories are freshest!

Sevens

As usual, the lovely people at Squad Chaos put on a pre-weekend Sevens event. Almost 40 coaches signed up to this cut down version of the game that doesn't have rerolls or Star Players. I'd taken Undead the previous year, but felt this year I should switch to an agility team... the trouble is, I don't have a great many Games Workshop miniatures to use... so I decided to roll out my 3rd edition Dark Elves. As usual the tournament was set at Warhammer World, with many "main event only" coaches meeting up in Bugmans Bar prior to the weekend. I was determined not to get a post-sevens headache and just treat this a totally fun event as it should be experienced... so I did...

Match One vs SickasEggs (Skaven)

This was a really tough game. My opponent clearly knew what he was doing... whilst I had a rushed practise half vs Howlinggriffon just so I could remind myself of the rules... particularly the different kick off and set up style. Just a note, I managed to roll double 6 on armour and double 6 on injury... so of course I then despaired that I'd used up such luck in before the NAF Championships!! 😅. This is where I discovered first hand how strong a Rat Ogre is now... so should you roll a 1 on activation, and you have a team mate near by, you can still blitz away (after hitting your team mate). Sure, the team mate will have a headache, but the Rat Ogre is suddenly guaranteed to blitz. Needless to say, he tore through my guys like mighty blow through a Halfling! I had taken Pro on my Witch Elf captain and Tackle on one of my Blitzers, but I had two dead Blitzers before we had completed 3 turns! Anyway, despite some desperate resistance, the game finished 0-1 (0-2).

Match Two vs vikingphil (ProElves)

An elf-off! A good humoured game, and with Phil having a blodging/sidestepping Blitzer, my Tackle Dark Elf Blitzer was going to need to be on his game. I seemed to roll like a demon, rolling 10's and 11's on armour and injuries. However, I made a mistake in my 2nd skill choice (I blame my Orc coaching for this!) as I chose Mighty Blow on a Blitzer. I didn't deduct that this was a Secondary skill (and neither did Phil) but looking back on the game, I think it only came into play at most on a couple of occasions, I tracked down Phil on the Saturday morning and apologised which he gracefully accepted. The match went back and forth a lot but neither of us gained the upper hand, and repeated pushes on the Blodger Blitzer by my Tackler meant the game finished 0-0 (4-2).

Match Three vs agingergoblin (Wood Elves)

As opponents go, Thom is just a really nice guy and the game was played with a great deal of fun and guffaws! I swapped my second DE Blitzer skill to Tackle as well as soon as Thom and Jipp (sat next to us) pointed it out... and then set about trying to stop the Wardancer and his friends. We had some real luck in the game and finished 3-0 (cas? didn't record it). It was a great game to finish on though and Thom was still smiling even after getting diced.

Summary

I finished on a 1/1/1 and my CR for Dark Elves dropped from 150 to 149.98 😆😆. It was even better that I managed a whole evening at Warhammer World and didn't buy anything to add to my plastic pile.

The winners were:

Padster Wins

Javin23 - Most TD

Stewbacca - Most Cas

Kismet - Best Painted

Glowworm - Stunty Cup

VladTheImp - Wooden Spoon

After popping into a Supermarket on the way back for snacks, we headed back to the hotel and after a quick freshen up, joined friends in the hotel lobby for drinks, snacks and chat, and shared in the excitement for the next day...

The NAF Championship 2023

For me, the NAF Championships are one of two highlights of the year along with the UKTC. I like that the hotel and venue are a brief walk away, with plenty of free parking and a fairly airy room (well, if the side doors are all open). 

Joemanji (in referee mode) eyes the awards and prizes on offer

There are also stands of interest, including stands of the sponsors including Black Orc Down, Charlie Victor, ShePrints3D and Tritex Games. This covered all our basic Blood Bowl needs from 3D printed miniatures, BB accessories, official board games and miniatures. Lots to choose from and gave us all something to browse in between rounds. Always nice to support the sponsors who are usually small businesses who love the hobby.

This soooo needs a caption from the community!

The other nice thing about the tournament are the volunteer referees. Some played in the tournament, some acted as spare coaches to fill in as necessary. But all were friendly and helpful. And of course there is a massive amount of behind the scenes effort with roster checking, NAF registration, sorting out tables, chairs, table cloths, pitches, table numbering... and all after a heavy-duty black tie event was held on the Friday night!

This year was a dedicated website to submit our round results, check out standings and find out our next round opponents - http://nafchampionship.co.uk/ 

A quick look around the room ☝

Also, the freebies need a mention. We each received an awesome Charlie Victor dice cup and Black Orc Down tournament D6's, both of which I used throughout. Excellent stuff:

Black Orc Down NAF'23 Dice

Charlie Victor NAF'23 Dice Cup & Mat

Roster

I've always taken Dwarves to the NAF Championships, but I was going to change after last year to Orcs... however, having just done so nose-bleedingly-well with them at the UKTC I felt that any other result than a tournament win would feel like doing worse... so, I stuck with the Dwarves. However, I switched up my roster to drop a Runner and employ a second Troll Slayer - that should help with all those Orcs I was expecting to face! 

I took 2x Blitzers with Guard, 1x Block Runner, 1x Troll Slayer with Tackle and 1x with Mighty Blow, and 2x Guard Linedwarves (along with 5 unskilled dwarves) and 4x rerolls.

Day One - Game One vs YoshiJunior (Halflings with Griff)

Well I had been hoping to avoid the Stunty Teams that were boosted by MegaStars, but it seemed I was doomed to fail. What's more, Barney was one of the many school boys attending the event... I was in a lose lose situation... I would either lose and suffer the BBC branding (Beaten By Children accolade) or win and possibly upset / put the kid off Blood Bowl. 

Being under-16 I decided not to take a photo of him and put it here.

Barney, by his own admission, was there to have fun and cause chaos. Armed with 2x Block Treemen, a Master Chef and a Sneaky Git Halfling in addition to the amazing Griff Oberwald MegaStar, this was going to be a tricky one for sure... and frankly, Barney should, by rights, snatched a draw at the end.... But more on that in a second. 

Instead, here's an action shot with the game underway:

Firstly, there was Perfect Weather for each of my matches all weekend, so I won't mention that again! We had the same Fans result, and I won the Kick Off roll and decided to receive. After set up I lost 2x Rerolls to the Chef. As you can see from the picture, the action was quickly frenetic. The Halfling Sneaky Git got sent off when fouling a linedwarf (on a double on injury) and arguing the call didn't help. I managed to fell a tree, and tangle them up a bit and set about trying to remove Halflings and avoid the blitzing reach and power of Griff... which was a big ask!

By turn 4/3 it was 1-0 (0-1). I managed to defend well and whilst avoiding flying-Flings, I could have gone 2-0 up by half time if I had made a 4+ handoff to a linedwarf with a reroll. Ho-hum. 

The second half began and it was all about stopping Griff, or a TTM attempt. Just when we thought we had the ball fairly safe, Griff pulled off a multi-dodging, rushing and blitzing move... and it all worked... that is until the double skulls right at the end. This meant I was able to not only recover the ball but get not one but two gang fouls in on him... which eventually saw him KO'd. This allowed me to get the ball up the other end in peace and win 2-0 (4-1). 

Just a note, Barney was a brilliant opponent who really got stuck into the spirit of Halflings and took every dice, bad and good with a grin. One to watch!

Game Two vs Spongieman (Halflings with Deeproot)

You know what I said above about hoping to avoid MegaStar stunty teams... well, that wish was well and truly out the window!

A great pose by Ben!

Having had a "practise" against Halflings last match, I at least knew a bit more as to what to expect in this game. However, Ben's Halflings didn't have the scoring & blitzing threat of Griff... but the +2 MB of Deeproot. If anyone's armour was up to that job, it was the Dwarves!... well, we hoped!

Ben's Deeproot model was substituted for a much small miniature - a Golem!

After rolling the same fans, I lost the Kick Off and was kicking to the Halflings. It was a very tough first half. In fairness, Deeproot was fairly tame, although it didn't stop me wincing every time he threw a block against a linedwarf. I managed to slow the attack and even managed to counter, and could have gone 1-0 up, but for the second game in a row failed in the last turn, this time by failing a 3+ dodge with my runner (with reroll) to pick up the ball and jog in for a touchdown... Of course, had I failed the dodge I would have failed the pick up... This is the way! 👿

It was a long, slow and grinding second half and I managed to score in turn 8, but sucummbed to the inevitable one turn TD from a TTM that scattered into range... landed, and all the dodging was fine. Nothing I could do. The game ended 1-1 (3-2). If only I had made that 3+ dodge!! 

A frustrating end but another game played in great spirits and a few laughs were shared.

Game Three vs PhilGC (Black Orcs)

Okay, these weren't stunties...

 ...they had brought along six of their biggest mates, freshly fitted out in Necromunda Ambot armour. Yes, they were massive models, not suited to the 25mm pitch squares much to Phil's chagrin. However, they did look impressive! 

I won the kick Off and decided to receive, which I think is the right thing to do against bash teams! You never know if an early hit might get one of the LoS players off the pitch.  However, my first move involving dice was moving a Dwarf Blitzer with Guard in to the LoS... it did involve a rush... and of course... double 1'd. Not a great start! The Dwarven line promptly got knocked down like dominoes. As you can see the Dwarves and Black Orcs had a good amount of Block and Guard between them and things got a bit "knock'em down, get'em back up again" for a while. That being said, there was only 1 casualty inflicted all game.. of course, that didn't take into account the carnage the Sneaky Git Goblin was intent on doing!

Somehow, I managed to get up the field and score in turn 8/7 to go 1-0 up (1-0). This was only after I failed in two turns to pick up the ball with Sure Hands... fortunately on the 5th attempt I got the ball. Had that been against Skaven, Elves, or even a TTMing team, I would have been a sitting duck. As it was I was able to keep everyone tied up from getting to me.

The second half was much of the same, but I did manage a couple of high armour rolls and KO'd a couple of Black Orcs, halting their progress up the field to my end zone. In fact I was able to turn it into a counter attack and got the ball to make it 2-0 (1-0).

The match ended, with me on a 2/1/0 record for the day and much fun had been had. Phil and I chatted and I learnt Phil was really into Star Wars X-Wing board game. I like my Star Wars too and we had a good natter while games continued around us.

Day One - End

After nipping back to the hotel, I joined friends at a Miller & Carter steakhouse... What a lovely 9oz Rump... yum yum. I wouldn't recommend the lobster tail with it though... a bit overcooked. After a couple of beers it was back to the hotel lobby for a game of Archer - card game provided by SCS Sam. Many laughs were had. 😆 All in all, it had been a good day!

Day Two - Game Four vs Mime (Skaven)

Up to Table 20. Miguel had popped over from Spain especially for the tournament. A fun opponent with a dry sense of humour... who particularly enjoyed finger waggling over my dice cup to try and influence Nuffle... it worked too when I rolled Quad-Skulls... But more on that later!...

I had less fans and lost the Kick Off roll. However, it wasn't all bad as the kick brought Greasy Cleats onto the Wrestle Gutter Runner, reducing his movement down to a lowly 8 MA!

The Rat Ogre lined up on the LoS and got a hit in, but no damage was done to the lucky dwarf. Having seen the damage inflicted by this Big Guy in Sevens last night, he was my priority take-down... I was even willing to risk a foul... But as luck would have it, my dice had other ideas... I got my Guard assists in place and charged in with my Mighty Blow Troll Slayer... Oh no... 1 for Dauntless... POW! I beat the armour with the MB, and hurt the Rat Ogre on a 10!. We rolled for the injury as Mime had an apothecary, but it was too risky to use the apothecary, so he went to the injury box! Woohoo!!

After dice like that, it could only get worse, and of course I invited a double skulls with a block as Mime tried to move the dice curse back to me with a waggling of his fingers... and it worked... another set of skulls, and a turnover. Fortunately no injury. 

However, Mime had his own share of bad luck, rolling plenty of ones with his Gutter Runners and burning through rerolls pretty quickly. We really got stuck into the linerats, injuring some and knocking others out... and even knocking out the Block and Strip Ball Gutter Runners too. Very handy!

The first half ended 0-0 as yet again my turn 8 luck failed me and I failed a GFI to score in the Skaven drive.

However, the second half was a better story as we slowly as we neutered the Skaven threat and whittled down their numbers. We got up the field to win 1-0 (5-0). Mime took the defeat well, as it had been another friendly game. All good so far!

Game Five vs AndyDavo (Dark Elves)

This was getting serious now. After the last win I was catapulted up to the top table (Table 8?... not sure, can't remember). I was up against Andy (famed for his Twitch streaming of Blood Bowl).

Andy had brought Dark Elves... and immediately voiced his thoughts on Dwarves being overpowered. I mean, sure, who does actually like facing Dwarves... well, apart from all the agility teams that can run around them, through them and over them, or one turn against them! 😆 Anyway, to be fair I stayed pretty quiet on the matter as I wasn't going to win any arguments on this subject.

Action shot (yes, I remembered the photo a few moves into the game).

I think Fans roll was equal, and I lost the Kick Off roll and was asked to kick to the elves. We survived some early hits, and managed to Knock Out a Dark Elf Blitzer with Tackle (no Dodge on my team!) early in the half, but soon after my Tackle Troll Slayer was hurt by a Witch Elf with some nasty blocking. That made Andy feel better.

However, pretty much from here the Dwarves were pretty reliable, even carrying out the odd one dice block and being rewarded with a both down or pow, which was handy. In contrast, Andy fell into the trap of thinking the 1 didn't exist on the D6's he was rolling... and so of course, it kept appearing to remind him it did. It wasn't so much a case of me playing well, but more a case of Andy's dice letting him down on more than one occasion. This did nothing of course to quench his hatred of Dwarves of course, but I suspect in this case he needed to be looking at his dice as the culprits. 

We managed to prevent the score in the first half and did what we do best and score in turn 8 (although readers thus far would note I had failed several times to do this already!) of the second half and win 1-0 (0-1). That also meant I was 8th overall going into the final match of the weekend! Awesome!

8th place after Round 5 - Was not expecting that! (nor was anyone else! 😄 )

Game Six vs Purplechest (Dark Elves)

There was something about Dark Elf coaches on this day... Purplechest was also not entirely happy... but this time it was about missing out on the top table final because of strength of schedule... ie his opponents had done worse throughout the tournament than Purplegoo or SCS Sam. After understandable mutterings of "I don't care about this game" and "I'm gutted to miss the final" Purplechest spent a good few minutes checking through my team sheet looking for errors. After concluding he couldn't see any, we set about the game... on Table 2... Yes, I had made it that high up with a Dwarf team! 😏😁

The Dark Elves had a different roster/skill choice from last match, with them taking a Sneaky Git. I could see the tactics already... Dance around the lines to get assists for the Witch Elves, knock a Dwarf over and gang foul it with Sneaky Git, rinse and repeat. With that in mind, I won the Kick Off and decided to receive (after losing the fans roll).

Of course, Purplechest is well known for taking Dwarves himself and knew my tactics from back to front. With the ball coming my way I defended deep, and it was lucky I did... I did grab a deep kick and then had to defend for my life back up to the LoS. But some careful positional play and with assist after assist coming from the dodging elves (and not failing like Andy did last game) he managed to get to my ball carrier and Wrestle him down. The Dark Elves had the ball.

It took a lot of effort but we managed to get the ball back and just about made it up the field to score. 1-0. There were a few DE's off the pitch by then but by the time the elves began the second half everyone was back except a single casualty.

The Dark Elves launched a swift attack down my left wing, and despite having several players back, they got themselves into a position to score early. I tried an amount of chain pushing after having to make far too many 2+ rush rolls, and made life difficult for them. In the end though, a Witch Elf had her path cleared and ran in for a score. 1-1 (1-0).

This left me a number of turns to try to take the lead again, but the play had been slow up to the first half and effort was needed to speed up, especially as there was a hard cut off time.

I felt like I had rushed through my turns, and could have made a better effort to threaten to score, but the Dark Elves bogged us down midfield and out of range... but importantly were out of range themselves, and the game came to an anticlimactic draw. We shook hands, wished each other well for a safe journey home, and then I loitered around for the award ceremony.

Results

After that last match draw I finished the weekend on 4/2/0 which meant I finished 11th!

Forget Top 10... the new standard is Top 11 👍

Purplegoo Wins 

Purplegoo and a very nice trophy

Scs.Sam losing finalist

Sam - smiling despite the loss - good man

And finally...

Thank you to all the people I met throughout the weekend, from organisers, referees, opponents and familiar faces and friends. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Edit - I will update NAF ranking and the other winners here once it appears on NAF.