NAFC 2023

Anyone who has ever had a discussion with me about which team I'm taking to a tournament will know how indecisive I am about it. After not having a great record at UKTC with Elf Union and not doing as well as I'd hoped with them at NAFC 2022, I had decided to ditch the elves. 

Whilst driving back from UKTC, Oli suggsted I take Halflings with Griff. I figured that even losing would be fun, so that's what I did, partly because I need grown ups to make most of my life choices for me.

I had a few practice games and was doing quite well with them - losing only once to dwarves - and was feeling quite pleased by this. However, I'm very aware that no matter how good the players in our league are, going to a large event like this, you'd expect a step up in skill quality.

My roster was: 2 trees with pro, 2 catchers with sure feet, 2 heftys (one with leader), hopefuls to 13 (two with sneaky git) and the ever so dashing Griff Oberwald. On top of this I had 1 rostered re-roll, a master chef and a Bloodweiser Keg. 

Six SKABBERs had gone up with both Pete and Marianne taking Amazons, Ross taking Dwarfs, Craig playing High Elves and Oli with some mean Orcs.

There has been lots of discussion on various forums about the event and things that people weren't keen on and that they were keen on. The only thing that I felt really negatively affected my experience was the size of the squares on the pitch. Whilst I had specifically not brought my treemen which are on large bases and instead borrowed some, there were still several moments where either I or my opponent quesetioned where a player was for one reason or another, or whether there was a square in between players or not. 

There is a lot to like about the event - the atmopshere is great, it is really well run and there is a very  slick website that had been used for the first time last year. On top of that, I really appreciated this year's free gift of dice, dice cup and dice mat. Gifts that are useable during a game of Blood Bowl get two thumbs up from me.

In the morning, Marianne handed out the Blood Bowl Bingo that she'd created which added a little bit of fun to the weekend and which I think we will do again at future events.

Round 1

On Saturday morning, after making some purchases to help fund Duncan from Charlie Victor's retirement, we chatted with other coaches as we awaiting the draw.

My first opponent was Maria, a lovely lady who has been playing the game for around 6 months. I am a firm believer that the length of time someone has been playing a game is no indication of how good they are. However, in this instance, I think the fact that I have been playing the game for around half of my life (and very regularly for the last 5-6 years) gave became a distinct advantage as she is a very casual player.

Maria had not played against Halflings before, so a lot of my tactics were unexpected to her. She was a really enjoyable opponent and did not get despondent when things were not going her way, which I think is how everyone should play the game. Whether or not I demonstrate this myself is another matter, but it is a definite goal to aspire to.  

I kicked to her, and her elves danced around me and scored in around 3 or 4 turns. This was great for me, as I felt I could easily score in the remaining time and my biggest concern was ensuring that Griff didn't fluff the pick up at any point. He didn't let me down and we went in level at half time but the wood elves had been leaving the pitch at quite a rate. By the time that I scored the winning touchdown in my turn 16, there were only 3 elves left on the pitch.

Maria commented that Griff should change an 'F' to an 'E' as his name should be Grief. After playing the whole tournament, I'm not sure that I can put up any argument against this.

Round 2

After lunch the draw went up and I started to scroll down the list to find my name when I realised it was right at the top. I was playing on table 2. This blew my little mind and the little minds of all of my Flings. I gave them a good talking to and told them to not let the occassion get to their heads.

I was playing against Sancho, who I had played in the Sevens event less than 24 hours ago. With that game in recent memory, I felt confident that I could get something out of the game. 

Sancho was playing an ogres - a team I love to play but not to face. He also had Griff on his roster along with some block and a smattering of guard. It was not a great match up for me. Halflings were quickly removed from the pitch with 3 die blocks from ogres and Sancho scored fairly quickly against me allowing me a chance to score an equaliser. 

For the first time this weekend, Griff rolled a one, followed by another one to fail an equaliser at the end of the first half. I sighed and set up to receive for the second half. My team continued to leave the pitch and rather than stalling out for a turn 16 score as I had hoped, I had to score slightly earlier, leaving Sancho 2 turns for a winner. Fortunately for me, he didn't manage it and I snuck away with a draw. 

Round 3

For the last game of the day I was drawn against Mr Flibble and his humans. His real name is James - I assume James Flibble but I didn't check. James had been drinking with his brother until the early hours of Friday night and, despite the fact that our game started around half 3, was still exceptionally hungover. 

The game went in the same manner as the previous two games, with my opponent scoring early giving me time to get up the pitch for an equaliser at half time. By now I knew without thinking exactly how many squares I needed Griff to be into my opponent's half for me to be able to score and I had got into the habit of camping out around there, or pushing to be there if necessary. 

This is where I was for most of the second half, progressing very slightly if I could, but more worried about not giving James Flibble a shot at Griff., and not doing anything risky with him either. All that James could do was manoeveur his players in front of mine to form a wall. 

In the end, this wall proved to be enough because despite breaking through, Griff snaked the roll needed for me to win the game, so for the second game running, I had a 1-1 draw.

End of Day 1

After the game, I bought James a pint and had a good chat with him. I said that the game for me was a little boring - not because of how he had played at all, but because my tactics in each of the games I had played so far were identical. I kicked to my opponent, hoped they would score quickly or I could force them to do so, equalise by half time and then score at the end of the second half leaving no time for them to equalise. I had aimed for a 2-1 victory in each of my games which had worked once and failed twice, although leaving me undefeated at the end of day one. 

We also had a good chat about how to deal with Griff and I said that I'm not really sure what you can do. I had been keeping him in a halfling/tree cage so anyone attempting to dodge in would have a difficult dodge and then an uphill block on a blodger. Without either wrestle or tackle on your team, you would need a double pow the likelihood of which is less than 3%. James had neither of these skills so was going to really struggle. My only opponent on day 1 who had either of these skills was Maria - in fact she had both - but fortunately for me at no point did she risk the cage dive with either of them to try to knock the ball loose.

My aim before the tournament was to lose fewer than 4 games which is how many I had lost at UKTC. At the end of day 1 this was guaranteed and I had a reasonable chance of getting a positive record, something I'd not managed previously at the NAFC.

My league mates had had varying levels of success. Pete, Marianne and myself all had 4 points out of 6. Ross was on 3, Oli 2 and Craig 1 point.  

Round 4

For the first game on Sunday I was drawn against Ricardo (also known as gr4n0t4) who I had played a month ago at UKTC where his ogres pitch cleared my elves. This time around we had a mirror match up which was almost an exact mirror, although he had no re-rolls and maximum hopefuls whereas I'd gone for one re-roll and a keg. 

I often find playing against someone you've played a few times before can be more enjoyable as the in game (for want of a better word) banter will be at a level you both feel comfortable with. For example, I knew how far to joke (all the far) when his Griff failed a KO roll on a 3 which would have succeeded for me due to my keg. 

For the first time in the tournament I was receiving which changed my standard strategy. Ricardo turned me over when Griff snaked a rush trying to reposition to get away from his Flings. Fortunately his hefty failed the pass for the score and we went in 0-0 at half time. As I mentioned, his Griff was in the KO box and didn't return and both his trees took root early in the second half and I started to feel that the game was mine to lose. Well, dear reader, lose it I did. 

The ball was in the hands of Ricardo's catcher who had run from the backfield and put himself next to a rooted treeman looking like he was ready to be thrown into the endzone to score. I had to make a move now to attempt to stop the score. I blitzed with Griff getting a knockdown and rushed into the square with the ball. All I needed was a 3+ picked followed by a 2+ dodge and 2+ rush and there was basically no change Ricardo could stop me.

Griff failed the pickup, leaving himself next to the rooted tree who was more than happy to punch him upside the face. 

Four games played, four times Griff had let me down. I was starting to wonder whether he was worth having on my team at all.

Ricardo grabbed the ball and he crowded round his ball carrier near my endzone ready to step over the line on turn 16. All was not lost, as I did have one remaining turn to try to equalise. I got the ball into the hands of one of my players who was thrown forwards by a tree... only to fall short of the squares needed to score and then to fail the landing anyway. My first loss of the weekend and a real taste of what my opponents had been feeling so far!

Round 5

I need to apologise to my next opponent as I have totally forgotten his real life name but his NAF name is Zoginnob01. He'd come over from Northern Ireland with his undead team. 

I went to take my team out of my case to find out that Griff had been decapitated. My assistant coach must have gone a bit overboard with the words that I'd asked him to have after the previous game. 

They quickly took three flings off the pitch after I kicked and they were 1-0 up within a few turns.  

In his previous 4 games, Zog hadn't had a casualty against him. I quickly remedied that knocking up 3 to match those he had done on my team. The three he'd removed were flings of one sort or another. Those that I got rid of were both of his mummies and a wight - none of whom regenerated. 

We went in 1-1 at half time and I slumbered up the pitch into scoring range where I camped out until my turn 16, getting one or two removals leaving just a wall of ghouls in the way of my touchdown. Griff didn't fluff his lines this time and burst out to get a 2-1 victory. 

Going into round 6, there were three of us in contention for the SKABBERs On Tour Trophy, awarded to the best player in our league at a non-SKABB Tournament. I was the current holder, having won it on Friday at the Sevens event. I would have needed both of the others to fail to win as they had stronger strength of schedule than I did. Oli was slightly ahead on strength of schedule, and he'd won the Trophy on 3 previous occassions. The neutral wanted Pete G to win, however. He'd not won it previously and was given an unfavourable draw with his Amazons being put up against dwarves. It would truly be a story from a movie if he were to get his hands on the little gold trophy. 

Round 6

For the final game of the weekend, I was drawn against acerimmer. I told him I'd smoke him a kipper but as I don't know how to do that, it's probably best that he doesn't eat it. I don't want to give him food poisioning. His real life name is Tim and he'd had a short journey there from Derby.

Tim had the misfortune of playing the entire game with no re-rolls as my chef had been cooking up a fine pot of brown "stuff" all weekend and the smells were really starting to distract my opposition as I took both of his re-rolls each half.

I kicked and Tim effectively took his khorne down might right hand flank whilst thinning out my numbers quite nicely. I managed to get a desparation throw team mate to knock down his ball carrier on what must have been at least my third try of doing so, allowing Griff to dance around his shield, pick up the ball and make a run for it. I made a rush to attempt to get Griff out of blitzing range, but another snake eyes left him on the floor, with him having dashed all of my hopes and dreams yet again.

Both of my trees had fallen foul of the claws on Tim's bloodspawn and he elected not to try to score (I calcualted it would have been under 10% chance of him scoring) but instead he decided to foul poor little Griff Oberwald. This swiftly became the first time anyone had managed to remove him during the tournament and Griff headed over to the casualty box, with Tim's marauder being spotted by the ref and asked to have an early bath. 

With just 4 flings and a hefty left on the pitch, it felt like I would be in for a long half. Or perhaps a short one but a painful one. However, I somehow managed to sneak round the flank and get a hefty in scoring range. I'd used up all my re-rolls just to get to that stage and my only hope was that the blitz would fail to knock him over. It did not fail and my hefty found himself on the floor. With even fewer players available to me now, my turns were very quick and my final turn invoved a 3-die uphill blitz with my only remaining player just so that I could have something to do.

Tim had three turns to move the ball up the pitch and the safest way to do so was to spend 3 turns moving and make two rushes in the final turn. Unfortunately for him, the first of them came up with a 1, meaning that the game finished scoreless. 

Based on scoring fluffs, a draw was fair. Based on players on the pitch it was not. Khorne seem like a difficult match up for Halflings as the bloodspawn is a very effective way to deal with the treesmen.

Final standings

Pete's amazons unfortunately weren't able to overcome their dwarf opponents and Oli got his third straight win of the day meaning he finished as SKABBERs on Tour Champion with 8 points. Craig had also had a great day with three wins, including 2 games where he scored four touchdowns. 

The final standings were:

Oli 44th, 8 points
Stew 92nd. 7 points
Craig 102nd, 7 points
Pete 104th, 6 points
Ross 172nd. 5 points
Marianne 210th. 4 points

Overall champion was Purplegoo with his skaven team. Phil is a nice guy and hasn't won the NAFC before so I was pleased for him, however I was much more pleased for Minimorg, aka Josh, who is from the Bromley League (one of our closest neighbours) and picked up the Rising Star award for being the highest placed under 18s coach with his snotlings.