Summerslam, 13th July 2024 in Hawkinge, Folkestone

 This Saturday we hosted our first pairs event.  It was wresting themed so you tagged with your partner each round and played their team.  It was a 4 game event meaning each player played with each time twice.

There was a point allocation awarded to each team for picking races.  Any unused points got converted into skill points and could be used by either of the races picked,  in addition to the skill points each race had to start with.

This system is going to be used in the Kent Team Championship 2025, so we were keen to see how it affected the choices of races being played. In a 36 player event, 20 of the 30 available races were played which seems to suggest the template allows for a lot of choices.

Myself and Oli (eldritchfox) paired up ready to drop out of there was an odd number of teams on the day.  As it happened, we sold out so it was not necessary.  We did have one drop out but with the first reseve just round the corner from the venue we went ahead with all 18 teams.

Our tag team name was The Optimisers, and we dressed in matching suits - well as matching as we were able to from our wardrobes.

We took OWA and Chaos Renegades,  using models that Oli has painted in the squad chaos colours which were are able to be used as a number of teams.  The OWA build had Mighty Zug and a treeman, and the Renegades build had a rat ogre, an ogre,  a troll and Lord Borak.

We were using Tourma for the first time as a test for Kent next year as I'm keen to avoid using soreadsheets. It seemed to work quite well,  allowing us to share fixtures and results easily over Discord. We also used Discord for results submission, although I'm keen to investigate the feature which will allow users to directly submit results into the software.

This was also the first time using the venue - Hawkinge Community Centre - as the regular venue we use was booked out.

Round 1 v Toby (tofu)

Toby had won the event in Hastings the previous weekend using Imperial Nobility which he was playing first round.  However he had a fun wrestling themed build with all of the linemen being given wrestle. I didnt have much block on my OWA team apart from Zug and the troll slayer, so it wasn't really negating the strength in my team but it was very frustrating.

Toby was, as always,  a really fun opponent. Even if i did have to occasionally repeat myself due to his hearing being impeded by the luchador mask he was wearing which helped him and his partner Curtis win the best outfit award.

My treeman rooted on the first turn. He did successfully casualty a lineman whilst doing so, so he did ok. It was indicative of his entire game,  as he had 4 turns in which he was not rooted - he rolled a 1 and rooted every single time,  meaning he didn't move a single square in the entire game!

I received and got another couple of removals. I had a slow drive protecting the ball reasonably well scoring on turn 8, meaning we should go in 1-0 up at half time. Unless we roll a time out (the worst reault on the kick off table) which we did.  Toby hadn't set up to take advantage of it but did his best to do so.  He ran his blogging blitzer through with the ball.  As the only player in scoring range,  my blitz had to be at him and i managed to get the knock down to prevent the score.

Toby was able to stall out easily enough when receiving in the second half.  Nothing terribly exciting happened and I'd been saving rerolls for the one turn touchdown attempt but unfortunately the ball went out of range so we drew 1-1. Oli had comfortably been beating Curtis's halflings so there had been no need for me to push to prevent the score, as a draw wins us the match up and so the best option for me was to save my resources for the one turn attempt. The kick went out of my range and so it ended as a draw.

Round 2 v Alex (bonethugsnoharmony)

Regular readers will have heard about my previous games against Alex. This was the fourth time we had played a NAF game, and this time he was playing nurgle. Alex was part of the Smasher Bashing Cohens team. He had dressed as Ali G, but his tag team partner was sadly ill and we didn't see his side of the outfit, due to the spare being brought in.

The nurgle was pretty much as you'd expect with a lot of block on the bigger players and a bit of wrestle on a pestigor. They were up against my chaos renegades.

I kicked to Alex and he got 2 removals on turn one. This made it very difficult to stop the score. Being severely down on players, I tried a desparation blitz but with a lot of dice needing to go my way, I decided to save my re-rolls for the one turn touchdown attempt. 

I went to use Lord Borak to do a three dice block to clear the way for the throw and rolled triple skulls. For the second time at a tournament in a week. I used my final re-roll on it and successfully passed the loner, but  I then failed the pick up attempt. I decided not to use Lord Borak's special re-roll as it as so early in the sequence with everything needing to go right. 

Receiving the ball in the second half, I moved around a bit. Once I had got Alex to very slightly overcommit on one side, I went down the other. A couple of nice stuns helped with this. With a lot of pressure on, my rat ogre successfully dodging away sealed the deal and made it impossible for the nurgle to stop the equaliser. The game ended 1-1, with Oli's game against Iain ending 0-0 meaning we got a team draw. 

Round 3 v Ashley (cleaver88)

I was quite pleased to be drawn against Ashley. He is in his second season in our league but we've not come up against each other yet, so I was looking forward to the game after seeing the draw.

He was playing OWA which he has been playing in our league and they came up against my OWA. I chose to receive the ball and I got very lucky with my removal dice, including an surf which I had miscalculated as an uphill surf. Being significantly up on players, I was able to get out of range and went in at the half 1-0 up.

The game turned into a massive bundle in the middle of the pitch, but I managed to turn over the ball. I scored as quickly asa I could to effectively secure the win.

I score a very egregious third to win 3-0. The dice in this game heavily favoured me.

Oli was playing against vorbeck in his first ever tournament and he got a 2-2 draw meaning we got a second team win, going in to the final around on 2/1/0 as a team. This meant we were in contention. Although we didn't want to win our own tournament, we were still trying to do so. We would have just been mildly embarassed about it. There were two other teams on the same record and they were both playing each other, so it was all to play for. 

Round 4 v Tom (chicken23)

We were drawn against Bobs and Nobs - dimmygee and chicken23 playing the two teams from the latest box set. I was up against Tom, another person who I had been hoping to play for a while. We'd been to several tournaments together but not been paired up before.

Tom was playing black orcs, the team he's probably got the most experience with, and I was back with the chaos renegades. 

I kicked and Tom was stalling out succesfully, not really giving me any opportunities to even attempt to break into his cage, so I instead focussed on removing players. I got a couple of big removals with 2 black orcs in the casualty box. I also injured his sneaky git goblins which he apothecaried. I was hoping for an attempt at the throw team mate 1 turn touchdown and there was a favourable scatter. Unfortunately the weather changed and blew it out of range! 

On my drive I continued to get a big numbers advantage. I was in the situation where it looked like I could stall out fairly comfortably for the draw, but with Oli not looking like winning his game, I decided to push for an early score and hope to turn over the black orcs with my superior numbers. 

Mid way through the second half, I failed a hand off and spent the rest of the half trying to pick up the ball. Tom did really well to cover the ball and forcing me into deparate plays. My rat ogre - the MVP of my day - successfully dodged out and blitzed one of his players who went on to the ball which then bounced to my only real scoring threat who caught it and then dodged out to equalise. A lot of dice needed to go my way for it to work, which they did. 

Tom was going to try a one turn touchdown, but again the ball went into a spot where I don't think it was possible. However, a time out then was rolled on the kick off table (the worst result on the kick off table!) which gave him a bit of a chance. It also allowed me to put a bit of pressure on the ball which was just enough to stop him getting a winner.  

Oli and Dimmy also drew 1-1 so we got a team draw to end the day on 2/2/0 as a team.

Conclusion

We ended up runners up - we would have just taken it if we'd won the last round - with the Smasher Bashing Cohens taking the win.

The best indvidual was minimorg, winning his first NAF trophy and playing a combination of chaos chosen and khorne in a team with his brother.

Most casulaties went to James (gj703) playing chaos renegades and halfings. Most touchdowns was a three way tie but went to totalfuzzylogic playing orcs and vampires.

The two Lukes, known for the day as the Sulk Hogans were runners up with one of them being delighted about it.

The builds we had were quite interesting. Both teams I feel are tricky to play. In terms of the stars, whilst I absolutely love Lord Borak, I think you're paying a fair whack for fouling skills which you're not likely to use much as you don't want to risk getting that much team value sent off the pitch. I'm mainly talking from the experience of having him sent off turn 1 in a playoff game. I might be a bit too cautious about it now!

Mighty Zug is pretty solid and tore me apart at NAFC. I think for all of the players with the once per game mighty blow type skills, the best thing to do is to use it at the first possible opportunity. It doesn't come up enough to wait around for the optimum moment, so as soon as you get to use it, I would recommend just doing so. I'm not sure how the numbers work out, but that is very much my hunch.