NAFC (including 7s at Warhammer World), 2nd-4th May 2025
The NAF Championship, formerly known (many moons ago) as The Blood Bowl is the English National event and one of the 5 Majors. This was my 5th year attending since my first in 2019, and it is an event I will always try to make.
Not only is it expertly run by deeferdan and the team, it is the largest singles event in the world and is like a Blood Bowl party.
Pre-NAFC Sevens
The Friday night traditionally has a sevens event at Warhammer World. Whilst the experience was slightly dampened by Bagman's Bar being temporarily closed, it was still fun nonetheless.
For the last few years, eldritchfox has been running this and I have been the spare man, although a Dayday volunteered to do this and I was guaranteed to be playing.
52 coaches attended this year, equalling the record for the largest sevens event held in the UK (with last year's Thrudball Sevens) and the joint 5th largest sevens event ever.
Round 1 v Sean (monkeyrage)
I've chatted to Sean a fair bit before but this is the first time we'd played. I had taken Amazons for the sevens, mainly to avoid needing to transport another team with me. They got one skill, so I had a block blitzer, another blitzer, two blockers and six linewomen. Obviously no re-rolls, because otherwise I'd have had to tut at myself.
Sean had norse, with maximum block. His two skills had been to add block to a valkyrie and an ulfwerner with his other positionals being 2 berzerkers. Having faced norse at sevens before and knowing it is very difficult to keep the ball in a cage or properly screened, I felt that the strip ball on the valkyrie would be a big problem.
I kick the ball and I manage to get round the norse to force Sean to score earlier then he wanted. This gives me 2 turns to score back I manage and run up the side and manage to bash my way through for a touchdown.
On my drive, closed in I try to base everyone up and dodge my ball carrier free to force the norse to dodge. I fail the dodge and it leaves the ball deep in my backfield. The norse manage to recover, but the luck is with me as I manage to knock it loose and run it back in for a score that he couldn't stop on my final turn of the game to win 2-1.
Round 2 v Phil (vagabond1982uk)
Pihl and I had played in this event in 2023 and I was excited to have a rematch. I got a bit of luck to win it last time, and Phil is a really fun opponent to play against.
I go very aggressive basing all of his skaven (one gutter, two blitzers and a leader thrower - tut, tut). He scores but allows me the time to score back. I receive a re-roll from the kick off and I have to roll lots of dice for the score and manage them all... except the rush into the endzone which fails even with the brilliant coaching re-roll.
At 1-0 down I push to score quick on my drive to have a chance to win the game and I use hit and run to sneak through the defensive line.
Even with basing up the rats, they still manage to make the important pick up as the gutter runner dodges out of tacklezones to go back in, pick up the ball, dodge out again and rush for the winner.
I was a bit disappointed, but it was fair that Phil had the luck this time around.
Round 3 v Sandwich
Sandwich was the brave man who brought goblins along. We'd been sitting next to each other for the first two rounds and had chatted a bit.
The goblins had 10 players and 2 bribes with sure hands on the pogo, mighty blow on the fanatic, dodge on the looney and sneaky git on the ooligan. They get me down to not many players very quickly. I think I had 5 from turn 4 onwards, but I take advantage of a bad roll and manage to surf the ball carrier, run off and pick it up to score on turn 5 for maximum bribe usage.
The ball and chain was very much playing it's own game randomly heading away from its teammates. However it does a great job of arguing with the referee and it lasts until turn 11 when the game is done and dusted before it is finally sent off.
On my drive I score quickly but the gobbos have most of their team and score back quickly. A time out helps them to have a chance at an equaliser, although it also gives me an opportunity for a third which I take for a 3-1 win and a 12th place finish, also narrowly missing out on most touchdowns on the tiebreakers.
After a bit of socialising and a later night than intended, as well as a very fulfilling breakfast at the Orchard, we were ready for the main event!
Anyone who has experience of me playing amazons either in person or by proxy will be aware that I favour the max positionals build. I had an apo and three re-rolls on top of this and had skilled up both blockers with guard, blitzers with block and wrestle and two more block - one on a thrower and one on a linewoman.
Round 1 v Dan (Raging82)
I was drawn against Dan who I had played at Thrudball the year before last. The dice had very much favoured me that day, and I was expecting a bit of karma. Dan had elf union which I know well, and after kicking, I was able to but quite a bit of pressure on midway through the first half and I was able to get a hit on the ball carrier with my wrestle blitzer. The ball bounced just within reach of a linewoman who tried to throw it to a waiting blodger near the half way line but fluffed it into the path of elves who were able to easily pick it up and stall out. I try for a one turned but re-roll pows into pows on the blitz so didn't even get to worth through the mechanics of it.
On my drive I push up my right flank but the high pressure of the elves combined with three 1s in one turn mean I'm not able to keep the ball safe. It gets turned over and we lose the game 2-0.
R2 v BigG
Apologies to BigG who did tell me his name but I forgot to make a note of it. He was the rising star (best junior player) at last year's NAFC and was playing skaven.
He elects to kick to me and despite a blitz, they are unable to get through my lines and I manage to keep the ball safe and score on turn 8 having removed both a tackle blitzer and gutter runner through fouls.
The rats have a shot at a one turn touchdown. I try to keep deep but it goes out I figured it was worth a shot at making the throw a potential 4+. With the sprint gutter on the line, the rats knock over my blocker first before blitzing into a linewoman to get the one push needed. No dice rolls are failed and it is 1-1 at half time. A lesson learned from my set up is to potentially have people behind to stop the blitz coming in, especially as there was no rat ogre on the squad.
I also get a blitz when kicking and I try to get a lot of pressure on the ball. A gutter runner fails a dodge to get some pressure in my backfield as he's attempting to score quick and I manage to recover the ball. We moved down to the corner and stall out (having seen that the rats are able to easily score in one turn). It was all looking ok, a bit of pressure was coming and so I decide to score and try to guarantee at least a draw, and then this happens...
This allows the gutter runners to sneak in and do a 4+ pick up and clear off with no chance of reaching them. This felt like a win that was turned into a loss.
Round 3 v Isaac (ThisWayUp)
At this point I'm sitting on the bottom tables and drawn against Isaac from the Eltham school that bring a bus load of children each year. Isaac was playing dwarfs and there isn't really much to say about this other than that I think he got unlucky getting drawn against me. On day 2 he managed to go 1/1/1 but I compounded his misery and got a 3-0 win.
Round 4 v Sean (monkeyrage)
In a rematch from the sevens on Friday, I'm drawn against Sean again. This time he is playing halflings with Maple and Zug.
I kick to him, and manage to turn him over taking out the sneaky git and a couple of others in the process. He keeps trying halfling missiles but they don't work and I score on turn 8.
On my drive, I score as quick as I can to go 2-0 up. A thrown halfling ends up in my backfield and I'm unable to knock him down as he dodges twice into the endzone to pull one back.
Receiving I cover the ball and cage up near the halfway line to ensure that even if a halfling is thrown at it and gets the ball loose that they are out of range to score.
Round 5 v Connor (maca1066)
Connor is playing imperial nobility and chooses to receive and try to get casualties. He gets a skull on turn 4 which allows me knock out a blodger. I am able to recover the ball and run away with it, with even quad skulls not stopping me.
Receiving 1-0 up at the start of the second half. I stick with my usual plan of going for a quick score to seal the game. Connor tries to block off all of my routes but fails a 3+ dodge with re-roll that would stop my final out. The out is a hand-off to a thrower who is able to pass and allow me to run away with the ball. The nobles only plan is a retainer lineman dodging out for the blitz and he gets a pow, but it isn't too difficult for me to recover the ball and get the second.
Round 6 v Si (grumpyboyle)
Si isn't as grumpy as his name suggests. He is playing orcs and I choose to kick. I just try to get in the way without allowing too many hits and he ends up having to roll dice to get round my line and score on his turn 6.
This allows me to have a shot at a score back before the half. I drop a thrower back to receive the ball, with another in handoff range, and send almost everyone else into the backfield as a scoring threat.
Si does tag the second thrower but a lot of dice go my way, with a pass to a waiting linewoman, a blitzer dodging out and double rushing into the endzone and then linewoman with the ball now double rushing for a handoff. I can't remember how many re-rolls I had at this stage, but it is around an 18% play without any.
On my drive, I elfed around making slow progress lurching from side to size. Eventually when my blitzer is in range and feeling a lot of pressure on me, I use her to blitz, hit and run and rush to go 2-1 up. At this point we had about 20 minutes left and Si offered to call it. I was happy to play on, but he'd obviously decided he wasn't going to get anything out of the game and wanted to get an early start on the drive home.
After losing my first two games, I was delighted to have ended up on 4/0/2. I would have taken this before the tournament, although I think I'd have preferred not to lose the first two!
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