Runnymede Rumble, 17th May 2025 in Egham

I found myself with this Saturday unexpectedly spare and a tournament within reasonable driving distance so I headed off to Egham. I had no idea where Egham was before I left - it's a good job I have a semi-reliable satnav in the car to help me get there.

Despite them being my favourite team, I'd only ever taken wood elves to a tournament once before - NAF Championship last year, and so I thought I'd give them another run out to see if I've learned anything from playing them online a fair bit.

One big change from my NAFC roster is dropping the tree. I really like the mobility of having eleven elves, compared to 10 and a tree that will stand still a lot. It really suits my style of play. I went for 2 wardancers with strip ball and tackle, a leader thrower, 4 catchers with no added skills and 4 linemen - three of whom had dodge.

Round 1 v Paul (stelthelf)

Of the 22 players at the tournament, a large number of them have just started playing the game with Egham starting up a league at the end of 2024. I was not drawn against any of them, but instead the luck of the draw meant I was playing one of the more experienced coaches who, like me, had travelled to the event.

I'd not properly chatted to Paul before but he seemed like a lovely chap... until he started beating up my elves! He was playing a reasonably conventional skaven build. 

I kicked to him and he failed to pick up the ball. I stole it but he was able to get a hit with a wrestle gutter runner who knocked it loose. The rats pick up the ball and get it to a gutter runner alone in my backfield. My strip ball wardancer does what he's supposed to do, allowing my thrower to pick it up, send it downfield again and get the score to go 1-0 up on his drive. 

Then things start going wrong. I try to leap a wardancer away from being pinned on the sideline by the rat ogre to dodge into the cage and strip the ball again. Unfortunately he fails his leap and having left the other wardancer on the ground (intending to reposition if I got the ball loose) they are kicked off the pitch shortly after. The rats score on turn 8 and I don't have enough players left to even think about a one turn touchdown.

On my drive, I rush players forward to score quickly before I get overrun by rats, intending to then defend with my life. I plan to blitz a gutter runner away from my catcher to avoid a possible interception, but failing the dodge needed allows the rats to take the ball and they wait a turn before going 2-1 up.

The elves try the same plan again, this time manging to score in 2 turns to level it up at 2-2. Kicking off, a blitz nearly allows me under the ball with a wardancer, but I'd set them up a bit too far back to cover, and failing a rush gives the rats the opportunity to easily come back downfield and go 3-2 up giving me just 1 turn left. 

Again, not enough players for a one turn attempt, we set up hoping for the time out which amazingly happens. Quickly moving the ball upfield, we have the shot at an unlikely equaliser. The wardancer carrying the ball is knocked down and fouled but it does allow a catcher an opportunity to dodge, jump over the prone wardancer, pick up and run off... the dodges and jump work but they're unable to pick up the ball and it ends in a 3-2 loss. 

Round 2 v Dave (purplechest)

After losing round 1 to one of the better players at the event, you'd expect a slightly easier game... however I got drawn against recent Team England callup PurpleChest, who was playing vampires that he'd been doing well with recently. 

Some of these details might not be quite right. It was an action packed game and I forgot the exact order of events. 

PurpleChest elects to receive and scores in 2 with no bother. It isn't easy to stop vampires scoring that quickly if they really want to.

I score back in the middle of half, knowing that it's not worth stalling out against vampire. A blitz at the kick off means I nearly get the ball. It doesn't quite happen but I defend and get in the way of the vampires, managing to knock the ball carrier down and then run in, pick up and dodge out. A pass that would have allowed me to get away and possibly score is snaked in my turn 7, and then on the following turn a wardancer fails a 3+ dodge that would have be followed by a 2+ dodge to potentially go 2-1 up before half time.

Receiving now, I push up the middle with a lot of players surrounding the ballcarrier to make it much trickier for vampire shenanigans to payoff. They do manage to hypnotise all the key players and walk into my cage to knockdown my ball carrier. It gets very messy but my elves pass all the rolls needed to pick up, dodge out and rush to hand off to a waiting catcher in the endzone who had already rushed to get there, using a lot of re-rolls to make it happen. 

The vamps score back again despite a fight, giving us the opportunity for a third. Failures on both sides cause the game to become wide open. The last couple of turns are a mad scramble and it could go either way.  Purplechest has the beat shot with a 3+ catch on a runner in range on his final turn, but with no re-rolls it fails and a draw was probably a fair result.

Round 3 v Phil (oldmanjenks)

Phil was a new player and lovely guy. This game however was a whitewash. He was playing goblins and my elves danced around them with the weapons gone after a quick turnover touchdown. I end up winning 4-0 and had been pushing for a 5th to get most touchdowns, but it didn't happen (and I think I would have been just short as well). 

I ended up 1/1/1 with the loss being to the eventual winner and the draw against an exceptionally good player, I was quite happy with. And I got to have fun and play with my favourite team! I'd definitely recommend going when they hold an event next, it was a really enjoyable atmosphere.