The NAF Championship 2018

May 07, 2018

The NAF Championship 2018

I've not been to the NAF Championship since 2015 but, as I reached the age of 50 this year, I thought I should celebrate it properly by going again. I've also been aiming to use this tournament as the culmination of completing the 24 so I put my recently painted Wood Elves in my case, printed out my roster sheets and set off for Nottingham. After a quick jaunt to Warhammer World first (see my previous blog post about that!) I got to the hotel in plenty of time to get checked in and start saying hello to all my gaming buddies as they arrived.

For the record, as I've not used Wood Elves in a tournament before, I basically grabbed the roster and skill choices off the internet! The list I was using was :

2 x Wardancers (Strip Ball and Frenzy on Day 1)
1 x Thrower (Leader on Day 1)
3 x Catchers (one with Block and one with Sure Hands on Day 2)
4 x Linemen
1 x Treeman (Grab on Day 2)
1 x Reroll
1 x Apothecary

There were 192 coaches taking part in the tournament which is an amazing number of gamers. So on Saturday morning after a rather too hearty breakfast, we registered out teams and waited for the first round draw to be made.

My first game was vs a very experienced Wood Elf coach - I thought if nothing else I'd see how he played and copy him in my other games. This wasn't to be though as I won the game 4-2 which was quite a shock! In the first half I'd gone 2-1 down and had to try to make a one turn touchdown to equalise - and it worked. My first ever one-turner!

My second game was against my friend Jim who I've played in tournaments more than anyone else - this was the 10th time we'd played. I checked and I'd only won against him once before when he was using Ogres. This time though, he was using his Pro Elves which his won a few tournaments with. This was a really close game and as the game drew to an end, I was 3-2 up with one last turn to go. Jim's dice failed him and he didn't managed to equalise on the last turn.

Game 3 and I was playing against an Underworld team which featured Skitter Stab-Stab and Glart Smashrip (the new one rather than the claw version). Skitter was a real threat in this game and just kept stabbing away which reduced my team numbers. My dice weren't great either which was capped off with a Goblin intercepting a pass and running off with the ball. He went 2-1 up and I only had the one turn option to try to equalise. I did all the hard part of pushing the players around and passing the ball to the catcher - only for him to fail a GFI. Ah well!

Day two and more hearty breakfast led to my game four against - yes it was Wood Elves again! This was quite a cagey game after we finished the first half 1-1. My opponent was receiving and he cautiously tried to make way down the field while I did my best to block him. In the end, I had to make a leaping blitz on his ball carrier with my Frenzy Wardancer - and he pushed the ball carrier off the pitch which sent the ball flying out into the open pitch by the crowd. I got it up the pitch to the Sure Hands catcher who survived a blitz from a Strip Ball Wardancer - and he then went onto make a 4+, 2+ dodge away to win the game for me 2-1

With three wins under my belt (stretched thanks to the hearty breakfasts...) I was really quite pleased with how things had gone but with two more games to go, I thought I'd push my luck a bit more.

Game 5 and I was playing another Wood Elf team! This time there was no Treeman but he did have rerolls to spare as well as an extra lineman. I went 2-1 up at one point but due to the sweltering heat weather, we had to roll to see who was missing for the drive. I lost both Wardancers, the Treeman, my Block catcher and the Thower! I was already missing a lineman through an injury so I set up with three Linemen and two Catchers for the kickoff! Despite this, I did manage to scare him by getting a blitz on the ball carrier - but the inevitable happened and he equalised. In the second half though, he started to lose players and my team prevailed with another 4-2 win.

Four wins - my best ever tournament result. One more game to go and all to play for.

In my final game, I was facing a great guy playing Lizardmen with a really simple skill setup - all the six Sauruses with Block. I did my best but my team was bashed apart and I was burning rerolls just trying to keep up. My dice deserted me and the game ended 2-0 to him which was fair enough as he was a superb opponent.

Four wins and two losses - I was happy with that especially as it was the first full game I've played with Wood Elves in a tournament. I had worn the Leader cape for a game and, to cap it all, I'd been given a patch to commemorate completing the 24. Superb weekend with my gaming buddies - I even got to go see a band in Nottingham on the Saturday night.