January in NAF Tournaments
Happy New Year and welcome to 2019! It’s going to be an absolute blockbuster of year for NAF tournaments, and January has started us off on the right foot. With ~190 coaches contesting REVA in Spain and the third largest tournament ever in the UK, the UKTC ’19 taking place in York and attracting 240 coaches from across the continent, we really have started as we mean to go on. World Cup apart, will anything top these numbers for individual and team events, respectively?
In total, we saw 50 tournaments take place this month across the NAF world; from Chile to Malta, in North America and Australia and almost everywhere between! Four of these events were the Sevens variant, and one was Streetbowl. We have three lovely reports below from January tournament TOs, as well as some great pictures of you all enjoying yourselves. As well as the hot tabletop action, the NAF Team Challenge 2019 came to a close on FUMBBL, with Italian foursome I Lupi, la Piovra e il Leone taking the spoils as > 150 World Cup rosters got a furious workout. Check out Strider’s FUMBBL post for what is next in the world of NAF Online… Spoiler alert – it’s going to be fast!
Exciting news from North America, where the bidding is open to host the 2020 Amorical Cup. This tournament serves as the NA version of the Aussie State Championship or the Eurobowl; a continental Major team tournament. I’m looking forward to seeing where the event will be held, and I’m sure that teams from across the NAF world will already be thinking about making the trip over and testing themselves in an American environment. Watch this space for more Amorical Cup news as it becomes available!
Reports
Three reports now from lovely January Blood Bowl. This month, we’re taking in reflections from a meaty tournament in Canada, pretty warm Australia (mate) where they fought it out for 24 hours and some madness in Belgium. Take it away, Justin!
The Golden Sausage as of it’s 2019 iteration is a Halfling sponsored event held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is the first stop of the year on the West Coast Grand Prix (a collection of tournaments on the western coast of North America spanning from The West Coast Quake in California, USA to the Golden Sausage in Alberta, Canada). This event is a Stunty event for all ages. The hosting Shire’s village will sell you a whole tiny seat, but you’ll only need the tiny edge! The Golden Sausage is a barbecue event where Halflings get together cooking all of their favourite dishes. The event also includes a beloved Blood Bowl tournament with the occasional meat-sweats-induced riot! Races from all over the Auld World gather to compete in this rare event as Halflings make up the bulk of the spectators in the stands.
The awards include the Golden Sausage (awarded to the best Stunty team) and the Non-Stunty Cup (awarded to the best non-Stunty team). Note: the Non-Stunty Cup is awarded only if there are 3 or more Non-Stunty teams which come to the tournament. Stunty teams enjoy a bonus Fame +2 before even rolling for spectators when facing a Non-Stunty opponent as it is the Stunties that the Shirelings have gathered to see. This has resulted in some pretty interesting pitch invasions and other such headaches for Non-Stunty coaches. Even Dwarf coaches have found the environment to be highly unforgiving when all their re-rolls are taken away and the kick-off table gives then no opportunity to gather more.
This year, we saw 13 coaches sign up for the event with 7 Stunty teams competing. 4 Halfling coaches, 2 Goblin coaches and 1 Stunty configured Lizardman team. Nuffle’s Fixers, the Hot Potatoes, Nur’flings Perfect, the Knuckle Sandwiches, Bender Drunkos, the Cocktail Weenies and the Dino-Might Stunty teams came to play. There were some other teams representing other races there too.
In a five game, two day contest; the Stunty Lizardmen won the day with an impressive 3-2 record and a staggering 10 touchdowns! The Lizards were fast, agile, and sneaky! They managed to beat both of their Stunty opponents and managed to pull out a win against a Non-Stunty team. Fans in the stands were jubilant and ferociously zealot. Sean Conrad (Balbaroy) took home the Golden Sausage and shall be immortalized on the Stunty Cup for all time! Some Norse team played by David Sutton (Da_Scum) won the Non-Stunty Cup.
For more fun commentary and facts about the Golden Sausage please find “Get the Ref!” a blood bowl podcast which follows the blood bowl leagues and blood bowl tournaments found in Alberta, Canada.
For pictures of the event please find the “Alberta Tournament Scene” Facebook page. You can find tournament announcements for our region and follow commentary, pictures and results!
Thanks, Justin. I recommend you check out those photos. Is there a better name for a Blood Bowl tournament anywhere in the world, I wonder? Over to Evan now, down under in Australia.
24 Hour Ironman Challenge 2019
The whole of Australia was sweltering under an immense heatwave but somehow we managed to roll some perfect Blood Bowl weather for the 21st and 22nd of January and were set to begin the pain and the glory that is the Ironman 24 Hour Challenge!
2019 welcomed the 7th year of Ironman which included our largest field since our inception. A throng of mighty men and women brave enough to take on the challenge (including interstate and international coaches) descended upon Flagstaff Hill Scout Hall and battle began. I’d would like to quickly take the time to thank all the coaches for supporting the tournament and for making the event so much fun to organise and to take part in. The unique concept of a 24 hour tournament means each coach has their endurance, mettle and patience tested so just by participating and finishing the tournament is a victory in itself.
Only one can win, however, and by the time the dust had settled and the dice had been thrown (on the pitch and against the wall), it ended up being an international final between myself (One Eye) with my Orc team Manchewster United and Marco de Ruggiero (BadStorm) and his Wood Elves I Seguaci di PanicoRed. In an seesawing battle for field position and the ball, the strength and brutality of the Orcs eventually won the war of attrition and ensured this commissioner became one of ‘those’ commissioners to win their own tournament.
Results
Champion – Evan Whittaker (One Eye) – Orcs
Runner Up – Marco di Ruggiero (BadStorm) – Wood Elves
3rd Place – Kane Taylor (KaneOr) – Undead
Last Place – Kristie Hume (LabWombat) – Halflings
Most Touchdowns – Gavin Griffith – Skaven (22)
Most Casualties – Evan Whittaker – Orcs (40)
Below are some pictures of the event and as you can see, our trophy haul is quite spectacular with the top 3 coaches each receiving a gold, silver or bronze fist trophy along with some dice while the champion is immortalised with their name on the massive trophy. We don’t forget last place either as they receive the coveted Golden Toilet Roll to commemorate their tournament while most casualties receive an engraved knuckleduster and Most Touchdowns a medallion.
If you have any inquiries or questions regarding the Ironman 24 Hour Tournament, you can check out the Facebook page and PM me anytime.
‘One of those’ TOs winning his own event, eh? We’ve all met them! Well done, Evan. 😉 If you’ve never played in a 24 hour event before, I can recommend them. You may only try it once, but some hardy souls seem addicted… Now to Mats / Da_Great_MC in Belgium!
For eight years now HQ Gaming Club has been organising the annual HQ Midwinter Madness Blood Bowl tournament. It started out as a 24 hours tournament (11 games, hence the name, it was sheer madness), but even though many foreign coaches liked the concept a lot, most Belgian players asked for a shorter, more doable tournament. So we shrunk to a six-round tourney, which is still a healthy (some might disagree) amount of Blood Bowl for one day.
With the NAF World Cup looming on the horizon, Belgian (and one brave German) players got their first chance to experience the rules set in a table top tournament environment. Rounds 1 and 2 were played with “Friday rules”, rounds 3 and 4 with “Saturday rules”, rounds 5 and 6 with “Sunday rules”.
Even though we had only fourteen coaches attending, we agreed the field was quite representative for what we might expect in Dornbirn. Following international trends, many tier 2 and tier 3 teams were present, more in particular the Human vs Chaos Pact match-up was everywhere. Lewdgrip Whiparm turned out to be the most popular Star Player, showing up in some “twelve player + apothecary” Chaos Pact rosters.
HQ tournaments are all about fun, therefore we give away our prizes at random. Winning is nice, playing is more important though! But in the end someone had to be the winner. Belgian NAF representative, multiple Eurobowl captain and all-round great guy Driesfield took home the victory, winning five of his six games with a Human team. Congratulations!
I didn’t take too many pictures, sorry about that. But as you can see, there’s room for plenty more coaches. So if you are free the fourth weekend of January 2020, Belgium’s not too far away from where you are and you fancy six games of Blood Bowl crammed into one day, make sure you attend HQ Midwinter Madness!
Good stuff. Random prizes, WC rules, lots to admire. Six games in a day?! Madness.
My month has been full of Blood Bowling action, with fruitful trips to York and Valencia. I’ll post some thoughts on REVA in a Tacklezone blog next month; frankly it was only this past weekend and I’m still utterly exhausted! Those Spanish really know how to burn the candle at both ends. And also in the middle.
World Cup Focus
A new section for 2019, this, as we march towards Dornbirn. Signups have smashed the 1200 mark, and you can still register for 59 more days, if I’ve counted correctly. If you aren’t already coming to the party, you still have time! That said, not much time… Hurry!
The WC ruleset was finalised on Jan. 1 and has generated all sorts of comment and debate. It’s perfectly natural that the biggest tournament that we have produces some passionate viewpoints, and I’ve enjoyed all of the ruleset chats I’ve had and the theorybowling I’ve seen taking place. Rules committee member Strider wrote the following passage about the design goals of the rulespack, and I thought it was more than interesting enough to share here. It’s long, but it really gives an insight into what went on when writing the rules, so well worth a read. If you’ve any ideas about what you’d like to see covered in this space re: the WC in future months, please shout!
When approached by Tojurub early last year to join the World cup rules committee I was delighted to have a chance to influence the biggest event in blood bowl. Together with Jokaero and Kithor, both well-known in the tabletop community we wanted to first discuss what the possibilities are.
The main goals of the ruleset should be:
- The rules are competitive
- If 2 equally skilled coaches start the game, they should have 50% chance to win (of course there is always some rock paper scissor of racial match-ups)
- Avoid too many random elements (Even though it is a dice game and random by
definition, things like wizards, cards, or even equally strong Stunty teams might
reduce the actual Blood bowl skill factor even more)
- People have fun playing
- Rules that are not too difficult to understand
- Any race should be playable (maybe not for the title, but for none to drop below 40 % win rate)
- Diversity in the match-ups. People tend to have more fun playing 9 different races than 9 times vs the same race
- Using Star Players helps with the fluff and is per se additional fun for some players
Obviously, we first had to analyze the status quo, world cup in Lucca as well as Eurobowl rulesets, as they are the biggest competitive team tournaments.
Keeping the competitiveness:
Keeping the competitiveness is usually done by keeping the TV low as the rock paper scissor effect is normally more balanced on lower TV. Avoiding random elements is done by not allowing wizards, inducements and usually not allowing star players.
Star players:
Here we have made an exception as we believe that the fun factor of having star players for an event with 1200 people, where not everyone will be playing for the win, will profit from giving up a tiny bit of competitiveness (usually star players cost a lot so its betting a lot on one player which is per se more randomness) for the sake of more fun. We also thought that this is not game breaking and an important point to help some of the lower tier teams to become attractive.
CLAWPOMB:
We have also kept an eye out for the much feared Clawpomb combination, as this is another way to bet a lot on one players and win games without much skill just by laying in the bash. While it is not completely forbidden or impossible to get with the current ruleset, it is only possible for Loners without Block, is expensive and therefore comes with a clear downside. Furthermore, there are meta (Dirty Player, Guard, Fend) and in game (positioning, fouling) tactics to counter it. While we could have used the PO needs a reroll rule, we decided that some teams rightfully profit from Piling On (Ogres, Norse, Orcs, Humans) and kept it as possibility. This was a pretty close call though.
Other factors to increase randomness:
Some lower tier teams have a bit more random design built in them like Ogres, Vamps, Slann,
Halflings, Goblins. While they get some boost in tiers to get close to 50 % win rate we believe that they are still not good enough to be equal and therefore remain playable but not threatening to the competitiveness. We also gave some thought about the kickoff table, as sometimes things like Pitch Invasion, Blitz! and Riot can change a whole game, but then again we decided that this is within the reasonability of randomness already given by it being a dice game and also it would be too much deviation of the main game to change something as fixed in the minds of all participants as the kickoff table.
People having fun playing:
While I already discussed why we include star players the main other part where rules can influence the fun of each individual player (apart from dice, friendliness of opponent and level of alcohol) is the races played. While not everyone might feel this way, I believe that diversity makes the game a lot more interesting. Playing against 9 different races is definitely more interesting for me and I feel that would apply to the majority of players.
Diversity and tiers:
In an attempt to get more diversity in the Eurobowl and past World Cup, we already had 3 different tiers of the races that are established, usually giving the tier 2 races a boost of additionally 1 normal and 1 double skill, trying to bring the win percentages of races with somewhere 40 – 45 % win ratios up to 45 – 50% win ratios. As seen in the Eurobowls, this might bring 2-3 tier 2 teams into the mix, but the majority of the team compositions of the Eurobowl still consist of the top 10 teams, fielding mostly (Undead, Darkies, Woodies, Lizardmen, Dwarves, Necros and then some of Amazons, Norse, Orkc, Skaven, Chaos Dwarves and maybe the off chance Slann, Pro Elf or Human team).
While it is to some point of course subjective which teams are how good, we originally wanted to create 6 tiers to really make all teams playable. Given the complexity this would bring with it for 1200 people to just understand the ruleset and what they are allowed to do and what not we were asked by the NAF to limit us on 4 tiers. Given that limitation, there was the task on how much to boost each tier and which teams to allocate where.
While I do not want to explain for every team what the reasoning behind each tier is, we did feel that the jump from tier 2 to tier 3 needs to be significant to actually make them playable for competitive teams. There will always be winners and losers with 4 tiers and the teams that are really on the edge will then be at the top or the bottom of the competitiveness. But then again, if 2 more skills decide between top and bottom choice, is it not already pretty even?
Next to the pure additional gold for TV or skills for the lower teams, we also felt the possibility of stacking a skill helps the lower tiers, and availability of star players also usually favors the lower tier teams, as they tend to have more space for them or just not as good positional players.
Tier tie breaker:
In order to give the lower teams an additional boost, we came up with the idea of the tier tie
breaker. While really only relevant for the top 5 teams (I wouldn’t really care if my team comes in 32nd or 38 h ), it would mess with the minds of the top coaches and would challenge them to take on the challenge of moving off their favorite race and prove their skill with something new, yet still competitive. When reviewing the Rules after some bigger tournaments and lots of games had been played online and on tabletop with the ruleset, we came to the conclusion that the best tier 2 / tier 3 teams can already compete well enough with the best tier 1 teams, so we decided to drop the tier tiebreaker also in mind that people would not be pressured into playing something they don’t like and also having with opponent score an element of surprise in the last round in case there actually is a tie, as it cannot be calculated easily without knowing all the results of all teams.
Does it work:
People might argue that instead of top 6 teams from tier 1, everyone now just player top 3 teams of tier 1, top 2 of tier 2 and the best tier 3 and we are still all playing the same races. While this might well be the case, if we assume that we were able to level the 3 tiers (tier 4 still kept a bit lower due to above mentioned randomness issues) and still have the top half of each tier playable then we should get from 10 to about 16 top competitive races, but also with the remaining ones not that far behind that nobody will play them. Therefore, I would expect a flattening and a good chance that you will not have to play the same race more than twice over the 9 games.
Meta game:
Bringing a change in the meta game with suddenly new teams in the mix also changes the whole rock paper scissors game significantly. Wood elves and darkies were the best teams, but are they still if there are suddenly significantly more humans running around with a Tackle MB Blitzer and a DP? Dwarves and Lizards were very solid but are they against claw MC Chaos Warriors? Now that nobody is taking Dwarves because they all fear chaos is this the time to pick Amazons again?
Given the meta switch makes the choosing of races and the choosing of 6 races as a team so much more interesting and allows so many different team compositions.
Conclusion:
What will I personally play? Probably still Wood Elves. Do I feel comfortable with them? Not so sure, maybe 52 % win rate against even coaches with even dice? Should I feel comfortable? Definitely not, any race should give some doubt. Can I play my beloved Ogres. I could, but would estimate to still not be over 40 % win rate against even coaches. That would still account for 2 wins and 3 ties over 9 games, which would probably be fun, but I don’t want to let my team down.
Can I play Khemri because it is the only team I have painted. Of course, if you’re willing to go with a 45% win rate. But hey what is 5% over 9 games in a dice game. 1 win being a tie because not Leader RR for the last GFI, one loss instead of a tie because you did not have MB on that Tackle Blitzer?
Maybe but then again I rather place 67th with playing a race I like than 40th playing the Undead I have been playing in every competitive tournament for the last 5 years! Figuring out what races you want to play and what races your team will play is one of the parts that makes the journey until October interesting, keeps you motivated to play a lot of Blood Bowl and test different teams, maybe even join an online tournament on FUMBBL if you can’t travel. On the other hand, it still also let you just sit back and play whatever you have always played because you don’t have time and just want to go play the World Cup.
TD Notes
Firstly, it’s a pleasure to still be with you as your Tournament Director. You never quite know how an election is going to go, but it’s nice to still be in the job! You can check out my statement here (you’ll have to log in first) regarding how I see the next two years panning out; that thread is still active, so you can chip in with questions you might have. It’s my goal to keep up the level of service you’ve come to expect from us through to 2021. The team and I are already talking about our structure and future plans to improve how we operate, so hopefully you’ll see some of that come to fruition soon.
In NAF staff world, we’ve two things to report. Firstly, in the UK, Valen has stepped down as Midlands RTO / RC to spend more time on the real-life gridiron. Podcast superstar and hipster enabler (hello J_Bone!) Deeferdan will be taking over, and with his contacts in the leagues and groups in that area, he should do a sterling job. In Denmark, after a brief period out of the game, Mr_Nuffle has returned to the staff structure. It would appear there is much to do over there in a vibrant scene, so great to have Lars back on board. On the committee, we’ve just had a League Director election, in which soldierant / Anthony was the only candidate. I’m looking forward to working with my new colleague, and thank Smilzo / Tommaso for all of his hard work.
This month, the team have sanctioned 85 (eighty-five! Wowser, another record) tournaments including 1 Sevens, one Dungeon Sevens and 5 Streetbowl. We’ve also got a fair few ‘pending’ as we investigate further submissions. December was understandably a little more quiet, but it’s great to see January kick on as TOs get their tournaments into the database. Remember: the NAF would like 8 weeks of notice with your submission. If you submit with a month to go to your tournament, you may fall foul of another local tournament already being in the database, or we may not have much time to understand and negotiate on some rule or other that doesn’t fit with the sanction document. The more time you give us, the smoother the procedure will be, and please bear with us as we get to your submission. These are truly extraordinary numbers, but we’re doing our upmost!
The main bit of work in January has been the kickoff of our Variants Review. Over on this forum, the global NTO / NCs, the approval team, selected experts and I are debating what changes, updates and revisions need to be made to bring our variants up to date. Variant play has exploded since we updated the database, and we have a lot more experience of each of the formats now, so this is a good time to go through everything with a fine toothcomb and ensure we’re providing the most robust rulesets that we can with one eye on BB2016 and the changes that’s bought with it. The whole process will likely take a few months, so expect that to tick along in the background and we’ll be loud when our updated .pdfs hit thenaf.net.
Why Didn’t I think of That?
As part of the Variants Review, we’re considering what else we could add to our suite of offerings. One such possible addition is Draft, a popular (currently) non-NAF variant in North America. For those not in the know, here is an excerpt from the rules we’re looking at:
Drafting
In the Blood Bowl Draft format, each coach drafts a team from among all of the available Blood Bowl player types. For player types that are duplicated on different race rosters, all versions would be available (both Goblin team Troll and Orc team Troll would be available, etc.).
- Each player type may only be drafted once
- Drafts should be limited to a maximum of 9 coaches, if a draft event has more than 9 coaches they should be split into separate draft groups or “pods”. These pods should be kept as even as possible and each player type is available within each pod
- Draft order should be determined randomly, drafting will then proceed in a ‘snake’ format with the coach who drafts first in round 1 drafting last in round 2 and the coach who drafts last in round 1 drafting first in round 2 etc.
- Drafting will continue for 12 rounds, giving each coach twelve available player types to choose from
Team creation
Following the draft, each coach assembles their roster using the following rules:
- Recommended Team Value is $1,150,000
- Each of the 12 drafted player types is available as a 0-1
- Drafted players are hired at normal cost
- Coaches must assemble a team with a minimum of 11 players, all 12 drafted players may be used
- Team re-rolls may be purchased for 70,000 (the drafted players are not used to playing together)
- Coaching staff and Fan Factor may be purchased (Apothecary, Assistant Coaches, Cheerleaders)
As play progresses, the drafted players begin to sober up and regain some of their forgotten skills. Before the first match 1 player may be given an additional normal skill. Before each subsequent match either two players gain 1 normal skill or 1 player gains a doubles skill. No player may have more than 1 additional skill.
If that’s your first time reading some of the potential (it is potential at this stage!) Draft rules, it’ll be nothing if not interesting! Perhaps coming to a NAF near you later this year. Fancy running a Draft event..?
Holiday Plans
June is pretty much holiday season, so what does the database have in store? As ever, the answer is ‘bags of good stuff’.
Blood Bowl on the Rock 15/16 June. This is becoming an ever more talked about Euro event as Malta gear up for what I can only assume will be a cracker of a Eurobowl. Blood Bowl on the rock?
Turncoat Max VII 28/29 June. The ever popular Belgian format, but at MAXIMUM levels. Can’t go wrong. Or, you can go very wrong, but it’ll be fun.
Pearly Kings & Queens XIV 29/30 June. A personal favourite of mine. Terrific pub venue in central London, the classic Ironmanj ruleset, a pretty solid night out in the capital. Tick, tick, tick.
Next Time
More of the same! I’ll be at the ever amazing Waterbowl in Stockport, and we’ll be gearing up for the first NAF Major of the year, the Dungeonbowl in sunny (we hope!) Dusseldorf. Until then, keep enjoying your NAF BB!