The NAF Championship LIII - 17th & 18th May 2014

[Pug]

Good stats. WM&H? ETC?

War Machine & Hordes

ETC...er et cetera?

[JT-Y]

European Team Challenge/Champs (depending on system).

[sann0638]

And that makes 154 paid entries, beating last year out with some more still to come! Excellent news.

Phrase or not, this makes it the largest single system tourney in the UK over the past 12 months by quite a margin.

Chess? Bridge? Scrabble? Just pondering...

[lunchmoney]

WM&H? ETC?

WarMachine & Hordes. Not sure about ETC. Electric Theatre Company?

[shaniepoo]

WM&H? ETC?

WarMachine & Hordes. Not sure about ETC. Electric Theatre Company?

ETC stands for 'and so on, and so on...' - GW paints include black, white, red, yellow, etc...

[JT-Y]

European Team Challenge/Champs (depending on system).

[J_Bone]

I'm really excited about this... Started playing Blood Bowl again this year and this is my first ever gaming tournament for any gaming system!

BRING ON THE WOODEN SPOON!

[Indigo]

Glad you're excited, expect to get well and truly addicted!
It's going to "ruin you" too - this is a world class event too and eclipses many other tournaments you might go to.

That's not saying the others are bad of course, they're great - but this one is just an order of magnitude better.

[lunchmoney]

For a first event you are jumping in at the deepend. Good man

[J_Bone]

Haha! Yeah... I fully expect it to be a baptism of fire but I can't wait! I'm also playing a match the night before for our local league championship! By the end of Sunday I will be Blood Bowled out for sure!

[JT-Y]

Pffft, BB'ed out indeed.
We played 11 games in 24 hours at BATC two weeks ago and I was back playing league games two nights later!

One of the good things about such a large field as this for a newcomer to tourneys (and this is true of any system) is that after two rounds you'll have ''settled'' and be into your groove with the other attendees of your sort of skill level. And that's where you start having the best fun.
The random first round could draw you against the eventual winner, and you get a savage kicking, so your second round puts you against someone less experienced and you give them a kicking. Or directly vice versa.
It's all good fun, but you see how a big field and six rounds can allow you to get into your groove after a couple of games, and that big field means the depth of opponent is much better also.
I know from experience that a small tourney can look like the best option as a newcomer, in any system, but there is every chance that you'll find it full of regular tourney attendees who will school you in every game. This is still awesome fun, but can give a false impression of the scene altogether.

At this event expect a couple of schoolings (which you will enjoy and learn from), maybe a couple of easy games (which may make you feel like the bad guy!), but mostly you'll get several challenging games that could go either way.
One thing that speaks volumes about the game is that most post game chats I've had revolve around pinpointing where it went wrong or what the loser could've done better, along with congratulating good plays. In other systems you often find that the post game conversation drifts towards ''I need an army more like that because this sucks...''.

I will also add that the BB tourney circuit is the most welcoming and most fun. BB players are a fantastic bunch, and I've played in more tourneys and more systems than I care to remember.

[Pipey]

Couldn't agree more Glad you feel that Jon! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Feel the love!

[Thadrin]

I'm not "Feeling your love" Bren. No matter how much you offer.

[JT-Y]

Brendan was very complimentary about my lovely balls last time we played.

[J_Bone]

Cheers, JT-Y... That's a very good point and I'm glad I've signed up now. Hopefully I can learn from the absolute kickings that are bound to come in the first couple of rounds! I'm going on my own so if you see a big beardy tattooed bloke holding a load of orcs and looking a bit lost come over and say hello! Haha!