Runnymede Rumble 2, Egham 14th March 2026

On Saturday it was the second Runnymede Rumble! The Egham Tabletop Society ran their first event last May  and the second instalment was part of the South East Tournament Series 2026. 

The event was really well run again, and a great day out. This year I went up with Matt (dakanariez) from SKABB and we collected _the_ghost_ on the way up there. 

I've set myself the target of a top 4 finish in the SETS this year, to qualify for the South East team for the English Inter Series Cup 2027 (the first interaction of this was an online FUMBBL event last year, with the first tabletop event taking place in Sheffield on 28-29 March with an open event alongside it, for which there are still tickets). As such, after a low scoring finish in Brighton a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to take a team that I thought would perform really well in the ruleset.

I picked Old World Alliance - the try hard team du jour - and named them Try Hard United. I was going to name the players after genuine try hards but thought it might be a bit mean calling people try hards, so went for people who I didn't think are try hards, but who would largely be at the event - with the exception of dwarfs who were all people with beards. 

After my Spring Break team was named so that members of BriBBe wouldn't want to hurt players named after themselves, SaltySeaWench named her team Stewbacca Can't Hurt Me with all of the players being named after me. Disappointingly we didn't play each other.

Old World Alliance got 5 skills and I took 3 guard, leader and a block catcher. This seemed like the most solid choice to me. The main decision I had to make was whether to take the human thrower or the dwarf runner. In the end, I plumped for the runner after chatting with a few people who had played the team recently. The reason being that whilst the passing skills on the thrower were good for one turn attempts, they didn't actually come up very often and the additional point of movement from having sprint on the runner could be very handy.

Game 1 v Ben (ActualPow)

My first game, like last year, was from a representative of the SCRUBB League. This time it went much better for me than last year, though.

I forgot a lot of this game, but I know I won the toss and elected to receive. I think with the sort of team OWA are, it makes a lot of sense to do so. Ben was playing Chaos Dwarfs and after my experience in league, I expected them to all die horridly and quickly! 

They didn't do so unfortunately, but after a while I had removed both of the sneaky stabbas. I moved down one flank and pushed up. On the turn that I felt I needed to score, I had to use all three of the extra rushes available to the runner to do so.

Ben did have more turns to score than I would have liked, however I was able to thwart the chorfs. The same wasn't true in the second half when they scored fairly quickly, but it meant I had the ball back in hand with a lot of turns left, and I was able to secure the 2-1 win. 

Game 2 v Mike (garvfield)

Mike is on the Team England Pathway and I was pleased we got to play and have a good chat about how he is finding it so far. 

Mike was one of 2 coaches with a Varag Black Orc build. He had a bare 11 players, with 1 re-roll and a mascot. 

Again I win the choice and choose to receive. I knock out a black orc on the line (who decides not to come back all game) and after re-rolling a rush to blitz a goblin with my human blitzer, I get a casualty on him. Down to 9 players, with only 2 goblins it was always going to be tough on Mike. 

I try to knock Varag over and kick him, but he stays on the pitch. I put myself in stalling range - slightly accidentally - but I go with it and take the score. I'm able to keep Mike out and in the second half, I have him in what looks like a very vulnerable position. The ball carrying goblin manages to dodge away from tackle with no re-rolls and potatoes, but with a lot of rushes I'm able to get him down and crucially break armour. I get the dwarf runner back to recover and pass to a waiting human lineman to get a second - although it takes 2 turns for a successful pass to be made. 

Game 3 v Alex (littlemac)

Alex was easily the youngest player there and had 2 wins under his belt to be playing me on table 2. Having come a cropper at the hands of MiniMorg previously, I didn't want to underestimate him.

The way that the bonus points worked meant that if there was a winner on the top table, it was highly unlikely that either myself or Alex would be able to win the event, although if they drew and there was a winner in our game, then one of us would take the title.

Alex was playing Shambling Undead and elected to kick, which took me a little by surprise. I struggle to get any removals and he is getting a few. I have my catcher in range and I think fairly well protected, but Alex is able to engineer a one die blitz on them, which not only knocks the ball loose but casualties my catcher! I do recover the ball and consider stalling but it looked like he'd be able to force me to roll dice and I decided to log the touchdown and allow him 2 turns.

With a time out he actually gets three turns, and he thros players forwards but fails to pick up the ball. I'm able to knockdown or surf all of the players in range, and I even send a human lineman up to be a scoring threat. He is able to dodge away, knock over the ghoul who was marking the ball, pick it up and just needs to rush for the score but succumbs to Nuffle's tripwire. 2-0 at half time would have been game over, but Alex is still in with a shot. 

He moves fairly swiftly to score but this allows me 4 turns to score. I move down one flank and he puts pressure on me and manages to engineer a mummy rush to blitz the ball. He doesn't get a pow and decides not to choose the both down. This allows me to 1 die blitz to push the mummy away and score to win 2-1.

Conclusion

The top table was between SaltySeaWench and PaganAgent - neither of whom had won a NAF trophy before so I would have been delighted for either of them to win as they're both lovely people. As it happens, SaltySeaWench was victorous and took her first shield!

Many moons ago I would have got a bit down about winning all my games and not winning the event, however having been on the other side of this and winning events on tiebreakers or bonus poitns previously, I appreciate that it all balances out. I still got a lovely trophy and a 3D printer Punga elf team!

However, I do find it amusing that 2 of the times I've been pipped to the post have been to SaltySeaWench! She had named all of her team after me though, so technically I also won...