NAF Championship 2026, 2-3 May 2026.

This was my 6th NAF Championship. It is the one event I always try to make sure I make it to for a number of reasons, that I'm sure I've spoken about in previous years so I won't go over those again. 

I've tried to take a different team to each one, and I'd also been trying to take a different team to each Season 3 tournament so far. However I decided to break with the second of these self-imposed restrictions and take dark elves which I'd taken to Sheffield, done well with and were one of the teams I was most interested in playing.

I switched builds slightly and went for a block and wrestle witch, two dodge blitzers, only one assassin with dodge, a runner and six linemen. This allowed me to have 3 re-rolls plus a team mascot. I could have made it 4 re-rolls by switching the dodge on the assassin to leader on the thrower, which in hindsight I probably would have done. 

Round 1 v Cornish

I'd played Cornish at Waterbowl in 2025 and we'd drawn that game. This time we had an elf-off as he'd gone for Elf Union. 

I kick and I get a few removals. He drops the ball carrier back and out of range of a blitz. I get why he did this, to obviously keep the ball safe, but by doing so it made him even more outnumbered in the fight. I consider swarming forwards to make the thrower do something, but it would have been easy for him to get around the side as I wouldn't be able to get enough players there so I opt not to do this.

He split his team between the two flanks. This allowed me to blitz and knock down the best scoring option, and fairly well cover the players he has still standing. He takes a while considering his play and he's able clear some space to make a pass, fumblerooskie the ball so that someone in range can dodge around and pick it up and score. It was a really good use of an inbuilt skill to score a touchdown that would have been much trickier otherwise.

I look at a one turner but with just one re-roll and the first block resulting in a knockdown, I opt instead to go for removals and try to get enough so that I'm able to push for a winner.

I receive and without those removals, I'm able to keep the ball safe and score in turn 8. Cornish looks to do a one turner but possibly made it more difficult by rolling more dice than might have been needed, such that one of them lets him down and we again draw. 

Round 2 v Spob

When you don't win your first round game, you're usually hoping for a slightly easier round 2 match up. I ran in to current Waterbowl Champion, Spob. He's a nice guy and we've spoken a lot before but have never played. He had orcs this weekend.

Again I kick and there are no removals on either side. I'm not able to stop him progressing but I am able to manufacture a 6+ cage dive which would have potentially resulted in a surf or the ball going loose. I get knockdown on the first of the witch's frenzy hits and opt to keep it, but the ball bounces to a lineman and I'm not able to stop the score. In hindsight, I probably would have re-rolled the both down result. Anything but a skull is still good for me, but the possibility of the ball going out increases with a pow/stumbles/push result. That would definitely have improved the odds of both stopping the score and scoring myself. 

I did manage to surf a couple of orcs but there was no lasting damage. A one turn attempt again fails before it starts.  

When I receive I'm under a lot of pressure. I got to dodge around the side, and the ball carrier and another player get through but just as I'm forming the screen, a rush is failed and the ball is exposed for an easy hit. Spob capitalises, recovers the ball and moves it upfield. All my attempts to get it back are futile after my re-rolls have just vanished. 

Round 3 v Starkey

Starkey is a part time commission painter. I will dig out the information and add it here when I can. He had a lovely painted gnome team with Maple - the exact matchup which I'd had a practice game against when I played chicken23 earlier in the week.

I kick the ball and he potatoes a fox with the ball. I'm able to take it and start moving up the pitch but the bullseye tree keeps making problems for me, knocking down the ball carrier twice in a row! I manage to score on his drive and then score in 2 turns in the second half, to effectively seal the game. 

I try to turnover the ball for a third, but the tree catches it! I do somehow knock it loose from the tree with my change of getting the score being a blitzer pass to the assassin who would need to hit and run blitz away, but the 6+ pass is failed.

I end up with a 2-0 win and end the day on 1/1/1 which I'm pretty happy with given the quality of my first two opponents.

Round 4 v Kosmo

Kosmo was playing skaven who in this ruleset were probably undertiered. They were largely chosen - I had considered it myself. He had an interesting choice of stacking block and mighty blow on a linerat -  which was allowed in the rules - and leaving one of the blitzers skilless. I would have switch the mighty blow onto the blitzer, and it did confuse me as I assumed at a couple of points that the player with mighty blow was actually the blitzer (although I actually wouldn't have done anything differently had I realised). 

Kosmo scored and I wasn't really able to put up much of a defence and I had no chance at the one-turner.

On my drive I scored reasonably quickly. I used punt to try to make it easier. It only moves the ball 1 square forwards. However, I'm able to pick it up and hand off, then dodge away and score - which I wouldn't have been able to do had I rolled a 1 on the pass roll.

I decided to push for the score to attempt to turnover and win the game - and also partly because I don't have much defence if he gets a hit on the ball with one of his strip ball blitzers - however one of them with guard had been sitting out most of the game.

He pushes forwards and I make the 6+ cage dive and get a knockdown on the first of the witch's frenzy hits. Kosmo was frustrated by this but with around a 15% chance of this working without re-rolls, it wasn't too unlikely. The ball goes in about the best spot for me, I pick it up and screen off just inside his half.

He manages to make some hits to allow his blitzer to dodge away and then into my screen on a 5+ to strip the ball from me (about a 22% chance of success without re-rolls ). A gutter runner picks it up on a 4+ and runs away. The ball changes hands a couple of times in what amounts to an exciting finish. 

I was able to do a 5+ pass to a blitzer, after punt moved the ball one square forwards AGAIN. The punt failing meant I wasn't able to mark up the strip ball blitzer as I needed my free players for other purposes, which allowed him to then get a hit on the ball to knock it loose. On his turn 8, he needs a handoff to the thrower, a pass and catch to win the game. The thrower fails to catch it with a re-rolls. 

I thought that a draw was a fair result, but my opponent thought that he deserved the win, and was frustrated with my cage dive working and preventing that from happening. This is the main reason I've included the odds here, to show that actually we both had reasonably lucky plays go our way. With the fact that I actually got the run of the dice, it might have been me that was a bit disappointed with the win, but nevermind. 

Round 5 v Touchdown

Touchdown was playing nurgle, who I didn't fancy playing against too much but I was planning to try to not hit the players with foul appearance and hopefully all would be well. He had block on the bloaters and two heads on the pestigors. I thought this was perhaps at least one more than I would have but it allowed him manoeuvrability that the team otherwise is lacking in. 

I was able to pop the ball loose after he'd rolled a good chunk of 1s, as he forgot about jump up. I wasn't able to recover it, but I could have rushed my assassin to be next to his pestigor that would be the one to score. In hindsight I really should have done this as whilst it was a bit of a puzzle, it was a much easier one without the threat of shadowing. He was able to solve it and he didn't get the 1s which would have meant a fail at any point. It did give me three turns to try to score, but a deep kick meant one of the turns was taken up getting into position. 

I was able to make the catch with my witch elf (I'd forgotten about disturbing presence which he'd ensured double covered my witch) but a crucial dice for the equaliser failed. 

On my drive, I swung back and forth a little and he kept putting pressure on the ball, but a failed block resulting in a both down on a pestigor meant that he couldn't blitz his rotspawn and it's tentacles into my cage. 

I took advantage of this to run around the back and on my turn 6 he had my ball carrier tagged but a 2+ dodge away meant that I would be able to score. I opted instead to stall and a lot of successful dodging gave me what I thought would be a good screen. I didn't want to give the nurgle 3 turns to score - and I was intending to score on my 7 to hopefully lock in the draw.

Touchdown was going to blitz my ball carrier and I pointed out the route he was looking at involved going past my shadowing assassin. He then chose a different route and managed to knock down the ball with a lot of dodges and rushes (a 4% play... but I'm not bitter). I wasn't able to successfully pick it up again, despite uphill bltizing the rotspawn and it's tentacles away from the ball, meaning it went down as a 1-0 loss.

I've debated in my head quite a bit about whether I should have just scored on my turn 6. In hindsight maybe I should have done and just been solely focussed on knocking down any pestigors as they came into my half. However I think the screen was really quite good, but the two heads meant the play was worth a shot for the nurgle. 

Round 6 v Jaruib

Jaruib is a lovely man from Madrid who was playing lizardmen. I didn't make notes on this game at the time, and really there wasn't a lot to tell. It was a fun game - he removed a good number of elves quickly, including my assassin, and he scored late in the half. I didn't have enough players to consider a one turn attempt.

On my drive, down a few players I managed a beautiful punt touchdown (and got a firstbump from Manfred Ironskull on the table next to me) in the hope of turning him over for the winner. 

I didn't manage to do so, although some crazy dice nearly allowed me a hit on the ball to at least stop the score, however it ended in a 2-1 loss.

I had a great time chatting to Jaruib - and attempting to speak Spanish! - and it was an enjoyable match to end on. 

Conclusion

On the way home I was a little down about going 1/2/3, however in hindsight with 2 of the losses, one was a marginal loss against the Waterbowl champion, one was a marginal loss on an unlikely play, and the other was my final game where I was just happy to have a really fun game against a fun opponent. 

I might change the roster slightly if I played a tournament with the same rules again, but really I think I prefer wood elves due to the higher potential for turning the ball over being more my preferred style of play.