NAFC Day 1

A quick review of day 1 while I sit and digest the awesome breakfast at the Orchard – if you ever needed another reason to come to the NAFC, this would be it.  A nice morning, in contrast to yesterday when I woke with a start at 5.50, having set my alarm very badly so that it didn’t go off.  Body clock to the rescue!  Piled my huge packing list into the car, and had a smooth trip to Nottingham, arriving as people started to register in the hall at about half eight.

First from the packing list was the mugs, which went down well again, though I do have a few to dispatch today – I have no use for leftover individualised NAF mugs, can’t see them making much on ebay.  I set the webcam up to test it, and catch the flavour of the hall, though turned the sound off (sorry Glow!) so that I wasn’t capturing individual conversations.  Unfortunately, the refs’ laptop wasn’t talking to the hotel wireless, so mine was soon commandeered to allow online posting of the draw, a great was of doing it to reduce crowding round the bits of paper.

On to the games! Game 1 v TheDoc’s Dark Elves started fairly badly, when I miscounted squares allowing my ball carrier to be hit – fortunately, I had 4 slann catchers so was able to rescue and cage up properly, then went through the half without leaping at all for an 8-turn drive.  I was numbers up in the second half, including managing to leap in early in the half and surf his only witch, then various turnovers on both sides led to it finishing 1-0.  Fun game to start the tournament, excellent opponent.

Game 2 brought more Dark Elves, but this time 2 witches, 1 reroll plus leader.  2 runners too, one of whom had nerves of steel, which if he was able to not roll a one would have been an excellent tactic!  Was not to be, sadly.  A Blitz result helped quite a lot, allowing the frogs to swarm early on, and the game finished 3-0.  Froggy armour held up well to quite a few hits, which was a recurring theme in the day, and the prehensile tongue of the Croaxigor made life annoying for his only blodge blitzer.  Always good to play ManticoreRich, who does a lot of the graphics work for the NAF, and also produces some nice figures!

Game 3 was HowlingGriffon’s Undead – we had been hoping to play each other having had quite a lot of Twitter chat, but the odds were against it with 150 coaches.  Froggy armour still mostly held up in this one, and an early blitz put me 1-0 up within a few turns.  Didn’t manage to hold him off in his second drive, so went in 1-1, only one frog down.  Then they started to leave the pitch, mostly to the KO box, and life got hard, culminating in a failed GFI into the corner for the touchdown.  The ball came half the way up the pitch, and I committed the cardinal sin of saying “well done, that’s your game”, which is the magic words to make your opponent fail the pickup and for all your stuff to work (but also make you look like an arse).

So, the krox passed bonehead, and rolled double both down.  Passed the loner, powed the zombie and went to stand next to the ghoul.  Catcher swept in, scooped up the ball, dodged out and punted the ball into space for the chase.  A ghoul got there first, but time was running out.  In my turn 16 I was debating whether to sack the ball carrier or take out the wight in scoring distance, when in contrast to my statement in the first half HG said “you could still win”.  I counted it out, and he was right!  Five rolls of six in a row, as well as a both down with wrestle, and the game finished 2-1 to me.  Excellent sportsmanship from Darren – thank you!

Finished the day on 3 wins then, and headed to the bar for many many beers and games of Zombie Dice, Zombie Fluxx, BB Team Manager and Perudo, then crashing out about half twelve.

Head not hurting too badly, but Brendan has just arrived looking a bit too fresh for my liking, given that he is my first opponent with his two Tackling Saurus.  Which is a bit like cheating.

My team:

  • 4 catchers (2 x dodge day 1, guard and dauntless day 2)
  • 6 lineman (wrestle day 1, block day 2)
  • Croaxigor (unfeasibly long tongue)

Pics will follow later, as I’ve left my camera in my room.  Updates will come today on Twitter via @OfficialNAF or @sann0638, but if you don’t tweet you can see the OfficialNAF feed here: http://www.thenaf.net/the-naf/media/

Nonumber says hi to the internet!

Edit: Many photos now available!

2nd Edit: Check out Day 2!

Fumbbl, Cyanide – A Comparison

It comes up occasionally as to “which is better”, Cyanide’s Blood Bowl or Fumbbl.  As a fan of both, I am going to do my best to give a neutral comparison, mostly by giving the positive elements of each version.


Fumbbl

fumbblplayHosted at fumbbl.com, Fumbbl is free to play, and needs Java installed. All games are organised on the site, and are largely grouped into Ranked (choose who to play using a Gamefinder), Blackbox (say you want to play, then get scheduled) and League (a private league).  You can control the game using the mouse or the keyboard.  As shown, the play is 2D, side-to-side.  If either player gets disconnected for any reason, the match can be restarted from the position it got to.  Concessions and disconnections are monitored by the admin staff.

  • There is a lot of functionality such as marking players’ skills, saving setups for teams, changing portraits of the players and marking team logos on the pitch.
  • There are a lot of leagues to be joined, including ones for rookies and ones for particular timezones.
  • There is a unique set of teams played in a division called Stunty League including Chaos Halflings, Gnoblars etc, as well as the Simyin Ape team which is available to Fumbbl leagues.
  • Matches can be easily spectated, with the spectators able to text-chat to each other and generate sound effects such as cheering and booing, which the players can hear.
  • There are regular official tournaments, and access to lots of statistics.
  • Some of the cards are available, and the ruleset is fully compliant with CRP, including some of the skills being optional to use (e.g. dodge, stand firm, diving tackle, pass).
  • There is a complete set of stars for each team.

Cyanide

cyanideplay“Cyanide” is the generic name for the PC version of Blood Bowl, which has gone through various editions including Legendary, Dark Elf and finally Chaos Edition, which introduced the Khorne team.  It boasts a fun set of 3D graphics, including “cut-scenes” for touchdowns, injuries, crowd pushes and so on, as well as computer-generated commentary.  There is a large selection of public and private leagues.  The public ones include the matchmaking leagues of Auld World and Naggaroth, where you play against whoever is “spinning” at the same time as you, but a lot of players choose to join a private league, as in these disconnections and concessions are monitored.

  • Private leagues often use “out-of-game” websites which use the files generated by the game to put together the statistics for a league.  These websites are where the community feel of the game is found, and as they are independent of the game you can choose one which suits you.
  • There are various hacks available for the game which allow you to add different skins to the players and cheerleaders.
  • You can spectate games and chat to other spectators.
  • You can choose various camera angles (end-on, side-on etc) to find the one that suits you.
  • And a big one, you can play against the computer!

Cyanide are currently working on Blood Bowl 2, and I will add details for this when it is released.

I may add a table format soon, comparing each element.

 

Bank Holiday Gaming

Not content with Birthday Bowl, we spent a lot of yesterday in the pub playing Munchkin Loot Letter, a birthday present from frogboy that the boys have become slightly obsessed with.  We then had some friends around for some Bank Holiday Monday gaming fun – introducing them to lots of board games they hadn’t played before!

They arrived a bit before lunch, and the kids started on Loot Letter (as it’s only a 4 player game) while the grown-ups actually had conversations, and then we introduced the adults to King of Tokyo (though my 4-year-old daughter won). The kids also managed to squeeze in a game of full Munchkin before lunch too!

After some quality lunch and a healthy walk, one contingent played a bit of King of Tokyo, Labyrinth and Qwirkle, while the other played Loot Letter and then Carcassone.

Many fun times, and I think I’ve added to a boardgame shopping list.

As for us, eldest is now on Paper Super Mario on the Wii, and I’ve got a Fumbbl game lined up for later.  No rest for the wicked!

Birthday Bowl Writeup

Birthday Bowl is done and dusted – the first tournament that I’ve run single-handed, and it went pretty well (except my dice…).  We live-streamed all of Lunchmoney’s games (using Skaven), in honour of it being his 50th NAF tournament, and to be sure that all four would come in under two hours in case I wanted to edit them later.

Everyone turned up in good time (except Sam, who cutted it fine though he did have 3 hours to travel) so we were able to start at 9:30, once everyone had found a chair/table to sit on.  Industrial quantities of chilli, rice, jacket potatoes and drinks were consumed, and at the end we had a clear winner, with all 7 of the top players on different numbers of points.  Very pleased with the scoring system, and the mutation fun meant some unique BB challenges!

Results!

  • WP_20150502_0031st – Wobert
  • 2nd – Scs.sam
  • 3rd – 20phoenix
  • Glowworm – Hawk
  • Spoon – Dementor
  • Most Cas – Landrover
  • Most TD – Wobert
  • Most scored against – Dementor
  • Most cas against – Lunchmoney
# Team Race NAF Name Score Touchdowns Casualties
1 Warpstone Wombles Skaven wobert 39 12 5 14 8
2 Sam is Late Chaos Pact scs.sam 35 8 5 10 2
3 Cardiff Garlequines Vampire 20phoenix 34 8 5 9 7
4 Birthday Blighters Skaven hawk 30 11 8 6 7
5 Steampunk Rats Skaven lunchmoney 28 9 6 9 13
6 Club Castell Caerdydd Wood Elf dionysian 27 6 5 2 3
7 Wot no rat ogre Skaven enderman 23 8 6 5 8
8 Ben Dover and Takit Norse landrover 22 7 7 15 9
9 Callous Cowgirls Amazon cornishwoon 21 4 6 5 12
10 Morghaar Virus Chaos Pact mawph 21 5 5 5 4
11 Hellspire Avalance Norse hairypete77 19 6 6 11 6
12 Lost in the Mohicans Pro Elf sann0638 18 5 6 3 6
13 Rancid Steamers Dwarf frogboy 18 4 6 7 1
14 Dwarves with Benefits Chaos Dwarf psmiddy 11 3 8 6 9
15 (Bl)Underworld Underworld glowworm 11 3 7 3 10
16 The Humans Human dementor 1 2 10 6 11

 

Birthday Bowl Rd 4

Lunchmoney’s 250th NAF game is against psmiddy – he’s not up for the tournament, but it should be a good game with Skaven v Chaos Dwarfs!

Here’s the full draw:

Draw for round 4

Table Match
1 Skaven | hawk   vs Chaos Pact | scs.sam
2 Skaven | wobert   vs Amazon | cornishwoon
3 Vampire | 20phoenix   vs Norse | landrover
4 Chaos Pact | mawph   vs Wood Elf | dionysian
5 Skaven | enderman   vs Pro Elf | sann0638
6 Skaven | lunchmoney   vs Chaos Dwarf | psmiddy
7 Underworld | glowworm   vs Norse | hairypete77
8 Dwarf | frogboy   vs Human | dementor

Draw for Game 3

Lunchmoney is staying on the live stream all day, in honour of his 50th tournament.  This time v scs.sam.

Here’s the draw:

Birthday Bowl

Draw for round 3

Table Match
1 Norse | landrover   vs Skaven | wobert
2 Wood Elf | dionysian   vs Skaven | hawk
3 Chaos Pact | scs.sam   vs Skaven | lunchmoney
4 Pro Elf | sann0638   vs Vampire | 20phoenix
5 Amazon | cornishwoon   vs Chaos Dwarf | psmiddy
6 Skaven | enderman   vs Dwarf | frogboy
7 Chaos Pact | mawph   vs Norse | hairypete77
8 Underworld | glowworm   vs Human | dementor

Game 2 – Lunchmoney v Enderman!

Two major wins decide top table!

Birthday Bowl

Draw for round 2

Table Match
1 Skaven | wobert   vs Skaven | hawk
2 Wood Elf | dionysian   vs Chaos Pact | scs.sam
3 Norse | landrover   vs Amazon | cornishwoon
4 Dwarf | frogboy   vs Chaos Pact | mawph
5 Skaven | lunchmoney   vs Skaven | enderman
6 Underworld | glowworm   vs Pro Elf | sann0638
7 Norse | hairypete77   vs Chaos Dwarf | psmiddy
8 Human | dementor   vs Vampire | 20phoenix

 

B Bowl Rd 1

Game 1 – Regeneration on Roxanna, Claw on a Rat Ogre, more updates to follow!
Birthday Bowl – Draw for round 1

Birthday Bowl

Draw for round 1

Table Match
1 Norse | hairypete77   vs Amazon | cornishwoon
2 Skaven | wobert   vs Vampire | 20phoenix
3 Skaven | hawk   vs Human | dementor
4 Pro Elf | sann0638   vs Chaos Pact | scs.sam
5 Skaven | lunchmoney   vs Dwarf | frogboy
6 Chaos Dwarf | psmiddy   vs Wood Elf | dionysian
7 Chaos Pact | mawph   vs Skaven | enderman
8 Underworld | glowworm   vs Norse | landrover

Lots of video fun during the day, and photos later.

Mooaarr Blood Bowl

Some thoughts on the eve of Birthday Bowl, a 16-coach BB tournament at my house, quite exciting!  Thoroughly enjoying my BB at moment, as it’s providing an amazingly rich tapestry of experience for just one game.

My tabletop league stalled a bit after the first round of games, but I’m expecting a flurry quite soon – currently playing Necro, and top of the league, though not sure how long that will last.  I’m playing online on two leagues on Fumbbl – the Team Scotland league, which allows me to keep in touch with my Eurobowl team mates despite not living anywhere near them, and the White Isle League, which I think is Britain’s biggest and has a good selection of decent coaches. I’m also part of the UKBBL on Cyanide, which is allowing me to meet a load more new coaches.

On the tabletop tournament scene, as well as Birthday Bowl, I’ve managed to wangle 3 tournament weekends in a row at the end of May, which is unheard of for me.  The NAF Champs is the biggest individual tournament of the year, currently nudging 130, but I would expect 150 by the time it rolls around, and it’s a great opportunity to meet up with a load of players in one place.  The weekend after is a UKBBL non-NAF tournament, which will allow me to become possibly the first person to play 25 races in tournaments (I’ve done the 24, and will be adding Khorne!).  Then it’s Cakebowl, which is our local 2-day tournament, and the boys will be joining me for that one.  Defending my title too!

ouchPainting wise, I’m looking forward to my Impact Kickstarter arriving with Pro/Dark/High Elf teams and the Scotlings, plus another that I can never remember.  I’m redoing my snotlings, and finishing off a load of individual models. I’m also going to knock together a Duel Entry for the NAFC from my bits box, to support the idea rather than with any hope of winning…

Later on in the year, I’m currently in negotiations with my employer to allow me the time off to be a ref in Lucca for the World Cup, which would allow me to do a load of media work too – writing match reports, live streaming some highlights, it would be awesome.

Fingers crossed, and on with Blood Bowl we go!

South Swindon Hustings Report

WP_20150428_001Last night, I joined around 300 people at the Wyvern for the South Swindon (SS) hustings. The chair (Editor of the Adver) asked if anyone was undecided in the audience, and I was one of a minority to put their hands up.  I am still undecided, but it was a very helpful evening.  All that follows is just my opinion on the evening, but I’m not trying to be independent, so no apologies for that.  Apologies however if I do have any facts wrong, I haven’t particularly checked them, so this may be my perception of the facts.

Questions ranged from local buses to Trident, and gave the candidates a good opportunity to show their local knowledge and represent the position of their parties.

Lib Dems (LD), Conservative (C), Labour (L), Greens (G) and UKIP were represented, and each gave a 2 minute speech at the beginning.  C, L and G were all well-rehearsed and fitted nicely into the two mins, with C and L using a hand held mic instead of the lectern.  L came across as energetic and confident, C as self-assured and local, G as idealistic (to use her own word) and enthusiastic (despite being quite ill).  LD struggled a bit, listing some of the LD achievements in coalition, but it didn’t seem like his heart was really in it, and throughout the evening he often ploughed his own furrow (e.g. on Trident). UKIP spoke about his experience as Deputy Chief Executive of Swindon Council.

From my personal point of view, I am choosing between C, L and G.  I think the LD are a spent force, they have had their time in Government, and I don’t entirely see the point in voting for them at all, and this is particularly true in SS.  The UKIP candidate is also standing as a local councillor in my ward, which I thought was interesting, as it did reflect the little chance of winning.  I am also very unlikely to vote UKIP in general, as I believe lots of their policies are designed to foster resentment of different people.  And leaving the EU would be bonkers.

SS is very marginal between C and L, and having had a few chats with the two candidates I think there is little to choose between them as individuals – both seem very enthusiastic and committed, both have experience as MPs. They give the impression of not liking each other very much, but I suppose that is inevitable when they are in competition and have to spend 6 weeks disagreeing with each other.

I am also tempted by G, in that I like the groundswell of popular support they are getting, and like some of their more outlandish polices (a set wage for all, whether working or not). I was also impressed by a phrase at the local hustings that reflected the real situation, in that she said “if we were to have influence in government” then they would push for certain policies.  I think it would be a lot more of an interesting election if all the “minor” parties took this approach, rather than pretending they have a chance of getting a majority and being able to put their policies into practice.

The obvious problem with voting G is that even if you believe in all their policies, you are leaving the choice between L and C to all those who vote for either L or C.  G addressed this point directly in her address, saying that if you keep voting for people you don’t want, you’ll keep getting people you don’t want, which was a fair point.

The UKIP candidate came across as perfectly reasonable and sensible, to the extent that one wonders why he is the UKIP candidate.  Please don’t vote UKIP, as outlined above.

So I will mainly focus on L, C and G candidates, and the main memorable points for me.

The main flashpoint between L and C was over the so-called “bedroom tax”.  I really dislike this phrase, as it doesn’t seem to reflect what the policy is actually about, but never mind.  The irritation on the evening was that L and C had a disagreement about facts, as to whether C had supported it, whether L had brought it in and so on.  Disagreements about facts on panels really annoy me, in that there is very little point in arguing about them.  Someone should stop the discussion whenever it happens, and Google whether it is true or not.  Instead, it is always left unresolved, like a pub discussion about “who that bloke was who played that part in that sitcom” in the days before mobile phones.  Opinions about what should happen in the future are worth discussing, discussions about facts about things that have happened in the past should not be allowed.

Locally, there was interesting discussion of housing, particularly to the East of the A419, but the candidates (if I recall) were mostly in agreement that it needs the infrastructure to support it.  C is very keen on buses not going through the centre, and seems very pleased about the new bus station that will be built, but in a week where the number 20 bus is being axed, this was never going to be a good selling point.  This discussion also sparked the introduction “Talis, you like buses…” from the chair.

G made a good point about the subsidisation of public transport – I had never particularly thought about buses being a public good, but it does make a lot of sense, in that they bring people together and help people who can’t necessarily afford (or use) transport for themselves.  All the candidates said very strongly that local groups should always put pressure on transport companies, so I had better go and write that letter.

So who to vote for?  Nationally, I think that the accelerated austerity that C is promising is going to be damaging to vulnerable groups, and the more C candidates that get elected, the worse it will be.  L do not have plans to completely reverse the cuts, but equally not to accelerate them.  If L were to reverse some of the cuts I think that would be a mistake, as to a certain extent once the pain has been inflicted you should get the benefit, and the benefit should be making more jobs possible.  G are not going to be elected in SS, realistically, but the candidate is fantastically committed and the cause is good.

So after last night, if you are choosing between C and L, vote L, if you are choosing between C and G, vote G, if you are considering UKIP or LD, I’d be interested to know why.  So that leaves choosing between L and G.

I think Miliband is running a good enough campaign to avoid anyone getting a majority, and I don’t think “Bluekip” will get enough votes for a majority, but neither will the “Coalition of Chaos”.  I love these terms.  So given that, I think voting for G is probably a good thing to do, as the whole thing is going to be a ridiculous mess that no-one can predict.  So in that case, it’s probably a good idea to vote for change. Which I think means voting Green.

That’s my take – here is what the Adver thought.