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As the turkey and trimmings settle, the Quality Street box offers up only coconut chocolates and Bucks Fizz fuzz fades, it seems timely to reflect on a year of delightful hobbying in the Great British Hobbit League.
We'll come to award winners in a bit, but first it feels only right to once again remark on the success of the GBHL this year. In a year with disappointingly few releases for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game the league has exploded in popularity. Last year saw 748 players turning up to GBHL Events - and therefore getting points in the league - this year has seen an incredible 1328 players involved.
To see the growth of the GBHL nearly double in a year is a testament not only to the strength of the game itself, but also to the countless hundreds of hours of work put in by volunteer Tournament Organisers, The League Committee and of course you, for everything from helping with scenery, to rolling up mats or just turning up!
This year there's been a huge number of events in the league - 119 in total - and of course while many people taking part have no interest or desire to take part in competitive play, all of these events contributed in some way to the league scores.
And it was at a village hall in Nottinghamshire where the fate of that league was decided.
The GBHL Finale (and Christmas Party!) saw 58 people compete to take home the final 100pts on offer in the league. The board was set for so many results to be changed, with the event counting not only for the main league but also all regional leagues and the team scores, anything could change over the weekend. We went in with David Farmer atop the leaderboard; the only way he could be unseated was by Jake Rawson, not only placing above David - but NEEDING a Second Place at least and finish above him.
But before we delve into that we should showcase some of the outstanding hobby on offer. Like many (including me!) Alex Temple (of Battle Camper fame) embraced the spirit of the season with his Festive Army and created what he called "Merry's Christmas" featuring a Robin, Christmas Tree, Elf on Reindeer and Santa on Sleigh (see below for what that means "in game")
As you can see Alex's army was a festive delight, and unsurprisingly went home with Best Army award at the Finale - the greenstuff sculpting was a particularly highlight, and the ideas are astounding (Galadriel with a hot cocoa is inspired) incredible work! You can see how he made it on his Youtube Channel.
Elsewhere in the finale Jakub Krochmal took home the Most Sporting award, a testament to a top table player who always plays truly in the spirit of the game. But also to the field in general, because a tie in Sporting Votes led to Jakub taking the prize as the highest placed of those with the same number of votes.
While we're talking sporting I'm going to sidle across to the league's Most Sporting Awards (cleverly sidestepping the Finale gaming result until later on). We must congratulate Dewi Evans (who also takes on mantle as GBHL CoOrdinator next year, full committee is here on the website) for his third place finish in the national friendliness awards. Second was Adam Sierens, another thoroughly nice fella! But taking top spot and being crowned Friend of Middle Earth was Chris Murfitt. Chris has been an excellent player for many years, but has always done it with a smile. Like smothering someone to death with a loving hug, Chris manages to beat his opponents and leave them still feeling warm and fuzzy inside - a true achievement well worth celebrating.
We've already had one painting award, but what about second painting award?!
While Alex's Christmas Celebration won Best Painted award at the finale - the GBHL's overall painting winner was also in attendance alongside runner-ups too.
Kyle Bate took home third position in the national painting awards having won four Best Painted trophies across the 2023 season. Sean Creed took silver having won 6 of the same award over the year.
But the overall winner of this year's Artisan of the Year award was John Partridge:
John's outstanding Osgiliath Display board featuring multiple layers of his Mordor/Serpent Horde Alliance was the winner of a huge number of Best Painting Awards this year. In total John took home 11 Best Painted trophies in 2023. It's an incredible achievement. Rather than labouring the point myself - I'll let his painting do the talking:
John has been kind enough to share some tips for how to get your painting noticed, it'll be in a future blog (though I will try to remember to link to it from here as soon as it's ready!).
The end of the season isn't just a celebration for the national league winners of course (we will get to those very soon!).
But the competition has become increasingly fierce in the GBHL's regional Leagues too. If you're not aware, every GBHL event you attend is part of a region as well as the national leaague.
In the South West, some titans of the tabletop were competing for the crown. Former League Winner Alastair King was in the mix, as was last year's third place finisher David Clubley, but the top three was made up of Dan Hawkins, David Farmer and Ashley Woolger. Congratulations to Dan on an outstanding performance in the league taking home three wins in GBHL90 events as well as strong finishes in multiple others. David Farmer (more on him later...) came second in the regional league after similarly strong finishes in GBHL100s and GBHL90s in the South West, but as we'll find in a bit, he did spend much of his time this year travelling to major events across the whole of the GBHL. It's Ashley Woolger who took the top spot after winning two of the GBHL100s in the South West as well as some strong performances elsewhere. He had great success using a Witchking Suladan alliance - it's clearly one of the "Meta" picks of choice this year.
In the South East, it seems there's a very similar story. Some of the people vying for the top spot here were also in the mix for the national league too. But in the end, the winners were those who'd focused their efforts mostly on local events. Adam Sierens took the third place trophy, while Jay Acharya (who placed VERY highly in the national league) took the second place position. It was Patrick Divers, though, who reigned supreme. He took home the trophy at London's GBHL100 The Great Battle of Our Time, as well as winning a GBHL90 and backing it up with strong performances elsewhere.
In the Central League, the picture was slightly different. Perhaps there was a home ground advantage for these players but the Podium Finishers here were also among the top players in the whole league. In fact, data lovers will be interested to note that half of the top 6 players in the national league hail from the central league. Ed Ball (one of the most decorated players to ever play in the GBHL) takes third spot. In Second is Jakub Krochmal who managed to sneak past Ed by coming second in the GBHL Finale (which counts towards all region's scores). First is Jake Rawson, who won Best Newcomer to the league in 2022, but has dominated top tables throughout the year.
In the Northern England League, we see a number of names from around the world, reflecting the importance of International Tournament Ardacon in the rankings. With just 16 events, (including the Finale) performing well in the two Ardacon events (Doubles and Singles) can give you a strong hold on the Northern England league. In fact, if you had won both the Ardacon Singles and Doubles events this year you'd be easily in contention for a podium slot with only one or so extra decent performances in the region! But the top three of this league were none other than Jack Thurlbeck in his debut year in the GBHL, Matt Lingard and Ben Haslam. A trio of extraordinary players and lovely northern folk - bravo to you all!
Last but not least, it's the winners of the Scotland, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland league, who've really made this competition their own in the last couple of years. Last year's Scottish winner Iain McGregor takes the third spot, with a strong performance at GBHL90s but sadly coming short at some of the GBH100s he needed to take a higher position. In Second is Michael Bradford from Belfast, who put in a stellar performance in the league as a whole (8th) but perhaps the globetrotting he did meant he missed out some of the points needed to take the top spot here. In First, is Cork's very own Ivan Sheehan, with the most consistent performance of the lot, taking an impressive 88pts on average per event in the region. Great to see a representative from each of the nations gracing the podium in this regional league too!
For the first time ever, 2023 heralded the inaugural GBHL Teams competition. This competition began to dominate competitive (and friendly) chatter from its inception in January, from discussions about amusing team names (I'm looking at you 'Sh*te Council'!) to fierce competition between the top teams as the year closed out and a communal mutual encouragement to improve, it's been a tremendous success. There were 57 teams of 9 players in total, with 10 players' scores from each team counting towards a team score (though each player could contribute only a maxium of two scores). My team of the Fellowbellies not only achieved a respectable top 20 finish, but saw some distinct improvement in terms of GBHL scores across many players because of the desire to help our team's overall position.
The winners of the team competition are:
The Guardians From Distant Lands
7th City Crusaders
Gollum's Gamers
It's been a terriffic performance for all teams... and unsurprisingly the top teams in the Team League also contained all three of the league's overall winners (blessedly in different teams to make things really interesting!)
Which brings us FINALLY to the GBHL Finale. Obviously some of you will know the results already (they were announced in brief on FB a few weeks ago!) but for the sake of completion and permanent record it must be noted that the Finale was a real nailbiter. Not only were the Team Rankings hanging in the balance, but some of the regional leagues could have seen a real shakeup because the new Finale rules meant it counted for any league.
With that in mind let's start with Third Place, with a Mordor/Isengard Alliance it's Jay Acharya. Jay has been chasing the top spot in the league the whole year, and brought himself to a number of Top Table clashes in the final rounds of GBHL100s over the year, but sadly fell short a number of those times. Here though, he managed to take 5 wins and 1 loss to a podium spot with an unusual list even he hadn't used before. Despite being criticised by The Gollum's Gamers podcast Jay's clear talent for finding synergies and strengths with unusual combinations of models has served him well.
Jay's 800pt List:
WitchKing, Crown Horse. (3/15/3) - LEADER
4 Morannons shield and Spear
4 Black Nums
Lurtz
4 Uruks w Xbow
8 Uruk w Pike
1 Uruk Pike Banner
1 Crebain
Vrasku
4 Uruk w Xbow
6 Uruk w Pike
Uruk Ballista x 2
41 Models
In Second Place in the Finale is the Polish Pirate himself Jakub Krochmal. Jakub has been a regular fixture at the top tables since he entered the scene a few years ago and as well as taking the Most Sporting Prize at the event, he's secured a second place with another strong list. He's abandoned his reputation as Mr Yellow Alliance by taking a Green Last Alliance of Numenor and Rivendell. Led by Glorfindel, and featuring Isildur (with The One Ring of course) and Cirdan, it has a lot of the tools needed for a winning list. Though it rarely takes a podium spot, it's clearly solid in the hands of a skilled General like Jakub. Interestingly Jakub used Isildur as a "one drop" on his own. Jakub explains this decision by saying the Captain of Numenor needs more support and that as Isildur is "not a leader he can operate semi-independently if needed".
Though he adds that "95% of the time it wouldnt make a difference"!
Jakub's 800pt List:
Glorfindel Asfaloth, Armour of Gondolin LEADER
1x Rivendell Knight shield
9x High Elf Warrior shield
2x High Elf Warrior spear, shield
3x High Elf Warrior spear, bow
Cirdan
3x High Elf Warrior shield
3x High Elf Warrior spear, bow
Isildur horse, The Ring
Captain of Numenor
1x Warrior of Numenor banner, spear
6x Warrior of Numenor spear, shield
4x Warrior of Numenor spear, bow
36 models
But, taking First Place here is none other than Jake Rawson. Last year's Best Newcomer, Top of the Central Regional League and lynchpin of the 7th City Crusaders (second in the GBHL Teams league this year). He's taken a huge variety of lists in the last year - after using primarily Lothlorien last year - including the rarely seen Arnor. But for the finale he used a Good Alliance "soup" list. He says it has cost effective heroes (Free Heroic Combat, Move and Will) alongside a strong D7 frontline, F5 & F6, Magic and good numbers. It's a strong list, piloted to great success by one of the best players in the league to 5 wins and 1 draw at the Finale:
Jake's 800pt List:
Thorin w/ goat and orcrist - Leader
8 Iron Hills Warriors
2 Iron Hills Warrior w/ crossbow, spear
Bifur, Champion of Erebor
6 Iron Hills Warriors
2 Iron Hills Warrior w/ crossbow
1 Iron Hills Warrior w/ crossbow, spear
Galadriel
1 wood elf sentinel
4 Guard of the Galadhrim Court
2 Galadhrim Warriors w/ bow and spear
2 Wood Elf Warrior w/ spear, bow
7 Galadhrim Warriors w/ spear and shield
1 Galadhrim Warrior w/ spear, shield, banner
1 Galadhrim Knight w/ bow, shield
40 Models - 11 bows 8 might
The eager league watchers will know already that this is a significant result for the finale... It brought an incredibly exciting change to the podium positions in the league at the very final hour...
SO, WITHOUT FURTHER 'ADO' we come to it now - the end of all things...
The GBHL's League for 2023 crowns a winnner and commends a trio of incredibly talented MESBG gamers. Before I reveal all, I must say i've had the pleasure of meeting, and interviewing all of these three as part of Entmoot and they truly are fantastic examples for all of us. Top table gamers needn't be unpleasant, "sweaty", "beardy" or any of the other soubriquets we often bestow on the finest competitive tabletop wargamers. They can be jolly, decent and honourable people and the podium this year undoubtedly reflects that.
So, in Third Place is Ashley Woolger. Ashley has proven himself time and time again in the GBHL over the last couple of years, he's been something of a titan killer, managing to outplay a huge proportion of the top players in the league (including knocking last year's league winner Will Champion out of the Masters Tournament in April - more on the Masters soon!).
He's also entertained many of us MESBG fans as part of the Gollum's Gamers podcast (and helped propel that team to the GBHL Teams Podium). His success comes from a steadfast determination to prove himself and a resolute refusal to play anything other than The Witchking Suladan Alliance... But
he's undoubtedly a top player. Who knows where he'll end up next year...?
In Second Place is David Farmer. Anyone else would bemoan their bad luck in the final throes of the league, to have lost his top spot after holding onto it into the very last days of the season can't be easy, but Dave accepted it like a true gentleman and with exemplary sportsmanship. He's an incredible player, whose mind operates on a whole other level to most other gamers in the league. He admits he was aiming for the top spot this year after coming second in 2022, and fought incredibly hard too. With an incredible five GBHL100 wins (more than anyone has ever won in the league before) Mr Farmer should be proud of the calibre of his game. He's taken a mixture of armies to great success, has having the highest average score of anyone who's played more than two tournaments GBHL (88.06) and took home to the top spot at the GBHL Masters event. Bravo, the achievement is outstanding.
But, in First Place is none other than Jake Rawson. Jake entered the league for the first time in 2022 and, in a fairytale ascent to the top tables, stormed GBHL100s in the Central Region and took Best Newcomer (and 5th Place overall!). But that was never going to be enough for him, he stormed to the top of one of the League's most competitive events (The 7th City Grand Prix) in his first event of the year, and following it up with a Second and another First in a trio of results which would have been good enough to take a League podium spot just a couple of years before hand. From there it was a string of strong finishes including more Silver medals and more big wins.
A surreal string of results saw him chasing Mr Farmer by winning the largest event in the world (Ardacon), coming dead last in his next (perplexing, I know), before taking another GBHL100 in the next tournament he went to. It was a rollercoaster ride which ended with the win at the GBHL Masters. It's an extraordinary run of gaming, and cements Jake as not only the winner of the League but also the record holder for the most GBHL100 events won in one season (pipping Mr Farmer by just one). It also helps that across the tabletop he's a true gentleman, a kind soul, and despite questionable fashion choices (Pink PJ bottoms on Day 2 are customary) he's a scholar of the game and clearly one to admire. Well done Jake, I'm sure you'll be back for another shot next year...
The GBHL TOP TEN FOR 2023:
Jake Rawson
David Farmer
Ashley Woolger
Jay Acharya
Jakub Krochmal
Edward ball
Ben Haslam
Michael Bradford
Ivan Sheehan
Alastair King
Remember, the Top Players from the 2023 season (Newcomers and Regional Winners Included) are invited to the GBHL Masters, to truly decide a winner... More on that soon.
And with that, I belatedly call time on 2023.
It's been a hell of a ride this year, both for gaming competition, for breaking records (most GBHL100s won, most painting awards won, and most participants in the league!) and for being a thoroughly dramatic end. But it is not truly the end, because this provides another path... one that we all must take...
White shores and beyond... a far green country under a swift sunrise... the 2024 League...
UPCOMING EVENTS
We'll talk more about the 2024 league soon, but in the meantime check out the calendar of events here, read winning army lists here, and check where you are in the placings for both gaming and Hobbying here!
Until Next time, may this hobby be a light for you when all other lights go out.
BURARUM - HARRY - GBHL Marketing CoOrdinator