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David Reid takes a trip down memory lane to one of the first editions of the longest running independent GBHL events, The Scouring of Stirlingshire (which returns on 25/26 Nov!) which reaches its tenth birthday this year. On the journey he reveals an interesting factoid about one of the game's most hated scenarios! - Harry, GBHL Marketing Officer
"An SBG tournament in Scotland was something we'd spoken about for a while but with only a few players here and no real tournament scene it seemed an unlikely thing to happen. That changed in 2013 with the introduction of the GBHL. Tournaments were starting to pop up around the country and I travelled down to one in Stockport ran by Samuel Jeffery and had a great time. A few of us went down to the next one again ran by Sam and Alan Liddle even managed to pick up the victory. At dinner on the Saturday, I remember asking the guys if any of them would be willing to travel up to Scotland for a tournament and got a fairly positive response.
Our venue Common Ground Games also opened in 2013 which meant everything perfectly fell into place and we were able to make The Scouring of Stirlingshire a reality. We managed to get 12 people to take part in it; seven Scots and five English players who made the trip up. It may sound small but at the time it was a standard sized tournament! We were just happy to be able to put on an event and really appreciative of the response, especially to have people willing to travel for it. The format was incredibly similar to this year's - 800 points, 2 armies, Good vs Evil. The two army format was (and still is) the standard at the Warhammer World GT's which before the GBHL were the only tournaments. We'd always enjoyed that style of event so it made sense to us to stick with it. We felt 800 points gave big enough armies for people to bring cool models but should still see most games finish within the 2 hour 15 minute time limit, it was also the first time it had been used at a GBHL event. The biggest difference that year was that we only played three scenarios, which meant that you had to use your Good and Evil army once each in the same three missions.
Back in 2013 there were only six missions in the rulebook but we decided to tweak one and come up with a custom one. We went with the standard To The Death for games 5 and 6 to keep it easy for the deciding games, for games 3 and 4 we used Take and Hold, which was a modified version of Hold Ground that’s pretty similar to the Hold Ground we know today (back then you got a VP per model in the centre which really skewed the final VP totals/diff) and for games 1 and 2 we had a custom mission that may look a bit familiar… The Scouring.
When creating the scenario, we took a lot of ideas from a Warhammer World Doubles GT scenario a few years earlier and added our own tweaks to it. It is of course pretty similar to what would become Heirlooms of Ages Past. How popular that will make me I’m not sure, but it’s become our trademark scenario. If you’ve ever wondered why we always use the same mission for game 1, that’s why and always with the spot prize for the first person to pick up the Heirloom. The tournament itself went well, TOs could even play in the event back then so I got to enjoy six great games over the weekend while also getting my first taste of running a GBHL event.
After a bunch of hard fought battles and a fun night out on the Saturday it came down to a final round where three people could still win the event. Table 1 was Jamie Giblin vs Ed Ball both 4-1 and on Table 2 Sam Jeffery was also 4-1 playing against me but I was 3-2 and out of the race for first spot. The top table clash gave us the infamous moment of a Thranduil Nature’s Wrath knocking three of Ed’s four Ringwraiths off their Fellbeasts. A moment that would be immortalised in this cartoon from Craig Johnson.
The Final Standings saw Jamie taking the top spot and win the Sting Letter opener (you can even listen to his tournament review here). Louis Aplin jumped ahead of all the other 4-2 players into second and Ed finished in third despite his Ringwraiths' game 6 fall.
Our very own Chris Murfitt got Most Sporting (he’s still winning them to this day as proven in the Friend of Middle-earth Rankings) and Ryan Kerr won Best Armies. Charles Sims went home with the spoon as the players below him only played the first day, he also got to put on a very fetching kilt the English guys had brought up for whoever finished last.
It was great to be able to put on a tournament in Scotland and be part of that very first GBHL season, a really fun weekend and the foundation for many more to come. It’s also a testament to the players that six of the original twelve will still be there at this year's 10th Anniversary event and shows we’ve had a real core support over the years. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this first trip down memory lane or for those of you not playing at the time it’s given you a feel for the early days of the tournament and the league.
