Outriders Bring News - The Battle for Middle Earth is About to Begin...

Like a gargantuan train huffing and puffing into life, this last weekend The Great British Hobbit League set off on its journey towards crowning another set of Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game champions. It may (technically) only have a few names partaking at the moment, but soon the hulking behemoth of the league will gather hundreds of passengers vying for position at the top of competition for both hobby and gaming prowess.

The first person riding this LOTR Loco to success is Scott Warren whose evil force, led by The Shadowlord, took victory at The Battle of Borough Fields. The 450pt tournament saw 32 players take each other on in a duel of wits in the Swindon area. Scott's force had only 20 models but with both a fellbeast and The Spider Queen (alongside an Orc Captain, Black Numenorean Frontline and Orc Spears) he managed to take glory in a tournament with a mixture of scenarios (To The Death, Storm the Camp, Destroy the Supplies, Fog Of War).

Coming in Second were the Black Riders led by George Harrold. This list has been discussed at great lengths in the competitive community, but hasn't performed particularly well in the GBHL so far... Clearly that time is over. With just five models (Witchking 3/10/3 & 4 Ringwraiths 2/7/2) but with more magical control, heroic combats, and Channeled transfixes than you can shake a stick at, The Nine (well, actually, the Five) galloped into second place.

Behind them, taking the bronze position, was a legendary legion no stranger to leaderboards. The 30+ model Ugluk's Scouts force led by Charles Spence buried its opponents in piles of bickering Uruks and Orcs and cemented themselves as a list to fear.

Elsewhere mouths were aghast at the standard of hobbying on display at the event. Despite being a community with plenty of fledgling players, the painting standard was through the roof.

But judged best painted by his compatriots was Lee Hiscock with his Shimply Shublime Sharku's Riders:

Last, but not least, congratulations to Lian Smith who, with his Mirkwood Rangers, may have ended his weekend in Mid Table Obscurity, but he can stand proudly in the first class seats after being honoured with Most Sporting player of the weekend.

For full rankings in the GBHL see the new table here, you may notice some changes since the last table. The Main change is that on a desktop you can see the table embedded on the webpage, the host site has changed from Google to Microsoft, but is otherwise almost identical. Remember if you take part in a tournament to give your name as the same name each time you attend one, to avoid duplications and Social Media Alteregos making it into the rankings! We're hoping to continually update and improve the experience of comparing and contrasting tournament results. If you have any ideas or criticisms, pop a comment underneath this article or on the GBHL Facebook page.

With that we look ahead to our next event; the behemoth rumbles on... Who will find themselves swept along with the inevitability of the GBHL? Will you be mentioned by Outriders in their dispatches? The next event on the horizon is 'The Grandest Tournament in Nottingham' (after a Welsh event was postponed), will you join in?

After all, the Battle of Borough Fields is over, but the Battle for Middle Earth is about to Begin...