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As the 2024 GBHL Season draws to a close, we look at the state of the league rankings and look ahead to the final event of this edition - the GBHL Finale.
Frankly it's been an awesome few months for fans of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game...
We've had a boat load of teasers and models dropped in the last few weeks for both The Rise of Angmar supplement and the upcoming film Rise of the Rohirrim. It's also been a cracking year at events across the league in terms of hobby and gaming. A whopping 1181 players have taken part in GBHL events in 2024, and that's not taking into account the two or so months worth of events still to come.
With that in mind let's take a look at some of the highlights of the year in the GBHL so far...
Painting
During the 2023 season one man won the League's 'Artisan of the Year' Award after an incredible run of 'Best Painted' armies, netting a win almost every month of the year. John Partridge won 11 prizes, securing the big trophy at the 2023 GBHL Finale. This year, though, has seen a huge spread of people taking painting awards home - so far around 50 separate players (with plenty of prizes still to be awarded!).
In the lead (if art can ever be truly measured in quantity of trophies) is Alex Bourdas who's won five Best Painted awards for his incredible work on armies like his gorgeous Breaking of the Fellowship and Black Riders.
But nipping at his tail is Richard Croydon, who has also won five 'Best Painted' awards... He's only second because he trails Alex in league ranking.
Also in with a shot of being crowned Artisan of the Year for 2024 at this year's finale is last year's Winner John Partridge. He trails Richard and Alex in painting awards with four wins, but just one more trophy will send him straight to the top of the Podium because his tabletop prowess is greater than the others. To get some tips from (and see some of the work of) one of the GBHL's painting Greats have a read of this.
An honourable mention to Jack Darlington of the Melton in Middle Earth Community. His four trophies give him fourth position behind John's top table antics... can he take two trophies in the next two months to see him crowned 2024's 'Artisan of the Year' at the GBHL Finale?
Gaming
It's a tale as old as time... The cut and thrust of top table play in the GBHL sees a rotation of names in competition for the coveted GBHL trophy. Last year Jake Rawson managed to take the title after an incredibly competitive duel with David Farmer. Their antics one-upping each other right until the very last event of the season saw them swap First and Second position multiple times over the year. Going into the GBHL Finale last year, they had both won 5 events, with David's positions at other events just pipping him to the top - but in dramatic fashion Jake went on to win the Finale, sealing the deal.
This year the story seems to be repeating itself... But will it have a different ending?
The rankings tell a similar story, with David Farmer currently on top, and Jake Rawson in second. Will we see an agonising repeat of last year for Mr Farmer and see Jake win a late GBHL100 and secure back to back league wins?
But delve deeper and you see that it hangs on a knife edge. Just one win going to another of the top players could completely upend the the top ten. Could league legend Ed Ball (currently third) take another GBHL100 win and improve another score enough to steal a position at the top of the table? And watch out for Jakub Krochmal, the only other player in the top ten with more than one GBHL100 win to his name. His ranking would be substantially improved by podiums at large tournaments (or a win at any GBHL100). With the best average score per event in the top five, Jakub's a safe bet to perform well.
Regional Gaming
At this late stage of the year many of the regions look like a victor may well be set in stone barring some major last minute dash from competitors (ladies and gentleman, anything can happen). But the most fascinating in my mind is the Scotland, ROI and NI league.
At time of writing Finlay Staniforth is in prime position with 354.29 points to his name. But Scottish veteran gamer, Dave Reid trails by just a fraction of a point on 354.14. Being separated by a whisker would be chasm compared with that gap! Then, to pile onto the tightness of the race, Andrew Laurenson is ALSO less than a point behind Mr Reid! With lots to play for expect some fiery competition at Bangor this upcoming weekend (those competing primarily for the national league won't know what's hit them!).
The 2024 GBHL Finale
With all that in mind, we look ahead to the conclusion of not just 2024's league but also the final event of this current edition of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. It feels like just yesterday when we were celebrating a new era of the game being released with the Pelennor Fields box in 2018.
By next year this era will be a thing of the past.
It's been a wonderful time for the game when compared with the dark years of the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game. We've had two new boxsets, new plastic kits for so many iconic Middle Earth characters, a whole raft of new supplements (I count seven!) and a boatload of iconic Forgeworld Sculpts to expand the game. Though there will be some people worrying about changes to the game, and the way rules may impact competitive players in particular, the GBHL will remain largely the same. As a loose confederation of Tournament Organisers we allow all sorts of events to break the game's current rules - flavoursome army building will no doubt continue into 2024 in the GBHL.
But to celebrate the changing of the guard, we want to give The Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game Mk1 the greatest swansong it can get by throwing an allmighty party in December. The GBHL Finale (on Dec 14th and 15th) not only comprises the awards ceremony for all of the categories mentioned above, it also includes the Hobby Heroes awards (a special prize which celebrates an 'Outstanding Contribution to the Hobby'), but is also the league's Christmas Party with celebrations, fancy dress one day, suits the next day, prizes galore, a well priced bar and this year a very exciting community trip to go and watch War of the Rohirrim together with a huge group of Lord of the Rings nerds*. Tickets for the event go on Sale at 10am on September the 30th, details on how to get one are here. Worth noting that any profits made are spent on prizes, meaning there is a ridiculous amount of prize support for the event! Make sure you get involved, it's going to be QUITE AN EVENT.
With that, I bid you farewell for now...We'll talk more about the 2024 league soon, but in the meantime check out the calendar of events here, and check where you are in the placings for both gaming and Hobbying here!
CURRENT GBHL TOP FIVE:
David Farmer
Jake Rawson
Ed Ball
Ben Haslam
Jakub Krochmal
Until Next time, may this hobby be a light for you when all other lights go out.
BURARUM - HARRY - GBHL Marketing CoOrdinator
*Details TBC.
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