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Revealed: GBHL Finale Scenarios, New Committee, and the Double Warbeast list winning a top event!
- Harry Parkhill - GBHL Marketing Officer
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
The tinsel has come out of hiding, the fairy lights are twinkling, and the Great British Hobbit League is coming to a close... It's that time of year Ladies and Gentlemen, and there's been a flurry of activity in GBHL Headquarters. While SBG Secret Santa gifts are wrapped and dispatched, democracy has been in action, and a new committee of the Great British Hobbit League has been chosen by Tournament Organisers. To find out those results, skip to this section.
But for now, there's just a matter of days before over 60 players descend on Newcastle for the BIGGEST GBHL FINALE EVER. The scale of the event is down to a number of people - firstly to the incredible community of North East England who've built an incredible scene over the last few years. I had the pleasure of attending the very first event in "North England" a few years ago, after we put out a call to grow the league in the area, It was a small but dedicated bunch, which hass now blossomed, thanks to a number of clubs who know who they are. We should also thank titan of the league Will Champion for his huge level of experience in supporting TOs in the region since its inception. Thanks should also be directed to Jake Robson who's facilitated the event at Northern Alliance Games in Newcastle and Committee TO in Chief Jamie Wiggans who's excitedly beavered away arranging the finer details of the 1000pt event.
In fact over the last week he's been teasing players with the announcement of all the scenarios (though the order hasn't yet been confirmed - if there is one, he's keeping it secret for now!).
In fact he's given the GBHL Blog the final reveal, so we can announce that the scenarios being played at the Finale are:
Lead from the Front
Stake a Claim
Convergence
Sites of Power
Fog of War
With four of the newest scenarios chosen, and an old league favourite in the mix the 1000pt finale is set to be an awesome time for all. Also worth remembering that the venue has arranged for a local burger company (which makes incredible food) to offer lunches, and there will also be Fancy Dress competition (Xmas Jumpers on Saturday, Formal Wear on Sunday for the awards ceremony!).
As a committee run event, any Finale profit is ploughed into prizes and for league improvements.
But with just a few days left we're unlikely to attract new many players (though a few last minute tickets are available!) but never fear because just as with last year's Finale, all the top table action will be streamed Live on Youtube by the Gollum's Gamers podcast.
Catch Up on Last Year's Live Stream here: (and don't forget to like, comment and subscribe, because over half of their viewers aren't even subscribed, or so I'm led to believe :-P ).
Of course, before the Finale happens, we must reflect on one final event of the League. I won't delve into the exact rankings, as some results from previous weeks still haven't been received by our rankings officer (tut tut, send them in now!).
But results from this weekend just gone ARE in, the final GBHL100 of the season before the Finale, He Eats it by the Block (A Second Helping). The event in Leicester is the first GBHL100 by community stalwart Jack Darlington. Jack's been nurturing a community in the Melton Mobray area for some time and this weekend his efforts have borne fruit, with 40 players taking to the tabletops hoping to elbow others into a more prominent place in the league.
First we must compliment Jasmine Tetley for an incredibly deserving hobby win. Jasmine is well known for being an incredibly talented player (and Conker Queen, amongst other things). But over the last year she's put a huge amount of effort into the painting and modelling side of the Hobby. Her efforts have been well recieved across the league, and this weekend she secured a Best Painted award for her incredible All Hero Pink Rohan force.
Without better closeup photos of all of the army it's not easy to tell, but the blending on the cloaks is incredible, so her force unsurprisingly impressed voters! But as a whole it's a unique idea incredibly well finished, and no doubt the all hero version is very deserving of the award. Well done Jasmine!
Elsewhere Connor Morris took home the Most Sporting prize, which is very difficult to write about, but is nonetheless worthy of importance. Nothing more important than ensuring your opponents have a good time! It's the Most Important Rule after all! Elsewhere in the competition (a 1000pt tournament with six games), there was chaos on the top tables when the dust settled, as five of the top players had ended with five wins and one loss.
Thomas Seccombe and Stephen Denbigh missed out on podium spots when it came down to tiebreakers (VPs scored). The margin was incredibly tight too, with Tom on 52, Stephen on 55 and Third Place on 58.
And in Third it was none other than Gollum's Gamers Captain Ashley Woolger! His force is one which may look familiar to eagle eyed readers as being very similar to one he took to Bertacon just a couple of months ago but clearly refined (and now including a fell beast!). The combination of 6" banner, magic, bats, fearless bubble (thanks to the Dark Marshall's aura of command!) and decent numbers is a potent combo.
In Second was Ryan Blinco with a Depths of Moria list featuring The Balrog, The Watcher in the Water, two Shamans, a smattering of Goblin Prowlers and a total of 55 models. It's the edition's best performing army (check out the stats here) and it shows no signs of capitulating at the moment.
But in First was the indomitable Jakub Krochmal. His second place in the league looks bolted on after this finish (fine details of the scores still to come this week), because even if Stephen Denbigh (currently in Third place) were to win the GBHL Finale, he'd still be one win behind him (not the case before this weekend!).
Jakub took top spot with another fresh list (he's been taking something new to every GBHL100 event this year, read about it here) at 1000 pts. And honestly, it's probably the most beautiful and janky list I've seen take top spot at a GBHL100 all year. I can't wait to read Jakub's write-up of this one (especially as I've been dabbling in VERY similar lists recently myself), keep an eye out for that in the New Year.
Now onto the results of Democracy!
As mentioned in previous update blogs, the Management Committee dissolves every two years in order to face the scrutiny of Tournament Organisers. Elections are held for 11 roles (including League coordinator, Secretary, Rankings Officer, Marketing officer, Treasurer and regional reps).
Voting closed on Sunday, and the results have been tallied now, so we welcome our new glorious leaders:
League Coordinator - Stephen Denbigh
League Secretary - Luke Hilder
Rankings Officer - Jack Canavan
Treasurer - David Clubley
Scheduling Coordinator - Matt King
Media and Publicity Officer - Alastair King
South West Regional Rep - Jamie Wiggans
South East Regional Rep - Bert Leach
Central Regional Rep - Ned Merrick
North England Regional Rep - Adam Bird
Scotland, NI, ROI Regional Rep - David Reid
First, I want to personally wish the new committee well, it's an often thankless task with volunteers giving up huge amounts of their time voluntarily to make the league function for the betterment of the community. The new committee will have some familiar faces (congratulations to David Reid, David Clubley, Ned Merrick, Jamie Wiggans and Matt King for keeping their roles), and some returning favourites (well done former Treasurer Bert Leach for securing the Regional Rep for the South East and to former League CoOrdinator Alastair King for taking on Media and Publicity). I also want to congratulate the new blood to the committee, Jack Canavan and Luke Hilder have been very engaged community members so it's great to see them take on committee roles as Rankings Officer and League Secretary respectively and also congrats to Adam Bird who's taken the helm of Northern England Regional Rep - as a Yorkshireman incredibly familiar with the region's events he's well suited to fill some big shoes there.
And with that we should once again thank some of the outgoing committee members. Dewi Evans has been coordinating the league committee at the same time as wrangling two small children (I won't comment on which of the two are more petulant and demanding...), hopefully this gives him more time to dedicate to his family and Guardians of Wiltshire events! Also departing is Micheal Bradford, who's made the League Secretary his own in the last few years, handling complaints about events or players with a firm but fair attitude - he'll be greatly missed. Will Champion is another long standing member we'll be losing from here on out too, he's helped shape the Committee in ways most won't realise, he created the League Secretary role in order to help prioritise fairness in the league and also fought hard for the Northern England Region to have its own identity (which, as we've already mentioned, is flourishing). Will's been an incredibly potent voice for the community in meetings too, unafraid to ruffle feathers and call a spade a spade, his no nonsense approach will undoubtedly be missed.
I'm also going now, so I bid you all a very fond farewell... But this is not the end, no. Standing down as GBHL Media and Publicity officer is just a step we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. White Shores and Beyond. A far green country under a swift sunrise.
Well, that isn't so bad.
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