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Which MESBG armies are doing best in the GBHL?

Updated: Jul 19

Just over 7 months into the Great British Hobbit League and a lot has been happening at the top tables of the MESBG community (apologies for not posting more regularly about it!). We started the year with many people talking about this being the age of Monsters, with Eagles and Trolls winning the earliest events but this assessment quickly gave way to a realisation that it was the time of the Horde instead.

But with nearly 90 events having taken place in the months since the start of the edition, it's becoming hard to truly ascertain what armies are actually doing the best...

The Balrog may well feature in some of the top lists. Sauron... Not so much.
The Balrog may well feature in some of the top lists. Sauron... Not so much.

So, in the dark depths of the GBHL a volunteer has been - in secret - forging a master document to help get to the bottom of which armies are doing well. None of this blogging and guessing I'm responsible for, but cold hard facts. Community Hero Jack Canavan (take a bow) has been compiling lists and factions to see which are truly doing well. You can find the Winning Lists here on The GBHL Website (or click the drop down at the top of the page).


But for those of you unable to click or tap on the links and interpret data for yourself, I will provide some inexperienced analysis for you!


The Top Three Armies in the GBHL:


The most basic way we can break down this data is by simply looking at which lists have came First,Second and Third at the most events... The results aren't all that surprising:


In Joint Second are The Eagles and Army of the White Hand with 20 podium places apiece. I don't need to tell you that those army bonuses (Piercing Cry & Conjure Lightning) have almost certainly catapulted these armies to the top tables. The ability to cause uncontested damage to the opponent's army to give you an advantage is clearly very powerful (could either/both be facing a nerf in August's FAQ?) and the proliferation of both armies is telling. Worth noting here that while both have podiummed at the same number of events The Army of the White Hand has had more Silver Medals than The Eagles, and has also performed better at GBHL100 events (the League's biggest and most prestigious events). Drill even further into the data and you'll see that The Eagles have actually performed worse at GBHL100 events than Heroes of the West and Thranduil's Halls (5 podiums and 2 GBHL100 wins each), but it's at generally smaller, local competitive GBHL90 events where they've been dominating (perhaps a hint that the crowd attending GBHL100s have been more aware of the perceived negative play experience of Eagles?). Either way, the potency of these lists shouldn't be ignored, despite The Eagles still yet to be crowned as winner of a GBHL100 event.


So that's joint second place... but in on top with an impressive 27 podiums is The Depths of Moria. Its ability to scale well from very low to very high points levels is surely one of the reasons it's able to dominate tabletops, but as David Farmer (current GBHL league leader) told me in the latest Episode of Entmoot, it also has what he calls the "best army bonus in the game".

A board wide banner, helping out some of the cheapest models in the game may not sound very sexy but it's undeniably point efficient. As mentioned in the last Blog, it took top spot at a 100 player event in February with a pure Goblin Captain build (which has since been replicated across the world!) but at the recent Nations Cup (the Biggest International MESBG event in the world) it featured on basically all of the teams' rosters. Whether you include the Balrog at higher points (or even the Watcher in the Water, as David Farmer did when he won at The Great North Rhun) or maximise goblins and that global banner effect, it's clearly a powerful list.


BUT. Overall podium places aren't everything...


Which armies are best at 400-500 points?


Accepting that Depths of Moria works at basically all points levels (it's the only army which features at podiums in everything from 401 upwards!) and Eagles have cemented a fearsome reputation at low points values, what other armies are doing well at 500pts and under?


The answer is The Usurpers of Edoras.

For 80pts Freca is a bargain for the buffs he brings his warriors
For 80pts Freca is a bargain for the buffs he brings his warriors

The Usurpers have podiummed at 6 events at 500 and under, more than any other army, but why?

For starters they can really horde out at this points level, easily getting to 40 models (more if you don't want Rohan Traitors, or named heroes). And with that horde comes a number of other benefits:

  1. They can be F4 within 6" of Freca

  2. They can be armed with Flaming Brands for Dominant 2.

  3. You can get a lot of shooting into that horde (low quality, but still 10+ Bows and 10~ throwing weapons at 500 points isn't to be sniffed at)

  4. Warriors gain +1 to wound heroes (and Hatred Rohan!)

  5. Tribesmen ignore wounds on a 6+ (which slightly mitigates their godawful defence)


It's no surprise it's done so well! In fact I'm surprised it hasn't done better - perhaps the cost of the Forgeworld heroes is a factor (or the fiddly nature of assembling dozens of Wildmen!).


With that I'll leave you to ruminate on what army you may want to consider building next as we head into peak GBHL season...


Current GBHL TOP TEN (and other Leaders Eligible for Masters next year)

Eligibility

Name

First

David Farmer

Second

Jakub Krochmal

Third

Connor Morris

Fourth

Thomas Secombe

Fifth

John Partridge

Sixth

Stephen Denbigh

Seventh

Miles Sage

Eighth

Tom McConnell

Ninth

Thomas Wagg

Tenth

Niall Corrigan

Southwest Leader

David Clubley

Southeast Leader

Thomas Seccombe

Central Leader

Connor Morris

Northern England Leader

Adam Bird

Scotland/NI/ROI Leader

Chris Murfitt

Best Newcomer

Rob Keen


UPCOMING EVENTS (in the words of their TOs!):

 
 
 

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