The hobby track is an aspect of competitive Warhammer that is occasionally overlooked or not well-understood by the player base. In its most basic form, “hobby track” refers to when Warhammer tournaments also offer paint judging. These points are figured in the same way as points for “generalship” (gameplay, or “normal” tournament winners). However, instead of providing points based on placement in gameplay, circuit/ITC points are awarded based on how players’ armies rank in terms of the hobby work put into them. “Hobby” most overwhelmingly refers to paint, but also includes basing, conversions, greenstuff work, kitbashing, and/or display boards.

Judge can take one of several forms. These are a few commonly seen variations:

– All players’ armies are reviewed and scored, and points are given out; the highest-scoring army takes first place, the next highest takes second place, and so on. [This is generally the most common way that hobby track is determined].
– Players vote on (or a judge determines) the best-painted army, that player takes first place, and others tie for “second” place.
– Players vote on a first place favorite, and all others are scored in accordance with a rubric and ranked (and receive points) accordingly. [This is often used in communities with a few strong painters so that first place is not always awarded to the same player(s) at every single event.]

Players will often see talk of a “rubric” associated with painting. Some judges simply rank and score based on their own sensibilities, but others use a pre-set rubric to help keep judging fair and also to help rank some thirty to a thousand plus armies present! The Frontline Gaming rubric (and variants thereof) tends to be the most commonly used, though every tournament organizer will use his own method and may rank armies differently.

For tournament organizers, we offer a Google Sheets version of the rubric. You can make copies of the workbook to either print off for your own purposes or fill out digitally. From the “File” menu, go to “Make a Copy” and you can also edit fields as well if you would like to add or subtract different parameters of the rubric.

Last but certainly not least, “Best Overall” (or “Renaissance Man”) awards players who not only perform very well in gameplay (generalship, or generic tournament performance), but also do well in hobby track as well. Often, the “Best Overall” winners are some of the most respected because they embody the very best of both sides of competitive Warhammer, routinely bringing beautiful armies to high-level games.