The Thursday Knights are finally back to regular strength and then some. We had 8 players this week, despite 3 of our regulars not being able to make it. I'd like to welcome Clockwork to the group - I hope we have ourselves a new conscript. It looks like the first load of donated food from our 'Gamers for Good' program is full now. I believe the count was somewhere in the 70-80 items range. Let's keep this going strong! Enough chit-chat - on to the games!

The bands:

Grubbis

Human Blackguard
4x Chraal
2x Timberwolf
Dire Rat
Map: Drow Outpost

Zuran Alda

Drizzt
Tordek, Dwarf Champion
Guenhwyvar
Devis
Mialee
Lidda, Adventurer
Map: Forest Cliff Layer

Bugbear

Bugbear Champion
2x Bloodghost Berserker
Bugbear Footpad
Chimera
Orc Wardrummer
2x Orc Warrior
Map: Temple of Blood

Banana Samurai

Dark Naga
Beholder
2x Duergar Champ
3x Kobold Miner
Map: Broken Demongate

Clockwork

2x Eye of Gruumsh
Hill Giant Barbarian
Orc Wardrummer
2x Orc Spearguard
Timberwolf
Map: Hellspike

Tem

Cleric of Syreth
Ulmo Lightbringer
3x Sacred Watcher
Eberk
Timberwolf
Map: Teleport Temple

Zak X

Cleric of Syreth
Ulmo Lightbringer
War Weaver
2x Dwarf Phalanx
Sheildwall Soldier
Warforged Scout
Aasimar Fighter
Map: Dragonshrine

Bonelock

Dragon Totem Hero
Large Green Dragon
Large Fang Dragon
Small Copper Dragon
2x Small Black Dragon
Mialee
Timberwolf
Map: Drow Outpost

Round 1 (Assault):
Clockwork def. Tem
Zak X def. Bugbear
Bonelock def. Grubbis
Zuran def. Banana Samurai

Round 2 (Assault + Caves of Pain):
Zak X def. Clockwork
Zuran def. Bonelock
Grubbis def. Bugbear
Tem def. Banana Samurai

Round 3 (Assault + Bounty):
Zuran def. Zak X
Clockwork def. Grubbis
Tem def. Bonelock
Banana Samurai def. Bugbear

In the first round, I end up playing against Clockwork who is brand new to the game. Bunny Puncher decided to sit out for the night, so he let him use his band. I win map and side and we play on the teleport temple. After making a pretty agressive move early on to try and take out the HGB, he managed to drop my commander which was left open. After that, it was all downhill. The Eyes were immune to flanking so I first took out the wardrummer and tried to get the HGB to run. Unfortunately, I was in a position such that the HGB couldn't run after he failed morale. It was an oversight which cost me the game.

Second round I also win my map and end up playing against the Beholder. On the first round, all of his kobolds ended up in the same victory area. I opted to go first and took out all of them with SWs before they ever got to act and my opp was already down to 5 activations. With caves of pain, I managed to swarm the Naga with my watchers and morale check him with only 2 hits. He failed morale but successfuly rallied the next round. I managed to drop him to 5hp at which point Eberk cast Spiritual weapon on him - which finished him off when he next activated. Right at the end of the round, I had flanked a DC with Ulmo and a SW. I won initiative and managed to miss all 4 attacks. Despite this, I finished off the DC the next round and had collected enough victory points to win without ever needing to take out the Beholder.

Third round, I win map and side yet again and face the dragon totem band. Since it was the bounty round, I opted to try and take out all the small dragons as quickly as possible to get ahead on VP. Luckily, with only a commander rating of 3, I managed to rout both small blacks, the small copper and the large fang dragon. This was the only round I really could make use of my commander effect to give my SWs an effective 28AC which made them extremely difficult to take out. Despite Ulmo taking a crit and a couple other hits from the big dragons and dying quickly, I eventually won on points with the DTH and LGD still on the board.

Fun was had by all, and Gencon promos were handed out as prizes to the top 3.