Well, after a couple people dropped out at the last minute we were left with 5 players for our weekly event. Certainly not the normal mix of bands which is actually a good thing. One of the advantages to playing games with the Thursday Knights is that you almost never see the same band twice.

The bands:

Zuran Alda (3-0 with a bye)

Lareth the Beautiful
Marilith
Orc Wizard
Gnoll Barbarian
Orc Wardrummer
Orc Warrior x3
Map: Drow Outpost

BunnyPuncher (2-1)

Red Hand War Sorcerer
Fire Giant Forgepriest
War Troll
2x Blue
Kobold Miner
Map: Drow Outpost

Tem (2-1)

Tiefling Captain
Hill Giant Barbarian
Marilith
Orc Wardrummer
Orc Warrior x3
Map: Dragonshrine

Zak X (1-2 with a bye)

Moon Elf Fighter
Shadowdancer x2
Gnome Trickster x2
Wizard Tactician
Hero of Valhalla
Xeph Warrior
Map: Dragon Graveyard

Pumpkin King (1-2 with a bye)

Storm Silverhand
Frenzied Berserker
Elf Warmage
Combat Medic
Elf Raider x2
Xeph Warrior x2
Map: Teleport Temple

Round 1:

Tem def. Zak X
BunnyPuncher def. Pumpkin King
Zuran Alda def. BYE

Round 2:

Zuran Alda def. Zak X
BunnyPuncher def. Tem
Pumpkin King def. BYE

Round 3:

Zuran Alda def. BunnyPuncher
Tem def. Pumpkin King
Zak X def. BYE

My first matchup was against Zak X on Dragon Graveyard. I wasn't particularly happy to see a warband that could take out my commander and wardrummer with relative ease, but thankfully the Marilith was there to help things out in that regard. In the first round, he made everyone invisible and we advanced our troops. My HGB made it to the centre victory area as did his hero of Valhalla. In the second round, My commander ate an empowered magic missle but luckily made the morale save. My wardrummer was mobbed by shadowdancers and taken out rather quickly. I don't remember the exact run of events, but my orc warriors seemed to be able to hit just about anything - invisible or not. I'm pretty sure they took out the Hero of Valhalla and a Xeph. I moved my Marilith down to attck one of the shadowdancers and hoped for an initiative win to take one out. The HGB swung at an invisible Gnome but missed. In the third round, I lost initiative and both Shadowdancers jumped away again taking only the AOO from an Orc Warrior. I then ran my HGB down to take out the Wizard Tactitian so I didn't have to worry about slapping hands spells. Unfortunately, a gnome trickster cast SS on the other one who attacked my commander and took it out. At the end of the round, I double moved the Marilith back near the middle where two of his Gnomes were both within reach. Round 4 I managed to take out both of the gnomes and move the HGB to base both of the Shadowdancers. Since both of my titans had most of their hitpoints left, I was in good shape and only needed to take out one more enemy hitter to win. It ended up being the Moon Elf getting hit twice by the HGB in the last round. I feel bad for Zak tonight since he had to face both warbands with a Marilith and he was the only one that was relying on invisibility for his band to really perform well. It was an interesting build and I think it has the potential to do well when played carefully (against non-blindsight bands).

The second matchup was against an familiar band - one very similar to one I used to win a tournament with not too long ago. The core of RHWS, FGFP and War Troll is tough to handle. He won his map so I'd have to face them on Drow Outpost. Since this was now caves of pain, I knew my Marilith could dish out some serious damage but would be taking a boat load in return. The entire match was basically us beating on each other in the middle of the map. I won a crucial initiative early on to allow both my HGB and Marilith to attack the FGFP then move away so they'd only take one shot in return. At one point, I managed to rout the FGFP but with a wartroll blocking the path to his commander, he managed to rally on the next turn. I couldn't dish out quite enough damage and in the end I had lost both titans and his wartroll was dead and the FGFP had 10hp left. At the end of that round, I knew I could still win if I took out the FGFP (I had 40 tile points to his 0 IIRC). So, my last desperate move was to base the FGFP with my Tiefling and make an attack - needing a 16 which I didn't get. Then we rolled initiative and I won. I made my attack again, missing again. The FGFP proceeded to flatten my commander for the win. A very exciting and tense game. It's always good to play against BunnyPuncher. He plays a good tactical game and I'm sure enjoyed getting me back for beating him at board games the previous night. I suppose if I'm going to lose it's good to lose to a band that we've already seen win a tournament here...

In my last matchup of the night, I get paired with Pumpkin King who has an interesting build using an Elf warmage and a frenzied berserker. I win my map and he decides to set up on the fire side. I make a point of collecting victory points every round and he does a good job of preventing me from getting to the soft underbelly of his warband. Of course, racking up all those 3 and 6 point minis adds up in bounty. He manages to take out some of my fodder and I bide my time. I'm ahead on points but at the end of a round, I take an opportunity to double move my HGB to base both Storm and the warmage. I win initiative in the following round and switch to intimidating drumbeat. I then hit Storm and she runs almost off the board. My second attack also connects taking out the warmage. Storm ends up failing the rally check that round and that pushes me over 200. In a very short time, Pumpkin King has learned quite a bit about warband construction and playing tactics. He'll be yet another serious threat in these parts if things keep up.

Next week, we'll be playing 200 point again and I have at least 3-4 different bands I'd like to try out. Choices, choices...