Alright, so after the Prereleases and our sealed last week, we had a 200 point tourny this week. Over the course of the week I battled between the choice of what to run. I'd been playtesting Ultroloth/Forgepriest and had horrible dice luck with it. I'd ordered on Ebay a Thrall of Blackrazor for my CE band and it hadn't arrived as of last night so I started looking for alternatives. I did a trade with Sirohk this week and it arrived later in the week to give me my 3rd Black Dragon. I looked at it and built a Triple Black band. Then this morning I toyed with which build to pick and even despite my Thrall showing up in the mail before I left for the tourny, I stuck with the following band.

Werewolf Lord
Large Black Dragon x 3
Timber Wolf
Hyena
Orc Warrior x 2
Map: Fane of Lolth

I suspected some locals to run CG and in the limited playtesting I'd done with the Thrall, he really needed the first engagement initiative or he generally got taken down quickly. I wasn't exactly willing to gamble that on the CR 2 of the Werewolf Lord. And as for why Fane of Lolth, well, I wanted an open map that I could maneuver 4 large bases on. Fane has that so that's why I picked it. There might be a better map however that I'll look into for next time.

So first round I get paired against Mike Smith (Ragnarok). Mike is running Ultroloth, Chraal, Duergar Champ x 2, Cannoloth, Greenspawn Sneak, Skeleton Warrior x 2 on Hellspike. Mike had actually picked one of the other Hellspike maps other than Hellspike itself, but he grabbed the wrong map. Mike won map init so we played on Hellspike. First round we danced around the smoke setting up stuff for the next round. Mike won the next init and moved over the Chraal over to BW 2 Large Blacks and the WWL. I made all the saves on it. He then moved over a DC to base one of the dragons. I used 2 BWs on the Chraal and the DC. The DC failed both saves and then failed morale to run back to the Ultroloth. We traded a few shots with fodder. Mike ran the other DC over to attack one of the dragons that had did their cone. The Ultro moved over and tried to casts Ray of Exhaustion on the WWL but he made the save. I then moved up the WWL to hit the Ultro and moved up the last Large Black to do the same but only the WWL hit. I then won the next init and managed to kill the Ultro with the Large Black and the WWL. That took away the Chraal and also finished off the DC that had failed morale as it wouldnt' get a chance to rally. Mike conceded at that point as he had the Cannoloth and 1 DC against my warband. 1-0

Second round I got paired against Ken (Kenwig) who was running Tiefling Captain, Drow Wizard, Orc Wardrummer, Large Black Dragon, Orc Champion x 2, Timber Wolf, and Hyena on Hailstorm Tower. I think Ken won map init but picked Fane of Lolth over Hailstorm as Hailstorm hadn't worked well for him the previous round. So first round we position with me setting up everything so that it couldn't be based by an Orc Champ. Second round he moves up the Large Black to try to get the BW off on the WWL. The WWL passes and then I manage to put 2 Large Blacks on the dragon and start to do some damage to it. He moves up an Orc Champ to base one of the Large Blacks and get close to the WWL. The large black proceeds to put some hurting on the Orc Champ and then the WWL came in for the kill on it. Next round my other 2 Large Blacks managed to kill his Large Black. He then moved up his last Orc Champ to attack one of the dragons. My Hyena was having a battle with his Timber Wolf and this was a funny series of events. First he got my Hyena down to 5. It rolled a 1 on Morale and ran. It ran next to the last Orc Champ who killed it on the AOO and cleaved into the dragon he had hit before, forcing morale on it. I need a 6, I roll a 3. It flew off the board. I move up my last dragon to attack the Orc Champ and flank him with my other dragon. Ken won next round init and double attacked one of the flanking dragons. He hit both attacks and I morale check. I roll a 2. It too leaves the board. Then I managed to finish it off between the WWL and last Large Black to seal the game. 2-0

Last round I got paired with Tony (Visage). Tony was running a Storm, Skyfire Captain, Virtuous Charger, Assimer Favored Soul, Graycloak Ranger w/ Timber Wolf, Xeph Warrior, Bat, and Elf Warrior on Dragondown Grotto. I of course lost map. Tony set up first and put me on the side with the rocks. Tony does the buffing spells first round, putting the extra attack on the VC, fly, Magic Fang, and Magic Weapon. I think that Xzibit would be proud as Tony accomplished the DDM version of Pimp My Ride. So while he's pimping her out, I moved one dragon to the Central VA, the WWL up and over near the top VA, and 2 dragons down next to where if I won the next init I could get 2 cones off on most of his warband (the core of it at least). Tony had me out activated and moved the VC down to attack one of the dragons. He hit 2 of the 3 attacks to force morale which it made. I won the 2nd round init and had both dragons that were basing the VC. They attack and I manage to get it to a morale check. Tony had made a slight placement error and it was 7 squares away from Storm and could only see the Skyfire Captain. So it rolled for morale and roled a 3, flying off the board. I then move up the dragon that was in the central VA to get off a BW on the core of his warband. Storm saved but everyone else failed and either died or routed off the board. From there it was a matter of time as he had Storm left to take on 3 dragons and the WWL. 3-0

So, while I was iffy on the band it did perform well. I'm stil not totally convinced of the 3rd dragon over the Thrall, but it is definately a possibility. The only thing that scares me about 3 Dragons are their attacks. That's one of the main reasons for the Thrall over them I believe. For prizes we drafted from 2 UH boosters. Rares were a Bone Naga and a Wizard of Tuurmish. I got the Bone Naga as I didn't have it and Tony got the Wizard.