First, I’d like to thank the host of the qualifier for running a well-organized tournament, which appeared to be enjoyed by all who attended. I think the number of players signed up was around 20; translate to 6 rounds of play before cut to the top 4. I was planning on running an Archmage/Storm build for the event but in the few weeks prior, I had noticed Kevin’s success with shadow dancers that I was considering a switch. I have always thought the LBD was good so I brought them along as well. During the drive up, Jason talked up LBD so much that I decided to try it out. It’s an easy band to play (I am ashamed to say), no real tech to think about. At least this allowed me to concentrate solely on tactical positioning and maximizing my lines. My one real concern was the low activation count. In the end, I went with the 4th LBD instead of the WWL or other variations of 3xLBD (such as Ryld) since I think that in a mirror match, I would be better off having more acid and less vulnerability. Of course, the real weakness of this warband is the Tiefling! Must…stay…alive…

I was going to play King’s Road but Jason absolutely insisted on Dragondown Grotto. I had never played the map before (I never much liked the layout or artwork – too boring!) so I was apprehensive about it. However, Jason pointed out how well LBD works on the map that I gave it a try. So there I am playing a warband I never fielded before on a map I have never used. Joy.

My warband (Jason’s build): Tiefling Captain, LBD x4, Orc Warrior.

First round I get to play Mike: Ultraloth, Fire Giant Forgepriest, Dragonmark Heir of Deneith, Bat Familiar, Blue, Kobold Miner x3. I was not excited to be facing a FG but I got my map, which really, really helped! Those giants kill LBD’s quick! I decided right off that I would not get into a direct confrontation and go for points. His miners were of no help in the start. I killed the only one scoring points for him and then blocked access to the center from the last remaining one. I committed two LBD’s to the center victory area (not the best strategy) but was able to prevent assault points to Mike for first couple of rounds. Of course this is when I find out that I am sitting on a tile that causes morale checks when damaged by melee combat. Yikes. Guess I should have paid more attention to the map. That’s what I get for not play testing first. Mike charges a miner at a LBD hoping to force morale but misses. His main force is advancing on the center as quick as speed 6 will allow. By now the fire giant is immune acid.

Next round, he wins initiative and gets another free attack on the LBD with the miner but misses again. At this point I start my acid lines making sure to catch the Dragonmark in each attack. The Dragonmark will be the meat of my points this game. Over the course of the next few rounds, I keep the LBD out of harm’s way while killing off all his fodder units. The Dragonmark gets all four lines but saves each time leaving it at 15 hp. Now I have to commit a LBD to finish the Dragonmark off, putting the dragon at risk. Lucky I have activation control by now and get in and out with an initiative win before he can attack. I’ve got about three rounds of tile points more than Mike and have killed everything but the two main units. By now, however, Mike has managed to kill the Tiefling and Orc and wound two of the LBD’s, so I have to be extra careful not to give up any unnecessary morale checks. Time is running out but because we are down to only a few units, the rounds go by much quicker. In order to keep safe, I have to stay away from the fire giant. However, Mike carefully covers my small victory area with his giant and the center with the ultroloth. I am forced to dance around him, keeping out of range but am not scoring assault points. Mike score catches up quickly. I am forced to engage the Ultroloth or I will lose on points. Because I have activation control, I get to move in first at the end of a round with two dragon’s but both miss. I win initiative and both dragons make 1 attack each before bailing – the fire giant is too close! Again they miss but the ultroloth gets two aoo’s. First roll is a 1 – miss! Second aoo hits but I make morale (50/50). Out of range, time is called and we have one more round. The extra round makes no difference since I can score points from the center victory area and with activation control, Mike will not get an attack before the game is called. I win 95 to 94. That was the closest game I have all tournament long. Mike played great and I got lucky with that morale check.

Round two is against Aaron on Hellspike: Helmed Horror x2, Maug x2, Darkmoon Monk, Greenspawn Sneak, Bat Familiar. Aaron is an inexperienced player and lines up several of his units allowing me to make good use of my acid lines. Of course, I had to use my own LBD’s to target through the smoke. In the early rounds, I whiffed against the sneak requiring me to dedicate a second LBD to finish it. However, it made no difference. With Aaron’s lack of experience, I completely decimated his force down to the last helmed horror (I think the bat survived before I won on points). He managed to wound a few dragons but killed nothing. Aaron was a nice guy, just needs to play a few more games.

Round three I get Kevin: Storm Silverhand, Shadow Dancer x4, Graycloak Ranger, Wild Elf Warsinger, Bat Familiar, Wolf minion. Kevin is a good player and I fear the shadow dancer damage machine! My saving grace is that I get my map this game. In round 1, Kevin takes a chance and moves Storm up and out of cover to cast confusion on my start tile. He catches three LBD’s and the tiefling. Two of the dragon’s fail their saves! Now things are looking grim. I know that if I get a bad confusion roll, Kevin is going to kill my tiefling with an acid line. The rest of the round we positioned our units and Kevin brings out two of the SD’s into my field of play. I manage to catch Strom and one of the SD’s in a line. Storm fails the check and takes 25! When it came time to check the two confused LBD’s I get lucky and get to use one normally. The other did nothing. Both recovered from the confusion by the end of the round.

In round 2, I win initiative and concentrate two more lines on Storm while catching a SD as well. Storm fails one of the saves and drops to 20 hp. She passed morale but I was able to base her with one of the LBD’s after the line. Kevin made the mistake of leaving Storm out in the open instead of using the adjacent forest square (which he realized after he made the move). Kevin retreats Storm after healing and I miss with the aoo (I was hoping for a crit which would have killed her!). To cover her escape, Kevin throws the wounded SD at me which I snap up. Meanwhile, he brought his remaining SD’s into position. One pursued the tiefling, while the other came up to help protect Storm.

By round 3, I win init again and try to finish off Storm. I attack and hit dropping her to 10 hp but she’s is forest terrain now and can move off. I bring in another dragon to help but I have to spend a double move just to reach her. The attack and double move put both dragons out of los with the tiefling. On Kevin’s return attack, he deftly warps in the fourth SD and attacks a LBD. The other nearby moves in and with the flank attack, hits and forces morale. Out of los, I fail and the dragon heads for the exit. After the aoo, the dragon was left with 30 hp. With a weak dragon near the exit, the SD trailing the tiefling switched tactics and charged the dragon. A wolf nearby did the same and Kevin was able to kill it.

In round 4, I was becoming desperate to kill Storm, but he wins init and heals her again. The LBD in the area attacks her again but has to move to reach and with one attack, I miss. The two SD’s in the area swarm in and cause a rout check that I fail. The LBD flys into range of the lone SD and wolf and gets killed. Down to two LBD’s I again try to get them over to kill Storm but it is a hopeless cause. I never hit Storm again and Kevin just smacks the LBD’s to hell. This is a match-up where I had the advantage of my terrain and auto damage but still failed to get a good result. I will have to practice again the SD’s in future. Better yet, may even consider playing them to learn their secrets. Kevin wins this round. My number one mistake was going for Storm. I should have concentrated on the SD’s the entire time. Once the SD’s are out of the way, I can deal with Storm on better footing.

In round four I get to play Ben on King’s Road: Solar, Shield Guardian, Dragonmark Heir of Deneith, Warforged Scout, Mialee, Elf Wizard, Man-at-Arms x2. I was worried from the start that the solar was going to ace one of my dragons with an arrow of slaying so I was planning on trying to stay out of a direct confrontation if I could. I forgot that the solar was immune to acid, so I wasted the first round positioning my LBD’s rather than kill off the warforged scout. This allowed Ben to relocate the scout to a better (safer) spot. We both score assault in round 1 with Ben expertly basing a LBD in the forest at the shared victory area. By now, Ben’s three main units are all acid immune.

Ben wins initiative round 2 and swings three times on the LBD in the forest but misses twice! I spend the round chasing down Ben’s fodder units using the acid lines to finish them off. By the end of the round, only Mialee survives. Meanwhile, Ben positions the shield guardian and dragonmark closer to the solar. Beginning round 3, Ben finally get’s his arrow of slaying in play. I cannot avoid the los and he keeps winning initiative. I was also worried that Ben would use the solar to kill my Tiefling which I think would have been a better strategy. Nevertheless, he hits a LBD but I make my save. At the same time, the shield guardian moves up closer to the center of the map but out of forest terrain. I use the opportunity and attack the guardian with three LBD’s (two in forest) but hit only once. Now I am committed to a melee fight. The last dragon uses a line to kill Mialee.

In the next round, Ben wins again and forces a morale check on a LBD but I succeed. However, the dragon is near death. I return a few attacks and wound the SG some more. Next, Ben boldly puts the solar into a position behind my LBD lineup and then kills the wounded LBD while flanking another. I decide at this point to put everything on the solar. Out in the open and without the dragonmark nearby, I flank and attack the low AC solar. I score a hit and a critical thanks to the tiefling. This forces Ben to have the SG suck up the damage. I think it has 10 hp left but I cannot hit its high AC.
I finally win an initiative and go balls out on the solar. Six attacks later, the solar and SG are dead. At this point, Ben concedes the match. He cannot recover with a sole dragonmark against three LBD’s.

For round five I am matched with Nathan: Arcane Ballista, Cleric of Order, Couatl, Sacred Wacther x2, Lantern Bearer, War Weaver, Timber Wolf. He was playing on grotto as well. In the first round, I played conservatively and did my best to stay out of los with the AB but with a careful jump maneuver, Nathan put one of my unmoved LBD’s in los and fired a maximized shot. He rolls a 1 – ouch! His remaining units kept together while he pushed out with the sacred watchers and wolf. The cleric buffed the couatl. My strategy by this point was to engage the AB as quickly as possible.

In the next few rounds, I ignore assault points and proceed to the hub of units around the AB. Nathan tried to keep los and moved the AB out of the forest and into the open. This allowed me to base it and keep it from being moved without killing a LBD first. Since he used the hop from the war weaver, he was not getting out easy. From this point on, I used a few acid lines and attacks against the AB and couatl. I don’t remember if I routed the couatl or outright killed it with a crit. Either way, the LBD’s made short work of the warband. Once I got to melee range, it was all over.

In round six I was matched with Graydon: Strom Silverhand, Virtuous Charger x3, Bat Familiar, Mialee, Elf Wizard, Timber Wolf, Xeph Warrior x2. I did not see the potential of this band until Graydon began making his attacks. In the early game, Graydon pushed a charger into the shared victory area so that by round two I had a clear target. I take the bait and put two LBD’s on it scoring two hits. Unfortunately, I am occupying the dead zone with both of the LBD’s so I am risking a rout. Graydon strikes back with the flanked charger and another flying one. Between the two of them, I think he scores 3 hits forcing 3 morale checks. I make all three although I did roll a couple of 4’s. On my go, I use an acid line on the two chargers and prepare a flank with my orc on the wounded charger (passes morale). Storm casts fly on the last charger and moved into los with the battle at the center of the map. The last charger began making its approach.

Graydon wins initiative in round 3. His first charger is nearly dead so it strikes twice forcing two morale checks for the zone and an extra morale check due to the damage total on the LBD. I make all three. The other charger flanking the other LBD hits once but causes another two morale checks which I pass. In my action, I was hoping to save the nearly dead LBD by killing the charger and flying off but I missed my first attack. It took the other two rolls before I hit, killing the first charger. Unfortunately, the LBD was stuck there. Then I began concentrating on the other wounded charger. The remaining charger joined the fray this round throwing down some damage.

If I remember right, Graydon wins initiate and uses Storm’s line to finish off the wounded LBD and putting another close to death. I return the favor by killing off the second charger. By now I have three LBD’s left, although one is nearly dead. In the next round, I was able to rout the remaining charger since it was not within 6 of Storm. I next swarmed Storm until she was killed. I don’t remember if Graydon killed a second dragon or not but I think his chief mistake was to put the first charger so far in advance of the others. I think he should have at least delayed a round and tried to get all three in play at once. Also, I can’t remember exactly how many morale checks I made (9-10 or so) and I made them all! I was lucky not to have failed at least once during that time which could have made the game go in a much different direction. Graydon played a good game other than that and has come along very nicely as our newest SoCal protégé.

The top four after the cut in order of wins and tiebreaks was Kevin/Sven/Nathan/Graydon. Therefore, I was paired with Nathan again. We started our game with sides reversed. This time I pushed forward harder than our last game careful to remain hidden as best as I could but favoring reach instead of cover. In the end I could not avoid the first shot from the AB, which hit this time. I passed morale and pushed on. I think he missed with a swift attack and I made sure to put another fresh dragon ahead of the wounded one. By round two I was throwing lines at the hub of his units and put two LBD’s in his midst. By staying in forest terrain, Nathan was able to keep shooting at me the entire time but I passed morale when needed and I soon had all spellcasters dead. By that time, there was a pair of sacred watchers doing the most damage so I concentrated on them (I should have just worked on killing the useless AB, duh!). He had already killed a dragon so I was making 9 attacks between two watchers. It took about 6 or so rounds to kill them both. In fact, if I hadn’t killed the last watcher when I did, I would have won on points instead. Those watchers were sure lucky.
Nathan did nothing wrong in his strategy for the match-up. He played well and I made all my morale checks. His warband is just not designed to stop four speed 10, acid spewing, LBD’s that never fail morale. He did put up a tougher fight this time around dishing out a fair amount of damage with the AB before I stopped it.

Kevin and I did not play our last game but I am quite sure the odds were in his favor to win. In the end, Kevin wanted to play in AZ more than I, so we agreed that I would take the win. Now I get to go to AZ and take pictures instead.

And now a word about quad black: The band is definitely tier 1 in my opinion. I still do not know how it plays against 3xLBD but I feel that it will win more than it loses. I would expect to lose the tiefling in such a match up. Against other warbands, winning map really helps the band quite a bit. I don’t think I played on a map I didn’t like in the games I played so only further testing will prove that point. As far as the low activation count, I found that it did not really matter too much since the LBD’s have a good speed and breath weapon range. Because of this, by round 2 the band typically wants to go first anyways. Activation control may be useful in later rounds, which can happen rather easily if the fodder units are caught in a few of the lines. Also, the morale saves are usually good at +16. I never failed a morale check when in command. That makes the warband durable. The added tiefling commander effect does not come into play as often as I would like since the LBD’s are so far ahead of the commander, but when it does, the three melee attacks per dragon mean more 19’s are crits. Now who doesn’t like that. Also, a commander rating of 4 is about average, so generally speaking, you should win map initiative half the time.

The number one weaknesses of this warband are acid immune units, units that hit hard and have many hit points (LBD’s are easy to hit), high AC targets, and the tiefling. The tiefling is a core component of the band since it provides such good morale bonuses. That makes it a big target in my book. Killing the tiefling should be everyone’s priority against this warband. Sacred watchers, for example, should always go after it.

Well I hope you enjoyed the report.