The Thursday knights have gathered once again and we had 6 players show up.ÂIt seems our food donation box is bursting at the seams and another load needs to be dropped off at the food bank again.ÂIt had been a pretty slow week, so I decided to play something that would require a bit of mental exercise.ÂSo, I finally got up the courage to play a Ghaele warband.ÂUnfortunately, every one of my games went to time and I didn’t manage to get a complete list of the warbands being played.

 

Ghaele Eladrin

Bralani Eladrin

Crow Shaman

Bat Familiar

Xeph Warrior x3

Map: Dragondown Grotto

 

I debated a lot about if I should go 7 activations or drop the bat to get 8.ÂI also debated quite a bit about which side of Dragondown Grotto I would prefer to start from.ÂThey both have their benefits, but I opted for the 7 activations (obviously) and the live side of the map.ÂI ended up getting my map and side in every game I played.

 

The first round was against another ranged band being played by Tomcat:

 

Storm Silverhand

Nentyar Hunter

Storm Archer x2

Steelheart Archer x2

Map: Tomb of Queen Peregrine

 

Since he had no tile grabber and only 6 activations, I managed to get tile point for the first 5 rounds in a row and he did not.ÂSo, with a decent point advantage, there was no real need to risk either of the Eladrin to his ranged attacks fueled by the Nentyar.ÂHe only got off the CFX once during the game, but IRC all of the bonus attacks missed.ÂEventually my shoot and scooters did enough damage to drop one steelheart and finally Storm in the last round of the game after she had already used two of her healing spells and passed morale.ÂIt was a game decided in part by the dice.ÂSeems like I couldn't miss an attack and even got to use Ghaele's CFX multiple times.ÂWhile he often needed a 15 to hit with the Storm archers, I'm sure they missed more than their fair share.

 

The second round was against Nephelim and his SWarm band:

 

Sword Archon

Sacred Watcher x6

Standardbearer

Map: Dragonshrine

 

Now, I know SWarm is a pretty frustrating band to play against, but this was just ridiculous.ÂAfter 4 rounds, I was behind by 20 tile points and had missed 7 out of 8 incorporeal rolls.ÂHe flew most of the SWs towards the main force of my warband and eventually killed my crow shaman.ÂBefore he died though, I managed to get off his Chastise Spirits which hit 3 out of the 4 watchers and one failed the save.ÂFinally, I managed to take out some sacred watchers by connecting with the Bralani against the most damaged one and the Ghaele taking out another.ÂNow I have a slight point lead but my main pieces are all based by sacred watchers and the Sword Archon.ÂThankfully, with time running out, I won the last initiative and moved everyone far enough away that they couldn't be attacked that round.ÂWe both got tile points in the last round and I won by a slim margin.

 

The last round was against Rubberman:

 

Van Richten

Shield Guardian x2

War Weaver

Devotee of the Silver Flame x3

Timber Wolf

Map: Keep of the Fallen Kings

 

This game was pretty much decided as soon as we rolled initiative.ÂLarge bases, no flight and speeds 4 and 6 just aren't fun to play on Dragondown Grotto.ÂWe played it out for fun anyway.ÂHe dropped 4 searing lights on Ghaele but missed two spell resistance rolls so it wasn't even a morale save.ÂAfter that, he took a load of damage from a lot of ranged attacks.ÂI had a good streak of rolls and managed to take out the War Weaver (mis-placement on his part), his Timber Wolf and one of the shield guardians.ÂBy the time he had finally made it up to my start area, I had taken out a couple of the Devotees of the Silver Flame as well and made exactly 200 points before he even got a swing at any of my creatures.