Attendance is still strong and dragons are still showing up in droves. As you can tell from the mix of bands, we're still mostly experimenting with some of the most obvious builds using Night Below figures. I have a feeling that people might start branching out after next week's Epic tournament. Anyway - here's what happened:

The bands:

Temysry (3-0)

Tiefling Captain
Large Shadow Dragon x2
Large Black Dragon
Large White Dragon
Hyena
Orc Warrior
Map: Dungeon of Blood

Grubbis (2-1)

Van Richten
Shield Guardian
Champion of Dol Dorn x2
Mialee, Elf Wizard
Aasimar Fighter
Man-At-Arms x2
Map: Dragonshrine

Zak X (2-1)

Hierophant of the Seventh Wind
Dire Tiger
Fiendish Girallon
Chraal
Wild Elf Warsinger
Mialee, Elf Wizard
Timber Wolf
Map: Drow Enclave

Senajeibot (2-1)

Hobgoblin Marshal x2
Steel Predator
Dragonmark Heir of Deneith
Mercykiller
Prisoner
Kobold Miner x2
Map: Dragonshrine

Tomcat (1-2)

Tiefling Blademaster
Large Black Dragon
Large White Dragon
Clawborn Scorrow x3
Map: King's Road

Pumpkin King (1-2)

Tiefling Captain
Large Shadow Dragon x2
Orc Banebreak Rider
Orc Wardrummer
Orc Warrior x3
Map: Dragon Graveyard

Jordan (1-2)

Duergar Slaver
Fire Giant Forgepriest
Duergar Champion x2
Ice Mephit
Prisoner
Skeletal Legionnaire
Kobold Miner
Map: Field of Ruin

Nephelim (0-3)

Solar
Shield Guardian
Dragonmark Heir of Deneith
Timber Wolf
Man-At-Arms x3
Map: Drow Outpost


Round 1:

Temysry def. Pumpkin King
Grubbis def. Zak X
Tomcat def. Senajeibot
Jordan def. Nephelim

Round 2:
Temysry def. Tomcat
Grubbis def. Jordan
Senajeibot def. Pumpkin King
Zak X def. Nephelim

Round 3:
Temysry def. Grubbis
Zak X def. Tomcat
Senajeibot def. Jordan
Pumpkin King def. Nephelim


My first matchup was almost a mirror-match against Pumpkin King except his band featured a wardrummer and banebreak in the place of my large black and white dragons. I won map and side, starting from the single starting area of Dungeon of Blood. We both started by advancing cautiously, leaving the shadow dragons for a perfect opportunity. I was first to pounce when he over extended his banebreak. I moved one dragon adjacent and shadowjumped to flank with the other. All three attacks hit for 60 damage and since he could not see his commander, had to make a morale save at +12 and rolled a 7. I hit with two AOOs as he routed to finish him off. He then did pretty much the same thing to my large white sitting in my own victory area. In the second round, he dropped a shadow dragon breath weapon across both of my shadow dragons and caught my hyena and commander as well. Only my commander failed the save and began routing. I flanked and took out one of his shadow dragons with my pair, using my black dragon's breath weapon to finish him off as he routed. After that, the game was pretty much over as I was able to jump in with a shadow dragon to flank his remaining dragon and finish him off after a full round of attacks from both my shadow and large black dragons.

For my second match, I was paired against Tomcat and he won initiative so we played on King's Road. Facing three Clawborn Scorrows is pretty intimidating since they have so many hp to chew through. During the game, I kept looking for a good opportunity to take out his commander but it never really came up. We both advanced rather cautiously in the first round except for a bold move by his Large White Dragon across the board to base my commander in the woods. I used my last activations to flank and attack him twice but missed with one of the attacks. Thankfully, I won the second round initiative and finished off his large white before it could make an attack. He then used his LBD to move up and breath on my commander. I failed the save and ran off the board which was going to make morale saves very dicey from here on in. I was able to use my shadow jumps to good effect and dropped one of the clawborn in my victory area surrounding the 2x2 wall. In the next couple rounds, we exchanged many blows and when the dust settled, I was left with an uninjured black and shadow dragon against his injured black dragon (45 hp) and uninjured commander. I knew I would hit 50 tile points, so I finally went after his commander. After winning the next initiative, I finally managed to connect and finish off the tiefling for the win.

My last match was against an LG build piloted by Grubbis. Between Van Richten and his Shield Guardian, I knew that I'd be eating two holy smites at some point so it was actually a blessing in disguise when he won map and chose dragonshrine. He also won side and chose the cold side. In the first round, he advanced towards the victory area next to the exit while his fodder grabbed the cold and acid shrines. I spread my forces out far enough so that a holy smite would only catch one dragon. In the second round, I used the Large Black's breath to kill a M@A and mialee while only injuring the aasimar since he made his save. I also jumped a shadow dragon in to take out his other M@A in the cold shrine. He opted to double move his two champions but only one could base my large black. I ended the round by shadowjumping into a flank and connecting with two attacks against that CDD. He won the next initative and used his provoke so that I couldn't attack the wounded CDD. Instead, I jumped the other dragon in and attacked the one that had used provoke. After two full attacks from shadow dragons, he dropped and my Large black could get a couple attacks off on the other CDD. After two holy smites (which now hit one shadow and my black dragon), my large black was down to 10 hp. In the next round, I made a silly mistake by not activating him first but I still managed to finished off his second CDD with two dragon breath weapons. Even after losing the LBD to a searing light, I gained tile points again to put me at 190 despite my opponent having 100 points still on the board. In the final round, he had no way to prevent me from gaining tile points and no way to get over 200 himself so I ended up winning without ever having to engage Van Richten whom he kept well protected the entire time.

As much fun as it is playing quad dragons - I'm not sure I like having such terrible morale saves if (when!) the Tiefling Captain goes down. In the future, I think I would be much happier playing triple dragons with a wardrummer and using a sturdier commander.