After my exile to the uncharted wastes of rural Nova Scotia, my sojourn has ended and I’ve made a triumphant return to the homeland (Halifax) to join the Thursday Knights once again. I made a last minute decision to run “War Wizards of Doom ™” after watching another friend of mine have so much success them. As it turns out, there were 11 Cormyrean War Wizards on the tables tonight and 9 of them all appeared in the finals! Without further ado – here’s what happened:

The bands:

Temysry (3-0)

Storm Silverhand
Cormyrean War Wizard x4
Graycloak Ranger
Bat Familiar
Timber Wolf
Xeph Warrior
Man-At-Arms
Map: King's Road

Tomcat (2-1)

Greyhawk City Militia Sergeant
Cormyrean War Wizard x5
Dwarf Phalanx Soldier
Bat Familiar x5
Map: King's Road

Zak X (2-1)

Greyhawk City Militia Sergeant
Couatl
Kolyarut
Shadowbane Inquisitor
Dwarf Artificer
Eberk, Adventurer
Aramil, Adventurer
Earth Mephit
Map: Forest Cliff Lair

Pumpkin King (2-1)

Cleric of Order
Large Gold Dragon
Deep Legionnaire x4
Aasimar Fighter
Human Commoner
Map: Thieves' Quarter

Orcdoubleax (1-2)

Sword Archon
Shield Guardian x2
Eberk, Adventurer
Aramil, Adventurer
Mialee, Elf Wizard
Map: Dragonshrine

Caldorna (1-2)
Ryld Argith
Wulfgar
Virtuous Charger
Gnome Trickster
Wild Elf Warsinger
Mialee, Elf Wizard
Timber Wolf
Tavern Brawler
Map: Dragonshrine

Moose (1-2)

Delver Sergeant
Elf Warmage
Arcadian Avenger
Cormyrean War Wizard x2
Combat Medic
Deep Legionnaire x2
Bat Familiar x2
Map: Magma Keep


Round 1:
Temysry def. Caldorna
Tomcat def. Zak X
Pumpkin King def. Moose
Orcdoubleax def. BYE

Round 2:
Temysry def. Orcdoubleax
Tomcat def. Pumpkin King
Caldorna def. Moose
Zak X def. BYE

Round 3:
Temysry def. Tomcat
Zak X def. Orcdoubleax
Pumpkin King def. Caldorna
Moose def. BYE


My first matchup was against Caldorna (whom I always seem to get paired against in the first round when we’re both at a tournament. He was playing the invisible Ryld/Wulfgar/VC combo on Dragonshrine and he easily won his map. I started from the cold side and we deployed carefully. Since he had cast his invisibility sphere before Mialee’s M W, she was the only one visible. In the second round, I managed to pick her off with my greycloak for the early lead. We both got tile points every round but the second round ended with his forces uncomfortably close to mine with his invisible tavern brawler giving everyone electricity resistance 5. When battle was joined in round 3, I was lucky enough to have a CWW survive the onslaught of the VC as well as Storm passing her morale check after getting pummeled by Wulfgar. I returned the favour by causing a MC on Wulfgar and he passed the 50/50 save. In the next round, it was do or die. I had healed Storm back up to 60 hp and he had to hit with 3 consecutive attacks to drop her. Wulgar missed his second attack and she survived just long enough to take him out in return and move to safety. I also managed to drop the Warsinger and he could not kill enough points worth of my creatures to catch me in this round. Time was called and I took the win.

The second matchup was against Orcdoubleax who got the bye in the first round (as usual). I again lost map init and we were playing on Dragonshrine again. He was playing a high AC band which didn’t help him much against all my spellcasters. Since it was caves of pain, the occasional plinking from my greycloak really added up and he single-handedly did 45 points of damage to his creatures. He had a hard time taking down Storm and I managed to take out both shield guardians first – mostly with spells. After that, I passed a couple spell resistance checks for rays against the Archon and with a silverfire from Storm he dropped as well.

My third round of the night was against Tomcat who is known for bringing War Wizards – tonight was no exception. We both had King’s Road and the game started with 9 CWWs on the board along with 6 bats. He made a couple mistakes early on which ended up costing him the game. First off, he grouped 2 CWWs and 3 bats in the lower right start area. In the first round, I moved up Storm and managed to catch them in her confusion spell. It affected one bat and one CWW who was never able to shake it. Also – at the end of the first round, he had left a bat in the shared victory area with two CWWs and the dwarf phalanx soldier behind it in a line. After winning initiative in the second round, I moved up Storm and used her silver fire through my own timber wolf to catch all four of his minis. After that, one of my own CWWs followed up by moving in behind her and casting a phalanxed lightning bolt down the same line. Both of his wizards failed the save and died. The dwarf passed the save, but then failed morale. Now, since the third round is bounty, I had just managed to rack up 126 victory points in that phase (2 CWWs + 3 bats + 50 bonus points for the 5 kills) On top of that, he couldn’t mount a decent counter attack because his surviving CWWs were just too far away to get their rays on Storm. He tried to run towards the bottom of the map but ended the round with me getting control of his last CWW. He moved up and cast lightning bolt on the two. I also cast another lightning bolt using my own CWW on them using my bat as the target (who passed the save). One routed and I finished him of with a ray. So – all in all, we had finished after the second round with a final score of 201- 25.