D&D Miniatures

Saturday July 16th at 6pm Angelfire Pre-release Tournament (Limited Sealed 200 pt Assault)

Ok, everyone keeps asking me, so here are the important links for constructing Warbands for D&D Miniatures.

5) http://www.maxminis.com/ Discuss Warbands and such here – look to the D&D Skirmish Discussion for some warband ideas

7) http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/mini.htm Excellent site all about D&D miniatures at the top of the page are links to each set, you can find Spoiler lists which give specific set stats for each figure in a set. Unfortunately the links are either HTML or PDF (One day I will consolidate this too)

Below is a log of sorts of previous D&D miniature tournaments and their outcomes

Okay, so I started playing Dungeons and Dragons Minis by being introduced to them at Bayou Wars 2004 by Arcade.

Matt found that the Furries Warband was ineffectual against the over powered cheating Hippies War band. Even the undead army was having no luck against the Hippies.

Curtis had the Republicans just sat back and waited for something to happen. It never did.

I had the Evil Stormtroopers and we ran over the Robin's hoods. The archers were no match for our high AC and I gained 100 points and barely won.

Later we found out that the hippies were sporting 2 grey cloaked rangers and they should have had only 1. Essentially making the hippies a 116 point Warband not to mention that the Rangers had an attack dog of some sorts for free.

The next day I returned to play again and many people joined this game. Steve, Jason, Chris, Matt, and Jeric to name a few.

Jeric and I took separate routes and Jeric had the Robin's hoods and he went around sniping other people's morally depleted members.

Steve had the undead right next to Jason and the republicans, but they didn't fight each other.

Steve made an alliance with a girl who had the Scalies and she devastated Jason with one strike. I attempted a rescue with my Furries but soon found that I was attacked by not one but three War Bands. Lucky for me some rules were ill defined and I actually fared pretty well against 3 bands. In the end, their combined score was 58, mine alone was 57.

Chris didn't do so well, he had the hippies, but he was mauled by the Shorty's Revenge and the Storm Troopers. In the end, the Storm Troopers beat out Shorty's revenge by a few points.

The third game of the weekend had Jon, Jeric, Matt and Curtis returned and a few others.

Curtis took the undead army and actually held his own while wiping up on the Scalies. Unfortunately, the Hippies took plenty of pot shots at his group from a side vantage point.

The Hippies had their hands full with the Storm Troopers run by Jon, but Jon never seemed to make it past the Shambling Mound until I recommended he use the Axe man to deal with the tree creature.

Matt took the Republicans to Jeric and the Robin's Hoods and it appeared to be a standoff for a long time, but eventually Matt overcame the high Dexterity of the Archers. The Archers never really penetrated the Armor of the Republicans.

I had the Furries again, and stupidly met Shorty's revenge in a little cave passage. After multiple tactical strikes and retreats, the shrimps wiped the Furries off the board. Even the big Minotaur fell to these heavily armored midgets.

The Hippies won because they actually got strikes at the Undead Army and the Storm Troopers.

The Master maze gave the game such a cool dimension. I'm glad Arcade introduced us to the game with the Master Maze.

Jon apparently really liked the D&D minis so he bought a few too many miniatures in his quest to get the entire set. I'll bet he dropped a ton of cash that night.

Matt picked up the Robin's hoods and the Furries. The winner took the Shorty's Revenge War Band.

So, Thursday night after our new RPG session, Jon brought some war bands so he could demonstrate how tournament play proceeded. Curtis and Chris hung around to play too, so we attempted a four War Band free for all. At first I thought I would attack Chris since he was Lawful Good and I was Chaotic Evil, but it ended up with Chris attacking Curtis who had a Chaotic Good band, and Jon attacking me with his Lawful Evil Band. Apparently it was going to be Law vs. Chaos night.

Well, Curtis was taking a beating by Chris' Silver Dragon when he got a call and had to leave. It was kind of late.

So, I was having a heck of a time, even with my Red Dragon getting through to Jon's Gauth's. In the end Jon eliminated my Dragon and Aspect of Lolth. He really had me with those Gauth's.

Jon set up a simple skirmish while we waited for the MC to show up. Jon had a single commander and 2 displacer beasts. I had a 3 guys as well, and in the end I eliminated his team, just barely, but I actually won. I had quite a few lucky dice rolls against those displacer beasts.

Jon convinced me to flip $2 up and take a war band and join in the tournament of 200 point War Bands. $2 not a problem... making a 200 point war band was a problem. I didn't quite like any of Jon's pre-made war bands, so I grabbed 2 boxes of 100 point war bands, dropped some Tiefling Captains, added a Orc Gruumsh and I was set to fight. I think I constructed a 191 point army.

My first opponent had the Silver Dragon. Well after I eliminated its support troops, I proceeded to flank this beast and eventually I wore it down to 5 points before they called time. In hindsight, and you will hear me use this often, I did kill his dragon, I missed him twice by 1 point, but we forgot to take the flanking bonus into account. So technically, my guys ate that dragon for lunch. It started out as a 150 hit point dragon. A dozen hits later and it should have been toast. I felt confident, I really eliminated a 200 point army and took only about 70 points of damage myself.

My last match which was for all the marbles was with Jon. I didn't want to fight Jon, but I had to, everyone else had a loss. Jon had just gotten out of a battle with a super threesome... Aspect of Lolth, a Tiefling Captain, and an Aspect of Demogorgon. Talk about an insane 200 point War band.

Anyway, I knew Jon's Gauth strategy now and I was ready. I held my own pretty much to the end. When they gave us the last round warning, I was actually ahead. Jon had killed a few Abyssal Maw's but I had killed his smaller troops.

Well, it boiled down to who could kill the next man. I attacked his two Thayan knights, but failed to kill them. He did succeed in killing more Abyssal Maws though. At the end his two knights were running for the exit, but they are slow. An advantage Jon found quite ironic. After I got back home I realized after looking things over that I had knocked one of the knights down to 5 hit points when he ran and I scored a good hit with an attack of opportunity. I also forgot to add my commanders benefit of giving AOO a +5 damage. Well that would have eliminated him completely and I would have definitely won. All ended well though since I gave my 2nd place prize away and Jon gave me his 1st place prize. He's sure we will use it, it was a D&D module that could be used with mini's.

I can't wait to fix my war band and go after those Gauth's again. In hindsight I think I won. Jon said he would have managed the terrain better.

Overall it was a great night. Jon kicked some Golem butt, some Aspect butt, and Abyssal Maw butt.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to rip a Silver Dragon apart and take a good shot at Jon's War band. I really believe I had him if only we had more time.

Jon and I went to Rising Phoenix and played a Huge Battle. I had no idea how to play so ran a Formorian and T-Rex. My opponent had a Huge Red Dragon and a bunch of other stuff. I ended up winning because Jon's opponent had the same band as mine, but was a few figures short. My opponent had counted wrong and thus beat me with an illegal 510 pt band. 10pts over is not allowed, it was really only one figure, but heck rules are rules.

Matt, Gamble, Lance and I played. I had to play Lance first then Gamble to win. Gamble came in 2nd because he beat Matt.

So, the standings are:
1) Manny with 2 wins
2) Gamble with 1 win and 1 loss
3) Matt with 1 win, and 1 loss
4) Lance with 2 losses

Matt was declared victorious since he was the only player after 2 rounds to have no loss, he walked away with a nice metal miniatures case.

So, the standings are:
1) Matt with 2 wins and no losses
2) Manny with 2 wins and 1 loss
3) Marshal with 2 wins and 2 losses
4) Lance with 1 win and 2 losses
5) Gamble with 1 win and 2 losses

We played a 500pt four-way battle with some warbands I made. I had 5 bulette, 1 fiendish t-rex, and a Behir (Wild Wild Wild Why Bother), Matt played his beat down twin Formorians and a slew of Orcs, Phu played the Gold Dragon and Silver Dragon combination, and another guy played the Nightwalker with the Lich. Matt won after beating through most of the opponents.

I played a 100 pt game against Matt's Trifecta Attack group Ogre Ravager, Red Samurai, and Tiefling Captain. I had 2 Orc Champs and an Cleric of Gruumsh but I lost quickly.

I played the 2 Orcs, Marshal played with some Lawful Evil band, Curtis played with the Drow force, and Matt used his 3 man attack force. Matt lost first, followed by Marshal, but we left Curtis alone too long and he cleaned my Orcs up.

I played my Elf Pudding Warband with the HEBI and many Elf fodder types, Elf Warriors and Elf Spear guards. My first battle was against Gamble and I barely beat back a hoard of orcs. Luckily I got the bye. My 2nd game, the 3rd in the series I had to play Lance's Drow with the Champion of Eliastrae and they won because of the assault rules. My 3rd game I played Matt's PDK and Gold Champion and was overwhelmed but pulled the battle off due to routing his PDK. My 4th game I had to deal with Lance's Drow again and barely won because of time. According to the double elimination tournament tree I was victorious. Unfair I'm sure cause it really meant that Lance and I were tied with one loss a piece. Anyway, all of the warbands were excellent.

So, the standings are:
1) Manny with 4 wins and 1 loss
2) Lance with 4 wins and 1 loss
3) Matt with 2 wins and 2 losses
4) Marshal with 2 wins and 2 losses
5) Gamble with 2 losses

After the tournament, Gamble wanted to play again so I played him with a crazy St. Cuthbert warband and again I only won due to a scoring technicality.

Gamble's warband was Orcs again... Surprise! Surprise! Matt went with a HEBI and some helper wizards. Marshal choose to put all his eggs in one basket with the Stone Golem. So, I decided to go with my Lawful/Chaotic Evil, Unholy Door band that could cast spells. Gamble finally proved that brute force rules D&D minis. He basically faced off against ranged attacks, spells, and even strong armor to destroy the rest of the armies. Matt came the closest to winning when he tossed a fire ball in round 1 and later cleaned up with the HEBI after most of Gamble's warband fled or died.

I was wiped out by Gamble with multiple bases in the second round.... Orc Champs and some Orcs are fast and they can take running up to people and standing around waiting to attack.

Marshal was defeated easily because he only had points in one figure that became immobile when his commander died. So, Matt and I used the same tactics... attack everyone else.

Anyway, Matt barely lost to my group as I strategically stayed away from his HEBI and he got based by the dimension doors. The red wizard stinks cause he usually routes after a hit or two. He needs plenty of minions to help him live longer.

Gamble's second attempt at Matt and myself allowed him to quickly defeat both of us. We should have forced him to play a three way match.

Anyway Gamble owned the day with only losing to Matt's tricky first shot fireball.

I learned, you don't get a lot of spells cast against a band of fast orcs and it is hard to cast spells at archers without getting shot back at.

So, the standings are:
1) Gamble with 4 wins
2) Manny with 2 wins and 2 losses
3) Matt with 2 wins, and 2 losses
4) Marshal with 2 losses

5 way skirmish 100pt with Chris, Matt, Gamble, Curtis, and Manny. I had an elf band with HEBI, Curtis' Elves had 2 Graycloak Rangers and a Copper Samurai. Matt had multiple Warforged Fighters, Gamble had some pathetic elf warriors with the Githyanki Renegade, and Chris had the Frenzied Beserker. I immediately attack the Frenzied Beserker, Curtis attacked the Warforged Fighters but Admantine Lace protected them from Curtis' arrows. Gamble attacked Matt's band as well with little effect. Matt had to leave early so his figures just became uncontrolled targets and free points. I dealt with the Frenzied Beserker and sent wolves after her. I realized later I was missing a Graycloak. After the Frenzied Beserker went down, Gamble and Curtis fought but Gamble saw it was futile and left after. Curtis and I danced around the free Githyanki kill, which I stole from him, but he eventually wore down the HEBI and won.

Gamble had his Orcs, and I had a bunch of Dwarves. Gamble ruined the Dwarven line of defense by hitting them from two fronts. I did realize that the Dwarves have a serious advantage if they play in a NO-RARE skirmish.

Gamble and I tested another two bands, he had Lolth and some minions while I had 2 Devils the Bone Devil and Erinyes. I barely defeated his army with Lolth and multiple Drow as we went to last man standing and I had the Human Blackguard remaining.

Gamble and I tested again, I had a weird Drizzt total unique army against his Evil Casters. He made a crucial mistake and I based his Red Wizard with my Dark Moon Monk. She tore right through the wizard. The drider fell to Drizzt. All the buffs from Eberk, Nebin, and others overpowered his army and it became clear it was a losing battle for the remaining Rakaska, Githyanki Fighter, and Cleric of Nerull.

Gamble and I tested our 500 point Dragon warbands. His consisted of the Gold Dragon and two Gold Champions with a few support troops to buff their AC. He used Cleric of Mordin, Eberk and Nebin. The Gold Guys were blurred. I took my Red Red Red Fire and modified it. I had the Huge Red Dragon, two Large Red Dragons, 1 Drider, 2 Orc Druids, and a Drow Wizard. I too blurred my Dragons and gave the Large ones Magic Weapons, but I have yet to benefit from Conceal 6. My dragons swooped in, one based his Gold while sitting on the magic circle. My Huge Red Dragon killed one Gold Champion with one bite. His other Gold Champion routed shortly after I killed his commander, flying guys can get to commanders easily, it helped that his commander messed up and ran up front. After many misses while attacking the Gold Dragon, my guys burned his minions away. The fire breaths were useless against each other and after my Huge was injured I used the Drider to swap him out with one of the healthy Large. The Large Red's could barely hit the Gold Dragon, but the +2 Magic Circle helped often. Finally after a while, his Gold Dragon routed after being in my Huge Dragon's fear aura, with no commander to bring him back victory was mine. I had 3 Red Dragons remaining and all support troops but a stupid Orc Spearfighter.

Gamble, Curtis and I wanted to play something different so we constructed a huge Orc band of 18 figures. Gamble had every Orc and Half-orc figure even the Rare. While Curtis and I split control of every Dwarf and Elf figure without Rares. We ended up with about 22 figures he had 18. Curtis summoned in 2 Earth elementals and the Graycloak brought in a wolf. We could barely pick at the Orcs as we saw them advancing. We created a wall of Dwarves and Elementals, but the Orcs kept coming. Thankfully, Devis' countersong kept the Eye of Gruumsh affect away. After the Half-Elf Hexblade cursed his Orc Champion, he routed. Many Orcs died while we lost few Dwarves and fewer elves. We tossed Mialee to the Orcs to delay them after she cast her last spell. The Gold Champion routed, but using the Evermeet Wizards transposition, we could keep him on the field to hopefully rally. After a few turns he was back in the fray. We teased Grummsh and he bit on a decoy while we plucked him full of arrows, acid arrows, and magic missles. The Orcs were defeated. Both armies were over 300 points. The Orcs were at 325 and the Elf/Dwarf warband was at 350. The Orcs did have 4 Rares in the Orc Champion, Eye of Gruumsh, Orc Druid, and Cleric of Gruumsh. The dwarves had no Rares in play.

Curtis had Darth Vader and Mara, Gamble had Obi, Luke and Han, I had Boba-Fett and 3 Bounty hunters. 50 points were immediately dead as I got squashed between lightsabers. Boba Fett fled to shoot from a distance. Darth cut through the other Jedi and won when Obi Wan fell. Star Wars minis were quite similar to D&D, but I don't expect to see the tournaments popping up everywhere.

Curtis, Gamble, Brian and I tested some 500 point warbands in a 2 vs. 2 scenario. Gamble had my Red Dragons and Curtis had the Cloud Giant with a mostly fearless crew. Brian was new so had the King Snurre, Fire Giant and Bone Devil group with a Fomorian. I had the Aspect group with Lolth, Demogorgon, and Orcus with a Fomorian lead by a Tiefling Captain. It looked like the Dragons and Cloud Giant had everything under control, but gradually the Fire Giants picked away at the Huge Red Dragon and he fled right off the map. I was damaged immensely by the Cloud Giant and then Orcus peformed his Death Attack. All the Cloud Giant needed was a 7 or higher... I called out 4 and Curtis rolled WAM a 4, the Cloud Giant went down dead as a doornail. The Aspects mopped up as did King Snurre as he alone faced the Drider Sorcerer, Drow Wizard, and 2 Orc Druids. It just goes to show that your warband doesn't have to be full of the best huges to clean up.

Ryan and I played out a 500 point skirmish with Ryan having a warband with Fire Giants and I had Buffed Storm.

I had a Storm Giant warband called Buffed Storm. My warband was basically about buffing the Storm Giant to be a mess.

Gamble and I took on Ryan and Curtis for a 200 point 2 vs. 2 match. Curtis and I had some Orc bands, and Gamble had the Frenzied Beserker, she was dead in 4 rounds. Ryan had an archer squad that just picked me and Curtis to bits.

Gamble and I tested Matt's warband, he ran Matt's Night Squad and I ran the Formorian Threat, 4 Formorians and a Tiefling Captain. The 4 Formorians ripped the Nightwalker apart.

Gamble's Gold defeated the Buffed Storm by wiping out my minions. Of course this is what happened in every game.

So, the standings are:
1) Gamble with 4 wins and 1 loss
2) Manny with 4 wins and 1 loss
3) Becca with 2 wins and 2 losses
4) Phu with 1 win and 2 losses
5) DJ with 2 losses

Gamble and I replayed a match with the Buffed Storm and Gamble's Gold Dragon. This time I won by totally kicking the Gold Dragon's butt before she burned all my support team, then I cleaned up on the PDK and Gold Champion.

A new guy Matt and Eric played Fire Giants vs the Swift Red Dragons and the Red Dragons barely won.

Gamble and I then proceeded to test out our NO-Rare 200 point warbands. I barely beat him. I had almost exclusive Dwarf army and he had multiple Dread Guards and Goblinoids. I barely won because Gamble gave up near the end.

Eric and Matt ran through a Tiefling and Orc mix against a Silver Dragon army. The Orcs barely beat out the PDK, but they did.

Gamble ran his Dread guard attack force and I ran my dwarves. The dwarves were defeated.

Gamble ran his modified LE warband with Bugbear Footpads and Hobgoblin leaders and I ran a bunch of Red Samurai against him with some Lemure and Dragon Cultists as support. Gamble's band is really effective.

He tested out a slew of Greycloaks against my Githyanki band. The Githyanki tore into his band barely loosing just some orc fodder.

Next we tested the Githyanki vs his Bugbear-Hobgoblin warband and the Bugbear owned the Githyanki.

Lastly I tested what I believed to be a good high AC dwarves band. They were obliterated by the Bugbears and Gamble even failed to use his sneak attack abilities, so it would have probably ended even sooner. I don't think the dwarves have a shot.

Surprisingly, only 4 people showed for the tournament, Matt, Gamble, Lance and I (Manny).

Gamble ran a bunch of bugbear footpads, and 2 destrachan commanded by Urthok. Quite a mean band and ultimately the winner.

Matt ran a bunch of graycloak rangers and axes sisters... he came closest to beating gamble, but ultimately lost. Matt's band did defeat Lances.

Lance ran 2 Red Samurai, 2 Tiefling captains, 2 Orc Champions, and 4 Drow Fighters. It sounds good, but the band lost 3 times.

I ran a bunch of Warforged Fighters with a few support figures, Aramil, Assimar, St. Cuthbert, Standard bearer, and a Barbarian Merc.

Gamble's band is seriously destructive and can get through most defenses quite quickly. The only thing that has come close to defeating some incarnation of Urthok, Destrachan, and the BBFPs has been a Githyanki band I put together for testing.

So, the standings are:
1) Gamble with 3 wins
2) Manny with 2 wins and 1 loss
3) Matt with 1 win and 2 losses
4) Lance with 3 losses

Gamble and I played about 7 games with various squads of ~100 point warbands built from pieces from Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil bad boys.

I played a warband with a Gauth, Destrachan and 6 bugbear footpads lead by Urthok. Lance played his Drow champion and a bunch of drow minions with an deep wood shadow elf and some elf leader. I lost one bbfp and completely eliminated all of his drow and elves.

Our next battle was a bit different. Lance had the LRD, 2 red samurai, drow sergeant, and 5 orc warriors. I had a hodge podge of 2 orc champs, 2 orc druids, 2 bugbear footpads, 2 orc warriors and a drider sorcerer. At first the battle was going Lance's way after he breathed 3 breath weapons in succession. My druid ran away. My drider kept lightning bolting the samurai, but they kept saving. I finally tossed a bolt at his leader and she perished. This gave me little advantage, since one orc champ was fighting 2 red sams and one was fighting the red dragon. Eventually, the dice turned against Lance and I eliminated his Red Dragon, essentially giving me the game. My orc champ was taken down by the Samurai, but my BBFP held there own and with some interesting flanking maneuvers I killed them both.

The pre-releease deathknell tournament will be march 19 starting at 1pm, entry maybe same as last time-$20. Check more info on Wizards Site. It will be 200pts, you get 1 starter box of Aberration and 1 booster box of Deathknell. Then you make a 200pts army-mixture of good and evil.

D&D Miniatures Deathknell Pre-Release tournament Recap from my perspective.

Well, Gamble and I ventured to Rising Phoenix Games Saturday March 19th.

We each had to purchase a starter box of Aberrations and a booster box of Deathknell Miniatures.

I pulled a box with the Thaskor and Renegade Warlock, and Gamble pulled the Valourous Prince, Mind Flayer Telepath and a Ninja.

My warband had the Thaskor, Renegade Warlock, Timber wolf, Gnoll, mongrel folk, formian warrior, dekanter goblin, carrion tribe barbarian, gnoll skeleton, emerald claw soldier and commanded by a Cleric of Cuthbert (go figure).

Gamble had was lead by the Valorous prince with a mind flayer telepath, Dragon Ninja, Burning Skeleton, Gnoll, Gnoll Skeleton, Longtooth barbarian, Carrion Tribe Barbarian, and a mountain orc.

Phu had the Destrachan, Ambush Drake, Bloodhulk fighter, Burning Skeleton, Elf Warrior, Whirling Steel Monk, Kobold Champ and lead by the Cleric of Carl Glitteral.

Sherry who I played in the 2nd round, had the Grimm necromancer leading the mummy lord, spellstitched hobgoblin, sahaugin ranger, burning skeleton, gnoll skeleton, grell, celestial black bear, and a celestial dire badger. This warband actually had the undead theme going for it and I didn't turn one thing.

I was paired up with Phu, and Gamble was paired up with Dudley. I beat Phu who had a Ambush Drake and a Bloodhulk and a Steel Monk. My battle with Phu only lasted 3 rounds, just long enough for me to get a few Assault points and kill a few of his smaller pieces.

Gamble won his game as well by stunning his opponents figs repeatedly.

Luckily for Gamble and I, the 2nd round found us pitted against two people who really only entered the tournament to get the cool new Deathknell figs, so neither had much experience with D&D Miniatures Skirmish. Needless to say, I played a lady who had the Mummy Lord, Grimm Necro, Spellstitched Hobgoblin, Grell, Burning Skeleton, and a Celestial Dire Badger. My game lasted 5 rounds, but we never finished the 5th as I left her with only the Mummy Lord. Gamble played a guy who had the Centaur Champion. Both Gamble and I defeated our opponents and thus had to fight each other in round 3.

My warband centered around the Thaskor and a bunch of activations. Gamble's warband centered around the Mind Flayer stunning people and his minions mopping up the stunned, lucky for me, my Thaskor was guarding my stunned minions and the Thaskor made the save.

Our game lasted 58 minutes and into 6 rounds, we both got full Assault points for 5 rounds. Gamble attacked my Thaskor relentlessly, but it remained. My warband methodically picked his minions apart. I had to totally eliminate every one of his figures to win the game.

Needless to say, everyone claimed that my pull was broke because I had the Thaskor and the Renegade Warlock. I just don't know how the Renegade Warlock could be broke, cause he only did 10 points of damage each round of play. He even failed miserably against spell resistance of the Celestial Dire Badger in round 2.

I believe my warband was nicely constructed and I was thankful the Thaskor wasn't Wild or something like that.

Well I called and was disappointed to find that it didn't sound like anyone was showing for the 300 point tournament. Then at 6:45 I got a call from Jacque that people had showed. I rushed over there excited to be able to play. My Beholder band was waiting to fight.

My warband consisted of the Beholder, Gauth, Destrachan, and Urthok leading 7 Bugbear Footpads, and 1 bugbear.

The 1st round started weird as Shane played Jaye. Jeff, his sister, and I got byes? Go figure, 3 people with byes.

Shane had a pretty good ranged warband with the Centaur Hero, Half-Elf Bow Initiate, and the Githyanki Renegade. Jaye had a tossed together band of Demogorgon, Ice Troll, Yuan-Ti Abomination, Yuan-Ti Half-blood, multiple Taer, White Dragon Zombie, and a Forest Troll. The fight looked good for Shane at first it looked like the Centaur Hero could take the Demogorgon, but soon things went bad, after a few consistent bad rolls, the Centaur Hero was in bad shape. The HEBI and Githyanki just couldn't wound the Demogorgon enough.

So, after Jaye defeated Shane, I was paired to play Jaye. Jeff got to play his sister. I didn't get to watch that match, but I'll tell you about mine. Jayes' strategy was to run the Demogorgon straight at a patch of my Bugbear footpads who were protecting a statue inside of a magic circle. My beholder fired his Slow beam at the Demogorgon and it failed, he lost mobility and attack and he lost the ability to strike twice in a round. He was still able to dual activate though. My BBFP swarmed the Demogorgon. Even the simple Bugbear got in on the action and setup multiple flanking positions. My BBFP had an incredible to hit as they charged Demogorgon. By the end of the 2nd round, Demogorgon had 60 hitpoints. The Destrachan ran screen to blast some Taer and the White Dragon Zombie as the BBFPs did their work. The Gauth strategically picked off Taer and other minions. The BBFP finally defeated the Demogorgon just before the Beholder disintegrated the Yuan-Ti Abomination. The Ice Troll never even got into combat range.

So, I had to play Jeff's sister and Shane's wife in the final round. Her warband was a little better designed, but still lacked a cohesive drive. She had the Lich Necromancer, Drider Sorcerer, BBFP, 3 Yuan-Ti Half-bloods, a Dolgrim or something, a vampire spawn and two burning skeletons. I started off firing into the nearest guy and paralyzed a Yuan-ti archer early on. The beholder then blasted the Drider. My BBFP moved into position on a magic circle tile and waited. Her archers fired cover while her minions closed. At first I was unsure if I should leave the protective circle, but after a few charges, I dropped her skeletons and vampire spawn. Next fell her Troll and BBFP. Lastly I killed the Dolgrim, and a Yuan-Ti. The Beholders inflict wounds for 20 damage puts quite a hurt on enemies followed by the Gauth's 15 fire damage. 3 of my BBFP failed morale as they took empowered magic missles and lightning bolts, but they soon rallied. Time soon ran out with her Drider and Lich looking around for the remaining 2 Yuan-Ti archers.

So, the standings are:
1) Manny with 3 wins and no loss
2) Shane's wife with 2 wins and 1 loss
3) Jaye with 1 wins and 1 loss
4) Jeff with 1 win and 1 loss
5) Shane with 1 loss

Well we had a good turn out. Unfortunately for my debut of my Beholder band, Gamble and Lance both ran the Huge Red Dragons. The Beholder is quite a figure, but against the dragons, huge or large, he just doesn't stand a chance. My support figures would have lasted longer. The only failed save was for a slide, most of the time I rolled pathetically. Dual activations are nice, but the save=10 and save=13 (large red dragon) just don't work well.

Gambles Huge Red Dragon with Formorian friend just wasted my warband and Lance's warband. I did manage to defeat the Huge Red, but my forces were split between the Fomorian and the Huge Red Dragon. I routed Lance's Huge at the buzzer but it was too late for victory since he landed just shy of the exit.

Jessica and Garrett played, Jessica had the Fomorian threat and Garrett had the Nightwalker. The Fomorians managed to wipe out all of the Nightwalkers support and then eliminate the Nightwalker himself. She had 3 Fomorians left by the end.

Lance defeated Jessica with his Huge Red, but of course he used tactics to his advantage. Jessica did manage to kill the Huge Red, but it was a bit too late after he killed 2 Fomorians.

Gamble and Lance battled it out and Gamble was victorious in defeating all of Lance's support and his 2 large red dragons. I like the Swift Red Dragon concept and Gamble proved it to be an effective warband.

So, the standings are:
1) Gamble with 4 wins and no loss
2) Lance with 3 wins and 2 losses
3) Manny with 2 wins and 2 losses
4) Jessica with 1 win and 2 losses
5) Garrett with 2 losses

Gamble and I went and only a young guy named Riker showed, but his grandfather Martin decided to play so we would have a tournament. Gamble played with his winning Huge Red Dragon, Formorian, 2 Orc Druids, 2 Orc Champions, Mountain Orc and Tiefling captain. I played with a weird commander band that had Drizzt, Mordenkainen, Greenfang Druid, 3 Dire Bears, and 2 Centaur Heroes. Riker and Martin had some thrown together Chaotic Evil bands. Riker had Glabrezu, Large Red Dragon, Aspect of Orcus, Orc Warrior, led by Larenth the Beautiful. We allowed Martin to run some difficult figures as under control because they didn't have a high enough commander. Martin's band included the Fomorian, 2 Black Dragons, T-Rex, Ogre Zombie, Githyanki fighter, Glibbering Mouther, led by a Mordenkainen as well.

Riker played Gamble and in round 2 Gamble's Huge Red breathed fire to bring Larenth down to 5 hp. The orc champs soon took out the Glabrezu and the Huge Red killed the rest. Gamble left Larenth alone with 5 hp by the end of round 3.

I played Martin and it took a little while to get some rules down, but he soon figured things out and sent 2 acidic lines of death at my Greenfang, Bear, and 2 Centaur Heroes. I took one Bear out quickly after that with the Centaur archers. I soon began an assault on his Black dragons and Githyanki fighter and he snuck Mordenkainen up real close. I kept assaulting his Formorian as the T-Rex crept up from another path. The Fomorian routed so my next act was to destroy his commander before he could rally the Fomorian. I succeeded in blasting and beating Mordy to death. Hit T-Rex finally based my Centaur Hero but it was a little too late. My Centaur Hero fought hard as he was left with only the T-Rex and Gibbering Mouther. Riker took over as Martin conceded thinking that the T-Rex could continue the fight. Two bears based the T-Rex, My 2nd centaur fired the arrows that made the T-Rex route. Each bear and the based Centaur got their attacks of opportunity in and the T-Rex was dying but fleeing. 3 figs did 50 pts of damage in 1 AO. My formally based Centaur then took his shots as the T-Rex ran by an opening and waited. The T-Rex didn't make it to the exit, as the Greenfang druid just ran up and sliced him dead. I couldn't believe it, the Greenfang druid got the deathknell on the T-Rex.

Gamble and I faced off after that, after the almost 2 hours of teaching D&D miniatures while playing a tournament, I had to take a long break. Gamble gave me 15 minutes. We started out good, he kept winning initiative and his Fomorian and Huge Red Dragon were closing fast. I ran my band in a loose line to avoid a massive breath weapon attack, but to destroy the 2 Orc Champs sitting on a magic I ended up bunching my figs together. One lucky crit with an arrow took out an Orc Champ ahead of schedule. One based bear completely lucked out as the Huge Red wiffed as I took the AO to get to the Orc Druids. I had based the Orc Druids and hurt one pretty bad in two rounds. The next round the Orc Druid died and one tried to escape the claws of the bear and took an AO to cast snakes swiftness on the Huge Red Dragon. This set the Huge Red up to breath fire and kill Mordenkainen (who I forgot had some resistance to fire, hell he would have routed anyway, but he might have rallied). He did take down one of my Centaurs, and luckily one saved the moral as the other ran off the field. The Greenfang took the damage but made the moral save. Note to self: Run the Centaurs in on the first round so they won't make it out the 2nd round. My centaurs and mages had taken post shots at the Fomorian and luckily for me, Gamble had moved him a little closer than he probably wanted to my Centaur Hero. The Hero was able to target the Fomorian just after my Bear killed his Tiefling captain. The Centaur Hero made the Fomorian route so my remaining Bear headed towards him to base him for his next step out the door. The dragon had based the Greenfang and a Bear was 2 away so he swung at Drizzt, kiled the Greenfang and killed my Bear who had just returned from rallying but only had 5 hp anyway. My last Centaur hero shot the Fomorian in the back and as he stepped away to run for the exit, my bear took him down. Otherwise I don't know if he would have made it out and time was running short. I regret the following... I put my figs to close together again and lost 2 while one living one got based. I regret that Drizzt never got his 3 attacks in but once on the Formorian. I regret that Mordenkained didn't get his empowered Cone of Cold, however he did get an empowered lightning bolt that hit a Orc Druid for 30, but it made its moral save.

I barely won the tournament while leaving the Huge Red Dragon untouched. I managed to bring the fierce warband down to 1 figure. I'm quite sure the Huge Red Dragon could have feasted on Drizzt, the Centaur Hero, and the remaining Dire Bear.

Phu decided to try his luck against my Dual Beholder 300 pt band. My band was pretty straight forward, 2 Beholders, Gauth, Snig, Skullsplitter, Skullcrusher Ogre, 2 Blue, 3 goblin skirmishers. Phu ran his own Bear army with 3 Dire Bears, Greenfang druid, 2 Renegade warlocks and the Half-Elf Bow Initiate. I don't even think the HEBI fired but once to kill a goblin skirmisher. Both Renegade warlocks fired Eldritch spears at the Beholder and both failed the anti-magic eye. One bear saved vs. Disintegration, but one failed against the Fear ray and ran to within 2 spaces of the exit. He slowly approached and took out another skirmisher with a Dire Bear and I then shot another Bear with flesh to stone. He failed the save and Phu conceded... he had all his faith in the Dire Bears, and after failing 2 tosses of the Eldritch spear he figured the Warlocks were useless against the beholders. One thing I'll have to check is if 2 beholders are in view of your spell caster does he have to make 2 spell failure rolls? No, one save is all they need to make.

1) Manny with 2 wins
2) Gamble with 1 win and 1 loss
3) Martin with 1 loss
4) Riker with 1 loss

Mandy had the PDK and Gold Champion
David had Alusair and 6 Barbarians
Mark had the Cleric of St. Cuthbert, many Man at Arms, the Sword of Glory and a Anvil of Thunder

Ryan had the HEBI and a bunch of wimpy elves
Manny had two Graycloaks and more wimpy archers ( I forgot my wolves again)

Ian had Gruumsh and a bunch of Orcs
Gamble had an Orc Champion with the Drow Sergeant and Orc Sergeant and some Orcs

The Orcs smashed Ryan's elves while I was charged by David's Barbarians.

Mandy's 3 guys tried their best to get to the Orcs but just couldn't move fast enough

Mark barely moved towards the combat, he just slowly moved towards the center of the board.

After a long battle that CG kept fighting the Orcs, both CG factions were eliminated

In the end, Gamble had just over 90 points and Mark barely eked out a win after killing Gruumsh and the HEBI and a few small pieces like my catfolk.

His orcs had the Eye of Gruumsh, an Orc Druid, 2 Orc Champions, Orc Sergeant, Mountain Orc, and five Orc Warriors. My Wall of Armor had 2 Dwarf Phalanx Fighters, Aasimar, Eberk, Dwarf Artificer, Sword of Heironious, Cleric of St. Cuthbert, 2 Man-at-Arms, and a Couatl. My tactic was to stand fast and bombard the advancing orcs. My first sound burst stunned both Orc Champs while Eberk and the Artificer took out the Mountain Orc coming around from behind the wall. The Coautl did well to sonic orb most attackers. The whole point of the Wall of Armor was to get the 2 Phalanx fighters AC up ... starting at 23 they stood together for 25, then Eberk's divine spell for 26 and the Aasimar's protection gave them 27. The Artificer gave everyone a legions AC boost for +2 more for 29, while the SoH's Commander Effect boosted their AC even more to 30. Even the Orc Champs had a tough time swinging at a 30 AC. My dwarves and MaA had little trouble beating them back with the Orc's low AC. After I dropped a few Orc Warriors with sonic orbs, one Orc Champ routed while the other remained their stunned at the onslaught of the Sonic attacks and swords surrounding him.

Gamble had to leave but the match was just about done. Gruumsh couldn't even get a good hit on the Phalanx. One round more and Gamble would have lost his two Orc Champs, a Mountain Orc and 2 Orc Warriors. His 3 Commanders would have been left with little else to fight with.

Gamble modified his band but kept with the Orc theme. He used the Orc Sergeant to bring in Rask, Orc Champion, Orc Druid, Mountain Orc, Orc Bezerker, Orc Warrior, and 5 Orc Ravagers.

My band was built on activations and used to keep the Beholder healthy. I had the Beholder, Urthok, Snig, Mind Flayer Telepath, two Mongrel folk, and 4 goblin skirmishers and 5 goblin warriors. I put a Mongrel folk on each terrain tile to ensure some Assault points in the 1st round. He based one with an Orc Warrior, but suprisingly the Mongelfolk lived through 2 rounds to kill the Orc Warrior.

His army swept around quickly and my beholder could only barely see his Orc Sergeant.... fear ray and he routed... mere inches from the exit. He would later come back. My goblins got into a peculiar formation since I didn't know which way the Orcs would advance. My tile placement was pretty lousy, but Gamble actually left me with some good lanes. I managed to pick off an Orc Ravager early and a the Beserker Orc and Mountain Orc visited me quite quickly. My goblins jumped on them and they were dead quite soon. Urthok's bonus for goblins and flanking and charging actually make for a good bonus for goblins. Snig's effect helped them take down two fairly hefty orcs quickly. His Orc Ravagers were setup to charge and his Orc Champ and Rask came into range to absorb any of my charges. I took a chance and my Mind Flayer stunned both Rask and the Orc Champ. I couldn't roll well with the Beholder rays so I ended up simply inflicting a little pain to Rask. Urthok and Snig stepped up to beat on Rask with some flanking help from goofy goblins. The next round found me stunning Rask and a Orc Ravager again. The Orc Champ slipped by some goblin skirmishers to base my Beholder. Rask would have routed but I stunned the sucker. I had to spend the next rounds slapping back at the Orc Champ with Urthok, the Beholder and Snig as well as some Goblins. He got the Druid close enough to cast snakes swiftness on the Orc Champ but he missed Urthok. Rask fell next, but three of his Orc Ravagers just boosted to 25 hp each. The Beholder was lucky enough to kill the champ next with the assistance of Urthok and Snig.

Time was about up and after 5 rounds I had 50 points and Gamble had 20 from Assault. I had killed Rask and an Orc Champ and a few fodder pieces. Gamble had managed to kill most of my goblins and the MFT but even his total fell shy of 100pts.

Amazingly the Beholder and Goblins triumphed over the fast moving heavy hitting Orcs. I must say the Stun gave me 2 rounds that I didn't have to worry about Rask and 1 round to not worry about the Orc Champ. His Sergeant didn't play a big role since he was traversing the board most of the time. I just really need to find a paralysis weapon instead of a mere stun. Next time I may field a bunch of Grell.

Well Jeremy joined me at Rising Phoenix and Phu had signed up. We got Chris to join in the fun. Chris fielded a Drizzt warband with the Goliath Barbarian, 2 Healers, 2 Elf Rangers, Mialee and Regdar. Jeremy had a contrived Ravenous Vampire warband that counted on DR with 4 were-wolves, 2 were-bears, 2 barbarian mercenary, 3 carrion barbarians, and of course 2 minion Timber wolves. Phu ran his new Greenfang Druid band with 2 Dire-bears, HEBI, and the Warlock. I stupidly ran the Inspired Centaur band with the Inspiring Marshal, Centaur Hero, HEBI, Crow Shaman, 2 Elf Warriors, 1 Graycloak ranger, and wolf minion.

The first pair up was Phu vs Jeremy and Manny vs Chris. Chris' warband wiped me out... his scouts fired and I couldn't hit them for anything. This gave Drizzt and the Goliath time to get in my face and wipe me out. The centaur routed right off the board and I know I should always move him more than 20 away from the exit first thing. It didn't take long after that to eliminate the rest of my figs. I might have wounded a Elf Ranger. The marshal ran away and the HEBI was killed by an AoO.

Jeremy had no luck against the 2 Bears. He managed to base the HEBI and kill him, but the Bears were too much. He swarmed one bear and it routed just shy of the exit. The Druid called him back the next round. His domination failed numerous times and he couldn't dominate bears. Phu did forget to mention to Jeremy about flanking, but who knows if that would have mattered.

Phu managed to beat Chris in the next round, I didn't get to watch much. Chris did put Drizzt right next to the HEBI on a starting tile. After that everything was out of command with no chance of saving. The bears ate Drizzt then feasted on the rest.

My warband cleaned up on Jeremy's but I have to give Jeremy credit, he did a fine job wasting my warband. The Centaur made a heroic move towards the vampire and hit, but I forgot to use Snakes Swiftness to hit her again, instead I stupidly tried to save my commander from a swarm. So, my Inspired marshal commander dropped and then my stupid Centaur failed a moral save so he ran away demonstrating that I was only 17 squares from the Exit. I could have cried. It was over after I took pot shots at a hiding Dire-Boar with the HEBI to leave Jeremy with just the Ravenous Vampire. I only won by the skin of my teeth leaving him with one figure while I had the HEBI, Crow Shaman, and Graycloak remaining. Jeremy could have made one move differently and I think he would have won the match.

Well I had to play Chris again, and I feared that. I really wanted to play Phu. Anyway, in a nutshell I did 80 pts of damage to Drizzt and 60 pts of damage to the Goliath and he healed them back up ... and killed just about everything of mine. Both of his figs made moral or routing saves. The centaur actually died this time. The HEBI just couldn't get the job done. My stupid Centaur missed Drizzt twice before he died. I never won an Initiative... not even close. This was a frustrating game. This is what I get for running an untested warband in a tournament.

So, the standings are:
1) Phu with 4 wins
2) Chris with 2 wins and 2 losses
3) Manny with 1 win, and 2 losses
4) Jeremy with 2 losses

We had a good turnout this Saturday, we got Gamertopia to put up two Deathknell boosters as a prize too.

Gamble entered his dual Gold Champions with a PDK band who buffed the Champs. Matt ran his Trifecta with a Large Red Dragon, Ogre Ravager, Minotaur, Red Samurai, and Tiefling Captain. Phu showed to run his Dual Dire Bears with HEBI, Greenfang Druid, and Warlock. Anthony borrowed my Greenfang band with 3 Dire Bears, and 2 Celestial Dire Badgers. Ryan borrowed a build of Orcs which included the Eye of Gruumsh, Orc Druid, Orc Sergeant, Orc Champion, Rask, Orc Brute, and 2 Orc Wariors. I ran my Beholder band with Urthok, Mindflayer Telepath, Snig with 3 goblins, 2 mongrelfolk and 6 other goblins.

Round 1	Winner Round 2	Winner Round 3	Winner Round 4	Winner Round 5	Final Round	Tournament Winner
Manny vs. Ryan	Manny vs. Bye	Manny	Manny	Manny vs. Bye	Manny	Manny
Gamble vs. Anthony	Gamble	Gamble
Phu vs. Matt	Phu	Gamble
	Loser Round 2	Loser Round 3	Loser Round 4	Loser Round 5	Loser
	Matt	Matt	Matt	Matt	Gamble
	Anthony	Matt
	Ryan vs. Bye	Ryan
		Phu vs. Bye	Phu
			Gamble vs. Bye	Gamble

1) Manny with 6 wins and no losses
2) Gamble with 5 wins and 2 losses
3) Matt with 3 wins and 2 losses
4) Phu with 2 wins and 2 losses
5) Ryan with 1 win and 2 losses
6) Anthony with 2 losses

I played Ryan's band and caught Ryan in a small hallway where I kept sending goblins at him. Gruumsh survived a disintegrate after failing the save, but made his moral save. I later killed him with Inflict moderate wounds. Rask snuck through my lines and killed my Mind flayer in 1 round with the aid of snake's swiftness. The other orc were taking a beating by goblins as Snig and Urthok stood just in range to give them bonuses. +4 to hit and +5 damage are quite nice for pathetic goblins. The Beholder fired multiple rays, but the most notable was the disintegrate on Gruumsh. The Orc Champ was beat down by inflict wounds eye rays and Urthok moved in for the kill.

My second game I caught the Bye, so I watched Phu vs Gamble and Matt vs Anthony. Anthony didn't have much of a chance against Matt, the Bears just couldn't deal with the Large Red Dragon. I don't know why. Gamble and Phu's game was a bit more interesting when Phu had Gamble down to just a Gold Champ. Phu still had a Regenerating Dire Bear, his Half-Elf Bow Initiate, and his Greenfang Druid commander. Unfortunately instead of backing away or attempting to get tile points, Phu continued to beat on the buffed Gold Champ who had an AC of 28. The Gold Champ routed the bear, killed the HEBI and defeated the Greenfang Druid. Phu's band was much faster so he could have double moved away while the Gold Champ walked around aimlessly.

My next match was with Gamble and I basically took out his Man-at-arms 1 by 1 with the Beholder until he was left with 2 Gold Champs and the PDK. One of his Gold Champ was slowed, but he still managed to burn a pile of goblins and my Mind Flayer. His PDK closed and I luckily disintegrated him. His 2 out of command Gold Champs tried to close on Urthok and my Beholder, but the whole time I was collecting tile points with my Mongrelfolk who had camped out on starting tiles. We reached round 11 just before the buzzer and one of his Gold Champs was inches from the Exit while the other just got to base my Beholder. My Beholder, Urthok and remaining Mongrel folk won. After all was said and done, we went through 11 rounds in 1 hour, even with my 16 activations, which resulted in about 22 eye rays from the Beholder. Gamble said I disintegrated four of his figures including his PDK.

Ryan played Matt, but I was quite busy so I didn't get to see a thing. I think Ryan did well, but Matt still ended up the winner.

Gamble had to play Matt for the winner of the loser bracket and Matt was quite disorganized. I didn't watch the match too close, but near the end Matt had only his Large Red Dragon and Red Samurai while Gamble had a Gold Champion, PDK, and a bunch of Man-at-Arms. The PDK killed the Red Samurai and the Red Dragon wasted the Man-At-Arms. The Red Dragon was out of command and wandering around when Gamble headed to start collecting tile points. Matt realized he would lose by 3 points if they both just squatted, so he took the chance to get sight on the PDK and Gold Champion so he could eventually charge them. It was over quite quickly after that since the Red Dragon could barely hit the Gold Champion with the buffed AC.

I had to play Gamble again in the Final. I took a little different approach and so did he. I just started blasting his activations until he was down to 2 Gold Champions, PDK, and Eberk and the Cleric of Moradin. I got to turn one Man-At-Arms to stone. I had goblins running everywhere and near the end I had his PDK surrounded by 8 figures including Snig and Urthok. I routed one of hit one of his hurt Gold Champions with an inflict wounds and he was dying. He died just before the PDK went down. I won after 6 rounds after collecting 60 points and all he had remaining was one Gold Champion.

I was amazed at the effectiveness of the Beholder, I know it was the luck of a dice roll, but even with all my activations, I could still get through quite a few rounds. I wonder how 2 Beholders would actually do with some commander like the Blackguard or a pile of undead minions in the way.

Ryan and Gamble went at it with Gamble's fewer but hardier Orcs. Ryan tossed together a CE warband composed of a Zombie White Dragon, Chuul, Orc Sergeant, Burning Skeleton, Deathlock, and Rask. Gamble's Hardy Orcs had 3 Orc Champs, Orc Sergeant, Rask, and 2 Orc Warriors. The battle looked pretty even and Ryan's Rask died quite quickly, but Ryan's ZWD and Chuul beat on one Orc Champ and made him route quickly. Another Orc Champ got based and paralyzed a round later. Gamble's Rask maneuvered around and also got smacked by the Chuul. Ryan's Deathlock tried to scare Gamble's Orc Sergeant, but failed. Ryan beat down the remaining Orcs and Gamble was left with just a his Orc Sergeant. Gamble had acquired tile points, but he hadn't beat the ZWD nor the Chuul. So Ryan closed and eliminated Gamble's last Orc.

I played Gamble after we ate, I ran a crazy Large Silver Dragon band with LSD and Couatl and Dwarf Artificer and 5 Man-At-Arms that was totally dependent on the LSD making its moral save and gaining tile points. Gamble ran his hardy Orcs again. The LSD and Couatl waited for the last activations and moved to a tile to get points. The next round Gamble ran up to base the Couatl with an Orc Champ. I flew the LSD across the board, landed on a tile to get points and be within breath range of his Orc Sergeant. My Couatl took the AoO and took 25 from the Orc Champ. The Couatl cast snake swiftness on my LSD and away went Gamble's commander and an Orc. It also froze and Orc Champ and Rask a bit. His Orc Champ and Rask went separate ways, but I waited to kill his last Orc Warrior. His Orc Warrior hit my LSD with a natural 20. My LSD had to waste an activation to vaporize him. The LSD then paralyzed his Orc Champ just after he had killed my Couatl and my commander. I endured a barrage of strikes with the LSD as he wiped out the remaining Man-At-Arms. My LSD then routed Rask and killed his paralyzed Orc Champion. His last two Orc Champions closed with the LSD It made its moral save and the LSD routed one of the Orc Champs cinching the game. The match lasted about seven rounds which was barely below the score needed to beat the 2 remaining Orc Champs, but one could not rally without a commander so the next round he was gone. The LSD really needs a commander.

Ryan fielded a crazy synergy band with Ryld, Flind, Orc Sergeant, Bullywug, Carrior Tribe Barbarian, and Rask. I ran my Inspired Centaur with a HEBI, Inspiring Marshal, Centaur Hero, 2 Elf Warriors, and a Graycloak and his wolf. The wolf went to get tile points. The rest of my guys found arrow slits to shoot at his advancing warband. The Bullywug dropped first. I then used GMA to get my Centaur at the middle of the board and my archers to back him up. He slipped Rask around a room and past my Elf Warrior to get to base my HEBI. He then charged my Centaur with Flind and the Orc Sergeant. Ryld double moved to base the Centaur as well. The Centaur damaged Flind but failed to connect on the second hit. My crow shaman allowed the Centaur to hit Flind again and route him towards the exit. I then took a chance and backed away from Rask with my HEBI. My HEBI then fired a good shot at Rask. The next round found my Centaur beating down on Ryld and the Orc Sergeant and my HEBI routed Rask. My Inspiring Marshal killed the Carrion Tribe Barbarian and a lowly Elf Archer sniped the remaining life from the Orc Sergeant. Ryld was alone as Flind ran off the board and Rask was out of command and couldn't see a commander to rally. The Centaur smacked Ryld down the next round. Luckily, and incredibly unlikely, I won initiative against Ryld each round after the first round. The battle lasted 4 rounds and the Centaur didn't have to make a morale check and I only lost an Elf Warrior to the Carrion Tribe Barbarian.

I played Gamble's Orcs against Phu's Greenfang Druid and twin Dire Bears. Gamble based my Warlock in the 2nd round but failed to hit him in the 3rd round with his Orc Champion. I routed his 2nd Orc Champ with one of my Dire Bears. The HEBI helped elimnate the 2nd Orc Champion and soon Rask. The game lasted about 5 rounds when Gamble was left with a rallied Orc Champion facing 2 Bears, the Warlock, HEBI, and Greenfang Druid. I let the Warlock fly in with his automatic spear damage.

Next Gamble played his Gold Champion band against a makeshift ranged band that Jeremy through together. It contained the HEBI, Ryld, Halfling Ranger, Halfling Outrider, 2 Elf Warriors and a Longtooth Barbarian. Besides Jeremy rolling six 1s, he really couldn't hit the Legions AC buffed guys especially when his guys moved and with the Dwarven Defender +4 AC bonus. The match ended after the Gold Champions had basically burned everyone on the board, Jeremy did make morale saves though.

I next tried out Gamble's 9 Orc band against his own Gold Champions. The orcs swarmed in for the kill and could have been toasted, but Gamble made a critical mistake and breathed fire into a wall. He just didn't realize the wall was there. Anyway, this demoralized Gamble and my Orcs swooped in to base the Gold Champion. Rask got to a position to attack Gamble's Dwarven Defender and the Orc Druid gave him snakes swiftness. Next round, Rask hit the Dwarven Defender, then hit him with a stunning blow, then finished him off with a Snake's swiftness to Rask and Rask hit with a critical hit. Gruumsh hit a Gold Champion with a critical hit too. One Orc Warrior ran up to a Gold Champion and hit with a critical hit for 25 damage. Rask hit the last Gold Champion and smashed him with a critical hit as well. Near the end of the 5th round, Gamble was left with 5 Man-At-Arms and I would have collected 50 tile points. Gamble's 9 Orcs are pretty formidable and their synergies worked well together. I even forgot that Rask would have benefited from Gruumsh standing nearby and he probably did more damage to the Dwarven Defender than I realized.

I let Jeremy play David, who had his first introduction to D&D miniatures today. Jeremy used his Were army commanded by the Ravenous Vampire and David ran the 9 Orc band. Jeremy started out real well by rolling four Critical hits. Unfortunately one was on a Orc Warrior, another was on the Orc Champion for 30 damage. After that he rolled another critical on another the Orc Warrior and the last one went to the Orc Champ as well but with a wolf. After that it was an Orc Champ cleaning the area around him with Cleave. Gruumsh did get into trouble and a swarm of were-folk beat him down and made him route. Luckily for Jeremy he had enough figures surrounding Gruumsh to kill him with 5 AoO. The third round saw Jeremy make a move which I advised, but it was performed too soon I guess, who knows. He moved his Ravenous Vampire in to dominate the Orc Champ who was standing next to Rask. Unfortunately for Jeremy the domination failed. Rask then moved and hit the Vampire, then the Orc Druid allowed Rask to hit the Vampire again. The Ravenous Vampire didn't have a chance. After that it was David's game. Jeremy did manage to kill the Orc Champion, but David still had a healthy Rask, Orc Sergeant, and Orc Druid as Jeremy's last Carrion Tribe Barbarian ran away.

This was an educational exercise to say the least. Even with 4 critical hits, Jeremy's army was defeated. I just think the were-army is better than it shows.

Jeremy and I played a 100pt game. I used a bunch of unique character run by Regdar the Adventurer and Jeremy had a pile of Elves, mostly archers. The game didn't last too long. Jeremy ran his archers up and it allowed me to base most of them in the 2nd round. By the 4th round he had few figures left and the game was over.

Well Gamble, David, Ryan and I showed, Phu didn't show up until almost 4. I ran my two Silver Dragons commanded by the Cleric of Order. Gamble ran two Gold Champs, Warforged Hero, Coautl, and Dwarven Defender. Ryan had another Lawful good band with Gold Dragon, Coautl, Dwarf Caver, Skullclan Hunter, Whirling Monk, Wild Bear and a diverse remainder of dwarves. David Mac ran a band commanded by Drizzt and an Arcane Archer with Rask as his heavy hitter.

Ryan was unlucky and had to play against me first. One of my two Silver Dragons just ate his Gold Dragon while the other took on Rhek, Wild Bear, Whirling Steel Monk and Skullclan. After about 5 rounds we both collected points, but Ryan had few figures remaining by the buzzer.

Gamble and David played and apparently it was close, it came down to David getting 15 points more than Gamble in Assaulting Tiles, but Gamble defeated far more points in figures.

Gamble and I faced off and my Silver Dragons wiped out all his figures except his 2 Gold Champions. I just left one around for him to kill as my other collected tile points. The Paralysis wiped him out as his commanders were both paralyzed and just waiting for 2 Cold breath weapons. I forgot about the automatic hits with double damage until we looked it up and then his Coautl was dead meat. His Dwarven Defender was also eliminated when he had a measly 5 hp left. His warforged was knocked down to 10 hp when Gamble decided to burn him with his own Gold Champion. One of his Champions routed and mysteriously rallied without commanders capable of rallying him.... they were both either paralyzed or dead. So, technically he was eliminated when I had 60 tile points and all he had was one Gold Champion, instead we continued and he used his two Gold Champions to kill one of my Silver Dragons. The Silver Dragon and Man-at-arms won two rounds later when I got 105 tile points and all he had was 102 points for his two Gold Champions. We actually decided to play further and those Gold Champions actually routed my last Large Silver Dragon when I rolled a 1 for Morale. He made his save to Rally and I charged back in to die 2 rounds later. I just realized that I rolled a 1 for a save vs. one of the Gold Champion's Breath Weapon, and for morale save against his two slicing and dicing the LSD.

Ryan had to go, so Phu finally showed up to play David with my beastly Orc band. Three Orc Champs and Three Orc Druids is nothing to take lightly.

Manny, Gamble, David, and Ryan. Phu came to late to sign up. I was a bit disappointed to miss his 4 Dire Bear army.

1) Manny with 2 wins
2) Gamble with 1 win and 1 loss
3) David with 1 loss
4) Ryan with 1 loss

Gamble and Ryan showed up today. Gamble played a Drizzt, and blurred Rask band and Ryan played a Gold Dragon band with Dwarf support. I played Gamble with Jeremy's were band and I lost. He wiped the were band out. If I hadn't missed 3 times after dominating Rask to hit Drizzt I think things would have been different. Anyway I played Ryan next with a band of Bugbear Footpads commanded by Urthok. The band had Urthok, a Gauth, a Mongrelfolk, Destrachan, and 6 Bugbear Footpads. The Gold Dragon lasted, but I still had plenty of figures left by the time the Mongrel folk would collect 70 points, so Ryan conceded at 5 rounds. Ryan then played Gamble. It was Rask and Drizzt verses the Gold Dragon. Ryan didn't have much of a chance. Drizzt moved in to base a few figures and his high melee attack just ripped through the well armored dwarves. Rask then navigated around to destroy Ryan's two commanders. Most of Ryan's rolls were below 10 unless he needed to hit conceal, then he rolled 20s. Anyway, after 4 rounds even the Gold Dragon had taken a sever beating by Rask. A blurred Rask and Drizzt are quite the team.

Jeremy ran a contrived monster band composed of a Druid of Obad-Hai, Giant Frog, Ettercap, Mad Slasher, Harpy, Worg, Timber wolf, Displacer Serpent, with a summons of a Celestial Dire Badger and Celestial Black Bear. I played a diverse orc band with almost all the common and uncommon orcs lead by the Orc Sergeant. Jeremy started the 2nd round with multiple charges towards my positions and managed to stun my Mountain Orc with his Timber Wolf. In the 3rd round he used the Harpy to stun the rest of my forces. After that he made quick meals of most of my Orcs. Those not running were severely damaged. The orcs managed to kill monsters the Frog, Ettercap, Celestial Dire Badger and Mad Slasher, then the Harpy routed. It was a bit too late though for the Orcs were torn apart and lying dead at the feat of the Worg and Displacer Serpent. The Monsters managed to beat the Orcs. This marks Jeremy's first win with D&D Miniatures and he was quite thrilled.

1st Manny with 6 wins over Phu, David, Gamble and Matt with no loss
2nd Phu with 4 wins over David, Matt, Gamble, and Jeremy with a loss to Ryan and Manny
3rd David with 3 wins over Ryan, and Jeremy with a loss to Manny and Phu
4th Matt with 2 wins over Ryan, and Anthony with a loss to Manny and Phu
5th Ryan with 1 win over Phu with a loss to David and Matt
6th Gamble with 1 win over Anthony with a loss to Manny, and Phu
7th Jeremy with a loss to David and Phu
8th Anthony with a loss to Gamble and Matt

Most of the warbands were quite complicated so I am only highlighting the main figures in each band.

Manny = Larenth, 7 Red Samurai, Large Red Dragon, Ogre Ravager, and 2 Tieflings
Phu = Beholder, King Snurre, Gauth, Frost Giant, Urthok, Grim Necromancer, and 4 Goblin Adepts
David = Drizzt, Ryld, Rask, Mordenkainen, Champion of Eliastrae, Renegade Warlock
Matt = Large Silver Dragon, Hound Archon, Dragon Samurai, Purple Dragon Knight, Dwarven Defender, Paladin of Torm
Ryan = 3 Chuul, 2 Zombie White Dragons, Yuan-Ti Abomination
Gamble = King Snurre, Fire Giant, Frost Giant, Aspect of Bane
Jeremy = 3 Eye of Gruumsh, 3 Orc Champions, 3 Orc Druids, Flind Captain, Aspect of Orcus
Anthony = Hextor, 2 Erinyes, 2 Bone Devils, 2 Blue Dragons

Ryan's Recap
"The warband worked well when it actually worked, but it was hard to make it work. You really need two rounds just to set up the chuuls to attack. If everything goes to plan in the first two rounds, you might be able to lay the smack down in the third round, but it's tough when the games only last three rounds. In my game against David, I was able to completely surround Rask with a Chuul, a Zombie White, the Boneclaw, and a wall. I beat him up pretty efficiently. Apart from that, it never really came together properly. I didn't have enough room to maneuver against Matt (Lost Temple sucks), and Phu's guys had too much AC for the Chuuls to hit with both attacks."

"The Orc Band was extremely effective and could pack a serious wallop. Against David, I simply misplayed a few initial moves and ran out of time with Drizzt left with only 15 hit points. If there would have been time for one more round, I am confident I could have won on points by taking out Drizzt. Against Phu, the Orcs were able to take out the Frost Giant with a pretty good swarm that left him running and 4 AoO’s later and he was wasted. What did me in was the Beholder taking out 2 of the Grummsh by Stoning them. Gamble had the same problem with the Beholder when he played Phu. After I lost them ... allowed Phu to take out my band pretty easily. Time ran out with the Aspect of Orcus the only figure remaining."

I wanted to test out the Orc Band that Jeremy ran against Gamble's Giants. The 3 sets of Orc Champs, Orc Druids, and Eye of Gruumsh went to work quickly. I eliminated his Mongrel folk in the 3rd round cause one of my EoG crit failed, but it didn't matter anyway since his Frost Giant was now standing on a tile. The Orcs swarmed the Aspect of Bane first and wasted him after he made his morale save. King Snurre and the Fire Giant were able to kill the Aspect of Orcus in the first 4 hits. My other Orcs got flanking positions around King Snurre and he died in the 3rd round as well. King Snurre routed an EoG and the Fire Giant killed my Orc Sergeant. The fourth round my squad routed the Fire Giant and we knew he wouldn't be returning. I then played around with the Frost Giant and even my Orc Druids went to attack him fruitlessly, while my 3rd Orc Druid sat and gathered tile points but still in range to cast Snakes Swiftness on nearby Orcs. The Frost Giant went down as I wasted time and finally killed him with the Flind Captain. The Flind Captain worked out good as a figure to hunt down the Mongrel Folk and kill them, a bit of a waste, but useful none the less. I realized later that I didn't even use the +5 damage from the EoG on my multiple Orc Champions.

Our next game Gamble wanted to test his new 200pt Drizzt and Rask band. The band has Blur support from Nebin, save support from Eberk, and Lidda and Ember round things out. I ran the 3 Dire Bear, Greenfang Druid band against him and they didn't stand a chance. Ember stunned my GFD, but luckily both remaining bears made saves on their own before ever routing. I couldn't even hit with the second swings and Rask and Drizzt tore the bears apart in 3 rounds. Even Nebin managed to color spray two of my bears and I failed to save with either of them. Well, this proves that the bears have alot of hitpoints, but even non-routing bears die quickly to figures like Rask and Drizzt.

Ryan and I played with my 100 point themed kits. He choose the uniques and I choose the undead. The uniques seemed to be at a disadvantage because they couldn't use stun at all against the Grim Necromancers undead allies. After the Grim Necromancer caught up with his undead they started pounding on the uniques. Ryan took a while to advance Regdar and by the time he got to within fighting range, most of his allies were dying.

Gamble brought two friends, Bryan and Nick. Bryan choose to run the Forest friends, GFD, 3 Dire Bears, and 2 Celestial Dire Badgers. Nick choose a Trifecta style band with Zombie White Dragon, Tiefling Captain, Ogre Ravager, Bone Claw, Red Samurai, Orc Spearfighter, and 2 Orc Ravagers. Phu brought his Green Fang Druid, 2 Dire Bears, and dual Renegade Warlock band. Gamble ran his Drizzt and Rask band with Nebin, Ember, Lidda, and Eberk. I ran my Maw Party, Red Wizard, Half-Orc Fighter, and 4 Cultists of the Dragon, of course the Cultists will summon 16 Maws in all.

Gamble played Phu while I got the bye to teach Bryan and Nick. Bryan and Nick went at it and the match was fairly close until just about the end. Nick had the ZWD and Ogre Ravager remaining and Bryan had a totally wounded Badger and a healthy GFD. Bryan also had 60 points. Bryan could have choosen to run from the combat while his Celestial Dire Badger racked up the remaining points, but he attacked the ZWD. By the end of the 8th round, the Ogre Ravager had missed for about the 8th time and the ZWD barely hurt the GFD. The GFD got the ZWD down to 10 hp and the Ogre Ravager was never hurt. The Badger brought in the remaining 10 points to put Bryan over 80 Assault points which exceeded Nick's remaining 2 figures.

Gamble and Phu were finished quite quickly, I didn't really get to watch. I did see Gamble move Drizzt to base the GFD after killing off the two Renegade Warlocks. Gamble won but he would have to tell you how it went.

The next round I found myself looking at 3 Bears against my 5 casters. I summoned a ton of Maw and began getting tile points and defending my Cultists from charges. I placed the Maws across Sacred Circles as best I could. The bears came at me but the Fireballs, Fire Orbs, and Flame Strikes just kept the bears burning. The Maws surrounded one bear and soon he was gone. The other Bear took a long approach but the Maws swamped the GFD and soon he was dead. The Bears and Badgers didn't have much of a chance after they were surrounded by Maws. His last bear routed and ran through some Maws and was killed by AoOs from 4 Maws, the last Maw critically hit the bear for 30 damage.

Gamble and I faced off and within two rounds he had eliminated my Orc Fighter and Red Wizard and was still basing all 4 of my Cultists. I got first round summons but the Maws were too far away to help my Cultists. The 3rd round my 4 cultists would die and therefore all Maws would evaporate. Gamble did an excellent job of tile placement and maneuvering to get Drizzt and Rask into threatening positions in 2 rounds. I also lost initiative on all 3 rounds but I doubt that had much to do with it. I had to face it, I was so OWNED. This taught me one important lesson. Keep my casters far away from each other when someone is hauling at double speed to base you.

Well, since we were playing double elimination, I had to play Brian again. Brian conceded.

So, it was back to the Finals with Gamble and I. I had to do something drastically different. I placed tiles so I could pray for a 1st round fireball. I won initiative and I couldn't see Drizzt because he was hiding behind a wall on a tile he scouted. I could see Rask though... Empowered Fireball away. The Fireball only hurt Rask and Ember, but it killed Eberk, Lidda, and Nebin. Finally, he wouldn't get divine protection or Blur. I think this shocked Gamble. He ran Ember up to get a clear charge on my Red Wizard. He then went to move Rask, but Rask was out of command, so he moved Drizzt instead, just a little so Rask could activate. Rask ran forward as well. I got the Cultists out and they started placing Maws all around Ember. I couldn't wait for her to move. I won the 2nd initiative too, and ember and Drizzt would have to fight their way out of a Maw swarm. Drizzt made a daring rush towards one of my Cultists and prevented him from summoning but the two Maws he had already summoned. Drizzt was also basing my Half-Orc Fighter. The next round had Maws biting at Ember and Rask took boosted fireballs until he barely made his moral save. Drizzt routed my Cultist and Half-Orc Fighter., but he too was soon swarmed by Maws. The Maws and Fire orbs took out Rask and Ember... Drizzt stood alone trying to fight through 4 Maws. Two Maws disappeared when my Cultist left the board. A few flame strikes and boosted fire orbs later and Maw bites later and Drizzt was gone. The match went totally in my favor. I could only hope my luck was ever this good as it was in this match. Gamble's Drizzt takes some serious risks, but I think for the most part the risks pay off for him. I was lucky to have kept Rask separate from Drizzt by basing him. Something bad that happened to Rask was that he rolled critical failures on his first attack against a Maw twice. He managed to eliminate quite a few, but overall the Maws and Cultists won. No assault tile points were even won that game.

So, the standings are:
1) Manny: 2 Wins, 1 Bye, 1 Loss
2) Gamble: 2 Wins, 1 Bye, 1 Loss
3) Bryan: 1 Win, 1 Bye, 1 Loss
4) Nick: 1 Win, 2 Loss
5) Phu: 2 Loss

Gamble played an Inspired Marshal variant with a HEBI, Frenzied Beserker, and a Goliath with 3 Graycloak Rangers.

I had an enhanced Orc Band with Eye of Gruumsh, Orc Champion, 7 Orc Warriors, Ogre Ravager, Tiefling Captain, and Zombie White Dragon.

Bryan ran a Large Red Dragon, Red Samurai, Orc Champion band with some Orcs and a Drow Sergeant commander.

Gamble and I had the first battle and I lost quite efficiently. A few failed initiatives and the Frenzied Besrker was able to take out my Orc Champ and Eye of Gruumsh. I was left with my Zombie White Dragon getting tile points, but the time ran out before I could get 20 more.

Bryan and Nick went head to head, and Nick won be defeating one Orc Champ of Bryan's plus he got tile points. Bryan only killed Ember with the Large Red Dragon.

Nick and Gamble's next game was over after tile placement. Gamble had clear line of sight and just wiped out 1 or more figures each round at range. The Graycloaks and HEBI combined dished out probably 105 hp of damage each round. All Nick could kill was the Frenzied Beserker.

Bryan and I fought and I killed his Large Red Dragon with Gruumsh, Ogre Ravager and the Orc Champion before he got to use his breath weapon. I charged with a bunch of Orc Warriors and did some good damage immediately to his Red Samurai considering Cave of Pain and Gruumsh effect. After his two fire breathers were dead, I simply had the Zombie White Dragon clog up his lanes and kill his fodder with a breath weapon. His Orc Champion died soon after. The interesting thing was I would have hit his Cursed Spirit about a dozen times but failed due to incorporeal checks.

Against Nick, the game went much better, since it was Plunder, I was able to get 10pts in round 1, 20 in round 2, 30 in round 3 and 40 in round 4. In round 5 and 6 I also got 30 each round. My Zombie White Dragon got a spot between Rask and Ember and just planted himself. Eye of Gruumsh and my Orc Champion killed Rask in moments. After that I just sent Orc Warriors to each tile to gather points. Eventually my Ogre Ravager managed to route, but my Zombie White Dragon killed Ember. My Orc Champ and Eye killed off Eberk, Lidda, and Nebin quickly. All Nick had was Drizzt, and I had well over 100 points.

So, my final round was against Gamble again. This time I had better tile placement and forced him to walk around two tiles full of walls. He tried placing well, but I had my Zombie White Dragon clogging up his firing lanes. I ran Gruumsh and the Orc Champ to get some tile points and he ran some wolves to within 1 space of getting tile points. He messed up his GMA and this allowed me to fly up to his HEBI and a Graycloak with the ZWD on the next turn. My orc warriors defended the only tile he had a shot at getting tile points on and one Orc scored a hit on a wolf who managed to get in the tile, it routed and took some AoOs. His Frenzied Beserker and Goliath Barbarian returned to aid the HEBI. The HEBI took the AoO from the ZWD. Gruumsh and Orc Champ followed up to attack his Goliath and it was weakened bad. I ran my Ogre Ravager to base one of his Graycloaks as well while my Orc warriors took out his wolves and hit at his other Graycloaks. The next round he rolled a 20 on initiative and so did I. We then rolled off since we both had commander 4. I beat him. This allowed Gruumsh to eliminate the Goliath and then moved to base the HEBI. My Orc Champion swung around to the far side of the HEBI and smacked him good. He failed his moral save and Gruumsh hurt him. He had to run by the ZWD who eliminated the HEBI. I realized how nice a 4 space corridor was when you have a large figure behind enemy lines... they have to run by you. My Ogre Ravager smited his Frenzied Beserker at reach. His Frenzied Beserker moved to attack my Ogre Ravager and he routed. This allowed her to move on the next turn to base my Eye of Gruumsh. I am a bit fuzzy, but the FB killed Gruumsh with her deathstrike somehow. But all of Gamble's heavy hitters were dead and his Marshal was weak as well. His graycloaks didn't stand a chance, nor did his last remaining wolf.

So, with another comeback victory, I believe Gamble will fail to beat me on our first encounter next time. I mention this strategy every time I see Gamble. So far, double elimination has paid off well for me, but quite disheartening for Gamble.

So, the standings are:
1) Manny with 3 wins and 1 loss
2) Gamble with 3 wins and 1 loss
3) Nick with 1 win, and 2 losses
4) Bryan with 2 losses

Gamble took the Undead which has been doing fairly well so far with a record of 1:1. Jeremy took the animals and magical beasts with a fake commander and a few less aberrations and more magical beasts. I took the untested Hairy band which had a few bugbears and gnolls driven by a gnoll sergeant.

Gamble and Jeremy started fighting first, but I got suckered into a full attack on Gamble. Jeremy just paused a round as his Wood Wold wiped out my gnolls. My bugbear footpads were busy basing and undead caster and the Grim Necromancer. I took way too many AoOs and based the Druid of Obad-Hai to get the points I needed to win. Well my gnoll failed to make contact the next round and was eaten by a Giant Frog. It came down to Jeremy having to eliminate all the other pieces that were out of command. The Wood Wold is a beast with 60 hp for 15 points. Everything that routed for Jeremy ended up rallying even with his given commander 0.

Well Jeremy won and proclaimed himself the "Beast-master" since he has only won two skirmishes so far and both times he was running the Magic Beast band.

We visited Rising Phoenix to play a 200pt Assault scenario. Gamble, Ryan, Bryan and I were the only 4 to show up. I played a quad threat with Tiefling Captain controlling an Eye of Gruumsh, Orc Champion, Ogre Ravager, Red Samurai and 6 Orc Warriors. Ryan brought a Frenzied Beserker, Ryld, Longtooth Barbarian, with 3 Elf Warrior, 2 Bauriar Rangers and a Deepshadow elf. Bryan picked another Greenfang Druid band with a Dire Bear, Dire Boar, Dire Wolf, and Dire Ape, Celestial Dire Badger, and Worg. Gamble decided to try my Giants and Undead band which was controlled by a Tiefling Captain and contained Ogre, Ogre Ravager, Ogre Zombie, 2 Minotaur, Minotuar Skeleton, Bone Claw and zombie filler.

Bryan tried to work a pincer on me, but ultimately failed. My guys just ignored the longer arm and wiped out his Dire Wolf and Dire Boar then proceeded to his Greenfang Druid. His Dire Ape got to one of my orc warriors and his Dire Bear ran to get some tile points. My Ogre Ravager had not left that tile so easily attacked the Bear from Reach. After Gruumsh and the Orc Champion finished off the Greenfang Druid, they returned to help kill the Dire Bear. I had my 4 big guys left and he had just a Dire Ape.

Ryan and Gamble went head to head, but Ryan's archers apparently ripped through the Giants. Gamble blamed the inhibited Ogre Zombie and the lack of rolling anything above a 10. Ryan cleaned the board before time was called and Gamble had nothing remaining.

I got to play Ryan and our first game went pretty quick. I got him at the edge of a small hallway opening and while he picked off Orc Warriors, my guys were waiting to pounce. I first eliminated his Frenzied Beserker with the combination of some Orcs, Eye of Gruumsh, an Orc Champion, and Ogre Ravager using Smite. Ryld came up to help, but it was too late for his fleeing Longtooth Barbarian. I then flanked Ryld and he was dead soon after with the Ogre Ravage reaching in and hitting him. After Ryld died his Longtooth ran off the board leaving him with a bunch of archers. Even his Deepshadow elf had perished to the Eye of Gruumsh.

So, I had to play Ryan again. Ryan tried something different, by splitting his archers from his attacking melee force. I tossed him a few Orc Warriors to slow him down and I went and killed his Elf Warriors clear across the board. He had severely limited my activation advantage and soon closed on me in the 3rd round. By now the Frenzied Beserker had already taken 15 damage to herself and I got my Red Samurai to deplete her by 10 more. She and the Longtooth charged in to kill Gruumsh, but he survived with 85 damage and making his moral check. The Longtooth fled and was cut down by the Red Samurai with an AoO, since he couldn't run past my Ogre Ravager. I sent my Red Samurai to get flanking and strike Ryld for a few damage but he made his moral check. The Eye of Gruumsh was taken out by Ryld after the Frenzied Beserker put a smackdown on him. Ogre Ravager reached over to weaken Ryld. My Orc Champion charged Ryld. My Red Samurai weakend Ryld. Ryld and the Frenzied Beserker had each 35 hp remaining. My Orc Champ cleaved through Ryld to hit the Frenzied Beserker. On his 2nd swing he killed the Frenzied Beserker. Ryan was left with the simple Deepshadow Elf. I ran after him with the Ogre Ravager and Tiefling for flanking. He died quickly.

Ryan's band needed a better hitter than the Longtooth Barbarian. The FB is quite formidable, but 2 or 3 big hitters take her out quickly.

So, the standings are:
1) Manny with 4 wins
2) Ryan with 2 wins and 2 losses
3) Bryan with 1 win, and 2 losses
4) Gamble with 2 losses

So, I won store credit again and a repaint figure. I am well on my way to having the Angelfire tournament paid for through store credit.

I will be hosting 6 100 pt skirmishes for those interested in learning about D&D Miniatures tournaments.

I want to thank Gamertopia, Rising Phoenix, GameWorx, and Galactic Games for their prize support and Bayou Wars for the venue.

The games were all pre-constructed 100pt warbands provided and constructed by GameWorx.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the tournament outcome. We usually had 4 players for each tournament and one tournament had 6.

Annette used Mostly Men, Ryker used Ugly, Richard used Shorties, Trent used Beast of Evil

Lynn ran Magic Apples, Lon ran Shorties, Kayla ran Beast of Evil, Campbell ran Evil Gumbo

Joshua ran mostly men, Kayla ran Beast of Evil, Jason ran Orcs, Campbell ran Magic Apples

Richard M ran The Ugly, Kayla ran the Wings of Glory, Lon ran Magic Apples, Randy ran Beast of Evil, Richard ran Orcs, Trent ran Mostly Men

Richard M ran Orcs, Bruce ran Beast of Evil, Lon ran Mostly Men, Ryker ran Wings of Glory

We actually purchased some boosters for a booster pack draft. Lon and Kayla used two boxes that they had previously won. Richard and Richard got the 2 purchased boosters. We constructed something close to150pt bands. Kayla ran a single Ravenous Vampire and a catfolk wilder, and skullclan hunter, Richard M ran a Ravenous Vampire and Flind Captain. Unfortunately for both of them, Lon ran a Valorous Prince, Dwarf Caver, and a Warforged Wizard. Richard ran a Valorous prince with a Flind Captain but somehow managed to lose to Kayla in the first round.

Overall we had 12 unique people. Four were in the same family, and I appreciated their participation.

Lon asked me to run some future tournaments at CoastCon and I will probably run a few tournaments at D20Con as well.

He ran the Beholder and Soth band against my Hill Giant, Drow Cleric and Ettin band. The Beholder ruled, the Ettin was turned to stone in round 1, the Hill Giant had to save vs Disintegrate, all the maws instantly died to inflict wounds. Only once did Gamble had to move Soth instead of heal or inflict damage. Soth and the Beholder were left fighting the Drow who could only heal Soth.

Next I ran Kiddoc's song or somesuch with Harpy's against a Centaur, Eliastrae, and Psychic Half-Giant band. Gamble almost won that one too, but I barely managed to pull that one out when the Centaur routed right off the board. I won by tile points.

Lastly we played the bunch of Large Ogres, Minotaurs and Large Undead vs the Greenfang Druid's Wild Animals including bear, boar, worg, dire wolf, celestial dire badger, and ape. The animals started off well, the ogres and minotaur started making a comeback, but soon enough the animals ruled. My giants couldn't hit a thing. If I rolled above a 10 it was for a rally check. Gamble ran these animals far better than Brian did last time I came across this band.

All 3 games we used the same sets of tiles, my tile placement was horrible in each game.

We decided to stay home and play instead of going to the fake Angelfire prerelease that Wizards messed us up with. We couldn't afford another $30 for 2 boxes of Deathknell. So a few people just wanted to play in a free tournament instead.

Gamble picked the Beholder and Lord Soth. Jeremy grabbed a Zombie Whitefecta, with Orc Champion, Eye of Gruumsh, Ogre Ravager, Zombie White Dragon, Tiefling Captain, and 7 Orc Warriors. I ran the Inspired Frenzy with Inspiring Marshal, 2 Frenzied Berserkers, 3 Graycloak Rangers + wolves, Iadobode and 4 Elf Warriors. Richard was unlucky to get less Orc Warriors, but he had Ryld lead an Ogre Ravager, Orc Champion, 3 Orc Warriors, Deathlock, and Red Samurai.

I was matched against Richard right away, but I got a few initiatives that I shouldn't have since he had Ryld and that allowed me to elimnate the Ogre Ravager and an Orc Champion early on. After that it was all down hill for Ryld.

Gamble played Jeremy and he really got off some good eye rays cause Jeremy barely got to Soth. The abyssal blast took out 5 of the orc warriors and damaged Gruumsh. He later stoned my Orc Champion. Grumsh was taken out before he had a chance to swing. It was humiliating. Jeremy couldn’t even get to Lord Soth or the Beholder. Jeremy thinks he only killed 1 or 2 goblins. One thing of note, they played on a larger battle mat and the boundaries were barely marked in marker, Jeremy managed to sneak his Orc Champion and Ogre Ravager off the mat and avoided the 2nd turn Abyssal blast; it was too funny.

Gamble and I played next and with a few good moves and a not so great Grant Move Action, I still managed to pick away at Soth and the Goblins. I had all my archers standing on a magic circle after he used his abyssal blast. My archers had eliminated all of his goblins except the mongrelfolk by round 2. The graycloaks worked out well against Lord Soth, especially when he used the beholder to move Soth away from my Frenzied Berserker. My other FB was slowed and it took her a while to get to the Beholder, but she did and womped on him.

Richard completely set Jeremy up with tile placement and Jeremy walked straight into it!! Richard had all Jeremy's guys lined up down a corridor to make an impressive swarm and here comes the Red Samurai. Jeremy lost all Orc Warriors with 1 breath weapon. Jeremy was hoping for initiative or that Richard would forget about the weapon. Neither was true. Jeremy was able to use his Orc Champion to go after Ryld and he thinks Richard made a mistake using his Orc Champion to go after the ZWD. The ZWD can take the hits, but is easily avoided. On the next round Jeremy won Initiative and was able to take out Ryld, cleave the Orc Brute, and then mangle the Orc Warrior with his Orc Champion. Jeremy considers this the turning point of the match. Jeremy used his second move to wallop Richard's Orc Champion with the Ogre Ravager. Eventually the Orc Champion routed and Jeremy was able to turn his attention to Richard's Ogre Ravager. This was really an awesomely close match and Jeremy was lucky to get the win (thanks to the tile point advice). Jeremy and Richard fought it out and it really came down to this....Richard had 60 tile points and Jeremy had no tile points. Richard had 1 orc warrior hiding in a treasure room and Jeremy had an Ogre Ravager and the ZWD left. Both warbands had no commander. So, we had to point out to Jeremy that if he grabbed tile points he would win... if he chased the Orc Warrior and missed he would lose. So he parked his ZWD on a tile and the match ended with 80pts to Richard and 10 to Jeremy. Both broke 200pts that moment, but Jeremy had 207 and Richard had 205. Talk about close.

I got to play Jeremy and Richard played Gamble. At first it looked like Richard was leaving the board wide open, but he did real well to approach Soth and the Beholder from the sides through the tiles while shielding with Orcs and such. Somehow unknown to me because I didn't watch the match, the Ogre Ravager and Orc Champion based Soth and killed him; then Richard proceeded to the Beholder to win.

Jeremy was surprised at how ineffective the ZWD was in taking the arrow hits. Jeremy thought he had good tile placement, but Manny made good movement to get around where the ZWD was and start picking off Orc Warriors. The Frenzied Berserkers are awesome.... Jeremy was not moving Gruumsh or the Orc Champion to them. They would have to come to him. Unfortunately, they both were able to get off good hits and DeathStrikes. Of course, the key to the game was Iadabode. When he stunned the Tiefling, it was all over. Jeremy's Orc Champion simply ran off the board and then Jeremy failed a rally check on the Ogre Ravager, even after the Tiefling was no longer stunned. After that, the ZWD’s Slow Attack prevented me from going after the archers. Jeremy also made a big mistake not keeping the dragon around to protect the Tiefling Captain. My band had beaten the Ryldfecta, but could it beat a Zombie Whitefecta? I was a bit worried about Jeremy's band, considering it was very similar to my Quadfecta except it didn't have a Red Samurai. During round 2 I saw Jeremy sitting back waiting for me to come to him, and I bit. I used the Inspiring Marshal to get my two FB on Gruumsh before he got his Orc Champion on my FB... big mistake, I need to learn to use up stupid activations first. So the FB got to go after she based Gruumsh, but she missed her 2nd swing with a 1. This allowd Gruumsh and his Orc Champ to beat on one of my FB fiercely. She survived, but barely since the Orc Champ had to move. She swatted at the Orc Champ when I activated her and she died. He ran and missed the exit by 1 square. I attacked the Ogre Ravager with a slew of arrows but couldn't take him out. The next round I activated the dying FB and died to deathstrike Gruumsh and he died. The Ogre Ravager hit my last FB twice. My last FB hit the Ogre Ravager twice, but he was still standing but ran away to also get close to the exit. My 2 FB were dead and he had the Orc Champion and Ogre Ravager standing at the exit doors. Iadabode ran up to the Tiefling Captain just close enough to stun him..... It worked and the Orc Champion left the building.... He had no commander to rally his Orc Champ. Iadabode was happy. His ZWD flew around to get a good breath at my archers but I simply moved them away. I then spent 13 activations firing arrows at his Tiefling Captain and only managed to get her down to 5 hp. I ran my inspiring marshal up to hit the Tiefling and he failed to connect. Finally his ZWD was at the door and I was going to lose plenty of Elf Warriors and Graycloaks, but I moved the expensive figs away after killing his Tiefling. He got the breath weapon, but I won at the next activation because I had 40 tile points. Jeremy had 40 tile points too, but I still had 2 Graycloaks, the Inspiring Marshal, and Iadabode. It was close I'll give Jeremy that... a littel too close.

RSVP:
Won't Show: Jeremy, Gamble, Ryan, Bryan, Nick, Annette, Lance
Will Show: Manny, David
No RSVP: Phu, Matt

Well we had a low showing at this tournament, but luckily we picked up 2 new players. Another Ryan and Devon joined David and Manny.

David ran the Unique warband lead by Drizzt with Rask, Ember, Eberk, Nebin, and Lidda. Devon ran Matt's Attack 5 with the Large Red Dragon, Ogre Ravager, Minotaur, and Red Samurai lead by the Tiefling Captain. Ryan ran the Ryldfecta with Ryld, Zombie White Dragon, Orc Champion, Red Samurai, and a bunch of Orcs. Manny ran the Inspired Frenzy with Inspiring Marshal, 2 Frenzied Berserkers, 3 Graycloak Rangers + wolves, Iadobode and 4 Elf Warriors.

The first matches we played were learning exercises for Ryan and Devon then we ran the tournament.

I played Devon and he got off a LRD breath weapon against both of my Frenzied Berserkers and they both failed the save. They were cut down to 60 hp before we even began. So I had to attack the LRD and the girls ripped it apart. My archers spent the time shooting at the Red Samurai, but even with cover he was losing hit points fast. My wolves occupied his Minotaur and died for the delaying they caused. He ran his Ogre Ravager behind his LRD and he nor I could swing at each other until the LRD died. The Ogre based one FB, killed her and she deathstriked and routed him, that taught him to use Reach in the next game. After that my archers killed his Minotaur and is Red Samurai routed off the board. His Ogre Ravager was left with his Tiefling and was soon both were dead by a barrage of arrows. One of my Frenzied Berserkers charged and killed his Tiefling Captain as she was routing.

My next game I played David and he basically made me come to him. With a few good moves I managed to not see Lidda nor Ember and I shot Nebin dead. I used the Inspiring Marshals GMA to base Ember with both FB. My FBs killed Ember quickly although she did get to attempt to stun them. Rask and Drizzt stayed out of sight until Rask had to move to attack my FB. He managed to stand at reach 2 which allowed my archers to shoot him full of holes before the FB killed him. It was then Drizzt and Lidda vs my entire warband. Drizzt moved to attack the FB and hit them, but they soon moved or swung to kill him with a critical hit and then Lidda. Only Eberk remained and an FB sliced him down too.

Devon beat Ryan who we watched try to use a ZWD against a Ogre Ravager, it was pretty sad to see an Ogre Ravager miss for almost 3 rounds and the ZWD couldn't do much but blow his breath, move a round later, then attack in the 3rd round. Devon had his LRD and Ogre Ravager remaining.

David played Devon and obliterated the LRD with Rask and Drizzt. He based the Red Dragon with Drizzt and Ryld stood behind Drizzt. The LRD could not hit Drizzt at all. A critical hit by the LRD missed conceal on Drizzt. David ended this game with only losing Lidda and Eberk.

I played Ryan's orcs and he led with the Orc Warriors. My archers plowed through the Orc Warriors in the 1st round. I even got a few shots against the Orc Champion. I used GMA early in the 2nd round and his Orc Champion was surrounded by my two FB after I spent a few arrows at him. The two girls took out the Orc Champion in the 2nd round before he did much damage. I then ran an FB to his Red Samurai and sliced him up in round 3. One FB and my archers took out Ryld. I then stood away from his ZWD and filled him full of arrows. He then approached the dual FB and they sliced him dead.

Well I was playing D&D Miniatures and this loud mouth kept interrupting our tournament talking about how his Star Wars warband could defeat a D&D Miniatures warband so easily. So, I took the challenge, he only had 119 pts worth of figures, so I made a simple warband of equivalent points. Since we have been playing the D20 Insane campaign, I wanted to test the outcome. I figured that he was breaking factions, so I would too. He had Darth Vader, 2 Storm Troopers, a Rebel Guard, tusken raider, 2 fringers, a wookie, an imperial commander, and Luke Skywalker on the same squad. So, I tossed the Orc Champion, Red Samurai, Celestial Dire Badger, and 2 Graycloaks with wolves together. He didn't have saves and wasn't worried about a commander or moral so neither was I.

He lost initiative - straight dice roll - and I took off. My two graycloaks ran up and got hidden, fired two arrows at the tusken raider and he was dead. I let him fire at my graycloaks with cover, with his storm troopers, but graycloaks with cover have a reasonably high AC not to mention they should have been invisible. I then ran my two wolves up to take some shots from his next forces. I then ran the Red Samurai and Orc Champ into attack formation. My celestial dire badger followed a bit further behind. The Red Samurai was watching his guys clump together. He killed a wolf in the next round with a grenade. The Red Samurai ran past the grenade tosser and breathed for 20 damage on just about everyone else.

He lost his storm troopers, fringers, and even Darth Vader took 20 damage. I then fired some more arrows to take out his two guys who had run up. Soon it was just a wookie, Darth, Luke, and the Imperial commander. I based the wookie with my Orc Champ and hacked through him. Darth stepped up and wacked both my Red Samurai and the Orc Champ.

The next round the Red Samurai and Orc Champ sliced through Vader and I think my celestial dire badger bit him too. My Samurai and my Orc Champ wasn't looking too good either after taking blaster damage from Luke and the Imperial officer. The Champ ran Darth through then stepped up to kill the Imperial guard next. So Luke got a free shot at the Red Samurai and killed him when Darth died. My archers fired and killed the Imperial Officer and Luke then killed my Orc Champion with a blaster shot. My two archers fired at Luke and he had 5 hp left so my badger bit him in his butt. I lost my 2 big hitters, but Darth Vader and Luke were dust. I didn't even bother telling him that my graycloaks shoud have been invisible when he fired repeatedly at them.

So, next time someone invites you to a gunfight, bring your bow... who would have thunk it. I also forgot that the Red Samurai should have taken 5 less damage per shot from the blasters and perhaps the lightsaber as well.... after all it is considered fire damage.... or is it force?

So anyway, the guy wasn't too happy and got up in a huff. I really wanted to fight Darth with a Beholder and Gauth, but he didn't have enough points worth of figures. I figured a Frenzied Berserker would have been fun to slice down Darth with a Deathstrike.

RSVP:
Won't Show: David, Jeremy, Gamble, Nick, Bryan
Will Show: Manny, Annette, Lance, Ryan
No RSVP: Phu, Matt

Saturday July 3rd, 2005 at XOCOMP "Gaming To Your Eyes Bleed" - 100 pt Constructed

Saturday July 16, 2005 at 2pm at Rising Phoenix Gaming Experience
D&D Miniatures Angelfire Prerelease tournament $30 entry fee (200 pt Limited Assault)

Saturday July 23rd, 2005 at 1pm at Gamertopia or Galactic Games - 200 pt Constructed

D&D Miniatures Skirmish Results

Below is a log of sorts of previous D&D miniature tournaments and their outcomes