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I modified my warband (on paper) and wanted to see what other people think before I go messing with stuff.  Here it is:

2 Drow House Guard
2 Drow Wizard
1 Drow Blademaster
1 Drow Priestess
2 Drow Assassin
2 Shadow Mastif
2 Umber Hulk

3 Riposte
3 Close Call
2 Faieie Fire
3 Stalk
2 Secret Passage
4 Quick Jab
4 Spring Attack
2 Scheme
2 Stealth
2 Shadowy Ambush
1 Sneak Attack
2 Lolth's Blessing

I don't know if I commited a cardinal sin by removing all the Spiders and keeping the Priestess.  She seems like a pretty good fighter as is, and the extra card draw you can get can be a game winner.  I know that is why my wife kicked my butt with the drow.  She had tons of cards, and an answer for just about every one of my attacks, or a nasty attack herself. 

Oct 6, 2012 -- 1:54PM, Palpster wrote:

I'd add a second Priestess for drawing opportunities and find room for Driders. They're both drow and spider so can use orders like faery fire and deploy close to priestess...and their speed is just....wow. Thematically I'd ditch both Umber Hulks and Mastiffs and also add another blademaster making it an all Drow band. Or perhaps drop the blademasters in favor of two more houseguards just to keep the average level down a bit.

Those are some great points.  I played the Drow a second time, stock, and am amazed at how well the warband is balanced already.  As far as Umber Hulks I always loved them, so would like to keep 1 or 2 in there.  Plus it is still thematic because it is not uncommon for the Drow to have other lesser creatures do their bidding.  I have also found his burrow ability to be awesome.  If he was only a Str creature I would agree with taking him out, but with Dex he seems like a nice addition.

That leaves me with the Priestess/spider issue.  I have almost found the other spiders more useful than the Drider.  The Demonweb are cheap and good for hunting down treasure chests.  The giant spider is cheaper then the Drider and still pretty beefy.  The last game I used him to protect my Drow Wizard.

To me it seems like the Mastif is better than the Drider as it can deploy anywhere.  

Although now that I look at it my creatures are skewed a little toward the higher levels.  40 total levels vs 34 stock.  Maybe I should drop the Priestess all together as that would free up 4 order cards, and with Kalteros as my leader I can get a few extra order cards from treasure.

I might cut one Shadow Mastif or Assassin as well to bring my level total down.  Can always add a third House Guard.
 
Tough decisions.

Oct 7, 2012 -- 3:56PM, Lord-Soth wrote:

I think this is going to work.  With Kalteros as my leader I can get some more order cards if I need them with treasure, so I took out the Priestess.  My build would look like this.

3 Drow House Guard
2 Drow Wizard 
2 Drow Blademaster 
1 Drow Assassin
2 Shadow Mastif
2 Umber Hulk

3 Riposte 
4 Close Call 
4 Faieie Fire
3 Stalk
2 Secret Passage
4 Quick Jab
4 Spring Attack 
2 Stealth
2 Shadowy Ambush 
2 Sneak Attack 

That is it.  I think this will work really well.  Let me know your thoughts everyone.

This is an honest question.  Why is it people seem to favor Kalteros as the commander?   Lolth priestess/Loths blessing seems to be a much better combination with the other commander's movment bonus.  Sure you can stack up order cards early if you get a mastif on the other side stealing treasure.  But why trade Morale/Hit Points for cards when it could get to the point where you lose a guy you lose all your morale.  On top of that with a mostly drow/spider army you are still mobile enough to get across the map to steal treasure etc. 


Just curious. 

Oct 7, 2012 -- 6:10PM, Lord-Soth wrote:

Hi Bane172, I am looking for pointers so I would love to see a build like that.  For some reason I automatically skewed my build toward Kalteros, but I would really like to see what you put together, order cards and all.

Well with Aliszandra as a commander It would look something like this.  


4 Drow Wizards
2 Drow assassins
1 Drow Preistess
2 Driders
2 Drow Bladmasters or House guards (I favor house guard because of range attack)
1 UmberHulk - OR another Drider.  I like to have the Umber Hulk because of its diverse abilities.  and the ability to pull enemys into harms way such as a preist or war wizard.  

Note: That a 2nd preistess isnt bad either but you should replace one of the blademasters/house guards if you go that route.    
Order cards I would keep about the same except

I would add If keeping the limit to 30 cards (which my understanding is you dont have to)
2 Shcemes - replaceing secret Passage (honestly with all the shift cards secret passage seems not needed)
2 Lolths Blessings (to get better odds of drawing it)  Replacing 2 close calls
2 Webs - replacing 2 faerie fires (this is a maybe because I like both spells but this helps keep you more mobile than your oopponent)  Plus being wizard heavy there are plenty who can use it.  and driders can use it (i think) to escape since there movement is just crazy.


I made this on the fly though off the top of my head Id have to look over everything so I may make alterations in the future. 

  

        
 

      
 
      


  

The Spell Web is useful in many instances.  With a wizard heavy army.  You can web a enemy unit and bombard with your other wizards.  In order for him to move again he has to spend his turn removing the web.  Which can potentially give you two free vollies of ranged attacks with your wizards/any ranged unit in the area.  Its especaillly nice against units that have high movement or are simply so beefy that you need the extra hits to take it down.

Blademaster sadly just arent that great.  Sure they have a small AOE in melee but honestly Drow are not built for direct confrontation.  They are ok if fighting another drow faction but they typically cant go toe to toe with any of the other melee units of equal level or more.



FYI: for a army not strictly Lolth I replace the blademaster/houseguard with bugbears.  They are str,dex,Con so they are still good with that deck and far beefier.