This past weekend out in Poughkeepsie, NY at the Dragon’s Den. Three of our team members traveled to participate, and finished 1,2,3!!! Patrick was victorious doing what nearly nobody has been able to do in a tournament this year, defeat teammate Anthony in a tournament event. Patrick wins the first tourney of his DOGC career! He did so by defeating each of his own teammates on the way to the top, Berger in the semi-finals, and then Anthony at the final table. Here is the narrative of the tournament, in his own words:

So Anthony prodded me to do a write  up of my road to victory, I am normally pretty bad at these since I forget many details, but I will do my best to give a good run down of my games.

My lists:

Points: 35/35
Supreme Aptimus Zaal & Kovaas (*5pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Immortals (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Praetorian Karax (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Hakaar the Destroyer (4pts)
Void Spirit (2pts)
Void Spirit (2pts)
Reinforcements
Bloodrunners (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor (2pts)

Points: 35/35
Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Cyclops Savage (5pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
* Aptimus Marketh (3pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Praetorian Ferox (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Reinforcements
Totem Hunter (3pts)
Void Spirit (2pts)
Void Spirit (2pts)

Pretty much what I used at NETT, with some small changes to the Zaal list. (A few thoughts on) my list construction:

Mekeda, was the brain child of Berger and I.  Berger planted the seed and I watered it and watched it grown into a wrecking machine.  The list is basically broken down in to 2 main elements, the Cetrati and the Ferox.  The glue that makes this work is Marketh to allow the spell cycling.  The list it designed to deny and harass at the same time.  The Ferox with Savagery can cover an massive 18″ of the board a turn, allowing me to get them in your back lines with ease on the second turn.  The Cetrati under Savagery can advance 10″ and still shield wall, also Mekeda has Defenders Ward, this bumps them up to DEF14 ARM22.  While the army seems like it plays straight forward, it is quite the opposite.  It takes a significant amount of patients and careful moving to make sure you line things up.  There is a Gladiator and Savage in the list as well, and those are normally the 2 that will capitalize on mistakes made by your opponent.

Zaal, this list has been through many changes.  Zaal has many nifty abilities that deny your opponent souls, and for every model your opponent kills his feat gets more and more destructive.  Again my list is based around 2 core elements, a denial unit and a harassment unit.  For denial I use the Karax, they are cheap and can keep Zaal safely hidden behind DEF12 ARM18, this is also supported by a Krea that can bump that up even further against shooting.  The assault troops for this list is the Immortals supported with an Ancestral Guardian.  I will sling the Immortals as far up as I can but only put 3-4 at a distance my opponent can get to easily, then 3-4 more will have back further to tempt my opponent to commit deeper, and the remaining back further normally to catch an armor buff from Zaal.  Haakar and additional AG’s are in the list to bring out the mighty Kovaas.  Kovaas is the keystone model in this list.  While the list could function just fine with out it, if my opponent brings Kovaas in to play and has no way to deal with it that is normally game for me.  There is a Gladiator in the list for heavy lifting if needed, but I have rarely had to bring him up to get the job done.  It should be noted that my most recent change to the list was to drop Swamp Gobbers and an AG to add 2 Void Spirits.  This change was made to take advantage of a few things, first if you have no/low magic weapon count I can walk them around to cause command checks, and try and shut down units. Second way I can use them, though I have not gotten to practice much with this, if I produce Kovaas on my turn to send them forward to split up your magic weapons to deal with multiple incorporal models.

Both lists were designed around the need to have both offensive and defensive elements.  I want to be able to deny you the ability to score points, while harassing your lines to create openings.  Mekeda’s list does suffer a bit from low model count, and can get overwhelmed, but Zaal can handle that with his higher model count.  Both lists can also suffer a bit to well structured gun lines, but (on Saturday at the event) I was able to weather Lylyth’s feat and take no loses with DW Cetrati; Berger was unhappy.

First game, Gauntlet (Center Scenario), my opponent brings a beast heavy PMorghoul list.  I can’t recall everything in the list, but Karn, Bronzeback, Gladiator, Brute, Paingivers, and an Agonizer were definitely in there.  I picked Zaal as my weapon of choice.  His other list was a Zaal list and I was banking on the fact he is not want a mirror match with the same casters.  His Morghoul list with a huge lack of magical weapons was going to cause him problems.  First turn I run everything forward, I fan the immortals out to bait him to kill a few and trigger Vengence; Karax make a line with everything else pretty much behind it; Haakar and AGs start getting into key positions to pop a Kovaas. My opponent does the same, and Morghoul puts Admonition on the BB. Second turn I advance further up the field, jam the control area on my side with Karax, and put the Immortals at striking distance to his front line.  I know at this point I am giving him an Alpha with Karn, but some of my models need to die to power the feat anyways. Haakar comes up behind the immortal so he can get some vengence action and my Gladiator moves to the right side of the board to help deal with his BB.  My opponent sends Karn to wreck a bunch of Immortals, charges with BB and fails, at this point Morghoul is stretch to the limits of his control area and having a hard time trying to keep pace with his army.  My turn I vengence forward to engage or set up charges, and get a few swings for nothing concrete.  Everything set I full bore this turn on my right I charge the BB with the Immortals on the right and get a lot of damage on him, on my left I tie up his Gladiator with is beginning to threaten my lines. I put some major damage on all his large beasts, and knock out some key aspects on some of them. I move Haakar and Gladiator in to key strike position.  My opponent answers by slaughtering most of the troops that are engaging his beasts, my feat tank is now full of bodies, and to do this he needed to run his beasts hot and Paingivers had already been used up to heal damage.  Morghoul move to my right side, and the brute is in front of him.  My turn, I check control and think that my Gladiator has range to the Brute but not Morghoul, so a slam will be required to make this work, only thing in my way is a BB.  Now the BB is already pretty messed up, but regardless I activate Zaal pop feat and Last Stand Hakaar.  Haakar charges the BB and wipes him out.  The lane is not open, Gladiator casts Rush on himself for free, since Awaken Spirit is on him, and slams the Brute.  I make it with a 1/2″ to spare.  With the feat I roll 3d6 to hit, and slam with ease.  Slam distance 4″, nicely puts the Brute on the other side of Morghoul, and puts Morghoul on his ass.  Gladiator follows up, and stops at Morghoul.  Forgot to make the collateral damage roll, but at this point it was mute.  I buy an attack against Morghoul that auto hits, buy a boost with the feat, and hit 3d6+3…one punch kill Morghoul.

Second game, Envelopment (Flank Scenario), my opponent – Berger -, brings his eLylyth list. So I don’t suicide (aka force myself into one list) in the last round, I play Mekeda.  My first turn I move everything up with haste, I try to play my Ferox back a bit to no take arrows from all Berger’s AD models. At end of turn Ferox are under Savagery and Cetrati are under Defenders Ward.  Berger moves up and still manages to catch 2 Ferox.  Second turn I bring in my reinforcements, Berger’s unit of Striders is in prefect striking distance.  I charge the striders with one void spirit who fails to connect, but this let me gauge how far I can charge the other one, the second charges in and hits, eruption of ash catches 3 more, and they fail the command check, totem comes in leaps and tries to clean up a bit more.  The remaining Ferox move and leap and get in Lylyth’s grill, having a hard time connecting but manage to get a few points on her, Cetrati, Savage and Gladiator form a wall to try and protect Mekeda and Marketh.  Berger’s second turn he blows his feat, shoots and insane amount of attacks at the Cetrati but fails to open up a hole to see Mekeda.  Does however get Pursuit on the Cetrati, which is important for my botch in the next turn.  On my turn, he has left Lylyth out in the open in charge range of the Cetrati.  I start off with Mekeda to put up Carnage, then I was going to move to the Ferox to leap and box in Lylyth, but I get excited and used the Cetrati first.  I make a my charges and runs, then Lylyth runs away.  Plans foiled!  Not to worry, I keep cool and just use the rest of the turn to do as much damage to his army as possible.  I bring the Voids over closer to Mekeda, and I use the Gladitor to slam a Raptor and follow up, unfortunately this puts me out of control so I can not kill the other on I end up standing next to…this seems bad but actually works to my advantage.  Berger bring Lylyth into my deployment zone and finally gets a bead on Mekeda.  I am on 2 fury, I take a few shots but do not transfer since the damage is not huge, and there are poison arrow Raptors going next.  Only 1 Raptor can get a shot, and connects for tons of damage, I transfer.  After all that Mekeda ends up with no fury on her, the Savage has 1 and in control and the Gladiator has 1 but out of control.  I leech the one and cut for 1, Gladiator makes his threshold.  Mekeda activates and puts up carnage, there are a few Cetrati that can make it to Lylyth but pursuit is still on them, and I will not make that mistake twice.  I check control and I can get the Gladiator back in control on the back side of Lylyth.  I walk him over and decide to do a headbutt, boost to hit, and with carnage and back strike I am basically MAT 10, hit boosted damage and Lylyth takes a dirt nap.

Third game, Guidons (Distant Scenario), my opponent – Anthony -, brings his Kromac list.  I had a choice of both lists, I decide Zaal is a stonger choice since I have played Zaal against his Morvahna list and it was a challenge with Anthony, and his Kromac list was short on magic weapons.  Do to a large building in my way my setup is subpar.  I move up with my standard fare sending the Immortals out in front to bait and strike with I move things into position.  I give up my void spirits early, not remembering that the Gallows is an arc node, this also allows Anthony to get Haakar pin down in a rift.  Most of my stuff out front is getting wiped out as it should.  I don’t manage to get my Guidon in the zone but Anthony does, allowing him to score 2 points on my turn and then on his.  Due to this frustration turn of evens I had forget to use Zaal’s abilities to had out souls.  On Anthony’s turn he continues is slaughter of my Immortals, but forgets to activate Gorax to kill the final one, he kills an AG that brings Kovaas in but with only 1 soul…weak sauce…but also leaves Kormac in strike range.  At this point Kormac has feated and has 7 damage on him and 3 fury.  I decide that this point even if I can get the guidon in my area to prevent the winning score on the end of my turn, Getorix can get to it and smash it to score on is turn.  So, it is time to get balls deep.  I bring Zaal forward and put Last Stand on Kavaas, drop my feat and sling a Hex Blast as some Bloodtrackers.  I kill enough to charge Kovaas up to full.  The move up was also needed to get the control area close enough to Kromac.  Kovaas charges Kromac and starts pounding on him, with 3 transfers only gets a little bit on damage on him.  If Anthony has not been mindful of that Kovaas would have wrecked face.  After all that was done and Kromac still stands I was worried this was over for me.  That I saw my salvation, the lone Immortal that had not been killed due to Anthony’s error of not activating Gorax.  I charge with it, and boost on the feat, boost damage from the charge and game over.  I think if Anthony had not made a mistake the game was his.

All in all, a great turn for us, Dark Omen took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  The store was awesome, and the people we played against were all good sports and eager to lean more about the game.  All of them are new to Warmachine, but that did not deter them from trying to hand it to us.  I think we should return there in the future, and help support their growth.  And as Berger would say 5 months, 5 states, 5 wins.  Go Dark Omen.