This past weekend in Indianapolis DOGC had it’s second member ever qualify for a Masters final, this time it was Dan Berger running the table in heat 2 of the Masters Finals Qualifier on Thursday. What an awesome Con for DOGC, and an awesome day for Berger! Here now is a recount of what it took for him to make it to the big show, the Battle Reports of his heat 2 games in his own words… 

 

First off here are my lists:

 

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight

◾Typhon

◾Ravagore

◾Ravagore

◾Naga Nightlurker

◾Succubus

Blackfrost Shard

Anyssa Ryvaal

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

 

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight

◾Proteus

◾Ravagore

◾Scythean

◾Seraph

◾Shredder

Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters Max

◾Bayal Hound of Everblight

Gatorman Witch Doctor

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

 

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight

◾Angelius

◾Ravagore

◾Scythean

◾Scythean

◾Nephilim Bolt Thrower

◾Raek

◾Shredder

The Forsaken

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Spell Martyr

Spell Martyr

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

 

The format of the event was 50pts, Divide and Conquer [1] and 3 rounds. This meant I had to play each list once and that everyone suicided by round 3.

 

Round 1 – Dave Voderberg – Incursion

 

Dave is from Chicago and was a great guy.  He was playing some classic Cygnar.  He said he was just getting back to the game after a hiatus and was enjoying MK2.  He had pHaley Tier, eHaley and pStryker.  His lists had a lot of shooting so I took the list I designed for the Cygnar match up which is eLylyth.

Dave went first he ran everything at me since his tier gave him Pathfinder.

On my first turn Lylyth, Anyssa and the Deathstalkers shot up his sword knights and the Ravagores launched AoEs into his Long Gunner lines.  The rest of my forces ran into positions.

Daves second turn he brings Thorn up to the flag and arcs chain lighting to kill both Swamp Gobbos and get early damage on Lylyth.  His remaining sword knights move and the Long Gunners run due to being stuck in rough terrain.  Dave kept a lot of his models B2B.

My second turn Lylyth feats.  She pincushions Thorn, and rips up the last sword knights.  Blackfrost Shard Kisses and Ice cages Thorn.  Typhon sprays Thorn and with some other shooting he drops.  The Ravagores launch Aoes into the tightly packed Long Gunners.  I leave 4 long gunners alive on my left flank and half the unit on my right flank.

Dave’s turn 3 he brings Haley up for an assassination attempt.  He chain lightnings the shard and the succubus, he does some damage to Lylyth but fails to kill her.

My turn 3, Lylyth Aims and shoots Haley, then a Ravagore aims and kills Haley.  I go 1-0

Dave and I had a smoke outside after the game and he told me I was one of the best opponents he’s ever had at a tournament and thanked me for a fun game despite the match up.  We talked about playing X-Wing and then got ready for round 2.

 

Round 2 – Brian Graham – Close Quarters

 

Brian played Retribution which usually struggles against Legion but I had just used eLylyth so I opted for pVayl due to the movement shenanigans and Rets limited ability to buff their MAT/RAT I felt I could Jam out the scenario.  Brian dropped Kaelyssa, who has some great assassination potential vs Legion.

I opt to go First, I run everything into position.  I cast Zombify on the Hex Hunters and put Chiller on them.  I Slip Stream and Leash the Ravagore and toss out a scather pool.

His first turn he moves up and positions his halberdiers in the front of his sentinels behind them he puts his Jacks a little deeper in his lines.  He may have tossed out some Rough terrain with Rift towards the Hex Hunters and possibly a Phoenix AoE as well.

My second turn I upkeep both spells, and charge the Hex Hunters into the Halberdiers.  I kill a few and due to soulless escorts and his banshee could not take advantage of their Battle Wizard ability.  My Ravagore shoots the Halberdier UA and I do nothing to the sentinels to make sure I do not trigger vengeance.  Proteus and Scythean run to better positions.  The Seraph strafes some Halberds and Vayl moves to the Flag, Feats, puts tenacity on herself and the Seraph.  I use my feat to move the Hex Hunters to jam up all his infantry and Warjacks.  I position them in a way to stop Warjack tramples to my flag.  I had also left one HH back so I could reapply Zombify before my feat triggered.

Brian’s second turn he counter attacks the Hex Hunters with his Halberds and fails to hit many of them (no mini-feat and was not using CMA).  His sentinels then took what attacks they could and killed a few more.  He moved 2 Sentinels B2B next to his flag and put one more within 4″ of his flag.  He charged my Scythean with MHI and only got 2 into combat before the rest ran to engage.  Kaelyssa moves up feats.  He measures to his board edge and passes turn.  I ask him to check the killbox and he did indeed killbox himself.  So I get 2 CP for the killbox and then 1 additional CP for dominating my Flag.

My third turn, I trample my Scythean to his flag and kill the 2 Sentinels with purchased attacks.  My Seraph strafes and kills the last Sentinel.  I move my Hex Hunter to the side of his Phoenix and attack his Halberdiers some more.  Proteus moves up and drags his Phoenix into B2B and wrecks him.  I make more attacks to kill more models.  I pass turn dominating my flag and controlling his for another 3 CP and the win.

Brian and I talked and I suggested that using the CMA and reform on the Halberdiers would have cleared the Jam and given him a chance to not get stuck on his half of the board.  He thought that having the Hex Hunters so far forward and engage was advantageous to him at the time.  We both agreed the Killbox was a big turning point in the game.  Brian had a beautifully painted Ret army and was a pleasure to play.  I am now 2-0 waiting for my last round pairing.

 

Round 3 – Paul Yeager – Process of Elimination

 

Paul is from Rochester NY I believe.  I had seen him in the gaming area all day and we had talked on and off.  The pairings said he was playing circle but he was actually rocking the Convergence of Cyriss.  He had Syntherion with a bunch of Warjacks I still struggle to know the names of and the shieldwall unit that was released at GenCon.  The last list I had was Saeryn.  I don’t remember who won the dice roll but I chose to go second and give Paul the Linear obstacle between the zones since I know CoC Jacks don’t typically have pathfinder and are slow.

Paul goes first and runs everything forward into position and throws up a few spells.

On my first turn I ran a lot of things into the back of the zones.  I use the bolt thrower to shoot his Galvanizer and push it backwards and get some damage on it.  I use the Angelius cannon to kill one Obstructor and then due to terrain 4 or 5 were bunched up after they ran so the Ravagore cast his animus, shot the center 1, boosted to hit and cleared out all but 1 leaving the last guy to die to fire.

On Paul’s second turn he shieldwalls the Obstructors and advances.  The rest of his battle group advances.  He kills 1 or both Swamp Gobbos and takes some shots at my heavies.  Saeryn is camping a wall so she is relatively safe from ranged.  He moves his Galvanizer back into my Right hand zone and moves the other into my Left hand zone with his Obstructors.

My third Turn I leap the Raek into the Obstructors and between the Raek and the Ravagore I clear the unit.  I may have also used the Ravagore shot to finish them.  I use the bolt thrower to push the Galvanizer out of my Left zone and use my Scythean to kill the objective.  I reposition my right flank Warbeats to the back of the zone edge to keep them safe from his heavies.  Paul had a bunch of his heavies and his caster behind the wall and they were bricking B2B to protect Syntherion.  He had a space to get to the Right handed zone and there was a Warjack there so I cast a Breathstealer through a Spell Martyr to jam him up.  By the end of my turn I had scored 2 CP.

On Paul’s third turn he uses his feat and casts Synergy.  He puts a heavy and his damage Galvanizer into my Left zone.  He runs his Breathstealered heavy its 4″ to get out of the way and tries to kill the right flank objective and leaves it at 6HP.  He doesn’t kill much and passes turn and tells me to finish it up.

My third turn.  I use the Scythean on my right flank to drop the remaining Objective for one more CP.  In the Left zone I use my Scythean to slam his heavy who is edging into the zone to contest.  A distance of 1 is iffy but anything higher and he clears the zone.  I roll a 1 on distance and we measure it and he just leaves the zone.  I buy attacks on his heavy and do some damage.  My Angelius then charges his damage Galvanizer.  I Armor Pierce, boost to Hit, I hit and finish it off.  I have cleared the zone, I activate Saeryn, pop my feat and she walks to the edge of the zone to dominate for 2CP.  I score 3CP my third turn bringing me to 5CP total and a win.  I go 3-0 and advance to the Master’s finals on Saturday.

Paul was a great opponent and a lot of fun to play against.  I hope to see him at more events and play him again when CoC has some more models out for them.  It was a good game and I felt I played a bit more reserved which greatly helped me.

 

It had been 15 hours and 6 games later but after going 1-2 in the Heat 1 qualifier, I went 3-0 in heat 2 and advance to the finals.  I was a bit confused at first and it was surreal as my phone started to explode with text messages and social media updates.  I was happy to accomplish the goal I set leading up to GenCon and was excited for Saturday.

Saturday was rough.  Friday night I got sick with some sort of flu and I decided to power through.  I won my first game and then round 2 I picked the wrong list against Jason Watt’s Harby list and got tabled (it will be on endgamegaming.net) and then round 3 I lose on scenario against Ravyn with eLylyth.  I dropped and retired to my hotel room to sleep the rest of the day and try to get better before my flight home.  Fellow teammate and friend Anthony goes on to win GenCon Masters ensuring that Dark Omen will be heading to Warmachine Weekend in November.

 

Awesome run by Dan Berger, and awesome GenCon for DOGC!!!! Everyone is excited about Warmachine Weekend and look for more battle reports from GenCon soon….