Last weekend Shane York wracked up his 4th tourney win this year, 2nd individually! Still dominating 2013 with Gators, and here is the recap of how it all went down… 

 

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of heading up to The Battle Standard to participate in their version of Hardcore. It was actually Softcore where you could play with unpainted models but there was still a painted prize. You could only win one prize. After my success with my Maelok list as an all-comers type list I decided it was perfect for the current Hardcore scenario. It hits well, has a high volume of attacks and lower model count and has huge amounts of armor. I apologize on the lack of pictures again. I was sick (who gets sick in the middle of August!) so I had issues keeping up with the 42 minute clock never mind stopping to take pictures!

 

My list was:

Maelok

Wrastler

Wrastler

Snapper

Posse (full)

Posse (full)

Posse (full)

Witchdoctor

Witchdoctor

Feralgiest

Swamp Gobbers

 

Game 1: I get matched up with Peter from TBS. He had a Xerxis brick with full Nihilators, full Cetrati, full Paingivers, Tiberion, Gladiator, Shaman, Krea and Marketh; I get first turn. We both have a forest on the left of the deployment zone and a house on the right. I put Deathpact on my Center Posse and run everything forward. My Wrastlers, Maelok and Snapper are behind the center Posse. He trundles forward as well putting defenders ward on the Nihilators. He has his Cetrati on my left. I take the dice on round 2 and decide it’s time to kill something. I charge in all three Posse killing two Nihilators with my right hand Posse and just jamming him with the center and left Posse. I make them all undead and feat making them armor 20 and 22 respectively. Peter takes the dice and swings back killing one Posse with his feat and Xerxis, one with Tibbers and spreading some other damage around. He swaps Defenders Ward to Xerxis and puts Fury on the Nihilators.

I decide to drop Death pact. I think I can get Tibbers this turn but there is a Cetrati in the way who would get a free strike on my Wrastler. I revive two Posse members on my left. One charges the Cetrati I need to kill, another on Tibbers because he had no where else to go and the rest on some random Cetrati. I leave the guy in the way on like 2 boxes, spread some other damage around and crank up on Tibbers for like 8 damage. I try and line up a slam of my Witchdoctor with my Bullsnapper but I miss the boosted slam roll in the back. I don’t want to eat the free strike so I position to bait in Tibbers. The rest of my guys eliminate almost all the Nihilators and start attrition down his other beasts.

Tibbers comes forward and takes my Wrastler. Everyone else has a slap fight in the middle of the board. I come back and take Tibbers with my remaining Wrastler and finish off the Nihilators and bring the Cetrati to three members standing. I also take out the Shaman and a Paingiver. Peter takes the dice and takes out a couple of the revived Posse. The Gladiator, who is entrenched with my right hand Posse, just can’t do the deal, even with the Paingivers giving him Strength. I get the dice back and remove the Gladiator and half of the Krea. Peter starts his activation and the 1 minute warning goes off. Seeing me in a superior position with 4 minutes on my clock and twice as many models, he conceeds.

 

Game 2: I get matched up against Matt from Steam Powered Gaming. He is running eBaldur  (tier) with Megs, Woldwarden, Woldguardian, Woldwatcher, Woldwyrd, Druids with UA, 2 stones +UA, Lord of the Feast. It’s a theme force and he gets like a million inches. The terrain is similar with a building I have to go around. I get first turn and hoof it through the woods and around the houses throwing Death Pact in the center. He moves forward and puts a druid cloud wall out front. I charge in and Dirge and his Druids fail their check. Nice! I kill a couple guys and put a couple damage around on his beasts, like 1-2 each. He feats and brings the Lord of the feast up and fails to kill anyone with him. He spreads some damage around, kills a Posse member on my left with Crevasse from Megalith which removes him from play and kills another guy on my left.

Fighting this force on the feat turn sucks. I ram in and do some more damage. I crank some rolls on the Woldwarden leaving him just on spirit, leave the Lord on 1 damage (grr!) and Revive a Posse. Matt fails to rally the two remaining druids and leaves me some big holes as his guys are just all gummed up and don’t have the hitting power. He puts Roots on Megs and the Wold Guardian who together kill one Posse member. I retaliate getting Spiny Growth on both my heavies and sending one in on Megs and one on the Wold Guardian; I do about half their boxes. The Posse on the right bring the Wyrd to 2 boxes and the Warden to 3 boxes. I kill the Lord (of the Feast). I charge the stone UA and miss the first attack, the second attack rolls 4 damage on straight dice (lulz…), leaving him on one.

Matt decides it’s last ditch effort time. Since I didn’t kill the Stonekeeper he can teleport one Stone like 6″ up near the Wold Guardian and the Guardian can try his hand at Maelok on 2 Fury. I transfer off and end on 3 life. I pull a bonehead move here and forget to Leach. Luckily my Wrastler in front of Baldur doesn’t frenzy and gets a boosted Deathroll on him. He transfers that away; after a Maelok Feat and a couple Posse walking in later; Baldur eats dirt like the hippie he is! (not nice)

 

Game 3:  Three of the top four were Dark Omen members so I was pretty sure I was meeting a teammate and I did. I got matched up against Riker and his eVayl list. He is running 2 Angelius, 2 Ravagores, Scythean, Harrier, Legionaries, the Pasta Pot, a Spell Martyr and some Shepherds. He wins the roll and tells me to go first. This board has a forest on my left and a hill on my right, he has the same. I line up as normal, Deathpact the center unit and we get it on! I rumble forward. The Spell Martyr runs forward and he arcs an Icy Grip in to my Posse in the forest. He runs a Harrier way far up to sort of jam me and then takes some Ravagore shots putting 2 guys in the dirt. Ouch! Fire does nothing to me (but it hurts). I charge in and jam an Angelius on my right, kill a couple Legionnaires, kill the Harrier and wonder how I am going to get out of this mess! He retaliates by having his Scythean kill some Posse members, Ravagores both shoot my left Posse down to it’s last guy on 3 health, the Legionaries in the middle CMA on a Posse member and got hot killing him even under Death Pact. Vayl moves up, puts Refuge on herself, shoots and then in an odd move, advances forward near my lone standing left hand Posse member; lastly he runs an Angelius in front of her. I get excited, way too excited for my own good and forget to Leach (for the second time on the day…noob)! I roll Frenzies and my Snapper frenzies on Maelok but does no damage. I run my Feralgiest 6″ from my Wrastler. My Wrastler with 2 fury on him tries to throw my other Wrastler and fails the strength check… Balls! Vayl is within 4″ of the Angelius so Wrastler two steps up and tries to throw it and succeeds. I miss the boosted roll on Vayl but it wanders backwards 1″ to the 1…Score (she’s KD)! I revive a guy and five transfers later I kill her with like 5 attacks to spare. The Angelius going backwards and pushing her towards me was hot. I lucked this one out!

 

Game 4: Pat won the other match of top table so it’s time for another Dark Omen vs Dark Omen fight! Pat brought Terminus with two units of Bane Thralls (one with UA), 2 Helldivers, Boomhowlers, Nyss Hunters, Tartarus and 2 Pistolwraiths. I get first turn and, since there are buildings abound again, I shuffle forward. Pat runs his Boomhowlers front and center, his Nyss to my right and the Bane Thralls on my left with his Pistol Wraiths hanging out behind the house. I jam in and Dirge causing the Nyss Hunters flee… Awesome! I kill a couple Boomhowlers and like 1 Bane Thrall. I want to feat but decide against it as he has very few targets for anything but Boomies. He flails against my center Posse not doing a whole lot. Cylena and her chicks rally. The Bane Thralls on the left kill a Posse member. I see an avenue to Kill Terminus; he brought him just close enough. If I can clear out 5 Bane Thralls, he is in the dirt on his 4 focus. I upkeep Death Pact, move up, revive on my left and Feat. Seems good so far right? I forget to Zombify and charge in all the Posse. Only my center unit is undead! He makes some tough rolls and I don’t get the lane to Terminus so I ease back and leave my Wrastlers in threatening positions. I get Boomhowler himself in the dirt thanks to Incorporeal and jam up all the Nyss and get a couple other Boomies dead.

Pat thinks it is time big T does some work. He takes a free strike to head over to my Deathpact Posse and Feats. The free strike cranks up and does like seven damage. He gets two of my living Posse members and one of my Deathpact Posse for his troubles. I take the dice and continue to whittle down his Nyss and wipe out Boomies. On the other side I take out Tartarus and bring his Thralls down to five men in each unit. Pat looks way down on Attrition so decides that Terminus needs to get really in the thick of it. He takes another free strike which I crank again and he gains a soul on one of my Swamp Gobbers but Terminus is now in the center of the box; that’s bad news, no matter where I go he will be in range of Maelok! His Helldiver pops up in the center of the board and slams Maelok but only gets me 2″ back. I am still in the Killbox but that sucked. He continues to ram against my Posse ineffectively. I retaliate by sending a Wrastler at Big T leaving him on 4. I Rise that guy to make sure he needs to spend one on Malediction. My Posse eliminate the Nyss and bring him down to 6 Thralls total. My other Wrastler scraps the Helldiver and Rises himself. As a last ditch Terminus charges Maelok, the first free strike toughs him, which he makes, but is now KD (ending his activation immediately). With two Wrastlers staring him in the face Pat concedes the knocked down Terminus.

It was an awesome day and felt good to get some redemption after my abysmal day at NETT and not qualifying at Gencon. I had 202 Army Points destroyed and would have taken that title if I could have, one of the locals got it. Pat ended up with Mage Hunter and Trevvy from Way of the Swan over on the left took Master Craftsman with his awesomely painted Cygnar force. Bo ran a great event and the store was a pleasure to play at!

 

Shane has been an awesome addition to DOGC and is having an excellent tourney season in 2013! Unfortunately he won’t be with DOGC at Warmachine Weekend, but he has become one of the best players in the whole of the Northeast meta and among the best Minion players in the game today! Rumor has it he will be moving away from Gators in 2014, and we are excited to see what  he has in store!