This past weekend at TempleCon, in Warwick, RI our own Anthony Ferraiolo completed an incredible run to be the first Dark Omen member to qualify as a Masters player. He put together his Battle Reports for the Standard Issue Tournament on Saturday where he qualified…

As I reflect on qualifying for my first Masters this past weekend at TemleCon, the largest Warmachine event in the world, I feel that I would be remiss if I didn’t start by thanking my teammates and friends. Without the constant encouragement, practice, and support I would not have been able to accomplish this. TempleCon, one year ago, was my first ever Con. After my friends and I played against the best in the world we decided, despite only having about a year in the game, that we wanted to form our own Warmachine clique to compete at a high level; like so many other great metas around the world. So we did, and one year later, to the day, we were celebrating our first Masters appearance!  I feel that this is not so much about my performance this weekend as it is about all the players in DOGC, and the community that supported us. THANK YOU!

Now to the Battle Reports:

For those of you that have read/followed the DOGC Battle Reports leading up to TempleCon you would know that the lists I have been working on were Terminus and eSkarre, and that is exactly who I ran all weekend. The lists were the same, (and are now publicized by MattieK), but in case you haven’t seen them:

Terminus
Seether
Satyxis Raiders x10 w/ UA
Mechanithralls x10
Necrosurgeon
Bane Knights x10
Witherwshadow Combine
Pistol Wraith
Bane Lord Tartarus
Darrage Wrathe
Madelyn Corbeau

eSkarre
Kraken
Deathjack
Nightwretch
Satyxis Raiders x10 w/ UA
Necrosurgeon
Necrotech
Pistil Wraith x2
Ragman

My lists had been a work in progress up until the final week of the event. I had settled on them and was playing at a relatively high level, confident in both their strengths and weaknesses. My strategy for TC was to view my opponents list, and if I felt that it was a good matchup for eSkarre, I would play her, if not, I would play Terminus. Sounds remedial, but it was really that simple. She really is a poor play against competent ranged, and she is not nearly as survivable on her feat turn as many people think. I would consider what my opponent had played before each match, and what lists they had available. But ultimately my strategy was fairly simple to execute. Now to the games!

I played a TON of highly competitive games this weekend, and the lists/scenarios I played against started to run together in my memory, but I will do the best I can:

Round 1: vs Khal (Toronto, Canada)
Scenario: Supply and Demand
Opposing List:
Borka
Mountain King
Earthborn
Mauler
Slag Troll
Axer
Kriel Stone w/ UA
Trollkin Champion Hero

Recap: So Khal is a player from a surprisingly large contingent of Canadian players that made the 9 hour trek down to TC. His crew organized the first ever Canadian Masters! As such, I was certain I was in for a formidable match. He sported a Grim list (I believe) and his Borka List. With Bombers in one list, and a Borka list with a big POW 16 Spray that I could not stop from firing, and the ability to scrap a Kraken with Rage, Acid Touch, and the Stone I felt that Skarre was not the right play, thus based on my pre-game strategy, it was Terminus for me.

I lost the starting roll and my opponent chose to go 2nd; for deployment I had a lot of terrain on the table w/ Forrest on my near L and far R, and wall in the dead center of the battlefield. I put the Mechanithralls on the side of the near forest (my L); I figured it best that they were delayed early rather than later when trying to engage. I put the Knights on the R so they could go right through the terrain if need be. Raiders in the middle as per usual. My opponent put the Mountain King dead center, Mauler on the L (as I look at him) with the Slag Troll, and the Axer on the R w/ Borka, Stones and Champion.

On the opening turn I moved up to threaten the middle of the board w/ the Raiders, and ran everything else up in support, w/ Terminus in the middle of it all w/ Malediction up. My opponent ran the MK forward but not in the zone, and put the Slag Troll up front to start the piece exchange, with the Mauler slightly in front of the MK but in the zone.

I took the dice back and opted to make this my minifeat turn w/ the Raiders, charging the Slag Troll and the Mauler. While I was able to remove the Slag Troll from the table, I was also able to do a lot of damage to the Mauler as well, and pin back the Gargantuan, not too bad. The rest of my MechThralls were ready for a counter charge, as were the Bane Knights. My opponent moved forward the Axer and Threshered some Raiders out of the way to allow the MK to get into the zone, and the Mauler fought back, reducing the Raider unit even more. He brought the Champion thru the woods to threaten my support hiding behind, and made the mistake of killing a lone Bane Knight, triggering Vengeance.

The next turn was going to be crucial to the outcome of the game as I had to deal with the MK; I decided to charge everything into the Gargantuan and was able to get him down to about single digit boxes with most of the Mechanithralls and remaining Raiders, used the Bane Knights to charge the objective, and stones, with a few swings on Borka. I had Terminus left. I knew if I did not take out the Mountain King everything was going to die as he could heal back up to full. I used the Pistol Wraith to clear a few MechThralls so Terminus could get b2b and used both attacks to try and clear him off. With the Stones aura gone (by self sac), and Malediction up I was dice minus very little and the charge attack took the Gargantuan down. Unfortunately with all the models clogged in the middle i was not able to get the Seether in too far to clog the path and was concerned about the Terminus well being at this point, but removing the Mountain King was paramount. I moved up Darrage Wrathe to further protect him w/ Beyond Death. Then braced for Borka’s counter assault, which would likely be for the game; I did score a CP for destroying the objective.

Khal didn’t hesitate, now knowing the game was on tilt for him w/out the Mountain King. He topped off, put Rage on Borka, and put up the Stones ST buff. He was POW 19 and sucked a free strike on the way into Terminus, unable to charge was a good thing for me. He put up Mosh Pit, and KD Terminus on the first swing, but wasn’t able to do much damage, he only had one attack boosting to hit and damage. The Mauler activated ate a bunch of Whelps and healed, put Rage on himself and took three more free strikes on the way in which despite the heal took out his Body and Spirit again. He was outside the Stone Aura so was only POW 19 and under the effect of Beyond Death which wouldn’t be enough against a full camp Terminus. I took the dice on my turn to clean up. Used Tartarus to Curse Borka and put him under Dark Shroud, then the Bane Knights moved to lock Borka in place so he couldn’t stumble. With no Fury, and being at DEF 12 and ARM 13 due to all the debuffs, he didn’t survive the Knights, despite a tough roll. On to round 2!

Round 2: vs Craig (California, USA)
Scenario: Into the Breach
Opposing Lis:
Kromac
Ghetorix
Stalker
Feral
Gorax
Woldstalkers x2
Shifting Stones w/ UA
Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove x2
Wilder
Gobbers

Recap: In my second round match I drew Circle which is always somewhat relieving for me because I’m so familiar with them, I don’t sweat the pairing as much. Going into the matchup I also knew that I was going to play eSkarre, as I can really neuter their shenanigans with her feat, and nothing they do really catches me by surprise. My opponent is a regular tourney player from California and a great opponent. This would go on to become the most epic game I’ve ever played, given the stakes, and the twists and turns it would ultimately take.

My opponent had eKaya and Kromac, ultimately he chose Kromac and this is a matchup i’m very comfortable with as he is my main Circle Warlock and I had already played my eSkarre list against Circle the night before and it worked out fine. Circle beast heavy lists are very capable of killing Terminus and I find it to be a relatively poor matchup for him, so eSkarre was never not going to get played. I won the starting roll this time, and my opponent opted to go first. I had a building of sorts to the R of  my deployment zone, and a wall to my L so I put the Kraken in the middle, w/ Skarre near the wall so she could advance up to it, and the Nightwretch in between the two, with all the support behind and the Pistol Wraiths flanking my deployment. I put the Raiders amidst the building ruins, and Deathjack on the opposite side of the Linear at the very R end of my deployment opposite a forest on my opponents side of the board. Kromac deployed essentially across from Skarre, w/ the majority of his battlegroup on the L side (as I stood) ready to jump the zone) supported by one unit of Woldshrimp and the Stalker on the other side of his deployment across the forest from Deathjack supported by the second unit of Woldshrimp and the Gallows Grove.

I opened the game with the Raiders moving to threaten the zone but not too far in total, put a Pistol Wraith and Ragman in the ruins on the L of my deployment area behind the Raiders, and had Skarre put Death Ward on Kraken and move to the linear obstacle, supported by a Pistol Wraith and Necrosurgeon with the Nightwretch moving forward as well. I had DJ put Admonition on himself and moved him behind the wall as well. Kraken took an erroneous shot at their lines to let them know he meant business, scattered onto the Gobbers and killed one! Kromac’s force inched up as well on the opening turn; the Warlock put Inviolable Resolve on Ghetorix and Warpath on himself, camping the final few in case of another long shot from the Hellblaster Cannon. He moved the battlegroup up, save for the Stalker (who was not near him), into the Stones to threaten Teleportation, and the Stalker toed into the far side of the forest outside of 3” LOS, and in Prowl.

On the second turn I could see this match was going to be cagey. I gave one to the Kraken and camped the rest. I moved the Raiders in an extreme flanking maneuver, to the far L side of the board (as I stood) walling them off in the zone between the ruined building (on my side) and a wall (on the other side), with the zone in the middle. I was very happy with the placement. Deathjack remained back, as I was afraid of Kromac triggering Warpath on the Stalker moving him 3” forward and having LOS to DeathJack so I camped the wall, and stayed w/in 4” of the Flag. I could have moved him forward and used Admonition but I wanted to save it, and not have to recast. Kraken took another long Hellcannon shot and this time took out a non Stealth Shifting Stone, a subtle yet super important piece off the board. I turned the dice back over to my opponent. Kromac was going to start to engage, Zephyr’d the Woldshrimp on the side of the board with the zone forward starting to shoot the Raiders. They clipped one, and triggered Warpath on the Feral, moving into the zone and then it went on to kill a couple more Raiders. Blood drawn but nothing serious at this point. He did inch the Stalker forward and had Kromac put Wild Aggression on him, as well as casting Beastial for the first time. DJ and the Stalker now had LOS to each other, but I did not want to go into the forest and get stuck there for a turn, plus I wasnt’ sure I would be able to make it w/ the difficult terrain.

I took the dice back and was still not in a position to do a lot, but he did have the other unit of Stones available for the Raiders to reach. So I opted to use their minifeat and charge into them and the Feral. I took out two stones, and did a good amount of damage to the heavy beat, 12-15 pts or so. Now with both unit of Stones no longer able to Teleport, I opted to run Deathjack into the game in front of the Kraken, at extreme threat range of the Feral and Ghetorix, with Raiders in between. With Beastial up I was not going to be able to arc on that side of the board anyway, I opted to use the Nightwretch to contest the Flag, and used the wall as best I could remaining w/in 4” of the Flag.The Pistol Wraith on my L ran from behind the ruins across the zone and up against the wall on my opponents side of the board across from the Woldshrimp unit. Kraken opened fire on the Woldshirmp and plucked a few, then took a Hellcannon shot on the Wilder and did 4 damage from the blast, then I used the other Pistol Wraith to finish off the Wilder. I turned the dice back over to my opponent waiting to see how he would respond. Kromac was not going to get aggressive as most of my army was not accessible, so he did not take the bait on sending a heavy across the board at DJ. He instead opted to use the Stalker to kill the Nightwretch. With no more Wilder, he had to come forward a bit to keep the Stalker in his CNTL to force him appropriately. He decided to not upkeep Inviolable Resolve on Ghetorix, and but kept the other two spells in play. He moved forward to make sure he could force the Stalker, but only just enough. Then took the free charge on the Stalker into the Nightwretch, put Lightning Strike on himself, and warped for ST. He destroyed the bone chicken then and Sprinted back to the woods. The Woldshrimp came forward and took the Pistol Wraith off the table. The Feral and Ghetorix moved foward and continued to close the ranks on the Kraken but only slightly, not wanting to give up the alpha, and continued to take apart the Raiders, who were holding up rather well. The Woldshrimp on that side failed to hit the Pistol Wraith, who was still causing problems, by contesting and shooting at the rear ranks.

As my turn started, I realized that Craig had brought Kromac too far forward, he was within range of a Perditioned Deathjack. Craig didn’t see it but I had Skarre move to the R end of the wall (out of Beastial range) and cast Perdition at the Woldshrimp, killed one, and moved the Deathjack forward, with full focus. I then Feated, putting it on DJ, Skarre, the Stalker, Necrosurgeon and one Raider making charges on the Kraken difficult, I then moved Admonition to Skarre, typically the feat turn is the best turn to rotate that spell to her. I didn’t think it would matter, as Kromac was only sitting on two Fury, I charged DJ in, MAT 8, 7 attacks, +4 on damage. I hit the charge attack, did 20 damage, which transferred to Ghetorix. I missed the second, hit the third which he took, I missed the fourth, and hit the 5th which was transferred. With two attacks left, Kromac had 6 boxes and no Fury remaining; I needed 7’s to hit, opted to take two chances instead of one boosted, and missed them both… :(. (As i’m sure you might be questioning, Deathjack at this point, was outside of Skarre’s CNTL area so I could not use Seas of Fate. I disappointed obviously, but was still in good shape as I was under Feat and his battlegroup was very damaged. Ghetorix, was locked in, and the Feral had a number of Raiders in front of him. My opponent handled this about as well as he could have. He boxed Deathjack in so he couldn’t move before attacking. Used Ghetorix and the Woldshrimp to spring the Feral; snacking as he went to heal. Kromac then feated (crazy I know), took 1 damage point, cast Wild Aggression on the Feral and swapped to Beast form, so he could jump to place 5” away avoiding a free strike from DJ, well done. The Feral then braved the charge past the remaining Raider in the path, she whiffed and he crashed home on the Kraken taking out his entire L side. He then ran the Woldshrimp that were near Skarre straight back behind the forest so they could not be Perdition targets again; leaving the tree as the only contesting model on the flag.

I took the dice back knowing that I was still in control of the game. I should likely finish off Ghetorix w/ DJ, and get the Feral w/ Kraken after a heal from the Necrotech and help from Ragman. That would leave the Stalker versus both heavies, DJ on full boxes, and Kromac w/ only 5 left. Sounds like a plan; I started w/ Necrotech, who got enough to get the L arm back up. Then Ragmen was up, gets Death Field cast. Kraken’s turn, he goes to town on the Feral with full focus and leaves the Feral on 1 box… :/. I have recourse still, but Deathjack is next. This should be easier, w/ 5 attacks, Ghetorix had healed to about half, so I should not have an issue finishing him off. Five attacks later, and Ghetorix had taken… 1 wound. That’s correct, one friggen wound! I missed four attacks and rolled snake eyes on damage (dice -1) for the one I did hit. Now all three heavies were available. This is not good. I charged the remaining Raiders into the Feral’s rear, and finished him off thanks to Deafthfield and CMA. I opted not to use the last Raider to go near Ghetorix out of fear of not making the CMND for the Terror check, she couldn’t do enough damage anyway. I used Skarre last to take a shot at the Gallows that was not more than 5” from me, and took it out, to score the first CP of the game. At this point, I took stock in the game state,  it was a contest that I had clearly had well in hand not long ago; then the past two turns the dice had just taken it away from me, and now it was a matter of time before I was going to lose. I’m not one to ever complain about dice, as this is a game of chance, as any game of dice is. Even if there are negotiable odds, it’s still chance; if I didn’t want dice involved I would play Chess. However it is what it is. My opponent was great about it and promised me a beer… or two, after he was able to finalize the game. On his turn he took care of business, Ghetorix under Primal took the boots to Deathjack, turning him into scrap, with a little help from the Gorax. Then Kromac moved up to cycle Wild Aggression back onto the Stalker. He charged in and finished off the Kraken. He finished his turn by running the Woldshrimp forward and contesting the Flag again.

So… what to do, what to do, what to do. Kromac is sitting on three Fury at the moment, after not upkeeping anything, and casting Wild Aggression. I have a Pistol Wraith that is behind him, and Skarre left, w/ Ragman, a Necrosurgeon and a Necrotech. Since he had to come forward to buff the Stalker, he was completely in the open. I have no jacks left, my only recourse at this point was to to try and finish Kromac off. As such, I moved the Pistol Wraith forward, keeping him in Kromac’s back arc, and was able to tag him twice! Were my dice finally going to come around? I did five damage each time, meaning he had to transfer both or die, the last hit splashed a couple of damage back onto Kromac; three left. Skarre was left, she had full focus, a gun and a spell list. Here we go: first the Hand Cannon shot, hits!!!! I rolled boosted damage on him, did enough to cause the last transfer, killing Ghetorix, and causing splash back damage again. Now down to a box, I cast Blood Rain on him, hit!!! Damage roll… GOT HIM!!!!! Don’t call it a comeback :D. After I picked myself up off the mat (literally and figuratively) I was moving onto round 3.  Most epic game (for me)… ever.

Round 3: vs Zak (Massachusetts, USA)
Scenario: Fire Support
Opposing List:
Harbinger
Reckoner x2
Vanquisher
Knights Exemplar Errants x10 w/ UA
Zealots w/ UA
Bastions x5
Vassal
Mechanik
Choir x3

Recap: I looked at my opponents lists, and saw that he had played Harbinger in both of his previous two games, my suspicion was that he would likely do the same in this match, either way in both lists, he had double Reckoners. This was not a match up I wanted Skarre in, Purification is pretty horrendous for her and with those long range guns, I really wanted no part of that; so it was back to Terminus for me. Of course my opponent dropped Harbinger, who I have become used to seeing at this point.

I lost the starting roll, and my opponent opted to go first. He set up his battlegroup all to the L center (as I looked at the board) supported by the Bastians with his Zealots on the R. The Errants would set up front and center. There was terrain mostly in the middle horizontal line of the board, with ruins on the L and woods on my R. I decided to put the Bane Knights on the L to deal w/ the Ruins and my opponents battlegroup supported by the Seether, and the MechThralls on the R to deal w/ the Zealots, as they would be fronted by the Raiders allowing the Mechanithralls to navigate the woods..

My opponent went first and moved out aggressively, Feating on the opening turn, opting to pin me back as far as possible. This is a strong tactic and one that I am not unfamiliar with, so I toed around the edge of Harbinger’s CNTL area, ran the Raiders to the extreme R flank, and edged the rest of my force forward to the outside of her feat. I ran the Seether to the ruins, and decided I would have Terminus support the Banes to deal with the opposing battlegroup. I was comfortable in my position, as Harbinger would not be able to score this upcoming turn and both sides of my force were properly supported.

Harbinger’s fwp turn went reasonably well, both Reckoners took Assault shots on the Seether, and the Vassal allowed for one more; my opponent caught some hot dice and took him down to half boxes right away. Not good for me, but I’ll take it as the Seether is serving his roll correctly, and still alive to have a fwp turn. He activated the Errants and started to fire on the Banes, killing one and triggering Vengeance. On the other side of the battle, the Zealots triggered their minifeat and ran forward. Not a lot of blood drawn, but I’m ready to start counter assaulting. I took the dice back, and in response to the Zealots, I ran the Raiders to complete the extreme flanking maneuver to the far side of the battllefield deep into my opponent’s half of the board, to about ¾ of the way across threatening the objective and the rear of the zealots as well as the flank of Harbinger. I ran the Mechanithralls in to engage the Zealots and camped the Necrosurgeon behind the trees setting up the McThrall factory next turn, protected nicely by a piece of terrain to hide her Stitch Thralls in while they collected corpses. On the other side of the board, I crashed home with the Banes, and did a number on the Errants. I moved my support and Terminus to back up their efforts, affording them Tough and Curse, as well as Beyond Death. That entire side of the battlefield was locked in melee. With the early game clearly in Harbinger’s favor, I felt that the game was at a pivot point, ready to turn in my favor.

My opponent was frustrated on the main side of the battle by all my Banes Reach weapons clogging his lines; he was not able to do much and really unable to get his Bastions into the mix the way he wanted. He did clear a couple more Banes, but was facing down counter assault from more Banes and the support next turn. The Bastions were able to finish off the Seether on the near side of the wall, leaving a nice piece of difficult terrain to clog things up more. On the other side of the battle he turned the Vanquisher away from the main scrum to help deal w/ the Raiders, dropping a pie plate on a few to set them on fire. The Zealots started to dig their way out of the McThralls, but that was a losing proposition, as they were only fueling their own demise. I took the dice back ready to start stepping on Harbinger’s throat. I mini feated the Raiders and charged into the Objective, Zealots and Vanquisher. They took out the Objective for the first CP of the game, and had took the Zealots down a few models. The McThralls did a number on the Zealots as well, and there was only a one or two left when they were done. On the other side of the board, Terminus continued to close ranks on Harbinger. Tartarus activated first, and charged into the Reckoner threshering four Errants, making three more Bane Knights, who popped up behind the line of the jacks and Bastions. They activated next, and took apart the rest of the Errants, and started to do major damage to the Reckoners, also leaving the Bastions all tied in. With one Reckoner ready to go down, I decided to commit Terminus to finishing the job, as there was a Mechanik lurking in the background close enough to start repairing it next turn. The combo of Dark Shroud from BLT and Malediction from Terminus allowed him to swing once and finish the heavy jack off. I finished my turn by moving Darrage Wrathe forward to get Beyond Death up, and then turned over the dice to my opponent feeling good about my spot.

Harbinger assessed the board and it was apparent the flank on the R (from my view) was collapsing rapidly, and the main battle front was falling with one ‘jack now gone and another in severe shape. The Errants were all but eliminated, save for the standard bearer,, and only a couple of Bastions remained. Zak thought it was time to try and salvage the game with an assassination run. He gave the Rekoner full focus, and walked it up, hit then proceeded to roll HUGE damage, triple box car… :/. Really!?!? Sad part is, that this was not the first time that has happened to me in a Terminus v Harbinger game; apparently, here we go again. Good news is the followup attack missed leaving Terminus at half his damage boxes. Harbinger was next and was not able to get super close due to the Banes clogging the way, and dropped a POW 15 Cataclysm on Terminus, not doing any damage. Phew! I was not concerned until those trip 6’s dropped, ultimately it was okay, and Harbinger died to Vengeance attacks the beginning of my next turn. Winning round 3, now Masters clearly within my sights, just one victory away!

Round 4: Tom (California, USA)
Scenario: Incursion
Opposing List:
eLiche (2)
Nightwretch
Defiler
Bane Knights x 10
Bane Thralls x10 w/ UA
Blood Witches x10 w/ UA
Bile Thralls x6
Tartarus
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Recap: Mirror matches are simply never fun. My opponent was sporting eLiche and pDenny. I knew with little doubt that he was going to play eLiche; he had played both lists to that point, but had played Liche twice; given that a spot in the masters was at stake I knew that his horse was eLiche in this match. That list was one of the two that I really don’t have a good answer to, the other being a double Stormwall list. I considered my options, I knew that eLiche would have little trouble with Kraken, based on his feat, and while the Biles wouldn’t be a huge issue, they were still an effective way to deal with the one unit of infantry I had in the list. That left the entire game on Deathjack to win, and I wasn’t comfortable with that. To be honest, I wasn’t comfortable w/ my Terminus match up either. I don’t play Biles with him, and given I have 40 models in the list, I would expect to get purged off the table. So neither was really preferable, and in that situation, I fall back to what I’m most comfortable with, which is Terminus. So I dropped my Terminus list and away we went.

I won the starting role, and opted to go first. There was ruins on the L side of the battlefield just out front of my deployment zone, and a hill out front of the R side of my deployment zone. A small forest on the L side near my opponent’s deployment zone and a wall on the R also near his zone. I put Terminus in the middle as per usual w/ the Mechthralls on my R and the Bane Knights on my L so they could easily navigate the ruins. The Raiders AD out in front on the hill on the R of my board. My opponent put Liche just behind the wall so he could move first turn and camp there. The bone chicken was next to him on his L (as I looked at the table), with the Bane Knights to the L of the them and the Bane Thralls to the R. WE&SJ were supporting the Bane Thralls, and the Witches were on the far L of the board, across from my Bane Knights. In the middle of his deployment was a conga line of Biles separating the arc node from the Bane Knights, in a single file line going directly back towards his own table edge.

On my opening turn, it was standard fare, I put Malediction on Terminus and charged him up the board, and surrounded him by the MechThralls and the Banes. I moved the Raiders to a tentative position middle of the board, on the far side of battle, on the hill out of threat range of the Bane Thralls. The Seether ran up along side Terminus, and I turned the dice to my opponent. On the opening turn, he ran the bone chicken into Excarnate range of the Raiders near the hill, and then activated Liche and did just that; successfully casting then popping a Bile and purging three Raiders from the table. He then put Hellbound on himself; and was very aggressive with the rest of his army, as his Feat allows him to be, and forced his army down my throat. The Witches as expected moved to front my Knights and did their mini feat to prevent the alpha. Liche’s force was in a strong position.

I surveyed the table, and could see that this battle already looking bad before it had really begun. I could not stand toe to toe w/ Tom’s list, based on my build, and decided instead that I would try to put some quick damage on Liche and see if I could get him on his heels. So I started w/ the Raiders, figured they would likely be purged from the table next turn anyway, so charged in and mini Feated sending four at the Nightwretch; my hope was to get a few points of Feedback damage on Liche. Plan executed well, I did two to Asphyxious and was able to scrap the bone chicken after a few CMAs. I also fronted the Bane Thralls, taking a few of them down. With Liche at the wall, I was within spray range of him w/ Terminus after a move. Liche was on little camp, so I decided if I could get a decent roll, He would be well below half right away and that would change the landscape of the game, forcing him backwards and neutralizing his feat. So I did, and caught good dice, doing another 10 damage to him, putting Liche down to only 6 boxes. I did forget that he was suffering Corrosion continuous effect, but realized it in the middle of my next turn. I was satisfied at this point, and engaged the rest of his force crashing around Terminus to thwart any effort to get to him this turn, killing what could be killed. Finishing w/ the Seether blocking off the charge lane from Snapjaw if Liche was able to clear the area in front of him with purging. With that I turned the dice back over to my opponent, hoping I had bought myself some breathing room on his Feat; if so I could begin to apply my resources next turn. Liche went first, backed straight away from Terminus, and dropped his Soul Reaper on the Raiders clumped in front of the Bane Thralls. After upkeeping Hellbound, he camped the rest leaving him on ARM 22. The Biles did there thing and netted him another five (or so) souls, and freeing the Bane Thralls to mix it up and get more in the game. Snapjaw was not able to get free from behind the infantry, and only inched up. The Witches crashed home on the Bane Knights but did minimal damage as they could not get thru the Reach in most cases. Overall it was a rather moot turn for Liche, which made me feel like my plan was working.

In taking the dice back, I surveyed the setup, and after very little deliberation it was apparent I could go for the game this turn; I was relatively surprised that Tom didn’t get Liche further away with a Teleport. The plan was rather simple, use Puppet Strings to cheese out the dice on another spray from Terminus, and use my Feat if it didn’t work. I could fuel Terminus up with Witch souls which could be easily snatched by my Banes and McThralls all mixed in. I could secure his position with the wall and negate charges as I would have Big T in everyone’s back arc. It was actually a relatively low risk assassination attempt. At this point I remembered the Corrosion, too little too late for the prior turn, but it made me feel a lot better about what I was about to do. So I used the Vengeance attacks from the Knights to clear what needed to be cleared in front of Terminus. Trampled the Seether into Snapjaw so he would not be a factor next turn. Then activated the Combine to put Puppet Strings on Terminus, and moved him up to the wall were Liche once was, and sprayed him again. Boost to hit, and damage. Got the hit, and on the damage I rolled a 6,1,1 so I opted to use the re-roll on the two ones, and… BOOM a 5 and 3, which means another 6 damage… wait count it again… yup 6 damage FTW!!!!!!  GOING TO MASTERS!!!!

It certainly took a moment to realize what just happened, then I was swamped by my teammates from all around so it became real right away. I have to say receiving lots of love from all the players at the Con, as anybody who has ever tried to qualify knows how difficult it is, was probably the best part of the whole thing.

A number of people have asked me since this weekend how I was able to qualify with only a year of tournament experience. You have to be a good player of course, but it’s more than that. You also have to have a reasonable draw, the dice have to cooperate, and you need to have stamina for days… literally. I played 12 games in 3 days, which may or may not sound like a lot, but I promise you by itself that alone is taxing, add in the pressure of each game that mounts as the days build, plus the combined 30+ hours of standing, and people draped all around you while play, especially as the rounds go later. It is a mental exercise like not much else I have experienced in my life.

If qualifying to play in a Masters is something that you want to try and go for, my #1 piece of advice is that you definitely need a meta that shares the same goal. I cannot say enough about my DOGC friends. Not only do we push each other in our practice sessions, but this weekend, they truly supported everything I was doing. Staying after their events were over to watch me play. Making sure I had water and food so I didn’t starve, and generally knowing you have ‘fans’ supporting you makes you play that much better. The second piece of advice I can offer, is to not be intimidated by the scene. We all just like to play games, roll dice, and push models around a table. Of course there is more on the line than that, but it seems to me what holds a lot of good local players back is the assumption that other players are ‘better’ than them or they are generally afraid to put themselves in the arena for fear of failure. Just enjoy the games, put yourself out there, play lots of games, and don’t feel like you have to reinvent the wheel to have a chance. Play what works for you, and don’t try to do what somebody else is doing, unless it’s what you want to do. It’s a game above all else, if you’re not enjoying yourself then don’t play. Find what you like to play and play it, if you get comfortable with what that is, the wins will come. If you want to play better in big events, then put yourself in big events and play, how else is it going to happen? If you get your teeth knocked in, you learn and get better. I learn way more from losses than I do from wins. I’m pretty sure most players who are honest with themselves will tell you the same thing.

Of the other reflections from TempleCon this weekend, the biggest one is in regard to dice. I never have felt much sway of dice on my game play in one game or another. I have always felt that players saying ‘i got diced’ or ‘they diced me’ was a quasi cop out on a game they probably made other mistakes that allowed you to be in a position to be ‘diced’. After my second round game with Craig in Standard Issue, it did feel like the dice had gone way past uncooperative, and I wanted to start making that excuse. What I learned though, is that solid tactics still prevailed, in spite of epic bad dice. I think what bad dice do is lead to bad play or a self fulfilling prophecy that you ‘feel’ like you’re ‘supposed’ to lose the game so you play in a manner that facilitates that. If the dice won’t cooperate, don’t simply hand the game the game over, play it until it’s completion. Finish what you started, and make your opponent win the game. If you’ve played a solid game to that point, there may well come a point where the dice have a chance to come around again or your opponent simply makes a grave mistake. That’s what happened to me in that 2nd round, and if I gave up on the game, I would not have been playing in Masters on Sunday. It’s a dice game, and I encourage you to always remember that. Rolls go good and bad; play each game the best you can, never assume anything ‘will’ or ‘won’t’ happen, and never concede a game willingly because of dice, make your opponent win the game, don’t simply lose it for them.

Another reflection from this weekend is about poor matchups. I would argue that I faced a number of them in my 12 games, namely Harbinger, whom I saw multiple times, and eLiche. Bad matchups are going to happen, and the same rule applies as it does with dice. Uphill battles exist with any build; you need to have a plan on how you’re going to deal with it. I wouldn’t just offer over the game because the matchup is not one you want to face. Play the game, and again make sure your opponent has to play well to win. Be able to understand why that matchup beats you, do the best you can to avoid falling for the usual tricks and traps. I have found that often times your opponent knows it’s a favorable matchup, the same as you expect it to be unfavorable, and often will get impatient because they want to hurry up and win an ‘easy’ game. That leads to mistakes and/or sloppy play, and very few games at all are auto lose for any combination in my experience. If games were played on paper, we’d have no reason to paint the models!

Overall, the experience I had this weekend was a great one, and I hope it’s one I will have a chance to live again. I finished strong in Masters going 2-1, and finishing among the top 8 players in the Con. I can’t wait to go at it again, I hope to see you all across a table soon, and wish you the best in your own gaming endeavors be it Masters, or open play night at your LGS!

This past weekend (January 19th) DOGC continued to make the rounds on the regional tourney scene in preparation of TempleCon, and Anthony stayed hot winning for the second time in as many weeks; this time in Rhode Island at The Temple. The win is not only Anthony’s 6th, but represents DOGC’s 4th win in the month of January (most ever), and their 16th win throughout the Northeast in this, the inaugural year! Here is the battle report review from Anthony’s side of the table…

Before I get into my game notes, I want to say thanks to Temple and Grant for hosting the event. Despite the mounds of TempleCon paraphernalia piled around the store, we were able to have a pretty sweet event! Thanks to Tom for dragging himself out of bed to moderate the day, and a VERY big congrats to J-Wow on successfully walking the plank… I mean getting married :); AND to Roger for moving into his first home, but still making time to stop by and say hello to his geek fam! Now onto the table top review…

As I continue to count down to TempleCon with my friends and teammates, I’m trying to put in as much table time as possible before then. As such, I’m playing in my second tourney in as many weekends, and this time I have a 50 pointer to sink my teeth into. It’s important given most of the events to this point have been 35 points, and all the events i’m registered for at the Con are 50s.

The event was a 2013 SR Beta with Specialists to prep for TC. Noting that, here are my lists:

eSkarre
Kraken
Deathjack
Nightwretch
Satyxis Raiders w/ UA (x10)
Pistol Wraith (x2)
Necrosurgeon
Necrotech
Ragman                                                

Terminus
Seether
Satyxis Raiders w/ UA (x10)
Bane Thralls w/ UA (x10)
Mechanithralls (x10)
Necrosurgeon
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Darrage Wrathe
Madelyn Corbeau
Saxon Orrik

I knew the game was over, so I decided to try and be tidy with my turn, and mop up as many points destroyed as possible. Use the Banes to get the debuff on MacBain, then killed some more trolls and Kayazy, also finally Kell was put into the dirt. As I declared my charge on MacBain which would have  gotten Terminus to b2b with his flag (which MacBain was never able to do himself) and end the game; the round clock expired before I was able to do the deed and I won on tiebreakers.

Round 2: vs Trolls
Scenario: Into the Breach
Opposing List:
eDoomshaper
Earthborn
Mulg
Bomber
Mauler
Axer
Stones w/ UA
Runebearer

Round 3: vs Skorne
Scenario: Supply and Demand
Opposing List:
eHexeris
Bronzeback
Gladiator
Sentry
Reivers x10 w/ UA
Paingivers
Agonizer
Gatorman Posse
Thrullg
Extoller

Last week up in Massachusetts at Pandaemonium Games DOGC youngling Alex Buganski took some time out of his busy college class schedule to win his first career SR! The 11th win of 2012 for DOGC, in it’s inaugural year, and with Alex’s win they have 6 members with tourney wins to their credit. Here’s the breakdown in his own words…

This tourney was 25 points and I decided to bring tier 4 Constance as my list. I had  Constance, Gallant, 2 min units of Precursor Knights with UAs a min unit of Sword Knights, Jr and Archduke Runewood

Game 1:
I faced Durgen Madhammer in the incursion scenario. He had Nyss hunters, a driller, a gun bunny and a few support solos. I went second and ran everything up into the zones around the flag and feated to try and persuade him not to kill anything. (I didn’t work) He tried and ended up killing half of my precursor knight unit in the middle. He moved a Gun Bunny to the flag on the right to shoot and was just out of contesting. I killed the Gun Bunny and most of the Nyss and Gallant rolled bonkers on the Driller taking out most of it. Well he responded by trying to kill my infantry but didn’t get much. He had moved Durgen up to do so, and Connie charged him killing him in three hits.

Game 2:
I faced off a eHaley list with a Centurion, Thorn, Gun Mages, Jr. and Harlan Versh. It was a flank scenario and I was able to flood one zone with a PK unit and went after the other with the other PK. He used the Centurion to try and kill gallant but left him with one box. Constance killed the Centurion and over the next two turns I killed the rest of his army until Connie killed a fully camping Haley. Go go Flank!!

Game 3:
For final table I faced pDenny with full Soul Hunters, min Raiders, two Arc Nodes and Wrath. He ran everything into the middle, which was a forest and I responded by charging after casting Crusaders Call and feating. I killed most of the raiders. He only killed 6 of my guys and then feated (in return). Well the next 4 turns was a mixture of my PKs miming it up in the middle while Constance and Runewood killed the Arc Nodes running around the edges. It finally came down to Constance and Gallant against Denny and the Soulhunters; he also only had a minute remaining on his Death Clock and I has (approximately) 10. He ran as long as he could but I eventually cornered Denny and Connie and Gallant teamed up to take her down winning me the tournament!

……..

Alex was so busy winning the event he didn’t take many pictures along the way, but here is a few shots including Gallant facing down pDenny for the win!

This past Saturday DOGC sent two members travelling to Rhode Island to The Temple to participate in the 50 Point Hardcore Tourney, and came home with another 1st place finish!  Anthony won his 4th tournament this year, marking his 5th final table, and 2nd Hardcore win of the 2012 tournament season. Here is the battle report in his own words:

First off, very special thanks to Grant at Temple Games for hosting this awesome event, and even providing outdoor table gaming on a beautiful Saturday afternoon! Also to one of The Temple PG team Jeff Wowkowych who ran a really awesome event. Secondarily, I have to say that I have played in many tournaments, and this was one of the few times where each opponent was a truly great player, and an awesome person to play against. Many times at an event there is one regrettable experience or one particular opponent who is new to the format, the game, or events. On Saturday I really had four opponents who were all very capable Warmachine opponents, who were also a blast to play against, with high fives and handshakes before, during, and after. It’s a testament to the player community at Temple Games, and I can’t wait to go back again!!! Now onto the battle report…

Hardcore, as I have said before, is not a format I particularly enjoy, tho, I can see why it has the cult following within the Warmachine player base that it does. In a game that breeds a competitive tabletop balance, the Hardcore format is the purest form of the most basic essence of the game: kill the caster. To me, however, the time constraints are such that it leads to racey, if not sloppy, play in some cases just to get thru your activations; which, to me, can take away from the enjoyment of what is normally a sharply played tabletop tournament game.

All that said, it definitely does have it’s place, and for me, someone who enjoys being a competitive Warmachine player, it is an arena where you earn your stripes among the community. That said, to my list:

Terminus
Seether
Mech Thralls (full)
Satyxis Raiders w/ UA (full)
Bane Thralls w/ UA (full)
Necrosurgeon
Withershadow Combine
Darrage Wrathe
Bane Lord Tartarus
Madelyn Corbeau
Saxon Orrik

This is the third level of a list you have read in my previous battle reports. The first, at 20, the second at 35, and now at 50. To me, this is probably the best overall list I have that most easily fits into the Hardcore style. A 50 point game is one in which you have to really account for all things you might face, especially in a Hardcore Format, where it’s one list to rule them all. I am certainly not inventing the wheel with this incarnation, but it does have my own flare.

Some of the major con Hardcore Big T lists include Bane Knights over Thralls, Witches for magic weapons and Bile Thralls for good measure. I prefer the Satyxis Raiders for their ability to get across the board quickly, pin the opponent into position to allow the rest of my horde to rush forward. The Mech Thralls are standard fare for every Terminus player, and I prefer the Bane Thralls for the debuff over their Knight counterparts and I include Saxon to account for the lack of Ghostly. I have been criticized for including the 3 point UA for the Thralls over say, a Pistol Wraith, or other perceived better uses. To me it’s a few things, for one, tactical diversion as many opponents will attack the banner to remove Tough, which isn’t really necessary when Terminus is usually providing it to the unit regardless. Additionally Dead Rise is a big deal in my experience, also when Terminus has to break off from the Banes for any reason, the fact that they remain Tough is a significant factor in the units ability to persist throughout the game. Corbeau are Wrathe are Terminus’ personal court IMHO :). As always I prefer the Seether over a DJ simply for the points efficiency. I have toyed with the idea of dropping the Bane Thrall UA in lieu of DJ, but I simply don’t like anything competing with Terminus for souls during Dragon’s Call.

Now to the Battle Reports…

Tourney: Hardcore – 50 point -1 list required, No Extensions, Assassin Scoring, Close Quarters (all rounds), Artifice Killbox

Before the dice rolled, as was usual and customary, players milled around and scoped each other’s travel boards out. The commentary prior is always the same when you are putting almost 50 models on the board, which is this: in a time constrained game is how do I get thru all the activations? In truth, you’d have to ask those who play against me how I fare for the best assessment; but for my money, sometimes you simply don’t get to all your pieces. So the acquired skill in this format is activating the things that are highest priority first and keeping the most critical activations in the correct order. I know that is not exactly a pro tip :); however, I’m want to be sure to note it, as it is the most important skill to develop if you want to play competitively in this format. In standard Hardcore timing, I do find this much more challenging that with the Death Clock Variant. For those that aren’t familiar with Hardcore formats, they have one time slot less than that of a standard game of the particular size you are playing, in this case 7 minute timed turns (because we were playing 50 points) and NO extension per the TO. This is a much different challenge than with Death Clock, as you don’t have the ability to bank time for the most important turn that will come at some point. On that crucial turn you have to know it going in, and crank because you will get no additional time in timed turns as you would in Death Clock. At the end I will give some additional reflections.

As always, it’s hard to recall every detail in complete accuracy, so I will do my best. Apologies in advance, especially to my opponents (if they are reading), for any details missed.

Round 1: vs Skorne

Opponents List:
pMorgul
Tiberion
Molik Karn
Sentry
Bronzeback
Gladiator
Agonzier
Pain Givers
Marketh

Synopsis: So, of all the ugly matchups I could draw in Hardcore is the very matchup that has taken down many a Terminus list in the past: a pMorgul beast heavy beat stick list. I personally watched this very match at the final table of Hardcore, ironically enough, at Temple Con earlier this year. My opponent, Derrick, is a really skilled player, who was in attendance at my last Hardcore tourney win up in Massachusetts at the Whiz. We did not face off that day, and this would be our first match. Worse news for me is that Derrick is primarily a Cryx player, therefore, nothing I had was going to surprise him.

The set up for terrain was fairly neutral as we each had a obstacles flanking our deployment zones, only difference was I had trees on my L, as oppose to impassable. I won the roll to go first, and as such chose to take advantage of that. My deployment was standard with Terminus in the middle, and instead of stacking my units which I normally do, I put the Banes to Big T’s L and Mech Thralls to the R. Seether to far R, support in the rear, and Satyxis up front. The Skorne setup was a brick with the Sentry and Tiberion up front, flanked by the Gladiator and Bronzeback with Molik Karn just behind that meat line next to Morgul and Marketh with the PG in the very rear.

I opened by getting my Satyxis clear across the board, putting three raiders in front exposed, and the rest of my horde up behind them, using Saxon to get the Banes thru the woods. Malediction was up on Terminus, and then used Death Ride from Wrathe to inch (literally) forward. My first derp of the day, I inched Big T too close to the Sea Witch forcing the Abomination check, luckily I made the successful check and moved on. Morgul opened up his brick advanced forward, and slung Molik Karn out to clip the up front Raiders, and Fate Walker back. This did force the brick forward and to be a little more loosely set up to allow for Karn to make his way back behind the lines.

On turn 2, I crashed home with the Raiders, sending most of the remainder of the unit at the Sentry, as I wanted Locker off the table. Raiders minifeated and thanks to chain weapons, multiple attacks and some friendly dice, I was able to remove that beast from the able. I backed loaded the Raiders with the remainder of my line, and prepared for the counterattack. With one heavy off the board, Morgul took to starting to wade thru the infantry. He used Tiberion to to clear the Raiders blocking the way to the Banes, and thanks to Train Wreck was able to get out of the way of Karn. As such Molik activated next, and burned thru a number of Banes, before ending the turn retreating back behind the Gladiator and Tiberion. Morgul finished the turn by feating to hamper my ability to allow Terminus from helping at all, and keeping the Seether out of the battle. As such it would be up to my remaining units to do the heavy lifting.

I took the dice on turn 3, and decided not to feat, as there really was no benefit, my plan was to only take out beasts which at best would net me three souls; again not worth it. Additionally, there was a handful of Pain Givers on the board, and if this continued to attrition down, I would enjoy those tasty souls in the late game. As such, I activated Tartarus cursed Tiberion, and sent the Banes to work. I was able to get most of the remaining unit onto the character beast, and they were able to get it done, as he already had some damage on him. The Bronzeback was the next priority as he was the biggest threat to Terminus. I activated Necrosurgeon (remembering) to make some Mech Thralls, replenished the unit a bit, and sent them to work on a debuffed Titan, currently under Dark Shroud. Combo striking charges from a handful of Mech Thralls were able to put that beast into the dirt. I was able to finally get damage onto Karn as he did not retreat far enough to get away from a Darrage Wrathe charge and I had him under Dark Shroud, so while not off the board he was bleeding. II felt pretty good about my position, as he was down three heavies, I still had mine, and two of my three units mostly in tact. Derrick took the dice and put Molik Karn back to work. Weaving thru the lines sidestepping, he was able take both Darrage Wrathe and Tartarus out of the game. Gladiator activated and cleanup as many Mech Thralls as possible. He had snuck the agonizer around to within 4” of the Seether, and thus prevented him from being allocated focus, very astute move I did not see coming on my flank.

It was getting down to the nitty, and model count was getting low, and he still had two heavies. I decided it was time for Terminus to get into the mix, I activated the Withershadow Combine, giving Big T the Puppet Strings, and sent him off to charge Molik Karn. I didn’t need the re-roll, but the combination of Malediction and Dark Shroud while already being damaged was too much for Karn to withstand and Terminus’ initial attacks put him into the dirt. I activated the Necrosurgeon making a few more Mech Thralls and sent them to finish off the Gladiator. Now with all the heavies off the table, the game was effectively over, I ran Saxon to the Control point, and ran the Seether across the board to cause Terror on the Pain Givers, who subsequently failed the check. Skorne was about to be done in, but Derrick was not going to let Morgul go down without a fight, he put Admonition on Morgul, and started to pick off my remaining models with spells from him and Marketh, while sprinting away after he was done.

As the round clock had to be getting low, I didn’t want this to come down to a tie breaker as the format for the tourney was calling for a different order of tie breakers, starting with Army points destroyed, and we were both pretty depleted. Morgul did not spring so far away as to leave the control point, as such I was able to slip Admonia from the Combine up, and Disbind Admonition, and then put the re-roll on Terminus; who in turn activated and one shot the little angry Warlock in a big hack.

I’m sure this opening round will read very long, but it’s consistent with the back and forth grind of the game. I never felt like I truly lost control of the game, but there were a few tenuous moments in the middle. In reflection with my opponent, we observed that he likely spent too many resources trying to kill Darrage Wrathe and Tartarus, when he should have been trying to remove the remainder of the Banes from the table. It’s a tough decision under a pressure clock, but in retrospect he may have been correct. That said, Big T and I were moving on…

Round 2: vs Legion

Opponents List:
eVayl – T4
Angelius
Angelius
Ravagore
Ravagore
Harrier
Throne of Everblight
Legionaires (full)
Spawning Vessel (full)
Sheppard x2

Synopsis: My new favorite player at The Temple has to be my second round opponent, Roger. He had a beautifully painted eVayl Tier 4 list, so much so that he actually won the Master Craftsman Award (shared with me in fact :)). I had played Roger previously in a team game with our long lost play mate Eric (who has since departed for the left coast). That team game came to an epic finish that ended on round time as my partner and I were attempting to make our finishing moves, then we subsequently lost to Roger and Eric on tie breakers. Some of you reading this might even remember I exacted revenge on Eric at the last Hardcore battle report in an epic finish pitting Terminus against Harbinger. Today was my chance to complete my vengence in my first mano y mano with Roger. Tho this battle would be a different matter entirely and this Legion list was set up to make battle tough on Terminus with cheap heavies, spawning lights, and the hit and run ability with Refuge. I was going to have my work cut out.

Vayl won the starting roll thanks to the tier benefit, and wisely seized the initiative going first. I chose deployment and took the side with a hill that had a bunker atop. I didn’t want Vayl to sit and pontificate to the board behind cover on a hill. As such deployment ensued, and I used my usual deployment with Terminus center massed, Banes to my L and Mech Thralls to the R, with support in the rear and this time had the Seether in the center of the table with Big T with all the support in the rear. My opponent had obstacles flanking his deployment and decided to lead with his heavy hitters, and keep all the souls in the rear guard of the army to prevent Terminus from using Dragon’s Call to great effect.

On the opening turn the Ravagore both fired shots into the Satyxis, setting a few on fire, and the remainder advance up to the extreme of the threat range of the Raiders, and the rest of the army camped in behind as Vayl spread out the buffs. I took the dice, and sent the Raiders at both the Angelius including the one with Admonition. After moves the Angelius that could used Admonition, and I put a couple of attacks on the remaining Angelius to no consequence. I moved the remainder of my force up and braced for impact. The opening turn had gone exactly as Vayl had wanted.

Roger took the dice and went to work and used the combination of Ravagore AOEs and Anglius Overtakes to eliminate nearly all the Raiders, then cleared a hole for the Throne to get into the Bane Thralls, and more importantly pinning my lines in place with a huge 5” base, countering my own game plan. This allowed him to get his own infantry into the game in the second level behind the Throne mixed in with the beasts, and thanks to flight and Refuge he would be able to yo-yo the Angelius at will. He had also feated to cycle all his upkeeps for free. There was a critical moment on this turn that could have had a huge impact on the game. There was a brief rules question where the TO came over to answer a question that was quickly resolved, however the clock that we used subsequently failed to restart despite making the noise, and as Roger was cranking thru his turn it took several minutes before we realized it. This was an unfortunate occurrence in the game and a player of Roger’s caliber was fully capable of maximizing that to his advantage doing as much damage as possible.But those things happen, and we have to play thru it.

On my turn, I had to turn the tide of the battle now or never, after two successful turns for Vayl and the mishap with the clock she is winning this battle right now. With the Battle Engine in my face, I start with the Banes and let them go to town and as expected they take the Throne down. Now is the time to feat for the first time all day. I activate Big T, he casts Ravager on himself and charged into the Legionnaires, starting to reap souls. I went until my initial attacks and berserk attacks ran out. This cleared the way for Tartarus to get into the mix. He was able to Thresh effectively on a charge, finishing the Ravagore, and one shotting the Harrier thanks to the Malediction and Dark Shroud, as well as few more from the Legionnaire unit.The remaining Raider was able to get a couple more souls from the Spawning Vessel unit and the Mech Thralls were able to get a Sheppard. With Terminus gorged on souls and ARM in the 30’s I felt that I had adequately put the pressure back on my opponent.

Roger sized up the game, Terminus between two Angelius and a Ravagore; the math said that he likely couldn’t put Big T down this turn with his ARM so swollen, instead decided to begin the late game attrition battle and start to whittle down what I had remaining. After what seemed like a long deliberation in hardcore he activated the first Angelius and beat on some more Bane Thralls, and then activated the Ravagore to take out Tartarus, after using his initials and buying, Tartarus made a tough roll. Vayl activated and the clock had less than 30 seconds left. She considered Terminus position, check CNTL put Admonition on one of the Angelius nearest Terminus and the Seether, then put Refuge on the last Angelius then took pause as she had to back up, but the Kill box was imminent and the clock was waning, with no extension available. He noted the Angelius still had to activate and had Tartarus on the ground in front of him and didn’t want to leave him there, and had to make a Refuge move to limit Terminus access to Vayl. After Roger realized he had to make all that happen he saw he only had about ten seconds left he eyeballed the best position for Vayl and moved her back behind some pieces but she was still in RNG of Terminus. Finally he activated the Angelius took a quick attack on Tartarus who made another Tough check (just to add insult to injury) and then he rushed to Refuge the Angelius back in front of Vayl to block the landing area for Terminus as the clock expired. Roger already knew the first question from me was going to be to check Kill Box on Vayl, and as we dropped the measuring tool, he had rushed so quickly he didn’t recheck his CNTL once he moved to make sure he was in the right position. It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise well contested game. I call it the table top gods getting even for the clock going awry mid battle! All kidding aside, it was an awesome game, and I look forward to the chance to play Roger again!

Round 3: vs Circle

Opposing List:
Kromac
Feral
Stalker
Ghetorix
Gorax
Druid Wilder
Tharn Wolfriders (min)
Wold Stalkers
Shifting Stones w/ UA
Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove x2

Synopsis: Tom is the other Press Ganger for the Temple and is a big part of the community out there in Rhode Island. Unfortunately for him he was playing my favorite Warlock/Warcaster in the game which means I was very familiar with his bag of Circle tricks. Unfortunately for me, he was expecting to see Terminus on this day and built his list with this very matchup in mind, hence the three beat stick heavies that could all end Terminus’ day.

I lost the roll to go first in this match and my opponent chose to go second, wanting to see my setup. I had an obstacle on my R and trees just in front of my deployment zone on my L. He had a hill  with a bunker on it on the R (as I stood) of his deployment zone, and some difficult terrain and a linear obstacle on the L (as I stood) of his deployment area. I setup the Mech Thralls behind the trees with Saxon to escort, and then had the Banes on the R, with Terminus in the middle and Seether on the far R. He setup with all his beasts center massed Kromac in the rear with the stone units equidistance apart out front of the deployment area, Woldstalkers on the far L (as I stood) and the Wolfriders on the far R who preyed the Raiders.

I took the dice first and moved the Raiders aggressively forward to threaten his line, trying to bait him into using the stones to sling the Stalker forward and tear deep into the Raider line, hopefully not retreating far enough away. The rest of my turn was standard fare with Malediction up, and the remainder of my force rushing up behind the Satyxis Raiders. Tom took the dice, and decided Kromac did not want to be too aggressive, not taking the bait. He did move his beasts into the stones, forming a strong position in his own CNTL zone, he put Wild Aggression on the Stalker and Warpath up. He ran the Wolf Riders out to the R flank and decided to run the Wold Stalkers into my L flank face tanking me to hold up my line.

Turn two, and I knew priority one was to eliminate one stone from each unit, as such I activated the Raiders, popped the mini feat and sent them into the stones, getting three on the one to my L and two into the one on my R. The rest ran to front his line, or clear some Wold Stalkers. I was able to successfully eliminate both stones. So I felt safe in moving up behind my Raiders and really pressing Kromac’s position; turning the dice over to my opponent. Kromac lead with sending the Wild Aggression Stalker into the Raiders, clearing most of the unit out, then dropping the remaining Stones to block charge lane in my lines. Sent the Wolf Riders up to clear some additional Raiders before retreating away. Lastly he activated Kromac, decided to cast Inviolable Resolve on himself and not to move forward at all, as nearly the entirety my force was on his half of the board, and w/o full stone units he could not hop around at will.

I took the dice for turn three and began the motions of what I knew would have to be a pretty devastating turn. As I began my activations, Tom stopped me and alerted me to the fact that he believed he had Kill Boxed himself. Unlike last game, I didn’t think it was in play at this point, and never paid it any mind, until he pointed it out. Upon recollection, I don’t believe Kromac ever left the deployment zone. That said, it was a rather anti-climatic end to what I thought was going to be one of the more interesting damage dealing turns of the day for my force. Unfortunately we had to shake on the game and will have to play another day.

Round 4: vs Legion

Opposing List:
pVayl
Ravagore
Typhon
Scythean
Proteus
Nyss Striders
Death Stalker x2
Foresaken
Sheppard
Feralgeist

Synopsis: So, here we are at final table, fifth time this year, and last time I was upended by one of my teammates, so suffice to say I definitely did not want to let this one slip away. Moreover, my opponent Eddie was buttering me up before the game by singing up for Boost for a Cure securing his spot in our DOGC Fundraiser next month!!! Eddie had already ousted my teammate earlier in the day and had an excellent pVayl list with all the goodies. I was able to catch some of his round 3 game and knew that he would play this list exceptionally well. The biggest challenge for me was mitigating Dark Sentinel as my infantry approached.

I won the starting roll and took the opportunity to go first. My opponent took the side of the table that had two buildings flanking the deployment zone to try to funnel my approach. I setup with Banes to my L and Mech Thralls to my R, I put the Seether this time on the far L, and the rest of my support behind with the Raiders in the vanguard. Legion setup all between the funnel of the two buildings with the Striders AD out front w/ the solo support, and the support Solos in the rear of the deployment and Vayl center massed behind it all.

I took the dice for first turn and was facing a capable row of fire from the Striders and Stalkers across from me, as such I didn’t want to be out of threat range next turn, I was unable to reach them straight out as they did not deploy the full way out in their AD zone, astute move by Eddie. I moved to what I thought was just outside their 12” stand still range. and moved up my force to right behind the Raiders but was pinned much farther back than I wanted to be. Legion took the dice, and Striders went to work ,rolling fire, taking out over half my Raider unit, and forcing the command check; however I passed with gusto rolling snake eyes. He moved up the Ravagore to leave a nice AOE making straight charges awkward. Leaving the Striders to face tank the Remaining Raiders.

Taking the dice, I had taken more casualties than I had wanted, but the good news was he did not come forward really at all, as such I had to push into his position and turn the funnel against him. I ran/charged the Raiders into the Striders, downing one but mostly forcing their line to deal w/ the Raiders and allowing the rest of my lines to push into their lines. I ran the Seether again up the L to be behind the building, flanked by Tartarus, and then pushed Terminus that way as well, as that was the farthest diagonal point from the heavies on the board and handed the dice back to my opponent, knowing that I would have to be patient in this game as my opponent was dictating the ebb and flow. On my opponents turn, he activated Vayl and first cast Chiller onto the Raiders, then put up Incite, and feating so he could reposition after this was all over. She then set Typhon to work to clear the reamaining Raiders from the front line. Thanks to all the buffs/debuffs, this was not an issue. Then sent the Striders and Stalkers off to the L behind the house to hold the back side of that area to at least delay the Seether that was closing. He dropped an shot from the Ravagore into the middle of my lines downing a handful of Thralls and leaving a nice big AOE to make movement difficult. The remaining beasts then moved forward to clear more models. When everything was done the Striders and Stalkers moved farther to flank, beasts backed up to turtle up again, and Vayl moved clear behind the building protecting her completely.

This was the turn I knew I had to seize control of the game, to this point Vayl’s plan was being executed exceptionally well. However, they did not advance anything forward that turn, and only had one model in the control zone. As such, I moved Tartarus up cursed the solo Deathstalker (who was the only model contesting the zone), and then sent three banes off to remove the one model in the way. I was hoping the dice would cooperate as I didn’t want to use Terminus and burn focus for this. Luckily the dice cooperated and off the board the Strider went. I moved up Darrage Wrathe put up Beyond Death and claimed the control point for the turn. Banes were now in the mix, as were Mech Thralls, both had gotten to heavies this turn and started to put damage on them. I ran the Seether into the Striders to cause the Terror check, which they passed. Grabbing a control point, I felt, put new pressure on Vayl to bring her beasts out from behind the building’s safe zone, even if she could stay back there.

Eddie realized that the scenario was now a concern he would have to account for, as such his first order of business was to run the Feralgeist into action and onto the control point. Now contesting, he could then set on the troops in his face, as he couldn’t advance forward without removing them. More sprays, and using the animus from the injured Scythean he was negating my Tough, and between the Dark Sentinels on my turn and effective use of resources on his turn, I was just about out of Banes, and low on Mech Thralls, down to about a dozen models on the board. Eddie feeling satisfied he turned the dice back over to me. He had brought his beasts forward to deal with models but was still pinned back and out of the zone with everything but the Feralgeist. I did not want to commit Terminus to this either as it would have exposed him to three heavies. Fortunately, I have Darrage Wrathe with a nifty magic weapon, who charged the Geist, dispatching him easily using battle wizard to cast Beyond Death and the light calv move to back up and make room for models to charge the heavy beasts. The Necrosurgeon who was loaded up on corpse tokens was able to make new Mech Thralls. I activated Combine to put Puppet Strings on the Bane Lord, then Tartarus when to work, charging three heavies that were clumped up, and all damaged. He charged Typhon specifically and Threshered into Proteus and the Scythean. He finished off the Scythean and put big dents in the other two. The Mech Thralls then charged Proteus and Typhon. Typhon used the Dark Sentinel ability to kill the McThrall that reached him likely saving himself; however Proteus caught the brunt of the impact from that unit and was finished off in short order thanks to Dark Shroud and combo strikes. Off the  extreme L flank the Seether continued to work his way around the rear of the board, and was now behind the beasts and Vayl but still out of threat range. Finally Madelyn Corbeau moved forward and Cryx claimed their second control point.

Now Vayl’s hand was clearly being forced, she had the Seether behind her but couldn’t send the beasts backwards to deal with it because he was forced to contest or lose. As such, he sent Typhon forward, sprayed removing a number of models, including Madelyn Corbeau, and was left damaged, but contesting the control zone with Excessive Healing up. Then ran the Ravagore in the zone as well forcing me to have to kill both to win the game. I took the dice and knew that the round clock had to be getting very low, and he still had two heavies on the board and I was very depleted. He had one fully healthy beast and one that would heal every time I damaged it. I had to commit Terminus now or never. I activated Darrage Wrathe, used Death Ride to clear room, and get Big T close enough to be able to charge and get to both beasts. Then the Combine put Puppet Strings on Terminus, and with the stage set I activated Big T. Moving carefully, measuring CNTL as I approached to get both beasts in my reach and stay out of Dark Sentinel range. Worth noting, I activated Terminus before the Mech Thralls as I was not sure how much round time was left and didn’t want to pander with extra models for no reason and run out of time. After my two initial attacks and one Focus spent, Typhon was in the dirt. I bought three more attacks and then used Puppet Strings to crank my last damage roll against the Ravagore putting him into the dirt. With nothing left in the control zone, Terminus claimed the final control point, winning the tournament!!!!

In reviewing the tournament, it was really a hard fought day. I’m extremely proud of this tourney win against some really tough competition. I tallied over 200 points destroyed in four games, and was able to share the Master Craftsman Award with my man Roger, and of course was fortunate enough to take home the Vanquisher Award for winning the event. A couple of things I will remember about this one and take away for future contests:

1. Holy Heavies!!! As it turns out, there is a regular Terminus player in that group that was expected to show up, as such everyone was loaded for bear. Hency why I didn’t face a list with less than three beat stick heavies, faced two players with four heavies and one with five including two characters! I would argue that I faced four consecutive tough matchups and nobody was in a bind with no way to deal with my bag. This is one tourney victory I am very proud of!

2. As I play more tournaments, I noticed that my opponents often will reveal precisely when they make a mistake, letting me know that they did something wrong or missed an important activation. On my side of the table, I simply never acknowledge that. I forgot many things throughout the day, sometimes big things; however, I keep that to myself. My opponent doesn’t need to know if I made a mistake. For one, drawing attention to something alerts my opponent to go for it and exploit it if possible; or in the contrary, by not saying a word about it, my opponent will invariably ask “why didn’t you do x?” Often that will cause some confusion where they think it was strategic in some manner, where it may or may not be, but they don’t know for sure, and they can spend time trying to out think something that doesn’t need to be out thought. That’s the closest thing to a pro tip I can offer for those reading that are looking to play more competitively.

3. As I said earlier the question I get most often from players after, or before, a Hardcore tourney is how do I get through all my activations with nearly 50 models. Personally, I keep my order of activation left to right as I look at the table, as best I can. Obviously you have to prioritize in the right order, but I always address the table going left to right. Now that I’ve had that in mind it’s a force of habit and helps ensure that I don’t forget anything. Additionally, as far as pumping out dice rolls, sometimes you just don’t get to everything. There were many times I didn’t get to activate models, that happens I don’t sweat it, and try to end my turn non frantically. Keeping composed helps me maintain control of the match ebb and flow. If I start to rush to make sure I move every single piece, it makes me feel frantic, and that spirals. Sometimes you won’t get to move a solo in the back of your army, not the end of the world. Leave him, often forgetting something will actually become a benefit later, as they will be in position to do something you hadn’t thought of prior.

4. Kill Box… really? Before Saturday, I had only won one previous game as a result of Kill Box, I did it twice during this event. Some may read and say “that never happens” or feel that it’s a “noob” mistake. I assure you it’s not. But don’t take it from me, at this year’s Lock N Load, at the final table of Hardcore the person who lost Kill Boxed himself. Yes that is a fact, at the highest level of play, on the grandest stage, at the championship table of this event style, the mistake can happen. So, it is absolutely part of the strategy of this tournament style. There are the random clear cut mistakes, but then there are the stratigcally forced ones as well. I had both during this tourney. I would wager that my second round opponent, Roger, would agree that to some degree my aggressive position forced him to have to move in a non optimal situation and the time constraints allowed for the mistake to happen. Is it a mistake, but it’s a forced error. My third round opponent, Tom, made an unforced error by making a simple mental mistake because he was focused on keeping his warlock safe. So know that and keep it in your plan before every game. Can I put my opponent into a precarious position where he may make the mistake and walk out, forced or unforced.

5. Patience, yes patience in Hardcore as in any other event is the next level for me personally, and maybe for you too. I said in my last post tourney revelations when I won Hardcore up at the Whiz, I struggled early on in my Warmachine career with Terminus, and many of my other Warlocks and Warcasters by over extending them too early too often. As I grew to not be so anxious to whip out all the tricks in my bag, I became better. Now, as a player, the next level of my development, is having the patience to see a plan develop in game, and then see it thru, exemplified by my play at the final table bout in this tourney. Nobody goes into a Hardcore game thinking “how can I win this by scenario”. Quite frankly it’s not designed to be won that way, and the purists hate that it can be, however it’s part of the format now. The lesson learned for me, is recognizing that my position was such that I could try to win that particular game by scenario, and take advantage of a fundamental positional advantage I had which I would not have known until I was in the middle of the game. I had my opponent pinned, and it allowed me to take control of the CP during the game. To make that commitment, and be patient enough to see it thru for the next two turns, totaling four or five turns in a game takes discipline and self control that I have developed over time. I see it now, and I didn’t see that before. It’s hard for me to not be all brass all the time, especially when I’m playing Big T! But for me, it’s a point worth developing further as I believe it will improve my game; maybe it will help improve yours!

All in all it was an AWESOME day at The Temple! I’m very proud of my performance against some really excellent competition. I made some new friends, that I hope to see across the table soon, and hopefully spread the good word about Boost for a Cure coming this October. It’s been an amazing year for me, my hobbying, and my team; and I look forward to being able to finish the year strong! For now I turn my attention to the MATT, hopefully see you there :)….

A.