Last month DOGC sent two teams down to North Jersey for a Team Tourney event, and ultimately they found each other in the final pairing competing for the top spot. Over 30 particpants, and as per usual great competition in the NJ Metro area, not to mention a new great venue for DOGC. It was the first team tourney title for DOGC, and here is a recap from the team that ran the table to the top spot….

The team of Anthony, Berger, and Shane were paired together for this event; Berger and Anthony were returning members of the team that suffered a controversial final table loss last year in Jersey. Shane is a new DOGC player who was also in Jersey for the event last year, but not a teammate in that match. Here is a view of their lists:

Anthony’s Lists:

Kromac – Stalker x 2, Pureblood, Gorax, Wilder, Woldstalkers x 2, Stones w/ UA, Gallows Grove, LOTF, Swamp Gobbers

pBaldur – Woldwrath, Ghetorix, Stalker, Bloodtrackers (full), Stones w/ UA, Witch Docter, Swamp Gobbers

On his lists: “I really wanted to play Woldwrath, and feel that pBaldur is the best fit for him. The list has performed extremely well, and serves as my anti range list, that dominates scenario more than any other Circle list I play. Woldwrath has proven to be better than I really thought he was, and much better than my opponents thought as well. The new Kromac build has made it really exciting for me to play again, and has proved to be a really perfect pairing with Baldur. I don’t have to worry about facing ranged lists as much, and he handles infantry spam fo Baldur. I’m loving the inclusion of the LOTF in the build, and the Pureblood is a difference maker despite what the haters say.”

Berger’s Lists:

eLylyth – Ravagore, Bolt Thrower, Naga, Typhon, Succubus, Striders w UA, Strider Deathstalker, Foresaken x 2, Blackfrost Shard

Saeryn – Angelius x 2, Scythean, Bolt Thrower, Raek, Shredder, Succubus, Striders w UA, Foresaken x 2, Gobbers

On his lists: “eLylyth is for the attrition and ranged match ups. Some factions struggle against her. Even her sub-par match ups like Menoth are not terrible.Saeryn is a melee master.  I took her to combat brick lists that have low model counts and high armor. She covers eLylyth’s bad match ups well and is a scenario powerhouse.”

Shane’s Lists:

Barnabus – Spitter x 3, Posse (full) x 2, Bog Trogs (full), THrullg x 2

Rask – Wrastler, Spitter, Snapper, Bog Trog (3xfull, 1xmin) Croak Hunter x 2, Totem Hunter

On his lists: “With the large number of Cryx opponents I am used to seeing in New Jersey, including Pants Off, Dance Off (who was too scared to show!) I decided I needed the ability to deal with them in both lists.  Most Blindwater lists have issues against mass weaponmaster so I felt Rask could shore up that weakness as well.  Since Rask with CMA’s and Fury can handle Gargossals I decided to skew Barnabus.”

Round 1: Chemical Reaction

The scenario in the opening round was Chemical Reaction. We looked at the matchups in a quick team huddle and nobody felt that there was a need to get out of their matchup. Neither team decided to feat. Anthony’s game was the finished first; he dropped pBaldur vs Rahn with three huge bases including Hyperion. Rahn’s list couldn’t do much to Baldur’s list on the way to engagement, Baldur used the Feat to buy the alpha, took out Hyperion and a Cricket in one turn, scoring 3 points on turn two. It was too much too fast for Rahn, as his he had lost most of the teeth of his army and Anthony had won on scenario 5-0 by the end of turn 3, not losing a point.

Berger’s game came to an end shortly after. Berger dropped Saeryn right away, due to comfort level with eLylyth he wanted to get Saeyrn down as soon as possible, against Menoth he felt comfortable. His opponent dropped Amon. Early concerns for Berger subsided as when he was able to take out the objective on turn three and clear both zones to earn 4 points. The rest was a formality.

WIth the round already won Shane executed a scenario victory with Rask vs pHaley. Rask’s combo of Feat plus Ambush was too much for Haley to bare, causing her to lose too many models and as such she was unable to recover. At that point Shane was able to lean on scenario and win 5-0 by dominating his own zone repeatedly. DOGC sweeps the opening round to advance.

Round 2: Incursion

The second round scenario was Incursion, and would be a clash of teams that could have easily been a battle for the title. Between the two teams they had five masters qualifiers, two masters winners, and one Warmachine Weekend qualifier; however most of those achievements were on the part of DOGC’s opponents.

The first game to end was Berger, he faced off against Charlie from the team that defeated DOGC in the final pairing last year in Jersey. Berger dropped Saeryn vs a Kharchev jack wall list that included Conquest. Seemed like the strong play for Berger, however, despite two turns of alpha with Saeyrn’s Feat he was unable to do enough damage to the immense amount of jacks on the table. Kharchev was able to finally retaliate and ultimately lead to Berger only having his Warlock left, Dark Omen Loss in the opening match of Rnd 2.

With DOGC down a match, Shane was facing Lee, reigning NoVA Con champ, who dropped eMadrak and Shane dropped Rask again, trying to use his ability to spread the table to get a favorable spin on which flag would disappear. He also opted to bring in two Witch Doctors from his Specialists. Shane chose wisely as eMadrak was unable to handle the models coming from every direction and the Feat plus Ambush combo paid dividends again as he was able to stop retaliation and ultimately attrition down to a 5-0 win.

That left the whole match down to Anthony versus Paul in a rematch of their match in the third round of this years Masters at TempleCon. Anthony got the best of Paul in that match, Paul was definitely seeking redemption. He is primarily a Circle player, so there would be no typical Circle surprises, with vengeance in his eyes Paul dropped Damiano and Anthony chose to go to pBaldur again due to all the guns in both of Paul’s lists. This one was a hotly contested game that attritioned way down, trading units and heavies for several rounds. Anthony was able draw first blood on scenario lean from there. With a crowd gathering around the table due to the cagey match running long, the dust eventually began to the settle; it was a nearly untouched Woldwrath that was camping a flag w Baldur that would win the battle as a few Croes Cutthroats and Halbadiers could do nothing about it. Baldur turned in another scenario win, but he and Damiano traded about 6 or 7 turns before the end. Anthony delivered in the clutch and DOGC wiped the sweat off their brow having survived to advance to round 3.

Round 3: Into the Breach

This round the feat became much more a consideration as there was more on the line and each matchup was more critical. DOGC won the Feat roll forcing their opponents to decide first. They opted to Feat to force Anthony to play Circle, Berger vs Menoth, and Khador vs Shane. After a rather long deliberation of the matchups DOGC decided to Feat in return, and hand Circle to Shane and Khador to Anthony, as Berger felt good about his Menoth matchup being there are a ton of Protectorate players in Dark Omen. As such they entered into battle.

This round, Anthony once again finished first. Circle does handle massed infantry well, and he reached for Kromac for the task against Khador. His opponent dropped pSorscha with two character heavies, Beast and Behemoth. His opponent was deceived into thinking he was safe from a Stalker who seemed to be at the far reaches of Kromac’s CNTL area, but did not suspect a Wilder to come running across the table to help deliver a Stalker who was able to Warpath his way to Sorscha and end it on the top of turn 3.

With that game over unexpectedly quick, DOGC had a decisive lead. Berger’s game was quickly turning sour however; he elected to play chicken with his opponent and dropped eLylyth trying to pull the list double cross, it didn’t work as eFeora dropped in return, which is about as bad as it gets. Lylyth was set on fire by Zealots in turn three, and as the game attritioned down, it didn’t go out due to eFeora’s Caustic Presence and eventually Lylyth succomed to the Fire damage.

Shane was left to play for the fate of the title hopes for DOGC, against Will a great player from Australia and the reigning War Store Weekend Champ. Shane’s opponent was one listing eMorvahna, which was part of the pre round strategy as she is susceptible to RNG assassination. Thus Shane dropped Barnabus and his three Spitter list. With two Witch Docters in Shane’s list, it became an issue quickly for eMorvahna to get into a rhythm or heal. That allowed Barnabus to do a favorable piece trade and attrition her force down, and made the Feat perilous for Morvahna given the lack of healing options. As such she was forced to play a game she didn’t want to. Losing all the Ravagers early made the game easier for Shane, as he was able to start dominating in turn two and lean on scenario the rest of the way. In a long cagey game that came down to the round time, Shane was able to take it on CPs as the buzzer sounded, literally! After a quick review with the judges to check the instant replay, it was DOGC onto the finals!

Round 4: Rally Point

In what would now be the final table event of the day, Dark Omen found itself facing…. Dark Omen? Yes indeed! In what was easily the biggest victory of the day for DOGC, having both their teams run the gauntlet of a great tournament with a strong field and have not one but two teams ultimately playing in the final match to bring home the top prize; no matter who won the bout DOGC had won the day! With DOGC already having used their Feat, it was up to DOGC Too, who opted to Feat and swap Walter and Bryan to get a Legion vs Legion matchup with Berger and Menoth vs Minions matchup vs Shane.To the surprise of none Bryan and Berger, Legion vs Legion, came to end the quickest. This time Bryan played list chicken with Berger and it failed when Berger dropped eLylyth vs Bethayne. However in a show of early confidence, Berger decided not to have Lylyth camp the wall where she should have (due to trying to keep a beast in her CNTL area next turn). Bryan feeling the pressure of an uphill battle, decided to Feat and go for the win on top of turn two. Two Spell Martyrs ran to position, under feat Bathayne hit Lylyth with two Gallows, pulling her forward two times, and forcing her to lose all her transfers. Typhon took position to clear some models then a Scythean slammed Typhon over Lylyth thanks to her being a half a foot closer in MKI textbook assassination tech. With Lylyth on the ground all that was left was the crying as Hex Hunters moved up to seal the deal.

With that one quickly in the books, and DOGC Too looking strong in the championship match upset. The next game to complete was the top table of final table with Riker pitted against Ant. Riker opted to play eKreoss over Harbinger in the final match, in thoughts that Ant would drop pBaldur as he had in a previous tournament when they faced off in the final round. Oddly it’s a reasonably good matchup for Circle (who typically doesn’t have much versus Harby) thus Riker opt to play some list chicken against it, however Ant successfully pulled the double cross wanting the additional magic weapons on the table going with Kromac instead. The game was a truly well played contest on both ends. Kromac took control of the game early collapsing one side of the board that Kreoss flooded with infantry using the Woldshrimp, LOTF, and Pureblood. On the other flank Kreoss aggressively countered with two Reckoners on a Stalker at ranged, despite four shots, was unable to bring him down. However in a return of fortune, Circles three heavies were only able to scrap one of Menoth’s on the following turn, allowing Kreoss to Feat in retaliation dropping both Stalkers. Good news for Cirlce was that the Avatar and remaining Reckoner were both in poor shape, the Gorax was able to finish off Avatar and Pureblood took out the Reckoner. Kromac used his Feat and Rift spam to crowd control Kreoss, start scoring points and turn the tide back in his favor. With Kreoss being nearly pinned in place and unable to contest. Circle would win the battle, and now the final match was all tied!

Oh the drama, as Shane and Walter faced off to determine the championship. In what would clearly be an attrition match, Walter had options with Kreoss 3 and High Reclaimer. The latter is the matchup that most are not ready for, unfortunately for Walter his DOGC teammates have all seen it many times. Ultimately Walter opted not to use Kreoss as they are a poor match against Gator Posse in most cases, and so it was High Relcaimer, and Shane opted for Rask once again expecting that High Reclaimer would be his match, playing the card of unfamiliarity on Walter by using the Bog Warlock. It was another attrition war, after a Rask patented Ambush and Feat, Reclaimer found himself two turns later down most of his army but full on souls. With the game tilting in the wrong direction and a seemingly mistake by Shane to leave his beasts out of CNTL and unable to transfer Walter decided to go for the glory, and the championship. The unfamiliarity of Rask would ultimately cost Walter his qualified assassination run thanks to Call to Sacrifice. Rask was surrounded by Bogs, and was not going to die this turn. Reclaimer went down in a blaze of glory as the Bogs around Rask were nearly all destroyed. Rask was able to respond in kind with some help from a Croak Hunter the game was ended, Team Championship for Dark Omen!

What a day for DOGC! Top two teams in a highly competitive event is a great showing for the club, and doing it in Jersey after a near miss last year, all the better! Anthony took home the Executioner Award for most CPs scored on the day, and most importantly Dark Omen made some new friends along the way. Great event, great day, and great win! The first team title for DOGC, and they are clearly back in a grove with three titles in as many tournament attempts. Eyes focusing now on the NETT coming up next month!!!