OFCC Open 13' Report

Last month (8/9) I participated in the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge, or OFCC as it is usually called. It a team tournament where different clubs from around the PNW gather together and have a great time bashing each other. This year, they added a new single player event the day before the team challenge. I said, "Ere' we go" and readied myself for nine games in three days. The first day was four games of the Open at 1850. The missions were run with dual rulebook missions, and scored by accumulated victory points between both. First Blood was replaced with reverse Linebreaker (a point for having more friendly units in your own deployment zone) for some added oddity. Also, all the missions had pre-placed objectives. Here is what I took:

HQ

Overlord

(Allied) Chaos Lord w/ MoK, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury, Gift of Mutation, Sigil of Corruption, Melta Bomb

3*Harbingers of the Storm

Troops

5*Immortals w/ Gauss, Night Scythe

5*Immortals w/ Gauss, Night Scythe

5*Warriors w/ Night Scythe                                         

(Allied) 35*Cultists

(Allied) 10*Cultists

Fast Attack

(Allied) Heldrake w/ Baleflamer

7*Canoptek Scarabs

Heavy Support

Annihilation Barge

Annihilation Barge

Annihilation Barge

(Allied) 2*Obliterators

Fortification

Skyshield Landing Pad

=1845
It may not look like the most powerful list, but it fits my play style and I know it well. The main weakness of the list is 2+ saves, especially with multi-wounds (so Riptides/Paladins/Dreadknights=bad time). Beyond that, I can handle armour and infantry relatively effectively.

Game 1 v. Matthews Mechanized Blood Angels

Relic/Purge the Alien/Hammer and Anvil
The Pacification of Stungvaust

Matt had a cool purple, green, and grey Blood Angel list that consisted of a Librarian, a Sanguinary Priest, two full Assault Squads in Land Raider Redeemers, and another with packs, a demi-squad with packs, and three Predators. I deploy my Skyshield halfway up the table then  win the roll and take first deployment/turn.

I move all my Barges 12" onto the Shield turn 1 (as seen above) and snap shot glance one of his Predators to death between the three of them. My Cultist blob lead by the Lord runs toward the Relic, ready to move in and pick it up next turn. In his first turn he manages to down one Barge with a spirited multi-melta.

In my turn 2, my flyers come in and with the Barges manage to glance another Predator out while the Cultists grab the Relic. His Assault Squads then descend into my deployment zone and mess up my Obliterators while his Land Raider advance.

In turn 3 my Harbingers of the Storm strike, wrecking both his Land Raiders. The Heldrake  then destroys one of the newly disembarked units. The Barges then go into clean up mode.

He ends up with just his Sanguinary Priest alive when the game ends on turn 5...

Game 2 v. Pretres Sister of Battle/ Imperial Guard

Crusade/Emperor's Will/Dawn of War
The Martyrdom of Seraphine the Risen

Pretre and I have played a couple of games in the past couple of months, all in preparation for this event. I sure he was not thrilled, as I was one of two people he had been able to play in about six months before the event. Funny enough, we were 1-1 in our test games, so this one got to be the tie breaker. He had Saint Celestine, a CCS w/ 4*Meltaguns, two Battle Sister squads in Repressors, two Veteran squads in Chimeras, a Vendetta, ten Dominions in a Repressor, three Exorcists, and a pair of Vengeance Batteries. Their were 5 Crusade objectives, one in the middle of each quarter and one in the middle of the board, and we each placed our Will objective. Pretre doubled up on his, putting next to the Crusade objective in one quarter, while I put mine more centered, along with my Skyshield. He deployed heavy on his double objective, leaving the other flank held by the Batteries and an Exorcist. I deployed centrally, relying on my Night Scythe units or reserved small cult squad to grab my Crusade objectives.
The Scarabs end up clearing out the flank with the Batteries and Exorcist (seen above), after hiding on the Shield out of LOS for a turn.

My Cultist blob surges forward first turn, getting a 6" run. Pretre responds with the Living Saint, whom the Chaos Lord auto-challenges and cuts down; taking a wound in the process. In my turn the Obliterators wreck the Dominion Repressor, but my blob fails a 5" charge on the occupants...

...and gets wiped out next shooting phase (and of course the Saint gets back up). Fortunately the Heldrake heroically smokes all the Dominions on my turn. There is a lot of this back and forth.

The game ends with us each holding one objective (him the middle one, me the one the Cultists can be seen claiming above), neither of us holding an Emperor's Will objective, and tied on secondaries all the way to the reverse Linebreaker, which gave me the 1 point win, 5-4.

Game 3 v. Feds Necrons/Chaos Space Marines

The Scouring/Big Guns Never Tire/Vanguard Strike

The Reckoning of Skeeza

So it had to come to a mirror match! Fed had an Overlord with Mind Shackle Scarabs, a flying Tzeentch Daemon Prince with Black Mace, two units of ten Warriors in Ghost Arks, three units of five in Scythes, ten Cultists, a Heldrake, and three Annihilation Barges. Pretty close to my list. There is an objective in each table 1/6th , plus all Fast Attack and Heavy are worth a point and are scoring on all objectives.
He went first and very aggressively advanced with his Daemon Prince from a refused flank deployment. In my turn I knocked it out of the air with a Barge and finished it off with twin-linked rapid fire plasmaguns from my Obliterators. My Scarabs advanced from the far flank before charging into his vehicles, while the Oblits accounted for another. My blob and Chaos Lord took out an Ark and generally controlled the middle.
When his Heldrake came in I took it out with a Barge first try. It's there...

...it's gone!

You can see me repositioning Barges to claim objectives here. I was way up on bonus points and objectives, but mostly because the dice were certainly on my side this game.

Game 4 v. Bens Imperial Guard/Space Wolves

Crusade/Purge the Alien/Dawn of War

The Battle of Winterfell Hive

Ben had his awesome Judge Dredd/Stark army with a Commissar Lord, a Rune Priest, a forty man blob w/ autocannons/flamers/axes, two Veteran squads with triple plasma, two ten man Grey Hunter units in Drop Pods with plasma, two Vendettas, a Colossus, a Manticore, and an Aegis with a quadgun. Three Crusade objectives were place evenly along the center line of the table. I unfortunately got lousy with the picture taking that late in the day, so only have end of game shots. But a summary nonetheless. He gave me first turn.
He placed a piece of terrain that made it obvious where his artillery were going, so I deployed my Scarabs to counter. He deployed his blob behind his Aegis in the middle of his zone, while I deployed the Shield half way up the table.

The one turn his artillery had to kill my Scarabs they deviated, and then the Scarabs ate both of them for lunch. Barges killed his quadgun priority quick. He landed all his Space Wolves in my backfield, but my Juggernaut Lord dealt with all of them. My Scythes destroyed one of his flyers and killed all the Veterans inside. The Scarabs were able to get over to his blob and get a charge on a far corner, denying them the few turn of movement/running they would have had  to go for the center objective (you can see them making a desperate run in the bottom picture). Ben is able to parachute one squad of Veterans to contest an objective (seen up top), but it is not enough to deny me the win.

In the end I was the only undefeated 4-0 player and had the highest paint score (which was a simple popular vote), so won Best Overall. It was great fun and I had a nice variety of opponents, and luckily did not play any Eldar or Tau, of which there were a few. The Shyshield worked a dream, denying a lot of hits on my Barges over the course of the day. Definitely a good investment in this day of very common Ignore Cover in the form of Eldar and Tau...

Da Mommas Boyz Brawl '12

A couple weekends ago I drove out to beautiful Pullman, WA for a first year grand tournament put on by the DMB club. It was a great weekend of gaming with a bunch of enthusiastic folks. The tournament was located in a community center gym with lots of open space for air to circulate. The format was great, with five missions straight out of the book (left out Emperor's Will) and overall scoring being 1/3 battle, 1/3 sports, and 1/3 painting. This format harkened back to the old Game Workshop sponsored GTs that I enjoyed so much in my youth. I decided to bring the Ib Dynasty, as the army was freshly finished, and my current favorite. Here is the list I used:

 HQ

Destroyer Lord w/ Sempiternal  Weave, Mindshackle Scarabs, Resurrection Orb              

Destroyer Lord w/ Sempiternal  Weave, Mindshackle Scarabs, Resurrection Orb

Troops

10*Immortals w/ Tesla

10*Immortals w/ Tesla

5*Warriors w/ Night Scythe

5*Warriors w/ Night Scythe

Fast Attack

7*Canoptek Scarabs

6*Wraiths w/ 1*Coils

Heavy Support

Annihilation Barge

Annihilation Barge

Annihilation Barge

Doom Scythe

Allies

Rune Priest w/ Living Lightning, Jaws

5*Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun

=2000

 Game 1 * Crusade * Dawn of War

v. Armour 13 Wall Necrons
James had an awesome Stargate themed Necron army with a bunch of vehicles.It consisted of two Overlords in Barges, 4x 7 Warriors in an Ark, 5 Warriors in Scythe, three Annihilation Barges, and two Doom Scythes. So that meant I was playing the only other army there that had three flyers or more and basically the closest thing to a mirror match there was there (except his was much better head to head, for sure). A basic flaw of my army is the ability to deal with armour 13+ beyond the Destroyer Lords and the Arks were just too much for me. He killed the Wraiths and Lords turn 2 (they wrecked a single Ark and didn't make any Everliving) and then it was pretty much done. I plinged a ton of S7 off his armour as he whittled down what I had left. His flyers proved to be better dogfighters than mine. I ended up getting Warlord and Linebreaker (with a bottom turn Scythe disembark) while James claimed three Objectives and got all secondaries, winning 12-2.

Game 2 * Big Guns Never Tire * Vanguard Strike

v. Space Wolves
Fernando had an awesome Space Wolves army with a bunch of Grey Hunters (in Rhino, Razorback, and Land Raider) backed up by a Rifleman, a couple Long Fangs (missled out)  in an Aegis and  lone Thunder Lord; all led by Rune Priest Loki! (below). A large building cut LOS between our deployment zones. I got two objectives in my zone while he got one in his. Fernando had Turn 1 and performed a general advance, moving his Thunder Lord up behind the building and the bulk of his Grey Hunters bearing down on my troops (one squad held back with Loki). My Wraith unit hopped on the Lord and killed him in a couple rounds (his AP3 combat weapon meant most of his hits bounced off the Destroyer Lord).

 

Turn two my flyers came in and I used the LOS blocking building to avoid Interceptor fire from his quad gun. The Doom Scythe iced his Land Raider and Razorback and the Immortals cut some swathes out of his Troops. The Wraiths, having won their combat, started pressuring his objective and charging Long Fangs. The game was mostly over Turn 3 as I had negated his ability to deny my deployment zone objectives. 8-4 win for the Necrons (2 Primary+Linebreaker/First Blood v. 1 Primary+Warlord).

 Cleaning up them Wolves

Game 3 * Purge the Alien * Vanguard Strike

v. Mech Guard
Played against Pat and his awesome Imperial Guard on this sweet @$$ Necron-themed board. Pat had a bunch of squads in Chimeras, a couple Veteran units in Vendettas, a couple Demolishers, Psyker Battle Squad, and some Mortar teams. My Immortal squads didn't do much this game, just hung back and avoided death. The Wraiths, Destroyer Lords, and Scarabs ran at his line and absorbed a bunch of fire power. I insta-killed most of his heavy weapon squads with Tesla destroyers (one for first blood).

  Closing in on the lines.

 Our flyers had a pretty brutal dogfight with mine gaining the upper hand (through jinks and timely leaving of combat airspace) and the Death Ray going off on his mechanized lines (wrecking 3-4 vehicles). My Wraith/Destroyer Lord unit got into his lines, absorbing 2+ turns of his entire armies shooting, and wrecked two Demolishers. 16-9 win.

Soaking up the firepower.

 Game 4 * Relic * Hammer and Anvil

Slay the Warlord!

v. Salamanders
Dan had a great Salamander army with a Terminator Librarian, ten shooting Terminators (double Assault Cannons), three Tactical Squads (one with Rhino), a Thunderfire Cannon, a Predator, a ten man Devastator Squad with missles, and an Aegis with quad gun. For my Warlord trait I got scoring on one of my Destroyer Lords, with first turn this meant I'd be able to grab the Relic immediately. I prioritized his quad gun first, but unfortunately this meant I did not get First Blood. Turn 3 I torrented his entire Terminator Squad and Librarian to death (seen above). 

 

I hadn't played Relic before this game (30+ games of 6th and I hadn't ever rolled it!) and did not realize that you did not control it by being within 3" of it. This meant I didn't realize how important placement of the Relic within my unit mattered. This meant that the Immortal holding the Relic (which I held the whole game) was sniped out at the bottom of turn 5, the game ended, and I snatched a draw was from the jaws of victory 1-1 (First Blood v Warlord) draw. It was still an extremely fun game and Dan (Winterman on many forums) was a great opponent.

 

Game 5 * The Scouring * Dawn of War

v. Tyranids
Not much to this game really. I was super tired and my opponent seemed pretty put off by the match up, so I was telling him ways to screw my army as we were playing. I'm not sure why I was doing it so much, but it was fun shooting the sh*t. The main thing I did was encourage him to roll rulebook psychic powers (Biomancy) which he hadn't done all day or ever before. The result was enfeebling my Wraith unit and insta-killing them. I also didn't exploit Jaws on him like I could have (only killed one Tervigon). To be completely honest though, even I hadn't helped him this game would have been extremely challenging; my army list just doesn't have enough scoring bodies at 2000 points.

 

 

 Overall this event was awesome. It was in it's first year but still had 30+ people from three States in attendance. I loved their scoring system (especially their one question Wheaton's Law sports scoring- hahaha) and they were really on the ball. All the rounds started promptly and we didn't have to wait around at all for the final results. The terrain was all top notch and I'm sure it will be even better next year. As for results, I ended up winning Best Painted. There was one army with a higher paint score than mine (a beautiful Black Legion army) but he ended up winning Best Overall, so painting went to me! Here is the awesome Purity Seal award I got:

Other Worlds Tournament 5/19

So I didn't make it down to Texas for the Alamo GT (though my buddy kings won the whole shebang), but I did get in a day of tournament gaming regardless. Brought my Skulltakers down to Other Worlds for an 1850 point event with Nova-style missions. Only had ten people show up, but due to another local shop closing down, a lot of them were new faces to me. I used the following list:

Rune Priest*2 (1 w/ Chooser)
Wolf Priest w/ Saga of the Hunter
5*Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun, Meltabombs
2*(10*Grey Hunters w/ 2*Melta, Mark of the Wulfen, Standard, Wolfguard w/ TDA, Chainfist, Combi-melta)
15*Blood Claws w/ 2*Flamer, Power Fist, Wolfguard w/ Powerfist
5*Grey Hunters w/ Plasmagun
3*Thunder Cav w/ Power Fist, 3*Storm Shields (wound allocation)
4*Thunder Cav w/ Power Fist, 3*Storm Shields (wound allocation)

Game I v. Travis' Space Wolves (Razorburn)

Game 1 was Annihilation so KPs primary, objectives secondary, and table quarters tertiary. Deployment was Dawn of War. My opponents army consisted of the following:
Rune Priest
5*Wolf Scouts w/ Meltabombs, Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen x
Lone Wolf in TDA w/ Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, 2*Wolves (x)
4*(5*Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Power Weapon, Mark of the Wulfen, Las-plas Razorback) xxxxxx
2*(6*Long Fangs w/ 5*Missle Launchers, Las-plas Razorback xx
6*Long Fangs w/ 5*Missle Launchers, Drop Pod xx

Pretty intimidating amount of firepower and mechanization for my poor Skulltakers, but I have almost half his total KPs. My opponent got first turn and deployed nothing, I threw down my horde of Stealthy Bloodclaws near center field. For some reason Travis deployed his Long Fangs in their Drop Pod and landed them in my half of the board Turn 1. I brought out my larger cav squad to counter them. The Long Fangs tried to get up the second floor of some ruins before my cavalry got to them, but got caught in the open turn 2 and massacred, along with the Drop Pod (seen above). Travis was worried about my Wolf Scouts and started to move forward with all his tanks, into my waiting horde. He tried to whittle down my Bloodclaws, but thanks to Stealth and cover they take a lot of shots. My cavalry hit his lines from the flank after dispatching the podding Fangs just as my meltaguns get into range. A big melee breaks out in the center, and my units are alot more resilient than his.

Travis made me pay for the charge seen above with a well-timed Jaws which killed half the big unit, but the writing was already on the wall. With the disparity in KPs in our army lists he would have had to swing first, which did not happen. Win on Kill Points 11-7 (x's in the army list above are KPs I got).

Game II v. Andy's Chaos Daemons

Game 2  the mission was primary table quarters, secondary kill points, tertiary objectives. Deployment was Pitched Battle. My opponents army had the following:
Ku'gath
2*(Herald of Tzeentch w/ Chariot, Gaze, Breath)
6*Fiends (AWESOME models seen above)
2*(3*Flamers)
10*Bloodletters
2*(5*Horrors, 1 units w/ Bolt, 1 unit w/ Changeling)
3*Screamers
2*(Soulgrinder w/ Phlegm, Tongue)
Daemon Prince w/ Flight, Might, MoT, Gaze

My opponent won the roll to go first and forced 1st turn to me (all Daemon-y like). I play Daemons sometimes and knew how to deploy; big blob with Thunderwolves ready to counter attack any point in my lines. I focused my limited firepower on his Fiends. He gets his preferred wave and my Thunderwolves run out and wreck a Soulgrinder. He mishaps his Bloodletters to death. The other cavalry unit takes out both Tzeentch Heralds. I Jaws Kugath. I rapid fire his Prince to death (seen below). It was not a pretty game for the Daemons.

 Game III v. Aaron's Necrons

Game 3 was primary objectives, secondary table quarters, tertiary kill points. Deployment was Spearhead. Aaron's army consisted of the following:

2*(Overlord w/ Warscythe, Catacomb Barge)
3*(5*Warriors w/ 2*Harbingers of Destruction)
10*Immortals w/ Tesla, Harbinger of Destruction, Harbinger of Despair w/ Veil
10*Scarabs
2*(4*Wraiths w/ 1*Whip Coil)
3*Canoptek Spyders
2*(Annihilation Barge)

So game 3 and I found myself on the top table  up against the other undefeated player, Aaron with his Necrons. He took out Blood Angels round 1 and won a tough game against Tyranids round 2. I was worried about playing this army at objectives, because he has the vehicular capability to easily contest. That, and his Wraiths; I would need to isolate them and swamp them to take them out. Turn 1 I moved up my large Thunderwolf unit to put his forward deployed Wraiths in a charge or be charged situation. On his turn the Wraiths charge in and do minimal damage to the Thunderwolves, while I smash one with a Power Fist. On my following turn my entire horde falls on the Wraiths while the second cav unit charges off into a stationary Annihilation Barge, wrecking it. My Wolf Scouts arrive and get very lucky wrecking a CCB even though they were out of 6". I finish off the Wraiths and the Scarab swarm joins the fray (seen below).

Eventually I managed to clear the center objective and held it with my Blood Claws, my five man unit held the objective in my deployment zone (after surviving a daring gambit by the Veil Immortals), while my Grey Hunters held the flank objectives. My last surviving Thunderwolf contested his home objective after munching his Warrior squads (my Storm Shields were ON this game).

So that left me as the sole 3-0 player and since my army was painted that pretty much guaranteed me Best Overall. Hadn't won one at Other Worlds yet, awesome.

Guardian Cup 2012

This past weekend I played in the Guardian Cup, a thirty player 4 game 1750 point RTT, held at Guardian Games. Cool set up with W/L/D, VP tiebreakers, and 3/4 missions are Seize Ground (with 3,4,&5 objectives). I decided to take my World Eaters; they aren't the most competitive force, but they are new, and I like them, so they are what I brought. Even with the counts-as I didn't get too much hatin', but like I said, not super competitive. I mean, 4 HQs, Blood Claws, no Long Fangs... this is not what a good SW list looks like. Incidentally, when Legions comes out I expect most of my long-range firepower to come from Obliterators. Anyway, I'm rambling, on with the show.

Game I v. Steve's Space Wolves (Razorburn variety)

So first game we had Seize Ground (5) and Spearhead deployment. You can see four of the objectives in the picture above, the unseen one is under my Juggernauts somewhere. Steve's army had a Thunderwolf Lord with a single buddy (both with Wolf Claw and Storm Shield), a Rune Priest, 2 units of Wolf Scouts w/ Melta, 3 5-man Grey Hunters with Meltaguns and LasPlas Razorbacks, and 3 maxed out missle Long Fang packs with LasPlas Razorbacks. Above you can see the board had a big central piece of terrain, I deployed mostly around it, and Steve deployed his Razorbacks strong in the center (with the Thunderwolves behind) with the Long Fangs on the flanks. Steve went first.

Turn 2 I destroyed a Razorback with Living Lightning and another one of the Razorbacks immobilized itself going over the wreckage. He sped one of his Razorbacks to block off my forces here, but I wrecked it with a Chainfist in my next Assault phase. My Lord foolishly charged over the hill into the waiting guns and ate it, but my other squad of Juggernauts got into his lines, killing another Razorback and tying up a whole bunch of other stuff. His Thunderwolves get into my Blood Claws in an epic battle on top of the hill. My unit is Fearless and he doesn't roll great so I hold them there for over four Assault phases, including when it was down to just the Lord v. my Wolf Priest and I passed 3/3 invulnerables. That combat along with my Juggernauts holding up so much stuff up meant that at the bottom of 5 I was holding a 3-2 objective lead. Game over. Bad luck for Steve.

My little Slayer unit does it's job and holds the backfield objective.

My one remaining large squad sees the possibility of victory and seizes it, knowing that if the game goes to 6 they will be pulled off one objective or the other, or more likely just wiped out. Saved by the bell.

Game II v. James' Grey Knights (Coteaz)

Didn't get a ton of pics of this game. Seize Ground (3). His army had Coteaz, 10-man Strike squad, Terminators in a Land Raider Redeemer, 3 Acolytes in a Stormraven, DCAs+Crusaders in a Stormraven, and two Psyflemen. Quick rundown of this game. I won the battle on the ground due to a bunch of good luck, but could never knock down either Stormraven despite multiple penetrating hits. This meant my opponent easily contested two objectives and held one for the win. Highlights included my Power Fist armed Juggernaut rider destroying the Land Raider during a Death or Glory attack, two wounded Juggernauts charging the full Strike Squad w/ Coteaz then beating them and escorting them off the board.

Game III v. Steves Necrons

Game three saw me matched up the new Necrons for the first time. Awesome! My opponents army consisted of Nemesor, Overlord in CCB, 8 Harbingers of Destruction and two Lords in two Courts, 4 5-man Warrior squads (with two Crypteks in each), 2 10-man Immortal units with Tesla (one with both Lords and Nemesor), 3 Tomb Spyders, and 8 Scarabs. The mission was Seize Ground (4) with Dawn of War deployment. I deployed my Blood Claws with Wolf Priest and a Slayer unit. I deployed them too far forward and exposed them to too much firepower early. My Blood Claws got neutralized by a Scarab charge; I killed all the little bugs but it left the unit crippled. My Juggernauts got into his Warrior units, but I just couldn't put them down quite fast enough. His Immortals were able to foot slog over to a midfield objective, while I held one in my deployment zone. You can see the Immortals led by Nemesor and the Lords trundling up to the objective below.


The fourth objective was on the far right flank and neither of us held it. This meant it came down to this one. A single scoring Cryptek who passed his Everliving roll, my Juggernaut 3.5" away. Necron win, 2-1.

Game IV v. George's Tyranids

Last game against George's Tyranids was Annihilation and Pitched Battle. His army had a Prime, three units of Hive Guard, a unit of Termagants, a troop Tervigon, three ten-man units of Genestealers, seventeen Gargoyles, and two Trygons. I deployed strong to the center and infiltrated my Wolf Scouts to deny space to the Genestealer units. The Gargoyles screened the Hive Guard on the right flank, while the MCs all went to the left.

Turn 2 saw my Juggernauts charge into and wipe out the Gargoyle swarm. They ate a bunch of Impaler Cannon shots and then started munching Hive Guard. My Grey Hunter units each got good rapid firing shots on Genestealer units, one of which was out of Synapse, and broke.


The third Genestealer squad got mixed in with my Blood Claws and Lord. The Trygon tries to charge in to save them, but the Lord slaughters him behind a series of good die rolls.


The last of the Blood Claws and Juggernauts slaughter the last of the Tyranids. Killed em' all.


So overall it was a great tournament. I really liked the mission set-up (maybe one Capture and Control next time) and how the Sports and Painting was done (everyone ranks three best). Speaking of painting, turns out my army choice was a good one, because I won 'Maestro' (Best Painted). Apparently the judge votes were at a dead lock between my army and another, but the player vote was overwhelmingly in my favor! Thanks so much to all the players who voted for my army, I really wasn't expecting the honor with how many great armies were there.