Return to the Empire! (sorta)Cult of Ulric versus Beasts of ChaosOur Warhammer League is winding down a bit, some of it from non-participation, some of it because of summer vacations. Our usual Thursday night group of usually 8-10 folks was down to four of us. I’ve played all of the ones that were there so I sat and worked for a while at my computer. Carl wanted to play so the game was on. Over the last couple of weeks Carl’s army has suffered from being shot and magicked to death, so instead of the Skaven or normal Empire I pulled the Cult of Ulric out of the box.
Personally, I think the Cult of Ulric is a weak army. It is a melee army in a world of uber melee armies. However, I decided to give it a go using my version of the Cult of Ulric Battalion concept, meaning that I had a hard ranked unit, a hard unit of knights, and a unit of hounds per battalion. The best I’ve ever done with the Cult of Ulric was having 6-9 units of hounds, but I wanted to play with all painted stuff.
I’ve got to admit with my Middenland and Middenheim blues, they do look awesome on the table.
My list: Ar Ulric Bezal
Blitzbeil, Enchanted Shield and Heavy Armor
Argon, Warrior Priest of Ulric
Sword of Might, BSB upgrade, heavy armor, barded warhorse,
Sirall, Seneschal of the White Wolves
Bane of the Craven, Barded Warhorse
Simeal, Seneschal of the White Wolves
Barded Warhorse
Units:
9 IC Knights of the White Wolf, Full Command, War Banner (Seneschal Sirall, joined this unit)
6 Knights of the White Wolf, Full Command, Banner of the White Wolf
5 Knights of the White Wolf, Full Command, Banner of the Warrior True
6 Hunting Hounds with Huntmaster
5 Hunting Hounds
5 Hunting Hounds
24 Warriors of Ulric, Full Command (Ar Ulric was in here)
24 Spearmen, Full Command (Seneschal Simeal, started the game here and joined the small WW knight unit to charge the Giant)
24 Spearmen, Full Command, Warrior Priest Upgrade with Heavy Armor
10 Wolfkin with Great Weapons
10 DoW Crossbowmen (hey they are painted purty!) Carl’s List: Beastlord (Slaughterer's Blade, Armor of Damnation, Horn of the Great Hunt)
lvl 2 Bray Shaman (Chaos Armor, Spell Familiar, Dispel Scroll)
lvl 2 Bray Shaman (2x Dispel Scroll)
Wargor BSB (Sword of Battle, Pelt of the Dark Young)
20 Beastigors (full cmd)
7,5 Beast Herd (full cmd)
5,5 Beast Herd
8,6 Beast Herd (full cmd, shields)
3x Chariot
3x 6 Hounds4 Dragon Ogres (great weapons, light armor)
G-I-A-N-T!
The Cult of Ulric Advances
We had about the same number of deployments, but I was deploying while putting figures on trays so there wasn’t too much of a plan. When I saw him place a small herd and a unit of hounds on his left flank, I correctly assumed he was going to weight his right flank and power up the middle as well with his superior forces.
I decided to set up a trap near the tower using hounds for bait. I also knew I had a slight speed advantage so I placed two heavy units of knights on one flank. Ar-Ulric’s unit was bait! He stood alone with a unit of hounds, a unit of knights and a unit of crossbows. The army wasn’t bad leadership wise with all the priests and leadership 8 knights running around.
Another view of the advance
It started early!
As folks that have read my battle reports know, I’m not a fan of turn two charges. However, I had a chance to pressure both flanks at once before he could get his army unwound from a tight deployment so I went for it!
Seneschal Simeal and the small Knights of the White Wolf unit (Banner of the Warrior True), charge the G-I-A-N-T. My huntmaster’s unit charged a unit of hounds, which held. My other hound unit charged yet another unit of hounds. The last unit of hounds moved forward to pull the Dragon Ogres into my trap.
My Knights punished the G-I-A-N-T for four wounds. However, he punished them by killing half the unit! I won the melee and the G-I-A-N-T held. The Huntmaster’s hounds broke the Chaos Hounds. The nearby herd (way away from the General) decided that was a bad thing and split never to return! On turn two the Beast right flank was already laid bare by a 42 pt unit of Hunting Hounds. I killed two Chaos Hounds on the charge in the middle, but they killed one in return and held.
Much Later in the game (sorry it was so tight I got too excited and forgot to take photos)The Beastherd on the left flank went unruly and charged into the G-I-A-N-T melee. Though the G-I-A-N-T failed to hurt me, the extra ranks and outnumber were too much for the White Wolves and they fled. Later they rallied to face their old foe the G-I-A-N-T again.
I charged the Beastherd that was left stranded after they failed to catch the knights with their pursuit. With my ranks and outnumber the Herd lost and bolted to be crushed by the Spearmen.
Carl’s hounds panicked from the Dragon Ogre melee, but they rallied right in front of my killer unit of White Wolves with Seneschal. The Hounds couldn’t flee because of the Bane of the Craven and they were obliterated. With a horrible roll of an “11” Carl’s General and his “Supah herd” headed for the hills. This revealed no the chariots and I was in BIG trouble.
In the middle I setup the perfect trap for the Dragon Ogres. I tried to charge the knights into the front, while charging Ar Ulric’s unit into the flank of the Dragon Ogres. The Knights wanted no part of the fight and the spearmen charged alone. However with the damage from Blitzbeil and only a single wound in return, the Dragon Ogres ran, and failed to rally no less than three times!
Now my General’s unit had its flank in the wind!
Another angle
Last Photo (so what happened?}Both Beast Chariots charged my killer knight unit. Because I had the Bane of the Craven I couldn’t flee-oh oh! Some really good rolls from Carl and some pathetic armor saves reduced the unit to a mere 3 models, the unit champion, the Seneschal and the Standard Bearer. The Seneschal and unit champion put three wounds on one of the chariots making it less bad. With the Warbanner and a rank at the start of melee, and three wounds I had a slight chance since my BSB was close by, but I rolled as bad as Carl’s General and a HUGE block of points and a standard were no more. On top of that the pursuit took one chariot into my BSB and the other into the flank of my spearmen. I thought the game was lost right here.
In the middle the Bestigor’s had a flank charge on Ar Ulri’cs unit and Ar-Ulric told his guys to bolt! They later rallied just to take a chariot in the front!
The other Beast Chariot killed four of my 6 White Wolf Knights on the charge. With the return whacks the two remaining Knights put three wounds on it. I rolled a nice low number and my Knights held. In the next turn, the Knights whiffed and the Beastman with the Great Weapon killed the Champion. Because was still fleeing I didn’t have his leadership so my Knights fled from the field.
In my next turn, I tried to take advantage of the failed charge of the Bestigors. I declared a charge into the flank of the unit with the Upgraded Warrior Priest’s Spearmen, the Wolfkin in the front, and the Hunting Hounds in the rear. Like an idiot I forgot about the “fear” spell, and promptly failed my charge with the critical Spearmen unit. It didn’t matter I killed 5 Bestigors and won the melee.
In the next turn, the Bestigors got revenge and both of my units broke from combat due to losses. Seeing an opportunity to get closer to Ar Ulric’s unit, they pursued the Wolfkin (autobroken due to the spell). This left them about 4” away from the Warriors of Ulric.
Now the chariot had a new target and charged Ar Ulric’s Warriors. Though a couple of Urlican Warriors fell, Blitzbeil destroyed the chariot before it could do any more harm. The Bestigor’s were pressing to follow up the charge, and failed their leadership for the destruction of the chariot with two rolls of “11” in a row!
My Spearmen fought off the overrunning chariot but it held until the next turn. The other chariot hit the BSB and only caused a single wound. In the following melee phase, both broke from combat.
In Carl’s last turn the Beastlord’s herd rallied, but the Bestigor’s kept running.
Carl’s G-I-A-N-T again charged the recently rallied Seneschal’s unit, which passed its terror test. The G-I-A-N-T rolled “yell and bawl” but the Ulrican Cavalry was unimpressed. In the following turn Seneschal Simeal’s hammer ended the G-I-A-N-T’s reign of terror.
The game was still pretty tight since I had lost two major combat units. A unit of spearmen and the upgraded Warrior Priest’s Spearmen were close to the recently rallied Beast herd. I couldn’t charge with the Warrior Priest’s unit because of the fleeing chariot. However, I knew the chariot had to flee if charged. I charged, the chariot fled, and I redirected into the Beastlord’s herd. With the unit ranked up, the other group of spearmen slammed into its flank. Five tough Gors fell under the onslaught. The only chance the Beastherd had was the Beastlord’s attacks. Only a single Ulrican Spearmen fell, and the herd was broken and destroyed by pursuit. With only a single fleeing unit of Bestigors and two hounds remaining. The Beast of Chaos quit the field
Victory to the Cult of Ulric!Summary:This was one of those tight games that turned one sided. When the Beastlord’s herd failed its panic test, it left my big unit of Knights vulnerable to the chariots. Though it wasn’t intentional, the destruction of the Knights probably won me the game since it pulled the chariots out of the middle of the table. This allowed me to concentrate on destroying the Bestigors and Dragon Ogres
