Battle Report: Sylvania vs Ulric (5000) Part 2

Turn 1 – Vampire Counts
My first act of the game was to summon wolves, with the Drakenhof Standard doubling the number of Dire Wolves to appear. One unit of 6, two units of 4, and a single unit of 2 Dire Wolves entered the table. I opted to bring on a unit of 6 and a unit of 4 at the base line on the left, to support my holding action. The unit of 2 Dire Wolves entered from my own table edge to deal with the Ulric scouts deployed in the woods on my left. The final unit, 4 Dire Wolves, was placed on the right to deny march moves to the two knights units there. They were so far off to the flank that you will never see them in the game photos.

The Sylvanian army moved forward, few marches were available since I had decided to place Mannfred on a flank rather than in the centre. I didn’t think it mattered given my holding plan for those units.

The first magic phase was successfully dispelled through the efforts of the Wolf Priests. Aido was concerned, since the phase would only get stronger one more Grave Markers were in range to be used. I chose not to use any of Mannfred’s casting dice, using only his free spell. No need to risk a miscast yet.




Turn 1 – Ulric

The first Ulric turn was quiet. On the left, the hunting hounds moved forwards, away from the six Dire Wolves that had appeared behind them. In the centre, the Ulric units including the Giant marched forward to face the Syvanian Levy and Grave Guard. On the right, the hunting hounds unit there moved up directly in front of Mannfred’s unit.

The archers attempted to shoot the summoned Dire Wolves, but were not able to inflict serious damage. The only casualties were on the hill in the Ulric deployment zone, two of the four summoned Dire Wolves fell to arrows.

Turn 2 – Vampire Counts

I decided to move ahead with my plan, and charged on the right with both Black Coaches. One charged the hound units that had moved up, and second charged the Ar-Ulric’s unit of knights that charge proved to be out of range. Mannfred’s unit declined the charged, preferring to let the Black Coaches do the work for now.

On the left, both the summoned unit of six Dire Wolves and the Fell Bats charged the hunting hound unit, which held. On the hill on the left, the two surviving summoned Dire Wolves charged the archers who had killed two of their number earlier. On my baseline, the wolves I summoned there charged the Ulric scouts.

Again Ulric dispelling proved almost the equal of Sylvanian magic. Almost. In fact Aido had to let through a lot of the Grave Marker spells, growing both units of Sylvanian Levy in the centre. These units were well and truly ready to perform their holding action.


In the combat phase the Dire Wolves on the hill lost one of their number after neither side inflicted any wounds. The Wolves and Bats combined managed to lose combat after rolling poorly on their attacks and then losing 4 Dire Wolves in return. That was not the result I expected from a simultaneous front/rear charge. At my basline the combat was drawn.


The Black Coach broke the hunting hounds with ease, killing 4 and pursuing 10” but failing to catch the rest. The trap was now set, but I couldn’t see it…



Turn 2 – Ulric

In the centre, the Giant and a unit of knights charged a unit of Sylvanian Levy. Now I would find out how successful my holding action idea would be.

On the right, the trap was sprung, as both the general’s and Ar-Ulric’s units charged the Black Coach that had just broken the unit of hounds. Sure enough, as the Ar-Ulric’s unit swung in to align with the first Black Coach, it contacted the second, ensuring both would be in the combat. I could see the trap quite clearly now.

The combat phase in this turn did not go my way. On the hill in the Ulric deployment zone, the last Dire Wolf failed to hit and was destroyed by combat resolution. The Fell Bats and remaining Dire Wolves failed to hit even once against the Hunting Hounds and again lost that combat, with combat resolution wiping out the two remaining Dire Wolves. The efficacy of my holding action on the left was looking shaky.

On my baseline the Dire Wolves drew again with the Ulric Scouts. In the centre, the Giant and knights killed 14 levy, including those killed through combat resolution. It was a chunk ut of the unit, but the levy unit was still above its starting strength.

On my right things went predicably badly. The Ulric general (a Grandmaster of the White Wolves) went up to strength 7 due to passing a leadership test to strike with his magic mace of say-goodbye-to-your-Black-Coach-Dave. The first coach was destroyed in one hit, which thanks to the Coach’s efforts in killing hounds the turn before, meant 10 wounds towards combat resolution. This was enough to destroy the second coach too.

The Grandmaster’s unit pursued and ended up in contact with Mannfred’s unit. Oh dear.