BR: Wood Elves vs Cult of Ulric, part 1

The game begins:

Turn 1a: My opponent jumped out by racing across the board. Putting his Altered noble in the woods directly in front of my line.

His scouts moved up and shot up some hounds, killing none. So the WayWatchers in the building shoot and kill 1.
His archers on the hill killed off 4 DoW cav and 3 hounds. Everyone made their panic tests.

Here was what it looked like at the end of the turn.


Turn 1b: I was a bit leary about the Altered Lord on the edge of the woods, but decided I needed to deal with him early. In I charged with one unit of knights. And another unit of WW knights charged the scouts on the edge of the woods.

Everyone else moves up and around. I move 2 dog units up to the wall around the house. The idea, force the Way Watchers in the building to shoot the hounds, and give them hard cover. I run the DoW lone guy behind my hill to protect him.
I get a spell off with my priest with the chystals and emblems, giving them +d3" charge.
In combat, my knights kill 3 of the scouts, but with insane courage they stay.

Then to the big one. I get 3 attacks on the Noble. Needing 4+ to hit, I hit all 3 times. Str 5 vs T3, 3 wounds. He's dead. WOW!!! This shocked me. This turned out to be a huge mistake for my opponent on turn 1.
We discussed it later, he was thinking he could run up and still shoot his bow, and thought those knights would be mostly wiped out. It was a hard lesson, but one he won't soon forget.
Here was the status at the beginning of turn 2a:


For charges the Wood Elves have the wardancers run in to help out the scouts with those knights. The dryads charge the DoW fast cav who flee. My knights make their panic test and the dryads are setup for a nice charge.
The rest of the elves move up, including the treeman into the woods. Strangleroot on the knights kills 2 of them, but they make their panic test.
The way watchers shoot one of the hounds, I forget to give them hard cover and he kills off 4. The hunt master makes his panic test.
All his archers tee off on my Inner Circle knights and just outside short range, those 20 arrows struck true and 2 knights fell to the ground. Ugghh!!

In combat the wardancers bounced off the tough armor, with no killing blows striking home. Then his archers whiff as well. I manage to kill all the scouts and one wardancer. I win by a bunch, they break are run down and I pursue into the Dryads hanging out behind the combat.
Here was the setup going into turn 2b:


Terror takes an early toll and the unit of 3 knights flees from the treeman.
Luckily the unit of knights with the priest next to my generals unit makes it and charges into the Wardancers hanging out behind the woods.

The DoW cav, rally and move up and shoot at the lone wizard. Hit him once, but fail to wound.
That was it for charges as everyone else moved up. The priest on my far left flank makes the unit immune to panic. (bad spell, but hey thats 2).

In combat, against the Dryads the First knight wounds the Dryad champ once but she makes her ward, then knocks the knight off his horse. The knights do manage to kill 2 of the limb swinging monsters who cannot seem to hit back. Then the Branchwraith goes. Hits 3 times and wounds 3 times. I then make all 3 saves. The dryads break, and are run down. And with the exception of the way watchers in the house, the right flank is mine.

I am now facing his generals unit and my First knight challenges. His champion wardancer accepts. They do the 4+ ward dance. I wound his champ but he dances out of the way while killing my knight. I do take down a couple of the nimble dancers who cut down another worthy knight. In the end I win combat but he holds his ground.
And this is the setup going into turn 3a:


He considers several charges of his 2 units of wild riders vs my Generals, IC knights. But the angles just are not there. The wheel from the center unit would hit his wardancers and the gap between my hounds and his archers is too small for him to squeeze through.
In the end, he decides to charge the hounds. They flee and my knight unit behind them is right at 18" away. I misjudged and moved them up too far.

In shooting he tries to strangleroot my generals unit but was just out of range.
His Way watchers shoot the hounds and even with the protection of the wall, lose 2 hounds and they flee.
Finally, 20 str 4 shots into my IC knights and I lose my champion and musician.
This was not looking good.

In combat, the wardancers and general hack on my knights and kill off all but the standard bearer and priest. I lose by 2-3 so I use the Rod of Command to hold.

The wild riders charged in and with 3 wounds, I need a 4+ save and fail all 3. Ugghhh!!. I get 5 attacks back and get 4 hits, but needing a 2+ to wound with my priest, I only wound 1 time with him. The champ does wound twice, but he makes a ward save and 2 wild riders go down. With the banner it is a draw combat. But my musician died, so he wins by 1. I hold.
Here it is at the beginning of turn 3b:



Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon.