First ever warhammer army need help!

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RichyC91
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First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by RichyC91 »

Good Afternoon,

I have just started my first ever Warhammer army, I would love to start by asking for some of your expert advice.

I understand that armies are spilt by lords, core units, special units etc. But are there set units that every Wood Elves army must have to be viable?

I current have 1 Spellweaver, 16 Glade Guard & 12 Dryads. This has allowed me around 500 points to have a mess about with a friend who uses Warriors of Chaos. (I tend to lose our little battles)

Also with Wood Elves is there a standard battle strategy, I can appeciate that every battle is different. But what are the key strengths that Wood Elves have to set them apart from other armies.

Sorry for such a beginners post.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
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Git
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by Git »

Welcome!

Wood Elves is a very mobile army. Much of the army is easy to move around and avoid your enemy. We have good shooting, though no war machines.

Remember that you only need 25 % Core (easily covered by 12 dryads), and that you can use Glade Guard models as Deepwood Scouts as well.

A quick list, slightly tailored against Warriors of Chaos (though useable against any army):
Spellsinger, level 2 metal. (15 points of magic items. Opal Amulet or Channeling Staff, perhaps?)
12 Dryads
7 Deepwood Scouts - Hagbane tips
7 Deepwood Scouts - Arcane bodkins

Stay away from your enemy, and shoot him. Use your Scouts ability to march and shoot to stay out of your opponents charge arc and range. Your Dryads can move in after a target is softened (as late as possible). You can deploy the mage with the Dryads, but move her out before they need to get near any enemies.

Future investments: Wild Riders and Waywatchers (though these can probably be converted with glade guard parts, or a combination of High Elf Shadow Warriors and Wildwood Ranger parts).

Edit: my list was over 50 % special. Fixed.
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Blackcat
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by Blackcat »

Currently our two strongest units are waywatchers and wild riders. I would suggest getting a unit of both. A solid core of shooting is usually the bread and butter of wood elf armies unless you want to do an all combat list or something.

The main thing to remember is that at the end of the day the rules will change so make sure you have units that you enjoy painting and enjoy modelling. Dont worry if they arent the most powerful units because will practise you will become a better gamer and it will be all the more rewarding to defeat your opponent. However if you are planning on going to tournaments then go all out and buy the most powerful things you can.
RichyC91
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by RichyC91 »

Thank you both for your insightful views.

I can now see the benefit on using the Glade Guard as scouts rather than a solid core unit, as I found it almost impossible to move them to avoid his chaos warriors.

Have either of you had any experience with how to deal with war machines or strong fast units like chariots?

Cheers
RichyC91
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by RichyC91 »

My idea for my next 500 point battle (I appreciate the points are small, I'm still learning all the rules).

Hero:
Spellsinger (Lvl 2) With Magic items & Long Bow

Core:
12 Dryads & Branch Nymph

Special:
6 Deepwood Scouts with Trueflight
6 Deepwood Scouts with Trueflight

With the idea that Dryads would hold up any of the faster units that would chase down the scouts, while the scouts run around shooting and running away.

Not yet sure on which lore to make the spellsinger, I need to read up on them more.

Any thoughts?
Last edited by RichyC91 on 11 Mar 2015, 16:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Git
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by Git »

Forum rule: Don't post individual item, upgrade or model costs. Totals are fine.

I'd rather use Hagbane Tips and Arcane Bodkins on Scouts. Trueflight is good (I love them on my Glade Guard), but Scouts can move so that the enemy is out of cover most of the time anyway.
Shoot war machines with poison. Poison hits ignore their high Toughness. Chariots depends a little bit what kind. They usually have pretty high toughness and armour, so shoot one chariot with everything.
Use Lore of Metal if you struggle with Warriors of Chaos and other high armour lists. Fire may also be good at low points because Fireball can be very powerful against small units.

When you increase the points size you will have to use some of your archers as Glade Guard again, but you can add some hitting power with Wild Riders and Warhawks and Waywatchers.
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by RichyC91 »

Once again thanks for the advice, I have amended the previous post to reflect the forum rules. (Not just a newbee for Warhammer, forums as well :D.)

Cheers for the advice on Lores, I'll update once I have my next battle.

Thanks
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by RichyC91 »

Afternoon All,

I played my mate this weekend to test out a different approach to a very small WE army (500 points listed in a previous post).

All in all I did very poorly.

He used a level 1 Spellcaster a unit of Chaos Warriors and 5 Knights. I used level 2 Spellsinger (Metal) (Bow + Hail of Doom Arrow), 6x2 Deepwood Scouts - Hagbane tips & 12 Dryads.

I lost all 3 battles with the scouts doing well against the knights in 2 battles and the Hail of Doom arrow taking out his spellcaster in 2/3 games on opening turn.

Not sure if I am miss playing but whether the Dryads faced the knights or the warriors they got easily crushed in both doing nothing to slow him down. I unfortunatly didn't manage to roll to go first in any of the games and he closed me down to fast to do enough damage. He just marched and charged forwards and once in close combat destroyed me completly the scouts while moving around didn't last much longer.

Any advice, there may be some really obvious WE trait that I am over looking.

As I'm just starting these 500 points battles are so I can get to grips with the rules, but seem to get dominated no matter what I tried.
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by Mollesvinet »

I would suggest you to look at some battle reports here on the forum (check link in my signature for example) or on youtube. This will give you an idea of how games are generally played, and some of the tips and tricks of warhammer that you can use to survive and do more damage.

In any case, don't give up. Wish you good luck!
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by frogboy »

Are you using your free wood to hide from his Knights ?
Its been too long since we burned a heretic, witch hunt anyone !??
sentinalofthewoods wrote:yes, unicorn riders that shoot rainbows..hell yeah
RichyC91
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by RichyC91 »

Okay be prepared for the most novice of answers.

I tried to use the wood to stand and shoot from and when his knights came near as I moved from the wood to keep distance and shoot, they were soon caught after. If it wasn't the knights that caught me his spellcaster just nailed them with a flame cage (Fire Lore spell 5 I believe).

I am starting to read more battle reports to try and improve my knowledge of the game.

Thanks for the support.
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by frogboy »

I'm not an expert but i think it is posible to use the woods to your advantage and stay out of the "charge lane" (I think that's what's it's called in warhammer) basically his Knights have to be facing your troops in the front arc in order to see them, here's a picture which I borrowed from another site :p

Image

This thread probably explains it better http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=61728

Now imagine you have a free venom thicket (poison wood) deployed there too where you can hide a shoot from.

Also try some different enchanted arrows, you might find others work better.

Chaos Sorcerer's are fantastic if your the WoC player but can be a pain to remove. But it's the only thing he has got with ranged attacks, well until you increase the points value. So concentrat on killing it. Spellsingers have a better choice of magic so try differentpt lores out.

His warriors are slow so you can ignore them completely, well at least until you deal with the Mage and the Knights.

Good luck
Its been too long since we burned a heretic, witch hunt anyone !??
sentinalofthewoods wrote:yes, unicorn riders that shoot rainbows..hell yeah
RichyC91
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Re: First ever warhammer army need help!

Post by RichyC91 »

Some really good advice, thank you.
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