Storm of Chaos: Laurelorn Elves
Posted: 29 Jun 2013, 19:45
See the thread here for what the campaign is all about
We are using the campaign as an opportunity to give the Wood Elves some love, one of the sub campaigns is going to be the Laurelorn Elves attempting to hold off the Beastmen and stop them from attacking the rear of the Empire army. As such, it is a chance to produce a special wood elf variant list. Now it can't be a complete rewrite of the book since this is just supposed to be a special "take" on one aspect of the parent army, but we want to include something in our campaign to get the wood elf players excited.
Our vision with the Laurelorn Elves are the masters of ambush and hit and run tactics. We want the army list to play extremely non traditionally (especially in the age of horde infantry in 8th edition) and give the Laurelorn Elves a dynamic, unique approach to winning their games. As such, I have a first draft of the list. But we want to know how to tweak it and make it work before we send it out to our playtesting teams.
Here's what we have:
Parent Book: This is a special variant of the Wood Elves army list. Unless specified otherwise, all special rules, stats, and point costs will be used from the main army book.
Disallowed Kindreds: The following kindreds cannot be selected by Wood Elf characters, as these kindreds do not exist outside of the forest of Athel Loren
Wild Rider
Glamourweave
In addition, Wood Elf characters cannot choose any spites, as the power of the forest is far weaker in Laurelorn, and the elves there must rely on ambushing more than the fury and strength of the forest spirits.
Attacks Unseen: All infantry models and units with fewer than twenty models in the army have the ambush special rule. However, so coordinated is their ambush of the enemy that they may declare a charge on the turn they arrive (even though their arrival occurs in the remaining move sub phase, treat this as an out of sequence charge). They may not arrive from the opposing player’s board edge, however.
In addition, you can nominate up to half of the units in your army with the ambush special rule, or nominate a number of units equal to the number of forests on the board (whichever number is lower). These units may come on the board as ambushers in the first turn, but must be placed in one of the forests on the board. They may still charge on the turn they arrive as normal.
From the Shadows: If a skirmishing Laurelorn Elves unit is partially (or completely) in a forest at the start of the movement phase, and it charges an enemy, then it counts as being in a forest for the first round of combat. This means that unit will be stubborn. Note that the enemy does not count as being in a forest for the first turn, and therefore will be steadfast if they have more ranks than the Laurelorn Elf unit.
Fearsome Ambush: For the first two turns of the game, all enemy models suffer a -1 leadership penalty as they attempt to gain their wits from the Wood Elf assault.
The following troops count as characters, core, special, or rare units in the Laurelorn Elves army list.
Lords: Wood Elf Highborn
Spellweaver
Heroes: Wood Elf Noble
Spellsinger
Spellsingers may choose from the Lore of Athel Loren, Beasts, or Life
Core: Glade Guard
Glade Riders
0-1 Dryads
Special: Wardancer Troupe (updated rules, see below)
Warhawk Riders
Shadow Stalkers (new unit)
Rare: Waywatchers
0-1 Treeman
Great Eagles
Note: NO special characters may be used from the parent Wood Elf book.
Wardancer Troupe
Same stat line, point cost down to 16 PPM
Unit size changed to 5 to 20
Command costs are +10 each
Equipment changed to 2x hand weapons
Special Rules:
Skirmish, Shadow Dances of Loec, Immune to Psychology, Talismanic Tattoos, Furious Charge
Shadow Stalkers - 16 PPM
Shadow Stalker 5-5-4-3-3-1-7-1-8
Huntmaster 5-5-4-3-3-1-7-2-8
Unit Size: 5-20
Equipment: Two Hand Weapons
Huntermaster +10 points
Special Rules:
Skirmish, Armor Piercing, From the Shadows
From the Shadows:
Shadow Stalkers always count as being in the flank when fighting in close combat, unless they are charged in the flank or rear while already engaged in the front. This means that they receive the +1 bonus to combat resolution, and it means that the enemy may not use supporting attacks against Shadow Stalkers.
Really rough draft. Hopefully you understand the purpose of the army wide special rules (charging on 1st turn might be just for those coming out of the forest, we'll see), and we wanted to give the Wood Elves a couple of combat units that can hit hard and/or have some rules that give them some staying power. Wardancers are a little cheaper, and their rules are cleaned up with the new 8th ed set, and can benefit from the forest assault making them stubborn. Shadow Stalkers stay alive by minimizing return attacks back, and can dish out quite a lot of attacks too.
Thoughts? Like I said, I wanted to construct a rough shell of the army and then turn it over to you for thoughts, feedback, and changes. Once you have run it through the ringer I will send it on to my design team for their thoughts, and then we'll send it out for playtesting.
We are using the campaign as an opportunity to give the Wood Elves some love, one of the sub campaigns is going to be the Laurelorn Elves attempting to hold off the Beastmen and stop them from attacking the rear of the Empire army. As such, it is a chance to produce a special wood elf variant list. Now it can't be a complete rewrite of the book since this is just supposed to be a special "take" on one aspect of the parent army, but we want to include something in our campaign to get the wood elf players excited.
Our vision with the Laurelorn Elves are the masters of ambush and hit and run tactics. We want the army list to play extremely non traditionally (especially in the age of horde infantry in 8th edition) and give the Laurelorn Elves a dynamic, unique approach to winning their games. As such, I have a first draft of the list. But we want to know how to tweak it and make it work before we send it out to our playtesting teams.
Here's what we have:
Parent Book: This is a special variant of the Wood Elves army list. Unless specified otherwise, all special rules, stats, and point costs will be used from the main army book.
Disallowed Kindreds: The following kindreds cannot be selected by Wood Elf characters, as these kindreds do not exist outside of the forest of Athel Loren
Wild Rider
Glamourweave
In addition, Wood Elf characters cannot choose any spites, as the power of the forest is far weaker in Laurelorn, and the elves there must rely on ambushing more than the fury and strength of the forest spirits.
Attacks Unseen: All infantry models and units with fewer than twenty models in the army have the ambush special rule. However, so coordinated is their ambush of the enemy that they may declare a charge on the turn they arrive (even though their arrival occurs in the remaining move sub phase, treat this as an out of sequence charge). They may not arrive from the opposing player’s board edge, however.
In addition, you can nominate up to half of the units in your army with the ambush special rule, or nominate a number of units equal to the number of forests on the board (whichever number is lower). These units may come on the board as ambushers in the first turn, but must be placed in one of the forests on the board. They may still charge on the turn they arrive as normal.
From the Shadows: If a skirmishing Laurelorn Elves unit is partially (or completely) in a forest at the start of the movement phase, and it charges an enemy, then it counts as being in a forest for the first round of combat. This means that unit will be stubborn. Note that the enemy does not count as being in a forest for the first turn, and therefore will be steadfast if they have more ranks than the Laurelorn Elf unit.
Fearsome Ambush: For the first two turns of the game, all enemy models suffer a -1 leadership penalty as they attempt to gain their wits from the Wood Elf assault.
The following troops count as characters, core, special, or rare units in the Laurelorn Elves army list.
Lords: Wood Elf Highborn
Spellweaver
Heroes: Wood Elf Noble
Spellsinger
Spellsingers may choose from the Lore of Athel Loren, Beasts, or Life
Core: Glade Guard
Glade Riders
0-1 Dryads
Special: Wardancer Troupe (updated rules, see below)
Warhawk Riders
Shadow Stalkers (new unit)
Rare: Waywatchers
0-1 Treeman
Great Eagles
Note: NO special characters may be used from the parent Wood Elf book.
Wardancer Troupe
Same stat line, point cost down to 16 PPM
Unit size changed to 5 to 20
Command costs are +10 each
Equipment changed to 2x hand weapons
Special Rules:
Skirmish, Shadow Dances of Loec, Immune to Psychology, Talismanic Tattoos, Furious Charge
Shadow Stalkers - 16 PPM
Shadow Stalker 5-5-4-3-3-1-7-1-8
Huntmaster 5-5-4-3-3-1-7-2-8
Unit Size: 5-20
Equipment: Two Hand Weapons
Huntermaster +10 points
Special Rules:
Skirmish, Armor Piercing, From the Shadows
From the Shadows:
Shadow Stalkers always count as being in the flank when fighting in close combat, unless they are charged in the flank or rear while already engaged in the front. This means that they receive the +1 bonus to combat resolution, and it means that the enemy may not use supporting attacks against Shadow Stalkers.
Really rough draft. Hopefully you understand the purpose of the army wide special rules (charging on 1st turn might be just for those coming out of the forest, we'll see), and we wanted to give the Wood Elves a couple of combat units that can hit hard and/or have some rules that give them some staying power. Wardancers are a little cheaper, and their rules are cleaned up with the new 8th ed set, and can benefit from the forest assault making them stubborn. Shadow Stalkers stay alive by minimizing return attacks back, and can dish out quite a lot of attacks too.
Thoughts? Like I said, I wanted to construct a rough shell of the army and then turn it over to you for thoughts, feedback, and changes. Once you have run it through the ringer I will send it on to my design team for their thoughts, and then we'll send it out for playtesting.