Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

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Kobe001
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Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

Post by Kobe001 »

Hello there guys :)

I'm an Ogre Kingdoms player who's looking into the Wood Elves for my next project. I'm the kind of guy who likes to plan his army list out entirely before proceeding to buy the required miniatures and I have a specific list in mind ;p The problem is there's not much stuff or information on the internet at all concerning the actual 'viablity' of the new wood elves and I'd like some feedback on how my list would perform on the tabletop :)

I'd like my army to consist of the best looking miniatures available to the army (last years release had some gorgeous models) while still being atleast semi-competitive. I should mention the list is meant for vanilla 8th edition play without end times and doesn't ever aim to play Age of Sigmar. I'd like the list to work against high elves in particular.

This is the list I've come up with:

Lords:

Spelweaver (185 pts)
• Lvl 4 upgrade (35 pts)
• Lore of Beasts
Total = 220 pts.

Core:

20x Eternal Guard (220 pts)
• Shields (20 pts)
• Standard (10 pts)
• Musician (10 pts)
Total= 260 pts.

Special:

5x Wild Riders: (130pts)
• Shields (10pts)
• Musician (10pts)

5x Wild Riders: (130pts)
• Shields (10pts)
• Musician (10pts)
Total = 300 pts.

Rare:

10x Waywatchers (200pts)
Total = 200 pts.


All of this adds up to about 980 points. I figured I should probably add another cheap magic item somewhere or perhaps a banner but that's finetuning ;p I'd just like some feedback on the overall viability of a list such as this one :)

I would use some converted shadow warriors for the Waywatcher models so the army would look sweet. I expect it is suboptimal to put the Spellweaver with the Eternal Guard.. but I don't think I have a choice there. The main idea is to fight the enemy in a pretty straightforward manner, going for the anvil + hammer concept using buffed Wild Riders to tear things to shreds. The Waywatchers are just there because I believe they're pretty good units and a treeman, however absolutely stunning-looking, is pretty bad ;p

What do you guys think? Would this army be able to do well at all?

Thanks :)
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Billthesurly
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Re: Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

Post by Billthesurly »

Up to 1000 points the Wood Elves rarely need wizards. Maximize your shooting and do run and gun. Swap your Spellweaver for a Hero with the Hail of Doom Arrow. Lots of shooters for softening up the enemy and then a unit or two of Wild Riders to polish them off. Go with multiple small units. Chances are you may smoke the enemy wizard before he ever becomes a factor. Of course, you have to play with the figures you've got...
So it's no longer the BRB, now it's the DERB. (Digital Edition Rule Book) I am all in for 9th Age.
Kobe001
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Re: Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

Post by Kobe001 »

Billthesurly wrote:Up to 1000 points the Wood Elves rarely need wizards. Maximize your shooting and do run and gun. Swap your Spellweaver for a Hero with the Hail of Doom Arrow. Lots of shooters for softening up the enemy and then a unit or two of Wild Riders to polish them off. Go with multiple small units. Chances are you may smoke the enemy wizard before he ever becomes a factor. Of course, you have to play with the figures you've got...
That's an interesting thought. A level 4 might not be necesarry indeed :)

I don't want to go for an "avoidance" list though ;p It's just not my style. My ogre list is already focused on shooting (8 leadbelchers, trappers, a firebelly and an ironblaster @1000pts) and I'm looking for something different here. There's currently nothing shooty about my list except for the Waywatchers. Should I change the Waywatchers out for something else? Maybe more Wild Riders, Sisters of the Thorn or even a Treeman?

I thought the Waywatchers could just harass my opponent and support the rest of my army but maybe it's all or nothing when it comes to shooting? ;p
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Billthesurly
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Re: Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

Post by Billthesurly »

It's pretty hard to run a hybrid WE list. When you decide to go wizardless you can't go half measures. Trying to balance close combat (something Woodies are not renowned for in the first place) with shooting always results in not enough of either. The Ogres are a stick-in-and-fight-it-out army. You CAN make them shooty. The Wood Elves are a shooty army. You can't really ever make them into first tier close combat fighters.

Waywatchers are great. They rock against armored targets and they shoot double against soft targets - basically having the same effect as twice their number of regular Glade Guard. But if they're the only shooting unit you have they will never have time to do more than be a nuisance.

A Treeman with strangle roots is good. His magic shot ability keeps things like enemy skirmishers and ethereals honest. And he's nothing if not fighty.
So it's no longer the BRB, now it's the DERB. (Digital Edition Rule Book) I am all in for 9th Age.
Kobe001
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Re: Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

Post by Kobe001 »

Billthesurly wrote:It's pretty hard to run a hybrid WE list. When you decide to go wizardless you can't go half measures. Trying to balance close combat (something Woodies are not renowned for in the first place) with shooting always results in not enough of either. The Ogres are a stick-in-and-fight-it-out army. You CAN make them shooty. The Wood Elves are a shooty army. You can't really ever make them into first tier close combat fighters.

Waywatchers are great. They rock against armored targets and they shoot double against soft targets - basically having the same effect as twice their number of regular Glade Guard. But if they're the only shooting unit you have they will never have time to do more than be a nuisance.

A Treeman with strangle roots is good. His magic shot ability keeps things like enemy skirmishers and ethereals honest. And he's nothing if not fighty.
Allright, thanks that makes sense to me:)

I'll have to return to the drawing table, dropping the Waywatchers and changing out the lvl 4 lord for something else ;p

The main idea behind my list however is based on me thinking the Wild Riders + Eternal Guard would be pretty good. The Guard just look like more expensive spearelves with stubborn and better spears so I thought I couldn't go wrong there. Concerning the Wild Riders, I was lead by a particular review of them in the tactics section for 8th edition wood elves on 1d4chan.

I quote:

-- Wild Riders of Kurnous: While they may be quite fragile for cavalry, Wild Riders of Kurnous move like an arrow and hit like a ton of bricks (glass bricks). Similes aside, they are the only fast cavalry in the game with the potential to get a 4+ 6++ and they eat monsters(or damn near anything) for breakfast. For 26 points you get a WS5, S4, T3, model on stagback with light armour, which can buy a shield for 2 extra points, Full Command for 30, and a magic banner up to 50pts. In combat they dish out 3 str 5 AP, ASF and 2 str 4 attack on the charge, thanks to frenzy (which also applies to the mounts) asrai spears for +1 strength on the charge and devastating charge for an extra attack on the charge. A unit of 5 on the charge with a champion will cause an average of 12 wounds with -3 to armour and 4 Wounds with -1 to anything at T3 with less than WS5 - that unit is looking a lot less threatening with 15 less guys now isn't it. Also have a lot more staying power than most other cav, retaining 4 st4 attacks per model until you lose frenzy. That's better than having lances. Also, they keep their spears in following rounds, so their attacks still have AP. Bear in mind, they're reliant on a 4+ 6++ (one of the best saves the wood elves get is still not that good), so don't get them charged, or they will die in troves. --

It's because of their models and this review in particular that I came up with the list. Of course I'm now dropping the Waywatchers and changing the lord so I'd be able to add more punch.. but could it work? :)

Initially I included Waywatchers because I thought they were some sort of OP unit which would always earn its points back. Besides that the initial idea included buffing the Wild Riders with magic (Beasts).
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Billthesurly
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Armies I play: Wood Elves, Orcs and Amazons
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Re: Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

Post by Billthesurly »

I have said for years that Wildriders should be treated like a nuclear cruise missile. Fire and forget. If it blows through the target great. If it doesn't, the target will be in very sad shape for succeeding turns. Arrow fodder. Two great things that go great together.

Don't plan on WR sticking around much past turn of combat 1. If you don't completely devastate your target the riposte will more than likely kill off most of the WR and then ranks and such will beat them in combat turn 2. Plan to either weaken a target with shooting (or something) and then polish off with WR or weaken with WR and then polish off with something else.
So it's no longer the BRB, now it's the DERB. (Digital Edition Rule Book) I am all in for 9th Age.
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Re: Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

Post by Aben Zin »

Of course, WRs work well as part of the ol' tank 'n' spank tactic - hold the enemy with another unit then hit them in the flank with the WRs. Eternal guard are probably our best best here for tanking as they seldom run away and can give enough rank bonus that if you fluff your WRs attacks you can still have a chance of winning the combat.
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LadyLoec
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Re: Advice needed 1000 pts wood elves.

Post by LadyLoec »

I don't have much experience with low point levels (under 2000), but I've found it's more than possible to run a balanced/hybrid list with WEs.

If you use your magic to hex/augment, a combat list can work well. I would personally choose shadow over beasts, just because you can make your dice go a bit further (and wyssans is a great spell for your list, but any opponent worth his salt will do their best to make sure you don't cast it). As others have said though, you may find a level 4 just isn't necessary at this points level.

If you don't take any additional shooting, a ruby ring of ruin on your mage would give you some extra whittling power at relatively low cost.
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