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Hey, everybody has heard that Wood Elves are not good in combat. I think I have a tactic for that. It goes something like this...

For example, theres a regular unit of Wood Elves and a Chaos unit of warriors in front of the Wood Elf unit. Well, you wouldnt go and attack the warriors in close combat, right? So instead, fire the Wood Elf bows at the Chaos unit, then move back as far as you can with the Wood Elves (try having a Spellsinger or Spellweaver by the Wood Elf unit) and then, if you have, use a Spellsinger or Spellweaver to cast a spell (I recommend the "tree singing" spell if there's any trees). If you're at the board edge, and can't go any further back, then have your brave and hearty Wood Elves attack in close combat. The 8th edition Wood Elves, I think, have better armor, so there's a slightly bigger chance they'll win in close combat.


Thank you for looking at this message!

Please reply and tell me what you think about it!

Also give me some tactics that YOU have made up!
Please! Once you read this, really do tell a tactic! It might be helpful!
Moved to the Glade of Generals ~ Beithir

Wood elves have never been an armoured force, your best tactic is always going to be to not engage until the last moment. The lore of Athel Loren isn't exactly your best friend in this game, life or beast are better especially for damage. You are right, you are going to back away for as long as possible, but as a wood elf player you're going to need to take on the realization that you will need to give up a phase once in a while so that your units can run away. Marching and losing your shots isn't a big deal, because at least you won't permanently lose those shots, you can get them back next turn, and if you don't run away, well there are some dead Glade Guard.

Thanks! I didn't notice that!

What i like about wood elves is that they are not just a static gun-line, even if you go with an archer heavy army.

This means you will be starting the games by moving your archers forward, which may seem counter intuitive in the beginning. The reason is that we want to get into close range shooting to get the strength 4 arrows, but moving forward in the beginning of the game will allow you to flee enemy charges without fleeing off the table.

Double fleeing and redirecting are very important tools to the wood elves, and i would advise looking those tactics up.

Thanks for telling!

Is this a joke?

CauCaSus wrote:Is this a joke?

I believe sashkin is new to Wood Elves and therefore believes this a helpful trick to share, although some of our older members will have already been using this tactic to great effect.

Hi there.
I've also just started playing Welves (and wfb in fact). I've read a lot of stuff on the forum which has been a great help and has led to some limited initial success. I've heard the term 'double flee' quite a few times. However, haven't been able to find out what it means. Could somone explain or supply a link? (Sorry to hijack the thread).

Ta.

Double fleeing is a way of baiting/re-directing units that you don't really want to fight. It basically goes like this:

1. Stick a chaff unit in front of your opponent's über unit so that it can't charge anything else. Stick another chaff unit directly behind that one. Ensure that the angles are such that, when your opponent pursues you, he's going to be going in a direction that you want him to go.

2. Your opponent charges your 1st chaff unit. You flee (probably through your second chaff unit).

3. Your opponent redirects into the second chaff unit, because it's either that or fail a charge (he shouldn't be able to redirect into anything else). The 2nd unit also flees (probably through the first chaff unit).

4. Now. Because you are only allowed to redirect once, your opponent will have failed their charge. He can no longer reach the 2nd unit, because the 1st is in the way.

In short, it's a way of redirecting that removes the risk of being caught by your enemy. It's conceivable that, with Glade Riders and/or great eagles, you could lead enemy death stars around by the nose for the entire game, but you will be taking a lot of panic and rally checks, which is where the risk comes in.

I'm new to 8th edition (don't even know the new rules) but I know 7th edition, so there might be some times when this strategy doesn't work.

Great.Thanks for such a clear explanation. But wouldn't an experienced player just elect to fail his first charge? If you are attempting to redirect a powerful "hammer" unit then they wouldn't have anything to fear from then being left in the charge range of your chaff units?

The point is that by double fleeing a huge a dangerous unit, they will fail charge and only move a few inches. At the same time, you can keep shooting at them or just keep them out of the game in this way.

Ah! Brilliant. Thanks guys. I'm presuming that the best troops to do this with are Glade Riders and Eagles? What about Glade Guard?

Glade Riders have the fast cav advantage, meaning you can put them in precisely the right place, turn after turn (assuming they rally). They're basically made for this.

Glade Guard are much less manoeuvrable, and so harder to get it right with. You can theoretically do it with anything that can flee, though.

The thing is, even if he elects not to charge, you've still bought yourself an extra turn, basically, in which that über killy unit isn't doing anything.

The situation where is doesn't work well, is when the killy unit also has a missile weapon, or there is a Magic Missile/Ruby Ring of Ruin in it. These things just eat Glade Riders.

Glade Riders are the best units for the double-flee tactic, as they have a number of advantages over pretty much every other unit. They should always have a Musician, which gives them +1 Ld when attempting to rally. As Fast Cavalry they can then move, march and shoot as normal when they do rally, and they get as many free reforms as they need to get into any tricky positions. They also have the Vanguard special rule which means they effectively get a free move before the game, so can get into position much quicker than any of our other units.

The only downside to Glade Riders is their comparative cost - you can have two and a half Eagles for the cost of one Glade Rider unit. The biggest thing Eagles have going for them is their cost - they're so cheap that they can be risked with a lot less concern (although you should never throw them away carelessly). They aren't quite as manoeuvrable as Glade Riders, and they're limited on turns where they rally (which means the redirected killy unit could still catch them the turn after they flee...)

Beithir Seun wrote:The biggest thing Eagles have going for them is their cost - they're so cheap that they can be risked with a lot less concern (although you should never throw them away carelessly).

Maybe not carelessly, but they do make good speed-bumps, since they're so cheap (for Wood Elves)!

One downside of double fleeing is that you need to clear out all chaff in the vicinity, especially things with flying. It's (most of the time) no good doing a double flee if the opponent can push both fleeing units off the board with a flying chaff unit next turn.

Another (less considered) unit for this tactic is the naked Noble on a steed. He is only ~90 points, depending on if you want to give him any kind of weaponry or armor and has Ld 9 for his rally tests. We don't often use up our Hero allocation, so ~180 points is not a huge deal if you want to double flee. Give them a Great Weapon, Light Armor and a Shield (95 pts total, from memory) and they can also help with combo charges.

I'll give it a try in my next battle. Will be fighting OnG so there'll probs be some nasty Black Orcs I want to avoid.