I am currently a religious Dark Elf player, but have recently take a great interest in Wood Elves as i love the models and the Shoot+Avoid style of this army.
Although i love Dark Elves, i'm looking to have a change of playstyle not because i'm not enjoying my DE anymore, but just because i want a second army and i think Wood Elves fit the bill.
I have a few burning questions before i get starting on building a 2400 army. I hope some fellow kin could shed some advice? Would be gratefully appreciated
Ok, so my first question is as most lists i see are all avoid and shoot. Is there a need for such CC characters such as Glade Captains+BSB's? Glade Lords? I'm used to getting up in CC with my DE's and was just wondering as Wood Elves pick their targets from afar.
Secondly, do we benefit from vast ranges of magic? Such as including 2 LvL 4 Spellweavers in lists?
Basically, what i'm asking is what's our go to Lord+Hero selections when creating a list that we cant go wrong with.
This army can play without BSB but it's unusual, most lists of strong players have one. Glade Lord is playable but not regarded as the strongest pick. The power units are pretty much archers and Fast Cav. Because of this 2 x lvl4 makes a lot of sense, there are match-ups that a wide spell repertoire really helps with.
Basically, most power lists will have 2 x lvl4 and a BSB.
Wood elves are very strong casters ( +1 bonus to cast any lore inside forest), our level 4 spellcasters can take high,dark and all the BRB lores. I find double level 4 casters very unseful, but my experience is very limited.
Making your general highweaver generally prevents her/him to die.
Our combat units are glasscannon more glass than cannon actually. Wood elf wild rider units are the epitome of glass cannons, for example.
Sisters of thorn are similar to doomfire warlocks, but they are more useful for spellweaver busses.
As our forces are very fragile and expensive pointwise, BSB is a must in my opinion. I generally use mine on steed within the sister bus with hail of doom arrow.
My lord choice is always a spellweaver, sometimes even two spellweavers as i said before.
Shadowdancer with potion of strength is very fun to include (i included him one time, he cut a chimera to pieces)
Waystalker with bow of loren can be useful against low toughness characters.
So in my limited experience i reccomend:
Lords:
Spellweaver
Hero:
BSB
Spellsinger (dispel scroll, lore of metal generally)
Shadowdancer
Core:
Glade Rider
Glade Guard
Special
Deepwoodscouts (i generally take 3 units with at least 9 man)
Wild Riders ( Must take, i run 1 unit, but when i buy the second unit, i will drop one deepwood scouts to include the second wild rider unit)
Sisters of the thorn (Must have if you run your spellweaver on elven steed, lots of mobility, very useful for bunker)
Rare
Great Eagle x2 (Always take 2, they are invaluable as chaff, redirector, blocker and warmachine hunter)
Waywatchers (Always take at least 2x5, even better at 2x10, very intimidating to high armour troops)
As for the BSB, what loadout is a typical one for him? Is he best with SoT as extra protection for the spellweaver or WR's?
Also, i know what army you go up against dictates the magical arrows you choose, but would i assume correctly that Trueflight arrows are the go to arrows, assuming this list is an 'all-comers' list?
I've done some perosnal reasearch into GR, and although the ambush is quite a fun special they have, are they a MUST in core or is it quite typical/powerful to go for a pure GG loadout? I would just see myself being better off with full core shooting on foot. But.......i do also know how vital it is to high high mobility, which is what GR provide.
Final thought, what combination of Lore's are powerful for Wood Elves? Would i need 2 Lvl 4's or is it viable for a lvl 4 and a lvl 2 scroll caddy. And with your more powerful caster, is it best to keep her in with a GG unit or have both casters mounted?
There are many threads about arrow types. Most useful are hagbane arrows (high toughness enemies, such as monsters, warmachines, dwarves:)) and trueflight arrows ( elves, skaven, brettonia and empire). In an allcomers list i use trueflight on my trueflight and keep them at back field to shoot at chaff or any target of oppurtunity. Hag bane goes to my scouts and glade riders who does warmachine hunting. I sometimes use flaming arrows vs order or destruction depending on the type of enemy to prevent regerenation.
I enjoy to use glade riders however they sometimes become annoying when they are late from the party to ambush my enemies. It is very reasonable to make an all glade guard list in your core choices, but i think i will always use glade riders in my lists. The tactical possibilites of fast attack cavalary with poisioned or trueflight arrows with asrai spears ( +1 str on the charge + armour piercing and always strike fist models) make them very very and very useful.
Everyone would say shadow is the most powerful lore. I rather use high magic with my level 4 general backed up by metalsinger (All hail Manowar!). Two spellweavers with high and death is very powerful too. Heavens never make you regret to choose it. In my last game i used deathweaver for a psychological effect and casted heaven spells. My opponent kept his dispel dice and dispel runes and did not dispel the heaven lores because of potential purple sun.
Spellweavers are very tough to catch in a sister bus. If he is a highweaver it may be impossible to bring him down all the while casting useful spells for your army.
To sum it all up, i think there is no single way to play wood elves. This forum and ulthuan.net has very useful articles that can grant you insight about playing wood elves. I recommend Sword Master of Hoeth in Ulthuan.net for his MSU army's battlereports in ulthuan.net. His tactics are very useful for the wood elves too.
Most players take Hail of Doom on the BSB, especially in a standard archer/fast cav list. In Sisters bunker, Spear and Shield are common and possibly Gambler's Armour or somesuch. The main reason for him being there is to re-roll Panic tests and to keep him alive. If the characters are on foot you'll still see Hail of Doom a lot. Other kit like Moonstone or Magic Resistance is possible.
Trueflight is popular for Core archers but Hagbane more favoured on Scouts because they can get close to War Machines better. I like 2x10 archers and 2x5 Cav in Core because it's a good balance between shots and mobility. 3x13 archers say is also popular.
The big advantage of a level 4 is she has a 90% chance of getting the spell she wants from the Lore. With a level 2 you're basically going for the signature and hoping you roll another decent spell. At 2400/2500 I'd definitely go 2 x lvl4 but there's something to be said for lvl4/lvl2 at 2000pts I think. I like High/Shadow because it has answers to a lot of things but there are plenty of good options. Some like Shadow and Heavens are fine on foot, others benefit more from mobility.
Both mounted and foot characters can work well, Moonstone can be especially good on the latter.
There really isn't a single way to play. I notice with a lot of Dark Elves there tend to be really strong standard builds for characters. I don't think Wood Elves are as clear cut. My personal philosophy, especially when comparing to other elves, is that while we all die fairly easily, wood elves are generally the most squishy, and I think that is why Movement and shooting end up being so critical. The best defense is to never be hit.
That being said, I absolutely love Treeman. I know I will find a lot of mixed reviews about Treeman, but I look at him like a big peg on a pinball machine. He is a T6, 3+/6++ Stubborn Monster. He is a beast! Sure, a flaming cannon will most likely turn him into cinders, but I find his value in many other situations phenomenal.
Otherwise, I've seen all kinds of magic combos work pretty well. I think you just need to feel out some potential synergies that you can utilize well. I like TMA, too, with Lore of Life. I really enjoy Lore of Life and Shadow, and depending on the list other lore are awesome, too. Life and Shadow as a combo can do some crazy stuff. Killed a Tyrion, Avatar of Khaine with his 2++ against magic through Enfeebling+Dwellers(End Times magic is insane, though.) Withering is great with all the S3 arrows we shoot. I like having Regrowth to help bounce back from some heavy shooting, or some magic. If you have Sisters of the Thorn, you can use Curse of Anraheir which is freakin awesome against some units.
To give you an idea, though. I've been playing a lot lately with a MC list(2500) with decent success. It has a L4 Life, L2 Beasts, Bsb on Stag, Lord on Stag. The combat characters generally don't get too involved in CC until they begin having targets they can reliably pop. I usually try and combo charge them with Wild Riders or together as a pair. Hell, I've charged my Unicorn rider into Monsters before for the extra S6 attacks. Stags give D3 Impact Hits at S5 each, so slamming a couple of them into a smaller unit can make a dent. Throw Savage Beast of Horros on those guys and they get mean quick. Regardless, if I don't play those guys either conservatively or very aggressively(depending on the situation,) they are likely to die.
I've fully embraced the idea that my Wood Elf characters are supposed to die, and am not at all shy about shamelessly sacrificing them for the greater good. As we all know, Wood Elves ain't a thing without Athel Loren. We fight for the Forest! What is the life of a single elf?
"It's not the list that counts, it's how you play it!" - Someone
