TOW: First thoughts on Dryads

[godswearhats]

Continuing on my thoughts on Asrai core units, next up are the Dryads.

Profile
Dryads have the same profile as a Glade Guard, but with two important improvements: an extra points of Toughness for T4, and an extra Attack. In fact, they are one of the very few core units in the game that come with 2 Attacks base. Minimum of 5 in the unit, and base sizes are increased from last edition to 30mm, although they still count as Regular Infantry, not Heavy. For 13 points, they come with Light Armour and a 6+ Regeneration save that gets canceled out by Flaming Attacks, on account of them being Flammable. They aren't as durable as they were in prior editions, that's for sure. The extra attack is nice, but it's still only S3 no AP, and we don't have Wyssan's Wildform or similar Strength buffing spells to rely on. So, don't expect Dryads to do a lot of heavy lifting in combat.

Special Rules
Aside from the ones already mentioned, Dryads still cause Fear, have Magical Attacks and are Immune to Psychology. This makes them excellent against Undead and Daemons, canceling out many of the inbuilt advantages of those troops. As you would expect, they also have Move Through Cover, something most of the Asrai units have. They're also (obviously) Tree Spirits, which in this edition means that only Branchwraith characters can join the unit, and that they can't use an Elf's leadership (i.e. if your general is an Elf), so it's mostly just a bunch of limitations with no benefits. The one benefit is that they can use a Tree Spirit character's leadership if within command range, so if you have a Treeman Ancient or Branchwraith, it'll buff their Ld a bit. Meh.

They can choose to be in either Skirmish or Open Order formation, but given the lack of Command options, it seems kinda pointless to run them as Open Order unless you need to be disrupting someone, so I expect Skirmish to be the default. Lastly, they also have the Stubborn special rule (something they got before by being Skirmishers in a Forest, but that rule is now gone). Stubborn now just grants you a free 'Fall Back in Good Order' on your first break test, which is not bad but no longer the meta dominating rule it used to be.

Command
Sadly, you are limited to one option, which is a Champion (Nymph) for an extra 5 points. I'd only take this if I had a spare 5 points to make up at the end of building my army list. The champion can take Forest Spites up to 25 points, but frankly I think this unit will struggle to conserve points (in other words, I expect Dryad units will get wiped out before battle's end) so I wouldn't bother. Given that you only get each Spite once per army, any that are worth taking would be better spent on another model.

Army Role
So, in 2,500 point lists, how will I play them? I have 15 or so Dryads, plus an old Drycha model that suits a Branchwraith or Nymph. Most likely I'll take these in skirmishing units of 5 or 6 and use them in a chaff role. They can probably kill most other chaff, what with having 2 attacks base, but they definitely need to be advanced through cover, and ideally want to charge out of a forest and into something small then disappear into cover again (this will be an ongoing theme for many of our units!). I'm probably not running more than two units, and even then I'd probably only run them if I really needed to make up core points. I'd probably rank them 4th out of our 5 core choices, but take that with a grain of salt because I still haven't got any games in yet!

What do you think of our at-one-time-auto-include Dryads?

[MortenLarsen]

Yeah, they aren't worth much anymore. Mish the time when they had aspects to use in CC like Wardancers. Granted back then they were 35 pts. each... They will do as a chaff unit and are somewhat resilient against shooting with T4

[Beithir Seun]

I think Morten just wants to go back to 5th Edition

I think 4th out of the 5 Core choices is probably about right, unfortunately. Dryads are worse than they were in 8th Ed. WHFB; Glade Guard, Scouts and Glade Riders have all got better. There's probably still a use for them as a speed bump unit, but I think I'd probably take extra archers/scouts/riders instead and play the avoidance game. I suppose they'd get a bit more use in a melee-heavy list perhaps, but I'd expect most people will go for stronger shooting.

[MortenLarsen]

I think Morten just wants to go back to 5th Edition

The boomer mentality is strong with this one

[godswearhats]

I took them to a 3 game event yesterday ... they are just bad. I couldn't find a good role for them.

[MortenLarsen]

I took them to a 3 game event yesterday ... they are just bad. I couldn't find a good role for them.

Sad bark noises...

[jer732]

I saw a good trick discussed in one of the Discord servers. After you lose a fight, use stubborn to FBIGO, and reform into open order. Assuming you have another unit threatening the flank, then you give the enemy a tough choice: follow up into the dryads and get flanked; or or stay and reform and get double charged next turn.

[godswearhats]

Reforming into Open Order is interesting. I'd need to run them in more than packs of five then, realistically.

[hardkorek]

I think they will be useful to receive the charge and hold thanks to stubborn to counter charge next turn. Also good screen against shooting against our more vulnerable units

[godswearhats]

Yes, but in order to take that charge, they need to survive! They're pretty squishy, with only a 6+/6++ save. I think minimum unit size needs to be around 8 or so for that to work, which is 100 points. The new Skirmisher rules makes them much more manoeuvrable than they were in 8th edition, that's for sure.

[OvertninjaX]

in smaller games, I'm going to go with a unit of dryads and a lvl 2 branchwraith to give me some casting power - preferably with a great weapon and illusion for the doppelgänger spell and/or -1 to hit signature. combined with being stubborn, they'll be a hard block to shift unless you totally eliminate them, and they'll be decently fighty. will they stand up to anything t4, or anything that's elite? absolutely not. but against other core in most armies they'll be decent enough, and a good, maneuverable caster escort.

[Stygian]

I think they are an average unit capable of possibly holding or beating similar average or baseline units. But with stubborn.
So to me they have limited uses as screens and speed bumps, and chaff/anti-chaff. The other useful build to me would be as a core anvil. IF you need an anvil, and don't wanna spend non-compulsory points this is the unit since it will beat out EG in this role, unsupported. I you want an anvil with character support and fairly high static res EG may still have a niche use.

Either way I never did like dryads even when they rocked since I prefer the elf side of things.

[MortenLarsen]

I think they are an average unit capable of possibly holding or beating similar average or baseline units. But with stubborn.
So to me they have limited uses as screens and speed bumps, and chaff/anti-chaff. The other useful build to me would be as a core anvil.

combined with being stubborn, they'll be a hard block to shift unless you totally eliminate them

The new Stubborn rules are really not that great. It's no longer an unmodified LD for break tests. It's a choice to fall back in good order in the first break test only!

I believe that the only anvil unit we have left is Tree Kin

[Stygian]

Agreed on treekin and I am aware of the nerf to stubborn. My experience with (blocks of) infantry this edition so far is they are fairly sticky. While being the token worst unit type in almost other way. So maybe punching bag would of been the better term to use haha.

To me stubborn is more about choosing how far back to move, once. This is important mostly for setting up flank charges. Although less so for asrai since we have such high movement.
Also dryads have fear so their stubborn is more reliable in that sense.

In short I don't like dryads. I do not feel they are a true anvil such as dwarfs or other armies can bring. However I think killing a med block in a turn won't happen often outside of dedicated hammer units. So they could be used to set up counter charge.

[BGRD]

T4 is actually a lot better this time around, as there's less high strength attacks, and less attacks in general. I feel like dryads are quite a good anvil.

[godswearhats]

Anvils aren't really a primary Wood Elf tactic, so looking for one is probably not a good plan

Treekin feel a bit limp when you play with them. Only S4 with only AB(2), they're not reliably doing many wounds to anything other than the wimpiest units. T5, 5+/5++ is good, but you're mostly still just losing to static combat resolution.

The Treeman is the best one I've found in our list. T6, 4+/5++ with Stubborn. It'll hold up anything for long enough for them to get sideswiped by your Wild Riders.

[Yuri]

Dryads are awesome, I'm not leaving home without at least some of them. [hides back into the oblivion]

[OvertninjaX]

it occurs to me that dryads can be Open Order, so they'd be very able and cheap charge redirectors

[mydnightscrivener]

it occurs to me that dryads can be Open Order, so they'd be very able and cheap charge redirectors

Still more expensive then an eagle, but more survivable.