Whfb Wood Elves vs High Elves – part 2 – battle rep

This will be less of a battle report than a recap of the game played on Friday vs Steve. This is for a number of reasons including: it was the first time I had played the wood elves in 20 odd years, so for once I wanted to concentrate on the game and also Steve only decided to play high elves after I bought my army along for him to have a look at so I didn’t have my normal battle rep templates prep’ed.

We had decided in advance to play the wicked woods scenario and two other Club members (Luke and Paul) were also trying it out on the night so we were able to get some good feedback on the scenario.

My list can be found here.

Steve’s High Elf List

His list was rather hurriedly put together as he had been planning on bringing his WoC and as such, he missed out a few crucial bits (armour on the bsb, upgrading the archmage to lvl 4…). It was something like:

Archmage – general – ToP – Lvl 3, I want to say book of hoeth (which I think he forgot to use all game).

BSB – with light armour…

Level 1 Mage – MR (1) item

16 Archers – music/standard

6 Silverhelms – standard, shields

6 Silverhelms – standard, shields

5 Silverhelms – standard, shields

15 Phoenix Guard – standard

15 Phoenix Guard – standard

15 White Lions – standard

7 Swordmasters – standard

7 Swordmasters – standard

Frost Phoenix

Bolt Thrower

Bolt Thrower

Great Eagle

I’ve obviously missed a few bits as this is around a hundred points short of 2500.

Prematch rolls

We rolled map pack 4, so that was 4 hills (2 were scree), a river and a wood (which turned out to be normal).

We were both trying High Magic. Steve took a Soul Quench on both the level 1 and level 3 and he also got Tempest and something else he never used.

I also took Soul Quench, Fiery Convocation, Apothesis and walk through worlds (no doubles).

After Terrain was laid it looked like this. The central wood is the ‘Wicked Wood’. The wood to the left is the one from the terrain chart and the one to the right was the wood elf ‘free’ wood (for which I chose the almost compulsory venom thicket). Due to being player ‘B’ on the terrain table I was lucky to be able to place the wood and with my wood form a forest barrier.

Its worth noting that both armies were new for us. I last used WE in 4th edition and he has never played High elves. The unfamiliarity, together with breaks from the table (to drum up support for the competition) and just generally chatting, meant we really didn’t get too far with the game. A lot of rules were forgotten by both sides.

After deployment it looked like this. The sisters did vanguard forward slightly, as did the warhawks. The leftmost glade guard were those with the flaming banner and poison. The two glade guard with trueflight (no modifiers) were in the centre of my lines. The waywatchers also gained poison from being in the venom thicket (which of course I forgot).

The archers in the army cover almost every iteration from 3rd edition to present

Steve won first turn (despite me having finished deploying first) and he immediately advanced as swiftly as possible (which wasn’t too fast as it a moment of genius he had placed the river in front of his lines). Having normally played WoC he was surprised that he actually had a shooting phase! The bolt throwers and archers opened up on the sisters and gladeguard respectively, with both units taking a few wounds. Magic was highly ineffective as with 3 dice each (thanks to my channel) I was able to block soul quench.

The wood elves responded by pushing up aggressively on the left with the warhawks blocking the silverhelms (this might have been a mistake, I probably should have charged them rather than using them as I would an eagle, in order that they take advantage of the killing blow and additional strength on the charge). The sisters decided to withdraw to save their points. The Spellweaver joined the scouts in the woods so she could get the casting bonus.

Remembering (for once) a tactica I read about removing the greatest threats first, Scarlock and his unit swiftly removed the bolt thrower opposite them but the scouts on the other flank failed to repeat the task and only wounded the other one. The waywatchers showed why they are so feared and wiped out one of the silverhelm units. The waystalker started his operation assassinate and picked on the enemy bsb wounding him. The 2 central glade guard units took down most of the right most swordmasters and a boosted soul quench removed a number of the archers (though I failed to show this in the below diagram!).

The high elves realising they were outclassed in the shooting war pushed forward. A number of charges were declared but only the frost Phoenix and nearby Silverhelms completing theirs. The wicked woods claimed its first four victims of the game. A double casting of Soul Quench against the spellweaver was shrugged off. The eagle moved to threaten the back of the elf lines and the remaining 2 Swordmasters on the right realising the folly of charging bow armed troops, decided that actually they would just march up to get in the way.

In combat, one warhawk was slain and the others beat a hasty retreat.

The Warhawks rallied and the nearby Dryads moved over to protect the archers by blocking charges. The remaining sisters moved over to prevent the eagle charging the flank of the glade guard. The Phoenix Guard took a further 4 casualties from the wicked woods.

The scouts again failed to remove the remaining bolt thrower. The waystalker not wanting to be shown up, also failed to wound (and thus kill) his target, in his case the opposing bsb. The remaining 2 swordmasters were killed and the other unit took a number of casualties. The high elf archers once again took a shoeing.

Not worrying about restraining themselves, the Wildriders charged the Silverhelms, who took one look at their crazed whooping loony cousins and legged it. Barely missing a step the frenzied riders careened into the frosty but with its ward strengthened by the strong winds, it shrugged off all damaged. They still won combat thanks to the musician, so retained frenzy but their position was now looking perilous.

We did faff around a bit with 3rd turns but not much happened bar some more failed charges and the Phoenix guard in the woods being further decimated by the dangerous terrain rolls.

After game thoughts

I’ll ignore the lack of turns played and just give some general thoughts on the army build and the scenario.

Scenario

We really enjoyed the concept of the wicked woods (as did Luke and Paul) however there were a couple of things taken away (and this backed up feedback received from Dan and a different Luke in their game a few weeks before). Firstly, there is no incentive to enter the woods before the final turn. The potential damage from the dangerous terrain and the woods attacking, combined with the removal of any form of save, meant it was too risky to enter it. 15 Phoenix guard (even with a 3++ ward) were decimated in two turns and Paul had 17 of his 30 strong unit of Chaos Dwarves similarly ‘culled’. As it stands it is more likely that most players will hold off and rush it in the last go, or avoid the woods and treat the game as battleline, killing the other army before then moving into the woods in the last turn. In this respect it is similar to the KOW dominate scenario.

We all talked about it for a bit afterwards and whether the damage should be changed and a few of us will continue to discuss it further. However, to keep it as simple as possible, one option maybe to award 1 or 2 VP’s for each turn you hold it (uncontested) instead.

Wood Elves

Half a game isn’t enough to give any in depth analysis, however even in the few turns played I was able to make a few observations.

Waystalker, I love the idea of him but I think you realistically need 2 (one with the bow perhaps the second with the fireball ring), if only because the individuals you are targeting (BSB/support mages etc), you want to take out asap and this improves the alpha strike. The issue is that they still only shoot with S3 and I question if you would ever make back their points. A lvl 1 deathweaver could potentially do the same job for similar points (with a shorter range) and could add more utility with a dispel scroll and the chance to add more dice through both channels and the Lore attribute. Still I’ll persevere at least for another game or 2.

Lord on Stag. I love the leadership boost and the loadout but I worry that the extra point of toughness and other advantages of putting him on a monstrous mount are outweighed by the total lack of any lookout sir, meaning he is an easy 288pts for anyone sporting a cannon. I wonder if I wouldn’t be better off putting him on a normal steed, which would free up some points. Alternatively giving him the armour of destiny for the 4++ ward (which would in turn boost his armour save) should improve his survivability. I just struggle relying on a 50/50 chance of a save.

I have a similar dilemma with the bsb on eagle. He benefits more from the mount but has the same drawbacks. I should probably change his helm for the charmed shield. Yes he would lose a pip of armour but it would give him a measure of protection from warmachines. I was also too timid in his use, he should have supported the Wildriders attack on the frosty. It might have made the difference in routing it, if only for the flank charge.

Spellweaver on unicorn. Seemed ok (bit too early to tell). The MR(2) combined with her ward, completely stopped one round of magic missiles. Again I worry the mount might make her a target but the ward and Lore attribute should give her much more protection than the lord.

Lore of High Magic. I quite like the Lore as it is really versatile, however that is also where is falls over. It doesn’t specialise in any one thing. About the only thing either of us successfully cast all game was Soul Quench. The Lore attribute for wood elves is potentially good (not that I remembered it in our game). I am still thinking shadow maybe the way forward but probably only if I ran an eternal guard block as without them I would, in the main, just be wanting withering to help out the shooting.

The waywatchers were everything I had read they would be. I can see why a lot of players take two units.

The archers were all solid, both hagbane and the trueflight variants. 4 units (including scouts) seemed to be about right though I’d be tempted to just take two units of the scouts if running EG in core.

I used the sisters incorrectly to start with and need to make more of their spells. Curse is excellent and shield of thorns is a great way to replace any models lost.

Likewise I used the warhawks incorrectly and should have just charged them in. It might have failed but if not, they would have stood a chance of removing the silverhelms save. Apart from forgetting stand and shoot, I’m not sure holding was the best option.

I probably shouldn’t have charged the wildriders into the frosty but with the number of attacks they were pumping out, the odds were I should have gotten at least 1 or 2 wounds through. Losing 3 from it’s return attacks just goes to show how much of a glass hammer they are and you need to ensure you break their targets on the charge.

I did really enjoy using the wood elves. The style is completely different to what i’m used to. I will definitely use a very similar (if not the same list) next time to give them another go before chopping and changing, though i’d be tempted to drop the lord for a shadow or darkweaver (possibly the latter as i’ve never used the lore). I feel I also need an eagle in the list for chaff duty. It would make me feel more confident about using the wild riders.

 

Hobby Update – Cattleclysm and Shadestalker

Last year I ran a flying doombull in my Beastmen list but I just used a standard model that I was never very happy with (loved the model but not that the loadout wasn’t represented). Inspired by the numerous excellent conversions that IRO keeps churning out I thought I’d better take a crack at it. 

Loads of great ideas were toyed with (many from the guys on the eefl forum, some even my own). Going with light hearted humour and green stuffing a cape and ‘Robin’ mask, to mounting him on a flying carpet. My favourite was the idea of the doombull being held aloft by a gaggle (flock/murder?) of harpies, either as if he were holding a bunch of balloons (but made of the aforementioned harpies) or them pulling a chariot he was mounted on.

(I still like the balloon/harpy idea – think of a dark version of the animated film ‘Up’)

Replace balloons with harpies and house with doombull

In the end (mainly as I’d never used green stuff or attempted such a project), I chose the easy route and decided to add wings to the cheap doombull model I picked up off eBay. 

I envisioned the doombull ripping the wings off the twitching corpse of the wood elf eagle/warhawk he had just buried his axe into and then Khazbar, using his dark magic, to fuse the still living wings to the doombull’s back. 

The wing colours are quite bright but I wanted another element that contrasted with the large quantity of brown and grey in the army (and they matched the colouring used on the eagles/hawks of my wood elves. Well fancy that, what a coincidence 😉). The green stuff modelling wasn’t too bad (there is a slight quozimodo look to him) and you can see the difference between the left side (which I did first) and the right (which is much better in terms of sculpting). In hindsight I really should have practiced first…

So I present Cattleclysm, scourge of Athel Loren.

With my Beastmen distraction over, I also continued my drive to finish the models needed for my potential wood elf competition list.

A number are currently on the table but the  half painted Stag Lord is quite a detailed model, so I put him to one side and went for a smaller model I had been wanting to paint for a while, the Waystalker. I love the fluff of the ultimate lone stalker. The hunt being everything in his eyes. 

I kept the paint scheme very simple, various greens, browns and the normal addition of fuscia to add the common army element. Washes were then applied and in a rarity for me, I pushed the boat out and even added some highlighting and other touches of detail (I have to point out the toadstools, yes it isn’t groundbreaking stuff but for me it’s pretty much Rembrandt levels of effort 😀). This model did, once again, reinforce that I much prefer painting metal (over plastic) with white base coats. The colours just seem so much brighter.

So I present Shadestalker, hunter of the Tal Shavoc.

Hobby Update – A Fey Enchantress

And so it continues. I present Merilel of the Moon, Highweaver of Tal Shavoc.

By all means not perfect but not my worst effort either. As always I kept things simple with bases colours, washes and drybrushes. The nature of the model actually meant I had to apply several layers especially on the unicorn when touching up after the wash and drybrush of the mane. The blue mane was very much for my wife who has been threatening to paint it with nail varnish for a while, as “who can defeat the power of blue sparkles”… I image quite a few people. I was pleased with how it turned out, though I think I need to further highlight it with temple guard blue as I like the drybrish but want it to be stronger effect.

The fuscia and green colour on most of the model is to tie it back in with the rest of the army colour scheme.

Whfb – Wood elves vs ?? – Part 1 – my list.

This is probably my 6th post this weekend. They seem to be like buses, none come along for ages and then suddenly a whole bunch arrive at once.

My next battle is lined up for the 28th against last year’s TO Steve. We have agreed to try out one of the new scenarios, Wicked Woods.

What he hasn’t decided yet is what to bring on the above date (or even to enter into the competition). He is considering several options, one being High Elves and in the spirit of club comradeship (and because I know where he lives), I’ve offered him the use of my HE army if he wants.

That aside, I have decided that I am going to breakout the Wood elves for a game in the first time in 20 odd years. As such you may see a number of posts in the next few months actually involving painting (shocking behaviour i know!). The Dryad post, a few ago, is the first of the new burst of enthusiasm for some of my oldest models.

Every time I read about wood elf tactics I seem to hear about shoot and scoot. The stereo type image of the elves appearing from the trees, a rain of arrows decimating the enemy before they fade away into the shadows. Sounds promising, so with a couple of thoughts in my head I sketched out a list.

So what have I decided to take and why?

Well I’d previously done some WE list bashing here but I ended up going a slightly different route if only because I decided I wanted to take a lot more archers in my list, after all it’s what wood elves are best known for! As normal it’s a 2500pt list

The Host of Tal Shavoc

Lords/Heroes

Haldrin Stormlight (Glade Lord) – General – Ogre Blade, Glittering Scales, Dragonbane Gem, Potion of Foolhardiness, Great Stag, Shield, Bow – 288pts

(Glade Captain) – BSB – The Helm of the Hunt, Hail of Doom Arrow, Great Eagle, Starfire Shafts, Spear, Bow, Light Armour, Shield – 208pts

Merilel of the Moon (Spellweaver) – Level 4 Lore of High Magic, Dispel scroll, Talisman of Endurance, Unicorn, Bow – 340pts

(Waystalker) – Bow of Loren – 110pts

Core

The Dryads are there to be used as my chaff or to flank charge where possible.

The mounted hero is there as mobile support first and bsb second. He can strip regen and is ideal to remove Chaff either at range with the hoda or in combat with his 4 Str 5 AP attacks on the chg (+ the eagle). The eagle allows him to Keep up and support the wild riders with frenzy tests if nothing else.

The wild riders are the recognised hammer. The banner ensures that they will have the charge range on almost everything. 10 may seem overkill but allows some casualties and still maintain combat effectiveness.

The Treekin are my anvil. They are tough and should be able to hold up any unit I don’t want to engage with for a number of turns. They will be supported by the wardancers who will either help the combat by removing the rank bonus or can be used as a speed bump, particularly vs anything with impact hits.

The warhawk riders are my flexible arm. They can help remove chaff, hunt warmachines or assist in combats.

The Scouts are tasked with either removing War machines or high toughness low armour troops (such as trolls) from the get go.

The Dryads are there to be used as my chaff or to flank charge where possible.

The mounted hero is there as mobile support first and bsb second. He can strip regen and is ideal to remove Chaff either at range with the hoda or in combat with his 4 Str 5 AP attacks on the chg (+ the eagle). The eagle allows him to Keep up and support the wild riders with frenzy tests if nothing else.

The wild riders are the recognised hammer. The banner ensures that they will have the charge range on almost everything. 10 may seem overkill but allows some casualties and still maintain combat effectiveness.

The Treekin are my anvil. They are tough and should be able to hold up any unit I don’t want to engage with for a number of turns. They will be supported by the wardancers who will either help the combat by removing the rank bonus or can be used as a speed bump, particularly vs anything with impact hits.

The warhawk riders are my flexible arm. They can help remove chaff, hunt warmachines or assist in combats.

The Scouts are tasked with either removing War machines or high toughness low armour troops (such as trolls) from the get go.

Glade Guard (10) – Musician, Standard, Banner of Eternal Flame, Hagbane Tips – 180pts

Glade Guard (10) – Musician, Standard, Trueflight arrows – 170pts

Glade Guard (10) – Musician, Standard, Trueflight arrows – 170pts

Dryads (10) – 110pts

Special

Deepwood Scouts (10) – Musican, Standard, Hagbane Tips – 180pts

Wildriders (8) – Full Command, Banner of Swiftness, Shield – 269pts

Warhawk Riders (3) – 135pts

Sisters of the Thorn (5) – Musician – 140pts

Rare

Waywatchers (10) – 200pts

Thoughts

Well first off the list has 62 ranged attacks. This seems suitably wood ‘elfy’ to me.

I envision the list working in almost 2 distinct wings that are both separate but can also work in harmony.

Attack wing

This is made up of:

The Glade Lord on Great Stag, likely within the unit of Wildriders. He will greatly increase their combat potential and more importantly his LD 10 should help keep the frenzy under control. Joining will also allow him to benefit from the banner of swiftness. The unit size should allow for some casualties to be sustained without it losing combat effectiveness. Combat lords are generally not taken, not because they are not effective but because its around 300 odd points that can be spent on another unit and a lot of players just use their level 4 as the general. However I like taking them, especially if it means your mage isn’t the general as I’ve seen them sucked down a hole once too often. I also like having combat characters. It’s probably a throwback to my herohammer days. This lord will consistently reroll his attacks against most foes and strike at strength 6. On the charge he gains an extra attack and this, coupled with the mounts attacks and impact hits, will increase the alpha strike. His defence isn’t great with just a 4+ AS and mainly relies on his high WS combined with the -1 to hit to mitigate damage. The 2++ Ward against fire based attacks will help against a number of cannons and the Toughness 4 conferred by the mount will help a little too.

The lord and wildriders will be supported by the Warhawk riders who can either act as a screen or strike out for warmachines/lone wizards or bunkers. I suspect the warhawks killing blow skill on the charge is more gimmick than actually effective but we shall see.

The BSB will be a roaming threat. He can join the attack wing to add combat res, also take on assassination tasks or go where his re-roll might be needed. He is somewhat vulnerable with only a 3+ AS so i’ll need to be careful with his deployment and although the eagle makes him a reasonably easy target, the additional wound and point of toughness from the mount should help offset this. On the charge he will be outputting 4 Str 5, WS7 AP ASF attacks (+ his mount) and this combined with his ranged threat (the HODA and starfire shafts) should make him a force multiplier in any given situation.

ebay purchase

Support Wing

The Dryads are there to be used as my chaff or to flank charge where possible.

The mounted hero is there as mobile support first and bsb second. He can strip regen and is ideal to remove Chaff either at range with the hoda or in combat with his 4 Str 5 AP attacks on the chg (+ the eagle). The eagle allows him to Keep up and support the wild riders with frenzy tests if nothing else.

The wild riders are the recognised hammer. The banner ensures that they will have the charge range on almost everything. 10 may seem overkill but allows some casualties and still maintain combat effectiveness.

The Treekin are my anvil. They are tough and should be able to hold up any unit I don’t want to engage with for a number of turns. They will be supported by the wardancers who will either help the combat by removing the rank bonus or can be used as a speed bump, particularly vs anything with impact hits.

The warhawk riders are my flexible arm. They can help remove chaff, hunt warmachines or assist in combats.

The Scouts are tasked with either removing War machines or high toughness low armour troops (such as trolls) from the get go.

The 3 units of glade guard are the first elements of this wing. They are supported by the deepwood scouts, waywatchers, Waystalker and dryads.

They each have a slightly different role.

The guard unit with banner of eternal flame and hagbane tips are to be primarily used against regenerating monsters.

The Deepwood scouts are tasked with warmachine hunting and supporting the monster hunters

The Waywatchers are for taking out high armour, low toughness troops (such as cavalry).

The 2 guard units with trueflight are for removing chaff and skirmishers and generally supporting the other elements.

The Dryads will either protect these units as a screen (as their arrows will then ensure there is no modifier to hit) or they will be a road block/redirector or will act as chaff deterrents. At only 110pts it is my one real throw away unit.

The Waystalker will definitely be tasked with character assassination. Primarily scroll caddies and BSBs.

The last two elements of the army are the Sisters of the Thorn and the Spellweaver on Unicorn. I’ve included them under the support wing but there is no reason why they can’t run with the attack wing. Likewise the weaver can run solo, with the sisters or even with the Wildriders to lend defensive tokens, though this last option makes the unit a mini deathstar and it will be an even greater priority for foes to target. I actually like the idea of her running solo. That way she won’t impede the fast cav status of the sisters and the protective tokens from the magic should help protect her from harm.

On paper and with my chosen builds, most of the army is a total glass hammer that should hit very hard but will tear like wet tissue paper if struck back. It means I’ll have to be very careful with targets.

Magic

A note on magic lore choice. I almost went with Shadow. I still really think the lore compliments wood elves, especially if you are taking forest spirits and eternal guard. However it is my ‘comfort lore’. I find it a very straight forward and easy to use lore and inevitably always take it with my Beastmen. As such, i’ve rarely taken any of the other 7 basic lores. So for a change I thought i’d try something different and decided on High Magic.

The wood elf lore attribute is, every time you cast a spell successfully (and it is not dispelled), you gain a protection counter that is removed instead of a wound. With the low cast level of a lot of the spells, you could be building these up really quickly!

High magic itself is really versatile. It is one of only two lores that has two signature spells. The first is a magic missile (Soul Quench) with a fairly short 18″ range that causes 2d6 str 4 hits. Where it shines is the ability to boost it to 4d6 hits. That could be truly frightening. Historically, I would have taken this one at the drop of a hat. However the other spell (Drain Magic) has the ability to remove any spell impacting a unit, whether friend or foe and it applies to any spell including Hex’s and augments. Recently I have really struggled against these kinds of spells and the ability to remove them is staggeringly powerful. If I was running a more combat orientated army, this would be the auto include of the two.

The other spells in the lore are in the main equally as good.

Apotheosis allows you to heal a model of a wound on a cast of 5+ and they also gain fear. You can boost it for D3 wounds. It’s like having the lore of life ability. As most of my army has one wound this may not be the most useful spell but it depends on the foe (having fear negates the enemies fear ability if they have it). And regaining wounds is never a bad thing!

Hand of Glory allows you to boost the M, I, WS or BS of a target by D3 or a boosted version to increase all 4. A very handy little spell for archers. It is almost the opposite of the miasma spell from lore of shadows. Where it shines is it is another 5+ cast for the basic spell.

Walk between Worlds is an 8+ cast and allows you to move an unengaged unit within 24″ up to 10″ (and they gain the ethereal rule for the movement).. A boosted version allows the move to be 20″. In a game that is all about movement, this is a phenomenal spell. It can easily allow you to get a powerful unit behind enemy lines.

Tempest is the weakest spell in the deck. You place a large blast anywhere and scatter it. Everything underneath suffers a S3 hit (S4 for flyers). If it suffers a wound it gets -1 to hit in both shooting and combat. Things that don’t use BS can only fire on a 4+. This spell seems confused, You really want to use it on warmachines but that relies on you rolling a 6 to wound to gain a 50/50 chance of it not firing. The -1 to hit is fine but at a casting value of 12+ there are just better spells to take.

Arcane Unforging is a great spell. It works like a lore of metal spell. You target anyone with a magic item within 24″. If you roll equal or above the armour value, they suffer a wound but even if they don’t, they must reveal the magic items that person has and randomly select one and it is destroyed on a 2+.

The final spell of the deck, Fiery Convocation, is the High Magic answer to the other nuke spells. It is a remains in play, direct damage spell, cast on a 19+ (so 14+ if your spell weaver is in a wood). It causes a S4 wound on every model in the target unit (with the flaming effect). If they don’t dispel it, it then does the same again at the end of every subsequent magic phase. With a 19+ cast value, if they didn’t dispel it to start with, they are very likely going to have to waste their magic phase (or a good chunk of it) removing the spell. Especially if it was cast on a horde. I love this spell (or at least the threat of it) as it should allow you to get through a number of the smaller spells and each time you do that, you are gaining protection tokens for your mage. The odds favour that you only need 5 dice to get it off (vs 6 on other spells). 5 dice gives around 85% chance (4 dice would only give around 56%).

 

Hobby Update – The trees they’re alive!

It’s been a while since I’ve done any painting, I seem to have just played games recently and any free hobby time was spent  putting together the competition pack.

With that finally completed and distributed and my next game not until the end of the month (and with me using wood elves), I decided I’d better knuckle down and final paint some of it.

Digging through my box I started to catalog what was still unpainted (a fair bit). For time saving I decided to ignore those figures already painted (no matter how dire the paint job). The only question was where to start? Having put together a list for the game I discounted anything not in the army and finally decided to deal with the oldest items first.

Dryads

I bought these back in 4th edition when dryads were a ranked unit and could choose to take different tree aspects each round of combat (a bit like war dancers choose dances now). Some of the sculpts I really like, others not so much.

I deliberately went with darker colours as they represent the primal nature of the forest, even the drybrush is just a lighter shade of brown. Basing was my normal ‘that’ll do’ effort but it’s consistent with the rest of the army. The only thing I’m not happy with is the colour/effect of the foliage on them. In retrospect, warplock green may be a bit bright. I’m going to either have to shade it with a darker green, give it a bit of a green wash or make it stand out further with highlights of moot green. 

Skarlocks wood elf archers

The second item worked on was my very first GW purchase back in 3rd edition when I was a little nipper. They are still some of my favourite wood elf models and I think the designs have stood the test of time.

The thing which hasn’t, is the 20-25 year old paint job (I know it went straight on the lead with no undercoat) and it will need to be redone in the future. However this was about getting it onto the table and so to do that, I just needed to complete the bases. Ok so it’s a bit of a cheat target but gave me an excuse to post a pic of them 😉.

The eagle eyed of you will notice the unit is short 2 models from the original box. The wardancer is in with his dancer kindred and the final archer was appropriated by my mother of all people (she is a keen archer and lord of the rings fan so has taken 1 of every different archer owned and put it in her archery cabinet. It’s s bit odd but kinda cool, to see medals and trophies interspersed with Wargame figures). 

2017 8th ed. whfb army – list bashing – Wood Elves

So far, most of this year has involved playing Kings of War. Whilst i’m more than happy with that, as i’ve been thoroughly enjoying it, i’m also hankering for some games of 8th edition. Yes I know the balance sucks and the rules are massively over complicated in comparison but the list building is infinitely more satisfying as is the Magic and item choice.

I really enjoyed playing the Beastmen last year but fancy a bit of a change (not least as I’m using them as herd in KOW). Whilst not writing off playing either them or my dwarves (if I play Dan or Luke, i’m sure i’ll dig them out to at least try and be competitive), I don’t want to use them too much, so this year I am going to give my elves a bit of an outing. I’ve played the high elves a few times with mixed results so definitely need some more practice with them, however I am going to start out with what is possibly rated as one of the most difficult armies to use*, the Wood Elves. They have a play style i’ve never really got my head round and last time I fought with them was in 4th edition whfb so I think I am likely to get my butt kicked a fair few times. Still that is nothing new and as long as I learn from the losses i’m happy to take a beating or two 😉.

* no idea if that is true but seems to be the general consensus online.

As always i’ve knocked together a number of lists a couple of which i’ve put below and then given some thoughts and comments around them. Many of the combos are nothing new to players familiar with wood elves and some seem to have been universally agreed as not quite worth the points (e.g. The waystalker and bow of Loren) but I still want to try them out and to my knowledge we don’t have a dedicated wood elf player at the club (Greg did use them for one round of the 2016 whfb comp but his usual army is dark elves), so in general, peeps won’t be used to the tricks/play style.

Now one thing that I will need to do is glue together a load of the models and their bases to make things easier and that’s before I even look at what needs painting!

List 1

Spellweaver – Talisman of Preservation + Lore of Shadow – 265pts

Glade Captain – BSB – Great Eagle + Helm of the Hunt + Hail of Doom arrow + Starfire arrows + Asrai Bow + Asrai Spear – 208pts

Shadowdancer – AHW + Potion of Strength – 120pts

Waystalker – Bow of Loren + ahw – 110pts

Dryads (10) – 110pts

Eternal Guard (23) – Light Armour + Shields + Asrai Spear + FC + Banner of Discipline – 321pts

Glade Guard (12) – Asrai Bow + Trueflight arrows + Musician + Standard – 200pts

Treekin (6) – 270pts

Deepwood Scouts (10) – Asrai Bow + Hagbane arrows – 160pts

Wardancers (5) – ahw – 75pts

Warhawk Riders (3) – Asrai Bow + Asrai Spear – 135pts

Wild Riders (10) – Asrai Spear + light armour+ shields + FC + Banner of Swiftness – 325pts

Waywatchers (10) – Asrai Bow + ahw – 200pts

A combined arms list. The Eternal guard will go front and centre in a wood with both the spellweaver and shadowdancer embedded there. With the heroes it gives the unit 5 ranks, enough to take some casualties and still remain a threat. I’ve chosen the Lore of shadow, as it’s the Lore I’m most familiar with and I think complements the strengths and weaknesses of the army. The shadowdancer is to be used as a force multiplier/assassin/bodyguard.

They will be supported by the Glade guard who curtesy of their arrows will be firing with no modifiers.

The Dryads are there to be used as my chaff or to flank charge where possible.

The mounted hero is there as mobile support first and bsb second. He can strip regen and is ideal to remove Chaff either at range with the hoda or in combat with his 4 Str 5 AP attacks on the chg (+ the eagle). The eagle allows him to Keep up and support the wild riders with frenzy tests if nothing else.

The wild riders are the recognised hammer. The banner ensures that they will have the charge range on almost everything. 10 may seem overkill but allows some casualties and still maintain combat effectiveness.

The Treekin are my anvil. They are tough and should be able to hold up any unit I don’t want to engage with for a number of turns. They will be supported by the wardancers who will either help the combat by removing the rank bonus or can be used as a speed bump, particularly vs anything with impact hits.

The warhawk riders are my flexible arm. They can help remove chaff, hunt warmachines or assist in combats.

The Scouts are tasked with either removing War machines or high toughness low armour troops (such as trolls) from the get go.

The Waywatchers will be going for any high armour low toughness troops. Knights are a prime example. Monstrous cav are also an option but may require the assistance of the spellweaver.

The waystalker will either assist with the Waywatchers or will take on character assassination.

List 2

Glade Lord – Ogre Blade + Armour of Destiny + Potion of Foolhardiness + Steed + Shield + Asrai Bow + Starfire Shafts – 267pts

Glade Captain – BSB – Charmed Shield + light armour + Dragonbane gem + Hail of Doom + Great Eagle + Asrai Spear + Asrai Bow + Starfire Shafts – 196pts

Spellweaver – lvl 4 – + Dispell scroll + talisman of preservation – 290pts

Shadowdancer – AHW + potion of strength – 120pts

Dryads (10) – 110pts

Eternal Guard (23) – Light armour + shields + Asrai spear + FC + Standard of Discipline – 321pts

Glade Guard (12) – Asrai bow + standard + muscian + trueflight arrows

Deepwood scouts (10) – Asrai bow + hagbane tips – 160pts

Wildriders (9) – FC + light armour + shields + Asrai spears + banner of swiftness – 297pts

Warhawk Riders (3) – Asrai spears + Asrai bows – 135pts

Waywatchers (10) – AHW + Asrai bows – 200pts

Waywatchers (10) – AHW + Asrai bows – 200pts

Another combined arms list, which is similar to the first. The Eternal guard will again go front and centre in a wood with both the characters as above.

They will be supported by the Glade guard and Dryads.

The wild riders are the main hammer for all the reasons stated above.  They will be augmented by the Glade lord in the unit. He might be considered a controversial choice but I like having combat characters and his ld10 will help to control the riders frenzy and if the spellweaver sucks herself down a hole, I’ll still have a general! He can also help remove regen and gains an extra attack on the charge.

The mounted hero is again primed as both a mobile support and bsb. This build gives him a bit more survivability over combat oomph (especially vs cannons). The more I see the eagle bsb, the more I like the flexibility it offers.

The warhawk riders and scouts are included for the same reasons as above (and I love the models!).

Finally I’ve included 2 units of Waywatchers due to the flexibility they offer.

I am wondering if I need to fit in the waystalker somehow as bow of Loren or not, the ability to snipe characters/champions, on paper at least, seems too good to pass up.

Exclusions

There are a number of units not represented in the lists.

Wildwood rangers – quite deliberate as I don’t own any of the models!

Sisters of the thorn. My gut feel is that these are the ultimate avoidance unit and it seems like they are mainly used to bunker the lvl 4. Maybe I’ll try them further down the line but for the moment, they are consigned to the back burner.

I’d love to fit a treeman into the list but I play in a cannon heavy meta and experience has taught me that the big guys won’t last long enough to contribute. A better option would perhaps be the treeman ancient as with 6 wounds and Lore of life, the survive-ability increases and I can see me giving it a go but it is still a risky choice.

Glade Riders – Although I like the idea of them turning up and running around the back field causing havoc, the random ambush rule just puts me off, especially knowing what my single dice rolls are like.

The first list also feels like it’s lacking archers. I’m almost contemplating an all Glade archer core, 2 units of scouts and 2 of waywatchers. 100+ bows maybe overkill…

Wood Elves – State of Play

In a previous post I looked at my Dwarf army and where I was at in terms of painting and models owned. In this post I will do the same with my wood elves. It will be done with a Warhammer 8th ed. hat on, so i’ll group them my Core/Special/Rare/Characters, listing out what can be fielded. I’m doing this mainly for myself, so I have a record of where I am at and what I need to do.

It is worth noting that some of the models (tbh the better painted ones) were purchased off ebay, taking advantage of the exodus many players undertook when the warhammer world was canned. I will of course give full disclosure on these. Most of the figures I painted were done in my early teens and suffer from my inability to finish them fully and my early years lack of understanding the need to undercoat!

Including characters and using 8th edition rules, I can legally field around 6500 points (though it is very character heavy). Under KOW it is around 3000pts.

Core

30 Eternal Guard

64 Glade Guard

10 Dryads

5 Glade Riders (original 4th edition with lances) – No photos as they are still at my folks

 

Hidden at the back are 3 very old high elf models used to flesh out numbers

Purchased around the same time as the 8th Wood elf army book to bump up the Eternal guard numbers, when I came back from my tabletop hiatus.

Original lead Scarlocks archers. My very first warhammer purchase and still one of my favourites

One of the ebay purchases, I believe the menhir is from the Ghorgon kit and can also double up as a herdstone from my Beastmen or KOW Herd army.

The back row are some of the very first plastic wood elves and even by my painting standards look shite.

‘White metal’ Dryads

Special

20 Deepwood Scouts

6 Treekin

16 Wardancers

3 Warhawk riders

10 Wildriders

5 Sisters of the Thorn

ebay from the same seller as the glade guard purchase

as above

as above

New(ish) Hunters of Kurnous GW models. I really love these and they are ideal as treekin

Original treemen models (incl Durtha) being used as treekin.

The newer wardancer models (black bases) are from ebay.

The warhawks tie back into the army theme with the ‘warlock purple’ colour (now called screamer pink I think)

Detail shot

Paint scheme to be decided!

Another ebay purchase

as above

as above

Rare

Treeman

7 Waywatchers

2 Great eagles (no photos, as they are in my high elf box) but they match the colour scheme of the warhawks.

Ebay purchase

Mix of old and new

Characters

2 Spellsingers and Glade Captain

Spellweaver on Unicorn

Branchwraith

Drycha

Glade Captain BSB

Waystalker

Spellsinger on Giant Eagle

Shadow Dancer (no photo at present as the model was upstairs when I took the photos and I missed it – will update this with the photo when I get round to it)

Glade Captain on Giant Eagle (the newer GW model – no photo as it isn’t built yet!)

Glade Lord on Dragon (no photo as it is at my folks – Dragon is painted but not the rider)

Orion (original 4/5th ed version). Again no photo as it’s at my folks. He’s at least mostly painted.

Ariel (4/5th ed model)

The model on the right is from ebay, other 2 are mine.

Branchwraith, Drycha, BSB and Waystalker

ebay purchase

So basically a lot to do. A bucketload of painting, basing of everything and touching up/finishing off of the older models. With no dedicated painting area and my little one now walking, an innate curiosity and a growing reach, I’m finding it harder to get in any painting time as she needs constant supervision. Hopefully with the weather warming i can set something up in the utility room and start cracking on with this and other projects!