The first Fantasy Battles mini I ever bought was a Wood Elf Wardancer. That was back in ‘91, and I’ve been playing them ever since. I’ve had my dalliances with other armies: Orcs & Goblins, Dwarfs, Bretonnians, and I’ll admit I’ve always wanted to put together a nasty Clan Pestilens horde. But I always go back to my Woodies, and Games Workshop helps me along by making them one of the best armies in the game.

It’s appropriate that The Patriot is playing as I sit down to type this. Not because of any joke conflating the Crown’s taxation offenses with GW’s ever climbing prices, but because the film’s battle scenes focus skirmishing irregulars making a joke of rigidly organized battle lines.

Like the “Indian” fighting revolutionaries depicted in that movie, the Wood Elves don’t play by the rules. They don’t maneuver around in large static blocks. They don’t win a fight by piling ranks on banners for combat resolution. There’s not a warmachine or suit of heavy armor to be found in their list. Their basic melee infantry are skirmishers. Their shock cavalry are fast cavalry. Their missile troops work better when you move them. Beyond a statblock shared with the other Elf armies, the Wood Elves have nothing in common with any other army.

Wood Elves win battles by exploiting the tremendous difference between their playstyle and that of more staid Warhammer armies. That line of battle you work out with your Empire or High Elf army means nothing to a Wood Elf general, except as something to pull apart and destroy in pieces.

Whereas most armies work best when you run them like one giant machine, the Wood Elves function best when you think of them as flexible strike forces focused on destroying key parts of that machine. A Wood Elf army is flexible and mobile in ways that Empire and Greenskin players can only dream of. Dwarf and Undead players will gasp at how fast your army can move about the board. Even their cousins, the High and Dark Elves will have a tough time keeping up with a Wood Elf army.

When you look at the Wood Elf army list, you’ll see entry after entry that can move fast and strike hard. You’ll also notice an almost complete lack of armor saves, but that’s mitigated by the fact that you’ll be the one deciding when and where the fight happens.

But enough blathering; let’s take a look at the list, and see what it can do.

Characters

Not counting the special characters, you have six options to choose from, and they all can lead your army. They break down into basically three categories: heroes, wizards, and forest monsters; and each of those has a lord and hero choice.

Highborns and Nobles are your heroes– ass kicking, forest dwelling, quasi-pedos who can be tricked out in a ton of different ways thanks to kindreds, spites and magic items. You can also plop them on some sweet monsters: forest dragons, great eagles, and my personal favorite (because it looks so fucking cool), the great stag.

Of course, to ride that stag, you’re going to have to get the Wild Rider kindred upgrade, but it’s worth it for the ward save and immunity to psychology. Give him the Dawnspear or the Spear of Twilight (either is a good choice) and some magic armor, and you’ll have a nice and killy general. You can cheap out and put him on a horse, but then you’re not riding that sweet fucking stag, and thus missing the entire point.

Wild Rider isn’t the only kindred you can take, though, and there are some even killier options available.

Alter Kindred nobles make great trouble shooters. Their M9 means they can get where they need to be, and it will fuck your opponent’s mind the first time he sees this lone elf charge from 18 inches. There’s two schools of thought concerning the Alter Noble. The first says he’s best used as a mobile sniper with either the Bow of Loren or a Hail of Doom arrow. This is pretty cool, but there’s an even nastier combo available. Give him the Amber Pendant and a greatsword and maybe some magic armor if you have the points, and now you have 4 WS6 S6 attacks that always go first. Setting him up like this makes for an aces monster hunter. Also, he will make High Elves cry. Remember, though, Alter heroes can’t be your general, so it’s generally a waste to use up a lord slot bringing an Alter Highborn.

“But I want my general to be an awesome Elf tree ninja,” you say. That’s cool; there are other options. Waywatcher kindred turns your general (or a hero) into a ninja sniper, but there is a problem. You’re going to want to give this guy the Bow of Loren to take advantage of his BS7 and A4, but when you shoot that, you lose killing blow. The other option is the Hail of Doom arrow. You could cheap out and make him Scout kindred instead, and then you don’t have to worry about the killing blow conundrum, but you’ll also miss out on the Forest Stalker ability. Of course, you can then give him a suit of armor, but you don’t need armor. You’re playing Wood Elves, dammit.

Or if you want him to go shithouse up close, you can give him Wardancer kindred. Yeah, it eats up the points, but that’s mitigated by the Blades of Loec being fairly cheap and Wardancers being death machines.

The nice thing about Kindreds is that their points are offset by requiring less than the usual number of magic doodads to make your guy effective. You can either save a few points, or you can use the difference to buy Spites. A Murder of Spites ups any melee character’s killing power, and the Annoyance of Netlings is fucking great if you face a lot of challenges. A Blight of Terrors is worth every one of those fifty points as long as your opponent isn’t immune, so it’s a pretty situational choice. Don’t bother giving your shooty heroes the ranged attack spites, though. They should be using their magic bows and arrows.

Now, you don’t have to give your heroes a kindred, but you’re kind of an idiot not to. There are two exceptions to this. The classic Highborn on an Eagle is still a viable option, but he’s going to need some good magic gear to be really effective. Also, your BSB can’t be a member of a Kindred. You want to bring one of these guys. You’re not playing Empire. You don’t have hordes of barefoot, codpieced jackoffs to throw at your enemy, so the rerolls on breat tests are a must. He’s also good for that extra CR.

In the wizard department, you have two choices: Spellsingers and Spellweavers. The latter are just Lord level versions of the first, so the same comments can apply to both.

Your wizards either have Glamorweave kindred or they don’t. It’s a good choice, especially because it opens up the Unicorn mount. Yes, in the real world, unicorns are for housewives and little girls; but in the Warhammer world, they’re magic murder horses. And yes, you can just put the lady on a regular old horse, you cheap bastard, but you’re missing out on all the cool unicorn abilities. You don’t have to take Glamorweave to ride a horse, and not taking it gives you the option of riding an Eagle. And you can always just have your wizards walk around, but put them in a unit of Glade Guard if you do that.

Unless you just want a scroll caddy, it’s worth buying the level upgrade on your Spellsingers. You can skip out on it with a Spellweaver if you need the points elsewhere. You should always bring a dispel scroll anyways because it will save your ass. Otherwise when it comes to magic gear, give the poor elf some sort of ward save. Also, don’t forget that your vanilla wizards are BS4 and carry longbows. You can give them the Hail of Doom arrow. Your opponent will not expect your wizard suddenly unloading an entire volley.

Spellweavers and Spellsingers can also take spites. Here’s where I like to take the ranged ones, especially on Singers. They don’t get much in the way of magic attacks, so giving them A Pageant of Shrikes gives them some nice offensive power.

One last thing concerning Spellweavers: give them the Lore of Beasts. Bear’s Anger alone makes this a worthwhile choice, and the other spells really complement your troops.

And that brings us to the tree beasts: Treeman Ancients and Branchwraiths. Ancients are mean fucks, but they eat up a rare slot, and don’t do much more than a vanilla Treeman. Unless you’re going for an all forest spirit army, use the lord slot on something else. Branchwraiths, on the other hand, are excellent all around heroes. They’re tougher and killier than Nobles, and you can make them wizards, which I always do. It’s also worth giving them A Cluster of Radiants so they can generate that extra dispel die. A Branchwraith set up this way makes a great general for small games.

TL;DR: There are a shitload of different options in the character section, and you should go back and read about them.

Core Units

You have four or five options in this section depending on what kind of general you bring. Eternal Guard count as a special choice unless your army is led by a Highborn, but since they’re included in the core section in the book, I’ll cover them here.

Glade Guard are your backbone, your bread and butter, your other metaphor for fundamental choice. Unless you’re doing the all forest spirit schtick, you want to bring at least one regiment of them. The optimal build is a regiment of ten with a musician. Unlike other armies’ missile troops, these guys are better used on the move. They don’t suffer the -1, and they become S4 within 15″. They also rank up normally, so as long as there are 5 of them left, you can charge them into a flank to negate ranks. This is nasty, and something generally not expected of unarmored missile troops.

Now, common wisdom says that full command is a waste of points and a liability on missile troops, but you can run Glade Guard with full command and pull of some dick moves. Remember what I said about flank charging them to negate ranks, well full command makes that trick even better. And since your army is devoid of banners, the 100 extra VPs they make your Glade Guard worth can be the bait in a trap. Still, it’s better to save the points for something else.

Glade Guard can be upgraded to Scouts. Scouts are okay, but most people don’t like them because Waywatchers are so much better. That’s true, but 5 scouts is an 85 point speedbump that can tie up a lot more points than they’re worth. That’s really the only way to use them.

Glade guard riding horses are called Glade Riders, and they are excellent, albeit expensive, fast cavalry. A unit of 5 is good harassing and flanking unit, but don’t expect them to do much damage on their own.

Finally, there are the Dryads. They’re your basic melee unit, and they’re good at what they do. Dryads are tough, killy, and mobile– the essence of Wood Elf tactics all rolled into a 12 point package. These leafy ladies are your main asskickers, and they can tangle with most troops, infantry and cavalry, in the game. They’re best in units of 10, and I like to bring Branchnymphs to spring challenges with. Dryads are going to end up doing most of your fighting, so watch out for magic attacks than can drastically reduce their durability. Wights, Tombguard, and Grail Knights can cut them down quickly.

Eternal Guard are the core unit I use least, but that doesn’t mean they suck or anything. In fact, they’re your best and practically only source of static CR. They’re best used as a bodyguard for your BSB, since he will make them Stubborn. The amount you want to bring depends on how many points you’re bringing. 14 is a good number for most games around 2000 points, and you can scale that up to 24 for really big battles.

Special Units

The special section is where some of my favorite Wood Elf units reside. They’re mostly geared towards melee, with one unit filling a harasser/warmachine hunter role.

That unit is Warhawk Riders, and they’re the worst choice on the list. Don’t fret if you’ve already bought some of these sweet looking sumbitches, though; they have their uses. Those uses number exactly two. The first is to use hit and run to add some extra CR to a fight. The second is to swoop in and kill warmachine crews. They suck and die at everything else.

Wardancers are one of the iconic Wood Elf units, so it’s good that they’re good. They don’t have the resilience of your Dryads, but they pack even more killing power. Their dances allow them to adapt to their enemies’ abilities, and they’re always good at dumping out a ton of WS6 S4 attacks on the charge. Wardancers are best used as trouble shooters. Keep them near your Glade Guard where they can fend off things like fliers or Tomb Scorpions or run forward and join the main battle group. It’s worth bringing the command upgrades with Wardancers. Run them in regiments of 8 or 10.

Treekin are the poor man’s Treemen. Individually, they’re not as good as their big brothers, but you have to bring at least 3 of them, which is the perfect amount. Treekin aren’t as mobile as some of your other melee units, but they are tough as nails, and they can negate ranks by hitting a flank. Be careful, though, they have trouble dealing with a lot of static CR on their own, and they’re not stubborn, so use them in tandem with your Dryads or other melee units to provide some beefy backup.

Wild Riders are an interesting unit. And by “interesting,” I mean fucking awesome. They’re fast cavalry that hit like knights, and they cause fear. Of course, they’re pricy, but they usually earn their points. Wild Riders have the added benefit of still being good at killing on turns after the charge thanks to their bonus attack and ward save. They’re immune to psychology as well, which makes them great monster slayers. 6 to 8 is a good number of Wild Riders.

Rare Units

Wood Elves get three great rare choices to choose from. All have their roles, and all are good at those roles.

Great Eagles are cheap warmachine killers. You get a lot for 50 points with these guys, but the problem is they take up a rare slot that you’d rather use on the other two options.

Treemen are expensive but worth every point. The only thing they really have to fear is fire, but otherwise, they can be relied upon to stomp just about anything else they face. Their strangleroot attack can mash nearby units, and their woody fists can smash whatever gets into melee with them. Be careful, though, they’re stubborn, but they’re only LD8. So keep your BSB nearby.

Finally, Way Watchers are the Tom Behringers of Warhammer. They cost a lot, but they can deploy right on top of a prime target and wipe it out with their ranged killing blow. Bring Waywatchers to your battles and watch your opponents give up on taking independent characters. Arch Lectors riding their popemobiles, Runelords with their Anvils, Hierophants with the Arc of the Covenant, I mean Cask of Souls– all will seem like mammoth wastes of points after your regiment of 5 waywatchers do their assassination trick.

Conclusion

Wood Elves are fucking awesome. That’s the conclusion you should draw. Even their suck choices are pretty good, and their good choices are really good. You can play a gimmick, theme, or just take whatever you think looks cool, and you’ll still end up with a competitive list for friendly games; or you can min-max the shit out of them and bring a top tier tournament ready list. And their model range is amongst Games Workshop’s best, so whatever you end up taking, it’s going to look rad.

Tags: introduction, wood elves

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Warhammer Fantasy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.