Posts Tagged ‘wood elves’

Cutting Trees

by Ted Royston - July 29th, 2009

In my last article, I wrote in detail on the various options available to a Wood Elf player and how to use them to make an ass kicking army. I’ve probably inspired a few amongst you to pick up Wood Elves since then, after all, it was a really good article. What’s worse is that I might have inspired one of your friends or a member of your European Style Gaming Club (more on that later) to start a Wood Elf army. If that’s the case, you’re probably yelling, “how the fuck do I stop these half naked, pointy eared pedos and their naked wooden girlfriends from kicking my balls in?”

fry-stress

If you’re yelling that or something similar, this is the article for you. If you’re playing your own Wood Elf army, you should still read this but deny its existence to any of your friends (or club members). Unlike my last article which gave you a unit by unit rundown, this one is much more general in its scope. There’s two reasons for that. One, I don’t know every trick up every sleeve in the Old World. There’s definitely going to be some guaranteed Wood Elf-killing combo I overlook. Two, GW’s release schedule means that the power balance between different armies is always changing. What I say about Skaven may change in six months. What I say about Tomb Kings may change in a year.

Instead, I’m going to give you a look at the Wood Elves’ weaknesses and let you devise specific schemes to take advantage of them. I’ll mention specific units here and there for example’s sake, but that’s not necessarily a suggestion. Basically what I’m saying is if your Grail Knights end up being slaughtered by some Dryads, don’t call me a faggot. You’re the one who blew the rolls.

So now that I’ve hemmed and hawed and made my little disclaimer, let’s get down to the business of talking about how to fuck up Wood Elves. Let’s start with an overview of how armies interact on the table.

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Tree Hugging

by Ted Royston - July 24th, 2009

Wardancer

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.

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