Something Special: Wood Elf Special Unit Tactics

After I wrote my last tactica on the Wood Elf Enchanted Arrows I decided that I would continue to write tactics posts on various units in the Wood Elf army after I had a few games with the units so that I could understand the units better. This series of posts will have no logical pattern to them; I will talk about a unit after I feel I understand its role. That is why this post will focus on Wild Riders, Sisters of the Thorn, Wardancers and (gasp!) Treekin.

Treekin
Let’s Start with the Treekin. Initially, after the Wood Elf release, a fair few Wood Elf players decried the Treekin believing that the lost strength and reduced ward save made them far worse than they were and dropped them from their lists. I wasn’t among those who acted this way. While I saw the characteristic reductions as a issue I didn’t see it absolutely killing off their use. At the end of the day they are still Strength 4 (hard to come by in the Wood Elf army), Toughness 5, 3 wounds monstrous infantry that cost 20 points less than before and still have a 4+ scaly skin and a 6+ ward save. A unit of 6 costs 270 points, from which you get 18 strength 4 attacks and 3 stomps which makes it effective. They are still very hard to kill and that is where their strength lies.
Role: An Anvil unit
Recommended Size: 6
Being hard to kill is a rare skill in the Wood Elf army when surrounded by toughness 3 armour-phobic elves. This makes the Treekin the ideal candidate for an anvil unit. If you see a unit that you don’t want to fight right now then simply move the Treekin (or walk them between worlds) in front of the unit and feel secure that the unit will be held up for at least 2 rounds of combat (depending on break tests and if the other unit is magically buffed). I feel the backlash against Treekin came about due to the loose of offensive power, but the Treekin’s worth isn’t measure by how many models it can kill but by how much time it can give you in holding back the enemy unit you don’t want to face. I still believe they are a good unit and be willing debate anyone who says otherwise.

A Treekin

The Liebster Awards

Late last week i noticed that a fair few blogs i follow had all done posts about something called a Liebster Award. For those unaware the Liebster Award is a way of promoting small blogs, the way the Liebster Award does this is that when your blog is nominated for the award you nominated a number of other blogs who you feel deserved the extra attention and the way you nominate another blog is by commenting on one of their posts, telling them you have nominated their blog and provide them a link back to your post about the award.

The award in all its glory

I have been nominated once by the Grumpy Guardsman over at Cadia's Creed and once more by Herman over at Wargames Obsession. I would like to thank both Grumpy (who often provides the counter opinion to my own on GW, and is as such a joy to read for healthy debate is a sign of a healthy community) and Herman (who i know from the Kapiti Wargames Club and is a wonderful person in general) for nominating my humble blog. Now for my nominations, i have 11 blogs to nominate so lets get going.

The Imperial Patrol
Jayden has designed a blog that is easy to read, and has been able to articulate his views and opinions on issues regarding 6/7th ed 40k extremely well. He cover Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Flames of War and a few other systems.

A Blog of Blood and Bones
I first met Nick via a email exchange that occurred a while back, during this email conversation i was linked to his blog, and i was impressed by what i saw. Nick has recently converted from 40k to Fantasy and started a Vampire Count army, he is a very good painter and convertor and i would advise that all fans of the Vampire Count army check out his blog.

The Non Wood Elf Post

I am taking a brief one post break from my endless exaltation of the new Wood Elf book to talk about a few non Wood Elf related issues that have cropped up, chief among these issues is all this talk of Warhammer 40k 7 Edtion Patch 6.5.

Its a new edition! No, wait. Its actually a expensive update.

I have had many issues with WH40k 6 edition, some of which i have talked about here on this blog. However this new update fixes most of my biggest issues with the game rules wise. For Example Jink used to be a cover save for moving, so what people would do is move their Eldar tanks one inch and gain a 4+ cover save. Now Jink is a choice that gives you that cover save but forces the tank to only fire snap shots in is next shooting phase, in other words the part of the design studio that does 40k rediscovered balance and we can all be happy and positive about that. Add to this a psykic phase (with a average dispel mechanic) and much more focus on objective missions and this could be a good edition, update, patch, whatever, for 40k.

The Solution to Every Problem: Wood Elf Enchanted Arrow Tactics

The Wood Elf enchanted arrows are a big part of the new book; effectively they are a reason to take glade guard because without the strength 4 longbow glade guard just don’t have the punch to do what you need them to do, unless you take the arrows. So I present to you now my guide on how to get the best out of your arrows. Now this is all theory but I am fairly certain that I am right about this, I have spent untold hours hashing this out in my mind and I will revisit this tactica in a few months after I have had a few more games. That being said this is just my opinion on how to use these arrows, its not the absolute how to guide but it is how i plan to use them going forward.

Glade Lords/Captains and Waystalkers.

Before I start I wanted to talk about the Arrow of Kunros ability on the Glade Lord and Captain. This is a good ability, why you say? Because its free, you are going to take a Glade Captain anyway to Carry the HODA, Battle Standard or both, and it’s a S3 (meh) auto hit (nice) no armour save shot (very good). It removes things like charmed shields and opal amulets. It’s a nice little ability but if you plan to capitalize on this ability take a Waystalker so he can seal the deal with either a sniper shot the ignores armour, or two sniper shots that are AP. A Glade Lord/Captain and a Waystalker should make your opponent nervous and if you are lucky and get the right spells you can make short work of the enemy general. The Lore of Metal (Enchanted blades which give both combat and shooting attacks +1 to hit), the Lore of Shadow (the withering is the one to aim for) and Death (Soulblight is what you need) all combo well with the Waystalker and the Arrow of Kurnos.

Going Foward: 8th Ed Wood Elf Army Lists

What with the excitement of the Wood Elf book dying down it time to around to the serious business of writing army lists with the new Wood Elf army book. As i am going to the Horned Rat on May the 24th and 25th i present my list for that event (note this was a first impressions list, written before i had the book or played a game with the new Wood Elves)

The Horned Rat List

Level 4 on High Magic with Channeling Staff(185+35+15=240)

Level 4 on Life Magic(185+35=225)

Level 2 on Metal Magic (80+35=115)

Waystalker (90)

Waystalker (90)

Glade Captain with the Bow of Loren and the Hail of Doom Arrow (75+30+20=125)

20 Glade Guard with Musician, Standard and Hagbane Tips(15x20+10=310)

10 Glade Guard with Musician and Arcane Bodkins (17x10+10=180)

20 Glade Guard with Musician and Swiftshiver Shafts (16x20+10=330)

6 Treekin (270)

10 Waywatchers (10x20=200)

1 Treeman (225)

Total cost: 2340

A Tool For Every Problem: Wood Elf Review Part 3

The book is mine! It arrived this afternoon. To celebrate the arrival of my limited edition Wood Elf army book i present to you part 3 of my review, enjoy.

Orion in winter, not sticking to the fluff.

Lets start off by looking at the special characters beginning with the King in the North Woods himself, Orion.

Orion

First off he is 600 points, so in a standard 2400 point game he takes up all your lord points. What you get is the Glassyist of Glass Cannons. WS:8 S:6 A:5 with Frenzy, ASF and Unbreakable. Defense wise he has T:5 W:5 with a 5+ ward save. So he falls over quickly but will take quite a number of enemy with him. He also has either a strength 7 bolt thrower shot or a Multiple shots 6 strength 5 bow attack, and at the start of each turn he gives devastating charge to all Wood Elf units within 6. Personally i wouldn't take him unless you have a life mage in your hero selection. But he still could be fun in a fluffy game.

Bows Everywhere: Wood Elf Review Part 2

This is part 2 of my Wood Elf Army Book review. In this post i will look at the magic items and unit selection. So once more grab a hot beverage, sit back and read on.

Note the image doesn't depict actual Wood Elf tactics

Before i go on i feel the need to state that due to the NZ Post Service i have yet to receive my copy of the book. Thankfully there was enough information on the web and podcasts covering the book that i effectively know whats in the book without having read it, so if i get a few things wrong thats why and feel free to correct me if i am wrong. 

The Wood Elf magic item selection has been severely reduced but we all knew that it would be. The question is do the items that remain make up for the items that where removed? Lets start by looking at what is on offer for Wood Elf Lords and Heroes. (Credit for the item descriptions goes to 40k Warzone)

The Spirit Sword. 85 points: Armour saves cannot be taken against Wounds caused by the Spirit Sword. Furthermore, immediately when an enemy character, champion or monster suffers one or more unsaved Wounds from the Spirit Sword, both he and the wielder must roll a 2d6 and add their respective Leadership values. If the wounded model's total is higher or the totals are the same, nothing else happens. If the wounded model's total is lower, it immediately suffers a Wound for each point by which it's total was exceeded, with no armour saves allowed.

So for a mere 30 extra points the item lost the all hits automatically wound ability but gains a ignore armour save rule and its extra ability doesn't damage the wielder. Not really worth it as it doesn't allow much in the way of protective gear and Wood Elf characters cant get good armour saves with mundane equipment (unless you count a 3+ save as good).

Pierce the Armour! Wood Elf Review Part 1

If you have an Armour Save we will modify it, or ignore it. That should be the tag line of the new shiny 8th ed Wood Elf Army Book. Its here and now that i have had some time to digest the new book i am ready to present you my review of the Wood Elf Army Book, anti armour edition. My review will start off looking on what we lost from the book, then we move onto the Army Wide Special rules, after that we look at the Magic items and units (Lords, Heroes, Core, Special, Rare), then its both magic lores with a final look at the special characters. This will be a multiple part review as trying to squeeze all the rules and my opinions on them into one post would make for a very big post. So sit back and enjoy.

We are back! On Stags!