Flaming Kings of War

After a too long break i am back, and what a eventful break it was. During that time i was hardly absent from the hobby just uninspired to post about it, but thats over now. What with the shift from Warhammer to Kings of War that has been going on recent (and especially in New Zealand) i have been hard at work converting my WHFB Wood Elves to KOW Wood Elves as well as getting in as many games as i could. Here are the results of my KOW Conversion work. 

The Lord And The Weaver: Wood Elf General tactics

After the tournament Call To Arms 2014 i decided against having a Mage general, in both my first and last game my mage general decided to get sucked down a hole which meant that the first game was a bigger lose than it would have been and it meant the last game was a lose rather than a win. For my Skitterleap list i decided upon a mobile Machine Gun/Bow Glade Lord, my reasoning behind this was that he would both more useful (he can shot chaff, hunt chaff, hunt warmachines and seek flanks) and he would be easier to keep alive (his primary role didn't have a built in chance to get him killed without my opponent lifting a finger). However he has only seen a single game so far so i decided to do a tactics post looking at the Pros and Cons both both viable generic lord level Wood Elf generals in order to help any other fellow Wood Elf players who may be having similar issues, there will be a post in the future on Wood Elf special characters which will cover them and the reason why the Treeman Ancient isn't in this post is because i no longer consider him a viable general choice for reasons i will come to later.

The Lord and the Weaver, who will you choose? (assuming you play Wood Elves)

Core Blimey: Wood Elf Core Tactica

Having now played with all 4 of the core units in the Wood Elf book I feel that I can speak about them tactics wise while knowing what I am talking about. In the new book the core section got a few slight tweaks with many of the units still filling their old roles, Glade Guard still shot things, Dryads are still our best source of chaff, and Enteral Guard are still the best CC infantry unit we can bring to bear, only the Glade Riders were really impacted by the changes.

Glade Guard

The trusty Glade Guard are still trusty and worth consideration. Really all they gained was access to the new arrows (and lost the S4 at short range bow and the no penalties for moving and shooting). Aside from that they are still the same old 12 point squishy elves we all know and love.

A Tactica All of its Own: The Hail of Doom Arrow Tactica

The Hail of Doom Arrow (or HODA for short) has been with the Wood Elf army for quite a while now. In the 3rd edition book it was a Scarloc only magic item, in the 6th ed book it was 30 point Enchanted Item that did 3d6 worth of strength 4 shots (it wasn't classified as a multiple shot item) and now its current version is a 30 point Enchanted Item that does 3d6 worth of strength 4 shots armour piercing shots (it is now a multiple shot item). It’s an time that many Wood Elf players take and its easy to see why. However there is one question all wood elf players who use the HODA must answer: When do I use it and who do I use it on? As I have been using the HODA pretty much as long as I have been playing Wood Elves allow me to give you my opinion on those two questions. 

While not actually a HODA we would all lime to think that they look like this

Who? 

Looking at the HODA’s profile many Wood Elf players may be tempted to fire it at all sorts of things. Monsters, Big Unis, Small Units, War Machines, Heavily Armoured Troops, Lightly Armoured Troops, Chariots. All of these are tempting targets for the HODA however I advise a more narrow selection of potential targets, Chaff or Small to Medium units. As tempting as it may be to fire the HODA at a Warmachine / Monster and wish for the required number of sixes to kill it this would be a waste of the HODA. I recommend firing it unis along the lines of Chaff, Empire Knights/ Elf Calvary (of all Armour Saves) or blocks of toughness 3 to 4 about 15 to 20 in size. The mina reasons for this is the random amount of shots, you simply cannot rely on the HODA to kill a Monster or War Machine as you need a huge number of shots to hit in order to have a chance at getting the high number of sixes required to wound. Similarly you need an equally high number of hits to transfer over to wounds to put a dent even in a moderately sized Horde (30+ models).

All The Magical Things: Wood Elf Character Loadout Tactics

Wood Elf players are blessed and cursed when it comes to magic item selection for their characters. On the positive side there aren't that many good magic items in the new book so in many ways what worked in the last book still works. On the negative side there isn't a Banner of the World Dragon eskque item in our armoury. We got the dregs of the magic item barrel in terms of the quality and usefulness of our racial magic items. There are a few standouts but they are out numbered by average or just plain bad magic items. However i have already covered the racial items in part 2 of my review of the Wood Elf army book (it can be found here) so this post will be focusing on the core rule book items and how they can be used to benefit Wood Elf characters.

Sadly no Wood Elf magic items were featured in this image

All the Colours of Magic: Wood Elf Magic Tactics

With the Wood Elf magic lore options going from 3 to 10 it can be somewhat daunting trying to select a lore to use on your mages. I myself have trialed 7 out of the 10 lores on offer and now present my opinions on those 7 lores in order to help you choose the lore that best suits your Wood Elf army. The 7 lores are Fire, Metal, Beasts, Life, Death, High and Dark.

Standard magic related image? Check

Fire

Just like its odd seeing Dark Elves use Light magic it is similarly odd to see Wood Elves use Fire magic. Odd as it may be the lore of Fire can be useful in a Wood Elf army and the spells that make this so are: The Flaming Sword of Rhuin, The Cloak of Cascading Fire, Fireball and The Burning Head. The benefits of the Flaming Sword are clear, +1 to wound is a very useful thing and at only 8+ to cast its a bargain, chuck this on a unit of Trueflight or Swiftshiver Glade Guard and watch the carnage. The Cloak is great for giving a WE combat unit an edge even before the first blows have fallen (2d6 S4 hits on any enemy unit in BTB contact will ruin someones day), Fireball provides a scary number of S4 hits that can seriously weaken or even destroy some units and the Burning head is great for causing low LD units to either flee off the board or get set back a few turns, and given that WE still have a hard time vs horde units panicking one such unit is a great way to buy time for your line. The other spells have their uses but its those 4 spells are of the most use to a WE player. Its not the best lore on offer but its not bad.

Rarely Disappointing: Wood Elf Rare Unit Tactics

Here we are the rare unit tactics post. The advantages of only doing two units in the post is that I can spend as much time as I won’t on each unit without having to worry about the post becoming ridiculously long. So let us begin.

Treeman

Oh the Treemen how you have deceived so many. When the news first hit that these guys dropped a wound and a point of strength many Wood Elf players dropped the Treeman, along with Treekin. Once more I refused to bow to the commonly held view and stood by the Treeman (the new model helped). And lo I was rewarded! Some of the things people missed about the new Treeman was the Increase to LD 9 (with Stubborn) and Treewhack. So what roles do I see this unit fulfilling?

Roles: Anvil, Monster Hunter, Monstrous Cavalry Hunter

Recommended amount in an army: 1

The 8th ed Treeman retains his 6th ed role of being the model you can rely on to hold up an enemy unit or monster and do some damage. But that’s not all he can do, with the addition of Treewhack (which can be targeted against any model in base to base contact, said model must pass a initiative test or suffer D6 Wounds with no armour save allowed) he is now better at killing big monsters and the dreaded monstrous cav. Confused? Allow me to explain. The big two MC units that Wood Elves fear the most are Demigryphs and Skullcrushers because they have good toughness and a 1+ armour save and all the toys we have to deal with these things are shooting orientated. However with the addition of Treewhack we now have a new way of dealing with these units. The Treeman simply needs to Treewhack the unit until it dies and hope that he doesn’t die before they do. Ok it’s not perfect but it’s what we have, and as such a Treeman should be considered when choosing units for your army. Now for a brief chat about Strangleroots. It’s a range 12 multiple shot attack on a model that will be moving, meaning a -3 to hit penalty. For this reason I suggest you pass on Strangleroots and spend that 20 points elsewhere. But the Treeman itself is still a good choice for your army. 

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 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.