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pm713 wrote:

Tree Revenants and Dryads are pretty different units and they are in no way a replacement.

Tree-Revenants are pretty different units at least in terms of equipment...but Spite-Revenants aren't. Spite-Revenants are, almost word for word, what Dryads were before. There's some rejigging certainly but they're far closer to the original Dryads from the 6th edition book than they were to the god-awful 8th edition incarnation(let's take a unit of Skirmishers and turn them into rank and file with nothing but a Ward Save! But keep their Skirmisher price!).

Where things get a bit interesting though is when you look at the fluff for both Spite and Tree Revenants. Both are closer to Dryads than you seem to be understanding--which is really the point I was making when I said they "invented new units that basically just replaced existing ones".

Dryads could have been left alone and Tree-Revenants/Spite-Revenants could just have been left out and the army wouldn't necessarily have suffered. Not when you could have added units of Spites or other Forest Spirits that would have given a "Swarm"-esque unit to the Sylvaneth.

The same applies for Hunters and Treekin.

Hunters are another example that when one sits down and looks at the fluff it's an interesting amalgam of the Tree-Kin fluff and the older Wild Rider fluff.
Tree-Kin were, as of 8th edition, the soul of an Asrai animating trees within Athel-Loren in its time of need. One of the Kingdoms was even ruled by a Tree-Kin, effectively.
The Kurnoth Hunters maintained that part of fluff and took their name/general description from the Wild Riders(who were Priests of Kurnous, the Elven God of the Hunt...of whom Orion was the living embodiment of).

Then of course you have the whole "They're basically a step between Dryads and Treemen", which is literally the whole reason that Tree-Kin were even introduced in the 6th edition book.

The only you could argue is a replacement is the Branchwych and even then if you really want a Branchwraith you can take them.

Of course you can--but the point is that it's basically just a "Branchwraith +1".

But fluff aside most of those units are vastly different. For example Kurnoth can be snipers taking out the enemies support which I'm pretty sure Treekin didn't do.

Tree Revenants teleport to assassinate in the backfield.

Spite Revenants are supposedly terror units which isn't really what Dryads are.

I'm not really seeing how Spite and Tree Revenants lore are in any way close to Dryads and the whole point of Hunters is they're a new soldier creation not something that's just rare.

pm713 wrote:
But fluff aside most of those units are vastly different. For example Kurnoth can be snipers taking out the enemies support which I'm pretty sure Treekin didn't do.

Right, because Tree-Kin were part of an army that had tons and tons of ranged units, including Waywatchers. There was a very distinctive design mentality with stuff like that as units were intended to work cohesively rather than solo. And rarely would you see units of monstrous infantry with options like the Kurnoth have now.

Kurnoth Hunters can also be melee units to use your example, toting Scythes or Greatswords, and even have something similar to the old "Impact" hits with their "Trample Underfoot" thing. Their weapons have a similar Rend value to Tree-Kin's AP value from 8th since it was based upon Strength of the unit.

Tree Revenants teleport to assassinate in the backfield.

Moonstone of Hidden Ways in 8th edition gave Dryads with a character within the unit the ability to do the same.

Spite Revenants are supposedly terror units which isn't really what Dryads are.

Dryads had Fear as an ability from day one. They didn't get it with AoS, but well...y'know, Spite-Revenants got something not dissimilar.

I'm not really seeing how Spite and Tree Revenants lore are in any way close to Dryads and the whole point of Hunters is they're a new soldier creation not something that's just rare.

Really, you're not seeing how a terrifying Forest Spirit that loves to whisper and tease its prey is close to a terrifying Forest Spirit that loves to whisper and tease its prey?
The Spite-Revenants are, for all intents and purposes, the same as Drycha and her Handmaidens. They were freaking crazy and would go after even the Wood Elves. Their master, Coeddil, was the thing that the Wildwood was set to contain.

Tree-Revenants are closer to the Dryads in general, not just Drycha's nutballs. They took forms similar to the Elves so that they could interact with the Elves without causing incidents.

Tree-Kin weren't rare I might add. They were not common units certainly but even in the lore the rarity of them was dependent upon the weirdness of "the forest needs them".