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I've been a 40k player since before time began, but a while ago some friends got to work on sucking me into fantasy and succeed. I picked up wood elves, primarily due to the fact that they shot a lot and skirmished, and thus functioned a lot like a 40k army. Now that they've aged properly (sat around in my closet for a year or two) I'm finally getting around to putting them together and learning how to play. So in the vein of learning how to play (and more specifically, play with this army) I turn to you my fellow Dakkaites for answers and advice, so let the barrage begin.

First off, lets look at what I have to work with to build my army. I'm starting off with a 1500 point force and I have more than enough models to hit that mark. This should give me some wiggle room to try different units and armies without being overwhelmed at the beginning. The following is a list of the models I have to work with and includes a lot of proxies (the war dancers, for example, are actually the howling banshee models from my eldar army). I will not be acquiring any additional models any time soon so suggestions to do so should be omitted.

40 archers (can be used as glade guard, scouts, or way watchers)
8 horsemen (glade riders or wild riders)
12 dryads
~16 war dancers
1 treeman
2 great eagles
Any number of wood elf heroes (nobles or spellsingers on foot or mounted on anything other than a forest dragon)
1 Branchwraith

And now the questions.

How many glade guard units do I really want to field? How many scouts? My initial thoughts were 2 of each (unless I take a unit of way watchers and then I would would take one less unit of scouts). I was planning on taking minimum sized glad guard units (10) but how large should scout units be?

I'm not really running low on special slots at this point, but what are the thoughts on taking glade riders verses taking wild riders? Would either of them be considered a significantly better choice than the other given the restrictions on what I can field? What are the best general tactics for each?

How large should I make my dryad unit (I'm assuming that almost regardless of the rest of the army, I'll be fielding them). Is it worth upgrading one to a nymph?

How large should I make wardancer units and what is the best way to use them?

And finally, the most complicated one, what are some good character builds and the tactics associated with those builds?

Glade Guard should be minimum size per unit (as you already said). Scouts are a waste of points, better bring more Glade Guard (or Way Watchers if you have the Rare slot available).

Dryads are a fantastic unit. This is the unit that protects your vulnerable units from shooting. They too should be fielded in minimum sized units. A Nymph isn't necessary unless you plan on joining a combat Character to their unit (which has to be a Forest Spirit to do so).

Glade Riders shouldn't be compared to Wild Riders. Wild Riders are a fast moving combat unit, while Glade Riders are more of an annoyance unit (March blocking, Redirecting, Wizard hunting, Warmachine hunting). Both are decent units. Glade Riders need to be fielded in units of 5 with a Musician. Wild Riders should be fielded in units of 6 to maximize frontage. Standard Bearer with the War Banner (for a total of +2 SCR) could be a good upgrade to a Wild Rider unit.

I'm not that big a fan of Wardancers, as I personally find Dryads a better unit. If you field these guys, I would advise units of at least 7, possibly more, depending on how many you think you will lose before getting into combat. Give them a Champion when you intend to join a combat Character to them. Otherwise, don't bother.

Great Eagles are much like Glade Riders, though the Great Eagle performs the same role a bit better (due to flying) and cheaper. The Great Eagle is even more vulnerable to shooting though.

A Treeman is really nothing like anything else in the army. It's a bit overcosted compared to some of the other Monsters out there (War Hydra for example). I personally don't think they fit the avoidance play style of the other Wood Elves units very well. Having said that though, if you want a unit that can deal with your opponents strong units, the Treeman is your guy.

You will probably have heard that the Treesinging spell is a vital part of the Wood Elves army. This is only true for certain play styles (like avoidance). The rest of the Lore of Athel Loren is decent as well, so you can't really go wrong with Spellsingers. If you want to be casting Magic, then you will probably want to bring 2 level 2 Spellsingers. You will definately want to give one of your Spellsingers the Calaingor's Stave. A Dispel Scroll could be a good choice as well, though these become more useful when you go above 2000 points (when Lord level Wizards come into play).

Strong Magic Items for a Noble are the Hail of Doom Arrow and the Helm of the Hunt. A Noble can fill a lot of different roles though, so equipping him is more difficult then equipping Spellsingers.

Branchwraiths are really only needed when you decide to go without Magic. You are still going to need Magic Defense, and the Branchwraith is perfect for it. Taking a level 1 Branchwraith with the Cluster of Radiants will give you 2 Dispel Dice.

The most important thing about Wood Elves, is to remember that you need a lot of units. Most of your units can't go head to head with the units of the opponent, so you either need to flank them, or get into a 2v1 situation. For this, you will need to outnumber your opponent (unit wise). So don't spend too much points on your Characters, units are at least as important as your Characters are.

My single most important piece of advice: Avoid any combat you cannot win by 4 or 5 CR consistently. Do not get greedy and try to take down something that MIGHT win. You do NOT have to kill every(or even most) of the opponent's units to win the game. Go for 3-400 pts worth of enemy support or light elements and keep your troops alive.

So a good general idea to base the army around is to use my skirmishers and fast cav to dance around the enemy while my archery based units do the real damage?

So I might field an army something like this...
10 glade guard
10 glade guard
10 glade guard
~6 scouts
6-8 Glade Riders
8-12 Dryads
1 Treeman
1-2 characters (to be determined)

So with this the glade guard would be the ones actually doing damage by sitting back and shooting at the most vulnerable targets presented (spear men, fast cav, and the like). The scouts and glade riders would be forward units for the purpose of hunting down war machines and mages in addition to march blocking. And finally, the treeman and the dryads would hang back to protect the archers from units that are too tough (or fast) for them to reliably damage.

Does this sound like a decent army design (in general) and a reasonable plan to go with it?