Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi,

This is my first time playing with wood elves, and my first battle report . First, here are a few pics of my army (I just purchased it this weekend! It was painted by Dakka user: blood angel)

2250 Points (every model I own except 4 treekin, 2 wardancers, and a noble on great stag which is coming!):


Zooming in:


And a close-up:


My list:
Treeman Ancient, Annoyance of Nettlings, Cluster of Radiants
Spellsinger, Level 2, Divination Orb, Scroll
Spellsinger, Level 2, Calaingor's Stave, Scroll
4 Units of 10 Dryads
8 Wardancers, Musician
2 units of 6 Wild Riders, Musician, Standard
4 Treekin
Treeman

My approximation of his list:
Lord
BSB
Mage
Anvil Unit (not sure of the name...)
2 Units of Spear Elves
1 Unit of Scouts
2 Assassins
Cauldron of Blood
4 Bolt Throwers

This was a friendly game, and since I'm new to fantasy, he was coaching me through and giving me tips. Also, he just used whatever models he had with him to play, so I'm sure his list is not very strong (no hydra, etc...). Some events may be off by a turn. Alright, on to the diagrams

Key: Red X's are casualties, Red Arrows are Movement, Black Arrows are Treesinging, and Holes in units represent casualties from previous turns!

Deployment:


I put my 'free' wood in the center. He put his scouts and assassins in a forest! Don't they see those branches moving... and the eyes... eyes everywhere!

He wins the roll to go first. In the rest of the diagrams, I'm combining both of our turns (so there is one diagram per turn).

Turn 1:


Very little happens! We both move up somewhat, although I'm tangled and not sure what to do or where to go. I lose one dryad to shooting (his dice rolls were poor all game!) and he loses two scouts to tree singing.

Turn 2:


I lose three dryads and two wildriders to shooting. This is going to make me chicken out with the wildriders and not bring them out for pretty much the rest of the game . I move my Treeman Ancient over to help with treesinging, and with his two bound casts, one from the treeman, and two from my spellsinger on that side (who has the stave) I cast enough treesinging to kill everyone in the forest. I also kill a few from the Anvil unit with my strangleroot attacks.

Turn 3:


He finally doesn't roll a 1 or 2 and hits my Treeman Ancient with a bolt thrower- and the wound is multiplied into three! I didn't realize this, or I would have been hiding them earlier. His rolls really let him down. He charges his anvil unit, obliterating a unit of dryads, and sending the spellsinger behind them running for the hills. I finally get untangled somewhat now that the scouts are gone, and move up the right flank with most units, and up the left with one unit of dryads. Rather than charge, the Treeman Ancient and Treeman use their strangleroot attacks against the anvil unit, and the wild riders come back to help out.

Turn 4:


This turn went really badly for him! He fails his fear test attempting to charge two units of dryads, rolling an eleven for both! So my dryads are free to charge, and the units on the right injure and then chase down a unit of spear elves with a mage inside, and the unit on the left gets to the bolt thrower. He reforms his anvil unit, and I again decide not to charge and use the strangle root attack. I kill all but his Lord, the BSB, and the champion.

Turn 5:


He charges his Lord and friends into my Treeman. He lost so many the turn before that they don't have to touch my Treeman Ancient! He puts 5 wounds on the Treeman, and I counter charge with the Treeman Ancient and Wild Riders during the bottom half of the turn. They kill the BSB and champion, but not the Lord. He allocates 3 attacks to the Treeman who was already in combat and fails to hit with a super high weapon skill. The Treeman survives and kills him. The dryads clean house with the bolt throwers, and the treekin and wardancers (trying to justify their inclusion in the list, having done no fighting so far) move towards the center.

Turn 6:


The Cauldron and treekin clash, and the treekin win out. The wildriders and war dancers charge the last unit of spear elves and then run them down. It's a massacre victory for the wood elves!

I had a really good time and my opponent was very gracious. I'm still very new to fantasy, but it looks like our lists were not very evenly matched. He had the ring on his Lord, but since I didn't have a lot of high dice spells it only came into play near the very end, when it didn't really matter. He said if he had played the game again he would not have moved forward as quickly with his anvil unit, and not put the scouts in the forest, since he didn't know I had so much magic (I had a LOT of treesinging casts).

I was really tangled up at the beginning and never really knew what to do with my wild riders. I couldn't put them out in the open or they'd get shot to death, so they never got to do anything until the very end. The war dancers also had trouble getting into the action, along with the treekin (but I expected that of them). So I'll have to get better at using my units in tandem! The Treeman and Ancient were awesome with their treesinging and strangleroot attacks! Although if he'd rolled better, they would have been toast, since they're large targets and he shot them a Lot! The dryads also did really, really well, and were never confused about their purpose during the entire game (unlike my other units ).

I hope you enjoyed it!

Your trees have nice foliage! mine looks like pompon waaaaaa!

Great first batrep. Glad you've got someone who'll ease you into the game. I've been getting my face ripped off most games since returning to the hobby.

Glad to hear it, and congrats on the new army.

RZ

Nice looking army, and enjoyed the report - w00t for diagrams!

Will say that both of your lists are pretty uber, though yours is perhaps more focused in its nastiness. He had some raw power going on - 4 bolters! 2 assassins! - but lacked the small arms fire and staying / killing power (hydra) of other DE units ...

Congrats on the win all the same!

- Salvage

Thanks

I think 2250 is my "nastiest" list... I think the two treeman are OK since I've got a strong theme, and also since 2250 is where most other lists will be optimized. At 2500 I add in another 4 treekin. I could include them here instead of the second treeman... but darn it all, I like having two of those big fellas walking around

Apparently I would have had a really hard time with his assassins in hth... I never got to find that out since they deployed (and stayed) in the forest for 2 turns. Actually, I made an error in the diagrams- 1 deployed near the spear elves, but immediately moved into the forest during his first movement phase, to join the other assassin and the scouts.

Well, I got to play another game (a smaller one, though) against Brettonia, and I got hammered. I definitely need to multi-charge units... I don't think having more shooting would have helped me though, since the archers are just sitting ducks to get charged against a knight list. I just made a rookie mistake and engaged too soon, and then got overrun into... game over!

So I'm 1-1 now

Well, they can still be worth it since glade guard can flee. If you get yourself in some woods, you should out-pace even cav on the flee, since they'll be at half move in the woods. Even better, he's then stuck in difficult terrain, which will take several turns to extract from...

RZ

Sorry about the defeat RiTides. What was your list in your smaller game? I know you want to be done with the hobby side of the hobby , but I would recommend getting some redirecting units like glade riders or a great eagle.

Hmm, yes I may end up needing them! However, I'll probably be trying to learn to just play better with what I have for now

In the smaller game I took:
Spellsinger, Level 2, Calaignor's Stave
6 Wardancers
2 x 10 Dryads

He took:
General with a unit of Knights Errant
BSB with a unit of Knights

I was really pleased with my movement in the first few turns. I placed my 'free' forest in the center, and moved up the right behind another forest. He split his two units of knights around the forest in the center. I then moved it with treesinging to hinder one of the units, and was going to get the charge on his general's unit.

However, a more veteran Bretonnian player walked by at that point and advised my opponent to reform into a line to receive the charge from my dryads. I charged in and didn't kill a single knight! He beat me in combat the next round and ran me down- right into my other unit of dryads and wardancers! That was game over.

I either shouldn't have charged in, and backed up into the forest, or if I had charged, moved my other dryads and wardancers farther up the flank, rather than back into the center behind the combat. I felt so stupid for doing that! I lined up the overrun perfectly for him.

I guess the best way to learn is to try and fail, though, so that's what I'm doing . I should be able to get another game in a few days and I'll let you guys know how I do!

Also, my musings above were those of a defeated opponent second-guessing his army... I'm going to be committed to my forest spirit theme, and hope that my heavy emphasis on treesinging can help me move forests to direct things my way. I know the lack of redirect units (and shooting) limits me, but it also means I have extra units that are strong in other areas. I picked up this month's white dwarf, which has a wood elf segment focusing on balanced lists (called "The Tempered Hunt")- which mine is definitely not! It mentions how these kinds of lists can be adaptive, but also are not overpowering in any one area, and so sometimes take a more skilled general to use well, whereas "unbalanced lists" (strong in some areas at the expense of others) can be more of a one-trick pony, but also let you practice with that army's strategy and can be simpler to use.

Hopefully I'll get better at taking advantage of my army's strengths... rather than laying its weaknesses out on a platter for my opponent to sample, like I did this time!

I had another game last night... and another loss!

1000 points against lizardmen. I took:

Spellsinger, Lvl 2, Calaignor's Stave, Dispel Scroll
3 x 10 Dryads
6 Wardancers w/ Mus
2 x 6 Wildriders w/ Mus & Std

He took:

Skink Priest (only Lvl 1 to be nice) on EoTG
Skink Priest Lvl 2 w/ Cloak of Feathers
10 ranked skinks
2 x 10 skink skirmishers w/ blowpipes
a unit of Cold One Riders
Razorgon

Deployment- he spread out most of the way, and I deployed all on the right flank, leaving 1-2 of his skink units out of the fight for a while. He cast magic for most of the game but I was able to dispel or make my ward saves most of the time.

I moved over and up the right flank, and on turn 3 charged his razorgon with dryads, and a unit of skinks with wildriders. He fled with the skinks, and the razorgon held the dryads.

On his turn he charged in a stegadon to the combat, but my dryads held by killing a lot of the razorgon skink handlers. On my turn I counter-charged with a unit of Wildriders, won combat, but he held again on stubborn cold-blooded 6! This turn was the game, because I also (FOOLISHLY, and for the SECOND GAME IN A ROW!) placed my second unit of wild riders behind the combat, thinking he was going to run!

So on his turn he charged his cold one riders into the combat, broke me, and overran into my second unit of wild riders. I counter-charged from the flank with the dryads, but his cold ones took out the whole unit of wildriders, and it was too many wounds to overcome for combat resolution. My dryads ran, got caught, and he ovarran into my spellsinger. Game over! These guys were the MVP for him.

My wardancers had also charged into the EoTG, and unfortunately we didn't realize until the end that they could target the skink priest on top (and end his activating of the 2d6 range, d6 str 5 attacks against my forest spirits!). So that would have made quite a bit of difference. I also forgot my horses attacks when the wildriders charged the EoTG... all of which is to say I really should have killed that darn priest a lot earlier and taken a lot less casualties from his ability.

However, the game was lost by my putting my second unit of wildriders behind the combat. If I didn't do that, he wins combat, runs forward, and I charge everything (wildriders, dryads, and wardancers) into his flanks. That was the game, right there!

Another good learning experience, and I'll be playing the same opponent (running his VC this time) at 2500 points this Sunday . Hopefully I won't make that same mistake again!

RiTides wrote:He cast magic for most of the game but I was able to dispel or make my ward saves most of the time.

I was under the impression that Wood Elf creatures such as Dryads and Wild Riders don't get ward saves from magical attacks such as, well, magic.

Doh! You're right.

Well in that case, I should've lost quite a few more models before we made it into combat... for some reason I remembered this about flaming attacks, but not magic ones.

Geez... talk about not knowing my army's rules giving me an unfair advantage! I guess it's OK since I lost anyway, though!

Edit: Come to think of it, I forgot about magic resistance on my wardancer and wild rider units. If I did this again, knowing I don't get the ward save, I wouldn't hide these units behind the dryads- I'd leave them in the open (since he only had short-range shooting, and was using magic long-range) and just take the extra dice these units give me to help me dispel his magic missiles (if he targetted them, which he did when he got the chance a few times).

So I guess I helped and hurt myself with my rookie knowledge of the rules... I'll have to do better next time!

Sorry to hear about the loss. The lizardmen must have heard you sold their friends and were ticked off.

I am not sure the powers from the engine can get dispelled.

Yeah, they must have

You're right that the engine powers can't be dispelled- but I believe if I kill the priest on top the engine can't be activated on the following turns. That's why I was ruing the fact that I didn't kill the priest in CC...

Yea that would have been a nice tactic, but hindsight is always 20/20. Next time.