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So, I've been getting some games in with my wood elves, and have had a hard time keeping my unit of wardancers and 2 spellsingers on foot with the rest of my army. They're the only unit that's not immune to psychology, and the spellsingers have just seemed like one big fat, juicy target. They have done well casting "treesinging", but since the only unit they're allowed to join is the wardancers (non-forest spirits), they keep getting sucked into combat and dying fairly early.

I'm thinking of dropping them and the wardancers to go with an all forest spirit list. It will make my theme stronger, and get rid of what has seemed to be my most vulnerable and least versatile unit. I have thought about getting two forest spirit spellsingers, but it costs 32 points each (20 points for making them glamourweave kindred, and 12 points for a mount) making them really pricey! And still very vulnerable. So I'm wondering if I can get away with two branchwraiths instead?

Here's the list:

Treeman Ancient, Annoyance of Nettlings, Cluster of Radiants- 375
Branchwraith, Lvl 1- 115
Branchwraith, Lvl 1- 115

9 Dryads- 108
9 Dryads- 108
10 Dryads- 120
10 Dryads- 120

6 Wildriders, Full Command- 192
6 Wildriders, Full Command- 192
4 Treekin- 260
4 Treekin- 260

Treeman- 285

Total- 2250
5 DD, 4 PD to cast treesinging, with 3 bound treesinging spells

For 2500, I'm going to add:
Noble, Wild Rider Kindred, Great Stag, Moonstone of the Hidden Way- 195
And two magic banners to the WildRiders: War Banner, and Saemrath- the Banner of Zenith (units within 12" cannot march)

I'm also considering The Dawnspear for the Noble instead of the Moonstone (they're the same cost)- the Moonstone's been really cool, but the wildriders haven't been surviving very long after their fun trick (and with the noble, they're quite expensive!). This spear makes any unit he causes a wound against have -1 to hit for that close combat phase. Which basically means they'll be hitting on 5's! That's important since the wildriders are still toughness 3... and with 1 attack in the first round of combat, they usually don't win the first time around

I also could consider some spites instead of the magic banners, or instead of one of them, for the branchwraiths. There's some fun stuff in there and they're all pretty much 25 points, so it's the same cost. I could even put annoyance of nettlings on a branchwraith instead of the treeman ancient to maybe tie some things up- but it's been really useful on the ancient going up against nasty things so far!

What do you guys think?

I am not an expert on...well anything, but specifically a forest spirit army. I usually stick with mainly elves.

I think you need something? Not sure what. More range? Speed? Magic? All of those? I feel like your army isn't going to do anything for the first two maybe three turns except try to avoid getting shot to death or cast to death (too bad that 5+ ward save isn't good against magic). Your wild riders are fast enough, but they are either going to out distance the rest of the army (so they will have no support) or they will wait for the rest of the army.

Not sure what to do to offset this and still maintain the spirit theme. Maybe giving more spites, the other two bound spells, maybe shrikes or murder, I don't know. I may down grade your wild riders to do it or lose a treekin. Not really sure how often that fourth treekin is going to be in base contact to get used. That is just my lack of experience though. The other thing that I would be concerned with is flaming attacks since your big guys (treemen and tree kin) are flammable.

The only plus on the glamorweave depends on your stance on scrolls. Some folks think you can get away without one and weather the storm. I'd pay attention to that in playtesting and see if there's any times you wished you were holding one in your back pocket.

Keep the annoyance on the treeman. It's pretty standard, but for good reason- makes it tough for someone to drag you down with a big hitty hero. By challenging you can make sure you're only getting hit on 6s, and stubborn should keep you around while you fight that, or until treekin hit the flank.

RZ

(Ninja'ed!)

Definitely, I'll have to see if it's feasible to get away without a scroll. In my few games so far, I have never felt that I had to have it- it was sort of a bonus. But we'll see if that continues to hold true... my spellsingers have been a big liability not being able to join most of my units, so I'm hoping this alleviates that (and gives me some wizards with a little cc punch )

On a slightly related note- can they cast treesinging while in combat? It's not a magic missile so I'd assumed they could, but it came up in my last game and I wasn't sure.

Good points about the spites, boogeyman... I'll have to think about if any of them are more worth it than the magic banners. Murder and Malevolents could give me an up-close boost, and Befuddlement and Shrikes could give me a more ranged one. I'm not a fan of Despairs since it's one-use only. Other than that, I don't see any units that want the points- it actually seems like I have points leftover, since the branchwraiths are much cheaper than the spellsingers.

Edit: I just found out that the league that's happening this month (starting tomorrow) is 2000 points! So I was wrong about both point levels. It's a "last man standing" league where we'll play once a week, and roll for every model that dies. On a 1 they don't come back, if they do return they may get a boost to their abilities. Here's what I'm thinking to bring:

Treeman Ancient, Annoyance of Nettlings, Cluster of Radiants- 375
Branchwraith, Lvl 1, A Murder of Spites- 140
Branchwraith, Lvl 1, A Befuddlement of Mischiefs- 140

9 Dryads- 108
9 Dryads- 108
10 Dryads- 120
10 Dryads- 120

6 Wildriders, Full Command- 192
6 Wildriders, Banner, Mus- 174
4 Treekin- 260
4 Treekin- 260

Total- 1997

I could bring A Pageant of Shrikes instead of Befuddlement; but without the extra treesinging from my normal treeman (dropped for this list) I think I'll need another recurring bound spell for the magic phase if I'm going to get any treesinging off. I also had to drop a champions from one of the Wildrider units.

What do you think?

I'm going to be committing to this list Tuesday evening, does it look okay for 2k?

I actually just bought two drychas off of ebay to use as the branchwraiths (I'll have a dryad stand-in for now) so hopefully this is good

I'm not sure what people use for glamourweave spellsingers, since there don't seem to be any current (or really any good oop) mounted spellcaster models. I actually owned an old unicorn model by GW which was awesome, but unfortunately I sold it off with my high elves.

If you want more magic, drop two treekin and take a 3rd Branchwraith.
With the treeman ancient, charge him at a unit withouta character, declare a challenge, they will probably accept, you get 4 pts of CBR give or take, with no returned wounds.

I agree about the Ancient, except that we seem to be playing open lists around here lately, so they'll know he has the annoyance of nettlings (and that they should not accept a challenge). But you're right in that most people have accepted so far!

I'm looking at getting a hold of a mounted spellsingers, just so I'll have options: Treeman Ancient, Noble on Great Stag, Mounted Spellsinger, 2 Branchwraiths. I don't think I want a third branchwraith (just for variety's sake) and those fourth treekin have actually been doing pretty well!

Thanks for the feedback, I'm still learning and tweaking the list as I play games

So long as it works for you mate. WARNING OFF TOPIC: I thought of a funny combo for a Highborn, Alter kindred, Bow of Loren and Arcane Bodkins, 5 shots all ignoring armour saves and hitting on 2s.

I would think that if you shoe-horned in an eagle it would aid you by march-blocking.

That would give you more time to set up the walking parts of your list the way you want them.

The problem with that highborn alter build is the shots are still only str. 3, but still potentially useful against knights with toughness 3 (50/50 to wound) and good...oops I mean no armor saves.

The eagle could help out a lot, but not sure if it fits your forest spirit theme.

And Chaos knights are only T4, tough, but still 1/3

Don't get me wrong, I like the build. I would even try starfire arrows against low AS and low Ld armies. My problem is I just spent at least 240 points on 5 toughness 3 shots and lost my Ld 10 general. I just haven't convinced myself that 1 or 2 wounds a turn is worth it. I still like to try him out over 3k lists though.

It would seem we have hijacked this thread we had better stop.

Oops. You are right. Sorry RiTides.

Back OT. I'm not sure how to keep to the theme. I would think about shaving the two treekin and some dryads for both the eagle, and another branchwraith, just to try something else, but otherwise I think the original list seems pretty good. The eagle can be used for march blocking and harassing war machines and scouts. The extra branchwraith will give you the extra magic you are looking for.

An eagle is a good idea for the 2K list- however I've already gotten locked into the one above for a month, since it was for a league. If I were to do it again I'd be tempted to drop a few dryads for a warbanner for the wildriders.

I'll be posting up an idea for a 2750 point list for a tournament coming up this weekend in a day or two . I'll probably start a new thread for it since this one has gone off the rails a bit, though

I think one of the biggest issues you'll find if you stick with the forest spirit theme is the inability to flee charges. ItP is nice, but it certainly has it's drawbacks. In my experience, WE benefit from being able to flee and rally away from charges, pulling units out of position, and into woods and such.

RZ