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i wanna start a wood elf army however i am not familiar with their rules units or characters. actually this will be my first warhammer army. I really want a army that can move fast and hit hard. Can anyone suggest some good units to build my army around? thanks

For core id use Glade Guard and Dryads, dont even bother with Glade Riders they're not worth the points
Eternal Guard is good if they're joined by a Noble or Highborn
Wild Riders are a must because they move fast, hit hard, and cause fear on the charge
Tree Kin always worked out great for me with S5, T5, 4+ Save, and a 5+ Ward
And the Treeman is a straght up beast

All these units have always worked great for me, but this is just my opinion

Are wardancers a good choice? because i think they would do pretty well if there was a lord with them . what do you thing?

Wardancers can be good if you run them right. So dont run them in big squads because it will soak up a lot of points and make your opponent really tempted to kill them fast, because Wardancers are easy to kill. I would run them in small squads (maybe 5 to 7 models) and use them to takeout warmachine crew or as support chargers so that when you charge an enemy unit with one of your bigger units such as Dryads or Eternal Guard the Wardancers can charge that unit in the flank to give your bigger unit some serious support.

thanks. Should i bother with mages and if so what would be the best lore to use to really help my troops?

The mages are useful to help your units out and to help defend against enemy magic. As for the lores the hero mage has to choose the Wood Elves Lore and the Lord choice can choose Life, Beasts, or the Wood Elves Lore, but i havent seen the new spells for Beast or Life so i dont know what they can do yet.

Branchwraiths are good to because they do pretty well in close combat and you can upgrade them to be a lvl 1 mage, so they combined some might with magic

But overall if your looking more for Magic defense and support go with the mage

I'm building the following 2250 list. I've played this list in 8th ed using someone elses's models and destroyed all but 1 unit of my opponets Beastmen.

1 Wood Elf Highborn w/rhymer's harp and an annoyance of netlings
1 Spellweaver level 4 w/the deepwood sphere and stone of the crystal mere
1 Wood Elf noble (Battle Standard Bearer) Gaemrath - the banner of midwinter
38 Eternal Guard w/war banner
7 Dryads w/branch nymph
7 Dryads w/branch nymph
30 Glade Guard w/aech the banner of springtide
13 Wardancers
10 Glade Guard Scouts

I've ran the Eternal Guard and Glad Guard in the center
using the Wardancers and Dryad in mid and outer flanks on either side
Putting scouts just out of reach of opponents heavy hitters

I have found the Woodies to be less effective at lower point games. Need the higher count Eternal and Glade Guard to pull off effective shooting. I plan on adding some Treekin and Treemen for a less shooty list as well. As people get their lists tweaked I expect to see and experience a number of exciting games.

CaptainHonkey wrote:For core id use Glade Guard and Dryads, dont even bother with Glade Riders they're not worth the points
Eternal Guard is good if they're joined by a Noble or Highborn
Wild Riders are a must because they move fast, hit hard, and cause fear on the charge
Tree Kin always worked out great for me with S5, T5, 4+ Save, and a 5+ Ward
And the Treeman is a straght up beast

All these units have always worked great for me, but this is just my opinion

I agree with CaptainHonkey's points except about the wildriders- I don't think they're really worth it anymore :-/. However, you do need something fast and hard-hitting, and they can do that. They're just such a glass cannon and will be getting stuck in combat now, unless you're going after a small unit or warmachines.

As far as mages vs. branchwraiths- a single branchwraith is a great idea to get annoyance of nettlings. Other than that, I'd go with a level 4 spellsinger. Unfortunately, a level 2 spellsinger just isn't worth it, since they only have access to the lore of Athel Loren- and moving trees around isn't what it used to be!

For Rayne's list- why a unit of 30 glade guard? I'd split them up so you can get more shooting! Other than that, it looks good, although imho an anvil of eternal guard doesn't match other armies' anvils. It's cool if you have the models, but I'd hate to see all wood elf lists go this way now. Our style tends to be smaller units hitting together, which doesn't work as well in 8th edition. However, the tree side of things (dryads, treekin, and treemen) hit really hard in close combat now, so those are great options to go along with glade guard.

Wardancers, eternal guard, and eagles are also great options, although the wardancers are fragile! I'm not so sure about wildriders now, and warhawk riders never were very effective. However, if you do go with wildriders, apparently the FAQ has been changed to allow a wood elf noble on elven steed to count as fast cavalry, so they won't lose that ability! AND a wildrider noble can take helm of the hunt (the previous FAQ did not allow it) so there's some bonuses

I don't agree on the glade riders comment. I don't use them all the time but they rarely dissapoint me. Being able to march 18" + vanguard movement makes them awesome for annoying the enemy. And the time the enemy actually turns to kill them usually opens up something good for you.

Glade guard are not meant to be used in such numbers. I would never go over 20 at most, and thats only if I was going to run them 10 wide like I used to. For 12 points a model they better all be shooting every turn. 3 10 man units 5 wide is what I run.

13 wardancers is such an odd number. I have been using mine in 10-12 recently but to be honest I am getting just as much result from the 10 man units if not slightly more (since the opponent feels less threatened by such a small unit).

I can't stand glade guard scouts. 17 points for a basic archer, you don't even get glad guard longbows. At 7 points more glade riders or waywatchers are both much better choices (waywatchers would atleast add some extra armour killing to your army.) I now use my waywatchers in 2 units of 5 partly to block the enemies vanguard.

The banner of midwinter is not worth it. Eternal guard are ld 9 without any heroes, with even just the bsb in that unit they are stubborn and the bsb lets them reroll any failed ld test. You don't need to spend points on 1 round of unbreakable. Also they don't hit very hard so you are probably better not running them as a horde and just a normal 6 wide unit. Take the points saved and make your dryad units 12-14. Also think about the 50 point heavy armour 4+ ward save common item from the BRB, give your BSB some protection. Edit: I just noticed the rhymer's harp. In that case you could go for the 2+ armour save common item for 45 points.

Your spellweaver makes no sense to me, the lore of athel lorn is lame. You take a lord lvl mage so that you can take lore of beasts or lore of life, and if you do that the deepwood sphere doesn't do anything. Not to mention he is easy to kill. My spellweaver runs the 45 point common magic item 4+ ward save and the 55 point re-roll failed dispel attempts. And yes I run a brecnhwraith just for the free dispel dice (it saves me a LOT).

It isn't a bad start to an army list, but I would be confident facing it with my 2k list.

thanks for the help guys. does anyone know some good tactics that will work well with some units of wardancers and waywatchers?

Thanks for the help guys, does anyone know some good tactics that will work well with some units of wardancers and waywatchers?

Hmmm in 8th it is a bit different.

For wardancers I use 2 units of 10 and send one out stand in front of heavily armoured things like knights. Forces your opponent to charge but with I6 you go first with killing blow (except against stupid high elves) so it works quite well. The other unit I have lurk around my mages/glade guard just to make my opponent think about how and where he wants to approach from. Very few units like being charged by wardancers. Allthough you have to remember in the new rules they are going to die quite quickly unless you have a lvl 4 mage giving them +4 toughness.

Waywatchers is a harder unit to use well. I don't particularly like using them in small units because they don't do enough damage. However since everything is % now there is no downside to 2 units of 5 instead of 1 unit of 10. If you want them all shooting at the same unit that is still the same. However against some armies it is reallly good to deploy them about 15-16" infront of their vanguard. If you sit at 12" the enemies vanguard could easily charge you first turn so sitting a few inches back makes them have to decide wether to attempt the charge or not. It shuts down their flanks really quickly and gets your waywatchers in good position to start whittling down the enemy.

Edit: I don't take unit champions, they aren't worth the points.

Thank you guys.