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So my friends came down to visit me for my birthday and brang me an entire wood elf army as a present, excellent. So i got to play wood elves and 8th edition for the first time.. At the SAME TIME!? Pretty insane.

It was a 2000pt game first vs high elves, then later i played against skaven.

My list was!

Lord - Level 4 Spellweaver - Life.
- Wych wand elm
- Talisman of Perserverance.

Heros - Level 1 Branchwraith - Athel loren
- Annoyance of netlings
- Dispel sprite

-Eternal Noble
-Dawnspear (I was thinking.. Right im going to be facing high elves! they get asf and iniative is higher soo im gonna need this to help me defend against all those re-rolls.... half way through the game i thought about this again... THEY HAVE ASF >.<
-Ironcurse Icon

-Wardancer Noble
-Blades of Loec

Core - 12 Dryads with champion
-3x10 Glade guard

Special - 2x9 Wardancer with champions and muscians
- 6 Treekin
- 14 Eternal guard with Full command

Rare - 2x5 Waywatchers.

The high elves had

Teclis
Caradryn
50 phoenix guard in a block
50 Seaguard in a block
2 bolt throwers.

The short version of the battle report is, I got completely spanked.

We had a river running down the middle of the board ending with a ford next to a hill. Pretty much cut the table in half.
was a wall near each deployment to get in the way. And i got to place my Wood elf forest next to the gap between the river and the hill to completely cut the table.
My friends dont like mystical terrain so we never rolled for any.

Friend deployed both blocks next to each other, Caradryn and teclis in the phoenix guard horde. and a bolt thrower next to both blocks on flanks.

i pretty much deployed everything, anywhere i could fit. I put the treekin behind the wall! but it turns out they are the only ones who can't actually cross it >.<
wardancers with the treekin. Glade guard where ever, Eternal guard in the middle. Dryads on the right ready to march into my forest.

Waywatchers deployed 12 inches away from each bolt throwers on far table sides, ready to gank some crewmen.

FIRST TURN:
High elves march up to the river.
Teclis fires a super 3d6 fireball with IF, at the 10 gladeguard with my spellweaver in it. hoping to make them flee off the board with panic. He only managed to kill 4. I laughed and passed my check later on.
bolt throwers turn around to try defend from waywatchers, left side did nothing, Other one killed 2 waywatchers on the right.

Wood elves to go.

Eternal guard march up to infront of the phoenix guard on the other side of a bridge! Spellweaver left the glade guard and marched to catch them.
Dryads ran for forest. Treekin marched over the wall and didn't take any wounds from dangerous terrain.
All the wardancers marched to the left to flank ready to flank the phoenix guard.
Waywatchers marched right up to the bolt throwers.

i had 6 or 7 power dice and just thought. Im not going to stand a chance of winning this, so i threw 6 dice at the Dweller below on the pheonix guard unit. Rolled a couple of 6's!
then the fun began.
i killed about 18 Phoenix guard and ... TECLIS! i didnt expect too but i was happy
My miscast was an 8 i think which was the spellweaver and branchwraith take Str 6 hits. Branchwraith took a wound, Spellweaver failed ward save.

Gladeguard fired arrows, killing some seaguard or phoenix guard.
Waywatchers fired at the bolt throwers, did nothing.

TURN 2!
Phoenix guard charged the eternal guard.
Seaguard tried to charge across the river and failed.

Teclis is dead so no magic!

Bolt throwers killed 1 waywatcher on the right side. so now down to 2. left side still 5 strong.

Combat, lost 10 eternal guard and my spellweaver.
Killed about 1-2 phoenix guard in return. Was stubborn so i didnt break, (led by a noble)

WOOD ELF TURN2!!

Wardancers with hero charged into the phoenix guard flank.
Other wardancers and treekin sitting behind them waiting to charge when the others died.
Dryads marched around the river.
Glade guard move forwards/backwards to remain at just 15 inches away for short range on the seaguard.
Waywatchers charrrrge!

i got a double 2 for power dice. Threw 4 dice into Hidden path with my branchwraith... IF miscast :(
rolled double 1, then a 1 against and she exploded killing 5 dryads. Still had 7 left now immune to ranged attacks! and ready to charge across the river.

Glade guard shooting up the seaguard killing few each time.

Waywatchers on the left wipe out the bolt thrower in combat.
Waywatchers on the right, killed a guy, Won combat but he didnt flee.

Phoenix guard Wiped out my remaining eternal guard and a couple of wardancers.
Wardancers dance for +1 attack and kill several Phoenixguard.
I lost combat because i can't break ranks with skirmishers. Phoenixguard run them down into another wardancer unit.

HIGH ELF TURN 3.

Seaguard volley fire 10 gladeguard to death.
Bolt thrower 1 crewman killed a waywatcher, Waywatcher failed in return. Lost combat, didn't flee.

Phoenixguard killed most the wardancers, what ever hits i did in return didn't do much, Flee. Ran down into the treekin unit. having reformed as he doesnt need to be horde anymore. Lost too many guard so reduced the lines to gain more ranks.

WOOD ELF TURN 3.

Dryads charged across the river with hidden path so ignoring anything it does. (which turns out to be nothing when we looked in the book, just cant march across it)
Everyone else just moves around to get into position.

Dryads killed alot of seaguard, took 1 or 2 wounds in return. was a draw but elf musician means he can win combat, passed break test.
Phoenix guard killed 1 treekin wounded another. And caradryn epic failed only causing 1 wound. which i passed on a 6+ armour save. otherwise it would have been an insta gibbed treekin. (d3 wounds and flaming attacks )
Treekin smooshed alot of phoenixguard, elves Pass some ward saves. treekin lose combat and break. Get run down.

HIGH ELF TURN 4.
Seaguard win combat
and the phoenix guard turn around etc.

Pretty much the rest of the game is seaguard and phoenixguard charging stupid distances and killing glade guard/waywatchers.


So the 2 things i have learnt that day were Phoenix guard and Magic are broken

still was awesome, I killed teclis and he did nothing!

May get around to writing the skaven one but im hungry right now. going to go make some breakfast!

P.S This report isn't 100% correct as it happened yestaday! with no pictures or writing down what was happening. But the general thing that happened was phoenix guard killing everything.

Welcome to the ranks of the wood elves!!!

Interesting that your friends would give you an army... and then proceed to take a list like that . Teclis is crazy, but apparently he wasn't needed, since it sounds like he only got off a single spell before you took him out! Did he take a "look out, sir!" against that magic spell? I believe he's allowed to, I need to check, though...

I've been pondering how to tackle gigantic blocks with wood elves. It's hard! I've got several units of 6 treekin, and while they do awesome against most units, a block like that can just outclass them. You did take full attacks from the rear rank with them, right? I thought they might have a chance, despite the odds.

I was considering taking a gigantic block of 18 of them to get horde formation...! But last night I realized they have a maximum unit size of 12 . Bummer!

I like your list (your point about the dawnspear is well taken, but if this was a "take all comers" list, it's an excellent choice against most armies). I'd be torn, though, about giving that noble annoyance of nettlings and some other kind of survival gear instead, to make him more likely to live and let the eternal guard remain stubborn.

Nice report! Although with my luck against skaven with wood elves, I doubt the result was any different in the next game. Maybe you'll prove me wrong, though

I also think they gave you quite a decent selection of units! I think you need a few more eternal guard, perhaps you can get them by dropping a few wardancers...? Also, the spite on the branchwraith was probably Cluster of Radiants, which gives +1 dispel dice each turn (not a dispel scroll). That's probably what you meant, anyway

Wow, crazy game. Can't complain about Teclis too much if the same guy who took him just gave you an entire army!

@RITides: As it stands, I don't think Teclis gets a Look Out Sir! in this case as the spell isn't a template weapon. Everyone in the unit just takes the test.

That is a honkin' big unit of Phoenix guard, though it seems pretty darn effective. Not sure what I'd do against it either...

RZ

Well the skaven player gave me the army, they are brothers.

Cluster of radiants!
Was too lazy to check the name

thats pretty much all i own apart from some glade riders and more glade guard.

More eternal guard would be cool. but metal models are expensive :( i was lucky to find loads of cheap wardancers on ebay

yeah well my friends both have several armies and one of them collected wood elves years ago, and just never played them so he gave them to me and i bought a few more, the dryads, 10 wardancers and glade guard.

I find that the heros are the last to die unless they are wizards, because its easier to rack up combat res killing rank and file and win combat then just run down the hero, instead of dedicating alot of attacks to killing a hero. Though in the case of wood elves, our heros dont have much defense anyway so why not try kill them
I wanted to take the dawnspear so couldn't fit annoyance anyway. Plus they can just decline the challenge and kill him.

Against skaven it was a draw. It could have gone alot worse but he just rolled so poorly. The doomwheel misfired twice then roll Str 2 against the toughness 9 treekin . it saved their treely lives. Also gladeguard caused 2 wounds on the doomwheel in combat! was just a very unlucky game.

I i had Str 4 shield of thorns on my dryads and they was stuck in combat with 50 clanrats for the entire game.. I forgot to do the 2d6 str 4 hits every magic phase..... i did it once out of about 3 turns untill they all died.

The skaven battle would take another several pages of report but it comes down to a few points.

His list was greyseer, Deathmaster snitch?, massive block of stormvermin, Clan rats, Plague monks (i think all in the 50s)
8 rat ogres with 3 packmasters and a single doomwheel.

about 50 Stormvermin with greyseer and Deathmaster snitch sitting in a river....
i wouldnt get another chance at that so i charged with the eternal guard i managed to win combat! but they didn't break even without steadfast.. still too many ranks.

the Wardancers ate a unit of 8 rat ogres, then got stuck in the remaining clan rat unit which finished off the dryads.

The treekin went through a unit of plague monks. Chomped all of them. Finished off the doomwheel and killed the deathmaster after his heroic attempt to try Kill everyone of them by splitting up hits/wounds. as he causes d3 wounds etc. which utterly failed, he managed to cause 2 wounds which ended up doing 1 wound to 2 treekin each.
He then got Killed by Stomps. Stomps are so awesome.

1 unit of gladeguard got wiped by doomwheel, Others failed panic tests and just ran off the board edge etc.

All in all it got to the end of turn 6 and we counted up Victory points.
i was winning by 51pts which is a draw.

he killed my general and 1 standard.
I killed more points worth and 2 standards.

So some other things. a BSB sitting in the back of the army is probably a good idea!

Dryads are awesome but they really get hurt by skirmish rules, and no muscian or standard bearer. Static CR isn't very nice to them.

Treekin are monsters against rats! 4+ save then 5+ ward :O!

The wardancers switching between +1 attack then 4+ ward is pretty dangerous. The amount of 6+ ward saves i passed was just silly

I didn't need the re-rollable dispel roll item on my Spellweaver as the grey seer failed almost every spell.

i think i might just move the glade guard together and take like units of 15 or 20. having loads of small 10men gets in the way and usually can't find targets. when everyone is in combat.
Im not too happy being able to shoot through my own units :/ even if rules say i can.

Thanks for the notes on the Skaven matchup. Sounds pretty good. This was my favorite:

Seon wrote:

about 50 Stormvermin with greyseer and Deathmaster snitch sitting in a river....
i wouldnt get another chance at that so i charged with the eternal guard i managed to win combat! but they didn't break even without steadfast.. still too many ranks.

Very epic/cinematic sounding, and not something you ever would have seen in 7th. In fact, you probably wouldn't have even seen a river!

Thanks again for posting,

RZ

The way Dwellers is worded, you can't take a look out sir against it because look out sir does not do "hits." This is just one more way that GW finally took the needed steps to nerf daemons there's a massive proliferation of spells that skip saves completely.

Just a note..2 ones don't give you miscasts anymore..its the sixes you watch out for.

Glad Teclis got boned. Too many HE lists use him.

Eternal guard noble is pointless since you gave him a magic weapon he loses the eg bonus. Also you don't need to be eternal guard kindred to give the unit stubborn... just a noble or highborn.

I'm also curious as to why you bothered with a wardancer hero. It is basically as good as 2 wardancers.
If you swapped your wardancer hero for more eternal guard or both for a treeman I think you would have had a much better time of it.
Personally I wouldn't bother making the dryad a lvl 1. Very few of the athel loren spells are worth casting over lore of life spells, and you can have cluster of radiants without the lvl 1 upgrade. Also channeling on a 6 is barely anything.

Lastly I'm not really sure how you lost your spellweaver, but I never put mine in a unit unless there are lots of cannons about. Being behind units or terrain is much more effective.

I was thinking of the wild rider kindred being able to take a spear when i picked eternal
read it again and yeaah kinda pointless.

i like wardancers, and i like heros. That was enough for me! plus the blades of loec on a charge re-rolling Str 5 wounds is awesome. Plus i have a wardancer hero model.
I dont have more then 15 eternal or treemen.
Though ill get around to making a treeman to go with my wire-kin :p i've lost faith in wizards. and can't afford dragons.

the lvl 1 dryad rolled hidden path which kept my dryads safe from 50 seaguard volley fire. Was worth it to me.
Also its the Master and apprentice, which is cool with me.

I put the spellweaver in a unit because i didn't feel like taking 3d6 fireballs and dying.
Leaving him in the glade guard would of ment more panic tests he could fail and run off the table. It was the safest place he could get too. Still a bad move but it was my first time as wood elf and in 8th.
Normally my wizard has pendant of khaleth and doesn't care where she is standing.

well teclis is a one off worry. usually you aren't expecting to take big fireball.

also spellweaver with lore of life is >>>>>> a dragon.
wardancer hero sounds allright on paper but in use wardancer units are armour/character snipes. I6 killing blow something scary and then die, which a normal wardancer can do just fine and much cheaper.

edit: I new I was forgetting something when I wrote the first part. If you were worried about teclis casting on the spellweaver, you should have stuck it in a unit of wardancers. Atleast they have a 5+ ward save from spells.

Well against the high elves, Wardancers are not very useful.
But i was charging them into blocks of 50 clanrats and winning combat. Even with steadfast they still have a low LD. though no one ever failed a break test.

If they get the charge on anything they are really dangerous!

The clan rats got alot of attacks. But only half can hit, then half can wound. Then i get a 4+ ward save.
It worked for me so im quite happy wasting points on them.

But you are right.
I think most of the kindreds need fixing. Taking heros does seem pointless when you can just spend the points on more troops who can put out more survivability and damage.
I could of got over 10 dryads for each hero.

The massive limitations is sad. Only the alter kin can actually take anything i think. But then he can't join units :(

i wasn't trying to say wardancers are useless or anything like a waste of points (just the hero). I never go anywhere without them and I own around 80 (1/2 last gen 1/2 current gen). It is just that in this edition I expect them to get 1-2 rounds of combat. (unlesss they happen to be T7 or regened.) I use plenty of heroes myself just not any close combat ones apart from a branchwraith for the free dispel dice.
Also nowadays wardancers are can actually be more dangerous when they get charged. Not that they are more powerful, but the fact you can stand in front of a unit of knights and make the opponent think twice about charging is fantastic. You don't need the charge as much anymore because apart of High Elves there is almost no unit that will attack before them.

In 2500 point games I've even been trying out a highborn with a wizard hat and eternal kindred lol. Strangely it has been the winning factor for all 3 games so far.

Against high elves wardancers can be useful, but it takes a lot of work. I use them mostly to make certain units stop and turn. Very few players will let wardancers set up on their sides or behind them without turning to face them. But ya having the HEs asf is very annoying on wardancers. Allthough if you are lucky with magic anything is possible. (For example a unit of wardancers who had spell #6 from athel loren +4 toughness and shield of thorns on them for one round against swordmasters.)

Pip wrote:Lastly I'm not really sure how you lost your spellweaver, but I never put mine in a unit unless there are lots of cannons about. Being behind units or terrain is much more effective.

Really? But aren't lots of armies taking "guess" weapons now, so he'll normally need to be hidden in a unit?

I take it you're just counting on the -2 to hit from being behind another unit (or is it -3, since he might count as a skirmisher for being alone) to keep him alive? What about spells that can target him since he's alone?

Just curious on this point about how you do this and/or if it's really effective for you.

Very nice battle reps, I was especially pleased to see the dwellers bellow do what it did, gotta love the lore of life

Great to read some woody reports, I was just musing to RT that there aren't enough of you hippie players putting square base to board and living to tell us about it

I'll third the call for more eternal guard and a BSB, likely at the cost of the wardancer hero and a unit of wardancers, at least until you work up to higher points. But no matter what, keep beating up trespassers and lettings us know!

- Salvage

Boss_Salvage wrote:Great to read some woody reports, I was just musing to RT that there aren't enough of you hippie players putting square base to board and living to tell us about it

I'll be posting up my 'Ard Boyz experience after this Saturday... we'll see how many of my trees live to tell about it, though