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So, the army list I brought to Danger Planet two days ago was pretty successful, and I'm happy with how it played.  The only unit that really disappointed was Skarloc, the sniper character, and that's really because of the particular armies I faced (see previous thread for results).  I do want to get some test games using him against stuff like Skaven, where he might be more worth his points.  If he doesn't work out he may get cut and replaced with a unit of Warhawks or maybe another unit of Glade Guard or Glade Riders.

Give me some opinions on this from a comp and gameplay standpoint, if you have any.

Three Kindreds Warhost

A 2250pt Wood Elf army

Colonial Independent Grand Tourney April 8-9, 2006

By Ragnar Arneson

The forest was awakening from winter, and Llira, Spellweaver of the Shadow Oaks Kindred, sensed danger. Most of the forces of the kindred were arrayed to the south, and so as she called together their remaining strength, and the few dryads she could muster, she also sent for aid to their neighbors. Green Yew Kindred responded, and with them came Skarloc?s famed band of archers, who were wintering in the Green Yew hold after returning from the human lands. And so it was that three small bands of elves came together in the wintry beginnings of Spring, to fight off whatever evil encroached upon the ancient Forest of Loren.

Llira, Spellweaver (215), L4 (35), Ranu's Heartstone (20), Hail of Doom (30): 300 (General)
Findolin, Noble (75) w/Elvensteed (12), Lt. Armor (2), Shield (2), Sword of Might (20), Helm of the Hunt (20): 141
Skarloc, Noble (75) w/Scout kindred (15), Great Weapon (4), Hunter's Talon (25), Pageant of Shrikes (25): 144
Kaia Stormwitch, Spellsinger (90), L2 (35), 2 Dispel Scrolls (50): 175
Character total: 768

10 Shadow Oaks Glade Guard : 120
10 Green Yew Glade Guard : 120
10 Skarloc?s Glade Guard : 120
8 Children of Oak, Dryads: 96
8 Children of Ash, Dryads: 96
10 Children of Thorn, Dryads: 120
5 Shadow Oaks Glade Riders (120) w/ Musician (9): 129
5 Green Yew Glade Riders (120) w/ Musician (9): 129
Core total: 930

6 Troupe of Shadow, Wardancers: 108
6 Troupe of Yew, Wardancers: 108
5 Hunters of the Shadow Glen, Wild Riders w/Musician (130), Standard (18), War Banner (25): 173
Special total: 389

5 Wardens of the Shadow Glen, Waywatchers: 120
1 Kieark, Great Eagle: 50
Rare total: 170

Grand total 2249
8 Casting dice, 5 Dispel, 93 models

 

 

You aren't going to have any comp problems with this list. It's got lots of different types of units and isn't over the top in any one area.

How does it work? It doesn't have any heavy hitters (except maybe the wild riders). How do you deal with big nasty stuff?

Magic and maneuver. Normally I don't NEED to kill a big nasty block unit, as I can kill all his support units and avoid letting the big nasty unit do any damage worth mentioning. I also have my techniques for killing/minimizing damage from big terror-causing flyers down to a science, pretty much. They need a basically empty board to ever score back their points. My opponents Saturday had a Daemon Prince, Bret Lord on Griffon, and Exalted Daemon. I got three wounds on the DP thanks to magic and Hail of Doom, and nearly got the 4th. I evaded the Griffon and again did three wounds out of four on it despite the bloody shield of "me and my mount both have a 4+ ward save". I pummeled the Exalted Daemon in game four with Master of Wood and Master of Stone for three turns until it died.

My combat units are also capable of doing huge numbers of wounds to T3 infantry, and respectable wounds to T4 infantry as long as they're not a 3+ of better save in HtH. A combined charge from two of my units will rock almost any block, unless my dice fail on me or my opponent has Stubborn or another trick up his sleeve. You should have seen the sickness that Dryads were before the army book...

He pumps 45 bow shots a turn into it, plus the Hail of Doom and 8 power dice of Life magic.  If that doesn't work all the skirmishers swarm enmasse and whittle it down. 

On paper the army looks fine, in practice its a b###h to play against.  I think a big part of my problem was my lack of shooting and magic to counter it with, which is my problem.  Going over our game in my head there are some things I could have done differently, but in the end I just don't think I could have caught you.  The only thing I can think of to fix this would be to add Tzeentch to my list, though I don't know which of the other 2 powers to drop.

In the end your opponent is either going to be able to counter you fairly effectively, giving you a good game based on their skill level, or not at all.  My list is probably at the far extreme of smashmouth and is in the "not at all" category.  This may effect their view of your relative comp, but it doesn't seem like there is anything you could do about it.  I say take it as-is and have fun with it.  Oh, and don't charge any nurglings with that mounted hero.

I think on a table with a bit less terrain you would have had a better chance. Or if I hadn't rolled both MoS and MoW. You needed a little more magic defense to keep the exalted alive as it was.

Stuff you could have done differently: If you had kept the Furies or the chariot back, positioned to charge any march-blockers getting behind you (the eagle on turn two, specifically), you wouldn't have been slowed down so much and could have gotten more last-turn charges on the stuff in my backfield. The turn one march block my Waywatchers got on your Plague Riders was a big help too. You almost prevented it with your flanking nurglings deployment as it was. If you had been aware of the WW ability to deploy within 8" and were consciously looking out for it, you could have prevented that march block, or at least made me trade the WW for it (120pt unit that would have been eaten by your nurglings if they moved any closer). When fighting my army a huge priority is guarding your flanks with your fast units, using overlapping charge arcs. If you can do this you may be able to prevent or minimize the rear/flank charges. I think with a little more experience against WE you could make it a much tighter game, though as you say, you would need to modify the list at least a little bit to really maximize your chances.

Oh, and BTW, why do you think I took away his great weapon? At least now he has a respectable save in HtH.

Allowing the Fures to get shot up like that on turn 1 was probably the biggest mistake I made. They should have been going after that Eagle from the beginning. I didn't think of the 30" range on your bows though, which like you said is unfamiliarity against WE's. Screening with the Flesh Hounds was another, they should have gone opposite all those bows and been used to help clear out opposite table side.

The chariot I should have tried to shove down your archers throat. A 3+ armor save and 5+ ward, T5 and 5 wounds could have possibly weathered the storm and made you sweat. My biggest worry with the chariot was getting baited into the small wood in the middle of the table. That almost happened in my second game and I got lucky with a second option charge that was 13.5 inches away.

The infantry was way too slow to be of any use other than grabbing table quarters though, and the same probably goes for the Plagueriders. I think I need 10d6+ flamer shots per turn to effectively deal with the Wood Elves...

Holy Crap!  Check out the link below.  I found it when looking for something regarding my first game of the day.

http://uk.games-workshop.com/chronicles/commentary-resolution/1/

Gav says in it that (to paraphrase) when overrunning the unit moves directly forward and if this forward move brings them into contact with another unit they may even wheel to maximize frontage.  This would have affected our game, but like I said at the time I doubt it would have been significant (other than to make me feel better).  The diagram is very clear about how this is to happen.  Have they put out a Chronicle since '04?

I'm well aware of that article, and had it with me.  But that only pertains to overrunning.  You were pursuing a fleeing unit.  The BRB statement that you move "directly towards the fleeing unit" was the relevant rule. You barely missed her, but even if you could have gone straight forward it would have been almost a corner-corner clip.  I would have sucked it up, but I honestly don't think you should have hit her thanks to the fleeing and pursuit rules.

I didn't realize that the Chariot could charge into the woods if forced to by Frenzy. Yowch. Good thing we both didn't want it, then. You're right- my archers could never have taken him, so sending him up the center may have been the way to go. Still, I think that he and the exalted are really your key pieces to guard the flanks. If not them, you better get a lot of mileage out of the nurglings.

You're right that the Flesh Hounds would have been a lot more useful on the opposite flank.

The Plague Riders could have gotten there if they went up the center and you kept me from march blocking them. I think they only way you could have kept the eagle from blocking on turn 2 would be to get that IF Fireball on him instead of my Wild Riders on turn one (or rather, my auto-failed dispel attempt), but other than that turn, your 12" move would have been pretty good for closing the gap.

I guess I've always played a pursuit where I catch the fleeing unit as an overrun. I thought it said somewhere that you physically catch the unit back where the combat occured, so it always made sense that the pursuing unit would move straight forward (though I never understood why panic checks were made from the end position of the destroyed unit...). If I don't catch them I play it like we did on saturday.

As for the nurglings, I had used them all day to sort of funnel everyone into my slower infantry blocks. From there I had angles set up to get into the flanks and break people. Against you I put them too far apart and they never really threatened any of your combat units (dryads and wardancers). The one unit did a fair job against the Wild Riders, but I probably should have ignored them until they reached my back field. If the Exalted had survived that long he would have been the one to keep them from charging.

Going with Tzeentch/Nurgle would probably include a single unit of 2 Nurglings, 3 Changebringers, 6 Flamers, and a Tzeentch Chariot. I think a set up like this would have made it a much tighter game (well, I'd have to play better too...). Plagueriders would then become the arrow-magnet. Seeing how alot of the top armies play similar to your WE's, I think this would be a much more competitive army.

Sounds nasty.

I think you're right that the Exalted (and Furies) could have done a good job guarding your rear and right flank. Since the scenario gave the big bonus for killing the most expensive unit, I deliberately put the Wild Riders on my left flank to encourage you to keep the exalted near that hill/wood on that side so I could hit him with both MoS and MoW. There was a good amount of terrain on the table, but I think if you had kept him more towards the center-rear of your army you could have kep him out of range of those spells for the first 2-3 turns, then moved him forward once the rest of your army was closer and I had other immediate threats to deal with.

Someone just pointed out on another forum that my sniper character is illegal because Scout Kindred characters aren't allowed to have great weapons. Argh. That's what I get for taking a break from Warhammer for a few months. Argh. Need to rework. May just give him xhw since that's the same points.