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Hey guys,

I'm picking up wood elves to go alongside my dwarf army (so I have 2 very different armies and playstyles). My question is, can waywatchers show up immediately behind a unit? Say there is a unit of 5 silverhelms facing north, can my waywatchers set up 8" to their immediate rear?

I thought I saw something about line of sight when I was reading through it, but when my brother was reading over it he couldn't find it, and neither could I. I figure I may have been reading it as if it was Infiltrate from 40k, and then gotten all confused.

What do you say dakka?

Waywatchers do not have scout rule.


Scouts have to set up 12" from a enemy. LOS doesn't matter.

Ah, my bad. I thought they could deploy either as scouts, or in their special way. My book is at home, my memory must be shorting out. I'll ask refresh this in a day or 2 when I get back to my book and can ask more precisely what I mean.

Waywatchers have scout (pg1wood elf faq, forest stalkers have scout), so can be deployed as scouts. Only caveat is that if they are out of LOS they they can be up to 1" away

 japehlio wrote:
Waywatchers have scout (pg1wood elf faq, forest stalkers have scout), so can be deployed as scouts. Only caveat is that if they are out of LOS they they can be up to 1" away

FAQ has changed that. They basically have scout and an extra -1 to hit via shooting and that's it.

Page 18 – Army of Athel Loren Special Rules, Forest
Stalkers.
Change to “Forest Stalkers have the Scout special rule. In
addition, enemy models suffer an additional -1 to hit modifier
when shooting at them.”

My bad, hadnt realised they lost the whole thing. Least they have scout now...

Yes. So, in other words...they're awful.

Thanks guys. And no need to be negative warpsolution, some would say most of the army book is awful, ha.

Oh, no doubt. I hope GW can change things up to make a Wood Elf playstyle viable beyond the most specific of lists and/or the most trained of players.

But Waywatchers are 24 points a model, for T3 with no saves, with one attack each, that has Killing Blow at close range. Without their cool special deployment rule anymore. Argh and Blech!

...they're my favourite Wood Elf unit, if you can't tell. Even with my lone Grey Seer in a forest with them all around, I'm still rooting for them (a little, anyway). But the Seer usually comes out fine (cue sigh of mixed relief and wistfulness).

Warpsolution wrote:
But Waywatchers are 24 points a model, for T3 with no saves, with one attack each, that has Killing Blow at close range. Without their cool special deployment rule anymore. Argh and Blech!

I agree that waywatchers may seem expensive but they are better than what you may think, true they have no save but they should not be getting into combat with anything other than warmachines, they actually have 2 attacks due to having an AHW and ten attacks against any warmachine is normally enough to kill it off. Their killing blow attacks may only be at short range but with scout and the ability to march and shoot means they would easily be able to maintain this while staying out of charge arcs etc.

They are also more survivable than you think, true no saves and T3 but they should be staying at long range from other shooting attacks (while maintaining their short range advantage, not much in the game has a 30" range) so enemy shots already have a -3 to hit them (long range, skirmish and forest stalker)

Waywatchers are quickly becoming a go-to unit for me and perform in most games I play, just give them a chance.

Eh.
I think my big problem with Wood Elves in general is the attitude "we may only have X archers to our 5X foes, but each arrow we loose will find its target". Which I love!
The problem is, X expertly fired arrows is still only X. So a horde of Skavenslaves or Goblins or what-have-you is still a big problem for them.

Waywatchers are the most extreme example. 24pts for one shot, no matter how awesome, is hard. And then you consider that their cool defense doesn't do anything to help them against most spells, and I get frustrated.

Back in the day of 7th, when units of 5 Chaos Knights ruled supreme, they were wicked. I'd just like to recapture a little of that.

I have to agree with warp on this, they were a unit that was designed for 6th, kicked all sorts of ass in 7th, but now where hordes reign supreme, its hard to justify the cost.
Still, could be worse. They could be shadow warriors...

Waywatchers are bad against hordes, but they are good against elite units.

Chaos Warriors and any type of heavy cavelry hates them as that Killing Blow negates what makes heavy cavelry awsome.


If waywatchers could choose 2 types of shooting. like 1 Str4 shot with Killing Blow or Str3 multiple shots(3) with their bows they would be pretty good.

I wouldn't say that 5 S3 KB shots for 120pts is very good. It's got potential, but most of what I've seen them do is cause a small dent in units that didn't justify their cost.

I've play-tested them at 20pts, with KB at any range, and they feel more like the super-awesome unit they should be.

Warpsolution wrote:
I wouldn't say that 5 S3 KB shots for 120pts is very good. It's got potential, but most of what I've seen them do is cause a small dent in units that didn't justify their cost.

I've play-tested them at 20pts, with KB at any range, and they feel more like the super-awesome unit they should be.

If they ever dropped to 20pts I could quite easily max out my rare on these guys, then again a price drop across many other unit choices would also be welcome . As they stand I am happy with waywatchers as anything the enemy throw at them is something they are not throwing at my big Eternal guard unit (or Treekin etc in other army builds). 120pts for some nice distractions that can also help open up heavy armour is a price I am willing to pay as the current book stands.

I've just never seen them survive more than 1 magic missile or the like, so they're a bit flimsy/expensive as distraction go. Still, if you can use 'em (and Eternal Guard, for that matter), I wish you godspeed!

Warpsolution wrote:
Still, if you can use 'em (and Eternal Guard, for that matter), I wish you godspeed!

Thanks for the support, should maybe have clarified that I am running an all Elf army at the moment (and will be taking it to ToS next year) so waywatchers multi task as warmachine hunters, tin openers and distraction, also helps having two units of them and they never get that many magic missiles etc being thrown at them (approx half my 2000pt army is tied up in my Eternal Guard unit + Harp Highborn+BSB), they have served e well so far, hope that luck continues!!

Waywatchers still have a lot of use for anyone that uses a hero or mage thats not in a unit. Despite hordes reigning supreme it still happens a lot. Also in even the worst case scenario though expensive they can usually shoot twice or get engaged with a warmachine and kill it off before they die, the other thing is, even if they die they still stopped a warmachine from firing once in close combat for a round usually, and by then you can get in close combat and be protected from it for a short time. The points they cost isn't always justified by what they kill in return, but sometimes what they prevent from happening by being on the table.

Well yes, of course.
But from my experience, what they prevent from happening is one Warp Lightning being cast on some Dryads or Glade Guard, and instead being cast on them.

LOL true enough, I play lots of treekin and treemen in my woodelf armies so preventing warplightning cannons from firing on me is very big, though they can fire into CC unlike other armies. I have never had an instance where they didnt take out a WLC once they got into close combat. Though in light of other things, you can probably get away with just using warhawk riders and charging said warmachine on the 2nd turn and getting the same end result with a little more reliability.

I usually use Warhawk Riders as warmachine killers. First of all, they're fast, secondly they're useful for other things and finally they look great!

I don't think much of anything is going to fail at killing a non-Dwarf, non-Hell Cannon war machine in close combat.

Though those Warhawks are exactly why I rarely leave my tunnel with my trusty Storm Banner.