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I'm just thinking of getting in to fantasy and I'm considering wood elves as my first real army. I've been hearing alot about how they aren't usable in 8th or competitive at all but I don't really see what's wrong with them. Sure they are quite fragile and they aren't cheap but I have the army book and they have affordable core unit fast cavalry, strong archers, and even good melee core units. Eternal guard and dryads can do very well in combat, their characters seem powerful and the archers all seem quite good. Yes they are fragile but they can be so fast. You can't ignore a unit of 10 wild riders behind your lines or some glade riders that run circles around your slow infantry peppering them with arrows, all their units seem good but I'm a beginner and I'm sure I'm missing something :p Are they viable in your opinion? Why? Why not? How can they be played effectively?

Well, I've played against them with mixed results. Really go for them if you enjoy them that should be your factor and they'll eventually have an update anyway. and then we all know they'll be the new OP army

Haha yeah. I'm 100% sure there will be complaints about how good wood elves are when the update arrives but that day has not come and will not for some time. I think I might do them just for fun, I've always liked manoeuvrable armies but I'm still not sure. My other choice would either be empire, tomb kings or high elves.


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If I did wood elves I would probably do a speed based list with lots of fast cav. and skirmishers and a waywatcher/bow of loren machine gun hero

A friend at my FLGS has a lovely WE army but he struggles to achieve decent results if he doesn't go ultra Spirits of the Wood heavy + some nasty combos

So to avoid always having to use the same template of armies, he plays them with High Elves rules while he waits for an update, it's not shocking at all on the battlefield as it's easy to understand which unit is what

I was considering doing that too, with a combination of actual high elf units painted in wood elf colours as I have the IoB high elves (although sadly the lord on griffon's lance broke) and so it would be good to make use of those models as they are Imo some of the best GW has made.

They are certainly playable but I think you'll find they are not a 'newbie friendly' army.

If you like a shooting focused force with some potentially strong melee units, then Wood Elves might be a good choice for you. They aren't optimized, as been mentioned already, but they can win games. Using their models with High Elf rules might be a good way to change things up for a while until the Wood Elves get a new army book too.

I chose High Elves over Wood Elves because I wanted a melee focus with minor shooting instead of a shooting focus with minor melee, but I still intend to one day start a small Wood Elf army.

Wood Elves actually have some very good close combat units, they just dont last very long. Eternal Guard, for example, are very powerful units.

Avoid the top tiers (aka Skaven, VC, Ogres) and you can have some decent games. It will still be an uphill battle in most games.

Wood elves where my first army from a very young age (12) and for about 1 year the ONLY person I played against was a WAAC's Daemon player back when they where as over powered as gak. But I kept playing and to this day I cannot claim a single major win pre update but I can claim several draws and a minor victory. All of which is was EXTREAMLY happy with, and only other wood elf players can understand it. You are the underdog, every win, heck, every draw you get is because you are a good player. Because your tactics where good and your army is good. And that's one of the best warhammer feelings, winning as the underdog with pure skill.

All things considered they are a great army in many ways, they have one of the best model ranges of any of the not updated armies. They have the best melee skirmishers in the game with Dryads and Wardancers and are very capable of massed shooting WHILE running rings around your opponent. The wood elf game is won in the movement phase and the assault phase, not shooting. Don't let people tell you wood elves are a shooting army. Arrows<Cannons. Our shooting is to kill off chaff and cause panic tests, where we win our games is with well timed assaults from all sides with a mix of wild riders, eagles and treekin. They are a finesse army, but they are winnable, and are very fun while doing so. Here is where I started by Forays in the Asrai, and it really helped.
http://www.asrai.org/index.phpsid=89de806872c06dca55e54ce78f1e2ca3

Alex. Locally known as 'Wood Elf Boy' ^^>