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Playing against Chaos has always presented a particular challenge for me. The great strengths of the Chaos army are its highly durable troops and tremendous ability to deal damage in close combat, not to mention powerful characters and magic. The usual methods of defeating such an army include heavy reliance on artillery to crack tough troops, powerful characters to match those of the opponent and large blocks of infantry with healthy rank bonuses to withstand the lethal close combat phase. Unfortunately, none of these methods are available to the Wood Elves; the Wood Elves have no artillery at all, very fragile characters and no ability to field large blocks of infantry. Wood Elves retain their advantage of mobility, which means they can indeed pick their battles as they please, but when melee is met they ultimately lack the ability to deal actual damage to Chaos regiments.
The main challenge lies in the fact that Chaos units are simply too durable, either because of high Toughness, multiple Wounds, a high Armour Save or (quite frequently) all three. In fact, in the entire Chaos list, only a single regiment has a Toughness less than 4—the Centaurs, who admittedly have two wounds each and are very cheap (being noticeably cheaper and better than Glade Riders, in comparison). Everything else in the list has Toughness 4 or higher, which presents an immediate problem for Wood Elves, who only have two regiments with a Strength higher than 3. Moreover, the great number of Chaos regiments with multiple wounds effectively reduces the power of Wood Elf attacks to a mere fraction of what it could be normally. Some of these units are admittedly expensive options and should have multiple woulds; Trolls, Dragon Ogres and Minotaurs should be difficult to take down with only a few attacks. Yet, Chaos armies can also rely on a bevy of cheap, multi-wound regiments, like Beastmen, Harpies and Centaurs. Each of these is cheaper and more deadly than the equivalent Wood Elf unit, meaning that not only can these Chaos fighters absorb an average of 6 attacks from the Wood Elves before they go down, but they can dish out damage at more than twice that rate. Finally, the real challenge lies in high armour regiments like Chaos Knights with Chaos Armour. With a 1+ save, most Wood Elf regiments cannot actually harm Chaos Knights. Even with the vaunted Wood Elf archery, it takes an average of 36 longbow attacks to take down a single Chaos Knight. Considering the latter entails a point investment of at least 400 points to kill 80 points of Chaos models each round, you can quickly see how Wood Elf Archers will never make up their point value against Chaos Knights.
These factors seem to mitigate the two main advantages of the Wood Elf army, mobility and archery. Meanwhile, the Chaos army thrives in the complete absence of any threat from the usual counter-strategies: artillery, powerful characters and large blocks of infantry. Given these two realities, how can a Wood Elf army defeat a Chaos army? While there is no sure-fire method, taking an unusual approach could prove highly successful, even against the Wood Elves' greatest opponent.
Choosing an Army
I have found that, in general, Wood Elves do not get exponentially better at higher army point values, while armies like Chaos and Undead certainly can. This is due in part to the very expensive regiments that Chaos has to choose from. At lower point values, Chaos generals have to make tough choices between powerful characters and powerful regiments, meaning their army synergy can only really be attained at 2,000 points or higher. Compare that, for instance, to an army like the Empire, who can take perhaps every choice in the army list and bring the best characters for under 1,500 points. Wood Elves have somewhat difficult choices with a smaller army point total, but this is nothing like what the Chaos general has to go through. For this reason alone, I recommend playing lower point totals (such as 1,500 points) whenever possible.
Characters, Magic and Magic Items
Against Chaos, you might as well write off any melee-oriented characters, other than the obligatory Wood Elf General. There are two possible exceptions, however, to this rule; the first is if you take a Wood Elf Hero as a Dragon-jockey so that you can include a second Dragon that doesn't use up your Monster allowance (see below). The second option is so that you can take magic items that are useful for defeating Chaos, such as the character-killing Black Gem of Gnar or Heart of Woe. Non-melee characters also have a number of useful items they can take, including the Pipes of Doom (keeps Chaos Knights from charging), Orb of Thunder or Talisman of Ravensdark (to defeat a Greater Daemon of Khorne, which you wouldn't be facing if you took my advice and only played 1,500 points or less!) or the Black Amulet (to rebound melee damage, if you were so unlucky to be caught in melee). Wood Elf characters can even make good use of the Claw of Nagash by taking a Warhawk to fly around behind an enemy regiment and use the Claw on a Chaos character. The normally standard Hail of Doom Arrow is actually much less useful against Chaos, but can still be used to pick off lone Sorcerers.
Your main character choices should be mages. The main reason for this is that magic offers your main opportunity to delay and destroy units without relying on large blocks of infantry or artillery. There are plenty of spells that impede an enemy regiment for an entire turn and when there are only four turns in the game, a single lost turn means a 400 point Chaos regiment will never earn its points back. There are also a variety of spells that ignore armour, which is critical to defeating units like Chaos Knights who, without their armour, are actually incredibly fragile and expensive (Toughness 4 with only a single wound). The second reason is that magic allows you to act both in your turn and the opponent's, giving you twice the opportunity to do damage as normal regiments would have. The last reason that you should use mages is that it allows you to counter powerful Chaos magic, while ignoring the melee-game entirely.
The default Jade and Amber spells, sadly, do not offer many options. The Writhing Worm is cheap to cast and will usually disable a Chaos character for at least a round—this is probably the best spell for a low level Mage. Mage Champions should use the Hunting Spear, which is effectively a bolt thrower that automatically hits with Strength 6 and ignores armour. It can be used to pick out an enemy character (for D3 wounds) or you can fly to the flank of a Chaos Knight unit and punch through all of the models. The Tangling Thorn is expensive to cast and is generally not as good as Light spells for entrapping an enemy. Master Mages are a better option, as they can use Light magic to disable units or single models and have access to Bright and Amethyst magic, which have a number of spells that deal damage and ignore armour. While these levels of mages are sufficient for smaller games, the Mage Lord brings the even more powerful High Magic spells, many of which are very useful against Chaos. This includes Assault of Stone (which can wipe out a Chaos Knight unit in a single turn), Banishment (which counters both Daemons and Chaos spells) and Glamour of Teclis (to redirect enemy units and waste their turn).
A mage should always be mobile. At the very least, put them on Elven steeds or unicorns. Even better, upgrade to a Warhawk, Pegasus, Great Eagle, Griffon or even Dragon so that you can fly to any corner of the battlefield and avoid enemies. A decent fighting mount like a Great Eagle is inexpensive and useful if you expect to be charged by Harpies. The more powerful Dragon should be used if you want the option to mop up battered enemy regiments. The Forest Dragon is a decent option, but you may find more utility in a White Dragon, which can freeze pesky enemy units for a turn.
Regiments
When facing Chaos, your regiment choices should be similarly unorthodox. Dispense with Glade Riders, Warhawk Riders, Archers, Glade Guard and Waywatchers completely—these will never earn their points back. The choices you do take should be highly mobile (ideally skirmishers who will move in and around woods without penalties, luring enemies into the quagmire of difficult terrain) and hard-hitting.
Chariot: A chariot is a decent option. Take spears and scythed wheels and ram the chariot into a Chaos Knight unit at the earliest opportunity; this should give you about 3 dead Chaos Knights, which more than pays for the chariot and prevents any attacks back (particularly if you charge the flank), meaning you should win combat. The other options, including extra steeds and crew, aren't going to do much to help your odds, so leave them out. WIth just the scythed wheels and spears, the chariot clocks in at 98 points—just enough to be worth no more than a single victory point after the battle.
Wardancers: You can also take Wardancers. In general, you only want to take five Wardancers per unit in order to make sure the unit is not worth more than a single victory point. Wardancers are incredibly useful for freezing an enemy with The Shadows Coil, but be careful—if your are engaging two enemies, the second regiment is not frozen and can hack your Wardancers to bits. Nevertheless, at only 100 points, you can be sure to have one Wardancer troupe to pair off against each of your enemy's regiments to prevent this from happening. The other moves are not terribly useful, but you might find that Storm of Blades allows you to pick out an enemy Sorcerer from the regiment. In any case, expect your Wardancers to get crushed in the second round of combat. If you they bought you time to bring a chariot, dragon or treeman into the enemy's flank, or if they simply stalled a unit for two turns from doing even worse damage, then they will have died well.
Scouts: Scouts will never earn their points for the same reason that massed archery does not work on Chaos armies. However, they are not terribly expensive, are very mobile and can scout ahead to march block enemies. You may wish to take a single regiment of scouts if you ran out of points for other march-blockers like the Great Eagle (no more than six, to come in at 96 points and one victory point).
Treemen: Treemen are your real striking option, with a powerful attack that can hurt the toughest Chaos units. A Treeman also has an unmodified save, high toughness and wounds and will rarely break from combat. That said, you should not just stick him into combat at the first opportunity—play to the Treeman's mobility, moving 12" through forests and snaking around to the rear of enemy units. As single models, they can outmaneuver any enemy regiment and catch them unawares.
Dryads: I feel somewhat ambivalent about Dryads. For their cost, they are little better than regular Chaos units and much more expensive. You cannot get a regiment of Dryads for under two victory points, and if you did want to make a big unit, you are hampered by the lack of command, magic banner and champion options. Still, they perform relatively well at delaying (using Willow Aspect), striking at mid-level opponents (using Birch Aspect) or doing a little of both (with Oak aspect). A block of eight for 280 points might prove useful to tie up some of the less threatening units like Beastmen.
Monsters
Do not overlook your 25% Monster allowance when facing Chaos. A Forest Dragon can easily be another hard-hitting unit, much like the Treemen, only now with flying, terror and a breath attack that ignores armour. A Griffon can also be a good striking unit in a pinch. Great Eagles, on the other hand, are very useful march-blockers for relatively few points; swoop them behind enemy regiments to slow them down as your more flexible regiments run circles around them. Counting the monster allowance, it is possible to have a 2,000 point army with two Dragons (one as a mount for the Wood Elf General), a Mage Lord on Warhawk and two Treemen. I personally wouldn't recommend so few units, but this should at least give you a sense of how far you could go to making an army that can outmaneuver and outfight a typical Chaos list with the Wood Elves.
Allies
Finally, just because your army list lacks artillery and powerful characters, it does not mean that your army has to lack artillery and powerful characters. Against a particularly trenchant Chaos foe, I highly recommend spending your entire 25% Allies allowance to supplement your force. The best option here is perhaps the Dwarfs, who can bring mighty, rune-enchanted heroes and warmachines. In a 1,500 point army alone, you can have a terrifying five Organ Cannons with 50 points left over for runes. That is up to 25 cannon shots on turn one alone!
Defeating Chaos is difficult for Wood Elves, just as it is for any army. Nevertheless, an unorthodox approach can be surprisingly effective. If it is not your style to go full-on power gamer, then you can always scale back these suggestions and choose from them selectively as you see fit.
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