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So I was just informed that sylvaneth are no longer an elf army (maybe they never were I can only go off of what people have told me). Ive never touched anything fantasy except a lizardfolk mordheim warband, long time (3rd ed) 40k player. The possible removal of elves from the awesome treefolk models means I have finally found an aesthetically pleasing army that might get me to play AoS. Can you kind folk give me a rundown of what I would need to know about the system, what I might want to purchase/avoid, any cool background etc.

Pretty much im looking for a crash course into AoS and for someone to be the devil on my shoulder and pursuade me that i actually want this army (and how to responsibly go about building an army worth fielding or the right options to build a variety of lists).

crash course AOS : https://aos-tactics.com/ (from 1st edition but most is still viable, some small changes here and there)

Sylvaneth:
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Sylvaneth

AoS works a bit differently from WHFB when it comes to armies, and you now have four categories with "allegiances" instead of races, basically. So you could have, in a 2000 point army, up to 400 points of elves if you wanted to or you could have 400 points of dwarves

Sylvaneth has a couple of new units such as Kurnoth Hunters and Tree Revenants but it still has Durthu/Treelord Ancients and Dryads for example.

Its quite competitive and offer a lot of fairly imbalanced choises in certain scenarios where you need to clamp down on objectives due to their ability to spawn wyldwoods and sit their units in there, basically becoming heavily entrenched and with the addition of Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows and some pretty powerful casters they manage to deal quite a lot of wounds from range as well, so theres no real reason to rush your opponent ever. A lot of teleporting around. Quite nasty.

With the new comet spell from Stormcast Eternals Endless Spells its quite rough holding these wyldwoods though!

___________________________________________________________________

"So you like trees, nature, gardening and "Catch me if you can"? Well then, welcome to the Everqueens glorious wooden host! A fleet of Foot we spring from our forests, reaping our foes lives with Mortal Wounds, before vanishing back into the woods, leaving those still alive confused and broken. When it comes to hit and run, keeping multi-wound models alive and literally shaping the battlefield to our needs, none compare. For we live between the Elite Armies of the Everchosen and hordes of Death and Destruction, our glades and copses are filled with singing dryads and solemn Kurnoth Hunters, ever watchful of the outsides and our enemies. For the Deepwood stirs...

Pros
We have a lot of new and glorious models, almost completely in plastic.
Easily paintable Chaff with Dryads.
Almost everything we have is at least -1 Rend.
We get around quickly. One of our Battleline moves 7", the other universally good one Teleports. If you like mobility, we are one of the best choices to date.
Just look at Alarielle model.
We can pump out loads of Mortal Wounds with our monsters, heavy infantry and spells.
Massive Board Control with even just one Wyldwood and it only gets worse for those who oppose us.
Kurnoth Hunters. Even by heavy infantry standard in AoS, absolute damage monsters. They will do a lot of heavy lifting.
Great, often colourful paint schemes. Whether you want your trees to be in full bloom, fiery autumn or paint them as a haunted ghastly forest, you have a lot of choices.
We actually have a good Battletome with great magic, Artifacts and the glory of being an angry tree.
Good synergies, mostly revolving around the woods.
Fair point prices, making for even and fair battles.
With the prospect of 2nd edition looming, it looks like Sylvaneth will be buffed with various amount of summoning.
Cons
We are very bad to transport. Seriously it's a pain with all these small bits and twigs.
Expensive Battalions and Wargroves.
Only eleven units, giving us less choices than for example Seraphon.
Our woods will quickly become death zones for us if our opponent plays Stormcasts.
Virtually no defenses against Mortal Wounds. Only a single Feel no Pain in the form of an artefact, the glamourweave."

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Sylvaneth Wyldwood:
"Consists of up to 3 Citadel Woods. Obviously the bigger you make it, the more expensive it gets and harder it is to place, but the bigger you make it, the more useful it becomes. To start off, this forest will attempt to kill all models that aren't Sylvaneth, Heroes or Monsters. If they run or charge over or into it, you roll a D6 for each model. If the model rolls a 1 then it's goodnight. Watch any Ogors and Bullgors avoid these woods like the plague. In addition, this forest is allergic to magic, and has a chance of dealing d3 damage to all units in or within 1" (again, except for Sylvaneth) if a spell is cast within 6". All of that is without the multitude of abilities that the rest of the army draw from it, ranging from buffs to spawning points and even as warp pads."

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-Sylvaneth-Wyldwoods-ENG.pdf

"Battle Traits
Armies with the SYLVANETH allegiance have the following abilities:

Wyldwood Groves: Place one Sylvaneth Wyldwood anywhere on the battlefield more than 1" from any other piece of scenery after all the other scenery was placed. Soon in this article you will see why you can't really play Sylvaneth without them.
Forest Spirits: You can set up a SYLVANETH unit or battalion aside instead. In any of your movement phases, you can deploy it on the battlefield. All models have to be within 3" of a Sylvaneth Wyldwood and more than 9" from any enemy models. This is their move for that movement phase. Sylvaneth deep strike. Exploit it with Spirits of Durthu, melee Kurnoth Hunters, and their shared battalion, Free Spirits. Trunks fall, everyone dies.
Navigate Realmroots: If a SYLVANETH unit is within 3" of a Sylvaneth Wyldwood at the start of your movement phase, you can remove the unit, then set it up within 3" of a different Sylvaneth Wyldwood, more than 9" from any enemy models. Then, roll a dice. On a 1, the unit arrives but can do nothing else for the rest of your turn. This does not affect Treemen of any kind (and funny enough, it does not mention any named character) and instead, it counts as if they rolled a 2-5. On 2-5, the unit arrives, but can't move any further for the rest of the movement phase. On a 6+ (see Command Traits, down), The unit arrives and can move again during this movement phase."

Kurnoth Hunters:
"Incredible. Each of these guys is basically a minor Hero at 5 Wounds and a 4+ Save. They also have a choice of weapons. First and probably most useful are the Greatbows. Bows with a stunning 30" range, two shots per model and D3 damage per shot, these guys are basically artillery. If you pick that option, you also get the adorable Quiverbug who does the melee fighting for them, being very non-threatening, but remember, these guys are tough as nails and you can shoot into melee. The other options are melee weapons, Sword or Scythe respectively. The sword tosses out 4 attacks at -1 Rend and damage 2 while the scythe tosses out 3 attacks at Rend -2 and damage D3. The scythes do more damage than the swords against 2+ saves, break even against 3+ and the swords win against everything else. Given how rare 2+ and even 3+ saves are in AoS, you'll usually want the swords. However, always keep in mind that the bows are probably the best and not just because your army needs shooting even more desperately. Another nice thing about them is that they channel Command Abilities. When you use a Command ability, instead of measuring the range from your hero, you can instead choose to measure it from a unit of Kurnoth Hunters."

"Went down by 20pts in GHB18 making them 200pts for one of the Sylvaneth's best units. This makes them much more viable than they used to be."

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-kurnoth-hunters-en.pdf

I'd probably build something like this;

Allegiance: Sylvaneth

Leaders
Alarielle the Everqueen (600)
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth
Treelord Ancient (300)
- General
- Trait: Gift of Ghyran
- Artefact: The Oaken Armour
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth
Branchwych (80)
- Deepwood Spell: The Dwellers Below

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)
10 x Dryads (100)
10 x Dryads (100)

Units
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Greatswords
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Greatbows
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Greatbows

Total: 1980 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 118

_____________

Allegiance: Sylvaneth

Leaders
Spirit of Durthu (380)
- General
- Trait: Realm Walker
- Artefact: Glamourweave
Treelord Ancient (300)
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth
Treelord Ancient (300)
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)
10 x Dryads (100)
10 x Dryads (100)

Units
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Greatswords
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Greatswords
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (200)
- Greatbows

Total: 1980 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 121

Hope you come up with something cool! Best of luck and welcome to AoS!

Read more about these dirty bark covered fiends inner workings at : https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Sylvaneth and if you like what you see, pick up their battletome! (codex in AoS)

Not a sylvaneth player myself, but II often see Kurnoth hunters with bows in competitive lists. And I just don't see why they are so good with an average of 1,5 ranged damage for 200 pts. Is there something (boost or something) I am not seeing that makes them good?

Thanks for the info so far guys thisbreally helps. Ive even gotten some long time "never going to play fantasy" guys eying down some getting started boxes because im jumping into this.

I never leave home without a Treelord Ancient. 4+ to drop an extra Wyldwood a turn is nice. It’s the weakest way to spawn the woods because it has to set up outside the 3” range of models that they need to benefit from it, but it’s also cant be Unbound. Usually give him the spell that make Wyldwoods as well. Just, love spawning Wyldwoods because they are so useful.

 AduroT wrote:
I never leave home without a Treelord Ancient. 4+ to drop an extra Wyldwood a turn is nice. It’s the weakest way to spawn the woods because it has to set up outside the 3” range of models that they need to benefit from it, but it’s also cant be Unbound. Usually give him the spell that make Wyldwoods as well. Just, love spawning Wyldwoods because they are so useful.

How many Wyldwoods do you think a player should have at what points levels?

Im thinking of buying the getting started the goddess and a pack of trees to start playing and each month buy a little extra until I have 3 getting started, all the characters, 3 units of hunters and at least one unit of each revenants. How many branchwraiths would my army need by the time I have all that i listed? I won't have the core rule book for a month or 2

Sylvaneth can have as many wyldwoods as you can physically fit on the table within the restrictions of their placement rules, but they aren't an actual part of your army (because they are just scenery) and as such costs no points (at least as long as you have the Sylvaneth Allegiance)

If you are sylvaneth you get one free wood. A sylvaneth wood consist of UP TO three Citadel Woods. If you choose to use three citadel wood they have to be placed within one inch of each other. (In a clump)

They are placed on the field after all terrain has been placed but before you choose sides. This is found in the allegiance abilities section of the Battletome

Keep in mind that when placing 3 Citadel Woods for a Wyldwood, the rules state they must all be touching each other, which means each one has to touch both of the other two - so no creating a straight line of 3 Woods.

That means that you can buy a box of 3 Citadel Woods and place 1 for each summon of a Wyldwood, however thats 33% of its possible size each time (theoretically, due to placement rules you wont be able to get 3 Citadel Woods next to each other too often, most likely) so if possible you'd want 9~ perhaps to never have to run out and still be able to place 3 cap-size Wyldwoods incase your opponent decides to let you have an edge and play a pretty empty table.

Personally, I wouldnt go for more than 1 box and if I had to, use cut out paper markers, until I had been conviced that the army was for me and everything I want to play is painted.

Pick one of Alarielle or Durthu, Get a treelord ancient, pick up tons of dryads from Ebay (like 60~), and 3 boxes of hunter and go play. Revenants are cool but quite trash for their cost, in my opinion! Branchwraiths can summon Dryads inside Wyldwoods, so spam away!

Start by painting 30x Dryads, 1x Treelord Ancient and 6x hunters and go into 1000 pt games with it to give you a feel, then add on more as you go. When I started AoSing I was patient and bought all my units from ebay and got them with a 60%~ discount, but I play Stormcast Eternals and everywhere people wrote that cost was the big downside about em so I focused hard on that

https://whc-cdn.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/age_of_sigmar_sylvaneth_designers_commentary_en-1.pdf

https://whc-cdn.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/age_of_sigmar_sylvaneth_errata_en.pdf

The Get Started Box is indeed a great buy. Convert one of those Branchwyches in your Branchwraith. Matched Play doesn’t let you cast, or even attempt to cast if you fail, the same spell more than once a turn, so one Wraith is all you Need, unless you want a spare in case the first dies.

For Woods, I’m averaging about eight Citadel Woods a game. I’ve made myself a dozen neoprene templates to use for them.

I appreciate the tips about ebay but im a support the locals type of weirdo so im planning a long slow build which will give me time to actually paint each section as I go. Damn 8-9 trees is a ton but theyre still good scenery and ive never owned any tree terrain. For their price I may ebay those suckers though everything else in the army seems incredibly fair priced.

What exactly is the difference between tree and spite revenants? I saw tactics about using one like genestealer to outflank and gum up the enemies artillery?

And how worth it are the sisters of thorns? I haven't read the rules just what been supplied to me but that seemed like a good unit to go with my dryads. Do you pay reserve points like in 40k for summoning new dryads and stuff like someone said the branchwraiths can do?