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Wasn't sure if this should go in General or Army Lists, so apologies right off the bat.

So, my friend's son has just bought the Start Collecting Sylvaneth using his birthday money and his dad asked me what units he should add next.

Here's the problem - I play 40k, so I've no idea how to go about making an army in AoS. Are there requirements like Troops and HQ? Is it slots (40k) or percentages (WHFB)? It doesn't need to be super competitive or anything, but I'd like it to be a legal army!

Thanks.

You need to have a certain number of "Battleline" units for Matched Play, dependent upon the points values you are playing.

Battleline units are affected by your "Allegiance", meaning that if you are playing an "Order" Allegiance instead of a "Sylvaneth" Allegiance? You would have different units that count as your Battleline items.

Honestly, a second Start Collecting can't really hurt in my opinion.
The Treelord kit builds three different items Treelord[a 'generic' monster], Treelord Ancient[a Wizard Hero Monster], and Spirit of Durthu[a 'bodyguard' Hero Monster that can protect nearby Sylvaneth heroes]).

Dryads are a unit that can be summoned by the Branchwraith(different unit to what comes in the Start Collecting set but easy enough to build out of Dryads) or Alarielle during a game and come in a slightly weird number of 16 per box(they basically come 4 to a sprue and it creates this issue)

Branchwyches(the hero that comes with the Start Collecting) are, as far as I can tell, a fairly okay choice. I don't really have any local Sylvaneth players so this is going purely off looking at the Warscrolls.

Depending upon the pricepoint we're talking about for what he wants to add? You can do the Direct Order only Branchwraith(not Branchwych), a box of Tree/Spite Revenants(box builds either one), Drycha, or the Sylvaneth Woods set.

If he wants to go for a Treeman, Dryads box, or Branchwych and I'll just suggest the Start Collecting until you've got too many Dryads as it's a better deal even with the recent price raise.

With that said, it's possible that Sylvaneth will see a new book within the year since they were one of the early releases and we're seeing revamped versions of those books right now.

So investigating the GW page and playing about in Battlescribe, Dryads, Tree-Revanants and Spite-Revanants are "Battleline", and ya need at least 2 units in a small game. Dryads come in boxes of 16, are fielded in multiples of 10 and get a "big unit" bonus (like Ork Boyz from 40k), so it seems the sensible thing would be to pick up an extra 4 Dryads from ebay and a box of #-Revanants?

Like I said, it's kind of dependent upon how much they're wanting to spend or what they want to accomplish.

Yeah, there's an argument to be made for just splitboxing some Dryads to fill it up--but the same can be made for kitbashing Branchwraiths out of the Dryads box's "extra" two when you go for 30 of them. And extras, in general, don't really hurt since you can summon them.

Knowing what they want to do, other than just "have some more Sylvaneth", would be a big help for making suggestions.

Thank you. Yes, it’s a bit vague, and hopefully I’ll get some more information when I next see them, but I’ve at least some idea for what to suggest now. Knowing the minimum number of “Battleline” and what counts as that is the main thing I think will be useful.

Note there's a new two army boxed set coming which is supposed by Sylvanath and Gloomspite with a strong hint it will contain a new model for Sylvanath.

Furthermore the Battletome that army has right now is one of the early ones and thus, like the recent Carrion Empire boxed set, its very likely that an updated Battletome for Sylvanath will appear near to the launch date of that duel box.

Of course this is likely at least one or two months in the future at the very least.

Don't forget the Warscroll Builder on Warhammer Community under the 'FAQs & Useful Things' tab.

 Overread wrote:
Note there's a new two army boxed set coming which is supposed by Sylvanath and Gloomspite with a strong hint it will contain a new model for Sylvanath.

Furthermore the Battletome that army has right now is one of the early ones and thus, like the recent Carrion Empire boxed set, its very likely that an updated Battletome for Sylvanath will appear near to the launch date of that duel box.

Of course this is likely at least one or two months in the future at the very least.

I'm thinking May for Looncurse. We still have yet to get the Sylvaneth warband for Underworlds and it would be a good tie-in to go with the box proper.

I have a Sylvaneth army, hopefully I can help.

First and foremost I always recommend the core rulebook, general's handbook, and sylvaneth battletome as entry level because they ultimately give the player the tools they need to decide what they want to add in the future (and... You know... play the game),but in this case there's an even more obvious first choice:

Dryads: the Sylvaneth star collecting comes with 16 of them. Too much for a minimum sized unit of 10, too many for the next up size unit of 20, and besides that, they are actually a pretty good infantry unit. Buy a box of dryads, that will net him a second set of 16 for a total of 32, set three of them aside and make them look extra mean, those will be the nymphs (their 'sergeant' equivalent) for if they decide to field them in one blob of 30, or three units of 10, or a unit of 10 and another of 20.

A second start collecting is also a decent alternative, it nets you the additional dryads, a second treelord model, and a second branchwych is... OK. And the resulting army: two branchwyches, a treelord ancient, a unit of 20 dryads, another of 10, and a regular treelord adds up to an even 1000 point starter army. Something they could use to learn the game at lower points.

After that, the battletome is basically essential because he's going to have to start thinking about what it is he wants his army to do, and the only thing he absolutely needs to bump from 1000 to 2000 points is a 3rd battleline option, which he could get by splitting the dryads into 3 groups of 10, but imo should be expanded because a big blob of dryads with proper forest and caster support are pretty good.

Once he has the core down the next thing to look at are the gimmick units: tree revenants and spite revenants are both battleline but they cost a lot for groups of 5 - spites work well as single 5-man units avoiding combat and contributing to attrition with dryads by making terrain spooky, and they synergize with Drycha too if he wants to take her. Tree revenants work best in one or more minimum sized squads that use their single-die reroll to gank wizards in the backfield.

But probably the nicest unit is the Kurnoth Hunter - they're tough, they're killy, they're slow but the Sylvaneth teleport mechanic makes up for it. With bows they're the only real projectile unit they have but that's a waste of said toughness, load them with scythes and watch them rip through combats they seem undersized for.

Finally, citadel woods. They're essential to the Sylvaneth teleport mechanic, which the whole army is built around. The army gets to deploy one (which can be up to three bases large) for free as a matter of course at the start of the battle, and it has spells and abilities that let you put down more. Having at least two let's you easily move otherwise slow-moving units like kurnoths and treelords across the battlefield to where they're needed, and they have a chance to hurt enemy casters and units that try to charge into them.

Finally, as a word of advice: a treelord ancient with gnarled warrior and the briarsheath is wonderfully tanky.