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So I raided the pile of "to be assembled" models and found the old Battleforce and a handfull of other models I bought for WE years ago and never finished (like took a turn and they spent years in the box). Added to that I recently bought a new battleforce (because it was there in the shop and I wasn't going to pass up a chance) and one of the new treeman kits.

So at total count I've got:

48 Glade Guard/scouts
16 Glade Riders
24 Dryads
1 Spellsinger
1 Shadow Dancer
3 Warhawk Riders
1 Treeman

I also think I've got another lord somewhere but I can't seem to find him at present.

I also don't have the current Codex (plans scuppered by shiny models instead!).

So at present whilst I'm at the assembling stage I'm trying to work out what I should assemble as what for the core troops and treeman since I've no idea what stats things have nor (more importantly) what command options and ideal squad sizes would be.

At the moment I'm thinking on going with:

20 Glade Guard with full command
20 Glade Guard with full command
8 Scouts
8 Glade Riders with full command
8 Glade Riders with full command

Dyrads should be fairly straight forward, though I think they have a leader upgrade option so I'd include mine to have 2 based/assembled to stand out as the leaders

Treeman - really unsure which I want to go with although I'm thinking if I start with the basic or ancient and then build up the army slowly to include the others.



So does that sound like a sane plan to you? I'm really most concerned about the number of scouts, I know they have their own entry now and I'm unsure if they are worth taking in greater numbers over the basic glade guard. In addtion with the riders, I'm assuming the WE focus on smaller groups of riders rather than larger heavier groups; but this far all the chatter has been about the new stag riders now the mundane horse riders.

Scouts are better than Glade Guard in that they're Scouts and Skirmishers, but they're a point dearer... and a Special choice.

Looking at the new book, there's only really space for Glade Guard under die hard archery fans - simply put, every other Core option is better for the points they cost.

It's worth assembling a Dryad or two as a Branchwraith - they're Hero choices that get a nice, punchy melee stat line and are level 1 Life mages for a mere 75 points. Contrast the Glade Captain, who is the same cost for 1 less Toughness, no ward save, does not cause fear, is not immune to psychology, does not have hatred, is not a spellcaster, but gets a free longbow hit against the enemy general and can take magic items. Also contrast the Spellsinger, who is five points dearer for a -1 or -2 to all stats, no forest spirit gubbinz, and access to any lore (but if you can take life, why would you choose a lesser lore?)

I wouldn't say GG aren't worth fielding any more, as they have a lot of options in arrow selection that let you deal with specific things - and they are the cheapest models with the rules, and they're core.

EG are only good if you want to play with blocks of troops, but they are indeed very good as stubborn core troops - albeit being very soft targets.

Dryads are still good redirectors and charge-bait like they used to be, you just have to make sure you set them up where you need them to be before the game starts, as they won't be doing any dancing around.

Additionally, while Branchwraiths are indeed still good, Glade Captains are also good - just at other things. They can certainly be punchy as mounted characters with spears, they can cobble together as much as a 3+ armor save, and they can take items, which forest spirit characters can't. I'd look at bringing at least one Captain, making it your BSB, and giving him the Hail of Doom arrow, which only got better this edition.

Also, as far as lore selection - there are other great lores to choose; Life is only great for certain builds. It's a great lore, but not THE great lore. Shadow in particular is really attractive for shooty lists - you can Wither toughness and then shoot things right off the board, for instance. Beasts is still good if you want to run character-heavy. Darkness and High magic are both really attractive as well. Even Heavens offers you serious board control options (drop comets, force movement, mess with opponent's battle line).

I think it's a bit too early to go through the list and immediately separate things into 'this is awesome, this is trash' piles before even playing with things. The new WE book offers a lot of tactical variety within the constraints of the army - you won't be making an army of ranked blocks of troops who fight in melee with WE, but you can do most everything else.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Scouts are better than Glade Guard in that they're Scouts and Skirmishers, but they're a point dearer... and a Special choice.

Looking at the new book, there's only really space for Glade Guard under die hard archery fans - simply put, every other Core option is better for the points they cost.

It's worth assembling a Dryad or two as a Branchwraith - they're Hero choices that get a nice, punchy melee stat line and are level 1 Life mages for a mere 75 points. Contrast the Glade Captain, who is the same cost for 1 less Toughness, no ward save, does not cause fear, is not immune to psychology, does not have hatred, is not a spellcaster, but gets a free longbow hit against the enemy general and can take magic items. Also contrast the Spellsinger, who is five points dearer for a -1 or -2 to all stats, no forest spirit gubbinz, and access to any lore (but if you can take life, why would you choose a lesser lore?)

Scouts are worse actually purely because of the fact they are not core, add in that dryads are overall worse now than they used to be and there are only two core worth considering, Glade Guard and Eternal Guard.

Branchwraiths are mediocre, they do more damage than captains, but only before equipment and can't join Eternal Guard or Wildwood Rangers, nor can they take level 2 or a scroll, they are like Strigoi Ghoul Kings, on the face are they are better, but they miss out on so much that a plain Lord is better.

I'm going to take the disagreement as a good thing; it likely means things are a touch more middle of the road; which for an army is a good thing as it oft means there's diversity and choice with what is viable; depending on what angle and theme one wants to go for.

Probably a good idea, Over.

Why do people keep saying Scouts are core? They're Special. They're on the bottom of the page with Wardancers and Warhawks.

I think Krellnus meant that they are worse because they aren't core and the n't got lost in a typo.

 Overread wrote:
I think Krellnus meant that they are worse because they aren't core and the n't got lost in a typo.

That's the one, better edit it quickly.

Wildriders, likely the best cc unit now but very much a glass cannon.
The sisters have some potential, curious does shield of thorns stack ex cast twice on a unit would a unit in contact with them take 4d6 str 3 vs 2 d6?

I expect that 2 x 5 waywatcher units will be common.
glade riders are questionable as ambush is a mandatory reserve placement, would rather just vanguard.
I think we will see core at the min and lots of poison and -3 armour save arrows with the armour ignoring waywatcher shots this makes armour less of an issue for us.
The poison arows and the flaming banner will help vs high tough regen monsters

Sound almost like they'll go the same way HE have gone, smallest core possible backed up with a larger amount of speical choices.

Its like a couple editions ago run magic shoot repeat

 Overread wrote:
Sound almost like they'll go the same way HE have gone, smallest core possible backed up with a larger amount of speical choices.

No. You can still go with ALL THE GLADE GUARD.

I recommend it, as I think that once all the dust settles, that'll be the best way to go.