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I don't own the book but I am looking at starting a WE army based almost completely around the treekin. I've seen one test game and I am wondering if the army is viable. I don't want to be a WAAC and I don't want a terrible list but able to get opponents let the game go either way.

No. Dryads will bleed combat res like nothing else, and treekin still can't fight.

 thedarkavenger wrote:
No. Dryads will bleed combat res like nothing else, and treekin still can't fight.

I'm not so sure about that. Core Ogres are S4 and hold up.
You can fit a level 4 Tree Ancient, 2 treemen with strangle roots, Drycha, 9 Treekin and 600 points of dryads in 2400 points.

That's a level 4 of life magic and a level 2 of shadow, along with the special deepstrike deployment.
Alternatively, you can swap out Drycha for 3 or 4 Branch Wraiths and be able to spam healing and regeneration, while making sure your level 4 life wizard gets thorns, dwells etc...

I think the pure tree is is going to be more playable than it looks. It's not the hitting power of the waywatchers and wild rider builds, but it isn't a glass cannon either.

 HawaiiMatt wrote:

 thedarkavenger wrote:
No. Dryads will bleed combat res like nothing else, and treekin still can't fight.

I'm not so sure about that. Core Ogres are S4 and hold up.
You can fit a level 4 Tree Ancient, 2 treemen with strangle roots, Drycha, 9 Treekin and 600 points of dryads in 2400 points.

That's a level 4 of life magic and a level 2 of shadow, along with the special deepstrike deployment.
Alternatively, you can swap out Drycha for 3 or 4 Branch Wraiths and be able to spam healing and regeneration, while making sure your level 4 life wizard gets thorns, dwells etc...

I think the pure tree is is going to be more playable than it looks. It's not the hitting power of the waywatchers and wild rider builds, but it isn't a glass cannon either.

But Treekin are special and more expensive. And flammable.

They also get a better save, a Ward Save (6+ is better then nothing), a point higher Toughness and they are in an army that can spam life wizards exceptionally well.

They form a great block that certain Wood Elf lists could use, but they NEED magical support and a BSB to fuction for their cost.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
They also get a better save, a Ward Save (6+ is better then nothing), a point higher Toughness and they are in an army that can spam life wizards exceptionally well.

They form a great block that certain Wood Elf lists could use, but they NEED magical support and a BSB to fuction for their cost.

They don't need lore of life. They need all the light buffs. Which requires quite a lot of wizards so your level 4 can roll them. They then force you into taking a council.

And let's not forget that against the things they need to tarpit, the save will matter not anyway. Which is where Ogres get ahead because their own lore synergises so well with the army, that they don't need the buffs to do well, only the chance for each of the buffs.

A tree kin based army can work.

There are a few different ways to make them work but here are some notes that will help.

You need support. Treekin are okay but treekin with wyssan are S5 T6 nasties and with regeneration they become even better. They can make either good anvils if you lure the opponent into a forest to break rank bonus' or a good hammer depending on the spells you have to buff. You absolutely must break the opponent's steadfast though as treekin will wear down, so you need either a large combat block or to fight in a forest.

You will need glade guard with true flight arrows to deal with chaff as without a musician treekin cannot afford to get redirected. I would recommend 2 units of 10 GG w/ musician and true flight and 1 unit of 10 GG w/ musician and starfire as a basic starting point for any WE list.

Deepwood scouts with hagbane arrows are mandatory if you are taking treemen and you will cry if you take a treeman ancient and don't take at least 16 of them. BTW 16 DWS w/ hagbane average 3 wounds against most warmachine's crews from long range...I hate cannons. The best thing about this is that your treekin and treemen could all be T6 and regaining wounds with the right magic and if you remove the warmachines from the table you will become much tougher.

Treemen of any variety can make good anvils to hold up large combat blocks while the treekin make a flank charge.

A Lv4 elf mage with beasts is a great addition to most tree spirit lists. They can make all the tree spirit character pretty nasty and the signature spell boosts treekin into the all important S5 T6.

Branchwraiths are cheap, decent in combat, and are Lv1 life mages. With if you take a few of them you can get your treeman ancient the all important throne and beasts can make them either tough as nails or nasty combat monsters.

Dryads and EG can both be used as anvils and large units to break steadfast but I would actually recommend an alternative.

I like the use the acorn and my free woods to fill the center with forests. For a treekin based army I would recommend wild woods as S4 won't hurt you as much as most enemies. I then take a bunch of Way Watchers, Glade Guard (2 starfire and rest trueflight), and Deep Wood Scouts (hagbane, all of em) to draw the enemy into my woods where my 2 blocks of 6 treekin and treeman ancient wait to engage. The archers are all either highly mobile or can fire at 30" and take no penalties. This leaves the opponent with 3 targets that they can realistically engage with and usually without warmachines on turn 2. I like the WW for thinning down elite units that could otherwise kill my tree units. The hagbane arrows are also pretty good at wearing down monsters.

I won't say this is the most competitive way to play wood elves but it certainly doesn't fall flat against most opponents. Sorry for the text wall.

Flammable isn't all that bad (thank you dragon princes/dwarfs), as I'm seeing it less.
WS4 T5 4+ armor and 6+ ward is all miles ahead of ogres in terms of durability.
Point for point, treekin beat ironguts by a point and ogres by 2 points.

Already having a great stat line, any buff makes Treekin average.

Very interesting conversation, gents! Thanks for sharing. I still don't have the book, and am keen to get started playing with WE again soon!

I was thinking of making a list with three treemen, durthu for general and 2 regular. Do you think it will be viable? Rest will be GG, scouts, eagles, WRs. I will use a lvl2 lifesinger for the buffs/attribute and drycha for DS. I know this Is a dryad topic but I wanted to ask.

depends on the points values, the rare slot is hotly contested in the wood elf book. treemen look awesome but waywatchers are amazing and eagles are great little warmachine hunter units.