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Made in au
Blood Angel Neophyte Undergoing Surgeries




Australia

Hello folks,

I'm looking for a bit of help building a Wood Elves force. I've only ever used Empire before and I'm not heaps confident with WHFB as I rarely get to play.

I've picked up a second hand collection and I'm looking to expand it into a competent (not necessarily the best) 2400 point army. The collection is very top-heavy so initially I'd like to build upon the existing core units.

Being out of print I'm aiming to add as few new models to the collection as possible.

Models that I have:

Glade lord on foot
Glade lord on great stag
Spellweaver
Forest Dragon

Drycha
BSB
Spellsinger x 2

Dreads x 24
Eternal Guard x 13
Glade guard x 19
Glade riders x 8

Deepwood scouts x 10
Treekin x 3
Wardancers x 11

Great eagle
Treeman
Waywatchers x 6

Thanks in advance!

*Edited twice to battle autocorrect

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/09/28 23:31:01


 
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

Looks like you have a balanced force. The sort that includes a selection of the flavour and variety of an army rather than its tactical theme.
It is how I make armies too and while it can work it can be underperforming.

Wood Elves work when the skirmish and shoot and don't ever let the enemy reach them. Otherwise try and Elf Woods list and spam monsterous units and get in the opponents face as quickly as possible.

The variety show army like you haver above doesnt work so well, but if I collected Woodies I would probably have something very similar, right down to including a dragon, just because I can.

I like your army a lot, keep it as it is, and play other balanced armies, if you want to be competitive with it though, add skirmish archers or treekin, lots of either.

n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in au
Blood Angel Neophyte Undergoing Surgeries




Australia

Thanks for taking the time to reply, really appreciated

If you were going to cut this force down to 2400 points, which units would you cull?

I'd love to use the forest dragon but I expect using a lord on great stag and a level 4 spellweaver would be the better option for the lords component?

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2021/09/29 00:31:20


 
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

The Forest Dragon is something you will only use in friendly games. Cull that first to boost your chances.

Frankly, keep it as it is. If you want to 'fix' this army I highlighted what you should consider buying. You can have a skirmish army with a few items on the side, or a tree monster list likewise, and you have all the items on the side you might want except Hawk Riders and Rangers.

I only mention those from a collectors point of view, for tabletop purposes you can omit them entirely. Though Rangers are genuinely useful as high strength melee infantry.

Now you don't really have anything like enough archers for a skirmisher list, this army is a collectors army. It has token archers only.
However playing against another collectors with one of everything is a great way to play. Leave that option 'on' as you move forward, but it requires mutual cooperation with your opponent to not tailor lists.

Your Eternal Guard unit is small, I suspect the previous owner prefered 6th, or was a collector only. MSU Wood Elves really do work but require heavy archer deployment and small unit Eternal Guard is not of value. 20 is right for 6th, for 8th 30+.
Rangers should be similarly sized, beyond those two you don't need block units.

Your characters are fine, optimised plus a bit of variety in your combat lord. You might want to add a Wardancer hero, but dont expect to use him much.

Dryads. 24 is enough.
Eternal Guard . Double to 30.
Glade guard. 60 total, expect to use them in multiple units scale out command groups. If like me you like large units with full command for optical reasons you could have two 20 elf full ranked elves, but keep your command groups extra, most of the time you will be taking multiple small units instead.
Glade riders . Try and up this unit to ten for rank purposes.

Deepwood scouts. Fine
Treekin. Buy more
Wardancers . Fine
Rangers. Optional 30.
Hawk Riders. Optional three and only if you want to fill the hole on your display shelf and for the most casual games.

Great eagle. One will do for now, but buying a second will greatly help.
Treeman One will do for now, but buying a second will greatly help.
Waywatchers. Fine


There is nothing wrong with your COLLECTION, as an army it needs only a few tweaks and is good as is for casual games, for competitive play it's a punchbag.

n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in au
Blood Angel Neophyte Undergoing Surgeries




Australia

Thank you so much again for taking the time to write such an excellent response!

I only play casually and quite infrequently so based on your advice I'll build a list with what I have curreny and then expand the units that I like.

My Empire force is very knight heavy so I might try to run this list with no mounts.
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

What I have done needs a bit of explaining.

I havent tried to propose to you a 'workable list'. I instead propose to you a workable collection, which is very different.

This is how I build, I take a bit of everything then take enough of the same things that makes the army work several different ways. Now with Empire that is expensive because to do it properly you need a bit of everything, then enough artillery and crossbowmen to make a shooty army, enough state troops to make a horde army and enough cavalry to make an elite army. By the time it is done the entire collection is 5000pts plus characters. But that is not one Empire army its several overlapping in different ways.

Now if you have an Empire cavalry army you built an army that works for you and stopped yes. This is not what I have shown you here, and you are better off so, because your army starts with the bit of everything, it is already invested in tactical diversity, it just doesn't have the focused components. Because it has gone that far, it is best if you try two separate foci instead of one. Yes it will be more expensive than buying an army, but you will end up with several very different armies.
In a way it is cost efficient as you paying as much as it would cost to make two maybe three armies by models, but are getting far more than that in list variety and the opportunity to take a reasonable not on focused army with two solid tactical themes and a bit of everything for monster games.

n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in au
Blood Angel Neophyte Undergoing Surgeries




Australia

I see what you are saying. I probably have around 4500 points worth of Empire but tend to run a knight heavy list at 2400 points (I just like horses I guess).

I'm pretty happy with the diversity that I have with the wood elves, just trying to determine which units to expand. As I have over 3000 points already I can't just build a list with everything I have for the first game; Some folks are going to have to sit out
   
Made in gb
Nimble Glade Rider





Wood Elves are a great choice of force, there’s a couple of ways you can go .in terms of units, dryads are sadly crap, so are most tree units, but they’re a blast to use so go ahead. In more competitive games I would recommend going elf/archer heavy lists. waywatchers are fantastic, they’re very fast with some of the deadliest shooting in the game. Blocks of archers double fleeing are also very useful. In terms of Eternal Guard, they’re actually a lot better than people do them credit. You get a free wood with wood elves, stick them at the back of a map in a small unit with a small frontage inside the woodland and they swing well above their pay grade - they’re stubborn, high LD and actually quite killy with rerolls to 1’s and and fighting in 3 ranks. I’ve personally found them to be a nightmare for opponents to shift and well worth inclusion even in smaller unit sizes (15 works great so you’re almost there). I know you don’t have any yet but Hawk Riders are a fantastic unit capable of extreme mobility and a good bit of damage on the charge. They also make excellent bunkers for Spellsingers/weavers who happen to also be some of the best casters in the game with a fantastic choice of lores. I would also look at wild riders, they’re frankly busted in units of 6 for their cost (a unit of 6 on the charge will wipe a unit of 3 skulllcrushers in a single round on average or down a hydra - assuming they’re taking the flaming standard)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Dragons are also a very fun unit, alongside Treemen, but be warned, they aren’t quite up to the standard of other factions big beasties. Treemen should really be seen as very durable wizards rather than combat blenders. The forest dragon is still a dragon, throw it at your opponent and rip&tear, just watch out for cannons and don’t expect miracles from it because it WILL die. Deepwood scouts are decent and worth an include in most lists, always nice to have more skirmishers with high bs. Wardancers, like a lot of wood elf units, are rather tricky to use, I personally don’t rate them but in certain match ups I could see them performing well

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/10/07 20:48:08


 
   
Made in au
Blood Angel Neophyte Undergoing Surgeries




Australia

Thanks Yazima, definitely more food for thought. I can't wait to get these guys painted and on the table, I haven't played fantasy for a long time!!!
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

This will help:

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer/Tactics/8th_Edition/Wood_Elves

Some points.

Archers. I recommended you take lots of archer models. However whether they are Glade Guard, Scouts or Waywatchers depends on how gnarly their cloaks are, whether they are in skirmish formation etc. You can do a lot ot lessen costs by some creative modelling of these.

Treekin. Not as nasty in 8th than earlier editions, but partly the reason I recommend them is because they are the prime target for augment spells. Woodies have access to a lot of magic lores that with the correct spells can really boost your treekin and are better targets for buffs than elves.
Now because of the magic RNG you are not guaranteed those spells, but then as treekin are fairly economical if you dont get them your monsterous hedgerow serves a more sedate role in the army. Dom't get me wrong they will still hit hard and tank well, but they wont hit as hared as demi-gryphs or hold the line as well as Crypt Horrors. Don't expect too much from them (un-augmented) and you will not be disappointed.

Warhawks are good on paper but die quickly to missile fire. Take them if you like them, but dont be overly optimistic of their capabilities.

n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in au
Blood Angel Neophyte Undergoing Surgeries




Australia

Thanks for that, looks like plenty to take in there!

I probably won't get to play for another few months so I should have the opportunity to have them all painted before then.
   
 
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