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Looking for some advice; planning to do the doubles tournament at LVO 2021 (1250pts Vanguard force) with my friend who wants to play Idoneth. I haven't played AoS before and I'm trying to figure out where to start with working on lists/tactics. I take forever assembling and painting models so I want to establish the core of my list soon so I can get to work on it in hopes of having everything ready. I've started listening to AoS Coach and taking a look at AoS Shorts. With the previous Sylvaneth book, blocks of Dryads were the thing; to my understanding this changed with their second book. I don't know what my friend is going to play since he's waiting on the updated Idoneth book, so it makes it harder to balance/plan. He mentioned that Idoneth are hit and run so I was wondering if I should be the anvil to his hammer. But who knows how they will change with their new book.

Should I build my list just to be "all comers" and he can tailor his list as he wishes? What is the core that most Sylvaneth armies are built around? Is there any other good resources besides AoS Coach and Shorts I should be listening/reading to? Is there something else I didn't mention that I should keep in mind?

Problem is the state of the game a year from now is impossible to predict. We have no idea what balance changes or even additional content Sylvaneth might get, let alone changes to the meta. Best advice I can give is get a treelord ancient, a 5-man trevenent unit, a branchwraity, and three 10-man dryad units together. The first two have always been useful and are likely to remain so, the latter are auto-take for Sylvaneth right now (the branchwraith summons the dryads) and still useful as battleline/support if that is somehow disrupted.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure that the Sylvaneth meta would change much since we already got our 2.0 book and a boxset in Looncurse; the only changes would be to adapt to fighting what does get updated this year.

You never know, they may decide that treelords should be 100 points or something

What type of list is your partner looking to play? You need to build the strategies together.

Sylvaneth are not a huge faction (AoS factions tend to be at one of two size extremes) so there's every possibility that they could get a wave of releases that boost them up and could change their meta significantly. Even one well designed model can change an army quite a lot in what works.

The same goes for Idoneth as well. Both armies could get major changes in the form of new models. I agree that I wouldn't expect to see their meta change based on an update such as the generals handbook in the summer; that might refine a few things ,but neither army is currently "broken" in power at the strong nor weak end that I've heard so I'd not expect big sweeping changes.


Magnets might let you get some additional variety in build out of the treelord kit, but otherwise I'd suggest reading guides, checking out forums like The Grand Alliance which ahs a big thread on them in the factions section and also viewing tournament winning lists and seeing what sylvaneth players are taking and what kind of tactics go with the lists they take



AFter that I'd suggest talking with the Idoneth player closer to the date and working out what role each of your armies will take. Basically have an idea of your joint game plan and build with that in mind so that you can work your armies well together on the tabletop (ideally get some practice games in).



You can, of course, just build a list and take it and see what happens, but the best teams and potential winning results are going to come from those who build and practice playing their armies together. Knowing what strategies work; what combinations of units work; what buffs might carry over and give a good bonus to both sides etc.... Also know what weaknesses you each have and what can trip you up as an army and as a player.

Speaking in broad strokes (and with the previous caveat about how the meta is guaranteed to shift over time) there's a few things you can be reasonably confident about building now while you're learning the army:

-Magnetized Treelord: I think a treelord ancient makes for a solid general or even just an uncommonly tough wizard, but at the actual price they cost you should take the extra steps necessary to configure it as either or depending on what you ultimately want to go on. It's relatively easy to do, one magnet on one wrist (or if you're scared of magnets, a couple of holes and paperclips)

-Dryads: Originally the only battleline option, they're defensively oriented, like to be in larger blobs and inside the wyldwoods. More importantly depending on what you do with the army they can still serve a role as summonables. The start collecting set comes with a treelord and dryads, buying a second box of dryads leaves you with 32 dryad bodies, make sure three of those look sufficiently cool to be nymphs (sergeants) and you can run them in any combination of 10s, 20s or 30s depending on what you ultimately decide to do.

-Awakened Wyldwoods: start with one, since you get to take it for free in the army anyway, then consider more. Sylvaneth's central mechanic revolves around using them for cover and quick magical teleportation.

-Kurnoth Hunters: These would be the figurative anvil. They're slow, hit hard, and will probably require some spell support to protect them from the attention they'll draw. Of their weapon options swords are more effective against low save hordes and scythes do better against high armour, I personally lean towards scythes because of their range, they're usually enough to take our hordes between the damage, trample and subsequent bravery checks between two rounds of combat. They synergize well with the Arch-Revenant and spells like verduous harmony.

After that you'll have to consider your plan with your friend and build according to that. Dryads fill their specific niche but are relatively expensive unless taken in expensive blobs, tree revenants are extremely mobile and can effectively teleport around the map, and spite revenants are the cheapest and aggro oriented.

The one thing to watch out for is wyldwoods and your endless spells have a lot of 'benefit only sylvaneth' and 'hurt everything not sylvaneth' effects and plan accordingly.

I appreciate the responses, insightful and helpful. In regards to my partner, he's most likely just waiting and seeing because of the new book coming and to see if I actually get stuff together. It's been a while since I completed a miniature, and only finished about two in the last decade (yea having kids). My plan is to to paint up two Warcry warbands and then starting to work on my Sylvaneth. I bought the entire model line a year ago because I just like the miniatures (former wood elf player).