Editing Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves (section)

==Units==

====Melee Infantry====
*'''Eternal Guard''' - Eternal Guard are the closest thing to a defensive front line unit you have. Available shielded or unshielded (you should ''always'' take shielded Eternal Guard, precious other units in your army resist ranged attacks), these stalwart warriors are in that perfect twilight zone of being cheap and somewhat expendable while also remaining rather competent combatants capable of holding their own against other units above their weight class. Though they'll often lose in drawn out fights against stronger, higher tier melee infantry, they can pin them down long enough for your archers or dryads to flank and make up for their sub-optimal damage output. Eternal Guard, being exclusively armed with spears, are excellent anti-cavalry/monster screens and, when braced, can easily halt enemy charges in their tracks. No matter your focus, be it cavalry, missile units or treemen, you'll want your line held by a few of these guys. They don’t hold up to elite infantry well though, late game may want to replace with treekin, who are much more durable generally. Take note that they are AP spearmen with access to shields, which is incredibly rare. probably the best of the 3 elven races spearmen units for this alone. they wont get a lot of kills but can do okay even against heavily armored infantry.
**'''Winterheart Guards (RoR)''' - Eternal Guard, only with charge defense against everything, an encouragement aura for nearby allied units and ''unbreakable''. These guys will hold the line until the bitter end, something they'll ensure takes a long time due to their increased defensive stats. You'll want these guys somewhat centrally located in your front line to ensure their leadership buff affects as many Eternal Guard as possible.

*'''Dryads''' - The first of your treekin soldiers. If eternal guard are your chaffy anvil infantry, dryads are your chaffy hammer infantry. Dryads are decently fast, deal magic attacks, cause fear, are immune to psychology, and have vanguard deployment. They lack anti-charge, anti-large, and anti-armor so are best used to mulch other T1 infantry, particularly ones like clanrats and goblins that are susceptible to fear. In multiplayer, they form the backbone of a wood elf rush army, you can vanguard deploy an entire front line of dryads and blitz your opponent before he can react. In campaign, you'll want to phase them out after the early game unless you're playing Drycha or Durthu who can aspect upgrade dryads to be anti-charge frontline tanks, low AP infantry shredders, or speedy glass cannon kan openers. Drycha in particular can make dryads endgame worthy (see the entry for malevolent dryads below).
**'''Wraiths of the Frozen Heart (DLC, RoR)''' - These dryads have been gifted with attacks that freeze and slow their targets, helping to ensnare and lock down enemies.

*'''Wardancers''' - These lovely ladies serve as dedicated infantry blenders, a role they share with dryads. They have superior speed + melee stats to dryads but lack the vanguard deployment, magic attacks, and fear that dryads have. Minimal defenses means you should use them as fast skirmishers, they won't do well engaging beefy front line units in a fair fight. That said, they have an active skill which decreases their melee attack and increases their melee defense which allows them to flip roles from damage dealers to melee defense tanks. Use it when you want them to buy time while another unit rear charges their opponent or shoots them to death. In campaign, you'll want to phase them out for spear wardancers and bladesingers after the early game.

*'''Spear Wardancers''' - Wardancers who specialize against large foes instead of infantry formations. Where regular Wardancers simply appreciate having Eternal Guard tank the hits, Spear Wardancers actually synergize with them extremely well due to their shared offensive niche. Just like the regular Wardancers, have the Eternal Guard intercept cavalry or monsters before sending these gals in. Spear Wardancers have an activated ability that grants them additional missile resistance at the cost of melee defense. Turn it on when they're running around your flanks eating the occasional volley from enemy skirmishers and turn it off when they close to melee. Like halberd infantry, they have increased AP damage and can hold their own vs armoured elite opponents.
**'''Loec's Tricksters (RoR)''' - If you thought regular Wardancers were glass cannons, you haven't seen these ones at work. This regiment of renown exchanges the normal Spear Wardancer activated ability in exchange for one that pumps up their melee attack in exchange for their defense (literally the opposite effect of the regular Wardancers ability) which, when combined with the addition of Frenzy, makes them do ''obscene'' damage to large units. Unfortunately, this also means that a stiff breeze will slaughter them to the last. Hold these ladies in reserve for a critical fight, such as engaging the enemy lord or a key monster in their army and support them with magic to make sure they survive the ensuing melee.

*'''Wildwood Rangers''' - The Wildwood Rangers have an... interesting role. Previously, they were your only dedicated source of melee armor piercing damage, which they deal a lot of, but they also only specialize against large targets. While these two perks often work fantastically against monsters and cavalry, it tends to pay off less on the armored masses you may often find yourself against. They still hold a somewhat viable niche if you expect to face armored cavalry/monster armies like the Lizardmen or Bretonnia, but they are thoroughly outclassed by the new Bladesingers against all forms of infantry.
**'''Wardens of Cythral (RoR)''' - Take the Wildwood Rangers, give them silver shields, armor sundering and a ''beefy'' charge defense against large targets and send them on their way. These guys are better suited to prolonged fights against large foes than Spear Wardancers, particularly because they have actual stats in their defenses. With support, these guys can chunk most armored targets relatively well in good time.

*'''Bladesingers (DLC)''' - At first glance, you'd assume these fiery redheads are just reskinned Wardancers. You wouldn't necessarily be wrong to assume that, but you will pay dearly if you underestimate them for that mistake. These ladies are your elite melee infantry and ''butcher'' anything not horse-sized or larger due in no small part to a combination of magical attacks and high armor-piercing damage. Bladesingers also have the ability to "turn off" their armor piercing damage modifier to give themselves a raw damage buff, letting them effectively cut down virtually any flavor of infantry you could throw them at. You can switch between the two modes at will, unlike Wardancers, so they are exceptionally flexible for how killy they are. The main drawback is exactly what you'd expect from a bunch of half-naked ladies; their defensive stats are hot tish. Though they have access to Dodge and a decent melee defense, they will still die in droves if targeted by archers or charged by enemies above their weight class. None-the-less, having at least one squad of these fine warrior women is strongly recommended against literally any army that fields frontline infantry.

====Missile Infantry====
*'''Glade Guard''' - Your earliest, cheapest, and most reliable missile infantry, Glade Guard are the troops you'll have in your back-line in order to rain hell upon the enemies your melee infantry is currently harassing. Frankly speaking, there's little that can honestly be said about the bog-standard Glade Guard; they'll do decent work against unarmored enemies and they're pretty damn cost efficient, but you might find yourself looking at one of the two variants if you want to get some real work done. Note that all glade guard variants can fire forward while moving, making them exceptionally good for chasing after and pincushioning broken enemies.
**'''Glade Guard (Hagbane Tips)''' - Glade Guard with poisonous arrows. Though they deal slightly less direct damage with their missiles, they more than make up for it if they're supporting your melee infantry by applying poison debuffs all over their target's back. Available from the start of campaign, you should never use the basic variant unless you're recruiting from an outpost and need to fill a hole in your army immediately.
**'''Glade Guard (Starfire Shafts)''' - Glade Guard with armor-piercing arrows and fire damage. These guys are a fantastic ranged answer to the likes of Dwarves, Chaos Warriors, Lizardmen and Nurgle. Should almost always be taken over regular Glade Guard (or at the least, alongside them) to ensure that you can still deal damage to them.

*'''Deepwood Scouts''' - Sneaky elves who can utilize the combination of their stealth and vanguard deployment to sneak up and ambush the vulnerable backsides of enemy formations. Unlike Glade Guard, the Deepwood Scouts can fire at any angle while moving, letting them easily kite slower, unarmored units. Inferior in every way to waywatchers, however, they do have a use in multiplayer as a budget option against factions that don't have many armored units.
**'''Deepwood Scouts (Swiftshiver Shards)''' - Deepwood Scouts that fire two shots at a time. Even with the reduced range over regular Deepwood Scouts, the doubled DPS more than makes up for that minor inconvenience. These in skirmish mode can get insane kill numbers on light infantry as long as they are fast enough to not get caught, niche but effective.

*'''Waywatchers''' - Your premium archer unit, and one of the highest damaging archer units in the game. Considering that this is factoring in units like the Sisters of Averlorn, that's saying something. All the strengths of the Deepwood Scouts are combined the Starfire Glade-Guard's utility with yet more impressive range and heightened movement speed that allows them to function both as a back-line unit or as vanguard ambusher. Very dangerous in multiplayer where they can surprise delete damn near anything if you have 2-3 of them pop out of stealth to alpha strike a high value target.
**'''Hawk-eyes of Drakira (RoR)''' - Waywatchers that also come packing with a smokebomb to slow and discourage anyone from getting too close. They also have a slightly faster reload speed and slightly better accuracy than their generic kin, which alone is worth the slight upsell.

====Melee Cavalry====
*'''Glade Riders (Spears) (FLC)''' - Cheap, fast cavalry. At 94 speed they're faster than your Wild Riders but that and the price tag are basically the only good things you can say about them. They lack the armor piercing damage and Frenzy of the Wild Riders and, despite what the (Spears) tag might have you believe, they are not actually anti large, at least not in multiplayer though they can get an anti-large technology in campaign. As a fast, cheap melee harasser they will likely be best used in a similar fashion to hounds or feral cold ones, chasing down ranged infantry and artillery units and chasing units off the field

*'''Wild Riders''' The premier Wood Elf light cavalry and [[Orion|Mel Gibson's]] personal guard, these units can blend infantry from behind with a decent melee attack, nice charge bonus, and armor piercing damage, but a low melee defense and armor means they're too squishy to stay in combat for long. Some physical resist makes them a bit tougher than their otherwise low defensive stats would lead you to believe, but don't send them into combat with units that deal magical damage or they'll melt fairly fast. All varieties of Wild Riders have Frenzy, meaning they'll be extra choppy until their leadership gets below 50%, so if you want them at their most effective don't let them take too much damage. In campaign once you can use Great Stag Knights you probably want to switch over completely.
**'''Wild Riders (Shields)''' A straight upgrade to Wild Riders, other than the price. Silver shields make them much more resistant to ranged fire and slightly higher melee defense lets them stick in combat for longer. They're still not heavy cavalry though, and are much more comfortable attacking from the side or rear than the front.
**'''Wild Hunters of Kurnous (RoR)''' With naturally higher melee attack than your standard Wild Riders and magic damage on top of that, these dendrophiles are even choppier than your standard variety stag-riding knife-ear.

*'''Great Stag Knights''' What's better than riding a stag into battle? Riding a really big stag into battle, of course! These monstrous cavalry are even faster than normal Wild Riders, with slightly higher melee attack and melee defense than even the shield variant. More importantly the Great Stage Knights have some actual armor meaning they're capable of taking a hit, though they certainly don't want to stay in melee combat for too long. Send them into infantry formations then giggle as the infantry goes flying. A few cycle charges from these will even break Chaos Chosen. Pair with a Great Stag riding Glade Captain and a Sisters of the Thorn unit giving ranged support for best results. The Glade Captain provides strider, melee support, and a Melee defense buff and the Sisters of the Thorn deals poison, buffs spells, and a debuff spell all together. 2-3 Stag Knight, the Glade Captain and the Sisters of the Thorn will combine into a terrifying cavalry deathstar.
**'''Lost Sylvan Knights (RoR)''' What's better than riding a really big stag into battle? Riding a really big ghost stag into battle, of course! As an ethereal unit, all the standard ethereal rules apply. They've got a ton of physical resist and no armor. Throw them into melee with bog standard swordsmen and you can leave them there safely but as soon as some wizard wazzock starts tossing magic damage around your Sylvan Knights will start dying, really fast. Don't let them fight anything that deals magic damage unless you want them to become lost again, permanently this time. They're undead, which means they crumble instead of routing which is generally a good thing as they can still hold a line and attack while crumbling. Back them up with lore of life, they can take advantage of it better than any other unit in the game thanks to their high physical resist and ability to run away from unfavorable engagements.

====Missile Cavalry====
*'''Glade Riders''' - Your fairly standard missile cavalry, Glade Riders only really stand out above other faction's similar missile cav by having slightly better than average range. They have somewhat decent melee capabilities, but in this regard they're only useful in charging lightly armored units, like opposing missile infantry. If you need something cheap to kite and harass enemy lines, these guys will get the job done if nothing else.
**'''Glade Riders (Hagbane Tips)''' - Debatably far more useful than their regular variants, Hagbane Tipped Glade Riders use poisonous ''and'' magical arrows, making them an excellent force against magic-weak armies and solid support units. Between their high speed and ability to apply poison against enemy units, they are virtually uncatchable by opposing cavalry and are simultaneously a fantastic unit for crippling faster units for your slower infantry to engage. Consider as an alternative to hagbane glade guard, you don't need both probably.

*'''Hawk Riders''' - A rarity, Hawk Riders are one of the few dedicated flying missile units in the game. Extremely fast, Hawk Riders can easily dodge incoming enemy fire if microed properly (something you'll have to do if you want them to live long enough to do their job) and makes them ideal for flanking enemy positions to rain hell upon them from on high. Unfortunately, like much of the WE roster, Hawk Riders have non-existent defensive statlines and they will drop like flies if you allow them to take missile fire or get pinned down in combat. Additionally, when they ''are'' in combat, their melee attack and defense scores are ''terrible''. This is ever so slightly mitigated by their mediocre charge bonus and hefty (melee) armor-piercing damage bonuses, letting them act as halfway decent shock cavalry against armored infantry in a pinch. This should definitely only be done as a last resort or if you have sufficient forces to support them however, else they just impotently kamikaze themselves into your opponent's ranks like so many gnats on a windshield. In the Sisters of Twilight campaign, they received a ''major'' buff in the Volley of Kurnous ability, letting them fire a high damage burst of arrows into ground bound enemy targets. Be it a single character or horde of infantry, the Volley of Kurnous does ''ludicrous'' damage and a doomstack of Hawk Riders can delete massive ground-bound armies with the click of a single button. This makes them ''the'' premiere airforce army in the campaign.

*'''Sisters of the Thorn''' - Elite missile cavalry that, unlike anything else in your roster on four hooves, can do a little bit of everything. Though they don't have the charge bonus of your Wild Riders or Great Stag Knights, Sisters of the Thorn can actually remain in combat for extended periods of time due to their superior defensive abilities (both innate and through access to their bound abilities). This can be further supplemented by their poisonous arrows, letting them soften up and slow down enemy forces for a follow up charge. Unfortunately, in any single attribute they typically fall short of the rest of your options; they lack the range of your Glade Riders while being slightly slower, they don't have as impactful a charge as your Wild Riders/GSK and they don't even have any armor-piercing damage like your Hawk Riders do. Despite that, alongside their rather steep price tag, they are still wonderfully flexible missile cavalry units (by WE standards) that will likely find more opportunistic match-ups against a wider range of foes than some of your other options. Best when supporting other cavalry: Wild Riders, Stag Knights etc.

====Monsters====
*'''Tree Kin''' - Your monstrous infantry and the only units in your roster that can actually hold their own in a grindfest, even if they themselves won't really be doing much damage in the process. With thick armor, high melee defense and charge defense against large, these bark monsters will take an eternity to die if the enemy units fighting them find themselves lacking anti-armor or magic/fire damage. Against most factions, these guys are fantastic "meat" shields for your considerably squishier elven units. Just keep the matchbox away from them. Ancient treeman lords can give them 10% ward and an extra 10% physical resist from the red skill tree in campaign. they can become tough enough to hold well even vs anti large and armor piercing especially with lore of life support. 
**'''Firebark Elders (RoR)''' - This is what you get when your Treekin ''are'' the matchbox. With a 70% fire resistance and the ability to bequeath that resistance to nearby units, you can patch a fairly notable (and semi-common) weakness of your other tree units. If you expect that you'll be facing an army with relatively easy access to flaming attacks, like Bretonnia or Lizardmen, having these guys form your frontline core is strongly advised.

*'''Zoats (DLC)''' - Boy, we're going deep for these guys. These guys are effectively Wood Elf Dragon Ogres and very much fill the same role; anti-large monstrous cavalry that can deal crippling damage to the big beasties. They sacrifice some of the innate damage and durability the Dragon Ogres possess for much greater utility with access to two bound Lore of Life spells: Earth Blood and Flesh to Stone. With these, Zoats can support themselves and other Wood Elf units without imposing on the Winds of Magic reserves ideally utilized by your Lord/Heroes. Take a care though, Zoats don't have the stats their Dragon Ogre counterparts do and aren't quite as flexible in their engagement choices. Have a unit of Tree Kin or at the very least Eternal Guard support your Zoats to help mitigate incoming damage.
**'''Enigmas of Ghyran (RoR)''' - Zoats who have better stats and two charges of Regrowth instead of Earth Blood. These guys are fantastic support for lists with a focus on monster units and can easily pair up with a lore of life spellsinger for immense burst healing.

*'''Great Eagle''' - Something of a squishy unit, Great Eagles are extremely fast flying units that are pretty much designed to do one thing; body slam artillery pieces and backline units with cycle charges while your infantry holds them in place. Unfortunately, that's... pretty much all they can do. They are not remotely as punchy or durable as a majority of other single entity monsters and will quickly die if left in melee combat with anything that can hold a sharp stick. Cycle charging this guy is ''imperative'' if you want them to stay alive. Fortunately, when airborne, almost nothing can catch them and they can evade missile fire from dusk until dawn. They do have a unique kill animation that can take out a third of a blob but don't expect to see it unless fighting the frailest units.

*'''Treeman''' - An all-purpose wrecking ball, Treemen are melee beatsticks that can throw a mean left hook and stand in an ocean of angry infantry without a care in the world. Unless they have fire, in which case... enjoy the lightshow, I guess. Unlike the smaller Tree Kin, Treemen are actually threatening in melee combat and are quite capable against a wonderfully wide variety of targets, large and small, armored or not. As they are very tall, bipedal trees, Treemen make a fantastic [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]] that your opponent can't afford to outright ignore, especially since they cause fear and terror. Be cautious though; they're big, slow moving trees. They're very vulnerable to getting focused down at range and though they can wade through any infantry tarpit dancing around their roots, they can't do so quickly enough to evade incoming missile fire. And unlike their Ancient Treemen leaders, who at least can utilize magic for defense an a modicum of offense if necessary, regular Treemen don't have ''any'' way to deal with ranged assaults on their own.

*'''Forest Dragon''' - Your one and only Dragon, Forest Dragons are pretty much the crown jewel of the Wood Elf monster units. Unfortunately, when compared to the full selection of dragons available to High Elves, Forest Dragons fall fairly short in relative power, being roughly on par with Sun Dragons. They do make up for this slightly with their additional physical resist and poisonous attacks, letting them dive into the thick of it more confidently than the other flavors of dragon other factions have. When paired with a lore of life spellsinger/Ancient Treeman, these dragons can tough it out in a fight for a ''very'' long time. Defensively, a lot of the same cautionary measures other dragons use should be taken at range; their flying speed coupled with their size isn't conducive for dodging ranged attacks and their resistances don't apply against projectiles. Try to pin down enemy archers and artillery with cavalry or a Great Eagle before having the Forest Dragon swoop in for the kill.

====Drycha Campaign Units====

These units can only be used by Drycha's Wargrove in campaign or custom battles, but as campaign units are unavailable to multiplayer (or custom battle if you have unit caps turned on). The units are split into two distinct groups, Malevolent Tree Spirits who are essentially just ordinary Tree Spirits with Frenzy and a kickass purple glow, and Wild Beasts, beefed up versions of monstrous animal units from other factions most of which have vanguard deployment and Forest Stalker, making them effective flankers and slightly tougher in the trees. All of these units, like Drycha herself, are FLC units given to anyone who owns the original Realm of the Wood Elves DLC, and are exclusive to the Mortal Empires campaign. Drycha and her units cannot be played in Vortex, though she does appear in the background of Throt's campaign and in the final battle. you start with one amber as Drycha which should always be used on the Tech to give poison to all tree spirits, making them much more survivable.

*'''Coeddil''' - A little treat that CA didn't really feel like advertising, Coeddil makes a surprise appearance as a Legendary Hero available in Drycha's Mortal Empire campaign. [[FAIL|And only in that campaign.]] Befitting his psychopathic hatred for all things not made of bark, Coeddil is an absolute melee menace who constantly saps nearby enemy unit's health while giving all allied nearby a minor melee buff. He's a mixed Beasts/Dark caster with several choice spells from both winds including Transformation of Kadon and Power of Darkness. If that wasn't enough, Coeddil is unbreakable and will stay in the fight until the bitter end. It's worth noting that in custom battle he's considered a campaign exclusive unit rather than a hero so if you really feel like shenanigans [[Rip and tear|you can make an army of Coeddils.]]

*'''Malevolent Ancient Treeman''' - The only lord on this list, basically just an ancient Treeman with Frenzy. This makes it even more of a melee powerhouse than ordinary Ancient Treemen, though a strong anti-large duelist lord can still take it down. Unlike ordinary Ancient Treemen, the Malevolent ones get access to three distinct Lores of Magic instead of being locked to Lore of Life. They can take Lore of Life, but can instead choose to take Lore of Beasts or Lore of Shadows. Like Coeddil, the Malevolent Ancient Treeman is considered a campaign exclusive unit rather than a lord and so you can take as many as you like, provided you have the funds for it. Lore of Beasts can summon the usual Matincores instead of Great Eagles and gives beast units frenzy. Shadows gets improved glamour removing the debuff from elf units. Life gets regen as a skill. Beasts is probably the most useful for buffing your army. A life branch wraith is probably better than putting life on your lord due to less competition for skill points.

*'''Malevolent Branchwraith''' - A Branchwraith with frenzy. Whereas the standard Branchwraith is not the best melee fighter, the Malevolent variant is actually a decent damage dealer so long as you keep her away from flaming attacks. Similar to the Malevolent Ancient Treeman, the Malevolent Branchwraith has an expanded list of Lores it can choose from. Ordinary Branchwraiths are a mix of Lore of Shadows and Lore of Life, while their Malevolent kin can specialize in either full Lore of Life, full Lore of Shadows or Lore of Beasts. Strangely, there is no mixed Lore of Life/Lore of Shadows Malevolent Branchwraith. Life gets regen, beasts gets extra melee attack, shadows gets stalk. Recommend life only and get beasts or shadows from your lord. Lords get nice army buffs.

*'''Malevolent Tree Spirits:''' - Malevolent versions of the Dryads, Tree Kin, and Treeman units. They all have Frenzy, and can be upgraded further in her tech tree for more Charge and AP.

**'''Malevolent Tree Dryads:''' These are basically ever so slightly buffed Dryads with the added Frenzy ability, making them substantially more threatening right out of the gate. Drycha herself can summon two of them per battle using one of her unique abilities, making them the only unit on this list usable in multiplayer (if only as summons). Red skill tree can give them extra melee attack, weapon strength, melee defense and an extra 15% physical resist; you can give them some AP with the Aspect of the Birch and Drycha's upgrades, which pairs nicely with their magical attacks, but they're still ultimately just whacking the enemy with sharp sticks. Still, they can outfight chaos warriors with all the buffs applied, and even against things they might not beat they are like more tanky wooden Daemonettes with very marginal AP. Just keep them away from fire and magic attacks, which is unfortunately pretty hard considering the proximity of Festus and the Von Carsteins.

**'''Malevolent Tree Kin:''' You get access to these guys much quicker than in other Wood Elf factions and you'll be relying on them just as much. Upgrades to Drycha can give them a ward save, armor, charge, and AP, and better melee when they're at Rank 7+. The different Aspects are all worth a look depending on who's giving you trouble in the campaign: Birch makes you faster and gives you AP but lowers your physical resistance, Oak makes you slower and thicker, but also gives you expert charge defense, and Willow reduces your AP damage by 6, but gives you better defense and a bonus against Infantry. Birch is good because you have other bonuses to AP, but you don't have the DPS to make the most of it; if you upgraded Drycha, you'll get +10 AP to offset the -6 of Willow, but you're not exactly gaining much, either. Oak is probably the best, because Tree Kin were never going to win the foot-race anyway.
**'''Malevolent Tree Man:''' A Tree Man with frenzy. You are better off buying Dragons, Zoats, or Bears, with one exception: Malevolent Tree Men that are given the Aspect of the Willow (-150 AP but +250 Weapon Strength and +12 Defense) are pretty good against Festus and Nurgle, who doesn't have AP, but has a shit ton of health and healing.

*'''Cave Bats''' - Non-undead Vampire Count Fell Bats with an extra 20 leadership, vanguard deployment and the ability to hide in trees. Used in essentially the same way as Fell Bats, they're great at tying down fast units, distracting ranged units, nomming artillery, causing chaos on walls and being meat shields for more important flying creatures. As previously stated they're not undead so they won't hold the line while crumbling the way Fell Bats do but they're also dirt cheap and expendable so you won't care when they're inevitably slaughtered. replace with hawks later probably, they have actual AP.

*'''Giant Wolves''' - Norscan Ice Wolves without the Frostbite, considered small units instead of large for some reason meaning the standard anti-large tactics don't work on them. They're quite speedy and have a decent weapon strength though it's not majority armor piercing, meaning they're effective against low armor opponents. Charge them into the flanks of infantry or ranged units and use them to kill routing enemies, but don't expect them to hold the line.

*'''Giant Spiders''' - These big angry arachnids don't really have a direct parallel to any other units. These are essentially buffed up Forest Goblin Spider Riders but without the Goblin. This unfortunately means they lose the shield held by said goblin, but considering it was a bronze shield anyway the 70 armor, armor piercing damage, charge bonus, and increased melee attack and forest stalker attributes more than make up for it. Poison + AP + Decent Armor in a faction where that's rare means they can serve surprisingly well in the front line, especially with magical support spells like Shield of Thorns or Wyssan's Wildform, but you're almost always better off using them to flank and having Tree Kin tank damage.

*'''Great Hawks''' - The only unit on this list that probably should have been available to the entire Wood Elf faction, these are essentially slightly cheaper Hawk Riders with improved melee stats but no ranged attack. They have the standard vanguard deployment and Forest Stalker traits and are VERY fast. Give them some Cave Bats to act as meat shields and they can be quite effective melee combatants. They'll very quickly rip apart ranged infantry and artillery and can be absolute terrors in sieges, capable of massacring any infantry on the walls with flying cycle charges. They are fragile though, so good micro and support from other units is essential when using them.

*'''Feral Bears''' - The same unit that Rakarth gets, which is Kislevite War Bear Riders without the Armor. They are a good source of AP Anti-Large when you can recruit them, but the lack of Armor makes them squishy. Good supplements when Zoats are unavailable.

*'''Feral Manticore''' - Of course Drycha would get at least one Chaos unit. This is literally the exact same unit as fielded by Warriors of Chaos and Dark Elves. Notably, the Feral Manticore lacks the Vanguard Deployment and Forest Stalker attributes of the rest of the Wild Beasts. It's essentially a slightly tougher but slower terror causing Great Eagle. It's an effective source of flying terror, but it's certainly not the biggest beastie out there and is somewhat vulnerable to anti large, ranged fire and other more powerful single entity monsters like dragons. Its rampage is especially bad, as it means that you can easily lose control of it at the worst possible time and, as a (reluctant) member of the Wood Elf faction, you're a bit lacking in tools to go get it. These still get 20 physical resistance from a tech and frenzy from Drycha or a Beasts Lore Treeman skill, with physical resist and frenzy they become extremely cost effective. Can replace Hawks even.
**With both frenzy and the tech boost they the same nearly the same raw killing power and physical resist as a Forest Dragon for less than half the cost. They don’t have breath attacks or poison but they are faster and smaller so can dodge arrows much easier. Actually very cost effective. Plus unlike the other Manticore using factions Dycha has Lore of Life to keep them alive. Can replace Hawks entirely except for lacking vanguard.
**Wut? A Forest Dragon is niche and only really good when in the woods, but its health, breath attack, damage type and the fact that its a dragon means that they have their best use is supplementing your line, flying in and out of combat as needed. Manticores do not get forest bonuses, but are much more accessible and expendable. Manticores take out missiles, artillery, and flame weapons so your trees and forest creatures don't have to take those shots upon approach. Dragons use their breath attack, smash into the lines, then leave so you can do it all over again.
***The Feral Manticore is your mom's boyfriend that comes over before the party and helps out but doesn't stick around for long, the Forest Dragon is your drunk dad who comes in and wrecks shit.