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

====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.