Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Wood Elves

Why Play Wood Elves

Wood Elves are getting redone and almost completely rewritten. Everything has been turned on it's head and old Wood Elf players have adapt to the new changes. However they have recently not only reclaimed the title of being the fastest army but being arguably the best shooting army too. Wood Elves appear to be of equal parts of light and dark aswell having magic arrows which are keyed to wounding forces of order and destruction respectively and with their best wizards access to high and dark magic. Wood Elves still have access to their old free wood and can now also choose what kind it is.

Wood Elves are an army almost completely made up of trees, bowmen, or fast cavalry. In fact you will not find any model with a save better than a 3+ without magic items and those are the Treemen and their elders. They rely on speed, shooting and picking their fights. Wood elves still lack war machines but have in exchange a megaton of poisoned weaponry.

Their slowest units have movement 5, and most move much much faster. The name of their game is speed and maneuverability. By the end of turn 2 you can be behind the enemy lines, ready to unleash deadly co-ordinated flank charges, and against slower armies you can quite simply run circles around your enemies.

Though regarded as some of the best archers in the game, due to their armour piercing and magic arrow shots, the wood elves' possible greatest strength is not in their shooting. They are formidable in combat but lack staying power. You will need to use your maneuverability to ensure that you win the first combat resolution. If the elves get bogged down, their low toughness means they will be hacked to pieces.

Lastly, their magic is not the most powerful in the game since they lack any spellcaster named hero or way to access loremaster, but they have the widest variety of spells to chose from and gain +1 to cast in forests. Despite this newly found choice , most players wold do best to stay with life, however others may be useful as well.

The Wood Elves require perhaps the most skill and nuance to play well, but this directly translates into them also being one of the most rewarding armies to play. Be warned that they aren't a good starter army

Plus they're bad ass vengeful guardians of the forest, so that's pretty cool too.

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

• Orion, The King of the Woods: Orion is what in general is refered to as a Glass Cannon: Incredibly expensive, requires a massive tax on your resources, can be incredibly powerful and yet is very fragile. Orion costs 600 points. He can also beat in almost anyone's face (9,8,8,6,5,5,9,5,10), comes with a Bolt Thrower and machine gun and a is Unbreakable and Frenzy, regains a wound on a 6 . Here's the downside: He's only T5 with a 5+ Ward and MR 2, making him somewhat less durable than a Treeman, but more durable against spells. He will drop like a fly to high volume S4 and above attacks. He also has Always Strikes First but will have trouble winning combats against large units (he'll probably tie or grab a minor win on round 1 and then start losing from then on). Not great but has potential. Basicly a Greater Daemon with leafy clothing that gives units near him Devastating Charge (which his wild riders already have) every turn.

• Drycha: Orion is fighty, the Twins are shooty, Drycha is weird. She's cheap, at 255 points, but she doesn't come with nearly enough stuff to justify even this low entry point. For starters, she's a Level 2 lore caster and only has access to Lore of Shadows. While she's reasonably fighty (she gets +2 attacks per lost wound, no life shenanigans), T4, 3 wounds and only a 6+ Ward means she's easy to drop. She needs units with the Forest Spirit rule to be effective, but while her kinda ganky Deep Strike ability seems fun, you're only guaranteed d3+1 Woods max (IE the one you brought, sitting in your half of the table, and the acorn of eternity) it's probably easier to just have them join her from the front. Don't bother.

• Araloth, Lord of Talsyn: This is Skaw the Falconer reborn. Sadly Matt Ward clearly hates him and has not only changed his name but made him the only Wood Elf whose sole purpose is to be repurposed for conversions. 260pts for an Asrai Spear, a 4+, stubborn, unbreakable on his own, Glade Lord with a 6+ with a bird. Atleast 60pts overpriced. This bird is an auto hitting ranged attack which can be fired from combat which deals a str 4 hit, when it wounds has a 1/6 chance to cripple your foe. This model's only use is to troll Tomb Kings. Don't bother

• Durthu: Once again a recycled character from the far distant past which is bad. At first his stats don't look bad; Ws 7, str 6, t6, w6, 6 attacks, frenzy, hatred. But he only has a 3+ armour with a 6++ ward save and is flammable. The greatest of the Treemen can die from a single flamming bolt thrower if it gets lucky, let alone a flaming cannonball. To add salt into the wound he is only a level 1 lore of beasts wizard, has a pretty hand weapon of no significance save fluff, and a 2d6 str 2 killing blow ranged attack. All of this is for 385 pts. If you have already ordered the Treemen kit make a basic Treeman instead and convert a Wraithknight/Wraithlord.

• Naestra and Arahan, The Sisters of Twilight: Anyone who makes a 'Twins are hot' joke gets kicked out of Athel Loren. As for the girls, they can be hilarious. You don't only take them to win, you take them to troll. For 275 points you get the pair on the back of Gwindalor the Great Eagle and for a few hundred more can have them ride the forest dragon Ceithin-Har. Why you ever would take them on a dragon is a mystery since the eagle gives them more wounds and t4 thanks to it being monstrous cavalry, while also allowing them to reroll failed to hits. They have the Always Strikes First, Forest Stalker, Conjoined Destiny, and Sisters of Twilight special rules. The Conjoined destiny rule means that they must always stay together if their mount dies and that if one of them dies then she is revived at the end of her phase with all of her wounds, while the Sisters of Twighlight makes Naestra gain a +1 to wound forces of destruction units in combat and Arahan gain a +1 to wound forces of order in combat. They also have 2 special bows. Naestra has a str 5 d6 wound long bow which gives her a wound if she wounds with it and Arahan has a bow which fires 2d6 str 1 poisoned shots. Between them have good shooting and survival thanks to their previous rules and weapons and stats: M5, WS 6, BS 6, str 4, t 3, w3, 2 attacks, i7 and Ld9. These compete badly with the waystalker, lvl 1 spellsinger and BSB in the Heroes section so chose wisely.

Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

• Glade Lord: Generic combat lord, reasonably fighty but you'll pale in comparison to most other Lords.He can be kitted out in a variety of ways to be more fighty and can be given magic arrows which is a plus. Aswell an LD10 bubble and stubborn is always a good thing. Should not be your first Lord choice, but is by far not the worst.

• Spellweaver: This should be your first Lord choice. Level 4 at 220 points now, a variety of magic items to make her better, the only character who can take the Acorn of Eternity and most importantly, access to all rulebook lores and Dark and High Magic. Plus she can buy an Asrai Longbow for 5pts, which means that while she's hanging in the back with your Glade Guard, she can ping off the odd casualty herself, which is hilarious by the by. If you want a Lord choice, this is the one you should go for in (almost) every situation.

• Treeman Ancient: While Treemen are alright, Treemen Ancients fail for many reasons. First off, they're 290 points, don't get any more sprites, are lvl 2 life wizards only, have a 3+ 6++ can buy magic levels, can tree whack and have the kind of melee stats that make cherubs cry. Ws 4 Str 5 A3 I2. I guess old age shows?

• Glade Captain: Blah blah blah generic combat hero blah. Blah blah blah want a Battle Standard Bearer blah. In all seriousness, the highly mobile and fluid nature of a Wood Elf army, means that you're gonna get less mileage out of a BSB than most armies, but they're still an effective use of points. Also, having one sitting in your Eternal Guard makes them Stubborn, which is always worth it's weight. And finally, if you have a lot (and I mean a lot) of points left on the table and you're worried about War Machines/Small Shooting Units, there is an amusing way to use Nobles: Load them up with Alter Kindred, Helm of the Hunt, Shield and Sword of Might. The resulting Noble will be the most effective War Machine/Small Unit hunter you will ever see. Not precisely competitive, but fun.

• Shadow Dancer: Your Wardancer character. Worth consideration. For 100pts you get a ws8 s4 I8 a3 Always Strike Firsts combat character, with the amazing new wardancer dances. You have a 25 points magic weapon allowance and for 60pts become a lore of shadow wizard. I would keep this hero as plain as possible so that he can swap with your spellcasters if they have the lore of shadow. I would try to avoid making him a wizard. Sadly he doesn't have a way of moving any more quickly, without switching him across the battlefield and also doesn't have a better save than a 6++, unless you use one of the dances to give you a 3++ for 1 turn. Hit hard, hit fast.

• Waystalker: Is a hero version of the waywatchers. He has bs 7, a bow and a 25pts weapons allowance, Don't bother taking the bow of loren on this hero. He has 1 attack and thus would only be able to fire 2 shots which he can do anyway. He also has the sniper rule and the choice wether to fire multiple shots or ignore armour. For this he is one the better priced heroes in the game.

• Spellsinger: One word. Amazing, when compared to the old wizards. 80pts for a normal lvl 1 wizard, +35 for a level 2, and 5 points for a bow. Now has access to all battle rule book lores but not to the Wood Elf specific lores. Shame. Take a dispel scroll and the lore of shadow or fire on this hero since their spells are the most effective at level 1/2.

• Branchwraith: The Branchwraith has 2 advantages: 1, she's fairly effective (WS6, S4, T4, I7, A3, 6+ Ward). 2, she's cheap. She is 75pts and a lvl1 lore of life wizard. She's a cheap way of beefing up a Treekin unit. It is also of note that if you're taking beasts, and you're running a branchwraith, you can use things like the impenitrable pelt or horros and beef her up a ton.

• Mounts:

• • Elven Steed: You know it, you love it. M9 Forest Strider, 20pts for most heroes and allow you to keep pace with all your cavalry. Take it for your mages to hide with your cavalry.

• • Great Stag: Really, why aren't you taking it? Better stats than it's closest cousin (IE the Eagle), you can still join units, you get a monstrous mount. One of the better mounts. [The reason not to take it, is that you don't get look-out-sir when joining units (because no units you can join are MC)]

• • Great Eagle: Worth taking to make your models more mobile for 50 pts. I wouldn't take it on every hero but on a lvl 1 mage without the scroll or the bsb it should be worth some consideration.

• • Unicorn: Unicorns are weird. They seem to be designed to deliver a Hero/Lord directly into combat, but it's only available to Casters and all it really does for them is make them a tiny bit more durable. It gives you movement 10 and still can skewer some models but is outshone by the elven steed easily.

• • Forest Dragon: It's a Dragon, what do you want? If it is a model that will be an amazing mount for your combat lord, with no points limit then it is good. Otherwise it is awful since the Glade lord, the only model that can mount it, is a rubbish combat character compared to other races.

Core Units

• Glade Guard: Glade guard are of debatable worth. For 12 points you get a bs 4 model with no armour, an armour piercing long bow, the option to take full command and a magic standard worth 25 points. In forests they get to reroll ones to hit and wound and can fire and fight in 1 extra rank. They also can buy any of the magic arrows. Considerering that Glade scouts for 1 point more gain scouts and skirmisher (both rules being incredibly good for the wood elves) I would only take as many glade guard as neccessary to fill my core 25% requirement. It is up to you wether you chose to deploy them in multiple small units or in one horde, though generally msu is better since they will have more time to fire.

• Glade Riders: These are probably the only core units you are going to take. For 19pts you get m9 fast cavalry with a asrai bow and asrai spear, who have to ambush, that can take any of the magic arrows. They can also take a magic banner worth up to 25pts which is neat. Generally you will want to take these in multiple small units that can come up behind the opponents and cause havoc. In a pinch they also make good warmachine hunters.

• Dryads: Why Matt Ward! Dryads went from being overpowered to one of the weaker units in the game. For 11pts you get ws 4, s3, t4, a2, i5 (elves will be rerolling to hit you), ld8, hatred, immune to psychology and a 6++ save. No armour save, and no more skirmisher. Unless you want to make some cheesy combat horde that is buffed by your lvl 4 wizard either to be tough or to hit hard. Actually even with that horde, still don't bother.

• Eternal Guard: 12 points armour piercing, ASF, elven spearmen, who can fight better in forests where they lose their rank bonus. They can also buy shields too and have a 6+ basic. Yes it is as bad as it sounds. If you want an alternative for dryads then feel free to swap. Otherwise fill up on Glade Guard or Glade Riders.

Special Units

• Wardancer Troupe: Wardancers are still a reasonably good unit let down by a few flaws and a fairly high cost of entry. They cost 15 points a pop and with T3 and a 6+ Ward, they're about as hard as tissue paper, but that's par for the course with Wood Elves and Skirmishers in general. They no longer gain +1 str on the charge and have 3 new dances. One gives you +1 attack, another gives you a 3++ and the final dance strips your foe of their rank bonues. What lets these guys down is the fact that because they're not Scouts, they have to start in your deployment zone, and M5 does not let them cross the board very quickly, aswell as being unable to repeat any of their dances, the turn after it is used. You could use the moonstone but it would be a waste.

• Warhawk Riders: You think your Glade Riders are fast? Think again. These guys are one of the best units in the codex, acting troubleshooters, since they can bring down War Machines like they're not there, punch out shooting units, ping wounds off lightly armored units and even help out in large combats (this is only for emergencies though). For 45 points you are getting fast flying monstrous cavalry with the Asrai Bows, w3, t4, Asrai spears, and killing blow on the charge. They deal out 1 str 4 AP hit with ASF and 3 str 4 armour piercing ones and a stomp. Possibly, the best flying unit in the game with the exception of the frost phoenix.

• Wild Riders of Kurnous: These are one of the guys who make Wardancers look bad. They're more durable (6+ Ward, 5+ Armor), move faster and can generally accomplish more. They also have a pretty damned solid statline (WS5, S4, I5, LD9) and a few amusing special rules. They can be useful in the right circumstances, but keep them out of combat with big units and heavily armored enemies, and make sure you know what you're getting.

• Treekin: Treekin are the younger brother of Treemen and not the force they once were. They are the best of the forest spirits the wood elves have to offer but still are no longer a must-take. S4, T5, 3 wounds, 3 attacks, Stomp, 4+ armor, 6++ Ward, and flammable. Beware they are vulnerable to Great Weapons, fire and high volumes of S4 attacks and have trouble overcoming large amounts of static combat res, so be careful to not send them into battles they can't win.

• Wildwood Rangers New to the Wood Elf club, 11 points a dude gets you light armor, immune to psychology, and a great weapon. They fall apart to a soft breeze, but they're also the generic elf with Great Weapon archetype. What makes these dudes special is that if they're in combat with a unit that causes fear or terror they get extra attacks. Screw over undead and Daemons with these guys.

Rare Units

• Waywatchers: This is potentially the best unit in the codex. For 20pts you get a bs 5 skirmishing scouting archer who can chose wether to add the multiple fire 2 rule to his bow or wether to ignore armour saves with his shooting.They also come with 2 hand weapons too if you ever get into combat. Take a unit of 5 and annoy the living hell out of your opponents. It actually isn't a bad idea to fill your rare allocation up with these and eagles.

• Treeman: The best that can be said about this unit is that it is priced correctly, but it is nowhere near the monster it was in the past. It is still quite tough with t6, w5 and a 3+ scaly skin and 6++ ward. It also has 5 str 5 ws6 attacks in combat with the option to swap them all for a tree whack which deals d6 armour ignoring wounds to a model if your enemy fails his initiative test. It also appears to be that the strangle roots have become a better ranged attack. Str 5 d6+1 hits may not seem like much but every little counts I guess. While the treeman is not amazing and neccessary for most armies, sadly it is the best value monster we have.

• Great Eagle: Reliable cheap and versatile for 50pts. So long as these birds don't take a bolt or cannonball to the face, they can either redirect or bait charging enemy units into showing their flanks and/or can act as decent warmachine hunters. The only downside is that they can't be upgraded like high elf eagles. Shame.

Building Your Army

Buying Your Army

The battalion set is good value. You can get a fairly decent army out of it.

From the Glade Guard sprues, you can build Waywatchers. If you have some spare High Elf or Dark Elf spearmen/warriors, giving them a Glade Guard head can turn them into Eternal Guard. You get a ton of heads with the Glade Guard, so you're spoilt!

The Glade Riders you can build as Wild Riders with the spears.

For your Lords/Heroes choices, you can build them out of the sprues provided. You can make a mounted Highborn and, with a bit of imagination, a Spellweaver.

Otherwise, for the Spellweaver, the Dark Elves' plastic Sorceress is a good alternative if you don't want old/metal models.

You could make a Treeman with the LotR Ent as it's cheaper, but the two have different dimentions, so be warned. It is taller, but can fit on a 50x50mm base that you can buy seperatly.(and still be cheaper than a treeman.)

Magic Items

No more spites, no more kindreds. More comming soon.The Bow of Athel Loren, Moonstone of Hidden Ways, Cailingor's staff, Daith's spear, the Spirit Sword and Hail of Doom Arrow remain, while more items are being added.

We have, count them, eight items now.

Two banners. Two weapons. One piece of armor, and it's still Daith's reaper for the weapon. What do other elves get? TWO FUCKING PAGES OF ARMOR AND WEAPONS.

I REPEAT, FUCK YOU MATT WARD.

The other shit that was good (getting shit to flee -1d6) would have been fucking great on the new wild riders. Fuck you ward.

Magic

Wood elves have gone from being, magically, the least diverse race with the least choice of all when it came to spells, to the most. All Wood Elf wizards now have access to ALL rulebook lores, which is amazing for them, and the Spell Weavers are the only models who now have access to the new Wood Elf specific lores, the Lore of High and Dark Magic. Yes both are directly stolen from the High and Dark elves (this is confirmed by the fluff) but have different lore attributes (this can be seen as good and bad). As such a spell singer can now choose 10 lores with a chance to pick 3/4 of 72 different spells.

The following overviews are in my eyes, in the order of importance. However that is up to debate and which most important is dependant on your list and situation.

Lore of Life

This Lore is really good for Wood Elves as you can restore wounds on your best units (ie:Warhawks and arguably Treekin) every time you cast a spell and it fixes the universal elf problem; being squishy. It provides you with a way how to give your Glade Guard saves, revive your most expensive units, kill your foes with a characteristic test, and a safety net for you, if you miscast. It is best taken on a lvl 3/4.

Lore of Shadow

The Lore of Shadow allows you to switch and save the most important characters while debuffing your foes. It helps your shooting by reducing your opponent's toughness and weakens them in combat by reducing their strength, weapon skill and intiative. By using Melkoth's Mysitifying Miasma you can slow down your foes, giving you more time to fire. It can make one your heroes fly but that isn't as useful as the others. It also comes with a semi-cannon ball and an blast initiative test spell which can destroy your enemy's tougher units. Finally it comes with a buff that allows you to shred through tougher units. It is useful since it works on any wizard of any level.

Lore of High Magic

This Lore is really quite neat. It has a wide variety of cheap to cast spells which give you a better shorter ranged fireball as a signature spell, a buff the complete opposite of the MMM importantly buffing your BS, a spell which dispels all effects (very useful against any foe dependant on magic) as a signature spell, a small blast, the ability to redeploy one of your units 10", to dismantle magic items and to deal a str 4 hit to all your foes in one unit. Matt Ward has also given a good lore attribute which stacks well with it's multiple low level spells. Every time you successfully cast a spell you gain a counter. If you suffer an unsaved wound, then the counter nullifies the wound. Great if you are hiding your General anywhere, but especially with the sisters of the Thorn. I feel it is very much like a proactive version of the lore of life, preventing damage rather than repairing it.

Lore of Metal

The Lore of Metal is mostly aimed at healping armies like the wood elves deal with heavily armoured foes. It can debuff your foe's armour, pick off standards, has a 5+ pit of shades which causes stupidity and can give your troops a 5+ scaly skin save and +1 to hit (almost everything has armour piercing already). It isn't bad but the other lores often help more.

Lore of Beasts

The Lore of Beasts lets you run train on things that you normally would not be able to run train on. Arguably, it has the best signature spell of the 4 base Lores. +1 Strength and Toughness make even glade guard dangerous in hand to hand. They are still rubbish, but they may hurt someone. If applied to Treekin, they will each have Dragon-like stats, and go from being 'decent' to 'good' super fast. It really shines on wild riders and warhawks, though, since it takes them from squishy, to survivable, and from dangerous to just death. High initiative Strength 5 will scare anything. It will also give you the amber spear which helps you deal with monsters and a couple of character buffing spells which can help your shadow dancers.

Lore of Heavens

The Lore of Heavens is a mixed bag.You get 2 of the spells with the largest areas of affect and potentially the biggest damage output in the game, 1 high strength magic missile, 2 debuffs which synergise well, preventing your foe from ever getting poisoned or killling blow attacks or -1 to hit and a 50/50 chance to put warmachines out of commision for one turn, a buff which makes you reroll all ones (which Wood Elves do in woods anyway) and a very situational knock back spell. Also it's lore attribute turns all of it's spells into lvl 1 fireballs when cast at something with wings. Not bad but it is often outshone.

Lore of Fire

The Lore of Fire is best for level 1s since it comes with the best guaranteed magic missile in the game. If you lose your lvl 4 then go and pump all your dice into a super fireball. Beyond that the only spell of great use for wood elves is the Flaming Sword of Rhuin, which you sadly can't guarantee.

Lore of Dark Magic

Pity you can't take it on a level 1. On a level 4 it isn't bad but is beaten by almost all the other lores. It's lore attribute is best likenend to that of the lore of fire. Everytime you cast it on an enmy unit, it creates a vengance counter which activates when damage is next applied through a spell to that unit. It causes d3 extra units when it does so. If you can take 2 lv 3/4 mages then this is a good secondry lore but beyond the Storm of Magic I doubt it will see much use,

Tactics

Build your tactics around your army. Basically Wood Elves need to ambush, pick their fights carefully, and throw multiple units into every combat they fight if they want to win. One unit on its own is not going anywhere unless it's Treekin in numbers or it's charging on flanks or rear.

I cannot see any successful Wood Elves army without:

• 1. A Treeman;
• 2. A Spellweaver.

Here some options you could use:

• A) Shooty army.
  • Either you are going to run circles around your enemy and shoot his soldiers to bits like horse-archer tactics with one big unit of archers moving protected by a Treeman and some other disruption or holding units. Focus on the units trying yo get to your archers, then, when your shooters are safe, move your defenders.

• B) Fast combat army.
  • You could take an entire horse army. Very hard to use and limited options. Never tried, but it's a specialist army. It would be hard to beat block infantry armies though.

• C) Infantry army.
  • Units of 5 or 6 Treekin have high Strength and Toughness, multiple wounds, good weapons skill and nearly 20 attacks per turn. Spearmen unit is expensive but good for holding characters and with a Noble/Highborn is stubborn. The enemy will need to kill everyone, so they are not going anywhere for some turns.

A level 2 wizard with Tree Singing is the only reason no one uses trees in scenery anymore. Combine this with any army above.

Now with the new codex, shooty army is actually competetive. Waywalkers/waywatchers are much better now eventhough they lost killing blow. They are made to shoot down heavy infantry or heavy cavalry by ignoring AS! And if you face skirmishers or light infantry you cab switch the ignore AS for an extra shot per model! Hell I would take these guys over treemen anytime with this new codex! Also your core archers the glade guard are better due to their magic arrows they can choose from. Poisoning AP shots? Light infantry will cry when they get hit by a couple of 10 model strong units of glade guard. As lord choice Id recommend the spellweaver since magic is still important in current edition but as hero you should take the hero variant of the waywatchers because he is more assassin with his bow than as a hero leading the army.