Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Sylvaneth

"WALKING TREES I TELL YOU! WALKING TREES!"

If you're looking for the lore of the Sylvaneth, click -> Sylvaneth

Why should I play Sylvaneth?

So you like trees, nature, gardening and "Catch me if you can"? Well then, welcome to the Everqueens glorious wooden host! Fleet of Foot we spring from our forests, reaping our foes lives with Mortal Wounds, before vanishing back into the woods, leaving those still alive confused and broken. When it comes to hit and run, keeping multiwound models alive and literally shaping the battlefield to our needs, none compare. For we live between the Elite Armies of the Everchosen and hordes of Death and Destruction, our glades and copses are filled with singing dryads and solemn Kurnoth Hunters, ever watchful of the outsides and our enemies. For the Deepwood stirs...

Pros

• We have a lot of new and glorious models, almost completely in plastic.
• Easily paintable Chaff with Dryads.
• Almost everything we have is at least -1 Rend.
• We get around quickly. One ouf our Battleline moves 7", the other universally good one Teleports. If you like mobility, we are one of the best choices to date.
• Just look at Alarielle model.
• We can pump out loads of Mortal Wounds with our monsters, heavy infantry and spells.
• Massive Board Control with even just one Wyldwood and it only gets worse for those who oppose us.
• Kurnoth Hunters. Even by heavy infantry standard in AoS, absoloute damage monsters. They will do a lot of heavy lifting.
• Great, often colourful paint schemes. Whether you want your trees to be in full bloom, firey autumn or paint them as a haunted ghastly forest, you have a lot of choices.
• We actually have a good Battletome with great magic, Artifacts and the glory of being an angry tree.
• Good synergies, mostly revolving around the woods.
• Fair point prices, making for even and fair battles.
• With the prospect of 2nd edition looming, it looks like Sylvaneth will be buffed with various amount of summoning.

Cons

• Those Wyldwoods? We need at the very least one, but you should get more.
• We are very bad to transport. Seriously it's a pain with all these small bits and twigs.
• Mediocre and very expensive Batallions and Wargroves.
• Only eleven units, giving us less choices than for example Seraphon. One of these Models is utterly useless, so ten, really.
• Our woods will quickly become death zones for us if our opponent plays Stormcasts.
• We have two essential spells and the rest is really questionable.
• Virtually no defenses against Mortal Wounds. Only a single Feel no Pain in the form of an artefact, the glamourweave.

Allegiance Abilities

Battle Traits

Armies with the SYLVANETH allegiance have the following abilities:

• Wyldwood Groves: Place one Sylvaneth Wyldwood anywhere on the battlefield more than 1" from any other piece of scenery after all the other scenery was placed. Soon in this article you will see why you can't really play Sylvaneth without them.

• Forest Spirits: You can set up a SYLVANETH unit or battalion aside instead. In any of your movement phases, you can deploy it on the battlefield. All models have to be within 3" of a Sylvaneth Wyldwood and more than 9" from any enemy models. This is their move for that movement phase. Sylvaneth deep strike. Exploit it with Spirits of Durthu, melee Kurnoth Hunters, and their shared battalion, Free Spirits. Trunks fall, everyone dies.

• Navigate Realmroots: If a SYLVANETH unit is within 3" of a Sylvaneth Wyldwood at the start of your movement phase, you can remove the unit, then set it up within 3" of a different Sylvaneth Wyldwood, more than 9" from any enemy models. Then, roll a dice. On a 1, the unit arrives, but can't do nothing else for the rest of your turn. This does not affect Treemen of any kind (and funnly enough, it does not mention any named character) and instead it counts as if they rolled a 2-5. On 2-5, the unit arrives, but can't move any further for the rest of the movement phase. On a 6+ (see Command Traits, down), The unit arrives and can move again guring this movement phase.

Command Traits

A general of an army with a SYLVANETH allegiance and has chosen to take the SYLVANETH allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Command Traits:

1. Realm Walker: If your general uses the Navigate Realmroots ability, add 2 to the dice result. Turns a Spirit of Durthu into a crazed 1 man army, getting within 4" of an enemy on a 4+.
2. Gnarled Warrior: When you make save rolls for your general, ignore the enemy’s Rend unless it is -2 or better. Not bad but better options exist.
3. Gift of Ghyran: Your general heals 1 wound at the start of each of your hero phases, or D3 wounds if they are within 3" of a Sylvaneth Wyldwood. This one can make a treelord ancient with Regrowth almost as unkillable as Alarielle.
4. Lord of Spites: You can re-roll the first failed hit roll made for your general in each phase.
5. Warsinger: You can add 1 to any charge rolls made for friendly SYLVANETH units that are within 10" of your general. Good choice for turning a spirit path walk into a charge on the same turn.
6. Wisdom of the Ancients: All friendly SYLVANETH units within 10" of your general in the battleshock phase add 1 to their Bravery. Best near revenants, your most vulnerable to battleshock.

Magical Artefacts

One HERO in an army with a SYLVANETH allegiance and has chosen to take the SYLVANETH allegiance abilities, plus one HERO for every battalion selected, can choose one of the following Magical Artefacts:

1. Daith's Reaper: One of your melee weapon gets the bonus of wound roll of 6+ having -4 Rend. This is... eh. Might be best on a Spirit of Durthu because he has the largest volume of attacks.
2. The Oaken Armour: Add 1 to bearer's Save rolls. Excellent when paired with the Gnarled Warrior Battle Trait on a Treelord (Any variant) giving it a 2+ armor that ignores the rend of most things out there.
3. Briarsheath: To Hit penalty for anyone attacking the bearer.
4. Seed of Rebirth: The first time you lose your last wound you gain D3 wounds. Obviously best for a Branchwych/wraith, as a monster with D3 Wounds might as well be dead again, unless we're talking about a Treelord Ancient with Regrowth. Especially useful on a Branchwych, as if she dies and comes back, she still counts as having taken wounds for the purposes of her bonus.
5. Wraithstone: Subtract 1 from the Bravery of enemy units within 10" in the Battleshock Phase. Combine with Spite-Revenants for best results.
6. Glamourweave: 6+ save-after-the-save. Great for a Spirit of Durthu tanking Wounds because he can use that to protect himself, and also the only thing in the army that ignores mortal wounds.

Arcane Treasures

One WIZARD in an army with a SYLVANETH allegiance and has chosen to take the SYLVANETH allegiance abilities, plus one WIZARD for every battalion selected, can choose one of the following Arcane Treasures:

1. Acorn of the Ages: Set up a Wyldwood within 5", one-use only. Sounds incredible, doesn't it? Well. It has its uses. You can simply throw a forest-shaped wrench into enemy charge lanes, you can let an isolated Hero summon their own reinforcement spawn point, you can make some cover to make a stand. But it isn't the end all, be all. Probably best not to give this to an Ancient, as those guys can summon Wyldwoods on their own.
2. Warsong Stave: Add Treesong to the spells you know. The usefulness of Treesong is debatable though getting yet another spell is nothing to scoff at. Not necessarily the best Treasure, but certainly a useful one.
3. Moonstone of the Hidden Ways: Can teleport anywhere so long as you stay 4" away from enemies, one-use only. Either useful to rush into a fight or to run the hell away from one you cannot win. However, since only Wizards can take this, rushing into fights might not necessarily be the best idea, especially since named characters cannot take these.
4. Ranu's Lamentiri: Add 1 to all casting rolls, if the spell is from the Deepwood Spell Lore, add 2 instead. Casting roll modifiers are always welcome. Might be useful to make sure your Ancient will get his Regrowth off, but might also be nice to buff the Branchwych's spell. Becomes even better in a Gnarlroot Wargrove as the owner can milk it for all it's worth.
5. Hagbane Spite: Once per game, the bearer can choose to forgo unbinding a spell and deal D3 Mortal Wounds to the caster after the spell has been cast. Could be a nice deterrent, or useful for finishing a Wizard off who's annoying you.
6. The Silverwood Circlet: +6" to spell range. Of limited use for most spells, but The Reaping will get pretty terrifying pretty quickly with this. Also wonderful for a Wizard with Throne of Vines, as the extra range means they don't have to move to bring their spells to bear.

Deepwood Spell Lore

Every WIZARD in an army with a SYLVANETH allegiance and has chosen to take the SYLVANETH allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Spells:

1. Throne of Vines: Casting value 5. +D3 to cast/unbind, but only as long as you don't move. This is probably the toughest spell to use well as a lot of your Wizards are squishy and don't want to sit still. You could buff Alarielle's or a Branchwych's unique spells up with this, but mostly there is little reason to taking this. If, however, you play the Gnarlroot Wargrove that lets you cast two spells a turn, this here turns from meh to incredible.
2. Regrowth: Casting value 5. Heal D3 Wounds to a friendly within 18", D6 for Sylvaneth. TAKE IT. I don't care about your strategy, take it. Alarielle? Take it. Treelord Ancient? Take it. Drycha? Take it unless you want a suicide bomb.
3. Verdant Blessing: Casting value 6. Sets up a Wyldwood within 18". As useful as the Wyldwoods are to you, this spell is pretty good.
4. The Dwellers Below: Casting value 7. Pick a unit within 10", roll a D6 for every model in the unit, every 6 deals a Mortal Wound. Basically Vermintide/New Treason of Tzeentch. It's good, with a potentially gigantic damage output, but unless used against units of 20+, Arcane Bolt will probably do more.
5. The Reaping: Casting value 6. Every enemy unit within 3" takes D3 Mortal Wounds. Nice when you're stuck in melee, but only really good in combination with the Silverwood Circlet. Also remember that it gets better against multiple small units, but worse against horde armies.
6. Treesong: Casting value 7. Immediately rouses a Wyldwood, then moves it 2D6". This spell is of debatable value. On the one hand, it helps you shove a Wyldwood into a more useful position, damages enemies on it, can pull said enemies with them to where they don't want to be, can pull your units somewhere you do want them and generally acts as a fantastic deterrent to entering your Wyldwood. On the other hand, it's a pretty high casting value, moving the scenery is not always useful and depending on where it is can be flat-out impossible. There are basically endless uses for this spell if you're clever, but you need to think them through beforehand or this spell becomes dead weight. For example, if you goad your opponent into taking the table half with the Wyldwood on it, you can yank the Wyldwood toward you and drop a ton of damage onto the opponent in the process. Or you could place some Spite-Revenants and Kurnoth Hunters into a Wyldwood and then shove the Wyldwood towards the opponent, giving your slowest units slightly higher movement.

Warscrolls

Leaders

Named Leaders

• Alarielle the Everqueen: This counts as a Behemoth. As expected from the next big over-the-top God model, Alarielle is downright terrifying. Specifics? Sure. The lady has a massive pool of 16 Wounds with a 3+ Save and yet she still rocks a 16" Flying Move stat. She also regenerates and can either drop another unit of angry trees on the battlefield OR heal all Sylvaneth model around her, including herself, even more. She also has a massively strong throwing spear with equally massive 30" range and the beetle hits harder than anything else in the game. It's so damn strong it damages people standing in terrain if it charges into said terrain and has five damage 5(!) attacks. And her other weapon is basically the Massive Impaling Talon, but supercharged and with 4 attacks. Like Nagash and Archaon, she is not really something you compare to normal models. She's too powerful for that. She's simply something you try to survive.
  • Will be getting a points drop in AoS 2nd edition as well as being buffed through free summons. As it stands she isn't too good for her 600pts price tag, but stay tuned to this page when 2nd ed is released. Alarielle is likely to be a fantastic unit for a Sylvaneth army.

• Drycha Hamadreth: This also counts as a Behemoth. Drycha is back and more pissed off than ever. The tree Dreadknight has an armada of tiny gribbles that can cause a quite massive amount of Mortal Wounds to enemy units at range, having either an aura of angry bees that deals a bit of damage to every enemy unit, (latest errata August 2017 has specified its enemy only), within 18" (down to a 6" if you're wounded) or a shooting attack with centipedes that targets an enemy unit within 10", rolls a D6 per model in range and on 3+ (up to a 5+ if you're wounded) deals a Mortal Wound. Holy cow. This flat-out kills 2 in every 3 Saurus Guard, though it does lose effectiveness against multi-wound models. In melee she's not the overkill to end all overkill, but if she rolls to be enraged, she doubles her attacks and might actually kill something. She's also excessively fast with a 9" Move that is not weakened by her damage table. Her best combination is in her relationship to Spite-Revenants though. The Revenants lower enemy Bravery in order to power her damage-off-of-Bravery spell whereas she grants them better To Wound rolls (if she manage to not kill them with the bees). Drycha's real meat lies in her mood swings. Beginning of each battle round she will become either angry or sad. The angry profile buffs the bees and DOUBLES the attacks made with her stronger melee profile, thus making her absolutely terrifying, whereas the sad profile treats her damage chart as one better than it actually is (meaning if she suffered 5 Wounds you look at the chart as though she'd suffered 3) and makes the centipedes better. Only problem is that you can only have one of the two shooty profiles, so against most things the centipedes might be better.
  • It's probably best to stay out of melee, dishing out buckets of mortal wounds with her bugs of choice so that she's nice and healthy for when you roll enraged and can charge in with 12 + 2d6 attacks.
  • Take the flitterfuries. With the Errata telling the flies where to actually go, you create a massive bubble of area denial that you can turn into a killing zone once your opponent steps into it. It's a pretty daunting prospect to just loose a couple soldies out of all units that step into her surroundings without being able to do much against it. Don't forget that Drycha is really mobile and if she is enranged she rerolls the 1's on the flies and doubles her main melee attack, making her a formidable foe that can go toe-to-toe with a Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur on equal footing, util you send in reinforcements to finish the big Dino off.

Generic Leaders

• Branchwraith: A useful caster, but nowhere near as mandatory as she used to be. As a Hero she sports a very meh stat wheel with the exception of her above average movement speed (7"). Her melee will offer only token resistance to opponents, big surprise, she's a Wizard after all. Not an overly powerful Wizard at first glance, mind, but she does summon new Dryads and generally has just enough support utility to never not be welcome in a Sylvaneth army. If you have any sense you will keep this crazy looking plant lady in or near a Wyldwood churning out dryads as it also makes the lady harder to hit in addition to raising her Save like normal cover. To sum up its always a good idea to have at least 1 of these around more if you can but just keep her close to a Wyldwood or else give her a bodyguard unit (Treekin work well as they are large enough to maybe block line of sight).
  • In matched play, her summoning spell is promising again, as of the second edition of Age of Sigmar. Very easy to cast, 2D6 more Dryads almost each turn is nothing to scoff at. Beside, as your main battleline unit, Dryads should die in droves, so you should always have models at the side of the table ready to get back into the fray.

• Branchwych: Where the Branchwraith is defensive minded, the Branchwych is very aggressive-minded. She exchanges the summoning spell for an unreliable but potentially devastating damage pulse, the meh melee for actually decent melee and the defense bonus whilst in a forest for damage bonuses in a forest and after being hurt in melee. Only time will tell if she's more useful than her old counterpart.
  • Hi, it's Time here. Just wanted to tell you that the branchwych is more useful than her old counterpart. While the branchwraith summoning is pretty much never worth casting, the branchwych's is only usually not worth casting. If there are only 1 or 2 target units in range, arcane bolt will usually do more damage, but it gets better against more units, of course. It's also nice to have in a Gnarlroot batallion, or just in an army with lots of wizards, where you've likely already got arcane bolt covered. As for now she is a good general choice, a cheap wizard and decent fighter, which is all you really want from her and her 80 points, which she unvariably will be with three times over if you place her right and give the right spells to cast.
    • Consider giving her the Silverwood Circlet, as it supercharges her spell to 15" making her an effective force at the front.
      • Have her attack last, in the hope that she took a little damage, as she doubles her Scythe attack, making it more useful and put out more damage.

• Sylvaneth Treelord Ancient: This also counts as a Behemoth. It seems as if GW has attempted to make the Ancient a weaker but more magical version of a garden variety Treelord. This guy has 1" less movement and 1 less attack on its Sweeping Blows. This doesn't seem like much, but the drop from 4 to 3 attacks is actually quite drastic. And what does this old fella get in return? An extra 3 to its Bravery, 18" range on its strangle roots, gains a command ability and becoming a freakin' wizard! His unique spell is also great. It's either a great deterrent to entering your Wyldwoods or a great punishment if the opponent was dumb enough to actually do it. He can also summon entirely new Wyldwoods and has a Command Ability that lets all the Sylvaneth around him reroll saves of 1s.

• Spirit of Durthu: Again, This is SPARTAAAAA *ahem* a Behemoth. Oddly NOT a named character anymore and therefore not reduced to 0-1 in Matched Play, but very expensive. The Spirit of Durthu is an absolute damage monster, with a shooting attack that is basically the vanilla Treelord's Stranglevines on steroids, with higher range, more shots and higher damage per shot, which he can also make even stronger by channeling his life-force, meaning he can add shots but takes damage if he does. His sword is just about as terrifying as it looks, with constant damage 6 so long as he stays in good health and bonus attacks for being near a forest. In short, the Spirit of Durthu is a monstrous damage dealer, with extremely powerful shooting, terrifying melee and all the standard tricks of the Treelords. He also adds to the Bravery of friendly Sylvaneth and can tank Wounds for Sylvaneth Heroes, so take that into account when picking his artifact.
  • If you plan on playing defensively, make sure that you make him set up shop next to a Wyldwood, as it gives him another D3 attacks on his Sword attack. With a little luck from the Dice Gods nothing will stand against him. Keep him healed to get the very best out of him.

Troops

Battleline

• Sylvaneth Dryads: Your rank and file angry trees. These ladies are thankfully quite versatile and so can be used for a variety of situations. At first glance the ladies don't look like much, having only a 5+ Save and 2 attacks at 4+/4+/-/1. But they quickly become incredible as in units of 12+ they gain a better Save, they hit on 3+ in your combat phase and they also have 2" range on their attacks, letting them fight in thick, two-row hedges. They also profit massively from being in cover, Wyldwoods in particular and are also very fast at 7". Keep them in big units as the Save-bonus and the 2" range heavily reward you for doing so.
  • You can abuse their buffed save rolls by adding a unit of Sisters of the Thorn to your army (in a Gnarlroot or Winterleaf batallion to keep your Sylvaneth allegiance). +1 to your save from having 12 dryads, +1 from mystic shield, and +1 from being in cover means that you've got a 2+ rerollable save, which deals mortal wounds to your attacker on a 3+.
  • You can buff your Dryads in a ridicolous way fairly easily. All you need is a Forest and an Treelord Ancient. Put 20 Dryads in a forest, next to the Ancient. He uses his command ability and casts mystic shield and when the enemy charges you, hope thet the Ancient stomp successfully. And there you go, your enemy has -2 to hit, a 3+ save with rerollable 1s.

• Tree-Revenants: The new guys on the block, the Tree-Revenants at first glance look disappointing, with basically the same stat-wheel as Dryads but lower Move. Now here's where it gets good. First, they have Rend in melee, something the army desperately needs and second they have the coolest rerolls in the game, getting to reroll 1 dice per phase. So this seems wonky in melee, doesn't it? Well, it also allows them to reroll the dice to run, one of the charge dice, the Battleshock dice... you get the picture. The real meat with them however are musician and standard bearer. The standards allow them to pile in 6" which lets them get more attacks in and the musician allows them to use a better Spirit Paths rule, letting you take them off the table and then place them close to either a Wyldwood or a table edge to hunt down those pesky archers and war machines and then instantly zipping back to the home front. All in all they're good specialists, but too fragile (and too expensive) to use for your mainline infantry. At best, you play two units of 5, which grants you twice as many chances of charging right after teleporting. Since they have an over 50% chance of making that 9" charge with their rerolls, this should allow you to take down any War Machine the opponent has.

• Spite-Revenants: Now Battleline in an army with Sylvaneth Allegiance. Less tricksy, more creepy Tree-Revenants. These do not have Rend but gain an additional attack over Dryads. They also exist to muck around with enemy Bravery. They flat reduce the Bravery of enemies around them, which combos well with Drycha's unique spell and terrain pieces around them become so creepy that enemies have to roll 2 dice for Battleshock and pick the highest. These will not be your mainline infantry either, but small units interspersed with your Dryads will do wonders to screw with the opponent.

Others

• Kurnoth Hunters: Incredible. Each of these guys is basically a minor Hero at 5 Wounds and a 4+ Save. They also have a choice of weapons. First and probably most useful are the Greatbows. Bows with a stunning 30" range, two shots per model and D3 damage per shot, these guys are basically artillery. If you pick that option, you also get the adorable Quiverbug who does the melee fighting for them, being very non-threatening, but remember, these guys are tough as nails and you can shoot into melee. The other options are melee weapons, Sword or Scythe respectively. The sword tosses out 4 attacks at -1 Rend and damage 2 while the scythe tosses out 3 attacks at Rend -2 and damage D3. The scythes do more damage than the swords against 2+ saves, break even against 3+ and the swords win against everything else. Given how rare 2+ and even 3+ saves are in AoS, you'll usually want the swords. However, always keep in mind that the bows are probably the best and not just because your army needs shooting even more desperately. Another nice thing about them is that they channel Command Abilities. They themselves always count as in range of a Sylvaneth General's Command and every Sylvaneth unit within 10" of them does as well. Use them to spread your Ancient's protection skill around.

Behemoths

• Sylvaneth Treelord: With beautiful models and some equally beautiful stats your Treelords are a force to be reckoned with. These guys have a little bit of everything. Their stat profiles are similar to that of a riderless dragon with a few big knocks with high damage and one special attack that has a chance of auto-killing weaker/damaged opponent. They also have a nice To Hit penalty to dish out in melee and can teleport between Wyldwoods. Aaand they can also shoot, which is decent, but nothing you should bet on. You have Kurnoth Hunters for shooty. While it should be remembered that these guys class as monster and carry all the baggage that comes with that (You know declining stats, Large model, everyone wants to shoot it. that sort of thing), its still a pretty kickass unit.

Scenery

• Sylvaneth Wyldwood: Consists of up to 3 Citadel Woods. Obviously the bigger you make it, the more expensive it gets and harder it is to place, but the bigger you make it, the more useful it becomes. To start off, this forest will attempt to kill all models that aren't Sylvaneth, Heroes or Monsters. If they run or charge over or into it, you roll a D6 for each model. If the model rolls a 1 then it's goodnight. Watch any Ogors and Bullgors avoid these woods like the plague. In addition this forest is allergic to magic, and has a chance of dealing d3 damage to all units in or within 1" (again, except for Sylvaneth) if a spell is cast within 6". All of that is without the multitude of abilities that the rest of the army draw from it, ranging from buffs to spawning points and even as warp pads.

Discontinued

• Treekin: (NOTE: These units are no longer in production and as of August 2017 no longer contain the Sylvaneth keyword). If you have some, use them in friendly games, they're quite strong. While not as hard hitting or durable as some other units of their size they are generally faster and still add a nice middle ground between your dryads and Kurnoth Hunters, being pretty much Ogres with better Saves. While I wouldn't rely on these guys they do make a useful addition to any army when fielded in units of around 6. Useful as bodyguard when transporting a Branchwraith round the field as their tall stature can help block line of sight. Alternatively these guys are quite effective at taking out the crowd control units that will eliminate great swathes of your dryads especially if you throw a mystic shield their way. In Matched Play (they might be abled to be used as an allied attachment), there's less than no reason not to use them as they're incredibly cheap for what they do.

Normal Battalions

Guardians of the Deepwood

Found in the Mighty Battles in an Age of Unending War campaign book.

3 Treelords and/or Treelord Ancients, 2 units of Dryads, 2 Sylvaneth Wyldwoods. Deep strike any unit from this battalion within 3" of a SYLVANETH WYLDWOOD and more than 9" from enemy model. Also you can place your 2 woods after everything is set up, everywhere on the battlefield.

Forest Spirit Wargrove

A Treelord Ancient, 2 Treelords, 3 units of Dryads and a Branchwraith.

Alarielle's Heartwood Guard

A Branchwraith, 3 Treelords and/or Treelord Ancients, 3 units of Dryads. All have Bravery 10 and may reroll ones to hit within 15" of the branchwraith. The branchwraith also can heal one wound to one model on the field every hero phase or d3 wound to a model in 18"

Outcasts

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

Three units of Spite-Revenants

Very simple but very effective. In your Hero Phase, any enemy unit within 8" of at least two units of Spite-Revenants takes 2D6 minus Bravery Mortal Wounds. Considering that Spite-Revenants lower Bravery of enemies around them, this quickly becomes very powerful.

Free Spirits

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

A Spirit of Durthu and three units of Kurnoth Hunters

These get a bonus move, but with a twist. In your Hero Phase, you pick one enemy unit or piece of scenery and then all units from the Battalion can move with their full Move value (but cannot run) so that they end their movement closer to the unit/scenery piece than they started. And yes, you may interpret that very liberally.

Forest Folk

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

A Branchwraith and three units of Dryads

This grants a potentially useful one-use ability that lets you take the entire Battalion off the table and then redeploy them close to your Wyldwoods.

Household

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

A vanilla Treelord, a Branchwych and a unit of Tree-Revenants

Units locked in combat with the Household cannot retreat and they gain +1 Bravery. Simple and effective. Usually used for the Gnarlroot Wargrove however, which is discussed below.

Lords of the Clan

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

A Treelord Ancient (the Chief), one to three other Treelord Ancients and one to three normal Treelords

Like lots of bunch-a-Hero Battalions, this allows the leader to use a damage pulse that only becomes reliable if you field all seven potential Treelords.

Sylvaneth Heartwood Host

Found in Start Collecting! Sylvaneth.

A vanilla Treelord, a Branchwych and a unit of Dryads

During every Hero Phase, the Treelord and Branchwych recover one wound lost earlier in battle, and the Dryads get back a slain model. Makes Dryads even harder to shift from a Wyldwood, that Branchwych more durable and the Treelord last longer, so it's quite good.

Wargrove Battalions

Wargroves are very irregular Battalions. Like lots of super-Battalions, they consist of several smaller Battalions. Unlike them, most Wargrove Battalions have very, very low minimum requirements that can become very big. They give you a themed force and powerful bonuses for adhering to them, but pretty much lock you into a specific strategy. We will not describe all the potential choices of these in detail, we will only be looking at minimum requirements and then mention particularly interesting specifics.

Sylvaneth Wargrove

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

One Lords of the Clan, three Households, three Forest Folks, one Free Spirits and one Outcasts.

The worst of the Wargroves by virtue of having fixed requirements and the meh-est rules. Its special rule is potentially great though, allowing you to place two Wyldwoods at the start of the game instead of one. Still, way too big to use. If you fill the other Wargroves to the maximum amount of Battalions, they gain this ability on top.

Winterleaf Wargrove

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

Needs a single Forest Folk Battalion to start out. Said Battalion must include an additional unit of Dryads

This one is very nice to your Dryads, granting them a "Hit rolls of 6+ make another attack" rule, which is amazing as Dryads can increase their own Hit rolls. They may also use Ophidian Archways like Wyldwoods when it comes to their teleporting and rerolls Hit rolls of 1s against Chaos. Another thing of note is that it allows you to include any one Order unit. A Celestial Hurricanum is the suggested option here and not just because it makes the Dryads so much better. Alternatively, take the seraphon wizard of your choice and summon as many lizards as you want, without breaking your Sylvaneth allegiance.

Ironbark Wargrove

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

Needs a single Household Battalion to start out. Said Battalion must include a second unit of Tree-Revenants

Very dwarfish Battalion, as evidenced by the fact that it can include any two Duardin units. You also get to reroll 1s To Wound with Tree-Revenants and Branchwyches and you halve your losses when taking Battleshock tests. On top, one of your Heroes can take a Battalion-specific Artifact that grants their Melee Weapons +1 To Wound.

Dreadwood Wargrove

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

Needs an Outcasts Battalion, but with 4-6 units Spite-Revenants instead of the usual 3 to start out

Very nice for your Spite-Revenants. Right off the bat, they gain the same buff they would normally gain from being near Drycha, but without having to be close to Drycha. Then, before the game starts, you get D3 special rules that allow you to close the distance better. The list of these is 1) can re-place a unit from the Battalion within 6" of the opponent, 2) enemy range is reduced to 12" for turn 1 and 3) move 3 of your units as if it were the movement phase (but no running). This is incredible at getting your units close to the opponent, but since all but one of these special rules only target a limited number of units, the Battalion loses effectiveness as it gets bigger.

Heartwood Wargrove

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

Needs a Free Spirits Battalion, but with 4-6 units of Kurnoth Hunters instead of 3 to start out

Meh. Gets everything but Kurnoth Hunters +1 to Bravery and can recycle Dryads, Tree-Revenants or Spite-Revenants. However the effectiveness of this in Matched Play hinges on whether this recycling counts as summoning or not (it does). If so, then this is utterly worthless (it is). If it doesn't, this is possibly decent (it's not), as the recycled units can be teleported into any Wyldwood if you wish (however 1. you can roll only once in your hero phase 2. a unit of revenants or dryads needs to have died already (so likely no rolling in turn 1 and possibly 2) 3. you need to roll a 5+ 4. then they can't move that turn so getting them last turn is probably not that useful either). Toss a couple Wyldwoods all over the field and the opponent killing your infantry might end up being beneficial to you.

Gnarlroot Wargrove

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

Needs a Household Battalion, but with a Treelord Ancient instead of the vanilla version, to start out

This one is... wow. It can include any one Order Wizard, so again, Celestial Hurricanum it is. On top, Treelord Ancients, Branchwyches and Branchwraiths from this Battalion can cast and unbind two spells a turn, which is great with all your unique spells. Even more so as every Wizard in this Battalion gets an additional spell that can resurrect one Kurnoth Hunter/Spite-Revenant/Treekin or D3 Dryads/Tree-Revenants. Great. This Wargrove combos well with Ranu's Lamentiri and even more so Throne of Vines. It will absolutely buff your magic game through the stratosphere for basically no downsides. Alternatively you can take a Skink's Starpriest instead of the Hurricanum, saving over 200 Points and getting access to the Skink's -1 To Hit debuff which combos well with the -1 To Hit penalty that Dryads already give enemies when nearby a Wyldwood, then combine that with a Treelord's -1 To Hit debuff and your opponent is stuck with a -3 To Hit. Hot damn. Not to mention you can also take a Slaan and summon some Seraphon without breaking your allegiance.

Oakenbrow Wargrove

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

Needs a Lords of the Clan Battalion, but with 2-6 Treelords instead of 1-3, to start out

Gets all your Treelords and Treelord Ancients an additional Wound, though do remember that this doesn't save you from the effects of the damage table, as that looks at Wounds Suffered, not Wounds Remaining. Then, they can recycle a single unit of Dryads/Revenants. They can only do this once per game, not once per turn, but unlike the Heartwood Wargrove, they don't have to roll for it, they just do. Finally, and probably most meh is a Command that grants you higher Bravery in a huge circle. Not really as good as the Command the Ancient already came with.

Harvestboon Wargrove

Found in the Sylvaneth Battletome.

Needs a Forest Folk Battalion, but with two Branchwraiths instead of one, to start out

Very Branchwraith-focused. All your Branchwraiths add 1 to cast/unbind and one can pick an exclusive Artifact that lets her pick a second Deepwood Lore spell and adds 3" to her spell range. Also, everything in the Wargrove adds 1" to run and charge rolls, which is incredible, especially for teleporting Tree-Revenants, but also for just about everything else here.

Army Building

All this buildings are for armies with the SYLVANETH allegiance.

1000 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 2 Battleline units.

An example list would be:

• Branchwych (General)
• 20 Sylvaneth Dryads
• 5 Tree-Revenants
• 5 Tree-Revenants
• 3 Kurnoth Hunters with any weapon you like (bows recommended to add range)
• Treelord

Solid core of Dryads, a big monster, a caster general and powerful melee. Gives you two Units of Tree Revenants, so you can teleport and take out ranged options. This is 20 points short of the 1000 points limit. Otherwise another list could be:

• Drycha Hamadreth (280pt.)
• A Sylvaneth Treelord Ancient with Wraithstone and the Regrowth spell (300pt.)
• A Branchwych with the Verdant Blessing spell (80pt.)
• 10 Sylvaneth Dryads (100pt.)
• 5 Tree Revenants (80pt.)
• 5 Spite-Revenants (80pt.)
• 5 Spite-Revenants (80pt.)

And if you still really want to have those two units of Kurnoth Hunters:

• Drycha Hamadreth
• 20 Dryads
• 5 Revenants (any Kind will do)
• 3 Kurnoth Hunters with Bows
• 3 Kurnoth Hunters with Melee weapons

Lastly, here is is the "Who needs Friends to play the game anyway?"

• Alarielle the Everqueen
• 10 Dryads
• 5 Tree-Revenants
• 3 Kurnoth Hunters

Don't play it, unless you really want to get away from the hobby.

2000 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 3 Battleline units.

Coming in at 2000 on the dot, here is an example of a 2000 Point Army List:

Treelord Ancient with Ranu's Lamentiri and Regrowth (General)

Treelord Ancient

Branchwych

Dryads x20

Dryads x20

Tree-Revenants x5

Tree-Revenants x5

Spite-Revenants x5

Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords x3

Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows x3

Treelord

Another 2000 points list using some battalions:

• Treelord Ancient (general)

With Gift of Ghyran, The Silverwood Circlet, and Regrowth

• Branchwych

With Ranu's Lamentiri, and Verdant Blessing

• Spirit of Durthu

with Briarsheath

Dryads x10

Dryads x10

Tree-Revenants x5

Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords x3

Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows x3

Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows x3

Gnarlroot Wargrove

Household

This list combines both the magical strength of the Gnarlroot Wargrove with the biggest punch available in the Free Spirits Battalion, although without the special rules due to the new point increases in battalions.

Any but the toughest opponents would fill the backsides of their pants at the sight of 9 Kurnoth Hunters accompanying Durthu.

2500 pt.

Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 4 Battleline units.

• Treelord Ancient (general)

With Gift of Ghyran, The Silverwood Circlet, and Regrowth

• Branchwych

With Ranu's Lamentiri, and Verdant Blessing

• Spirit of Durthu

with Briarsheath

Dryads x20

Dryads x10

Tree-Revenants x5

Tree-Revenants x5

Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords x3

Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows x3

Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows x3

Treelord

Gnarlroot Wargrove

Household

Free Spirits

Tactics

Sylvaneth are an incredibly engaging army, because they play unlike anything else in the game. They are, fittingly, the Elves of AoS (except, you know, they are not Elves): They require more tactics and in-depth knowledge of the army than any other faction in the game, but if you know your way around them, they can beat just about everyone.

Unlike Khorne, Sylvaneth have no buff game to speak of. There are no "+1 attack to every melee weapon" abilities, few defensive buffs and the only offensive buff lies in Alarielle's one-use Command.

Unlike an army like Nurgle or Fyreslayers, they cannot simply advance and outlast all the opponent's firepower.

Unlike Seraphon, Death or Daemons, you cannot cast a dozen spells a turn and replace your losses easily.

What you do have are Wyldwoods, Tree-Revenants and shenanigans. Let us look at them in detail.

Wyldwoods

Like the Wood Elves of old, you get to place a single forest. Not just any forest, but a Sylvaneth Wyldwood. One to three Citadel Woods with a hate-on for everything not Sylvaneth. All of these forests must be within 1" of each other and not within an inch of any other scenery (GA: Order FAQ 1.3) Unlike the Wood Elves of old, you do not place this forest as part of your army. You place it before players even choose their table halves. This opens a lot of possibilities right there. The two most basic options are to place it on one half of the table, or to place it as close to the middle of the board as the other terrain allows. Placing it in the middle evens the playing field and while fair, is not too useful. By placing it on one side of the table, you force the opponent to make a difficult choice right off the bat: Does he give you the Wyldwood-side, thus dooming himself to trying to dig you out of a heavily fortified area that is all but lethal to him? Or does he take it for himself and then fill it with units so you cannot teleport into it? The latter is particularly bad for him because it seems like such a logical choice at first, but then you rouse this Wyldwood again and again, yank it toward you and then, once you reach it, you fight on it with a huge home field advantage. A particularly great strategy is to connect three woods as close to the center of the board as possible in order to put your danger zone as close to all the objectives as possible. This can be used to, for example, set up a unit of Kurnoth Hunters in said Wyldwood and then Treesong the Wood along with the Hunters towards the opponent, filling more of his table half with the Wyldwood and pushing your Hunters closer.

And that is only with the Wood you get at the start. You could also set up a Wizard at the very edge of your deployment zone, then use Verdant Blessing or to set up a Wyldwood 18" closer to the opponent and then in your movement phase, to summon something into this new Wyldwood, disturbingly close to the opponent. Don't forget your Spirit Paths allegiance ability, allowing your sylvaneth units to teleport between any two wyldwoods. After setting up a couple wyldwoods with Verdant Blessing and the Treelord Ancient's Silent Communion, not only will your units grab objectives at blinding speed, but you will put pressure on the opponent's backline units without any units even being there.

Or if you're playing defensively you can set up a Wyldwood just in front of your front line, forcing your enemy to charge into the Wyldwood in order to reach you to hit them with that Mortal Wound penalty for charging into a Wyldwood, while also giving you the home field advantage.

This is of course just a small taste of all the fun to be had with Wyldwood shenanigans. Just try it out, experiment and if you find some other worthwhile tactic, come and expand this article with it.

Tree-Revenants

Unlike what the Battletome wants to suggest to you, these are not your mainline infantry. They are neither particularly tough nor particularly killy and their kit is way too expensive to use lots of them (although less so, now that they've gotten cheaper). Yet they are still an integral part of your army. Whereas the Wyldwood-shenanigans above are very useful to bring your units into melee faster, they aren't all that good at getting to those back-row fire support units and war machines. They also provide little distraction since they all tend to come in from the front. That's where Tree-Revenants come in. With their Waypipes they can appear at any table edge, right where your opponent is most likely to deploy war machines, Jezzails and Poisoned Wind Mortars. Minimum-size squads of them also have just high enough of a damage output to cut all the aforementioned units to ribbons. But, you will say, the 9" charge after teleporting is improbable. No. Since they can reroll one of the charge dice, they are more likely to make that charge than to fail it, even more so in a Harvestboon Wargrove that adds 1 to their charge rolls. A good rule of thumb is to use 2 units of minimum size. That way, it's very likely at least one of them will make the charge and then they will more than likely deal enough damage to neuter the war machine you attacked. Do not use them as you would Dryads. Use them like scalpels to cut out the really unpleasant ranged units the opponent has.

Magic

Your Wizards have quite the vast selection of spells now. A little something about them:

The Reaping in conjunction with the Silverwood Circlet is a no-brainer. A lot of people seem to put this trick on a Branchwych, but a Treelord Ancient, who is tougher and is much larger, is actually a much better candidate.

Ranu's Lamentiri and Verdant Blessing is another no-brainer as it allows you to place new Wyldwoods with relative certainty. Since Treelord Ancients can summon new Wyldwoods without casting spells, this might be better to put on a Branchwych, especially since her unique spell profits from the casting bonus a lot.

Regrowth on the two special characters seems obvious but should be mentioned here. On Alarielle, it provides her with a third regeneration ability, enough to make her almost impossible to kill. On Drycha, it takes a frustratingly tough and powerful monster and turns it into an impossibly tough and powerful monster.

On a Treelord Ancient, it might be worthwhile to work with the Warsong Stave, as any Ancient not using Reaping Circlet will want Regrowth. With the Warsong Stave, you can keep Regrowth and still gain another spell, at the cost of a possible Artifact.

One last thing. Keep any Throne of Vines or Regrowth casters THE HELL away from a Curseling Lord of Tzeentch. If he steals either or both of those with his Glean Magic spell, he can open a horrifying can of whoop-ass on your magic game.

<Suggested edit: It says the Curseling Lord of Tzeentch can only learn a spell from the warscroll of an enemy wizard. He can only cast spells from the Deepwood Spell Lore after he's succesfully unbound one.>

Allied Armies

With the General's Handbook 2017 we can take two factions as allies: Stomcasts and Wanderers, and now with the introduction of Idoneth Deepkin, those too. However, rhe usefulness of this is questionable for us. The problem is that allies do not get the SYLVANETH-Keyword. Our Forests can and will turn on out allies if the run, charge, cast spells or simply stand next to it when some other effect goes off. This massively reduces their mobility, weakens our board control and potentially makes us lose our models without the enemy having to do anything.

• Stormcast Eternals:

You don't particularly need stormcast. Their playstyle is too different to traditional sylvaneth play and overall they don't synergies too well. Perhaps with the upcoming Stormcast Sacrosanct chamber, something might be available to use well with Sylvaneth, but as of now don't bother. Stormcasts are just too slow to keep up with us and can't make up for this with Deep Strikes. Prosecutors might be a better option than the infantry on foot, but the would be woefully undersupported, due to the lack of Stormcast Heroes. Additionally, they have worse shooting than our (costlier) options and again, do not benefit from Stormcast specific abilities or commands.

• Wanderers:

Okayish, and fluffy which is important, however as previously mentioned above, you only have 200/400pts to spare, which simply isn't enough to gain any meaningful army support from the Wanderers. Also, Wanderers suffer from much the same problems as Stormcast. Everything they can do, we can do better, everything they need, we can't provide. 200-400 points is not all that much and spending these on a Unit of Glade Guard and a Hero gives us, again, worse shooting and we can only heal and not revive Models. This basically means that the many single-wound models are nearly worthless fodder. Sisters of any variation are simply too expensive to be a viable choice for us and don't benefit us. Wasted points, that we could use better for Hunters.

• Idoneth Deepkin:

The fish guys have lots of cross unit synergies, which are of no use here. The Akhelian Guards and Akhelian Allopex are fast at 14 and 12 respectively, they might be worth a look if you can keep them away from the woods. Maybe a Akhelian Leviadon if you want more behemoths, but you're probably better with a Treelord Ancient? Alternately, consider running a Deepkin army with the "Alliance of Wood and Sea" Battalion, giving you all the benefits of the Deepkin tides at the cost of having no forests (for better and worse).

Buying Guide

Sylvaneth are mixed in terms of unit price values. Some can be cheap, others horrendously expensive. A cliché recommendation would be the start collecting box.

There is also the Sylvaneth Bundle, which is a start collecting box, a box of Revenants and box of Kurnoth but it's only slightly cheaper than buying them all separately.

If you can get your hands on it, the battleforce that came out in 2016 was a fantastic steal of a box.

Note that due to models coming from WFB, a box of Dryads has 16 models, so to get full use of them, you'll want two boxes giving you 3 dryad units plus 2 spare. Make these up as 3 Dryad Nymphs and 29 normal Dryads to give you full flexibility of unit sizes. As a stop gap, given the amount of spare Dryad arms/legs/heads in a box, you could kitbash some bodies and get 20 Dryads out of a pack of 16, but that's just being cheap.

Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Realm Of Battle Malign Sorcery Path to Glory Skirmish
Order	Cities of Sigmar Daughters of Khaine Fyreslayers Idoneth Deepkin Kharadron Overlords Lumineth Realm-Lords Seraphon Stormcast Eternals Sylvaneth
Chaos	Beasts Of Chaos Blades of Khorne Disciples of Tzeentch Hedonites of Slaanesh Maggotkin of Nurgle Skaven Slaves to Darkness
Death	Flesh-Eater Courts Nighthaunt Ossiarch Bonereapers Soulblight Gravelords
Destruction	Gloomspite Gitz Ogor Mawtribes Orruk Warclans Sons of Behemat
Others	Monstrous Arcanum Legends Old Rules