Recently, though, I've gone back to playing Wood Elves, which were my one and only army back in 7th edition, and spent the day yesterday at a small local tournament (10 players). I had a really good time playing the Wood Elves despite them being generally considered as a poor army, and I definitely felt happier losing games with them than I ever did with the O&G.
Despite having used the Wood Elves a lot in 7th Ed., there is a lot about the army that I have forgotten over the three or four years since I last used them - notably, the Fear/Terror causing units (totally forgot to make my opponents take checks for these! What a fail.), and I got the rules for the Moonstone of Hidden Ways quite drastically wrong - completely overlooked the "One Use Only" line! Oops! So that was a mistake I won't make again.
Anyway, the list I used was:
Lords
Spellweaver, Level 4, Wand of Wych Elm, Moonstone of the
Hidden Ways
Highborn, Alter, Light Armour, Great Weapon, Bow of Loren,
Arcane Bodkins, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem
Heroes
Noble, Light Armour, Battle Standard Bearer, Hail of Doom Arrow, Asyendi's Bane, Dragonhelm
Core
10 Glade Guard
10 Glade Guard
10 Glade Guard
10 Glade Guard
8 Dryads
8 Dryads
Special
8 Wardancers
7 Wardancers
3 Treekin
Rare
Treeman
6 Waywatchers
6 Waywatchers
I realise it's not an amazing list (in fact, I'm sure it's average at best) however it was entertaining to use despite my mistakes. What follows is a brief summary of my three games yesterday. I will try to include what I can about the lists but there is some stuff I might have forgotten, particularly with characters' magic items etc.
Game 1 - Vampire Counts
Game 1 - Vampire Counts
The List: Vampire Lord on Coven Throne, Lv 2 Wizard, Quickblood (some other items); Vampire BSB, Quickblood, Lv 1 Wizard (some other stuff); Vampire Lv 2, Dark Acolyte (some other stuff); Necromancer; 28 Grave Guard, Banner of the Barrows; one big block each of Ghouls, Skeletons and Zombies and a Terrorgheist.
In deployment he used a large watchtower to protect his left flank, putting the zombies next to this and the ghouls on the other side of the zombie unit. The Coven Throne went behind the Zombies, flanked by the Grave Guard on the right flank (behind the ghouls) and the Skeletons on the left flank (also behind the Zombies), with the Necromancer in the Ghouls unit and the remaining Vampire characters went in the Grave Guard. I put the Wood Elves fairly spread out, with the Treekin on the left flank opposite the Zombies, the Treeman and Wardancers on the right, with Dryads in the centre to try and redirect. The archers spread out behind. In Turn 1, he moved forward and cast a few spells but didn't really do much damage, taking a couple of wounds off a Dryad unit and boosting the size of his Zombies. In my turn, I managed to shoot all but one wound off the Terrorgheist, meaning he could heal it in turn 2. I spent a few turns dodging his sight arcs and trying to stay out of his charge range, but ultimately between the Terrogheist shouting and me failing to kill it, he was able to whittle down all the units. The Spellweaver was in a unit of archers who, threatened with a charge they couldn't quite escape from, charged into the exposed flank of the Zombies who were pinned in place by the Treekin, but a round of horrifically bad attack rolls meant that one Zombie survived and the archers were unable to overrun out of the way. This meant that they got charged in the flank themselves by the Coven Throne, and the Vampires killed the unit and ran down the mage. After this, it was just mopping up for the Vampires, although I did manage to kill enough stuff to claw back a few VPs. The game ended 17-3 to him.
Game 2 - Warriors of Chaos
In deployment he used a large watchtower to protect his left flank, putting the zombies next to this and the ghouls on the other side of the zombie unit. The Coven Throne went behind the Zombies, flanked by the Grave Guard on the right flank (behind the ghouls) and the Skeletons on the left flank (also behind the Zombies), with the Necromancer in the Ghouls unit and the remaining Vampire characters went in the Grave Guard. I put the Wood Elves fairly spread out, with the Treekin on the left flank opposite the Zombies, the Treeman and Wardancers on the right, with Dryads in the centre to try and redirect. The archers spread out behind. In Turn 1, he moved forward and cast a few spells but didn't really do much damage, taking a couple of wounds off a Dryad unit and boosting the size of his Zombies. In my turn, I managed to shoot all but one wound off the Terrorgheist, meaning he could heal it in turn 2. I spent a few turns dodging his sight arcs and trying to stay out of his charge range, but ultimately between the Terrogheist shouting and me failing to kill it, he was able to whittle down all the units. The Spellweaver was in a unit of archers who, threatened with a charge they couldn't quite escape from, charged into the exposed flank of the Zombies who were pinned in place by the Treekin, but a round of horrifically bad attack rolls meant that one Zombie survived and the archers were unable to overrun out of the way. This meant that they got charged in the flank themselves by the Coven Throne, and the Vampires killed the unit and ran down the mage. After this, it was just mopping up for the Vampires, although I did manage to kill enough stuff to claw back a few VPs. The game ended 17-3 to him.
Game 2 - Warriors of Chaos
The List: Daemon Prince, Mark of Nurgle, Flying, Lv 4 Wizard; Sorcerer, Lv 2 Wizard, Lore of Death; BSB, some toys (can't remember what he had); 19 Warriors of Chaos, Mark of Khorne, Full Command; 24 (I think) Warriors of Chaos, Mark of Nurgle, Full Command; 8 Ogres, Mark of Nurgle; 3 Ogres, Mark of Khorne; 6 Forsaken, 2 Spawn, 5 Hounds.
In this game my opponent deployed his Warriors blocks fairly centrally with the chaff all on the right flank, leaving his left flank exposed. I made some mistakes with deployment because I ended up with most of my units bogged down opposite the chaff and couldn't bring any forces to bear against his exposed flank. With his demon prince flying around casting Stream of Corruption and Rancid Visitations and passing ludicrous amounts of Ward Saves against the shooting, most of my units died while not doing much damage in return. His Forsaken proved to be ridiculously hard to kill, again down to some godawful damage rolls and jammy armour saves, which meant the he pinned down first the Wardancers, then Dryads, then Glade Guard while slowly chewing through them. To be fair, the game hung in the balance for three turns while the Wood Elves avoided being pinned down while trying to get into position to do some damage, but ultimately it game down to a really good magic phase in Turn 4 which obliterated key units and gave him enough of an edge to clean up. I think that this is a game I could actually have won with a bit more care. I made a lot of mistakes in this game, with deployment, target selection and movement decisions - a valuable learning experience. I haven't quite figured out how to pull all the elements of the Wood Elf army together yet!
Game 3 - Warriors of Chaos
In this game my opponent deployed his Warriors blocks fairly centrally with the chaff all on the right flank, leaving his left flank exposed. I made some mistakes with deployment because I ended up with most of my units bogged down opposite the chaff and couldn't bring any forces to bear against his exposed flank. With his demon prince flying around casting Stream of Corruption and Rancid Visitations and passing ludicrous amounts of Ward Saves against the shooting, most of my units died while not doing much damage in return. His Forsaken proved to be ridiculously hard to kill, again down to some godawful damage rolls and jammy armour saves, which meant the he pinned down first the Wardancers, then Dryads, then Glade Guard while slowly chewing through them. To be fair, the game hung in the balance for three turns while the Wood Elves avoided being pinned down while trying to get into position to do some damage, but ultimately it game down to a really good magic phase in Turn 4 which obliterated key units and gave him enough of an edge to clean up. I think that this is a game I could actually have won with a bit more care. I made a lot of mistakes in this game, with deployment, target selection and movement decisions - a valuable learning experience. I haven't quite figured out how to pull all the elements of the Wood Elf army together yet!
Game 3 - Warriors of Chaos
The List: Valkia the Bloody, 24 Warriors HW/Shield & Mark of Khorne; 24 Marauders, Flails, Mark of Khorne; 24 Marauders, HW/Shield & Mark of Khorne; 24 Marauders, HW/Shield & Mark of Khorne; 5 Ogres, Mark of Khorne; 5 Knights, Lances, Mark of Khorne; Hellcannon.
This list was an unfortunately good match-up for my army. He deployed the flails unit on the far left flank, Knights on the right, Warriors next to the flails, the the other two marauder units side by side in the middle. The Ogres he put out in front with Valkia standing next to them - on her own in the open. The hellcannon went at the back near the Warriors. I put the Treeman and Treekin together straight across from the Ogres, confident that both units together could defeat the Ogres and the Marauders behind them. He got first turn and marched his whole army fowards, hoping to declare charges in turn 2. In return, I shot all the Archers at Valkia. Between 4+ Look Out Sir! rolls and T5, and horrible hit rolls from the archers, I only managed to take two of her 3 wounds away. My Treeman and Treekin went through the Ogres without even breaking a sweat. His Turn 2, Valkia declared a charge against an archer unit and with no LOS! rolls to fall back on, the Stand and Shoot reaction finished her off. The Treeman and Treekin then creamed the Marauder unit that they'd overrun into. With no BSB, his steadfast didn't really help all that much, as he fluffed his Ld 7 break test. Waywatchers and the Alter noble took out the knights by turn 3, the Dryads were sacrificed to stall the Warriors block for a couple of turns and pull them out of the way, to allow the archers to shoot the rest of the army to pieces. In the end, the only unit left alive was the Warriors block which I had resolved early on to just ignore, and pull out of the way to allow the rest of the army to kill the Marauders. A 20-0 win for the Wood Elves, although it didn't really feel like I deserved it; the army I was up against was a really good match for mine, and it came more down to his choice of Valkia and Khorne Marauders as an army than anything else.
Overall, despite losing two games I really enjoyed playing with the Wood Elves. More in future, and pics as the army develops!
Ciao for now.
NS
