Wood Elves Army Composition

[Ammiano Hibbert]

WoodElves have units that excel at every aspect of the game other than heavy artillery, however unlike their kin each unit is more specialized in doing 1 of those things very well. They can be extremely mobile, they almost universally ignore the worst aspects of terrain (ignores cover and move through cover are special rules found on most datasheets), and units with Asrai longbows easily outrange any other small arms fire in the game. The dichotomy of the faction is a huge selling point as you can truly make Wood Elf lists that perform vastly different from one another. You can lean on the elf side of the rules as was commonly the case at the end of 8th edition and be fast, with long ranged shooting attacks but suffer from weak defensive profiles, or go heavy on trees to summon vast forests and march into the enemy with higher toughness Dryads, Treekin, and, Treemen that sacrifice that range and mobility for longevity.

Enchanted Arrows: Some models in the Wood Elf Realms army that use the Asrai longbow may be equipped with enchanted arrows that modify the properties of their equipped range weapon as below:

Tree Spirit: Characters with this special rule cannot join units that do not have it. In addition, units with this special rule cannot use the leadership of characters without it and cannot be joined by them. Tree Spirits instead use the leadership of any character with this special rule so long as they are in its command range and that character is not fleeing. In short, if you choose to use an elf as your general then your Dryads, Treekin, and Treemen cannot use their leadership characteristic and they cannot join those units.

Most of the old Wood Elf line is back and available for use in the Old World outside of those named characters that have yet to make their appearances known. Even units like the Sisters of the Thorn are here for your poisoned pleasure.

In the hero slot, Wood Elf players may take Wood Elf Nobles (Glade Lords and Captains), Wood Elf Mages (Spellweavers and Singers), Shadowdancers, Waystalkers, Treeman Ancients and Branchwraiths. You may only take 1 Glade Lord OR Spellweaver, and only 1 Treeman Ancient for every 1000 points of your army.

Wood Elf nobles are your combat specialists. The Lord is quite the effective killer with WS 7, BS 7, Str 4, I 6 and 4 base attacks, with Leadership 10 (you love to see it). They come with an Asrai Longbow and light armor base and may be upgraded with an additional hand weapon, great weapon, cavalry spear (if mounted), and shield as well as 1 of the enchanted arrow types mentioned above. Nobles may take up to 50 points in Forest Sprite upgrades and 50-100 points of magic items depending on just how cool they are. You can choose to mount your noble on an Elven Steed, a Great Stag, a Warhawk, Forest Dragon, or Great Eagle. Of these the Dragon is of course the doozy, bumping a Noble up to 8-9 wounds and providing them with a base of full plate armour rather than the light armour they start with and all the benefits being a Large Target provides, though I feel like all of the mounts have their own benefits/drawbacks.

All nobles come with the Evasive (they may move 2d6 when targeted by a ranged attack), Fire and Flee, Ignores Cover, Moves through Cover, Rallying Cry and Strike First special rules and the Arrow of Kurnous special attack.

Wood Elf mages are the elven wizards of the wood. They may pay for Talismanic Tattoos, may be mounted on an Elven Steed, Unicorn, Warhawk, or Great Eagle, and have the Elven Reflexes, Magical Attacks, and Move Through Cover special rules. They may choose spells from the Battle Magic, Elementalism, High Magic, or Illusion Lores of Magic and may choose to replace 1 of their spells with a signature spell from the Lore of Athel Loren. Unicorns are a unique form of protection as enemy units that try to swing at the rider must successfully pass a leadership test or only hit on 6s.

Waystalkers are to Waywatchers, what Shadowdancers are to Wardancers. A ranged specialist character, you actually cannot field Waywatchers without also fielding a Waystalker for every one of those units you wish to bring. Waystalkers make for really fun character and champion assassins due to their Hawk-Eyed Archer rule that lets them target out any model in a unit and ignore the Lone character special rules. Give them the Bow of Loren for 40 points and Swiftshiver Shards if you want to be a really cute little terror and pick off bigger prey. With Evasive, Feigned Flight, Fire and Flee, and Scout special rules they can be a frustrating unit to deal with if they have any cover they can dive behind.

At Core, Wood Elves really shine. As mentioned in the 5 things to know about this army, Glade Guard are one of the best core units in the game in my opinion and Glade Riders are up there too. You can also take 1 unit of deepwood scouts as a core option in your lists, Eternal Guard, and Dryads.

Glade Riders are Glade Guard but on horses. Not only are they faster at movement 9, they can pay for the Reserve Move special rule on 1 unit per 1000 points, allowing them to move in, shoot, and then move either out of threat range or around line of sight. This is incredibly powerful. These guys never stop never stopping. You can also pay for Ambushers or Drilled which are situationally strong in their own rights, though as they are Skirmishers already, I think the Reserve Move is the real spice.

Deepwood Scouts are the scouting version of Glade Guard, sacrificing the open order special rule for Scout, Skirmisher, Evasive and Fire and Flee. They are 2 points more expensive than Glade Guard, but having the ability to start where you please is very effective. A unit of 10 with hagbane arrows to harass enemy artillery or monsters early is great though you may be more keen to just field more Glade Guard, or run Waystalkers instead.

Wardancers are the naked close combat experts of the army. They may take extra hand weapons or throwing spears and have the Motley Crew special rule so they can mix and match at will. The key selling point of the unit is their Dances of Loec that grant 1 of 4 special rules every turn that the unit is engaged in close combat. They may either gain AP -2 on their attacks, the Extra Attacks (+1) special rule, a 4+ Ward Save, or force enemy units to be -1 to hit when directing attacks at the unit. Wardancers are evasive blenders that can be absolutely terrifying with a Shadowdancer embedded in the unit, but I wonder if they will suffer due to the existence of the faster and more versatile Wild Riders.

Forest Sprites represent the smaller fey creatures of the forest that sometimes follow the watchers of the woods into battle and each sprite may only be taken once in your army. They range from the powerful Blight of Terrors that grants the model they are attached to and any unit they are in the Terror special rule to the Resplendence of Luminescents which grants Magical Attacks to a unit for 10 points. A strong and obvious combo is putting a Blight of Terrors and Lamentation of Despairs on the same unit (like the aforementioned large block of Dryads with a Branchwraith in tow). Being able to stack up to -3 or more via sprites and magic items (the Wraithstone is an enchanted item that also imposes a leadership penalty on units within range of the holder) to opposing leadership tests is something opponents will have to consider when they try to engage you.

As far as other magic items go, the Wood Elf Realms boast several items that either only function if the wielder is inside a wood or are significantly improved if that is the case. Like the Banner of the Eternal Queen that grants +1 combat resolution to the wielder if they are inside a forest, or the Oaken Stave which for 40 points grants the user +3 inches on their dispel attempts, but if they are within a woodland feature they may also roll 3 dice when dispelling and drop the lowest.

Tree Singing: A Magical Vortex with a 15 inch range and a casting value of 7+ or 9+, Tree Singing is a remains in play spell that allows the wizard to place either a 3 or 5 inch round forest on the board with its center anywhere within 15 inches of the caster. A powerful tool given the amount of Moves Through Cover and Ignores Cover available to the army.

Forest Walker: A Conveyance spell with a range of 24 inches and a casting value of 10+, this spell allows you to teleport any character within range that is already within a woodland feature and not in the process of fleeing to any other woodland feature on the board. While it does have a high casting cost, the situational utility here is immense, big emphasis on situational.

The forces of the Wood Elves are so varied and deep that I think there are a plethora of very unique takes you can put together that are both flavorful and powerful on the board without falling into unit spam. Here are a couple I have been toying with in the last month.

Fans of wood elves should rejoice. This book is a big winner in my books with plenty of build options and strategic play. If you are a big fan of the movement phase, they really nailed it here and the play lines when running these elves feel cinematic and exciting.

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Let me summarise my highs and lows as a Wood Elf general in one phrase: I'm very much a Dwarf guy. You know where you are with Dwarves. Or rather, you know where they are - all the way over there on that ridge, Ironbreakers in front, Quarrellers behind, Hammerers poised to waddle down the flank like a glacier performing a legal U-turn. Dwarves don't do manoeuvres, they do gunpowder and big helmets and spurning alliances because somebody's ancestor forgot to return the lawnmower. Micro? Well, I dare say some of those fancy northern Dawi tribes can find a use for it, but I've always set my watch by a good, solid shield-wall.

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