The below article was written by a chap on the Wood elf forum. I've found it quite useful, though he promotes using them in units of 10.
Dryad Tactics by EdmondJ
asrai.druchii.net/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=28005 Ever since the new book came out, we've all been trying to work our heads around the new dryads. Since they were one of the few viable choices in the old book (not to mention one of the cheaper models to get a hold of), most of us have some units available, painted up and ready to be fielded.
Alas, with the heaps of fun to be found in alternatives in the new book, our dryads have been mostly reduced to shelf decorating. At least, this seems to be the consensus.
But in this article, I would like to discuss some ways in which I feel dryads can still be a solid choice.
The trick to judging a unit's merits lies in understanding the role you wish to confer upon it. And this decision should be based on understanding the stats and special rules of the unit under consideration.
Let's take treekin for a second, another unit that most people feel have taken a hit. If you look at the stats of treekin, you will realise that this is a correct assessment, because in their current profile, they fall in between two roles, not excelling at either (and being expensive because of this duality).
On the one hand you would want them to be hammers. They have 3 attacks, with 3 attacks in the second rank as well. And they have stomp. However, they lost a point of strength and at strength 4, they fail to break through any armour or toughness. Moreover, their weapon skill is only average and they get no rerolls. As such, the only unit they will reliably cause wounds to is something with toughness 3 and something like light armour and shields (ironically, wood elves). However, these units will often have much higher rank bonuses and command options, so your treekin could still lose combat. So in short, as a hammer, not so good.
But wait, treekin became a lot cheaper in the new book, and their defensive stats have stayed exactly the same, so maybe they should be used as an anvil then? With toughness 5 and a 4+ basic armour save (and 3 wounds apiece), this might actually work!? Except that, since their damage output is so low they will probably lose combat. This in itself isn't too bad, but a good anvil unit should be relied upon to not run away. Ideally, this means unbreakable or more realistically, stubborn. If not these, then at the least steadfast. Unfortunately, none of these are options for the treekin. With no access to magic banners or items and typically few ranks, you're left with their anvil-lacking leadership value of 8, possibly aided by a general and bsb. But as everyone has been finding out the hard way, this does not cut it.
Moreover, even if treekin could perform either of these roles, then there is still the problem of competition. Eternal Guard make a much more reliable anvil. And as for hammers, we're absolutely spoiled for choice.
Anyways, this article isn't about treekin, it's about dryads! So let's do a similar exercise and see how their stats and special rules help or hinder them in various roles.
In the old role, they excelled as fighty redirectors. You could take them in units of 8 (keeping the cost of the unit under 100 points) and they skirmished, which gave them mobility. Both of these advantages have gone. The new dryads could still redirect, but much less effectively and at a higher cost. On top of that, we still have our eagles. And if you need more, you can get up to four units of five scouts, which come at 80 points with hagbane tips. And four more units of wardancers at 75 points. Either of those options make for better redirectors, cheaper and more mobile. If you still need more redirectors after that, you could use units of ten dryads for the role. They will be outperformed, but oh well. Also, send me your army list because who the hell needs more than ten redirecting units!!?
So dryads are no longer a truly viable choice for redirecting. But hey, in the old days, we used to beg for the new book to allow them to rank up right? So now that we have that, what about the big blocks? Do dryads work well as a horde formation? Can they win combats with the support of static bonuses?
The answer here, unfortunately, is no again. There's two main reasons for this. The lesser reason is their 25mm base size. This occasionally means less models attacking in combat, which is of course a pity. Mostly though, this makes already below average mobility poorer still. And finally, this makes it hard for elven characters to join the unit. This last problem leads to the second (and bigger) reason why dryads aren't a good big size combat unit. They can't create static combat resolution bonus other than their ranks. So if you put them against another big block of infantry, chances are you start the round of combat with something like -2.5 (banner, bsb, musician. Or banner, magic standard and musician or something like that) combat resolution already. This without even considering characters. Of course, the other unit will be more expensive (or have fewer models), but the point is, as a big block of infantry, dryads fail to find suitable targets for them. Too slow and too expensive to clear chaff, not enough static combat resolution to go against similar big infantry blocks.
On top of that, their strength 3 means that they do little damage. So chances are that even in a favourable matchup (medium size mediocre combat unit with nothing except regular full command … but really, who would take that?), the dryads will struggle. They may win combat, but it'll take them a long time to grind through the unit, if the break tests don’t help.
Let's mathhammer this to illustrate. Let's put 20 dryads in four ranks of five (220 pts) against a unit of 15 eternal guard with shields, full command and a gleaming pennant (215 pts). The dryads get the charge.
The eternal guard, without counting on a bsb or a general, have 83.3% chance of making their fear test. With the gleaming pennant this becomes 97.2%.
The EG will strike first and will reroll their to hit rolls. This is actually one of the uncommon situations in which the one point drop in initiative hurts the dryads. Usually, dryads will still have higher initiative so that doesn't make that much of a difference. Anyways, the EG hit on 3+ and will fight in three ranks, so fifteen attacks plus one extra for the champion. This amounts to 14.22 hits. Actually, if you really want to nitpick, 14.06 hits if you consider 2.8% of the attacks were made with fear.
The hits will wound on 5+. That's 4.69 wounds. And the dryads' ward save of 6+ brings this down to 3.91 kills.
Now the 16.09 dryads will strike back. The first rank has 2 attacks, the second rank only 1. That amounts to 15 attacks as well. They will hit at 4+ but get rerolls in the first round because of hatred. This will score 11.25 hits. These will wound on 4+ which makes for 5.625 wounds. The 5+ armour save of the EG will reduce this to 3.75 kills.
In short, the amount of firepower between the two units is fairly similar (the EG do slightly more damage). The EG get the banner but have one less rank than the dryads and so the dryads win this round of combat on the charge.
In consequent turns, if the dryads and the EG stick around, the dryads will have it harder to hit because of hatred no longer helping. They will also lose the charge bonus. On the other hand, their front rank having 2 attacks per model will increase the amount of attacks in their favour when compared to their adversaries. In a second round, the EG will kill 2.84 dryads and the leftover dryads will cause 2.5 casualties. Notice that the loss of hatred is far less important than the amount of attacks. This will come back later! In any case, the firepower still stays fairly similar, but now the dryads will have lost the charge bonus as well and chances are actually that the result is a draw, which would mean a win for the EG due to musician.
If the dryads are still around, then chances are actually improving for them with every round. The EG loses attacks faster and so their damage output goes down. The dryads on the other hand, keep on dealing similar amount of damage.
To conclude, in a good matchup for the dryads (medium average fighting infantry unit with no big extras), combat is a very close thing for two turns, then starts going more and more in their favour with every subsequent turn. So yes, they could take out units like this (that nobody takes), if they're a little lucky with the initial close results and if you don't mind waiting for three turns for them to do so.
Can we all agree that this is not the stuff of inspiration yet? Would you like me to make a simulation in which thirty dryads take on thirty EG (in this case, the EG won't lose rank bonuses and attacks that fast, the dryads will flee pretty much every time)
So dryads, as it seems, really aren't very efficient in taking on big blocks of infantry. A unit of 30 dryads is an overpriced, slow, inefficient hazard that unless if it stays away from anything remotely its own size and value, will be running more towards your own table edge than anywhere else.
So if not as a hammer, then how about an anvil?
This has been suggested here and there and the answer is quite short. With Leadership 8 and the lack of characters and command (and magic banners and such), they are far too prone to breaking. In this way, dryads are very much like treekin. They have the combat stats for being an anvil, but not the morale.
Nope; unfortunately and alas, none of these roles fit the dryads.
However, before we bury them forever, let's take another look at those stats and special rules. Let's see if there's something there to redeem them after all.
Movement 5, Weapon skill 4, Strength 3, Initiative 5 and Leadership 8 are all around average. However, toughness 4 bears some thinking about. Especially with a 6+ ward save. This makes dryads better than most (and much better than the rest of our non-monstrous troops barring sisters) at resisting fire. Bows will struggle to do a lot of damage to them and even crossbows will have it a lot harder than against regular elves. More importantly though, dryads are immune to psychology. This is a big deal. In an army that will take heavy casualties from concentrated shooting, you really want your opponent to focus on dryads.
A lot of people here have said that they don't like dryads in small units, as they draw fire from your opponent and as such provide easy points. This is, in my opinion, a complete mistake. You want your opponents to shoot at the dryads! That way they're doing less damage, and there's no risk of panic reactions. In this way, units of ten dryads can prove quite valuable to your army by attracting some gunfire. Even if your opponent scores the points (which again, he'll only get from annihilating the unit, as it won't panic), it's only 110 and more importantly, it means your other units survived. It's very unlikely for a game of warhammer to walk away without giving any points to your opponent and if ten dryads are easy to dispose of, then well, they are also disposable.
You could even use the dryads as a screen for a bigger, more important unit to walk behind (say, rangers). The dryads will provide cover and will take much more of a ballistic beating than the rangers could, thus ensuring the latter could actually make it to the front lines.
Interestingly enough, the immune to psychology rule actually favours small units. A unit of 30 strong would need to suffer 8 casualties in one shooting phase in order to take a panic check. Immune to psychology doesn't mean that much for such a big unit. But a unit of 10 would otherwise be a serious risk. Dryads however, just don't care and will happily soak up the pain for you.
So one use for dryads, in small units, is to attract shooting. Either by presenting points to grab or by working as a first line screen. In either case, a small unit is better.
However, this is still not the most important stat of the dryad. To me, what really defines them is the 2 attacks.
This is again, something that favours small units. Only the front rank will ever provide the 2 attacks of the profile, so the larger the unit, the less you make use of it. Think of it in this way, the 11 points cost of the dryad includes 2 attacks. If they only had 1 attack, they'd probably be worth only 8 points. So if you're taking a unit of 20 in ranks of five, you're basically buying 15 dryads at 11 points where they're only providing you 8 points of value (assuming of course, that the 11 points is a fair amount to start with).
The mathhammer example above made this clear. Despite losing hatred after the first combat round, the dryads will actually start performing better in consequent rounds against a similar size opponent in which the damage output is equal. This is because while you eventually start losing support attacks, as long as you keep the frontline intact, you keep on having double attacks for those, which means that your attack ratio starts going up compared to your opponent. This does not mean that dryads prefer longer combats! Quite the contrary (because they lose hatred after the first round). It means that dryads work better 10 vs 10 than 20 vs 20 or, even worse, 30 vs 30.
If you ever want to make dryads work for you, you need to make use of their asset, which is two attacks per model in the front. In other words, the smaller the unit, the more you're working with the strength of the unit, rather than the weakness (such as lack of mobility). To me, dryads are a lot like witch elves in that regard. Cheap, but with a lot of attacks. Their strength is low, but in small units their attack output is relatively high, which compensates. After all, 15 dryad attacks, assuming 11.25 hits with hatred will statistically speaking inflict 1.875 wounds even when requiring 6+.
Speaking of hatred, this too is a rule that favours small units. It's only for one round of combat, so big units (who tend to hang out in longer combats) see a diminishing return of investment. As an example, imagine two units of 10 dryads. They will each get 15 attacks in their respective first rounds of combat, meaning 30 attacks on hatred. Compare this to a single unit of 20. This unit will still only get 15 attacks on hatred, thus being less efficient at it.
Since we're discussing the special rules of dryads, let's take a look at another one. Dryads cause fear. This isn't as good as it once was, but it still can influence the game quite a bit. Funny thing is, fear is unit based. If a single model in a unit touches a fear causing enemy, then the entire unit has to take a fear test and suffer from the results if it fails. You may have guessed, but this means that fear is yet another rule that favours small units. Dryads can be used to project fear into combat. Whether there's ten or twenty or two hundred of them makes no difference in this regard.
These two special rules, together with the two attacks make dryad excellent support combat units. In fact, a good way to think of them is by drawing a comparison to the Empire's detachment system. Attach a unit of ten dryads to a bigger, stronger combat unit. Then use the dryads to provide a heap of extra hatred attacks and to cause fear. Even if the dryads don't make much of a difference, chances are they won't take too much damage themselves. And the fear might make the difference for the other unit. Your opponent needs to fail the test only once for combat to have a big shift.
Take this example. You have 20 eternal guard and they receive a frontal charge of a unit of 10 knights. At strength 6 and with the horses attacking as well, the knights will likely take out about 5 of your EG. Thankfully, the EG are stubborn, because they're probably only getting one kill in at most through the heavy armour. However, in your next turn, you can flank charge with the dryads and bring fear into play. If it (the fear) works, awesome. The knights are now cake. If it doesn't work, still great, 15 extra hatred attacks will likely cause another wound. Add another one from the EG and the knights are suddenly in big trouble (considering they're now only at strength 4).
Take another example. Reverse the roles, say your wild riders are smashing into a bunch of elven spearmen. Hopefully, they'll break them on the charge. But if they don't, you're suddenly in trouble. But ten fear causing hateful dryads in a follow up charge will ensure your victory.
Or let's assume a treeman in combat with a large unit of orks. The treeman's strength 5 will mean he's not going to be wounding as happily as he would like, at only 3+. This means that the damage he causes might be a bit too low. At best, this could prolong the combat beyond your desire. At worst, your treeman might be grinded down himself. But again, adding some dryads can make the difference here. Again, fear (especially considering fear has to be checked every round again). But if not, then still the sheer amount of attacks that the dryads add, with hatred to ensure a lot of hits in the first round.
To resume this tactical article: here's some roles in which dryads do not perform well
Redirecting (too expensive, too immobile)
Large Anvil Unit (hold up enemies for allowing the hammers to get in place, too much risk of breaking)
Tarpit/speedbump (hold up units. Too likely to flee for tarpit, too expensive and slow for speedbumps)
Hammer unit (not enough damage output, no command and characters)
Big combat block (not enough static combat resolution, no command and characters)
And luckily, here are some roles in which small units of dryads can perform well:
Support combat (Basically, join a combat between other units. The dryads will bring a ton of extra hits and some extra static combat resolution. Just be careful not to go into units that will cause more damage than the extra combat bonus will provide)
Fear projection
Fire Magnet (screen for your important units)
Free Roaming hunters (chaff, warmachines, previously decimated units)
As such, I would typically take two or three units of 10 dryads even in the new army book. One unit that functions as a detachment to the forest-sitting eternal guard with characters. Another one as a screen and later support unit for rangers or wild riders. And possibly one more to move around a bit more in a free role.
I appreciate that this may only be one point of view. I encourage everyone to share their opinion and to give arguments in favour of another use (or no use at all). Or arguments against what I propose. This is just my point of view. This is how I see dryads working, but it doesn't mean it's the only way to do so (nor even a correct way to do so).
