Post by knoffles on May 31, 2024 20:16:00 GMT
Post Guide
Post 1 – Why play Wood Elves and Special Rules
Post 2 - Army list organisation and Characters
Post 3 - Character Mounts
Post 4 - Core
Post 5 - Special - WIP
Post 6 - Rare
Post 7 – Weapons of Athel Loren (Asrai Longbow and Magical Arrows)
Post 8 - Race-Specific Magic Items & Forest Spites - WIP
Post 9 - Magic Lores - WIP
Post 10 - Rulebook Magic Items - WIP
Post 11 - Unit Tier List - tbc
Post 12 - Fighting Other Armies - tbc
Post 13 - Arcane Journal Named Characters, Armies of Infamy and extra Race-Specific Magic Items - tbc
With lordofskullpass starting the process of writing reviews with his excellent Beastmen thread (another faction dear to my heart), I thought it only fair that the burden should be shared, so jumped in on one of my favourite factions and the one that started my warhammer journey back in 3rd, the Wood Elves. With no arcane journal on the immediate horizon (at the time of writing this - May 24) I can't make any comment on what lore may have changed. 8th really changed up the lore (especially around Ariel and Morathi) and it will be interesting to see if they retain that or move it back to a more traditional stance.
As ever - if i've missed anything, you notice any errors or you have a different take, please leave a comment.
Why Play Wood Elves
Wood Elves have retained the core of what they were in this edition and are an army made up of trees, elven bowmen and infantry, or fast cavalry. They rely on speed, shooting and picking their fights. Wood elves still lack war machines but have in exchange a ton of poisoned weaponry.
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 coordinated flank charges, and against slower armies you can quite simply run circles around your enemies. They have some of the best archers in the game and are formidable in combat but lack staying power. You will need to use your maneuverability to bring multiple units into each combat, ensuring you overwhelm your opponent. If the elves get bogged down, they will quickly end up on the losing side.
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. Plus they're bad ass vengeful guardians of the forest, so that's pretty cool too.
Be warned that they aren't a good starter army, though they might be the army whose play style has changed the least between 8th edition and TOW.
In short, play Wood Elves if you want to play an army that requires a lot of skill, strategy and tactical thought to do well. You can't rely on Armor nor Warmachines or crazy shenanigans. Only a quick aim, a steady eye and a love of the forest will aid you in Athel Loren.
Special Rules
Elven Reflexes: This is a shared rule with both Dark and High Elves and grants +1 initiative in the first round of combat (only for elves of course).
Most of our troops are I4 so it will boost them to I5. In most cases this won’t make much of a difference as even an average Man will be charging with I6 (3 base and +3 for charging 3 inches). It does come into its own verses lower initiative troops such as dwarves, ogres and undead, as if they charge you will be striking at the same time. Eternal Guard can combine it with spears for an extra +1I when charged to further aid their ability to strike first.
Speaking of which, this is the rule that replaces the 8th edition Always Strike First that elves had. The Strike First rule does exist on Nobles, Shadowdancers and Wardancers, but just gives Initiative 10 instead (no rerolls to hit).
Talismanic Tattoos: The rules for this haven’t changed. They grant a 6+ ward save to certain units. In this case, Wardancers (including the shadowdancer) and Wild Riders. It’s worth noting that Mages can also purchase them.
Tree Spirit: A character with this rule cannot join a unit without it. A unit with this rule cannot be joined by a character without it OR use the leadership of a character without it. A Unit can use the leadership of a friendly character with this rule if within its command range.
Right, to summarise and unpack this.
Tree Whack: Treekin, a Treeman or a Treeman Ancient can exchange one of their attacks to make a tree whack. Nominate a single model in base contact. That model must make an initiative test. If failed they take D3 hits using the Str of the attacker with no armour saves allowed.
The more observant will note a few changes vs 8th. Firstly, Treekin now have it. Secondly, it no longer replaces all of the models attacks and likely because of this, it’s no longer D6 auto hits. I’ve found this to be a good improvement as it gives all the models more versatility with their attacks. For Treekin, it is especially good as they retained their S4 but lost any AP, so against some opponents the no armour save could become key (the same could be said for the Treeman and Ancient but they at least have AP -2 on their standard attacks).
As ever, it will tend to only come into its own against low initiative opponents.
Woodland Ambush: The free wood returns! Once terrain has been laid, the WE player may place their wood measuring between 8” and 12" at its widest point. This can be placed anywhere except within your opponent’s deployment zone and not within 12" of the centre of the battlefield.
So the restrictions on placement have been changed (previously it was within your half of the board) but of more importance is that you are no longer restricted to a citadel wood. A 12”*12” is significantly larger, so allows you to potentially dictate or influence your opponent’s deployment, really play with line of sight and you can place bigger or more of your units within/behind it.
Other Key Generic Special Rules
There are a number of other generic special rules that are repeated across our units. I feel it is worthwhile covering some of them here as a number fit in with our preferred style of play and are very thematic. This isn’t all of the rules that are in the army, just a few I thought were worth highlighting. I’ve also noted units that get the rules innately (It’s worth noting that other units/models can get them but typically have to pay for access).
Evasive (Deepwood Scouts, Wardancers, Waywatchers, Warhawk Riders, Waystalker, Shadowdancer, Nobles): Once per turn, when a unit in which the majority of the models have this special rule is declared the target during the enemy Shooting phase, that unit may choose to Fall Back in Good Order, fleeing directly away from the enemy unit shooting at it. A great ability for our squishy units as it can take them out of the range of the thing shooting at them, thus making them unable to be targeted. It’s even better when you realise that it can also be used when a magic missile is cast against the unit.
Fire & Flee (Deepwood Scouts, Waywatchers, Glade Riders, Sisters of the Thorn, Warhawk Riders, Waystalker, Nobles): If armed with a missile weapon and if it is not within the charging units normal move distance, it can fire and flee as a charge reaction. This works the same way as a stand and shoot reaction (pg 120 BBB) but after shooting it flees. Roll 2D6 and discard the lowest. A great rule that allows our units to inflict additional damage and melt away into the shadows, ready to fire again. A very thematic rule but should be used sparingly when the charging unit is at a close range.
Feigned Flight (Waywatchers, Warhawk Riders, Waystalker): If a unit with this rule choses to flee or fire and flee, it automatically rallies at the end of its move. This is again a fantastic rule that plays to our strengths and removes the element of chance that the unit will fail to rally. Handily, none of the units that come with this, have the option for a musician (for the +1 to rally).
Ignores cover (Waywatchers, Nobles, Waystalker): These models ignore any to hit modifiers caused by full or partial cover. Not a bad rule to have but is likely to be fairly situational. (As an aside, the FAQ confirming that skirmish units shooting through themselves, don’t have to apply partial cover modifiers.
Move through cover (Everything in the army with the exception of: Glade Riders, Warhawk Riders, Forest Dragon, Great Eagles, a Warhawk (mount), a Unicorn (mount), and an Elven Steed (mount): Models with this rule do not suffer any modifiers to movement for moving through difficult or dangerous terrain. In addition, they can reroll any rolls of 1 when making dangerous terrain tests. A fantastic rule that allows most of our army to get the advantage over enemy units when facing off through terrain.
Fast Cavalry (Glade Riders, Sisters of the Thorn, Wild Riders, Elven Steed): If all the models (including characters) within a unit arrayed in Open Order formation have this rule, they can still perform a quick turn (pg 183 BBB) even if they marched. A really useful ability for our cavalry and the Elven Steed having it allows characters to join the units and the unit retain the rule.
Scouts (Deepwood Scouts, Waywatchers, Waystalker): Units with this rule may deployed after all other units. They can be deployed anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 12” away from an enemy model. A really useful rule that potentially allows you to get in striking range of their backline and any warmachines from the get go. It can also help throw an opponent’s deployment plan as they try to counter your scouting unit(s).
Skirmishers (Deepwood Scouts, Waywatchers, Wardancers, Dryads, Glade Riders, Warhawk Riders): May adopt a skirmish formation (pg 184 BBB). The rules for this formation are extensive and as a WE player I recommend reading them multiple times but to dig out a couple of the big pros:
• 360 degree line of sight for shooting and charging
• -1 to hit when you are targeted by ballistic shooting
Open Order (Glade Guard, Wardancers, Dryads, Glade Riders, Sisters of the Thorn, Wild Riders): Units with this rule can adopt an open order formation (pg 182 BBB). Arguably not as good as Skirmish but does give some useful benefits including:
• Quick Turn – Unless is marched, charged or fled, after moving the unit can pivot 90 degrees.
• Dispersed Ranks – They do not become disrupted by difficult or dangerous terrain.
• Can still form combat order to get rank bonuses or form marching columns.
Close Order (Eternal Guard, Wildwood Rangers, Tree Kin, Forest Dragon, Great Eagle, Treeman, Treeman Ancient): Units with this rule can adopt an close order formation (pg 100 BBB). Like Open Order, this allows you to assume two formations, Marching column, for the extra movement and Combat Order. The main benefit of close order is that it gives you an extra +1 combat res on top of your rank bonus and other modifiers.
Strike First (Nobles, Shadowdancer & Wardancers): In comber your initiative is increased to 10. If a model has this and the Strikes last rule, they cancel each other out and they strike at normal initiative level. This makes great weapons on your nobles far more useful than they might otherwise be.
Furious charge (Shadowdancer, Wardancers, Wild Riders): Gives them additional attacks (1) when they charge 3” or more. A great force multiplier.
Immune to Psychology (Wildwood Rangers, Wardancers, Dryads, Tree Kin, Treeman, Treeman Ancient, Branchwraith, Shadowdancer): If the majority of the models in the unit have this rule, they automatically pass any Fear, Panic or Terror tests. However, they cannot choose to flee as a charge reaction. This is a mixed bag of a rule for us. On the one hand, not having to worry about these tests is excellent, however there are times when fleeing a charge can be very beneficial and we are an army that will often choose to do this due to our play style. However, in the main, most of the units with this rule you would normally want to hold as a reaction anyway so it isn’t a huge negative.
Regeneration (Dryads, Tree Kin, Treeman, Treeman Ancient, Branchwraith): Models with this rule can make a regen save. Regen has made a huge jump in this edition, as you make the save on top of any armour or ward saves they may have.
Flammable (Dryads, Tree Kin, Treeman, Treeman Ancient, Branchwraith): Models with this rule cannot make regen saves against wounds caused by a flaming attack. Although this is very much a negative rule for the army and unlike in 8th it now impacts Dryads and Branchwraiths, flaming attacks no longer cause multiple wounds (2), so overall I think the rule has less of a negative impact now.
Post 1 – Why play Wood Elves and Special Rules
Post 2 - Army list organisation and Characters
Post 3 - Character Mounts
Post 4 - Core
Post 5 - Special - WIP
Post 6 - Rare
Post 7 – Weapons of Athel Loren (Asrai Longbow and Magical Arrows)
Post 8 - Race-Specific Magic Items & Forest Spites - WIP
Post 9 - Magic Lores - WIP
Post 10 - Rulebook Magic Items - WIP
Post 11 - Unit Tier List - tbc
Post 12 - Fighting Other Armies - tbc
Post 13 - Arcane Journal Named Characters, Armies of Infamy and extra Race-Specific Magic Items - tbc
With lordofskullpass starting the process of writing reviews with his excellent Beastmen thread (another faction dear to my heart), I thought it only fair that the burden should be shared, so jumped in on one of my favourite factions and the one that started my warhammer journey back in 3rd, the Wood Elves. With no arcane journal on the immediate horizon (at the time of writing this - May 24) I can't make any comment on what lore may have changed. 8th really changed up the lore (especially around Ariel and Morathi) and it will be interesting to see if they retain that or move it back to a more traditional stance.
As ever - if i've missed anything, you notice any errors or you have a different take, please leave a comment.
Why Play Wood Elves
Wood Elves have retained the core of what they were in this edition and are an army made up of trees, elven bowmen and infantry, or fast cavalry. They rely on speed, shooting and picking their fights. Wood elves still lack war machines but have in exchange a ton of poisoned weaponry.
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 coordinated flank charges, and against slower armies you can quite simply run circles around your enemies. They have some of the best archers in the game and are formidable in combat but lack staying power. You will need to use your maneuverability to bring multiple units into each combat, ensuring you overwhelm your opponent. If the elves get bogged down, they will quickly end up on the losing side.
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. Plus they're bad ass vengeful guardians of the forest, so that's pretty cool too.
Be warned that they aren't a good starter army, though they might be the army whose play style has changed the least between 8th edition and TOW.
In short, play Wood Elves if you want to play an army that requires a lot of skill, strategy and tactical thought to do well. You can't rely on Armor nor Warmachines or crazy shenanigans. Only a quick aim, a steady eye and a love of the forest will aid you in Athel Loren.
Special Rules
Elven Reflexes: This is a shared rule with both Dark and High Elves and grants +1 initiative in the first round of combat (only for elves of course).
Most of our troops are I4 so it will boost them to I5. In most cases this won’t make much of a difference as even an average Man will be charging with I6 (3 base and +3 for charging 3 inches). It does come into its own verses lower initiative troops such as dwarves, ogres and undead, as if they charge you will be striking at the same time. Eternal Guard can combine it with spears for an extra +1I when charged to further aid their ability to strike first.
Speaking of which, this is the rule that replaces the 8th edition Always Strike First that elves had. The Strike First rule does exist on Nobles, Shadowdancers and Wardancers, but just gives Initiative 10 instead (no rerolls to hit).
Talismanic Tattoos: The rules for this haven’t changed. They grant a 6+ ward save to certain units. In this case, Wardancers (including the shadowdancer) and Wild Riders. It’s worth noting that Mages can also purchase them.
Tree Spirit: A character with this rule cannot join a unit without it. A unit with this rule cannot be joined by a character without it OR use the leadership of a character without it. A Unit can use the leadership of a friendly character with this rule if within its command range.
Right, to summarise and unpack this.
- Dryads or Treekin can’t be joined by Elf characters.
- In a similar vein, Branchwraiths cannot join an Elf unit (nor could a Treeman Ancient if that had been an option).
- Dryads, Treekin, a Treeman or Treeman Ancient also can’t use the Leadership of any Elf (or the General if he is an Elf), not that the Treeman Ancient would need to use the general's LD in most circumstances, as he is also LD10 but I included this for completion.
However, it’s worth noting that Elf units CAN use the leadership of a Treeman Ancient. (Again for completeness, they could also use the Branchwraith if she was attached to their unit, but as she has the same basic LD8 as elves, she wouldn’t add anything…).
- Branchwraiths and a Treeman Ancient gain a command range, leadership bubble, but just for Tree spirit units (in the same way your general gives one). I’m not sure how often this will come into play (likely more relevant for the Treeman Ancient) but worth remembering.
Tree Whack: Treekin, a Treeman or a Treeman Ancient can exchange one of their attacks to make a tree whack. Nominate a single model in base contact. That model must make an initiative test. If failed they take D3 hits using the Str of the attacker with no armour saves allowed.
The more observant will note a few changes vs 8th. Firstly, Treekin now have it. Secondly, it no longer replaces all of the models attacks and likely because of this, it’s no longer D6 auto hits. I’ve found this to be a good improvement as it gives all the models more versatility with their attacks. For Treekin, it is especially good as they retained their S4 but lost any AP, so against some opponents the no armour save could become key (the same could be said for the Treeman and Ancient but they at least have AP -2 on their standard attacks).
As ever, it will tend to only come into its own against low initiative opponents.
Woodland Ambush: The free wood returns! Once terrain has been laid, the WE player may place their wood measuring between 8” and 12" at its widest point. This can be placed anywhere except within your opponent’s deployment zone and not within 12" of the centre of the battlefield.
So the restrictions on placement have been changed (previously it was within your half of the board) but of more importance is that you are no longer restricted to a citadel wood. A 12”*12” is significantly larger, so allows you to potentially dictate or influence your opponent’s deployment, really play with line of sight and you can place bigger or more of your units within/behind it.
Other Key Generic Special Rules
There are a number of other generic special rules that are repeated across our units. I feel it is worthwhile covering some of them here as a number fit in with our preferred style of play and are very thematic. This isn’t all of the rules that are in the army, just a few I thought were worth highlighting. I’ve also noted units that get the rules innately (It’s worth noting that other units/models can get them but typically have to pay for access).
Evasive (Deepwood Scouts, Wardancers, Waywatchers, Warhawk Riders, Waystalker, Shadowdancer, Nobles): Once per turn, when a unit in which the majority of the models have this special rule is declared the target during the enemy Shooting phase, that unit may choose to Fall Back in Good Order, fleeing directly away from the enemy unit shooting at it. A great ability for our squishy units as it can take them out of the range of the thing shooting at them, thus making them unable to be targeted. It’s even better when you realise that it can also be used when a magic missile is cast against the unit.
Fire & Flee (Deepwood Scouts, Waywatchers, Glade Riders, Sisters of the Thorn, Warhawk Riders, Waystalker, Nobles): If armed with a missile weapon and if it is not within the charging units normal move distance, it can fire and flee as a charge reaction. This works the same way as a stand and shoot reaction (pg 120 BBB) but after shooting it flees. Roll 2D6 and discard the lowest. A great rule that allows our units to inflict additional damage and melt away into the shadows, ready to fire again. A very thematic rule but should be used sparingly when the charging unit is at a close range.
Feigned Flight (Waywatchers, Warhawk Riders, Waystalker): If a unit with this rule choses to flee or fire and flee, it automatically rallies at the end of its move. This is again a fantastic rule that plays to our strengths and removes the element of chance that the unit will fail to rally. Handily, none of the units that come with this, have the option for a musician (for the +1 to rally).
Ignores cover (Waywatchers, Nobles, Waystalker): These models ignore any to hit modifiers caused by full or partial cover. Not a bad rule to have but is likely to be fairly situational. (As an aside, the FAQ confirming that skirmish units shooting through themselves, don’t have to apply partial cover modifiers.
Move through cover (Everything in the army with the exception of: Glade Riders, Warhawk Riders, Forest Dragon, Great Eagles, a Warhawk (mount), a Unicorn (mount), and an Elven Steed (mount): Models with this rule do not suffer any modifiers to movement for moving through difficult or dangerous terrain. In addition, they can reroll any rolls of 1 when making dangerous terrain tests. A fantastic rule that allows most of our army to get the advantage over enemy units when facing off through terrain.
Fast Cavalry (Glade Riders, Sisters of the Thorn, Wild Riders, Elven Steed): If all the models (including characters) within a unit arrayed in Open Order formation have this rule, they can still perform a quick turn (pg 183 BBB) even if they marched. A really useful ability for our cavalry and the Elven Steed having it allows characters to join the units and the unit retain the rule.
Scouts (Deepwood Scouts, Waywatchers, Waystalker): Units with this rule may deployed after all other units. They can be deployed anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 12” away from an enemy model. A really useful rule that potentially allows you to get in striking range of their backline and any warmachines from the get go. It can also help throw an opponent’s deployment plan as they try to counter your scouting unit(s).
Skirmishers (Deepwood Scouts, Waywatchers, Wardancers, Dryads, Glade Riders, Warhawk Riders): May adopt a skirmish formation (pg 184 BBB). The rules for this formation are extensive and as a WE player I recommend reading them multiple times but to dig out a couple of the big pros:
• 360 degree line of sight for shooting and charging
• -1 to hit when you are targeted by ballistic shooting
Open Order (Glade Guard, Wardancers, Dryads, Glade Riders, Sisters of the Thorn, Wild Riders): Units with this rule can adopt an open order formation (pg 182 BBB). Arguably not as good as Skirmish but does give some useful benefits including:
• Quick Turn – Unless is marched, charged or fled, after moving the unit can pivot 90 degrees.
• Dispersed Ranks – They do not become disrupted by difficult or dangerous terrain.
• Can still form combat order to get rank bonuses or form marching columns.
Close Order (Eternal Guard, Wildwood Rangers, Tree Kin, Forest Dragon, Great Eagle, Treeman, Treeman Ancient): Units with this rule can adopt an close order formation (pg 100 BBB). Like Open Order, this allows you to assume two formations, Marching column, for the extra movement and Combat Order. The main benefit of close order is that it gives you an extra +1 combat res on top of your rank bonus and other modifiers.
Strike First (Nobles, Shadowdancer & Wardancers): In comber your initiative is increased to 10. If a model has this and the Strikes last rule, they cancel each other out and they strike at normal initiative level. This makes great weapons on your nobles far more useful than they might otherwise be.
Furious charge (Shadowdancer, Wardancers, Wild Riders): Gives them additional attacks (1) when they charge 3” or more. A great force multiplier.
Immune to Psychology (Wildwood Rangers, Wardancers, Dryads, Tree Kin, Treeman, Treeman Ancient, Branchwraith, Shadowdancer): If the majority of the models in the unit have this rule, they automatically pass any Fear, Panic or Terror tests. However, they cannot choose to flee as a charge reaction. This is a mixed bag of a rule for us. On the one hand, not having to worry about these tests is excellent, however there are times when fleeing a charge can be very beneficial and we are an army that will often choose to do this due to our play style. However, in the main, most of the units with this rule you would normally want to hold as a reaction anyway so it isn’t a huge negative.
Regeneration (Dryads, Tree Kin, Treeman, Treeman Ancient, Branchwraith): Models with this rule can make a regen save. Regen has made a huge jump in this edition, as you make the save on top of any armour or ward saves they may have.
Flammable (Dryads, Tree Kin, Treeman, Treeman Ancient, Branchwraith): Models with this rule cannot make regen saves against wounds caused by a flaming attack. Although this is very much a negative rule for the army and unlike in 8th it now impacts Dryads and Branchwraiths, flaming attacks no longer cause multiple wounds (2), so overall I think the rule has less of a negative impact now.