Waging Woodland War: Flaming the Wood Elves
Based On: Wood Elf Army Book dated 2005, Druchii Army Book dated 2008 and BRB v 7.0 rules.
The following is an analysis of the tree hugging, nature loving, vile and weak inhabitants of Athel Loren from a Druchii perspective. That they share a faint and distant trace of our own noble blood is perhaps their only redeeming quality for the Asrai, or wood elves as they are more commonly known, are cowards in the extreme who hide deep within their enchanted forest. On rare occasions, they venture forth to aid the despised horse lords of Bretonnia and thus it is difficult to understand why the Druchii should bother to study such a feeble foe. Apart from making the world better by destroying and enslaving the weak, the Asrai are of interest as their fey land is home to valuable plants and treasures that are there for the taking by the bold and intrepid raider. Although cowards one and all, in defence of their homeland, the Asrai provide good sport and can even pose a threat to the uninitiated through their effective use of guerrilla tactics and the support of the fey creatures of Athel Loren. Accordingly, it is necessary to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Asrai so that they treasures may be sought with minimum loss of precious Druchii blood.
STRENGTHS:
The Wood Elves are a guerrilla style army that employs hit and run raids before launching overwhelming numbers at a depleted foe. In support of these tactics, they have three major strengths:
1) Shooting
2) Forest Spirits, Spites & Kindreds; and
3) Mobility.
SHOOTING:
The Wood Elves are excellent archers. Their shooting does not suffer from move and shoot penalties and is comprised entirely of long bows so the effective range is well beyond 30” once movement is added. All characters gain these benefits and there are four major shooting units:
1. Glade Guard – core archers with strength 4 at ranges below 15” so they effectively have a 35” range and 20” for S4 since they do no suffer a penalty for moving. They can be upgraded to scouts but lose their S4 at close range and are very expensive so this option is rarely taken.
2. Glade riders – core fast cavalry with 9” move and longbows (48” range)
3. Warhawk Riders – flying cavalry with longbows so they have an effective range of 50” that makes them very dangerous to any sorceress who thinks they are hiding behind terrain!!! Due to the cost, they are generally fielded in units of 3 and they also have a hit-and-run attack when they charge. The hit-and-run gives them the option if they win combat of fleeing and then autorallying (they must do this is they do not win). It is a very effective attack against war machine crews, dark riders/RXB flank, or lone characters.
4. Waywatchers – a rare and expensive scout unit that comes with BS 5, two hand weapons and their shooting has killing blow inside of 15” (essentially 20” with the ability to move and shoot). They also have special deployment rules that allow them to set up within 2” of the enemy if in cover and camouflage makes them harder to hit by –1.
There are a number of magic items that Wood Elf characters can draw upon related to shooting and the most common are:
Bow of Loren with arcane bodkins: the lord can shoot as many times as they have attacks (usually 4 but sometimes 5) and there are no armour saves versus any wounds – very lethal for CoKs or any character on their own.
Hail of Doom: a one-shot item that grants 3d6 x S4 magical shots with no multi-shot penalty. Since the character using it is BS 6, this item can easily wipe out a unit of dark riders at long range or severely deplete elite infantry.
Strangleroot: The last and perhaps most tricky shooting in the army is a strangleroot attack from a treeman or treeman ancient. The strangleroot has 6” range, can be done after marching, does not require line of sight and can be use as a stand and shoot reaction. It does an artillery dice worth of magical, S4 autohits (misfire=0) and can be very lethal to T3 troops if the dice roll is favourable.
FOREST SPIRITS, SPITES & KINDREDS:
Forest Spirits:
In addition to very fragile, mortal elves, there are a number of immune to psychology and fear causing troops in the Wood Elf army that give it some decent fighting troop choices. All forest spirits also receive a 5+ ward save versus non-magical attacks. Mortal characters can only join mortal units but they may become a forest spirit with an upgrade, allowing them to join forest spirit units. The following is a breakdown of the available choices:
Dryads – a core choice of skirmishing, T4 infantry with 2 x S4 attacks with decent WS and very high initiative. They make excellent screens against missile attacks due to the skirmishing, toughness and ward save. A good flank support unit in close combat or able to tackle troops without SCR such as RXBs or dark riders on their own. Their ability to charge 360/ignore terrain penalties gives them great mobility and threat range versus any light troops. The branchwraith is essentially a dryad character that can be upgraded into a 1st level wizard.
Treekin – multi-wound M5/T5/S5 troops with decent armour save but flammable.
Wild Riders – a unique forest spirit in that they only cause fear on the charge. They are fast cavalry with a 9” move, magic resistance and a 6+ ward if hit by magical attacks. They are most effective in combat when they have not charged as both the riders (S4 but S5 on the charge) and mounts get 2 attacks each. An excellent flanking unit as they can charge 18” and negate ranks.
Treeman/Treeman Ancient – a large, stubborn and very tough monster with a good armour save that has a bound tree-singing spell to move forests (the ancient casts twice) and a strangleroot attack. The Ancient can be an excellent (and common) lord choice. Neither can join a unit or be joined.
Mounts – characters that become forest spirits may choose a horse, unicorn (wizard only) or giant stag. Strangely, only non-forest spirit characters can ride a dragon that has normal stats but a S2, -3 to armour save breath weapon.
Spites:
Spites are magical powers akin to daemonic gifts, gifts of khaine, etc. Only one of each can be taken per army and only one per mortal character whereas forest spirits can use up to their magical points allotment toward multiple spites. The most common ones used include those that give +1 dispel dice, +d6 x S2 magical & poisoned attacks and the annoyance (need 6s to hit the character in a challenge). If there is a treeman ancient on the board, it will almost certainly have the annoyance spite.
Kindreds:
Kindreds allow a mortal character to gain the same abilities and join certain units such as forest spirits, scouts, wardancers, wild riders and waywatchers. The alter kindred gives move 9”, I9 and +1 attack but prevents them from being a general or joining any unit. Due to the plethora of spells/ powers/attacks that can target without LOS, the alter kindred is a disposable hero. A typical alter noble has the hail of doom, +1 attack helm on the charge and a great weapon. This gives a one-use 3d6 x S4 shooting threat and is a hazard to small units as the noble has 5 x S6 attacks, 18” charge and 360 LOS.
MOBILITY & COUNTER-MOBILITY:
As a guerrilla army, the Wood Elves rely on their mobility to avoid combat until they have overwhelming odds in their favour. Except for the flyers, all units may run through woods as though it was open terrain. Extreme caution must be taken in looking over the battlefield to take this ability into account as a favourite tactic is to park mostly behind/in a forest, safely out of enemy charge range due to difficult terrain and then come blasting through with impunity during the wood elf turn. Wild riders are extremely good at this thanks to an 18” charge range, causing a fear check and ability to negate ranks.
In addition, if an entire unit is within a woods, the woods may be moved d3+1” via the treesinging spell any number of times during the magic phase. This allows the unit to be “surfed” across the board – very nasty when the surfer is a treeman ancient with strangleroot and terror that is hidden from view.
Counter-mobility:
Wood Elves may place a free 6” woods anywhere on their half of the board prior to deployment – an excellent way to block LOS of RBTs or RXBs. Furthermore, there is a strong hindrance of druchii movement by the treesinging spell. Any woods within 18” of the caster can be moved and it is difficult to counter as the casting value is very low, it is the default spell, bound versions exist in the treeman and a caster can take a cheap item that allows multiple castings per turn and adds +1” to the distance. The trees can be moved to block line of sight or movement but must stop before contacting an enemy unit or other terrain. Last, and most dangerous, the treesinging spell makes entering woods very dangerous as it can be cast offensively, anywhere on the board, inflicting d6 x S5 hits on any enemy in a woods not engaged in combat.