Librarium Online Wood Elf Tactica (WiP)

[Skarsgard]

Enemy Type: Hordes
Contributor: Skarsgard

The trick to beating hordes is to not take on too many units simultaneously. If you do that, you're toast. Glade Riders come in handy here. Sit in front of the unit you want pulled out of position/stalled, and when they charge, flee. With luck, you will have pulled at least one unit out of position/stuffed up his battle-line/propelled a unit really far forward. If the first or second situation occurred, then your opponent will have to rethink his plan. If the third situation occurred, then multi-charge the unit.

Panic is your friend here. Where else can you rip out large chunks of your opponents army? Knock out his General early. An Alter Noble with the Dawnspear helps here (the one with Killing Blow). Then, find a unit that you will be bringing down to it's horrible doom. Shoot the bejingoes out of it until it's big enough to inspire fear in it's friends, but small enough to destroy in one combat phase. Once it's been reduced by firepower, charge it with Wardancers, Wild Riders, Tree Kin, Dryads, or all four. The unit will most likely break, panicking every unit within 6". This is not good for your opponent as you killed his General earlier, and horde armies have a pathetic leadership (usually). At least one unit will flee (likely), and will flee away from the combat, and through their friends. Some of those units will panic, and flee through their friends etc. If you placed your Glade Riders or some other unit well, that eliminates the risk of them rallying next turn (as they'll be dead)

This ploy can receive you one ton of Victory Points. Captured Standards, the units around them, and you'll be ready to hit them in the rear next turn or the turn after. Repeat until the 6 turns is up, you've won the game, or your opponent is utterly tired of you using this tactic against him.

Refused flank deployment is a good tactic. Horde armies by nature will tend to be fairly spread out so use this to your advantage.

Marchblocking is a vital aspect of facing hordes. Units like Warhawk riders and scouts can slow down the advance of the enemy units.

Shooting discipline becomes very important. Units should be shot at until a panic check is forced or a rank or two has been removed (for units that are about to be charged). Items like the Hail of Doom arrows and Starfire arrows can force multiple panic checks and causing panic checks should be the focus of the shooting phase.

Magic can be used to block units or slow them down. The different Lores provide various ways of achieving this. Direct damage spells are less effective as horde armies can absorb the casualties fairly readily.

In combat the flank charge becomes vital. Wood Elf units cannot afford to be bogged down in combat with horde opponents. The multicharge and use of fear causers becomes almost vital to breaking enemy units in one turn. Anything that adds to combat resolution becomes vital. Every Sprites like the Murder of Sprites can tip the balance of a fight. Every point of combat resolution is vital.

[Skarsgard]

Enemy Type: Undead

Introduction

Undead come in two basic varieties; Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts. The differences between the two are quite stark and they play very differently. At the end of the day they are both Undead armies and have common rules that mean they play differently to the living armies.

What’s special about being Undead?

Being Undead grants a few special rules and abilities to the armies:

• Immune to Psychology
• Cause Fear
• Crumbling
• General/Hierophant

The first point means that they won’t be subject to panic, so shooting and magic has a different focus to a “normal” game. The object of the shooting is twofold; wipe out small fast units and reduce the static combat resolution and numbers of Undead units.

The second point doesn’t really affect Wood Elves as badly as some other armies. The large number of Wood Elf units that are Immune to Psychology means that fear checks won’t impact as much as it would normally. Units such as Wild Riders, Wardancers and the Forest Spirits all ignore the Fear effect of the Undead army. For other units like Warhawk Riders, Glade Riders and Glade Guard they can cause significant problems. But the fairly high leadership mitigates this. One thing to be aware of is that Stubborn is no protection from Fear. If a unit of Eternal Guard loses a combat to a larger Undead force then they must test for Insane Courage or flee.

The final point is the key to what makes Undead very scary. If they lose a fight Undead units don’t test to break from combat they simply lose more models. This makes a large unit of Undead an excellent tar pit for trapping Wood Elf units for a counter charge.

The golden rule when fighting Undead is to make sure you hit a unit with several of your, negate the rank bonus and inflict as many casualties as possible. If you get enough kills and combat resolution it is possible to wipe out a 25 strong skeleton unit in one turn.

The second golden rule is “Kill the General/Hierophant”. Undead armies that lose these key characters start to crumble. This is easier said than done. Vampire Counts are very tough characters who can be Ethereal. Hierophants can be very elusive and hard to pin down. Characters with magic weapons or Treemen, Wildriders and Treekin tend to be very good units to tackle them with. Just be aware that it will help if a character is designed to kill these types of enemy.

Magic Items that allow re-rolls of failed psychology checks or immunity are very important for characters like the Alter Kin; a failed check at an inopportune time could result in disaster.

Summary

Shooting and magic to focus on wiping out small fast units and to reduce the numbers of units about to be charged.

In combat the key is to get several units charging one unit of Undead. Denying rank bonuses and the multi-charge are key components of success.

Kill the General/Hierophant.

[Skarsgard]

Enemy Type: Magic Heavy
Contributor: Skarsgard

Introduction

Magic heavy armies are one of those oft spoken armies that invoke a particular dread in most players. The ability to shape the battlefield, slow down units, raise new units or blast enemy units into oblivion can be quite handy. However, the points investment required to make a magic heavy list means, in general, they have sacrificed something else.

How to deal with heavy magic?

There are several ways to approach this and it will up to each player to decide what methods best suit their style of play.

• Shutdown
• Ride the wave
• Tie Up
• Assassinate
• Panic

Shutdown

This tactic isn’t really a “tactic”; it is a facet of army selection. Taking as many dispel dice and dispel scrolls as you can so as to totally stop your opponents magical onslaught. The only thing that gets in your way is when the spell is cast with Irresistible Force. Armies will typically include two to three spellcasters focused on dispelling. For example, two Level 1 Spellsingers with two dispel scrolls each and a Level 1 Branchwraith with the Cluster of Radiant’s. This gives you a whopping 6 dispel dice and 4 dispel scrolls, enough to ruin most players days.

Ride the wave

Here we take a more balanced approach. One or two casters not exclusively geared to defence. Using this tactic the player knows that spells will get through and has to pick and choose as to what is the priority for them to stop. This is the kind of defence you will find in most “balanced” or “tournament” lists that are geared to take on all comers. An example of the characters could be; Spellsinger with 2 dispel scrolls and a Branchwraith with Cluster of Radiant’s and Murder of Spites. So here we have a more modest approach netting 4 dispel dice and 2 dispel scrolls.

Tie Up

This tactic works on the principle that a majority of spells require either LOS or cannot e cast into combat. Either way it reduces the effectiveness of the caster. Here we send a sacrificial unit to “tie up” the caster (and unit) in combat and limit their options. This is not really possible from turn one but in the second and third turn it becomes viable. Units perfect for this are fast moving units that hit hard and Treemen. The idea is to do enough damage to either win combat or at least not lose too badly. This delaying tactic will only work for a turn or two at most so treat is as a temporary stop-gap.

Assassinate

Another way to deal with the magic phase is to get rid of it at the source. Kill the caster. Throughout the Tactica we have described several units that excel at this role. Here is a brief list:

Warhawk Riders
Great Eagles
Wildriders
Sniper Characters
Alter Characters
Treemen
Any other unit with multiple attacks

Basically any unit that charges the front of a casters unit should direct as many of its attacks at the caster as possible. The faster the unit the earlier you can kill the caster. However, characters can be a weak link in this chain of event. A lone character; like the Alter, is likely to get challenged by a unit champion and get taken out of the equation. A unit with a unit champion; say Wildriders with a Wild Hunter, are likely to have the caster issue a challenge to face less attacks. Two ways to deal with this is either; have no characters involved or have at least two (one as a unit champion and one as the Alter or another multi-attack character).

Panic

This only works against some armies. For the most part, magic heavy armies tend to suffer from lower leadership as their general is often a Lord level caster and not the highest leadership character available. Forcing as many panic checks in the unit the caster is hiding in and concentrating firepower on small units around them to force the panic check can be a make or break. A fleeing caster cannot cast spells nor can they generate power dice.

Tricks

Magic heavy armies are not without their tricks. Anyone willing to sink 600+ points into characters, will have some insurance. Some characters can become Ethereal and thereby immune to mundane attacks and others can take items to make them monsters in combat (Van Horstmann’s Speculum). Be wary of the casters and do not assume they will be easy beats. Take your opponents army into careful consideration before you commit your forces.

Summary

Obviously each of these four principles can be combined with the others. For example the Ride the wave strategy is often combined with either Tie up or Assassinate. It is up to each player to determine what suits them best and if they have the tools in their army to deal with it. Just be aware that some casters can be a tougher prospect than others.

[Skarsgard]

Effective Flanking
Contributor: Skarsgard

For a start, this is easy to do against most infantry-based armies. Just place a fast unit (Warhawks, Glade Riders, Wild Riders etc) on the flanks, and ride around the enemy, making a general nuisance of yourself. The general rule of thumb: Try keep out of LoS of enemy units. Fire as often as you can, and this will soften up most enemy units (even Chaos Warriors have something to fear when faced with the prospect of lots of arrows).

Alternatively, you can use the Moonstone of Hidden Ways to teleport a unit in behind them. A multiple charge suddenly becomes easier when you have units to the flanks and rear of the enemy.

You want to avoid a "battle line" unless it's particularly favourable. Move your units around and don't be afraid to use some "bait", especially if they can get away easily

[Skarsgard]

The Multi-Charge

Support:

Glade Guard
This was a must, they support like no other and should be protected.

Great Eagle
Mostly for march blocking and warmachine hunting can be used as a last ditch effort.

Warhawk Riders
For the reasons of the Great Eagle.

Waywatchers
Come on, we all know why.

Next up are support charging units, the units listed below are never supposed to charge the front and are good for flank charges:

Flank Chargers:

Glade Riders
They are fast cavalry and have longbows to boot. Cool J

Dryads
These ladies can take so much punishment with a limited 5+ ward so I decided to put them in Flank Chargers.

Now for the most powerful Wood Elf units, the Frontal Chargers.

Frontal Chargers:

Wild Riders of Kurnous
These guys are amazing, free musician, cause fear on the charge, +1 weapon skill, strength, and leadership base. That’s enough said.

Tree Kin
Personally I run these guys in 3 with no champion. They have performed above and beyond expectations for me. 3 strength 5 attacks, toughness 5, a 4+ armor and limited 5+ ward. Tree Kin is good J.

Treeman
We all knew this was coming. He is a beast in all phases. Movement he can go 10 inches. Can cast Tree Singing in bound form to times a phase. He can do an artillery dice worth of hits in the shooting phase and is, as we all know a monster in combat. I always take one in 2k+.

Eternal Guard
These ladies and gentlemen are better for receiving a charge but they are sturdy enough to charge and stay alive until the end of the combat phase. And hey +1 attack because of additional hand weapons is nothing to sneeze at.

Wardancers
I decided in the end they could perform both support and frontal charge roles. The shadow dances are good for finishing combats and staying alive to survive or tie up a unit.

Now I’m going to go over some strategies that I use in my 2k build.

Bait and Switch
This one is pretty obvious I place some glade riders in front of a unit that is immune to psychology and once the glade riders get charged they flee and now they have a unit that is most likely powerful on the charge.

Support Charges
This is another obvious one. Now how I play is I have all my units paired up in twos. This way I have to units that are almost always going to have a unit flank charge hopefully FTW (for the win).

Not sure wait to call this one
This has become a personal favorite for me. In my 2k build I have many units that cause fear so I try to tie up an enemy unit for a turn and then flank charge them with a fear or terror causing enemy and has worked well for me.

[Skarsgard]

Dealing with Warmachines

Warmachines are deadly, but they too have a fatal weakness. They cannot stand and shoot. This makes them vulnerable to anything with a move value higher than 7. The way I defeat them is with an Alter Noble that has a GW, the Amber Pendant, and the Briarsheath. He massacres Artillery Crews, has a long range, and is pretty well impossible to hit with careful positioning.

Bolt Throwers, well, don't worry about them unless you're a Treeman. We have no ranks (for most of our troops) and specialise in small units. Treat Cannons with suspicion. If they have the Run of Burning, they cause double wounds on our Forest Spirits, AND negate our saves. Just hope you don't end up facing that nasty combo. Never faced Stone Throwers, but they can do some easy damage with no rolling to hit required. Artillery isn't terribly powerful against Wood Elves. There are higher targets. They're just a pain, and if you have dispatched a unit or two for the task of bringing down gun-wielding units, you may as well take out the Artillery Crews as well. Easy VP's and it's less 360 degree shooting to worry about.

Scouts

Glade Guard scouts and Waywatchers fall into this category. As units that deploy last they are uniquely able to respond to the threat of warmachines. They can be placed in close proximity and force your opponent to shoot them or redirect other forces. They are able to shoot at the warmachine or charge it and deal with it in combat.

Flyers

Warhawk Riders and Eagles are built for taking out warmachines. Their fast movement and long charge range mean that they can be a threat from turn 2. Most opponents will be reluctant to "waste" a shot on such unit and it is important to have at least 2 units threatening the warmachine just in case one does get shot.

Cavalry

Once again the long charge range and the inability of warmachines to stand and shoot makes these units a threat. Wildriders in particular, with their ward saves, will cause your opponent headaches. Included in this subset is the Alter Kin.

Skirmishers

Most warmachines are fairly limited in the damage they can do to skirmishers so they make a very good unit to target them with.

[Skarsgard]

Vs. Enemy Type: Armored Infantry
Contributors: churchic

Attacking with Ranked Units & Monsters
The Wood Elf army has only three units that get a rank bonus to combat resolution: Glade Guard, Eternal Guard, and Treekin. Glade Guard in close combat tends to lead to dead archers, and Treekin are very expensive models, with each full rank costing over 300 points. This leaves the Eternal Guard as the only unit that can feasibly fight in ranks and get the rank bonus for combat resolution. Eternal Guard are a decent unit, but S3 and a 5+Armor Save, is nothing to boast about especially when your opponent is armored infantry.

A unit of armored infantry will consistently have better armor, better strength, and better toughness. They will therefore stick around in combat for a few turns, if not just break you and your spirit outright. The key to beating a ranked up unit of armored infantry with Eternal Guard is time. Eternal Guard will lose a battle of attrition with most armored infantry, so you will have to count on the stubborn nature of your Eternal Guard to hold until help arrives

This help typically needs to either be a unit that can negate rank bonuses (Treemen, Treekin, Glade Riders, Wild Riders, or Glade Guard), or a unit that can do enough damage to turn the tide with kills and the flank bonus alone (Treemen, Treekin, Wild Riders, or Wardancers). Glade Riders are unlikely to survive sustained combat, so only use them if victory is assured, or the sacrifice warranted.

Attacking with Skirmishers and Flyers
Skirmishers and flyers can be extremely vulnerable while attacking anything that is heavily armored. Skirmishers and Flyers not only do not get a rank bonus, they also do not negate rank bonuses. This being said when your Skirmishers charge a unit of armored infantry, it is imperative that you have another unit supporting them. There are many combinations for this but it is ideal to have a unit that can negate your enemies rank bonus by hitting it directly in the flank or rear. Another thing that will help is challenges. The overkill bonus can help make up the difference in combat resolution. Make sure your Skirmishers and Flyers are supported when going up against a unit of armored infantry.

Shooting at Armored Infantry
Wood Elves have some of the nastiest archery combinations in the game. The best combination to take against Armored Infantry is the Bow of Loren with the Arcane Bodkins equipped to the Alter Highborn. This character is excellent at taking down armored foes of average to moderate toughness with his hail of four or five armor-negating shots every turn.

Glade Guard at short range can wound fairly easily but depending on your opponents armor save they will have a tough time taking anybody down. However, don’t underestimate the value of even a -1 modifier to intimidate your opponent, or to tip the balance against strong armor.

Waywatchers have the Lethal Shot ability at short range – the killing blow can take down armored troops, but it will never happen often enough for you to count on it as part of your game plan. Overall the Bow of Loren/Arcane Bodkins is your best bet for this.

Magic against Armored Infantry
Most Wood Elf magic is designed around supporting your army rather than hurting your opponent. However, the Lore of Athel Loren has two spells that can be useful for taking down an enemy or two – Treesinging and Fury of the Forest. However, the nature of Wood Elf wizards means that these spells are not always available, and never difficult to dispel.

The Lore of Beasts and The Lore of Life can be used to harm opponents somewhat, though like the Lore of Athel Loren, they are more likely to bolster your own troops than to cause harm to the enemy. One exception to this is the Lore of Beasts Spell, “The Hunter’s Spear.” This spell can penetrate ranks as though it were a bolt thrower, and ignores enemy armor saves. This spell is, however, easy to dispel. One must also remember the points cost involved in gaining access to these lores, as it can only be done by a Lord-level wizard in a Wood Elf army.

[Skarsgard]

Dealing with Monsters
Contributors: DavidVC04

Monsters present a particularly beastly dilemma for Wood Elves. Few units in the Wood Elves arsenal can muster attacks above Strength 4, and Asrai units can suffer mightily at the hands of monsters who inevitably wield Strength 4 or better attacks.

Exceptionally powerful monsters, those with Toughness 5 or above, can be extraordinarily difficult to eliminate, much more so when ridden by a Vampire Lord, Orc Warboss, or the like.

This tactica will examine means of dealing with monsters of various types, from the common Ogre to the mighty Dragons of the High Elves.

General Tactics
First, do what you know to do with Wood Elves: Outmaneuver enemy monsters. Those monsters which come ranked, like Ogres and Kroxigors, should be easy to skirt, allowing for flank charges. You want a flank and not a rear charge for obvious reasons: Charging the rear of a unit of monsters allows all the models that survive your charge to attack back, making things quite unpleasant for you, even with your tougher models like Dryads. Hitting the flank gives you a flank bonus and the opportunity to drop the only model that can swing back, turning combat instantly in your favor.

That said, sometimes the opportunity to make multiple charges against a unit of monsters is too good to pass up. Hitting the flank and the rear can mean a bundle of attacks that should reduce the number of attacks back and insuring that you cause significant damage. The one caveat for this tactic is what can come of wiping out the unit you charged. If you hit the front and the rear of a unit, whether it’s a unit of monsters or not, you will not be able to overrun as your units will collide, possibly allowing for a brutal countercharge from another enemy unit.

Second, do something else that smart Wood Elves generals know to do: Pick your battles. Six Glade Riders getting the jump on Dragon Ogres can whet one’s appetite, but it’s a losing battle, even with good dice rolls. A Carnosaur might be too much even for Wardancers. Think carefully about what you want to accomplish with a charge. Sometimes the idea of winning a glorious combat against a fierce enemy is enough to push a player into a losing combat. Think smart, and keep the bigger picture of winning the battle in mind. Sometimes, just feigning a charge will buy you a turn or two and allow you to execute your game plan.

On the other hand, don’t be a lily. ‘Tis better to give than to receive, no? I’d rather charge a Hydra than be charged by a Hydra, especially if combat’s inevitable.

Speaking of Hydras, monsters with handlers can be a juicy pick. Familiarize yourself with the rules for creatures such as Salamanders. When those skinks push to the front to maximize combatants, direct attacks against them. Jabbing a spear through a skink is a much easier task than piercing the tough hide of the monster it’s handling. Win combat and look to kill the fleeing monsters during pursuit.

Third, do yet another thing that Wood Elves do well: Take down the beasties with your shooting. First many monsters rely on their toughness and not on armor. Asrai Archery can wound monsters more easily at short range and also modify any armor save they have. Concentrate 20 or 30 shots against a single unit of monsters can spell its doom. Against armies like Ogre Kingdoms and Beasts of Chaos, ensuing panic checks can turn the game in your favor.

Don’t forget enchanted arrows. The Hail of Doom Arrow can eliminate a threatening unit of monsters in one turn. The Hagbane Arrows don’t seem like a good choice as wounding the monster will be difficult with Strength 3 shots. You’d need the Bow of Loren just to give yourself a good chance of wounding. Then the monster would have to fail any save it has. And then it would have to fail a toughness test, which it would have a two-thirds chance or better of doing. The Arcane Bodkins are a slightly better option, but even then the Highborn will need 5’s or 6’s to wound. Only the Hail of Doom Arrow is a good choice, and then probably not against monsters with a Toughness of 5 or more.

Fourth, bring high strength attacks to combats against monsters. Characters with great weapons, forest spirits, Wardancers on the charge, and only in very favorable circumstances, Glade Riders or Warhawk Riders with their spears.

Fifth, consider challenges. Sometimes, a unit of monsters will have a champion or a hero. Consider challenging that champion or hero if it would mean preventing a pile of dead elves. The risk is of course the enemy gaining overkill as he grinds your Bladesinger into the dirt with his iron-shod heel, so consider this tactic with caution.

Sixth, beware Giants! Running a unit of Treekin or a Treeman into a Giant is especially tempting as the thought of bringing the brute to its knees with high strength attacks tempts the Wood Elves general into poor strategy. Bad dice means that the giant swings back with devastating results. Thump with club means that your slow tree spirits will likely fail their initiative test and suffer the worst day of their arboreal lives. A Treeman wouldn’t drop a Giant in one turn even if it hit and wounded with all its attacks. A much better strategy is to drop a giant with shooting. At the very least put two to three wounds on a giant from shooting before you pounce on it with Dryads and Wardancers which can muster a large number of attacks against the Toughness 5 monstrosity.

Other large targets, like Dragons, can be even harder to kill, but here Treekin and Treemen are much more effective. Try for a flank or rear if possible against Dragons, though that can be tricky against flyers. Wardancers, Dryads, and other man-sized units should consider attacking a rider if it might be easier to wound that the mount itself. When that rider is a Chaos Lord or Vampire, that might not be easy either. Try to set traps against flyers. If a Dragon or Wyvern drops behind your lines, arrange your units so that they threaten the monster both where it is and where it might go. Be prepared to flee, if possible, and countercharge. Be careful of charging ridden monsters with units that contain champions, unless it’s a hero with the Annoyance of Netlings, as the enemy can challenge that champion, taking away the bulk of attacks against it.

Last, another tactic is diverting the enemy. Use fast units like Glade Riders, Great Eagles, and Warhawk Riders to not only march block the enemy, but also to impede and redirect a charge from monsters. Against flyers, diversionary units are likely to die when fleeing but this might be for the best in some circumstances. The vast majority of monsters move 6” or more, so be careful with your positioning and choice of units to divert with.

A few other general tips will close us out. Be willing to ask your opponent about his units. Questions like, What’s that unit’s weapon skill? Are they armored? Those charge 12”? can mean a lot. Sporting players will offer up the information. Don’t rush into combats if they don’t seem like a good idea. Monsters with great weapons will make short work of Wood Elves units, even forest spirits. Force lots of panic tests as monsters tend to have low leadership. Be wiling to sacrifice a unit if it’s for the best. Also, don't forget that many monsters cause fear. Even elves fail fear tests on occasion, but many Wood Elves units are Immune to Psychology or themselves cause fear. These latter units can charge fear or even terror causing units without worry.

While monsters seem at first to be the bane of an army with a conspicuous glass jaw, using well-known Wood Elves strengths will win many battles for you. Be strong, move fast, and shoot straight, and remember to cut the head off of any grand beasts you slay as a token of your bravery and glory.

[Skarsgard]

The Opening Turns
Contributors: Skarsgard

1. Identifying Threats/Opportunities

Most players watch their opponent deploy with little or no thought as to what is happening. This is a valuable time to examine what your opponent is putting down and to look at what is cause you headaches or what will present you with a nice target.

What constitutes a threat will vary between individual Wood Elf armies. A Forest Spirit or skirmisher army will have less to worry about from archers than one that uses less skirmish troops. The important thing in identifying threats is to know your own armies weaknesses and then have the tools to deal with it. This is where balanced armies tend to have an advantage. If, for example, warmachines are a threat to your particular army and you have decided to take and all Eternal Guard army then you won’t be able to eliminate the threat, you can try to mitigate it but you won’t be able to get rid of it.

Exploiting mistakes your opponent has made can lead to an easy array of victory points or tactical superiority. For example, if you notice that your opponent has placed all his warmachines in a straight line with 2-4 inches between each machine you can plan to do a flank charge to exploit it and roll up his warmachines quickly. Once again this information is useless unless you have the tools to do it in your army.

2. Target Prioritisation

Once you have worked out your threats and opportunities it is time to work out a plan of attack. Work out what you have to kill or neutralize first. If you opponent has a magic heavy army do you send in some Warhawk riders to kill the mages quickly or do you wait till you have killed those pesky archers? There is ultimately no right or wrong answer, as long as you are doing something to eliminate the threats you are on the right path. As you get more experience with your army you will naturally find what enemy units cause you the most problems and learn to deal with them. The important thing is to be able to recognise them and have something in your list that can deal with them.

3. Deception

Most of the deception with the Wood Elves happens in deployment, their speed means that the army can re-deploy very quickly and cause armies that are slow to respond headaches. Deception can be a hard thing to accomplish but the basic principle is to make yourself appear weak where you are strong and make yourself appear strong where you are weak. How do we do this? It basically involves the greatest asset the Wood Elves have; movement. You can do it by putting a unit out as bait and then when the enemy falls for the “easy target” you quickly redeploy parts of your army to deal with them.

4. Being the Hunter

At times it can be difficult to know when to be aggressive and when to sit back and bide your time. It will mostly depend on you opponents army. An enemy with a lot of shooting and magic will be hard to sit back against as they will pound away at your vulnerable units and wipe them out. An army relying on combat is easier to sit back against and use your shooting to inflict as much damage as possible. The general formula I tend to use is, if they can outshoot me or outmagic me I play aggressively, if not I sit back and bide my time.

Whilst you can bide your time it is important to not let the enemy fight the battle on their terms. Make sure that before they can charge you eliminate the units that will cause problems or charge them before they charge you.

[Skarsgard]

Orion, the King in the Woods
Contributors: Remind

Strengths-

• Forest Spirit
• Causes Terror
• Spirit of Kurnous
• The Wild Hunt
• Hounds of the Hunt
• Orion's items - Horn of the hunt, Spear of Kurnous, Cloak of Isha, The hawks talon
• Good amount of wounds
• Physically strong
• High leadership
• Can join units despite being unbreakable

Weakness-

• The Wild Hunt ( makes it harder for "Shooty" units to get in but still possible)
• Spirit of Kurnous
• No additional weapons armor items spites
• Lord and a Hero choice
• Must be General
• Hounds of the Hunt( just cause they cost more than base)
• Very expensive

Orion's Uses, Tactics, Practicality
Orion has a very limited amount of uses because he is a straight up fighter

1. Fighting- Orion can be very useful in a fight. Most of his items 2/4 activate on the charge. He is physically strong and he is prepared to rip someone a new one when given the chance. Once engaged you won't see many Characters issue a challenge to this power house. With this comes a liability because you are effectively throwing your general into the middle of battle and since Orion will never run it will give your enemy a chance to set up to a counter charge or possibly try and charge him from behind so be smart when charging head first into battle with this beast. But his unbreakable ability also gives him a liability make sure you charge and enemy you have a good feeling that you can knock over with ease because any marginal combat winning points the enemy gets turns into a wound on Orion which you can use the hounds as a wound scapegoat but that would be a Oh crap situation. Its up to you as well if you take the hounds I personally would every time for the extra protection but sometimes it may not be worth the points depending on your play style.
2. Support- this is the only other use I could come up with with such a straight forward character. Orion can always support a unit in combat or back them up with the rear charge or just standing within charge range just in case combat goes back. But, as he can support he in turn should also be supported upon entering combat. And the first charge he makes all units within 18" must take a panic test so use that to your advantage whenever possible. He also causes terror so moving him about is also healthy for your army to push back or possibly to shake some units loose to be picked off. Orion is a power house but is not immortal if you pick Orion you will be doing a lot close combat so make sure all units that are in combat have a plan b and always have support units to help in combat units as much as possible.
3. Practicality- Orion is very expensive in fact one of the most expensive in the WE army so in smaller games it is almost impossible to field him. Would be fun to put him into an army but i wouldn't do so until the army points hit about 3000. Otherwise he is pretty flexible.