1500 pts competitive Wood Elves

[Vezzax]

Hi every1. I've been wanting to start from scratch with a new army, and after some thought I think I'm positive that I will start a Wood Elves army. I know it's a challenging army to play, but I want some change from my main army (WoC), which is pretty much straight up battleline army that you move up and win. So I don't mind the challenge. The following list is the first one I've created for Wood Elves, but before buying all the wrong models I'd just like to hear what you guys say to it:


Lords:
Spellweaver, Ranu's heartstone, lvl 4 Lore of life

Heroes:
Noble, BSB

Core:
10 Glade guard, musician

8 Dryads

8 Dryads

8 Dryads

Special:
6 Tree kin

Rare:
Treeman

Great Eagle

Total: 1499 pts

Okay so just to summarize what I had in mind: Treeman and Great eagke deploys at my centre and 1 Dryad unit on each of my flanks. Glade guard deploys behind my Treeman and bunkers both characters so they get their "look out sir roll". When these units are deployed I'll estimate where my opponents forces are weakest and deploy the remainder of my army opposite to that. (This should hopefully have my opponent confused and spread out, but my force focussed at one table quarter and thereby make it easier to break his lines). Dryads are chosen in units of 8 since I want them to be able to maneuver around enemy lines (besides, they don't get rank bonusses for being skirmishers), unit of 8 comes at less than 100 pts anyways so they're cheap and expendable and can still bring a world of hurt on a charge.

The idea is to have my treeman as an anvil for my army, with my 2 characters right behind it has LD9, reroll, stubborn, and regains a wound every time my wizard casts a spell. Eagle march blocks or hunts war machines, tree kin works as the punch of my army, dryads as flanking support, glade guard as bunker for chars and to pick off fast cav, flyers or other pesky units.

I've chosen to go heavy on forest creatures and not archers since it appears that wood elves are always going to be out gunned by armies like empire or dwarfs. Besides I really love the dryad, treekin and treeman models in the WE army

Comments and suggestions most welcome

Thank you,
Vezzax

[elordan]

hi personally i think 1 unit of 10 GG will do nothing for you and dryads are ok but not great also you have no protection on your bsb at this point lvl of game i would concider making your weaver a lvl 3 get rid of 1 unit of dryads and make another unit of 10 GG i would also drop the eagle it wont do much on its own apart from get shot put the points into a standard and champ for your char bunker unit of GG and add 2 more GG to the unit making it x 12 any points left over try to get some protection for your bsb i would also concider lore of beasts over life here life is great when your fielding lots of multi wounds units in higher points lvl games and seeing as your aiming at a competative list so your aiming at an all comers situation beasts is the way to go life has 2 important remains in play spells that can and will be dispelled by PD against armies that can afford not to cast in there turn where as beasts has one spell the big bad trans of kadon wich at this lvl you probably wont cast and dont need to cast but then you can swap between lores depending on who you fight so this is just food for thawt, you could also concider dropping your treekin to 4 although 6 is better but if you are concerned about artillary then use the points to get 2 eagles or possibly 3 warhawks if you can squeeze them in note that if you do drop down to 4 treekin then lore of life would be better for this army anyway just my 2 cents

[Sidewinder]

Elordan,

Please toss in a few periods and paragraph breaks now and then in your posts. You may have some very good suggestions and I am interested in what you have to say. But when I see a big block of text with no breaks, I don't even bother reading it. If I'm skipping your posts, there might also be others doing the same.

Sidewinder

[ikbuh]

The problem with your list is that you're excluding the thing that Wood Elves do best, and that's shooting. I like to take a minimum of 20 archers no matter what points level because it really softens things up for the heavy hitters. Doesn't matter if they're in one big group or in smaller units of 10-12. What I've found myself doing is taking a Level 4 Beast Weaver with a Rhymer's harp and putting her in a bit unit of 25+ archers. It's a great place to put your BSB as well, which you lack, and it's also a decent melee force with the Beast Buffs. That's not mandatory as MSU archers works fantastically, but it's just another option.

[rothgar13]

I'd agree with ikbuh on this one - squads of 8 Dryads aren't scaring anybody, S4 arrows are.

[Vezzax]

Thanks for the feedback, and sorry for the late reply...

okay, so first of all you want me to cut down on dryads and add more GG, trade life for beasts and drop the eagle? While I do agree I made an overkill on dryads and I lack GG, I'm not sure why you want me to take beasts over life? Beasts has its uses, but only really one spell comes to mind when I look it over and that's wysans wildform... If you look at lore of Life it basically does the same as beasts (+2/4 T instead of +1T,+1S) and it has the dwellers below (most important of all is that everytime I cast a spell my treeman regains a wound and since he's stubborn, he's going to be used as an anvil for my army). If the great eagle isn't going to be usefull I find myself in a position where I can't take out war machines (I've chosen to add a unit of scouts - don't know if you agree with this)

While I agree with most of what you say, there are still a few points I don't quite follow - Here's the changes I've made:

Lords: spellweaver, lvl 4 lore of Life

Heroes: Noble, BSB

Core: 10 GG, musician (BSB bunker)

Core: 10 GG, musician (Spellweaver bunker)

Core: 5 Scouts

Core: 12 Dryads

Special: 6 Treekin

Rare: Treeman

[Sidewinder]

> I'm not sure why you want me to take beasts over life? <

The conventional wisdom is that if your list is more forest spirit heavy, then you should go with Lore of Life. If your army is more elf orientated, then go with Lore of Beast. With your army list consisting of six Treekin, one Treeman, and relatively few GG, you are probably better off with choosing Lore of Life.

Personally, since War Eagles have the same job as Scouts, I would have kept the War Eagle. I can have two War Eagles for the cost of one Scout unit. If I go after a cannon or a Doom Diver with two eagles, there is a chance that one eagle will reach the war machine. If one gets hit with a cannonball or Doom Diver goblin, then I have a back-up eagle. If nothing else, I have gotten my opponent to shoot at a 50 point unit for a couple of turns rather than the spellweaver bunker unit. With just one scout unit, I have no back-up.

Those are my thoughts,
Sidewinder

[rothgar13]

The problem here, Sidewinder, is that at 1500 points, he has to choose between 2 Eagles and a Treeman, and that's a tough call to make in favor of the Eagles. I do agree, though, the Scouts aren't as efficient as the Eagles at being a threat, and another thing that has to be pointed out is that the Eagle is actually fairly respectable in a scrap. Scouts... well, aren't.

I still think this list needs more arrows. S4 Bows are the Wood Elves' livelihood as far as Core goes, and you should consider packing the Flaming Banner in one of these units to give you a way to pick at regenerators and the like at range.

[Sidewinder]

Yes, I was wondering if the three rare selections would fit at 1500 but was a bit too lazy to do the cipherin'.
I cannot recall if I have ever used a Treeman at 1500 points. How good is a Treeman at that point level? At 1500 points, I use a block of 20 glade guard instead of a Treeman. This gives me a few points left over for other things.

Sidewinder

[rothgar13]

I'd think he'd be quite good. How many S4 greatweapon wielders can an opponent bring to chop him down at 1500? My guess is not many.