Tale of Five Gamers

[Truth]

Hey there.

A small group of us within the club that I've been involved in for quite a while has decided to start anew and move some of their interests over from 40K to FB. After some brief debates and several sessions pouring over Fantasy fluff in order to choose the army most suited to our play styles, and I've chosen Wood Elves. We should all be starting next month and the first purchases on everyone's lists are their respective army books and a Lord for each of their armies. After this we will each purchase one squad/character every month and move on from there (understand the title now?). This is where I need some help. I'll be facing off against the new Empire, Beastmen, Chaos and Dwarves (most likely), and I need some ideas for the first couple of miniatures to buy. What Lord should I pick to start with? Should I take some Glade Guard and some Glade Riders next? Are Warhawk Riders any good? What about Eternal Guard? There's just so much to pick from! Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

[Cyric the Mad]

For my money, you can't go wrong with a wardancer noble kitted out with a moonstone of the hidden ways and accompanying a squad of wardancers to interpretive-dancy death. Then again, for your first few (i.e. small) games, an alter kindred may serve you better.

As far as the first unit to buy, you really can't go wrong with glade guard or dryads. I tend to put a lot of glade guard in my armies for a couple of reasons - 1. Can't go wrong with masses arrow-fire, and 2. 20+ (2x1 glade guard as a firing line is typically too big of a nuisance for your enemy to ignore, which means they will devote something big or hurty to come after them, which should allow you to spring your traps (you did remember to set up those traps, right?)

Dryads are another staple of my armies. They're a favorite cc unit of mine, though I most often use them as sacrificial lambs to soak up some initial charges. They've got rep enough that your enemy will gun for them, and you can use that to your advantage.

Playing wood elves, I've found that, more often than not, the battle is decided by what my enemy perceives to be the largest threat - after he decides which unit(s) he's most after, I just let him go after it while I set up my charges.

To recap: If I had it to do all over again, I would buy:
1: Wardancer noble
2: Glade Guard
3: Dryads
4: Wardancers

Now I'll let the more experienced players contradict most of what I just told you.

[Truth]

Hehe, thanks for your input misanthrope.

Yeah, I laid out a plan for the next couple of months, but I have no idea what to use since I don't have the Codex (oops, armybook {goofy}) and no understanding of the rules (not yet, anyways) - so I'm just taking educated guesses for a (somewhat) balanced army which still looks cool. :yes:

At the moment, I was thinking about taking the Waywatcher Lord to start with, then a squad of Glade Guard, after that, Glade Riders and then back to a second squad of Glade Guard, Dryads... so on and so forth, but maybe I need to rethink my list. I wasn't sure if wardancers would be worth it early on, but I certainly do like the minis...

[Cyric the Mad]

Eh... just go with what looks cool. This is why I chose wood elves, and it continues to be the deciding factor for what I put in my armies. I take some units others wouldn't, and big units where people say small ones work best, only because it'll look spectacular on the table. They'll die, but they'll look good doing it! At the end of the battle, when I've been beaten horribly I can still think to myself, "wow, that looked cool."

In the end it all comes down to personal preference. Best of luck with your army. Keep us posted about your progress.

[Truth]

Sweet.

Thanks again for the advice misanthrope. Rep! We should be starting next month so I'll be making some posts on the forums in a few weeks time. I'll prolly be going for a mostly ranged army supported by cavalry and possibly some dryads. Heavy hitters like tree kin will have to wait (not that I don't like then, but war dancers and eternal guard are probably gonna come first) I was thinking of going for a bone, terracotta and bestial brown scheme over the typical greens, but I guess that's for another thread...

Anyways, thanks alot. :w00t:

[DavidVC04]

Yeah, I can't tell you anything new. You can't go wrong with dryads and glade guard. I don't like glade riders so much, but that's just me.

A wardancer noble is a nasty critter indeed. My wardancers are my favorite unit in terms of game play. They've won more games for me than any other unit, probably.

[churchic]

Wardancers ROCK!!!!!! That is by far my favorite unit in this army other then a Treeman. What I did to start off an army was buy 2 Wood Elf Batallion Boxes and just worked it from there. You get 24 Dryads (which are a must IMO these guys are the best bang point for point in the WE army), 16 Glade Riders, and I believe 40 Glade Guard. You could put together around 1,250 points with this with no upgrades etc. Ya need to get some Wardancers though and a Treeman. Those 2 units have won me so many games it is unreal. And a nice Alter Kindred with a Bow of Loren is always a nice thing to have. Anyway keep us posted on youur progress! And good luck

[Truth]

Thanks, I will be ordering my minis sometime this weekend, so hopefully I can begin updating soon!

Things have ramped up here - more and more people have been becoming interested in the idea and we now have SEVEN players (including myself), making for an impressive roster of Wood Elves, Empire, Brettonnians, Skaven, Chaos, Dwarves (or Dwarfs, however you prefer it) and Ogres.

I must thank you all for your advice. Before I was considering mainly on going heavy cavalry with almost no Wood Spirits or footsloggers (besides my Glade Guard), but having heard of the effectiveness of both Treemen and the dryads(from several sources), I'm adding them to my roster. There are a few questions I have though - how effective are waywatchers for their cost, and do Eagle Riders play much of a role in the Wood Elf army?

Now all I need to do is pick my Lord. So may pretty minis - this is going to be tough. :ninja:

Cheers.

[DavidVC04]

Waywatchers, I don't use. In fact, I just sold mine on eBay. I figured that they should be with someone who actually would run them in their armies.

The Great Eagle, I'm almost done with. Well, not so far off from being done. Anyhow, I think it's going to be a good replacement for alters, which I alwys used in 6th ed. But under 7th ed rules, a noble on an eagle will have a much better time surviving and doing what I want.

[Cyric the Mad]

Originally Posted by misanthrope09

Waywatchers are beyond cool, but they do get pricey. Don't let anyone convince you not to use them though. Studies have shown that your army becomes 28% cooler for every waywatcher unit you deploy

When I was just a lad, my father used to tell me, "Son, it's not if you win or lose that matters, but how you play the game."

Actually it was something more like, "get back on that field and earn the roof over your head," but whatever.

For my money anyway, the points-recouping effectiveness of any given unit should only ever be a part of what makes said unit worth fielding (unless you're playing in a tournament, at which point you and I come from two different worlds anyway).

You figure most people in this hobby have spent ungodly amounts of time and money on it, right? Given that, and given that even the most perfectly planned and executed strategy can fall victim to the flippant whim of the dice gods, you will lose a fair amount of games. The only thing that you have full control over is how cool your army is, so you may as well fill your army with units and models that you think are cool.

Now, some people have clearly lost their way, and that's fine. It is not my place to judge such people, even when they engage in such strange and baffling behavior such as selling perfectly good painted waywatchers on ebay. But waywatchers rock. That's really all there is to it.

Originally Posted by misanthrope09

That being said, I ALWAYS take Waywatchers. Because they're cool. They're gigantic mountains of cool with cool frosting and a cool cherry on top. They're the Miles Davis of Wood Elves.