[veringmeier]

hello, i've been playing lizardmen and high elves, i had an idea for a wood elf army.

i thought of a different army than all the other wood elf army's, so i thought of an army in a city. this is not the way wood elves are, and that's why i wrote a small fluff.

Teclis, highlore master in Ulthuan once went to the old world to support the empire army's by teaching them magic. this he did in the time of Magnus the Pious. as a gift from the phoenix king, i thought, Teclis gave him a bodyguard squad of elves. there purpose was to always protect the emperor in his castle, and not on the battle field, and they also ware to kill any man in the emperors city who didn't wanted to follow him. the only armour thay wore, ware leather and cloth, because metal would make to many sounds when moving, and they were not allowed to show themselves to the public, except in any life threatening situation.

i only thought of this because wood elves don't show themselves out of the forrest, and even in the forrest they won't let you see them. the idea was to make an army of wood elves, mainly painted black, and with city bases. i won't field any dryads, treekin or treeman in the list, because that won't fit in the fluff.

the main questions are: what do you think of such an army, in a city instead of woods? and do you think an army without forest spirits would work?


ps: be fair, if you don't like it, just say it, but please say why/

thanks :qq:

 

[JJDW]

Eh. Could work, but as far as I can tell, with the lack of forest spirits and the emphasis on not ever being seen, the Dark Elves army would be more appropriate, fluffwise it may be that they are Dark Elven separatists that now operate in Human cities, their heritage being why they must never be seen. There is also the question of why small city based units would be out on open battlefields.

Mech wise an army without forest spirits could work, I'm building one right now for my Wood Elf Exiles list, they who have been forsaken by the forest.

But give it some more thought and I'm sure it could work.

 

[Akaroth]

Big fat yes to dark coloured WE. Like JJDW though, not sure why WE particularly, there's nothing wrong with it but you could have had the same story with HE kinda. Now I think about it, I see some logic . For mono-asrai, works just as well as any WE army, I think it works better with more terrain, as substitute for teh toughness of forest spirits.

 

[veringmeier]

i wanted to create a rooftop battle, if you know what i mean. you see it in alot of action movies. the reason i took WE, i don't like the cheese of DE and i've already got HE. it's not that i'm not going to use terrain in my advantage if that's what you ment, akaroth, but it's just the bases i want to make this way, and not to forget the cloth.
i do think it has to wait a little, i want to finish my lizardmen in januari, and then i've got to choose between WE or maybe wait a month for beastmen. though i think i'll make WE.
thanks :qq:

 

[8people]

It doesn't really fit the army to be fair, for one the timing, Teclis would have come from Ulthuan with Ulthuan trained warriors. He wouldn't have nipped off to Athel Loren to arrange a small court of bodyguards.

Secondary point is how often would you be fighting in city themed terrain? Having nicely themed bases is cool, but always looks a little off shuffling along the lush green battlefield.

As a thematic display piece of high elf hidden protectors utilising wood elf models, it could look lovely.

As the core theme to an army? As you said yourself, Wood Elves don't show themselves outside of the forest.

What might be worth considering is if you wish to keep that fluff, look into High Elves, You could take a core selection of defensive units for standing around in throne rooms and tactical positions within the castle, perhaps in empire heraldry than traditional elven colours. Also archers to stand on battlements and balconeys within the hallways of the demesne.

I can't actually find the High Elves rulebook currently which is odd as I know there are three copies lying around in this house...

For specials you could take shadow warriors, paint them as the theme you described, maybe even using Wood Elf models to substitute in their place so they have the appearance of lighter armour.

As for rare choices, as you are playing on a battlefield and not in a bulding perhaps a bolt thrower from the castle battlements and a couple of eagles as a last option for the emporer to retreat

You could perhaps even get away with using Empire heroes/lords permission from opponents granted

Dark elves as suggested could also be used with some tweaking, problem is they wouldn't be ones to assist the emporer. If you are set on using Wood Elves then a dark theme would look really nice if done well (as any theme), you could perhaps do something like a "haunted wood" theme where the trees are blackened and twisted and maybe a small settlement has been swallowed by the forest, leaving rubble and corpses behind. Though Urban Wood Elves, as I'm sure you can appreciate, are a little anti-fluff and would not really be thematic for their current army rules.

Sorry to be a bit of a downer, but these are just personal opinions. :qq:

 

[veringmeier]

thanks, 8people

i know HE are more fitted for this kind of army, but i already own a 2250 points army of chrace. but you gave this good alternative for a haunted woods force. i like it very much, and i think it would indeed fit in the fluff a lot more. the haunted woods are, i think, a better option than the city elves. i'm going to the local GW this afternoon, and i'll talk about this subject with some friends there. hope to get some good reactions.

thanks :qq:

 

[8people]

Glad you like it

I hate putting a downer on an idea so will always try to give an alternative. Hope you find something that really interests you, I'm going into the shop later today to work on assembling the last of my Woodsies, maybe get them undercoated while I'm there, perhaps challenge the manager to a duel MUAHAHAHA.

Something that I was thinking earlier that may work a little if you go with the haunted wood styled theme and going with a dark theme, I remember someone doing a Bone-Wood Dryad on the GW website once, so it mostly white, light coloured and ethereal looking, bringing out the spirit side more and would contrast nicely against the darker coloured army base, especially if you use very few spirit units, just makes them pop a little

 

[Akaroth]

hmmm, very Tim Burton-esque, but I already said I like it soooooooo

I guess with that kinda of army, waywatchers would be the rare slots, I don't see eagles being evil, maybe replace them with bats.....warhawk riders on bats...............:dance:

and if you had a treeman, it would have to be an ancient, although not sure if Coeddil is the only treeman in the wild wood.

 

[veringmeier]

i like the colours you mentioned on the dryads, 8people, i think it'll fit very nice with the dark wood elves. i've looked on the GW site and saw one called ghostwood, of which i thought it was the one you described.
akaroth, i've been thinking about bats, and i didn't really know what people would say about it, but now someone else has been thinking about the same thing, i might look in that direction. i've had very good experiences with my terradons in my lizardmen army, and these can be used in the same way.

thanks :qq: