[Visitor Q]

My woodelf army as whole has been doing quite well but I always feel my characters are dragging their feet a little.

I have tried a number of different combinations and at present in my 2000pt army my characters are;

A Level 4 mage on a steed with 3 dispel scrolls (Lore of Beasts)

A Level 2 mage on foot with 2 dispel scrolls (Lore of Athel Loren)

A Hero 'Alter' with a Great Weapon and Stone of the Crystal Mere.

Essentially my mages act as 'uber' scroll caddies to completly pull the plug on the enemey magic phase while my Alter lurks around my deployment zone lookign out for lone characters and so on.

Comments from the wood elf community on this set up would be appreciated.

 

[DavidWC09]

I never expect to get anything offensively out of magic from WEs. If you want that many scrolls, I'd go with a lvl 3 and a lvl 1.

Myself, I use two lvl 1 scroll caddies, 4 scrolls. I try to last through the first two or three enemy magic phases before I'm hopefully starting to eliminate those enemy magic users, or in positions, like combat, where many spells are less effective.

I think you can get more bang for your buck with a highborn for a lord.

As for the alter, I go with the standard helm of the hunt, hail of doom setup. I try to pop the HoDA early and then use him for combat support late.



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[8people]

I always take the approach that my characters tend to be like little spites themselves while the rest of the army is like the forest.

On its own a forest isn't that deadly, but with spites to wind up your opponent the woods become a trap and a dangerous terrain feature :sinister:

So you can look at your army and feel what needs boosting, supporting or enhancing and pick different items, spells and builds around that.

Leads to a fun diversity if not an earth-shattering general of destruction and awesome power. That doesn't mean they're weak though

 

[Visitor Q]

Level 3 and level 1 sounds like a good combination to try out.

I played a game against Chaos just before I posted with my present combination and I was glad for the extra scroll. Cloying Quagmire on my Treeman would have been embaressing.

Luckily after I had dispelled it my Treeman got to grips with the Nurgle sorcerer mounted in a Chariot and dumped him in a large steaming Quagmire of a wholly different kind (actually given that it was Nurgle maybe it wasn't so different)

@8people I think you might be right in the sense of using characters as support. Its how I have been using them at the moment whereas in my dwarf or High Elf armies Characters are far more central as part of the battle plan.

 

[Midvalley]

if you really worried about magic defense, and really like using a spell weaver(go lvl 3). You should try the WoWE (Wand of Witch Elm). Just make sure you have enough spell casters to boost your dispel dice. A lvl 1 scroll caddie and a lvl 1 branchwraith with cluster of radiants will give you a solid 7 dispel dice! (2 army, 2 weaver, 1 caddie, 1 wraith, 1 cluster) and two dispel scrolls. Throw in the standard alter (HotH, HoDA, GW, S, LW) and you have yourself a solid group of heroes.

If your looking for some powerhouse hitting heroes there are plenty of powerful alter combinations. Highbornes on dragons are also pretty damaging. Treemen Ancients are not used as much as the others (from what i see), but that does not mean they are by any means bad. They can deal out some heavy damage and can take some hits.

Really you should experiment and pick heroes that compliment your army as a whole. I find that Wood Elfs are far from Hero Hammer. In my experience Heroes should be used as added supplement to your army and not the focus of it. Have fun!

 

[Visitor Q]

Personally I am very wary of relying on dispel dice. There are so many spells that can make you have a really bad day (particularly in the Chaos and Dark Elf lists) that I much prefer straight out Dispel Scrolls.

In hindsight I suspect that I have been using my characters ok (though I could probably be a bit more efficient with the points saving 70 odd points on magic levels for example).

 

[8people]

Some spells you can afford to let past though, such as Cloying Quagmire from the Nurgle list

Glade Guard have to pass initiative? Okay then...
The ones that failed have to fail an armour save or die?
Well darned will you look at that lack of damage...

If you manage to grab Ishas' Blessing as a spell it's pretty good as well if one of your units becomes the pin cushion. Or even a Treeman for an epic level hulk smash round of combat :hypnotized:

If you're playing someone you don't like there's the option of a few branchwraiths and/or spellsingers all with just treesinging and one with the stave that lets them cast it more than once per round.

You don't have to bring the pain to *be* a pain, and it's as valid a tactic as any - all's fair in love and war :soldier:

(It's when your opponent notices you're treesinging the terrain into a smiley face looking at him they usually get annoyed though )

 

[DavidWC09]

If I were to really push my magic defense, I'd do lvl 3 with wand of wych elm and one scroll. Then lvl 1 with 2 scrolls. Then lvl 1 branchwraith with cluster. Rerollable dispel dice are really good. Then you have the 7 dice like 8people says, and then reroll them, backed up with 3 scrolls. That'll shut down a lot of the magic phase.

But yeah, you need a scroll when people are dropping some insane amount of dice that you just really can't counter.

And I like multiple castings of treesinging. It can really foul someone's plans, though beasts is really great. I especially like the Beasts Cower spell for stopping chariots, cav, and monsters. That can be HUGE.



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[Visitor Q]

I may try out a few of these different combos to see how they work. Especially in relation to my present list.

In regard to Cloying Quagmire it can be pretty lethal against Treemen......

On a different note have any of you guys had any experience with the Spirit Sord particularly in relation to units of multi wound creatures....do the wounds spread across the unit?

Also I think I am right in saying the Spirit Sword doesn't actually inititate a Ld test (as defined on pg5 of the rulebook) so much as a Ld based attack. In other words if you attack a monster it can't take its riders Ld.

 

[sirkently]

On a different note have any of you guys had any experience with the Spirit Sord particularly in relation to units of multi wound creatures....do the wounds spread across the unit?
Unfortunately not, against one wound models, you get no extra damange. Unless you are in a challenge of course, where overkill comes into play. Against regular troopers, only you can get hurt as you still need to take the test.

Also I think I am right in saying the Spirit Sword doesn't actually inititate a Ld test (as defined on pg5 of the rulebook) so much as a Ld based attack. In other words if you attack a monster it can't take its riders Ld.
You are correct here. It goes off the monsters base leadership.

SirKently

 

[Visitor Q]

Thanks for the heads up SirKently. I'm still a little unclear how you would work out the Spirit Sword against a unit of Ogres.

Say you hit twice which isn't enough to kill a single Ogre but with 'extra damage' you inflict say 5 extra wounds for a total of 7 wounds. Would you only be able to kill 2 Ogres because thats how many you hit?

 

[sirkently]

Each hit is done individually. So you hit twice(which he doesn't save), now do the leadership roll off. Lets say you win by one. So you have done two wounds with the first hit, which won't kill an ogre, so the second wound goes to him also, and he dies. Now lets say you won by four. That first ogre is dead with 5 wounds, though you really only cause three, since thats all he can take. Now move on to the next ogre with the second hit and roll the leadership roll off again.

Hope that helps.
SirKently

 

[Visitor Q]

Each hit is done individually. So you hit twice(which he doesn't save), now do the leadership roll off. Lets say you win by one. So you have done two wounds with the first hit, which won't kill an ogre, so the second wound goes to him also, and he dies. Now lets say you won by four. That first ogre is dead with 5 wounds, though you really only cause three, since thats all he can take. Now move on to the next ogre with the second hit and roll the leadership roll off again.

Hope that helps.
SirKently

Yep, cheers. Thats how I figured it would work out. It makes the sword pretty good at dealing with Multiple Wound units but not absolutly awsome. And of course there is always the odd chance of losing some wounds yourself.

 

[tbeckett]

just a logistics question related to individual hits with the spirit sword. If you kill your self midway through your attacks, do you lose the remainder of your attacks or do you finish all the attacks and then remove the model?

 

[8people]

I think twitching after death can only do so much...

 

[arishnakoger]

My good SirKently, is there any place I can get that spirit sword isn't affected by the general's leadership in print?

 

[tbeckett]

My good SirKently, is there any place I can get that spirit sword isn't affected by the general's leadership in print?

The BRB says you can use the general's leadership for leadership-based tests, and it defines leadership tests as the 2d6 roll under or equal to your leadership.
The spirit sword is not roll 2d6 under or equal to your leadership or something happens, it a single d6 plus leadership and thus does not fall under the defined leadership test.

 

[sirkently]

My good SirKently, is there any place I can get that spirit sword isn't affected by the general's leadership in print?

Not really. The spirit sword doesn't cause a leadership test. That is what matters as far as the generals leadership goes. As it doesn't fall under this category, then you have to use your own leadership.

SirKently