The Elf Carefully made his way through the ancient grove, careful not to stumble or make a noise. All around him lush vibrant trees grew in an almost swirling way, that defied the imagination. The strange path led to an opening, clear as water, sun cascaded through the canopy of leaves above creating a patchwork quilt of light and color on the ground below. Sitting beneath an immense oak tree with a strange look of sheer peace was an eccentric old elf. The old elf spoke "So… you have come."

The Wood Elf Army- The Wood Elf army is a somewhat complex army to play. It requires lot's of maneuvering and cunning to win with.

Table of Contents

Know thy Forces: Regiments Monsters Characters Special Characters

General Tactics

Sample Army Lists:Fast Attack Army Defensive Army All Purpose Army


Know Thy Forces: The first thing to understand the wood elf army is to know your own army…


Regiments:

Chariots: Chariots are some of the most devastating machines to deal with. One good charge will run a well armored unit down like grass. The one weakness of these mighty machines is they tend to get shot up a lot. The solution I use is to screen them with lesser units until they are ready to charge, and use cover effectively.

Glade Riders: Who else misses the old Wood Elf Knights? Glade Riders in my opinion suck. They cost 27 points for mediocre strength, toughness, armor and they lost the great WS 5. Yes I know feigned flight is pretty cool, but it certainly isn't worth the points. These guys are too expensive to make good missile cavalry either. What a waste of cool models!

Warhawk Riders- Now these guys are also very expensive, but I think that they are a lot more worth it. Speed, Speed, and more Speed is the decisive factor. I tend to arm them with light armor, shields and spears rather then longbows. Unfortunately they suffer from low toughness and armor save(for cavalry), and a very high point cost. Good at harassing missile troops, war machines, and poor to medium infantry.

Wardancers- Again another high cost troop with little armor, these guys use to be my favorite troops in the game, but they have become less godly. Even with the dodge these guys tend to die a lot if they get hit, and they do tend to be targeted a lot, for obvious reasons. Still you can't go wrong with up to 3 attacks and WS 5, but the low strength hurts. Try to hit big units in the flank with 6-8 Wardancers, as with the new rules you cancel out rank bonuses if you do, and you will probably outclass them.

Archers- The backbone of any self-respecting Wood Elf Army!!!!! Archers are cheap(for elves), have incredibly good range and the neat -1 armor save. Weaknesses include low toughness and lack of armor. Take as many of these bad boys as you can. I've got 40!

Glade Guard- These guys pretty much suck. Their only strong point is that they're probably the only troop in your army that will have a rank bonus. Maybe take them to stand in front of your archers on hills.

Waywatchers- I really like these guys, just as good as scouts, but better and only 2 points more. Still 18 points is pretty steep. I tend to take 8-10 led by a champion(Scarloc). The ability to hide in woods and fire really makes people angry, and if they actually see them and charge them they still have to face traps. A great unit, and a lot of fun.

Scouts- The old scouts are just the same as they always were in the new book, not that there's anything wrong with that. Monstrous BS 5 allows them to pick off even lone characters with ease, 16 pts a pop though!

TREEMEN- The coolest things on the regiments list, TREEMEN! These guys crush everything and anything in their way. Great for plowing through large weak units like gobbos and humies, as they have to wound you before you take a break test! Watch out for characters and spells like Lava Storm and Piercing Bolts of Burning.

Dryads- I really like Dryads, because A.) they are fun to paint and B.) they kick serious butt! I've had Dryads beat up everything from Chaos Warriors to Bull Centaurs. 35 points a piece is pretty steep also!


Monsters:

Wood Elves have a surprisingly small monster list considering they live in a vast untamed forest. The Monsters I like the most are Great Eagles as cheap war machine killers, and of course the lovely Dragons, Griffins, and so forth as character mounts. As for the Forest Dragon, I don't know why it's so special, because all it is is a regular Green Dragon!!!


Characters:

Wood Elf Heroes, Champions, and Lords- All I can say is- well, at least they're not humies.

Wood Elf Mages- Again, not much to say in this department except HIGH MAGIC RULES!!! I love Drain Magic, Apotheosis, Assault of the stone, it's all great!

Wardancer Champions- These guys are just damned cool for 60 pts. WS BS 6 S4 2A, the one bad thing is low armor and toughness, and the fact that if they have to be armed identically to regular Wardancers, why aren't additional hand weapons on the equipment list!!??


Special Characters:

Orion- Next to Nagash this is the most HIDEOUS model GW has ever made. That fact alone is why I have yet to take him. Still for only 450 points he's pretty cheap for his stats, though the horn and spear are pretty crappy.

Ariel- No model as of yet, but still a pretty good mage. Cheap for her abilities, and LD 10. The wand is great, but the rest of her items aren't all that good. One tactic that would be nice is to take all high magic, and inscribe Drain Magic on the wand, enabling you to have total control of the magic phase!

Naieth- I take Naieth a lot simply for Othu and her Rod. Othu can help out in one of those time where you need 5's or 6's to hit, and the rod for some reason is less the chalice of sorcery, and can't wound you. Low point though is 1 wound, so hide her in an archer unit.

Thalandor- Thalandor is great in small battles, where he can be a mage, general, and flyer in one fell swoop, but in larger battles he tends to be outclassed in all of the above. His magic items are fairly useless too.

Lothlann- Lothlan is fairly ordinary, except with the magic banner which is somewhat useful, still I'd rather put my Battle Standard on a Warhawk so they can have a magic banner(dread banner or banner of might).

DURTHU- Durthu is TOUGH!! I've had him survive more spells and hit's then I can count, and he can dish it out too. The one main weakness is cannons, and he comes out of your character allowance.

Wychwythl- this guy is pretty good, only 100 points, and the drum can give you up to a 16" charge range! The 5+ dodge increases survival ability too!

Sceolan- This guy really isn't all that special, with his only special ability the buckler of bronze which isn't that neat.

Scarloc- this guy is a real pain in the but for enemy players, as the hail of Doom is NASTY! He can pretty much pick his favorite target when you deploy too!

Skaw- The only really neat thing about this guy is the ability to pick off those pesky champions in units with those darned Ruby Chalices and Talismans of Obsidian.

Gruath- The tigers are good but not worth 166 points. Most units will just break them and chase them down.


General Tactics:

The main thing to remember with Wood Elves is to pick and choose your opponents. Don't charge 5 Wardancers into 40 Goblins, because you just can't win. Hit them in the flank, shoot them, charge a Treeman into them first. You need the right troops for the right jobs. Use the terrain to your advantage, and ALWAYS shoot everything possible at them. Their numbers will dwindle right before your eyes.


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