Wood Elves Where to Start?

[gbh123]

Alright I'm a bit lost and don't know what to do. I have a unit of Glade Guard but I don't what to add on any advice or suggestions?

[Raganrokian]

Noble of some kind, unit of Glader riders and some melee unit (Dryads, Wardancers etc.) And another unit of either glade guard or glade riders, depending on what kind of army you want.

[Inquisitor Lord Graenis]

what playstyle and what objective? to hit the enemy hard in combat, to shoot them, a woodkin or a mix?

[Deleted]

Okay, this might be tricky. You're going to need that scenery pack that makes the super awesome trees. GW put it out a while back. You might even want two or three packs, or maybe a trip to a local hobby store. Most of those trees are going to be the terrain you bring to a match, so that you can make full and perfect use of your spells and special rules, and one of those trees is going to be the big bad mother Ent you can take as a Rare choice. I don't know that you need to add a face or anything, either, as long as this dude is a big, solid tree.

[Deleted]

Try starting with the battlion, buy more Dryads, wardancer, spellsingers and possibly a treeman. Go to Asrai.org, it's a wood elf message board. Good to have another wood elf player.

[sammy1979]

lots of glade guard are a good start as well, with war dancers to guard the flanks, unless there are any hills don't rank your glade guard just use them in single line units of 10 or twenty, there stopping power is in the bow not in combat with the 30" range and 4 to hit you can start bleeding them from along way out with virtual impunity from anything other then artillery, then when they hit that magic 15" point and your hitting on 3s and wounding on 3s they will suffer, and as they race forward to close the gap and break your thin line its in with the war dancers and dryads to the flanks,
i use eternal guard not a popular choice, but in two ranks of ten if you survive the charge from a thin downed unit the potential 30 hits back will negate any rank bonuses offered by blocks of troops.
wood elves are like wellingtons infantry they shoot fast and accurate and avoid hand to hand. also way watchers make great artillery hunters as do war pidgins, and wild riders can create havoc in the flanks.
but its mostly the bows i find sting opponents into rash maneuvers. that allow war dancers etc to charge the flank using there dances you can get 4 attacks each at s4 with weapon skill a lot, they causes a lot of wounds forcing high end and ward saves. however if they dint break the enemy on there charge they get hurt bad quickly.
and tree singing bugs the crap out of most opponents to the point they become reckless with there dispel dice. and they stay the hell away from woods just in case. so then you can funnel them into more bow shots.

mostly congratulations on choosing the best WHFB army out there, regardless of all this beardy points/stat creep that has happened over the past two years. your wood elves might not always win but those you play will definitely know they've been in a real fighting game.

[Deleted]

Feb 24, 2009 11:36:43 GMT -5 sammy1979 said:

lots of glade guard are a good start as well

Unless you are fielding a shooty army, more than two squads of glade guard is a points sink. While they look good on paper, missile fire does not win games. Here's an example beginner list, roughly 800pts:

Standard Alter Noble
-Hail of Doom Arrow
-Great Weapon
-Shield
-Light Armour
-Helm of the Hunt
-Alter Kindred

Spellsinger
-lv 2 upgrade
-Elven Steed

3 x 8 Dryads

2x 10 Glade Guard

5 Glade Riders

8 Wardancers

[sammy1979]

nice list buddy, but you've ubered the boss up something, i think more then nescesery, as a altred kindred he cant join a unit, and the hail of doom arrow is a 1 trick pony, i would give the spell singer that rod that allows them to cast spell singing as many times as they have power dice. and every time i use glade riders they suck.
i have stopped plenty of armies with just arrows though,
do you not think that wild riders would be a better bet then glade riders? i find the ability to shoot and move of the glade riders to be not that effective and on the charge there simply not as good as wild riders, and the points differance is nowt really.
i agree on war dancers but a horde army like empire or skaven, i would have thought just walk that list? by grinding down and pinning the chaps in green into a corner?
do you not find its got nothing to bounce off? thats why i have eternal guard, to use as a buttress while i redeploy my archers. when they finaly pin your chaps down?
still i'm sure its given gbh123 something to think about?
where probably both right in our own way. and if he can find his own third way from it, i'm sure that they will find the wood elves very rewarding to play.

[Deleted]

I agree with you Sammy about the wardancers, combat resolution is tricky for wood elves, and wardancers are hard for beginners to use effectively. Overall though i've found wood elves in general to be a very hard starter army due to the nature of the tactics you have to use. What hero-wargear combo. do you use? The 'Alter' noble is probably the most generic character for wood elves because it is relatively cheap but hard hitting. I find HoDA extremely useful and worth it's points.

[sammy1979]

normaly i max out on spell singers but keep one hero free to go with my squad of eternal guard, for the old stubburn rule, but on the whole if my lord choice is a high born i dont do anything to the fella, i just give them that bow that allows them the number of attacks/shots, and if i'm playing a 3000pt i'll stick them on a dragon, and fly round trashing artillary and poison breath attacking the buggers at the same time but mostly i use magic and mostly i only use tree singing its such a neat easy spell.
you can use aggressivly or to cover your advance,il use my free wood and trap them in woods and then put the hurt on them in the magic phase.