8th Ed. Lore vs Woodelves

Seems to me like lore of Fire or WD would be the best bet against WE's frail little units. I am thinking also I should stick with MSU style of play now that WE are down right dirty magic casters.

Alternatively, would Tetto be a good choice? I don't see the comet being that useful. (however a vanguard steg with blowpipes might)

Any opinions on the matter?

 

But a vanguarded bus cannot charge and just about all of the WE troops will focus it down since it is so close. I figure with the stegadon, the blowpipes can do some damage (assuming my target has no cover). Either way I will probably get focused.
Perhaps vanguard both a bus and steg so they must choose their fate? I figure anything I vanguard is going to get chaffed by eagles until the cows come home.

WD it is then, with tetto to prevent any terrible snake-eyes

 

I actually like beast a lot in this matchup.

More toughness is hell for those S3 archers, and for an army that relies on mobility, Curse of Anraheir is pretty brutal as well.

Flock of doom is also a ridiculously good spell here. S2 means very little against un-armoured T3 models, and it's a good choice to just single-dice it at the end of your magic phase.

The main problem with the lore, is that a lot of the spells are... less than useful. Amber Spear is pretty weak against these guys, Savage beast of horros is unnecessarry, and Pann's pelt is often unnecessary as well, as they still wound on 6s against most characters to begin with. And Wyssans can be taken for just 65 point on a level 1 priest.

 

Definitely go wandering deliberations or fire IMO, magic missiles are pretty much our only defence against the MSU fast cav army that the wood elves usually have.

You first priority is to kill off as many units of wild riders as possible before they get in close combat - I once had a unit of 9 CoR and a scar veteran wrecked by a unit of 6 wild riders in one turn of combat. With strength 5 armour piercing, rerolling hits and 3 attacks per rider and 2 attacks per mount, they will demolish any unit they wish to engage, and coupled with insane mobility (fast cav and movement 9), they get to pick their battles. Magic missiles are our best defence against that!

 

I would recommend going heavens or bringing tetto, because the comet will cause those woodies to spread out, making taking them off a little easier. Also, against their eagles and war hawks which can be real nasty against our flyers, the extra D6 str4 hits has made the difference between an alive frost heart or a dead frostheart. The hexes can also be real good against their shooting like rerolling 6's. It's worked well for me so far so

 

Lore of Life: Awakening of the Wood I thought would have been a must against Wood Elves. Its a highly circumstantial spell but Wood Elves are the most likely by far to find themselves in those circumstances.

 

High magic works well although it won't really start to kick in until turn 2/3. Here is what I have tried that tends to work reasonably well:

Turn 1 - Cast a bunch of the spells that your opponent is unlikely to dispel first (drain magic, apothesis, tempest and arcane unforging) to change them out for lore of fire, shadow (nerfing BS since this is the only thing that affects true flight) and light. Target maximum shooting against missile troops and prepare to sacrifice a couple units to delay/redirect the wild riders.

Turn 2 - You should have at least 2 MM (soul quench + fire + light??) , a potential BS nerf and still have convocation and walk between worlds. WBW with sallies is devastating as they can move 16" in one turn, shoot, and then charge and crush normal archers with ease. Against woodelves, augmented BS skinks can kill off high value targets like way watchers pretty effectively. With quite a number of 2 dice spells to cast, at least some will get through. The wild riders will crush your distractors but should be out of position and thus not able to influence the battle until turn 4, by which point they should have taken a number of casualties from skink shooting (normal + stand and shoot) along with the MMs.

Turn 3-4 - repeat turn 2 by going for a little bit of attrition with multiple MM. At least one, if not more, combat units should be able to reach the archers and this will determine where the MM need to be focused. If it looks like the archers are being cleaned up, then focus on wild riders. Again, it may be necessary to sacrifice some more skinks to delay the wild riders until they can be MM down to only a couple models.

Turns 5+6 - Clean up on aisle 3!

 

CRAZY THOUGHT....

What about the lore of Fire.
with about 3 skink vasals...

Edit: stonecutter kinda ninjaed me on that one...

 

Lore of fire with fulminating cage on wild riders would be pretty fun.

But I think you'd be missing out on way too many things in comparison to High lore.

Multiple beast priests are pretty effective actually. It can severely hamper the elven shooting from doing much to you. If they take lots of trueflight and bonuses to hit, they'll be pretty disappointed when their low S arrows strike T5 or more targets. Poison is a counter to this, but seems to be a pretty unpopular choice as far as standard arrows go. they might have a unit or two with these, for monster hunting, but not enough to deal with monsters AND several groups of T5 Saurus.

 

High magic is the way I usually go. Soul quench and tempest for the first turn, then use something like arcane unforging on their wizzard and swap it for Fire signature spell. 4D6 S4 impacts are their ruin.

And don't stop hitting the same unit before killing the last of them. I've seen many players losing won ganes by actually leaving 2-3 archers alive in every unit.

 

Focus of Mystery, dropping what you see fit for Light & Fire imo. Worked well for me, anyway.

 

And WBW to move a stegadon to the middle of their archers units. This is second thing they fear most (unless wild riders can counter charge it).

 

WE generally pack poison arrows somewhere, and unless you know where (which you honestly shouldn't before they shot, in which case it's likely too late), and poison will make short work of anything short of the bastiladon because of it's superior save.

Hell, even a carno is hard pressed there.

 

You won't see more than 20 poisoned arrows usually, cause they'll leave some units for (?), don't remember the english name of no pennalties arrows. Well, of course somebody can bring all hagbane arrows to ruin your day, but shouldn't be the rule.

Anyway, 20-30 poisoned archers can't bring enough fire to take down the steg, you keep a 4+AS and a 6++ if EoTG.

If you deploy 12, move 12 and WBW 10 you have reached their lines. Also with High Magic you can heal the steg. Not to mention if you field two ancients.

Trust me, stegs are a pain for them.

 

Doesn't WBW also make the unit ethereal until your next magic phase or does it only move as if it's ethereal?

 

I think that the target is ethereal until the end of the phase (so, really, it's just for the duration of the spell).