AoS Tactics for other Armies

I'm not far from Manchester about 40mins but like I said I'm a complete novice but yeah maybe we should meet up sometime.

 

mmm... given that we know jungle and that now also forests have been covered, to complete that kind of particular terrain, maybe I should do some woods (elves).

 

I agree. Fyreslayers can wait, khorne would be better.

 

Damn you were is my Gobbo army!

Nearly sold all my Bloodbound and I have £200 in paypal burning a hole and the Fyreslayer look mighty fine

 

Get in line you 2

Night gobbos first

 

But it would inspire you to start an army?

 

Which army Bloodbound?

 

Shame as I have Skarbrand, 10 Bloodwarriors and 10 Wrathmongers still to sell

 

To add a bit more to the Gobbo's I've stuck to my guns and I'm not doing Forest goblins but it's my birthday in 2 weeks and I am getting the Greenskin starter army, a box of black orcs (will have 20) and 3 river trolls so If you could include some Orc units that would be great.

 

Only joking but cheers

 

as promised...


WOOD ELVES


Brief premise


My experience with WE is basically limited to 8th ed.

In AoS I’ve seen them in action only once (as watcher), against demons of Khorne, so they’re not exactly an army I know well. But I know what I want from an army, so let’s take a look, and keep in mind that the following list is meant only to be a sufficiently solid starting point, that can be developed.


Army’s Overall impression


I feel they can do many things, but master none.

Elven shooting has always been good, and wood elves can field an impressive amount of shooting… but they are not so exceptional. The great majority of units have +4 to hit and +4 to wound. Not impressive, and not game changing.

Close Combat: some units are though (tip: Durthu in a forest is deadly), and some builds can be efficient, but there are many armies that are stronger than you.

Elven magic can give some nice buffs, but nothing really huge. Magic alone, won’t take you to victory.

Sinergies… you’ve got plenty of them, but not all of your units mix well together. A notable example is the Sylvaneth wyldwood, that can mess a lot with enemy’s plans, BUT a good half of your army is not immune to its effects.

In the end, it’s an army that requires some thinking.


Army List & strategy

You can have many possibilities with wood elves, and you can have totally different lists. To sum it up, the two great groups are: elves, and wood creatures. This is sufficiently clear even with a look at their only two formations.

With guardian of the deepwoods, you can field a CC army, sufficiently strong and though, that can heal itself and can teleport within Sylvaneth wyldwood. Support them with Durthu, spam wyldwoods all across the battlefield and suffocate the enemy in branches. It should do well.

I think Guardians can be very effective, but the other formation, wanderer host, is too good to not think to a list. “Instead of setting up the units in a Wanderer Host on the battlefield, you can place them to one side”.

You don’t need to put a single unit of this formation on the battlefield, and you can place them all aside at once, thus ending before our opponent.

Not only the enemy will have no points of reference to deploy its units, but you’ll have the first turn. So, here we go ( 125 wounds format )


Wanderer Host (total 115 wounds):

1 Glade Lord (the basic one on foot)

1 Spellweaver (one automatic dispel and can restore to life dead wanderers)

2 units of Gladeguards (24 each. I’m using 24 because it’s easier to predict the expected damage)

1 units of Gladeriders (10)

1 units of Eternal guards (20)

1 units of Waywatchers (17)



+ 5 Sisters of the thorns (for a grand total of 125 wounds)



How do you use this army?

Obviously, your archers will appear exactly where do you want, keeping in mind that you must eliminate the targets that can be a long-range real threat (shooting, magic, summoning).

Range should help you in this: gladeguards, gladeriders and waywatchers all have 20”, which is perfect to pincushion casters without risking a retaliation in the enemy’s hero phase, so are units of shooters with less range then yours, that need to stand still to have bonuses (Irondrakes and similar). 20” is also nice to avoid charges from other fast units. Don’t put your archers in dangerous positions: your army needs careful deployment.


24 gladeguards will hit at +3 (being more than 20) and wound at 4+.

This means the enemy will have to save 8 wounds for each unit. Nice, but not impressive.

However, once per game, you can use arcan bodkins, for a rend -3. This means a sure kill against people you want to see dead (an Ogre’s butcher got 7 wounds and save at 5, for example)

To use it with the Glade Lord ability to reroll 1s, it would be better, but you have 2 units of gladeguards.


Gladeriders have range 20”, hit at 4+ and wound at 4+. 10 of them, without support, are pityful (we’re talking about 2-3 wounds to save for each volley), however, they have move 14 and can run and shoot. You shoud count on them all day long.


Waywatchers shoot at 20”, at +3 / +4 and can use precise shot to double the damage. This means 6 saves, each one against 2 wounds. Plus, waywatchers gain bonuses in defence if in cover (it shouldn’t be a problem).


The glade lord, on foot, will use his command ability in the next hero hase, but for now he’s got the bow… and a not little one. 3 shots at 20” at +3/+4 with rend -1 aren’t bad, but what’s better is the abillity of Hail of Doom: it’s once per game, but it’s 3d6 shots. We’re talking about 10-11 shots, which means 3-4 saves for your target.

In the initial turn, you should be able to kill 2-3 targets (characters / warmachines or similar), thus making the enemy much easier to deal with.
For example: It shouldn’t be a problem to kill even things as Slann + Eternity Warden. Or, if you're facing the list of goblin forest it was posted, you will kill one Arachnarok and the Goblin boss, which will reduce greatly the threat.


In the next turns, your units have a nice move (6 is the slowest), and some things are faster than you, but you start at an optimal distance. You’ll shoot again with the support of Glade Lord’s command ability and the Spellweaver.


However, sooner or later you must face CC, the work for your Eternal guards.

I would lure the enemy into fighting in the place i want, probably fielding the Eternal Guards as frontline, to protect a juicy target (a block of gladeguards, with Lord and Spellweaver).

At a first glance, they’re not so impressive (1 attack, +4/+4, no rend, save at 5).

But with the right support, they can reserve some surprise. Here’s how I would use them:


put them in cover (better if it’s a forest, just because). Now they’ll have a +1 to saves.

Cast mystic shield: now it’s +2.

With the ability “fortress of bought” they gain +1 to hit, wounds and save.

Now, they hit at +3/+3 and have a save of +3. And they can reroll failed saves on 1 and 2, tnx to their ability “glade shields”.

This means that you save at 2+, rerolling 1, and even facing an enemy with rend -1, you will save at 3, rerolling 1 and 2. Not bad, I’d say.

But it can be even better. Much better.


Sister of the Thorns is the only unit not included in the formation. You can easily put those 10 wounds into more Guards, or give a mount to your Lord.

But the Sisters are wizards, so they can give the support of mystic shield / arcane bolt… and, most of all, they know also “shield of Thorns”.

The spell let you reroll failed save (we don’t need it on Eternal Guards), but there’s also another effect, much more interesting: “each time you make a successful save roll of a 6 or more for that unit in the combat phase, the attacking unit suffers a mortal wound”

Tnx to buffs, our Eternal Guards have a +3 on saves. Each time you roll a save of 3, it means a mortal wound for your enemy… and you can reroll 1s and 2s. Come and take me, if you dare.


Mortal wounds can deplete your unit, but the Spellweaver’s Blessing of Life, will restore d3 slain models.

 

Sounds good, I tried mine yesterday against my Seraphon we played 85ish wounds, Gobbos won but we didn't take any monsters or magic just infantry.

I had 30 archers to gain the +2 to wound and sat them behind 30 with stabbas and shields, 8 fanatics, 5 Squig hoppers and Boss on cave squig, Archie had 25 Guard, Eternity warden, 30 warriors, Sunblood and 8 cavalry.

I just hit and run with the Archers while sending the 8 fanatics into the warriors with the Squigs, I got lucky with the rolls for turns, finished up I had 30 Archers left.