Waging Woodland War - Flaming the Wood Elves II

[Stonecutter]

WEAKNESSES:

While the wood elves are good shooters and scooters, they have several weaknesses that can be exploited:

1) Poor Close Combat
2) Vulnerable Characters and Units
3) Limited Magic Offence

POOR CLOSE COMBAT:

The wood elves are relatively weak in close combat owing mostly to a lack of hard hitting troop choices, poor protection and terrible ranked infantry. The one ranked infantry unit in the army, Eternal Guard, is subject to psychology, is little better than spear warriors while costing almost twice as much and only becomes stubborn if joined by a noble/highborn character. Kill the noble/lord and the unit ceases to be stubborn. The wood elves lack static combat resolution (SCR) and don’t have any really hammer units apart from treekin and treeman/ancient.

Wardancers are an expensive, immune to psych, elite, skirmishing infantry that can use a “dance” to give them either killing blow, +1 attack, ASF, or a 4+ ward but are T3 with no armour and die like flies if shot or hit by anything stronger than a loud whisper!! They can be dangerous on a charge as they will have 3 x S4 attacks each but are S3 in all other instances and thus tend to get crushed if charged and since they cannot flee this is easy to do with cavalry or a chariot. Overall, the lack of SCR and hard hitters mean wood elves generally need multiple charges to take out even a standard block of regular infantry.

The one exception to a weak close combat list is the all forest spirit variant of the army. With multiple dryads (360 charge thanks to skirmishing), treekin and treeman/ancients, the army is effective in close combat as it is immune to psych, has magical attacks and causes fear/terror. However, even this version will lack SCR and will have little or no shooting.

VULNERABLE CHARACTERS & UNITS:

Most units have either no armour save or only 5+ and even characters are restricted to, at best, a 3+ armour save. The mortal elves are all T3 and the “cheapest” troops are 12 points each, making for very expensive meat shields – dryads are the only effective choice in this regard. Apart from the annoyance spite (which works ONLY in a challenge), there are few effective protective items for characters and the mortal characters, at T3 with poor/no armour, can be easily killed even by spear elves let alone harder hitting druchii troops like BG, CoKs or executioners. While the treekin and treeman/ancient are tough, they are flammable and a single flaming based spell attack can wipe them out and any magical attack negates the ward save.

LIMITED MAGIC:

Apart from the hindrance and avoidable dangers of the tree-singing spell, the Lore of Athel Loren is extremely weak, the spell casters are very expensive and only a lord choice can choose another lore and that is limited to the lore of beasts. The magic close combat weapon choices are equally poor and the magic banners are truly laughable compared to Druchii options.
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RUCHII TACTICS:

Understanding the Asrai strengths and weaknesses, we can now look at how to tackle them during the game phases and get the most out of the various Druchii units.

Deployment Phase – As the wood elves will get a free woods and move through forests without penalty, try to limit the number of woods on the board during terrain set up and selection. Hills, rocks, walls and buildings are far better choices as they provide cover but, more importantly, help limit wood elf mobility and ability to move forests. Also, watch for terrain location if your opponent has waywatchers and remember to keep your own scouts out of woods and far from any possible strangleroot attack range. Screen expensive troops with spears and/or terrain to protect them from the inevitable shooting.

Movement Phase – The wood elves are expert guerrillas and must be forced into combat – if you try to dance with them, you will get burned!! The aim should be to use cover (including spear warriors and terrain) to protect your key troops while preventing the wood elves from flanking your lines, ideally forcing them into contact with your own troops by occupying gaps and advancing between terrain pieces they cannot run through and slowly squeezing the noose on them. Using a large block of spears in extended line (say 10 x 3) protected by the CoB’s 5+ ward save makes the approach more bearable and provides excellent cover. Alternatively, a ring of darkness in the unit will provide excellent protection if no CoB is taken. RXBs and RBTs can do a lot to keep wood elf units at a distance or to force them to concentrate in certain areas where you combat troops can get into contact. Characters should be kept in units as long as possible as one exposed shooting phase could finish them. Ensure that wizards have LOS, if necessary, to the desired targets at the end of the movement phase. Lastly, try to block woods with a cheap unit to prevent any “surfing” during the magic phase.

Magic Phase – For defence, stop only the tree singing that is vital to stop as there will be multiple attempts and some will get through – if the movement was done right, the trees will be blocked either by troops or other terrain.
Offensively, it is possible to dominate the wood elves. Just about any offensive lore will work well (fire, metal, death, dark) and the choice will depend on the mix of wood elves. If there is a lot of shooting, dark magic with chillwind will cause casualties, possible panic checks and let you dominate the shooting phase while fire is excellent against forest spirits and any mortal elves! A heavy magic list can be very deadly as multiple magic missiles will quickly decimate the T3/T4 troops and even S4 will get lucky vs the tougher, flammable choices in the list and negates forest spirit ward saves.

Missile Phase – The ability of RXBs to mass fire shots make them very effective at dealing with wood elves but they will take some casualties prior to getting close enough to the wood elves’ longer range. Accept the damage and advance to firing range to help support the approach of the close combat forces. RBTs have excellent range and can wipe out not only entire units of glade guard or fast cavalry but are also effective at wounding treeman and treekin. The one drawback is that the RBT crews can be taken out by the longbows or a single hail of doom arrow shot. Perhaps the most effective missile weapon is the hydra. The ability to march and shoot means a flame template can be dropped on a line of archers, generally killing the majority who will then have to pass panic and terror. Priority targets should be archers and wild riders followed by wardancers with shooting at other targets used only as a last resort or for tactical purposes to weaken the target if it is about to charge your troops. Lifetaker is lethal and will earn its points back multiple times by taking out waywatchers, wardancers, wild riders or just plain archers.

Close Combat Phase – If you can touch the wood elves, you can kill them J The most effective fighters are forest spirits and, since they are immune to psychology (and cannot flee) and move 5” (except wild riders 9”), it is possible to set up charges on them. The best tactic is to set up a hammer unit (ideally CoKs or hydra + mounted character with S6 magic weapon) to charge dryads. This will allow a tactical wheel that will redirect the overrun into more troops – ideally more dryads or the flank of treekin. A unit with a character and/or champion with a magic weapon can easily rip through an entire dryad screen of several units in a couple turns through the use of tactical wheels and overruns. The addition of magic banners to add SCR will ensure the forest spirits break. Of note, chariots are extremely useful due to the 14” charge range, toughness and the S5 impact hits which are deadly to T3 wood elves and can injure any of the forest spirits – just don’t overrun into the forest!!

Treekin are best dealt with by a well protected character with a magic weapon or a hammer unit. If they can be wounded before combat, spears hiding an assassin with manbane/rune of khaine can break treekin quickly through SCR and some active wounds. Executioners in small numbers (buffed by the CoB if possible) used to hit the flanks are also good in this regard – assuming they pass their fear check to charge!

The treeman and treeman ancient are the most difficult to tackle and should be left until last. If possible, wound them beforehand with magic and missile fire. A lone treeman can be held up by a large (~25) block of spears with FC and may fail a stubborn check while a well protected character in the unit with crimson death can slowly grind it down. The same approach works versus a treeman ancient but it may lock up the unit forever in a challenge as your character will only hit on 6s(annoyance spite) and likely won’t wound it while the ancient is stubborn on LD 9. If a BSB is nearby, kill him quickly so there is no re-roll when the treeman/ancient fails a break test!! If the treeman ancient is down to only a couple wounds, charging with a hydra and two characters in a unit (character with S6 and assassin with manbane/rune of khaine) will finish him off as you simply refuse the challenge, remove the offending character, and then hammer him with the hydra and remaining character. A CoB buffed unit of executioners can also do the trick with 8 x S6 attacks coupled with the hydra’s 7 x S5 providing enough rolls to ensure a few wounds get through.

The last part of the combat is the pursuit. As noted earlier, if charging dryads (or wardancers), arrange a favourable overrun path that brings you into contact with more enemy, close enough to charge during your next turn or presents a threat that forces the enemy to move where you want them to.

TUNING A LIST & SPECIAL CHARACTERS:

While it is generally best to be ready for any foe, there are times when you can tailor your own force to bring the most effective troops available. Simply decide on how you would best like to defeat the wood elves and choose your troops accordingly.

A hydra is a no brainer due to toughness, breath weapon, combat ability and the fact that there are no flaming attacks other than one weak magic weapon in the entire army. For a combat heavy list, spear blocks leading the way supported by chariots or CoKs (the latter two for the 3d6 pursuit and higher movement) will do well as a line of troops can be spread out that advances inexorably toward the enemy leading to eventual contact. Chariots, with fear causing, T5/S5 and a good armour save, can survive a lot of missile fire and provide excellent support to infantry or a deadly threat to any T3 troops within charge range. They also provide good flank protection for advancing infantry. Elite infantry can be effective but must be screened by terrain/spears or it will get shot to pieces by the wood elf archers before getting into contact. A CoB is almost a must as it will grant a 5+ ward to screening troops as your army closes in and traps the wood elves and will then make the combat forces overwhelming with extra attacks (KB is generally wasted as the army has no armour save of note except for multi-wound units/monsters that are immune anyhow).

One very effective choice versus a forest spirit list is a block of witch elves with the banner of murder and buffed by the CoB with +1 attack. Between the poison and armour piercing, they can shred anything in the list, are immune to psych and pursue into the next unit. Executioners are also effective versus forest spirits but being subject to fear/terror has been known to result in failed charges J. Hydras provide excellent flank security and can further direct the wood elves onto the infantry blocks as well as providing a very hard hammer unit. Any reasonably equipped combat character (on a cold one or with the pearl of bleakness to protect the unit from forest spirit’s fear/terror) with a magic weapon will provide the necessary punch while SCR will do the rest. A combat list should be supported by some magic and missiles that focus on removing shooting threats or non-skirmishing flankers (i.e. wild riders or glade riders).

A shooting and/or magic heavy list works equally well, simply focus on killing the archers first and then dealing with the remaining troops. Spear blocks will protect your sorceresses from shooting but you will need a hydra and at least one other hard hitter to smash any surviving wood elves that make it to your lines. Even a block of corsairs is a good choice as it will provide greater protection against enemy shooting.

Three troops choices that tend to do poorly are harpies, dark riders and shades. These units are all relatively expensive and vulnerable to shooting – strangleroot in particular as well as the 360 charge of dryads. Elite infantry must be carefully protected to get it into combat but will be very effective once it makes contact, especially if buffed by a CoB.

The three special characters in Athel Loren deserve mention and they are Orion, Drycha and the twin sisters, Naestra & Arahan. Orion is a terror causing foe that can charge 18” with S7 on the charge (S5 afterwards). He is unbreakable but suffers from instability like undead so a survivable character in a block of spears will drop him rapidly through SCR. His army will include wild riders as core troops.

Drycha is dangerous as she is a level 2 wizard and will be part of an all forest spirit list (i.e. no shooters!!). She can move herself and her unit from one woods to another during the remaining moves phase or can summon forest spirit units placed in reserve during the game. These reserve units appear in any woods on a 4+ and the entire army can be placed in reserve!! The drawback is the random appearance of the units allowing you to deal with them piecemeal. Also, keeping units in charge range and facing woods will give your own troops the charge advantage and the fact that you can simply move and prepare for any charge from a flanking unit during your own movement phase will limit the hazard significantly.

The twin sisters ride a mount (dragon or great eagle) and one fires a bow that, if it hits, uses a S3 small template, randomized like a stone thrower, while the other causes a unit to do a strength check in order to move the next turn. The sisters are BS 6 and thus seldom miss. Both must be killed in the same phase or they come back fully healed so focus on finishing them off entirely, which should not be too difficult as they are T3 with no saves!!