Let's Chat Sylvaneth

[WABBIT]

Is anyone taking more treelords as a result of their points drop? Are they more viable now or does everyone still prefer Kurnoth hunters with their spare points?

[Lhw]

I thought about Treelords, but as you can get 3 Hunters think they are still not worth it. Genuinely think it's the spreading of the re rolling 1s for armour save that I'd miss the most and makes me keep on choosing Hunters over them when writing lists. 

[scrubyandwells]

3 hours ago, WABBIT said:

Is anyone taking more treelords as a result of their points drop? Are they more viable now or does everyone still prefer Kurnoth hunters with their spare points?

I think we'll see a Treelord in more lists.

Here's a Treelord list I'd like to test vs tough competition in Total Conquest and Battle for the Pass. 

Personal sense is it'll be mandatory to take 30 Dryads for those two scenarios especially, but I'd love to be wrong.

Treelord w/ Loremaster's Hand of Glory can chew through low-save horde units.

 

[scrubyandwells]

1 minute ago, scrubyandwells said:

I think we'll see a Treelord in more lists.

Here's a Treelord list I'd like to test vs tough competition in Total Conquest and Battle for the Pass. 

Personal sense is it'll be mandatory to take 30 Dryads for those two scenarios especially, but I'd love to be wrong.

Treelord w/ Loremaster's Hand of Glory can chew through low-save horde units.

Another thing w/ that list: If playing conservatively/defensively, you can cast Hand of Glory on one of the 4+/3+ KH Bows, which will/should increase the unit's damage output.

[Mirage8112]

So. 

Had a very interesting match this weekend, finally getting a chance to test out my current Dreadwood build:

Allegiance: Sylvaneth
Branchwraith (80)
- General
- Trait: Gnarled Warrior  
- Artefact: Briarsheath  
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth
Branchwych (80)
- Artefact: Warsong Stave  
- Deepwood Spell: Throne of Vines
Drycha Hamadreth (280)
30 x Dryads (270)
5 x Spite-Revenants (80)
5 x Spite-Revenants (80)
5 x Spite-Revenants (80)
5 x Spite-Revenants (80)
6 x Kurnoth Hunters (440)
- Scythes
Treelord (240)
Dreadwood Wargrove (200)
Outcasts (90)

Total: 2000/2000

While I'm not going to post a full battle report, I thought i would post a brief synopsis of the battle with a few pictures, as well as some thoughts and findings. I will say although I made a few tactical mistakes (we'll get to those in a minute) I am very pleased at the potential this list has.

My opponent was running a Free people list, using the new allegiance abilities from the GHB2017. I will say, from the outset, the new allegiance abilities and items make the free people much scarier to play against. His list looked something like this (I am reasonably sure about the items and allegiance abilities, but not 100%. However, the unit/unit sizes are definitely correct): 

Allegiance: Order
Freeguild General (100)
- General
- Stately War Banner
- Trait: Indomitable  
- Artefact: Flag of the Conquerors  
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
- Lance
10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)
6 x Demigryph Knights (320)
- Lance and Sword
10 x Freeguild Greatswords (150)
20 x Freeguild Guard (160)
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
20 x Freeguild Guard (160)
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)
10 x Freeguild Handgunners (100)
5 x Freeguild Outriders (130)
5 x Freeguild Pistoliers (130)
Freeguild Regiment (200)

Total: 1990/2000

We used the open war cards to generate the deployment (regular deployment; i.e. 12" from back table edge), scenario (Meteor strike on top of turn 3, random location) and twist (all units get +1 attack per model). He won the roll off, and chose to deploy first. I placed my wyldwood (3 bases) on the mid right flank.

Since all his units except 1 were in the battalion, he decide to drop them all in one go. From my perspective on the left to right, he deployed the pistoleers, then a "great company" of x10 free guild guard, a block of 20 halberdiers, with hand gunners 1/2" behind them. Then the imperial gryphon behind the hand gunners (this was his second drop). Next came the outriders, then the great swords with the general 1/2" behind them. Then another great company of x20 halberdiers, with x10 free guild archers 1/2" behind them, then crossbowmen 1/2" behind them. Then x6 demigryphs holding the right flank. 

I deployed only Drycha on left 2/3's of the board. And went with a refused flank deployment. The hunters went dead center, with the dryads, wraith, wytch and 1 unit of outcasts in the enclaves. The Treelord and 3 units of spites went on the hard right flank (to prevent the demigryphs from coming around the back.)

My original plan assumed a couple of things. 1. I would get 2 stratagems from the dreadwood roll (you roll for stratagems at the start of the 1'st battle round), and would move Drycha up for a 1st turn charge of 6". The hunters would be redeployed for a 1'st turn charge on the right flank, and the Treelord would be perfect for smashing demigryphs should he try and come around the side. My hope was that the combined punch from drycha/hunters landing first turn charge would be enough to cripple his lost before things really got rolling. 

Unfortunately that didn't exactly happen. I only rolled 1 stratagem. I had already taken the first turn, which means I wouldn't be able to get both Drycha and the hunters in on turn 1. And I couldn't play defensively, because there was a chance he'd get the first double turn. I opted to go for a decapitation strike. Here is a photo of the right flank of the board just after the first charge phase, after the dryads/spites/characters came into the forest.

 

The Scythe hunters came on the board, and immediately wiped out the general and the crossbowman with ease. I retrospect, I probably put too many attacks into the general (9), and should have spread things out a bit more. With a 2" range, 3's/3's and D3 damage, I could have easily taken out 3-4 of the great swords (checkered banner) and 3-4 of the archers. It's quite likely battelshock would have meant a total decimation of his right flank. But I forgot . I also forgot the hunters got +1 attack from the twist card . He did not forget his great swords got the + 1 attack and he killed 1 hunter in return. 

In the his turn, he brought the Gryphon over for support, and the demigryphs as well (which i should have expected, but didn't), and killed another 2 hunters. The hunter's in return did 12 wounds on the gryphon, passed most of their saves, but had 1 flee from battleshock (thankfully he was severely wounded.) Because of the positioning, he decided it wasn't possible to get the halberdiers in (Which I had figured would be the case). 

Second turn saw the dryads come out of the forest as well as the spites to support the hunters who had lost 1/2 their numbers. Over the course of the two turns, the dryads went from 30 down to 14, retreating at the top of the third round when the meteor came down (red die just behind drycha in the center). Here is the board at the bottom of 3:

  

At this point, the 20 halberdiers are gone, as are 3 demigryph's, the gryphon, and the great swords. The last hunter was healed to full health, but failed 4 saves in my turn, and lost the last wound in his. The treeman and the outcasts are making they're way to support drycha, and the outcast unit that was deployed with the dryads at the start of the battle were down to 2 (hiding in the top right forest).

On turns 3-4 he rolled for double turn, wiped out the hunters and tried to finish off the dryads. He activated the demigryphs first (yellow die) and killed 6 (after shooting 2). Thankfully, him killing so many meant I could remove them from combat on the left, and the outriders and archers weren't able to get close enough to attack (they both had charged.)



Just after this picture was taken, he moved the great company on the right to set up for an attack on drycha, and throw some shots at her. She suffered 6 wounds total, bringing her down to 4. 

In the bottom of 4, Drycha actually cast primal scream affecting 5 units, peeling 2-3 mortal wounds out of each, for a grant total of about 10 mortal wounds (looking back on it, I misread the spell and rolled 2 dice vs 1, but considering most of the time I forgot my unit got +1 attack and it was on the very last turn, it likely did make too much of a difference). Likewise the outcast's were in position to get their battalion ability off (2D6-bravery worth of mortal wounds to any unit within 8" of 2 units of spites) and blasted the demi's off the table. Drycha did 16(!) mortal wounds with Squirmlings on the halberdiers, and enoughh on the outriders to wipe them after charging. Treelord failed the charge, but he conceded at the end of  the turn. 

Takeaways:

The need for a plan B is pretty essential, I was counting on 2 stratagems and rolling 1 really hurt considering my deployment strategy. Which was stupid. I underestimated the psychological impact of having 6 5-wound models suddenly arrive in your backfield. He pretty much threw everything in range into it and I should have guessed that would be the case. 

The surprise attack from the hunters was truly devastating. Doing roughly 700 pts worth of damage over 3 turns, including killing the general, before finally getting overwhelmed. At one point, 440 pts of hunters were tying up 1190pts of freeguild (1390 if you count the battalion cost) single handedly. 

We both held a fair bit back until the third turn, although his choices on that front were better than mine. My deployment was pretty bad; if the meteor had landed on the left instead of the center, Drycha likely would have been overwhelmed before the treelord/spites could get there and it would have meant a loss for me. 

I easily fit 30 dryads, 5 spites and 2 small characters in 2 of the 3 base forest without the trees. Since the FAQ ruled trees could be climbed, we decided that it cost 4" of movement to get into the base circles (representing the models climbing up into the tree) and 4" to move out (representing the models climbing down.) Or 8" to move completely across. With 7" move for the dryads, it wasn't a problem.

Dryads die like flies out of the forest. Especially when they can't reroll saves of 1. Also only having 1 forest on the board is rough. It really cuts down our mobility without the ability to teleport.

At one point I could have actually moved the forest with tree song, if not for 1 friggin' spite that wasn't completely inside the forest base (an oversite on my part). It would have been helpful too. A casting value of 7 is rough, and I failed it when I tried, but I also decided not to cast throne of vines the turn before for some reason. Lesson learned.  

I made some mistakes that under normal circumstances would have cost me the game, but the loss of such a critical part of his army (the general) so early on gave me too big of an advantage. It haddn't occurred to me that it would be possible to pop up behind his lines and attack the squishy shooting/support units and entirely avoid most of the inevitable counter charges. The fact that the units re-deployed can move an additional time in the movement phase.

All in all, I am very pleased with the performance of this list. It's a far more aggressive play style than I am used to and I think it will fare better than our traditional go-to's vs some of our more challenging match-ups. VS Disciples of Tzneetch for example, if the opponents deployment is sloppy, you can drop hunters right on top of a unit of skyfires or the Giant Turkey and wipe them off in the first turn before things even get rolling. The lost of 600pts of skyfires or the Lord of Change (or both) the first turn would take a very large bite out of that lists effectiveness. Likewise, if he's bubble wrapped, limiting all attacks and abilities to 12" the first turn and going second, means you have a reasonable chance to get everything set up without getting your feet knocked out from under you. Also have a General with a perpetual -2 to hit, and a 3+ save in the forest ignoring rend means there just isn't an obvious target for focus fire. 

More play testing to come! Thoughts and ideas always welcome  

[Aezeal]

On 17-9-2017 at 11:50 AM, Lhw said:

Orion could be quite cool. Would need a bit of conversion to reflect Prime's rules, possibly? The way he plumets down and all that.

Orion is like Chuck Norris: he doesn't need anything. Anything needs him. Just get him on the right base :D. 

Everyone and his mother teleports in this game so why not a guy on hooves

[Aezeal]

9 hours ago, Champotte said:

I would do Treelord Ancient + Spirit of Durthu +  6 hunters with scythes and  buy another box of Kurnoth hunters to assemble 3 greatbows.

You will have a ton of  lists options to explore with this setup.

I'd never go 6 scythes.. there is hardly ever enough on the table with saves making that the most logical choice. I'd go 3-3 of both melee types.

On 17-9-2017 at 5:22 PM, Nico said:

Here's the list I'll be trying out soon:

 

Allegiance: Sylvaneth

Leaders

Alarielle the Everqueen (600)

- General
- Deepwood Spell : The Dwellers Below

Drycha Hamadreth (280)

- Deepwood Spell : Regrowth

Branchwraith (80)

- Artefact : Briarsheath
- Deepwood Spell : Regrowth

Branchwraith (80)

- Artefact : Acorn of the Ages
- Deepwood Spell : Verdant Blessing

Units

5 x Spite-Revenants (80) 5 x Spite-Revenants (80) 5 x Spite-Revenants (80) 5 x Spite-Revenants (80) 30 x Dryads (270)

5 x Tree-Revenants (80)

Battalions

Dreadwood Wargrove (200) Outcasts (90)

Total: 2000/ 2000 Points
Leaders: 4/6 Battlelines: 6 (3+) Behemoths: 2/4 Artillery: 0/4

 

Dwellers gives a little anti horde punch if they deploy on the 12" line. I originally had 3 Bow Hunters as some long range punch, but realised I was chucking away 3 Artefacts.

Allies were another possible, but cost you the single drop army.

Drycha is too useful as with the free 9" move and another 9" move she can hit almost an entire enemy army with Flitterfuries turn 1 - really good vs 5 wound heroes. The Dryads will probably receive Mystic Shield.

Let me know how it works, I can fully understand the choices for Alarielle and Drycha and I can even understand getting the wyches (wait... those are wyches..  not sure I understand that).. I understand the 30 dryads somewhat. I don't understand the 5 treerevenants in an army which already has 5 other battleline choices.

My first impression is that you try to fit a bit of everything in there and it feels  like a jack of all trades army, master of none.. and I doubt that will be optimal. I think that if you go dreadwood focussing more on the alphastrike seems a better idea even if it is only with a unit of 3 melee hunters (alarielle can take out a high save target so I think swords could work there too). removing 10 dryads, 5 tree revenants would be my first ideas, sadly.. that isn't enough so I'd remove the briarsheath wraith (WRAITH? not wych?) and give regrowth to the other one.

Let us know how it works out in comparison to other dreadwood lists.

[Aezeal]

9 hours ago, WABBIT said:

Is anyone taking more treelords as a result of their points drop? Are they more viable now or does everyone still prefer Kurnoth hunters with their spare points?

I've been playing wanderers last weeks but I still want to try my monstermash list I posted before which features 2.. I still think it should work better than most lists posted here except some really focussed dreadwood alpha strikes.

 

1 hour ago, Mirage8112 said:

Takeaways:

The need for a plan B is pretty essential, I was counting on 2 stratagems and rolling 1 really hurt considering my deployment strategy. Which was stupid. I underestimated the psychological impact of having 6 5-wound models suddenly arrive in your backfield. He pretty much threw everything in range into it and I should have guessed that would be the case. 

The surprise attack from the hunters was truly devastating. Doing roughly 700 pts worth of damage over 3 turns, including killing the general, before finally getting overwhelmed. At one point, 440 pts of hunters were tying up 1190pts of freeguild (1390 if you count the battalion cost) single handedly. 

We both held a fair bit back until the third turn, although his choices on that front were better than mine. My deployment was pretty bad; if the meteor had landed on the left instead of the center, Drycha likely would have been overwhelmed before the treelord/spites could get there and it would have meant a loss for me. 

I easily fit 30 dryads, 5 spites and 2 small characters in 2 of the 3 base forest without the trees. Since the FAQ ruled trees could be climbed, we decided that it cost 4" of movement to get into the base circles (representing the models climbing up into the tree) and 4" to move out (representing the models climbing down.) Or 8" to move completely across. With 7" move for the dryads, it wasn't a problem.

Dryads die like flies out of the forest. Especially when they can't reroll saves of 1. Also only having 1 forest on the board is rough. It really cuts down our mobility without the ability to teleport.

At one point I could have actually moved the forest with tree song, if not for 1 friggin' spite that wasn't completely inside the forest base (an oversite on my part). It would have been helpful too. A casting value of 7 is rough, and I failed it when I tried, but I also decided not to cast throne of vines the turn before for some reason. Lesson learned.  

I made some mistakes that under normal circumstances would have cost me the game, but the loss of such a critical part of his army (the general) so early on gave me too big of an advantage. It haddn't occurred to me that it would be possible to pop up behind his lines and attack the squishy shooting/support units and entirely avoid most of the inevitable counter charges. The fact that the units re-deployed can move an additional time in the movement phase.

All in all, I am very pleased with the performance of this list. It's a far more aggressive play style than I am used to and I think it will fare better than our traditional go-to's vs some of our more challenging match-ups. VS Disciples of Tzneetch for example, if the opponents deployment is sloppy, you can drop hunters right on top of a unit of skyfires or the Giant Turkey and wipe them off in the first turn before things even get rolling. The lost of 600pts of skyfires or the Lord of Change (or both) the first turn would take a very large bite out of that lists effectiveness. Likewise, if he's bubble wrapped, limiting all attacks and abilities to 12" the first turn and going second, means you have a reasonable chance to get everything set up without getting your feet knocked out from under you. Also have a General with a perpetual -2 to hit, and a 3+ save in the forest ignoring rend means there just isn't an obvious target for focus fire. 

More play testing to come! Thoughts and ideas always welcome  

Thank you very much for the report. Great to FINALLY see how dreadwood can work (over the last gazillion posts I've seen dozens of dreadwood lists come by and hardly any reports on how it works (if any?).

some Q's

Considering the fact that even with only 1 stratagem you had a MAJOR effect with the hunters do you think that with a bigger unit of hunters (which can be spread out WIDE) and then hitting MORE units would be a good choice? (My  idea for getting the points would be by removing the treelord since with your alpha strike and the speed of all other units the fight might very well be out of his range the first couple of turns.. normally for me the fights are on my side of the table and the treelord would be in the middle of it fast enough.. but not sure about it in this list). Teleporting will help ofc.

In my last game (with wood elves) I did a lot of wounds on a 30 man unit and battleshock really hurts then (18 wounds, rest ran) so I'm really doubting the 30 model unit of dryads. How do you think your unit would have functioned with 20? Will you still take 30 next time?

Did you miss the TLA (magic, ranged attack, command ability?): he could be traded in for a TL and a wych/wraith (but ofc not if you take more hunters). 

Do you think you could take top tier lists if you roll 2+ stratagems? (still not 100 %. but not bad)

[Nico]

I think you use the stratagems before choosing who goes first.

Great Battle Report.

MSU Freeguild seems like a fail, where are the 30 Blocks?

[Mirage8112]

1 hour ago, Aezeal said:

Thank you very much for the report. Great to FINALLY see how dreadwood can work (over the last gazillion posts I've seen dozens of dreadwood lists come by and hardly any reports on how it works (if any?).

For reals. Dreadwood is one of the few builds that we haven't extensively tested, and isn't widely played. Hell, we've had more info about how winterleaf plays than dreadwood, and it's a slightly lower tier build (as far as I can tell).

 

1 hour ago, Aezeal said:

Considering the fact that even with only 1 stratagem you had a MAJOR effect with the hunters do you think that with a bigger unit of hunters (which can be spread out WIDE) and then hitting MORE units would be a good choice? (My  idea for getting the points would be by removing the treelord since with your alpha strike and the speed of all other units the fight might very well be out of his range the first couple of turns.. normally for me the fights are on my side of the table and the treelord would be in the middle of it fast enough.. but not sure about it in this list). Teleporting will help ofc.

Yes. But only under certain conditions. If you have a solid target, and the first turn, 9 hunters could feasibly wipe out a large chunk your opponents army, and would likely stick around a fair bit longer. 6 Lasted into the bottom of the 3rd turn. 

The 6 hunters I had ended up putting out ~12-15 damage after saves (about what you'd expect), that was enough to completely destroy 2 units. As I said above, if I have spread that out a bit, I could have destroyed/severely crippled 3-4 after battleshock. You can see in the first photo that even if I had 3 more, I still wouldn't have been able to reach the demigryphs, so it would have had (roughly) the same effect.  

Also, we were both holding about 1/2 of our armies in reserve to prepare for the fight when the meteor came down. Had that not been the case (and I hadn't deployed the Treelord so far on my right flank), I'm fairly certain the Treelord would have seen combat. Had I exchanged the Treelord for 3 more hunters, I'm not certain Drycha+Spites would have been enough to hold off the Great Company/pistoleers alone. He certainly had enough models to capture the objective, and Drycha had already taken 2 wounds. Shooting alone could have reduced her to a manageable level in CC, but I'm fairly certain he conceded because he was sure he couldn't take Drycha and the Treelord at the same time.

It's worth keeping in mind, that my opponent had a two drop army AND he won the roll off. That means if he had a single drop army he could have easily taken first turn and I wouldn't have been able to to drop the hammer in the that first round. You can't see it from the pictures, but the Hunters were deployed in the center of the table (just to the left of where my dice were in the second photo), and my dryads were in the enclaves. If he had moved forward, he could have really limited my ability to bring the dryads onto the table in my turn, so I would have been forced to use my 1 stratagem to avoid being shut out. That means the hunters likely wouldn't have been able to get into combat by 2nd or 3rd turn. They are painfully slow without ability to teleport. 

Also at the end of the battle we talked pretty extensively about what he could do to limit that alpha strike. Had he deployed slightly further back I wouldn't have had the opportunity to take out the general without charging the blocks from the front, which means eating shooting and counter charges (from the freeguild allegiance abilities). Trying to fit 9 hunters in means it's easier to box them out. 6 seems enough to get the job done but leaves enough points if things don't line up perfectly. 

 

1 hour ago, Aezeal said:

In my last game (with wood elves) I did a lot of wounds on a 30 man unit and battleshock really hurts then (18 wounds, rest ran) so I'm really doubting the 30 model unit of dryads. How do you think your unit would have functioned with 20? Will you still take 30 next time?

I have largely played with 20, but I like 30 for this list. With only 1 wood and no way to teleport, they ended up coming out to support the swamped hunters and they need the extra number to keep the "long tail" so they could maintain the -1 to hit from being within 3" of a wood. While they weren't incredibly killy, they were enough of a pest that he wasn't able to fully put everything he had into the hunters (the dryads ended up pinning the halberdiers in place and whittling them down over the course of 2 turns. Had that not been the case, the halberdiers would have ended the Hunters much sooner). I did lose a lot of dryads. Far more than I'm comfortable with. But again, that was because I forgot to use inspiring presence on them in a turn where they took 8-10 casualties. I lost nearly half of the unit that turn from wounds/battleshock.

I would take 30 again mostly to compete in the Total conquest battleplan. It also allows me to play aggressively with them since I can stand to lose a few, and this list really rewards aggressive play, because the enemy has 2-3 serious threats he has to contend with all at the same time. I'm fairly certain my opponent felt like he was in a reactive position the entire game. 
 

2 hours ago, Aezeal said:

Did you miss the TLA (magic, ranged attack, command ability?): he could be traded in for a TL and a wych/wraith (but ofc not if you take more hunters). 

The command ability would have helped the hunters stick around a bit longer. The ranged attack probably would have only helped in a marginal way.

but again, it's the fact that having them split means I could have the melee and spell casting where they were needed. You can see in the third photo that the Wytch and the Treelord are about 10" apart, and a the end of the 4th round they were 12-14" apart. That allowed the wytch to support the hunters by casting mystic shield on them, while the Treelord was able to give Drycha support. If they were combined into a TLA I would have had to choose which area of the board was going to get support. 

Plus, my general was pretty much able to use inspiring presence (when I remembered) all game without worrying about taking any fire. Ranged fire wasn't a huge threat in this game, I'd be worried a tLA would be a big juicy target for skyfires and any other sort of unit that can put out ranged mortal wounds.

Inspiring presence was the go-to and it seemed useful enough that it was a reasonable trade off (at this juncture).
 

3 hours ago, Aezeal said:

Do you think you could take top tier lists if you roll 2+ stratagems? (still not 100 %. but not bad)

I think this list has as good a shot as anything else I have seen thus far. Losing 25% of your list in the first turn to alpha-striking hunters hurts (especially if drycha gets into the mix). And the alternative scenario (giving them first turn and reducing all spells/attacks/abilties to 12" while still plopping 30 dryads + a forest on an objectives) will be equally difficult to deal with. 

I think the next step is to run the list against an opponent who knows what it's capable of. I can guarantee after you pull that alpha strike off once, your opponent will be much more careful about his deployment. Some armies don't have easy access to chaff, so for the them, there will not be a lot of ways they can hide, but they can certainly deploy in a way that protects their most important models and prevents them from being taken out on the first turn. 
 

[Mirage8112]

2 hours ago, Nico said:

I think you use the stratagems before choosing who goes first.

Nope. It's at the start of the first battle round. It seems a bit more balanced that way TBH.

 

2 hours ago, Nico said:

MSU Freeguild seems like a fail, where are the 30 Blocks?

He's definitely going to make some adjustments to the list. But the battalion doesn't have a lot of room to maneuver, since base cost + battalions cost is 1560pts. It is definitely worth taking the battalion for single drop utility, and the battalion buffs just just make up for the maximized unit buffs (IMO). 

The battalion grants +1 to hit when units are within 9" any other units from the battalion, and MSU allows you to cover more of the board, buffing things like pistoleers/outriders (which don't get bonuses for unit size). The battalion grants +1 bravery for units within 10" of the general, and his item added another +1 to bravery (meaning extra bravery from big blocks isn't needed), and free guild units also pass battleshock automatically on rolls of 1 or 2. Not to mention the required general's command ability can add an additional +1 to hit to up to 3 free people units. (I was quite pleased to get the general off the board before the battle really started.)

There's a lot of synergy there. Especially with the general who allows units to all 2 dice and use the lowest for battleshock. Combine that with the ability to shoot with up to 2 units from the allegiance ability (also getting their hit rolls buffed from the battalion) means charging a Freeguild great company can get really painful, really fast (this is why I chose to put the hunters in the back lines rather than the front.) 

 

[Nico]

It seems that they have added traits that overlap with the Battalions in the Order Book (same with Dispossessed especially). Post GHB - the whole army is based on two units of 30 Handgunners blasting whatever charges the 40 or fewer Freeguild Chumps in front of them. Another +1 to hit (on top of the existing +7 to hit for all their other garbage) doesn't matter as much as another 40 -1 rend shots. Small units of Handgunners are liable to be shot off themselves.

I'm not sure they need yet another Battleshock ability from the Battalion either - they seem to have a banner on the General, a Battle Trait, a Command Trait and an artefact on this front to choose from.

A further problem is that charging the Handgunners themselves means they use their own stand and shoot rule - so taking out the General like you did was a smart move.

[Nico]

I think the Dreadwood list has more legs than most since people will not recognise it as an alpha strike until too late. They will have Sylvaneth = Gnarlroot imprinted on their minds.

[Champotte]

Hello guys,

I will play my first game with GHB2017 points next sunday and I'm trying to build a 1k5 "competitive " list. I may be facing ironjawz,  bonesplitterz, brayherds or Seraphon.

What do you think ? Which one would you choose and why ? How could I improve ? Would you go with 3 units of dryads or 2 units of dryads and 1 unit of tree revenant ? Concerning Kurnoth Hunters, I also have a unit of Greatbows if necessary for long range threat.

List 1:

Leaders
Treelord Ancient (300)
- General
- Trait: Gnarled Warrior 
- Artefact: The Oaken Armour 
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth
Drycha Hamadreth (280)
- Deepwood Spell: The Reaping
Branchwych (80)
- Deepwood Spell: The Dwellers Below

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)
10 x Dryads (100)
10 x Dryads (100)

Units
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Scythes
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Greatswords

Total: 1500/1500
 

List 2 :

Leaders
Spirit of Durthu (400)
- General
- Trait: Gnarled Warrior 
- Artefact: The Oaken Armour 
Drycha Hamadreth (280)
- Deepwood Spell: The Reaping
Branchwych (80)
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth

Battleline
10 x Dryads (100)
10 x Dryads (100)
5 x Tree-Revenants (80)

Units
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Scythes
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Greatswords

Total: 1480/1500


 

[Tidings]

20 hours ago, Aezeal said:

Orion is like Chuck Norris: he doesn't need anything. Anything needs him. Just get him on the right base :D. 

Everyone and his mother teleports in this game so why not a guy on hooves

Seriously, he probably just jumps really fuckking high lol. Cool idea, I'll probably do something along these lines myself because I want to avoid the Stormcast Aesthetic as much as possible - it's just too jarring next to Sylvaneth and Wanderers imo. 

[WABBIT]

When Orion does press ups Orion doesn't move the world does.

EDIT: Sorry just read his war scroll ignore my post.

[Axter]

Hi all. I have a little tournament with some friends at 2000 points this sunday. I was thinking to bring this list

Treelord Ancient: General, Gnarled Warrior, Briarsheath, Spell: The Reaping

Spirit of Durthu: Oaken Armour

Branchwych: Ranu' s Lamentiri, Spell: Regrowth

Tree-Revenants x5

Dryads x10

Dryads x10

Kurnoth Hunters x3 (Greatbows)

Kurnoth Hunters x3 (Greatbows)

Treelord

Battalion: Gnarlroot Wargrove, Household

What do you think about it? Probably i will try it tomorrow. I do not have other kurnoth, i have just 6 greatows so i can't add anothet kurnoth unit, but i have Drycha, 2 more Branchwych and 20 more Dryads, that's all what i've got. Any advise about what to change and/or how to play it? My friends will play Tzeench, Beastclaw Riders, Seraphon and Stormcast Eternal. I'm a new player so any advise will be usefull! Thanks!

 

[Lanoss]

Nice list! I would prefer more dryads than 2 units of 10 personally but I guess you fit in what you can fit in

 

 

speaking of, 

whats everyone's opinion of Spirit of Durthu vs 6 Scythe Hunters??? 

[scrubyandwells]

5 hours ago, Axter said:

Hi all. I have a little tournament with some friends at 2000 points this sunday. I was thinking to bring this list

Treelord Ancient: General, Gnarled Warrior, Briarsheath, Spell: The Reaping

Spirit of Durthu: Oaken Armour

Branchwych: Ranu' s Lamentiri, Spell: Regrowth

Tree-Revenants x5

Dryads x10

Dryads x10

Kurnoth Hunters x3 (Greatbows)

Kurnoth Hunters x3 (Greatbows)

Treelord

Battalion: Gnarlroot Wargrove, Household

Yeah that looks like a fun list!

Unless you don't have any Wyldwoods (Citadel Woods), I'd go with Verdant Blessing over The Reaping, and tend to prefer Acorn of the Ages over Ranu's Lamentiri; but Ranu's can be nice.

It's hard to say at the moment how that list might fare, since most of us haven't gotten many games in yet with GHB 2017. It looks pretty good, though. Definitely let us know how it goes! It would be especially interesting to hear if you found more bodies were needed to contest/control objectives. 

Good luck!

[scrubyandwells]

27 minutes ago, Lanoss said:

Whats everyone's opinion of Spirit of Durthu vs 6 Scythe Hunters??? 

All else equal, 6 Scythes. 

[scrubyandwells]

On 9/19/2017 at 11:57 AM, Champotte said:

I will play my first game with GHB2017 points next sunday and I'm trying to build a 1k5 "competitive " list. I may be facing ironjawz,  bonesplitterz, brayherds or Seraphon.

What do you think ? Which one would you choose and why ? How could I improve ? Would you go with 3 units of dryads or 2 units of dryads and 1 unit of tree revenant ? Concerning Kurnoth Hunters, I also have a unit of Greatbows if necessary for long range threat.

I'd probably go with your first list. Treelord Ancient brings a lot of value, especially synergizing with the Kurnoth to provide all/most of your army with RR 1's on your save rolls. You might try 1 unit of Tree-Revenants just to get some practice with them. They usually take some time to get the hang of.

[scrubyandwells]

Just in case anyone missed it, here's my latest show talking trees, this time with noted tourney player Shaun Clarke. 

Both of us have Gnarlroot-oriented collections (so far) and ended up writing some similar lists for testing out non-1-drop. He's taking the main list discussed to Michigan GT, so it'll be cool to see how things go. 

Here's one similar variation written a while back (probably up to over 100 different lists now...Warscroll Builder isn't good for sleeping). Aiming to test it out this Saturday. I like the Azyros (in principle) for the shooting buff + damage potential vs Chaos (although getting off his Light of Sigmar pretty much requires playing for the double turn). The original version also had 2x3 Scythes, but Shaun made some good points on the 1x6, so going to give that a whirl again (...it's been a while). Haven't been able to play yet vs hordes e.g. in Total Conquest and Battle for the Pass, so still need to get a better sense of whether only 25 battleline models is remotely feasible. 

• Treelord Ancient
  • General
  • Gnarled Warrior
  • Acorn of the Ages
  • Regrowth
• Drycha Hamadreth
  • Regrowth
• Branchwraith
  • Verdant Blessing
• Knight-Azyros
• Waywatcher
• 10 Dryads
• 10 Dryads
• 5 Tree-Revenants
• 6 Kurnoth Scythes
• 3 Kurnoth Bows
• 3 Kurnoth Bows

[Walkirriox]

On 19/9/2017 at 6:57 PM, Champotte said:

Hello guys,

I will play my first game with GHB2017 points next sunday and I'm trying to build a 1k5 "competitive " list. I may be facing ironjawz,  bonesplitterz, brayherds or Seraphon.

What do you think ? Which one would you choose and why ? How could I improve ? Would you go with 3 units of dryads or 2 units of dryads and 1 unit of tree revenant ? Concerning Kurnoth Hunters, I also have a unit of Greatbows if necessary for long range threat.

List 1:

Leaders
Treelord Ancient (300)
- General
- Trait: Gnarled Warrior 
- Artefact: The Oaken Armour 
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth
Drycha Hamadreth (280)
- Deepwood Spell: The Reaping
Branchwych (80)
- Deepwood Spell: The Dwellers Below

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)
10 x Dryads (100)
10 x Dryads (100)

Units
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Scythes
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Greatswords

Total: 1500/1500

Hi! I played yesterday against a Seraphon player and copied almost this list. It worked fine to me. These are the changes I made:

-Drycha: I played her with Verdant Blessing
-Branchwych: Throne of vines, but I didn't find the moment to cast this spell, so maybe another one would work better.

-10 dryads for 5 Tree-revenants. I had bad luck with them... but I think they are worth it
-Kurnoth with greatswords for Bows. 

I hope this can help you. Good luck with your match!

[Walkirriox]

Hi! I have a question about how Sylvaneth Wyldwoods work... When you set up a Sylvaneth Wyldwood you use 3 citadel woods... But what is a citadel wood? The whole base with 3 trees or just one tree? One more thing, in the case that one Sylvaneth wyldwood is 3 bases (9 trees in total), the first you place and the next you set up with Acorn or summoning are the same? Or the others are just 1 base (3 trees)? I'm a bit confused about that.

Thank you in advance!

[Dragon10]

My understanding is the a sylveneth wyldwoods is three bases (9 trees)