Let's Chat Sylvaneth

[Aezeal]

On 18-12-2017 at 2:42 AM, MayItBe said:

Hello!

I've went quiet for almost 2 months after i won my first major tournament and was busy with being TO making biggest yet tournament in Poland. No Sylvaneth representative tho, so no tactical insight from there.
New year-new me, as they say and i'm preparing for tournaments heavy 2018 (London GT!). Next month i'll be attending  another 2-day tournament and i', thinking about new list. Our 'meta' is Tzeentch and Kroak heavy, and i'm struggling on local tournaments, but determined to show that Sylvan did not fell out of meta Those two armies are my main concern.

For those who remembers my list, i've dropped Dryha (not enough punch in combat, and there are not many hordes really for her to shine) and focused more on shooting off dangerous spell caster's. Archmage is here to give some kind of survivability against MW (6+ save in 18" bubble). 2 units of bows are not enough to kill Kroak 1st round, 4 may be overkill, but i have yet to test it. I may change 1 unit to scythes, but i am not sure if the -2 rend will be worth it: yes, it shreds heavy armoured units, but most of them (like stardrake) have -1 rend only, so can be blocked by TLA.

Opinions?

List:
Archmage (120)
Branchwych (80)
- Artefact: Acorn of the Ages
- Spell: Verdant Blessing
Treelord Ancient (300)
- General
- Trait: Gnarled Warrior
- Artefact: The Oaken Armour
- Spell: Regrowth
20 x Dryads (200)
5 x Tree-Revenants (80)
5 x Tree-Revenants (80)
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Greatbows
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Greatbows
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Greatbows
3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220)
- Greatbows
Gnarlroot Wargrove (180)
Household (70)

Total: 1990 / 2000



Edit: List is fully competitive. I don't need more friends than i have now. I need trophies!

I found in my last game (VS kharadon Overlords) when I took 3 units of bowhunters (since I really wanted to kill his big ship early on) that I really lacked combat punch. Against KO it wasn't that much of a problem (but it still took a while to kill a few of his spearmen allies, his general and a feww bloon guys), I think that against a lot of armies you'll be missing out A LOT by not having melee hunters... once they get in the thick of it having melee in every turn (yours and your opponents) means they'll be killing a lot more.  And my list still had a lot more melee than yours (50 dryads, drycha, TLA, 5 revenants) since I didn't play gnarlroot too. I personally doubt the effectiveness of this list too much too try it myself but I'd love to hear how it works. 

[Nico]

I’m completely avoiding Hunters at 220 - bow Hunters in particular. I think a carefully used Durthu with Briarsheath is more cost effective now (don’t forget he had a unit of Judicators strapped to his back in terms of pew pew).  Against DoT he needs to stay off the table in the early stages.

I still think you need to use a one drop Battalion to be competitive. I’m leaning Winterleaf as Dryads are even better than they were. Gnarlroot just puts even  more eggs on one basket (magic) which leaves you even more exposed to Tzeentch.

Dreadwood I have mixed thoughts on now. It no longer has the surprise value it once did. The Alpha strike option relies on you getting at least two abilities on a D3 AND your opponent deploying badly. Otherwise you are just overkilling their chaff. It’s far less efficient and less reliable than KO, Vanguard Wing or Fyreslayers.

Dreadwood can however he used defensively - pushing forward the still hot garbage but cheaper Spite Revenants to force the enemy back when doing 9” away Deepstrikes and/or limiting the enemy to  12” on Attacks, offensive spells and (probably) unbinding for the first Battleround (but not things like the Bloodsecrator aura which doesn’t target your models in any way). The problem is that a bunker needs a gun - that leaves either overcosted Bow Hunters or 6 allied Vanguard Raptors or 4 Waywatcher heroes   as options. Not ideal.

[Aezeal]

Well the melee hunters are still doing their thing. I think they are worth their points. I don't even think the bow hunters are undercosted.. but they are snipers, they won't clear chaff and so you can't just take tons of the bows and expect to do well. You need to have specific targets and they'll kill them early (either a single big monster or 2-3 small buffing characters can be somewhat reliably killed in 2 turns by 2 units of them).

I think we have a pretty balanced army. We need  dryads do kill other battleline. We need hunters to do big pushes, clear objectives quick and kill tough stuff. We have some nice tough monsters and a great general with a decent ability. Ofcourse our army has a focus on survivability and toughness and less on insane killing power.. but it can work.

 

[MayItBe]

27 minutes ago, Aezeal said:

I found in my last game (VS kharadon Overlords) when I took 3 units of bowhunters (since I really wanted to kill his big ship early on) that I really lacked combat punch. Against KO it wasn't that much of a problem (but it still took a while to kill a few of his spearmen allies, his general and a feww bloon guys), I think that against a lot of armies you'll be missing out A LOT by not having melee hunters... once they get in the thick of it having melee in every turn (yours and your opponents) means they'll be killing a lot more.  And my list still had a lot more melee than yours (50 dryads, drycha, TLA, 5 revenants) since I didn't play gnarlroot too. I personally doubt the effectiveness of this list too much too try it myself but I'd love to hear how it works. 

I play defensively, dryads bunker in wyldwood on objective, while hunters shoot from behind. KO have weak armour, so even dryads should be enough to kill baloons.

Gnarlroot gives me 5 spells with 5 heroes, what i cant kill in open fight, i lure into woods and awaken them

[Aezeal]

28 minutes ago, MayItBe said:

I play defensively, dryads bunker in wyldwood on objective, while hunters shoot from behind. KO have weak armour, so even dryads should be enough to kill baloons.

Gnarlroot gives me 5 spells with 5 heroes, what i cant kill in open fight, i lure into woods and awaken them

won't objective based games be difficult that way?

 

[MayItBe]

Just now, Aezeal said:

won't objective based games be difficult that way?

 

With high mobility of wyldwoods no. I wait till my enemy engage too much of his/her forces to fight my bunkers and then strike at the weakest objective he controls before the game ends.  My first wyldwood (before game) is always placed on objective. Acorn wood is used as jumping platform, to get into position. Starstrike is the only problem because objectives are random.

For now it works for me.

[Gildaheir]

Hey folks, I'm rapidly building a nice Sylvaneth army, but I haven't yet played any games.  I play 40K quite a bit and played fantasy back in the day.  I'm curious... are there any good resources out there for learning more about the faction?  Podcasts?  Websites?  Etc.?  I like to take in all the info I can.  I've been reading through this thread, and I've watched multiple battle reports, but it seems like the community (forums, podcasts, etc.) is pretty light for AoS by comparison to 40K.  Thanks!

Also, two quick questions: Is Alarielle worth her 600 point (and $130) price tag?  My primary motivation for gaming is the modeling end of things.  I absolutely love assembling, painting, and basing my models.  My draw to Sylvaneth is their gorgeous model range.  Seriously top notch stuff.  I also played Wood Elves before and always have enjoyed the sylvan factions.  So, let's face it, models don't get much more awesome than hers.  But, she's EXPENSIVE!  I need her to justify her cost on the table as well if I am going to pick her up.  She doesn't leap off the page as being particularly impressive since summoning seems to by and large suck.  Thoughts?

Secondly, I love the Wanderers faction still.  Are they worth allying in at all?  

[Faedryd]

12 hours ago, wayniac said:

Question, I am eyeing sylvaneth (for a "haunted forest" themed army), but confused on what role Tree-Revenants actually play.  I see them usually taken in groups of 5, but they look too weak to really do much in 5s?

The advantage of units of 5 over bigger units of Tree-Revenants is the amount of re-rolls. If you have a unit of 10 Tree-Revanents you get only one re-roll per phase with that unit, while two units of 5 get two re-rolls per phase, one per unit.

[Lhw]

@Gildaheir I'm a big fan of Alarielle. I think there's more to her than meets the eye. She does a lot of things well. 30" spear, with 2 rend, is great at sniping single characters. Stuff like bloodsecretors. Her combat is swingy, but can smash stuff up. But 3 key reasons she's worth it are:

1. She gives you mortal wounds with her spell, something the army lacks. I've been giving her throne of vines recently to boost this. 

2. She heals the entire army d3 wounds - have lots of hunters and this is great. Also auto heals herself 2d3 - which can't be dispelled. (you just always pick 1-3 on that D6 chart) 

3. She gives you fast movement that isn't reliant on the woods, which if, end game, you've got somewhere that you have to get to, she can get there. 

 

[Nico]

8 minutes ago, Lhw said:

@Gildaheir I'm a big fan of Alarielle. I think there's more to her than meets the eye. She does a lot of things well. 30" spear, with 2 rend, is great at sniping single characters. Stuff like bloodsecretors. Her combat is swingy, but can smash stuff up. But 3 key reasons she's worth it are:

1. She gives you mortal wounds with her spell, something the army lacks. I've been giving her throne of vines recently to boost this. 

2. She heals the entire army d3 wounds - have lots of hunters and this is great. Also auto heals herself 2d3 - which can't be dispelled. (you just always pick 1-3 on that D6 chart) 

3. She gives you fast movement that isn't reliant on the woods, which if, end game, you've got somewhere that you have to get to, she can get there. 

 

The Spear is useful - obviously very unreliable.

She's practically the only wizard who can benefit from Throne of Vines outside of the defunct Gnarlroot Battalion. It's astonishing that she doesn't have at least +1 to cast and unbind given she's a goddess. 

The fact that the chart provides options that aren't viable isn't exactly compelling. It wpould be nice if this was FAQed to clarify if it works in your enemy's hero phase too (which would make the summon Dryads option potentially useful - trust me).

The biggest problem is that she is just 16 wounds and a 3+ save without any access to Briarsheath. If you fail Mystic Shield, she is very likely a dead duck and even with it other armies can take her out. 

[Jimbo]

Alarielle is good but not super good. You need to remember not to use her as a battering ram the whole time because that gets her killed asap! Swingy attacks that can be ace but do not rely on the spear of kurnoth - it's practically impossible to hit and wound with it because it's 3+ 2+ and therefore on the extremely rare occasion you actually hit something (about one in six attempts) you always roll a one to wound.

Her ability to heal every Sylvaneth mini in 30" is incredibly powerful esp with the hunters, treelords and TLA.

Three spells (casting and unbinding) is excellent esp with the pie plate of a base she's sat means she usually has a variety of options available. Metamorphosis is an excellent spell.

Plus she look incredible anyway. I think she's well worth a place in a Sylvaneth army.

Don't expect units of 5 trevs to put out much hurt. Units of 10 tho are a different matter - can be pretty tasty in combat IMO.

jimbo

 

[Lhw]

She also gets free damned, basically. Makes the spear 2s to hit. Maybe I just get lucky with it, but I've had some great moments with it. 

Jimbo is right though, biggest thing is resisting the urge to chuck her forward. She can be great end game, but early doors if you leave her in the open, she dies. 

[Primes]

Hey everyone,

I´m really liking this topic and have been following it closely. I´ve had some success with the 2000pts Gnarlroot List containing Drycha and 30 Dyrads but was neither impressed by her or the 30-Man (or Woman) Block standing on my objective...i do think that 30 might be overkill compared to 20. What do you more knowledgable folks think of the following list:

 

Allegiance: Sylvaneth

Leaders
Branchwych (80)
- Deepwood Spell: Verdant Blessing
Branchwych (80)
- Artefact: Acorn of the Ages
- Deepwood Spell: The Reaping
Treelord Ancient (300)
- General
- Trait: Gnarled Warrior
- Artefact: Ranu's Lamentiri
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth
Spirit of Durthu (400)
- Artefact: The Oaken Armour
Branchwych (80)
- Deepwood Spell: Treesong

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)
5 x Tree-Revenants (80)
- Sylvaneth Battleline
5 x Tree-Revenants (80)
- Sylvaneth Battleline

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

Battalions
Gnarlroot Wargrove (180)
Household (70)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 99
 

As I´m still inexperienced with Sylvaneth any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[Jaehaerys]

Hey,

 

Dreadwood question. Choosing who goes first happens at start of each battleround as does strategems. Which comes first? Do I get to choose?

[Aezeal]

7 hours ago, Primes said:

Hey everyone,

I´m really liking this topic and have been following it closely. I´ve had some success with the 2000pts Gnarlroot List containing Drycha and 30 Dyrads but was neither impressed by her or the 30-Man (or Woman) Block standing on my objective...i do think that 30 might be overkill compared to 20. What do you more knowledgable folks think of the following list:

 

Allegiance: Sylvaneth

Leaders
Branchwych (80)
- Deepwood Spell: Verdant Blessing
Branchwych (80)
- Artefact: Acorn of the Ages
- Deepwood Spell: The Reaping
Treelord Ancient (300)
- General
- Trait: Gnarled Warrior
- Artefact: Ranu's Lamentiri
- Deepwood Spell: Regrowth
Spirit of Durthu (400)
- Artefact: The Oaken Armour
Branchwych (80)
- Deepwood Spell: Treesong

Battleline
20 x Dryads (200)
5 x Tree-Revenants (80)
- Sylvaneth Battleline
5 x Tree-Revenants (80)
- Sylvaneth Battleline

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

Battalions
Gnarlroot Wargrove (180)
Household (70)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 99
 

As I´m still inexperienced with Sylvaneth any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Not sure how you can't be impressed by her shooting on anything with 10 or more bodies (you DO use squirmling RIGHT?).. but I'd give drycha another try if I where you.. maybe instead of the gnarlroot. I personally only take 30 if I've got some points left over.. prefer to work in 20's.. but if I have 50 then I go 30 and 20 and not 20, 20 and 10.

[Nico]

Dreadwood is after deciding (it will likely be you deciding with a one drop army unless you’ve taken Allies).

[MayItBe]

14 hours ago, Nico said:

Dreadwood is after deciding (it will likely be you deciding with a one drop army unless you’ve taken Allies).

Are you sure about that? Both things are 'at the start of the first battle round'. I am referring to the core rules:

 

Or in this case, this first round choice is just after set-up?

 

 

 

I am confused about this

[Nico]

It is ambiguous.

I think Ben Johnson clarified this in the Skaven WhatsApp group (regarding Night Runners). That may be my memory failing.

It might find it’s way into an FAQ. 

 

[Render]

On 12/20/2017 at 5:25 AM, Gildaheir said:

Hey folks, I'm rapidly building a nice Sylvaneth army, but I haven't yet played any games.  I play 40K quite a bit and played fantasy back in the day.  I'm curious... are there any good resources out there for learning more about the faction?  Podcasts?  Websites?  Etc.?  I like to take in all the info I can.  I've been reading through this thread, and I've watched multiple battle reports, but it seems like the community (forums, podcasts, etc.) is pretty light for AoS by comparison to 40K.  Thanks!

I found the episode "So you want to play Sylvaneth" on the Mortally Wounded podcast to be pretty helpful. Sorry, not in a position to help with your other questions!

[stratigo]

On 12/20/2017 at 6:08 AM, MayItBe said:

I play defensively, dryads bunker in wyldwood on objective, while hunters shoot from behind. KO have weak armour, so even dryads should be enough to kill baloons.

Gnarlroot gives me 5 spells with 5 heroes, what i cant kill in open fight, i lure into woods and awaken them

balloon boys, barring heinous rolls or bad plays, will reliably kill whatever they target. You'd have to really bubble wrap those kurnouths, and even then, the uzies are great at chaff clearing

[Gildaheir]

12 hours ago, Render said:

I found the episode "So you want to play Sylvaneth" on the Mortally Wounded podcast to be pretty helpful. Sorry, not in a position to help with your other questions!

I will check this out for sure.  Thanks!

[azmar]

On 23.12.2017 at 3:47 AM, Render said:

I found the episode "So you want to play Sylvaneth" on the Mortally Wounded podcast to be pretty helpful. Sorry, not in a position to help with your other questions!

thx a lot, great podcast

[Lanoss]

Merry Festive Season everyone!

i played my mate yesterday (our little Christmas tradition) and I just not crack his list! Please let me know your thoughts. I played my Gnarlroot against his Stormcast

Scenario: Battle for the pass

Sylvaneth - TLA, Drycha, durthu, Bw, Trevs, Dryads

—Stormcast—

Heraldor

Vexillor

Castellant

Celestant

concussors x6

 Liberators x5

Liberators x5

 

i had a Wyldwood in the centre of the board. Battalion dropped in the middle. Held 3 out of 4 objectives my first turn... then all hell  broke loose. 

Concussors went straight through Drycha and Durthu. Liberators dropped down onto my objective to score 4vps. By that point my Sylvaneth had rotted  away.

 

let me know guys

 

 

[Mirage8112]

On 12/22/2017 at 1:29 AM, MayItBe said:

Are you sure about that? Both things are 'at the start of the first battle round'. I am referring to the core rules:

Or in this case, this first round choice is just after set-up?

I am confused about this

 

On 12/22/2017 at 2:54 AM, Nico said:

It is ambiguous.

I think Ben Johnson clarified this in the Skaven WhatsApp group (regarding Night Runners). That may be my memory failing.

It might find it’s way into an FAQ. 

 

It's not that ambiguous. Dreadwood clearly states that you roll for stratagems at the start of the first battle round. Who goes first is determined by deployment. You will know who gets first turn before you roll for stratagems. 
 

On 12/20/2017 at 1:54 AM, Nico said:

I’m completely avoiding Hunters at 220 - bow Hunters in particular. I think a carefully used Durthu with Briarsheath is more cost effective now (don’t forget he had a unit of Judicators strapped to his back in terms of pew pew).  Against DoT he needs to stay off the table in the early stages.

I still think you need to use a one drop Battalion to be competitive. I’m leaning Winterleaf as Dryads are even better than they were. Gnarlroot just puts even  more eggs on one basket (magic) which leaves you even more exposed to Tzeentch.

 

I have largely avoided bow hunters. I have found their use is confined to sniping enemy heroes, and to have a good chance of doing it in a single round you need at least 6. Preferably in 2 groups of 3. 440 points is a bit of a lopsided investment to pull one model of the table. Hunters are still capable of doing the heavy lifting (swords/bows) but you can't just throw them around willy-nilly anymore. 
 

On 12/20/2017 at 1:54 AM, Nico said:

Dreadwood I have mixed thoughts on now. It no longer has the surprise value it once did. The Alpha strike option relies on you getting at least two abilities on a D3 AND your opponent deploying badly. Otherwise you are just overkilling their chaff. It’s far less efficient and less reliable than KO, Vanguard Wing or Fyreslayers.

Not entirely true. It's still very much a surprise, and it's still tricky to counter unless your opponent has really invested in chaff. Most of the lists I've seen only include 2-3 units of chaff, and never much more than 300pts, because most of the Deepstrike options force a 9" bubble with no further movement after the drop. Dreadwoods redeploy within 6" and the they still get an additional move before charging so you have some real flexibility in where you can put them. 

On top of that, hunter are resilient AF. Even if you lose the entire unit it usually takes half the game before your opponent can really get a handle on them. Sometimes causing a massive disruption to you opponents battleplans is just as good as removing models from the table.  

As to abilities: yes. Ideally you'll get 2 abilities (60% of the time you will) but you can still pull off the alpha with even with only 1, and you still stand a relatively good chance of tying up 1/3 to 1/2 the army even if he's bubble wrapping with chaff. Granted, I won't throw them against a chaff wall if there is a machine-gun behind it, but occasionally  I'll drop them across the front lines and dare my opponent to do something about it. 
 

On 12/20/2017 at 1:54 AM, Nico said:

Dreadwood can however he used defensively - pushing forward the still hot garbage but cheaper Spite Revenants to force the enemy back when doing 9” away Deepstrikes and/or limiting the enemy to  12” on Attacks, offensive spells and (probably) unbinding for the first Battleround... The problem is that a bunker needs a gun - that leaves either overcosted Bow Hunters or 6 allied Vanguard Raptors or 4 Waywatcher heroes   as options. Not ideal.

I do like defensive Dreadwood if you've drawn a particularly bad match-up of opponent & battleplan. Spite revenants combined with the Outcast battalion make surprisingly deadly chaff, esp vs low Bravery armies like Mortal Chaos and Destruction. It doest work too well vs. death (due to their insanely high bravery) but death armies aren't exactly a huge problem right now. There's also chaos demons which have high Bravery, but if your fighting demons of chaos it's likely Tzeentch and if so, then you clearly have worse problems than your opponents' high bravery. 

You're also forgetting that Drycha makes an awesome gun. She can clear hordes almost entirely by herself. Sure she's fragile but she's probably the only monster in the game that doesn't really lose effectiveness as she loses wounds. She's got a 2" attack range, so she's perfect for sticking in bunker (dryad/other). sure she's vulnerable to mortal wound output (esp at range) but can you think of a unit if our army that isn't vulnerable to range mortal wound output? 

Between Drycha, the TL/TLA, and a unit of hunters Dreadwood has plenty of punch. However the thing about dreadwood is that it's a riskier play style. You will very likely lose 2 out of your 3 hammers before the end of the game. But (most of the time) matches are won on objectives, not how many models your opponent removes. And if your playing a scenario where victory is determined by kill points the strategy is simple: don't do anything stupid. 
 

On 12/20/2017 at 1:54 AM, Nico said:

[hidden attackers] limit(s) the enemy to 12” on Attacks, offensive spells and (probably) unbinding for the first Battleround (but not things like the Bloodsecrator aura which doesn’t target your models in any way).

If it works for unbinding, it definitely works for the Bloodsecrator. Although the wording of the bloodsecrator's aura is a bit wonky, it clearly an AOE ability that effectively affects (or targets) all wizards (friend and foe) within a certain radius. I guess the real question here is what "target" means. I hate the back an forth of rules lawyering where you really have to parse the meaning of certain words but sometimes it can't be helped.

Technically, the sticky point is that it doesn't use the word "target", but then again almost nothing in the game uses the word "target". When the rules do refer to your opponents models, it usually something along the lines of "pick a unit". sometimes you don't even get that much. Hell, even the rules for shooting say you choose a friendly unit and they can shoot; it doesn't even mention choosing an enemy unit to shoot at. Do we assume then that shooting doesn't actually target an enemy unit?

So the question is does unbinding target the spell? or the wizard who cast the spell? I genuinely have no idea and it isn't clear from the rules at all. I don't even see an analogous rule to compare it to.

Edit: For some reason TGA has decided I really wanted to strike through the previous text. Please pretend it's written normally. 

[Nico]

Quote

 have largely avoided bow hunters. I have found their use is confined to sniping enemy heroes, and to have a good chance of doing it in a single round you need at least 6. Preferably in 2 groups of 3. 440 points is a bit of a lopsided investment to pull one model of the table. Hunters are still capable of doing the heavy lifting (swords/bows) but you can't just throw them around willy-nilly anymore. 

Good points. Agree with this - except you’re understating how Points-inefficient Bow Hunters are (cf. Arkanauts - best unit in the game; and Skyfires for 200). Recent Battletomes and meta shifts have put even more premium on -2 rend than ever before (Vanguard Wing can only be countered by -2 rend or mortal wounds, the new Raptors, Skyfires and Arkanauts have better shooting - I think Sylvaneth have been left in the dust in many ways).

Scythes are a marginal choice now - compared to being an auto include -I’m leaning Durthu with Briarsheath as my can opener or even two of them.

Dreadwood Alpha Strike

All good comments - I think the issue is that a Dreadwood is far riskier and harder to defend against than Either KO Clown Car or Fyreslayers. This is because shooting alpha strikes simply shoot over the chaff to at least better units behind if not to the really tasty targets on the back line.

KO going first will reliably kill virtually any hero in the game turn one (maybe not the Exalted Greater Daemon of Nurgle) with shooting on a regular deployment map (12” width deployment zone). Then the 6 buffed saws come in to wreck something else. It’s frequently a trivial win against regular armies.

Fyreslayers often don’t get first turn but can alpha strike/Bunker very well and don’t have mortal wound susceptibility.

While Hunters are resilient to melee - they are vulnerable to shooting - just a 4+ Save - perhaps 3+ if you got the Mystic Shield or if you somehow charged from 3” and managed to get all the 6 models into cover. Moreover they are potentially facing 60-80% of the enemy army so brute force can overwhelm them. Any cheeky mortal wounds hurt a lot! Fyreslayers by comparison will be on a 4+, 4++ and often immune to Battleshock. Typically 60, 90 or even 120 Models. People in the UK scene are a lot more experienced than they were at chaffing up.

I’ve suggested that Drycha should have the choice of weapon on setup - we’ll see what next FAQ says. She is a supreme Hosts blender (even better than the Gaunt Summoner), but only if you use Dreadwood to get her 3” away before the shooting phase. In a normal list - she comes down 9” away (unless you roll a 6 for Navigate like a boss) and her weapon affects models in range so meh vs hordes in the crucial first turn. This pushes me to the aoe weapon instead which is good vs Tzeentch MSU and will be in range of some targets.

Unbinding and Hidden Attackers

Unbinding must target the enemy Wizard as you cannot unbind a spell (say Arcane Bolt) if the Wizard is 20” away even if the target unit is 5” away.

My point was that it doesn’t affect aura buffs like command abilities (e.g. Mannfred’s 15” Bubble) as these don’t in any way target the Sylvaneth models.

Good point - Bloodsecrator is a real mess as it does target your wizards as well. Have to dice it off or drill into that one.

I think Hidden Attackers is the real gem of Dreadwood.