Sylvaneth - First Thoughts

[Rid]

I'm sure most peeps interested have seen the warscrolls for the new sylvaneth models. What do you guys think of them (and the older ones) as an army?

For me the original sylvaneth force was very mobile and quite viable despite the depth of the model range, able to skip across the board via wild woods and strike where needed.

The Kurnoth Hunters seem a stand out unit on paper, those bows are pretty solid, and the melee versions look quite capable. 

One thing I am seeing is that the majority of the army is needing 4+ to hit, and not having the volume of attacks that flesh eaters or ironjaws etc bring, they may still have to rely on the big trees to finish of things!

[mhsellwood]

I really want to see the battle tome before coming to any rash judgments. At the moment I think the Kurnoth Hunters are the stand out with an awesome ranged attack or some really good close combat attacks, tough with 5 wounds a 4+ save (rerollable) and some mortal wounds from stomping. The spite-revenants seem situational, but I can see some nice synergies (Drycha suggests itself, working with the Death alliance, decimators, Hydra abilities, Dark Riders, the Scourge Privateer faction in general in fact) if you wanted to build a themed list. The tree-revenants are one of those units that I feel will really shine in actual play, but in math hammer are OK. The re-roll in every phase is pretty useful without being broken, and I think their teleport ability is going to be the make or break in play - using them to assist in taking one scenario then late game being able to quickly change to attack a new target.

Alarielle is a boss, and Drycha is a useful source of mortal wounds, and is a kind of mid ground between the big monsters and the small units (I know she is unique in the background, but I can't help but imagine it in small units of tree-mecha smashing face).

Until we get the battletome though there are lots of questions for me around what battalions are available, how the war groves will work (are they just battalions? Are they in addition to battalions? How flexible are they?), the various matched play faction kit, and until we know these it is really hard to know how they will play in game.

[Rid]

Agreed on the tree revenants yeah, I love their Models and hope they perform well in the field. Having the rend should let Dryads go for chaff or castle up in wild woods and camp on objectives.

Gonna order a nice mix of stuff to get me started I think!

[Gorthor21]

Based on the rules I could really see the tree-revenants becoming the best unit available to Sylvaneth.  I could see larger units of tree-revenants becoming the mainstay CC unit while smaller units of spite-revenants would be run to make use of their special rules.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the Sylvaneth Magic lore is going to look like.

[daedalus81]

Kurnoth Hunters need to beware bravery reducing abilities.  The loss of a 5 wound model from low bravery is potentially very painful.

[TrexPushups]

4 hours ago, daedalus81 said:

Kurnoth Hunters need to beware bravery reducing abilities.  The loss of a 5 wound model from low bravery is potentially very painful.

This makes their special rule of always being in range of slyvaneth heroes command abilities very relevant. 

Inspiring presence is really going to matter. 

[Rid]

Yeah that is quite cunning being able to spread inspiring presence across your whole army with some well placed hunter units 

[Thor0298]

I used some against the flesh eater box set this weekend. They underperformed greatly.  

 

I had drycha, unit of bow hunters, unit of scythe hunters, branchwytch, tree lord and tree spite. 

 

The hand book death ability giving the terrorgheist all its attacks twice in a turn if it dealt 8 wounds is ridiculously OP. In two turns actually like 1.5 turns it was done. I think I got rid of one unit of crypt flayers. That's it. 

[daedalus81]

26 minutes ago, Thor0298 said:

I used some against the flesh eater box set this weekend. They underperformed greatly.  

 

I had drycha, unit of bow hunters, unit of scythe hunters, branchwytch, tree lord and tree spite. 

 

The hand book death ability giving the terrorgheist all its attacks twice in a turn if it dealt 8 wounds is ridiculously OP. In two turns actually like 1.5 turns it was done. I think I got rid of one unit of crypt flayers. That's it. 

You mean red fury on a ghoul king riding a terrorgheist?

[Nico]

Get yourself some 2+ save Treeman Ancients and Durthus.

[daedalus81]

Yea those are the best bet - and pray he doesn't wound on a 6 with the maw.  Durthu would return the most pain.   Drycha is mostl anti-horde unless she has flutterfuries.  Otherwise just focus him and stack as many mortal wounds as possible.  He'll have a hard time keeping his army together after its gone.

What this 1,000 or 2,000 points?

[Thor0298]

1 hour ago, daedalus81 said:

You mean red fury on a ghoul king riding a terrorgheist?

AH yes that's what I mean

[Thor0298]

1 hour ago, daedalus81 said:

Yea those are the best bet - and pray he doesn't wound on a 6 with the maw.  Durthu would return the most pain.   Drycha is mostl anti-horde unless she has flutterfuries.  Otherwise just focus him and stack as many mortal wounds as possible.  He'll have a hard time keeping his army together after its gone.

What this 1,000 or 2,000 points?

It was 1000 points

[daedalus81]

Yea, so at 1,000 that model is 40% of his army.  I would wager you'd have an easier time at 2,000.  

I's suggest this:

Treelord Ancient; General; Gnarled Warrior; Oaken Armor 
Drycha; Flitterfuries;
3 Hunters; Bows;
5 Revenants
5 Revenants

Then focus on his general and keep distance as much as possible.  Objective will matter as well.  Also - opt to go second if possible.  Let him make the first move and then you'll be guaranteed a double turn hopefully, which is when you lay on the shooting.   Barring magic a round of shooting should average 6 wounds unless he has FNP on.

You can also sacrifice the hunters with armor rerolls.  They should hold for 2 rounds.

What was his battleline?  Ghouls or vargheists/horrors?

[Thor0298]

He had the ghoul kind on terrorgheist, 3 crypt horrors, 3 crypt flayers, varghukf courtier and some ghouls. 

[Thor0298]

And whatever battalion was in that box

[daedalus81]

28 minutes ago, Thor0298 said:

He had the ghoul kind on terrorgheist, 3 crypt horrors, 3 crypt flayers, varghukf courtier and some ghouls. 

He had an invalid list unless he had more than one unit of ghouls.  Those other units are not battleline unless he's pure FE Courts.  If he's pure FE Courts then he can't take Red Fury as it's Death allegiance only.

Had he done so his ghoul units would have to be larger, which would make him sending his terrorgheist unsupported a lot more risky.

[Nixon]

So with the new book out, if I was going to build a well rounded 1000 point army what should I get? 

Right now I have set my eyes on Revenants, Hunters, Treemen, Dryads and the Branchwych. 

[Thor0298]

26 minutes ago, daedalus81 said:

He had an invalid list unless he had more than one unit of ghouls.  Those other units are not battleline unless he's pure FE Courts.  If he's pure FE Courts then he can't take Red Fury as it's Death allegiance only.

Had he done so his ghoul units would have to be larger, which would make him sending his terrorgheist unsupported a lot more risky.

I think he had enough ghouls as two units but not sure. 

[Thor0298]

23 minutes ago, Nixon said:

So with the new book out, if I was going to build a well rounded 1000 point army what should I get? 

Right now I have set my eyes on Revenants, Hunters, Treemen, Dryads and the Branchwych. 

I'd like to know this as well but I also have a tree lord and alarielle

[Thor0298]

38 minutes ago, daedalus81 said:

He had an invalid list unless he had more than one unit of ghouls.  Those other units are not battleline unless he's pure FE Courts.  If he's pure FE Courts then he can't take Red Fury as it's Death allegiance only.

Had he done so his ghoul units would have to be larger, which would make him sending his terrorgheist unsupported a lot more risky.

You get to pick either allegiance fe courts or death no? 

[daedalus81]

4 minutes ago, Thor0298 said:

You get to pick either allegiance fe courts or death no? 

Yes, but if he relied on FE courts to cover minimum battleline he wouldn't be allowed to use the Death allegiance.

[daedalus81]

39 minutes ago, Nixon said:

So with the new book out, if I was going to build a well rounded 1000 point army what should I get? 

Right now I have set my eyes on Revenants, Hunters, Treemen, Dryads and the Branchwych. 

 

16 minutes ago, Thor0298 said:

I'd like to know this as well but I also have a tree lord and alarielle

I don't have the book yet so i'm not keen on battalions or the other new tidbits.

But honestly all the sylvaneth units are really good.  Hunters, dryads, and treemen are very durable.  Tree revenants put out great damage. Spite revenants are a little tougher to place against harder opponents, but can shine against lightly armored hordes.  There are battalions that make each part of the army shine so whatever you chose will work.  It just comes down to your playstyle - you'll have to sit down and think about whether you want a traditional army that doesn't bounce around a lot or one that makes judicious use of teleporting.  

[Tzr]

My experience of Dryads, admittedly not with the new book, is that they get places fast then die just as fast! Not sure how you go about making them durable other than camping in a Wyldwood.

Only grumble about the book is I would really have liked a nod to the old Wood Elf books by having formations that permit you to take a handful of Wanderers units whilst still retaining the Sylvaneth bonuses and artifacts. Something nice and thematic and not at all bent like two units of Sisters of the Thorn buffing treemen...

[daedalus81]

Yea you have to have them at a wood, but -1 to hit is no joke.  Their real struggle is the lack of rend.