Let's Chat Sylvaneth

[Alexxk]

Hi guys!

I just recently got my first Warhammer miniatures and I choose sylvaneth!

Till of now I have the start collecting box and one box of Tree revenants.

Aditionally I have gotten one citadel wood.

 

I was wondering what my next step would be....Ill defenitly get atleast one box of Kurnoth hunters, but i have to wait one or 2 months, because I saw one guy on reddit magnetizing the weapons and I want to do the same. I ordered those magnets from aliexpress, so it will need some time!

When I was at my local GW partner, I saw that they had a Drycha in stock and I was wondering what you guys think of her! I know, she only unleases her full potential against low bravery units together with spite-revs(ill definitly wont get them). I really like the model but, right now i would prefer to buy only things ill be playing with

Alternative would be another start collecting box to get druthu in addition to my treelord ancients and to complete atleast the squad of 20 dryads (i have only 16 yet).

 

Else I was thinking about some sisters of the thorn or a hurricanum, but i prefer the sisters because they fit the army better!

I think the loremaster is only viable with druthu or alarielle right?

 

I think ill get atleast one wood also soon and decide if i need more when i played with some people in my store to see if they allow prxying them. But 2 or 3 of them would be nice jsut to display my army together with

 

Thanks so much guys!

[Nico]

Loremaster plus those two heroes is a good option.

I've stuck the bows on their backs and always included the Quiverling (mainly for my 12 Ushabti list - it's a long story).

Sisters are really expensive in what is already an expensive army.

[scrubyandwells]

14 hours ago, Alexxk said:

Hi guys!

I just recently got my first Warhammer miniatures and I choose sylvaneth!

Till of now I have the start collecting box and one box of Tree revenants.

Additionally I have gotten one citadel wood.

Thanks for sharing. Welcome to the thread. Personally I'd recommend another Start Collecting box and do one Treelord Ancient and one Spirit of Durthu. If you ran the Gnarlroot Wargrove (+ Household), you'd have about 1,460pts, or 1,640pts with a unit of Kurnoth. You could play some 1,500-1,600pt games, and then decide from there what you'd like to add for a 2,000pt force. 

[RossMHoward]

Just wanted to post my thoughts on the army after winning a friendly tournament yesterday, that a club member organised for us. And overall WOW! This was my first time playing them and they performed brilliantly. 

The list was as follows:

Leaders
Battlemage (100) - Lifesurge
Treelord Ancient (300) - Regrowth
- General
- Trait: Gnarled Warrior 
- Artefact: Briarsheath 
Branchwych (100) - Throne of Vines
- Artefact: The Silverwood Circlet 
Branchwraith (100) - Dwellers Below
- Artefact: Moonstone of the Hidden Ways 

Units
Dryads x 20 (240)
Dryads x 10 (120)
Tree-Revenants x 10 (200)
Kurnoth Hunters x 3 (180) - Scythes
Kurnoth Hunters x 3 (180) - Scythes
Kurnoth Hunters x 3 (180) - Bows
Kurnoth Hunters x 3 (180) - Bows

Batallions
Gnarlroot Wargrove (80)
Household (20)

Total: 1980/2000
 

Some stand outs I have found are:
1) The Branchwyches Unleash Spites spell. It doesn't sound massive on paper, but combining it with Throne of Vines and Arcane Scenery, you're rolling your casting value of 2d6 +d3+1 additional dice against every enemy unit within 9". Giving her the Silverwood Circlet and increasing this to 15" suddenly a lot of models are being chipped away each turn. 

My aim going forward will be to enclave her and deploy her in a central wood surrounded by Dryads. The following turn she then pops Throne and starts to help with the attrition in the centre.

2) The Briarsheath on a the Treelord is immense, especially with his groundshaking stomp. I found that He in with a unit of dryads to Stomp in combat means that both the Dryads (by virtue of being in a Wyldwood) and himself are quite often debuffing enemy units to be -2 to hit. Gnarled warrior goes so far into helping him stay alive. 

By giving him Regrowth he's able to keep himself fairly healthy except against units with access to tonnes of attacks, mortal wounds and -2 rending attacks. 

3) The Battlemage with Lifesurge was very handy as it gave me another healing spell which didn't overlap with any of my Deepwood spells, as well as conferring a 6+ ward save. 

4) The Kurnoth Hunters are incredible. Even in small units they have great staying power, combined with Lifesurge and Verdurous Harmony to revive them. Bows were fantastic harassers, with a single unit bringing down my opponents Mega Boss in two turns of shooting. The dropping roots ability hampers there attacks but the range of the scythes offsets this nicely.

Also the way they act as waypoints for the Treelords Command Ability really made a difference. 

5) The Brancwraith isn't useful in terms of her warscroll spell. Summoning Dryads doesn't seem useful when  they have so many mobility based deployment and movement options. 

But with the Moonstone of Hidden Ways and Dwellers Below, she's able to dish out some fairly good anti horde magic.

6) The Tree Revenants are great in units of 10 for harassing war machines, gunline units or backfield heros. They're also great at stealing objectives. But if anything gets to hit them back they die very quickly. And Verdurous Harmony only revives a single model here so its not a great use of the spell. Send them in to capture but don't expect them to hold. 

7) The lowly Dryads were very useful in my games as they hugged terrain and drowned high value objectives in bodies. The Wyldwood makes them fairly survivable too so I can't malign them too much.

8) The woods themselves were something I had to get used to fast. I dropped one at the start along the centre of the board and consisting of two bases. But my opponent was able to camp them and keep me out. Suffering the odd Awakening of the Wood and Roused by Magic wasn't too high a price to prevent me from teleporting and claiming objectives. But in the later games I started deploying it vertically. This gave me control of the centre of my opponent deployed off to one side, or became a speed bump for him to charge through. This was huge against destruction as I was able to force my opponent to charge through it for most of the game to capture and recapture objectives. In the process losing the odd Irongut or Bull, which against most of my army this was massive. 

9) The Gnarlroot wargrove makes this army ridiculously survivable and can create opportunities to cause a reasonable amount of mortal wounds as well as shutting down your opponents magic phases. I think out of all the Wargroves this is the most effective. 

Some cons:
1) Being shut out of a forest means you have to stand and take charges in inopportune locations. 

2) No access to +1 to hit buffs, other that sacrificing wounds in Damned terrain. Hurricanum is too expensive to field in my list and doesn't much fit my theme. 

3) The Treelords 3+ 3+ to hit is unreliable, and only having -1 rend means he rarely puts dents into heros or monsters of equal power.

4) Battleshock can be very very painful. 

Having played Bloodbound, Nurgle and Empire/Stormcast in this edition I really feel like I have found my home with this army. 

Going forward I'd like to find ways to better inform my opponent what my synergies and spells are as is only fair, given the fact that to learn this you have to have read the book!

I'm settling in now to paint the last 8 models and I'm so stoked about playing them again. 

[Nico]

Thanks for the report and well done!

It's so hard to avoid opting for the Gnarlroot. It's clearly undercosted. I keep trying for Winterleaf (shock horror a melee synergy), but it's so expensive and 4 units of Dryads is a killer - I want 30, a 10 and a 10 as Battleline (or Revenants). I runout of wizards to cast mystic shield.

However, the Order Unit and rerolling 1s vs Chaos is so tempting.

Yeah the Spites spell is similar to the Reaping Bomb.

 

[Forestreveries]

Yeah the Spites spell is similar to the Reaping Bomb.

 

With gnarlroot you can do both [emoji1303]

Aaron

[RossMHoward]

I'd be tempted to take the Reaping on the Treelord but choosing the silverwood circlet over the briarsheath is such a risk. 

The I might try the Branchwraith with circlet + reaping

[scrubyandwells]

1 hour ago, RossMHoward said:

Just wanted to post my thoughts on the army after winning a friendly tournament yesterday, that a club member organised for us. And overall WOW! This was my first time playing them and they performed brilliantly. 

@RossMHoward - Wow! Thanks for the brilliant post! Love the Battlemage-w/-Lifesurge choice, along with the Branchwraith w/ Moonstone and Dwellers. 

[Lanoss]

Great write up! Very much so the army I'm building to play so it's good to see how others have faired

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[MidasKiss]

Thanks for the interesting read @RossMHoward.

I agree with the unreliability of the TA damage. I'd definitely recommend anyone who hasn't tried out the Lord of Spites command trait to give it a go. It's not defensive, but depending on who you're going up against that rerolling the first hit / phase can really up reliability for the damage from the 1 shooting attack and then the sweeping blows of the treelord ancient. 

[Xerek]

I've been reading for a while and have found some great information on here.  I field tested yesterday and smashed 3 of 3 games (1000 IronJawz, 2000 IronJawz, 2000Chaos).  Playing Gnarlroot with the sisters makes the army very tanky.  Between magic and some shooting, I took down Skarbrand before he got into combat (I got the double for my second turn).  The sisters can really set up a unit of dryads to be a fortress that my opponent at one point refused to attack because he was taking more wounds than the dryads with his heros.  A few items we did run into and couldn't find any clarification in the rules.

• When playing scenarios from matched play, my opponent had more VP at the end of 5 turns than I did; however, I wiped his entire army off the board.  Who won?
• When setting up units in the ether to deepstrike later, it seems to say you can set up an entire battalion as one placement; however, what if part of that battalion is already set up on the board.  You can no longer set up the full battalion, so i'm wondering if you are able to place it as one 'set-up'.
• A separate but related question to the above is essentially, how are you guys, per the rules, ensuring you finish set-up first?  I can't clarify in the rules unless you set the entire gnarlroot wargrove without any units on the board.  I tend to want to place my wizards and one unit of dryads 'to receive the casting' and the rest may or may not go into the 'ether'.

 

In addition, if the question around whether the 'order wizard' could access the deepwood spell lore, see page 106 of the Sylvaneth Battletome.  It clarifies that the spell lore is something you get access to by being part of the allegiance.  That combined with the FAQ which states you have to have the relevant keyword to access any allegiance abilities should put the argument to rest.

[Forestreveries]

9 minutes ago, Xerek said:

 

• When setting up units in the ether to deepstrike later, it seems to say you can set up an entire battalion as one placement; however, what if part of that battalion is already set up on the board.  You can no longer set up the full battalion, so i'm wondering if you are able to place it as one 'set-up'.
• A separate but related question to the above is essentially, how are you guys, per the rules, ensuring you finish set-up first?  I can't clarify in the rules unless you set the entire gnarlroot wargrove without any units on the board.  I tend to want to place my wizards and one unit of dryads 'to receive the casting' and the rest may or may not go into the 'ether'.

 

I believe you can drop the battalion all at once and just decide which units you want on the board and which you want to set up in the Hidden Enclaves. 

Doesn't seem any different to deploying one unit on one side of the board and another unit on the other side, there's nothing to say they have to be near each other or anything like that.

You are still "setting up" those units. 

Its not like reinforcement points where you have the option to change what you decide you want to use so I don't see any issues with it really.

 

If you mean when it comes to emerging from the enclaves during the game, it really doesn't make much difference if you do it unit by unit or as a battalion, unlike stormcasts who have to deploy within a certain distance of each other or a certain point/model.

 

Aaron

[Antipodean7]

Its been about 12 pages since I last checked into this thread but thought I'd post about a one-dayer I have coming up this weekend.  Due to a range of factors (timetable clashes, 1,000pts, splintered community etc), numbers are lower than we hoped (only 4 of us, so a minimum for 3 games).  We are playing random scenarios from GH, with artefacts etc being picked for each game. 

I've included the lists below - my Hunters have scythes - and will post pics of my force later in the week.  Now to think of what to do about that Bloodthirster and the wave of undead....

 

[Nico]

He won! Wiping off the board is irrelevant in matched play (just like sudden death rules).

Yes you can do a single drop even if half hidden, half on table.

[Nico]

Ironbark Wargrove 60

Household 20

Treelord 260

Branchwych (Verdant Blessing, Ranu's Lamentiri) 100

5 Tree Revenants 100

5 Tree Revenants 100

640

 

Auric Runesmiter 100

30 Vulkite Berserkers (Pick, Bladed Slingshield, Throwing Axes) 480

 

1,220

 

Treelord Ancient (General) (Gnarled Warrior, Briarsheath, Regrowth) 300

Branchwych (Acorn, Treesong) 100

3 Kurnoth Hunters (Bows) 180 

3 Kurnoth Hunters (Bows) 180

 

1,980

 

Here's yet another army list. This time using the under loved Ironbark. The sole value of that formation is that it's cheap and gives two Duardin units.

 

I single drop and give them first turn.

 

The core of the army is a block of 4+ ward Vulkites who pop up at 9 and can reroll one charge dice. They do 5 mortal wounds on the charge.

 

Tree Revenants derp about and kill artillery. They can come in off the back edge!

 

Wizards Derp about and cast spells near woods.

 

Treelord tries to make a 9 inch charge to help the Dwarves.

 

Somewhat tempted to just take Durthu as general and give him either the reroll a miss per phase or the gnarled warrior buff.

 

 

 

[Xerek]

4 hours ago, Nico said:

He won! Wiping off the board is irrelevant in matched play (just like sudden death rules).

I thought so as well, but was the only one in the entire shop that thought that way.  I'm trying to play more scenarios because I'm not very good at considering objectives, much better at plain beat em' up.  Do you know where it says that?  What people finally found to say otherwise was a comment on the 4pg rules saying that a table wipe is a win.  I thought I'd seen somewhere that in matched play, VP is the only win factor but couldn't find it in writing.

 

10 hours ago, Forestreveries said:

I believe you can drop the battalion all at once and just decide which units you want on the board and which you want to set up in the Hidden Enclaves. 

Doesn't seem any different to deploying one unit on one side of the board and another unit on the other side, there's nothing to say they have to be near each other or anything like that.

You are still "setting up" those units. 

1. Where does it say that you can set-up an entire battalion as a single drop?  In the general rules, it doesn't even mention setting up an entire battalion at once.  The only place that mentions a battalion as a single drop is when placing in the ether in the sylvaneth allegiance ability.  So I don't see where, in writing, placing more than one unit on the board during set-up would count as any fewer than the number of units being set-up.
2. I agree it isn't different than deploying 2 units in varying locations, but that would count as 2 separate drops.

 

And a new question I totally forgot about:

• Wyldwood bases.  Are the holes, where the trees are supposed to go, essentially impassable terrain?  If the tree was there, a model couldn't stand in its place.  On the warscroll it says that the trees are removable for purposes of model movement/placement, though what exactly that means seems to be arguable.  If they are, it certainly makes positioning a monster model difficult.

[Nico]

In the Hints and Tips section in each Battletome they cover single drop formations.

It might be the FB page. To me it was always self-evident that the Battleplan type stuff in the 4 pages (triumphs, sudden death etc.) was superseded by the GH. It's completely contrary to the focus on the scenario ethos for tabling the enemy to be a major win.

[Nico]

Maybe this is the sweet spot - a two drop army:

Gnarlroot Wargrove 80

 

Household 20

Treelord Ancient (General, Gnarled Warrior, Briarsheath, Regrowth, Verdurous Harmony, level 2 wizard) 300

Branchwych (Verdant Blessing, Verdurous Harmony, Acorn of the Ages, level 2 wizard) 100

5 Tree Revenants 100

 

600

 

Loremaster 100

 

Dreadwood Wargrove 100

Outcasts 40

5 Spite Revenants 100

5 Spite Revenants 100

5 Spite Revenants 100

5 Spite Revenants 100

 

540

 

Spirit of Durthu 400 (Briarsheath)

20 Dryads 240

10 Dryads 120

 

2,000

 

The Dreadwood stuff starts off the table apart from one unit of Spites. You use the Sneak Attack plus Forest Spirits to bring on Durthu at 9 inches away near your one Wyldwood and the big block of Dryads and one unit of Spites. Crucially this happens before Battleround one, so you can move as normal thereafter. So Durthu would need a 4 to charge.

 

The first 600 points is to give you 4 spells and to give you access to the Loremaster. I would summon a wood with the Branchwych, awaken it for mortal wounds on the enemy; and then use mystic shield on Durthu or the Dryads.

 

Loremaster buffs Durthu.

 

Durthu goes into the key enemy beats tick unit and you activate him first. The Dryads take on something less scary, but keep a tail into the Wood to keep the -1 to hit buff. The Treelord Ancient moves through to a wood and shoots and passes on his Command Ability.

 

Thoughts?

 

[Xerek]

2 hours ago, Nico said:

In the Hints and Tips section in each Battletome they cover single drop formations.

@Nico, Not to be dense, but I'm not finding the section in either the general's handbook or the sylvaneth battletome that covers single drop formations.  Could you be more specific?

[Nico]

Page 114 middle column - my mistake - wrong reference it's the intro to Battalions.

[Xerek]

Awesome, thanks for the reference.  So from that I see how you can set-up a part of the wargrove as a single move.  However, given the wording, I would argue that it's a fine line whether one can set up half the wargrove in the ether and the other half elsewhere.  I notice that the wording doesn't define where the units are set up when set up as an entire battalion.  Since it explicitly states that one sets up 'the rest' individually, that seems to be how one would set them up in different places.

 

[Nico]

I would disagree, there's no express indication that you where a unit is deployed matters. Stormcast have been splitting formations like this as one drop since the start.

[RossMHoward]

For what its worth I think you can definitely drop the battalion both on and off the board as a single drop. 

For me it seems logical. 

My opponent deploys his Liberators. 

I deploy my Steam Tank

My opponent deploys his Celestant Prime in the celestial realm. 

I deploy my Halberdiers. 

So on so forth. A drop is a drop as long as a unit is declared as being deployed somewhere. And given that a battalion can be dropped as one it makes no difference to me whether they are deployed in the hidden enclaves or on the board. 

Nothing I can see on page 114 of the Battletome seems to dispute that. 

However the Forest Spirits description on page 107 might. 

[RossMHoward]

6 hours ago, Xerek said:

Wyldwood bases.  Are the holes, where the trees are supposed to go, essentially impassable terrain?  If the tree was there, a model couldn't stand in its place.  On the warscroll it says that the trees are removable for purposes of model movement/placement, though what exactly that means seems to be arguable.  If they are, it certainly makes positioning a monster model difficult.

I can't see this anywhere on either the App warscroll or the Battletome warscroll. Could you provide a screenshot?

 

[Mirage8112]

It's in the description for the GW wildwood a on the website I believe.

To be fair, the rules only state the size of the base footprint is important. I don't think removing the trees is an issue.

Besides, our army is a bunch of trees, you don't think they might know how to politely ask the trees to "scooch over just a bit?"

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