AoS 2 - Sylvaneth Discussion

[Kaylethia]

If our glades work like Stormcast or Fyreslayers, Ylthari isn't a lock to Oakenbrow, she just won't benefit from your glade of choice. 

I'm starting to like the idea of Kurnoth Hunters more and more, perhaps with a single unit of either kind of revenants for battleline. Their loadouts work very well with minimum/double sizes. Something like a wraith/wych in each contingent and a unit of spites in the main body leaves 700 points for 9 hunters and an Arch-Revenant. Enough to get a chance at trees each turn, but outside of teleporting and summoning, doesn't really require that many. Hunters having the killing power, summoned dryads for objectives.

Rough, but a starting point.

Edit: here's an example of my quickly kitbashed wraith for those who'd need a second or third wraith in a hurry. Piece of old Citadel Wood, leftover spite leader torso and arm. I've since painted and based her, but don't have a picture of the finished model.

Edited June 30, 2019 by Kaylethia
Example

[Ruhraffe]

I just wanted to report back after the game with the list mentioned on the last page. I played BoC and got wiped off the table. This happend due to multiple factors:

1. Battleplan: Borderline

2. Drycha in rearguard, Hunters in spearhead.

My mainbody got up first, then the spearhead. Therefor my Wraith and the Hunters went on the field on round 2. A second wyldwood could be placed, but I already missed out on a summoning opportunity. The Hunters were so far in the backfield that they never reached the front line.

Drycha being rearguard sounded good, becaus she is fast, but turns out keeping 320 points (~1/3 of the army) out of the fight for 2 rounds is stupid. Effectively, I played the game with 520 points missing.

The next time, the rearguard will consist of 1 unit of tree revs and the mainbody and spearhead will have to consist of 3 units each at minimum to cover objectives early and to keep up pressure early.

[jaebird]

4 hours ago, Ruhraffe said:

I just wanted to report back after the game with the list mentioned on the last page. I played BoC and got wiped off the table. This happend due to multiple factors:

1. Battleplan: Borderline

2. Drycha in rearguard, Hunters in spearhead.

My mainbody got up first, then the spearhead. Therefor my Wraith and the Hunters went on the field on round 2. A second wyldwood could be placed, but I already missed out on a summoning opportunity. The Hunters were so far in the backfield that they never reached the front line.

Drycha being rearguard sounded good, becaus she is fast, but turns out keeping 320 points (~1/3 of the army) out of the fight for 2 rounds is stupid. Effectively, I played the game with 520 points missing.

The next time, the rearguard will consist of 1 unit of tree revs and the mainbody and spearhead will have to consist of 3 units each at minimum to cover objectives early and to keep up pressure early.

This is really helpful, thanks for the update! Do you know what the BoC player's list was?

[Ruhraffe]

I can ask for the details, but it was a quite high number of ungors and gors, 2 shamans and a big behemoth in the main body long with a beastlord

[Landohammer]

Not sure if this has been discussed yet, but per the leaked Durthu rules on Reddit, looks like Groundshaking Stomp and Massive Impaing Talons are significantly changed. These will be assumable shared with Treelords and TLAs.

Ground shaking Stomp - At the start of the combat phase, pick 1 enemy unit within 3" and roll a dice. On a 4+ that unit fights at the end of the combat phase, after the players have picked any other units to fight.

Massive Impaling Talons - 1A 3+/3+ R2 D1 - On a unmodified roll of 6 the attack does d6 mortal wounds.

This kind of explains why there was such a significant drop in the Tree Lord points. No more -1 to hit and Massive impaling talons is pretty derpy without a natural 6. Hopefully Sweeping blows remain unchanged.

 

[Freejack02]

The full tome changes have been leaked for a while now (won't link it here), but yes the change did also pertain to the TLA and TL. The last 20 pages or so have discussed much of it, but the ability to change combat order is quite powerful. 

[Walkirriox]

On 6/30/2019 at 5:06 PM, Ruhraffe said:

The Hunters were so far in the backfield that they never reached the front line.

Drycha being rearguard sounded good, becaus she is fast, but turns out keeping 320 points (~1/3 of the army) out of the fight for 2 rounds is stupid. Effectively, I played the game with 520 points missing.

Maybe Dreadwood glade is the way to go, in order to tp those units from the back. 

[KasperBN]

1 hour ago, Landohammer said:

Not sure if this has been discussed yet, but per the leaked Durthu rules on Reddit, looks like Groundshaking Stomp and Massive Impaing Talons are significantly changed. These will be assumable shared with Treelords and TLAs.

Ground shaking Stomp - At the start of the combat phase, pick 1 enemy unit within 3" and roll a dice. On a 4+ that unit fights at the end of the combat phase, after the players have picked any other units to fight.

Massive Impaling Talons - 1A 3+/3+ R2 D1 - On a unmodified roll of 6 the attack does d6 mortal wounds.

This kind of explains why there was such a significant drop in the Tree Lord points. No more -1 to hit and Massive impaling talons is pretty derpy without a natural 6. Hopefully Sweeping blows remain unchanged.

 

If you just go back a few pages you can see that it has been discussed extensively.  Everything was leaked a month or more back

Edited July 1, 2019 by KasperBN

[Trevelyan]

1 hour ago, Landohammer said:

This kind of explains why there was such a significant drop in the Tree Lord points. No more -1 to hit and Massive impaling talons is pretty derpy without a natural 6. Hopefully Sweeping blows remain unchanged.

 

As people have mentioned, this is old news. 

There is also nothing “derpy” about it. The ability to force a target to attack last is much better than imposing a -1 penalty to hit, and the mortal wounds are superior to the automatic kill against most targets.

Occasions when you are hitting a significant multi-wound target with the claw and can use the current ability to kill it are rare. Far more often either have a target with a couple of wound total and the claw is just enough to kill it (equivalent to an extra wound or two), even assuming you roll to hit, wound and it doesn’t save. I don’t think I’ve ever had it kill anything significant. 

The option to inflict D6 mortal wounds is going to be useful in far more situations in practice. 

The point drop just reflects that the standard treelord has always been overpriced. 

[Landohammer]

Oh apologies! I went back a few pages but obviously not far enough. I will go catch up. I do wish the codex shipping issues would resolve so we can all get on the same page. 

48 minutes ago, Trevelyan said:

There is also nothing “derpy” about it. The ability to force a target to attack last is much better than imposing a -1 penalty to hit, and the mortal wounds are superior to the automatic kill against most targets.

Occasions when you are hitting a significant multi-wound target with the claw and can use the current ability to kill it are rare. Far more often either have a target with a couple of wound total and the claw is just enough to kill it (equivalent to an extra wound or two), even assuming you roll to hit, wound and it doesn’t save. I don’t think I’ve ever had it kill anything significant. 

The option to inflict D6 mortal wounds is going to be useful in far more situations in practice. 

The point drop just reflects that the standard treelord has always been overpriced. 

The derpy part is more about just the attack itself. The always strike last component of stomp is pretty cool.

I actually however, do prefer the old -1 to hit. Mostly because it was useful vs multiple units and tended to multiply  the Treelords survivability. I don't really bring treelords to wipe out units before they swing, i bring them to tank scary stuff. 

[Drib]

On 6/30/2019 at 9:15 PM, jaebird said:

This is really helpful, thanks for the update! Do you know what the BoC player's list was?

Allegiance: Beasts of Chaos
- Greatfray: Gavespawn

Spearhead
Great Bray Shaman (100)
- General
- Trait: Unravelling Aura 
- Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Vicious Stranglethorns
10 x Bestigors (120)
10 x Ungor Raiders (80)

Main Body
Great Bray Shaman (100)
- Lore of the Twisted Wilds: Tendrils of Atrophy
Beastlord (90)
- Artefact: Mutating Gnarlblade 
10 x Bestigors (120)
10 x Ungor Raiders (80)
Ghorgon (200)

Rearguard
1 x Chaos Spawn (50)

Total: 990 / 1000
Extra Command Points: 1
Wounds: 74

 

[Walkirriox]

12 hours ago, Landohammer said:

I actually however, do prefer the old -1 to hit. Mostly because it was useful vs multiple units and tended to multiply  the Treelords survivability. I don't really bring treelords to wipe out units before they swing, i bring them to tank scary stuff. 

You don't... I have played a couple of games testing the new mechanics and, in my opinion, I must say that the stomp is one of the bests improvements for the army. I think we should change our mind and our playstyle a bit in order to fit the new rules, or we won't get the best of them. 

[Landohammer]

9 hours ago, Walkirriox said:

You don't... I have played a couple of games testing the new mechanics and, in my opinion, I must say that the stomp is one of the bests improvements for the army. I think we should change our mind and our playstyle a bit in order to fit the new rules, or we won't get the best of them. 

So objectively, if I wanted something to womp for 200pts, I would just take Kurnoth Hunters. The tree lord is there to tank and grind, and the -1 hit to made it pretty good at that job. This effect became progressively more useful later in the game when the treelord had taken a lot of wounds and wasn't doing much damage. 

The change is even more apparent on the TLA who tends to struggle in combat, especially late game. Many times the -1 to hit has saved his bacon and kept him in the fight long enough to heal/teleport/get help. 

Now I'm not gonna say the new Treelord is bad. At his current price, you get a solid behemoth  for what many armies pay for mediocre characters. But he is definitely worse at his job now. 

 

[Trevelyan]

I’m struggling to picture a scenario where the old version works better. The only thing I can envisage from your description is that you were sending a solo treelord in against enemy units, and your opponent was very obligingly whaling on the big tree rather than tackling bigger threats. 

The value of delaying the attacks against you is twofold. In the immediate combat, it means that all of your units can attack first. So if your treelord is backing up a unit of kurnoths and a unit of Dryads then all three get to hit the enemy before it can retaliate. Under the current version, the enemy can attack back after the first unit attack, even if at a penalty. If you get your treelord supporting other units then you’ll find that ‘the whole unit is dead’ is a much tougher penalty to overcome than a mere -1 to hit. Even if you don’t wipe out the enemy unit, you need to consider whether the extra damage you inflict (removing models or knocking monsters down the damage track) might be a better way to reduce damage than the -1 penalty.

The less immediate advantage is when you’ve got multiple combat engagements on the table. I’m sure you’ve been in situations where you’ve got two separate fights kicking off and you know that, whichever one you pick for your unit to attack first, you’ll suffer in the other by attacking second. It happens in almost every game I’ve played. The new treelord stomp solves the problem and allows you to attack first in both (or all three, etc) fights. Remember that, baring a few corner case enemies, you can use this ability on the enemy turn too, attacking first even when you would normally have to go second. 

It’s a genuinely excellent ability. 

Edited July 2, 2019 by Trevelyan
Typos. I dare say I’ve still missed some

[Landohammer]

We may just use Tree lords differently. I send mine to tank big hordes or threats that other parts of my army can't deal with efficiently. I have found him ideal vs low rend/high attack hordes like Tzaangors, undead,  or even Witch Aelves.

I guess the ultimate question becomes this: What mitigates the opposing unit more? -1 to hit on all of their attacks, or the damage from a round of Treelord's attacks? 

Whats the average wound output of a fully healed Treelord? 6-7 wounds before saves?

If you are fighting heroes or behemoths, I will grant you that its probably better to swing first (again, when fully healed). But if you are fighting hordes, the -1 to hit will be MUCH more beneficial than just pulling 6-7 models off the back rank. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Emissary]

The stomp isn't there to make the treelord some beater, though it helps them.  It's a really good support action for other sylvaneth stuff nearby.  Worried about charging with 2 units of glass cannon spite/tree-revenants?  Get a stomp off on one unit's target and now both units can fight before their opponent.  I love bookending a unit of 6 scythe hunters with some version of a treelord (right now it's a durthu and ancient).  My opponents hate charging into that because there's a 75% change that all three will go before the charger and it really hurts any type of alpha-striker that wants to pin me down early and grab objectives.  

[Milo]

On 6/20/2019 at 4:52 PM, Emissary said:

I played a 2,000 point game last night with the new rules against a Blades of Khorne army.  Thought I'd give some observations and insights I learned about the new book.

My list: 
Winterleaf Glade
Spirit of Durthu with My Heart is Ice
Drycha Hamadreth with the Treesong Spell
Treelord Ancient with Regrowth
Arch-Revenant with the Frozen Kernal
Branchwraith with Throne of Vines
Branchwraith with Verdurous Harmony
20 Spite Revenants
5 Spite Revenants
5 Revenants
6 Kurnoth Hunters with Scythes
Spiteswarm Hive

 

1) Probably the biggest new factor of the book I noticed from my opponent was his reaction the change to the Treelord stomp.  The way I ran the list was the Kurnoth Hunters flanked by the Durthu and the Ancient on either end and the Arch-Revenant Behind him.  This way if they got charged by his large group of Mighty Skullcrushers as an alpha strike on the Kurnoth Hunters I had 2 chances to stomp the unit and let all three of my units go before them.  This caused him to instead not  charge as fear of it and themselves to get charged the next turn.  I noticed this happened several times during the course of the game as the threat of him going last and letting my hard hitting units all get to go first caused indecision and a wariness of going full bore into my army as he would have done in the past.

When it we did fight, the stomp did really affect the combat phase several times.  Affecting the fight order really helped several times.  If I charged with a few units and I really wished that I could go before 2 of his units, when one got stomped and sent to the end of the phase, the choice was then easy to pick the other unit and hit it.  One turn I charged one of his heroes and the skullcrushers with Durthu and Drycha.  I needed to hit both before they could go so they didn't get a few wounds on my behemoths and knock down Durthu's straight 6 damage or Drycha's attacks.  I got the stomp off on the skullcrushers which allowed Drycha to kill the hero and then Durthu got to go before the skullcrushers and killed 3 before they could strike back.  

Overall, I love this addition to them and the ability really elevates them in my eyes to the point where I actually look at Drycha or another unit of Kurnoth Hunters and the fact that they don't have the stomp ability is a factor in taking them over a Durthu or regular Treelord (not the only factor, but a decent factor).   This new addition to the army's ability to swing the combat phase will be important and will stick with your opponent's decision making IMO, similar to the old wyldwoods' ability to kill running or charging models.

2) The Spite Revenants did well.  It's hard to get all 20 into combat due to their base size and 1" reach compared to Dryads.  However, the extra attack and hitting and wounding better is significant.  Their battleshock abilities also worked several times to clear out a unit mauled by them (one time denying some bloodletters getting models back when they rolled the 1 for the battleshock test...).  They are a glass cannon and I took to seeing the models that didn't get to fight as extra wounds for the unit.  

3) I didn't get a single spell off all game with any of my 4 wizards due to those damned skull judgments and the bloodsecrator so I can't speak to them.  I can say that I'm still up in the air about the hive right now.  It has it's uses but most of the game I didn't feel the need to cast it very often.  It will be a significant buff when you really need that movement or charge though.

4) Sadly, the wyldwoods didn't do a single thing all game for me other than block line of sight for my shooting one round.  The damage in the charge phase never happened due to it needing 1" and a 6 to use and I never got a spell off.  Overall, they didn't seem as necessary or important in the game.  Obviously keeping Durthu or Dryads near them is important, but they were certainly less of a focus.  I will say the Ancient's ability to auto-create one once a game is great.  You can guarantee you can place one with enough space where Durthu will be or to place it down before you cast the Vengeful Skullroot and get that D6 damage because it comes in within 1".  I also think creating one with the Ancient within 1" of a target, then casting treesong on that unit and then charging it will be a great combo.

5) Drycha is a beast and well worth her 320 points.  The mortal wounds off her bugs is fantastic, as is the initial 18" range on them.  Also, being able to switch her forms at the beginning of the battle round is good and helped when he got to go first the 2nd round, but I got to switch her from shooting to melee on his turn.  Buffing all the attacks from the spite revenants is nice too with the big 16" range it has, even if it's wholly within.

6) The change to the treelord impaling talons helped 3 times during the course of the game.  Got a thumbs up from me.

7) Winterleaf is really good.  The double hits are obvious.  For the artifact I used it on the second turn.  The Kurnoth hunters, Durthu, Ancient and Arch-Revenant moved up, The Kurnoth Hunters charged the center of his formation, then got buffed by +1 attack from the AR and then got to attack twice back to back.  Pretty much ripped the heart out of the center of his tightly packed formation and got to the heroes behind the first rank for the second round.  The only thing that stopped the charge from completely decimating a giant part of his army was the skullcrushers saving 10 of 12 wounds.  I put the Frozen Kernal on the Arch-Revenant due to her movement so I could make sure to place her where I knew she could use it after the charge.  If used correctly, the artifact can create a huge amount of momentum for the army, especially since you can protect the Hunters well with the treelord stomps.

 

In my next game I plan on trying out the following:

Gnarlroot Glade
Treelord Ancient with Chalice of Nectar and Nourished by Magic
Treelord Ancient
Treelord
Lords of the Clan
Arch-Revenant with Crown of Fell Bowers
Branchwraith
15 Spite Revenants
5 Spite Revenants
5 Revenants
6 Kurnoth Hunters with Scythes
3 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords
Spiteswarm Hive

It's got a lot of the same philosophies as the Winterleaf army above with a few key differences.  First it has another Treelord for yet another stomp.  I'm curious to try out the battalion for the extra mortal wounds and it has some more healing.  The rerolling of 1s should help my bad rolling with treelords.  Then the 2 Ancient staff shots reroll misses when unwounded and it helps with them in melee.   Also, the chalice should help to cast the Hive (all our endless spells need that 7 to cast which has a decent failure rate) and for defense.  It also has more hunters for another hard hitting unit.  Lastly, the AR with the Crown is another buff for the Scythe Hunters.  They don't get to strike twice, but they do get the reroll 1s to hit and then reroll all wounds which should be similar.  Curious to see how it goes and compares.

Good morning, 

I have a question....in the first list, the one with the Winterleaf Glade...you are using only 1 artifact...shouldn’t be 2? 1 for default and 1 for the glade...am I wrong?

Thank you 

[ppetford]

In the new book, Glades are no longer battalions. They are free, give cool rules but do not grant an additional artefact 

[Emissary]

The downside of the glades is that they lock you into a specific warlord trait and artifact.  If you want any choice in artifact with a Glade you have to bring a battalion or two 

[Landohammer]

16 hours ago, Emissary said:

The stomp isn't there to make the treelord some beater, though it helps them.  It's a really good support action for other sylvaneth stuff nearby.  Worried about charging with 2 units of glass cannon spite/tree-revenants?  Get a stomp off on one unit's target and now both units can fight before their opponent.  I love bookending a unit of 6 scythe hunters with some version of a treelord (right now it's a durthu and ancient).  My opponents hate charging into that because there's a 75% change that all three will go before the charger and it really hurts any type of alpha-striker that wants to pin me down early and grab objectives.  

Thats fair. The change has definitely pushed the Treelord from a solo tank into a support unit. 

4 hours ago, Emissary said:

The downside of the glades is that they lock you into a specific warlord trait and artifact.  If you want any choice in artifact with a Glade you have to bring a battalion or two 

Yea it seems a bit of a waste providing so many cool artefacts and command trait options, but then locking them out with Glades. The Glades are so good that I can't foresee anyone giving them up.

Only instance it becomes an actual choice is if you field all named characters. But even then, Drycha with Winterleaf or Alarielle with Dreadwood are terrifying! 

 

[Trevelyan]

20 hours ago, Landohammer said:

Yea it seems a bit of a waste providing so many cool artefacts and command trait options, but then locking them out with Glades. The Glades are so good that I can't foresee anyone giving them up.

Only instance it becomes an actual choice is if you field all named characters. But even then, Drycha with Winterleaf or Alarielle with Dreadwood are terrifying! 

 

You don’t lose access to artefacts if you pick a Glade, only the Command Traits, several of which are objectively inferior to those available from the Glades (e.g. Gnarlroot vs Mystic Regrowth). You just need to buy a battalion or two for extra artefacts, if that’s what you really want.

If you field all named characters then you won’t get to use generic traits or any artefacts anyway. Why would you not pick a Glade? That seems to be the case where you’d have least real choice. 

[Frowny]

I think the new warsinger command trait may be worth building around. A free undispellable certain cogs for the key pieces of your army adds a ton of reliability. If there were a Glade that added 2 inches to charges people would be talking about it and this is almost as good. Also gives flexibility for the artifact

 

Unrelatedly, Given the bump in price of cogs I think we will be seeing a lot of the spiteswarm hive.

[Heksagon]

Hi everyone.

I played my first two Meeting Engagements games today.
I used all new rules.

A few interesting observations.

Assuming that I could not put the First Forest in 3" from the edge of the table, 6" within objectives and 3" within other terrains - I was simply unable to put it on the table.

We played on the 36"x48" board.

In addition, I did not have any wizard in the army, so I did not have the option of summoning forests in a different way, but even if I wanted to, it would be very difficult.

My army, however, was created to be as independent as possible from the forests - and I was able to win the game.

However, people with "standard Sylvaneth armies" (especially with Branchwraith in the roster) probably will a ad time playing 1000pts games now.

Other notes: Dryads are really not that great now. Not only in ME, but overall. They don't make much damage, even in Winterleaf, they die very quickly without the legendary -1 to hit - because it's nearly impossible to keep them fully within woods. I'm glad that I own only 40 dryads, because I definitely will not use them in "AoS 2.0".

Groups of 5 Tree-Revenants were super useful. They are amazing for taking objectives now, especially if you are able to "burn down" enemy's objective.
I would seriously consider groups of 10 for more bold actions like flanking or blocking enemys shooting (one game was against heavy shooting SCE list with a Ballista and 6 Longstikes. I managed to win thanks to Tree-Revenats and Sword Kurnoths).

I tried two lists - Gnarlroot with Wych-bomb (it was okay, but I lost) and Winterleaf with Durthu and 2x3 Sword Kurnoths (it was awesome). I may be tempted to try Dreadwood, because teleporting probably is way more interesting than we think.

[Landohammer]

23 hours ago, Frowny said:

I think the new warsinger command trait may be worth building around. A free undispellable certain cogs for the key pieces of your army adds a ton of reliability. If there were a Glade that added 2 inches to charges people would be talking about it and this is almost as good. Also gives flexibility for the artifact

 

Unrelatedly, Given the bump in price of cogs I think we will be seeing a lot of the spiteswarm hive.

Problem with Warsinger is that you have to give up the option for a Glade to even get a command trait option. Since Glades lock in your command trait and there is no way to get second traits. As I mentioned early, I can't imagine any instance where you sacrifice the Glade buffs.

Spiteswarm hive is definitely a cheaper alternative to cogs, but doesn't it also require a 3+ to trigger? Cogs is a guaranteed thing (once its cast).

I hate that there are endless spells that require additional rolls to activate. Because you pay points, you have to get it off, not have it unbound, and then trigger the 3+. That's a lot of investment for something that fails 1 in 3 times. 

On 7/4/2019 at 8:08 AM, Trevelyan said:

You don’t lose access to artefacts if you pick a Glade, only the Command Traits, several of which are objectively inferior to those available from the Glades (e.g. Gnarlroot vs Mystic Regrowth). You just need to buy a battalion or two for extra artefacts, if that’s what you really want.

If you field all named characters then you won’t get to use generic traits or any artefacts anyway. Why would you not pick a Glade? That seems to be the case where you’d have least real choice. 

Fair point. Though personally I have just never been a fan of our battalions, and the glade buffs being free are just another nail in battalion's coffin. Maybe I am in the minority here.

[Emissary]

2 hours ago, Landohammer said:

 Spiteswarm hive is definitely a cheaper alternative to cogs, but doesn't it also require a 3+ to trigger? Cogs is a guaranteed thing (once its cast).

I hate that there are endless spells that require additional rolls to activate. Because you pay points, you have to get it off, not have it unbound, and then trigger the 3+. That's a lot of investment for something that fails 1 in 3 times. 

The hive activates on a 2+.  Both have their uses.  Cogs is guaranteed and has unlimited range.  The hive is cheaper, only affects Sylvaneth units and gives you a greater move and charge distance.  Personally, the hive has worked really well for me in my last 2 games.  

18 hours ago, Heksagon said:

They don't make much damage, even in Winterleaf, they die very quickly without the legendary -1 to hit - because it's nearly impossible to keep them fully within woods. I'm glad that I own only 40 dryads, because I definitely will not use them in "AoS 2.0".

They don't have to fully within woods.  Just fully within 6" of the wyldwoods.  It is more restrictive, especially for 30 strong units, but not impossible.

Anyway, I got 2 more games in with the new list.  The first was a game against my buddy's Maggotkin.  I used the following list:

Gnarlroot
Lords of the Clan
Treelord Ancient General with Regrowth and Chalice of Nectar
Treelord Ancient with Verdurous Harmony
Treelord
Arch-Revenant with Crown of Fell Bowers
Branchwraith with Throne of Vines
15 Spite Revenants
5 Spite Revenants
5 Spite Revenants
6 Kurnoth Hunters with Scythes
3 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords
Spiteswarm Hive
Malevolent Maelstrom

Honestly, it was tough on the Sylvaneth this game as my dice rolling was terrible and his were awesome.  I rolled double 1s 7 times in the first 2 battle rounds and the Ancient General rolled a 2,2,1 on both of his casting rolls in those rounds.   Both Ancients and the Treelord charged 6 Plague Drones in turn 2 and I had to use 2 command points to make the 5" charge with 2 of the 3 Trees.  Then in the melee phase I rolled 5 2s on 10 Sweeping Blow attacks (I was getting to reroll 1s to hit).  They only killed 2 drones total in melee that turn and the 6 drones ended up killing all three trees a few turns later while having 2 drones survive.  Meanwhile his Blightkings were regularly rolling 6s on their hits and having them explode into 4-6 hits...  

I ended up winning for 2 reasons really. 

1) I cast the Hive on my starting wyldwood and he was never able to dispel it.  Then the Branchwraith with throne of vines up was creating a unit of dryads every turn.  She would create a unit and the unit she created last turn would move off 10" and then charge with the +3" The massive movement and charges they had stalled his advance and didn't allow him to take my objectives because he kept getting intercepted.  

2) We were playing a game where we were fighting over 4 objectives and it was who held the most at the end of the game.  I lost the roll to go first on the final round and he took the first turn and moved.   He charged the 10 dryads I created the last turn and killed 8, but the final two didn't run because of the new Places of Power rule.  He had a brainfart and moved away from one of his objectives with all but one hero and didn't realize my guys could teleport to within 6" of a wyldwood and not only on the wyldwood.  With the extra 6" I was able to get both dryads to his objective and snatch it on the final turn to win 3-1.

Overall, it was a tough day for the Sylvaneth.  The battalion didn't do well because of my rolling which I was disappointed to see.  But the Hive paired with summoned dryads proved to be super effective and saved the day.  Overall, I'm certainly going to be trying it out more in the future.

Some pictures:

 

My second game was against another friend using Ironjawz.  We were playing a mission where the objectives landed randomly on turn 2.  

I took the following:

Winterleaf
Spirit of Durthu general 
Treelord Ancient with Regrowth
Arch-Revenant with Frozen Kernal
Branchwraith with Throne of Vines
15 Spite Revenants
5 Spite Revenants
5 Tree Revenants
6 Kurnoth Hunters with Scythes
3 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords
3 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords
Spiteswarm Hive
Malevolent Maelstrom

First off to get this out of the way, this was my 2nd straight game with Winterleaf where I forgot the 6s are 2 hits until turn 3.  So that was fantastic.  Anyway, My bad dice rolling started the game with all three Hunter units running 1" extra and my Branchwraith failing to roll the 5 needed to cast Throne of Vines.  On turn 2 though 3 Kurnoth Hunters with Swords did manage to kill 3 of 6 Pigs and make 2 more run away from battleshock so that was nice.  

I was really worried at the bottom of turn 2 when Gordrakk popped his command ability to let his Ironfist battalion to charge on a 3d6 and get +2 attacks.  Gordrakk rolled the 11 necessary to charge the 3 Hunters that killed the pigs and wipe them out.   Then the 10 Brutes that had charged 17" went on my 6 Scythe Hunters and killed 4, but didn't manage to wipe them out so I got to go.  The Ardboys that had charged my summoned dryads and Durthu got attacked by Durthu and he killed 9 of them.  then his 5 Brutes that charge 15" (he rolled really well for charge distances that turn) wiped out my 15 strong Spite Revenants.  My Hunters held due to places of power and killed 3 back.  

On my turn 3 The other 3 Sword Hunters got +1 attack, reroll 1s to hit and the Frozen Kernal effect from the Arch Revenant and charged Gordrakk.  First attack did 9 wounds to him and they killed him with a further 12 wounds.  That was depressing for my buddy.  The rest of the game was basically those 2 surviving Scythe Hunters saving just about everything and eventually wearing out the Brutes and my army stomping across his.  

 

Overally, the hive really proved itself in both games.  I didn't mention it, but it allowed the sword hunters to head off the pigs that were trying to flank me.  I also feel that Wintersong is probably better than Gnarlroot, but I do want to do some more testing with Gnarlroot because I feel the artifact is very strong, especially when hive needs a 7 to cast. 

Lastly, I feel that you should always try to have at least 1 unit of tree revenants in the army.  They don't do much, but their ability to snatch objectives is so good and is something your opponent has to plan for.

Edited July 5, 2019 by Emissary