My First Tournament with Sylvaneth

[Forestreveries]

Rain of Stars

So Rain of Stars was a 1 Day, 3 Round Warhammer Age of Sigmar event run by Chris Tomlin down in sunny Weymouth on 6/9/16.

The event was the first one to my knowledge in the UK (probably the world?) to implement the Matched Play rules released in the General's Handbook. 

That said; Chris did make a few adjustments. 
The Handbook has only been available for a couple of weeks and Chris was reluctant to enforce the army restriction rules (Behemoth/Leader cap and min Battleline requirements) as he didn't want anybody having their army invalidated or having to rush to get new units together for the event. Also people may have been practising with their existing army builds and having those lists become potentially invalidated last minute would be unfair.

One other adjustment was the decision to retain a Sideboard which has been a popular system in AoS events in the UK and which Chris had used at his previous event: New Dawn. 
I am a fan of this system, whereby (in this case) a player submits an army list totalling 3000pts, and game by game chooses 2000pts from that total to put on the table for use in that battle. 

The full 3000pts did not have to be spent when submitting an army list, and I actually ended up submitting a list which totalled only 2100 points, leaving me only 100 points to play with game by game. 

I had been building a Wood Aelf/Wanderers army In the months leading up to the event, and had played only 3 games of varying point levels and 0% win record. Before that I'd been playing with my Orcs and Goblins army from 8th Edition rebased onto rounds for Chris' previous event. I had a slightly better win record with that army (I won a single game, finishing one place above the bottom at New Dawn!) 

One month before Rain of Stars however, Battletome Sylvaneth was released... and I was all in. 

Here is the list I submitted;

Alarielle the Everqueen 620 (General)
Drycha Hamadreth 280
Spirit of Durthu 400
Branchwych 100
6 Kurnoth Hunters (Greatbows) 360
20 Dryads 240 (Battleline) 
5 Tree Revenants 100 (Battleline)

2100 (1400 of which are Heroes)

That is 35 models, 1-5 of which I would be leaving aside in each game. 

As I said the event had no Army Building Restrictions, but for those that were wondering I did have the option of running 3 Battleline units with that list (2 x 10 Dryads and 5 Tree Revenants).
I only ever had 1-2 Battleline units in play in my games however, preferring the solidarity of 1x20 Dryads over the flexibility / potential to capture and hold more objectives with 2x10. 

The only decision I would have to make game by game with regards to my Sideboard was whether to include the Branchwych or the 5 Tree Revenants... which I would choose depending on the number of objectives markers in each Battleplan. 

Speaking of which; Chris had kept the Battleplans unrevealed until the start of each Tournament round. 
This I felt, was an interesting decision. 
I may have given more thought to my army build if I'd known which of the Battleplans I'd be playing before the event, but in all honesty, I doubt it would've made any difference to me as my army was chosen for other reasons than optimising!

Essentially, I had bought all the new Sylvaneth releases, and was keen to put them all on the table as the new models are stunning.
I already owned 5 Treelords, a Branchwych and a bunch of Dryads, but of those only one was even partially painted and that was the Spirit of Durthu. 

After seeing the Sylvaneth on preorder and deciding I'd be bringing them to this event (with so little time left to paint and an entire army to complete!) I'd started painting my Dryads for the army. Taking them into work to paint on lunchbreaks and getting up early to get an hour in in the mornings. 

So by the time the Battletome had released I had a Spirit of Durthu and 20 Dryads painted to a passable standard. 

The following two factors were essentially what shaped the rest of my list. 

1) I wanted all the new stuff, and

2) I needed to get it all painted super fast. 

I put together the rest of the list with that criteria in mind (ie let's paint as few models as possible).
I was actually off on holiday for one of the 4 weeks between the Sylvaneth release and the date of the event, so I booked a Friday and a Monday off work and spent 4 full days building and painting the entire rest of my force. Oh and 4 Sylvaneth Wyldwoods... and I managed to knock up 4 objectives the morning before too. 

You may've noticed I didn't go for any Battalions, this is because, honestly, I didn't read them carefully enough before committing to what I was painting. Otherwise I'd have considered the Free Spirits or Gnarlroot Wargrove Battalions for sure. 

So I guess after all that natter I'll get into my games!

Round 1.

First up, I had a grudge match vs Tom Hewitt. 
Tom is a friend of a friend; Gary Henessey, and I had met him a couple of months previously at a gaming night at Gary's. This would be his first tournament and we'd been in a whatsapp group chat together, sharing our struggles to get our armies painted in time for the event.
I have to say, Toms army was looking fantastic. 
If you ever seen his stuff you'd never guess he'd never put paint on a model before this project. He should be proud of himself for what he's put together there. 

The Battleplan for this round was Blood and Glory, and Tom had brought the following;

Archaon the Everchosen 
Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer
Ogroid Thaumaterge
Darkoath Chieftain
Tzeentch Chaos Warshrine
10 Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch
10 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch
3 Flamers of Tzeentch
3 Flamers of Tzeentch

I think that was everything!

So... Archaon. Yikes. 
I had read his warscroll beforehand and felt he was incredibly strong. 
In the Everchosen vs Everqueen 1 on 1, in my eyes Archaon wins that every time. 

I felt I would be spending the game trying to stay out of Archaon's threat range, keeping as much of my army alive as possible... and trying to pick off as much as I could of Tom's army to prevent him claiming objectives. 

That's... not exactly what went down. 

I had placed my "free" Sylvaneth Wyldwood in one of the deployment zones, in front of a Damned watchtower.

I was hoping to win the roll off and choose that side of the table, and I did exactly that. 
Other terrain pieces of note, were 3 large pieces of Mystical terrain covering a large swathe of the board diagonally across from my deployment zone to Tom's. 

The reason I had placed the Wyldwood where it was and chosen that side is because Kurnoth Hunters with the benefit of Damned terrain and Cover are ...insane. The Huntmaster then hits on 2's with his Greatbow whilst the rest of the unit hit on 3's. Also the entire unit then has a 3+ save and rerolls any fail during the combat phase. The drawback to Damned terrain is supposed to be that the unit suffers d3 Mortal Wounds, but this is not enough to kill 1 model and Alarielle can instantly return d3 wounds using her Soul Amphorae. Damned terrain is one of the only ways to increase the accuracy of Sylvaneth units, which for the most part require 4+ to hit across the board. 

This unit and terrain combo has been one of the most powerful aspects of my army and I made use of it in every game I could at this event, to great effect. 
Before this tournament I had been thinking that I would prefer Scythes to Greatbows on the Kurnoth as they often find themselves engaged super quickly. More on that later.  

So I deploy centrally with Alarielle and Durthu (always side by side to make the most of Durthu's Solemn Guardian ability).

My Kurnoth Hunters are in the wyldwood, claiming the benefit of cover, the Damned terrain behind them, and in scoring range for the objective on my right. 

Drycha deploys alone off to the left, outside 18" but within 30" of Alarielle (so she can benefit from the healing but won't inflict damage on my models with her Flitterfuries). 

Finally I elect to deploy the Tree Revenants and the 20 Dryads in the Hidden Enclaves, leaving the Branchwych on the bench for this game. 

Quick note on Alarielle and the Spirit of Durthu;
This pair have worked incredibly well together in all the games I've played them. 
I gave Durthu the Briarsheath Artefact in all my games. This inflicts a -1 to hit penalty on any model targeting him (whether it be with melee or ranged attacks) and a further -1 if the unit is in 3" at the start of the combat phase and I roll a 4+ to knock them off their feet with his Groundshaking stomp (available to all Teeelord variants). 
The stomp actually inflicts the -1 penalty on all units affected, whether they elect to attack Durthu or another model/unit (often Alarielle). The other thing that increases this pair's survivability is Alarielle's incredible ability to restore wounds. She herself will automatically restore d3 wounds to herself with her Lifebloom ability, then with the aforementioned Soul Amphorae heal *All Sylvaneth within 30"*!!! 
This ability is greatly valued in my list as I have so many tough, multiple wound models. Also the Spirit of Durthu taking half of Alarielles wounds for her spreads the incoming damage and increases the value of Soul Amphorae even further.  
On top of all that, so far in all my games Alarielle has chosen the Regrowth spell from the Deepwood Lore, which is normally used on herself or Durthu after they've taken a big hit to bring them back to full strength. 

Okay, I keep getting distracted here, so let's get into the game. 

I had a few less units than Tom so given the choice I elected to go first. 
Archaon was causing me headaches already as Tom had saved him for last and popped him down on the 12" line facing down Alarielle. I was not happy about this, and so I moved her backwards and attempted to cast mystic shield on herself. Unfortunately I failed.
One thing that irked me a little every game is that Alarielle is allowed to cast 3 spells every turn, but with my particular spell selection she can normally only cast Mystic Shield on turn one unless my opponent has gone first and been super aggressive. 

Elsewhere Drycha had attempted to cast Verdant Blessing and failed, and advanced cautiously to get Tom's Horrors in range to Flitterfury. Don't think she did any wounds with them though. 

So no magical support turn 1. That was painful. 
My Kurnoth Hunters had managed to reduce Tom's Warshrine to 2 wounds with their first volley of the game but Alarielle failed to hit the Chaos Sorceror with the Spear of Kurnoth,starting an epic streak of 1's to hit with that thing that literally lasted throughout the entire event.

So my first turn went by pretty uneventfully. 

Tom in his turn, cast Mystic Shield on Archaon and laid his tape measure down directly between Archaon and Alarielle, rolled his run and moved him as far forward as possible. His 2 units of Flamers advanced and took Drycha clean off with their shooting and a little help from the Pink Horrors' ?
Wasn't expecting that! That also meant it would be very difficult to get any more Sylvaneth wyldwoods on the table, and if Archaon killed Alarielle I would be locked out of the objective to my left in my own deployment zone!
My plan had been to drop another wyldwood on my left objective turn 1 and later bring out the Dryads to hold that position. Oh dear. 

I was in a way glad that Drycha had gone down to the shooting as Archaon could've charged her to gain another 6-7" or so on Alarielle's position, possibly more if he'd rolled high and moved past her. 

So Tom was in quite a strong position going into the next turn. 

We rolled initiative. 

Tom won...

Oh no! 

Well I guess we would be seeing who really would win between Archaon and Alarielle after all! I was hoping to avoid happening for that as long as possible. 

In case you forgot I had failed my mystic shield casting turn one and moved outside 6" of the Spirit of Durthu so Alarielle was going to be relatively squishy. 
One thing important to note at this point is that due to the huge footprint of The Evermodels Tom wouldn't be able to finish his charge more than 3" from Mystical Terrain (though he was outside 3" at the start of his turn so no need to roll just yet). 
The risk / reward for Mystical is greatly magnified for Archaon as the prospect of rerolling wounds with Slayer of Kings was terrifying to me, but the chance of such a large points investment being shut down with a single roll must've been equally daunting for Tom. 

Tom was a baller though, and (after Mystic Shielding up) threw the big man straight in! 

The Flamers also shot the Everqueen this turn and took 6 wounds off her! 

Oh man she was going to die. I just knew it. Well...Tom was gonna start his tournament career in style! He even asked "So if I kill her I have to shout 'Take It Off!' right?"

Unfortunately he didn't get the chance just yet, though I would've loved to have seen that!

After the dice had settled at the end of the combat round, the results of the epic duel  looked a little like this; 

- The Everchosen remained unscathed.
- The Everqueen had suffered only a single wound. 

What?!

I mean, I'll take that result...but ...what?!

Chris and I had been live tweeting about the legendary face-off - Id been taking pictures from Alarielle's PoV of Archaon approaching, and the caption in my last tweet (after Archaon had completed his charge) was 
"I don't think Alarielle will be featuring in the next photo..."

Unlucky Tom, you fluffed it.
That this was such an anticlimactic end to the turn. 

I'd been lucky I felt. And now I was in with a chance. 

In my turn Alarielle healed back to full health between Soul Amphorae, Lifebloom and Regrowth.
Mystic Shield went up, and I tried to take out the Flamers with Metamorphosis but failed to kill them all (what a great spell! I was putting this to good use all day, targeting small units and heroes to get extra wyldwoods and remove key models from opponents armies). 

My Spirit of Durthu moved over and finished off the Flamer unit with his Verdant Blast (excellent shooting attack, it's basically like 3-4 Kurnoth Hunters' Greatbows)!

Speaking of which, the Kurnoth turned their attention to the other unit of Flamers and their second volley of the game left 1 remaining with 1 wound.

As Alarielle had failed to kill the Flamers with Metamorphosis I hadn't got any way of getting another Wyldwood out this turn, so I pulled my Dryads out of my initial wyldwood. I would've liked to leave them hidden a little longer just for their own protection but they were going to have to foot slog it across the board either towards Tom's objective on my right, or my left hand objective, so the earlier the better at this stage. 

We get onto the Evercombat and we're both thinking; last turn was a silly anomaly where we both just fluffed our rolls or rolled well for armour. 
I roll all my attacks from Alarielle and her Wardroth Beetle and do no damage. Again. Oh. 

Archaon goes, and after all his and Dorghar's  attacks... he'd inflicted 1 wound. Oh. 

Was this how this was going to go on? Bouncing off each other until Tom managed to roll 2 6's for Slayer of Kings?

Well, let's see!

That was it for that turn, another disappointing ending. 
So we start turn 3 by rolling initiative again.  

And Tom won again.  

Uh oh! I was surely in for it this time!

Tom had held his Chaos Warriors and Horrors back to hold his own objective and the silver tower heroes and Sorcerer with them for support. 

This was a pivotal point in the game, as in an incredible strike of bad luck, Tom rolls a 1 for Archaons Mystical Terrain roll!
Ouch!
This meant no Mystic Shield. No attacking Alarielle... Nothing. He was a sitting duck. 

Wow this might not go so badly!

Tom's turn was fairly uneventful, his remaining Flamer taking a couple of wounds off of the Spirit of Durthu and retreating, with Archaon immobilised that was about all he could do!
I think the Wardroth Beetle actually landed a blow on the Big man this turn taking 5 health off him. 

In my turn I heal Alarielle and Durthu back to full and Mystic Shield Alarielle again. Durthu moved over ready to charge the Everfrozen and I feel this is my greatest chance to take Archaon down. 
Alarielle uses her once per game reroll wounds command trait, and I focus everything on bringing him down. Durthu shoots him for a couple of wounds, as do the Kurnoth Hunters, Alarielle uses Arcane Bolt and Metamophosis and after all that he's at 13 wounds I think. 

Durthu charges in but and between his 6 damage Guardian Sword and the Wardroth Beetle's 5 Damage horns, they sneak through enough to take the Lord of Chaos out. 

I threw my hands up in the air and scream "TAKE IT OFF!" Turning the heads of just about everyone in the hall aha!

Perhaps a little cruel to poor Tom but he was loving it so it all went down well.
I like to think he would've reacted the same if he'd won the Everduel!

With Archaon gone and Alarielle and Durthu still on the table Tom's army would struggle to hold on much longer. His Darkoath Chieftain and Chaos Sorcerer both made heroic charges in going for the glory of bringing the Everqueen down but it wasn't to be. 
The big monsters mopped up and my Tree Revenants emerged and captured an objective on my left whilst the Dryads moved up and took the on on my right from Tom securing me the Major Victory in Turn 5. 

Fantastic game with Tom that could've been so drastically different if Archaon had rolled anything but a 1 at that crucial moment. Failing the Mystical after winning initiative was crippling as it meant Archaon was guaranteed to do nothing for 2, potentially 3 player turns (if he survived). Felt awful for Tom losing Archaon to something so trivial but we both enjoyed the game as it was I think. Was awesome to have two of the biggest names in AOS (obviously I mean Alarielle and Archaon not Tom and I!) in an epic clash round one. 

Had been really looking forward to this game in the lead up to the event and it certainly didn't fall short of my expectations. 

Aaron TP - 10
Aaron KP - 1680
Tom TP - 0
Tom KP - 280

Round 2 I had drawn Les Martin of Facehanmer Podcast. I'd never played Les before but we had hung out a few times so WA looking forward to this game too.  
Les also had an army to be proud of, picking up a painting nomination at this event and presumably any other event he's taken them to. Very nice Stormcast army which I believe will be in White Dwarf (White Duardin?) soon!

I was looking forward to playing against les, but not against his army!

IIRC hit contained the following;

Sky borne Slayers Formation
5 Decimators 2xSSM
5 Protectors 1xSSM
5 Linerators 1 Grandhammer
Lord-Celestant
3 Prosecutors
20 (yes 20!) Judicators in 4x5 man units. 
Celestant Prime
Lord ...Relictor?

Les ran me through his army as I'm not that familiar with SCE and he had a slightly unusual list. Seemed very strong to me. That many Judicators scared me and his formation meant my Army's manoeuvrability was worth less. 

This wasn't going to be an easy game. 

We were playing Take & Hold which I think actually benefitted me more than Les as I could keep my army nice and tight around my objective and teleport over at any time to try and take his. 

With this in mind I placed a Sylvaneth Wyldwood consisting of 2 Citadel Woods  with their longest edges together and one of the objectives in the centre of it. My thinking was it would be harder for Les to deny me teleporting to a larger wood if he chose that side, also if I could get there and get some spells off there was a chance the large wood would be Roused By Magic and inflict mortal wounds on any units Les had left to protect his Objective. 

If I got that table side then it would be an excellent camping spot for my solid Dryad and Kurnoth units to camp out benefitting from cover and still threatening to teleport to anywhere else I could get a Wyldwood. 

Les won the roll off and chose the side I'd placed the wood. 
He deployed his Prime and Skyborne Slayers formation in the celestial realm and all his Judicators, Prosecutors and Relictor on the table. 

I deployed Drycha off to my left but in such a position she could summon a Wykdwood next to the rest of my force before moving off on her own. 
Alarielle was deployed centrally with Durthu to her side but slightly set back to allow Drycha's intended wood to fit between him and the terrain and also be working 3" of both of them. 
In hindsight I should've had Alarielle slightly back and Durthu in front knowing that Les' formation could come down and charge me turn one,having Durthu in front would have offered protection through his Groundshaking Stomp ability. 
I also said Les immediately after deployment that I think I should've deployed all of my units on the baseline to avoid the advance and shooting of Les' Judicators. 

If I had then either Les' first turn is essentially wasted, or he commits to dropping the formation and charging without weakening any of my units with shooting, or he lets me go first and I get off Mystic Shield and a Wyldwood to protect myself.  
My Kurnoth were to Alarielle's right, meaning les shouldn't be able to completely surround her, probably allowing 4, maybe 5 40mm bases to engage her from the front.

Finally, given that there are only two objectives in this game, and given that I Struggled to get out Wyldwoods after losing Drycha so early last game (and Tom didn't even have 20JUDICATORS) I elect to take the Branchwych over the Tree Revenants and I deploy her and the Dryads in the Hidden Enclaves, just to protect them from Judicator shooting until later in the game. I intended to drop them on my own objective inside a wood where they would be most survivable. 

 So due to his Battalion Les has fewer drops and chooses to go first. The Judicators and Prosecutors advance and focus fire on Alarielle, but I roll well for my saves and I'm not sure how much damage I took but it was fairly minimal. Maybe Durthu took a couple off her with his Solemn Guardian rule (or Durthu Save as I like to call it) as well. 

Les had also brought down the entire Skyborne Slayers Formation, 5" in front of my army... and again I found myself convinced I'd lost Alarielle on turn 1. I didn't see how she could survive this without the Mystic Shield. 

Les did everything right and lined up the Protectors opposite Alarielle (their Deathstrike ability potentially inflicting d6 wounds on monsters) and Decimators opposite the Kurnoth, but he positioned the star soul maces m on Alarielles side of the unit so the could add their mortal wounds to the Protectors' damage. 
The Lord Celestant was positioned between the 2 units and a little behind. 
The Liberators were off to the right hand side of the Kurnoth looking to flank them. 

Les oddly enough rolled a 6 and 4 for every charge (only needing 5's to get in), this meant he had a lot of flexibility when choosing exactly where he wanted which models and even managed to get a few of the liberators right around behind the Kurnoth.

Les (correctly) elected to fight with the Protectors first but didn't get off any Deathstrikes and rolled poorly in general. Alarielle then targeted the Decimators to reduce their effectiveness when they inevitably attacked next, but as Les can choose the order he takes off casualties I would still have to endure the Starsoul Maces. 
That I did... and the Celestant, and the Liberators! (Les rolled poorly, especially on his Starsoul Maces, and my saves were on top form!) I think between Durthu Saves and Armour saves Alarielle and Durthu both finished the turn with about 8 -9 damage on them. The Kurnoth Hunters shrugged off all damage, as they so often do! 
(Sidenote: I ALWAYS elect to put up a Tanglethorn Thicket as rerollable saves are awesome.)
They managed to kill one Liberator with their awful combat attacks and Stomps and that ended Les' turn. 

I was feeling pretty confident at this point as the next combat round was much more in my favour and les had failed to put enough damage on with the alpha strike.  
I could restore most of what damage he had achieved and he would be attacking with less models every turn. 

In my turn I only got to move one model; Drycha, who bounded up towards the Judicators and Relictor to try and inflict as much damage as possible with her Flitterfury Colony. She also summoned a Wyldwood in Les' half over to my left which the rest of my force would be able to jump through later to get at Les' army. 

After the healing from Soul Amphorae and Lifebloom Alarielle and Durthu were both at 5 wounds taken, and I elected to Regrowth Alarielle as she was more important to the list. I did consider Durthu as when he has taken fewer than 3 wounds his Sword inflicts 6 damage and getting him back up to that would make a huge difference to the reliability of the damage I could inflict. It was only 50/50 whether I got enough wounds back so I chose Alarielle as it felt like the safer bet. Annoyingly I rolled a 5 on the d6 heal which would've brought Durthu up to full. Hey ho, I'm not complaining! 

Durthu shot his Verdant Blast and charged in and the Kurnoth shot at the Protectors too, and by the end of this battle round The Decimators, Liberators, Protectors and Celestant were dead to a man. 
Alarielle obviously missed with the Spear of Kurnoth. She actually sniped out the Celestant with Metamorphosis but I had run out of Citadel Woods and also had no space to place it if I had one . This is the only game so far where I've found myself needing more than 4. 

I felt that this must've been pretty demoralising for Les as now all he had left were Judicators, Prosecutors and a Relictor. 
I had completely forgotten about the Celestant Prime up in the heavens.  

I believe I won the initiative on this turn and for the first time my army wasn't pinned in place by Paladins! I got over excited and super aggressive at this point and threw it all at the remainder of Les' force. Alarielle flew straight over to the nearest unit of Judicators and the Kurnoth Hunters advanced forward and inboard to claim cover. Durthu wouldn't have got there on foot and so elected to travel the Realmroots to the Wyldwood Drycha had planted last turn. Drycha sped straight towards Les' force, trying to get as many units in Flitterfury range as possible and trying to get as close as possible to the Relictor to charge and perhaps take him out. 

Also this turn I revealed my Branchwych and Dryads. They emerged from the Wyldwood in my deployment zone that Durthu had just vacated, hugging the back edge of the wood with the Branchwych furthest from the Judicators. 

They were all that was left to hold my objective so I wanted to keep them as safe as possible. 

I forgot earlier, but Les had also deployed a small unit of Liberators centrally that could have threatened my objective if I'd left it completely uncontested and the Prosecutors were probably fast enough to get there but I intended to direct all my shooting at those this turn and was fairly confident I could wipe them out. 

I did, and also shot one Judicator from each of the 2 units which were not part of 
The Skyborne Slayers formation (I believe those in the formation were immune to Battleshock) and Les was super unlucky and rolled a 6 for both battleshock tests meaning each unit lost an extra model. Nasty!

Drycha charged into a unit of Judicators as she didn't roll high enough to engage the Relictor without also engaging the Judicators, and I thought I'd rather fight them one at a time. This mayve been a mistake, I think maybe it was still worth trying to kill the Relictor a turn earlier and taking the Judicators attacks back, which aren't that scary to be honest. 
I believe Drycha wiped out the unit,in a round.
Durthu needed a 9 to get into the only full Judicator unit left due to restrictions of placing after travelling through the Realmroots. He failed that and so stood way out of the way ready to move up and threaten next turn. 

I pass over the turn to Les who appears to be thinking hard about what he can do. 

"I think I can win." He says. 

Oh ****** what have I done wrong?

Les basically planned to bring down his Prime as close as possible to my objective,  hit my Dryads and Branchwraith with a comet, then charge in and hopefully wipe them off my objective, claiming it for himself, then concentrate on getting his Judicators back to his objective and killing Drycha to secure both at once. 

At this point I am sweating it. I whip out my General's Handbook to double check the criteria for capturing the objectives in this Battleplan, desperate to find something that will mean I don't lose this game out of sheer stupidity.

I lucked out. In Take and Hold you need 5 friendly models and no enemy models to capture the objectives. PHEW! 

I asked Les if he wanted to change anything he'd already done but we talked through it and realised he only actually had 9 modes left including the Prime so it would be impossible for him to secure a Major Victory (as he needed 5 on each objective). This meant his plan had to change, he had to take that option away from me as well.
The best way to do this was to take out the softest models (Dryads and Branchwych) leaving me with Alarielle,Durthu, Drycha and 6 Kurnoth Hunters. That's 9 models, 6 of which can't be split between objectives. 

I think Les felt pretty confident that his Prime and central Liberator unit could take out the 20 Dryads and Branchwych, but I think he rolled 3 1's to wound needing 2's with the Hammer of Sigmar (which would've straight up killed 9 of them with no saves!). 

I think about 6-7 Dryads survived, doing little to no damage in return (not their sting point). 

This was going to be a struggle.  

I went next, and Alarielle and Durthu jumped back to my deployment zone to try and take out the Prime, Drycha stayed to fight the Relictor on Les' objective. 
All my magic went into the Liberators which 
I actually managed to kill the Celestant Prime with one volley from the 6 Kurnoth Hunters. I got 3 wounds past his saves doing d3 damage each, and rolled 6,6,3. 

I ask 'How many wounds does he have?' Expecting 10-12, maybe even more...
Turns out only 8! Wow, he'd gone down much easier than expected! 

Drycha also killed the Relictor, leaving only a couple of Judicators in Les' half, and with the absence of the Celestant Prime Duthu and Alarielle made short work of the Liberators, but not before they'd taken my Dryads down to 3 models! They Dryads had had Inspiring Presence on them since they'd arrived so wouldn't be at risk of losing anymore models to Battleshock. 

Les' last turn was Judicators shooting at the Dryads needing to kill 2 of them to prevent me getting a Major Victory and killing 1.  His Judicator Prime had missed his shot so didn't get the d6 wound rolls and I'd rolled 2/3 5+ saves for the wounds that went through. 

This meant my last turn I shot everything at the Judicators and using the Realmroots jumped Durthu, Alarielle and the 2 Dryads over to the contested objective in Les' Deployment Zone and the Kurnoth moves over to my own objective, just barely securing me the Major Victory if Les had inflicted 1 more wound he would've prevented it though! 

The game was so much closer than the results showed on paper.
Props to Les for keeping a cool head and his eye on the mission Though it didn't work out this time, he would've totally deserved the win if it had gone that way. I was stupid and got overexcited and lost sight of the win condition and almost threw the game away. 

Aaron TP - 10
Aaron KP - 2000
Les TP - 0
Les KP - 100

So 2 major victories and 3680/4000 kill points?! What was going on!? I'd only lost 2 models in kill points so far, Drycha in round one and a Branchwych in round 2. How had this happened?! 
I guess I stumbled into a list that was actually super resilient and kicked out a tonne of damage. It certainly felt very powerful!

These results had done me well enough to put me up on table 1 against Russ "the face" Veal. 
Seen Russ about at loads of events, had even been on a stag do with him earlier in the year ...he's an absolute legend.

Also a prolific wargamer, (I think somebody said that he hadn't actually lost a tournament game of AOS to date?!)
Russ had actually won Chris' last AoS event: BLACKOUT, where I'd only dodged the Wooden Spoon due to soft scores!
We'd never played before, normally we'd be at opposite ends of the hall aha!  So I was really excited to be in this position and I knew we'd have a great game. 
This was reinforced when Russ whipped out a couple of rather large skull-shot glasses and topped them up with neat kraken rum. Awesome way to start a game!

We went through our armies in a fair amount of detail as Russ hadn't played V's Sylvaneth before and I'd only had a couple of games against the Bloodbound, and not seen a lot of the models Russ had on the table. Russ had also scored max TP (Tournament Points) and Max KP (kill points)against his previous two opponents, so that was a little daunting!

His list had a lot of dudes in it. 
It was really character heavy as well as I think Khorne Bloodbound armies tend to be, and seeing that I had Drycha and knowing the Flitterfuries were a problem for that many support heroes (a few rounds of Flitterfuries could take out all of them if the dice were average or better, 5 wound support heroes do not enjoy them!).
Russ considered changing his list to drop a few of the characters for another unit of Wrathmongers (which would absolutely destroy my monsters if I engaged them) which I think I would've actually preferred, as they go down fairly quickly to shooting and shooting one unit is a lot easier than chasing round after heroes spread out and hiding all over, even if I do have Drycha to hunt them down.

Russ went with his original list, which after looking at the General's Handbook adding up points and struggling to remember what was there, I think looks something like this;

Aspiring Deathbringer (General) 
Exalted Deathbringer 
Slaughterpriest 
Skullgrinder 
2 Bloodsecrators
Bloodstoker 
5 Wrathmongers 
5 Wrathmongers 
5 Skullreapers 
10 Blood Warriors 
10 Blood Warriors 
6 Mighty Skullcrushers 
Valkia the Bloody 

I went with the Tree Revenants option when it came to picking my list as there were 4 objectives (the Battleplan was Border War) to capture and I felt I needed as many models as possible. 
Also I think the role that Tree Revenants play in a Sylvaneth army are as assassins, teleporting over the board and picking off small support pieces. They ucan't hold their own against any more than that.

So with armies chosen it was time for deployment. Neither of us had a battalion and Russ had way more units to deploy so he knew I'd have the choice of first or second turn. 

I'd placed my Wyldood (a single base this time) on one of the Deployment zone objectives. I was hoping to get one wood on each objective, given that this mission would be the one that required the most manoeuvrability, as it is scored turn by turn tallying up VP as you go. With so few models that had to cover so many objectives this mission was going to be a struggle against Russ' larger force, so that manoeuvrability would be the key.

I won the roll off and made Russ switch sides with me as there was a Damned wood in the deployment zone on the side of the table he was sat at, 
And we know how good they are for my army. It was set up in such a place that I could get my wood on the objective and deploy my hunters in the damned one, within 6" of the objective to contest and 3" of the Wyldwood to walk the Realmroots if I had to. 

I was super scared of Alarielle being pinned down and swamped with Wrathmongers and so deployed her behind Durthu and the Kurnoth Hunters, Drycha far off to the left. Basically exactly how I should've deployed vs Les. 

Russ had a lot of stuff and filled most of his deployment zone it felt like. His Juggernauts and Skullreapers were on my right facing down the Hunters, Bloodwarriors in the centre with Wrathmongers and characters behind, and same again on my left. Valkia was deployed way out to my right threatening the flank. Again my infantry was all inside the hidden enclaves (or Manglaives, as Russ started calling them after he misheard me aha!).
I took first turn and made it my mission to shoot the central Wrathmongers and so moved my Kurnoth forward but kept them within the borders of the wood for cover. They took their d3 wounds to get +1 to hit rolls and took the Wrathmongers down to a single wound. Alarielle rolled a 1 to hit, as she had every other time shed attempted to throw the Spear of Kurnoth at this tournament. I think somebody may've coated the handgrip with superglue or something. 
Drycha had moved up to catch one of the blood warrior units with her Flitterfuries and cast a Wyldwood on my left hand objective, only just clipping 18" from the blood warriors as I didn't want them charging her. 
Alarielle for the first time ever chose to put Mystic Shield on Drycha instead of herself, as Drycha was the one model I felt I was most at risk of losing.
The I did something really stupid, and teleported Alarielle and Durthu over behind the new wood. 

Why?!
Why would you do that?!

It meant they were closer to Russ and I did at least have the sense to put Durthu in such a position that if either Drycha or Alarielle were charged the charging unit would be at risk of suffering from his Groundshaking Stomp. 
The other reason this was a bad play was because I'd just removed most of the Wrathmongers in the centre, then moved my most vulnerable modes straight towards the other unit. Derp!

Russ went second and advanced everything to around 8" to 10" away from my force, completely surrounding me and pinning me in my half. I thought it odd at the time and meant to ask why after the game(but forgot), but Russ elected not to declare any charges in turn 1, despite being well within range. 
I think it may be because he had to move up his support characters and didn't have range to plant his totems without moving the bearers forward for a turn, though I don't know stormcast that well, perhaps Russ just didn't want to break up his force, preferring to make it s sure thing committing all at once. 

Honestly it didn't matter too much, as Russ won initiative turn 2  and charged it all in then instead. 

Was quite an important initiative roll as if I'd won I would've had a have to kill the rest of the Wrathmongers without engaging them and been able to fight whatever combats I wanted, also I think with my magic and Drycha's Flitterfuries I could've picked off a few support heroes before the bloodbound hit me reducing their effectiveness. 
Valkia had moved along a table edge in round 1, hiding behind a mystical a Temple of Skukls and rolled a 1 this turn so remained stationary. 

Russ put the unit of Wrathmongers into Drycha and Durthu and the single one into Alarielle, essentially meaning that if I killed even one of them from each unit, my biggest hardest hitting model would probably be killing themselves! 

The Mighty Skullcrushers and Cod also charged, choosing the Kurnoth Hunters as their target. 
Russ' army had essentially no ranged threat, the only thing I can remember is the Slaughterpriest on my far left doing d6 mortal wounds to Drycha.  

On to combat; the Wrathmongers all did their best to beat down my big character-monsters, but the damage wasn't enough to make me worry at this stage. I think this turn would've been a lot more scary if I didn't know I was guaranteed next turn to recover and heal my stuff back up to fight ing strength. 
The Juggernauts and Skullreapers may as well have charged a brick wall! 
As they had in all my games with the Sylvaneth so far, the Kurnoth Hunters absolutely tanked all the damaged thrown at them. 
I told Russ it was the 4th Rule of One in the General's Handbook;
"Kurnoth Hunters only ever take 1 wound in a round of combat, no matter what you throw at them!"
Turns out Juggernauts (and I guess Bloodbound in general) are pretty awful at fighting Hunters, as none of their attacks do any rend and despite having to make a bucket load, the Hunters are quite comfortable making 3+ rerollable saves. It's super unlikely that they'll fail 5 and actually lose a model, and before they get hit again Alarielle's Soul Amohorae has likely healed the damage that did sneak through. 
Alarielle, Durthu and Drycha all elected not to attack in the combat phase. 
I asked Russ if it was legit to do that and he said it was fine, though I know some people have said to me it's not allowed to do that
Basically at the end of Russ' turn not much, if anything had died. Between Kurnoth 3+ rerolling, Durthu at -2 to hit Drycha's 2+ also benefitting from Durthu's -1 to hit aura (tho not his Briarsheath) my "army" (it's 9 models...) is super resilient, and... Well... It just does that!

I had a cunning(ish) plan. I wanted to teleport my monsters out of combat, shoot and magic all the Wrathmongers dead, then charge back into the rest of the army. 

After a lot of measuring and testing a citadel wood template, I found a spot where Drycha could cast Verdant Blessing and then jump over behind russ' main lines, away from my army and in amongst all the support heroes. This is the best use I've got out of the Navigate Realmroots ability to date. This this entire turn really) was a great example of how Sylvaneth can use manoeuvrability to overcome the raw power of other armies. 

Drycha's Flitterfuries chipped a wound or two off of most of Russ' units, having got all his characters in range at once. If she could survive a couple of rounds she would likely kill all these characters, especially if she rolled "Enraged" on her Mercurial Aspect chart. 
Also the Flitterfuries killed the single Wrathmonger left from the unit the Hunters had shot in my first turn. 

Speaking of which, the Hunters turned their bows against the other unit of Wrathmongers, but couldn't see past the Wardroth Beetle's massive bulk, and so they shot at the Mighty Skullcrushers surrounding them and killed a couple. 

I can't remember exactly what killed those Wrathmongers, it must've been Durthu's Verdant Blast. 
I will normally always channel his life force to get the extra 2 shots, however be careful as he will sometimes roll that 3 on the d3 and take his own Guardian Sword from damage 6 down to damage d6, which is a huge difference! It makes him must less consistent so if you are intending to charge with him into something tough or that he absolutely must kill, refrain from using that ability. 
Unfortunately the shooting phase comes after the hero phase and so Alarielle cannot return these wounds with Soul Amphorae or Regrowth until next turn.

I must have targeted the Warathmongers with Metamorphosis as well as I'm not convinced Verdant Blast would've taken the whole unit out alone. I don't remember having to worry about the Wrathmongers after this turn though...

Obviously, as always, first thing in every turn, Alarielle essentially removed any damage I had been dealt in the previous turn, and cast Mystic Shield on herself.
Alarielle and Durthu had both teleported from my left Wyldwood to my Deployment zone Wyldwood, only moving about 6-8"  
but important as it meant I could essentially Retreat from combat but still charge. Note that as I read it, Sylvaneth units cannot travel from one half of a Wyldwood to the other half of the same Wyldwood. You must move between two seperate Wyldwoods.  

Russ still had a lot of stuff and had secured the two neutral objectives, I had gotten Drycha within 6" of the left one round one and scored that and my own one, but Russ had taken the left one away due to outnumbering me. 

So with the Wrathmongers no longer a threat, I could actually have some of my super awesome monsters smash stuff up!

Durthu charged into the Skullreapers which were engaged with the Kurnoth Hunters, I needed to clear them off or I would be at risk of Russ grinding off a couple of my models and claiming my 'home' objective (worth only a single point to me, but 4 to Russ, which I think is a great bit of scenario design. The extra incentive to go after your opponent's makes for an interesting game).

I also charged Alarielle headlong into a full unit of Blood Warriors. I hadn't seen what these guys did before and didn't stop to ask Russ, which turned out to be a HUGE mistake. 
I was excited at the prospect of the Wardroth Beetle causing a lot of mortal wounds as I could charge into 2 bits of terrain and getting +1 to hit because the target was 5+ models, but i actually had her charge away from the other terrain piece because that's where the rest of Russ' army was stood and I didn't want to be swamped next turn. 

I elected to fight with Alarielle first, as I get Durthu and the hunters could take a hit better than she could, which would mean they lost less (if any) power when their turn came to swing. 

I rolled pretty well and killed all but one of the Blood Warriors... And then I got to see what they do. 
Each one gets to attack when it is killed. 
I guess now knowing that I feel like I definitely made the right choice attacking with her first, as if I hadn't I would've had to weather their attacks twice!
Basically the unit took her down to 4 wounds... In my turn. When I was the one attacking. Ouch! I had actually managed a wound with my Talon of the Dwindling on the last guy as well so we both knew he was basically dead at the end of the turn. 

We moved on, as expected, Russ' Skullreapers and Juggernauts doing little damage to Durthu and the Hunters. 
Durthu smashed up the Skullreapers in return and keeping the Objective securely 
In Sylvaneth hands. 

Alright. That turn hadn't  gone so bad...
I mean Alarielle was low on health but she wasn't being threatened by much and I might get initiative and heal her up anyway.

"Hold on, I've still got this Blood Warrior to fight with says Russ. The last dude Russ had left when taking casualties earlier was one with a Goreglaive which does rend -1 ... and as Russ still had most of his support models so he had about 8 attacks with it
I had to make about five 3+ saves, and failed two "is it just one damage each?"
"Nah it's 2 damage."

Oooooohhhh ******!

Did a single Blood Warrior just take Alarielle off?!
What the hell man!?

I made a huge mistake charging her into that unit, especially at full strength. I could easily have backed her up somewhere safe, or at least bloody asked Russ what the Blood Warriors were capable of!

Dear oh dear. Alarielle had died for the first time at the event. 
The impact of her dying is huge for my list. The Kurnoth hunters could no longer afford to be reaping the benefits of their damned terrain, Durthu and Drycha now had no way to restore their health. Any damage I took now would quickly add up, and I'd just lost a third of my army points in a oner... To a ****** Blood Warrior of all things!

Ah well ...at least he died from the Talon damage. He totally deserved it!
I think Russ said he's going to always use that guy as the Chaos Champion for the unit from now on. Will be an awesome story to tell!

I'm pretty sure Russ gave me a big "TAKE 'ER OFF!" as well, and if he didn't; he should have!

Russ was a fair way ahead on scenario by this point, but hadn't managed to shift the hunters where's I had cleared off his objective. Now that Alarielle was gone I felt i urgently needed to get back in the scenario game. 

Russ' army was greatly depleted but still outnumbered mine. 
Time to bring in the reinforcements!

I had actually tried to get the Dryads on the table last round but there was nowhere  that I could fit the full 20man unit that was also within 3" of a Wyldwood and outside 9" of Russ' models. 
This turn however I had cleared enough stuff for that to happen. 
The order of things is a little hazy from here (honestly I may have gotten things in slightly the wrong order through this entire thread) but I will try to cover everything that went down. 

We counted up the scenario points scored so far and worked out that I had to essentially score all the points from now on to win, or perhaps if I denied Russ enough and scored on three of them then I could edge it.
It was fairly obvious that I couldn't get to the right hand objective, even though Russ had only Valkia over there to contend with. In order to run models over there if have to spend a turn not claiming one of the other objectives, as I didn't have enough stuff.

This turn Russ had run Valkia towards my Kurnoth which were now actually starting to dwindle without the Soul Amohorae to keep them going. 
My Dryads emerged from the Wyldwood in my deployment zone and intended to head across to the left, whilst Durthu jumped over there to kill the Blood Warriors holding that area. 

I also brought down my Tree Revenants into the Wyldwood in Russ' Deployment Zone, ready to go character hunting as long as they stayed within 6" of the objective. I think it was an Aspiring Deathbringer they charged and actually managed to kill tho they suffered 4 casualties from the 5 man h it in return. 
Drycha by this point had used Flutterfuries enough times that the 5 wound characters were starting to die off by now, and Russ had made it his prime objective to take her out before any more died. 
For this he had the Blood Warriors move away from Durthu (who must've failed his 9" charge but managed to kill a few with Verdant Blast) Who was stood on the left hand objective by himself, daring anyone to attempt to contest it. 
Drycha was finally caught and dragged kicking and screaming to her knees by the Khorne Warriors, and eventually killed.
She had done a fantastic job though, eliminating many of Russ' characters and chipping away at units. All those models which at this stage could've quite easily prevented me capturing objectives with their mere presence. 
Again with the Blood Warriors though, those guys were laying low the tyrants!

My Kurnoth Hunters were at about half strength but had actually been grinding down the Juggernauts too, with their ability to dish out a Mortal Wound on a 4+ at the end of a combat round, and having had +1 to hit for this entire lengthy combat, they aren't as bad as their melee attacks profile would suggest, plus they do get to shoot on top of that. 
Valkia charged in but fluffed her initial attacks, Russ was disappointed at that because she does extra damage on the charge and that was his beast chance to gain the upper hand and claim my objectives putting himself out of my reach. This meant that Russ still hadn't managed to gain a numbers advantage and the
objective still belonged to me. 

So as the final turn came around, I had gained on Russ, but I could only win a Major Victory if I got all 4 objectives. 
I won initiative and consolidated the objectives I had. There was no way I could win a major victory unless I scored all 4 and prevented Russ getting any objectives. Which was not going to happen. 

I won initiative and decided to go first to try and reduce Russ' effectiveness at being able to shift any of my models off of objectives. 
I could only hope for a minor victory at this point and that depended on my 2 remaining Kurnoth Hunters holding on for one last round against 2 remaining Juggernauts and Valkia.
My Tree Revenants had been cut down by a Khorne hero so I had Durthu holding my left objective and the Dryads had teleported onto the far one, this would mean that if Russ only held the objective on the far right that he'd held all game, and didn't succeed in tearing the hunters down, I would tie with him on Victory Points, and I was pretty sure had killed more of his army so would be able to slink away a minor victory.

Everything came down to the combat phase, and the struggle going at my home objective. 
I had shot at Valkia on the way in last turn and she had taken a couple of wounds, but this turn I shot a juggernaut which had a worse save and sas also wounded, killing him luckily! This meant it was 2 models bs 2 models, if a Hunter died without me killing another model then Russ was guaranteed victory. 
It was incredibly tense! 
We had a small crowd around the table watching the game by this point, it was so stressful (but in a good way, I was so excited!). 
I'd never been close to this position in a Warhammer event before, Age of Sigmar or otherwise, and the podium was close!

...and yet so far!

Valkia had put one of the Hunters into the dirt! 

Ah man! I attacked her back but left her alive

A single wound. 

That was all I'd needed!

I was shaking in anticipation as the Juggernaut attacked, but I managed to pass all the saves.
This was it then. The game had come down to a single dice roll. 
On a 4,5 or 6, My last remaining Kurnoth Hunter would Trample Valkia Underfoot.
However, on a 1, 2 or 3, she would dodge the Mortal Wound and the Mighty Skullcrusher  of Khorne would achieve its mission and bring victory to Russ. 

I pick up a die. 

I scream 
"DIEEEEESEEEEELLLL!" As load as I can, and cast the die high up into the air. 

Luckily, (or id have looked like a right bellend!) it lands on the table. 

Showing a beautiful number 5.

BOOOOOOOSH!

I jump in the air and throw my arms up with glee. 

I ****** did it!

I had been blessed by the mighty dogger that day. 

...And it felt so good!

Aaron TP - 8
Aaron KP - 1420
Russ TP - 2
Russ KP - 1000

I got up and gave Russ a hug after that game it was so exhilarating. I had had it in my mind that anybody else would struggle to take my best sports vote away from Tom but Russ managed it.  
He did give me a couple of facehammer dice and a couple of shots of rum, (if you do that next time we play Tom you'll Defo get my vote X)!
Chris had said after we'd seen the draw not to let Russ' past achievements get into my head and put me in a place where I felt the game was already lost before I'd started, which I think is definitely a thing in wargaming tournaments. 
With that in mind I had been giving Russ loads of ****** during the game, like the 4th Rule of One, and his ("un")Predictable Chaos which just never went off, until it did, and then it kept going off!
Just made for an awesome gaming experience in every way. 

So you can check out Chris' Rain of Stars thread for a full rundown of awards and placings, but the main reason I have taken the time to write about my experience is for the benefit of Sylvaneth players or just people who wanted to hear more about the way they play. 

I finished 2nd Place overall, and also won Best Order, scoring the second highest Kill Points at the event. 

I was not expecting to do anywhere near that well and was super pleased to have achieved that with the Sylvaneth. 

I don't think my list was optimal and it was only during the games at this event that I was really starting to understand its strengths and weaknesses, as I said in the introduction the list was thrown together because I wanted to have a fully painted force using all the new models. 

The one thing that really impressed me was the incredible resilience of the list.

When it came to kill points I only gave up the equivalent of 9 models across the entire 3 games, 7 of which Russ got. 
Tom killed Drycha for 280
Les Killed a Branchwych for 100
Russ Killed Alarielle, Drycha and the Revenants for exactly 1000

This was even more intriguing to me as I felt that most people read the General's Handbook Battleplans and their first thought was that "more models" would serve better. I don't disagree to be honest, but then due to the constraints of my list I had to play it completely differently. 
I've been over the resilience of the Alarielle  / Durthu combo and Kurnoth Hunters, but the infantry felt even safer than them a lot of the time. 
It's hard to kill models that aren't on the table after all!
I tried to leave my Battleline units off the table until I really needed them as I had so few I couldn't afford to throw them away for no gain. 
I never intended to fight anything with any of them, they were just bodies to sit on objectives for me, and the Hidden Enclaves and Realmroots were perfect tools for allowing me to do that. 

I think the super resilient playstyle of this particular list build has a lot to do with the inclusion of Alarielle. Her healing abilities combined with the high wound count and good armour values of my models are what kept my models on the table. 

Another key aspect I think is that all the models I had on the table (excluding the Battleline units as I have already said they only served one purpose) were able to fulfil many roles. Durthu as a fantastic damage output, whether in melee or at range, and awesome survivability, Alarielle had that plus the flexibility in improving those aspects further with her magic, the Kurnoth Hunters are super resilient, and can deal solid damage at great range, or just use their shooting to deplete units they are engaged with. In all my games with them they have managed to shrug off multiple specialist combat units and outlive them. They are ridiculous. 

I have posted elsewhere that I was feeling down on the bows. Every time I had used them before this event id got bogged down in combat with stuff I couldn't kill for 3-4 turns every game. What I didn't realise is that that has an incredible value in matched play. The hunters don't care if they're engaged or not! They still shoot whatever they want. You can still prioritise targets and you are simultaneously pinning an enemy unit foolish enough to think it could wipe you out. This allows your fragile but mobile units to get where they need to be (perhaps where your enemy's fragile / mobile units were before your Kurnoth Hunters shot them to death!) 

Another strength is the variety in attacks and the mo unity to deliver those where you need them. 
Drycha, Alarielle, Durthu and the Hunters all have great ranged attacks but they are all different ranges and damage so picking your targets is important. 
The one weak link in the list I think is Drycha. That said, she was brilliant in my 2nd and 3rd games. She has less wounds than Durthu and no Groundshaking Stomp, so it feels less optimal to put Shield on her, also unless she has rolled Enraged she isn't all that impressive in combat. She is the least forgiving model in the list, she tends to die every game as it is so tempting to throw her into your opponents army and have her explode over everything. I tried my best to get a lot from her Flitterfuries whilst keeping her relatively safe, and feel like she was put to great use in my second and last games tbh. She is much more of a finesse piece than anything else in the army. 
That said I don't think I would like to play without her! The Flitterfuries are so handy, even if they are a little unreliable. 
Again in my particular list I'm not too fussed if I do hit my own units as I can always heal the wounds next turn and I'd have to roll 5 6's out of 10 to kill the weakest model in my army without getting the chance to heal between. 

On the subject of mortal wounds... That is one of this army's biggest weaknesses. 
There are no ways to protect against them other than to heal them afterwards. Alarielle and Drycha can pass 50% of them  on to Durthu if he is nearby (which was the one synergy that I was super excited about putting into my list beforehand to make sure Alarielle was as safe as possible. 

To beat this list you have to kill Alarielle early I think, and mass mortal wounds is certainly the best way to do that. She is capable of healing an average of 7-8 wounds per turn on herself easily, so you have to be doing more than that or she won't care. Also, I know it's hard to plan for, but she hates when the opponent gets the double turn. The healing is all in her hero phases so if you are in a position to push for it then she does not often stand up to 2 turns of damage.

I hope the tangents I went off on about rules and model combos/synergies were interesting to read even if not presented in the best format. 

I realise that this has probably been a long read and must look super messy as a huge wall of text but if you stuck through it this long leave me your thoughts below, I'd love to get some discussion going!

 

one last thing I'd like to say is that I had a fantastic time at the event, congratulations and thanks to Chris and everybody else involved.

i know I haven't covered the event outside of my games, but that has been done elsewhere.

Thanks / well done for reading!

Aaron

[scrubyandwells]

3 hours ago, Forestreveries said:

Rain of Stars [report...]

Aaron

Wow! Thanks so much for the epic write up! I've gone through it once. What a fantastic read. Really exciting, especially that last game vs Russ. I'm hoping to go through it again on Sunday and start following up by then or by early next week, but just wanted to send you a quick note for now and express gratitude for such a detailed account. Bravo! 

[Forestreveries]

4 minutes ago, scrubyandwells said:

Wow! Thanks so much for the epic write up! I've gone through it once. What a fantastic read. Really exciting, especially that last game vs Russ. I'm hoping to go through it again on Sunday and start following up by then or by early next week, but just wanted to send you a quick note for now and express gratitude for such a detailed account. Bravo! 

Oh good. Somebody made it through! 

I'm glad you found it interesting / useful. I couldn't even bring myself to proof read the second half do please let me know if there's anything that doesn't make sense or needs editing. 

 

Aaron

[LordDrakonus]

Amazing! Great write up! Also congrats on the wins vs the 1/2 of the Facehammer lads!

[MidasKiss]

Great read! And well done, after hearing about the battles you definitely had your work cut out for you. I would have gladly read a lot more as I'm still curious about a lot of things! And after powerlistening through the FaceHammer catalogue over the last month it was so entertaining hearing about your battles with them. I can only hope the talk about the games in their next podcast! I can't believe the rules on some of those units in the last game, what a PITA they are haha. But this has definitely gotten me in the mood to build some greatbow Kurnoth Hunters! So many things that need to be killed from a distance.

I should have written questions down as I read through, as I read it in two sittings. But have you had a chance to read through the formation / battalion rules yet? I'm curious if you think any of them would have made much of a difference?
 

[Forestreveries]

17 minutes ago, MidasKiss said:

Great read! And well done, after hearing about the battles you definitely had your work cut out for you. I would have gladly read a lot more as I'm still curious about a lot of things! And after powerlistening through the FaceHammer catalogue over the last month it was so entertaining hearing about your battles with them. I can only hope the talk about the games in their next podcast! I can't believe the rules on some of those units in the last game, what a PITA they are haha. But this has definitely gotten me in the mood to build some greatbow Kurnoth Hunters! So many things that need to be killed from a distance.

I should have written questions down as I read through, as I read it in two sittings. But have you had a chance to read through the formation / battalion rules yet? I'm curious if you think any of them would have made much of a difference?
 

Yeah stick your questions together and get them posted, it's helpful for everyone involved to see them and think about answers. 

 

I I think I will be mainly using Wargrove battalions from this point on.

Im not sure how much this particular list would benefit though tbh, as it is already so small, finding points for them is difficult.

Dropping Drycha for another unit of Kurnoth Hunters and the Free Spirits Battalion would've been good I think, going for a much more aggressive and raw power list, with probably 2x scythes and 1x bows units. 

 

The only other battalion I can see I'm close to is Household,but that would require dropping Durthu and that's not something I would be keen on doing. 

The list is already so few models and tbh, doesn't mind all that much if it goes second (as shown by game 2), 

would only be able to put the extra artefact on the Leader models from those battalions as I already have special characters and the initial artefact on Durthu. 

 

Going forward im really excited to try out the Guardians of Alarielle, Free Spirits and Gnarlroot Wargrove battalions. 

I have the Judicators and liberators on order tho still need to get myself a Lord-castellant.

Have some sweet lists written for all 3 which I'm sure I will post about as I play games with them. 

 

Aaron

[Yosinuke]

awesome write up, I loved to read through it especially because I wanted to start with Sylvaneth as well!

[Ratatatata]

Great write-up, thanks for sharing! very interesting.

[Forestreveries]

Thanks for all the positive feedback guys! 

 

Aaron

[Carnelian]

To echo others, great write up!

[Chris Tomlin]

Great write up bro!

We'll have to get a rematch in soon I think. You've come on a long way since the first practise games with the army!!

[Forestreveries]

17 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Great write up bro!

We'll have to get a rematch in soon I think. You've come on a long way since the first practise games with the army!!

You got it! Gonna try and get back into playing a game once a week and have so many things I want to try with the Sylvaneth!

 

[Chris Tomlin]

1 hour ago, Forestreveries said:

You got it! Gonna try and get back into playing a game once a week and have so many things I want to try with the Sylvaneth!

 

Yeh I have been playing no where near as much as I'd like at present, with painting taking up all my hobby time. Once I've got 2k done I will be down at @Paul Buckler's place every Thursday again.

[NaftaliDK]

Really really enjoyed this read, gave a lot of insight both into Sylvaneth, but also strategies and so on. 

For a totally new player, that's very appreciated

[Forestreveries]

3 hours ago, NaftaliDK said:

Really really enjoyed this read, gave a lot of insight both into Sylvaneth, but also strategies and so on. 

For a totally new player, that's very appreciated

Thanks man, that's great feedback to receive!

 

Aaron