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2k Competitive Sylvaneth Batrep (pic heavy)


Mirage8112

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Hi everyone!

We've had a good amount of discussion in the "Let's chat Sylvaneth" thread regarding list building strategies and tactical theory crafting. I've contributed a fair amount to the discussion, but up until now, I really haven't had much in the way of actual table experience with the army. So, today, I played a 2k game vs a friend of mine so we could test out the allegiances, tournament scenarios and generally get a feel for playing the army on the tabletop. 

First the lists, battle plans and set up:

Myself:

The Household of Black-Thorned Rose: 2020pts

Battleline:

Drayds x 20

Tree Revenants x 5 (proxied with red dryads) 

Tree Revenants x 5 (proxied with red dryads)

Leaders:

Treelord Ancient (general):

Command trait: Gift of Ghyran,

Item: Silverwood Circlet.

Spell: The Reaping
 

Branchwytch:

Item: Ranu's Lamentiri

Spell: Throne of Vines

 

Branchwraith:
Item: Acorn of the Ages

Spell: Regrowth

 

Army:
Kurnoth Hunters (Bows) x 3

Kurnoth Hunters (Scythes) x 6 (proxied with treekin)

Sisters of the Thorn x 10

 

Battalions:

Household Battalion

Gnarlroot Wargrove
 

 

My opponent:

Forces of Order: 1980pts

Battleline:

Waywatchers x 6

Waywatchers x 6

Illyrian Reavers x 9 (one went missing)

 

Leaders:

Falten (General)

Command Trait: Legendary Fighter

Item: Unknown (didn't really come into play)

Alith Anar

Waywatcher Lord

Spellweaver on Steed

 

Army:

Warhawk Rider x 1

Empire Knights x 10

Shadow warriors  x 10

Freeguild outriders x 10

Shades x 5

 
Since I was slightly over on points and he was slightly under, he rolled on the Triumph table and took "Indomitable". 

 

The Battleplan we chose was "Border War."  with 4 objectives (the white dice in picture below (one is hidden behind the occulum). We rolled for train, and set everything up. 9 pieces of terrain, and I dropped my free wildwood in a curve on the right before choosing sides. Snaking between three objectives. He won the roll off to choose sides, but as neither of us knew what sides we wanted, they were quite even. 

Since my plan was to have the Ancient, dryads and both units of hunters to arrive via the spirit paths. I deployed the sisters of the thorn centrally, and tree revenants (the red dryads which were proxied) spaced out 15" between them to make sure he couldn't drop the shades in my back lines. Then, I put the branchwraith in the far back right corner, in cover, out of line of sight. Everything else was deployed into reserves. 

He deployed evenly, with the waywatchers on the flanks. The outriders and reavers were deployed centrally to form a shooty center, with Valten and the spell weaver for support. Knights took up the right between the reavers and watchers, and shadow warriors between the outriders and waywatchers on the left. Before the first turn started, he made his free move with the shadow warriors into the forest to get early control of the objective. He also deployed the Shadow warrior centrally in a conga line in the wildwood. 

Here is the set-up before first turn, as he's moving the shadow warriors in position. 

IMG_1040.jpg

First turn

Since I finished deploying first, I took first activation. My original plan was to move the Treeman into the woods I had dropped at deployment, But the Shades pretty much shut that down, since I had to be completely in the wood and at least 9" from any enemy models. Since the shades were in range, I thought I would take my chances with an arcane bolt. Bolt went off, and activated the wildwood, wiping out the shades and two of the Shadow Warriors. 

Now that I was able to get something into the woods if I wanted, I opted to use the acorn on the Branchwraith to put down a second wildwood. This prevented anything in his army from rushing at the objective before I bring too much pressure to bear. Rather than deploy the Treeman et all in the first woods as originally planned, I felt like my right flank needed the defense, so I put the treeman on the forest, surrounded by the unit of dryads and Kurnoth hunters with bows behind him. I could easily sit on the objective, pummel everything with spells and arrows, basically force him either to come and get me or give up on that half of the board. The objective is directly under the Globe, and the yellow dice mark 9" from his units.  

 

IMG_1041.jpg

 

Since I thought my right flank could easily stand up to a frontal assault, between healing from the Ancient, cover from the woods, and hunters for punishing range. I opted to put my 6 hunter with scythes, supported with the Branchwytch in the newly clear forest. 

 

IMG_1042.jpg

Shooting saw the hunters and ancient pick off a two knights with another fleeing from battleshock. Nothing really spectacular. The entire plan this turn was just to force his movement.

Opponents Activation. Hero phase was relatively uneventful since his wizard was well out of range. He moved up his outriders to position for shooting against the hunters. His shooting saw 4 dryads off the table, and 1 of the hunters. In his charge phase, he opted to charge in with the knights and Valten hoping to force the dryads out of the forest and possibly contest the objective. The dryads took 2 wounds, (saving 4). Valet had to fight his way through the dryads to get to the Ancient, but failed all his hits thanks to -1 from the forest and -1 from the Ancient's stomp. 

End of combat round 1:
IMG_1045.jpg

IMG_1046.jpg

 

At this point, we each controlled 2 objectives. And had 3 points each.  

I won the roll for priority. My hero phase saw me cast Shield of Thorns on the group of 6 Hunters (rerolling saves with 6's causing a mortal wound in return), Verdurous Harmony on the Dryads giving me back 3. Everything else was either dispelled or failed. For movement, I opted to teleport both sets of hunters into the forest on my left, thinking about moving up to contest the objective (white dice #4). The Hunters moved up to combo-charge the shadow warriors and outriders. Seeing the shadow warriors units wiped out (after battleshock), and the outriders reduced to about half strength.

 

IMG_1048.jpg 

 

The combat on the right saw the dryads tear through the knights, and the ancient impaling Valten after being wounded once (3 damage though. Ouch). Although the lone knight fought on.

IMG_1047.jpg

 

Opponents activation. Hero phase saw an arcane bolt finishing off another hunter. Alith Anar, the Waywatcher Lord and Warhawk rider moved up to control the objective. At this point, the right flank was lost to him, and he opted to move the waywatchers for the Realmgate. His Reavers disengaged as well, surprisingly moving down to score on my objective this turn. Shooting saw a couple of revenants from on of the units off the board (2). And the reavers pulled 2 sisters off the board with a mediocre round of shooting. 

Combat saw the Warhawk rider and Alith Anar charge the wounded Revenant squad, pulling another two models off, but failing to take the third (I forgot to attack back with him, but it likely wouldn't have mattered). The hunters tore through the last of the outriders, and prepared to take the objective next turn. IMG_1050.jpg

End of turn 2:

Me: 5 (+2 for controlling one midfield objective)

My opponent: 8 (+4 points for controlling my objective, +1 for controlling his.)  
 

Turn 3


My opponent won the roll off, and gained the "double activation." 
 

His Hero phase was relatively uneventful. He pulled another 2 wounds off the hunters with Arcane Bolt, and as Valten was gone, he had no command abilities to use. He moved his reavers in a little to position with shooting, as well as moving his waywatchers down to try and take control of the contested objective. Shooting saw another 2 sisters off, and two of the revenants from the second unit. Combat saw him finally take out the last of the revenants from the first wounded squad. 

For my activation, The branch wraith combo-cast throne of vines and then unleash spites. With a total casting value of 10 (2 from her item, 1 from throne of vines, and 7 from the dice roll) 1 wound went on Alith Anar, and 4 on the war hawk rider killing it outright. Thanks to the wildwood, he lost another 2 waywatchers who had gotten too close to forest.

The Ancient teleported from holding the objective, while I moved the dryads up to realmgate. His units were already abandoning the area, and my hunters had more than enough range to sit on there and pick enemies off at will. Between shooting from the treeman, the sisters, and the hunters the reavers and battleshock the reavers evaporated. Combat saw the hunters easily mash the waywatchers to a bloody paste.

IMG_1053.jpg

At this point, we called it. 

Me: 10 ( +4 for both center objectives and +1 for the objective in my territory)  
My opponent: 9 (+1 for the objective in his territory)


Conclusions:

 

Most of my strategy this game revolved around the deep strike. Having a good backup plan is absolutely essential, especially if your enemy has any sort of ambush unit. Usually, you can space things out to give yourself enough area denial, so that your backup forest unit (either a hero with an acorn,  an ancient with silent communion, or a caster with Verdant blessing) won't get caught out in the open. Had I not had a plan B to get those units on the table, they would have likely been stuck there all game. 

I was originally thinking I wanted 1 x6 with bows and a second unit of 3 with swords, but opted for this configuration at the last minute. All in all, they preformed as expected; Scythes are brutal in 6's. However, I sort of felt they were overkill this game. I would have been much happier had I taken 2 x 3 with great swords to allow me to have a bigger board presence and objective control, and since all the heavy hitters were stuck in my dryad tar-pit of doom, the -2 rending didn't really come into play all that much (a little, but only marginally).

Revenant's did mostly what I wanted them to do. They were cheap core, and forced him to guard objective in case I tried to pop in and scoop steal it. They also made excellent "dead drop" in deployment, since my opponent knew they could literally be anywhere on the board next turn. Had my opponent not had an extra activation (and had I though of it), I would have used them to block his path to my objective (that 4 points he netted from that round was nearly a disaster). If I had the choice between 5 revenants and 10 dryads, I wouldn't trade them. Not only would it have cost me and extra 40 points (putting me at 2080; a bit too far over I think) I wouldn't have been able to get them were I needed them. That teleport ability is clutch, as is the one re-roll per phase) 

All in all dice rolls were pretty average on both sides. A good test run for the new army. 

 

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