New to AOS and a lot of questions

[Paffet]

Hello everyone. 
after a lot of looking around in the internet for some tipps and answers i found this forum. So I hope my questions can be answered here and aren't to stupid. 

I played about 5 Years ago Warhammer Fantasy with some friends, so i have already a "big"  army of High Elves. Now i think about starting playing again and also buying one of the new tribes. I am not familiar with all the new rules and tactics, so there maybe some misunderstandings. 

So now to may questions. 
1.) I was thinking about playing Sylvaneth, because i find they look cool.

• how are they compared to High Elves? 
• what is this teleport staff im reading a lot ? 
• is it worth to buy the Starter Pack?
• can i pair them with the old Wood Elves ? if yes, is it good or bad ?

2.) Some questions about High Elves

• does it make sense playing them, with all the new tribes?
• what pairs best with them ? 

 

Thank you all in advance. 

[Double Misfire]

6 hours ago, Paffet said:

Hello everyone. 
after a lot of looking around in the internet for some tipps and answers i found this forum. So I hope my questions can be answered here and aren't to stupid. 

I played about 5 Years ago Warhammer Fantasy with some friends, so i have already a "big"  army of High Elves. Now i think about starting playing again and also buying one of the new tribes. I am not familiar with all the new rules and tactics, so there maybe some misunderstandings. 

So now to may questions. 
1.) I was thinking about playing Sylvaneth, because i find they look cool.

• how are they compared to High Elves? 

Hey dude, welcome to the forum and to AoS in general. Pure Sylvaneth have a completely unique playstyle in AoS, the closest thing you could compare it to in old editions of Warhammer would probably be a magic heavy Wood Elf army with the Acorn of Ages and lots of mages casting treesinging; they focus on lots of very precise redeployment of troops and summoning of scenery,  taking advantage of a million different special rules to pop up from scenery pieces and table edges. They'll struggle to beat most other armies in a straight fight, but once you've mastered them can outmanoeuvre pretty much anything else in the game.

High Elves (or the million mini-factions formerly known as High Elves) play much more like an old fashioned WFB army, with fast moving blocks of elite troops supported by buffs from characters with as many hard as nails ridden monsters as you feel like. Magic isn't quite as much of a win button as it used to be and heavy cavalry charges from Dragon Princes and Silver Helms are a thing of the past, but you won't find many High Elf units in AoS that don't match up to their previous incarnations.

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• what is this teleport staff im reading a lot ? 

The Warsong Stave? It's an artefact (think magic item) available to pure Sylvaneth armies. (don't ask me, I play dwarfs)

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• is it worth to buy the Starter Pack?

Yeah, sure. You normally save about 30% of the value of he individual sets buying Start Collecting boxes and you can never have too many Treemen. The Battleforce set that came out over Christmas also has crazy savings if you can find anywhere still selling it.

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• can i pair them with the old Wood Elves ? if yes, is it good or bad ?

You can pair them with anything from the Order Grand Alliance, hell you can pair them with your old High Elves if you want to. If taken as part of a larger army containing other factions Sylvaneth will have to give up their unique allegiance abilities allowing them to teleport through woodd and giving them unique spells and magic items though, which unless you've got a very well thought out list can be a bit of a rough trade.

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2.) Some questions about High Elves

• does it make sense playing them, with all the new tribes?

Yeah sure why not, they're just as viable as any models sold by GW. Spire of Dawn, the recent Isle of Blood rerelease comes with a particularly awesome warscroll battalion (think formations in 40k) that is very, very strong if you stock up on Reavers and take a Skywarden or two alongside it.

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• what pairs best with them ? 

More High Elves? Having been split into so many little factions High Elf units don't have a whole lot of keyword synergy with each other. The Loremaster (formerly of Hoeth)'s Hand of Glory spell works very well cast on pretty much every large monster going and every army could use a Teclis, beyond that I couldn't name anything. Experiment and find out!

[mhsellwood]

Very good summary of current situation there by Double Misfire, so just a few additional comments from me:

7 hours ago, Paffet said:

1.) I was thinking about playing Sylvaneth, because i find they look cool.

• how are they compared to High Elves? 
• what is this teleport staff im reading a lot ? 
• is it worth to buy the Starter Pack?
• can i pair them with the old Wood Elves ? if yes, is it good or bad ?

As mentioned compared to High Elves Sylvaneth are very focused on tricksy movement, but also some real combat monsters - Kurnoth Hunters are crazy good, and a Spirit of Durthu is pure ultra violence. The Start Collecting box is very good - in a pure Sylvaneth army you will have at least one Treelord, the Branchwraith is a decent magic using fighty character, and the Dryads are a solid battleline choice, and the price is right.

In terms of pairing them with Wood Elves you do give up a lot. One option however is two of the Wargroves (covered in the Battletome) actually allow you to include other Order troops without giving up the Sylvaneth Alliance. The Gnarlroot Wargove is an Order Wizard only, but this includes Sisters of the Thorn. The Winterleaf Wargrove allows one of any Order warscrolls - so you can put your Wild Riders in, or Orion, or whatever.

7 hours ago, Paffet said:

2.) Some questions about High Elves

• does it make sense playing them, with all the new tribes?
• what pairs best with them ? 

High Elves still work (in Matched play probably best at kind of around 1,000 points) but do lack some of the versatility of the larger factions as the Keywords are broken up. On the other hand, I think unless you are playing in a group that prioritizes the game over anything else you will find they do perfectly well and are a good looking army.

In terms of what works best, in AoS it is about synergies. So the answer is really what is your army lacking, and what is best placed to provide that support? For High Elves one of their weaknesses is slightly limited monsters. In this context a Treelord adds a lot - they are super tough, good in combat and if you pay for a Sylvaneth Wyldwood they can be quite speedy. They don't have a lot of keyword synergies, but that issue is not restricted to them.

In general with AoS I think the Rule of Cool applies - if it looks cool get into it, and most things will work on at least some level.

[KHHaunts]

I've found that it's more effective to take a X army with some sylvaneth rather not that a sylvaneth army with some X

In my case it's wood elves with some sylvaneth thrown in particularly treelords.

Wanderers have some great synergy to be had so I focus my list building on them. Treelords however are awesome even before synergy and Alligance is applied.

 

Would certainly keep your high elves around there is always a chance that some of your models will retain the keywords of new releases. Like the spire of dawn boxset

[Paffet]

Thank you all a lot. Now i think I have just some understanding problems. 

21 hours ago, Double Misfire said:

unique allegiance abilities allowing them to teleport through woodd and giving them unique spells and magic items though

what does this mean "teleport through wood" ?

21 hours ago, Double Misfire said:

keyword synergy

that means i can pair them only with Troops that have a specific keyword ? Could you maybe explain it a bit more in detail or maybe tell me where I can find an explanation. 

 

[Aezeal]

1 hour ago, Paffet said:

Thank you all a lot. Now i think I have just some understanding problems. 

what does this mean "teleport through wood" ?

that means i can pair them only with Troops that have a specific keyword ? Could you maybe explain it a bit more in detail or maybe tell me where I can find an explanation. 

 

Teleport through wood: means they have an ability that makes i possible.  read the 4chan bit on the armies (google sylvaneth strategy and it's 1st hit for me)

The synergy means some warscrolls have abilities that only work on troops with a specific keyword. Sylvaneth healing usually only works optimally on Sylvaneth. Freeguild buffs work only on freeguild.   Just start reading the warscrolls and it should be clear. (no use taking a freeguild general who can only boost freeguild and then have an army of Aelves or sylvaneth.

Just read some stuff yourself please instead of asking even the basics.

[KHHaunts]

17 hours ago, Paffet said:

that means i can pair them only with Troops that have a specific keyword ? Could you maybe explain it a bit more in detail or maybe tell me where I can find an explanation. 

 

It refers to the "link" that appears in armys through the use of keywords.

Certain abilities only effect certain subfactions others only heros etc etc.

If you have a spellweaver that can restore models to units or a hero with a bubble effect ability that only effect wanderers having half your army as High elves means that you wouldnt be able to get the full effect from these abilites. instead you would want to consider taking units with the right keywords to maximise the benefits that these abilites produce.

A good example are skeleton warriors.

If i take a Wight King & a necromancer and then take a unit of Ghouls both the necromancers unique spell and wight kings command ability wont work.

 

However if i have a unit of 30 skeletons having a command ability, unique spell and buff from being near death heros the skeles become uber buffed by the synergy.

[Paffet]

11 minutes ago, KHHaunts said:

It refers to the "link" that appears in armys through the use of keywords.

Certain abilities only effect certain subfactions others only heros etc etc.

If you have a spellweaver that can restore models to units or a hero with a bubble effect ability that only effect wanderers having half your army as High elves means that you wouldnt be able to get the full effect from these abilites. instead you would want to consider taking units with the right keywords to maximise the benefits that these abilites produce.

A good example are skeleton warriors.

If i take a Wight King & a necromancer and then take a unit of Ghouls both the necromancers unique spell and wight kings command ability wont work.

 

However if i have a unit of 30 skeletons having a command ability, unique spell and buff from being near death heros the skeles become uber buffed by the synergy.

ah okay, thank you very much