Ruhraffe

Nothing until the battletome is released. From then on, it means whatever stands in the BT. I guess it is futile to throw aroundwild speculations, if we get the answer in about 2-3 weeks.

They mention the spites can be summoned. Sylvaneth at the moment only has summoning as abilities on the warscroll; Alarielle and branchwraiths. I guess, sylvaneth will get a new tome and some form of summoning with points as a resource. €: As a friend hinted: This could also be a endless spell, but these are released together with a battletome. So Yay!

Mh, sad thing, as I bought the 4-pack that came out for christmas and now having no real use for them What a bummer. Sad to see so much cash go to the drain. Seems like I wont be buying one of your christmas deals again, GW. Fool me twice...

The Sylvaneth one could belong to a spite - the small magical critters swirling around the sylvaneth. So probably more of a flavorful decoration rather then a hint to the unit itself.

New Tree-Rev unit? Did I miss some rumor? Or do you mean the Underworlds warband?

9''(from the spell itself) + 6'' (from circlet) + 6'' (from vortex) = 21''

As we are discussion the vortex: Does anyone of you got an idea on how to kitbash/convert/diy a vortex for sylvaneth? I find it odd to say the least for a Sylvaneth to summon a vortex out of a stone platform with skulls and throne upon a choas symbol and a skull. Quite the opposite of what sylvaneth stands for. Maybe bend some twigs and glue them to a base, with wyldwood leafs on top and a green glow on the bottom of the base or all around the twigs?

Everything is possible, but take nothing for granted. Although it would fit nicely to the release of the Underworlds warband, and my buying habit.

Exhaustive overview over the faction by two tournament players and a podcaster.

I'd doubt that. Can you cite a rule for this please? To the list from above: Definitly not the strongest list you can achieve, but to play as many units as possible: Give it a try. If you want to improve it's strength: Kick the reverends out, try to get a Durthu or even Alarielle in. Or more specific: Kick the Tree Revs and the TLA, and bring in Durthu. He has way more damage potential. The trade-off is that you loose one spell and the command ability of TLA, but I think it is worth it. Further on you might want to change at least one of the hunters to a melee option. I like both of them, the swords are better against bad-save-roll-chaff and the scythes are better against better armored units and have the added bonus of the two inch reach, which make the 1'' pile in when dug in not as painful. But to get your feet wet against a non-tournament list, your list should be fine to find out which units you like. But take notice: The spite revs seem weak, but are needed for the dreadwood batallion, my favorite of the sylvaneth batallions!

As we are already at the wyldwood rules: If I put up the wyldwood as a triangle /\ / \ ==== there is a space in the middle. Does this count as wyldwood as well or is it a glade, where the wyldwood rules do not apply?

The rules of the Sylvaneth Wyldwood make clear, that it is a terrain piece, not a unit. And I don't think, terrain pieces can belong to an army, in the sense that they are targettable models.

@Grimbok, that is just not right. I said abouve, I also play 1000 points, and thats where I started when I began collecting. My winrate at 1000 points is way better then at 2000, because we got big behemoths that are hard to deal with at 1000 points, Durthu being the main example, but TLA as well. Also, Branchwraiths with their summoning can be immensly strong if you can keep them protected and hold a wood free for her to summon into.

I have the feeling, that this gets criticised because of the obvious nature of the woods. It really gets pushed in your face: "And now I shoot you" - "nuh-uh!" "okay, then I charge with my battlelines" "okay, one sixth dies." "At least my big centerpiece can crush right into the midst of your army" - "nope, trees in the way" The trees are a mighty denial tool, I have to admit, but this is the way the army works. It is this way in every kind of game. It is really frustrating to play against a control style, because control decks/armies/... tend to get in the way of your plan and win by not loosing, instead of having a "fair" upfront fight. I can totally understand that this can be hard to deal with, especially for newer players, who might not know their way around that. Recently I had two 1000 point games against someone quite new to the game, him playing Nighthaunt. He really had a hard time, but mainly because he tried to press hard into the woods, instead of standing back a bit, collecting points on his objectives and grind me out with his endless summoning; or letting me come to him. But at the end, that is how sylvaneth rolls. You can play them as a control-style army, they got the tools for the job. Similarly, I have never stood a chance against my friends Tzeentch. Their mortal wound output was just to high. I cannot reach him, he blows up half my units just in his hero phase. This is just how Tzeentch is played, high MW, but not this tanky when you reach them. If you can't get in combat or snipe out the spellcasters, bad luck. In the last few days, I heard many suggestions in this forum, to limit Sylvaneths ability to castle, to teleport, to weaken their board control by giving them less woods or smaller or even just trees or..... But what is left when this gets into effect? We got another melee-focused army, maybe some Bow-Hunters in the back, and some healing abilities, that often come to late because the unit already died. Meh.

I feel this would have a big impact lorewise. The life grows around the sylvaneth armies whereever they walk, so the growing of woods is a fantastic element. Growing one tree is a bit lame. Also, how do you want to lay out the allegiance ability after this change, without loosing the unique touch of teleporting between the woods? This is what makes Sylvaneth really fun for me. Setting up defensive positions, shifting my troops around whereever they are needed, holding objectives in a grindy defense and striking them in the back. All of this, does not happen without teleporting and the defence of the woods.

With LVO around the corner I took a look at the Sylvaneth lists present and was surprised. 6 Gnarlroots and 2 without batallions. Was there a change in the Meta? I thought Winterleaf and Harvestboon were the top notch Sylvaneth batallions. Can someone explain this to me, or is this just small sample size?

It seems like it is a trend in AoS, that every army gets unique terrain. I wonder, if this can be detrimental for us sylvaneth players, because the other races clog up the board with their terrain as well, or if we are at an advantage by being a 1-drop army and setting up a wood before the other can start to drop their pieces, limiting the opponents space.

I find it sad myself, because I love Drychas model. But, as it is obvious from her warscroll, he scales heavily with the number of units / size of units your opponent throws at you. And both these numbers are lower in 1000 point games. Sure, if someone just dumps 1000 points of clan rats on the table, she is great. I guess, play some games for yourself and find out if she is worth it. Try both the flitterfurys and the squirmlings. If you are playing more narratively then competitively, it really should not matter too much. In that case, make sure to bring some Spite Revs and read some lore about her and the dreadwood/outcast batallions (pg. 54 of the battletome). Tl;dr: Noone really knows where they come from, but they are mad spites, probaly born from tainted soil. Drycha was a branchwych once in the world-that-was, and Alarielle feared her temperament, and that she would go on a rampage. But in desperation she planted her seed in a malicious environment, hoping the was the necessary darkness, the world needed, and hoped that this will make Drycha and her other children stronger. Drycha is born, and she hates everything non-sylvaneth and sings her own spiteful song; being only begrudginly loyal to alarielle. The Spite-Revs can only hear the song of war. So, this is perfect for a dark, angry, ripping-through-everything army, narratively speaking. Gameplaywise, I feel she is either a bit overcosted, or too squishy. But see for yourself. The model is amazing, and I really like her lore. It is a big contrast to the life-giving Alarielle to the hate-everything-kill-everything Drycha, she is even considered genocidal in the battletome. Damn, now I want a narrative Battle: A big wargrove is in danger of being eradicated. Alarielle foresees the massacre and rushes to help, bringing a Spirit of Durhu and a trustworthy Branchwych to help. But this is not enough, so she calls for Drycha in her desperation... Damn, this could be cool.

I find Tree-Revs to be way weaker then Dryads, especially in small games. You do not really have the room for the movement shenanigans, and they simply do not have the bodies, resilience and damage of dryads. If you already got enough bodies for objectives, and your anvil ready, okay., but this is rarely the case in small games. If you look at tournamet lists: even there is no spot for Tree-Revs, because dryads are this strong in comparison, and we just need the bodies. For 30 Points you get 5 wounds (and bodies) extra, extra defense near the woods, and i think you do not really loose damage, although I'd have to mathhammer that out. You loose some movement, but I think that hurts less then loosing the defence. If I needed to go to a tournament tomorrow, I would pack: Branchwraith Sprit of Durthu 30x Dryads 30x Dryads or 3x Kurnoth Hunters (Swords) + 5x Spite Revs to fill the points

There is no reason to take spites if you don't want to play Dreadwood and have the points for dryads open. Drycha is suboptimal i think, because there are less and smaller units in 1000 compared to 2000, diminishing her shooting efficency. I guess you can better take dryads instead of spites and TLA instead of drycha.

I think Chronomatic Cogs and Emerald Lifeswarm are near the top of the list. The Cogs are immensely helpful to charge dryad blobs out of the woods to your enemy as harvestboon or to assists your alpha strikes as dreadwood. Lifeswarm behind some units of dryads in a wood should be a great defensive tool.

Well, Durthu is as they said a combat beast, especially when he is in a wyldwood due to his bonus attacks. Most lists I play I try to put him in. On his 0-2 wound bracket he just rips through units, especially with alarielles command ability. In my opinion he is worth his points.

@overtninja Hi! just recently there was a long podcast with Chris Welfare and Liam, both tournament sylvaneth players. Their point was, that at the moment, four batallions are viable: Dreadwood, Gnarlroot, Winterleaf and Harvestboon. Even though the Forest Folk Batallions are at the top of the competitive scene atm, both Gnarlroot and Dreadwood should be viable enough for a 4/5 in tournament in their opinion, if i remember correctly. Chris said, he liked to play Dreadwood defensively, if possible. So, raise your woods, camp the objective in protection of the woods. Use the additional movement phase and the reduced enemy range stratagem to capture objectives early and hinder your opponent. Then let them come and harass them from range with Bow-Hunters, Alarielle and Durthus. Or, if the opportunity presents it, you can alpha strike and hinder your opponent that way. Here is the podcast. A recommendation for all of us.

Nah, I just had Verdant Blessing as a 7+ in my mind

If you want your Wraith to be a bit more mobile and have another source of summoning wyldwoods, as the TLA is not too reliable for this, you can run her with Ranus Lamentiri and Verdant blessing. This way you can move with your army and still can summon wyldwoods with your first spell on a 5+ and your dryads on a 6+. So you trade off your +D3 for casting and unbinds for a +1/+2 on casting, depending on the spell being from your spell lore, with added mobility and another source for woods.