overtninja

The rules for the wyldwoods extend an inch out from the edges of the models, and they have to all be places within an inch of each other when set down, so effectively they offer the same bonuses. That said, if you left a gap in between that would basically allow a small avenue of line-of-sight, since line-of-sight is prevented only by woods more than an inch deep. You'd end up with a 3" LoS window if you set them up as far as you could away from each other.

@Aezeal I'm planning on running 20 WWR in the upcoming tournament, as they are far and away our best melee, and are pretty points-efficient to boot, especially since my local meta is a bit of a monster mash (which I love, but need to address when building lists). I agree with EG being decent, but it's only when they park it and hold position that they excel, and even then, they are only excellent at dying very slowly. Exceptional tarpit/roadblock, but not much else. 😛 Anyway, I also bring Sylvaneth for additional melee oomph - I'm rolling out 20 next time I play to see how things go.

Really it comes down to what you are fighting most of the time. If your local meta is heavy on Chaos players, SotW are pretty amazing. They also flourish in any meta where there aren't many shooting attacks. That said, a single DD spell directed at the unit will ravage it, and losing any models from the unit really hurts their output. Ideally, you'd want a good balance of either. I'd say you should always take at least 20 GG for the alpha strike and objective holding, and generally speaking I'd only consider bringing them in groups of 20-30 if I brought a second group, because they really need the bonus to hit to work well, IMO. I'm really not keen on going too heavy into ranged attacks, so really it's about efficiency and what other weight a ranged unit can lift.

I'd go with 3 at least, so you can throw down your big one at the start of the game. Ideally, you'd bring as many as you can manage, since it's advantageous to have multiple different woods on the field to teleport to and summon from. From my (limited) experience, it seems that the difference between having 2 and 3 woods is fairly minor, so you could go up to 4 and go with one group of 2 at the start, and one group to summon later. I'm going to guess that most places that folks play at will let you use spare woods at the store as wildwoods when you play, but for tournaments I'd guess they'd require you to bring your own. I'd be fine, personally, going up to 6 eventually, so I can have enough wildwoods to do whatever with, and they'd also match the aesthetics of my army to look neat on the table.

Usually I rock Kurnoth with Scythes, because people love big models with huge armor saves, but in this instance I'd prefer a swarm of infantry to take objectives and hold them from other units with superior numbers, and also be durable enough to keep it for a bit under duress. I'm much more comfortable having two 20-man infantry units, even if they aren't as tough as Kurnoth they have enough models to hold things off and the sheer press of attacks will give most units pause.

Hey folks, I'm going to enter a 1.5k tournament at my local game store in a few weeks, and I'm waffling on bringing Wanderers or Sylvaneth (I've recently bought up the latter faction and could easily field a Winterleaf Dryad Carpet army with Drycha, TLA, and Branchwraith to bully all the Chaos players, but I'm not sure I want to be that guy who uses every damn forest in the store, and I'd have to build a lot of the models pretty fast). The Wanderers list I'm thinking of bringing is: Wayfinder for 1st-turn focus fire on a key unit and caster sniping Nomad Prince with a Starcaster, for command ability, melee support, and being the team mascot Spellweaver for the freebie dispel and chaperoning the WWR WW as my general with Stalker of the Hidden Paths, for character sniping and being a menace 20 GG for the bodkins and objective camping, two groups of 10 Sisters of the Watch (best shootists in the game, especially with all the Chaos players running about), 20 Wildwood Rangers for monster chopping, and 20 Dryads because someone has to do general melee duty and I'd rather have more mobility over the EG bunker. What do you guys think? Any suggestions for other force organizations?

@Nadurebaile I think that commentary is from the last FAQ review before this one, because people were asking about them. They've changed their minds about it since then, clearly, especially considering that general consensus is that Wild Riders aren't worth using unless you use 2 groups of 5 for the battalion. With rerolls on a 5+ and a 10' move, they can hold objectives in cover with a bit more confidence, or even mix it up in combat a bit. They aren't too expensive for what they do, and being able to scoot around and take objectives later with a decent movement speed is pretty solid.

@Twh30 Don't be that dude who brings Alarielle to a 1k game, haha. That's the least friendly thing you could possibly do with this army. I ran a 1k list a few days back that went Drycha, Branchwraith, Treeman, 10 Dryads, 10 Dryads, 3 Scythe Kurnoth against Stormcast. First time playing the army, but it was a good showing, even if my Treeman got blasted off the table by shooting and a unit of those lightning wizard guys due to poor placement. I lost on points because I was busy trying to see what my monsters could do in combat, but since I usually play Wanderers it's cool to have an army that can fight in melee! Now I have to build and paint a billion trees and some Wildwoods.

Great work! Really like the color palette you're using for the army.

I never got a chance to play AoS 1E, so I never got used to teleporting any units in the proper positions whenever I wanted to. From my perspective, being able to do that would have let me bully my opponents indefinitely - I would have been able to teleport out of every combat I got into on the edges, shuttle my forces easily around the whole table edge, and by using Stalker of the Hidden Ways and the Wending Wand, I could pretty easily get everything I needed to where I needed to. It would have been super no fun for my opponents, I think, never being able to catch anything. Anyway, outside of losing that functionality, I've been able to do some great stuff with the tools available. Stalker of the Hidden Paths lets you shuttle a key unit into a good position in the beginning of the game so they can get solid shooting, and shuttle important units to new positions across the board so they can get out of harm's way or get to a good shooting spot. I haven't used the Wending Wand, but running a ranged hero out into a good position along a board edge and porting a needed unit to them in the later turns of the game seems really appealing. I try to use my teleport to help me isolate, damage and hopefully eliminate units that would otherwise not be accessible to me, or that my opponents are trying to protect, or that really need additional firepower. It usually lets me surprise people and shoot units off the table unexpectedly. My opponents have to play around it, and often can't afford to hang back to screen my teleporting out, and it still lets me get units right near them. It also means that if they don't hang back on their objectives, I can teleport and take them, which has actually helped me win most of my games. Most armies are faced with a choice of moving to take me out and abandoning their objectives, or holding them for several turns while I maneuver and prepare to hit one very hard in the later turns by focus fire and teleporting. I haven't faced a full blitz army, and I'm sure we'll do really terribly against them, but that's kind of to be expected - that particular meta is so dominant that most everything loses to it. I'm looking forward to playing more opponents and different armies so I can keep trying things, but so far I've found our mobility options to be really useful.

@GwendarI think it's worth it to get at least 20 EG if you want to use them as a wall, because they absolutely will bleed wounds and die, just slow enough for you to hold your objectives long enough to get a points lead and/or port your dudes around the field and secure other objectives for more points. Wanderers thrive on their crazy mobility and tricky movement play in order to score objectives - our defensive tactics seem to be more of a chump block and delay strategy than a hold the line and grind kind of thing. We're really not a melee army, but we can pounce on things and focus them. I've had most of my success from using our movement tricks to rapidly move my guys over to my opponent's unprotected flanks and snatch objectives from them with focus fire, and then trying my best to hold them off my side's objectives by basically sacrificing units to hold them off. EG are basically for that purpose, and I've used the Sylvaneth allies I've been taking for the same thing in my games - which is probably a waste but I face a lot of durable scary Chaos guys and something's got to stand in their way. I think, honestly, that having 20 Dryads as a melee force is fantastic as allies for this purpose - they are another unit that is worth every point they cost, in terms of durability, damage output, and mobility. They are fantastic and give us the kind of melee we need. Kurnoth are probably best used to go fully choppy and pal around with Wildwood Rangers for maximum damage output. I think they would work together well in most situations. I haven't gotten a chance to use the battalion yet, but the primary advantage is being able to deploy your whole battalion after your opponent sets up in a single drop, anywhere you want, and go from there. The bonus shooting is rather hard to set it up because you need your Nomad Prince to be in position the turn before, but the pay off is likely devastating when you get it to happen. Wild Riders are, as you say, rather bad, but they are super mobile and great at snatching objectives and/or sitting backfield and holding your own. Their mobility lets you avoid combats, or charge in and do damage, then retreat out of harms way the next turn - there is almost no way that they will still be in range of whatever they flee from with a run move. Also, our Spellweaver's signature spell returns 1d3 models, so targeting Wild Riders get you back 2-6 wounds a cast, which is actually great.

@Dead_DuardinI used GG as a group of 20 last game, their bonus to hit for unit size was lovely. After they use their Arcane Bodkins they are basically just a bit of bonus firepower, but that shooting turn does work every time. If you use the battalion, you can set them up exactly where they need to be and get that enhanced shooting off, so even if you lose dudes after that it's okay, I think. They are really there for that one round of shooting. If you don't have the battalion (at lower than 2000 points, for instance, which is what i've been playing), you have to set them up later so you get them in the right place and keep them from being in fire range, or use the general trait to teleport them all to where they need to go and get the shots off that way. I think my local meta is really shooting-lite, so I had no issues keeping the unit healthy, but if you face a lot of ranged attacks and spells 30 is probably just good to hedge your bets. @Gwendar I have 20 of the old metal ones and my goodness did they do work last game. I managed to string them 2x10 and scoot them into a positin to keep things off an objective and adopt defensive stance, and they held the line for like two and a half turns against a GUO (who rolled poorly) on one end and a Nurgle beastie on the other. I was genuinely surprised at how durable they were, until my opponent backed up the mortal wounds truck on them and obliterated them in like a turn haha (sad). Having used them in all my games so far, I think they bat far above their points value if they are doing what they are good at - being a somewhat mobile wall that simply does not yield. It's an important tool in the army, as we really need to keep things off our ranged units so they can do the heavy lifting in our army. They really need to get in position and hunker down, and they wilt like a dandelion on a hot sidewalk if mortal wounds come their way, but outside of that they are aces. As an aside, I used Kurnoth last game with scythes and tried to fight some Putrid Blightnights. It did not go well for me, even with them and Dryads going at it together. Those gross fat dudes are super rude and cut through them in a single gross fat round of combat. Not the best showing for my dudes, but I don't think they are a bad unit by any stretch - but it's clear that nothing in my army should go anywhere near blightknights and I should just shoot them off the table with SotW instead. 😛

I understand what you're getting at, but my reasoning is that EG are rather awful if they don't activate their defensive stance for the +1 to hit, wound, and save rolls. They normally have a +5 save normally, and that won't stop anyone. You can use them as a wound shield and/or chaff, certainly, but they really shine as a defensive unit that holds objectives. If you use them otherwise, they will die very fast. That's not to say that's not a decent strategy with them, but I've had the most luck with them bunkering down on an objective and holding the line against everything that doesn't dish out mortal wounds.

Being as I am a cunning artificer, I have devised a cheap solution to my woes - craft store sticky-tack! (the sort you use to put posters up on your walls) It's a good stop-gap until I can figure out how to magnetize things (or forever, since I'm cheap). At any rate, they are ready for play tomorrow, so we'll see how they do. @Gwendar Let us know how you do with that setup, it should be really grindy. If you want more punch, try with one block of EG and a big block of 20 Rangers. It would be an extra 140 over your double EG blocks, but you'd have a unit that would make any monster-heavy list cry, and still have a good bunker option as well depending on scenario needs.

@KnaveOfScribesWhat bits are you using for the body of your angry forest tree-doggo, Knave? It looks pretty neato. You might be able to get away with it being a counts-as Kurnoth if it's on the right base! Otherwise you could make it a counts-as Treeman.

Trying to put these Kurnoth together is very annoying, they seem carefully designed to not allow for weapon swaps. I want to keep the options to run them as whatever I please, but the archer variety uses different heads than the melee dudes and the scythes and swords share a shoulderpad. Super annoying! Given the option, I think I'll go with scythes anyway, but it's a shame I can't swap things out.

SotT are definitely not worth their points right now, even if their signature spell is bonkers. The sad thing is that it's mostly bonkers for other armies, who can ally SotT in. Hopefully they get a points drop in the GHB2019!

Yeah, one of my regular local opponents plays fat nurgle dudes, I really am tempted to run hunters with scythes for my games with him, because those dudes are just too flabby to die and it's annoying. Being an immobile gunline or a teleporting gunline is kind of a rubbish niche, to be honest. I'd love to see our units be more on-table mobile, so we don't have to park on a place and shoot until we get overwhelmed. It's super important to have melee in AoS, not just as blockers but also to participate in one of the primary phases of the game, if only to do mop-up for your shooting units. We've got options for that, but currently Wanderers get rewarded too much for playing a bunkering force rather than a skirmishing/ambushing force. For real though, Rangers are wonderful for their cost, not only because of their stats but because they are on 25mm bases and they have 2" range. I've only got ten so far but I'm tempted to go up to 20 and create a serious melee threat unit that has the option to teleport right into my opponent's backfield and get choppy. I'm also a big fan of Dryads as fast, hard-hitting dudes. They are a great addition for extra melee bite. I've been allying them into my Wanderers since I've started playing and they've always done good work for me.

Like I said, depends on your local meta. Some places have a lot of demons or ghosts, so the are living by their FNP saves and/or just not caring about rend at all. I'm all for the extra rend generally because Wanderers really don't have any -2 rend otherwise. As the above poster said though, Rangers are actually super great for their points. Having both Kurnoth and those dudes running around chopping things is definitely what I want for melee in my local meta, which is full of Chaos dudes, but also full of ghosts, which makes the extra rend a non-thing. The real sell for Kurnoth is that they are super tanky and draw attention - they have to be dealt with or they are going to maraud across the field and mangle several things, and unlike Rangers they can take a charge and absorb damage.

I just bought a box of them myself, so I'll let you know how things go with mine. Scythes are nice because of the range, and if your local meta is full of high armor their rend is probably worth it. I have had really mixed results with EG, though. They are really only good as a speed bump and mobile wall - they don't put out enough attacks for wound generation, but they are really great at holding the line while the rest of your dudes get away or close in for to actually do damage. The idea of attacking over your EG with scythe Kurnoth is a decent one, but that would be committing two units to a totally defensive strategy, and I think Kurnoth are better for actually looking for combat, like Dryads. They do want to be in the woods, just like EG do, but they have the attacks to do well on their own.

Rarest model I have is probably the old Wood Elf hero on foot with sword and spear, I don't see her around all that much but there are plenty of pictures of her online. I'm using her as my Nomad Prince these days. I've got 17 metal Waywatchers too, I'm using them as my Sisters of the Watch - they were always my favorite back in WHF and it's great that SotW are such a good unit - I can bring them to pretty much every game I play with my Wanderers.

I'm spitballing lists at the moment for growing my Sylvaneth force after I finish filling out my Wanderers. Right now I have a few lists based off the Outcasts battalion and Drycha, because fearbombing seems like a neat thing to do. At the moment, I'd be looking to build a 1k force: Drycha (DW: The Reaping) 280 Branchwraith (General, CT: Gift of Ghyran A: Ranu's Lamentiri DW: Verdant Blessing) 80 Branchwych (A: Wraithstone DW: The Dwellers Below) 80 3x 5 Spite-Revenants 70/70/70 20 Dryads 200 Outcasts Battalion 90 Endless Spell: Emerald Lifeswarm 60 My idea is to spread my forests around first turn with the Branchwraith, spirit-path summon Drycha and the Spites (depending on how fast the other army, I'd deploy them in cover instead), and use the Lifeswarm to restore my models. The Wych would join the Spites in combat to make use of the Wraithstone, Dwellers, and her combat skills, and hopefully between Drycha yelling at everyone, the Spites battalion being 2spooky, and all the bravery debuffing going down, mortal wounds will rain from the sky. As long as I can take a good fight near my Wildwood(s), I'll have great saves and magic to help me out. Do you guys with more experience think this would work, or is trying to bravery bomb things a poor tactic?

Yeah, we have good tools in our arsenal, it's why we can actually play as a cohesive force. Our melee is lackluster, so we end up being the Tau of AoS, which isn't as fun for our opponents, I think. I like being a ranged-focused faction, but I'd like some melee infantry options that are more mobile. I honestly think Wardancers would be a great fit, but they'd need new models. I'll still keep the old ones I have for the time being of course, but they could really use them. As it stands, I generally ally in my Dryads, and later on I'll throw some Kurnoth with swords or scythes in to do some heavy lifting in melee, or possibly an Ancient and a Branchwraith for Wildwood summoning shenanigans.

Would be nice - we could use some kinda reliable mortal wounds generation for all these multi-wound durable dudes runnin' about. I'd honestly love to see some new Wardancers - I always liked those guys and they were one of the cooler things in the old WE range, but the models are really thin and strangely compact in their posing. It would be neat to see what kind of new dudes the range might get.

SotW are pretty fantastic, and are a steal at 180. they'll pull their weight far more than a 30-strong block of glade guard will, I think. I'm thinking of running two blocks of 10 at 2k and 2.5k, so I can cover the whole field with them without having to move them. Two units would cost the same as a block of 30 GG, even. Super good tradeoff - and the models are much cooler.