Landohammer

I think this list is 1000x better in every way. Great job! I think the Cogs may be a bit of overkill since the Hive will give you +3 to charge and you can just reroll whoever fails, but I can't really think of a better use of the points. Just remember that each wizard can only summon one endless spell per turn. I don't think Alarielle is weak here at all. The Durthu's will appreciate her AOE heal and command ability. And she can provide pressure from the front while the Durthus teleport. However just make sure you have a decent unit for her to summon. If she doesn't use her free summon then she is terribly overcosted. Her base cost assumes you summon something decent like Kurnoth Hunters or a Treelord.

I think the plan is fine, though again personally i'm not a huge fan of multiple Durthu's, it could be fun to send all three via Spirit Walk. Burning Head is not a good idea for Durthu. Yes it gives reroll 1's, but it also does d3 mortals. Durthu brackets REALLY hard after 3 wounds. His sword goes from a flat 6 damage to d6. If you really need to reroll 1's then just use the generic command ability. Finally it looks like you dropped your Winterleaf Glade for the ability to choose a command trait and artefact. I think this is a bit self-defeating since exploding 6's (and Frozen Kernel) available to all those Durthu's will be really helpful. Remember that all characters can use the reroll charge command ability for 1CP.

Here are a couple of overall suggestions that you could apply to either of your lists. -Never take more than three units of Spites. Between your double battallion taxes and your spites, you have 560pts invested in battleline. I imagine you are trying to unlock artefacts for Durthu, but I feel like you are overly investing into Durthu. I would recommend you take 3 units of 10 spites, a single outcast battallion, and a single Durthu. If you really want to use your other Treelord models, then just field them as vanilla Treelords. Remember that Durthu only has 3 attacks when he isn't near a forest. So spamming him is usually counter-productive. One is plenty. -Don't bother with emerald lifeswarm. The lore spells of Regrowth and Verdant Blessing accomplish the same goal but are free and can't help your opponent. If you really want a healing endless spell for the purposes of blocking, just take the Gladewyrm. -Take Spiteswarm Hive instead of Cogs. Its cheaper and can only help Sylvaneth units. Cogs helps your opponent just as much as it helps you. -Don't make Alarielle your General. As a special character she can't take command traits.

Good catch. The character I was referring to is actually called a Waywatcher. I got confused since his bow is called the Waystalker Bow. The old Wood Elf unit is also called Waywatchers. Additionally confusing is that both units do not pop up in a search in the App. You have to manually filter to them via their faction. This is one of the rare situations where two warscrolls have the same title. Similar to the Empire and Ironweld Arsenal Cannons. Weird. But the Waywatcher Wanderer Character is actually a pretty solid little shooter. He is like 120 points and gets 6 shots that hit on 2+/3+/-1/1 and can actually generate additional shots for each 5+. (and these can generate additional shots themselves). This combined with an excellent command ability. I always wanted to field like 4 plus a Nomad prince so I could generate additional shots on a 4+ and just hose the board with arrows lol.

I think you can probably get away with proxying your Glade Guard as Sisters and proxying Waywatchers as Shadow Stalkers, but note that Glade Guard are still legitimately allowed to be fielded in Wanderer armies. You could make a Wanderer army with glade guard battleline and then bring Sylvaneth as allies. You aren't obligated to field Living City if the goal is to recreate an old wood elf army. Glade guard are one of the only sources of Rend -3 in the game. (though Sisters are admittedly better). When I want to field Wanderer armies, I actually prefer to field my old Waywatchers models as Waystalkers, Wayfinders, or Waystriders. The Waywatcher models were all so different and detailed that they make excellent character proxies. In fact, Waystalkers make decent allied choices in a Sylvaneth army because they add a solid shooting phase for relatively cheap.

@scrubyandwells ASF was a huge problem in WHF and its frustrating to see it make a return in AOS. I always found it super un-fun to set up and execute super strong strategies just to end up losing my units before they even got to swing, especially when its during my own turn. Fortunately with the hard nerfs to Slaanesh, this has been mitigated to some extent. More concerning is the prevalance of flying shooting units. This completely circumvents our forests and leads to situations where you can never really catch what is killing you (also reminiscent of WHF but generally mobile units didn't hit this hard). I think the future success of Sylvaneth armies relies on finding ways to deal ranged damage. Living City is so tempting to me because they can essentially cherry-pick our strong units like Hunters and Drycha, while also having access to superior shooting and support units. This on top of having any army-wide deepstrike, a free heal every turn, and the insanity of the Wardroth horn. I know the deepstrike isn't as good as the Dreadwood teleport, but its pretty dang close. And Phoenix Guard, Iron drakes or Sisters of the Watch in battleline make Spites and Dryads seem kinda tame in comparison.

1- Branchwraith 1-Durth 1-Treelord 30 Dryads 10 Dryads (use the extra Branchwyches as Dryad Champions to reach 40 dryads) Branchwyches, while cheap casters, don't bring a lot of value. In most cases I would just prefer a second Branchwraith. I would also recommend you field the TLA as a vanilla Treelord for lower point games. How many forests do you have? If you don't have at least 2+ forests the TLA loses a lot of value.

Hey if you can keep the hurricanum in range then thats a great idea. The beatle does get +1 to hit vs units with 5+ models so that helps mitigate the awful WS some. I don't normally snipe with her. I focus Metamorphosis and Spear on the same target, and then charge it as soon as possible. People usually have a plan for their army, but having Alarielle smashing their face in on turn 1 usually interrupts that plan lol. They can't ignore her. I mean she will die, but after she summons and wrecks a unit or two she has done her job.

Yea its insanely skewed. Like in Fire you have -1 to hit, +1 to Wound and Charge, and +1 damage. While Light you get get D6 damage vs Demons/Undead. How is that comparable? I appreciate that it adds depth to the game which is usually a good thing. But it just ends up rewarding magic based armies and punishing armies without wizards. For example, I was playing Sylvaneth vs Khorne in the realm of fire . I casted inferno blades on a 120pt unit of Spites and they killed 2 Bloodthirsters. My opponent was like 😑 It completely transformed my basic Sylvaneth magic phase from healing and summoning dryads, to being the most important phase of the game.

^^^This is truth. Sisters bring a lot of value to the table. Aside from being wizards, they also have a very high movement, decent shooting, and a lot more melee attacks than your typical wizard. They also can fill a battleline slot. Also if you turn the models side-ways and "conga line" they can actually make a 10+ inch screen. Having a large base + high movement + relatively cheap cost is a fairly rare combination. So they are almost always useful. On a side note, my local monthly tournaments use the Malign Sorcery realm spells and I have to say that I am not a fan. The spells are not particularly well-balanced, particularly the Realm of Fire. People end up spending a lot of time reviewing their spell list each magic phase looking for that perfect spell to save the day.

Why the Nomad Prince with Alarielle? Unfortunately she isn't a Wanderer so she wouldn't get his buff. But yes she is one of the stronger choices for the Living City command ability. Doing a 16 inch move x2 plus a charge is just insane. She could touch the other table edge on turn 1. Yea 10 Rangers are easy to underestimate. They actually average 12 wounds on a Bloodthirster after saves. So its easily in the realm of possibility for them to dunk a bloodthirster in one round. Aside from the their high monetary cost, Sisters are also pretty dang high in points cost, and need a Nomad Prince to maximize their potential. So you really need to build a list around them and I don't think people are into that kind of investment. Not with Phoenix Guard and Hurricanums running around lol.

I know there was some debate a while back about whether Drycha can select her "mode" if she is not on the board. But to be honest, she doesn't really need the deepstrike. At movement 9 she can likely get where she needs to be on her own. Thats 18 inches + charge and she can trigger the command ability herself. Also, she can cast lifesurge on herself which is super nice. I wouldn't personally take her outside of Sylvaneth armies but I think she is a better choice in Living City than Durthu. Thats a fair point about Rangers. I think the trick is to deepstrike them as early as possible. Ideally you would fish for the 8 inch charge, but you don't necessarily need to kill Archaon if you can zone him out of an entire section of the board. The cool thing about Rangers, is that while they are optimal vs monsters, they are still solid damage dealers vs pretty much any other unit. Having 2 attacks + 2" range is a relatively rare combination. They basically become Blackguard with a worse save, and that is still pretty good! Whats strange about the Branchwraith is that the Branchwych is the clear replacement. It even looks more like the Dryads. Sometimes I wonder if GW doesn't make unit/rule decisions based on what happens to be sitting in warehouses. I like to imagine they had a bunch of branchwraith models sitting in a pile from the 90s while Skycutter Chariots probably sold out most of their initial casting. Elves were insanely popular in 8th. Yea Sisters and Shadow Warriors share a kit. I actually think Sisters of the Watch (along with Hammerers, Irondrakes, and maybe Blackguard) are a bit of a sleeper unit. They have really solid rules but they are prohibitively expensive and not normally stocked on shelves anymore.

Yea thats insane. Leagues are meant to be a bridge between casual games and tournaments. 3k would be super offputting. While slow play still pops up in AOS, I don't think it is anywhere near as bad as it use to be in WHF and T9A. Most AOS games are 70-80 models, while in WHF it wouldn't be uncommon to have 70 models just in core. Also movement was super restrictive and a lot more meticulous. When I teach people to play, i encourage them to push to 2000pts as soon as possible. I think smaller point games are wonderful for teaching, but the game doesn't properly function (and balance) until 2k.

Hey just popping back in for some quick comments. I am just finishing up a Living City army now so you are asking a lot of the same questions as I did. -Resurrecting Models - Note that the Living City doesn't actually provide the ability to resurrect models. The auto Heal and the spell Lifesurge both only heal wounds. Lifeswarm is the only method that I am aware of for resurrecting models in Cities. -Sylvaneth - Alarielle is an awesome model but note that she does come with some baggage: Her base is too large for the living city deepstrike, and her AOE heal and command abilities only work on Sylvaneth units. You will also need to physically purchase a unit for her to summon (likely Kurnoth or Treelord), since she is costed to include her summonable unit. Also her spells can turn units into forests, so having a wildwood is nice. Again, she is one of my favorite models, but fielding her competitively is quite expensive lol! Kurnoth are amazing, but I would avoid fielding Dryads or Revenants in any Cities army. Dryads are outperformed in battleline role by many Cities units and Tree Revenants lose most of their value if half your army can deepstrike. If you have batteline unlocks, (such as Phoenix Guard) then I recommend you use those as much as possible.

I think this would be a great army to learn with, and will be a relatively cheap way to get to 1000pts. However I can't say that it will be competitive. But thats totally fine. If you like the models then get them. However I would definitely convert your 2 extra Fleetmasters into Sorcerers or Battlemages though. Anvilguard has arguably THE MOST powerful spell in the game with Vitrolic Spray. So you definitely at least want a shot at casting it. If you want to be truly competitive with Dark Elves in a Cities army, then Black Guard, Darkshards, Sorceresses, and Dreadlords are probably a better idea. But unfortunately they don't have a Start Collecting kit

So most players I know of field the Island of blood models as Swifthawk agents with Swordmaster allies. You would have to do some pretty extensive proxying to field those models in Cities. It would be fine for casual games but tourneys may or may not allow it. If you want to field your models legitimately, then you really only have 3 options in terms of factions. Swifthawk Agents - They don't have a faction rule, so you will be using Order allegiance abilities, command traits, and artefacts, but you unlock Spireguard as battleline. You can then field your Swordmasters as allies. Eldritch Council - This is an option if you have plenty of Swordmasters and its quite nice since Swordmasters are unlocked as batteline. But you would have to squeeze all of your Swifthawk agent stuff into your ally allotment which may not be realistic. Order - You lose your batteline unlocks but now you can field any Order unit you want without any restrictions. Fortunately Reavers are universal battleline so if you have 15 of those guys you are good to go. Hope this helps!

Man I loved Warhawk riders. Probably my favorite unit to field in WHF. They were very expensive and super fragile though. Like 20$ a model What bothers me is that Shadow Warriors made the cut but Skycutters didnt, despite being released at the same time. But then they went so far as to remove the Swifthawk Agent keyword from shadow warriors, which basically gutted the Swifthawk agent faction. They could have at least made the Skycutters a Mercenary. That seems like the compromise for discarded-but-popular models. Yea I hope they don't axe any Sylvaneth units, the book is already 90% characters as it is. Also why is the Branchwraith still around lol.

Yea as readercolin said. Its not firmly established. Azyr and Warscroll Builder allow it to go either way. You can field 1500 as Vanguard (+500) or Battlehost (-500) The GHB doesn't specify either, but note that it doesn't technically enforce 3+ battleline until 2K. Personally I would defer to treating it as Vanguard +500 (so 2+) unless told otherwise. Its definitely an interesting point. This was actually a hot topic during the early ages of T9A shortly after the end of WHF. Slow play was a HUGE problem so the decision was made to transition the standard game from 2500 to 2250pts. But this actually caused a lot of unforeseen balance consequences since many units were originally costed with a 2500pt cap in mind. For example, some unit slots were limited to 25%, so it wrecked armies with higher priced units in those slots. I don't necessarily think its a direct comparison to AOS, but its definitely still relevant especially when it comes to allies.

Yep thats it! I have three collecting dust. They may actually be resin/fail-cast now that I think about it. Most old dark elf models haven't aged well but this one holds up pretty well. It wouldn't look out of place next to dark shards or other newer kits.

The elf bolt throwers that I actually have appear to be plastic and relatively recent. Yea I never will understand GW's squatting logic. Models like dryads are still around but the Skycutter chariot got axed. I imagine your dragon is going to be capitalizing on the double move command ability, and so I bet he will almost always be out of range of a lifesurge. If you really want heals, consider dropping your CP for the Lifeswarm endless spell.

I am not a fan of comp either, but I think it was definitely necessary in 8th edition. As a fellow woodelf player back in WHF, there were armies that I knew I just couldn't beat. I haven't really experienced that in AOS outside of maybe pre-nerf Slaanesh. But yea I agree the power-gamers can break 1500 just as easily as 2000. I also value that 1500 games are markedly faster than 2000, and that is super useful for us with real world responsibilities. But, there are also some issues with 1500: -Generally games with lower points value are more likely to be decisively won early on. To clarify: It is easier to recoup from a bad turn/bad luck when you have more units to pull from. -As I learned earlier, battle-line requirements for 1500pt games are not firmly established. So you have to come to an agreement with your opponent before-hand. -Having less points also means less list variety. Also some armies get really hit hard by 3+ battleline in 1500pts. If you have bad or limited battleline options, then now an even larger portion of your army is predetermined. So there are definitely Pros and Cons to each point level. But do note that 2K point games are designed to last 2.5 hours ( and mine usually come to a natural conclusion in that time). So we have to measure a major change in the game with gaining an additional 30 minutes.

I actually really like your idea of proxying repeater bolt throwers as ballistas. I have a bunch of those old models painted and I would love an excuse to put them back on the table! Regarding your list, I think it is fine for 1500pt casual games, so you are good to go. But if you really wanted to push your list to the next level competitively, consider the following changes: -Add 10 more Executioners. One of the biggest advantages of Executioners is their huge 30 man discount. It will also allow them to eat quite a few casualties without losing much combat output. -Drop dreadspears. Unfortunately spears don't have much of a role anymore. Cheap screens and objective defenders are always useful but I have found Darkshards to be just flat out better at the job. If you really want to take spears, then consider merging them into single unit. Right now they are really inflating your drop count which may actually be hurt you more than help you. -Swap Lifesurge for Ironoak skin. Lifesurge has limited use in your army since it can't restore dead models, so it can only heal your characters or ballistas. However stacking Ironoak Skin + Word of Pain is an insanely powerful combo. Also your sorceress are much more likely to be close to infantry rather than close to a Dragon or Ballista.

Ah good point. I was defaulting to the GHB since it specifies 2K but the App and Warscroll builder both let you swing a Battlehost (3+) down to as low as 1500. Never noticed that before. To be honest I never regarded 1250-1750 much since I never see events ran at those levels. But strangely there is a growing movement on twitter trying to push 1500 as the new tournament standard. The argument is that it helps mitigate some of the power combos and it allows events to run 4 rounds per day. Not sure I agree but its interesting. Sadly Meeting Engagement is a dead format, at least in my area.

Anything below 2k requires 2+ battleline. .Either list is fine. But do note that 500pt games are best reserved for learning games. They are usually decided by turn 2 and can competitively be over after just 1 combat. I strongly encourage you to bump it up to 1000 as soon as possible if you are aiming for a balanced experience. Even if you have to proxy models or take allies to bridge to gap.