Landohammer

IMHO Dreadwood needs Spiteswarm Hive or Cogs and casters who can reliably get them off. So Dreadwood lists require a bit more investment. Winterleaf can be slapped on any list. Wow, good to know that Scythe Hunters brought down Gordrakk! However I think vanilla Mawcrushas (and similar units like Stardrakes) are a bit more problematic since they get access to artefacts and traits. 2+ armor saves are a big problem for our army. Yea the only Ironjaw units that Spites can meaningfully damage are the Gore gruntas, and thats mostly because of their leadership shenanigans. When I screen with Spites, I always assume I will lose every single one of them. One trick I like to use is to to create a single file screen that leads into our wyldwood, and pull casualties from those farthest out. So assuming your wyldwood is your place of power, and you take enough casualties, you may end up wholly within the battleshock immunity bubble.

I usually flip back and forth between Winterleaf and Dreadwood. Both are excellent. I went with Winterleaf in this case because I know there were a lot of combat heavy armies in the meta. Winterleaf is really good for making your units reliable in combat. It can help mitigate bad rolls. Its particularly effective on Kurnoth Hunters with greatswords, since every 6 is a potential 5 damage. Also the Frozen Kernel was absolutely pivotal. The Morrsar Guard performed fine, but I mostly used them defensively and as a distraction. The real value was their shock combined with their reasonable survivability. Ideally you want to swing with them first, but several times I pushed them into a scary behemoth, shocked them down a few brackets, and then activated a different combat trusting that the eels could probably survive until their turn. They are fast, hit hard, and survive pretty well, so its hard to pass them up. However I lost quite a few to failed bravery tests. (only bravery 6 )

Do note that Verdant Blessing is not an allegiance spell. All Sylvan wizards just know it. So you wouldn't necessarily need the Treelord ancient to get forests on the table. A branchwraith could do it on it's own! Unfortunately not. "Wholly within" has been clarified in the FAQ and its pretty clear cut. Alarielle actually runs into a lot of trouble with her 6.25 base. She can't fit wholly within a typical citadel wood and she is also too large to benefit from the Gladewyrm, which is a Sylvaneth Endless spell! 🤦‍♂️ I'm not sure if its intentional or an oversight, but RAW its crystal clear.😥

Another tourney. Here is a quick rundown. List below Game 1 vs Legion of Nagash: Huge mobs of skeletons moved onto objectives early and Arkhan killed Durthu with a super lucky curse of years on the top of turn 1. I was left reeling and just couldn't get him off the objectives. Major loss. Game 2 vs Slaanesh: I screened well and mitigated his turn 1 alpha strike. I countercharged and killed about 20 seekers with Eels, Spites and Drycha. Fiends whiffed vs Kurnoth Hunters and Hunters absolutely wrecked them in return. I summoned a Quicksilver swords and kept getting second turn so it just kept pounding his Keeper of Secrets lol. He actually had a solid early lead but I scored big on the bottom of turn 5 for a major win! Game 3 vs Ironjawz; Again screening wins games. I screened with Spites, and countercharged with Eels and Hunters. The spites leadership debuffs were particularly brutal vs his Gore Gruntas. The deciding factor was charging his Boss on Mawcrusha with a Durthu +Gyrstrike, near a forest and near the frozen Kernel. I did something like 36 damage to the Maw Crusha after saves (and before impales!). After seeing that he politely conceded. Major win. Winterfleaf Outcast Battalion -Durth w/ Ghyrstrike -Drycha -Branchwraith w/ Kernel 20 Spites 10 Spites 5 Spites 6 Kurnoth w/ Greatswords 6 Morrsarr Guard Quicksilver Swords

For the new Awakened Wyldwood models the trees aren't technically impassible. You can actually climb over them, it just takes extra movement. However they definitely can mess up movements and charges. They are notorious for creating a bottleneck for my Kurnoth Hunters For the old citadel woods, I just leave the trees at home altogether. They are too bulky to transport. I personally just ignore the circles on the citadel wood, but some on here actually prefer to treat the empty circles as if they were in-fact impassible. I don't think it really matters as long as you and your opponent treat them the same way. The frozen Kernel specifically activates right after you have attacked. So it is immediate. But do note that you have to announce you are using it at the start of combat. So your opponent will always know which unit will get to swing twice. So make sure to always activate them first!

I have hated it since it since the beginning. Particularly the double first turn. Its has actually become a common exchange between me and my clubmates at tournaments. "How'd it go?" "I lost bad" "What happened?" "He got the double first turn"

Agreed with what Trevelyan said. Also note that summoned dryads can also charge if they like. Dreadwood lists are almost always starved for CPs and Dryads really only do their jobs while in a forest. So may wanna rethink teleporting them! Save the teleports for the heavy hitters and charge rerolls! Glad you had a good test run with the list! To be honest though, the game as a whole doesn't really function that well at 750pts. At those point levels, lists are really limited and games can be decided by the first combat. May wanna push for 1000pts minimum next time!

You don't have anything that can kill models off objectives. I would drop two branchwyches and build one of your treelord models as Durthu. Merge your dryads into a unit of 20 and then just take a throwaway unit of 10 dryads or 5 Revenants. Give regrowth to the Branchwraith. Take Harvestboon as your glade. Most armies won't have an answer to deal with a Dancing Durthu at 750pts. Use regrowth to keep Durthu as healthy as possible. A trick to fielding start collecting boxes, is that you sometimes end up with too many branchwyches and not enough dryads. I have occasionally used branchwych models as Dryad champions, and its totally fine to summon models from your dead pile.

For sure. I take that +1 every time I get it! But the catch with alarielle, is that she is one of our few sources of high rend. Also, we already have great answers for horde units. So more often than not I end up having to send her into the big gribblies. Sadly, I think the Talon of Dwindling has averaged more damage than the beatle over my three recent tournaments. It doesn't degrade and I usually get at least one 6. Gnarlroot is fine, but Winterleaf or Dreadwood are infinitely more valuable on Alarielle. Getting exploding 6's/double activate or a condition-less teleport are much more impactful. If I needed the reroll 1's, I could just burn a CP and have the best of both worlds.

Durthu 2: Electric Boogaloo could possibly be the greatest idea for a list name in the history of list names. I will be stealing that I love fun lists. but I gotta say that winterleaf would just flat out make this list better. Exploding 6's on Durthu are terrifying and being able to give himself the ability to attack twice is insane. If near a forest that would be 10 swings with exploding 6's and two impales. Whats that average? Like 34 wounds before saves?

So I think Glades are pretty much compulsory at this point. The army-wide buffs are just too good to ignore. If you need bonuses to charge then Spiteswarm Hive is an excellent choice. It pairs extremely well with Dreadwood. The selling point for Treelords is their stomp. Because otherwise Hunters are just flat out better. The problem is that stomp fails 50% of the time. Also he just isn't reliable in combat. Give me 10 spites over him in combat any day of the week. At least I know I will get SOME wounds through with them. Agreed on all points. They usually fight first, they fight extremely well, and they are extremely fast. Even without a single point of summoning they would be a solid army. But add to that the 900pts of summoning that my opponent had by turn 3, and it just became laughable. I had to kill the same Keeper of Secrets twice, and the same chariot 3 times.

Just got back from a GT. Went 3-2 with both losses being to Slaanesh. My list is at the bottom. Here are my thoughts. Alarielle performed well overall but mostly because of metamorphosis. That spell swung several games for me. Other than that she just jumped around grabbing objectives and getting aggro. The 4+ to hit on the beatle broke my heart several times. Hunters and Eels were, unsurprisingly, the star of the show. I found myself wishing I had more of each. I was pretty much always able to get 5 hunters in combat. Spites were middle of the road as expected. Treelord was hot garbage haha. Dreadwood was a solid glade, and I now definitively put it up there with Winterleaf in competitiveness. Slaanesh is a really big problem in the meta IMHO. They dominated (and won) this tournament and my games vs them felt like a completely different experience. Looking forward to some nerfs to bring them back in line with the rest of AOS. Alarielle (treelord summon) Branchwraith 20 Spites 20 Spites 5 Spites 6 Greatsword Hunters 6 Morrsarr Guard Spiteswarm Hive

Here is the relevant quote from the Sylvaneth codex: "SYLVANETH WIZARDS know the Verdant Blessing spell in addition to any other spells they know." Additionally, the FAQ clarified that Verdant Blessing is not a part of Lore of the Deepwood. So RAW, yes Sylvaneth wizards know the spell regardless of allegiance/ally status. HOWEVER, this definitely needs an FAQ. Its not common for units (especially allied ones) to have spells or abilities not directly referenced on their warscroll. Notice that Arcane Bolt and Mystic shield are still specifically mentioned on nearly every wizard.

I don't disagree. The codexes are great to draw in new players. I would strongly recommend ANY new or returning players pick up their codexes. But are new/returning players really making those super inspired conversion armies? In my experience, those are usually made by the veterans with multiple armies. I am the exact opposite. I pour over the book when I first buy it, and basically just memorize the relevant rule snippets. Then a day or two later it goes on my book shelf right next to the End Times Books, 8th edition books, and AOS 1.0 books. Never to be touched again lol. As a long time player I tend to look at it more in terms of the financial aspect. I still occasionally use models that I bought 10 years ago, and I still field almost all of my models that I bought 5 years ago. Most, if not all, can be sold on Ebay in an instant. But rulebooks older than 2 years as nearly (if not completely) worthless. My FLGS was giving them away at the last tournament.

There just isn't enough practical information in the army books to justify their $40 purchase. That money could be spent on a battleline unit or go toward a start collecting box. If I added up all the money I spent on armybooks then I could EASILY have another 2000pt army. Lets be honest, buying new books at release is exciting. But we usually only crack them open 2-3 times to read fluff and review warscroll changes. After that they sit on a shelf (or in a bag) while we reference the AoS app or Battlescribe during games. The meat of AOS is in its warscrolls. Things not in warscrolls like Allegiance abilities and Spells are used SO frequently that we all memorize them almost immediately.

Yea I think it boils down to how you play the hunters. If you are trying to alpha strike them with Teleports/Hive/Dreadwood then 6 Swords is possibly better. In those situations I'm either fighting first, or fighting something that is a favorable matchup. So I don't really care about the root. I want to hit as hard as possible and maximize casualties. If you are using them defensively, say to protect an objective or to tank a scary unit you don't want to fight, then the Scythes are better. Scythes can always count on using their root and that is huge. Again though, the only real units that can do the kind of things you mentioned are super killy single models. But realistically if you find yourself in a situation where you are getting charged by an unfavorable combat with unfavorable terrain and a hostile endless spell perfectly placed, then in all fairness the loadout of your Hunters is probably irrelevant lol. That being said I still plan on bringing a unit of both Scythes and Swords in my competitive lists.

Yea the swords are generally better, but the Scythes have that all important 2 inch reach. So units of 6 are pretty much always guaranteed their full attacks. Scythes are also a bit more reliable vs heavily armoured units. There is a surprising amount of 3+ (and 2+!!) armor saves running around nowadays. I will say though that after practicing a bit with 6 Greatswords, I can usually get 4-5 guys in combat vs everything but behemoths, and the Hive really helps slingshot the hunters forward. I think units of 9 are the only situation where the Scythes are the definitive choice.

Lots of people were already guessing a Kurnothi faction was in the works prior to this rumour engine... I'm thinking (and hoping) this is a return of Orion King in the Wood.

I have to agree with @HollowHills The Idoneth Book is objectively bad. Not necessarily because it lacks the ability to win, but moreso because the internal balance is absolutely horrible. There are units in that book that are simply on different planets balance-wise. Any of the books can win if piloted by a great player. (A Tomb king army won a masters in Australia recently). You know this prediction is pretty scary now that I think about it. If we look at some of the original AOS factions such as Sylvaneth, we can see that they never really got a new unit that wasn't a character or a specialist game crossover. All of the new stuff was terrain, endless spells, and characters. I hope this is not true. There are only so many units in each book. They will eventually get boring if they are never expanded.

So I make it a point to always field allies. I feel like how they make lists seem a bit more unique and less homogenized. Here are some of the ally picks I have used/considered lately. Wildwood Rangers - Solid and reliable for a meta with large scary monsters like Archaon or Nagash. 20 should be able to kill pretty much any behemoth. They also fit in the price range between 3 and 6 Kurnoth Hunters. With the COS changes they get a +1 to charge which is nice. Knight-Azyros - A cheap character that is fast, has a buff that affects our army, and also a once per game AOE nuke. Arch Revenant replaced this guy for the most part, but the Azyros is still a bit better in certain situations. Celestar Ballista - A cheap but reliable shooting phase. Morsarr Guard - The Eels are a popular choice for a reason. They hit like a truck, move fast, and have decent survivability. Wild Riders - These guys are fluffy, but are realistically just worse Eels. They do still fill the same role and are a good bit cheaper (both in points and dollars). They also maintain some rend off the charge which can matter. Prosecutors - Dirt cheap objective grabbers, wound plinkers, and warmachine annoyers. Tree Revs are probably better but the prosecutors can start annoying things earlier. Their 3d6 charge range is nice too! Sisters of the Watch - Solid and reliable shooting so your Kurnoth can fight instead of shoot. Lord Relictor - An ability that does mortals and grants a minus 1 to hit that cant be unbound. Great if your meta is full of casters. Tidecaster - A spell with a minus 1 to hit with a conditional mortal wound.

Yea I love the models, and he is a heck of a lot better than the garbage fire that is Ylthari, but I still struggle to squeeze him into lists. I find myself wishing he was a hero so that he could activate Glade command abilities and help out in hero-based objectives. But at the end of the day archie's abilities are similarly effective, more reliable, and cheaper.

Yea if you boil our army down to its most competitive components, you almost always end up with tons of Hunters, Archie, Hive and Drycha. Add Glades and Allies to taste. What kind of battleline do you run? I tend to learn toward solid blocks of 20 Spites/Dryads, but i keep getting tempted to just go with the bare minimum of 5 Spites + 5 Spites + 5 Tree Revs.

@jake3991 Thanks for that! These are the kind of posts I come here for! However do note that Durthu is actually only 340pts rather than 380pts. Its not a big deal but it does push the Hunters into a slightly different league. They should outperform Durthu because they cost 18% more! I personally prefer the Hunters over Durthu, mostly because he never ends up fighting close to a forest. The +2 attacks are just too conditional.

Agreed. Tzeentch has some incredible models including Kairic Acolytes, Lord of Change, and Ogroid Thaumaturge but most of the competitive lists are just horror and enlightened spam. Its similar to the Idoneth Deepkin book. Externally it performs fine because of a single list (or more specifically, 1-2 units). But internally its a quite a mess.

Sylvaneth book external balance was right on the money, but it suffers from an overly character-heavy unit selection. Also the internal balance is a bit off with units like Hunters being insanely good while units like Branchwych and Ylthari have no meaningful purpose. I don't know enough about the other armies to answer this question super honestly, but I will say that Gloomspite, Sylvaneth and Nighthaunt are always fun to play with/against. Cities is looking to be pretty fun too once the meta adjusts. I also think Tzeentch has some fantastic model variety. Look for it to be contender for "most fun" army once it gets a new codex.