Landohammer

I got a screenshot of the book page. Here is the exact wording: "Sylvaneth Wizards know the Verdant Blessing spell in addition to any other spells they know. In addition you can choose or roll for one of the spells from the Lore of the Deepwood table for each Wizard in a Sylvaneth army. " Verdant Blessing has no allegiance requirement. All Sylvaneth wizards have it. Also the Sylvaneth Designers Commentary clarified that Verdant Blessing is not in the Lore of the Deepwood.

Yea its a weird situation. They even specifically clarified in a FAQ that Verdant Blessing is NOT a Deepwood Lore spell. So as far as I can tell, it just requires you to be a Sylvaneth Wizard. (similar to the racial endless spells)

Here lies the biggest issue with Alarielle, she is a magnet for attention and just doesn't have the survivability of other big characters. Also note that as a flyer, she is is not offered any kind of LOS protection from woods and as a behemoth she cannot gain cover. So unless you have large pieces of terrain to completely block her profile out, then she is most likely ALWAYS visible to most shooters. Here are a few tricks I have picked up over the last few tournaments. -Take Dreadwood Glade: This will give her the ability to deploy out of range and then teleport herself pretty much anywhere on the map. -Take Spiteswarm Hive: This will give her a +3 to movement AND charge making her able to cover more ground on turn one. It also combos well with Dreadwood so you are making 6 inch charges rather than 9 after teleporting. Also provides a free AOE mystic shield during your opponents hero phase. -Keep a wizard with regrowth nearby and keep mystic shield up as much as you can. In my personal opinion Alarielle is competitive at regular levels of play, but she might be a bit inefficient on top tables vs optimized lists. I personally enjoy using her but ONLY in 2000pt+ lists.

I don't have the book in front of me but I believe that all Sylvaneth Wizards know Verdant Blessing right? (I don't think it is tied to Allegiance) So a Treelord should be able to auto-summon a wood once, and then summon additional woods via the spell. The value might be questionable though, since all the woods would block LOS and be constantly trying to kill the other 1700pts of the army lol.

Same. I try to give my FLGS as much business as possible but its getting harder and harder, especially with the newer models. Lets use Sylvaneth as an example. Spites and Dryads are both battleline troops in the neighborhood of 10pts per model. Dryads are $35 USD for 16 models. You can get 48 of them for ~$105. Spite Revenants are $40 for 5 models. To get 50 you would pay ~$400. I don't think this kind of price creep is sustainable.

Its funny that you grabbed a sorceress because she will probably be an auto-include in my cities lists. There is a lot of hype around the battlemages, but the Sorceress warscroll spell insanely good. The potential casting bonus and decent command ability are just icing on the cake. I don't think the Sisters of the Thorn are necessary in this list, since you already have batteline filled out. I would probably also try to squeeze in some darkling coven infantry so that the sorceress could boost her casting if necessary.

The more I think about it, the more I like a Sisters army. The investment would be huge but three units of 30 with a Nomad prince would be terrifying. That could be up to 25 mortals a turn + regular damage. Combined with the deepstrike and double move, this could really be hard to counter My one hold up would be the occasional use of realm rules in tournaments. There are a few realms that absolutely shut down shooting (realm of shadow most notably).

We should really get a sticky up with our wood placement restrictions (free and summoned). It gets asked alot and I find myself forgetting between games. You should definitely have two at all times. Remember that all Sylvaneth wizards know the Verdant Blessing spell that summons a forest. Three is the bare minimum I would personally take to a tournament. The primary strength of our allegiance abilities lies in teleporting between forests, so having at least two is critical.

I don't think GW ever intends to overpower or underpower an army. I honestly believe their overall goal is to make an internally and externally balanced book each time. We can see that in the relatively immediate nerf of Iron Hands. However, the execution of that intent varies wildly. It seems the book writers vary quite a bit in their abilities and the playtesters miss quite a lot. We just need to compare Sylvaneth and Slaanesh to see how two books released relatively close together can be so different in power level. Now if we wanted to accuse GW of favoritism on the basis of quantity of units released for a faction, that is absolutely fair. Stormcast and Space Marines have upwards of 4x as many units compared to their peer armies, and that is absolutely ridiculous. Fyreslayers have had one battleline unit for two years while Space Marines got 3 new tanks this summer. Tying this back to rumours: I really hope the delay for STD is due to its magnitude. I hope its a big release (even though I don't play them). The codex should be a big deal and it should tie the chaos armies together similar to how Stormcast ties the Order armies together.

That would be awesome, however the Sylvaneth already have Glades with (mostly) distinct subgroups such as Outcasts in Dreadwood, Treelords in Oakenbrow etc. I can't imagine Kurnoth becoming an additional glade so soon after a Sylvaneth codex. I'm thinking this is more of a Fyreslayer or Idoneth situation, where a thematic piece of an existing army is expanded on and formed into a unique army on its own.

I don't think a call-back to old Wood Elves is needed (though it would definitely be appreciated!). The Living City essentially fills that role now. But lets do note that Sylvaneth (and Stormcast) are actually allowable units in Cities of Sigmar, despite not being in the actual codex itself. So whose to say that we don't get a Kurnoth book that allows 1 in 4 units to be Sylvaneth/Wanderers/whatever?

Has there ever been a situation where a unit was pulled from a codex and added to another? If Kurnoth is indeed on the horizon, why would they have released Skaeth so early as a Sylvaneth unit? Its not unheard-of for warbands to precede codexes, but this just seems strange.

Yea agreed with Trevelyan. She may not be the most efficient use of 660pts, but her speed can leave opponent's panicking to deal with her while the rest of your army is left untouched. My casts with Alarielle are as usually as follows: Throne of Vines, Metamorphosis, Endless Spell Mystic Shield and Verdant blessing are good substitutes when you are out of Endless Spells or not in range of Meta. I keep Regrowth on Drycha since her warscroll spell is pretty weak and she always has a target if Alarielle is out of range. (herself)

Haneybird is correct. You can absolutely use 6's for Skyfires and 1's for Pink Horrors, since Bravery tests and To-Hit rolls are specifically mentioned in the destiny dice rules.

Ah you are right on the Anointed, sorry I misread the anointed's points. Dang he is cheap. The NP does give a +1 to hit for the wanderers though. (on top of the crazy good bird debuff). But I imagine the rangers will be teleporting out of the NP's aura most of the time, so I can see it being wasted. I won't disagree that Phoenix Guard are better, but I still am not convinced that wildwood rangers are rubbish. I would still prefer them over Dryads, Liberators, Tzaangors, etc. Maybe my expectations for battle-line are just really low. 🤷‍♂️

My meta has a lot of Bloodthirsters, Mortrarchs, Nagash, and scary Seraphon dinosaurs. A 260pt batteline unit that can pick up those models in one round of combat seems pretty decent to me! I agree on the battalion though. We probably have one of the worst in the book.

Fair point, and Phoenix Guard are definitely emerging as a frontrunner in Cities Battle-line choices. But 30pts is still a 23% price hike. Also their cheapest unlock character is a whopping 40pts more than a Nomad prince. So even with just 20 guys and a general you are looking at a 100pt price difference. Are they still worth it? Probably, but I would wince anytime my Phoenix guard end up fighting a monster lol.

I wish AOS had more situations where 6's were unfavorable. Currently its just bravery tests. Certain rolls of 6's can be *really* bad in 40k, such as perils of the warp and explosion checks. Probably not enough to outweigh saves and d6 damage rolls but at least its something.

I wouldn't run it either, but its mostly because of the tax and lackluster ability more so than the Rangers. I think Rangers are actually quite good for their cost, and are a solid battleline choice. There stats are similar to other elite elves, but the kicker is their 2 inch range and tiny base. So units of 20 can almost always get all 41 of their attacks. So while they excel at monster killing, they are decent at killing pretty much anything.

Yea if you bring Alarielle, I think you can easily trim a wizard. She brings 3 casts to the table. If you really want to have all of the Living City spells then consider Sisters of the Thorn since they can help you fill battle-line tax as well. They are about 30-40 more points than most wizards but you get a LOT of benefits for those points. (speed, shooting, larger wound pool, and their spell can really help SoTW stay alive) Drycha is great in any list but Durthu really only shines in Sylvaneth lists. He is really reliant on Wyldwoods and Glade buffs to maximize his damage output. Without them he has to rely on 3 attacks plus an impale, and that just isn't cost effective for 340pts. I would much rather have frosty. The hurricanum is great if you summon Hunters with bows but I think the Nomad Prince is more cost effective since he can fight well and has a very scary shooting attack for heroes. Not sure if it has been mentioned in a while but also remember Alarielle can't use the Living City deepstrike mechanic. Her base is 6.25 inches 😭

Wow 30 sisters. That is going to be an extremely scary shooting phase. What is that, 60 attacks if you don't move? Thats 10 mortals before you even roll to wound! I like it! If you have that many points in sisters then you should also consider a Nomad Prince for the +1 to hit ability. Even if he is only in range of the sisters once or twice, he will pay for himself. I do worry that you don't have enough combat punch though. Frosty can't be everywhere and as we discussed before, Alarielle isn't that reliable in combat. What will you be summoning with Alarielle? Kurnoth Hunters?

I like your list. I too am considering using Alarielle in a living city list. She combos well with the free heal and deepstrike. She also allows you to essentially sneak a unit of Kurnoth Hunters by the 1/4 limit. You could quite easily have over 50% of your army (points-wise) as Sylvaneth. However I wouldn't overestimate her combat punch. She is extremely swingy. The talon is only useful when you roll natural 6's and the beetle hits on 4's. I have played Alarielle in several tournaments and there are MANY instances where she completely whiffs. The key with her is to only charge units with more than 5 models so the beetle gets a +1 to hit. Also keep in mind that she does impact hits prior to combat. Many times i have charged a unit of 5 cavalry just to have one of them killed by impact hits lol.

I just played an Order army last night who used several Bretonian units. Two 140pt lords killed Alarielle (with mystic shield up) in two rounds of combat I was very surprised! Sylvaneth do seem to be underrepresented, which is fine with me. I think its mostly due to cost. I shudder to think of what I have spent on spites, hunters and forests. When the codex first came out, Winterleaf just seemed to be the clear frontrunner for competitive play. But now we are seeing Dreadwood, Harvestboon, Gnarlroot, and even Heartwood popping up. Thats definitely a good thing!

I would really begin to question my life decisions if I found myself scientifically testing dice for balance. I will leave that to TFG's in 40K 🤣 I am more concerned with something that happened about 5 years ago in WHF 8th edition. A guy had bought some bags of dice off ebay, used them in a tournament and won. But due to some complaints, the dice were tested and several were found to be quite obviously weighted/cooked. The guy actually voluntarily forfeited, and I have no doubt it was completely accidental. But now I always have the creeping anxiety when I buy cheap dice off amazon or ebay. Especially when those freak rolls occur and swing games. That anxiety isn't present when both sides are using GW dice. If they end up being imbalanced, at least we are all eating from the same table.

I use them almost exclusively, specifically the Sylvaneth and Chaos Space Marine ones. Its takes all of about 2 rolls before my opponent figures them out. However I always make sure to remind them what the 1 and 6 are. (usually just prior to the roll for sides). Between 40k and AOS, I have used them in probably 7-8 tournaments. (so say 20+ games). No one has ever asked me to use other dice. Honestly, I would actually prefer to play opponents with faction dice. Being an official GW product they remove any shred of concern for imbalance. They also look better in pictures when scattered around the board.