awcamawn

Total War: Warhammer: Realm of the Wood Elves DLC. It was love at first battle. Love for the aesthetic of the army, love for the playstyle. Bought a bunch of Wardancer and Waywatcher models (back when they were still 'Wanderers,' RIP) within weeks of the DLC's release. Total War: Warhammer was a game I had played and enjoyed for most of a year at that point but it wasn't until I met the noble, ferocious, and mercurial denizens of Athel Loren that I fell in love and had to figure out what this Warhammer thing really was. Funny thing is Total War had a mechanic that made the player choose between Orion or Durthu at the start of a campaign, a choice which would then severely limit your access to either the forest spirit or aelven sides, respectively, of the old Wood Elf army list. It was like the video game was already training me for the Wanderer/Sylvaneth split of the army in AoS, and the ally system! It was the aelven side of the army I had fallen in love with though, and so I quickly assembled a collection of Wanderer models and never looked back. It's hard to believe I've already been in the hobby almost 3 years now, and with the awesome new Cities of Sigmar/Living City allegiance my beloved 'aelves of the wood' are here to stay (and better than ever - now Wild Riders can actually do damage, like I remember them doing in Total War). For Alarielle, for Ghyran, and for the memory of Athel Loren!

Cities of Sigmar - Nomad Prince As people have mentioned you have a wide variety of choice within Cities of Sigmar - but you'll probably want a hero rather than a unit if you intend to paint just the one model! The Nomad Prince is the most recently produced of the available Cities of Sigmar hero models, and it shows imho. He's an absolutely fantastic model with a great pose and a fun variety of textures and materials to paint - feathers, hair, wood, metal, antlers, gems, leather, etc. He embodies the nobility, tenacity, and diversity of a Free Cities army (and as a bonus won't hurt the wallet too badly or take up a lot of space on your shelf).

I mean, both Eternal Guard and the Nomad Prince received +1 to a save when the warscrolls got updated but mechanically that increase is baked in and has nothing to do with shields whatsoever. Neither the Eternal Guard or Nomad Prince warscrolls contain the word "shield" at all anymore, even in the description of what wargear they carry. This means you can now model them with or without shields per personal preference. If you want to convert a model into a Nomad Prince they only need a spear and a bird to be wysiwyg. You could look at it as 'the shield adds one to save now' when comparing the old warscroll to the new one, but really the shield just isn't required any longer mechanically.

Tumultuous times for Wanderers fans, y'all. I plan to stick with my pure Wanderers collection and there's still so many options to consider with the new warscrolls and battletome. I kinda just laughed off some of the 'Wanderer lore' we got and I wouldn't pay it too much mind guys - on the one hand it says Wanderers live on the outskirts and on the other it says a majority of the Living City's military leaders are Nomad Princes. I like to think of it this way - so many Wanderers made their way to the Living City at one point or another that some serious haves & have-nots have been established over the years within the Wanderer population as some of the aelves don't adapt to 'city living' so well. Even living in the Living City livin'. But what I like about AoS is that there's tons of room within the realms for us to make our own story for our dudes, and to go our own way with it. GW definitely encourages us to do so - they had that article recently about doing conversions for Cities of Sigmar armies, and there was that one they did a while back about creating your own AoS 'Free City' as well. I think the story that Josh Reynolds wrote for the Living City in the CoS battletome, 'Nature's Wrath,' did a much better job explaining the Wanderers' current place in the 'official' lore. Of course 'Nature's Wrath' is told from the perspective of a Nomad Prince who rides a stag into battle at the head of some Wild Riders - give us that model GW! I think Josh also does some coy referencing to the upcoming[?] Kurnothi in contrast to the Prince - "He was no worshipper of Kurnoth... He was simply a prince without a kingdom..." Also, did you guys notice the new Eternal Guard warscroll doesn't reference shields at all? So now it's even easier to use the cool shield-less old metal models and to pose the models from the plastic kit a bit more freely without having to place the shield. Also makes painting them way easier, and I think they kinda look cooler sans shields.

I always loved the Waystrider model but never got around to painting him - or fielding him more than once or twice - due to his sadly lackluster warscroll. Now I'm thinking that model may actually find a home in most of my regular lists as a Wildwood Ranger unit champion. I really like the Wildwood Ranger/Eternal Guard kit but for variety I've converted some additional units of Wildwood Rangers from both old Wardancers and the new Wood Elf Blood Bowl team and I think the Waystrider would look really nice as the champion of either of those converted units. Alternatively he could probably be given a bird and a shield pretty easily to run him as a Nomad Prince. This whole thing is certainly a bummer, but I'm going to try to find ways to roll with the punches. Hopefully this clean-up can at least mean some cool warscroll updates for us. Wild Riders actually behaving like the shock cavalry they should be, please?

I think y'all may very well be right, but consider this: the fact that the Wanderers are confirmed to be in the Cities book does not preclude them from being included in another book. What if Cities was a stop gap to give a lot of under-supported models some love and then Wanderers and Dispossessed (et al) got their own thing later? I mean, many chaos factions have options to use their models in different ways under different allegiances and we know the Cities book will basically be doing just that for Stormcast Eternals - giving SCE players effectively a new allegiance option by letting them use their existing armies/models as a Hammerhal or Anvilgard army for example. Maybe Wanderer units could be used in a Kurnothi army in a similar way - if we do get a Kurnothi battletome. I'm not sure this is likely per se, but I do see it as a distinct possibility. Exactly! I've been ninja'd!

Nope, too many not-tree aelves. The not-tree aelves are the boring ones. We're finally getting around to the only aelves that matter. 😋 They could release 13 factions of aelves and if none of them had anything to do with Wanderers there still wouldn't be enough aelves for me. Conversely, if there was only one faction of aelves and they looked something like Wanderers then they could stop there.

And Hammerhal, of course. The question remains as to whether each city's list of included factions remain the same or if we perhaps get added to a city like The Phoenicium - which is in Ghyran. The fact that the Waywatcher is made of metal does make me worried (and our metal/finecast Spellweaver too!), but I'm trying to just go about my hobby business-as-usual - even if the Wayfinder and Waystrider (for example) get Legend'd I still want to paint them up for the exact reason I bought them: they're cool! Ultimately I think cautious optimism is the best stance here; no use worrying too much until we know more, hopefully soon. I would be so happy for a new plastic Waywatcher... I agree it's unlikely that Wanderers specifically will be addressed/updated as an allegiance I am hopeful of at least a few warscroll updates for us. Things that modernize the wording of certain rules - like making the Waywatcher's Invisible Hunter ability not specific to the Shooting Phase only but rather Shooting Attacks, making Shield of Thorns cause mortal wounds on unmodified 6s, things like that. Wouldn't be surprising to see our 'aura' style command abilties become 'wholly within X inches' but with an increase in range to match as well. Most of all I'd love to see the Wild Riders get fixed though, and this quote from @Nick in York on pg1188 of the rumor thread has me hopeful: If Wild Riders can be true shock cavalry again and stop "[hitting] like a wet fish" (as one of GW's newer rules writers acknowledged), that would be amazing! Also he apparently mentioned 'reviewing' warscrolls, which I have to think can only be good for us! I'm also more optimistic to know that Sam was deeply involved in the Cities book; he really did a great job with the Warcry ruleset imho. BTW - I'm hopeful that Wanderers can get rules for Warcry at some point, but for now I'm tempted to play either DoK using Wardancers as 'witch aelves' or IDK using Wildwood Rangers as 'namarti thralls' and Glade Guard as 'narmati reavers.' Though first I'm waiting for a true reveal of what WHU: Beastgrave may hold in store for us, before I go investing at all in Warcry - too many game systems!

The Living City which was Dispossessed, Sylvaneth, SCE, and us; Hammerhal which is all order except for Seraphon; and strangely Greywater Fastness which is the heavily industrialized city whose allegiance focused on war machines.

There were 7 cities from Firestorm - Hammerhal, Anvilgard, Tempest's Eye, Hallowheart, The Living City, Greywater Fastness, and The Phoenicium. Wanderers could be part of The Living City, Hammerhal, and Greywater Fastness - we'll see if the book makes any changes to which factions' units can be taken with which cities. This was kinda interesting, in a breakdown of the news from Open Day the Warhammer Weekly guys ended up speculating about the future of Wanderers for a few minutes when they started talking about the Warhammer Underworlds teaser. They actually seemed pretty optimistic about future releases for us, here's link to where they start talking about Wanderers: "They are going to get the 'Daughters of Khaine treatment.'" How cool would that be?!

No support < GHB Allegiance < Combined with City-Slickers < Combined with Sylvaneth < Battletome: Wanderers Not at all - we're one notch up from where we were yesterday and two notches up from when I dropped hundreds of dollars on the army in the first place. And if the WHU 3 teaser has anything to do with Wanderers [or aelves of a similar aesthetic] I'll be over the moon. Ultimately Wanderers players have already won because we have the coolest models and theme. 😋

I guess it's just a matter of perspective - Ogors, Orruks, and of course my beloved Wanderers are my personal favorite Warhammer factions so I'm pretty pumped for all of it and didn't need anything else to be very excited as it is. Of course for me it's: Any news for Wanderers whatsoever > Anything [and everything] else they could possible announce.

Hey, did you hear about this new teal contrast paint - Akhelian Green? More like Namarti Green - you'd have to be born without eyes to think that paint is green! Eh? Eh? What else, what else....

Wow, lot's of new y'all. Pretty excited that we're getting support in a battletome, would have rather had a book all to ourselves but I guess sharing with the city-slickers is far, far better than nothing at all. A bit concerned for our metal heroes being relegated to Warhammer Legends, but no use worrying about it until we know more. And it's not like, rules wise, any of us would miss the Waystrider, for example (though the model is still awesome). It would be amazing if we actually get the warscroll rewrites that we need though (Wild Riders actually feeling like shock cavalry for one). The ability to include Sylvaneth units as fully part of a Living City army (not allies) could be very interesting. I could see myself adding Alarielle and even Drycha to my Wanderer collection for sure. Very, very interested in all the rumors still swirling that we could be part of a Looncurse style battle box or that some of those silhouettes for the new season of Underworlds could be Wanderer related somehow. Plastic Wardancers in some form is all I could ever dream of.

I understand where your coming from but they also mentioned: "That’s not all! There will also be a painting competition, a paint-and-take area, as well as Warhammer Previews that will offer you a glimpse into the future of the Mortal Realms…" That last bit seems encouraging for potential battletome previews, I think they are just trying to get folks excited about the stuff we already know about (Warcry, season 3 of Underworlds) so they can surprise us with some new announcement, hopefully for AoS itself.

Why do you assume we must be getting hysh aelves? Really hoping for a Wanderers update.

I mean, I originally used the old website warscroll as well and it didn't list rend on their bows there either... What I was trying to tell you is no version of their warscroll has ever had rend in Age of Sigmar. I didn't play Warhammer Fantasy, so perhaps they had the equivalent of rend in that game back when they were the Sisters of Avelorn but Sisters of the Watch have never had it. Would be nice if they did though. If you ever thought they had rend, that was just wishful thinking.

They never had rend in Age of Sigmar. Their current warscroll hasn't been changed since it was originally printed in the Grand Alliance: Order book. If Sisters of the Watch had -1 rend and double the shots per model vs Glade Guard and still only cost 33% more they would be a no brainer. Sisters of the Watch put out a solid number of reliable shots that will force your opponent to roll a lot of saves, but they don't excel at targeting heavily armored enemies. We don't have much rend outside of the Glade Guard's once per game Arcane Bodkins, which is why they remain a good option to have in our toolkit.

The off board deployment that the battalion's version of Realm Wanderers grants is optional, and can be used on a unit by unit basis. You can deploy off the board all, some, or none of the units in the battalion in any combination; you effectively lose a hero phase only if you choose to deploy all your wizards and heroes off the board at the start. Instead you can have just a couple of key units off the board ready to move in and flank but deploy your heroes normally and not lose a hero phase. In short, the Waystone Pathfinders "Realm Wanderers" ability is really just a nice optional bonus but it's really the Defensive Volley ability and the big reduction in number of 'drops' you have that make the battalion worth it.

The correct answer is always going to be rule of cool here: if you're tempted to take some Phoenix Guard, go for it! They're super resistant to mortal wounds, have quality attacks, and can reroll 1s to charge (and Aura of Dread is pretty nifty if it ever comes up). But in a Wanderers army, Eternal Guard are battleline - which is potentially more important than anything else. They also get double the number of models per point, which is key for holding objectives against large enemy units. The units nominally have equal bravery, but Eternal Guard will reroll battleshock in a Wanderers army while allied Phoenix Guard will not. Fortress of Boughs not only allows Eternal Guard to match the Phoenix Guard's attacks and save rolls per point (both get 21 attacks on 3+/3+ and one has 20 wounds on a 4+ and the other has 10 wounds on a 4++), but it also makes Eternal Guard have more synergy with Shield of Thorns compared to Phoenix Guard as the +1 modifier is more important than the base armor save there. And naturally only the Eternal Guard can properly synergize with the Nomad Prince, Waywatcher, and Spellweaver to reroll 1's, get -1 to enemy shooting attacks, and return d3 models to life. To me, Eternal Guard win out as a highly efficient choice in a Wanderer army while the Phoenix Guard are a great choice in a mixed order army.

The good news is that all the compendium units got their points reprinted in the new GHB, so all the old wood aelf stuff is now 100% matched play legal again. I miss my Wardancers and Waywatchers...

Yes you can! Any allegiance can take the realm artifacts as additional options once you declare from what realm your army hails. Really hopeful we will get a battletome but I don't want to get my hopes up by expecting it to come soon. I do think one of the GHB allegiances will get a book within the next three months like Beasts of Chaos did last year, but who's to say which one? You could take two expensive endless spells, like the Emerald Lifeswarm and the Aethervoid Pendulum, or add another Wayfinder, Waystrider, or Nomad Prince for 80 and then get one of the cheapest endless spells with the 20 points left over.

Looks like a really fun list! I like the Emerald Lifeswarm model, and I think it fits a Wanderer army really well thematically. I've been trying to make it work but have personally found the spell hard to use effectively. The initiative can be so important for a shooting army I find my opponent ends up being the one to move the Lifeswarm, usually to the middle of nowhere. Glad to see they reduced the cost to 50, though. Hopefully it works better for you and it was just down to poor planning and placement on my part. There's always the Aethervoid Pendulum, now at 50 points, if you have the same luck as me. Placing the Nomad Prince so that he is within 12" Protective Volley range of any worthwhile target but is not also immediately killed by any such target before your next hero phase is the core puzzle that Wanderers players looking to use the battalion have to solve. It's a puzzle with a lot of variables and it's a pretty tough one. I don't know if I'm the best to give good general advice on the subject but what I have personally found with Myst Walker specifically is that you may be surprised by the number of ways opponents will get around it. It could just be my local scene and the armies my friends have but there are many units with abilities that can cause mortal wounds without actually making an "attack" which would be prevented by Myst Walker. Evocators and Morrsarr Guard both have 3" range mortal wound abilities, for example, and armies like Gloomspite and Nurgle can put out streams of D3 mortal wounds without an "attack." That is not to mention that an enemy's damaging Spell casts will be able to target the Prince normally as well. It's a very cool and thematic Command Trait and is extremely strong against the right opponents, but watch out for those sneaky spells and abilities. There are a couple of artifacts you could give a Nomad Prince to increase the defensiveness - Viridescent Shawl combined with the Waywatcher command ability and Look Out Sir gives -3 to hit with ranged attacks, the Forget-me-knot adds some defense against enemy heroes specifically, and in Malign Sorcery there is the ethereal artifact that makes your rerollable save un-rendable (still just as vunerable to mortal wounds though). I like your collection. You're definitely taking full advantage of the battalion with all the shooting attacks you can bring to bear. The thing that stands out to me is that your Sisters of the Thorn lack a particularly good target for their Shield of Thorns, as rerolling the Glade Guard's 6+ save won't be very effective. Having a unit of some Eternal Guard may be a good idea to screen enemy threats and give your archer more turns to shoot. They are also probably the best in-faction target for Shield of Thorns. Potentially you could swap out 20 of the Glade Guard, and put in 20 Eternal Guard (either 1 or 2 units) to stand in front. That'd leave room for another 80 point hero of your choice and a cheap endless spell to give your 3 wizards something else to cast. If you take a second Wayfinder prioritize putting him in the battalion over the Waystrider as his shooting attack is better for Protective Volley. A second Nomad Prince is another option, and would add a decent melee combatant and some good redundancy on his command ability should one of your Nomad Princes fall. Endless Spells don't have to mean buying new models either, if you have some weapon bits laying around you can make your own 'Quicksilver Swords' pretty easily, for example. You could also consider swapping the Waystrider for a second Wayfinder. Rules wise there isn't a great reason to take a Waystrider right now at 80 points when a Nomad Prince is better in combat and has a better command ability and the Wayfinder fulfills the same battalion requirement, is better at shooting, and makes Wildwood Rangers battleline. It's sad because the Waystrider is really cool, and I was hoping he was going to go down to 60 points to give us more reason to include him.

I myself have turned some Wardancers into Wildwood Rangers. If you have a Wardancer drummer use that as the Musician, select another model you can clearly make the Wildwood Warden (unit champion), and if you can get something to mark the Standard Bearer (I used the Tree Revenant banner from a box I had around) you'll be all set with a unit of 10 Rangers. The Waywatchers could be halfway to a unit of 10 Sisters of the Watch if you can get a few more models, or added to your Glade Guard to work towards a unit of 30 of those, or a number of them could be used as a Waywatcher hero model. Using 5 of the Glade Riders as Wild Riders or even Sisters of the Thorn would be easy enough, or you could look at running mixed order and use them as the High Aelf Reavers (which are battleline). Warhawk Riders don't line up with anything in the current Wanderer range, unfortunately. Maybe we get sweet killer eagle riders in the future and you can save them for that though! As a longshot you use them as allied Swifthawk Agents Skycutters. The Shadowdancer really just needs a bird and a shield to be a full wysiwyg Nomad Prince conversion; I've been planning to do that with my Shadowdancer. Alternatively, you could just use her as-is as a Spellweaver with staff. Both the Spellweaver and Prince are solid heroes to have.

Link to when he talks about the pages with Wanderer Allegiance Abilties. Looks like no new spell lore and no new battalions. Only changes at all appear to be a slight rewording of Myst Walker (to make the wording more straightforward) and now Singer of Spells also adds +1 to dispelling as well as casting and unbinding. Max size is listed as 20 on Warscroll Builder for Sisters of the Watch, but that is incorrect (Warscroll Builder also lists Sisters of the Thorn as having a 6+ save). It appears it will remain at a max size of 30 in the new GHB based on some youtube images. I think this will be my list with the new GHB, just not sure whether to have one unit of 30 Eternal Guard for a 1 drop army or to go 1x20 and 1x10 for more flexibility and be at 2 drops. Could also go 2x10 and get some endless spells. Although Quicksilver Swords and Aethervoid Pendulum both got increases of 10 points to their cost. Allegiance: WanderersNomad Prince (80)- Artefact: Forget-me-knot Spellweaver (100)- Blows of Mystic PowerWaywatcher (120)- General- Trait: Masterful Hunter Waywatcher (120)Wayfinder (80)- Artefact: Starcaster Longbow 20 x Sisters of the Watch (320)10 x Sisters of the Watch (160)20 x Wildwood Rangers (240)30 x Eternal Guard (210)10 x Wild Riders (200)5 x Sisters of the Thorn (210)Waystone Pathfinders (160)Total: 2000 / 2000Extra Command Points: 1Wounds: 135