Treekin spam..

New list, at 2k

Lord:

Spellweaver: lvl 4 wizard (life)  313pts
                    Dispel scroll
                    Glamourwave Kindred
                    Elven steed

Core:

10 glade guard: banner of eternal flame 142pts
10 glade guard 120
10 glade guard 120
10 glade guard 120

Special:

7 Treekin, 455pts
6 Treekin, 390pts

Rare:

Treeman 285pts
Great Eagle 50pts

Total: 1995pts

Thoughts: This drops the VERY expensive magic protection of the rhymers harp + unicorn combo to add another unit of treekin at the cost of dryads, 2 unit champions, an eagle and the magic protection..

It does mean that I have two hard units, and that with regrowth and lifebloom I have a good chance of making them stick..

It does mean that I am super vulnerable to warmachines, engineered flame runed cannons for example.. I do have 1 eagle to hunt warmachines and can force some hard choices.. against empire it's not soo bad as i get my 5+ ward which can stop a cannonball straight.. and regrowth again is great..

I do lose look out sir, cos I'm not the same sized base at the rest of the unit.. (need to look that up) if the spellweaver is on a horse and is in the treekin..

Deamons.. how bad the deamon match up I'm talking horror hordes with firestorms, flickering fires and miscelaneous flaming death galores is remains to be seen.. I have a lvl 4 with a dispel scroll whihc hopefully can keep my units intact till we make it to combat at which point it's not so bad.. Bloodthirster with flaming axe.. err yeah I guess I try and redirect with the eagle and if I had to engage do it with a toughness 8/10 treeman.. it's generally not good.

warriors of chaos.. treekin pre buff can take chaos warriors on a fair match up, as long as I don't go against 30 chaos warriors with flaming halberds.. umm yeah again = awkward.

watchtower: with no starting troops that I particularly want to start in the watch tower.. I have to garrison with glade guard until I can get the treekin in.. not necessarily a problem but could be awkward. As it puts me on a back foot from the start.. not sure if reforming with 7 treekin is enough to get 12 inches.. somehow I doubt it..

Well it performed well in the test game today, beating a 2 stone horn, and 3 units of morgfang cavalry ogre list, but it was true he had no wizard.. so I was dwellering his 20 man ogre unit and flesh to stoning treekin/treemen left right and centre.. Looking forward to next monday.. where a new report is due and i'l get round to putting the dwarf one up some time as well..

2000pts Skaven vs. Wood Elves

Right army lists:

Spellweaver: lvl 4 wizard (Life)
                    dispel scroll
                    rhymer's harp
                    glamourweave kindred
                    unicorn

10 glade guard
10 glade guard
10 glade guard
10 glade guard, banner of eternal flame
13 dryads

8 treekin, tree kin elder
treeman


Skaven List: His army list was neatly written in half it included the slaves, hellpit, doom wheel and grey seer (all the exciting stuff) he presumably lost interest.. at this point and the rest of his army is represented by a bunch of numbers and I am left guessing as to what is what.. the good news, his grey seer was named  (Skeek Lord Of Terror), so we will let him off.. (this is what I think it means..)

Grey seer, talisman of preservation, warlock weapons 330pts
Battle standard: great weapon... some 50pt magic item/magic banner he never revealed what it did and was
represented by a 50 in his sheet.. 124pts
Assassin with a -1 to hit item *shrugs* and the mystery PoS whatever that means.. 170pts

Core: 100 slaves, shields 250pts
35 clan rats 169pts
warpfire thrower 75pts

special: 15 gutter runners, slings and poison + champion with smoke bombs 295pts

Rare: hellpit abomination with warpstone spikes 300pts
doom wheel 150pts

OKAY: after translating his list that is what it comes out as.. equally, his core comes out at 494pts, and his total is 1863.. so I'm going to guess that the unit he crossed out when he thought he had too many models was supposed to be in the list.. so there should have been 20 clan rats more.. *shrugs* maybe he was just feeling sorry for me.

To anyone who read my previous comments, I was happy to see a lack of warp lightning cannons.. So where's the flaming attacks he asks, "What flaming attacks I ask innocently.." - "There's always flaming attacks in an army.. he replies." I try and look innocent and resist the temptation to say something like you see the unit with a banner which has flames painted on it and hoped..

Spells:
He got Plague / -1 toughness spell / the Dreaded 13th and something else
I got Double Awakening of the Wood, throne of vines and shield of thorns.. I chose at a tough call dweller's below over regrowth and flesh to stone.

Deployment:

Deployment was interesting, I mirrored the doom wheel with the treeman, a risky choice but it stopped the wheel going through my lines..the dryads mirrored the gutter runners, and the treekin held the centre with the glade guard behind them. Both eagles sheltered behing the huts. Both the grey seer and the battle standard are in the unit of clan rats with my spell weaver being in the treekin.

Skaven Turn 1:

Movement: Doom wheel was irritatingly slow as was the hell pit, the rest moved forwards nothing too surprising.

Magic: 3/1, he spends two of his three warpstone tokens to 6 dice the Dreaded 13th.. oh surprise surprise he got a double 6.. I scoop a unit of glade guard off the board irritatingly the one with the banner so I have nothing to deal with the hell pit.. 

Shooting: long range poisoned shots at the dryad drop 2.

Combat: none

Wood Elf Turn 1.

Treekin failed to charge the slaves.. it's not like they needed a 6 or anything. I should have charged the treeman at the wheel or kept him back, as it was I accepted he'd charge me by letting go with the initiative.. I should have atleast charged with the long shot and hoped for a 9+ or moved back to counter charge away from the 12 inch lightning and get the charge by luring the wheel.. hmm.

Eagle moved to support the dryads, in the hope that he couldn't sling down both..

Rest of the glade guard turned to deal with their old buddies.

Magic: 2/1 aside from wishing I had warpstone tokens.. I did manage to channel, I 2 diced thrown of vines which he let through before casting shield of thorns which he dispelled.

Shooting: shot the clan rats to bits.. Treeman got an 8 for hits, which failed to wound.

Close combat: none

Skaven Turn 2

Movement:

His slaves charged the treekin, the wheel charged treeman. Gutter runners failed their ld test and moved 6 inch back unable to march. The hell pit and clan rats moved to support.

Magic: 6/3, he 3 dices poison on the 50 man slave unit, I four dice dispel it, he attempts to reduce the toughness of the treekin which I dispel scroll, he tries to plague the far left glade guard which I manage to dispel with two dice.

Shooting: he get's the str 8 hits on the treeman, but fortunately only 1 wounds doing 2 wounds on the D6.
His gutter runners kill 5 dryads with some good rolling.

Combat: the spellweaver takes a wound as does the treekin before the treekin kill 15 between them.. he passes his steadfast save.

The treeman takes 3 wounds to impact hits.. and I watch in disgust as the 2d6 attacks hitting on 5's wounding on 6's take him down.. SIGH

Wood Elves Turn 2

Movement: Dryads charge, going down to 3 from stand and shoot, eagle charges in to support.. other eagle charges clan rats.. glade guard dither aimlessly (I think they turned to face the hellpit.. not on map)

Magic: 6/5, six diced dwellers on the slaves.. obviously didn't get a double 6 and he got a double 6 on his dispel attempt SIGH. Still, using the 5 dice left, I 3 diced awakening of the wood taking 3 wounds off the doom wheel which promtly ran around into the hill taking another wound. And 2 dicing shield of thorns on the treekin. killing 6 more..

Shooting: took a wound off the hellpit.

Combat, spell weaver who had been healed to full wounds was avoided in combat, the slaves failing to wound, the treekin which had also been healed took a wound before killing 18 or so more slaves..

Eagle wounds the battle standard before running away, leading the clan rats into the treekin and blocking the hellpit abomination.

3 dryads kill 3 before drying, the eagle survived the assassin jumping out and failed to do anything... Drawn combat.. sigh YOU HAD TO WOUND WITH YOUR STOMP STUPID BIRD (rant over..)

Movement: hellpit shambles forwards, and doom wheel moves towards archers rest is locked in combat.

Magic: 5/4, he got off the -1 toughness spell on the treekin I dispelled the other spells cast.. He didn't dispel shield of thorns which inflicted a load more hits.

Shooting: not in range

Combat: eagle dies to assassin
Spellweaver challenges skaven, the battlestandard accepts finding out to his surprise I don't have annoyance of nettling, unicorn fails to gut him, but after taking a wound kills him with the stomp attack!!
Treekin batter skaven slaves going down to 1 wound on a treekin. Both units hold in combat. Treekin failed to hurt the Grey Seer :( he passed his 4+ ward.

Wood Elf Turn 3

I charged the glade guard into the side of the clan rats, it's so rare I get ranks, I thought you only needed 1 rank to negate ranks.. oh well.

Magic: 6/6: dwellers 6 dice.. no double 6.. he double 6 dispels.. Spellweaver takes the doom wheel out with awakening of the wood, and renews both remain in play to heal the unit to full health.

Shooting: doom wheels dead so no shooting:

Combat: Grey seer wounds spellweaver in exchange for a wound taken from the unicorn.. the unicorn wounds with stomp.. but he passes save. Lose 4 glade guard in exchange for 1 rat.. treekin make up for the abysmal show with another 14-16 dead. Clan rats, fail a ld 10 test and flee 11, the glade guard pursue 4.. well I didn't expect that.. but it does clear things up for him..

Skaven Turn 4

Movement; hellpit charged glade guard in flank.. seer rallied. The warp thrower which has not existed on the map came through the gap..

Magic: 5/2 managed to dispel the toughness debuff preventing me from going down to 3.. but had to let the poison through. 

Shooting.. lost 8 glade guard to the warpfire thrower and 1 in the second unit.

Combat:  I overestimated the slave casualties so will ignore that combat for a turn to make it balance for next turn..

Hellpit did 3d6 str 5 atks wiping the glade guard down to 1.. which took 5 thunderstomps.. poor chap. Overun connected with his skaven before it connected with my flank.. after consulting the rule book we realised that he stops.. to the spellweavers relief. 

Wood Elf Turn 4

Movement: Eagle prepares for another suicide run.. but the seer flee's, the bird stops an inch from the hell pit.

Magic: 5/3: 2 dice awakening of the wood taking 2 wounds off the hellpit, 6 dice dwellers on the seer's unit fails to cast.. he dispels thrown of vines and shield of thorns end of turn.

Shooting: kill the warpfire thrower.

Combat: wipe out the slaves *YAY* I reform to face hell pit

Time end's, and we are being kicked out... so victory points:

Skaven: 753

Treeman 285

13 dryads 156

10 glade guard 120

10 glade guard, banner of eternal flame 142

Eagle 50

Wood Elves: 724

slaves 250

Battle standard 224

Doom wheel 150

standard from clan rats 25

warp thrower 75

Result DRAW..

Thoughts:.. 

• Well we both agreed it was a weird game, and both felt a bit cheated.. while I had an incredible magic winds rolling with 12 followed by 11 failing to get dwellers off with 3 turns of trying and he had no scroll... if i'd halved that unit at any point.. it would have been very different.
• I'm not too upset about the treeman as It was a risky move putting it there, and I wouldn't have complained had it paid off, I was hoping he'd get str 2/4/misfire not 8 as it was i was lucky he had to kill me in combat, it was just embarrassing to die to 2d6 str 2 attacks or whatever that thing has.. (Note opponent looked up his rules feeling sorry for the tree..)
• I underestimated the gutter runners, I feel a tad hard done by, as if the eagle had wounded once with 2 attacks hitting on 3's wounding on 3's with a stomp included.. I would have won combat and with their poor ld had a good chance of running them down. I'm not sure what I'd have done differently, except ignore them, I should have moved the dryads towards the middle to threaten charging hte slaves to add an extra x attacks speeding the rate of killing them. and he'd have been stranded with a 400pt unit.. as it was, I fed him victory points.. suicide run with eagle, as it was the wounding hte battle standard was critical as it meant the unicorn finished him off, I was struggling to play the misdirect game in this one due to the speed of combat starting and me actually wanting to be in the one combat that happened.. I should have concerned about the assassin and conserved VP however.
• Lore of life.. i'm sorry I ever doubted you.. will you take me back.. you will... okay. in all seriousness while the weaver was a fortune she single handedly drew me the game regenerating the treekin killing the battle standard adn the doom wheel and killing a ton of slaves and clan rats.. Lore of life is much more effective when you want to get into combat with your units..
• I made a mistake of getting into combat with the slaves.. I was too eager to actually use my 24 str 5 attacks that I didn't realise that is exactly what the 100 slaves are there to soak up.. Ideally, I'd have used the treeman to block the slaves being stubborn and sent the treekin hunting the seer.
• He was playing 100pts down.. I can't see it having made a huge amount of difference, the difference was a unit of clan rats with crew, If anything it would have given me something for the glade guard to deal with and the treekin would have more than welcomed a double flank charge.
• Critical points: hellpit avoiding combat.. enough said
• dreaded 13th taking away flaming.. one turn of coordinated shooting on the hell pit and I'd have probably taken it down to within 2-3 wounds making it easily dealt with later with no chance of coming back.. and I' wouldn't have to turn to kill 10 rats I don't get VP for...
• Dryads and eagle not doing 1 more wound, as I say eagle fluffed spectacularly, and if I'd won combat he'd have been ld 6.. while that combat went badly,like the treeman I don't think it was a necessarily bad decision it just didn't pay off, and losing 10 to shooting was below the par. that said, was the eagle the right choice to send in.. no, not just cos it fluffed it, but if the dryads were to make it to combat they should have been able to deal with gutter runners (Who failed their fear test.. as it was he killed the same amount as me.. SIGH)

List tweaking definately to follow, and thanks for reading.

As ever any feedback is always welcome.

Hello All,

It's been ages since a last post, damn lack of fantasy players at the club on Thursday...

Anyway, I digress, but don't worry I have not forgotten my promise to put the dwarf battle report up will happen soon complete with actual photo's..

Anyway,

I have a game booked for tonight, 2K vs. Skaven apparently, and while I wait for my train I thought I'd put some pre game thoughts up.

My list:

Spell Weaver: lvl 4 (Beasts), rhymer's harp, dispel scroll, glamourweave kindred: unicorn 415pts..

Core: 10 glade guard, banner of fire 142pts
10 glade guard, 120pts
10 glade guard 120pts
10 glade guard 120pts
13 dryads, 156pts

Special: 8 treekin, treekin elder 540pts

Rare: 2 eagles 100pts
Treeman 285pts

This works out to near 2k.. my only problem is how horribly pricy the spell weaver is :S,

however treekin are ridiculously tough, str 5, toughness 5 monstrous infantry pre buffs.. there weakness is flamable.. what uses fire:

Deamons.. Okay, most of it is str 4-5 so the T5 with a 4+ armour will keep them alive.. atleast till combat, a blood thirster with the axe will just be awkard and upon conferring my handy deamon codex.. is within 500pts.. well just hope we don't play against one.

Lore of fire.. all str 4, 5+ armour and T5 should keep me alive.

Magic weapons.. not much I can do about it..
Banner of fire.. if it's a small unit shoot them.

I'm running the Rhymers harp with a unicorn in the unit, A. It gives my wizard a safe place to hide, if anything the skaven game tought me is my spell weaver is very vulnerable in a ten man glade guard unit, as they cannot physically join dryads.. only way to be a forest spirit is to have a mount and cav can't join skirmishers the only source of a bodyguard is treekin. While a obsidian lodestone would be more efficient, I ummed over a battle standard with one in the unit, but this was EVEN more points 35pts to be a wild rider kindred alone + steed or stag.. I decided to make do with MR 2 for a 3+ ward against the everasting tirade of magic abuse they will be bound to take..

Dweller's below is fine.. not too scared about that, pit of shades is only a 1/2 chance so not TOO bad.. for 65pt models with a large base, purple sun is worse as it will hit more.. but that is what the dispel scroll is for.. and Eagle assassination is always an option..

Still my metagaming self wonders what to expect from 2k of skaven.. I get a healthy save vs. Warp Lightning and other abuse that comes my way.. I might have to avoid being chumped by slaves the key is going to be hunting the grey seer/s that will inevitably be power scrolling 13th's spells around.. cos it would be rude not too. I'l be watching out for doom rockets this time...

I'm intrigued as to the rare choice of the skaven player.. Doom wheels are really bad as they cannot be fled from, however I have two units that can take them +amber spear, take D6 wounds at str 10! Hellpit abomination I have the trusty flaming arrow unit, so could be a pain if they get first turn 13th'd or something.. I lose the fire arrows.. and that thing get's up a billion times.. but not too worried. Finally the warp lightning cannon.. while I reasure myself with probability it's more likely to be str misfire-4 and do nothing.. but I dare to fear the turn 1 where both cannons expode right in the middle of the treekin doing d6 wounds each with str 10... (although 8 would do it..) I just hope my eagles can get there first..

Beasts / Life

Beast's I like for Amber' spear (the only reliable way of dealing with monsters for WE), curse of anraheir is really good in a match up against ws4 great weaponed units.. taking them down to hitting on 5s will really ruin  their day, and it could be critical in a match up vs. chaos warriors etc. Savage beast or horro's and transformation are poor, I would switch out transformation as that one is unusable and savage beast can turn a self respecting spell weaver into a monster.. the pann's pelt is just even worse as I have 1 hero.. that said, the signature spell is amazing..

Life: First, the lore attribute in a unit of treekin screams USE ME USE ME..and even sitting here writing this, it does look even more appealing, combined with regrowth in one turn you can heal up to full strength in the case of a tough fight or heavy shooting, awakening of the wood is marginally better than flock of doom.. shield of thorns actually becomes useful with a foot print as massive as it is, and against steadfast enemies the ability to cut through them faster becomes an issue.. You have dwellers which put me in the running against the last time  Iplayed skaven.. I got lucky but I noticed that I was one of the few people running a dispel scroll.. earth blood also becomes considerable but there's not much I'd exchange it for as I already have a 5+ ward.. so it only becomes of use if they are letting me have vines... T7 treeking does seem fun and would make a major difference vs. great weaponed psychoes of choice so as good as str 5/t5 dryads is.. I have persuaded myself in this rant that regrowth & lifebloom are the way to go.. and it means I can keep using my stone treeman model as a token..

That said.. at 2.4k when I get weaver and ancient.. I look forward to savage baest of horro's him.. for a health 8 str 9 atks with d6 str 9 hits... after seems okay.

Will let you know how I do.. :S (Damn Skaven)

Twigs and tweaks..

Right,

In the aftermath of the tournament and such I have come to some observations of the list as well as play in general..

My army:

60 glade guard can devastate armies.. (Good)
Flesh to stone supplemented with an occassional dwellers is great (Good)
A level 4 is enough to guard against most agressive magic armies, though the dispel scroll is crucial was worried about not being able to stop some magic phases. (Good)

Monsters or multi wound models that have T6 or more are bad... cos even at close range my shots are wounding on 6's I do have the shots to pour out and you only need 5-6 6's. However, if they have an armour save this gets a lot worse.. The flaming banner is a godsend for the inevitable Hellpit abomination/hydras/regenerating frothy monster of choice..

The doom wheel is a particularly bad monster to fight cos. A. it's only 150pts so theres 2 of them, but critically it moves in the remaining moves phase so I cannot flee from it.. I have to confess to feeling a bit miffed at HAVING to stand there with no running away.. I was playing a game against ogres today and I found myself fleeing 5-6 times in one game... the inability to run away is devastating..

HOWEVER

Conclusion: I need to have something that can combat the monsters.. The treeman is a solid choice as he outstats most monsters with a ward save and a solid 3+ armour and as shown he was more than man enough for the job to take out one wheel... So the obvious consideration would be to take a treeman ancient.. I am having to build a 2000pt list for the GT's and a consideration is to drop the spell  weaver in exchange for 2 lvl 2's with a dispel scroll and a staff of sorcery. Thus giving me an effective lvl 3 dispeller but no lords choice lost. I have aeriels blessing which grants regeneration which is a solid buff, as well as call of the hunt which is one of the few spells in the game that lets me charge into combat! +1 attack as the secondly use of call of the hunt creates 3 attack dryads.. Fear the humble spellsinger.. I ramble back to the point..

The second option for anti monster is the humble spirit sword.. for anyone who doesn't know it's a 55 pt magic weapon that auto wounds (doesn't ignore saves sadly) but for each wound it does, we both make a roll and add our ld (his is 10) loser loses that many wounds..

Thoughts:

• Give him long enough HE WILL KILL HIMSELF
• Auto wounding is GREAT as the main problem with monsters is their T6+
• most things arn't ld 10.. and they use their unmodified ld.. lets do a quick check
• Aracknarock: 5 Steamtank: 10 Doomwheel: 7 Hydra:6  hellpit abomination: 8 dragon: 7-9 Daemon Prince: 8 greater Daemon: 9, stegadon 5
• Okay.. so it's looking pretty encouraging, not liking the steam tank.. but I'm always going to struggle with that one so we'll ignore it for a minute.

Now.. I can fit a spirit lord AND a lvl 4 into 2k..

Idea's.. do I have him in a unit.. I can't have him in a dryad unit as the only way to make him a forest spirit gives him a mount.. so he'd have to be in either a treekin unit.. or a glade guard unit.

Eagle? or Alter Kindred.. I'm inclined towards alter kindred as the extra attack is useful however more critically do I want him to be my general.. he's probably going to die sooner or later so I don't want to give up the 100pts.. but saying no to ld 10 is silly especially when playing the stubborn treeman game.. I'm inclined to keep the spellweaver as the general at ld 9 and save myself some pts 25 in fact..

Dragonflame gem or dragon helm.. 5 pts for a 2+ ward vs. flaming attacks, if I have to face a deamon prince or bloodthirster with flaming axe will be worth it.. it also limits the offensive magic in the deamon match up.. as well as anyone who takes fire.. not always useful but for 5pts I'm inclined to like it..

So 500pts to spend

Spellweaver: lvl 4, + dispel scroll 275pts

Highborn: spirit sword, alter kindred, 225pts..

hmm that doesn't leave him very much.. and he's sitting there with no saves and open to everything and their mum to shoot him.. 

Right, so let's drop alter kindred and stick him on foot in a unit with 25pts to play with.. dragonhelm, light armour and a shield later.. he has a 4+ armour save... wow that is just depressing.. can't really afford any of the 3+ ward items.. hmm but if I dropped the dispel scroll for another arcane item i could afford the 3+ ward that breaks.. or the one that doesnt' work vs. magic.. hmm 

We will come back to that one!!

TO THE PLAY TEST TABLE:

Game vs. Ogres.. sadly his monsters were both giants so I didn't really want to go near them as giants are ld 10 :(.. however he did kill his way through 2 gorgors which was 180pts back for a 225pt unit.. his ld 10 bolstering my lines was a godsend.. NEEDS more playtesting..

If I was to go against the skaven again.. I'd have him on one flank with the treeman on the other to defend against the wheels.. do a quick bit of maths.. after impact hits and magical death.. all resolved on the glade guard unit.. highborn goes first 4 attacks. 2.6 hits all auto wounding.. he gets a 5+ save so a probable 2 wounds getting through. with a 3 ld advantage 'on average' the wheel goes down.. or as On average as you can with a spirit sword..

Against a lizardmen stegadon army the sword is invaluable as I doubt my army would be able to stop 2, 1 would be pushing it.. I can flee then counter charge possibly overrunning into another lizard dropping 2..

------

Right.. other considerations I have been thinking is I want to playtest the twilight sisters.. without opening the can of worms of whether their eagle is a monster or a monstrous creature.. (i will contact tournament organisers before hand in this case) the ability that intrigues me the most is that on a hit (with bs 6) that unit has to take a str test or cannot move.. if they are using a screening unit of gnoblars I can paralyse the str 2 blockers so they can't get out of the way.. against most units it's a 1/2 chance of stopping it and even against a block of chaos warriors having a 1/3 chance of stopping them is great..

Being able to place a small blast on a 2+ even at str 3 is cool too at maximum against small base models it's a 21 hit.. so 10.5 wounds on t3 would have helped in the horde match up incredibly.. 

Would be fun to have vs. the 200 marauder outflanking army too as they are only str 3 being able to paralyse them would be useful.. 

Other thought is that they cannot be killed unless both are killed in a phase.. meaning they are quite good at holding units up especially against a monster with 5 attacks.. sadly I have to worry about things like ld tests.. but it would be a good option to hold up the scary stuff.. again it depends if the eagle is a monstrous cav making them 3 wounds each.. having to take 6 wounds of them would be tricky.. Then again I am getting 9 str 4 attacks too which allows me to at-least contest combat

The twins are something that look okay on paper, and I think can massively change the way the game is played.. cos no-one will use them, people will have certainly not playtested against the twilight twins so will have to think on the spot which is good.. my problem is if you get a bit unlucky with a few rolls the 325 pts you spent on them to stop a few units moving won't happen if he passes all his str tests.. and you get to the point where your very luck reliant ;(

order of lord choices at the moment:

Spellweaver + spirit sword

Treeman Ancient + 1 dispel dice and possibly nettlings

Twins

both the bottom two would have a lvl 2 singer with staff of sorcery for magic defense..

stay tuned for more mindless ramblings on lore of beasts vs. lore of life and of course the dwarf battle report with colour photo's!!

As ever, subscribe and comment :D

Ben

Battle Report vs. Skave

Right, just after the game 1 someone comes over and asks "are they wood elves" Me: "Yeah.." Him: "And you won" Me: "Sadly" Him: "what you running?" Me: "See for yourself.." I pass him my notebook with the list figuring I'm not too bothered about people seeing what I am running.. the only thing I have at all secret is the dispel scroll.. anyway, I'd seen this blokes army and decided of all the armies on the boards it was the one I didn't want to play against most.. skaven with 200+ plus models and dual wheels..

SO OBVIOUSLY: as we are sitting around for lunch the same bloke came up to me and goes "Ben?" "Yeah.. your playing me" Typical.. anyway, a few seconds of moaning and hoping to roll dwellers below we are off to the game 2..

Army Lists:

Wood Elves:

Spellweaver, lvl 4, dispel scroll

Treeman

10 glade guard
10 glade guard
10 glade guard
10 glade guard
10 glade guard
10 glade guard: banner of eternal flame

8 dryads
8 dryads

Skaven

Grey Seer, Power Scroll, Scalm
Chieftain: Battlestandard bearer, obsidian lodestone, shield
Warlock Engineer: lvl 1, doom rocket
Warlock Engineer: brass orb

40x clan rats, shields, musician, standard, champion, warpfire thrower
55x skaven slaves, musician and champion
2x doom wheel

Deployment:

Okay.. He deployed with a doom wheel on each flank.. with an engineer in 2/3 slave units presumably for leadership bonus's. The chieftain is in the middle rat unit with the seer and an engineer in the far right unit.

My deployment, I put all the tree spirits on the right flank in the hope I could push through one flank and use the forest for cover.. But I'l confess I was wondering how I could take down that many rats.. and not die to the doom wheels..

Spells.. I got dwellers below, throne of vines, awakening of the wood and flesh to stone..

Spells.. He got the thirteenth spell and vermintide.. that's all he cast.

Skaven Turn 1:

Movement: He forgot to move his doom wheels which need to be done in the compulsory movement stage.. I considered myself lucky.. The rest of his army moved 10 forwards..

Magic: he rolled an 11 and channeled as well.. after pondering for all of about 3 seconds.. he cast the dreaded 13 targetting my spellweaver's unit.. out came the double 6.. and I was powerless to dispel. I rolled my eyes mildly. The 4d6 of the 13th comes down.. and he rolls a 10.. a VERY relieved Spellweaver is left standing as her entire entourage is annihalated.. The miscast is a str 10 hit which takes 8 slaves to a fiery doom and wounds the seer, 5 dice lost from the pool and the magic phase is over..

Shooting: he restrains both wheels.

Combat: none

Wood Elf Turn 1

Movement: 

The Spellweaver dives into another unit the glade guard eagerly assimilating her into their ranks.. The forest spirits fortify the forest daring the rats to come in after them.. The rest of the arm moves gingerly into short range.

Magic: 

Roll a 6 and a 1, he channels.. he let's me have a throne of vines on 2 dice, I five dice a flesh to stone on the treeman he fails to dispel on 7 dice.. I swop my generic treeman for the stone one.. just cos I had the model.. plan being that he can't take my treeman out easily with the doom wheel..

Shooting:

A hail of shooting goes out killing 6 clan rats and 8 or so slaves.. I felt a little outclassed here.. 

Combat:

None

Skaven Turn 2:

Movement: 

His grey seer joins the chieftain in the slave rats leaving an engineer to lead the slaves versus the forest spirit fortification.. the wheels trundle slowly forwards..

Magic: he rolled a 7 chanelled once.. 3 diced vermintide,  I tried to 3 dice dispel and of course failed by 1 to get the 8 or something that I needed.. the 2d6 str 2 hits dragged 4 elves to a bitter death.. he then ate a warpstone tokens two of 3 to cast surprise surprise the 13 spell targetting my wizards unit.. this time without the double 6 I scrolled it..

Shooting.. he fails a ld test and kills a slave on the left flank, right one is fine.

Engineer in the far left unit death rockets the glade guard next to the forest.. large blast hits perfectly and str 5 blasts wipe the unit. On the bright side.. the brass orb thrown out of the other engineer at the treeman misfires and kills a slave..

Combat: none

Wood Elf Turn 2

Movement, the tree spirits charged respectively while the other dryads moved round to outflank.. the rest of the army moved back nervously..

Magic: 

Rolled a 7 still having throne of vines in play.. 6 diced dwellers targetting the slave rats.. no double 6 came up, but it turned out he didn't have a dispel scroll and he failed to dispel it.. 27 rats, a grey seer and a dead chieftain later I began to think I had a chance.. 

The slave rats fail their leadership test and quite sensibly fall back.

Shooting: the two left units pepper the slaves dropping 7 more rats.. and the two right units drop 5 more clan rats.. 

Combat: the Treeman double wounded the wheel taking no wounds back. The wheel flees and the tree fails to catch him, failing to reform and forced to pursue

The dryads assassinate the warlock engineer before loosing combat by 1.. at this point the critical mistake of the game is made.. I thought that skirmishers were steadfast in forests if they are touching a forest but it has to be a majority.. so I make my ld 7 test which of course i fail.. the dryads are overran and the slaves overun ready to charge the spellweavers unit next turn.. oh dear.

Skaven Turn 3

Movement:

Yeah.. spellweaver was too close to the board to flee  (scale on map is a bit off), the rats in the middle moved forwards, the wheel charged the glade guard who can't make a charge reaction cos it's random... The wheel rallies.

Magic:

The spellweaver with her last breaths shuts down the puny engineer..

Shooting:

A few glade guard get fried.. and the wheel fails to hurt the treeman. 

Combat:

The spellweavers unit loses 4 of it's number before being run down.. the unit in combat with the wheel are ground down and flee, the wheel doesn't pursue.

Wood Elves Turn 3

Movement: Firstly, the reason the 2nd unit of glade guard just lost 4 chaps was cos they were the victims of vermintide 2 turns earlier.. and I wasn't rewriting the maps. Apologies.. you get the idea.. I couldn't get the left 2 out of there so they stayed to fight.. the 3rd ran like hell. The dryads moved back to protect the evacuating glade guard and the treeman charged.

Magic: none

Shooting: some futile kills nothing significant at this point

Combat: treeman crushes the wheel 

Skaven Turn 4

Movement: the slaves and the clan rats charge forwards the slave unit moves away from the dryads. The fleeing slaves flee some more..

Magic: none successfully cast

Shooting: resisted wheel

Combat the glade guard in the forest despite loosing 5 or so hold, the other unit flee's dragging a few rats down with them..

Wood Elves Turn 4

Movement: consolidation of units into the woods

Magic: 6 dice treesinging with the treeman serfing the forest 2 inches forwards.. WOO

Shooting None

Combat: loose the last glade guard unit in combat.. he reforms.

Skaven Turn 5:

Movement: 

He shifts his army to face me.. and miraculously rallies his slaves on a 3.. stupid musician..

Magic: nothing casts

Shooting: restrain

Combat: none

Wood Elf Turn 5

Movement: charge the slaves with the treeman.. quick confirmation of rules.. ld test for terror is done regardless of how successful the charge is.. slaves none the less pass their ld 5 test.. move my survivors a bit..

Magic: none

Shooting: none

Combat: none

Skaven Turn 6

Movement: 

He knew full well I was going to try the terror test again next turn,but couldn't avoid it.. so shifted to improve his odds and left it..

Magic: nothing cast

Shooting: none

Combat: none

Wood Elves turn 6

Movement

Managed to scare slaves off the board..!! 

Magic 

None

Shooting: nothing significant

We actually had to count up the victory points...

Skaven:

Spellweaver 275+100 general

5x 10 glade guard + banner 622

8 dryads 96

total: 1093

Wood Elves:

Grey Seer + general: 405

Chieftain: 117

Warlock engineer 65

doom wheel 150

one unit of slaves 116

total 853..

A confession to make, at the time we counted that I got the bonus 100 for BSB despite not running him down, we thought it was a bonus for killing him like the general. Either way, vp's werent' counted for the tournament so it didn't make a major difference..

Feedback:

Well, i'l be the first to admit I played the game atrociously.. For the first 3 turns or so I seemed to have lost any sense of tactical acumen and assumed my opponenet would continue to make mistakes like forgetting his doom wheels..

Mistakes: The entire glade guard line deployment was wrong.. I can't say what exactly but standing there as that many rats comes towards you just doesn't work. I think I overestimated the combat potential of his army after all they are only str 3 toughness 3 rats.. I hugged the forests appropriately, I should have used my bonus wood in this match up as it negates steadfast and I was obviously going to be on the defensive.. I didn't want to clutter up my own board edge too much..

The dryads charging.. while I did manage to kill the warlock engineer thus negating the ld bonus that allowed the treeman to scare them off later I knew I was steadfast in the forest and he wasn't .. there was no way he'd have charged them into the forest with dryads in.. if i had only charged with the treeman and kept the dryads on the defensive to retreat behind with my evacuated glade guard.. I'd possibly have been able to survive on victory points.

I got lucky on dwellers, though Dave said afterwards his army was horribly weak to it and he knew it, but this stroke of luck bailed me out of the game and woke me up.. i had already charged by then but I seemed to play a bit better after this moving my units around the forest. 

KEY: in the skaven match up the dryads are key.. find terrain and hug it using the dryads to block the skaven onslaught.. if i'd had the other unit of dryads on the left I'd have probably lost the flank to the wheel but it wouldn't have been quite a white wash on the flank which I gave up pretty much without fuss..

Skaven Tricks: I saw the power scroll coming.. and took vermintide instead of letting him sneak through a power scrolled warpstone 13th.. but I confess I was horribly open to the doom rocket.. not sure what I could have done, but I feel loosing a unit to a 30pt magic item was somewhat a bad tactical move.. I guess I should have been keeping my range and forced him to go after the trapped forest unit or the central unit a it was that engineers unit bumped off both..

Allocating attacks against the engineer.. I should have used my 4 attacks 7 total in 2 rounds on the engineer with the trapped forest unit.. I just wasn't thinking victory points..

I was lucky that the brass orb didn't bump off the treeman.. who was the rallying point that my army clawed back to only a minor loss too.. maybe just a case of keeping my distance from suspicious looking warlock engineers.. 

In future: I'd have abused terror a lot more.. he's stubborn ld 8.. I'd probably have the treeman in the center forcing him to divert the wheels to deal with it or not be able to move through the center.. the treeman would then march towards the grey seer and try to kill him until stopped hopefully forcing a few ld 8 panic tests on slave units on route.. have a dryad unit in each forest.. 

use my free wood

not overestimate the combat potential of the army..

hopefully lessons learnt.. and i look forward to playing against skaven again to see if i learnt anything from my first tournament game vs. skaven and it showed :).

Ben, as ever feed back welcome (and apologies for the proportions on the maps.. the moves are right.. it's just the scales gone a bit mad..)

Battle Report vs. Dark Elves

Got to the first board.. after scouting out the trays of armies.. First game pairings and I am going against dark elves unsurprisingly with dual hydra's.. will be an interesting game but I can't complain at pairings if I play it right I should have the advantage..

Army Lists:

Wood Elves

Lord: Spellweaver, lvl 4, dispel scroll 275

Hero: none

Core: 8 dryads 96

8 dryads 96

10 glade guard 120

10 glade guard 120

10 glade guard 120

10 glade guard 120

10 glade guard 120

10 glade guard, standard and banner of the eternal flame 142

Special: none

Rare: Treeman 285

Dark Elves 1500

Lord: Supreme sorceress, lvl 4, sacrificial dagger, lifetaker, black dragon egg 345

Hero: Master: Battle standard, heavy armour, shield, sea dragon cloak, repeater crossbow, dragonhelm, the guiding eye 160

Core: 16 repeater crossbowmen, standard and musician 175

16 repeater crossbowmen, standard and musician 175

28 Dark elf repeater crossbowmen, standard and musician 295

Special: none

Rare: War Hydra 175

War Hydra 175

Deployment

Deployment Observations

• Firstly, I as the wood elves had to deploy first, while I’d have liked to see where he deployed his units as I was always going to forfeit the first turn +1 it was useful to choose the side which gave me the most cover as I was going to be defending it for the majority of the game.
•  I started with the glade guard unit at the far bottom way back, my thought was that it would be better to have a few units out of range first turn than keep my line static and I would rather not shoot with one unit than have one unit overexposed and shot to bits by druchii crossbow fire.
• He deployed his line pretty obviously as he had a long line of crossbow units even clumsier than mine. Note. The multiple units of 10 are much better than units of 16+ at trying to navigate terrain.
• I hid the dryads behind the hill to back up the treeman making up my forward spearhead, while leaving the other unit back to atleast pretend to have a close combat ‘specialist’ unit to deal with the hydra.
• My wizard was deployed in the unit of glade guard with the banner of eternal flame. One extra flaming bow shot!
• We agreed all terrain to be base terrain, hence the bases are shown on the map.
• The blue circle is a swamp, and the stony rocks are exactly that.
• His sorceress and battle standard are both in the same unit in the middle.
• Both hydra’s were deployed to the bottom half one middle, one bottom.
• Wood Elf Plan: I only have two units to worry about the dual hydra’s I have the unit of eternal flame to atleast counter the regen and being toughness 5 I am not too worried. Effectively I only had 10 wounds to take down to counter his entire combat force. I deployed staggered to give myself a line of retreat, in the critical turns of close range fire I didn’t want to bring it down to a point of I fire everything and then if he’s still standing my line collapses. This way I can flee with impunity and without real consequence, far on enough that I am unlikely to go off the board. 

Dark Elf Turn 1

Movement:

•

• His army moved forwards the crossbowmen 5, the hydra’s 12..  

Magic

• He rolled a 3 and 1 promising I thought, but he then one diced power of darkness.. Rolling a 2 he sacrificed a crossbowmen rolling a 5 more, taking it up to 11. Id need 3 dice to dispel it reliably and the amount of times you’ve two diced a dispel needing a 7 and rolled a 5 leaving yourself horribly open. I decided to let it through and grin and bear it. 
• He then 6 diced the boosted version of Melkoth’s Mystifying Miasma, targetting my wizards unit rolling a double 6. He reduced all their attributed by 2. 
• Then the miscast, snake eyes ‘Dimensional Cascade’ 5 crossbowmen were annihilated before the unfortunate sorceress was dragged to an untimely demise.

Shooting

•

• A hail of fire at the treeman, but hitting on 6’s, 3 + 1 from moving, 1 from long range and 1 from repeater crossbow fire and wounding on 6’s meant only 1 wound went through which was saved with the treeman’s 5+ ward. 
• The bottom unit was out of range of anything. 

Close Combat 

• None

Wood Elf Turn 1

Movement:

• My archers not in cover moved 5 forwards staying more than 29 away from his archers forcing them to fire at untits entrenched or tougher..  

Magic:

•

• I rolled a fair 6 and a 1. No channel, 3 diced throne of vines which with the +4 was a pretty good result. He turned out to be one of these players that will not let throne of vines go off nomatter what and 6 diced it. I was content to drop flesh to stone on the dryads and end the magic phase life being short ranged and all that.

Shooting:

• The treeman was just out of range for strangleroot shenanigans and the unit shooting past him killed 1 crossbowmen.
• The flaming arrows failed to hurt the hydra unsurprising being BS2 and long ranged, but the other 3 units managed to take 2 wounds off the bottom hydra reducing it’s breath weapon to only str 3.

Combat

• none

Dark Elf Turn 2

Movement:

• His hydra’s ran forwards 12.. His crossbowmen stayed where they were, not quite sure what he was going to do with the bottom unit but he decided to not go into the swamp just yet.

Magic:

• None

Shooting:

• •The top unit let fire at close range and managed to knock 1 wound off the treeman.. 
• He shot the main unit at the treeman as well choosing to not fire at the T6 Dryad skirmishers. This unit took 3 more wounds off the treeman and I let out a sigh after rolling the saves.. Note. Master activated guiding eye for improved accuracy.

Combat

• None

Wood Elf Turn 2

•

Movement

• The Dryads and the treeman charged successfully, the stand and shoot reaction took the monstrous creature to a wound and dropped 2 dryads one from the Banner carrying noble. 
• The rest of my army turned to face the hydra’s, with the units at the bottom retreating oh so slowly.. Backwards.

Magic

• •I wished my treeman wasn’t so far away.. So I could heal some wounds.. Instead I made do by luring out his dice with throne of vines and flesh to stoning the dryads incase he redirected into them.

Shooting

• The flaming arrows lead the way taking 3 wounds off the lead hydra, the northern most squad and the other forest squad easily taking the last two wounds off it.
• The remaining glade guard failed to hurt the non on fire hydra.. Mostly through the merit of a 4+ armour save as opposed to the regenerate..

Combat.

• The treeman passed his I5 attacks against him, before swinging out crushing 3 and stomping on 4 more. They passed their steadfast with the banner bearer nearby. 
• The dryads got lucky and only lost 2 of their number to opposed to the 4 they killed, only loosing combat by 1, which they passed on Ld 7. 4 kills and a charge vs. Battle standard, standard, 2 wounds and a rank. I possibly should have directed my 3 attacks on the BSB, if he’d been in contact with 2 dryads I would have.. But I didn’t know if he was going to turn out to have a 1+ armour save or some such and I desperately needed the combat ress.

Dark Elf Turn 3

Movement

•

• This is where scale get’s a bit iffy on the map.. The hydra charged the glade guard who promptly fled to the safety of BEHIND the dryads.. 
• The crossbowmen left out of combat moved into the swamp.. 

Magic

• none

Shooting

• The crossbowmen firing at the wizards unit in the forest needing 7’s got 3 hits! Which failed to wound..

Combat

• The treeman broke the crossbowmen killing 7 or so.. Failing to reform he ran them down instead.. 
• The dryads lost 2 more killed 4 more but still stood their ground! 

Wood Elf Turn 3

Movement

•

• Perhaps it was the excitement of the day.. But I completely forgot to turn the treeman around.. I knew when I rolled my magic that this was likely to cost him his life.. The rest of my army turned to face the hydra.. The wizard retreated behind the glade guard while the dryads moved forwards to stand in the way of the hydra.. 

Magic

• I 6 diced flesh to stone on the dryads… standing in front of the hydra..

Shooting

•

•  The flaming arrows wounded once.. Damn cover and he passed his 5+ armour save L.. The rest of my shooting failed to take a wound off the damn thing.. Umm awkward..  

Combat

• The dryads killed 2 more and lost 1 more.. And miraculously still held.. 

Dark Elf Turn 4

Movement: 

•

• The hydra.. Eying the stone dryads infront of him went for a sneaky charge past against the glade guard.. Possibly out of range but I fled anyway.. Preferring to play it safe.. He redicted into the dryads rather than failing charge and breaking cover.  

•

• His crossbowmen stayed in cover

Magic 

• none

Shooting

•

• Crossbowmen began a gunfight with the remaining forest archer unit with flaming attacks now hitting on 6’s single fire killed 2. 

Combat

• The dryads vs. the crossbowmen went down to 1, killed 2 and held.. Brave brave forest spirits.. Did mean I couldn’t strangleroot the crossbowmen before they gunned my poor treeman down. 
• The dryads vs. the hydra took it down to 1 wound.. And lost one of their number to the high natural str of the hydra.. Drawn combat 

Wood Elf Turn 4

Movement

•

• The glade guard content to stay 29.5 inches away from the crossbowmen moved slightly..  
• The tree feeling very slow today.. Turned around.. 
• Gladeguard rallied on generals ld. 

Magic

• Renew stone on dryads.. Wished I had regrowth.. 

Shooting

•

• everything shot the entrenched druchii killing 2! 

Combat

• The last dryad was cut down.. 
• The dryads vs. the hydra killed him but lost one to the I5 beastmasters.. 

Dark Elf Turn 5

Movement

• The crossbowmen turned to face the tree..

Magic

• None

Shooting

•

• The tree was executed..  
• The other squad failed to kill any entrenched elves.. 

Combat

• None

Wood Elves turn 5

Movement

•

• The dryads sped towards the crossbowmen.. 
• The rallied glade guard rejoined their brothers in the woods.. 

Magic

• renewed flesh to stone on dryads.. 

Shooting

•

• Everything shot the pond unit.. Killing 3 or so. 

Combat

• None

Dark Elf Turn 6

Movement

• Reform crossbowmen

Magic

• None

Shooting

• Shot dryads failing to kill any

Combat

• None

Wood Elves turn 6

Movement

•

• The dryads charged the pond unit who fled. 

Magic

• Magic: none as it was the last turn.. And awakening of the wood was out of range

Shooting

•

• Tried to shoot battle standard’s unit killed 2 or so. 

Combat

• none

Aftermath

Total Victory Points

Dark Elves: 381 

• Treeman 285 
• Dryads 96 

Wood Elves: 995

• Supreme Sorceress 345 
• 16 Dark Elf repeater crossbowmen 175 
• War Hydra 175 
• War Hydra 175 
• General 100 
• Standard 25 

•

Thoughts:

• A massacre for the wood elves.. And a great first game..  
• I made a major mistake as I hadn’t realised that fled but not off the board doesn’t score for victory points I should have killed the last 4 instead of trying to force a ld test on the BATTLE STANDARDS unit.. But thinking I already had the vp there wasn’t much else to do. 

Aftermath

•

• Firstly, it was a good match up, it was a dark elf gun line while I had a wood elf gun line.. It was Battle for the pass so I had maximum space to abuse my 6 inch range advantage.. I had the ability to move and shoot so at worse I was hitting on 5’s and 6’s and that was long range at a hydra in cover.. While he was forced to hit me on 7’s by firing at me into cover. I felt that if I played it properly I would have a very good chance. 

•

• Secondly, his supreme sorceress blowing herself up turn 1.. Bad luck yes, and it’s hard to tell how much of a difference it would have made. She was using the lore of shadow, so I am assuming that the plan was to reduce toughness of key units before wiping them off the board with now wounding on 2’s with repeater crossbows. Just like to say this is a really neat tactic that I hadn’t seen before.. If the miscast hadn’t happened would have been interesting to see the two wizards battling over the toughness of dryads.. He also did point out that he could have mindrazered his unit to become str 9 to repel my forest spirits.. Well, that it what dispel scrolls are for but I guess he could have 9 diced it with the druchii special rule. I’d have probably directed attacks at T3 no save Sorceresses though and would hope to have killed her in the 4 turns I was In combat with that unit. 
• My dryads passing their break tests.. Great for me they did their job admirably holding up 455pts at a cost of 96.. I couldn’t have asked for more.. Only thought was perhaps I should have tried to sneak my spellweaver northward behind the hill out of sight to augment the treeman back to full health and support both dryads.. In the end I went for the safe plan and tried to bleed him on point denial and victory points using my advantages and accepting the forest spirit losses. 
• FORGETTING TO TURN AROUND THE TREEMAN.. Enough said.. If he’d passed his reform test after breaking the crossbowmen and had charged in.. He’d only have got the masters attacks and 1 elf wounding on 6’s before he had 5+D6 str 6 attacks on the battlestandard.. Oh well deserve it for making the mistake..
• Not knowing that fleeing doesn’t count for VP.. Lesson learnt..
• Aimless dithering with units.. I am going to say that the northernmost unit was left at that range for strategic cover behind the hill and not at all cos I didn’t really know what to do with them..
• Overall.. The army was played how it’s supposed to be, and with some luck got a great victory point total.. And lessons have been learnt for next time.

Comment's welcome

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