Wood Elves – Glade Riders

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The penultimate unit in Wood Elf Core is Glade Riders. They are the only non-Infantry core choice, and have the same stat line as a Glade Guard but, being mounted, are M9 and have an extra attack at WS 3 for only 7 points more.

They are Light Cavalry, with the Fast Cavalry special rule, and the choice of being used in Skirmisher or Open Order formation. They also have the Fire & Flee special rule built in (which costs an extra point for Glade Guard, so really the pony is only costing you 6 points).

Like the Glade Guard, they can take all the different types of arrows for an Asrai Longbow. I think here the choice is much more meaningful, depending on the role you intend the unit to play. I think there are a lot of potential roles for Glade Riders, as they are very good, cheap, fast cavalry. The obvious examples are as chaff/chaff removal, and war machine hunting. A unit of 5 is only 90 points, which, while not the cheapest chaff in the army, is still not bad. You can forego any magic arrow if they are just playing a chaff role, although Trueflight probably would make sense for just an extra point per model, thus giving you a much better chance of picking off a couple of wounds before charging the opponent’s chaff unit. For war machine hunting, I think you need more models, or perhaps two units, and give them Hagbane tips for the Poisoned Attacks.

Some units in the army can also be given Ambushers (this seems like a bad choice, given how unpredictable the rule is), Drilled or Reserve Move. Both of these latter two seem like they would be better on a larger unit, rather than a 5-model chaff unit, but they come with the caveat that this unit is T3 and has no armour saves, and so any kind of points spent here are also easily lost if you don’t protect them well.

Drilled is not something you’d take if you’re going to run them as Skirmishers, but that got me to think about what way it might work. Perhaps in a block of 12, so you could have a 3×4 marching column, march 27″ on turn 1 (yes, 27″, with as many wheels as you like and remembering that they get no penalties for moving through cover*) and pivot at the end of the march (thanks Fast Cavalry!). Then on your next turn, you declare a charge into squishy things (like War Machines) in the back line, Redress the Ranks to put 7 in your front rank, and 5 in the rear and get your full (+1 for Light Cav/Open Order) rank bonus. However, while this seems like it’s very fun in theory, I think the reality is that this unit will die to whatever shooting or magic missiles your opponent has, and that a unit of 12 with Drilled will cost you 240 points which you’d probably rather spend elsewhere.

Reserve Move seems like a decent rule for a unit that wants to perform flank / harrying role in the army, and I think this is probably one of the better roles for this unit. Being able to skirmish forward, shoot, and then move out of charge range/arc is going to be very annoying for your enemy. It also allows them to be positioned for a supporting / flank charge to help out your other units–remember Wood Elves more than any other army want to be charging with multiple units into the same target. However, I’ve a feeling they can perform this role pretty well without spending the extra +2 per model it costs to give them Reserve Move. It was pointed out to me that this special rule is only +1 point, so I think it’s likely auto-take on most units, so that you can shoot and still move 18″.

And the final role I see for them, and the one I think they’ll be used for a lot, is as a screen. Running a unit of Glade Riders in front of your Wild Riders not only prevents the Wild Riders from being directly targeted by enemy missile fire, it also stops the Wild Riders from making disadvantageous charges due to their Frenzy special rule.

Overall, I think running multiple small units of Glade Riders is a pretty effective way to spend your Core points. In a 2,500 point list, taking 3-4 units of 5 will eat up 3-400 points of that Core allowance, and give you some very fast moving units–they’ll die easily, but in the end, better them than something else in the army!

Of the five Core choices in the army, I rate the Glade Riders at #2 in the list. They are a pretty good choice, moving fast and forcing your opponent to deal with a minor threat with a lot of range, as long as you remember how easily they will die.

*After posting this article, it was pointed out to me that Glade Riders are the only unit in the Wood Elf army that don’t have the Move Through Cover special rule. I’m assuming this is an oversight and will get fixed in the Errata for Forces of Fantasy (I’ve also added it to the list of FAQ/Errata stuff I’m tracking). Any opponent who forces you to play without it should have their name written in the Book of Grudges–oh, crap, wrong army!

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Wood Elves – Eternal Guard vs Gors

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Edit: see my article in Eternal Vanguard for how I think Eternal Guard should be used, following the FAQ on Drilled.

After receiving some feedback that my article on Eternal Guard was perhaps too harsh, I thought I would look into how well they would perform in a 1:1 situation against a similarly pointed Infantry unit. In this case, I’m choosing Gors from the Beastmen army, something that we can assume every Eternal Guard (EG) unit would fight at some point, fluff-wise. I’ll look at what happens when EG get the charge, and then what happens when Gors do, and I’ll use a unit of 15 EG, the minimum number needed to get the full rank bonus. 15 EG costs 210 with full command, assuming no other upgrades – 225 with Shields. I’ll check to see if Shields make much difference also. For the same price (213 points), the Gors get 28 models with full command, so I’ll run the Gors 7 wide and 4 deep for maximum combat resolution. I’ll test them out with shields vs extra hand weapons (their two options).

Eternal Guard Charge

With I4 and Elven Reflexes, the EG will definitely be going first. They are running 5 wide in order to get their maximum combat resolution, so 10 models will get to attack, +1 extra attack for the champion. Hitting on 3s and Wounding on 5s, they’d get 2.45 wounds on average, which means 2 dead Gors. The Gors get to attack back with only 5 models out of their front rank, with extra hand weapons and a champion, so 11 attacks back hitting on 4s and wounding on 4s, so 2.31 wounds on average, killing 2 EG. If the EG have shields, this drops to 1.85 … still likely to take 2 casualties, just a little less probable.

The EG inflicted 2 wounds, are Close Order and have a banner, but now only have 1 full rank for rank bonus, so have a score of 5. The Gors inflicted 3 wounds, have a banner, are Open Order but are a Horde and can claim a rank bonus of +3, so have a score of 7. The EG will lose by two, and Fall Back in Good Order due to their Stubborn rule. They can use the reform as part of FBIGO to go wider, but they’d almost certainly lose any rank bonus then. Let’s assume they go to 6×2 in order to get all their attacks in on the next turn. However, the Gors will now count as having charged, giving them a Strength bonus (their special rule) and an Initiative bonus. Clearly, the EG will break on the next turn after being outnumbered more than 2:1.

If the Gors have shields instead of extra hand weapons, they’d drop to doing only 1 wound, which would make the combat a draw. Next turn the EG would attack first, and kill 2 more, and the Gor would kill 1 more and it would be a draw again. This would then come down to luck of the dice as to who would win.

I don’t think there’s much point in working out the result if Gors charge, clearly it will be in their favour. But what if we just need more Eternal Guard static combat resolution to work this out?

More Eternal Guard

If we have a unit of say 30 Eternal Guard, who are running 6 wide and 5 deep, (440 points with shields and FC) facing against a similarly pointed unit of Gors – I actually get 60 Gors at that price point, which is kinda ludicrous. Not sure I’d ever have a unit that big, but let’s do it for the sake of argument. Let’s go 10 wide and 6 deep, and say the EG get to charge.

13 attacks, hitting on 3s, wounding on 5s nets 2.91 wounds, so 3 Gors die. There will be 15 attacks back (7 models still alive in the Fighting Rank, extra hand weapons, plus champion), hitting and wounding on 4s, which will average 3.14 wounds (2.49 if they have shields), killing 3 EG. EG will still have their full rank bonus and being Close Order will have combat res of (3+3+1+1) 8. Gors will have (4+3+1) 8 also, so it will be a draw, or the EG might win by 1 if they have shields. However, this kind of attrition combat definitely favours the unit with more models, and if the Gors are the ones who charged, the EG are pretty much toast. They’ll go second taking 19 attacks (8 in base contact, 2 supporting, plus champion) and be wounded on 3s, resulting in 6.33 wounds, so only fighting back with 6 models and losing by a bunch.

Conclusions

Look, these are all contrived examples. In a real battle, there is terrain, other units to support, and so forth. However, knowing the math of combat against common foes helps every Wood Elf player make good choices about what their units can get engaged with. Taking on a similarly pointed infantry unit 1:1 is probably not a good plan for Eternal Guard, which again then puts me back to my conclusion that they are not optimal for the points value. Stubborn helps, shields help, but if my opponent took Eternal Guard, I’d see them as a juicy target of easy points.

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Wood Elves – Eternal Guard

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UPDATE

I’ve since found a good role for Eternal Guard, check out this article!

If you want to keep reading, by all means. However, my opinion is quite different since first writing this!

It’s taken me a while to figure out the role for Eternal Guard, and actually it’s only really been as I’ve tried to write this article that I think I’ve figured it out. However, I’m not convinced it makes them worth taking.

Eternal Guard are the other melee infantry Core choice for Wood Elves (after Dryads). With Light Armour and optional Shield for a point, they can have a 5+ Armour Save, which is as good as it gets for the Wood Elves (who apparently just hate the idea of living long enough to make Heavy Armour). At Weapon Skill 5, they are a little harder to hit in close combat than your average Core unit in any army, but they start at the pricy 13 points per model.

Like they Dryads, they are Stubborn and have the usual Wood Elf rules of Elven Reflexes and Move Through Cover. They are a Close Order unit, also get Martial Prowess, allowing them to make supporting attacks no matter which arc they are fighting in – a minor and situational buff. They have Asrai Spears, which are just like regular spears but with AP -1, so they are fighting at Initiative 6 when charged in the front (4 base, +1 from Spear, +1 from Elven Reflexes), meaning they’ll be simultaneous with I3 models such as Boar Boyz, Knights of the Realm, etc.

For an extra point per model, you can give them Veteran and/or Drilled, both having the restriction of only one unit per 1k points. All of this sounds great, until you remember a couple of points, and those points are Strength and Toughness 3. All of this leaves me asking: what role do they play?

They aren’t strong enough to be a hammer unit, that’s for sure (with only 1 attack each at S3 AP -1, even WS 5 isn’t really helping that much). So, are they an anvil? Spearmen often are, and being Close Order they can get some decent static combat resolution. But as soon as I start doing any of the math against common units I’d expect to take a charge from, it seems like they’ll get ripped apart pretty quickly. The one saving grace is Stubborn, so at least they will Fall Back rather than Flee. Here’s a quick peak at the math.

If I’ve 15 Eternal Guard (5×3) with full command, and no upgrades, it’ll cost me 210 points. Let’s say they take a charge from 6 Knights of the Realm (165 points, with FC). Everybody goes simultaneously, and I’ll ignore challenges for ease of math (it wouldn’t make much difference anyway). The Eternal Guard will inflict ~1.5 wounds on average (assuming the Knights have the Blessing of the Lady). The Knights will inflict ~3.5 (including 1 from the horses), giving them +2 combat resolution making the combat a draw (each have +1 for standard, +1 for close order/lance formation, and the Guard have +2 rank bonus)–except they don’t have that bonus any more because the Knights have First Charge, disrupting the unit. Oops!

And the math gets worse if you’re taking on something at WS5/I4 that’s charging you. Let’s look at a Lance of 6 Questing Knights, only 177 points with FC. The Knights attack first doing ~2.5 wounds, then horses and Eternal Guard go simultaneously, with horses doing another 1 wound and the Eternal Guard doing … wait for it … ~0.95 wounds back! There are two factors at work here – having fewer attacks back, and only hitting on 4s.

(If you’re curious, and I was, a Lance of 6 Grail Knights at 249pts with FC do ~6.1 wounds against the unit, +1 for the horses, and the EG would do a measley ~0.27 wounds back! Chaos Chosen Knights with Mark of Khorne, same price, 7.9 wounds, +2 for the horses, and ~0.16 wounds back).

So, you have to assume that any charge you take you’re going to lose the combat, and then Fall Back. Note that this only counts for the first combat, due to how Stubborn works. If you want to survive a charge from the big boys (like those Chosen Knights), you need to have more than 10 models, so that block of 15 is really the minimum you need.

However, now that you know what will happen, you can start to use this to your tactical advantage. A block of T3 Elves with a 6+ Armour Save are a very juicy target for your opponent, so if I were to use them, it would be in a way to try to encourage a charge from a unit that I want to then counter charge in the flank with (presumably) Wild Riders.

Eternal Guard take a charge in the front, lose and fall back.
Wild Riders can then hit in the flank! A simple and common tactic.

(Again, I got math curious – Wild Riders will kill ~3.5-4.9, depending on whether the Knights have a 2+ or a 3+ armour save).

So, it’s not the traditional sort of Anvil, where you can just stay put because you’re so dang tough, but it is a very Wood Elven Anvil, where you can run away and come back again because you’re so disciplined. However, it’s an expensive unit for so few wounds, and it’ll also die very easily to shooting due to how easy it is to wound and how poor the armour save. I think the army roster has better options for an Anvil unit.

Therefore, and it pains me a little to say it, I think Eternal Guard are the worst choice Wood Elves have in Core, and the only reason to run them is if you already have the models and want to see them on the battlefield. Rank 5th of 5 for Core Choice.

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Campaign Corner

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We’ve introduced a new segment called Campaign Corner, where we are tracking our Mighty Empires campaign that we’re playing locally. Here’s the map if you want to follow along!

This is the state of the game after month 4 (turn 4 of 6, for the first in-game year), and we’ve got four battles to be fought. The yellow flags are independent settlements, the Blue is for Order, Red for Destruction and Black for Chaos. As you can see, Chaos has razed a lot of settlements in the south–this is how they subsist from turn to turn. The dark brown buildings represent villages, the light brown ones are cities and they grey square ones are fortresses. You can also see some beige circular baggage tokens with certain banners–those are supplies that can be consumed if the banner is in a tile with no settlements.

Chaos has a 250pt banner (they look like black squares in this image) attacking a village in the south west. They had attacked it last turn also, but were rebuffed. Two adjacent battles are to the west of the Inner Sea, where Chaos has two banners (950pt) attacking a village that is part of the Order empire. Meanwhile two of Order’s banners are once again attacking the independent city of Findaglen (named last week when we fought the first battle of Findaglen using Old World armies on the battlefield). Our final battle is at the north end of the Inner Sea where a Destruction banner and an Order banner each of 500pts will fight for control of the coast.

How It Works

The goal for this campaign is to encourage as many of our local gamers to participate in games as possible. We created three grand Alliances, to cover all the factions in the game including Legacy armies. The three podcast hosts control one of each of the Alliances on the board, and will make moves with banners to explore the board and create battle opportunities–we’re also acting as GMs. Each battle is then fought out at our weekly meetup. Anyone with an army from the right Alliance can fight a battle on behalf of that Alliance (most have just one army and have picked sides!), or they can act as the Independent in any of the battles over Independent Settlements.

Points

The points in the banners are only used for representing proportions. E.g. if two banners of 500pts are fighting in Mighty Empires, the two players can choose to fight a 2,000pt game against each other, based on their preference. However, if one banner was 500pts and the other was 380, then one player would play with just (380*4=) 1520pts if they chose a 2,000 point game.

Casualties

We’re using a mix of rules from Mighty Empires and Blood in the Badlands for this. For each rank and file troop that were destroyed in the battle, roll a d6 and on a 4+ the model survived the battle. Dead Characters auto-survive (plot save!), and there are rules for post-battle damage to characters from Blood in the Badlands that we’re experimenting with, to help bring a feeling of continuity to the battles.

Scenarios

We choose scenarios based on what makes sense on the map. Our first round of battles were invasions of Independent Cities, so we played a scenario very similar to Occupy from the Clash of Kings pack for KoW, as that made sense flavourwise. Each time we fight in a location, they players get to name that location on the map. We’re currently working on a 3d printed version of the map that we’ll have in the game area where we play.

Objectives

The objective for each Alliance is to take control of the tiles bordering the Inner Sea. At the end of the campaign (probably around May/June) we are aiming to have some big final battles as everyone will have their armies ready for much bigger games. Every now and again, the Inner Sea drains away and reveals ancient ruins that we’re all anxious to plunder (or protect, if you’re a boring goody-two-shoes), and mysterious portents are predicting this event to be coming soon! Each faction will get bonuses in the final battles proportional to how much of the Inner Sea Coast they control.

Prizes

In addtion to a year of bragging rights, the winning faction will get to choose a name for the Inner Sea, and thus naming the campaign as a whole. There should also be some giveaway goodies for everyone involved along the way!

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Breakpoint Conclusions

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I went to Ireland’s first Old World tournament, Breakpoint, at the weekend, bringing 1,000 points of Wood Elves. We were playing at Underworld Gaming, Dublin, who graciously sponsored prizes for the event.

I ended up playing all three games against Bretonnian players, which won’t make for an exciting tournament report. However, there are a bunch of takeaways I had from the event which I thought were worth sharing. Some are about Wood Elves, and some about the game in general.

First off: A Treeman Ancient is the toughest thing in Wood Elves to kill. Survived all 3 games, despite being repeatedly charged by Bretonnian knights of every shape and size. However, being only a Level 2 wizard kinda sucks – in larger games, I would definitely take L4. I couldn’t dispel some remains-in-play spells that ruined my day in Game 2. Assailment spells in close combat are great – I stopped taking Tree Singing and went for Hammerhand Game 3. Tree Singing used to be a great tactic in previous editions, because you summoned trees in front of your opponent’s cavalry, which made it much harder for them to see and/or charge. Now, it’s kinda useless because it’s just a Remains in Play spell on a 7+ so your opponent will dispel the Forest on their turn before they have to make any moves or declare any charges.

Terror and Fear didn’t come into the games much, mostly because I didn’t have better Unit Strength than the units I was fighting. I think a Fear test was failed once over three games. I think for Dryads (who cause Fear) to work effectively they would need to be in larger units than 5 … see possible later tactic.

Not having a BSB was rough. Archers definitely want to have a BSB in order to be able to flee when charged. I rolled 11s multiple times when trying to rally fleeing archer units, which worked against me in the game I lost.

I think there might be a tactic involving Fire & Flee / Trueflight on one wide rank of GG. Have them flee through a unit of Dryads and then rally behind and be able to draw line of sight through the Skirmishers. The charge might fail and then the Dryads could potentially move back to make it happen again. Might be a bit cheesy, and I’m not sure how exactly I’d need to line up my troops. Some testing needed!

Battlelines drawn! Taking on Keith’s Bretonnian Errantry Crusade in Game 1!

Wild Riders are where it’s at. Frankly, in a Wood Elf army, I’d say take as many as you can. They were hands down the best performers on the battlefield, although they still want to be supported with multi-charges where possible – they can blend but you want to keep them frenzied, so they have to win every combat. Luckily, I never lost a combat with them, but sadly they did get wiped out once by a unit of Grail Knights and my lack of ability to dispel (they had 5+ regen in addition to 5+ ward and 5+ armour (after AP) (see his discussion of the game here).

Vanguard move is just a normal move now, which means only 5″ for our infantry. I think I’m more likely to take more Scouts in the future, as part of the Core allowance.

Trueflight arrows are great. Walk around, shoot on 3+s, plink off a couple of models, cause a panic test. Little units of archers did what they do best. My opponents were more afraid of Arcane Bodkins, they told me afterwards, because … (and this is my major conclusion from the event)

AP -3 is a big deal. It’s as important to this edition as S6 was to 8th ed. It makes a huge difference to the combat math, turning those 3+ saves into 6+. Versus AP -2 (which is pretty common – GW, Lances, etc.), which turns a 3+ save into a 5+. That extra -1 will half the number of saves your opponent makes.

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Wood Elves – Dryads

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Continuing on my thoughts on Asrai core units, next up are the Dryads.

Profile

Dryads have the same profile as a Glade Guard, but with two important improvements: an extra points of Toughness for T4, and an extra Attack. In fact, they are one of the very few core units in the game that come with 2 Attacks base. Minimum of 5 in the unit, and base sizes are increased from last edition to 30mm, although they still count as Regular Infantry, not Heavy. For 13 points, they come with Light Armour and a 6+ Regeneration save that gets canceled out by Flaming Attacks, on account of them being Flammable. They aren’t as durable as they were in prior editions, that’s for sure. The extra attack is nice, but it’s still only S3 no AP, and we don’t have Wyssan’s Wildform or similar Strength buffing spells to rely on. So, don’t expect Dryads to do a lot of heavy lifting in combat.

Special Rules

Aside from the ones already mentioned, Dryads still cause Fear, have Magical Attacks and are Immune to Psychology. This makes them excellent against Undead and Daemons, canceling out many of the inbuilt advantages of those troops. As you would expect, they also have Move Through Cover, something most of the Asrai units have. They’re also (obviously) Tree Spirits, which in this edition means that only Branchwraith characters can join the unit, and that they can’t use an Elf’s leadership (i.e. if your general is an Elf), so it’s mostly just a bunch of limitations with no benefits. The one benefit is that they can use a Tree Spirit character’s leadership if within command range, so if you have a Treeman Ancient or Branchwraith, it’ll buff their Ld a bit. Meh.

They can choose to be in either Skirmish or Open Order formation, but given the lack of Command options, it seems kinda pointless to run them as Open Order unless you need to be disrupting someone, so I expect Skirmish to be the default. Lastly, they also have the Stubborn special rule (something they got before by being Skirmishers in a Forest, but that rule is now gone). Stubborn now just grants you a free ‘Fall Back in Good Order’ on your first break test, which is not bad but no longer the meta dominating rule it used to be.

Command

Sadly, you are limited to one option, which is a Champion (Nymph) for an extra 5 points. I’d only take this if I had a spare 5 points to make up at the end of building my army list. The champion can take Forest Spites up to 25 points, but frankly I think this unit will struggle to conserve points (in other words, I expect Dryad units will get wiped out before battle’s end) so I wouldn’t bother. Given that you only get each Spite once per army, any that are worth taking would be better spent on another model.

Army Role

So, in 2,500 point lists, how will I play them? I have 15 or so Dryads, plus an old Drycha model (shown above) that suits a Branchwraith or Nymph. Most likely I’ll take these in skirmishing units of 5 or 6 and use them in a chaff role. They can probably kill most other chaff, what with having 2 attacks base, but they definitely need to be advanced through cover, and ideally want to charge out of a forest and into something small then disappear into cover again (this will be an ongoing theme for many of our units!). I’m probably not running more than two units, and even then I’d probably only run them if I really needed to make up core points. I’d probably rank them 4th out of the 5 core choices for Wood Elves, but take that with a grain of salt because I still haven’t got any games in yet!

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Wood Elves – Glade Guard

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5 Glade Guard

Continuing on from my last thread, here are my first thoughts on the Wood Elves mandatory core choice. I’ll focus on 2,500 point lists, which I think will probably end up being the tournament norm again.

Love ’em or hate ’em, you gotta have ’em! Glade Guard are 1+ in the army, which I’m sure for some folks is a ‘tax’ they have to pay rather than something they are excited for. At 11 points a model, they are the cheapest model in the army, with T3 and no armour save. This is the same as the last few editions worth of rules, so shouldn’t come as any surprise. Glade Guard need to be kept away from the enemy at all costs! Thankfully, we have the tools to be able to do this.

Asrai Longbow

With a massive range of 32″, this gives us a short range of 16″ to shoot with. Maximum declarable charge range for a unit is now it’s Move + 6, which means we can shoot any infantry at short range without fear of being charged (cavalry with swiftstride have a Move + 9 declarable charge range, which means it’s not quite as safe). There’s a range of different arrows to choose from (see my other post), my preference is to go with Trueflight arrows for an extra point to grant Ignores Cover and Quick Shot, so you’re always hitting on 3s unless you’re at long range, and you ALWAYS get to stand and shoot. It also grants Volley Fire, which is not something we will use much because Wood Elves always be movin’, but YMMV.

Special Rules

Elven Reflexes, Open Order and Move Through Cover, all very thematic rules for our beloved Asrai. I covered Elven Reflexes in another post, but of particular note is Open Order. This formation gives Glade Guard a free 90° pivot after moving, as long as it didn’t march/charge/flee. I expect we will be able to use this to move past would-be chargers, then pivot and shoot them in the flanks. We also get to move unhindered through difficult terrain (i.e. forests).

In armies over 1,000 points, 1 unit per 1,000 can take Fire & Flee and/or Vanguard (and a magic standard up to 50 points, which is not worth it imho – maybe the Razor Standard if the unit is large). Vanguard is a 5″ move up the battlefield, which is most likely going to turn your Vanguarded unit into a target. However, occasionally you’ll be able to grab a building or a hill and make use of it. Not worth the points imho, because we have Scouts who do this job better. The Fire & Flee is a decent choice, as it gives you that option to be within charge range of a cavalry unit and still be at short range. If they charge, shoot ’em and run!

Command

Command models are 6 points each, and most likely a waste of points. The musician is the exception (just like last edition!), especially if you have Fire & Flee, as the musician gives you a +1 to your Ld roll when rallying. Expect your Glade Guard to do a lot of running away – there’s no point being involved in a close combat with these guys, because pretty much everything will win! We aren’t Bretonnians – running away is part of our core tactics 🙂 The musician also grants +1 for marching when nearby the enemy, because sometimes running away means running forward! The champion can take a magic item up to 25 points, but there really isn’t anything worth giving them. Save your points!

Army role

So, in 2,500 point lists, how will I play them? I have ~40 GG models. Given that you can take them in units as small as 5, it’s something I will definitely test out – running 6 or 7 units of 5 Glade Guard seems like a great way to conserve points and maximize shooting capacity – 60 points each with Trueflight, or 66 with the Musician – the ultimate in MSU, assuming I can fit them on the battlefield. The other way I’m thinking to run them is to take two blocks of about 15, give them both Fire & Flee, and run them as wide as will fit comfortably on the battlefield. Move forward, shoot, then move back, shoot, then fire & flee! Each of those units would be 201 points, but I worry they’d get wiped out by flying monsters as they’d be an easy win once in combat. Keeping them small and maneuverable, and not worrying about losing 1 or 2 units is how I’m most likely gonna go. They’ll whittle away at enemy units all game, and try to stay out of combat as much as possible.

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Biomancer

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Biomancer was our entry for ScoreSpace Jam #28 in January 2024, and it’s the last game we made as the original family team–me, Fintan, and Ellie on art and music.

You’re a wizard living peacefully on an island. You’ve let settlers move in, which seemed neighbourly enough, until they started capturing the magical creatures you use for your research. So you do what any reasonable wizard would do: send mutant minions from your laboratory to assault the settlements and get your beasts back.

The core mechanic is creature combination–you splice the front of one animal with the back of another to create your minions, and each half grants different abilities. A creature with the front of a boar and the back of a spider plays completely differently from one with those halves reversed. Your minions scavenge buildings and forests for more creatures, which fuel the creation of more minions. You lose when all your beasts and minions are gone. Your army IS your resource–every unit you send out is a unit you might not get back.

The concept is genuinely interesting, but people didn’t really engage with it. Two problems: the splicing system is hard to get your head around without more onboarding than a jam entry can provide, and we didn’t get enough animals in to make the combinations feel as varied as they needed to be. When you’ve only got a handful of fronts and backs, the “create your perfect monster” fantasy doesn’t quite land. We also ran out of time before implementing sound, which doesn’t help.

Ellie’s moved on to other things since this one, and the games we want to build now are all multiplayer, so Biomancer will probably stay as it is–a jam curio with a clever idea at its core that needed more time than a weekend could give it.

Download Biomancer on itch.io (Windows only)

Wood Elves – Army Wide Rules

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I’m a big fan of Wood Elves, having played them in multiple editions. For a long time, I posted a bunch of content on the Asrai forum, and I’m starting that up again. I usually cross-post to my blog, so here we are! I’m starting with the Army Wide Rules. Likely I’ll write some more about each unit, tactics, etc. as I start playing more games. First tournament in 3 weeks!

Elven Reflexes: replacing the overpowered “Always Strikes First” of 8th edition, this gives a minor buff of +1 Init in the first round of combat. For most troops, this means going to I5, which I think will really only come into play when being charged by slow opponents (e.g. Dwarfs, Skeletons etc.). When charging, we’ll likely be on I8 and going first against virtually everything else. When being charged, even a human will likely be faster (base I3, with a +3 for charging 3″ or more). A minor buff, in line with the overall toning down of power for the whole game.

Talismanic Tattoos: no change here, still granting 6+ ward save to Wardancers and Wild Riders.

Tree Spirit: broadly the same, this makes it so that Elf characters can’t join units of Dryads or Treekin. Interestingly, it also prohibits Tree Spirits from using the Ld of a non-Tree Spirit character, but does give any Tree Spirit character a command range bubble for other Tree Spirits, just like the general.

Tree Whack: this rule now applies to Tree Kin as well as Treemen, making the Kin a bit more useful against slow opponents, particularly other Monstrous Infantry. One attack is turned into an Initiative test, and if failed, the model suffers D3 hits at model Strength with no armor save. Potentially useful for a Treeman Ancient in a challenge, but probably only worthwhile against I3 and lower, which is not common among characters. Will experiment with it and see.

Woodland Ambush: we get a free forest again (and it doesn’t have to be a GW one!). Between 8 and 12″ in size, and not in the opponents deployment zone nor within 12″ of the table centre.

So, not a whole lot new here, but minor tweaks on the rules from the old editions. Expect to see that for most of the army list.

Lore of Athel Loren

I figured I’d cover this here, because it’s very short and not a full lore any more. In brief, instead of taking a signature spell, a wizard can take one of three spells from the Lore of Athel Loren. I’m not super happy about that, because I think two of the spells work well together in tandem, but it is what it is …

Tree Singing: Cast on a 7+, it puts a 3″ round forest on the board that remains in play and counts as dangerous terrain for enemies. If you roll a 9+ (pretty easy for L4 casters), it’s a 5″ round forest. I will probably use this all the time, because hindering enemies while providing benefit for our brave Asrai is just brilliant. However, it’s a pretty easy dispel on later turns, given it only needs a 7+. Will try it out and see!

Forest Walker: Move a unit that’s in a forest to another forest–this has been a staple of the Asrai for as long as I can remember. You can’t be fleeing, and you can’t place the unit within 6″ of enemy models. I think this works well with Tree Singing, but given that this spell is cast in the Movement phase and Tree Singing is cast in the shooting phase, it may only be of occasional use. However, it seems like an excellent way to teleport a unit of Waywatchers into/out of trouble 🙂 Relatively high casting value of 10+.

Flock of Doom: Small template S3 AP -1 magic missile. First thought is: meh.

Asrai Longbow

This is the last “army wide” rule, which is the return of the good ol’ Asrai Longbow. It has a range of 32″, which is excellent as it gives a short range of 16″ (thus avoiding the -1 to shoot), and Armour Bane (1), which means the occasional 6 to wound will have AP -1. It also grants Volley Fire, which is the same as 8th edition except now only the front rank gets to shoot fully (unless you’re on a hill, in which case it’s the front two ranks). You also can’t move and volley fire, and given the mobility of our army, I suspect this will rarely prove useful.

Everyone who can take an Asrai Longbow can also take one of the 5 types of enchanted arrows. 3 of these I’ll call expensive, and two are cheap. That is to say, that they cost 2pts/1pt per model for rank and file, and 6pts/3pts for characters. All of these are coming from previous editions, and are broadly the same.

Expensive
Arcane Bodkins: Yep, the bodkins are back, and grant AP -2, which in this edition is pretty huge. It also stacks with the Armour Bane of the bow, so when you roll a 6 to wound, it’ll be at AP -3.

Hagbane Tips: Same as before, the Hagbane tipped arrows are Poisoned Attacks, which will auto-wound on a 6 to hit.

Swiftshiver Shards: Grants Multiple Shots (2), which sounds great until you remember that the shots will be at -1 to hit.

Cheap
Moonfire Shot: Counts as both Flaming and Magical attacks. This basically means it cuts out all Regeneration saves.

Trueflight Arrows: Grants Ignores Cover and Quick Shot. To me, this is the stand out arrow of the bunch. This removes so many penalties from the to hit roll, so you can move and shoot with impunity (remember the 6th ed book?). I suspect that Trueflight Arrows will be stapled on to all my Glade Guard units, given the low cost and high value.

It’s worth noting that the magical longbows we get access to also count as Asrai Longbows, and so can use the magic arrows. I’ll do a separate post about the magic items I think.

Originally written for rankandflank.com.