A relative newcomer to the Wood Elf list, Sisters of the Thorn were added for the first time with the 8th edition army book, the last army book before The End Times and the death of rank and flank Warhammer. As such, they don’t have the same nostalgia or model count that most of our other units have. Let’s take a closer look at these Handmaidens of Ariel …

Stats and Special Rules

Sisters have a standard Wood Elf statline, with a couple of improvements which immediately help us understand their role on the battlefield. They are BS5 (6 for the champion) and Ld9, so they seem to want to be used as a ranged unit, and likely on a flank or away from the General’s Inspiring Presence. Being a cavalry unit, they are actually a bit slower than the rest of our cav at only M8, but the Steed of Isha gives a nice extra S4 attack if you do end up in combat.

They’re equipped with their own special Blackbriar Javelins, S3 range 12″ AP -1 with Move & Shoot (so you can march and still shoot) and Quick Shot (meaning you can Stand and Shoot no matter how close the charging unit is). They also have Fire & Flee, but I want to call out that right now Quick Shot and Fire & Flee do not work together (seems illogical, but that’s how the rules are written. Edit: some groups are FAQing that these do work together, so check with your opponent/TO) so keep that in mind when you’re playing with them. They come with Swiftstride, Open Order and Fast Cavalry, so you get the free pivot even if you march … we can start to see this all coming together now. March 16″, pivot up to 90° and then shoot up to 12″ away with the javelins.

Like the rest of the army, they have Move Through Cover and Elven Reflexes, which are both very useful, but what really sets them apart are these last three rules: Poisoned Attacks, Daughters of Eternity and Deepwood Coven.

Poisoned Attacks is a rule on the model, not the weaponry, which means that it applies to both ranged attacks and close combat attacks AND it applies to the attacks of both rider and mount when in combat. This fits in with a wider poison attack strategy by equipping your archers with Hagbane Tips, and the extra -1 AP from the javelins definitely comes in handy: it doubles the number of wounds that go through vs something with a 5+ save (a common save on high toughness monsters, who are great targets for poison shooting).

Daughters of Eternity is a simple but awesome rule: all the models have a 4++ ward save. Very few models in the game have or can get a ward save like this, and it really helps keep the Sisters alive given that they don’t wear armour. But the real kicker is in the wording of the rule “This unit has a 4+ Ward save against any wounds suffered.” Not this model, or models with this special rule … this unit. That means that when a character joins the unit, they also get the 4+ Ward save! I’ll go into this a bit more when I talk about their battlefield role, but it opens up a ton of interesting possibilities for potential character builds and the role the unit can play.

Caveat: some folks have argued this doesn’t apply to characters. I’ve yet to hear a solid argument as to why (most of them seem to be “Oh but if you look at this other similar-but-not-quite-the-same rule / FAQ” which doesn’t really hold water with me). In the spirit of fun and fair play, find out from your TO or opponent what their thoughts are before assuming it’s OK.

Deepwood Coven is the last rule on the unit and grants the unit the ability to cast a Bound Spell from either Battle Magic or Elementalism, at L2 if you have both a champion and standard, or L1 if you have just a champion, L0 if you have neither. It would have been nice for this to be L3 if you had full command, no? And sadly no access to Lore of Athel Loren, because I think Treesinging might have suited this unit. Ah well. This is still a pretty nice ability. However, as L2, your odds of casting the spell aren’t great. Here’s a graph showing the odds of rolling any given total on 2d6.

The lowest casting cost spells are 7+, and the highest are 10+, meaning you need between 5+ and 8+ on the dice. Not too bad, until you consider the odds of being dispelled. I have a simple spreadsheet you can use to see the odds of casting vs L4, and the chances drop dramatically …

The best chance is a 7+ spell, which will go off roughly 1/3 of the time, or twice per game, vs 10+ spell which will only go off 1/4 of the time, or 3 times every 2 games. This assumes they are in range of an opponent’s L4 for dispel, but as I said earlier, it’s likely that the best place for these ladies is on a flank and away from the your opponent’s main force. Let’s take a look at the spells that might be good options. I’m recommending you take both a Standard and a Champion for that +2 to cast, in case that wasn’t obvious!

Edit: one final critical note that I failed to mention. This spell is chosen before deployment, not in the list building phase. So you can pick what you want based on what your opponent’s army is, rather than having to guess up front!

Spells

TL;DR pick from Fireball or Plague of Rust

Cast on a 7+

TL;DR nothing amazing in the 7+ spells.

The four options are Hammerhand, Curse of Arrow Attraction, Oaken Shield, and Storm Call. Obviously Oaken Shield is completely pointless, so don’t take it! Storm Call is, imho, a really weak spell and should really never be cast, so recommend you don’t take that either. That leaves either Hammerhand or Curse of Arrow Attraction. Broadly speaking, this unit could be either a combat-oriented unit, or a shooting-oriented unit and so I could see a case being made for either of these two spells to reinforce that orientation. However, I don’t think Hammerhand really does enough damage to make it a good choice (it’ll average 4 hits per combat, which likely will only translate into 1 wound against most units). Curse is OK if you have a lot of other shooting in the list, and your other wizard(s) aren’t running Battle Magic. I’ve generally found it translates into roughly one extra wound from ~30 poison shots (which is what I’m typically running).

Cast on an 8+

TL;DR if in doubt, choose Fireball.

The chart shows that the odds of casting an 8+ are only marginally worse than the 7+ vs an L4 dispel. The odds of the spell going off at all are ~72% (6+ on the dice). The three options here are Fireball, Flaming Sword and Wind Blast. I think Flaming Sword is not as good as Hammerhand, and so definitely can’t recommend it. That leaves either Fireball or Wind Blast. Fireball is probably the gold standard of magic missiles: it’s a very solid spell, and given that every list seems to run the Ruby Ring of You-win, choosing this on a Sisters unit as a bound spell is like getting an extra Ruby Ring. Wind Blast is also a pretty good magic missile–you average 5 hits at S5 AP -1, which is likely to do more damage against certain targets than Fireball, and you also push them away from the Sisters by 2″, which is situationally good: preventing an opponent from being able to make a charge for instance. I think this one requires a bit more finesse to make work, but definitely a solid option. Again, either of these spells is reinforcing the ‘shooting-oriented’ option for the unit.

Cast on a 9+

TL;DR take Plague of Rust if you’re up against units with 2+/3+ Armour. Take Pillar of Fire if your opponent has lots of units of Low toughness units.

The odds have now dropped to about 3 in 10 vs an L4, which is not a big enough drop to really be concerned about. The odds of the spell going off at all have dropped by ~14% to ~58%, so still being cast more often than not. My personal opinion here is that this is probably the highest spell casting cost to shoot for with a L2 spell, as after this you drop below a 50/50 shot for casting at all. So, what are the spell options?

Battle Magic offers us Pillar of Fire and Curse of Cowardly Flight, while Elementalism has Plague of Rust and Summon Elemental Spirit. Of the two Vortex spells, I think Pillar of Fire is stronger because you can control the direction, and the AP is higher even though the Strength is lower (S3 AP -2, vs S4 AP -1). Even though Remains in Play spells are pretty easy to Dispel, having this unit be out on a flank and casting centrally may make this easier to go off and do some damage, or even roll into enemy War Machines. Remember that the enemy wizard has to be in range of the caster to Dispel, not the vortex itself. Pillar is great against units with low saves and toughness (um, Wood Elves?), including things like Goblins, Witch Elves, most human infantry, and most light cavalry.

Curse of Cowardly Flight is an underrated spell. When we did our Magic Lore review, I was very down on this spell but having now used it multiple times in battle, I’ve discovered it’s main strength which is on lone monsters. These tend to have high movement but low Ld, and are often used to try to hassle your back lines. It’s got a pretty low range though (15″) so I think it doesn’t combo well with the Sisters, who most likely want to be further up field and pressing the enemy battleline.

But really, I think the spell to choose from the 9+ spells is Plague of Rust. Whether you are shooting- or combat-oriented, this spell is arguably the best debuff we have available to the army, granting a very important AP -2. Wild Riders, Great Weapons and Arcane Bodkins also have AP -2 and AB (1), meaning that a unit with Plague of Rust cast on them is losing their armour save against our preferred attacks (or dropping it to a 6+ vs those very well armoured 2+ units). Even the Sisters themselves can benefit from it, because Poisoned Attacks at AP -3 are likely to get some wounds through on pretty much any target. It also has an excellent range at 21″, again reinforcing this notion that the right usage for the Sisters is on the flank, providing ranged support.

Cast on a 10+

TL;DR don’t take any of these, they’re too hard to cast

The math definitely works against the 10+ spells. You need an 8+ on the dice (~42%) even just to cast the spell, never mind it being dispelled. However, for the sake of completeness, here’s my thoughts on what’s available.

Earthen Ramparts, Travel Mystical Pathway and Arcane Urgency are the 10+ spells. Of the two conveyance spells, I think Arcane Urgency is the stronger, but neither are very good for the Sisters themselves because they are pretty fast moving on their own (I’ve written before about this being great for Eternal Guard though). However, I think that conveyance spells are best when you can rely upon them, which means it’s something for your L4 to do.

Earthen Ramparts is a so-so spell, giving a 5+ Ward to another unit in exchange for it’s ability to move. I think the best target for this spell is a unit of Treekin or a Treeman, who then become very hard to wound and can function well as an anvil or flank defenders. Sisters are likely to be functioning on a different part of the battlefield than the Trees though, so I think it’s a suboptimal choice. Again, I think this is the sort of spell you want to get off reliably if you’re going to put those units into that role, so take it on your L4.

Battlefield Role

I’ve alluded to their being two primary roles for the Sisters, either as a shooting-oriented unit, or a combat-oriented one. Let’s tackle combat first, as I think it’s the less obvious choice.

Combat Oriented

In combat, the Sisters are reasonably solid on their own. Their damage output is limited, even though it can be buffed with their Bound Spell and benefits from Poisoned Attacks, but they do get two attacks per model in the fighting rank, and they are at AP -1 for the Sisters attacks. Versus Chaos Warriors (a decent benchmark) they’d do ~2 wounds on average, and ~3.5W if you cast Plague of Rust. Clearly, they’re not a front-line combat unit, so on their own they are best at attacking your enemy’s chaff and war machines, or providing some flank support in a combo charge. I think the main use for them in a combat role would be to deliver a combat character into base contact with the enemy, and provide them with a 4++ Ward save from the Daughters of Eternity special rule.

This sort of combat character is probably best being a Glade Captain, rather than a Glade Lord, simply because the types of targets they’ll be good at taking out are going to be the enemy cavalry or infantry, not enemy monster-riding Lords. Any build that you might put together to take out e.g. a Lord on a Dragon is unlikely to kill them in a single turn, and even with a 4++ Ward save is going to result in you most likely dying to attacks back and Thunderstomps. (The best build I could come up with was with the Ogre Blade, Potion of Strength, Befuddlement of Mischiefs and Annoyance of Netlings – you’re likely going first and doing some wounds, but on average not the 9 you’d need to kill the Lord. Even though you’re being hit back on 5s, you’re still likely taking 3 wounds total from attacks back and Thunderstomps).

This kind of unit is probably useful in support of some Wild Riders. You could put the BSB into this unit, to provide some useful static combat resolution and damage output in a combo-charge with Wild Riders, but I think the GotH BSB does this better and provides more options.

There is a possibility of making a cavalry deathstar here … BSB, Lord and Spellweaver all on Elven Steeds, keeping the Weaver in the 2nd rank because the front rank is the two combat characters and the command group. The Lord could take a similar build as above, the BSB could have the War Banner, and the Spellweaver could take the Lore Familiar. You could get up to +5 static combat res (+1 for rank, +1 BSB, +1 Standard, +1 War Banner, +1 Banner of the Eternal Queen), and take Lore of Illusion for Glittering Robe, meaning you’re most likely only being hit on 6s when combined with the Netlings and Mischiefs. (Spectral Doppelganger might be an option, with the Dragon Slaying Sword). Against a Dragon Lord, your Glade Lord would have a good chance to survive (likely only taking damage from stomps) and you could win on static combat res and force the Break Test into a Flee result due to outnumbering the Dragon on Unit Strength (you’d have 20, vs their 9). Not sure how good an idea this is, but it sounds intriguing–let me know if you’ve tried this! I’d definitely want to put some Magic Resistance into the unit too. Even if it didn’t do well, it’d be really fun to try it out! I calculate it out to be over 800 points though 🤣

(High Magic might also be a fun lore with them, because then they go from 2 attacks each to 4 attacks each with the Fury of Khaine spell. However, I think that spell is better at targeting Wild Riders, and doesn’t offer a lot more to help compared to Illusion.)

Shooting Oriented

I think this is the natural place for Sisters, as I think should be clear from everything you’ve read so far. They can take a spell that either makes your shooting better (e.g. Plague of Rust) or does more ranged damage (e.g. Fireball), fitting into the general Wood Elf strategy of softening up the enemy with shooting, staying out of range/charge arc, before finally attacking late game.

In terms of characters that could bunker well, in this unit, I think there are two main options: a Glade Lord with the Bow of Loren and Potion of Strength, or a Spellweaver running a good ranged Lore.

The Glade Lord with the Bow of Loren and Potion of Strength can pump out shots at up to S7. It almost doesn’t matter what enchanted arrows they take because they only get to use one (thanks to the very dumb FAQ, GW has decided that Wood Elf characters carry two quivers of different arrows into battle), so I think the right choice is Swiftshiver Shards to give an extra shot. You’ll get 5 shots at BS7, potentially S7, and if combined with Plague of Rust from the Sisters, will be at AP -2, AB (1). Not bad for plinking a few wounds off of pesky monsters, but probably not worth the points (it’s ~200) and there are better Lord builds (most notably, bringing one on a Dragon).

The Spellweaver I’d bring would probably be taking Lore of Illusion and a Lore Familiar, with the goal of stopping the advances of the enemy with Miasmic Mirage and Column of Crystal, and protecting herself and her sisters with Glittering Robe and probably Spectral Doppelganger and a simple magic weapon for being able to thwack chaff units in combat when needed. I’d argue that this same build is probably just as good in Glade Riders with Reserve Move, and that the Riders would chew up some of your Core allowance.

Having said all that, I think running Sisters on their own is probably the most viable option. Units of 5 will be annoying to deal with, and they’ll still be a L2 wizard until the champion is left standing on her own.

Summary

I think the Sisters are a very strong all-rounder unit for the army. They have a lot of flexibility, provide ranged attacks and magical support, plus defense for bunkering a character. They are comparatively hard to kill due to the 4++ save, and give an option for being able to choose a good spell like Fireball or Plague of Rust without having to roll for it. And they can pump out a few wounds in virtually any combat they get into, due to their volume of Poisoned Attacks.

What do you think of them? Have you had much success with them? What spells are you taking, and are you bunkering characters or just running them solo?

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

When I first got the box of Skarloc’s Wood Elf archers, my instant favourite model was Glam. Here was this crazy guy who literally danced his way up and down the front line of battle and stabbed anyone who got too close. Armour? Pah! Armour is for slow people who can’t dodge.

I still have the command group from that box of archers, but sadly Glam went missing over the course of many years. However, my love of Wardancers did not diminish, and I’ve been running a small unit of them in my army on a regular basis. Let’s jump right in and take a look at their key characteristics.

Stats and Special Rules

Wardancers are one of a very small number of rank and file units who come with a base Weapon Skill of 6, which is equal to or higher than most characters! (The only other WS6 units I can think of are Grail Knights, Swordmasters of Hoeth … let me know if I missed any?). Aside from also having Initiative 6 (which will rarely come into play), they have the standard Wood Elf statline (which means they are both S3 and T3, which I’ll get to more later) and cost 16 points per model. In terms of formation, they can are both Open Order and Skirmisher, and like all other Wood Elves, they have Move Through Cover.

I6 will rarely come into play because Wardancers all have Strike First. What I’ve come to realize is that in this edition, Strike First is very strong and functions as an excellent deterrent against being charged–very few units will be at I10 when they charge, so Wardancers will almost always get to, uh, strike first and kill some of the incoming threat before they even get to attack. If given a choice, I’ve noticed my opponents all prefer to charge into something else (more on this later). Other special rules which help with survivability are Evasive (remember, this can be used against Magic Missiles!) and Talismanic Tattoos (a 6++ ward save).

Wardancers come with Motley Crew, something I’ve used only once because I was tight on points. You can equip Wardancers with either an Additional Hand Weapon for +1pt per model, or Throwing Spears for free. Contrary to what you might think, Throwing Spears are not missile weapons–you get to Fight in an Extra Rank on a turn you charged, and that’s it. If you’re taking a larger unit of Wardancers and/or running them as a ranked unit in Open Order, this may be marginally useful, but in general I’m taking Additional Hand Weapon every time for the extra attack (sadly, despite the models existing, Wardancers cannot take Great Weapons).

They also have Loner and Immune to Psychology, with the former meaning they can only be joined by Shadowdancer characters, and the latter mostly being beneficial but meaning they can’t flee as a charge reaction so you need to keep that in mind.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, they have both Furious Charge to give an extra attack when charging 3″ or more and Dances of Loec which give them a number of different benefits in close combat. I’ll cover the Dances in more detail in the next section.

Tactics

The first thing to consider with Wardancers is their vulnerability. Outside of combat, they are very squishy at T3 with no Armour Save, and just a 6++ ward to save them. As with all squishy things, there are two broad schools of thought: take lots of them, or hide them. At 17pts each (including the extra hand weapon), taking lots in a single unit is a high risk strategy. It also doesn’t really do much for you by way of combat results unless you run them Open Order and try to get a rank bonus … even then, I think you’d get better combat results from having two smaller units that combo charged. So, my preferred option is to take them in small units, and try to protect them.

If you’re running them as Skirmishers, oponents will be at -1 to shoot at them with BS shooting. They definitely want to be accompanied by another unit and the prime candidate here are Dryads, who are the same speed but tougher, cheaper and Stubborn. As I mentioned, opponents will prefer to charge something else and Dryads are perfect for both taking a charge and providing that shield against shooting. When the Dryads Fall Back, they can provide that excellent flank charge for Wardancers. One thing I’ve done is position Wardancers right behind Dryads so there’s just no way to target the Elves directly even with Magic Missiles, although this is tricky. The best defence against Magic Missiles is the Oaken Stave, as I’ve written about before.

Remember also that they are Evasive, so you can even flee from a shooting attack through another unit and not cause panic (a benefit of being skirmishers) and end up on the other side and thus not be targetable at all.

So, assuming you’ve kept them alive and they’ve been able to get into combat, what’s happening now? Now it’s time to dance, baby!

Dances of Loec

There are four Dances of Loec to choose from. Who’s Loec? He’s the Elven trickster god–in my mind, he’s the love child of Loki and Michael Flatley–and his worshippers tell stories with, yep, cool dances. Give the cast of Riverdance some swords, I tell ya …

Anyhoo, back in the Old World: you have four dances to choose from. Each one grants a specific bonus in combat, and you must choose one in each combat for them all to follow (including any Shadowdancer that’s joined the unit–more on DJ Shadowdancer later). Unlike in previous editions, you can choose the same dance every combat if you like–there’s no requirement to change dance between combats. In brief, there are two dances that are more defensive, and two that are more offensive:

1. Whirling Death: AP -2
2. Shadows Coil: 4++ ward save
3. Storm of Blades: +1 Attack
4. Woven Mist: Enemies get -1 to hit

I’ve listed them here in order of how likely you are to use them, but I’ll go through the offensive ones first and then the defensive ones and I’ll try to give rules of thumb for using each one.

Storm of Blades

To kick us off, against 6+ or no armour save, use Storm of Blades, because getting an extra attack is great–hitting and killing more things is what combat is all about! It means that when charging, you have 4 attacks: 1 base, 1 for Additional Hand Weapon, 1 for Furious Charge and 1 for Storm of Blades. 5 Wardancers with a champion thus puts out 21 attacks!

I don’t have a lot extra to say about it – extra attacks kind of speak for themselves. However, they are only S3 attacks, so their effectiveness really depends on your targets.

Whirling Death

Whirling Death is probably the one I’ll use most often, but it really depends on the armour save of the unit I’m attacking. TL;DR: use Whirling Death if the Armour Save is 5+ or better. However, if you want to see the math read on…

To keep the numbers easy to read, let’s assume I have a unit of 9 Wardancers who have not charged (so they have 2 attacks each). Storm of Blades thus gives me 9 extra attacks for a total of 27, which I’ll be (usually) hitting on 3s, resulting in an average of 18 hits. If I’m wounding on 4s (because my opponent is T3), that’s an average of 9 wounds. If my opponent has a 5+ save, then 3 wounds will be saved, resulting in 6 wounds. If instead of the Storm of Blades, I choose Whirling Death I’ll have the base 18 attacks, of which 12 will get through. Of those 12 hits, 6 will be wounds and there will be no save, so still 6 wounds. Where the math changes is when it’s not a 5+ save. If it’s a 6+ save or higher, I’m doing more wounds with the extra attacks, so stick with Storm of Blades. If it’s a 4+ save or lower, the Whirling Death will get more wounds through the armour. If our example above was against a unit with a 3+ save (like most Knights have), Storm of Blades would get only 3 wounds past the Armour on average, whereas Whirling Death would do 4. When the save is exactly 5+, I’m still recommending Whirling Death over Storm of Blades because there’s a marginal benefit for it if you also have a champion in the unit–that extra attack changes the math!

For the full spreadsheet, if you’re a data nerd like me, take a look here. Bear in mind that it’s hard to get all Wardancers into the Fighting Rank.

The Shadow’s Coil

Still with me? Great! Let’s talk about the more defensive dances. Sometimes you’re not one doing the charging, maybe because your opponent has caught you off-guard or with a sneaky overrun. This happens (to me) more frequently with cavalry, and cavalry usually get all their best damage results on the first round of combat. So, when charged by heavy cavalry or anything you’ll struggle to wound, use Shadow’s Coil. In this way, the enemy is doing a lot less damage in that first round of combat. Keeping it really simple: you get to save half the wounds done on average, and that’s a good thing.

If you want more deatil, let’s take a look at some numbers. It’s important to remember that you’re going to attack first, so you will obviously reduce the amount of damage you’re taking by killing models! For this example, I’ll use a unit of 6 Chaos Knights charging into a unit of 6 Wardancers. The key stats for Chaos Knights: WS5, S4 (6 on the charge), T4 and a 3+ Armour Save. If we use Storm of Blades, we’ll do 0.7 unsaved wounds. If we use Whirling Death, we’ll do 0.96 unsaved wounds. And for Shadow’s Coil or Woven Mist, it’ll be 0.47 unsaved wounds. None of these look great in terms of actually doing damage to the knights … clearly this is a poor matchup for us, and we are not expecting to win this combat, so it becomes about survivability while we bring in some support from other units.

OK, so now we know how many Knights are actually attacking us–it’s likely to be all 6. I’ll keep the decimals in for the purposes of calculating averages, but obviously in a real game it’ll only be whole numbers of attacks – we’ll need to be lucky to have killed a knight before taking the hit).

There are some other situations where The Shaow’s Coil is beneficial, but they are all similar to this one: you’re not going to do much damage to the enemy, so focus on surviving.

Woven Mist

You can also see from this table that Woven Mist will mean that a lot fewer attacks actually hit. Against most things, Shadow’s Coil is usually better, because a -1 to hit is less good than straight up canceling half the wounds. However, there is one main exception, and it’s when you’re enemy is already naturally hitting on 5s, so I’ll recommend that you use Woven Mist against large blocks of WS2 troops. Going from being hit on 5s to being hit on 6s is a 50% reduction in hits on average (3s to 4s is 25%, 4s to 5s is 33%), and you’ll still have your 6++ Talisman Tattoos save, so you’ll end up taking the least amount of damage possible with Woven Mist in those circumstances.

In the natural course of things, you’ll be hit on 4s by everything unless it is WS2 or lower. Anything WS2 or lower in the game is generally not very tough or well armoured (think Goblins), so likely you’d be choosing a dance like Storm of Blades to just kill the fighting rank of Goblins and not take very much damage back anyways. That being said, there are two ways to lower the enemy WS or reduce their chances to hit in other ways which can sometimes mean that this is the right approach.

The two possibilities open to the Asrai are: Glittering Robe (-1 to hit), Befuddlement of Mischiefs (-1 to WS and I), both of which are only available to characters, which of course leads to discussion of the Shadowdancer and her role in the unit and in the army. She can be a L1 Illusion Wizard and take Glittering Robe, but as an L1, she’s not likely to be able to cast that spell very often. Here’s my casting spreadsheet in case you want to be able to see the odds for yourself. It’s only 23%, or just under 1 in 4.

Not amazing odds, and it only really pays off vs WS3, dropping them to WS2. So, we’re left with Befuddlement, which as I’ve said in several places before, I much prefer to take on one of my Great Stag characters. Sometimes that character will get to be in a combo attack with Wardancers, and that might be another time to use this Dance. However, usually one of the other dances is more appropriate, because you’re trying to wipe out the fighting rank of the enemy rather than worry about saving lives.

Shadowdancer

This seems like a good time to talk about the Shadowdancer now. This character can only really be in a unit of Wardancers. Sure, theoretically they could run solo but then they don’t get to use any of the dances (thanks to their Troubadour of Loec special rule–they can only dance when they’ve got buddies) and their Loner special rule means that they can’t join any other unit in the army. So, really they are in a unit of Wardancers or not at all. Other than the Dances of Loec special rule, they have all the same special rules as Wardancers. At 85 points you get a WS8 S4 character, with 3 attacks base, rising to 4 on charge from Furious Charge, and possibly to 5 (with Storm of Blades).

You must equip them with one of Spear of Loec (for Killing Blow, AP -1, AB (2) and S+1) or Tricksters Blades which Requires Two Hands (pointless, but there you go) and grants D3 extra attacks. S4 attacks with no AP are not amazing, no matter how many you have, so my preference is for the Spear of Loec, which is like a better Headsman’s Axe, for 0 points. It’s almost like the Shadowdancer is only costing you 40 points? Against infantry or cavalry, which I’m sure you’ve realized now are the best targets for Wardancers, the Killing Blow will kick in every now and again … remember that those pesky Bretonnian Dukes on Royal Pegasus are cavalry and can die to this! No armour or Regen, so just whatever ward save they have. (In case you’re wondering, and I was, the Armour Bane kicks in when you’re fighting something that isn’t Infantry or Cavalry, so it’s still a nice to have). The threat of Killing Blow is usually scarier than the reality, so use the threat of it to your advantage! Remind your opponent that they have it any time they’re about to declare a charge 🙂

You can turn the Shadowdancer into a L1 Wizard for 35 points, and give either Battle Magic or Illusion. As noted before, you’ve only a 23% chance of casting the Glittering Robe or a 24% chance of Hammerhand, assuming your opponent has a L4 nearby. Even if their L4 is dead or in combat, assuming they have a Fated Dispel, your chances of success are only 31% and 38% respectively. On the whole, I think it’s not worth the points for the Wizard upgrade. The randomness of spell generation means that relying on getting any spell other than the signature is kinda pointless, and the Lore of Athel Loren doesn’t really have any spells that synergize well with the Shadowdancer.

So this leaves magic items. What can we give our Boogie Knight that will make them do their job better than what we get for free with the Spear of Loec? Clearly our eye is drawn to the Blades of Loec, as the name suggests they are tailor-made for a Wardancer, no? Blades of Loec work the same as Tricksters Blades except they are Magical Attacks, cost 45 points, and let you reroll failed rolls to wound. See my previous comment about S4 attacks with no AP–this is a bit of a fail from a design perspective in my opinion. I think the Monster Slaying sword is not great because you really don’t want to have this unit fighting monsters in general. None of the other magic weapons seem worth the points compared to the free Spear of Loec. The Shadowdancer can’t take any armour, so that is out. Looking at Talismans, the Paymaster’s Coin is expensive for what it does. Obsidian Lodestone is not bad as a defensive item for this unit, but in general I think you want to avoid them being targeted and use Evasive rather than try to rely on MR to keep them safe. Merciw’s Locus doesn’t seem useful for a model that’s T3. Glamourweave is meh, the Ld test is too easy for most models to pass unless you lean into anti-Ld stuff. Which really just leaves us with Enchanted Items. The one that appeals to me the most is the Potion of Strength (and you can actually take two of these). No matter what you roll, you’ll get at least S6 attacks, which can really help against T4 troops, something that Wardancers struggle against. It can also act as a deterrent … if your opponent knows you might suddenly become S8, they may act differently! Again, the threat is often better than the reality. I think if you have 25 points to spend, this is not a bad option for the Shadowdancer, but now you’be got a 130 point character who only has 2 wounds and a 6++ ward save … so, my personal preference is to just run the Shadowdancer with Spear of Loec and no upgrades.

On the Battlefield

OK, final thoughts here on how I’m using Wardancers on the battlefield. They are backline troops, not frontline. They protect archers and wizards who want to be staying back and fighting from afar, but are generally very squishy. They pair really well with Dryads, who can take the first hit and allow a good countercharge from the ‘dancers. They work very effectively against T3 troops, including heavy cavalry such as Knights of the Realm. I run a unit of 5, with extra hand weapons and a champion, to really maximize the ability to get into base contact with whatever you’re charging, and with a low point cost of 91. They will struggle against T4+ with a good armour save, unless you also give them magical support (e.g. Plague of Rust). They are not heavy hitters, but they can often catch opponents off guard with their versatility. Too many points invested in the unit will likely mean that you will not get your points back. If you’re bringing a Shadowdancer, make sure and keep more Dryads around to ensure the character can’t be targeted, and maybe take a potion of Strength if you’re seeing a lot of T4 high armour folks get into your back lines.

How are you using your Wardancers? Have you had much success with them? Any builds for Shadowdancer I didn’t consider? Would love to hear ideas and war stories in the comments 🙂

Originally written for rankandflank.com.

Treekin are the only Monstrous Infantry unit in Wood Elves (or indeed, any army from Forces of Fantasy!) Inspired the Huorns from Lord of the Rings, they are tough and durable in an army that is mostly pretty squishy.

Having given my initial thoughts on both Core and Rare choices, it’s time to finally move on to the Special units in the army roster. Special is, I think, where a lot of the best stuff is in the Wood Elf roster, and certainly the units that are seeing a lot of play are in this section. I’m going to start with what used to be a staple in my old 8th ed. army, the Treekin.

Stats and Special Rules

Treekin are the only Monstrous Infantry (MI) in the Wood Elf list (in fact, they are the only Monstrous Infantry in Forces of Fantasy–all the other MI are eeeeeeevil!), and have a pretty standard W3 and A3. They’re a little quicker in combat than most other MI, having I3. They also have WS, BS and S of 4 (although who knows why they have BS, because they have no access to any kind of missile weapon!). WS4 is pretty good for this troop type – Trolls, Ogres, Chaos Spawn and Carrion are all WS3, only Minotaurs and Ushabti get to 4 (not counting Legacy factions) – although S4 is not super exciting (and makes me lament when they used to have S5 back in the 6th ed. book). However, they do have T5 and Ld8, both of which are the key stats for what I think is a key role for them in the Wood Elf army: as an anvil for hammer and anvil tactics.

Looking at their special rules, they are Close Order and are Tree Spirits (obviously!), which mostly means no character can join the unit. (Edit 2024-05-25 – Branchwraith can’t join because of Clumsy rule–thanks Korek). that the only character who can join their unit is a Branchwraith (the Dryad hero-level character), and that they can’t use the Ld of an Elf character. Given that Branchwraiths are only Ld8 also. However, they can use a regular Treeman’s Ld of 9 if they are within 18″, which is very thematic. (More and more, I’m leaning towards having a TMA as my general for that 18″ Ld 10 bubble, but keeping her as L2 on Battle Magic so she can just roll into combat, then also taking an L4 on another lore (Illusion most likely) – more on that when I get to the articles on Characters, and when the armies get to 2,500 points!). They are on 50×50 bases, so I really wish I could put a TMA in the unit, but sadly the Lumbering rule on Behemoths means that can’t happen.

Like all Tree Spirits, they are Flammable, Stubborn, have Magical Attacks, can Move Through Cover, cause Fear and are Immune to Psychology. They have a 5+ innate Armour Save, and a 5+ Regeneration save which, when combined with T5, makes them the most survivable rank and file unit in the army. Finally, they have Armour Bane (2) (making up a bit for the S4), and they each get a Tree Whack (same as a Treeman) and a Stomp attack (which will also get that Armour Bane). The Tree Whack is really only useful against other Monstrous things, but it is probably worthwhile in that case.

All of this costs 51 points a model, and for an extra 7 points you can get an Elder (champion) who gets an extra attack and can take Spites up to 25 points. I think the Elder is a reasonable addition if you have the points to spare, but likely any of the Spites you can take would be better off on another character.

So that’s the basics out of the way, now on to how Treekin might be used as part of the army strategy!

Treekin Tactics

First off, let’s talk about Fear. Most of the time, Fear doesn’t do much due to the Unit Strength limitation – if the Fear-causing unit doesn’t have higher Unit Strength, then this rule effectively can be ignored. MI units are a way to get a decently high Unit Strength and be able to overcome this limitation, but they are a bit of a points sink so that really only works at higher points level games (something our local meta is still moving towards). However, for the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume that you’re playing at 2,500 points.

I think Treekin can go toe-to-toe with most other infantry, including other monstrous infantry pretty well, although they do want to avoid stuff with Great Weapons. The larger concern are those pesky Cavalry units who can charge from quite far out and get that +2 S on the charge with lances. However, most Cavalry units seem to be around the 12-16 Unit Strength range, occasionally up at 20 for some Bretonnian Lance formations. If you have a unit of 6 Treekin, they have 18 Unit Strength, forcing those Cavalry to take a Ld test in order to charge. This is not a test that can be re-rolled with the BSB’s Hold Your Ground! rule, so at Ld8 (most Cav) there’s a 28% they can’t charge. It’s not amazing, but it’s certainly better than nothing.

Anvil

As I mentioned earlier, I think the main function for Treekin is as an anvil–taking a charge on the chin, Falling Back in Good Order due to being Stubborn, and trying to enable a countercharge from other Wood Elf units. You’re likely to lose 1 Treekin to charge (e.g. a charge from a Lance of 6 Grail Knights will kill 1.17 Treekin on average, ignoring challenges), but you’ll still get some attacks back and might get lucky to take 1 with you (about a 50/50 chance). The point is, the majority of the unit is still alive, perhaps all of it, and now you’ve got the opportunity to attack back.

In this role, the Treekin really benefit from having good support–ideally, you want some magical support in there too (any of the spells that grant a Ward Save make the Treekin even more survivable, for example, and Plague of Rust can make them very good against Armoured units). Like everything in the Wood Elf army, you want to be able to pick your fights as best you can, and have multiple charges. Having a good close combat unit ready and waiting to flank charge your enemy is Hammer & Anvil 101 (I talk about this a bit in the article on Eternal Guard–btw, I think they got better with the recent FAQ on the Drilled special rule, something I’ll cover in another article). Even just having that tactic set up can be enough to force your opponent to choose a different target, although really you don’t want to have those on offer!

While it may feel unnatural, it’s pretty common for Wood Elves to back up and move away from the enemy to force charges that are more beneficial to us. In this example above, the Heavy Cav can only charge the Treekin, after which they open up their flank to counter charges from Eternal Guard (with a lot of static combat res and Disruption) and War Dancers (with a high damage output). A savvy opponent won’t make that charge, but what will they do instead? This is where having a lot of archers is critical – putting pressure on that Cav unit to charge because you are peppering it with arrows every turn and picking off 1-2 models each time.

My general strategy in 8th ed Warhammer using the 6th ed book was to have Treekin, Dryads and Treemen to handle the fighting, and then lots of Glade Guard to shoot and put pressure on the enemy (they would then flee if charged). This is less doable with the current edition, because the Forest Spirits don’t quite have the damage output they used to have, but the principal remains the same. Avoid combat until units have been whittled down by archers, and then combo charge with everything you have. Treekin give you ways to keep your Elves alive.

Chaff?

If you read my Great Eagle article, you’ll know that Chaff is usually under 100 points. The minimum unit size for Treekin is 2, so for 102 points you can have a chaff unit that is both hard to shoot off (T5, 5+ Armour and Regen) and with Stubborn is likely to survive almost any charge to be able to continue to be chaff for another turn (albeit you’re likely to lose one of the Treekin when they are charged).

I think this is also a reasonable role for Treekin. Units of 2 are Close Order with a starting Unit Strength of 6, so they get +1 close combat resolution, and if they charge in the flank or rear, will Disrupt an enemy unit. Having only two in a unit can actually cause some enemies to underestimate them, but in a group charge scenario, you can actually win combat quite easily.

In this example, the Treekin in the first unit will likely lose 1 model – it’s hard to do 6 wounds to T5 models with a 5+ regen – and then FBIGO due to Stubborn. Their buddies will then be able to flank charge. No matter what the Cav unit does, it’s only likely to kill 1 more Treekin, which means it’s not going to wipe out either Flanker. In fact, it can only hit the Flankers with 3 attacks each max, and even with horses, that’s unlikely to kill even 1 Treekin, so most likely you will end up with losing the final Treekin from the first unit, and retaining both flank Treekin. The static combat resolution from the two flanked units is +4 – +1 for Close Order for each unit, and +1 for Flank attack for each unit. The Heavy Cav will have only have +2 (banner and close order) which most likely means you will win combat and grind that heavy cav unit down over a few turns (because they will have lost their +2 S for charging).

Obviously these are straightforward examples that I’ve made up to demonstrate possibilites. Being able to apply these examples in an actual battle can only come with experience as you (and I!) develop the skills to visualize the board and see what our opponents are likely to do, and deploy our troops appropriately.

Summary

I think Treekin are very survivable, which is a rare commodity in our army. Putting them in a place where that survivability works for us is key, and that can only really be done by looking at them holistically. Without archers to put pressure on your opponent to move forward and engage, the Treekin don’t have the mobility to really go find fights. If you place them well, and support them with other units to help on the countercharge, they will perform well. They’ll be excellent at holding objectives in scenarios that use them, and they’ll often still be alive at the end of the battle (if taken in larger units) so they’ll keep their points in those scenarios that are purely kill point based.

Have you used Treekin in your army? If so, how have they fared? Do you have any other tactics you’ve used with them?

Originally written for rankandflank.com.