Wood Elf Project

[Raindog]

The Army is painted. I finished the last model last night. Now, it is time for the display board. The template is done. Now, for the rocks, grit and glue!

[Raindog]

In between sledding and shoveling snow, I constructed my army display for the Brawl. I used a wooden paint "canvas" from Dick Blick. It is solid add light and  won't bend or break. I cut sheet magnets to use as rocks where my unit movement trays will go. I added grit and put on the first coat of spray paint last night. 

[Raindog]

I am spraying the top black and the sides brown. The cold is hindering drying, so this will be a slow processes. 

[Raindog]

The tray is taking way too much time. I have to get to flocking. I still have a bit of painting on the top to go, and then, I can flock.

 

Last weeks games fell through due to the surprised snow storm.

 

I cleaned off the dust on my dragon and played a game against TJP tonight. The game against Chaos went well, but I still feel very underprepared for the Brawl. 

 

Oh well.

 

After the Brawl, I am shelving the Woodies for the Dwarfs. The new book is too tempting to resist.

[MexicanNinja]

I think you will do fine at the brawl.  Just remember about the scenario objectives.  Those could be the game changers.  With all of your fast movement you could steal the win in later turns.

[Raindog]

I have been flocking………..

 

And now I need more. 

 

To Guardian, I go……...

[TJP]

Much was lost to the Great Flock-pocalypse of 2014...

[Raindog]

I lost half of my GW flock, but the main flock I use is G9 Summer Grass. Guardian was out, so I bought army painter instead. The GW is a different color of green. It is a part of my mix, but not the main ingredient.

[Raindog]

Well, it is time to put away the Wood Elves for awhile. They have had a good run and I did what I wanted to them to do. My goal was to break out the dragon and give it a run. I wanted to see if a big bad could work in the current meta. Taking the dragon is a risk. To kit out a dragon and a highborn, I cannot bake a Lord level caster. Without a Lord level caster, I am reduced to a weak lore and an ineffective. Magic phase. Can you play 8th without magic? Would I get bashed with hexes and direct damage spells? I wanted to give list a try.

 

My intent was to make up for lack of magic with movement.

 

Currently, Wood Elves excel at movement. They are mostly move 5, 9, and flyers. The dryads skirmish and can spread out quickly, if you spam them. I listened to and read several theories. I decide to play them like a 6th Ed armry: dance around for position, pick your fights, and pounce. I think John Kersey's advertised tactic works well: go move away from where your opponent expects you to be. Play to your strengths and use the terrain to your advantage.

[Raindog]

As odd as it seems, Wood Elves should not rely on shooting. Ranged attacks are really only there to remove skirmishers and fast cav, to whittle down a rank, and to eliminate juicy unarmored targets like giants, ogres, minotaurs, and the like.

 

I used mine as annoying sacrificial units and as bunker for the mage.

 

In most games, they die. They are weak and unarmored and die on a whim.

[Raindog]

To make a proper tournament list, I needed to increase my core. My models were designed for 6th, small core units for smaller games. Most events were 2000 points. Big games were 2250 points. In 6th, I played two units of 10 Glade Guard, a unit of 5 Glade Riders, and three units of 8 Dryads.

In 8th, Glade Riders are points poorly spent. They are too expensive to be fast cav, too weak to fight or influence combat, and too ineffective to be missile troops. They don't have Glade Guard bows, so they aren't much of a threat.

To make up for the needed 25 percent core, I added another unit of 8 Dryads and 2 more Glade Guard.

[Raindog]

I did not want to buy more core models. I have plenty of Glade Guard bits, I could easily make 20 more, but I only had 4 more Dryads and bunch of bits. I decided to stretch my bits and have Dryads emerging from the ground and the branches to GW trees. The project worked really well. To go with the unit, I upped by skirmishers trays from 2 to 4. They were rarely seen in 8th. I built them for my ease of moving the units during the game. Now, they are really common.

[Sylvos]

Currently, Wood Elves excel at movement. They are mostly move 5, 9, and flyers. The dryads skirmish and can spread out quickly, if you spam them. I listened to and read several theories. I decide to play them like a 6th Ed armry: dance around for position, pick your fights, and pounce. I think John Kersey's advertised tactic works well: go move away from where your opponent expects you to be. Play to your strengths and use the terrain to your advantage.

 

It's poor form to beat someone with their own tactics :).

Just saying!

Grats again Eric :D

[Raindog]

The reason I did not have many Dryads models, is that I used the models to make my Treekin. I was not fond of the Treekin models, so I made my own. I took my Dryad models cut them apart and pinned the arms, legs, and torsos using paper clip pins to extend the length of the model. Using green stuff, I sculpted the missing sections of bodies and limbs.

 

Originally, I had four, but 8th being what it is, I wanted more. I thought two units of four would give me more options and threat zones. I was wrong. It is a huge point sink. It seems like a risk, but would not go to battle without them. They dish out pain with 24 S5 attacks and 4 stomps. They tough with good armor and wards. They are both hammer and anvil.

[Raindog]

It's poor form to beat someone with their own tactics :).

Just saying!

:D

I thought it was the most sincere form of flattery...

[Raindog]

The next new model I added was a Great Eagle. Eagles seem antiquated in 8th. They have no armour and are not good at fighting. I loved the LOTR eagles GW put out for the Hobbit. I bought them and added them because they were pretty.

It took me a long time to use them well. They died again and again.

Eagles are great at clearing chaff and impeding charges. They can launch fanatics on your schedule and sit on Manglas. They still can hunt war machines, but they don't kill the crews well with 2 attacks and they cannot stomp the crew. Eagles can tie up a cannon or a bolt thrower, for a turn or two and with a movement army, it buys you the time you need to dance.

[Raindog]

The Brawl seemed like a perfect place to play my Wood Elves. It is a well run event with fun scenarios and good story lines. The event is competive enough to test an army. Most good generals with solid lists go 3-2 and the top finishers all seem to be 4-1 with X beating Y, Y beating Z, Z beating A, and A beating X.

Without much shooting or magic, I predicted to sit down on the lower tables and stay there. I would have fun and play Warhammer for a weekend.

Art assured me the list was good, but due to snow storms and family events, I really did not get to test the list.

I was hoping for a good painting show, but then, Lion of Flanders stepped backing into the gaming world after a four year absence. I am a good painter. Lion is legendary. If you have not seen his armies, he has the best Cult of Ulric and Dark Elf armies. Period. He has amazing Averlander Empire and old school Orc and Goblins. His free hand is enviable.

I made a series of new movement trays and big army display board for the event and was excited to attend. I was sad TJP, Savion47, Ring of Gyges, MojoSlayer, and Agent P could not attend, but I was looking forward to hangout with the Black Sheep crew, Von Ruger, Mexican Ninja, Chad, James, Taylor, John E, and others.

[Raindog]

My first game was against Ryan O, aka Gunnerson's, Dwarfs. It was a solid Anvil list with three big blocks, a cannon, a flame cannon, and an Organ gun. Ryan castled in the center with the war machines protected in between blocks of troops. It would be a hard nut to crack. I got lucky. His shooting failed to hit in the first round. I made sure my eagle hit hit cannon and Call of the Hunted my Treeman into the Flame cannon with a great deal of luck. The dragon rolled up his flank with my heavy hitters engaging his blocks at the right time.

I compared the performance of Gunnerson's Ironbreakers to how they would fare under the new rules. Ironbreakers will be hard to hurt and take a fierce beating without taking much of a wound.

Ryan's MVP was his Gyrocopter. It was a pain in the butt to deal with and did most of the damage against my army.

I used a unit of Dryads to make a wall and corral the pony cart into my take quarter.

In the end, I ground out Ryan's army for a big win.

[Raindog]

I walk back from lunch to find my pitted against Chris Bailey. This was a bad much up. Chris is my equal as a general and he plays Daemons of Chaos. Daemons aren't the bent list of last year that Ring of Gyges used to crush my Warriors list, but they all have magic attacks. In 6th Edition, Daemons did not get ward saves against magic attacks. Forest Spirits were no different. Daemons gave had two books since then. Woodies are still on the same book.

 

Then, I looked at Chris's army. Big Papa, a massive block of Plague Bearers with two heralds, beasts, nurglings, a soul grinder, and a block of Horrors with a Herald. Ouch. Papa is a brute. The Plague Bearers are hard to wound and they will slice through me especially with the Heralds.

 

The only thing that saved me was the scenario. It was a meeting engagement. Chris had to deploy his whole army. Then, I deployed mine.

 

I stacked everything against his Plaguebearers on his left flank.

 

It took everything to crack the unit.

 

I hid my archers behind Khemri Quicksand and poked Big Papa with arrows. I hoped he would fall in the muck and die, but he made three moved through the terrain as he ate my archers.

 

In the end, Chris had Papa and the Soul Grinder. I lucked out for a win.

[Raindog]

Game Three was against Taylor. I think I first played Taylor in 2005? Another solid general who has given me fits over the years. He had Ogres. Across the table, I was relieved to see no Iron Blasters. The beefy unit of Maneaters caused me worry. He had a lot of big units with characters backed by Beasts and the Maw. The table really helped me. Three sections of Khemri Quicksand in the center left section of the table and a massive sinister statue on the right. I decided to avoid him and make him fight through the muck.

Taylor told me the Forest Spirit save was stupid and let me have straight 5+ save. Woot! Duly noted sir!

The sinister statue ate his Maneaters with my archers finishing the unit.

Taylor's units made an amazing amount of dangerous terrain tests in the quicksand. I made the mistake of combo charging a unit of Dryads into a unit of Bulls with the Dragon, Wild Riders, and a Eagle.

I broke the bulls and killed them, but Taylor's Iron Guts countered into my Dryads, and overran into my Dragon. I killed out the characters, but my General died and the Dragon broke, ran and continued running.

In the end, Taylor had his Guts and Mournfang. I lost my general and some chaff.

[Raindog]

On Sunday, I hoped to play Von Ruger and his Empire. I thought was playing Drak and his VC, but found myself against the master Wood Elf player, John Kersey. Kersey won the first Brawl with the Woodies. Fortunately, today he had Beasts of Chaos, so I had a chance.

The scenario gave me a boon. John has three huge blocks. The center of the table had a teleportation circle. Any unit that touched it would be randomly moved to a table edge. I decided to hide behind the circle, so he could not charge me and shift from my right to left.

The archers killed all of his Minos, save the Doombull.

In an epically bloody fight, my Treekin and Dryads fought his BSB with the +1 S banner and a horde of Gors. He did 11 wounds, I did 21. It swung the game. But when I had John surrounded, he fled the remnants of his Bestigors and his Wounded Doombull to get out of the threat zones of my army.

It was a smart move. It stopped my advance and saved points.

I walked away with a solid win.

[Raindog]

In the last game, I was pitted against Josh B and his Two Tower Skaven list.

The table had areas that caused flaming, magic attacks. Yikes. Josh is double yikes and his Skaven list has little points to easily. In the first Brawl Josh and I were in the top table in the last game and we fought to a tie, giving John Kersey the event with big win in his last game.

Turn Two was bad. I lost the dragon, the eagle, the archers and my Mage.

The game was all up hill from there.

I lucked out and threw myself into combats. I managed to stop most of my bleeding and turn the game from a rout to a minor loss.

Neither of scored high in points. Did we give somebody else the win?

Nope. Josh took best General. I took best overall.

The Wood Elves are going on the shelf, and it is time to play the new Dwarf book for a bit.

[Matt Israel]

Nice recap, sounded like a great time!

[Raindog]

Thank you Black Sheep for running a quality event. It is a must not miss event for me. I recommend to everyone. The prizes and swag were amazing. The scenarios are easy to play, but make very difficult tactical decisions. The tables are beautiful.

 

Thanks to everyone I played and anybody's ear drums I blew out with my yelling.

[McNathanson]

From the organized way they prepped and the thoughtfulness of their rules pack I suspected this was a first class event.  I am glad it sounded as fun as I imagined it would be :)  I am doubly sorry to have missed it!  Great recap.  I'm curious how much of your points garnered were from your Dragon and General?  You didn't talk about what his effect was… I suspect he cleaned up quite a bit of vulnerable points?