This week Lange and Nathan sit down again to talk about list building for the new Wood Elves armybook. What units make the cut and which units get left in the dust? Also, a surprise ending to our conversation has us both stunned. Our model of the week is utterly insane… and that cannot be understated at all. Nathan promises that there are good models in this range… but WOW. Listen and Enjoy!!
[WARNING! Jaded Gamercast is meant for an adult audience. We ask that all listeners be at least 18 years of age or have their parents permission before listening.]
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Jaded Gamercast 
I don’t know how much this would alter your lists, if at all, but you’re misinterpreting how Acorns of the Ancients works. In the BRB, rolling off for sides is part of deployment (I.e. It is in the section titled “Deployment”. Since the Acorn happens before deployment, it happens before sides are rolled for. The best, and possibly only, way to use it effectively is to clog up the center or any choke points with forests
I like the show a lot, as you have a viewpoint that is so different from the uk gaming that I play. In terms of a competitive list in the uk we (myself and a friend who’s been the UK’s top wood elf player for the last two years) are thinking glade guard are essential (4 to 6 units of 14) along with scouts and the requisite 20 way watchers. It gives you enough fire power to deal with pretty much anything. You mentioned cold one cavalry – waywatchers do a real number of them, and as for the rest of a dark elf army; in the two games I’ve played against them the advantage of true flight arrows allows you to absolutely decimate the dark elves and both games have ended in big wood elf wins. I see other elves as good match ups, although bolt throwers can be a problem. Overall I think the list has lots of interesting options, and I’m really enjoying it so far.
So I’ve had a chance to watch two Wood Elf players in my local club play a couple games with their lists. They’re both running rather dissimilar lists, which is quite interesting to see.
Player 1:
2,500 points:
High Weaver w/ lvl 4, obsidian lodestone, dispel scroll
Shadow Weaver w/ lvl 4, obsidian amulet, moonstone of the hidden ways, power stone
Glade Captain w/ bsb, hail of doom arrow, shield, spear, dragonhelm, starfire tips
Waystalker w/ bow of loren
20 glade guard w/ standard, musician, hagbane tips
20 glade guard w/ standard, musician, hagbane tips
14 deepwood scouts w/ standard, hagbane tips
7 wild riders w/ full command, shields, banner of eternal flame
10 waywatchers
10 waywatchers
eagle
eagle
Notice moonstone…but no acorn! He ran the acorn once and said he would never run it again, as acorn+moonstoon seemed extremely unsporting to him. As it stands he just moonstones between his free forest and whatever other forests are on the board (random terrain usually gives him at least one, and most tournaments around here place at least a forest or two on each board).
His strategy from the get-go is pretty obvious: avoid, chaff, shoot. Poison arrows are amazing, as is waywatchers+withering. Today I saw him kill two steam tanks in two consecutive turns (as part of tabling a 1+ spam Empire list with incredible ease). He’s played a lot of games with this and similar lists and is thus far essentially undefeated. Not too shabby.
Player 2:
I haven’t seen his actual list, so this is from memory:
2500 points:
Level 4 High, 4++, horse
Level 4 Dark, 5++, dispel scroll, horse
BSB, GW, obsidian lodestone
10? sisters of the thorn, movement banner
3 units of glade riders (min core), all with poison arrows
15 waywatchers
2 eagles
Treeman
As with player 1, this list is designed to NEVER see combat (also again, no acorn). The character bus is the only thing that is deployed normally, and it vanguards 12″ away from the enemy then marches 20″ out of their line of sight. In the three games I’ve seen him in so far he’s fought a total of 2 combats that didn’t involve a treeman or his eagles. Both games were against hard warriors lists, and both games he tabled his opponents. First he lost only a couple hundred points, second only a single eagle.
With the amount of mobility this list has catching it is extremely difficult. His character bus floats just outside your line of sight casting spells at you, while his eagles chaff and double flee, and his waywatchers (BS boosted) blast anything with armour off the board. Everything else has poison (the sisters are generally S4 poison AP), and just shoots and magics you until you’re gone. The treeman is basically in the list to tie up anything that he can’t handle with shooting (which thus far has been pretty little).
Not too shabby for “Worst Elves,” I’d say š Certainly everyone is going to learn how to play against these armies and thing will get better, but as it stands these are both VERY tournament-viable armies that I think are in contention for the top tables. High Magic gives them tools against horde armies, arcane unforging for trixy magic items or the dreaded unkillable WoC BSB. Dark has the potential for catastrophic damage when the vengeance counters (?) finally get triggered. Shadow makes waywatchers absolutely deadly. +1 to cast in forests is amazing, but more of a boon than a necessity.