Wood Elf Army Book Review

[Jyrzzä]

:Recently I've been fortunate enough to come into the possession of the new WE list, and have discussed it with a fair few people, including some that regularly come top 10 in tournaments they attend, etc. The enviroment I generally game in is quite competitive -- while we are all friendly, and in terms of sportsmanship allow people to go back and do things they have forgotten, et cetera, the lists we generally use are pretty powerful, though not to the point of insanity.

With this in mind, a review of the woodelf units, magic lore and (some) magic items/kindreds follows. It has to be noted that my advice is intended for gamers that play using victory points, capturing standards, table quarters, et cetera, and in some cirumstances if you do not do these things my musings are less useful.


Magic Lore/magic in general:

Not as bad as people will make out. It is painful that woodelf level 2's can no longer take the lore of life/beasts and are now restricted to this, though -- but with this said, it can pull some nice suprises. Imagine making a unit of dryad's cause terror when in close proximity with an O&G army, or pulling off a suprise charge with the call of the hunt. Useful, but there's just no way it can make as many points for you as the lore of life.

In all, magic has definitely been toned down for level 2's (and thus, in 1,500 point tournaments it'll be especially noticeable), but archmage can still take life. It is especially noticeable however, that there are no +1 powerdice items available in any form, nor +1 spell - so relying on an archmage with life could still let you down if you missed out on stone/wood. But yeah, the woodelf magic now just has no way to compete with how it was previously when in a 1.5k tournament you could have 3 level 2's, one with wand of jet absolutely destroying everything.

With this said, mages are definitely still necessary (for Dispel scrolls/dice), as a lot of woodelf units are really vulnerable to magic. This especially applies if you take wardancers or small but insanely pricey units such as waywatchers or wild riders.


Kindreds:

firstly I'd just like to say that since none of these use magic item allowance, if you have "spare" points in essence it is just going to improve a character without eating into points you use on anything else, which is neat. with this said however, I feel that there is only one worthwhile kindred, but it is REALLY REALLY worthwhile.

wardancer: worthless
eternal: worthless
scout: worthless
glamourweave: worthless
waywatcher: worthless.
wild rider: not that bad, but still a lot of points and not something I would really consider taking on a lord myself.
alter: Alter kindred wins -- it seriously is superb. +1a, movement/initiative 9". However, it does have serious drawbacks in that with this kindred you can't be the general and cannot join other units, but combined with magic items this kindred can seriously turn a wood elf lord into a force to be reckoned with. imo it was included to give a lord some ground in the lord vs archmage debate.

If you take a highborn there is no doubt that alter kindred is the way to go. I would argue that if you didn't want to take it, eg, if you wanted the ld 10 on your lord as for your general it'd probably not be worth taking any.


Magic Items:

Nothing terribly special here. Some neat magic items with various specialized uses, though.

Sprit Sword: worthless
Bow of Loren: really nice, especially when combined with, for example, alter kindred and starfire/bodkin arrows.
Hunter's Talon: useless alone, but with hagbane arrows becomes viable. Don't expect to kill combat lords with this, but sniping mages could pay off with some luck.
Spear of Twilight: "ask yourself one question -- do you feel lucky?". I personally would never consider taking this.. but I can see situations in which it could be useful to some people.
Blades of Loec: worthless
Daith's reaper: worthless
Dawnspear: with a wild rider lord, if for some reason you *insisted* on taking a magic weapon this is probably the one to go for. worthless otherwise.
Callach's claw: worthless
Sword of a Thousand Winters: worthless
Rageth's Wildfire Blades: worthless
Asiendi's Bane: worthless

Railarian's Mantle: Insanely overpriced for what it does. Oaken Armour is just nicer.
Oaken Armour: Nice magic armour. Fairly solid, not particularly cheap but not really overpriced either. Works well with annoyance of netlings and great weapon. (and alter kindred, of course)
Helm of the Hunt: Actually rather nice, especially when combined with amaranthine brooch -- but the lack of protection from magic would leave me feeling too vulnerable for me to take this on a lord.
Armour of the Fey: I think this was intended to be combined with the amaranthine brooch - but that still leaves you horribly vulnerable to magic missiles. I would much rather fork out the extra 15 points for oaken armor. All in all, fairly worthless.
Briarwreath: worthless

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