A few general points first.
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WE are expensive almost to the point of being overpriced. As with our own fair Bretonnia, the Wood Elves have fallen far since the forgotten days of 6th edition. They were not only balanced for a totally different game but also don’t take into account the overall drop in points cost which took place over 7th edition. The result is that WE generals have had to learn to do more with less. This usually means monsters or
MSU, which leads to the two main styles I discuss below. Either way model count will be low. It also means that you shouldn’t be expecting large blocks of troops or fair fights, as WE generals really can’t afford either. This also tends to mean that experienced WE players are better tacticians overall, for when you can win with the disadvantages the army entails, it is usually on person merit rather than power of list. Games are a matter of inches and mistakes are devastating and usually involve losing units out right. WE are an army in winter, but even in their current state, they can be dangerous to the unprepared in the hands of a competent general.
-WE are fragile. There isn’t a single wood elf unit that point for point can beat any unit under a knight’s leadership in the Bretonnian army book in an extended close combat head on. As long as you aren’t falling for a trap, any combat you can get involved in is a good thing and your knights should cream any elf they can catch.
-WE armies of all types benefit greatly from terrain and will tend to push for the maximum amount. They not only function well in woods, which they ignore difficult terrain in, but also in other features like rivers, marshes and surprisingly buildings. Most of these terrain types make other armies lose steadfast and/or ranks while providing it for skirmishers, which is a large number of WE units. The only thing nastier than facing 24 str 4 wardancer attacks is doing it in a river where you only get one static combat resolution from the standard. Be careful where you charge and where you leave you units. Expect competent WE generals to use whatever terrain is on the table to their advantage. Be aware that WE can move forests in the magic phase multiple times with their own units surfing along. So those trees out of the way on the flank could potentially move to block you knight’s charge or get in the way of your archers giving cover. This hurts us especially due to our cavalry’s weakness to dangerous terrain. The ranger standard is a viable option for protecting either grail or questing knights as they will probably have to make several charges into dangerous terrain.
-WE flee, a lot. With high leadership and mobility, expect a wood elf to flee from any charge that isn’t likely to go their way. This can strand knight units on there own, or at least slow them down, and is a standard use for fast cavalry and eagles. Remember that Wardancers, Wildriders and all forest spirits (dryads, treekin, treemen) are immune to psychology and can’t flee as a charge reaction.
There are two main flavors of WE armies, the Tree spirit army and the Guerrilla army. You will often see a mix of the two but most elf lists I have seen on Asrai.org, in person or used myself have favored toward one side or the other. For reference sake, when I field WE (less often then either dwarves or
Brets) I tend to play Wood Elf Liberation Front or the guerrilla style, which may result in a bias in that respect.
The Tree spirit list started as a fluffy oddity, but has become dominant with the changes that occurred in 8th. Forest spirits are the easiest way for most WE players to field a list that plays pretty much like everybody else. Such lists will try to whittle you down at range and then mop up whatever is left with combined light infantry and tree spirit charges. As has been stated all tree spirits hate magic as it negates their brand of ward save. Also fire is very useful against Treemen/kin as they are flammable. The wyrmlance and banner of the eternal flame are musts when preparing to fight Forest spirits.
As for the list itself, the core troops will tend to be dryads. Extremely fast (I6) and able to throw a sickening number of str 4 attacks. Knights should have little problem weathering the storm and scattering what remains. Keep your peasants away as much as you can, as dryads cleave through light infantry like butter. Treekin are an ogre/troll equivalent but stronger, tougher, and with a decent armor and ward save. Most of the units I have seen tend to be 6 strong which results in 18 str 5 attacks to the front. The good news is that such units tend to cost around 400 pts, which is a significant investment in 18 non-steadfast wounds. The best way to deal with them is to send in two or more lances and break them on the charge. As long as you can equal the wounds the treekin put out you should be able to break them with static combat resolution. You want to avoid situations where treekin can combine with glade (bowmen) or eternal (spearmen) guard, as both provide the static combat resolution that treekin lack. Also beware of Lifeweavers (lvl 4 life mage) and treekin. Treekin are hard enough to kill without magic bringing d6+2 wounds back every turn or as toughness 9. Treemen are your standard str 6 monster, however it is stubborn and has a short range shooting attack that can be used as a stand and shoot. A lord with HKB and a magic weapon will turn one into fire wood no problem, but otherwise be prepared for a long grind, especially if the Lifeweaver is within 12”. It may be advantageous to feed men at arms to a treeman as long as knights and the bsb are nearby. Peasants have just as much chance of wounding the treemen as stationary knights and will have steadfast longer and are cheaper to lose, but you will lose more of them both to the standard attack and to the stomp (which knights are immune to). Treemen can also be Ancients, which makes them characters, and more importantly gives them access to sprites (a form of magic item). This often means the Treeman Ancient will have the annoyance of nettlings, which means you need 6s to hit him in challenges. Thus expect not to hit much if the Treeman starts issuing challenges. You will often see some elves in tree spirit list, either scouts/waywatchers for warmachine hunting or large blocks of core. Some generals will field eternal guard that are stubborn so long as a character is with them. Most of the time WE players will just field their archers in larger steadfast units and use them as the light infantry substitutes to provide the ranks and standard the rest of the army lacks as well as early turn ranged support. Such units should be the primary targets for you trebuchets, as the templates will reduce the number of shoots they can produce and more importantly the number of ranks they can add to ensuing combats
Fighting against Forest spirit armies is pretty standard but fighting against a guerrilla army is totally different. Such armies will field a large number of small mobile units (MSU) and rely on speed to get advantageous charges and avoid obvious threats. The units’ small size means that, though the models cost more points than average, the units tend to be cheap and almost disposable. Thus if they trade one of their units to put you in a position where you lose one of yours, they will come out a head. Your army will advance under a hail of arrows from all quarters with no clear battle line to advance upon, only to be picked apart piecemeal by multiple charges. Don’t lose hope, for while WE are fast they are also frail. With discipline your troops are more than a match for theirs. There are several mantras that you must keep in mind when fighting guerrillas.
-Chase the points. Guerrilla armies win by killing more of your points than you kill of theirs. Once you realize that this is the game you are playing, you can adjust you focus accordingly. Killing high point targets will give you the advantage and force the WE general to take more risks, meaning more mistakes for you to capitalize on. Characters, the general especially, should be a focus, as should monsters like treemen or treekin. Killing a Spellweaver general is better than butchering 8 eagles or 5 units of scouts, focus you efforts accordingly. Also remember that the 8th gives no points for partial kills. Use their small units size to your advantage by killing whole units and then keep your own damaged units safe, denying the WE general hard won points.
-Stay together. Good advice at any time but especially so against WE. Keeping your units together is advantageous not only because it allows the general/
BSB to function better and protects more unit flanks from flank charge, it also gives more potential for counter charges. All the steadfast or armor in the world won’t save you from superior killing power if there is no relief on the way. The major way a WE wins close combats is by isolating your units and allowing them to tackle half of your army with most of theirs. There are several ways this separation can happen, often without you even realizing it. The first is that as your knights move forward, your shooting is left behind. WE excel at getting past your main line and attacking you ranged threats. Your peasants are going to be a primary target, for while they aren’t worth many points they are easier nuts to crack then your knights. The best way to counter this or at least slow it down is to leave some knights or an empathy paladin as guards. This gives your peasants a respectable leadership to take their break/ panic tests on and will save many in the long run. You may even luck out and have the peasants pin a WE unit long enough for the knights or another peasant unit to get there and counter charge. Another way armies separate themselves it by deploying spread out. Many WE generals will encourage this by spreading themselves out during deployment and hoping you deploy to match. (NOTE: this is a tactic mounted Bretonnian armies can employ also as 16” is usually enough to consolidate against opponents who spread out or to flank those who don’t) . You also may deploy spread out to widen the 12” bubble that scouts can’t deploy in. While this is a good tactic, don’t leave such unit out on their own. Bring them back in line with either vanguard moves or the first turn march. Also generals isolate units for themselves by chasing after skirmishers, fast cav, and fliers on the flank. Which leads us to…
-Don’t waste time chasing skirmishers. If a knight unit turns to face 85 pts of scouts on the flank, the scouts will march out of the knight’s charge range or arch and then shoot. I have had 8 dryads delay a unit of chaos warriors for the entire battle as they stubbornly continued to turn to keep tree spirits in view. Even if this turning is only done once or twice, it is often enough to put a unit out of position, either isolating it for flank and rear charges or preventing it from being where it is needed elsewhere on the battlefield.
-No one can out run an arrow or a fireball. While it may not be the most honorable form of engagement, it is often the best you can hope for. Our bowmen are cheap and everything counts in large amounts. Take enough shots at those annoying skirmishers on the flank and they will die. Even if it is harder to hit them, they have low toughness and no armor. Remember when picking your spells, while d6 hits may not do much against a horde of warriors, it causes 6 man squads to evaporate with alarming alacrity. Magic missiles are the death of WE and most mage hunting tactics don’t work when a bodyguard of knights surrounds her.
-Knights are Tanks. With a few exceptions, WE have trouble penetrating armor. Knights should be safe from most threats and as long as they aren’t totally ambushed (ie flank and rear charged in a bog by the whole the WE army) most knight units can hold out long enough for help to get there. With their long charge range knights make fleeing from charges much more dicey for the opponent thus are harder to bait. Small units of knights (5-6) can work wonders against wood elves and Pegasus knights are pure gold.
Other threats
The Machine Gun Lord: Bearing the bow of loren and arcane bodkin arrows, this character can take as many str 3 shots as he has attacks (often 4-5) that ignore armor saves. Luckily there aren’t a whole lot of points left over for defense so if you can reach him or his unit, you can often kill him relatively easily. Make it a top priority, even with shooting and magic.
Alter kindred: Kindreds are like virtues and this character bears a virtue which gives him m9 I9 +1a at the cost of having to fight on his own. When magic items are mixed in, such a character can be tooled to a myriad of purposes. My personal favorite has 7 flaming attacks, a 3+ ward save and stubborn. The 5 shot machine gun lord is another alter variation. Alters are better taken out early and at range as they can often be a thorn in the side if they are allowed to do whatever they are designed to do.
Waywatchers: Scouts with BS 5 and killing blow on their shots at short range. Not terribly effective for their cost but can be painful when 6s are rolled especially for knights. Don’t chase them but if you can position you charge ranges so they have to keep away then it may be worth it.
PK can give chase as they are Monstrous Cavalry and are thus immune to killing blow and are fast enough to get back in line or target something else if the Waywatchers evade them.
Wardancers: Not really used much due to their cost and low survivability in 8th but they are dangerous to Bretonnians due to their killing blow and high number of I6 attacks. They have 2 attacks base and then chose one dance each turn of combat. These dances can either give +1a, killing blow, a 4+ward save or always strike first. Not likely to survive long in the open but can be stubborn in certain types of terrain and can put out a dizzying number of attacks.
Eagles: Not really so much a threat as a trap. Eagles of both high and wood elves are incredible for their disposability and utility. Easily sacrificed, eagles are also good warmachine hunters, sources of flank/rear charges, charge baiters, speed bumps and any thing else you can think of doing with a flying ogre. They are often bait so anytime you see an easy charge involving an eagle look around for ambushes.