Wood Elves – Army Wide Rules

I’m a big fan of Wood Elves, having played them in multiple editions. For a long time, I posted a bunch of content on the Asrai forum, and I’m starting that up again. I usually cross-post to my blog, so here we are! I’m starting with the Army Wide Rules. Likely I’ll write some more about each unit, tactics, etc. as I start playing more games. First tournament in 3 weeks!

Elven Reflexes: replacing the overpowered “Always Strikes First” of 8th edition, this gives a minor buff of +1 Init in the first round of combat. For most troops, this means going to I5, which I think will really only come into play when being charged by slow opponents (e.g. Dwarfs, Skeletons etc.). When charging, we’ll likely be on I8 and going first against virtually everything else. When being charged, even a human will likely be faster (base I3, with a +3 for charging 3″ or more). A minor buff, in line with the overall toning down of power for the whole game.

Talismanic Tattoos: no change here, still granting 6+ ward save to Wardancers and Wild Riders.

Tree Spirit: broadly the same, this makes it so that Elf characters can’t join units of Dryads or Treekin. Interestingly, it also prohibits Tree Spirits from using the Ld of a non-Tree Spirit character, but does give any Tree Spirit character a command range bubble for other Tree Spirits, just like the general.

Tree Whack: this rule now applies to Tree Kin as well as Treemen, making the Kin a bit more useful against slow opponents, particularly other Monstrous Infantry. One attack is turned into an Initiative test, and if failed, the model suffers D3 hits at model Strength with no armor save. Potentially useful for a Treeman Ancient in a challenge, but probably only worthwhile against I3 and lower, which is not common among characters. Will experiment with it and see.

Woodland Ambush: we get a free forest again (and it doesn’t have to be a GW one!). Between 8 and 12″ in size, and not in the opponents deployment zone nor within 12″ of the table centre.

So, not a whole lot new here, but minor tweaks on the rules from the old editions. Expect to see that for most of the army list.

Lore of Athel Loren

I figured I’d cover this here, because it’s very short and not a full lore any more. In brief, instead of taking a signature spell, a wizard can take one of three spells from the Lore of Athel Loren. I’m not super happy about that, because I think two of the spells work well together in tandem, but it is what it is …

Tree Singing: Cast on a 7+, it puts a 3″ round forest on the board that remains in play and counts as dangerous terrain for enemies. If you roll a 9+ (pretty easy for L4 casters), it’s a 5″ round forest. I will probably use this all the time, because hindering enemies while providing benefit for our brave Asrai is just brilliant. However, it’s a pretty easy dispel on later turns, given it only needs a 7+. Will try it out and see!

Forest Walker: Move a unit that’s in a forest to another forest–this has been a staple of the Asrai for as long as I can remember. You can’t be fleeing, and you can’t place the unit within 6″ of enemy models. I think this works well with Tree Singing, but given that this spell is cast in the Movement phase and Tree Singing is cast in the shooting phase, it may only be of occasional use. However, it seems like an excellent way to teleport a unit of Waywatchers into/out of trouble 🙂 Relatively high casting value of 10+.

Flock of Doom: Small template S3 AP -1 magic missile. First thought is: meh.

Asrai Longbow

This is the last “army wide” rule, which is the return of the good ol’ Asrai Longbow. It has a range of 32″, which is excellent as it gives a short range of 16″ (thus avoiding the -1 to shoot), and Armour Bane (1), which means the occasional 6 to wound will have AP -1. It also grants Volley Fire, which is the same as 8th edition except now only the front rank gets to shoot fully (unless you’re on a hill, in which case it’s the front two ranks). You also can’t move and volley fire, and given the mobility of our army, I suspect this will rarely prove useful.

Everyone who can take an Asrai Longbow can also take one of the 5 types of enchanted arrows. 3 of these I’ll call expensive, and two are cheap. That is to say, that they cost 2pts/1pt per model for rank and file, and 6pts/3pts for characters. All of these are coming from previous editions, and are broadly the same.

Expensive
Arcane Bodkins: Yep, the bodkins are back, and grant AP -2, which in this edition is pretty huge. It also stacks with the Armour Bane of the bow, so when you roll a 6 to wound, it’ll be at AP -3.

Hagbane Tips: Same as before, the Hagbane tipped arrows are Poisoned Attacks, which will auto-wound on a 6 to hit.

Swiftshiver Shards: Grants Multiple Shots (2), which sounds great until you remember that the shots will be at -1 to hit.

Cheap
Moonfire Shot: Counts as both Flaming and Magical attacks. This basically means it cuts out all Regeneration saves.

Trueflight Arrows: Grants Ignores Cover and Quick Shot. To me, this is the stand out arrow of the bunch. This removes so many penalties from the to hit roll, so you can move and shoot with impunity (remember the 6th ed book?). I suspect that Trueflight Arrows will be stapled on to all my Glade Guard units, given the low cost and high value.

It’s worth noting that the magical longbows we get access to also count as Asrai Longbows, and so can use the magic arrows. I’ll do a separate post about the magic items I think.