Treekin are the only Monstrous Infantry unit in Wood Elves (or indeed, any army from Forces of Fantasy!) Inspired the Huorns from Lord of the Rings, they are tough and durable in an army that is mostly pretty squishy.
Having given my initial thoughts on both Core and Rare choices, it’s time to finally move on to the Special units in the army roster. Special is, I think, where a lot of the best stuff is in the Wood Elf roster, and certainly the units that are seeing a lot of play are in this section. I’m going to start with what used to be a staple in my old 8th ed. army, the Treekin.
Stats and Special Rules
Treekin are the only Monstrous Infantry (MI) in the Wood Elf list (in fact, they are the only Monstrous Infantry in Forces of Fantasy–all the other MI are eeeeeeevil!), and have a pretty standard W3 and A3. They’re a little quicker in combat than most other MI, having I3. They also have WS, BS and S of 4 (although who knows why they have BS, because they have no access to any kind of missile weapon!). WS4 is pretty good for this troop type – Trolls, Ogres, Chaos Spawn and Carrion are all WS3, only Minotaurs and Ushabti get to 4 (not counting Legacy factions) – although S4 is not super exciting (and makes me lament when they used to have S5 back in the 6th ed. book). However, they do have T5 and Ld8, both of which are the key stats for what I think is a key role for them in the Wood Elf army: as an anvil for hammer and anvil tactics.
Looking at their special rules, they are Close Order and are Tree Spirits (obviously!), which mostly means no character can join the unit. (Edit 2024-05-25 – Branchwraith can’t join because of Clumsy rule–thanks Korek). that the only character who can join their unit is a Branchwraith (the Dryad hero-level character), and that they can’t use the Ld of an Elf character. Given that Branchwraiths are only Ld8 also. However, they can use a regular Treeman’s Ld of 9 if they are within 18″, which is very thematic. (More and more, I’m leaning towards having a TMA as my general for that 18″ Ld 10 bubble, but keeping her as L2 on Battle Magic so she can just roll into combat, then also taking an L4 on another lore (Illusion most likely) – more on that when I get to the articles on Characters, and when the armies get to 2,500 points!). They are on 50×50 bases, so I really wish I could put a TMA in the unit, but sadly the Lumbering rule on Behemoths means that can’t happen.
Like all Tree Spirits, they are Flammable, Stubborn, have Magical Attacks, can Move Through Cover, cause Fear and are Immune to Psychology. They have a 5+ innate Armour Save, and a 5+ Regeneration save which, when combined with T5, makes them the most survivable rank and file unit in the army. Finally, they have Armour Bane (2) (making up a bit for the S4), and they each get a Tree Whack (same as a Treeman) and a Stomp attack (which will also get that Armour Bane). The Tree Whack is really only useful against other Monstrous things, but it is probably worthwhile in that case.
All of this costs 51 points a model, and for an extra 7 points you can get an Elder (champion) who gets an extra attack and can take Spites up to 25 points. I think the Elder is a reasonable addition if you have the points to spare, but likely any of the Spites you can take would be better off on another character.
So that’s the basics out of the way, now on to how Treekin might be used as part of the army strategy!
Treekin Tactics
First off, let’s talk about Fear. Most of the time, Fear doesn’t do much due to the Unit Strength limitation – if the Fear-causing unit doesn’t have higher Unit Strength, then this rule effectively can be ignored. MI units are a way to get a decently high Unit Strength and be able to overcome this limitation, but they are a bit of a points sink so that really only works at higher points level games (something our local meta is still moving towards). However, for the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume that you’re playing at 2,500 points.
I think Treekin can go toe-to-toe with most other infantry, including other monstrous infantry pretty well, although they do want to avoid stuff with Great Weapons. The larger concern are those pesky Cavalry units who can charge from quite far out and get that +2 S on the charge with lances. However, most Cavalry units seem to be around the 12-16 Unit Strength range, occasionally up at 20 for some Bretonnian Lance formations. If you have a unit of 6 Treekin, they have 18 Unit Strength, forcing those Cavalry to take a Ld test in order to charge. This is not a test that can be re-rolled with the BSB’s Hold Your Ground! rule, so at Ld8 (most Cav) there’s a 28% they can’t charge. It’s not amazing, but it’s certainly better than nothing.
Anvil
As I mentioned earlier, I think the main function for Treekin is as an anvil–taking a charge on the chin, Falling Back in Good Order due to being Stubborn, and trying to enable a countercharge from other Wood Elf units. You’re likely to lose 1 Treekin to charge (e.g. a charge from a Lance of 6 Grail Knights will kill 1.17 Treekin on average, ignoring challenges), but you’ll still get some attacks back and might get lucky to take 1 with you (about a 50/50 chance). The point is, the majority of the unit is still alive, perhaps all of it, and now you’ve got the opportunity to attack back.
In this role, the Treekin really benefit from having good support–ideally, you want some magical support in there too (any of the spells that grant a Ward Save make the Treekin even more survivable, for example, and Plague of Rust can make them very good against Armoured units). Like everything in the Wood Elf army, you want to be able to pick your fights as best you can, and have multiple charges. Having a good close combat unit ready and waiting to flank charge your enemy is Hammer & Anvil 101 (I talk about this a bit in the article on Eternal Guard–btw, I think they got better with the recent FAQ on the Drilled special rule, something I’ll cover in another article). Even just having that tactic set up can be enough to force your opponent to choose a different target, although really you don’t want to have those on offer!
While it may feel unnatural, it’s pretty common for Wood Elves to back up and move away from the enemy to force charges that are more beneficial to us. In this example above, the Heavy Cav can only charge the Treekin, after which they open up their flank to counter charges from Eternal Guard (with a lot of static combat res and Disruption) and War Dancers (with a high damage output). A savvy opponent won’t make that charge, but what will they do instead? This is where having a lot of archers is critical – putting pressure on that Cav unit to charge because you are peppering it with arrows every turn and picking off 1-2 models each time.
My general strategy in 8th ed Warhammer using the 6th ed book was to have Treekin, Dryads and Treemen to handle the fighting, and then lots of Glade Guard to shoot and put pressure on the enemy (they would then flee if charged). This is less doable with the current edition, because the Forest Spirits don’t quite have the damage output they used to have, but the principal remains the same. Avoid combat until units have been whittled down by archers, and then combo charge with everything you have. Treekin give you ways to keep your Elves alive.
Chaff?
If you read my Great Eagle article, you’ll know that Chaff is usually under 100 points. The minimum unit size for Treekin is 2, so for 102 points you can have a chaff unit that is both hard to shoot off (T5, 5+ Armour and Regen) and with Stubborn is likely to survive almost any charge to be able to continue to be chaff for another turn (albeit you’re likely to lose one of the Treekin when they are charged).
I think this is also a reasonable role for Treekin. Units of 2 are Close Order with a starting Unit Strength of 6, so they get +1 close combat resolution, and if they charge in the flank or rear, will Disrupt an enemy unit. Having only two in a unit can actually cause some enemies to underestimate them, but in a group charge scenario, you can actually win combat quite easily.
In this example, the Treekin in the first unit will likely lose 1 model – it’s hard to do 6 wounds to T5 models with a 5+ regen – and then FBIGO due to Stubborn. Their buddies will then be able to flank charge. No matter what the Cav unit does, it’s only likely to kill 1 more Treekin, which means it’s not going to wipe out either Flanker. In fact, it can only hit the Flankers with 3 attacks each max, and even with horses, that’s unlikely to kill even 1 Treekin, so most likely you will end up with losing the final Treekin from the first unit, and retaining both flank Treekin. The static combat resolution from the two flanked units is +4 – +1 for Close Order for each unit, and +1 for Flank attack for each unit. The Heavy Cav will have only have +2 (banner and close order) which most likely means you will win combat and grind that heavy cav unit down over a few turns (because they will have lost their +2 S for charging).
Obviously these are straightforward examples that I’ve made up to demonstrate possibilites. Being able to apply these examples in an actual battle can only come with experience as you (and I!) develop the skills to visualize the board and see what our opponents are likely to do, and deploy our troops appropriately.
Summary
I think Treekin are very survivable, which is a rare commodity in our army. Putting them in a place where that survivability works for us is key, and that can only really be done by looking at them holistically. Without archers to put pressure on your opponent to move forward and engage, the Treekin don’t have the mobility to really go find fights. If you place them well, and support them with other units to help on the countercharge, they will perform well. They’ll be excellent at holding objectives in scenarios that use them, and they’ll often still be alive at the end of the battle (if taken in larger units) so they’ll keep their points in those scenarios that are purely kill point based.
Have you used Treekin in your army? If so, how have they fared? Do you have any other tactics you’ve used with them?
Leave a Reply