The Glamourweaver's Host (2400)

[willowdark]

Fantasy Army: Wood Elf

So this is what I'm working with for my breakthrough into 8th. I would really love to get some feedback here.

The Glamourweaver's Host 2400

Spellweaver;
Life. Lvl3. Glamourweave Kindred. Steed. Wand of the Wych Elm. Stone of the Crystal Mere. (338)

Spellsinger;
Lvl1. Glamourweave Kindred. Unicorn. Crown of Command. Staff of Channeling. (225)

Spellsinger;
Lvl2. Ruby Ring. Dispel Scroll.

Noble;
Alter Kindred. Lite Armour. Shield. Two Hand Weapon. Briarsheath. Hail of Doom Arrow. (153)

Core:

3x10 Glade Guard with Standard and Musician. One unit takes the Flaming banner (424 total)

20 Dryads. (240)

Special:

5 TKin. (325)

10 Wild Riders with full command and the Standard of Discipline. (311)

6 Wardancers. (108)

Rare:

2 Great Eagles. (100)

The Spellweaver goes in the unit of Wild Riders with the Standard of Discipline for Ld10. Unicorn Spellsinger goes in the TKin, giving them Stubborn as well as MR(2), essentially preserving their 5+ ward for magic. Expensive, I know, but the best we can do. I see the Alter Kindred not only as a mobile platform for the HoDA but as someone who can charge through a stand and shoot by anyone and clean up critical missile threats, or survive shooting long enough to hunt warmachines, due to the Briarsheath. Wardancers are a strong flank support in terms of clearing out shooters and/or skirmishers. With the investment in Wizards I think I've produced a shutdown magic defense, especially with so much magic resistance, as well an offensive capability that starts with the ruby ring, and should produce enough powerdice to get Throne of Vines and Regrowth through as much as possible.

What do you think?

I think that the biggest question mark is whether the Unicorn Singer will be worth it's points. If not, I think I'll trade her for another Alter, put the Amaranthine Brooch on the Briarsheath bearer and give him a Great Weapon and run a second with the HoDA and the Potion of Strength with two hand weapons.

[willowdark]

This is about to drop off the front page. I'd really love some insight. I think there are some interesting ideas here, but I also think they're a little iffy. Do you think the Stubborn unicorn rider in the TKin will work? Should the Dryads be 2 units of 10 rather than one of 20? I had them in a big unit so I could buff it with Flesh to Stone and Regrowth. How about the Riders with the Ld banner and the Spellweaver?

[tmarichards]

I'm not convinced the Unicorn rider will work, as she'll either get killed by attacks or sniped out of the unit beforehand with a template.

I'd definitely split the Dryads up into 2 units, a big unit doesn't really add anything.

I recently tried a big Wild Rider unit- 16 Wild Riders with +1 movement banner, a Beasts/Life level 4 in the second rank and then 5 Wild Rider nobles in the front rank. Unfortunately, without the Savage Beast buff it killed precisely nothing. As nice as they are flanking units, I really just can't see Wild Riders as a suitable hard-hitting combat block (which you need them to be if you put over 300pts into them) as they have a very limited pool of things they can actually fight, and they fall over very easily indeed. I'd be inclined to split them up into 2 units if you really want Wild Riders in your list, or else to just drop them entirely for another 2 units of 10 Glade Guard and a few more in the flaming unit.

[willowdark]

Tom, I noticed from your WE video BatReps that you use Waywatchers pretty frequently. I think there are a few things I can do in this list to shuffle points around for 2 units of 6, or even one of 8. How do you rate WW in 8th? Do you think that would be a good addition to the list, say if I start by dropping the Wardancers?

The funny thing about this list is that I started with the mindset that I was going for an MSU army, but the more I crunched the meta the more I drifted towards consolidating units. The Wild Riders and Dryads were supposed to be MSU, but because I was running a Lvl3 I thought more and more about the benefits of Lore of Life and that I'd get a bigger payoff with bigger units, especially with Regrowth. It also occurred to me that if I'm escorting my Lvl3 in the Wild Riders that I better pad the numbers in the unit to preserve Look Out, Sir! Perhaps a good start would be dropping the Wardancers and going with 3 units of 10 Dryads.

I'm not sure I need the Wild Riders to kill a lot, just protect my Lvl3 and survive. If even one model survives then that's 300 points my opponent doesn't get, and I definitely don't intend to send them into a fight with anything close to equal points. My approach to this list is something fast and maneuverable enough to target supports and avoid the large blocks of heavy infantry. That's why I'm including the Alter Hero.

What if I drop the Unicorn Singer and take another Alter Hero? I'll give one the Amaranthine Brooch and the Briarsheath, along with a Great Weapon, and give the other two hand weapons, the Potion of Strength and the HoDA. I can use the spare points to upgrade my Lvl3 to a Lvl4. How's that sound? Two mages, two Alter Heroes, and 3x10 Dryads. I think I want to keep the Wild Riders how they are, especially as an escort for my Lvl4 since they carry the Standard of Discipline.

[willowdark]

So how about this?

Spellweaver;
Life. Lvl4. Glamourweave Kindred. Steed. Wand of the Wych Elm. Stone of the Crystal Mere. (373)

Spellsinger;
Lvl2. Ruby Ring. Dispel Scroll. (175)

Noble;
Alter Kindred. Lite Armour. Shield. Great Weapon. Briarsheath. Amaranthine Brooch. (158)

Noble;
Alter Kindred. Lite Armour. Shield. Two Hand Weapons. Potion of Strength. Hail of Doom Arrow. (158)

Core:

3x10 Glade Guard with Standard and Musician. One unit takes the Flaming banner (424 total)

3x10 Dryads. (360)

Special:

2x3 TKin. (390)

8 Wild Riders with full command and the Standard of Discipline. (259)

Rare:

2 Great Eagles. (100)

[tmarichards]

I'm a big fan of Waywatchers, as without them you don't really have any way to deal with Scar-Vets/Dark Elf pegasus riders.

I personally wouldn't bother with the Wand of Wych Elm. It's a nice item, but it means you then have to either run without a Dispel Scroll or else take a hero mage, who doesn't really anything to the list beyond a very expensive Dispel Scroll.

I wouldn't bother with any armour at all on the Alter's, anything that's likely to kill them won't be stopped by a 5+ save. I'd also be inclined to only have one of them as a Alter, and make the HoDA bearer the BSB with Asyendi's Bane- with your general running off in a cavalry unit, having a BSB becomes much more important for the part of the army that she can't buff with her ld9.d

If you cut 2 Dryads from each unit, you can get up to 16 in the flaming unit of Glade Guard. This is enough to almost always to a wound to an abomb to get the regen off, and after saves does 0.67 wounds to a hydra which is a pretty decent chance of taking the regen off. I'm also no sure you need the third unit of Dryads, I've recently been playing around with just 2 units and so far I'm very happy with them especially with the 2 units of Treekin.

[willowdark]

Great stuff so far. I really appreciate the input.

I thought the Ruby Ring/Dispel Scroll combo was a pretty solid build for the hero, with the bound spell fire ball being a good weapon for drawing out dispel dice. Considering the unlimited range on the damage version of Treesinging, or if I roll for Ariel's Blessing or Call of the Hunt, which are fairly decent spells with low casting values, I think that hero has a better than average chance of positively effecting the magic phase and helping me get Throne of Vines, Regrowth, or Dwellers off every phase. Plus I get both the Dispel Scroll and the Wand.

I could definitely drop the 3rd unit of Dryads and 2 models from the other two units, but wouldn't the points be better invested in Waywatchers rather than flaming Glade Guard? I agree that Waywatchers are valuable, especially agianst Warmachines, like the Warp Lightning Cannon. Plus I have some pretty sweet models for Waywatchers.