TJK's all-shooty WE army - "The wrong end of a bow"
Everything used in the following article is based on the wood elf list from White Dwarf.
Wood elves are known for their bows, well placed shots, and forest allies. I am a roleplayer and like to take the personality of my army into consideration when I make them and play them. I am currently working on a shooting army (with the exception of Warhawk riders, dryads and Treemen).
My 2000pt army consists of:
Lords
Forest Lord - Hunting Spear, riding warhawk
Heroes
Commander - Bow of Lorien, riding steed
Mage - Hail of doom arrow, shield of Ptolos, riding Unicorn
Core
14 Archers
14 Archers
5 Glade riders w/ bows, standard bearer (banner of the lynx)
5 Glade riders w/ bows
For those of you paying attention i know thats not 2000 pts but its a base to choose from when you are fighting different armies. Regardless of who you are fighting somthings need to be observed as a wood elf army.
1. You suck at hand to hand. No questions asked if your army had to go man for man vs. any other army in the game wood elves would never win and we would walk around tournies with bags on our heads. Keep this in mind when you are fighting your battles. Dryads and Treemen are the only units I even think about putting into H2H unless under most dire circumstances.
2. We are weak. Overall we have average toughness and hardly any armor saves. Every model can make a difference and every unit should be played as if it were your last. Dont sacrifice a unit for something else unless it will mean winning the game for sure. Again as a roleplayer, wood elves respect life and freedom above all, so what wood elf lord would knowingly throw away the lives of his people?
3. We are the best shooting army in the game. Again a bold statement but no one can match us if we sit 18" away from each other for an entire game. Shoot shoot shoot and shoot some more. Core units of enemies should have somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 shoots fired at them by the time they can charge your archers. Just based on averages thats 15wounds, not to mention characters bowfire.
4. Mobility = Longevity. The faster you can run circles around your enemy the longer they'll stand there or get slowed down, in order to be shot. Use your very mobile army to cover the flanks, harrass your enemies and get to their war machines. Since we dont have any war machines you have to even the playing field a bit. ;)
The way i play this army is simple in concept and very difficult in play. However, it is very satisfying, and even more rewarding if you win. My Archers make up my center with the dryads between them. Dryads can be there to block LOS, intercept quick troops, and finish off enemies. The treeman can go where he wants, I mean who's going to argue with him. :) He is there for finishing power, terror, and making your enemy second guess his moves and hopefully not come closer than 18" from your archers. Now to the part everyone asks me about this army. Why two units of glade guard with bows? Why not. They have 360 LOS and can move like wild fire. Also, two gives you better options if there are multiple enemies to work on, or to give your opponent something to think about when they are shooting or casting magic. In addition to all this, the best thing for them to do is come within 8" of an enemy unit, stay out of sight, and negate their march move. Your opponent will be so furious about this because instead of loosing an entire unit to bow fire before they get to you in two turns, they will loose two in the four turns it takes.... if they make it to you at all. The warhawks serve three purposes in one. First they can, as stated before go warmachine hunting. Second they can use the 8" delay tactic the same as glade riders. Last they can stop up a flank in case of real need (usually this should be taken care of by glade riders but mishapps happen).
The way to kill most armies (2 infantry 2 calvary/flying 2 war machines) is as follows. First turn get your glade riders and war haws out there as far as possible and shoot with everything you have. Make sure though that you concentrate your fire, your treemen and dryads will thank you for it when they get into H2H. After you opponent moves up you must make a choice and fast: how important is taking out the war machines? Usually that will be a now brainer and you go with your war hawks immediately. Now figure out where to pull your glade riders to. The best bet is generally to slow up the center units and shoot at the flanking/fast moving units. Remember to concentrate fire. Third turn you should be close to at least one enemy so position your H2H units to intercept and beat down. The remaining war hawks should start threatening the other war machine or go to slow up the center units some more. Concentrate fire on the close units if you can and if not decimate the center units. Fourth turn should be the demise of the enemies fast moving units. Your dryads probably made your enemy cry when you took away his attacks with the willow aspect. Now you take it to them with +1str/tough. That should be enough to break the enemy.
The ultimate goal would be to slow up your enemy enough to cut them down before you even get there. Also if they only have one fast moving flanking unit double team dryads and treemen on them. Then you will have no problems breaking them.
