Tactics

By: Todd Thacker

The "archery" army, then, is heavily dependent upon its missile troops (obviously) and is designed to avoid, rather than win, hand-to-hand combats. The goal is to shoot up and panic your opponent's light forces while forcing their "core" troops to either chase your fast troops around fruitlessly or else put themselves hopelessly out of position by engaging a small, sacrificial portion of your army.

An "archery" army's main weapon is, of course, its missile troops. You should field as many archers as you can get your hands on in units of nine. Why nine? Because it takes three casualties to make a unit of nine panic from missile fire and if you make units any bigger they become too unwieldy, in my opinion. Don't make the mistake, however, of taking more archers than you have deployment zone . . . you can't count on getting a hill and you want all of your archers to be able to fire from turn one.

You should arm your Warhawks with Longbows and use them as extremely fast-moving harassers. Land them within 8" of as many enemy units as you can to keep your opponent from marching (eliminating, or at least limiting, march moves is one of the main strategic objectives of the archery army. If the enemy can't march, it can't get across the table to charge your archers, or anything else). Warhawks as missile troops should have longbows and that's it. Never, ever, ever take these troops into combat, they will die horribly. I mean it. Don't even think about it. Ever. :-)

You should have at least one, preferably two bow-armed Glade Rider units with the same goal. Harass, Harass, Harass. Prevent march moves. Irritate the opponent into charging them. If your opponent turns a unit to try and go after your Warhawks or Glade Riders, it's out of the game (it will never get to your archers), your Riders or Warhawks have done their job. You can proceed to ignore that unit (and get out of its charge arc). Few opponents have the steely determination to ignore your (very irritating) troops, but some will. So be it. Just don't let them march.

Glade Riders are also very good at making frenzied units charge them. By all means, if your opponents take frenzied troops make them chase your Glade Riders around the board, away from your troops and hopefully right into the path of their other units' advance. I see many Orc pages on the web talking about how "'ard" their savage Orcs are. Sure they're tough, if they ever see combat. Which they won't because you've panicked their screening troops with missile fire and then forced the Savage Boyz to charge your Glade Riders. :-) Anyway, more on these types of Glade Rider tactics in the "assault troops" section.

With bow-armed Glade Riders, Warhawks and Infiltrators (specifics later) supporting your archers, you should have a truly mind-boggling amount of dice rolls to make in the missile phase. I have had 85 bowshots in a 2000pt game (45 archers, 12 scouts, 6 waywatchers, 12 bow-armed Glade Riders, 6 bow-armed Warhawks, and a General with the Bow of Loren), when I shot the Hail of Doom arrow it was near 100. I've heard rumors of Wood Elven armies with over 100 bowshots in a 2000 pt game. All this missile fire will frighten your opponent; even big toughness and good armor will have a tough time taking on this many shots. You should be able to massacre one unit a turn if you concentrate fire; at the very least you will make the unit take a panic test, at best you will completely eliminate it (I once shot all 27 Clanrats out from behind the Skaven army general and Battle Standard Bearer. They panicked, of course :-)). Remember, the key is to -concentrate fire-; don't violate this rule unless a portion of your troops lack LOS to the target, or you have another -very- good reason (and it better be good :-)), like it's the first turn of the game and 85 shots is too many for a measly screening unit or you're shooting up war machine crews with your Infiltrators.

If you get a bunch of forests, put all but one in your deployment zone. Hide your archers in them. This protects your archers from a) nasty flying creatures and b) chargers. Why chargers? Because if you deploy 2" back in the wood the chargers will have 2" added to their charge distance for difficult ground. . . they might fail their charge. In addition, if the charging unit makes it through your hail of fire they will probably break the unit and run off through the forest, chasing your unfortunate archers (who will be cursing your Warhawks, Glade Riders and Infiltrators the whole way for not doing their jobs). This is fine because the cost of a 99 pt archer unit is well spent getting your enemy's main combat block stuck in a forest. Let's see, two or three turns to get across the board, one turn to charge, one turn to reform, more than one turn to move back to where they can see anything at all because they are prohibited from marching and are at half movement in difficult ground (even Brettonians will only move 4") . . . this unit will never see combat again. As I said, 99 points well spent.

An archery army should take one unit of Waywatchers and two or three units of Scouts. This should give you the edge in infiltrators and will also leave you with plenty of units to cause trouble with. As I said in the previous section, use Waywatchers to deny access to a wood and use your scouts to prevent marches and just make nuisances of themselves in general.

Other than that, look at my notes on Infiltrators in the "assault army" section. There's not a whole lot of difference in how they're used.

Ahh, the delicate matter of using assault troops properly in a missile-based army. This is the time when Treemen really come into their own. I can hear your cries now, "What, a Treeman in an archery army? Isn't that a little out of character when you recommended that I not even take them in an assault army?" The difference is that Treemen, with their "rooted to the spot" ability, are excellent unit stoppers, which you need in an archery army, while being only so-so unit destroyers, which you need in an assault army. Few things are better than a Treeman for stopping that huge ranked unit of Str 3 troops that is scampering your way. Arm your Glade Riders with lances and threaten a flank charge to take away rank bonus. . . that'll make your opponent think twice about where he moves his units. Another impressive attribute of Treemen is their T7 . . . you can fire into that combat with impunity. Who cares if you accidentally hit the Treeman? Not him; T7 ignores Str 3 hits.

Glade Riders can perform dual roles; arm them with longbows for their missile harasser function, arm them with lances for a real flank charge threat. I'd use them skirmished in units of six or seven . . . give them light armor if you have the points but it's not absolutely necessary. Remember the "feigned flight" function of Glade Riders . . . if the enemy does charge you you can take them even farther out of position by using this tactic.

Wardancers are great "unit stopper" troops . . . what stops units better than "Shadows Coil?" The best place for your Wardancers is directly behind your line of archers . . . that way they can leap over the archers into combat with units who foolishly moved within their charge range (remember to keep one Wardancer off to the side of the archer unit so he can see the opposing unit). If the opposing troops have a long charge range (Brettonians!) then just move in front of the archer unit to receive the charge . . . try not to block too many lines of sight when you do this.

Your Wardancer units should be small, 5-6 models . . . their job is to stop the unit, not kill it. This will let you field more than one unit. Two should be enough to cover 4-5 nine-elf units of archers. Make one into a "super-stick" unit; include a champion with the Potion of Strength (see the assault section for details) . . . include a champion with the other one too, if you have the points . . . Heart of Woe is a good item for him if you don't mind being accused of cheese. :-) If you have a Glade Rider unit free, charge the stuck unit in the flank or the rear and break it (ack, my assault tendencies are coming to the fore . . .).

Dryads can also be excellent "unit-stoppers" if you're facing troops with one attack, such as Fleshhounds (hehe, the stories I could tell . . .). If you take them, position them between two units of archers and move them out to cut off the enemy's axis of advance when they stray too close. Dryads in this function are pretty specialized, though, and not something I'd put in an army if I didn't know the opposing army or my opponent (e.g., in a tournament).

The much-maligned Glade Guard can actually be useful here, although I put them in the "assault troops" category only because they don't fit in anywhere else . . . these well-meaning spearelves aren't up to assaulting any but the most rank of rank-and-file enemy troops. They can, however, be useful for receiving a charge . . . give them the Banner of Defiance and a +3 rank bonus (for a grand total of +7 combat resolution), put your general and a champion in there with appropriate items, break the enemy and have a lone Great Eagle wandering around somewhere close who will finish off the fleeing fighters with his 24" charge in your turn (evil grin). This plan is both expensive and risky so I don't really recommend it, but when it works it is a thing of elven beauty (not something that my Orcish readers could appreciate, the brutish gits ;-)) and you can taunt your opponent about how you beat him with nothing more than archers and ranked spearelves, if you're that kind of person (only do this to good friends or if you are big :-)).

Chariots can be very effective in an archery army, as long as enemy missile troops are unable to fire at them. Fortunately for you the enemy is probably sending his troops right up the center after your archers, etc. so line of sight will be blocked unless opposing missile troops are on a hill. Even if they are on a hill, your chariot has such a long charge range (18") that you can afford to deploy it further back in the deployment zone, out of range of the enemy missiles (war machines are a different matter; but that's what your Great Eagles and archers are for :-)). Optimum placement for a chariot is either right in the middle of your battle line, forcing a redirection of the central blocks of enemy troops (unless they feel they can take the d6+2 str 7 impact hits) or on a flank, forcing enemy fast troops to think twice about hitting that side of your battle line.

The point of an archery army is to spread the points around so that there is nothing really "worthwhile" to charge, i.e. no "core" unit that if broken spells the end for your battle plan (and your army). The only units in your army that venture above 200 points should be your Glade Riders, your Treeman, and maybe your Warhawks . . . all units that you wouldn't mind your opponent charging anyway :-). Glade Riders are so fast that nothing short of flying troops will be able to engage them . . . put your general in here (if he's not in with the spearelves), give him the Bow of Loren, and watch the enemy try to kill him.

Of course, your enemy could have a squad of flying troopers (Harpies, Terradons, etc) or a character loaded for bear with powerful magic items mounted on a big, nasty, flying beastie. This is a real weakness of an archery army and one that you'll have to take steps to neutralize . . . use the Sky Arrow of Naoler, a squadron of Great Eagles (three should do the trick), Talisman of Ravensdark, Scarecrow Banner . . . you know the drill. The beastie rider will almost -have- to charge your general (he's in one of the only big-point units out there . . . your opponent has to justify his investment), so give your general the Talisman or the unit the Banner (or both) and watch the beastie die.

:-) Use whichever option appeals to you; just be prepared to counter fliers. Setup, both of terrain and of units, is vitally important to an archery army. Put your harassers out on the flanks or get them there as soon as possible so that you're not blocking line of sight for your archers. Line of sight is, obviously, incredibly important for an archery army . . . you don't want a lot of terrain blocking your fire lanes. If there is terrain, put infiltrators in or behind it to slow enemy units and hopefully divert them into the approach (fire :-)) lanes that are clear and open.

As you might have noticed from the advice I gave in the previous two sections, I put a high premium on troops and don't care much for magic. I like to take defensive mages and have my troops win the battle for me; offensive magic rarely figures into my battle plan (if I do get a spell off I consider it a bonus). In my opinion, magic is far too unreliable (w/Drain Magic, Dispels, etc.) to justify the cost of a high-level mage decked out with the requisite four powerful items, especially for elves. Some races are well-suited for offensive magic phases; Wood Elves are not one of those races.

Having said that, I admit that magic can be fun (when it works) and that it is important to take a high-level mage now and then to keep your regular opponents guessing. Besides, many of you probably disagree with me and think high-level Wood Elf Mages are the best thing since the Hail of Doom Arrow. :-) So I'll discuss both the offensive and the defensive mage.

The standard defensive mage for 2000 pt games is either a mage champion with the Skull Staff and Rod of Power or a master mage with the Skull Staff, Rod of Power and a Destroy Magic Scroll. Give an archer unit the Banner of Sorcery and then lurk your mage deep inside a forest near the archers. The forest deployment prevents the mage from being charged (even by flyers) and, for 181 points in the case of the mage champion, you have real good chance of shutting down your opponent's magic phase.

Many generals refuse to go to battle without a Dispel Magic Scroll, and would recommend taking such a scroll over the Rod of Power. I cannot agree with them. The Rod of Power (a 25 point item!) gives you, in all probability, an extra three power cards during your opponent's turn that you have no chance of losing, since you only test for card loss from the Rod at the beginning of -your- magic phase. Three extra magic cards every turn is an incredible advantage that, when combined with the Skull Staff, should see off most if not all of your opponent's spells. The Dispel Magic Scroll can guarantee you one dispel when you want it, true, but in my opinion the Rod of Power's turn after turn contribution to your magical defense far outstrips the DMS' usefulness.

A Mage Lord is a very nice defensive mage in large point value games because he can use High Magic, which turns all of your power cards into dispels (a very handy ability any time). Keep in mind that this is not cost effective unless you are playing a battle of at least 3000 pts, probably becoming a mandatory take around 3500-4000 pts. Give him the Skull Staff, Rod of Power, Destroy Magic Scroll, and Dispel Magic Scroll. Trust me, if you keep the Banner of Sorcery within 12", your opponent will be lucky to cast anything at all.

If you're playing with a defensive mage, don't give in to the temptation to cast spells in your magic phase unless you have Total Power or six magic cards in your hand. You should always save four magic cards from your phase, one with your mage and three in the Rod. If you try and cast spells, then a) they'll probably be dispelled and b) you'll get roasted in the next magic phase because you don't have enough cards for defense. You Have Been Warned. :-)

There are a hundred-and-one ways to use your mage to attack the enemy, so feel free to be creative. In very general terms, there are two incarnations of offensive mage: the Hand-to-Hand mage and the Mystical Attack Mage.

A Hand-to-Hand Mage can go one of three places: on a Steed, on a Warhawk, or on a Chariot. I personally favor the chariot since it has extra defensive value, great range, and intimidating attack capability, but don't let this stop you from putting her on a Steed or a Warhawk if this fits in better with your overall plan. The key is to give your Mage good mobility so that she can take her spells and her hand-to-hand prowess where it can do the most good and avoid big nasty characters that might be able to kill her.

Your Hand-to-Hand Mage should be the highest level that you can afford, with all the combat items you can give her. A personal favorite is the Skull Wand of Kaloth (instant death is always nice), which works especially well on things like Trolls, but if you don't take the Wand definitely take a fairly powerful magical weapon. You'll also need a ward, and you might want the Cloak of Mists and Shadows (although this is a little counterproductive if you plan on attacking in close combat) or the (much preferred) Ring of Darkness for an extra level of protection from non-magical weapons. Believe it or not, a Hand-to-Hand Mage Lord is a great place for the Crown of Command . . . just don't put her in a skirmished unit (like Warhawks) that can't use her leadership.

The focus of the Mystical Attack Mage, conversely, is to stay out of hand-to-hand combat and inflict as much magical damage as possible on the opposing troops. A Mage Lord is almost mandatory if you plan to use your mage in this fashion; you want to have the best chance you can of fighting through those dispels.

One of my favorite tactics is to put my mage on a Warhawk (or give her the Cloak of Mists and Shadows), equip her with the Skull Staff, the Ring of Corin plus whatever other spell-like objects I can find (Staff of Osiris is good, although Staff of Flaming Death never expires) and proceed to run around negating all those irritating enemy magic items (Black Amulet, Tress of Isoulde, Carstein Ring) that you wish your opponent hadn't brought to the table. Aside from being a great "magic scout" (you find out what all the enemy's magic items are within 12" of the Skull Staff), this mage should also be able to burn through your opponent's dispels because you have two or three "free power" castings (Staves, Ring, plus Potion of Knowledge or Book of Secrets for a free spell if you took it). So hopefully you'll rule the magic phase and your mobile mage will be able to get in the best position to toast as many enemy as possible.

There is one item that should be in every Wood Elf Army: the Hail of Doom Arrow. Why? This is the sole "Wood Elf Only" item in the game, and it's a magical arrow, for the love of Isha, what could be more in character? The second reason is because, well, it's awesome. If you're already a Wood Elf General or you've played against Wood Elves, you know this. If you don't, just take my word for it.

I give the Arrow to one of two elves: my Glade Rider Champion or my Scout Champion. I favor giving it to a Glade Rider Champion because he can ride around missile screens and punish that valuable enemy unit that your opponent thought was safe from arrow fire (mwahaha, the fool! :-)). The only drawback to putting it with the Glade Riders is that they are your premier flank/rear attack unit, so you'll always want to be moving them out of charge arcs and into position for flank charges; you might not get a clean shot off (if only they were expert riders! They should be for their cost.).

The Scout Champion might be able to deploy in a position to hit the enemy unit that you're targeting on turn one, but he might not. It's also easy for your opponent to screen Scouts from the rest of his army . . . so I normally go with the Glade Riders.

One place you never, ever want to put the Arrow is with your Waywatchers. Why? Because Waywatchers need to deploy in the forest to be most effective, and there's no guarantee that your opponent will be helpful and set his target unit up near the forest. So you will be left with two bad choices: a) deploy your Waywatchers outside the woods, or b) shoot at some less important/vulnerable enemy unit. So if you're deploying it with Infiltrators, deploy it with your Scouts.

On the subject of characters, I don't like to take heroes. They're just too expensive; at 104 points, I could take two champions and have eight points left over. I usually put a champion in with my scouts (with a cheap magic sword to take on other infiltrators), my Glade Riders (carries the Hail of Doom Arrow, gives them a combat boost), my Wardancers (Potion of Strength), and my Warhawks (for the combat boost against skirmish screens and the like).

Champions are great because a) they're cheap (in a relative sense), b) your opponent is scared of them because they might be carrying the Heart of Woe or the Black Gem of Gnar, and c) if your opponent does catch your unit with a nasty character you can challenge him and not lose your whole unit. Sure you'll break, but chances are you'll outrun the pursuers and your unit will rally later. Some Wood Elf generals don't like champions, which is fine. In my opinion, four champions add much more to my combat effectiveness than two heroes, especially since I'd feel compelled to give my heroes more expensive items to keep them from dying.

Well, that brings to a close my Philosophy and Tactics: Wood Elves. If you have any questions, problems, ideas, etc. please feel free to e-mail me (thackert@uchastings.edu). Encouragement is always welcome, of course; it's the main reason I do things like this! :-) I hope this has been a helpful discourse for both the newbie and the experienced Wood Elf general . . . if it hasn't, I'm sure someone will let me know. :-) Anyhow, until next time, may your arrows fly true!

Loren Forever!

Todd M. Thacker