Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Wood Elves (section)

====Generic Characters====
'''Note:''' While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

* '''Glade Lord:''' 145 point generic combat lord, reasonably fighty but you'll pale in comparison to most other Lords. (Basically, he is identical to High Prince or Dark Dreadlord, but the army's style and racial items work against making him a similar meatgrinder) He can be kitted out in a variety of ways to be more fighty and can be given magic arrows which is a plus, he also dishes out a LD10 bubble. He also got an extra point of BS, probably to compensate for the loss of free moving and shooting. One new rule, The Arrow of Kurnous, lets him deal a auto str 3 hit on your opponent's general if they are within 36" of a character with the rule and in line of sight. If your foe has a caster lord as his general then I guess it will force him to deploy further back so not bad. Should not be your first Lord choice, but is by far not the worst. One popular choice is to give him Daith's Reaper and the Armour of Destiny for a stabtastic warboss.

* '''Spellweaver:''' This should be your first Lord choice. Level 4 at 220 points now (or 185 at level 3), a variety of magic items to make her better, the only character who can take the Acorn of Eternity (technically, the Glade Lord can take it too, but naked combat lord suffers much more than naked wizard lord) and most importantly, access to all rulebook lores and Dark and High Magic. Plus she can buy an Asrai Longbow for 5pts, which means that while she's hanging in the back with your Glade Guard, she can ping off the odd casualty herself, which is hilarious by the by. If you want a Lord choice, this is the one you should go for in (almost) every situation.

* '''Treeman Ancient:''' While Treemen are alright, Treemen Ancients fail for many reasons. First off, they're 290 points, don't get spites any more, are lvl 2 life wizards only (who can upgrade to level 4) have a 3+ 6++, can buy magic levels, can tree whack and have the kind of melee stats that make cherubs cry. Ws4, Str5, A3, I2. I guess old age shows? Also, being an old coot, he gets the 75mm long side of his base pointed forwards for some insane reason. The best thing that can be said about them is probably that they are large targets with Ld 10. Actually, against anything that hasn't got a particularly threatening shooting phase, the ancient will be basically immortal unless it gets killed in combat. 3+, 6 wounds, 6T and lore of life means that light shooting will be almost useless against it, and even bolt throwers will struggle to down him.

* '''Glade Captain:''' This is the 75 point generic combat and battle standard bearer character for wood elves. And actually comparing him to other non-elf race's characters he isn't too bad. He can't buy anything armour-wise better than a shield and light armour but then he is a wood elf and he does have some decent combat stats and a bow to make up for it. Also he shares the Arrow of Kurnous with your general so you are not punished for taking a caster lord. Overall, while not having as much access to armour as the Dark Elf Master, this hero is a decent battle standard bearer, especially if you spend a few points to make him tougher. Consider adding a dragon helm, helm of the hunt or any cheap magic armour to make him less squishy. Keep in mind, that most Wood Elf lists are quite mobile (if not outright full-cavalry) and have good Ld, so BSB might not be the best investment.

* '''Shadow Dancer:''' Your Wardancer character. Worth consideration. For 100pts you get a ws8 s4 I8 a4 (two hand weapons) Always Strike Firsts combat character, with the amazing new wardancer dances. You have a 25 points magic weapon/item allowance and for 60pts become a lore of shadow wizard. Sadly she doesn't have a way of moving any more quickly, without switching her across the battlefield with lore of shadows lore attribute and also doesn't have a better save than a 6++, unless you use one of the dances to give you a 3++ for 1 turn. Hit hard, hit fast.
** '''Note:''' For those enterprising gentle...elves, a Shadow Dancer can be used as a pretty nifty rank breaker for a close combat army. Use the Dance of the Woven Mist to rob a horde of their rank bonus and watch them lose instantly.  
* NEVER put her into Wardancer unit, their dances do not stack. Put her with Eternal Guard or, better, with Dryads - her attacks and dances will help them overcome their downsides.
** Good items to give her are Glittering Scales (most core will hit her on 6+, with most elites hitting on 5+), Bow of Loren (making her pretty shooty) or Helm of the Hunt (making her [[RAPE|RAPE]] things on the charge).
*** Arguably, making her a level 1 wizard is a pretty bad choice, as you can no longer take magical armor. This leaves you with 25 points to either make her your walking dispell scroll slot or give her the Bow of Loren. Also, as she is only a level 1, you get one spell, and there is no grantee you can actually get it off (On the other side, give her Mystifying Miasma and watch a unit of Chosen get slaughtered at M1 by your archers with starfire arrows). Unless you are really in need of saving points, you are probably better off buying a Level 2 Spellsinger if you want the Lore of Shadow.

* '''Waystalker:''' Is a hero version of the Waywatchers. Just think of this guy as the replacement for the waywatcher kindred hero (sadly there is no replacement for the alter kindred). He has bs 7, a bow and a 25pts weapons allowance. Bow of Loren is an option that allows you to fire 2 ignores armour shots which can also be combined with the Savage Beast of Horrors from the Beasts lore to grant 5 ignores armour sniper shots that do suffer from multiple shots penalty (though with BS7 will you care). You can also use the spell Birona's Timewarp from lore of light to increase attacks by 1 (and double movement) but, this is probably not the best use of that spell. An interesting combo if you're going to be running with the beasts lore. The guy is dirt cheap, only 110 points with the bow of loren, 90 without. With sniper on top of that, the Waystalker can pick enemy heroes out of units with up to 5 armor ignoring attacks! (But, he would suffer -1 to hit from multiple hits AND -1 to hit from sniper, plus possibly other -1 from moving or long range etc.) So keep this in mind because even with 7 BS, if you have too much modifier on your hit chance, all the armor ignoring attacks in the world won't mean a thing.

* '''Spellsinger:''' One word. Amazing, when compared to the old wizards. Five points cheaper than the high elf equivalent (80 points), +35 for a level 2, and 5 points for a bow. Now has access to all battle rule book lores but not to the Wood Elf specific lores (ie the opposite of its sixth edition form). Shame. Take a dispel scroll and the lore of shadow or fire on this hero since their spells are the most effective at level 1/2. (Or lore of beasts and get the signature spell)

* '''Branchwraith:''' The Branchwraith has 2 advantages: 1, she's fairly effective (WS6, S4, T4, I7, A3, 6+ Ward). 2, she's cheap. She is 75pts and a level 1 Lore of Life wizard. She's a cheap way of beefing up a Treekin or Dryad unit. It is also of note that if you're taking the Lore of Beasts for your casters, and you're running a Branchwraith, you can use 2 of the spells to buff her up to insane levels.