Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.0/Sylvaneth

From 8th edition to Age of Sigmar, your favourite woodblocks got separated even more from their ear-pointed companions. Lead by the goddess Alarielle, the new treefolk were made from "Soulpods" she created. After Sigmar retreated to his realm, she considered herself a free agent. They even found new enemies (instead of dwarf rangers and random Bretonnians errand knights) opposing Nurgle's army who seeks to claim their new playground, the Realm of Life, as his own.

Sylvaneth Summary

The sylvaneth army is pretty resilient and at the same time has some of the nicest combo to offer. Although composing a sylvaneth army is deadly simple and with the right scenery use you can became one of the most hated guys in your club. Make them fear those woods!

Sylvaneth Warscrolls

Forenote: The following section will be arranged with similar units and formations being grouped together for easier reading.

The sylvaneth race is the first of the "old models" to have warscrolls in an actual book. The new army has erased (probably due to end times/old resin models) Durthu and the treekin.

This is by no means a complete guide. Also due to the relatively recent release of Age of Sigmar most of this is based on theory. Take everything with a pinch of salt.

Named characters

Durthu: The only named character now that Drycha is gone for good. He shares a lot in common with the other Treemen varieties, but gets his Sword and a Command Ability on top. Sword gets way stronger if you use it close to a Wyldwood and his Command Ability spawns new Sylvaneth Wyldwoods. And combined to the Spirit Path-special rule he shares with the other varieties, you don't ever need to move the guy away from a forest.

Heroes

Branchwraith: Your hero. Summon storms of dryads with this lady and remember to hide it in a wood. Never get engaged in melee combat, but never move her farther than 18" away from any Treekin. In a pinch, she can either heal your Treekin or throw up a Mystic Shield around your Dryads.

Troops

Dryads: Your all-purpose troop, you know them. They do an average of 0,5 damage that can be easily boosted to 0,66 with their Enrapturing Song ability. Basically, each Dryad is a sword-wielding Liberator on your turn, though with better range. Better to buy a big unit as centerpiece of your army since if you have more than 12 their save goes down to 4+. In a big squad and close to a forest, they are all but indestructible, especially if there's a Branchwraith nearby to babysit them.

Treekin: Slighty slower than their smaller cousins (though still faster than infantry that heavy has any right to be), the Treekin compensate with drastically stronger attacks and better saves (4+) as well as a whooping 4 Wounds apiece. Resist the temptation to use them as shields. Yes, you can heal them back up if they get damaged, but you can't summon new units of them and once a model's dead, it'll stay that way. These are your Elite infantry. Make the most of them.

Monsters

Ancient Treeman: The older you get, the slower you are. With 5" this is the slowest unit of the army. but it compensate for it with his bravery (9, the highest). Above all understanding, this model is not a hero. Their 3+ save and Groundshaking Stomp ability is enough to make them resistant as any other monster/hero. They can travel between two different woods (note that it's within 3" of a big scenery made with 2 woods, it can basically be everywhere on the battlefield). They are wizards that can damage unit around a wood D3 mortal wounds. Their sweeping blows are a little less powerful than the younger's version, and also the missile weapon is less predictable (1 attack 1d6 damage instead of 5 attacks 1 damage) but with a higher range to compensate.

Treeman: Younger, harder and faster version of the above. Worse in just about every specification, except that they punch once more. They can't cast, their shooting attack has a shorter range and they are basically the same in everything else. The higher Movement should never come into play, since you are doing something wrong if you don't move them via Spirit Paths.

Scenery

Sylvaneth Wyldwood: This is where the game begin to be really nice: you have a scenery in your army list and you should DEFINITELY use at least 1 (or 2 if you deploy treeman) of those. Basically they damage enemy units near or in them and boost by a tremendous amount your units. It is pretty big since is made by 2 or more citadel woods in contact (yes, even on the short side). Do not deploy more then one every 2"x4" sections of the table if you don't want to be kicked out from your club at the end of the game. Though frankly, until the Sylvaneth get more models, they need all the help they can get.

Formations

Guardians of the deepwood: A formation giving you 3 Treemen (ancient or plain), 2 dryad units and 2 sylvaneth wyldwood. Stating at 46 wounds, this formation is basically an army on drop pods. Place the two woods, hide in them and wait. No branchwraith because there is a limit to OP...

Forest spirit warhost: Not yet a formation, the new army box give you 3 Treemen (ancient, plain or spirit of Durthu), 32 dryads and 1 branchwraith. Perfect to compose the above formation, but you have to deploy the branchwraith alone at the beginning...

Army Building

Hide & seek

The basic idea is to boost everything at their max and wait for the enemy to walk towards their death. For 60 wounds and 7 warscolls you can deploy:

- 2 branchwraith

- 3 treekin

- 1 ancient treeman

- 26 dryads

- 2 sylvaneth wyldwoods

Place the two woods at the left center and right center of the table. Put ASAP one of the branchwraith with the treekin in one wood and start evoking the shit out of it. Put the other (your general) and the dryad in the other wood for a nice 3+ save on the girls. Cast mystical shield every turn if you wanna nerf it to 2+ while damaging the incoming guys. Use the treeman as a beatin' stick teleporting it between the two block as needed.

(Optional) Laugh at everyone trying to come anywhere near your beloved sacred grooves.

Also if you want to go with the updated army list, substitute the treekin with 12 dryads.

If you are using the Errata rules for army building, you can't use that many Monsters to start out, so a great starting army of 50 Wounds would be:

- Branchwraith (5 Wounds, Hero allowance)

- Branchwraith (5 Wounds, Hero allowance)

- 22 Dryads (count as 16 Wounds (10+(12/2)))

- 3 Treekin (12 Wounds)

- 1 Treeman OR Treeman Ancient (12 Wounds, Monster allowance)

- 1-2 Sylvaneth Wyldwoods (0 Wounds)

This puts you at exactly 50 counted Wounds. Keep the other 10 Dryads to the side so you can summon them into the battle after deployment. Cheap? Not when you play an army that is so hopelessly dependent on a terrain feature you need to bring yourself.

Considering the bullshit the Stormcast Eternals can cram into a 50 Wound list, you can feel free to abuse literally all shenanigans you can think of.

Tactics

Know what you're facing. Dryads fold if the enemy is bringing Rend into melee. Treemen don't. Do not send Treemen at stuff that deals bonus damage against Monsters. Use Treekin instead. Treekin benefit the most from having Branchwraiths around, so make sure there's one close by. Also remember that Durthu can trigger the Treekin's Roused To War rule and that a Treeman Ancient can also cast Regrowth on them. Also remember that your Wyldwoods are still terrain features. Don't ever forget to claim your save bonus where applicable. Also, Wyldwoods can be roused by your Wizards, they just don't attack Sylvaneth. If a Wyldwood is swarming with enemies, run a Branchwraith up to it and cast something. With a little luck, they all take damage from this little trick.

In case of sudden death, if you are the one outnumbered always choose seize ground nominating one of the wildwoods; if you are the one with more models and you have to choose, pick your ancient treeman and start moving it around (assassinate) or pick your dryads and stay in the woods (blunt).

External links

List [1]