Editing Total War: WARHAMMER (section)

====[[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Wood Elves]]====
[[File:Realm_of_the_Wood_Elves.jpg|center|800px|thumb|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIvRkjOd1f8 "THEY MAY TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT, THEY WILL NEVER TAKE AWAY, OUR TREEEEEEE!!!"] ]]
The second post-release race with the release date of the 8th of December of 2016. It seems CA has taken to heart the popularity of Clan Angrund, Crooked Moon, and Bloody Handz, because the DLC will come with a sub-faction of its own. Wood Elves play very differently from all the other armies. First, they are incredibly fragile, relying on massive micro to survive. Second, they [[Derp|''can conquer any settlement type be it Dwarf, Human, or Norscan'']], makes sense since Oak of Ages once had its root sprawled across the entire world, even Norsca; it was only the coming of Chaos that destroyed all its works. The catch is that all settlements outside Athel Loren are stuck being mere outposts where only the most basic structures may be built. The settlements in Athel Loren proper, meanwhile, have a whopping '''10 (ten) building slots'''.

But where they truly become unique is their win condition: they need to upgrade the unique Oak of Ages to level 5. But there are a few problems. First, to do so you need amber, a secondary resource only used by the hippies. Amber is only found outside Athel Loren, and is also used for technology and high-tier units. Second, when you do grow up your pretty tree as far as it goes, you'll have to fend off stacks of Beastmen and Warriors of Chaos as they attempt to dogpile you.

Their two lords are Orion and Durthu. Durthu actually leads a subfaction focusing on tree spirits in the opposite end of Athel Loren from Orion (who focuses on Elf units). They got two generic lords (Glade Lord and Treeman Ancient), and three heroes (Spellsinger, Branchwraith, Waystalker). Finally, they have motherfucking forest dragons.

All these advantages though? They ''need'' it. They are currently one of the hardest factions to play, if not the hardest, and Dwarfen Irondrakes in particular will have a field day against their highly-flammable Forest Spirit units.

Perhaps the biggest reason why people struggle with the Asrai is their relatively micro heavy playstyle. Wood Elves are definitely not a standing army during the early game and don't function as a fully functional traditional total war army ever. Wood Elves lack a cheap and high model front line unit. Eternal Guardians, the absolute minimum level unit you can recruit, will shit on any other faction's first unit in a 1v1. They are also extremely expensive to recruit and maintain. This is a major theme for Wood Elves. Take their base archer unit - Glade Guard- for instance. On paper they should absolutely defeat a Bretonnian or a Beastman archer unit. They certainly cost that much. In a straight up battle they will probably lose. This is because the Beastmen and Bretonnians can generally match them straight up in a fight due to having larger unit sizes and consequently more dakka. They are bringing more arrows while costing less. What the Wood Elves have over all other factions is raw speed. A Wood Elf army can outrange and out skirmish the enemy. While playing as Wood Elves, You have to think outside the box, breaking up formations, making sure that your archers keep firing no matter what happens, and keeping enemies away from your squishy missile troops. Oh, and fight in the DAMN TREES. Seriously, Wood Elves gain hefty combat bonuses in forests for prolonged combat. If you are playing as the Wood Elves by using conventional military tactics you are fucking up.
Another mistake that people commonly make while playing as the Wood Elves is thinking that their infantry is supposed to fight in the front line. This is a mistaken idea that only leads to loss of Asrai life and makes baby Orion sad. Eternal Guards are a damn good unit that can go toe to toe with higher tier infantry of other factions. They are also too expensive to keep as frontline infantry. They are support units that keep your flanks clear of cavalry and support your front line with Anti-Large damage; ideally they should be supporting Treekin. Treekin are the front line tanks of the Wood Elves in battle. Whereas Trolls - their closest counterpart in the game - have low morale and regeneration, Treekin are walking trees that have a 20% resistance to physical damage along with a fuckton of health and small models. This means that you need to support them with magic, ideally healing them with the Lore of Life. You can't expect them to win a straight up fight against large numbers on their own. Your starting Legendary Lords (especially Durthu, who can easily solo a Beastman army due to his innate fear traits) can soak up a lot of damage as long as they are well supported.
Finally, a word on the Wardancers. They are basically Howling Banshees. Fragile and absolutely murderous in close range combat. Asrai Wardancers armed with spears can easily combat high level cavalry like blood knights due to their anti-large bonus while regular Wardancers do the same to infantry. They aren't frontline infantry and using them as such is a waste. Eternal Guard units have much higher mass and can generally hold their own pretty well.
Wood elves also have a lot of access to magic damage, which bypasses physical resistance, making them very effective against heroes and Lords.

One thing that players have noticed on release in the campaign was that AI-controlled wood elves were notoriously bipolar and would sometimes even ''ally with Chaos'' while laying waste to huge swathes of the map. However, an update that came with Bretonnia made them lore-tasticaly isolationist with short bursts of aggressive expansion.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/534331/ - the steam page with their roster

Their base Legendary Lords are Orion and Durthu.

:: [[Orion]] leads the main Wood Elves faction named '''Talsyn ''' starting in King's Glade in Mortal Empires. His faction effects reduce upkeep for all cavalry units, gives leadership during forest battles, and unlocks the Wild Hunt campaign event. Lord effect wise he buffs the charge bonus and weapon strength of Wild Riders in his army. He specializes in the "Elf" aspect of his faction, to the degree that while many standard infantry options are available to him at no extra fee, higher tier Tree Kin and Tree Men cost amber as an additional upkeep. Role Wise Orion is a hybrid melee and ranged option, with his melee stats nothing to scoff at while he launches his spear off like a bolt thrower. While he lacks a truly unique skill-line he does have the capability to massively boost his armies ranged and melee capabilities. He also has a reskinned Lore of Metal spell in the form of his Hounds of Orion ability. His Quest Items include the Horn of the Wild Hunt, Cloak of Isha, and the Spear of Kurnous.

:: [[Durthu]] leads the subfaction named '''Argwylon''' starting in the Waterfall Palace in Mortal Empires. His faction effects include a reduction in Branchwraith recruitment cost, and a boost to melee attack during forest battle. Lord effects reduce upkeep for all forest spirit units in his army, boosting their charge bonus, and all units in Durthu's army are immune to ALL forms of attrition. As can be expected, Durthu's faction focuses on the ''Wood'' of the Wood Elves, allowing him to recruit Tree Kin/Men normally, but recruiting higher tier elven units such as Wardancers requires amber as an extra upkeep cost. Role wise Durthu is basically a world beater, he is a hybrid Lord that has fantastic melee capabilities while also having access to the Lore of Beasts. Being one of the few monster Legendary Lords in the game, few can really compete with him in a straight-up fight. He also has access to a unique magic missile called "Lamentations of Despair." His sole Quest item is the Sword of Daith.

:: The [[Sisters of Twilight]] lead the '''Heralds of Ariel''' subfaction, starting in the Witchwoods in both Vortex and the Mortal Empires campaigns. The twins are doing their part to fix the forests, this time taking the fight to Naggaroth. They focus mainly on the flying units, giving upkeep reductions and combat bonuses to flying units including Eagles and Dragons. All Hawk Riders also get the Volley of Kurnous ability, sending multiple AP missiles of doom at their target. Uniquely, they have all of their magic equipment given to them at the start, and their quest battle revolves around freeing their dragon Ceithin-Har from the clutches of evil. All in all these gals let you be the US Air Force and Viet Cong at the same time, letting you reign death upon your foes from the sky. Oh yeah, they also have this Forge of Daith thing where their uncle/sugar daddy gives them a bunch of magic items at the start and you can upgrade them through dilemmas. Yeah, not the most exciting DLC mechanic but hey, [[Malus Darkblade|at least it doesn't force you to pick between two horrible options as you play,]] [[Nakai the Wanderer|replaces a ton of race mechanics with broken ones,]] or just ultimately makes the game unfun in general.

:: [[Drycha]] leads the '''Wargrove of Woe''' subfaction starting in the Gryphon Woods in Mortal Empires. Her big draw is that instead of getting Ariel as a Legendary Hero, she will get Coeddil. Meaning you can take the REAL tree Hitler and kick those pointy eared assholes out of your forest. She can only recruit some of the weaker elven units, with the explanation being that they have been put under a magical glamour that clouds their minds and makes them believe they are serving Ariel. The glamour reduces their Melee Defense and ranged attack speed, but gives them a boost to Leadership and the Expendable rule, since no one else in Drycha's army really cares if they die. To make up for having a more restricted roster than the rest of the Wood Elf factions she also gets some unique units in the form of Malevolent forest spirits (functionally normal forest spirits but purple and with Frenzy) and animals to take into battle, including feral manticores.

[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| More specific tactics here]]


<gallery mode="nolines">
File:Talsyn.png|Talsyn
File:Argwylon.png|Argwylon
File:Heralds of Ariel.png|Heralds of Ariel
File:Wargrove of Woe.png|Wargrove of Woe
</gallery>