Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves

This is the tactica for the Total War: Warhammer version of the Wood Elves.

Why Play Wood Elves

You have a love of nature and really want to share it with others. Namely by siccing very angry trees on the other civilizations of the world.

Pros

• Sheer Speed - The majority of your army is quite fast. Even the most basic infantry available to you, Eternal Guards, will outpace a significant portion of the footsoldiers available to most other armies. You'll be able to dance around the plodding pace of slower armies like the dwarves Dwarfs _{(that's a grudgin')} or lizardmen.
• Excellent Missile Infantry - The Wood Elves have an abundance of fantastic missile units. Ranged infantry, cavalry, fliers, lords, heroes with access to dedicated poison, anti-armor, magic or rapid fire missiles gives you immense flexibility against any threats you may face.
• Savage Melee Combatants - Wood Elves have access to some pretty heavy-hitting, if squishy infantry options that can scythe through hordes like lawnmowers. Additionally, Wild Riders are capable of dealing some of the most damaging charges in the game thanks to their immense charge bonus.

Cons

• Fragile - The Wood Elves are debatably the frailest overall faction in the game. A few niche units like the Tree Kin or Treemen can hold their own in prolonged fights, but the rest of your army will wither away in a sustained assault. A successful Wood Elf army must strike with surgical precision and do so swiftly and from afar.
• Absent Artillery - Though you have plenty of long-ranged missile units to choose from, you have no dedicated artillery platforms. This isn't a major issue primarily because you have so many archers that can fill every role the artillery would perform, but you will lack a notable source of hard-hitting burst damage.
• Limited Roster - Wood Elves have fewer unit choices than a number of other playable factions. This limits your army composition into fairly predictable builds that does nothing for players looking for adaptable playstyles.
• DLC Faction - Where other factions are simply part of the base games, with their rosters expanded by DLC Lord Packs, the entire Wood Elf faction is paid DLC and has not received any new units or legendary lords since the game one factions received regiments of renown. Thankfully, the upcoming Lord Pack for TW:WII will finally address this issue, though as paid DLC for a DLC, it'll certainly set a new standard for premium content.

Universal Trait

Wood Elves don't really have much in the way of extra abilities or perks, there is one particular thing they have going for them though:

• Hide (Forest) - What did you expect? They're Wood Elves. Hell, some of their units are literally just tree people. The only units in the entire elven roster who can't hide in forests are the Great Eagle, Hawk Riders and Forest Dragon.

Lords

You have a pretty small selection of lords, the smallest out of every other faction in fact. Two of each, and you'll almost never pick any of the generic ones.

Legendary Lords

• Orion - Orion is a hybrid ranged/melee beatstick who specializes against infantry. At a distance, he's one of the best ranged lords in the game and deals hefty anti-armor damage, perfect for sniping large monsters and individual lords/heroes. He's also blisteringly fast for a foot lord and can even keep pace with some of the slower cavalry found in other armies. This pairs well with his impressive melee attack and charge bonuses; it's a common tactic to skirmish at range with a few well timed missiles to then follow up with a charge. Though he's not a caster, Orion also has access to a powerful bound vortex spell, Hounds of Orion, which will easily burn through most (elite) infantry when the burst damage is needed. All in all, a solid, well rounded lord that you can't go wrong with.

• Durthu - Everyone's favorite genocidal tree (no, not that one) is your best dedicated duelist. In a similar vein to Orion, Durthu is a hybrid lord who has access to the lore of beasts; a surprisingly useful set of supporting or offensive spells that can turn either himself or supporting treekin into terrifying combat monsters that will deal death to many a foe. As a massive monster, Durthu can wade through infantry and cavalry with relative ease and can go root-to-toe with a majority of the single-entity monsters in the game. Unfortunately, this presents a set of notable drawbacks for Durthu. First, as a giant monster, Durthu is particularly vulnerable to both anti-armor weaponry and anti-large weaponry. This size also makes him an easy target to missile fire. Secondly, he's also vulnerable to fire damage, something something many factions have relatively easy access to. If caught in a crossfire of several such tools, Durthu will melt away with frightening quickness, so you'll need to take extra care and support him with life magic should he get stuck in.

• Sisters of Twilight Naestra and Arahan:

• Drycha: Everyone's favorite genocidal tree (no, not that one)

Generic Lords

• Glade Lord - Your generic elf dude/dudette, glade lords are flexible and very customizable lords who can lead from the front or afar. They are specialized duelists at heart and will excel at hunting enemy lords/heroes if you can separate them from their armies but, unlike Durthu, tend to be vulnerable to getting tied down by hordes of enemies. Normally your cheapest lord, you can invest in a steed/eagle to maximize their mobility (take the steed if you want to utilize forest terrain) or place them atop a Forest Dragon to allow them to fight a much wider selection of enemies.

• Ancient Treeman - Ancient treemen function somewhat like Durthu (understandably) in that they are hybrid lords with respectable melee damage output and access to a supplementary lore of magic. However, unlike Durthu, the regular ancient treeman has access to the significantly more useful lore of life. This makes them fantastic centerpieces for a treeman-style/focused army who can hold their own far more effectively than your spellsingers, but this comes with the same inconveniences plaguing Durthu. As a large, flammable monster, treemen are very weak to flamming attacks, anti-armor attacks and anti-large attacks. Even if he's healing himself, he can and absolutely will melt quite quickly if focused down (and believe me, he will be focused). You will absolutely need additional screening units to help protect him in combat.

• Spellweaver -

Heroes

You have three flavors of generic heroes, each with their own uses.

• Branchwraith - If ever there could only be a single unit that could be defined as a "hybrid", branchwraiths would be strong contenders for the title. Not only are they capable melee fighters in their own right, but they have access to a variety of handpicked spells from both the lore of life and lore of shadows. This gives them equal measure of frontline support and damage. Penumbral Pendulum gives you a strong sweeping wind spell that excels at softening harder units for your Wardancers and Rangers. Their additional access to earthblood gives them a cheap multi-target heal that, when paired with Shield of Thorns, will make your frontline units extremely resilient for a brief period of time.

• Waystalker - These guys are lord/hero hunters, pretty much strictly designed and specialized for that singular purpose. They can easily vanish from your foe's view thanks to their Master Ambusher ability which, combined with their speed, also allows them to easily kite footlords while blasting them with arrows. A few limited use abilities, like the Arrow of Kurnous, can allow them to deal decent damage and disrupt infantry in a pinch. It can also be reserved for sniping and destroying artillery pieces. Despite being built to hunt characters, Waystalkers are actually only decent melee combatants and will falter against melee-focused foot lords. Only send them in if they're completely out of ammo and/or properly supported by reinforcements.

• Spellsinger - Your cheap, dedicated mages. Spellsingers, like the purestrain generic mages of other factions, only exist to cast spells and nothing more. Keep these gals behind your front lines and out of harms way if you want their support to last you the battle. If you can spare the coin, consider placing them on elven steeds or unicorns so that they can quickly respond to changing conditions on the battlefield and quickly escape should enemies come for them. You have three flavors to choose from:
  • Beasts Spellsinger - A dedicated vector for the mixed lore of beasts, spellsingers of this category are ideal for summoning feral manticores behind enemy lines and/or supporting fellow elves/trees with buffs. A spare flock of doom can deal decent damage to clusters of infantry as well, though you'll get better AoE damage going with a shadows spellsinger.
  • Life Spellsinger - Your cheapest source for lore of life spells. All in all, you really can't go wrong with her; healing magic is invaluable and can absolutely mean the difference between a winning/losing engagement on the field. You'll get a lot of mileage out of her if you pair her with treemen/forest dragons.
  • Shadows Spellsinger - The lore of shadows is your most offensive choice for your spellsingers, and it's not a bad one. Your two primary offensive spells, the Penumbral Pendulum and the Pit of Shades both deal impressive AoE damage and thus specialize in clearing out armored frontlines. The Pit of Shades also holds the distinct honor of being the only stationary vortex spell in the game. This ensures that it'll never randomly roll over your own troops, but it also cannot potentially flow into neighboring enemy formations to cause greater damage, so it's a bit of a trade off there. If nothing else, you can use it to create a zone of denial in chokepoints.

• Glade Captain -

• Ariel -

Units

Infantry

Melee Infantry

• Eternal Guard - Eternal Guard are the closest thing to a defensive front line unit you have. Available shielded or unshielded (you should always take shielded Eternal Guard, precious other units in your army resist ranged attacks), these stalwart warriors are in that perfect twilight zone of being cheap and somewhat expendable while also remaining rather competent combatants capable of holding their own against other units above their weight class. Though they'll often lose in drawn out fights against stronger, higher tier melee infantry, they can pin them down long enough for your archers or dryads to flank and make up for their sub-optimal damage output. Eternal Guard, being exclusively armed with spears, are excellent anti-cavalry/monster screens and, when braced, can easily halt enemy charges in their tracks. No matter your focus, be it cavalry, missile units or treemen, you'll want your line held by a few of these guys.
  • Winterheart Guards (RoR) - Eternal Guard, only with charge defense against everything, an encouragement aura for nearby allied units and unbreakable. These guys will hold the line until the bitter end, something they'll ensure takes a long time due to their increased defensive stats. You'll want these guys somewhat centrally located in your front line to ensure their leadership buff affects as many Eternal Guard as possible.

• Wardancers - These lovely ladies serve as dedicated infantry blenders, a job they do really, really well. They are exceptionally quick for infantry themselves, able to outrun a majority of the targets you'd throw them at (only a select few infantry units can even keep pace with them, namely Skinks). They do their best work against unarmored foes, so you should generally avoid sending them in against particularly hardy front line units. This is because, like a significant portion of your army, Wardancers are frail. Really frail. They take damage just as quick as they (try to) give it, so if they enemy they're fighting just won't die then they'll begin to. They do have an active skill that trades some of their melee attack for a defensive buff, which can help them come out on top in a DPS race, though they'll still be left far worse for wear without support. Pairing Wardancers with Eternal Guard is recommended to alleviate this; while the Eternal Guard pins down and tanks a particularly dangerous enemy, the Wardancers step in and carve them to pieces.

• Spear Wardancers - Wardancers who specialize against large foes instead of infantry formations. Where regular Wardancers simply appreciate having Eternal Guard tank the hits, Spear Wardancers actually synergize with them extremely well due to their shared offensive niche. Just like the regular Wardancers, have the Eternal Guard intercept cavalry or monsters before sending these gals in. Spear Wardancers have an activated ability that grants them additional missile resistance, but it comes at the cost of their melee defense.
  • Loec's Tricksters (RoR) - If you thought regular Wardancers were glass cannons, you haven't seen these ones at work. This regiment of renown exchanges the normal Spear Wardancer activated ability in exchange for one that pumps up their melee attack in exchange for their defense (literally the opposite effect of the regular Wardancers ability) which, when combined with the addition of Frenzy, makes them do obscene damage to large units. Unfortunately, this also means that a stiff breeze will slaughter them to the last. Hold these ladies in reserve for a critical fight, such as engaging the enemy lord or a key monster in their army and support them with magic to make sure they survive the ensuing melee.

• Wildwood Rangers - The Wildwood Rangers have an... interesting role. They're your only dedicated source of melee armor piercing damage, which they deal a lot of, but they also specialize against large targets. While these two perks often work fantastically against monsters and cavalry, it tends to pay off less on the armored masses you may often find yourself against. That said, they are still your only real choice for killing armored infantry in melee. They're certainly not bad at the job, mind you, they're just not great at it either.
  • Wardens of Cythral (RoR) - Take the Wildwood Rangers, give them silver shields, armor sundering and a beefy charge defense against large targets and send them on their way. These guys are better suited to prolonged fights against large foes than Spear Wardancers, particularly because they have actual stats in their defenses. With support, these guys can chunk most armored targets relatively well in good time.

• Dryads - The first of your treekin soldiers, Dryads are better suited to tanking and dealing physical damage than your Eternal Guard, but are notably weaker against magical and fire based attacks. Dryads also have virtually no charge defense and cannot deal with enemy cavalry remotely as well as the Eternal Guard either. Having said that, Dryads do have two notable selling points over Eternal Guard: They are immune to psychology (so Fear and Terror) and they have vanguard deployment. Cleverly hidden trees can easily fall upon a squishier back line to disrupt/shut down artillery and archers while formations of Eternal Guard distract the heavy hitters long enough for your angry trees to come into play.