Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Sylvaneth

Why play Sylvaneth

• Because nothing is more humiliating than being defeated by a tree

Warscrolls

Named Characters

• Alarielle the Everqueen: As expected from the next big over-the-top God model, Alarielle is downright terrifying. Specifics? Sure. The lady has a massive pool of 16 Wounds with a 3+ Save and yet she still rocks a 16" Flying Move stat. She also regenerates and can either drop another unit of angry trees on the battlefield OR heal a Sylvaneth model (read: herself) even more. She also has a massively strong throwing spear with equally massive 30" range and the beetle hits harder than anything else in the game. It's so damn strong it damages people standing in terrain if it charges into said terrain and has five damage 5(!) attacks. Like Nagash and Archaon, she is not really something you compare to normal models. She's too powerful for that. She's simply something you try to survive.

• Drycha Hamadreth: Drycha is back and more pissed off than ever. The tree Dreadknight has an armada of tiny gribbles that can cause a quite massive amount of Mortal Wounds to enemy units at range and in melee she's not the overkill to end all overkill, but pretty damn powerful for what she is. She's also excessively fast with a 9" Move that is not weakened by her damage table. Her real meat is in her relationship to Spite-Revenants though. The Revenants lower enemy Bravery in order to power her damage-off-of-Bravery spell whereas she grants them better To Wound rolls.

Heroes

• Branchwraith: A very weak. But VERY essential part of your sylvaneth army. As a hero she sports a very meh stat wheel with the exception of her above average movement speed (7"). Her Melee will offer only token resistance to opponents. SO KEEP HER OUT OF COMBAT. She is not an overly powerful Wizard at first glance, but she does summon new Dryads and generally has just enough support utility to never not be welcome in a Sylvaneth army. If you have any sense you will keep this crazy looking plant lady in or near a Wyldwood churning out dryads as it also makes the lady harder to hit in addition to raising her Save like normal cover. To sum up its always a good idea to have ATLEAST 1 of these around more if you can but just keep her close to a Wyldwood or else give her a bodyguard unit (Treekin work well as they are large enough to block line of sight).

• Branchwych: Where the Branchwraith is defensive minded, the Branchwych is very aggressive-minded. She exchanges the summoning spell for an unreliable but potentially devastating magic missile, the meh melee for actually decent melee and the defense bonus whilst in a forest for damage bonuses after charging and after being hurt in melee. Only time will tell if she's more useful than her old counterpart.

• Treelord Ancient: It seems as if GW has attempted to make the Ancient a weaker but more magical version of a garden variety Treelord. This guy has 1" less movement and 1 less attack on its Sweeping Blows. This doesn't seem like much, but the drop from 4 to 3 attacks is actually quite drastic. And what does this old fella get in return? An extra 3 to its Bravery, 18" range on its strangle roots, AND becoming a freakin' wizard! His unique spell is also great. It's either a great deterrent from entering your Wyldwoods or a great punishment if the opponent was dumb enough to actually do it. When points come in to play you may find that you have to take the "normal" treelord to make the army work but if you ever have the choice i would pick the Ancient every time.Bah, the Ancient costs 40 points more than the younger one. Take one. now.

• Spirit of Durthu: Oddly NOT a named character and therefore not reduced to 0-1 in Matched Play. A very old treelord with a few psychological issues. Luckily for you this translates to a kick-ass statline. His statwheel is the same as an Treelord ancients, as are most of his abilities. However he's not a wizard but gets a Command ability in exchange. Said Command is incredible, as it allows you to place a new Wyldwood. It does have lots of limitations, but the look on your opponent's face when you plonk down an all but lethal terrain piece in the middle of his path is so worth it. Durthu's huge sword is almost exactly as terrifying as it looks, too. It has a flat damage of 6 when he's in good health and he attacks more often if he has a forest to defend.

Troops

• Dryads: Your rank and file angry trees. These ladies are thankfully quite versatile and so can be used for a variety of situations. At first glance the ladies don't look like much, having only a 5+ Save and 2 attacks at 4+/4+/-/1. But they quickly become incredible as in units of 12+ they gain a better Save, they hit on 3+ in your combat phase and they also have 2" range on their attacks, letting them fight in thick, two-row hedges. They also profit massively from being in cover, Wyldwoods in particular and are also very fast at 7".

• Tree-Revenants: The new guys on the block, the Tree-Revenants at first glance look disappointing, with basically the same stat-wheel as Dryads but lower Move. Now here's where it gets good. First, they have Rend in melee, something the army desperately needs and second they have the coolest rerolls in the game, getting to reroll 1 dice per phase. So this seems wonky in melee, doesn't it? Well, it also allows them to reroll the dice to run, one of the charge dice, the Battleshock dice... you get the picture. The real meat with them however are musician and standard bearer. The standards allow them to pile in 6" which lets them get more attacks in and the musician allows them to use a better Spirit Paths rule, letting you take them off the table and then place them close to either a Wyldwood or a table edge to hunt down those pesky archers and war machines and then instantly zipping back to the home front. All in all they're good specialists, but too fragile (and too expensive) to use for your mainline infantry.

• Spite-Revenants: Less tricksy, more creepy Tree-Revenants. These do not have Rend but gain an additional attack over Dryads. They also exist to muck around with enemy Bravery. They flat reduce the Bravery of enemies around them, which combos well with Drycha's unique spell and terrain pieces around them become so creepy that enemies have to roll 2 dice for Battleshock and pick the highest. These will not be your mainline infantry either, but small units interspersed with your Dryads will do wonders to screw with the opponent.

• Kurnoth Hunters: Incredible. Each of these guys is basically a minor Hero at 5 Wounds and a 4+ Save. They also have a choice of weapons. First and probably most useful are the Greatbows. Bows with a stunning 30" range, two shots per model and D3 damage per shot, these guys are basically artillery. If you pick that option, you also get the adorable Quiverbug who does the melee fighting for them, being very non-threatening, but remember, these guys are tough as nails and you can shoot into melee. The other options are melee weapons, Sword or Scythe respectively. The sword tosses out 4 attacks at -1 Rend and damage 2 while the scythe tosses out 3 attacks at Rend -2 and damage D3. Probably best to go with the scythes as Rend in melee is something Sylvaneth painfully lack. However, always keep in mind that the bows are probably the best and not just because your army needs shooting even more desperately.

• Treekin: (NOTE:These units are no longer in production but still contain the Sylvaneth keyword). If you have some, use them, they're quite useful. While not as hard hitting or durable as some other units of their size they are generally faster and still add a nice middle ground between your dryads and treelords, being pretty much Ogres with better Saves who profit a lot from having Branchwraiths/Branchwyches around. While i wouldn't rely on these guys they do make a useful addition to any army when fielded in units of around 6. Useful as bodyguard when transporting a Branchwraith round the field as there tall stature can help block line of site. Alternatively these guys are quite effective at taking out the crowd control units that will eliminate great swathes of your dryads especially if you throw a mystic shield their way.

Monsters

• Treelord: With beautiful models and some equally beautiful stats your treelords (Ancient or otherwise are a force to be reckoned with. These guys have a little bit of everything. There stat profiles are similar to that of a riderless dragon with there sweeping blows designed to clear crowds (Though with -1 rend there is still a good chance of damaging heros) with D6 damage each not to mention a 3" range. There Talons however are designed for 1 on 1 combat having -2 rend but only dealing 1 damage!? whats up with that? well ill tell you. IF you success wound the enemy with this attack you can roll a dice if that dice roll EXCEEDS the remaining wounds they have left then the target model is slain outright. This means that you can potentially 1 hit KO some the smaller hero units however its proberbly worth using this attack once the enemy has been softened up a bit. Another little move that these guys have is there ground shaken stomp which causes - 1 to hits for all enemy units in close proximity.ANOTHER little ability is that these guys can teleport with the help of a 2 Wyldwoods(Although often as not having more than 1 only happends in the larger games) The treelord can quite simply step into one at the start of its movement phase and pop out by the other one!. Last but not least we move on the ranged attack (Thats right a ranged attack also) only a 12" range but with a fairly decent hit/wound profile and -1 rend its certainly better than a kick in the nuts. While itshould be remembered that these guys class as monster and carry all the bagage that comes with (You know declining stats, Large model, everyone wants to shoot it. that sort of thing) its still a pretty kickass units. Does it get any better than this. Why of course!. Presenting . . . . .

Other

• Sylvaneth Wyldwood: Ok, so it's not actually a unit. However this thing is so essential for your army and so downright horrible to everyone else's that it may as well be and you will probably want to treat it as a unit to avoid being That Guy. To start off with this forest will attempt to kill all models that arent Sylvaneth, Heroes or Monsters. If the model rolls a 1 then it's goodnight. In addition this forest is allergic to magic, and will deal d3 damage to all units in or within 1" (again, except for Sylvaneth_) if a spell is cast within 6". All of that is without the multitude of abilities that the rest of the army draw from it, ranging from buffs to spawning points and even as warp pads. Ifone of these things is on the board it's definatly advantage Sylvaneth, so don't be surprised if the enemy take another unit to conpensate.

Battalions

Guardians of the Deepwood

Found in the starter set booklet and also in the Mighty Battles in an Age of Unending War campaign book.

3 Treelords and/or Treelord Ancients, 2 units of Dryads, 2 Sylvaneth Wyldwoods. Deep strike any unit from this battalion within 3" of a SYLVANETH WYLDWOOD and more than 9" from enemy model. Also you can place your 2 woods after everything is set up, everywhere on the battlefield.

Forest Spirit Wargrove

A Treelord Ancient, 2 Treelords, 3 units of Dryads and a Branchwraith.

Alarielle's Heartwood Guard

A Branchwraith, 3 Treelords and/or Treelord Ancients, 3 units of Dryads.

Here's a table that summarize how with few units you can make a lot of different battalions:

Battallion	Branchwraith	Dryads	Treelord/Treelord Ancient	Sylvaneth Wyldwoods
Guardians of the Deepwood		xx	xxx	xx
Forest Spirit Hargrove	x	xxx	xxx
Alarielle's Heartwood Guard	x	xxx	xxx

Army Building

50 wounds build

Just the Guardians of the Deepwood battalion fits (barely) under 50 wounds. Go with 2 Treelord Ancient and a Treelord and then add 2 units of 7 Dryads. Basically here you give up the +1 save of the Dryads in change of the chance to hit the enemy where/when you want. Neat. With 17 models you will probably go with sudden death objectives and honestly, it will be an easy win with all the maneuverability you have.

If you prefer to go without battalions, another balanced build could be a Treelord Ancient and a Treelord, a Branchwraith and a unit of 21 dryads.

External links

Rules are here:

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-branchwraith-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-dryads-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-treelord-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-treelordancient-en.pdf