Road To Adepticon: AoS Spotlight - SYLVANETH (part 3)

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Age of Sigmar Spotlight – Sylvaneth: Part 3

As part of our “Road to AdeptiCon” coverage, we’ve caught up with Tyler, from the Scruby & Wells podcast, and he’ll be joining us for an in-depth series on the sylvaneth. Whether you already have a force of sylvaneth, fight against them regularly, or are thinking of getting started with an army of Alarielle’s children, this series is for you.

At AdeptiCon, Tyler and company are looking to join in and cover the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Warhost Tournament on Thursday, Warhammer Age of Sigmar Doubles Tournament on Friday, and the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Championship on Saturday and Sunday. The forces they are taking will be showcased in upcoming articles in this series.



The Warhammer Community team will also be out in force at AdeptiCon, bringing you live coverage from the event (and a painting seminar with Warhammer TV’s Duncan). We will be joined by members of the Design Studio – Pete, Ben, Jes and Rob – who will be participating in the Warhammer 40,000 Team Tournament and presenting a few seminars of their own. There is a huge list of great events to attend this year, so have a look, and join us – on the Road to AdeptiCon!

Warriors of the Great Glades

In this stop along our path to discern the sylvaneth’s tactical depths, we’ll be taking a look at their troops, the core defenders of the Mortal Realms’ forests, and how you can get the most out of them on the battlefield.

Dryads



Dryads are the backbone of the sylvaneth armies. Possibly more than any other unit, they signify the importance of Sylvaneth Wyldwoods. When they’re within 3″ of a Wyldwood, enemies are -1 to hit them. At the same time, if you keep them at 12 or more models, their save goes up by 1, and if they’re also within cover of a Wyldwood you’re looking at a 3+ save. Not bad!

Some of the common roles of the forest folk include:

* screening your key units (and positioning those units to counter-charge enemies slamming into the Dryads),
staying in a Wyldwood by an objective to contest or control it,

* using the sylvaneth’s Navigate Realmroots to “teleport” where they’re most needed, and
keeping some of them off board (and safe!) in the hidden enclaves, enabling you to bring them on later for objectives.

* One popular tactic is to take 20-30 Dryads as part of a Gnarlroot Wargrove battalion and pair them with Sisters of the Thorn. The Sisters have a spell, Shield of Thorns, which on a 6+ cast allows you to re-roll failed saves for a unit within 18″, and each successful save of a 6+ in combat results in the attacking unit suffering a mortal wound after its attacks have been made.

Imagine casting Shield of Thorns on 20 Dryads in cover. If you also cast Mystic Shield on them, after you add up all of the save bonuses they’ll receive (+1 from cover, +1 from their Impenetrable Thicket ability, and +1 from Mystic Shield), every save you make for them in combat will cause a mortal wound to the attending unit on a… 3+! That’s going to hurt.

One vulnerability is battleshock. With only 6 Bravery, sometimes you may want to forego the Treelord Ancient’s usual command ability and instead use Inspiring Presence on some Dryads to avoid a tough battleshock.

One incredible strength, though, is how they perform within the Forest Folk and Winterleaf Wargrove battalions, which we’ll explore in part 4.


Tree-Revenants



I think Tree-Revenants are one of the more challenging sylvaneth units to use well, but one of the most rewarding when you do.

They’re defined by their Waypipes ability, which makes them one of the most flexible units around. Instead of moving in the movement phase, they can walk the spirit paths. Remove the unit of Tree-Revenants from play, and set them up so that all of their models are within 3″ of a Sylvaneth Wyldwood or an edge of the table, and more than 9″ from the enemy.

Waypiping makes them remarkably adaptable. As just one example, you can deploy them onto your board edge, and then waypipe them to your opponent’s board edge in the very first turn. In this way, they become one of your best threats against support units and shooting in your opponent’s backfield, which could force a smaller unit to defend those pieces, giving your opponent one less option up field to contest or score an objective.

Other uses include keeping them out of harm’s way and waypiping later in the game toward an objective, using them as a crucial screen (with or without waypiping), or pulling off a bait-and-switch in your deployment by placing one or two units up in your deployment zone and making it appear as if they’re a screen for units you’re (not) intending to put behind them.

Tree-Revenants also have better odds at making a charge after using Waypipes, because of their second key ability, Martial Memories. Suffused with the echoes of their descendants, they can draw upon centuries of experience in battle, enabling them once per phase – any phase, including your opponent’s! – to re-roll a single dice for each unit of Tree-Revenants.

Martial Memories is surprisingly good. A lot of key situations might call for a re-roll – Mystical or Deadly Terrain, battleshock, running, charging, etc.

In order to give them a little more punch in combat, I recommend taking the Protector Glaive for the unit’s Scion champion, since his glaive has 2 attacks at -1 rend that can do 2 damage each, which pairs well with Martial Memories to re-roll one of the Scion’s failed hit or wound rolls.

Speaking of punch, Games Workshop’s own Ben Johnson has been running two units of 10 Tree-Revenants in his games and finding success. They can really affect how your opponent plays, since their Waypipes make them such a threat on the table, especially with two units of 10.

Final tip (thanks to Les and Aaron!): look for chances to take your opponent by surprise by contesting an objective through the use of the Tree-Revenants’ 6″ pile in – a range that is quite rare in the game.


Spite-Revenants



On average, I think Tree-Revenants are a little better rounded in matched play at the moment than Spite-Revenants, but Drycha Hamadreth’s haunting band of outcasts are an amazing choice for Narrative Play. With that said, they can take some opponents by surprise in matched play.

One of the defining – and fitting – characteristics of Spite-Revenants is the psychological effect they can have on how your opponent plays. The heart of this is their Whispers in the Dark (…what a great name). They haunt scenery within 8″ of them, causing enemies to roll two dice and pick the highest when taking battleshock tests within 3″ of the haunted terrain.

Chaos and Death often aren’t worried about battleshock, but Order and Destruction can certainly feel its effects (leaving aside the celestial lizards, but they’re made up, anyway, so let’s ignore them . Since sylvaneth are at their best playing with lots of Wyldwoods on the table (and fighting in and around them), you should have targets for Whispers in the Dark. And if you don’t, it’s probably because your opponent is actively avoiding certain areas of the board, which could create an advantage for you.

Their second ability, Unbridled Malice, is the perfect complement to Whispers in the Dark. Unbridled Malice causes enemy units to subtract 1 from Bravery if they’re within 3″ of any Spite-Revenants. In light of those two abilities alone, multiple small units of Spite-Revenants can have a large effect on how armies susceptible to battleshock play against you.

While Spite-Revenants only hit and wound on a 4+, they do have 3 attacks each, so a unit of 10 can put out 31 attacks (their Shadowstalker has 4 attacks). Pretty darn good! What’s better, if you’re running their merry leader Drycha Hamadreth within 10″ of any Spite-Revenants, they can re-roll wound rolls of 1, helping them pack a solid punch in combat.

Their Unbridled Malice can also stack with Drycha’s Primal Terror spell, which casts on a 6+. If successfully cast, you roll a dice for each enemy unit within 10″ of Drycha, adding 2 to the result, with a mortal wound suffered for each point over the highest Bravery in that unit.

Interestingly enough, sylvaneth would be terrified to face Drycha and her Spite-Revenants, since all of their troops are only Bravery 6 or 7…


Treelord



Since I don’t have any personal experience with the Treelord, my friend Frank – a sylvaneth collector and thoughtful tactician – is here to share his perspective. I do think it’s easy to overlook the Treelord, since he isn’t a Hero and doesn’t have a command ability, nor can he take a command trait or magical artefact, or directly control an objective for you in the hero-focused Three Places of Power pitched battle; but Frank’s insights shed some light on why he’s certainly worth a close look.

Frank: “Little” brother to the Treelord Ancient and Spirit of Durthu, the Treelord is right in the middle between a close combat monster and a support unit.

He has 4 Sweeping Blows attacks in melee (one more than an Ancient), hitting and wounding on 3s at D6 damage a piece, along with Massive Impaling Talons, which can slay an enemy if it’s wounded by the attack, determined by rolling a dice and seeing if the result exceeds its remaining wounds. His ranged attack, Strangleroots, does only 1 damage (compared to the Ancient’s D6), but he does get 5 attacks rather than the Ancient’s single shot, making the damage a bit more reliable from round to round.

While a Treelord excels as a hammer, he also works as a utility unit. When combined with an Ancient and a group of Dryads, you have the potential to put the enemy at up to -3 (!) to hit when near a Wyldwood if the 50/50 rolls for the Treelord and Ancient’s Groundshaking Stomp go in your favor.

Alternatively, if you need to hold an objective or tie up something scary for a couple turns, a Household battalion Treelord paired with the battalion’s Branchwych can withstand a lot of foes, especially if the Branchwych has Regrowth from the Deepwood spell lore and the arcane item Ranu’s Lamentiri (+2 when casting Deepwood spells and +1 to other spells). Between 12 wounds, a 3+ save, Groundshaking Stomp, and healing the Treelord D6 wounds on a 3+ cast from the Branchwych’s Regrowth, most enemies won’t be going anywhere…literally…, since the Household battalion prevents enemies from retreating from combat. Nifty!

Even though on paper an Ancient and Spirit of Durthu can do everything a Treelord can, the latter is uniquely suited to a few common situations. If taking an Ancient, he’s probably going to be your general, so you may be reluctant to over-expose him, and he’s at his best surrounded by Dryads or Kurnoth Hunters. A Treelord, though, has no such caveats. He’s built for the front lines. Likewise, a Spirit of Durthu really needs to be at full health to shine (as Tyler covered in part two), but a Treelord is more forgiving. He can take a few hits before he starts to noticeably suffer.

Finally, it’s often tricky to fit an Ancient and Spirit of Durthu into a 2,000pt list without giving up a lot, so the Treelord is a worthwhile option when you need a resilient, bone-crushing monster at a lower price. Just make sure to keep him away from Wyldwood Rangers…

Kurnoth Hunters



Tyler: The great jewel of the sylvaneth armies, Kurnoth Hunters might be reason enough alone to collect the faction. Resilient, powerful, and multifaceted, as my friend Tom says, ‘They’re just firing on all cylinders.’ From their models to their rules, I think they’re one of the coolest units in the game.

A defining characteristic is their Tanglethorn Thicket, which allows them to re-roll saves starting in the charge phase, but they’ll only be able to pile in 1″ during combat. It’s a worthwhile tradeoff, though! The re-roll makes them incredibly tough in combat, although still vulnerable to shooting.

Speaking of shooting, they have a 30″ range greatbow as one of their three weapon options, which provides an invaluable long-range threat. If your aim is a general purpose force, you’ll never want less than two units of 3 with greatbows, and some players are running as many as four or five with good success (…try to keep them by Damned Terrain for +1 to hit).

Kurnoth Hunters with greatbows are perfect for defending objectives within your own deployment in pitched battles like Blood & Glory, Take & Hold, and Border War, but they can be equally valuable as a screen for one of your Monster heroes, Treelord, or combat-build Hunters, or as a blocking tarpit against dangerous units like Khorne Wrathmongers or Skullreapers.

The greatsword is their second weapon option. With 4 attacks, hitting and wounding on 3’s at -1 rend doing 2 damage each, greatswords have the best statistical damage output versus models with a 3+ save (i.e., most models in the game). They’re also one of our best options for thinning down horde units quickly in combat. You’ll want to be careful, though, about positioning them when using Tanglethorn Thicket, since the ability reduces their pile in to 1” and the greatswords only have a 1″ reach.

Their final weapon option is my personal favourite: the scythe. Oh the scythe! It’s so very lovely! This weapon has two critical qualities: a 2″ reach and -2 rend (at D3 damage to boot). In my experience you’ll usually want that extra rend and reach, since fighting in tight spaces so often seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

The extra reach also enables you to run Kurnoth Hunters with scythes in a unit of 6 and still (usually) swing with all of them. And if you’re going to run one unit, why not two? Twelve embodiments of the warrior god Kurnoth bearing down on you is a terrifying sight. Some sylvaneth players also love to run them in a Gnarlroot Wargrove with an Amber Battlemage casting Wildform, enabling one unit to add 1 to their wound rolls. Fun!

On the defensive end, the Kurnoth Hunters’ Envoys of the Everqueen ability is an outstanding way to increase your army’s resilience. If your general is a Sylvaneth Hero, Kurnoth Hunters always count as being in range for any command ability the general uses. Even better, Sylvaneth units within 8″ of any Kurnoth Hunters also count as being in range. So if a Treelord Ancient is your general and uses his Heed the Spirit-song, you could potentially ensure your entire army is re-rolling save rolls of 1.

Finally, they have one more ability, Trample Underfoot, which seems to be there to give you the joy of forgetting it every turn. At the end of a combat phase, you pick an enemy unit and roll a dice for each Kurnoth Hunter within 1″ of it. On a 4+, that enemy unit takes a mortal wound. It’s an awesome ability, but you might want to get some bright orange tokens labeled ‘Look Here! Trample!’ and have them at the ready.


Up Next

In part four, we’ll explore the rules and significance of the Sylvaneth Wyldwood – an element of the faction unlike anything else in Warhammer Age of Sigmar.