Wood elves definitely don't suck in 8th...

So this is a rather large update - which is fitting since it's the last one for July.  I've been working pretty hard at trying to make my Wood elf army look unique on the battlefield.  At this point and time I've got only a few more things to do before I am ready to start painting.
First off, if you remember I was working on my Warhawk Riders and my Great Eagles.  I was worried that they would be rather flimsy and tip over on the battlefield.  Well... I think I may have gone a little overboard with the magnets on them...

12 Magnets a stand... little did I know that this was akin to just soldering the bases to the stand...

mental note moving forward - 4 is a little excessive with these monster strong magnets.

After doing a bit of pre-measuring and positioning I was able to put the Warhawk Riders half an inch apart (as per skirmisher rules in 8th) and still have them look good.  They now rest on a magnetized base and I can move them all over the battlefield with little or no worry about them tipping over.






Next I wanted to make my Glade Guard unique for this edition.  I currently run with 3 different Glade Guard units.  One unit of 14, one of 13 and one of 11.  The unit of 13 and 11 house 2 heroes.  So I thought and thought and finally it came to me how to make them unique.
Here are the results of some of my conversions:

Here you see the group that will house the Battle Standard Bearer (The Farstriders of Lady Dreamsinger).  I wanted them to have a neat looking standard bearer to compliment their lady so... a crucified Beastman on their own banner seemed fitting!  I also multi-based the Standard Bearer, Musician and 2 normal Glade Guard on a tree stump that rests on a 40mm base.

Here are all 3 Glade Guard units that are in my 2500 point army list.
Left: The Farstriders of Lady Dreamsinger
Middle: The Mage Hunters of Coeth-mara
Right: The Storm Warders of Athel Loren







Next is the update I've been super excited to show off - My DRAGON!

I plan on painting the dragon with Dark Angels Green then highlighting it was Goblin Green and Scorpion Green while the under scales of it's belly will be Desert Yellow with a Bleach Bone highlight.  The armor will be Gold washed with Thrakia Green (similar in how I did my Wild Riders) or I may attempt to do the Non-metallic metal paint method.  We'll see.

So...
I've been bitching about how 8th edition nerfed the shit out of my army, taking it from a top tier to a bottom tier army.  I was doing exactly what everyone on the Warhammer Forums were doing.  Bitching without actually playing.  You would know that the people on the forums are full of shit after playing a single game at a point level above 2000.  Wood Elves in 8th edition are absolutely bad ass.  My goal is to get as good with my Wood Elves as I am with my Eldar.
Today I played a Grand Army battle against Jeremy's Ogre Kingdoms - an army that got a huge boost in 8h edition.  Jeremy had decided to run a unit of 16 Ogre Bulls w/ a BSB and Tyrant.  That is 16 40mm monstrous infantry that are now a Horde.  That is an absolute beatstick unit.  I had roughly 2500 built but managed to squeeze out 3000 points after adding a Treeman, Branchwraith and 8 Archers to the army for 3k total.

We played 3000 points each - and the game went insanely fast.  I think we had just hit the 1 hour and 45 minute mark when Jeremy conceded at the top of turn 5.  I'll do a quick synopsis of the battle along with some pictures of the game.

Game Type: Dawn Attack - Scenerio 2 in the basic rule book.
Player who goes first deploys his entire army first - there are 3 sections of the board where he deploys.  Left corner, right corner and center.  You have to roll to see what unit is placed where.  This is to represent the early morning confusion of an attack at Dawn.
Terrain - 8 pieces (4 Mysterious Terrain were discovered during the game - teehee)
I got the winning role and deployed first.  Here are some pictures of the deployment.

After deploying Jeremy attempted to Steal the Initiative and failed.  I went first.  I moved up all my units and lead the offensive instead of staying in the backfield.  I moved all my units into an intelligent attack formation that essentially picked my opponents battles for him instead of vice versa.

The statue in the bottom left corner was a Mysterious Monument that gave MR2 to all units 6".

Turn 2 - Jeremy had moved his units up in the previous turn and so I moved my Treeman, Treekin and Wild Riders to 1" away in order to prevent Impact hits from his Ogres' charges and also to dig in and ensure that those units would be attacked.  The magic phase is where my army got the upper hand early in the game.  I was able to cast "Amber Spear" which boosted is a S10 bolt thrower magic missile that does D6 wounds.  I removed almost an entire rank from Jeremy's 18 man unit (That's 16 wounds and 15 Str 4 attacks).  The shooting phase was also really, really good.  I managed to knock out another 2 Ogres in his big unit and whittle down his supporting units as well.  The wood elf army is very, very fast and shooting isn't their only recourse as many would think.

The bottom of Turn 2 ended up with Jeremy charging my Dryads with his Slave Giant, my Treekin and Treeman with his Lead Belchers and his block of bulls and my Wild Riders being charged by his Iron Guts.

A grand melee ensued.
Results of Turn 2 combat:
Dryads - 13 hits, no wounds.
Giant - jump up and down result - 1 wound inflicted, 2 stomp attack wounds.
Result: - Dryads roll a 5 and stay in combat

Treekin - 6 wounds on his bulls.
Treeman - 5 wounds from Stand and Shoot Strangleroot attack, 5 wounds in close combat and 5 wounds from Thunder Stomp.
Lead Belchers and Ogre Bulls - they inflict 4 wounds and I remove a Treekin.
Ogres lose combat but they are stubborn and stick with it.

Wild Riders - 4 Wounds, 3 saves from Regen on Ogres.
Ogres - 4 Wounds, 5 ward saves made.
Result: Push

Turn 3 resulted in the further whittling down of the out of combat ogre blocks by shooting with a completely dispelled magic phase.  I had maneuvered my Great Eagles and Warhawk Riders to get flank charges where I could.
Bottom of turn 3 - Scraplauncher kills half a unit of Glade guard.
Combat - Meat Grinder with Treekin/Treeman and Ogres.  Ogres lose combat again but stick with it.
Wild Riders get further reduced down to 5 and stay in combat.
Dryads obliterate the Slave Giant.

Turn 4 - I charge the Scraplauncher with a Great Eagle - I win that combat by 1 and it runs off the table.
I charge the leadbelchers with the other eagle further adding to the already huge meatgrinder in the middle of the table.  Wild Riders get reduced down to 1 member after all of turn 4's combat.
Treeman finally falls and Treekin lose combat and run.
Glade Guard unit fails to stop a charge from Maneaters and flee after losing combat.
I turned into a DRAGON! RAWR!!!

Turn 5 - Jeremy conceded game at the top of turn 5.  He had removed 857 points worth of models and I had removed almost 2000 or so points.

End of the game photo.  As you can see the Wood Elves were in a good position to open fire with everything they had on his remaining Ogres not to mention the captain insano fire dragon that was their Spellweaver.








Reflections:  Wood elves have become the premiere hit and run army with incredible heavy infantry to support their archers.  I don't expect to win a lot but I do except to make every single opponent struggle to get a victory.  The wood elves have now become very durable and at 3k points they are pretty damn brutal.  The only real punch I'm missing from this list at 2.5k is the Treeman who for the first time ever didn't suck!  Treekin are meatgrinders, meatgrinders to the point where I kinda want to take 2 units of 6...
Anyway - the Game was a lot of fun.  Mainly because I won =) but also because it was my first really big game in 8th edition using the crazy terrain rules and everything.
This is a very, very well thought out edition and the rules have seriously streamlined the gameplay.  With the exception of looking up new rules and meandering over what terrain did what - the game went very fast.
I'm now beginning to fade - I need lunch but I wanted to present a "showcase" of the army I played today and you can expect more pictures as I get more games in and paint the models.