Wood Elf Tactica - Wild Riders of Kurnous

This will be the second post in my series on Wood Elf Tactics for Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition.  This topic will focus on ways that I use my Wild Riders and various methods of fielding, deploying, fighting and maneuvering them on the battlefield.  I will divide the post into three parts: Configuration, Deployment and Engagements and finally Synergy.

The Wild Riders of Kurnous, Outriders of the Lord of the Hunt.

The Wild Riders of Kurnous, the elite vanguard that serve as Orion's personal guard in the court of Athel Loren.  Part asrai, part fey, these mounted warriors channel the fury of the God of the Hunt as they charge into battle against the enemies of Athel Loren.  Whenever they leave the court of Orion, it is to engage in the Wild Hunt.  A mystical rampage that leads them to wreck havoc across the Old World in the pursuit of their quarry.


In game terms, the Wild Riders of Kurnous are a Special selection in the Wood Elf army.  They are elite fast cavalry that focus on close combat.  They are arguably the best Fast Cavalry in the game due to their high weapon skill, good strength, high movement and their special abilities.   

The Wild Riders have the following abilities that set them apart from most units.
1. Forest Spirits - this special rule means that they are Immune to Psychology, their attacks are all magical and they are granted a 5+ ward save (except against magical weapons/spells).
2. Elven Steeds - they are mounted on Elven Steeds that have a movement of 9
3. Fury of Kurnous - in close combat, if the Wild Riders did not charge they are granted an additional attack.
4. The Wild Hunt - they get a free musician and cause Fear the turn they charge
5. Talismanic Tattoos - grants them a 6+ ward save against all attacks and Magic Resistance of 1.

These special abilities give the Wild Riders an exceptional edge over most opponents. They will generally hit opponents on 3's and in the round they charge wound on 3's.  While they are Toughness 3, they are still fairly difficult to hit due to their high weapon skill, not to mention their initiative of 5 means they are generally going first in most combats.

The question is how do I actually field these models then?

Configuration


Wild Rider units may be fielded in one of three ways; Harassers, Rank Breakers, or Anvils.

Harassers - When fielded as Harassers, the Wild Riders are fielded in 1 rank composed of 5 to 6 Wild Riders.  They should have a Standard Bearer with either the +1 Movement Banner or the Terror Banner.  This set up allows them to function as War Machine hunters, outflankers and character hunters.  Since they are Fast Cavalry, they are able to move around the enemy's flank and get behind easily.  If they have a Terror Banner then they can rear charge units and hopefully make them flee into your larger anvil units.  They also are durable enough to take on your opponents ranged units and chew through them while the rest of your army focus fires on another group.  The typical point cost of this unit is around 148 points without a magic banner.

Rank Breakers - When fielded as Rank Breakers, the Wild Riders will have 2 ranks of 5 to 6 models each with a full command.  The unit will be roughly 10-12 models big and have the support of a banner (if points allow) such as the Armor Piercing banner or the Terror banner.  Rank Breakers serve to remove rank bonus's from your opponent's block of troops.  You will hopefully have a larger unit such as Eternal Guard of Treekin serving as your anvil so that your Wild Riders can slam into the flank and begin to crush the unit.  The rank breakers sole purpose is to aid your bigger, tougher units like Treekin to ensure you are able to win. The typical point cost of this unit is around 296 to 348 points without a magic banner.

Anvils - When fielded as an Anvil, the Wild Riders will have 3-4 ranks of 5+ models each.  The unit will contain a full command, magical banner and a character.  Another popular option is to field the unit 3 ranks deep and 10 models wide.  This type of configuration will include at least 1 character, generally two.  The characters will usually be a Lore of Life Spellweaver on a Unicorn holding the Rhymer's Harp (5+ ward save that isn't negated by magic attacks for the entire unit) and a Wood Elf Noble Wild Rider Kindred with a Crown of Command making the unit LD9 Stubborn.   The other configuration is to have a Wild Rider Highborn with the crown of command and the Dawnspear and field him with 28 Wild Riders.  Wild Riders in this capacity need to be properly outfitted and supported otherwise they will fail.

Deployment and Engagements


Fielding your Wild Riders well is incredibly important.  If their role is to be harassers then you will definitely want to take advantage of the Vanguard special rule.  That 12" free move at the beginning of the game means if you march turn 1, you will effectively had moved 30 inches.  If you are using them as an anvil, you will want to position them in front of your opponents smallest rank and file unit. You want to be able to bust through their line and slam into their "killy" unit from the side or behind.  Remember, you're a wood elf and have the ability to pick your own battles due to high movement and forest walker.  If you are using the Wild Riders as Rank Breakers make sure you field them near to your anvil unit and hopefully avoid getting them entangled by a smaller unit before their responsibility is fulfilled.

Synergy


Ah, this is the part of the topic I have been looking forward to.  I learned long ago that you really can not depend on a single unit to beat another unit one on one.  I guess it comes from getting my teeth kicked in with my Eldar constantly by attempting to take on chaos space marines or tanks with Guardians by themselves.  It wasn't until I learned to utilize synergy that my tactics came together and I started to win...a lot.

Wood elf Synergy - The Wild Riders operate best when you have a big anvil unit for them to flank with.  Treekin come to mind as the best fit for their charging partners.  You never want to have a unit of Rank breakers go into battle unprepared.  The unit should be buffed or augmented.
1. Unit Synergy - flanking with Treekin or having other units like Eternal Guard of Giant Eagles flanking their model helps out Wild Riders a lot.
2. Magic Synergy - Lore of Life can significantly increase the longevity of your Wild Riders. Turning them into Toughness 7 models gives them serious staying power. Lore of Beasts can make Wild Riders even better at killing in close combat using Wyssan's Wildform.  Also, spells like the Hidden Path from the Lore of Athel Loren allow Wild Riders to escape being shot at and give them serious maneuverability on the field.
3. Character Synergy - The type of character you field can completely change how your Wild Riders function for that battle.  If you take a Spellweaver in the unit then you will more than likely be tougher and harder to kill, yet if you take a Highborn or a Noble then you become even more melee focused and as a result better in close combat.

In closing, the Wild Rider unit is one of my favorites in the Wood Elf army book.  They provide a tough unit (by Wood elf standards) that can go out and wreck absolute havoc on your enemy.  Wild Riders need to win the combat they are in, prolonged combat doesn't work so well for the Wood Elf army.  You should decide what role you are looking to fill in your army before deciding to field Wild Riders however.  Many folks will just throw them into their list because they "had the models" or they wanted to have cavalry.  That's fine but if Wild Riders aren't given  a purpose or support they fold because keep in mind, they are only toughness 3 models.  Anyway, I hope you are able to get something out of this article. I enjoyed writing it.

Army Showcase - The Great Hunt, War Host of Athel Loren - Wood Elf Army Part 2

I've decided to do another post showcasing the Wood Elf army since the original showcase pictures were washed out by the camera flash.  I'm experimenting with different light types and so for this showcase I decided to take advantage of a sunny day and some nice shade to get "natural" looking pictures.  Hopefully these look better than the original batch and I'll be doing similar posts for my Eldar, Black Templars and Beastmen in the future.  So without further ado, I present Army Showcase Wood Elves - part deux!

You'll notice there are two different scene set ups.  I was messing around with using some of my terrain to make the pictures look a bit more staged.  I think I like the pictures without scenery better.  They seem cleaner? I guess.  I'm still working on setting up my own macrophotography studio in my house so that I can just point and click, I found some rather helpful tutorials on the From the Warp blognetwork (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/)  as well as some articles on Dakka Dakka (http://www.dakkadakka.com).   Either way hope you enjoy them.

I love it when a plan comes together....

A few weeks ago I made the silly mistake of painting an expensive model while ...not fully sober.  The result was not bad and actually above tabletop standard however I was annoyed at the fact that I wasn't sure how much paint would be stripped after I dunk the model in Simple Green.  So.. I ordered another Ultraforge Dragon and this one looks sooo much better.  I figured better to have two of them than one ruined in case the dunking doesn't work.

Why do you ask?  I planned ahead this time!

I first primed the model's pieces black instead of white.  White is a great primer color but I think I enjoy using black more because it takes a lot more effort to make colors pop on a model. And I feel the extra work shows in the end.  Secondly, due to the fact that this absolutely wonderful model is fully detailed everywhere, painting it when assembled is a huge pain.  So I painted it unassembled then glued it together afterwards.

I absolutely love this model.  The detail is incredible and it looks like the type of dragon I envision when I think of a dragon.  When I saw this model I immediately decided that some how, some way my Wood Elves were going to have a damn dragon in the army.  It didn't matter if it was to be the mount for my general, a count's as Treeman or a big unit filler for my Wild Riders.  Fortunately when 8th came out the Lore of Beasts provided me with an answer.  Transformation of Kadon baby!

Here are some more images of my Wood Elf Spellweaver turned into a dragon!

Here is the dragon unassembled and painted.  The painting process only took about 4 2-3 hour sessions involving me getting up and watching TV then returning to paint again.  The process was actually very simple.
1. Wash model in soap and water to get any weird resin coating off.
2.  Prime the model black and make sure you get full coverage since resin models are that white/greyish color that will show if not primed.
3.  I then LIGHTLY  went over the entire model with a tooth brush to smooth out any hanger ons and to also polish the model to make the black shine.
4. I actually painted each piece separately instead of batch painting, the reason why I chose this method was to save on paint since I was getting just the correct amount out for each section.  Also, the wet palette method for painting is amazing but after a long time the paint gets very thin.  So I had to pace myself for each part.
5. I basecoated with dark angel green - few thin layers to ensure I wasn't overloading any cracks or detail.
6. Drybrushed goblin green over the dark angels green.
7. I painted any underbelly or under-limb? sections desert yellow.
8. Drybrush/highlighted desert yellow sections w/ Bleached bone
9. Painted armor sections with Dwarf Bronze.
10. Painted straps with boltgun metal.
11. Basecoated teeth and claws with graveyard earth.
12. Painted teeth and claws with bleached bone.
13. Painted tongue and roof of mouth with Foundation paint mecharite red.
14. Washed mount with Baal Red.
15. Highlighted Teeth with Skull White.
16. Painted eyes with Icey Blue
17. Washed underbelly/arms,horns,claws, teeth, straps and all armored sections with Gryphonne Sepia.
18. Painted base with Codex Grey
19. Washed base with Badab Black.
20. Glued model together.

I found using the wet palette to be the best method for painting so far. You can dole out a small amount of paint and you don't have to thin it. Just let it sit for a few moments and roll your brush in it. The paint will thin itself and provide you with excellent coverage without clumping up.  I also purchased a daylight bulb for the lamp I use at my workstation. It really, really made a difference however it isn't great for taking pictures unfortunately. The image below (1st assembled shot) is what happens when you use a daylight bulb as your lighting. I am going to have to break down and use one of the From the Warp tutorials for photographing miniatures and build a station for it.  I can't always count on a sunny and dry day to take pictures.
You will also see that there are some gaps between parts, that is intentional. I did not want to fully gap-fill in case I decide I want to magnetize the arms/neck/tail later and having a single adhesion point vs. an entire surface is preferable for when I attempt to disassemble the glued pieces.

The lessons learned from this exercise:
1. Don't paint after drinking Scotch.  It may seem like a great idea at the time but ...yeah no..
2. When in doubt, prime black. Especially if you are worried about white spots not getting painted over later.
3.  Larger models, don't be afraid to paint then assemble.  Proxy the damn thing until it's painted/assembled.
4.  I'm pretty awesome in every regard.  It's not really a lesson learned, I just like to remind people that I am awesome.

Wood Elf Tactica - Waywatchers

This is the beginning of a series of articles I will be posting on how I use the units in armies I create and play.  This is not however the best way to use the units since my playstyle will invariably be different from yours.  The purpose of these articles is to grant the reader a different perspective on how units are used and hopefully expand that person's playstyle.  Example - I always thought Glade Guard Scouts were absolutely useless since they lost their str4 longbows and were overcosted.  I did not realize however that they make a perfect unit for housing a character that needs to be near the enemy.  It's examples like that which pushed me to write out these articles to hopefully broaden other's playstyles and with other's comments expand my own.  So, without further ado, I present the Waywatcher Tactica.

The Forest Stalkers of Athel Loren, the Waywatchers

The silent sentinels of Athel Loren, the Waywatchers.  My personal favorite unit of the entire Wood Elf Army and the very reason I chose to get into Fantasy in the first place.  Many people underestimate the sheer brutality that Waywatchers bring to the table.  They see them as overpriced archers that don't really do anything but score a lucky hit every so often and generally just serve as a speed bump.  This perception makes me very sad.  The Waywatcher selection is perhaps the best thing in the Wood Elf army book.  They encompass the very spirit and  feel of the Wood Elves.  I will explain the reasoning behind this shortly.

Advantages:
1. Skirmishers - Waywatchers are skirmishers which mean that they are -1 to hit by default by missile weapons and are stubborn in forests.  They can also march and fire.
2. Wood Elf Archery - being skirmishers the waywatchers now have a 25" range on their Lethal Shot ability because you can march 10" and have 15" for short range WITHOUT penalty.  Meaning you generally need 2's to hit.
3.  Lethal Shot - Killing Blow at ranged is absolutely brutal. Every army has a form of heavy infantry or heavy cavalry in some fashion.  Chaos has Knights, Warriors, and Chosen.  Lizardmen have Saurus Warriors and Cavalry.  High Elves and Dark Elves have heavy cavalry and the entire Brettonian army is practically Heavy Cav.  Almost every army has the ability to get a 3-4+ save in some fashion with the exception of the Wood Elves.  Lethal Shot nullifies this advantage and brings the lack of heavy army into balance.
4. Forest Stalkers - Waywatchers are sneaky and are granted an additional -1 to being hit at ranged.  This means they have a constant -2 to being hit and if they are in good cover that turns into a -4 to hit, -5 if they are at long range of the enemy (which normally means 12" which means they are still in short range for Lethal Shot).
5. Two hand weapons - in close combat they are hitting at WS4, Init 5 and have 2 attacks.  Not to shabby.
6. Scouts - they are able to be deployed 12" as scouts - huge advantage.  This allows you to almost always put yourself in range of your opponents heavy cavalry or prize unit.

Disadvantages:
1. 24 points each - rather expensive for a model with a T3 and no armor at all.
2. Vulnerable to magic missiles and warmachines - magic missiles can annihilate a unit of Waywatchers
3. No armor - the Waywatchers lack armor and as a result generally fold in prolonged combats.
4.  Same selection slots as Treeman and Great Eagles.
5. Difficult to use properly, this unit is an absolute finesse unit and it has to be used correctly otherwise it will fold quickly.
6.  Small units not feasible. In order to be effective the minimum number of Waywatchers to be fielded in a unit needs to be at least 8.  You need those dice rolls to pop those sixes.

How to use the Waywatchers:

I use my Waywatcher unit to be my alpha strike in games.  They are my skeleton key for dealing with my opponents heavily armored units that my Glade Guard and other units would have trouble with.  I will position them on the board where I can move and be within 15" of that unit turn 1 and unleash a barrage of lethal shot fire into that unit.  This allows me to accomplish 3 things.
1. Hopefully I can kill or cause a panic test in the unit I attack and that will remove them from at least 1 round of effectiveness.
2. Cause panic tests for the army - even if I can cause 1 unit to flee that means that the Waywatchers did their job - this grants me an additional turn to deal with the fleeing units and allows me to focus fire on remaining ones.
3. Shift of focus from other units in my army - the sudden hammering of a prized unit will normally cause your opponent to shift focus to your Waywatchers and away from the other units in your army granting you the ability to pick your own battles.

The Waywatcher's also can provide you with some march blocking which sadly in 8th isn't that effective but when you can get it off it is worth it.  After I have managed to deal with the heaviest armor unit or the prized unit in my opponents army, I will then use the Waywatchers to hunt lone characters, wizards or warmachines. Remember, if Lethal shot goes off on a character, the character dies regardless of how many wounds it has.

You also have to be intelligent about where you move your Waywatchers, remember they generally will fold in close combat if attacked by a large unit.  You always want to move them out of the charge line of sight arc of your opponent and you have to be very, very careful about what units you will Stand and Shoot against.
example:
30 infantry - flee
6 chaos knights - stand and shoot
10 heavy cavalry - generally stand and shoot
hellcannon - you better already have your flee dice ready to throw.

Methods of configuring Waywatchers:
1. Without a character - If I am playing a lower point game, I will field my Waywatchers in a unit of 10 and have them perform the way they always do.  The lack of a character will also allow me to use them a bit more recklessly since I don't have to worry about protecting anything.

2. With a noble - When fielding the Waywatchers with a Noble, I will make the Noble a Waywatcher or Scout kindred and give them the Hail of Doom Arrow.  This configuration can absolutely obliterate a unit on turn 1.

3. With a Highborn - This is my standard configuration.  I field 10 Waywatchers with my General.  The General will be a Waywatcher or Scout Kindred and be equipped with the Bow of Athel Loren and Arcane Bodkins.  The unit suddenly becomes a huge worry for your opponent.  You have 5 shots that can remove 5 heavily armored models on 5's usually and an additional 10 shots that could do the same thing.  The other advantage of having a LD10 model in the unit is that you can march your big units forward and hopefully stay in the 12" bubble of his leadership.  I will also use this unit as the tip of the spear when attacking my opponent.  I send the Waywatchers in to soften up the most troublesome unit and allow the other units to strike at them.

In closing, I use the Waywatchers as a primary strike force in my army.  They function as a distraction, disruption and finally a frustration to my opponent while earning their point value usually 2-3x over in a game.
You have to keep in mind however, that is how my playstyle works.  The Wood elf army is a fast and mobile army that strikes at their opponent at range to soften them up before charging in with their monstrous forest spirits.  They have on several occasions killed an entire unit of heavy cavalry, the general and another important unit in my games.  They are very effective if used properly.

From the Roleplaying standpoint - the Waywatchers are your quintessential Wood Elf unit.  They are Rangers, forest stalkers, hidden assassins that terrorize enemies of the forest.  They are your silent killers and the very reason Athel Loren does not have many invaders...

Doombull and Minotaur WIP! Beastmen have begun!

The Beastman army has begun.  I have to say I'm not especially pleased with the way the models are suppossed to rank up.  I don't know if it's because I have this overwhelming desire to "pose" my miniatures or if they are supposed to look like they are crammed shoulder to shoulder with each other on the battlefield.  Either way, I got the minotaurs and the Doombull general assembled and that will spark the beginning of the army's assembling.

I've also been fooling around with getting better pictures with my camera for my single and group model shots.  The minotaur and doombull images obviously won't show this since I did these on my couch while watching TV but the other images should hopefully be a step up from my previous shots of the Wood Elf army.  We'll see, anyway here we go enjoy your pictures!

This is the Doombull model I recently assembled last Wednesday.  I really, really dislike models that you have to pin and secure 2 points at the same time.  i.e.  Both wrists lack hands and the axe has to match up which has the hands.  The Doombull was actually easy to assemble other than that.  I also ran into the issue of the Doombull not fitting base to base with the other minotaurs.  Apparently his axe which is only slightly smaller than a Buick just so happens to loom over another model's area.  Go figure!  So with a bit of creative basing, i.e. adding almost an inch of height to the model, his axe now does not interfere with the adjacent model.

Here we have the unit together.  The minotaur models are both awesome and horrible at the same time.  The kit is great, various options for customizing them but the insane muscles and the weird feet do not do the models any favors.  As you can see two of the group had to have some height added to them in order to fit base to base with the others.  I don't get it, perhaps I just suck but I'll be damned if I couldn't get them to fit without touching.  Oh yes, if you will note that the floor in the background is Brazilian Cherrywood, thanks for noticing!

Here you will see two new pictures of some of the character models in my wood elf army. I've messed around a little bit with using the white background and natural lighting.  I am hoping that I can rephotograph the entire army and not have all my colors get washed out like previous images have shown.  I read a rather helpful tutorial on the FTW webring about photographing your miniatures without needing a studio and for the most part it was good!  Anyway, hopefully these two images look better than their previous ones do.

Here is a partial group shot where I realized that I was going to need a bigger background to shoot!  Hopefully this will look better than the previous group shot in a previous post.

Anyway, you can expect to see more images and posts in the next few weeks as I am able to do more building in my free time.  This next army will not have anywhere near the same level of conversion work my Wood Elf army did but there will be some conversions done - the Cygor comes to mind.  Hope you enjoyed this mini-update.