A Woodelf's Army Manual

Okay, first a little paragraph for those of you aren't familiar with Games Workshop (yet). If you do, skip this paragraph. The game I'm talking of is called Warhammer Fantasy , a game developed by Games Workshop, Great Britain. Warhammer is a tabletop game where you lead your army against the army of an opponent. First, you set up a battlefieldon a table, e.g. trees, rocks, cliffs, swamps, whatever fits to where the battle is fought. Then, both players set up their figures, which are little miniatures, representing their troops. Then, the battle is started. Each player tries to achieve his goal by smartly maneuvering his/her troops, taking possession of points of high strategic importance. Here an example: Let's assume an Imperial Army tries to hold a village of high strategic importance, while a mighty army of Orcs tries to overrun them. Orc armies are usually twice as big as any other armies, thus the imperial player has to find a clever tactic to withstand the odds. The Orc player, on the other hand, has to find a way to take over the village without exposing his troops too much to the deadly fire of the imperial artillery. Maybe a fake attack would help, making the imperial player shoot his/her canons before the main attack starts.

Since I'm addicted to Woodelfs , this site is going to explain why they are also my favorite army and I'm going to give some tips for a successful victory. Dear Woodelf General, you've got one of the mightiest armies! Let's figure out how to use it the best!

Elfs generally are beautiful, especially Woodelfs (I guess I already mentioned that somewhere else...). The character of Woodelfs are pretty much worked out by Games Workshop. There's no doubt that an army of Woodelfs is very unique. Woodelf armies have a very defensive character, usually they just fight adversary intruders trying to sneak into their woods. (If they fight away from their woods at all, they usually ally with Bretonnians . In very rare circumstances they might even fight with the Empire or an army of dwarfs.) Thus, you will never, NEVER win a game where two crazy armies clash in a huge offensive massacre! Woodelfs are smart rather than tough, thus you need to fight smart if you want to win!

The best advice you can get can be found in Nigel Stilmann's and Rick Priestley's articles in White Dwarf . In my eyes Nigel is the greatest Warhammer player of all, so read carefully what he writes. His most important tip, the most important tip of all, is to think big. Forget tiny little units of ten soldiers, your enemy stomps them in one turn. Think in big dimensions, e.g. 50 archers, 25 knights, or whatever you want. A unit of 50 footsoldiers can hardly be impressed by a speargun or catapults... Invest your points in troops rather than special items and mighty heroes. Although your "invincible" hero may have several wounds and almighty weapons, he/she will have a hard time against a unit of 30 or more soldiers of the same value!

First, you can already decide a battle in setting up the landscape to your advantage. As Woodelfs are the only species allowed to move through woods without loosing speed, use this benefit the best you can. Always remember that you are allowed to add extra trees after the scenery has been set up! Your goal should always be to arrange some trees in the middle of the table. This gives you two important advantages:

1) Your army can march towards the enemy without being attacked by missile weapons.
2) Your army can hide between the trees and easily charge against troops coming too close.

An experienced player, especially if he uses artillery, will move the trees to the sides of the tables so his/her troops can shoot at you. In this case I usually leave my unit of archers in the center, keeping the opponent busy with their accurate shots. Any other troops, special teams or characters are moving over the flank in the protection of the trees on the side of the table. If it works, your archers may get some hits, but you built a claw overriding the enemy's flanks

Glade Guards
Usually, you start building an army by buying some footsoldiers armed with spears to form the core units. In the Woodelf army those troops are called gladeguards. Unless you give them a shield, they don't have a saveroll, i.e. in hand to hand combat they are wiped out soon. They are simply too weak, so don't buy any. The only benefit I can imagine would be to keep some gladeguards to save the flank of your archers. However, since the archers stay out of close combat whenever possible, I wouldn't buy too many either.

Archers
Archers are a key element of your army. Since they are allowed to shoot as far as 36', while archers of other armies only are allowed 30', you have a band of 6' where your army is safe. Once you have set up your archers you shouldn't move them, but rather using the advantage of this 6' zone for shooting at lightly armored targets. Your archers should be very numerous. I've got a group counting 29 archers + musician + standard bearer. Other Woodelf Generals like to split their archers into groups of ten to have a better maneuverability. However, I prefer the bigger formation, which is hardly ever broken by the enemy. Since Woodelfs are not too tough, this is their single chance to survive a hand-to-hand combat situation. Further I love to line them up in one single row. If your enemy has any flying monsters and doesn't immediately fly high, they'll face a pretty good "anti-aircraft" unit!

Glade Riders
Cavalry is the second key to success. Like for the archers, you've got the same rule here. Make them numerous! Right now I've got 15 of them, which seems to be the minimal size after some testgames. Although you can protect them up to a 3+ roll, I like to keep them unarmored with a roll of 5+. This allows them to keep their incredible speed, which makes them the fastest cavalry of all

Hawk-riders
The third key are hawk-riders. Those troops have the best maneuverability you can get. Further you can give them a shield and light armor (=3+) without loosing any speed! Here we go! Hawk-riders have the big advantage that you can place them on any spot during your second turn after you let them fly high in your first. Thus you can easily move to the decisive positions of the battle field. Further you can destroy the enemy's artillery in your second turn, which is very important for the rest of your troops. Again: Grab as many hawk-riders as possible

Wardancers Waywatchers
Once you have your special troops you can start to think about "special forces". Especially wardancers and waywatchers are nice to have. While the other troops take out the enemy's units, the wardancers' and waywatchers' preferred targets are your enemy's special characters. Wardancers are a useful tool to execute the enemy's general or wizards, since they are a serious threat with their wardances. However, they've got one big disadvantage: they have to walk there...

Waywatchers, on the other hand, can be hidden in the woods and you can set them up out of your start-zone (and there are some other neat special rules, too). Therefore they shoot out of their hidings while they are invisible to others! 8 warriors seems to be a good size for special troops. However, I haven't fully figured out that yet.

Treeman
If you want to see your opponent weeping, add one or more treemen to your army. The only effective weapon against a treeman I know is artillery. However, once the artillery is knocked out, your treeman starts partying! I still happily remember the battle against the Empire where Durthu stomped imperial archers without giving those guys a single chance (they aren't strong enough to do him any harm)!

Forest Dragon

Last, but not least, a very nice thing to have is the forrest dragon. If I said above "Don't spend precious points on characters!" this is the only exception. A general, mounted on a dragon, is probably the most powerful thing you can equip your army with. Give the general a magic shield and you are ready to extinguish huge units. However, save this option for the "Big Ones"!

Wizard
I think I don't have to lose any words on wizards, since they are standard in (almost) every army. The only thing I want to add is that it is pretty useful to have a wizard having access to the white magic decks, when you are fighting against dark hordes like the Undead or the Chaos.

I figured out my tactic by studying modern military science, especially the Gulf War. In our Post-Cold-Era the military starts to change. While the Cold War was dominated by weapons of mass destruction, we fight today with conventional forces of a HIGH SPEED AND ACCURACY! That means rather than to nuke Bagdad you use small accurate missiles to destroy important targets like communication centers, headquarters, small tank units, and so on.
As we know, the U.S forces didn't win the war with a nuclear strike, but by applying a system they learned from the conflict between Israel and its adjacent nations. Instead of nuking your enemy you cut off his supplies! It's so simple, but very effective! Your enemy's forces can not hold the frontier if they are cut off from supplies and reinforcement. The U.S. Airforce had the task to cut off those reinforcements, using the latest generation of smart missiles. Combined with the high maneuverability and accuracy of today's tanks, Saddam's troops at the frontier where doomed...

In the final battle, artillery and some tanks started a fake attack in the center. Those tanks withdrew to the sides and started an attack over the flank with the rest. Because this maneuver took only little time with today's technology, Saddam's forces were attacked at their flanks, while they still expected the main attack to be at the front!

So what does that mean to you as a Woodelf General? Well, it's your plan! As soon as the game starts, let the hawk-riders fly high. Setting up the archers in the center and the cavalry to their sides lets the enemy believe you will charge in the middle. However, you withdraw the cavalry and let them move along the sides of the table. Since the rules for "light cavalry" apply for your cavalry, there's no problem to do this maneuver very fast.

In your second turn, you let the hawk-riders drop from the sky and cut off the supplies and reinforcements, such as artillery or troops which have a supportive job concerning the troops at the front. You also let the cavalry charge against the enemy. If the plan properly works you should have pinned down your enemy's troops by now, not allowing them to move even a inch. Preventing your enemy from moving you have destroyed him. The best battle plan hasn't any worth if your troops are not able to fulfill their duties!
If you have any special troops, it's now a good time to move them into the battle. Wardancers can hunt the enemy's general without being bothered by other troops, and treemen are very effective in slaying the flank of a unit which is pinned down by your cavalry!

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