First, apologies for the lack of updates! It's been a pretty crazy month but hopefully we should be back on a semi-regular update schedule. We've actually taken a break from 40k the last couple of weekends and tried something new. Mike and I gave 8th Edition a spin to see how the latest rules changed the game we both loved setting up for....and hated playing!
To explain, I think I can speak for both of us in saying, 7th Edition Fantasy felt like clocking in at a new job. It was exciting getting there, meeting people and setting up....then very quickly you realized it's still a freaking job. Well, 8th is much different! Notably, your warriors actually kill people in hand to hand! Before, you would run up to the enemy, maybe kill one with your 30 guys in a block...then seemingly all your warriors would drop weapons, grab calculators and decide who had to run away. Pretty dull stuff.
So, without going into a detailed review of 8th (There are so many of those out there), suffice to say stuff dies to other stuff now. Your guys actually use the weapons and not the calculators this edition. I decided to give me a Wood Elves a go this past weekend after hearing all the doom and gloom and ran the following;
SpellS. Lvl 4--------Life (duh)
Wand for reroll dispell (duh)
Branch, Lvl 1 w/ TS + Cluster for +1 dispel dice
Glade Guard x 10 w/ musician
Glade Guard x 10 w/ musician
Dryads x 8
Dryads x 8
Glade Riders x 5
Treekin x 6
Treekin x 4
Treeman (woman in my case, Treeperson for the PC crowd)
Great Eagle
Mike and I are still learning the new rules but they performed very well.
My mini-review;
Lvl 4 SS w/ Lore of Life: Pretty much a must in this edition I think. Too bad, as I wanted to run two Tree(Persons!)....but Lvl 4 w/ Wand = Pretty tough dispel phase. Plus access to Lore of Life is a must with Treekin.
Treekin are freaking insane. They are hands down the best looking unit for a WE in 8th right now. They love Life spells and pretty much stomped anything I pointed them at (Chaos Warriors, Knights, etc.) I think either go 3X2 for rank or 4x1 for attacks (Of course, don't forget free reform if you win to add to that front rank...). They rocked out and I was still shorting them attacks!
TreeWoman (Treeperson for the PC crowd) rocks now but to be fair I wasn't playing against a heavy WM army, as he only had one HellCannon and it raged a few times. I would be nervous playing them against a Dwarf/Empire player though considering the non-guess nature of WM now....again Life Lore is a must if you take one.
Glade Guard: They still move, shoot and plink away units. Still a solid choice and two ranks makes them slightly less unwieldy.
Dryads: I put one group in a forest to make them stubborn, tied up a chaos knight unit for a round/two. The other group killed some Maurader Cav but then died later to Chaos Warriors. Unsure on them yet but Skirmish movement rules blow! Easily the worst change in 8th.
Eagles: Can still bait Frenzy units due to TLOS, can still threaten wizards....and no longer takes up a 'slot' in Rares..just 50 pts of your 25%....so I'm thinking 1-2 look pretty good.
Glade Guard: Unsure yet. Vanguard move put me in a good position to harass...but meh, dunno.
So...contrary to belief, I don't think the sky is falling for Wood Elf players. We'll still have some bad rock, paper scissor matchups (Daemons will still be nasty as will Empire/Dwarf gunlines)....but I think that's just 8th edition until they get a proper Armybook redux going.
