AOS28 | Tree Revenants

Here's my two completed  Tree Revenants for my AOS28 Sylvaneth warband! As the greens and blues of my chosen Sylvaneth paintscheme are so bright, I used only greys on their clothes to accentuate / not overpower these colours.

The idea behind these guys is that they've been disguised as humans, infiltrated into a city and gathering intel on enemies of the Dreadwood Sylvaneth. To fit into clothes they need to shave down their bodies, a form of flagellation that causes unintentional growth, as seen on their arms.

This Revenant is more of a traditional Tree Revenant, operating in a scouting role to secure information.

Whereas this Revenant has assumed a role as a wizard's apprentice, using his innate magical properties as a Sylvaneth to gain a more prominent position.

AOS28 | Tree Revenants WIP + Development Thoughts

Lack of a couple of paints has dampened any progress for a while, here's a WIP shot of two Tree Revenants built for the warband.

The idea behind these guys is that they've been disguised as humans, infiltrated into a city and gathering intel on enemies of the Dreadwood Sylvaneth. To fit into clothes they need to shave down their bodies, a form of flagellation that causes unintentional growth, as seen on their arms!

AOS28 | The Wych / Wider Warband Thoughts

Tonight was a particularly quiet night for the City Watch. Since Chaos had been ridden from the area by the valiant efforts of The Order, not much had occured of note. This was partly the reason why Alan didn't pay much heed to the small group entering the city from the marsh. The group appeared similar to every other group that had entered over the past few hours, clad in an array of indistinct cloaks and other clothes of the region.

Alan forgot the other reason he didn't pay much heed...

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The Wych entered the city with her seedlings intent on planting herself into the upper echelons of the city in order to ascertain information pertinent to the defence of the Grove. Her countenence was that of a light wind on the leaves, which suited her well for the trials ahead. 

Her followers were varied but each had their uses. It would take many cycles to reap their full potential.

Here's my first character for my fledgling AOS28 warband, a Branchwych!

Parts used are;

Base model - Wanderers Spellweaver
Head - Dryad
Weapon + arm - Tree Revenant
Left hand - Spit Revenant
Shoulder Pad - Kurnoth Hunter
Spites - various sources.

Painting wise I stuck to a limited colour palette, greens and browns in the main aside from the leaves and eyes, which I used to make the model pop, and a little more eye catching! Taking inspiration from one of the Pilgrym warbands, I added texture to the skin through use of the Typhus Corrosion technical paint.
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Moving onto the next few models in the warband, I'll be kitbashing them from scratch, rather than using an existing model as the basis like this first one.

Current influences on the warband included the Genestealer Cult, Aenur the Sword of Twilight and the Church of the Red Athenæum from the Wier Brothers! Here's a WIP shot of the next guy on the paint table!

Dreadwood | Conflicted Brethren

Since Drycha's rebirth, that malevolent one has held sway over the Dreadwood, herself and the Spite Revenants controlling what this once sombre grove will do. They know only war, and war is needed.

However, there is another view within the wood, those older beings remember.

Remember a time before this great war, a time when we lived in peace, at one with the land.

A time before we took up arms against the foul one, and began to cast him out of our land. Drycha fights for vengeance, we fight for peace...

Dreadwood | Twisted Brothers

Following their initial meeting, Myrddin advised Lord Constantine and the rest of  The Order to seek refuge with the Forest Spirits. Hoping to learn more of The Fulcrum from their masters, deducting that these beings may know something of The Fulcrum due to being able to communicate with them whilst on it!

Eager to learn more of these creatures, Myrddin invited the leader of the group aboard The Fulcrum.

"Tell me more of your people," Myrddin began.

"We are much changed since the return of Chaos, many of my brothers are broken, something has snapped in them. They are spiteful, likely to attack their allies as much as their enemies if it means the protection of our race."

"Hopefully they see the importance of this Fulcrum to our plans, otherwise we may be leading your people into great danger."

Sylvaneth | Building a Dreadwood Wargrove List

Continuing my thought process from the last couple of posts, here's my thoughts on the kind of list I intend to work towards for the Sylvaneth!

The wargrove that jumped out to me immediately was the Dreadwood Wargrove. I love the Drycha + Spite Rev models plus the wargrove grants some powerful movement-based abilities. To fulfill this wargrove I need 4 Spite Revenant units + anything else in the Battletome.

I also intend to include the Free Spirits Battalion to gain more movement abilities! For this one I need 1 Spirit of Durthu and 3 units of Kurnoth Hunters.

So, here the minimum I need to fulfill these two battalions points-wise;

Dreadwood Wargrove 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100

Free Spirits 40
Spirit of Durthu 400
3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
3 Kurnoth Hunters 180

Battleline
10 Dryads 120
10 Dryads 120
10 Dryads 120

Total: 1840

So sadly at 2000 points there isn't enough points left to get Drycha, but could add a Branchwych for a mini-Drycha Bomb (Unleash Spites + Silverwood Circlet), taking the total to 1940.

If I were to built it up to 2500, I'd include Drycha and a Treelord Ancient. Drycha to increase the alpha strike potential, and the Ancient to buff the non-teleporting units, which woud be one unit of Kurnoths (bows), the Spite Revs and the Dryads.

How would I build a 2000 point list using the ideas from these two battalions?

I definitely need the Dreadwood Wargrove's abilities to make this work, with the Free Spirits being a nice secondary bonus. Here's the bare bones for a 2000 pointer;

Dreadwood Wargrove 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100

Drycha 280

Battleline
10 Dryads 120
10 Dryads 120
5 Tree Revenants 100

Total: 1120

That gives me 880 points to play with. To make the strategy work, I definitely need some big hitters to help Drycha with the alpha strike, but also something for redundancy in case the alpha strike somehow bounces / a null deploy or similar alpha strike list appears.

Option 1 - Defence

3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
1 Treelord Ancient 300

Total: 1960

I would send 2-3 units of Kurnoths in with Drycha, keeping the TLA back with the infantry. Same concept as the first list, minus the hitting power of the Spirit of Durthu.

Option 2 - Offence

3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
Spirit of Durthu 400
+10 Dryads 120

Total: 2000

This would be more of a total offence list, with 10 Dryads added to one of the units. Spirit could take wounds off of Drycha using his Solomn Guardian ability if needed.

Option 3 - Bargain Bin Durthu

3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
Treelord 260
Branchwych
+10 Dryads 120

Total: 1960

I'm liking this one as not only do you get a fair old bit of offensive capabilities in the alpha strike, you also bulk out the rest of the army a fair bit.

I like the idea of having 2 equal parts of the army, one right in the opponents face, one hanging back in your own deployment zone. I'm leaning toward Option 2 or 3 at the moment, but below is a left-field option...

Option 4 

Drycha 280
1 Treelord Ancient 300

Dreadwood Wargrove 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100
5 Spite Revenants 100

3 Kurnoth Hunters 180
3 Kurnoth Hunters 180

Battleline
5 Tree Revenants 100
5 Tree Revenants 100
5 Tree Revenants 100

1 Treelord 260

Total 2000

This one forgoes the Dryads to get enough points for 2 treemen! Only the Spite Revenants have no movement abilities to speak of in this one. Not much staying power aside from the Treemen.

This is all theory-hammering at the moment, but hopefully in the coming months I'll be able to test out a couple of these, starting with a purchase of the Darkroot Wargrove box...

Dreadwood | A Strange Meeting

Myrddin sensed a new presence nearby. Continuing on their pilgrimage, assembled regiments of The Order had finally reached a break from the endless fields. Setting up camp in a dense forest, Myrddin, atop the Iron Fulcrum, began to hear some impossibly distant whispers. After deducing the whispers were benevolent, Myrrdin settled in for the night.

Waking to the sound of voices raised in anger, Myrddin rushed out of his quarters on the Fulcrum. In the centre of the camp, surrounded by Men-at-Arms, were five of the strangest things Myrddin had seen in his long life. The creatures reminded him of his Aelven aquiantances back in the College of Magic in Azyrheim, but with some obvious differences...

Remembering rumours of Forest Demons in the deep woods of Azyr, Myrrdin shouted; "What is your purpose here? knowing instinctively that he would be able to understand them.

"We have come to parley," replied the clear leader of the band.

Stepping down from the Fulcrum, Myrddin continued his questioning; "parley for who?"

Myrddin was shocked by the creatures response, as it spoke as though it were a light wind rustling through a leafy tree.

"How can you understand these creatures?" Asked Constantine.

"I could only understand as I stood on the Fulcrum!" replied Myrddin preposterously.

Returning to the pulpit of the Fulcrum, Myrddin repeated his question; "Parley with who?"

"Drycha Hamadreth."

Analysing Sylvaneth's Movement Shenanigans Part 2 - Arcane Treasures + Warscroll Battalions

For part 1 of this series, covering Battle Traits, Command Traits and Spells, click here!

Arcane Treasures

Acorn of Ages

Once per game, in your hero phase, set up a new SylvanethWyldwood (1-3 bases) anywhere within 5"of the bearer. The wood cannot be set up within 1"of any other models or terrain features.Your second way to generate an extra wyldwood and it doesn't require a successful casting roll like Verdant Blessing! But it will be your only magic item on the character who has it. Has the same uses as Verdant Blessing aside from this can also be used to block the enemy, making them move run / charge through the woods to get to your models, causing them considerable damage (particularly useful against multi-wound models! As on a roll of 1 they are gone no matter how many wounds they have) or to force enemy spellcasters to choose not to cast or to cast but take damage from the Roused by Magic Wyldwood ability! You can also use your own spellcasters to trigger this ability, good combinations including a treeman ancient or Branchwych who is in the wood, already benefitting from all the abilities / effects granted by being in the wood + spell damage from casting, + damage from the Roused ability.



















Moonstone of the Hidden Ways


Bearer knows the Treesong spell in addition to any others they have. Nothing else to say really, I guess the only reason you'd take this over the Acorn of the Ages is if you planned to cast Treesong more than once. Unless your opponent can destroy scenery, you'd soon have nowhere left to place your Wyldwoods.


The requirements for the Free Spirits battalion is 1 Spirit of Durthu and 3 units of any size Kurnoth Hunters. It grants a free move (no running) in the Hero phase, towards a chosen unit or terrain feature.

Warscroll Battalions

Free Spirits
This can be a free 5 inch move in the Hero phase, or you can use an ability that is meant to be used in the movement phase such as Navigate Realmroots! Used after a spellcaster uses the Acorn of Ages or (better range) Verdant Blessing, it can be quite easy to get a first turn charge off with the whole Battalion!

Forest Folk
This battalion consists of 3 units of Dryads and  Branchwraith, not the greatest requirements ever at a minimum of 520 points, but I think it has some potential. The ability granted for it is; once per game in your Hero phase, remove all models from the battalion, and place them anywhere in your territory, or within 3 of a Wyldwood.

I see this being useful in a couple of ways. Late game objective grabbing, if the objective is in your territory or you've got a Wyldwood in a favourable position. Also, dropping out of combat after having baited your opponents units, leaving them in a bad position or in a Wyldwood.
I see this being useful in a couple of ways. Late game objective grabbing, if the objective is in your territory or you've got a Wyldwood in a favourable position. Also, dropping out of combat after having baited your opponents units, leaving them in a bad position or in a Wyldwood.
Oakenbrow Wargrove / Heartwood Wargrove
Both of these wargroves have a similar ability for bringing back dead unit(s). Starting off with the more basic one, one unit of Dryads or Tree Revenants in an Oakenbrow Wargrove may come back within 6 inch of the board edge or in a Wyldwood, further than 9 from the enemy.

The Heartwood version is every hero phase on a roll of a 6 (5's if you have Kurnoths on the board) a unit of Dryads, Tree or Spite Revenants may come back in the same way as the Oakenbrow one. Pretty cool, if there's a way to further buff the dice roll for the Heartwood one that would be amazing! Not sure if there is though.
The Heartwood version is every hero phase on a roll of a 6 (5's if you have Kurnoths on the board) a unit of Dryads, Tree or Spite Revenants may come back in the same way as the Oakenbrow one. Pretty cool, if there's a way to further buff the dice roll for the Heartwood one that would be amazing! Not sure if there is though.
Dreadwood Wargrove
This is the battalion with the most movement potential, and some might say a hefty tax in the required 4 units of Spite Revenants. Within this Wargrove you can also include a set number of Forest Folk or Free Spirit Battalions and as these are part of the wargrove, also benefit from the Wargrove abilities.

The Subterfuge ability grants you 1-3 stratagems for the army, at the start of the first battleround, roll a dice, on a 1-2 pick one, 3-4 pick two and 5-6 pick all three!

Ambush - Any Dreadwood unit can be deployed anywhere on the battlefield, more than 6 from the enemy. 

This unit can be any unit from with the Sylvaneth keyword, which includes Alarielle, Drycha, Spirits of Durthu, Kurnoth Hunters etc. With you placing the army in one drop, this pretty much guarantees a first turn charge against a deployed enemy unit. Granted, it may be a suicide mission, but if you can kill a key hero or pre-buffed deathstar this can be very powerful...

Hidden Attackers - enemy shooting limited to 12 inch for the first battle round.

Fairly self explanatory, I think I'd prefer to take either of the other two in most cases, but there's a definite use for this against certain armies.

Sneak Attack - Up to 3 units can immediately move as if it were the movement phase (no running) 

This could be a useful ability if used "stock" getting an extra move with 3 units already deployed on the board. The real usefulness of it is when used in conjunction with either the above Ambush rule, to get that one unit up to 3 inch away from the enemy, guaranteeing a charge unless a double 1 is rolled! Or even better, in conjunction with the Free Spirits battalion. Moving as though it were the movement phase includes the use of the Forest Spirits allegiance ability, deploying in the (deemed) movement phase from a wyldwood. 
The Subterfuge ability grants you 1-3 stratagems for the army, at the start of the first battleround, roll a dice, on a 1-2 pick one, 3-4 pick two and 5-6 pick all three!
Ambush - Any Dreadwood unit can be deployed anywhere on the battlefield, more than 6 from the enemy. 

This unit can be any unit from with the Sylvaneth keyword, which includes Alarielle, Drycha, Spirits of Durthu, Kurnoth Hunters etc. With you placing the army in one drop, this pretty much guarantees a first turn charge against a deployed enemy unit. Granted, it may be a suicide mission, but if you can kill a key hero or pre-buffed deathstar this can be very powerful...
Hidden Attackers - enemy shooting limited to 12 inch for the first battle round.
Fairly self explanatory, I think I'd prefer to take either of the other two in most cases, but there's a definite use for this against certain armies.

Sneak Attack - Up to 3 units can immediately move as if it were the movement phase (no running) 
This could be a useful ability if used "stock" getting an extra move with 3 units already deployed on the board. The real usefulness of it is when used in conjunction with either the above Ambush rule, to get that one unit up to 3 inch away from the enemy, guaranteeing a charge unless a double 1 is rolled! Or even better, in conjunction with the Free Spirits battalion. Moving as though it were the movement phase includes the use of the Forest Spirits allegiance ability, deploying in the (deemed) movement phase from a wyldwood. 

Using this rule, the Spirit of Durthu + Kurnoths are deployed via the wyldwood (placed as close to the enemy as possible) before turn 1, due to the whole army being in the wargrove battalion, you're deploying in one drop pretty much getting the first turn, then the Free Spirits, along with the single Ambushed unit, can then move and charge - very damaging.

Analysing Sylvaneth's Movement Shenanigans Part 1 - Battle + Command Traits and Spells

I'm currently getting excited thinking about possible combos in the army, specifically the movement options available! In casual play I think this could potentially spoil the game for your opponent, particularly the dreadwood grove / forest spirits battalion combo. So I intend to eventually write a couple of different lists from both a casual and competitive standpoint. But first some analysis, lets start at the beginning...

Battletraits

Wyldwood Groves

This battle trait allows you to place a Wyldwood (consisting of 1-3 bases) anywhere on the board more than one inch from any other terrain. This is a guaranteed wood, with nothing your opponent can do about it (as far as I'm aware), although they can potentially set up / move their army close to the wood to deny any teleporting Sylvaneth. In casual play I'd limit the number of bases used here to 1 or 2 but in competitive do what you want!

When placing the wood you need to think about a number of things. A good rule of thumb is to place it as close to any objective as possible, enabling you to teleport some units straight onto the ob and begin stacking points ASAP. You have to be aware of your opponent's ability to deny you the teleport option by moving close to the wood. So you may want to place the wood somewhere near the middle of the table, rather than anywhere closer to the enemy, to try to ensure you can get some units teleporting! This of course depends your objectives (both battleplan obs and general army obs)

 Forest Spirits (Battle Trait)

This allows you to keep any unit or battalion (whole army!) off the board, and bring it on within 3 inch of a wyldwood in any of your movement phases. Great answer to alpha strike stuff, but you have to deploy next to a wyldwood, which could be somewhat limiting depending on where you deployed the initial wyldwood, or have the ability to generate more throughout the game.

Placing the wood close to the enemy allows you to get a potential first turn charge off, but used stock, the unit will need to make a 9 inch charge to get in! However there are a number of ways throughout the army to mitigate this. 

 Navigate Realmroots

This battle trait allows any Sylvaneth unit within 3 of the wood at the start of their movement phase to travel between 2 wyldwoods on the board. So this only comes into play if you build the ability to generate more into your army. Kind of situational due to the requirement to be within three at the start of the movement phase, I see this being used mainly for Dryads or treemen (who should be in the woods anyway due to -1 to hit  +1 save amongst other things) to teleport onto or near objectives that need claiming. 

If you get a 6 on the dice roll, you can move normally after teleporting , 2-5 you can't move, on a 1 nothing happens and you can do nothing else for the turn! So a 1 is potentially very damaging. Any kind of treemen who use this ability never get the 1 roll, which means these guys are a lot better for using this rule.

Command Traits

Realm Walker

If you choose this command trait for your general, he can add 2 to the Navigate Realmroots roll, allowing him to move after teleporting on a 4+. Particularly of use if that general is a Spirit of Durthu for combat damage.

Warsinger

This allows you to add 1 to the charge roll of Sylvaneth within 10 of the general. Use in conjunction with the Kurnoth Hunters ability to use the general's command ability anywhere on the board!

Spells

 Verdant Blessing

Casting value of 6, place a wood (1-3 bases!) within 18 of the caster and more than 1 inch away from enemy units and terrain. Here's the first way to get extra wyldwoods in the army, to use in conjunction with the Navigate Realmroots or Forest Spirits ability to teleport your units around the board.
Can also be used to block the enemy, making them move run / charge through the woods to get to your models, causing them considerable damage (particularly useful against multi-wound models! As on a roll of 1 they are gone no matter how many wounds they have) or to force enemy spellcasters to choose not to cast or to cast but take damage from the Roused by Magic Wyldwood ability! You can also use your own spellcasters to trigger this ability, good combinations including a treeman ancient or Branchwych who is in the wood, already benefitting from all the abilities / effects granted by being in the wood + spell damage from casting, + damage from the Roused ability.

Treesong

Casting value of 7, choose a wyldwood within 10 inch, can move it 2d6 in any direction, but cannot move within 3 of any enemy models or terrain. Units wholly within the wood (enemy or friend) are moved with it!

Potential uses for this are getting an extra move in the hero phase for units beginning the turn in the wood, moving enemy units, blocking enemy units, moving towards spellcasters to get the Roused ability or moving towards an objective. 

May be too unwieldy for a string of 3 bases? Although you could reform the layout of the string with this spell which could be useful.

The main reason for not taking this spell is probably that there are so many other good spells competing to be taken. But this is probably the most useful movement-based spell in the lore...

That's enough for one post I think, up next will be Magic Artifacts, Arcane Treasures and Warscroll Battalions!

Sylvaneth Initial Thoughts

I've decided to start collecting Sylvaneth! I was orignally going to do Death but my friend told me not to as he had just started them himself! So looking over the other options I decided to go with Sylvaneth due to the amazing models (Drycha in particular) plus the expanded Battletome certainly didn't hurt...

One of the coolest things for me in the book is the amount of movement options you can get, from the Forest Spirits rule right to the Dreadwood Wargrove or Forest Folk battalions. I've decided to focus on collecting a Dreadwood Wargrove due to the movement rules, which I think can also make them very competitive, as well as the modelling / painting opportunities and fluff! Here's a quick list of just about everything I'd like to collect (that may take a while!).

To get it down to 2000 points I could drop the forest folk battalion or some of the Treemen / Kurnoth Hunters. Although those guys are all really good!

LEADERS
Branchwraith (100)
Branchwych (100)
Drycha Hamadreth (280)
Treelord Ancient (300)

UNITS
Spite-Revenants x 5 (100)
Spite-Revenants x 5 (100)
Spite-Revenants x 5 (100)
Spite-Revenants x 5 (100)
Dryads x 10 (120)
Dryads x 10 (120)
Dryads x 10 (120)
Tree-Revenants x 10 (200)
Kurnoth Hunters x 3 (180) - Greatswords
Kurnoth Hunters x 3 (180) - Scythes

MONSTERS Treelord (260)

BATTALIONS
Outcasts (40)
Dreadwood Wargrove (100)
Household (20)
Forest Folk (60)

WOUNDS: 129 TOTAL POINTS: 2580

I've chosen a colour scheme I'm really excited about, something based off of one of the photos in the Battletome, one that's really bright and unlike anything I've done before, really excited to try some new techniques out on it! Not liking the hair on the Tree Revs, I've opted to fill in the gaps on their heads with greenstuff, a good side effect is visually linking them with the Spites, whilst still keeping the more Elven features!