Wood Elves

As I have stated previously, Wood Elves were my first interest in Warhammer. However, the late release of the army book in 4th edition and then similar treatment in 6th edition (there was a get-you-by list for a couple of years), means they haven't seen as much use as they might have.

I have always been a very aggressive Wood Elf player - I have never been much for the whole shooty avoidance type of approach that is common. Instead, my focus has always been on units like Wardancers, Dryads and Treemen, and trying to go toe-to-toe with my opponents. In most editions the Wood Elves have been remarkably good at this - bolstered largely by flexible skills like War Dances and the old Dryad Aspects. They are perhaps not quite as good at it at the moment as they have been in the past, and this may have contributed to their enduring another period of neglect from me.

Like my High Elves, my Wood Elf army suffers from having been collected and painted over an extended period of time. There are, in effect, 2 painted armies in my collection - the old and the newer (new would be putting it too strongly. Let's just say newer). Unfortunately, in addition to this effectively cutting the size of my painted army in half, the divide also runs somewhat along the lines of the troop types. I have not painted a Wood Elf archer in at least 8 years, I suspect. Similarly, I am desperately in need of some more recently painted Wardancers. If I ever get off my backside and pay more attention to the army, maybe this will happen.

For a while I actually ran a pure Forest Spirit list. It was something I had always wanted to do back in 5th ed - a family of big trees (Treemen) and baby trees (Dryads). Then they made it possible in the 6th ed book and I got excited. Turned out the army was also rather effective, but that was unexpected. This is why there are a lot of Forest Spirit-based models painted in a similar style, with nothing really elfy to back them up. More things to work on...

My current Wood Elf army



My Treeman Ancient, based on the old Durthu model (who I never liked very much, but whose ludicrous arm looks slightly more sensible now it's been bent)



My Glamourweave mage, made from a jazzed up Dryad

A couple of my Wild Riders, again made from Dryads

The guy I use as an Alter Kindred Noble. I love this model

Disco fever! Some of my older Wood Elves in all their chipped and colour-blind glory. Apparently you can lose painting marks in tournaments just because people don't like your Scouts wearing orange and pink and your Treeman being purple. Who knew?

And here's why I haven't painted an archer in living memory. I already have 50 of them. But you can also see why I'm not keen to use them. There is something a little "samey" about them. Can't put my finger on it...