Hey y'all! I know Sylvaneth are not very popular among many players but I kinda like them. But what could be better than to combine them with a few of our beloved lizards? So bear with me a moment while I try to come up with a fun list: Base is a bataillon named Gnarlroot Wargrove. It allows the Sylvaneth to include any Order Wizard in their army without being limited by the ally rules. So let's take a Slann and see what we could do shall we? This is the minimum for the Gnarlroot Wargrove: Allegiance: Sylvaneth Leaders Treelord Ancient (300) - General - Deepwood Spell: Regrowth Branchwych (80) Battleline 5 x Tree-Revenants (80) - Sylvaneth Battleline 10 x Dryads (100) 10 x Dryads (100) Battalions Gnarlroot Wargrove (180) Household (70) Reinforcement Points (0) Total: 910 / 2000 Allies: 0 / 400 Ok so that is 910 points. There are three Seraphon units that we can include. Lets start with the dreaded Kroaknado. A list could look like this: Allegiance: Sylvaneth Leaders Treelord Ancient (300) - General - Deepwood Spell: Regrowth Branchwych (80) Lord Kroak (450) Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160) Battleline 5 x Tree-Revenants (80) - Sylvaneth Battleline 20 x Dryads (200) 10 x Dryads (100) 10 x Skinks (60) - Meteoric Javelins & Star Bucklers Units 3 x Kurnoth Hunters (220) - Greatbows Battalions Gnarlroot Wargrove (180) Household (70) Scenery Balewind Vortex (100) Reinforcement Points (0) Total: 2000 / 2000 Allies: 0 / 400 Of course the Skinks, the Vortex and the Astrolith Bearer would not be on the table but in reserve. This is a one drop Kroaknado list. You will probably get first turn, then summon the Vortex and the Astrolith Bearer, maybe also the Skinks but you could also do that at a later point. You might swap out the Kurnoth Hunters for even more Seraphon units but then Kroak would be very busy summoning instead of doing meteors and stuff. Tactic would then be growing trees everywhere on the battlefield to slow your enemy down ehile bombing the hell out of everyone using Kroak. More to come soon.
Another idea would be to include Chameleon Skinks. With you spawning the wyldwood trees everywhere those will profit from their improved save. And when the enemy charges them they are attacked by the trees. A major pain in the behind.
And the last for now (still thinking about those Slann lists) is a fun list containing two big scary heroes. Alarielle the Everqueen has her trusty toad friend Lord Kroak on her side, and man those two are ready for the party! It might not be the most effective list but will cause some raised eyebrows and head scratching. Haven't picked artefacts or spells yet but there are a lot of them in the Sylvaneth Battletome so no problems with the rules of One here I guess. There are 40 points less so you could probably summon a Salamander or something. No Balewind possible unfortunately, at least not in 2k. Allegiance: Sylvaneth Leaders Treelord Ancient (300) - Deepwood Spell: Regrowth Branchwych (80) Alarielle the Everqueen (600) - General Lord Kroak (450) Battleline 5 x Tree-Revenants (80) - Sylvaneth Battleline 10 x Dryads (100) 10 x Dryads (100) Battalions Gnarlroot Wargrove (180) Household (70) Reinforcement Points (0) Total: 1960 / 2000 Allies: 0 / 400
To be honest, that's probably one of the best combinations. They fit in neatly with the sylvaneth army and it's a cheap way to get a bunch of shooty stuff in. Or well cheap, compared to kurnoth. The ability to spawn Woods all over the place also means you can easily get them in favorable positions & with the melee sylvaneth popping from wood to wood you'd even be safe from melee charges. Sounds like it'd be increadibly effective. Or at least really freaking annoying. As for the lists with kroak.. those aren't so much sylvaneth + seraphon as much as they are sylvaneth + kroak.... doesn't really count I think another nice combo might be to get something big and scary on our side an then use the Woods filled with sylvaneth to force the enemy into it. Get a block of 40 saurus warriors, buff em, place em between two Woods and have your opponent choose between either going through the forst or through your warriors. That sorta stuff.
The problem with 40 Saurus is that you cannot summon them. Those lists rely on the Gnarlroot Wargrove's special rule, normally Sylvaneth and Seraphon are not allied. So I am thinking about using a regular Slann and then summoning Razordons or so, possibly even big dinosaurs like a Bastiladon. Still thinking about more variants, most Sylvaneth players just include a Starpriest to get Starlight but that's it. I think there has to be more cool stuff to explore.
Stegadons, carnosaurs, bastillidons all work as "something big" the block of 40 was just the example. Though if we have to rely on summoning I'd say it's probably not as nice as could be... too difficult to get a decent chunk of seraphon on the table then as well as the slann being relativly expensive.
Yeah we would have to rely on summoning. I think the biggest factor would be the element of surprise. Someone faces Sylvaneth and all of a sudden there are six Razordons in the woods shooting the hell out of their forces. Those are pretty easy to summon, and so are their handlers. Even an Astrolith Bearer might be possible. The pity is that the Astrolith Bearer would only buff the Seraphon troops. But 3 Razordons and an Astrolith Bearer might actually be worth it since the AB also buffs the Slann's spells. All Sylvaneth shooting units are damn expensive. For the price of three Kurnoth Hunters you can get almost six Razordons, which means 12d6 attacks. Short ranged, yeah. But that's a threat. Especially if the enemy charges. ....list upcoming....
First example, for 1.5k The Seraphon units except the Slann are summoned. One unit of Razordons and one unit of Handlers in the first round, the other two in the second. Keep in mind this is a low drop list so it is rather likely we get the first turn. Allegiance: Sylvaneth Leaders Treelord Ancient (300) - General - Deepwood Spell: Regrowth Branchwych (80) Slann Starmaster (260) Battleline 5 x Tree-Revenants (80) - Sylvaneth Battleline 10 x Dryads (100) 10 x Dryads (100) Units 3 x Razordons (120) 3 x Razordons (120) 3 x Skink Handlers (40) 3 x Skink Handlers (40) Battalions Gnarlroot Wargrove (180) Household (70) Reinforcement Points (0) Total: 1490 / 2000 Allies: 0 / 400
For the same point cost you can place one Astrolith Bearer as first summon, then one unit of three Razordons and one Skink Handler unit. All those would work in the first round since we have three spells available on the Slann.
Those woods costs points too right? How expensive are they? Depending on how cheap that is it might either be brilliant or god awefull. edit: also wohoo, a 1000 likes.
The greatest thing about Sylvaneth allegiance is that those trees cost nothing at all! You can place them (three I think) before the game starts, and even use a spell to summon them midgame for no cost!
Mm, that does work brilliantly in combination with chameleons. Place those woods conveniently and you can threaten the entire board from cover.
I'll quote 1d4chan because this is just too funny. About that spell: Verdant Blessing: Casting value 6. Sets up a Wyldwood within 18". As useful as the Wyldwoods are to you, this spell is pretty good, just... don't place the full 3 Citadel Woods when you cast this, okay? Don't be that big of a dick unless your opponent has a rule that can wreck scenery.
Explanation: A Wyldwood consists of one to three Citadel woods placed within 1" of each other. So if you own, say, nine citadel woods, you can place three before the game starts. Then you place three in the first round by using an item. Then you place three, still in the first round, by using that spell. Congratulations, now two things have happened: 1. The whole table is filled with woods 2. you have become a dick nobody likes to play against Edit: oh and I forgot to mention: A treelord ancient can also place a Wyldwood, even without a casting roll. And he can activate them using a spell to cause mortal wounds to enemies near them. Which in the above case is almost the whole board.
The bits on 1d4chan are always quite hilarious. And in farness, every so often you need to show people who's boss by stomping them into the ground Do they have any other effect apart from being scenery and the occasional sylvanyth interacting with it in some way?
Yes. They have a warscroll. Running or charging onto them or across them kills any model that isn't a hero or monster on a roll of 1. Casting a spell (even an unbound one) within 6" of it has a 5+ chance of rousing the wood (teehee) which causes 1d3 mortal wounds to everything within 1" that isn't Sylvaneth.
Oh and actually there are quite a lot of Sylvaneth abilities interacting with them. Several units can either be set up in them via some kind of deep strike and/or get buffs from them and/or teleport near them instead of moving.