Time for a rumpus with the Lords of the Wild
This is a faction close to my heart. I played Wood Elves but in my WHFB days and also have a large and tattered collection of Beastmen. I even have enough Minotaurs to run the Black Hills legendary warband list. However this list just screams for me to pull out my old Wood Elves and thankfully I have a broad enough range of models to fill most of the options this list provides.
At first glance the Lords of the Wild looks shooting friendly, but I see it as ranged unit friendly. This is because most of the battle board abilities support ranged units in melee too.
The Lords of the Wild warband has access to lots of shooting, with Bow (foot) or Composite Bows (mounted) across Hero, Heathguard and Warrior troops and javelins for your levy. You also have access to the full range of Monsters (0-2 of) and Creatures. No War Machines but they they live in forrests to what is the point ;-).
The factions sorcerers have access to Earth and Light magic. Both are very useful depending on whether you are choosing to be Monster/Creature heavy or light. Given that Lords of the Wild battle board has no orders or orders/reaction abilities which support Monsters, spells are the only way to help them out during the game.
Irrespective of whether you choose a shooting, monster/creature or mixed list, the Lords of the Wild is going to be your ambush, snipe and whittle down the foe before delivering the final blow type of play style.
The Lords of the Wild special rules
- Your Lieutenant has Ranger which means treats all uneven terrain as open. Plus, and this is the real benefit, all other units in the warband get to treat any uneven terrain the Ranger is in as open too. The Ranger also has the option to be armed with a Bow.
- The Swarm is a levy upgrade which makes one unit Tiny, Insignificant and Primitive. This means the unit always counts as being in light cover against shooting, doesn't reduce its move through uneven or dangerous terrain and won't inflict fatigue on units if wiped out within S. The swarm is therefore going to work well as a fatigue inflicting speed bump in front of your units.
- The sacred ground, is a Primitive Totem which inflicts fatigue at the end of your activation phase (but before the end of your turn) on every enemy unit within VS so long as you have a saga dice generating unit also within VS. Given that sacred ground is always a small, high impassible piece of terrain this gives the Primitive Totem one of the smaller areas of effect, but can still be really useful if placed correctly.
What to look for on the battle board and spells:
- Sharpened Arrows (one rare) is a fantastic ability that will be used whenever possible. Getting 2-4 automatic hits means almost certain death to any exhausted Heroes, Creature or Monster units. Its also nasty against heavily armoured units or those in cover. It can also combine with Ambush (one uncommon) and Fury (Common or Rare) to delivery this alpha shooting strike at distance with a unit of warriors or levy.
- A mounted sorcerer with Verdant Wakening (any two magic dice) automatically gives you a piece of small uneven terrain as the source of Ambush fire. This gives you a shooting threat range of L+S+S+L with bows and L+S+S+M for Javelins or composite bows. So basically almost any where on the board can be targeted this way.
- Retreat (Uncommon or Rare) will then allow you to run your sorcerer away if threatened in the following turn, because after using Verdant Wakening you will already be within S of some terrain. Or if you used the magic bonus to get the 2 extra magic dice, you could use Banishment (Light) to move your threat away out of charge range in your turn.
- Wall of Thorns (Earth) works well with the battle boards abilities as it provides Solid Cover to a unit within L of the sorcerer, which is a blessing for your ranged weapon units. A unit of bow warriors in light cover will save on 4s and if combined with Sacred Dance (common or uncommon) will gain 3 defence dice too. All the other melee abilities can be activated on commons too, so Call of the Wild, Fury, Point Blank Range (all one common at a minimum) or Poisoned Blades (two common) come into play. This means your warriors with bow have not only an excellent change of surviving melee, but they can also deal out a lot of attacks too.
- Finally you will have to have a spare Titan figure lying around for Rise of the Spirits (Common plus Rare, during orders) which enables you to replace a small unoccupied piece of uneven terrain within M of one of your unit with this Titan. To really make this work you will need a common, uncommon (for activation to move/charge) and a rare, but it is going to make your opponent think about where they put uneven terrain on the board and unit placement too.
Tactical musings:
- I am sorely temped to take a very heavily shooting based warband as it has the ability to hit at range, snipe, hide in terrain and shoot and scoot depending on the units.
- Placing woods and fields in your opponents half of the table is a priority, likewise placing ruins and rocky ground in yours if possible. Whilst high terrain blocks line of site, this is less of an issue for the Lords of the Wild compared to other shooting lists. Because of the fragile nature of your ranged troops you want them in terrain wherever possible to give them cover and also reduce the opportunity for melee troops to charge quickly and without gaining fatigue.
- The ranger offers tactical manoeuvrability for mounted heathguard or warriors with composite bows. Move L into uneven terrain containing the Ranger with no fatigue, shoot for free and then decide whether to withdraw or not. With terrain S apart it is possible for the Ranger to move between terrain pieces to allow this to happen a couple of times.
- As much as I like Chrysalis (Earth) as a spell, with one sorcerer my go to spells will be Wall of Thorns, Verdant Wakening and Banishment. All three support the hitting a range, delay the advance and support defence in melee tactics my Lords of the Wild warband will favour.
Composition:
Like all my Age of Magic lists, my composition is heavily influenced by the figures I already have and which I have traditionally thought cool.
Warlord - I can take any of the options but am leaning toward Bow or Mount: Animal Composite Bow options. I like the Mount: Beast (Flight) but feel I am going to need the We Obey ability too often
Lieutenant - Bow (cull 2 HG)
Sorcerer - Mount: Animal (Wall of Thorns, Verdant Wakening and Banishment) (1 point)
6 x Heathguard - Mount: Animal Composite Bow (2 points)
12 x Warriors - Bow (1 1/2 point)
12 x Warriors - Bow (1 1/2 point)
2 x Biped Creatures (1 point)
2 x Biped Creatures (1 point)
