# A new take on the wood elves



## Chryckan (Jul 17, 2013)

After having browsed through a lot of rumor threads about wood elves it seems that beside the usual GW hate there are two arguments why the development of a new WE army book seems to be at a standstill.


The first argument is that it’s hard to fit the WE’s guerrilla style of fighting on to the table top in the new version. While a valid argument it isn’t really a large obstacle. On the top of my head I can think of two ways of solving it. GW have some great game designers on staff so I’m certain it would not take them long to come up with a good solution.


The second argument is that with three different elf faction in WHFB there is an over saturation of pointy ears in the game so GW isn’t really sure how to handle the WE to make them different and stand out from the pack so to speak.


Personally I’ve always found the WE and DE the more interesting elves in the warhammer world while it is the high elves that feels bland and generic. However, GW have decided that it is the High Elves that are the cool cats of the warhammer elves, which admittedly probably is the right decision seeing how large part the high elves play in the background of the Warhammer fluff.


This has led to the WE becoming nothing more that high elves who lives in woods and pushed on the back burner for now.


That’s what made me start thinking on what you could do to give the WE a flavour of their own that brings them out as their own faction instead of being lumped together with the other elves of WHFB.
Here is what I suggest and it’s no radical solotion seeing how GW themselves took a step towards it with the last army book.


My solution is simple. Move the WE away from being an elves faction to being the Fae.
They already the option of taking dryads, treekin and treemen. Expand that by introducing the option of taking Centaurs, Satyrs and clouds of pixies (admit it; a flying swarm of pixies would be awesome :grin.


Give Orion a more central role as the great hunter and leader of the Hunt, letting him even more resemble Hern of cletic mythology. You do this by adding the option of taking Hounds of the hunt and adding a new unit of heavy cavalry by giving the wild riders the option of being mounted on great stags or unicorns to act as his retinue. 



And give them a new special character in the form of the green hunter that’s the Green Knight in another form.


And the best part of this is that you don’t even have to retconn anything to do. (Except for the usual explaining how we never heard of a new unit before. But that shouldn’t even count any more. Wraith Knight anyone.)


The fluff already support the notion of the wood elves being the Fae. You have the myth of Orion and Ariel which explains how the WE joined/become part the Fae. You have the changeling aspect in the bretonnian damsels. You have the magical forest filled with strange lights and mystical spirits. You have the lady of the lake theme which connects with Arthurian myths of merlin and queen Mab. And you have Orion as Hern.


Everything that just screams the Fae and fairytales.


All this would smoothly transpose the WE from being from being Tolkien elves that live in a magic forest AKA High Elves who moved into a magic forest, to being the elves depicted in stories of the Fae and fairytales.



And while Athel Loren would still be important it would allow those players who so wanted to create their own colonies of wood elves in other parts of the warhammer world do so without having to come up with contrived reasons why some of the WE left Loren as the Fae can be seen as ever present in all of the world.


Giving them centaurs and satyrs would also cement the WE as the force of light that’s opposing the dark force of the Beastmen.


Plus I bet a bunch of Bretonnian players would be happy with having their knights pray to the Fae instead of the Wood Elves. :wink:



Now all this is just a theoretical exercise (and maybe some wishful thinking) but it shows that , even if you don’t go with just this theme, it would be very easy to have the WE become their own unique race and faction that’s radically different from the dark elves and the high elves. Thus once and for all bring the wood elves out of their more marketed cousins’ shadow so that they no longer would have suffer for just being that third type of elves.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

i hate how we have "Light and Dark" in Fantasy like there is in 40K. The very idea of "sides" seems wrong.

They are isolationist, and should stay that way, almost Tyranid like, but rather than being "attack everything" it's "stay off my lawn". The Fae and animal side of the list takes up a fair amount already; it's over more than a 50/50 split IIRC (Warhawks, Great Eagles, Treemen/Ancients, Treekin, Dryads, Wild Riders, Spellsingers/weavers, Dryad Heroes totals 10, versus Highborn/Nobles, EG, WW, WD, GG, GR = 7, and that's not including SC's, the Dragon or the Great Stag).

I hated the first Darius Hinks book, it was really seperate from what I imagined the Wood Elves to be (according what the Army book I felt portrayed them as); if you've played Skyrim, I thought they'd be nearer the Hagraven covens or the Forsworn, they felt more like Elves in a forest.

The Wood Elves in Fantasy would be one of the largest departures from the Tolkien, and typical fantasy Elves living in Forests, but he just recreated that, I felt (although more successfully than just the typical "in harmony" thing usually going on).

If you've read those books, how the described the Beastman groves is how I predicted the wood elves would have their land; somewhere you REALLY don't want to go.

If it was down to me;

Drakes; essentially slightly weaker flightless Dragons, perhaps with an Ambush rule or hidden deployment to represent hunting from caves.

Sprite Swarms; much needed colour, perhaps an Ethereal Anchor.
Wild Riders become Monstrous Cavalry.
Orion is Monstrous Cavalry type.

There should be a few other things that aid utility to the army, namely mobility, and shooting improvement. However, they need to get bonuses for moving and shooting, not just a lack of penalties. Sounds odd, but they need to move away from the gunline. Bringing back 360 degree shooting, making them count as half ranks when skirmishing (for example 4 ranks gets a +2 bonus), or at least disrupting.

For Eternal Guard to be "Eternal" they need more staying power or damage dealing than 2 S3 attacks and a T3 5+.


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## Chryckan (Jul 17, 2013)

Vaz said:


> Sprite Swarms; much needed colour, perhaps an Ethereal Anchor.


Sprites, pixies, faeries, what ever you call it the WE really need to be able to take a swarm of them. :grin:


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

First of all great opening post OP. WE are the only elves I don't dispise: High Elves are just a pack of stick up the arse pricks and Dark Elves are just the same except the stick up their arse happens have barbs and they wear a lot of purple. Wood Elves on the other hand have a shit load of potential for depth, yeah they can be simply Tolkienesque Elves who live in trees but if you want that go play LOTR and give Legolas a gobby. I feel they should move away from that and more into the Fae as Chryckan mentions.



Chryckan said:


> n And while Athel Loren would still be important it would allow those players who so wanted to create their own colonies of wood elves in other parts of the warhammer world do so without having to come up with contrived reasons why some of the WE left Loren as the Fae can be seen as ever present in all of the world.
> 
> If I recall correctly there are a few other WE colonies out there but yes it would be great for there to be open season on it, and the best way of doing it is by making the force a 50/50 split with the Fae.


As Vaz says the WE aren't on the side of "Light", they are on their own side like Orgres are, there is no need to "lighten" them up.


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## Firewolf (Jan 22, 2007)

>> As Jacobite said, a cracking op Chryckan. I really think this would be a excellent direction for WE to go. Ever thought of doing yer own homebrew army book? Warhammer Armies:FAE sounds rather cool.


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## Chryckan (Jul 17, 2013)

Jacobite said:


> First of all great opening post OP. WE are the only elves I don't dispise: High Elves are just a pack of stick up the arse pricks and Dark Elves are just the same except the stick up their arse happens have barbs and they wear a lot of purple. Wood Elves on the other hand have a shit load of potential for depth, yeah they can be simply Tolkienesque Elves who live in trees but if you want that go play LOTR and give Legolas a gobby. I feel they should move away from that and more into the Fae as Chryckan mentions.
> 
> 
> 
> As Vaz says the WE aren't on the side of "Light", they are on their own side like Orgres are, there is no need to "lighten" them up.


Think I may have been a bit unclear regarding WE being the light force compared to the beastmens dark force. 
I didn't mean it as good vs. evil or Jedi vs. Sith.
More like two opposing natural forces. Death vs. Birth, Creation vs. Destruction. Beauty vs. Beast.
Think of it as the WE being the Ying to the Beastmens Yang.

The Fae have never been good or evil but have the capacity for both. Which is often represented by the two courts of the Fae, the winter court and the summer court.
I personally feel that if WE was taken in this direction then it is important to portray them as neither good or bad. But something more fickle.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Opposing smhposing. Nature has no sides. It is everything. There should be no need for the seelie courts to be brought into play here. Warhammer needs to stop copying generic fantasy literature, and instead become its own IP which it can defend properly and uniquely.

Centaurs and Satyrs- erm - beastmen. As much as people say 'but why not, centaurs shluld be wlld elves', they are beasts and creatures of chaos in Warhammer, like how Orcs are explicitly Elves in Tamriel.

The army itself is completely fine, it is its rules and potency outside of GG Archer spam that is lacking. A problem shared by other 6th ed books; Dwarfs, and Bretons.


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

I agree completely about WFB needing to take a step up and out.

Do Satyr's have a existance in WFB yet? I know Centaurs do but I'm not sure about Satyrs.


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## Chryckan (Jul 17, 2013)

Vaz said:


> Opposing smhposing. Nature has no sides. It is everything. There should be no need for the seelie courts to be brought into play here. Warhammer needs to stop copying generic fantasy literature, and instead become its own IP which it can defend properly and uniquely.
> 
> Centaurs and Satyrs- erm - beastmen. As much as people say 'but why not, centaurs shluld be wlld elves', they are beasts and creatures of chaos in Warhammer, like how Orcs are explicitly Elves in Tamriel.
> 
> The army itself is completely fine, it is its rules and potency outside of GG Archer spam that is lacking. A problem shared by other 6th ed books; Dwarfs, and Bretons.


Nature doesn't have sides but myths does. And Warhammer will never be able to become it's own IP because it is impossible to write mythical stories, which fantasy as a genre is, with out borrowing from existing human mythos, simply because the way human tells myths is the way humans tells stories. And why fantasy often seems so generic. Tolkien and Narnia stole from Eddan and the bible aka old myths. Everyone else stole from Tolkien and Narnia.

Plus it's a freaking wargame. If you don't divide everything into sides you'd get to play tea party instead of war with your plastic dolls. 



Jacobite said:


> I agree completely about WFB needing to take a step up and out.
> 
> Do Satyr's have a existance in WFB yet? I know Centaurs do but I'm not sure about Satyrs.


They do if you count beastmen as satyrs.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Satyrs are I believe a relation of Minotaurs if that is true then yes thats covered


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## Chryckan (Jul 17, 2013)

Ratvan said:


> Satyrs are I believe a relation of Minotaurs if that is true then yes thats covered


Is that in Warhammer fluff?

In greek myth Satyrs are nature spirits that was associated with the gods Pan and Dionysos and part of their revelry.

The minotaurs was original a single being named Minotaurous that was the offspring from a queen and bull and who was cast down in the great labyrinth of Minos created by Daidalos the guy with the wings by order of king Minos. Minotaur means bull of Minos. 

Fun fact; Daidalos was also the guy who designed the contraption that allowed the queen and the bull to have an offspring in the first place. :grin:


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