The Old World Arcane Journal: Wood Elf Realms Review

“Athel Loren shall not suffer the presence of Men, nor Orcs, nor Dwarfs, nor Beastmen. If a foe takes a single step upon such sacred soil, they shall not take another.” – Skarloc, Mist Walker of Athel Loren

After months of wait the Old World release train is back on track and with it comes the delivery of the much anticipated Wood Elf Arcane Journal. Special thanks, as always, to Games Workshop for giving us an advance copy of the book to peruse and try out in preparation for our review.

As with all of the Arcane Journals, this book features gorgeous artwork of the Elves of Athel Loren, a brief history of how they came to separate themselves from Ulthuan, and specific tales of its two new heroes, Orion and Araloth. There’s some really good lore here and the writers do a great job of tying the stories in this journal with others that have already been released or that may be yet to come.

Outside of that you can find the requisite two new Armies of Infamy (Orion’s Wild Hunt and the Host of Talsyn), the rules for the aforementioned Orion and Araloth, four other new unique units, a host of magic items, a WHOLE brand new magic lore for the woodland folk, and special new “kindred” upgrades for your characters which are a fun and powerful callback to older editions.

Armies of Infamy

The stoic and secluded Wood Elves are completely devoted to protecting the forests of Athel Loren and their way of life from any interlopers, while celebrating that which nature has provided them. This book tries to highlight the disparate ways the elves now go about that task by providing us with a fast-paced and brutally violent Wild Hunt composition list focused on speed and close combat and the methodical and protective Host of Talsyn meant to reflect an army designed to guard the most precious sacred groves.

Unfortunately for Wood Elf players, I will say up front that the Armies of Infamy are easily the weakest part of this book and that only one of these armies really feels all that unique on the table in the game’s current state. Both lists will probably struggle without changes to the core game, though I would love to be wrong. With that said, let’s get into the twigs and berries of what these composition lists have to offer.

Orion’s Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt’s composition list is a cavalry-focused army along the lines of the Nomadic Waaagh! and Heralds of Darkness we’ve seen before. Meant to exemplify the cohort of Wood Elves that follow in Orion’s wake as he hunts the enemies of Athel Loren, it sacrifices most of the Wood Elf infantry and tree spirit options in exchange for making Wild Riders a Core choice.

To break things down further, at the Character level, the Wild Hunt loses access to Spellweavers, Branchwraiths, and Treeman Ancients, as well as gaining extra limitations on Spellsingers, Waystalkers and Shadowdancers. At Core, you may only have up to 1 unit of Wild Riders per 1000 points, as well as unlimited Glade Riders (there are no other options). The Special slot features Sisters of the Thorn, Wardancers, Warhawks, more Wild Riders, and the new Forest Beast Pack unit, and Rare gives you the option to take up to three Great Eagles per 1000 points, up to one unit of Wardancers or Waywatchers per army regardless of size and Deepwood Scouts/Wildwood Rangers.

Since we’re on the topic of the Wild Hunt, we might as well take a second to go over the new Forest Beast Packs. These are a brand new unit using a kit from the bygone days of third edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle that can be run in your Rare slot in any Wood Elf Grand Army or as a special unit in the Wild Hunt as previously mentioned. Beast Packs are lead by Beast Keepers that come in at 11 points per model and are just standard Elves; M5 WS/BS 4, I4, 1 W models with a single hand weapon to their names. For every Beast Keeper you pay for in a unit, you then get to choose to bring 1-3 Hounds, Cats, or Boars, or a single Bear to run alongside them. To make this work in the coolest way possible, all of these models have the new Run With the Pack special rule which lets you use the majority movement value of a unit when determining how fast they can go. Please note, however, that someone in the rules team absolutely hates fun and you cannot mix and match the animals in a unit despite the kits coming with a set of each. This is actually a shame for a number of reasons, as each animal type has unique special rules that would be cool to see on the table and mixing them together could lead to some cool combos given their speed and the Skirmishers special rule but nothing particularly overpowering. In addition to Run With the Pack, beast packs also get to use their general’s leadership so long as one of their Beast Keepers are alive and lose all of the other ‘negative’ rules associated with War Beasts. Of the animal options, the Deepwood Hounds are the clear winner as they are a whopping movement 9, WS 4 AND come with the warband special rule to make their charges all the more reliable when you need them to be. If you’re looking for more punch instead, the Boars are Str 4, Toughness 4 and come with Furious Charge though they are much slower.

The elephant in the room in this comp is of course the loss of access to level 3 and 4 wizards. This is always a difficult pill for these kinds of Armies of Infamy, and it becomes something that is ramped up to 11 when you consider how susceptible Wood Elf armies are to even the lowliest and most ubiquitous magic missiles in the game. Players braving this list are going to have to use their overwhelming speed to their advantage to try and tie up opposing wizards as early and as often as possible, something that becomes more difficult if you’re trying to take advantage of its special rules and are fighting against impetuous rolls all game.

Liam_Jordan: For what it’s worth, though, the Oaken Stave on a Lv2 Caster has roughly the same odds when it comes to dispelling as a Lv4 would have, so while the optics might be that you look to lose a unit whenever a fireball gets fired up by the enemy wizard rather than dominating the dispelling game, you’ve still got just as good a chance of removing that threat as most other armies in the game.

So what do you get for taking such a restrictive list? First off is Chieftains of the Wild Hunt, which grants your Nobles the option to take the Talismanic Tattoos unit upgrade option (a 6+ ward save) for just 10 points. Additionally, any unit of Glade Riders, Warhawk Riders, or Forest Beasts, may be upgraded with the Spirit of Kurnous to gain the Furious Charge and Impetuous (booo) special rules for 10 points per unit. Lastly, the entire army gains the Fury of Kurnous special rule that allows you to select an opposing character or enemy model with the ‘Monster’ troop type to be the prized trophy of your wild hunt. All models in your army gain rerolls of 1 to hit against the selected model and you are awarded an additional 100 victory points in any game in which you are successful in killing them or causing them to flee by the end of the game.

It’s really unfortunate and probably unnecessary for the Impetuous rider to be tied to the Spirit of Kurnous special rules. It just feels bad to pay points for what amounts to a small upgrade to the units in question and also have to accept such a large drawback even if the writers felt it might be more thematic. In an army that is already going to have to consider how to control its Wild Riders, having to also consider your positioning on your much less effective Glade Riders and doggos is a real shame.

Liam_Jordan: What this will do, however, is force you to learn how to better control your units. Eagles being fairly plentiful will really help in this but it’s certainly a price you’re paying for those upgrades. You’ll be wanting to overload opponents with units of offensive output and force overruns in directions which suit to keep combats rolling where possible and having access to those 60pt flying pigeons is a great way to do that if your opponent slightly mispositions.

That all said, in practice this list still has some chops. Gaining rerolls to hit on anything is always great, and that this rule also works on shooting may make the army stand a decent chance of eking out small wins against difficult opponents. Glade Lords on dragons rocking hit rerolls on their scarier contemporaries are cool and having Wild Riders as core can lead to some pretty spectacular combat phases if you’re able to dictate positioning and hit when the time is right. Perhaps most awesome of all though, is that you also get to combo some of these neat abilities with the baddest mamma jamma of them all:

Orion, King of the Woods

Coming in at 455pts, the avatar of Kurnous is a hefty special character that can be used in any Wood Elf Army Composition list. While not as survivable, fast, or customizable as a similarly costed Glade Lord on Forest Dragon, he does come with a particularly unique ruleset that I believe makes him a viable alternative to one. First and foremost, he does not take up the slot of a Glade Lord or Spell Weaver, so at the very least you get access to a pretty durable combat monster that still lets you run two level 4s or two less-kitted lord level characters alongside him. For raw stats, Orion is M 9, WS 8, BS 6 with Str, To, A and W 5. At initiative 8 with the Strikes First special rule it is unlikely he will ever be in a situation where he doesn’t get to stab an opponent with his trusty Spear of Kurnous. Orion’s spear is a hefty Str 6 AP 2, comes with the Multiple Wounds (D3) special rule and can be shot like a bolt thrower should he ever find himself outside of combat at a range of 18 inches. If your opponent has wisely chosen to stay as far away as possible, Orion also comes with a second ranged weapon, the 30 inch range Hawk’s Talon that puts out D3+1 magical shots at Str 5, Ap 1. Additionally, Orion causes both Fear and Terror, is Immune to Psychology, can Move Through Cover, has Magic Resistance (-2), comes with D3+2 Stomps AND is Unbreakable. Unbreakable with no unstable drawbacks absolutely cannot be overstated. For protection, Orion has a built in 5+ ward save and during every start of turn sub-phase he may regenerate a lost wound on a roll of a 5+ from his Cloak of Isha.

When you take Orion you also get to bring along his two trusty hounds which cause him to permanently be in Open Order even if they die because he misses them so much. His hounds are WS 4, Str 4, To 4 with a single attack each (but are Frenzied) and may only be wounded by magical attacks. While Open Order pulls a bit of power away from this unit, their insane speed and the option to quick turn after moving makes up for most of it. This is not to mention just how much situational power and durability the hounds add to Orion himself. Because of the way hits from shooting are allocated, non-magical shooting (hello just about every poison blob or war machine currently being employed in the game) is extremely unreliable, with 2/3rds of the hits being allocated to his trusty damage immune best friends even before he needs to make a ward save.

Liam_Jordan: It’s not even 2/3rds, it’s 2/3rds rounding down. If this unit gets hit five times with crossbow bolts or similar then four find their way onto the dogs with only a single 1 into the King of the Woods. Dog 1, Dog 2, Orion, Dog 1, Dog 2 and so on. This is one of his best features and he’ll just be able to run into some armies (like other Wood Elves) giggling to himself knowing he’s going nowhere from enemy fire.

Lastly of note, Orion also comes equipped with The Horn of the Wild Hunt, which he may sound once per game during your command phase. When you choose to use it, all friendly models within your command range gain the Frenzy special rule even if they already lost it previously. This effect is just awesome and can turn a game on its head if you’re able to time it right. Getting those Wild Hunt Glade Riders and Forest Beasts up to three attacks a piece on the charge or boosting War Dancers up to five before you consider any buffs just feels really good on the table and can really mess with an opponent’s math.

The Host of Talsyn

The Host of Talsyn is meant to represent the elite forces of the Eternal Guard, their kin, and the myriad forest spirits that guard the most sacred groves of the great forest. To this end the Host features a much less restrictive army composition list than the Wild Hunt, keeping their level 4 wizards and glade lords and losing access to Glade Riders, Wild Riders, Forest Beast Packs, Warhawks, and Waywatchers in exchange for gaining the new Warden of Talsyn character option, the elite Guardians of Talsyn in the Special slot, and being forced into taking 1+ units of Eternal Guard.

Unlike many of the other Armies of Infamy we’ve seen, the Host of Talsyn seems to be built to be almost purely narrative oriented and niche. For choosing to run this particular list your army gains four new rules. Ancient Enemies grants every unit in your army the Hatred (Beastmen Brayherds) special rule. In Tune With Nature grants all wizards in your army list access to the new (and powerful) Wilds lore of magic on top of those they already have access to. If it were not for the fact that there is a 15 point extremely common magic item in the book (Heartwood Pendant) that does the same thing, I would have argued that this rule may have been worth the army restrictions alone. Finally, Protectors of the Ancient Wood grants a unit that is in control of a special feature rerolls of 1 to hit and to wound so long as they are in control of a special feature and The Awakened Wood allows you to pay 1 point per model to give your Dryads and Treekin the Ambushers special rule and 10 points for your Treemen and Treemen Ancients.

This Army of Infamy is a bit puzzling to me because of just how specialized it seems to be aiming to be. I suspect this list will initially be very poorly-received outside of very narrative-oriented games as it doesn’t really bring anything to the table outside of playing against Beastmen. Protectors of the Ancient Forest has a lot of potential if we ever get access to more special features; however, right now there are only four in the core rulebook that essentially see zero play, though the upcoming Herdstone for Beastmen makes for a fifth. An easy fix that would have also been narratively satisfying would have been to add an addendum to this rule that made the forest provided by playing a Wood Elf list in this Army of Infamy be considered a special feature as well, but that is a wish for the future I guess. Add to that that this list forces you into playing Eternal Guard without doing anything to improve their gameplay, and the whole things leaves a lot to be desired. I’d actually argue that in its current iteration, this Army of Infamy may be the least appealing in the game right now.

But what about the unique units for the army? Well the Warden of Talsyn is a 125 point character with a stat line akin to a Glade Lord (WS 7, Str 4, To 3, 3 wounds, 4 attacks, but lower leadership and ballistic skill). They come with the same generic weapon options but must be run on foot and have a magic item allowance of 75 points. For special rules, wardens have the noble-standard Strikes First, Elven Reflexes, and Move Through Cover special rules and also gain Drilled, Stubborn, Immune to Psychology and the unit-specific Parry and Courage Beyond Compare special rules. Parry grants the model an additional +1 to their armour saves in close combat so long as they are utilizing either a spear or hand weapon, and shield and Courage confers the Warden’s Immune to Psychology rule to any Guardians of Talsyn unit that they join during the game. Not bad by any means if you are looking to run a slightly discounted noble in your foot units or have a slightly more beefier BSB in the Host.

Liam_Jordan: I do feel like the BsB option here, the extra wound and magic item allowance really help push this into a viable character option you’ll want to have with the blocks which the army is forced into taking. I believe that when you do see this AoI on the table this guy will be front and centre.

Guardians of Talsyn are essentially upgraded Eternal Guard for 18 points per model. The extra 5 points grants these elite spearmen an additional attack and the Parry special rule mentioned above as well as the Veterans and Drilled rules that regular Eternal Guard have to pay for. If infantry had a better place in the current meta then perhaps there would be a spot for these fae folk as they seem ripe for any kind of enchantments you can throw on them but as it stands its hard to see when they’d ever be used. Neither the Guardians or Wardens may be taken in any army other than the Host of Talsyn.

Araloth

Lastly, we have our other named Character, the Lord of Talsyn himself, Araloth. Araloth is considered to be a Glade Lord and may be run in any army composition that allows for that unit entry. At 170 points, he is relatively cheap for one too, which is good because his rules are pretty bland. Araloth has a standard Glade Lord’s profile with an additional pip of weapon skill (bringing him to 8) and +2 initiative (which does not come up much due to Strike First). He is equipped with Heavy Armour, a shield, and the Spear of Talsyn which is actually just a regular Asrai Spear (Str User, Ap 1, Armourbane 1) that has the magical attacks special rule. In addition, Araloth comes with Evasive, Move Through Cover, Rallying Cry, Stubborn, Strikes First, and the 3 unique special rules Boldest of the Bold, Skaryn the Eye Thief, and Favour of the Goddess. Favour of the Goddess is simply a 5+ ward save, which does cover most of the additional 35 points you’re paying for Araloth over a naked Glade Lord and Boldest of the Bold makes Araloth immune to any penalties to his leadership characteristic (potentially great against Vampire dirges). Skaryn the Eye Thief is the real reason you’d ever choose to run Araloth. In every one of your command phases, you may select an enemy model within 18 inches of Araloth and roll a d6. On a 3+ they suffer a single strength 4 hit with an AP of 1. Should the target be successfully wounded and survive the attack, Skaryn rips out one of its eyes, reducing their WS and I by d3 for the remainder of the game. There are some cute applications here as this is not considered a shooting attack and does not require line of sight, however, it is a pretty underwhelming ability overall. I’m not sure it would even be that strong if they removed the 3+ requirement to be honest. In most circumstances, Skaryn will probably fail to wound any model of note throughout the course of a game though you never know when he’ll accidentally pick up an enemy character through repeated blindings. All in all, Araloth is a deeply unexciting special character that I wish provided some kind of unique benefit to his army other than just being cheap.

Wilds Lore of Magic

Now that we’re through with the super disappointing parts of the arcane journal (other than Orion, who none of you are allowed to say anything negative about because he is my friend) let’s move on to the actual exciting parts for any Wood Elf aficionado. The Lore of the Wilds is a brand new and fully fleshed out lore of magic exclusive to Wood Elves and can be run by any wizard either in the Host of Talsyn or that is equipped with the Heartwood Pendant. Let me tell you this right now, the Wilds Lore fucks, particularly in the current meta filled with super wide units of low initiative skeletons, zombies, and dwarves, and the massive blocks of poison archers trying to take down dragons. Outside of the Vortex which is simply okay, every spell in this lore is a banger and it really elevates what Wood Elf armies are capable of, particularly if you are able to combine it with some of the effects of the Lore of Elementalism which is very satisfying. Here are just a few of my favorites.

The signature spell, Swirling Mists, is a ranged: Self enchantment cast on an 8+ that forces any unit that targets the Caster or a unit the Caster has joined to reroll any rolls of a natural 6 in the shooting phase. This is just perfect as it is a situationally powerful spell that you don’t have to accidentally roll into when going up against an opponent that isn’t relying on any shooting but can just casually toss into your list if they are. Slipping poison shots from a 1 in 6 chance of success to 1 in 36 is an incredible tool to always have at your disposal.

Ariel’s Blessing is a ranged 10 enchantment with a casting value of 9 that grants its target the Regeneration (5+) special rule and Sapping Blight is a 12 inch hex that reduces an opposing unit’s Str score by D3 that can be cast into combats like Plague of Rust. Both spells are just generically powerful defensive tools that the Wood Elf army really needed.

And my absolute favorite spell of the bunch? Durthu’s Wrath. Sure, because of AoS we can’t have the coolest tree in the entire Old World on our tables, but at least we get to honor his name with one of the strongest Assailment spells in the game. Cast on a 10+, this spell forces every enemy model in the fighting rank of a unit that the caster is engaged with to take an initiative test. Each model that fails this test takes D3 Str 4 hits with no armour saves allowed. Just an awesome deterrent against some of the more annoying units in the game. In my experience so far I once found myself face to face with a row of Longbeards shaking angry axes at me. They had drilled extra wide and were practically begging me to do something about it. So I said to myself I said, why not just delete a third of them? And I did and then some because probability is a glorious things sometimes.

Liam_Jordan: As Falcons said, this Lore is outstanding and nearly enough of a reason to play the Army of Infamy so every wizard can take it for free instead of having to buy the upgrade. Fury of Athel Loren is a fantastic spell which can really hurt bigger monsters with D3+1 S6 Hits with -2AP and Multiple Wounds (2) while Ariel’s Blessing can really help the survivability of any unit granting a 5+ regeneration save. Finally combining that with Sapping Blight and reducing your opponents Strength by D3 helps compensate for T3 elves everywhere against even big monsters but especially against enemy Cav and other infantry blocks if the game moves that way.

The Kindreds

Kindreds are the other Wood Elf specific rule released with this Arcane Journal. Hearkening back to earlier editions of the game, the kindreds represent specialized bands of Wood Elves that have taken on unique aspects either of animals they have become attuned to (The Alter Kindreds) or that have so fully immersed themselves into a fighting style that they have become a paragon of it (The Noble Kindreds). To represent these specializations in your games any Wood Elf Noble or Mage may be assigned a kindred upgrade. You may take the same kindred more than once in an army, but no character may take more than one kindred upgrade. In addition, if you choose to pay for an Alter Kindred upgrade, any unit that character joins cannot use that character’s leadership (which is a very small price to pay for some really great power). I would say that each of the kindred upgrades serves a purpose, most of them are playable, and several open up some unique builds for Wood Elves we would not have seen previously. They are a huge win for the book overall.

There are four Alter Kindred and four Noble Kindred available to pick from in the Arcane Journal. For the Alter Kindred, the Aspect of the Hound is the most expensive at 20 points and grants its bearer and any unit they join reroll 1s to hit in the Combat Phase. Just an obvious and straightforward buff for any combat unit you choose to run. I have really enjoyed this in particular on a Spellweaver riding a Unicorn that I can attach to my Wild Riders. The Aspect of the Bear may only be taken by an Infantry or Cavalry character and gives them +1 Str and Toughness, absolutely amazing for anyone that loves Great Stags and makes the Stag Party list a real contender. Aspect of the Boar is a 10 point upgrade that improves the AP of any weapons used by a character during a turn in which they charged and grants them Impact Hits (1) and the Aspect of the Cat is an additional 10 point kindred that gives any character it is assigned to Armourbane (1) and more importantly full rerolls to hit when they are taking part in a challenge.

Noble Kindred feature the Glamour Weave for 25 points. It may only be given to Wood Elf Mages but gives them a 5+ Ward Save and the Tree Spirit special rule, allowing you to attach them to units of Dryads or Treekin if they are mounted appropriately. If you like to run your mages around outside of units this is a great upgrade to have. Eternal Kindred are next up at 20 points and may only be taken by a character on foot. These kindred grant themselves and any unit they join rerolls of 1 to hit in the Combat phase just like the Aspect of the Hound, but additionally, if you are within 6 inches of a Special Feature, the unit gains full rerolls to wound. Scout Kindred, for 15 points, gives an infantry character the Scouts and Quick Shot special rules.

I have saved the best for last in my opinion. The Wild Rider Kindred is a mere 20 points and may be used on any Noble mounted on a Cavalry mount. They gain Countercharge, Frenzy, Furious Charge and Talismanic Tattoos. This is insane value for the points and fixes one of the problems Wild Riders have had in that they could never really have a legitimate combat character join their unit without losing Countercharge. Now you can have your cake and eat it too while turning a Glade Captain or Lord into an absolute combat menace.

Liam_Jordan: These are the real power of the book in my opinion. They’ve nearly all got a real use case, they’ve nearly all got reason to be taken and all of them are worth the points for what you get. The fact they’re not coming out of any allowance (similar to Chaos Gifts) is brilliant and really lets you flex your creative muscle both in the list building stage and when it comes to modelling opportunities. I’m a big fan of the Aspect of the Bear for Stag Party lists and could see Wild Hunt lists running 2 Stags and a couple of cheap hero’s with the Wild Rider Kindred to boost their mandatory units while having a Lvl 2 to help with the magic defense.

Magic Items

Just like with every other Arcane Journal, the Wood Elf Realms features 18 new magic items to match your need for customization. While there aren’t really any huge must-haves or items with unique abilities like we’ve seen in some other journals, there are a small handful of cool tech pieces to be had.

The Mantle of Rebirth, for example, is a 40 point piece of Light Armour that grants its wielder a 5+ regeneration save opening up the option for a triple save Glade Lord on a Stag or Dragon that the army didn’t have access to before now.

In the Talisman slot, Orion’s Favor is a 25 point single use item that gives it’s bearer full rerolls to hit and to wound making it a strictly better Paymaster’s Coin (though it is not extremely common). A great piece to slip onto a combat character for the turn it inevitably whiffs when you need it the most.

In terms of Magic Standards there are two that really catch the eye. If you have elected to run the Wild Hunt army of infamy you gain access to the Banner of the Wild Hunt which for 25 points acts as a second War Banner that also grants you rerolls on your pursuit rolls opening up a potential Wild Rider or Glade Rider ‘death star’ build for the faction that can stack a pretty decent amount of static combat resolution even before it starts stabbing. If you’re looking for something a bit more generic there is also the Banner of the Springtide which for only 20 points could become a mainstay in Grand Army lists as it grants the unit the powerful Quick Shot special rule. This is particularly potent on say an extremely large unit of Glade Guard or Glade Riders with poison shots for example.

Liam_Jordan: I’m a big fan of the Crown of Antlers from the Enchanted Item section giving the wearer Armour Bane (1) along with Impact Hits (D3) which have an AP-2. This isn’t limited to mounted models but getting a bunch of free auto-hitting attacks from a possible S5 character is enough to tip some combats into your favour and I’m all here for that. On one of the Strikes First elf characters you could cut down 4-5 of a front rank easily when combining their attacks with this meaning there might not be anyone there to hit you back.

Example Lists

Orion's Stag Party

What’s a Orion’s Wild Hunt list without Orion himself? This one is pretty straightforward. Your BSB joins the larger unit of Wild Riders giving them a static +4 combat resolution before their rank and upping their lethality without losing Countercharge due to his Kindred. Orion pushes your centre as your general while your Stag Lord acts as either a bodyguard, juice for one of your glade rider units, or a solo assassin. Glade Riders can duck back and forth in the early game trying to pick off smaller units with poison or dive deep to try to set up flank charges depending on the match-up. Finally, you have a decent sized unit of skirmishing hounds to screen your frenzied charges and a unit of boars that can take advantage of skirmishers and Orion’s horn to potentially smash up an opposing unit as they come with Furious Charge without the need of the Spirit of Kurnous upgrade and are Str 4 AP 1 on the charge.

This Could Be Better

This list is a modification on a Grand Army build I had a decent amount of success with using the new book. In it I am replacing Orion with the Treeman Ancient and a number of Glade Riders and War Dancers with 2 Ambushing Treemen. While I think this take is weaker, the crux of the list (the massive unit of Glade Guard with Hagbane) remains the same. You’re hoping to be able to use Travel Mystical Pathway and Hidden Pathways (a new conveyance spell from the Lore of the Wilds) to get some insane movement out of the Glade Guard and keep them out of harms way while putting out heaps of poison shots on opposing large targets. Banner of the Springtide grants them Quick Shot to up their accuracy and the Eternal Kindred Spellweaver tosses out rerolls to hit if they get locked in combat and Magic Resistance (-2) due to Ariel’s Favor. Normally monsters like the Treeman Ancient and the Treemen themselves are liabilities in the current meta but being able to force your opponents to reroll their successful poisoned shots and keeping the regular treemen off of the board for some time adds extra survivability.

Final Thoughts

The Wood Elf Realms Arcane Journal stumbles out of the gate with another set of Armies of Infamy that don’t feel overly inspiring and are definitely on the weaker end of those that have been released to date but makes up for it in the back half with a fantastic new lore of magic that will add some great variety to your matches and the uniquely powerful kindreds to further customize your nobles and mages. Most importantly to me, Orion is back and feels perfectly balanced as a new beatstick unit that doesn’t flat out replace the dragon but opens up new builds in a way that neither of the armies of infamy are able to accomplish.

Liam_Jordan: I’m certainly higher on the Armies of Infamy than Falcon, but the additions to the Grand Army are brilliant with the Kindreds and the Magic Lore along with a handful of the new items. I think we’ll see a lot of Orionless Orion’s Wild Hunts on the table in a few months once people add in a few more units to their painting collection though as it’s a great alternative playstyle to the Wood Elves current avoidance meta style of gaming. I’m a big fan of any Arcane Journal where you get additions to the Grand Army and some thematic AoI’s and while they’re not super competitive for where the game stands at the moment I think they’ve both got a bunch of flavor and options in them and I’m sure you’ll see them both (especially the Wild Hunt) on the tabletop a bunch.

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