Wood Elves Tricknology: A MSU how to guide.

[Joey_Boy]

Hey folks!

Iv been looking around this site and others and I really like the evolution of tactics I see popping up. We all know there are many ways to play Wood Elves. The Tree lists that focus on Treekin and Treemen to smash faces and take names, the Eternal Guard deathstar that can grind it out with the enemy or even the dreaded leafblower bow line where the wood elf bows number over a hundred. All of these are valid ways to play the game with a wood elves army. I have however found that there is a lack of MSU tacticals on this and other sites. Now the MSU principles are something that fit with my style of gaming where I prefer to dance the dance in the movement phase. So without further ado, here it is. My take on MSU and Wood Elves!

MSU Principles
To start with there are some fundamental principles of MSU that we need to discuss and understand before we go into specifics. Below I will do my best to express my thoughts on them and how they translate to the Wood Elves army. They are of course universal but I will be talking about them from the wood elves perspective.

Strength in Numbers - Units not unit sizes.
As the name suggests (Multiple Small Units) MSU is all about outnumbering your opponents unit count. A normal WE MSU army of around 2400p-2500p will include somewhere around fifteen to twenty unit drops. This is vital as your trying to outmaneuver your opponent you need to find a good mix of units as well as a high unit count. I feel that the lack of warmachines creates a need for us to have a sizable number of missile units. I prefer to have around 1/3 of my army be missile troops of different types. 1/2 of the army will be combat troops and finally the remaining units will be assorted support troops like eagles and characters.

Point Sinks - Everything is expendable.
This is actually one of the more important parts of MSU for WE. Having no unit cost more then 200p, and preferably less then 100-150p, makes everything expendable to an extent. You will want to be in a position to never feel like you need to add more points in a fight to save the points you have committed there. It's often more economical to set up a new multiple unit combat in the following turns where you can pick when and where the engagement happens.

Attacks - Swarming them.
Another key point is volume of attacks. Having a high damage output per model is very important as you will be looking at winning combats by killing more then your opponent. Or when you sacrifice a unit you will want it to do damage and not sell their life cheep.

KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid!
Don't add points to units unless they are vital. If your playing blood and glory you need banners. if not they will be dead weight. Normally the only unit upgrade you will want is musicians on Glade Guard units and one unit with the Banner of Eternal Flame. The same thing goes for characters! Design them with a specific purpose in mind and stick to that! Don't add ward saves or toys that are not vital to their roll as that takes points away from more units!
This is something you can try with your normal army's by the way. Strip away all none essential items and unit upgrades and you'll find that you normally have around 100-150 points in what is actually dead weight that you could buy another unit for!

How to do/What to do

Wood Elves unit selection: Shooting
Shooting is actually essential in a MSU combat army. This might seem counter productive but is actually what lets the combat elements work. To create a strong shooting base for your army you need two things:
1) Glade Guards to whittle down the enemy Rank and File units and kill Monsters.
and
2) Waywatchers/Bow of Loren Highborn to deal with the heavily armored units of the enemy. The lack of high strength attacks of our units makes us vulnerable to Knights/MC/Flying Heroes.

I normally recommend 40-50 Glade Guard spread over 4 units, normally 3*10 and 1*14-20. As for anti-armor shooting I have found that 2*8-9 Waywatchers is essential, and they have the extra hand weapons so they can fight light support troops as well.

Wood Elves unit selection: Combat
The core of your combat contingent should be made up of cheep maneuverable units with a high number of attacks. There are two units in our army list that fits this role. Dryads and Wardancers. As both units are skirmishers they can get around the table and maximize frontage against their intended targets with ease. I prefer Dryads in units of 8 and Wardancers in units of 7 with no upgrades. This means that your units cost 96 or 126 points and are basically free! The low cost gives you a lot of flexibility in how you use them. They can act as a swarm and hit the enemy trying to kill a unit or be sacrificed to kill a character in a unit or just block a potential charge and doing some damage while buying time to encircle a unit. They also have the bonus of being stubborn in forests if needed.

In addition to the above units there is the option of adding units of 5 wildriders or 3 treekin.

Wood Elves unit selection: Misc
To aid the rest of the army you want the humble Eagles to help disrupt the movement of your opponent and go after warmachines. It's a simple no-brainer choice.

But what about characters? Well there are several options available and they all have different strengths and will move the army down different paths. The most important thing however is not what we want but what we actually need. And the question is simple. A lvl4 mage to protect against magic. When it all comes down to it, the magic protection is the only essential part of the character section of the army book in 8th edition. As we have not invested a huge amount of points in Treemen, EG-Deathstars or big units of Treekin there is no real need for a BSB. Sure it's always nice to have one, but is he needed? Every time you go into combat with a MSU army you do so expecting to win big or to get broken and force the opponent out of position. So if your winning your combats with 2-3 cheep units your basically only exposing your BSB and what ever unit he is with to potential danger. And it's important to note that a BSB is around 150vp+100vp on his own. Add in a unit of around 130vp and your now exposing 380vp in one squishy package. And for what? To make sure that your two units of dryads and one unit of Wardancers don't run if they should fluff all their attacks? Well lets do the math. 2 units of Dryads and one Wardancer is 318vp. A BSB and a unit of Wardancers of Glade Guard is 376vp. For me that seems like a bad trade since without stubborn we all know that WE units that need to take a break test normally needs to do so on rather hefty modifiers.

But all is not lost. Lets go over some of the Character options that are available to us in a MSU style army and how they can help us cover weaknesses that we might have and what synergies they have.

lvl4 mage: I know that Life is commonly considered the strongest lore we have access to, and in one of the more traditional army styles this is correct. However in MSU it's actually the Lore of Beasts that shine. Lore of Beast have 3 extremely potent spells that will synnergise well with the MSU style and help fill in gaps in our list. Amber Spear is the first, this spell gives us a hard-counter to monsters and solo hero's trying to run around and pick on our small units. The second is the Curse of Anraheir, this spell helps slow down the movement of units and keep them from charging stuff like Eagles. It also has the added bonus of aplying a -1 to hit to the enemy unit, and this is really big as it will protect all of the units we have fighting the target and not just one of them like Flesh to Stone would. Wildform, This spell will turn our cheep multiple attack units into meat-grinders and semi tanks. Dryads will have that stats of Treekin but cost less then half the points of a minimal unit, and 7 Wardancers will be pumping out 21 s5 attacks on ws6 when hitting an enemy flank!
As for items? A Dispel Scroll and the Moonstone of Hidden Ways is all you really need. The Moonstone adds an amazing tactical value to the lvl4 as most players will recognize that the only real points in the army will come from characters. And by keeping all your characters close you can draw the enemy army into a corner trying to get at them. Then just bail them all out with the moonstone on turn 5 and see them standing on the other side of the table while the entire army of your opponent is surrounded and with no high value targets available to them! If your feeling risky there is the high risk/high reward option of exchanging the Dispel Scroll for the Deepwood Sphere and giving the Beastweaver the potential of doing massive damage!

Highborn: Keeping him cheep with only the Bow of Loren and Arcane Bodkins at 205p. This chap can help you against Cavalry, Monstrous Cavalry and Solo-Heros. He also gains some nice synergies with the spell Savage Beast where he gains 3 more shoots with his bow!

lvl1 Singers: Many of you will not rate this character very highly. I do however find her to be extremely useful in that she can rearrange the shape of the battlefield when you give her the item Calaingor's Stave. For 115p she can clear out and forest on the table so you can use the moonstone safely as well as position and forests to slow your opponents movements down as they will not want to move across forests and lose their steadfast! This girl will also synnergise well with the Deepwood Sphere, giving you more control of the game and movements of the enemy.

Branchwraith: well. I would keep them without anything. No upgrades at all really. They are 65p and you should think of them as eagles without fly. Now they do have some interesting options available to them. As they are characters they become stubborn in forests when they are on their own, this is a nice bonus. They also synnergise well with the Lore of Beasts as Savage Beast will give them a nasty bite and make them a real threat to monsters and small Cav units as well as other characters. Pan's Pelt on the other hand will give them T7 and when you have them standing in a forest they will extremely hard to shift!




Here ends part 1 of this tactical article. Part 2(that I think will be shorter) will follow later today or tomorrow, and there we will have a look at "skeleton lists" that players can customizes after their own preferences as well as some in-game tactics and thoughts on how to play mind games with your opponent.

[Joey_Boy]

Part 2! Skeleton list and battlefield tactics!

Hey folks! I'm back after a great weekend and here to give you all something to start off the new week with! I'll be starting up this second part of the article with a Skeleton list that players can use as a reference point during the tactics discussion and as a base for there own MSU army's. I find that it's important to make something your own when playing the game. So I'll only give you a base to play around with. Something you can customize yourself and feel at home with rather then just trying to create a new "netlist".

The base!
Lords:
1 Beastweaver: lvl4, Moonstone of the Hidden Ways, Pidgeon Plucker Pendant, Dispel Scroll. 315 Pts

Core:
12 Glade Guard: Musician, Banner of the Eternal Flame. 172 Pts
10 Glade Guard: Musician.126 Pts
10 Glade Guard: Musician.126 Pts
10 Glade Guard: Musician.126 Pts
8 Dryads. 96 Pts
8 Dryads. 96 Pts
8 Dryads. 96 Pts

Sprcial:
7 Wardancers. 126 Pts
7 Wardancers. 126 Pts
7 Wardancers. 126 Pts

Rare:
1 Great Eagle. 50 Pts
1 Great Eagle. 50 Pts
8 Waywatchers. 192 Pts
8 Waywatchers. 192 Pts

Total: 2015p

Okay, so this is what I would call the "Base list" or "Skeleton list". It's designed with 2400p or 2500p in mind. And it's basically the bare minimum you would need to play MSU with Wood Elves. It fills all the needs and is in keeping with the MSU principles I talked about earlier. From hear you, the player, can add whatever you feel like you need or want in regards to your local meta game. having roughly 400p-500p to play around with you can go for multiple heros to fill up points, add two units of 3 treekin and more dryads. You could even add 2-3 units of wildriders to harass the enemy back lines and flanks. Or just add more Glade Guard and dryads to gain a stronger shooting focus for the list. All of this, or a mix, is different and valid directions you can take the style in. And most importantly you can make it your own, and something your comfortable playing with. I can not stress this enough, finding what works for you is actually much more important then finding the most points efficient units or items! At one point it will become about mentality and I could present you all with a list that will be perfect in my mind. But as I play a very conservative counter-charge based game, where I feed my opponent units until I feel comfortable in engaging him, my list would never work as well in the hands of player who wants to be aggressive and push across the table before the opponent.

Them There Tactics!
Alright then! Here we are, knowing the Why's and Why not's of unit choices, the principles of MSU list building and with a standard 1a template for an MSU army. Now all we need to do is to use it!

Focusing power: A pivotal point in playing with MSU is the ability to focus strength against your opponent. Finding room to maneuver in between and around the enemy units is something that will come with practice. But to get to this point you need to clear out the enemy support units(Make sure to identify and focus on panic spreaders like single saber-tusks/eagles, small warhounds or fast cav units, ect within 6" of multiple other units). Using your Glade Guard, Waywatchers and Dryads to quickly clear way the faster support units of your opponent and open up the area around their main money units and characters. Once you have this wiggle room on the table your goal is to soften the opponents units up by focusing Glade Guard fire at short range. Once the unit sizes starts dropping down to manageable numbers you will move on with the shooting to your next target. This is where you should focus combat force with a combination of units hitting front/flank/rear of the enemy troops. Having dryads(or Treekin if you use them) in the front and adding Wardancers to flanks where the return attacks will be lower is important. With normal rolls your units should take the enemy down in one or two turns of combat. And if your feeling unsure of your ability to break the enemy in one turn you can always use an eagle, branchwraith or some dryads to block the enemy unit next to the one your fighting. I normally try and start with the units on the flanks and then move inward as I kill the units. This is simply because I now only need to worry about counter-charges from one enemy unit if I fluff my attacks and get stuck.

Keep your angles clear!: I cant stress this enough people! Make sure your unit's are never lined up. And if they are, make sure it's for a reason. Like the next unit in line is 12,5" away from the one in front with units ready to charge the flanks of your opponent if he overruns or pursues, or that the unit is in a conga or has it's flanks turned to the enemy while in a forest to gain stubborn. As wood elf units in general are ItP you will not be able to flee if you mess up your positioning. This can very well lead to you having your battle line rolled by some sloppy positioning. And thats no fun at all! I have won many games against players who don't understand the way overrun and pursue works by creating multiple combats where they did not expect my units to end up. So read up on the rules and make sure you can use them to your advantage!

Identify the weak spots or strengths: All army's have one or two. Weather it's panic, crumble/instability, low unit counts, a need to cluster, inability to do ranged damage or a reliance on the charge. Once you identified the weakness and strengths of the enemy you can with your greater flexibility adapt to that. Say your opponent lacks ranged damage and only has support magic with hexes and buffs, this is great as you now can take all the time you need to divert and weaken your opponent with shooting before engaging in turn 5-6 to take the victory. Another example is when your opponent has a limited amount of shooting and magic thats aimed at killing deathstars/big units or monsters. Killing this will give you a sizable chunk of points and means you'll need to kill less of his units to gain a victory. Some army's have a great combat potential but lacks the speed or numbers to stop your blockers from segmenting their units.
As for a related note. I find it very helpful to know all the armys out there and what items and combos they have. This will let you know what the worst possible situation can be and also what the logical items or banners can be when you see your opponents units deployed and moved during the game. I own a copy of Army Builder and I find it has been great. Even if I own most of the army books out there, it's a huge boon to be able to tinker with lists and item combinations to get a better understanding of the opponents synergies and how he is trying to play his game.


This has been a very basic tactical and I hope the discussion that will follow will add to this and allows people to share what works for them and how you think and react with the MSU style. My hope is the anyone reading this will take something away from it and then take that something and makes it their own.

I will leave you with a short index of tacticals and Battle reports focusing on MSU that I think you all should read and enjoy!
(I will add more as I find them again on the inter web'z)
http://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic ... 12&t=94537
http://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic ... 12&t=94823
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=33028
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic. ... &start=270

[Calindor]

So far I must say that this is very good. Gave me alot of intersting and good advance, thanks and can´t wait for more

[Cariddis]

I'm a veteran MSU player and I found that up to now you've truly captured the essence of MSUing
just remember to the reader that the only important thing to add to GG is the musician for +1 when rally. The Standard is useful only in tournaments and the champion (as I think you know) is useless. Keep on writing!!!

[jer732]

Great start! Looking forward to the rest. It's funny becasue I was literally going to sit down today and write a similar article about my 8th edition MSU experiences. I'll hold off on adding anything to yours yet until we see the finished product, but I definitely like what you have said so far.

I think, along with many other people, that I was fooled by the initial reactions to 8th that the rest of the Warhammer community was having. As the OP mentioned, a lot of the initial focus for most armies was on big units and smashing face. Wood Elf players, myself included, tried to compete in the same way with Treemen and Treekin galore. I personally believe that, while this type of list has the potential to be successful, that an MSU WE list is even better. I am sure we will have a great discussion about this after you finish your article.

One thing that I did notice is that you seem suggest that a Branchwraith would be stuborn on its own in a forest. However, I don't believe that solo characters get the skirmish special rule in 8th as they did in 7th. Still, I think there is a lot of potential there to exploit in terms of cheap redirectors. It's sort of like what a lot of goblin and chaos dwarf players are doing with solo mounted goblin heros.

Anyway, good luck with the rest. I can't wait!

[Tuhis]

A really good article! I've always been a MSU player but since 8th editon I started testing out bigger units in hope for better game results. Didn't work as my mind was still in MSU mode, and still is. After reading this I feel like taking out my trusty old beastweaver with moonstone and sphere again. I never thought it would be seen as a competitive character choice, I only used it because it's so cool. Good to know the reason for my numerous losses was not the list but how I used it.

I like the lone branchwaith idea. Never thought of using them like eagles, but it's actually really clever.

Btw you said you use wardancers in units of seven. What do you think of units of five? For example, which would you choose, 3x5 or 2x7 (that's almost the same cost)? I have tried using two units of five dancers in couple of games and I think my opponent sees them a lot less dangerous than the usual seven guys, even though the difference is just two models. I remember him being surprised of the amount of attacks they had, even though we have been playing against each other for years and he knows their power. It feels like the smaller units could have the advantage of being underestimated by some opponents.

Also even though my games in 8th edition have been mainly losses, I've stared to like the MSU tree kin. Two or three units of those seem to work for me, and even when everything else fails, they usually still get something done.

Waiting for the second part!

[Sam123]

Id like to start by saying thats a great start with some very interesting ideas

But having been playing wood elf MSU for a while now ive noticed a few things that id like to mention here.

Firstly I totally agree with the need for archers in this list but ive found that 40 just doesnt cut it in some situations. Its just too easy for your opponent to shoot some of your archers or charge them with chaff (actually nothing really gets to charge glade gaurd in MSU armies because we flee but the point still stands). Having about 60 archers massively helps to put your opponent on the back foot and puts pressure on them to engage. This really helps in allowing you to get around their backs and multi charging units. Ive personally found 10 waywatchers also very useful for the simple reason that with 60 archers i find characters left alone or in severely dimished units by the end of the game, this is where they really shine and can pick up easy victory points. Like you said they are also very threatening to lone characters and knights.
(sorry about the wall of text )

My next point is that life is so useful on a lv4 weaver simply because of dwellers, as obvious as it sounds a dwellers on the right turn can flip a game on its head and i just think thats too good an oppurtunity to miss out on.

2 units of 3 Treekin also always find a place in my lists because i find they are the only unit durable enough to hit the front of a unit and not take horrendous damage, previously i've found that dryads in the front is counter productive as the damge they do is mitigated by the extra wounds the enemy unit inflicts on them.

Lastly i disagree with your choices of characters in some respects. I agree that a bsb is unnecessary but i think the machine gun highborn is a total waste of points. I also usually only take a lv4 wizard as this frees up more points for units although recently i have been toying with the idea of an eagle character with dragon helm, bsb and amaranthine brooch as he can add a surprising amount of combat res and help tip things in your favour.

Sorry if this sounds like criticism, its just meant to be explaining my personal experience. Its difficult to get across emotions on forums

I look forward to the rest of the article.

[Billthesurly]

I have not played true MSU since 7th ed. I took out one of my old 2000 pt lists and applied your principles. This is the result.

Spellweaver, lvl 4 (Beasts) w Moonstone & Deepwood Sphere, Dispell
Highborn w Bow o Loren & Arcane Bodkins, Dragonhelm
Noble, Elven steed, HoDA, Charmed Shield, lt armor, Spear (deploy with Glade Riders
GG x 110 w Musician & Banner of Eternal Flame
GG x 10 w Musician
"
"
"
Dryads x8
"
"
Glade Riders x5 w Musician
Wild Riders x5 w Musician
Wardancers x8 W Musician & Champ
Warhawk Riders x3
Waywatchers x5
"
Great Eagle
"
2500 pts

Edit: after a bit of tweaking....
Thats it. 16 drops and spreads out and covers the board like a blanket. Now you have me itching to try MSU again. (Good God, I have to paint more GG!) I also can't wait to try the Moonstone/Deepwood Sphere combo. To my knowledge that's never been done in my meta. Christ but I loved playing MSU in 7th.

edit #2 - Made some changes after playing the first version against O&G.
Wizard with combined wardancers more survivable and puts a really dangerous unit potentially in enemy's rear.
Dragonhelm to Highborn gives same lt armor save plus 2+ ward vs flame.
Mounted Noble with HoDA and spear is much more mobile.
Very good army. Killed all chaff and warmachines. Avoid big block units.

[Doc]

Haven't played 8th edition yet, but MSU was my favorite build for 7th. Best part is being able to set up what I wanted where I wanted it. Nothing better than watching your opponent finish placing his army while you are still deploying GG. The look on his face when he realizes that his flank is doomed to crumble is the best. Great article, keep it up!!

[JohnnyM]

Great start. One thing I think newer players would benefit from is the old MSU concept of unit redundancy (I never really thought that was the right context for the word, but still...)

Basically you recognise the areas of the game which are going to actually win you games.

In 7th ed they were shooting, march blocking, hammer, anvil, and something else.

You would then basically try and create units that could do this specific job for as low points as possible. Then, you'd make the unit 'redundant' by taking another unit for the same task. This way, if your treeman got fried in turn 1 you could rely upon your WR to do the smashing.

Example would be 2 GG units to shoot, WW and GR to march block, treekin to anvil ( for some reason people never advocated taking two anvils, I never understood why), TM and WR to anvil.

Characters slotted in to boost aforementioned abilities.

Rinse and repeat.

What do people think are those key game winning areas in 8th ed?

I'd say shooting stays there, for board control, panicking and wittling down
March blockings not really a game changer for me anymore
Anvil seems to have moved up with steadfast and hordes
Hammer stays as is- you're always gonna need to win fights

[Billthesurly]

Well OK Joey_Boy, now you have me drooling like Pavlov's dogs. Where's the rest?

[Joey_Boy]

I'm sorry for the delay lads. But life is keeps getting in the way of me finishing this. I'll try and get it done by the end of the weekend, but right now preparations for midsummer is stealing all my time and I'm leaving for the countryside in the morning. For you who don't know what midsummer is here is a short tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ZLpGOOA1Q

[Overmind]

Terrific now I wish I was Swedish... oh well.

[jer732]

Haha that sounds like fun, especially the drinking and grilling part!

[Moose123]

All my lists have some MSU built into them. I use my big 20 man glade guard, with at least 2 ten man units as support.

I always use the lore of Beasts, Life just seems so damn boring to me. Would you rather say, "What now my buffed dryads destroyed half your army!" or, "My glade guard held up your deathstar for the last 2 turns letting me squeeze in a win."

I really have to try out wardancers, I love the models but I only own the wardancer lord. I just like my dryads so much they never let me down, even if they just die they do so with a suicidal resolve to rival that of a dwarf slayer

Good article, enough said.

[Billthesurly]

Have fun with your holiday. Drinking, (over) eating, having fun. We have something like this mid-summer thing over here. We call it the 4th of July. Same holiday, different reason. And down here in South Louisiana we will accept the smallest excuse to throw a party. Hmmmmm, I wonder what it would take to get some small town around here to start doing a Mid-Summer Festival?

I wonder if the Swedish bikini team would sponsor it?

[Tuhis]

Hehe great vid! Remove everything but drinking and sauna and add drowning in a lake, and you got the Finnish version of midsummer.

[Joey_Boy]

Thanks for all the great comments so far! I'v now updated with part 2 and I will hopefully be adding more content as time goes on. It's 00.20 here in Sweden right now and Iv got work in the morning. So I'll be replying to your comments when I'm off work. Pleas leave your thoughts on the topic and discuss with each other. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you guys do the MSU thing and where you agree and disagree with me

[Anilar]

Great post, most definately something that im going to try out, since I have my Orcs & Goblins to play with when I wan't block/horde units and warmachine games. I really like that you keep in mind that people play different and that your sample army list reflects that, having space for people to do there own thing. My friends never know what mission we are going to play, so I would forexample make sure to have banners enough in the army, and just make do even thou that mission isn't rolled.

A few questions.
How do you fare against the high elves ??? one of my more regular opponents, and I have some troubles with Teclis, Caradryan, Phoenix guards and always strike first. And im wondering how you handle these in a msu playstyle.

There is probably somewhere a tactic thread for your idea of deepwood sphere and the moonstone together, but im not that great at searching the internet, so maybe throw in a link together with the other links, since I would like to know more. I know how each item works, but im not quite sure how you use the two items together for your high risk/High reward thing. And just guessing the weaver would still choose beast/life rather than the lore of Athel Loren even thou the characther has the deepwood sphere.

Mission related questions.
Battle for the pass: Not tried MSU, just imagining there is some problems with maneuverability in this game, as the game is played on a narrower front.
Blood and Glory: Do you take every banner you can get your hand on, or just one or two banners more than needed ?
Tower mission: Are you still keeping it small, putting in a group of archers or dryads. Or have you bought 20 dryads to keep the tower. And when it comes to assaults, the scariest thing I have seen in that tower so far, and im sure there are worse things, was a large unit of graveguards, with BSB and vampire lord, with ASF, the extra attacks on succesful attacks power and heavy defensive items. Even thou the unit did not start in the tower, im not sure how a MSU army will deal with that problem, apart from ofcourse making sure they don't get in there in the first place, with eagles and other sacrificial units.

[kbdrand]

For an MSU list, what do you do to keep your characters protected? Not put them in a unit and rely on a close unit for Look out Sir, or something else?

[Joey_Boy]

Anilar: I'm happy you liked it! regarding your questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
re: High Elves. I find High Elves very simple to beat. Most of the WE combat stuff is I6-I8 so stopping re-roles for all units exept PG and DP. Normally I just shoot them to bits and then go in with multiple units of Dryads and Wardancers(you can pop the 4+ ward dance if your feeling iffy with them) also Curse and wildform are great in this match up. Teclis is a wuss in CC so once you clear a path to him it's fairly easy to kill him off with Wardancers or Dryads.

re: moonstone tactics. It's more of a fun aggressive way to use the moonstone by teleporting into a wood that the enemy has to cross or where he will overrun into some dryads, then dealing massive damage to the unit. And I'd still play with Beast magic or Life over Loren on her. Normally I tend to play the moonstone defensively. I hang around with wardancers in a forest and any good opponent will see that my lvl4 + Highborn in that unit is the only real source of points in my army. This will make them focus on that unit and trying to get there and kill them in CC. So I wait and divert until turn5 when I teleport them across the table, thus denying my opponent any real points while he has given up a lot to try and get at them.

re: missions. I normally change the list depending on the tournament I'm playing. Is blood and glory in there then I'll add banners to all the glade guards, and sometimes a sniper BSB(Hunters talon and paegant of shrikes). If not I'll only run the BotEF as my only banner. In battle for the pass you have to play with the depth of the table, it's pretty abstract but basically you have the room to run backwards on one flank and push on the other while using the ranges of the bows to do damage and move in for short range later on. It's rather fun and challenging, but it's not a big problem. Just a small adjustment in how you move around and when/where you punch throe the opponents battle line.
The tower is a tricky one. And one of the few time I feel that Life magic is better then Beast. Normally I use a unit of dryads to hold the tower while I actually sacrifice just about every other unit to make sure my opponent cant charge the tower. Spells like Curse and Wildform are again super important in holding it. As is the defensive Pan's Pelt spell as I tend to run around with branshwraiths and when they kick it up to T7 they become very hard to shift with their I8, neglecting most ASF, and a timely Curse on the opponent giving them -1 to hit him. It's a crazy mission that I really don't like(as it's the most imbalanced of all the missions and heavily favors some army's) but if it's common in your area I'd say Life magic is the way to go over Beast(as much as it saddens me) as Dwellers and Flesh to Stone will be huge in controlling the tower.

I hope this helped out

kbdrand:
Normally my characters run around in a Wardancer bunker behind my lines. Then it all depends on if I need the moonstone or not. If I feel that my characters are safe I'll jump them around in GG units while sending the rearguard Wardancers forward. If not they will act as bait to draw the opponents down in the corner where my forest and WD+Characters are and then teleport to safety in turn 5-6. The wardancers are needed here because they are ItP and skirmish so they can become stubborn with a 4+ward in the forest if I'm fighting a big flying monster like a Bloodthirster or Dragon. Super important as they will not run away after one round of CC.

[JohnnyM]

Normally my characters run around in a Wardancer bunker behind my lines.

Praise be and hallelujah. I'm glad someone else does this. It got written off as nonsense in the bunker thread. Works for me every game.

[coastalsailing]

This is my favorite way to play the elves, and I absolutely crush people. I think it's one of the strongest ways to play them in this edition. The only, only downside I ever see is frequently not getting first turn.

[popisdead]

This is my favorite way to play the elves, and I absolutely crush people. I think it's one of the strongest ways to play them in this edition. The only, only downside I ever see is frequently not getting first turn.

Me too. I think big units take away the advantages of Wood Elves.

With the odds I don't think the downside is that much an issue as the trade off.

[sitaavanu]

I play a relatively MSU style game and agree with 99.999% of what you said and think it is an excellent guide, defiantly worthy of a sticky IMO.


However I have found having 1 or 2 DURABLE high point units (200~300). Your opponent will recognize these as the place to get points out of and will focus on them, this leaves your relatively easy to break/remove units unmolested for 2 or 3 turns.