Post by ashimbabbar on Apr 25, 2024 19:40:09 GMT
Because who doesn't like treemen ? ( well except when they stomp you )
In 2022 the Kaptain Kobold posted a battle report where one army that was (mostly) Ents smashed an army of Elves to tiny pieces
• Behemoth General : biggest ent
2 Behemoth : more big ents
4 Warbands : smaller ents
1 Beast : werebear
2 Lurkers : woodsmen
As I pointed to him, it was a good-looking bad idea, as this army – although it had a powerful combo at its core and great mastery of bad going – was highly vulnerable to magic and had nothing to oppose to ærials. He didn’t care to answer.
hordesofthethings.blogspot.com/2022/08/ents-vs-elves.html
• Behemoth General : biggest ent
2 Behemoth : more big ents
4 Warbands : smaller ents
1 Beast : werebear
2 Lurkers : woodsmen
As I pointed to him, it was a good-looking bad idea, as this army – although it had a powerful combo at its core and great mastery of bad going – was highly vulnerable to magic and had nothing to oppose to ærials. He didn’t care to answer.
hordesofthethings.blogspot.com/2022/08/ents-vs-elves.html
An army which answers those concerns much better, in my opinion, can be found here on the french site. 15etdice.forumactif.org/t140-armee-elfes-des-bois-en-15mm
Here’s the translation for the non-francophones of this Wood Elves army
• Blade General
Here’s the translation for the non-francophones of this Wood Elves army
• Blade General
1 Blade
2 Behemoths: Ents
1 Hero
3 Shooters: elves with bows
1 Flyer: giant eagle
It’s a much more balanced army, with a Hero and 2 Blades to deal with Magicians and a Hero, 3 Shooters and a Flyer to deal with Ærials.
But.
In my opinion, it has two weak points
- 3 Shooters is a little light to deal with Bad Going
- Without Warbands or Knights, Spears have a good chance of stopping the Behemoths – there’s only the Blades and Hero to deal with them.
Now my army with treemen grew out of this warhammer fantasy battle report hoodlinghole.blogspot.com/2016/02/from-vault-all-in-name-of-conquest.html
So here goes
• Behemoth General : Treeman ancient
. 1 Behemoth : more recent big treeman
. 4 Wb : lesser treemen
. 1 Paladin : Drycha. Or an elven princess on a unicorn. Or whatever.
. 2 Shooters : elves with bows
This allows to keep the core Warband+Behemoths, with the Paladin to neutralize magic and hopefuly to kill off Magicians and Heroes – and threaten a Hero General.
However, 2 Shooters may be a little light to deal with ærials.
So here goes
• Behemoth General : Treeman ancient
. 1 Behemoth : more recent big treeman
. 4 Wb : lesser treemen
. 1 Paladin : Drycha. Or an elven princess on a unicorn. Or whatever.
. 2 Shooters : elves with bows
This allows to keep the core Warband+Behemoths, with the Paladin to neutralize magic and hopefuly to kill off Magicians and Heroes – and threaten a Hero General.
However, 2 Shooters may be a little light to deal with ærials.
Now for something a little different
• Cad Goddeu. I am aware there are paired lists for Cad Goddeu in the latest version of HOTT, but let’s face it they suck dead rabbits through a straw*
(A big fat slab of Welsh legendry here which you may freely skip)
Math ab Mathonwy, king of Northern Wales and powerful magician, has three problems
. no children of his own
. Although in a war he can lead his troops and magick his enemies, in peace time he has to stay seated with his feet in the lap of a maiden. I don’t know, maybe that’s the way he powers up.
. Although he lacks children, he has a whole brood of nephews – Gilvæthwy, Gwydion, Govannon, Amæthon - and a niece Arianrhod, and not one of them is worth the rope to hang them with. Let’s see them in detail.
Gilvæthwy very much wants to have sex with Math’s current power source Gœwin, she doesn’t, but that doesn’t deter him.
So Gwydion, the one in the lot to have magic powers, uses them to provoke a war with the king of Southern Wales Pryderi. Math ( and Gwydion, who personnally kills Pryderi ) goes to war, Gilvæthwy stays behind and rapes Gœwin.
A new maiden has to be found. Arianrhod applies for the job, only she maybe wasn’t entirely aware of the requirements because Math’s lie-detector test causes her to give birth to twins. One promptly leaps into the sea and morphs into some sort of amphibious creature
- Whom his uncle Govannon will murder some time later for no particular reason that I know of -
Arianrhod vents her rage on the second by lading him with dire curses. Gwydion (with Math’s help for the last curse) sets to undo them, but when you consider the end result maybe he shouldn’t have bothered.
Amæthon steals from sidhe lord Arawn. Now what he said isn’t much (aa hound, a roe and some kind of bird IIRC) but Arawn was a good friend of Pryderi (who had taken Arawn’s appearance for a year and during that interval killed Arawn’s enemy and abstained from bedding Arawn’s wife) so it must have been the last straw for him. So Arawn musters his army and Cad Goddeu ensues.
Arawn first routs the army of Northern Wales, Math being absent. Maybe he was dead, or maybe he told Gwydion ‘another of your stupid siblings got himself in trouble, you deal with it’.
So what does Gwydion do ? Animate the trees into a second army of course !
It’s worth pointing that in every other occasion he uses magic it’s nothing but illusions, Cad Goddeu is the one occasion he creates real effects. And we’re told there is a Lady Achren presents – Achren being welsh for trees. So the inference is clear – it’s her power he’s borrowing.
Gwern blaen llin, Alder, front of the line,
A want gysseuin formed the vanguard
Helyc a cherdin Willow and Rowan
Buant hwyr yr vydin. were late to the fray.
Which I translate to
• Magician General : Gwydion+Lady Achren
2 Beasts : alder
4 Warbands : main body
1 Behemoth : really big trees
2 Spears : 1 willow, 1 rowan
Bunkerize the general with Spears, charge with the Warbands and Behemoth, use the Beasts as necessity commands.
Here’s the paired list in case you feel like fighting the battle. You’ll notice that even as Gwydion enlisted Lady Achren, Arawn recruited Bran the Blessed. Considering that in every battle he was he managed to be on the losing side, it may not have been a very shrewd move.
Rider general : Arawn
6 Riders : sidhe cavalry
1 Hero : Bran the Unsuccessful
6 Hordes : sidhe foot
* My eternal gratitude for this expression goes to the writer and blogger Per Jorner, who used it in his post on the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Seas of Blood. I encourage you to use it whenever the situation calls, but don’t forget to credit this great man.
The good guys in Where the Evil Dwells by Clifford D. Simak
That’s a novel which at first packs a lot of punch and loses most of its steam by its second half.
It takes place in a universe at once uchronic and heroic fantasy, that is the Roman Empire survived and didn’t fragment, magic exists (even though most wizards are cheap quacks) and there’s monsters around (mostly ogres, trolls and harpies – also dragons which are kind of big pterodactyls) as a buffer zone between the Empire and barbarians – the frontier is on the Danube since the last great monster rush but one that submerged formerly Roman land, it’s now called the Empty Country.
On the frontier developed a sort of feudal regime with lords and castles although apparently without knights. It’s those cstles that stopped the last great monster rush 10 years ago. Castle lord Harcourt’s wife disappeared in the fighting – and he’s just received intelligence that she might be alive in the Empty Country…
• Cad Goddeu. I am aware there are paired lists for Cad Goddeu in the latest version of HOTT, but let’s face it they suck dead rabbits through a straw*
(A big fat slab of Welsh legendry here which you may freely skip)
Math ab Mathonwy, king of Northern Wales and powerful magician, has three problems
. no children of his own
. Although in a war he can lead his troops and magick his enemies, in peace time he has to stay seated with his feet in the lap of a maiden. I don’t know, maybe that’s the way he powers up.
. Although he lacks children, he has a whole brood of nephews – Gilvæthwy, Gwydion, Govannon, Amæthon - and a niece Arianrhod, and not one of them is worth the rope to hang them with. Let’s see them in detail.
Gilvæthwy very much wants to have sex with Math’s current power source Gœwin, she doesn’t, but that doesn’t deter him.
So Gwydion, the one in the lot to have magic powers, uses them to provoke a war with the king of Southern Wales Pryderi. Math ( and Gwydion, who personnally kills Pryderi ) goes to war, Gilvæthwy stays behind and rapes Gœwin.
A new maiden has to be found. Arianrhod applies for the job, only she maybe wasn’t entirely aware of the requirements because Math’s lie-detector test causes her to give birth to twins. One promptly leaps into the sea and morphs into some sort of amphibious creature
- Whom his uncle Govannon will murder some time later for no particular reason that I know of -
Arianrhod vents her rage on the second by lading him with dire curses. Gwydion (with Math’s help for the last curse) sets to undo them, but when you consider the end result maybe he shouldn’t have bothered.
Amæthon steals from sidhe lord Arawn. Now what he said isn’t much (aa hound, a roe and some kind of bird IIRC) but Arawn was a good friend of Pryderi (who had taken Arawn’s appearance for a year and during that interval killed Arawn’s enemy and abstained from bedding Arawn’s wife) so it must have been the last straw for him. So Arawn musters his army and Cad Goddeu ensues.
Arawn first routs the army of Northern Wales, Math being absent. Maybe he was dead, or maybe he told Gwydion ‘another of your stupid siblings got himself in trouble, you deal with it’.
So what does Gwydion do ? Animate the trees into a second army of course !
It’s worth pointing that in every other occasion he uses magic it’s nothing but illusions, Cad Goddeu is the one occasion he creates real effects. And we’re told there is a Lady Achren presents – Achren being welsh for trees. So the inference is clear – it’s her power he’s borrowing.
Gwern blaen llin, Alder, front of the line,
A want gysseuin formed the vanguard
Helyc a cherdin Willow and Rowan
Buant hwyr yr vydin. were late to the fray.
Which I translate to
• Magician General : Gwydion+Lady Achren
2 Beasts : alder
4 Warbands : main body
1 Behemoth : really big trees
2 Spears : 1 willow, 1 rowan
Bunkerize the general with Spears, charge with the Warbands and Behemoth, use the Beasts as necessity commands.
Here’s the paired list in case you feel like fighting the battle. You’ll notice that even as Gwydion enlisted Lady Achren, Arawn recruited Bran the Blessed. Considering that in every battle he was he managed to be on the losing side, it may not have been a very shrewd move.
Rider general : Arawn
6 Riders : sidhe cavalry
1 Hero : Bran the Unsuccessful
6 Hordes : sidhe foot
* My eternal gratitude for this expression goes to the writer and blogger Per Jorner, who used it in his post on the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Seas of Blood. I encourage you to use it whenever the situation calls, but don’t forget to credit this great man.
The good guys in Where the Evil Dwells by Clifford D. Simak
That’s a novel which at first packs a lot of punch and loses most of its steam by its second half.
It takes place in a universe at once uchronic and heroic fantasy, that is the Roman Empire survived and didn’t fragment, magic exists (even though most wizards are cheap quacks) and there’s monsters around (mostly ogres, trolls and harpies – also dragons which are kind of big pterodactyls) as a buffer zone between the Empire and barbarians – the frontier is on the Danube since the last great monster rush but one that submerged formerly Roman land, it’s now called the Empty Country.
On the frontier developed a sort of feudal regime with lords and castles although apparently without knights. It’s those cstles that stopped the last great monster rush 10 years ago. Castle lord Harcourt’s wife disappeared in the fighting – and he’s just received intelligence that she might be alive in the Empty Country…
So he leads a small party that will grow as the story rolls on. Besides Harcourt himself, we have
- Abbott Guy, Harcourt’s childhood buddy’s elder brother. He heard about a prism in the Empty Country supposed to hold the soul of a saint and that’s just what’s needed to bring pilgrims to his half-ruined abbey. He’s a loyal friend and a good fighter with his 2-handed mace, but for spiritual things you shouldn’t ask too much from him.
- The Knurly Man… when Harcourt was 2 his father died in what maybe was a hunting accident and maybe wasn’t. His mother’s father, a wealthy merchant, came all the way from Gaul to take over the castle and lands (which he scrupulously turned over to Harcourt when he came of age, but he’s still here ordering everybody around and trying to get Harcourt to do what he thinks is best). He broight along the Knurly Man, one of the very last Neanderthals alive – in this universe they live for thousands of years and they can access ancestral memory whenever plot demands. He basically raised Harcourt. He’s a really good fighter with a bow or an axe, and he beats back some Lovecraftian entities.
- Yolanda was born in the Empty Country, her parents deposited her on the civilized side. She grew to be a fine shot with a bow and woodswoman, also she’s a remarkably gifted sculptor in wood.
They’ll pick up
- Centurion Decimus Apollinarius Valenturian, the one survivor of an ill-conceived foray.
- The Pedlar (what he can be peddling in the Empty Country and to whom is anybody’s guess), an unimpressive little man who actually is a powerful magician with lots of Lightning Bolts.
- Old Nan, a healer who survived in the Empty Country by healing monsters; pretty good with a bow, her age notwithstanding. Yolanda’s grandmother.
- Now we come to the book’s REAL heroes, a bunch of wooden gargoyles sculpted by Yolanda’s mother to replace those broken from a mostly-intact church in the Empty Country and enchanted by the Pedlar… (does it give an incestuous feel to you ? It does to me). As soon as they appear the heroes can sit comfortably and watch them slaughter monsters by the cubic ton, especially in the last fight where they take control of trees.
So
• Blade General : Harcourt
2 Blades : the abbott, the centurion
2 Shooters : Yolanda, Nan
1 Hero : the Knurly Man
1 Magician : the Pedlar
1 Behemoth : trees controlled by gargoyles
2 Lurkers : more trees controlled by gargoyles
- Abbott Guy, Harcourt’s childhood buddy’s elder brother. He heard about a prism in the Empty Country supposed to hold the soul of a saint and that’s just what’s needed to bring pilgrims to his half-ruined abbey. He’s a loyal friend and a good fighter with his 2-handed mace, but for spiritual things you shouldn’t ask too much from him.
- The Knurly Man… when Harcourt was 2 his father died in what maybe was a hunting accident and maybe wasn’t. His mother’s father, a wealthy merchant, came all the way from Gaul to take over the castle and lands (which he scrupulously turned over to Harcourt when he came of age, but he’s still here ordering everybody around and trying to get Harcourt to do what he thinks is best). He broight along the Knurly Man, one of the very last Neanderthals alive – in this universe they live for thousands of years and they can access ancestral memory whenever plot demands. He basically raised Harcourt. He’s a really good fighter with a bow or an axe, and he beats back some Lovecraftian entities.
- Yolanda was born in the Empty Country, her parents deposited her on the civilized side. She grew to be a fine shot with a bow and woodswoman, also she’s a remarkably gifted sculptor in wood.
They’ll pick up
- Centurion Decimus Apollinarius Valenturian, the one survivor of an ill-conceived foray.
- The Pedlar (what he can be peddling in the Empty Country and to whom is anybody’s guess), an unimpressive little man who actually is a powerful magician with lots of Lightning Bolts.
- Old Nan, a healer who survived in the Empty Country by healing monsters; pretty good with a bow, her age notwithstanding. Yolanda’s grandmother.
- Now we come to the book’s REAL heroes, a bunch of wooden gargoyles sculpted by Yolanda’s mother to replace those broken from a mostly-intact church in the Empty Country and enchanted by the Pedlar… (does it give an incestuous feel to you ? It does to me). As soon as they appear the heroes can sit comfortably and watch them slaughter monsters by the cubic ton, especially in the last fight where they take control of trees.
So
• Blade General : Harcourt
2 Blades : the abbott, the centurion
2 Shooters : Yolanda, Nan
1 Hero : the Knurly Man
1 Magician : the Pedlar
1 Behemoth : trees controlled by gargoyles
2 Lurkers : more trees controlled by gargoyles
It's a colorful army, but not very mobile, and here too there's not much to counter Spears. But I think the combo Hero/Magician/Behemoth has merits.
EDIT: I had given the wrong reference for my personal treemen army - how embarrassing 
