Let’s have a look at the released roster of the wicked wood elves of Lindwurm, the Sÿenann. For each unit we’ll look at their stats, abilities, and the tactics I like to use with them. Feel free to put your comments here at the end or get the discussion going on Discord.
To kick us off here is my 100% objective and accurate unit tier list which I expect will cause no disagreement or arguing at all:
S – best in their class, causes great dismay in your opponents OR great fun, every activation is a joy
A – great at what they do, offers something unique and list-defining OR good fun, I enjoy activating them
B – good at what they do, but are often situational OR ok fun, I activate them when I need to
C – offers something nice, can feel underwhelming OR if I have to activate them I will, but it means I’m probably desperate
D – I would take something else if I could OR I have never decided to activate them
Contents
- Ynyr Dará Lainn
- Alula
- Druid
- Aoidos
- Lioslaith Cóic Caledhee
- Grand Captain
- Sÿenann Captain
- Warden Captain
- Neakail Den Fhiakra
Troops
Protectors of the Forest
First up are the poster child of the Sÿenann – haughty elves with bows who like forests. Surprisingly they are officially our slowest unit with a tardy 4-3 (10) move, unlike every single other unit who was 4-4 (11), except the Sÿenann Captain and Wardens who are 4-3(11). Did we really need to differentiate those movements so much? I guess only the designers can say, I certainly would have appreciated having the units share the same speeds, unless they are noticeably different, like birdpeople.
Let’s look at their other stats. 2 Wounds with two blues and a black is nothing to write home about, but also not terrible. WP with orange/yellow is pretty standard, as is MOR 1. The weak point here is really the conquest of 1 and then 0 when damaged.
This is all beside the point really, because the defining reason for this unit is their 18-range shooting attack. The attack dice are reasonable for a standard line-trooper, but the lack of rerolls due to not charging means these dice can be swingy. You have about a 70% chance of getting 3 hits, and a 60% chance of getting the switch off once, which means you should get 1-2 wounds in on most targets. Obviously, this isn’t very scary in terms of killing things, but that’s not what we’re trying to do – Sharp Archers gives 1 stress if we inflict any damage with a ranged attack, and this is our real goal. We have an effective 29 stride threat range (with moving before shooting) to give 1 stress, free of danger. Sitting in the midfield this means we can touch pretty much the entire board, and from an 8 stride deployment zone we can, on the first turn, hit an enemy who walked from their deployment zone at least 15 strides towards us.
In addition, we have Stalking from the Forest, which lets us displace 4 at the end of a ranged attack (on our activation, not on Hold & Shoot unfortunately) if we are within 5 of a forest or allied Nemorous unit. Note here, we can be that Nemorous unit if we have an attached Grand Captain. This means we can shoot one way, displace over a wall, and run in another direction.
I usually run these guys with the Sÿenann Captain to give them the guaranteed hit on the ranged attack to make it more reliable, as well as the extra morale and conquest, which is just necessary if you want to get any work done. Although we think of these as ranged shooters, do remember they aren’t terrible in melee on the charge, and 8-10 wounds can still be a lot to chew through for some units, so if the scenario is right just charge them in as tarpit.
Overall: B tier – they do good work, but it’s not sexy or always fun
Grove Curtailers
These are an interesting mix and I like them. They aren’t flashy, but they get the work done – they scout in and hold an objective against even mean units.
Statswise they are normal Sÿennan – fine but not fancy. Their attack and defence dice are rather nice but suffer from a lack of switches to make them reliable.
Slippery is a nice ability to disarm an enemy each time you touch bases, and the 8 stride trigger range for forest or Nemorous is generous, instead of the usual 5.
Sudden Escape is interesting, letting you effectively move 13 at the end of a combat (even if you win) and preventing the enemy from getting a follow-up move. The direction you move is determined by the angle between the leaders of the two units, so make sure you position yourself correctly when you charge in. I like to use this against an enemy with a shorter charge range – you charge, do some damage and stress, then run back into safety, ready to charge again next turn. You can also use this to “leapfrog” a unit – charging in, putting your leader to the side of their leader, and then popping out that side in a new direction, effectively giving you a 26ish stride move plus attack in the middle. In one of my Interplanetario games (report pending), I used this ability to tarpit a unit for a while, then attacked to Escape back and claim an objective, without suffering an opportunity attack from otherwise disengaging.
Scout is enormous and easy to underestimate as it is easy to misplay. I love to keep them in reserve, then drop them late game to steal an objective, usually from some conquest 0 wimpy mage. You can also use Scout to start the game with the unit in position, such as for a Rift on the edge of the table (Interplanetario report pending), which effectively saves you an activation.
I pair them often with Aoidos, but the new hotness is Neakail Den Fhiakra. I’ll cover both when we get to the characters.
Overall: A tier- scouting troops are excellent, and these guys fulfill their role with gusto
Shadows of the Yew
These guys straight up faction-defining. As soon as you know your opponent is Sÿenann you need to make to look at the table and your list and come up with a plan about how to deal with them. These guys are so good and do so much work it’s hard not to say they’re the heart of the faction. And the face. And the bulging biceps.
Stats-wise they are regular ol’ elves, except MOR 2 showing off their elite training.
The reason this unit is the single most important part of your army is this:
Ambusher + Silent and Precise + massive damage = you can reliably kill almost ANY single unit in the game in a single activation. This is even more reliable if you take Lioslaith, but either Captain can work instead. By reliable, I mean if you take Lioslaith and double stress on the attack, and are near a buffed Forest from the Druid, you have a 76% chance of doing 7 hits, and a 46% chance of doing 8 hits. 8! That’s all of the wounds a unit of Bucklermen or Battle-Scarred have! You’ve also got the charge reroll, and the two dice reroll from Lioslaith. Combined with vulnerable from Lioslaith, no switches from Silent and Precise, and your own switches to cancel hits, often my opponents will get no shields at all, and their unit will simply be wiped from the table. For maximum psychological effect, charge into a unit already engaged to one of your own to negate an extra symbol, just to help make sure your opponent feels as powerless as possible.
The decision when and where to drop these units with ambush is, in my humble opinion, the single most important decision in your game. I always plan my Druid’s forest placement, and own deployment, around where I want my enemy to put their units so that the Shadows will do maximum damage. I want to get in and around their kitchen, messing up their pots and pans. I plan to have the Druid buff a forest on turn 2 or 3, so that I can drop the Shadows on turn 5, win the initiative, and then last-first over the end of round one into turn 6. This usually means even if I don’t wipe my target in the first activation, I can finish them off in the second and move to threaten the next piece or nobly hide in the forest in safety. Remember that you have Preferred Terrain (Rugged|Forest), so you can ambush into a forest and charge right out of it, 2 strides away from an enemy.
There is no great defence against this unit – they ignore Hold & Shoot, they ignore switches, and they prevent skills that would affect them on the engage/charge/assault. (Notably, the Darkmaster’s Coated in Shadows does still work, as it triggers on the declaration of a melee attack. Not that a disarm will save a 4 wound unit from the Shadows, but it’s a nice thought) You can go ahead and theorycraft a deployment and first few moves that keeps your juicy targets safe from the 13 stride charge by making a bodyguard shield, but in reality, that will break open once the game actually starts. Additionally, the Shadows can just ambush into your bodyguard and kill it first, then go after the real target next activation.
Well Jonno, you certainly make it sound hard to deal with, how do I win against Shadows then? Easy – get AMPed. I will warn you though, it’s a three-step process, which for many of us might be two too many:
- Accept your fate – at least one of your units is going to get ganked.
- Manipulate your opponent into attacking the wrong unit at the wrong time.
- Play the mission.
The first step is hard from some people – no one likes taking their cool miniatures off the table without them doing anything, but sometimes that’s just how it is. The second step is much more interesting. Sÿenann lack a lot of table presence, and the Shadows can only be in one spot at a time. Try to tempt your opponent to drop the Shadows on an exposed Drago or Aide who have already done their work, and then have the Shadows stuck on the wrong side of the table. Nothing is worse for me than dropping the Shadows in and killing something, only to realise that had no effect on the game itself, and now the Shadows need to WALK like a PLEB across the table to do anything useful. Timing is also very important here – the earlier you commit the more time your opponent has to counter and remedy the situation, but the later you drop the more chance you give your opponent to just win the mission without your 65 point unit being on the board.
If you do want to kill them, remember they only have 4 wounds, and although their defence is pretty good, it’s not foolproof. Either wear them down with volume or get them with autowounds. Alternatively, just be Northern Tribes and kill them when they charge you with your offensive defence dice. I have lost a combat charging naked Shadows into a raged-up Revenant. It felt bad. It was bad. I learned.
Camouflaged is a fun, flavourful skill which might be relevant if WP tests weren’t so reliable to pass even with the re-roll, and if I didn’t keep hiding in forests to prevent line of sight. I haven’t seen it do much yet, but maybe that’s just me and my Hegemony opponents.
Overall: As S tier as S tier gets
Sÿena Wardens
Our first real anvil unit! Two greens, a blue and a black in defence is pretty solid, and when you add the Warden Captain he’ll give you an extra block, as does Lioslaith’s Encircling Defence (which doesn’t require any positioning because the Wardens themselves are Nemorous). If are near a forest or another Nemorous and have the Warden, you will also disarm your attacker (it doesn’t trigger from the Wardens alone) each time your engage/are engaged. Fearless ignores Intimidating (looking at you Black Angels) as well as Frightened (get stuffed Scions). A faction-first conquest of 2 also means we can actually play the same game as Hegemony and win contested objectives instead of running around snatching undefended objectives like a dog stealing leftovers under the dinner table.
Your native switches let you place yourself on the attack or defence, which makes you untrappable and your defensive switch can give out vulnerable. This highlights the unique purpose of this unit – get charged and then counterattack thanks to our three amazing skills:
Feigned Retreat lets us do a light demoralization (1 turn instead of 2), Guided by the Ancestors means we auto-succeed on the rally check (unless some niche stuff happens like being way overstressed, unlikely thanks to Fearless), and Countermarch Maneuver means that when we rally, we can charge instead of moving (after doing the normal rally stuff like reducing stress).
Let’s play out the scenario with an attached Warden Captain – we double move up to the middle objective and claim it. Some Big Baddies come charging down to push us off – they get disarmed and we have two autoblocks, so there’s a chance we take only minor damage or even none at all. Since we can stress for a hit on defence, there’s even a chance that we win the combat on defence which is just the absolute most chad move possible. We give our opponent vulnerable, auto-demoralise at the end of combat and flee like brave defenders do. In the next activation we do something cool with someone else, it doesn’t matter what, and at the end of THAT activation we auto-rally the Wardens, drop stress, and charge back into whoever attacked us last turn. This retriggers Slippery, giving out disarm again, and we attack with our huge swing of red red orange (Warden Officer) yellow yellow, plus likely Druid buff of a third red. That’s a 57% chance to roll 5 hits without considering the charge reroll and any autowounds from our switch, AND the enemy is vulnerable. If we had used our activation to charge someone else into this combat (say, a birdperson with a 22 stride charge range) then the enemy is also outnumbered. This unit is a powerhouse and I predict will win many games on their own if the enemy tries to brute force them.
We’re no Hegemony with Strategos and Aide, but this is also our first real extra activation as Sÿenann and yes, it costs a command token, and yes, it serves a very specific scenario, but that scenario is a common and vital one that Sÿenann is otherwise not very good at: hold an objective and kill the other guy trying to take it.
Of course, the Wardens with their Captain is 70 points so it’s not a light investment, but they certainly do what they promise – ward, and ward well. I can’t wait to run these guys enough that Bulwarks will look on in envy.
Overall: S tier, but probably only because we haven’t had enough experience in the community to learn how to deal with them
Characters
That’s it for troops, let’s look at the characters. We’ll start with the birdpeople because they are cool.
Ynyr Dará Lainn
Pretty reasonable stats with a good defence. His attack is fine, but you’re only expecting to get 1-2 hits through. This means he can only finish something off, gank a squishy solo character, or attack just to shove and give stress. Given his 22 stride charge range though, he has some pretty flexible options.
Let’s get straight to the cool bit, this guy can up jump into the air and fly away like a champion.
To the Sky is awesome; if you were engaged, you push every enemy 4, then pick up Ynyr, remove all states and stress, then deploy him again with scout. You can either do it at the start of your activation or via Resin Cabochon at the end a combat (doesn’t have to be your activation). If you are jumping from combat you do have to pass a WP roll, but with two orange (86% chance of passing) that’s reliable enough for me. Resin Cabochon also gives you 1 free damage cancel for each combat which if you stack with Lioslaith’s Encircling Defence, Ynyr can be surprisingly tanky.
He also has Death from the Skies which is a long skill to jump to engage an enemy within 10 (you can place wherever, even the opposite side) and attack. Since you don’t need line of sight, this can be over a wall, or from within a forest. It has it’s uses but charging is obviously preferred for the reroll.
Since he can always jump around later, it’s hard to deploy him badly. I like to scout him up aggressively, projecting a 22 charge range field of danger and annoyance. Usually, I will then either run up to steal an undefended objective, or more likely charge somebody to give them stress and then jump away to scout somewhere else. He can also be deployed in the middle of your deployment zone as an “anti-ambusher option”, ready to countercharge (with gang up bonuses) any fools who drop to attack your feeble elven insides.
I love him, he’s great, try him out and go buck wild with it.
Overall: A tier – he offers such unique flexibility, but he lacks the punch to be an obnoxious threat.
Alula
What an interesting character. He’s got normal stats for a 20 point solo character, except for a 22 charge range. There are four real reasons to take this guy:
- Surprise Attack does a lot of work to soften a blow aimed at your important pieces. Disarm plus the gang-up bonus can sometimes be enough to prevent the death of even super-squishy pieces like the Druid. More importantly, the enemy is now engaged with you so they can’t bonus-move after killing their target. Additionally, if they choose to walk away from you, you can do a second opportunity attack to get some chip damage in.
- Vanguard Observant is very interesting. All your allies can see through your eyes. This is particularly great if you don’t take the Grand Captain, and now all your units can hide in forests but see out of them, as long as the Alula can see their targets. I used this is one game (report pending) with Alula safely on the right flank watching the midfield. My Protectors and Druid could hide behind a building but shoot via Alula’s line of sight over the building and onto the middle objective.
- The 22 charge range. The attack is nothing special, but you are likely to get a wound or two through which should be enough to win the combat, give stress and push back your opponent. It also lets you dart up the field, particularly if you can get the last wound onto an enemy and trigger the bonus movement, gaining a 34 stride move turn.
- You have 20 points spare and nothing better to spend them on.
I always pair the Alula with my Druid – with Surprise Attack even an ambushing Darkmaster does not have a good chance of killing the Druid in a single activation, which can be enough of a deterrent to protect it without fighting. When the midgame comes, the Alula is free to charge off into the distance just to be annoying or to snipe some squishy mage who wandered too close.
Overall: C tier – he has some nice skills and roles, but I could easily see replacing him when our options open up.
Druid
The Druid has mediocre stats for a spellcaster, but with such intense frailty that even a stiff breeze could knock him over. Make sure you keep your eye on your tinge, because with only 2 wounds you don’t have much leeway. Also, he weirdly doesn’t have Preferred Terrain (Forest) so he can’t hide in the brambles and shoot out his spells. I have to imagine the designers thought he would be too busy admiring the plants to be able to concentrate on his enemies.
His first and most well-known ability is that he can deploy a light forest before deployment (after you know which side you are on). This forest must fit within a square with a 7-stride side but can be smaller. I believe that means you can cut a hole in the middle to place it around an objective if you want, but maybe CB will rule against that. The forest blocks line of sight and has light cover – I have never seen cover used yet in a game, usually an enemy is either in the forest or out, or I am ignoring the forest anyway. Where you put this forest is very important, many of your units have abilities which trigger from being with 5 or 8 strides of it, and you can buff the forest with your most important spell:
Exalting the Troop – this gives ALL of your allies within 5 strides of the target a red, orange, or yellow die to their melee attacks, and even more importantly, lets you remove 1 stress at the end of the activation. This second part is critical; you can activate a unit that ends its turn within 5 strides of the forest indefinitely, eg Protectors of the Forest plinking arrows at everyone from the midfield, or Shadows going on a rampage. As I mentioned in my previous article (LINK), stress management is vital to efficient high-end play. This spell breaks the fundamental promise that the whole stress mechanic makes in the first place – players can only activate a single unit a set number of times per game. We, as overly privileged elves, get to ignore that.
I often base my entire game’s strategy around combining this spell with the Shadows of the Yew and try to set up a three-turn rampage where they will drop in at the end of a round and kill things over and over again. For example: Turn 5 drop in, double stress on the attack (stress 2-1=1), drop a stress over the end of the round (0), turn 6 attack with double stress (2-1=1), turn 7 attack again with double stress (1+2+1-1=2). Three back-to-back activations with double stressed attacks, and I still am only on 2 stress! You will need enough relevant targets of course, but that’s the heart of playing a guerilla warfare game – you manipulate your enemy into bad situations and then punish them heartily for it. That’s where your forest placement, scouting movements and ranged harassment have all lead – to getting your opponent to putting the wrong units too close to the wrong forest, and losing everything.
You can also consider casting this on Protectors of the Forest with an attached Grand Captain (he makes them Nemorous) and just activate them as many times as you please, throwing out ranged attacks with abandon and then displacing after each one. This gives you incredible mobility and reach, even if the attacks might not do much damage.
Overall: A tier – amazing spells and forest growth, but if the opponent wants to kill them, they can.
Aoidos
Finals contestant for “Characters with the most often mispronounced name”.
Normal spellcaster stats with 2 W, but at least a green defence die.
I have always run this guy scouting with my Grove Curtailers and have never seen him solo.
His Ballad of the Dryad is a cool spell which can be relevant as a counter to some niche matchups. The automatic nature is nice, if not terribly relevant given his red WP, but the No LoS is very helpful for sniping an enemy spellcaster hiding behind some troops or a wall. You get to give a state, and then also shutdown a skill, passive skill, or command skill for 3 turns, unless they pass a WP roll with 2 hits. Note you give the state first, so feel free make your target Frightened so the are more likely to fail the WP roll. This can shut off some big skills such as Lioslaith’s Scabbard of Nuada, a Revenant’s Fulfill their Destiny, Alborc’s Warg and Crow, all of Nuada’s nonsense, or Drago’s Inspiring Leadership or Anvil. Since I usually run Aoidos in my Grove Curtailers, there is a world in which I could see them scouting in, then Aoidos separating to run out and cast this spell. That situation hasn’t happened to me yet as there is usually something better to do but try to keep it in the back of your mind.
Dance to my Tune is great – enemies shooting, charging, or assaulting you or your unit might get stressed. Even though this is not terribly reliable, it does mean the opponent has to think twice if they can risk it. Say they were on MOR-1 stress and already activated – now if they activate to charge you, there is a chance they will demoralise, even if they win the combat!
Music and Healing Herbs is absolutely fantastic and why I bring him along at all. I scout in the Grove Curtailers with him attached and they move near the objective. Some chump enemy doesn’t like that and charges in, maybe gaining a stress on the way thanks to Dance to my Tune. I probably lose the combat without too much damage (thank to disarm) and gain a stress. Next activation I first use this ability to drop a stress and give it to my opponent, then I attack – they are now at stress 2 at least, and I’m only at 1. If I do it again, they’ll be at stress 4, and I’m still on 1. Now there’s a good chance they demoralise, and I can take the objective.
Overall: D tier – his Music and Healing Herbs and +1 MOR is why he gets to come to the game, but I can see him getting dropped as soon as we have any other options available. Maybe in the future his Ballad of the Dryad will be important tech, but we’ll see.
Ok, now onto our four different captains!
Lioslaith, who is the named Grand Captain, then the unnamed Grand Captain, then the Sÿenann Captain, then the Warden Captain. All of whom are Sÿenann and Captains.
A helpful guide to the Captains of the Sÿenann
Lioslaith Cóic Caledhee
Lioslaith is my favourite High Command and let me tell you why: when she is in the Shadows of the Yew you can come crashing down like the might of a thousand waves! I like that feeling, and you probably will too. This is mainly thanks to her Captain of the Shadows of the Yew which gives out vulnerable when you charge or assault AND repeat up to 2 dice in the attack. This is before or after your charge reroll, and you can reroll the same dice as you did with the charge.
She has standard warrior character stats, except for a blue in her attack dice so she can weather charging Northern Tribes. Her Encircling Defence is an awesome army-wide bonus but has a large drawback – it is only active when she is physically on the table. This is in stark contrast to the Grand Captain’s Ambushing Tactics, which are always on even if the unit is still waiting to ambush or is already dead. Since I like to keep her hidden until the time is right, I lose out on some of the value, especially if I am aggressive with someone like Ynyr.
The Scabbard of Nuada is great – you cancel all extra damage and place yourself 3 instead of dying, which usually means you can just run away with your next activation, or countercharge your attacker. This is particularly useful when playing Decapitation as the opponent has to invest an enormous amount trapping her to make sure she actually dies. I got to use this skill to great effect in a game at Interplanetario (report pending), where she got to survive getting charged by enemy Shadows of the Yew (and ignored like 4 extra damage) and continue sealing the rift.
An alternative to running with the Shadows is to go solo, which I am finding increasingly attractive. This gives you a second ambusher which can really put a spanner in the works for your opponent and opens up a lot of flexibility for you. She will demolish solo spellcasters and can reasonably hold her own even in a moderate brawl. Do try to remember that when she is solo she is Elite. Embarrassingly she does NOT have Preferred Terrain (Forest), unlike her less experienced Shadows…
Overall: S tier – she turns the Shadows of the Yew into an absolute powerhouse, she is great solo, and she gives a much appreciated army-wide toughness buff.
Grand Captain
The unnamed Grand Captain, who, although I don’t love him like I love Lioslaith, does have possibly the coolest miniature going around. His solo stats are fine, but notably not Elite, with a reliable but low damage ranged attack.
Unlike Lioslaith he does have Preferred Terrain (Forest), which is redundant as he grants that skill to everyone via his excellent Ambushing Tactics. Since this is permanent, it applies before he deploys and after he dies. You don’t have to reveal it until you want to though – if he’s off the board (via Scout, for instance) it’s up to you to decide at each moment if your units benefit from it or not. This lets all your units see through forests, which is huge if you are running important ranged pieces – you can hide inside or behind a forest and shoot out, but be hidden from counterattack.
His Maneuvers in the Forest is niche but powerful – the two units don’t have to target the same thing, and placing adjacent means you can leap to the other side of it, you don’t have to land within 5 strides of where you started. This can be an enormous jump, so keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to use it. You do have to activate the Grand Captain or his unit to use it though. If the unit is itself Nemorous, I believe you can place it adjacent to itself – pick up the leader and put it in base to base with one of the other troops. I used this once after scouting in while attached to Grove Curtailers – I ended the scout millimetres outside charge range from an enemy, then on my activation leapt adjacent to myself to charge. Since the Grand Captain makes his unit Nemorous by default, this is always an option for him. Niche, but useful.
Overall: A tier- he’s solid and his army-wide forest-vision is cool but it’s value is very table dependent.
Sÿenann Captain
So the non-grand captain, who is, like every other unit in the army, also Sÿenann. I guess they couldn’t come up with any new names after spending all their pronunciation budget on the others.
She’s great as an attached officer – she gives her unit +1 MOR, +1 Conquest, and +1 success to ranged, melee, and defence. If she was otherwise blank, I would still take her.
She has the oddly named Coordinate the Advance, which can only be used at the END of your activation to move an ally – this means you can’t advance too far forward if you want to use it. I would love this ability if it was “during your activation”, but to be honest you can still make it work, it just takes more brainpower than it should.
She can give Orders from the Rearguard, but here the ally needs to be within 10 strides, which to me is nowhere near where the rearguard should be fighting. You also need to have the initiative, and get only a single reroll in defence, so I imagine this rule will be up there in the running for “rules most often forgotten”.
I started running her with Protectors who desperately need the extra MOR and hit on the ranged attack, but I’ve been convinced she has a reasonable place in the Shadows of the Yew, letting Lioslaith run solo.
Taking her as a solo piece sounds interesting given her native Aim combined with a slow and a stress switch, but the stress is unreliable. I haven’t tried it yet but let me know your experience.
Overall: B tier – she’s good and necessary to take to buff up your units, but she’s nothing flashy.
Warden Captain
Our first big boy who can take a hit, the Warden Captain! He is an Elite defensive powerhouse despite his measly 3 wounds, especially as he is Nemorous, so is likely benefitting from Lioslaith’s Encircling Defence. His Energy Spheres guarantee that he can charge any enemies who attack him, and allow him great flexibility to just walk calmly away from a combat he doesn’t care to take part in. In combination that means he is a great contender for doing things like holding Loot or sealing a rift.
Attached to Sÿena Wardens he also has Slippery (like Grove Curtailers), which further bolsters their defence. Note here though that it requires another allied Nemorous unit, so the Wardens do not trigger it alone despite already being Nemorous.
I am not sold on Strengthen the Shadows – since it has a target, it requires line of sight. Personally, my Shadows of the Yew are on the other side of the board hidden in a forest, so even with having the Grand Captain this ability won’t trigger much. Also, the end of round stress reduction is only replacing the normal stress reduction, so it’s just 1 more, not 2. When new Shadows get released, I’ll look at this again and see if its worth running him solo for it.
Overall: B tier – He buffs up Wardens who are already strong, but I don’t know if that’s too many eggs for one tough basket. Solo I find him too pricy for what he brings, but we’ll see what the future holds for new Shadows.
Neakail Den Fhiahra
I have given up trying to pronounce this name.
Mr Grumpy is a self-proclaimed emo-masochist who demands that you to hurt him so he can feel alive again. He wants to scout in with Grove Curtailers at the start of the game and get charged. If he likes the combat, he can use Pain Tolerance to heal a whopping 0-1 damage and more importantly block 1 damage every activation for the rest of that combat. After using this skill, he can attack like normal. Combining this with the native disarm from the Grove Curtailers’ Slippery and his own Wind Greaves to block switches, he upgrades the Curtailers into a durable tarpit who can also do some reliable damage back. If he doesn’t like the combat, the Curtailers can just use their Sudden Escape to bail like a Feudom aristocrat when the peasants come around asking for rights.
Notably, Neakail has an orange in defence, or yellow when attached, which finally puts Sÿenann on equal footing with Northern Tribes as REAL WARRIORS who can totally win combats on the defence, and not just namby pamby elves with bones made of twigs.
The Tinge trait gives him one tinge at the start of each round. This applies even if he is attached (giving it to the unit) but not if he is not deployed (like with Scout). You need to spend one tinge for Pain Tolerance, and if you don’t get rid of it, you’re going to be gaining stress at the end of the round like a normal spellcaster, so make sure you spend it.
Since he is something of a Scout himself, I can see a world where I take him as a solo objective stealer who can bully other solo units and scouts.
Overall: B tier – he tunes up Grove Curtailers but I don’t know if the cost is worth it. He might be an A tier solo scout, but I’ll need to see it on the table.
That’s it for now, I hope you enjoyed my analysis. Comment below or on the Discord and share your thoughts, praise, outrage, hopes, and dreams.
Next article coming up: How to Play Sÿenann – Strategies and Tactics.
If you missed it, have a read of my last article Warcrow Tactics: Positioning and Stress Management
Awesome write up! Looking forward to the next one!