So what was the idea that had me look into yet another army? Well, it was a battalion in the Idoneth book, Alliance of Wood and Sea. It blends Sylvaneth with the Idoneth Deepkin, and immediately I wondered how you would model such an army. Trees drenched in seaweed, growing barnacles? Treemen that are massive coral structures maybe? Sharks flying out of trees.

Heh. TreeSharks.

Goal:

To make a weird yet cool TreeShark force.

Research:

I’m just going to put this into the Building a list section.

Battalions?

Yep, the Alliance of Wood and Sea.

Building the list:

This battalion is expensive and full of units. I’ll start with the Sylvaneth for ease. They need, conveniently, a start collecting box plus a few more dryads (treelord ancient, Branchwych and two units of Dryads). Okay, thinks I, that’s two battleline units down and-wait, they aren’t battleline because they are allies? Okay, well at list I have two casters that… oh. Have no additional spells.

Well, this is not shaping up well so far. What do the Sylvaneth units do in this list? Gain the benefits of Tides of Death (the Tides rule) so let’s look at that closer:

Low tide – units count as being in cover. Cool, whole army benefits here. Possibly even more as most of the list can’t be targeted due to the Forgotten Nightmares rule for the Deepkin.

Flood Tide – after running, can either shoot or charge. Okay, the dryads are an anvil unit, the Treelord Ancient is a caster, not a fighter (having at most 4 melee attacks) and the Branchwych… okay, she might use it. Gee, such benefit. Only the Treelord Ancient can shoot.

High Tide – Units fight at the start of the Combat phase. As above, these models are not really close combat focused but if they are in combat, this won’t hurt.

Ebb Tide – after falling back, can shoot or charge. Yeah, these benefits would be great for, say, Kurnoth Hunters to use but being tied into these models means we aren’t getting a great benefit from the battalion.

Anyways, let’s add in the Idoneth, which means an Isharann Tidecaster, 2 units of Akhelian guards (opting for the Ishlaen variety solely because they are cheaper), a unit of Akhelian Allopexes (three please, they are sharks after all), a unit of Namarti Thralls and a unit of Namarti Reavers… So a kitchen sink approach then.

This gives us three heroes (only one is Deepkin though) and just one battleline for 1630 points. Woah. Bugger. I had hoped to fit an Eidolon in this list but they do not unlock additional battleline options.

Let’s see. If I make the Tidecaller the general, then the Reavers become battleline meaning only 1 more option is needed or I take an Akhelian King/Volturnos which makes the Ishlaen Guards battleline too. I think this is the better approach, and this eats up the remaining points, leaving just enough for an endless spell or two. 

The Army:

Volturnos

3 Akhelian Allopexes

3 Akhelian Ishlaen Guard

3 Akhelian Ishlaen Guard

Branchwych

10 Dryads

10 Dryads

Isharann Tidecaster

Namarti Thralls

Namarti Reavers

Treelord Ancient

This is 53 models and comes to £270 (using the Bloodsurf Hunt box from the Morathi release as well as a Start Collecting box for both Idoneth and Sylvaneth). However, that does not include the Gloomtide Shipwreck (£30) or Awakened Wyldwoods for the Sylvaneth (if I’ve read it right, this army can summon them and then use teleportation shenanigans, £32.50).

Pros:

It would be a unique army and as I said at the start, a real chance to design a unique looking force.

Cons:

I mean, the list sucks. It does nothing well, the dryads normally rely on numbers but are only units of 10, the Sylvaneth heroes are lacklustre in faction and suffer even more in this army.

I really wish more thought had been put into this battalion as the concept is great. There could easily be some lore crafted around the two factions weaving a close knit alliance for some reason (take a look at the Living City, able to draw in Sylvaneth and Stormcast Eternals for their armies) and a less prohibitive battalion used to represent it. As it stands, there are too many required units to be able to customise the army into something vaguely competent.