The First Old World GT - Wood Elves wander into second!

Hey everyone, we're back with our second article covering The First Old World GT. Previously we covered Tim Nordens winning run with Orcs and Goblins, if you didn't catch it be sure to give it a read. Today we're going to look into Per Sigvallius and their Wood Elf list that took second place. 

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First Old World GT // 2000 points // 34 players

@ Umeå, Sweden

1st - Orcs and Goblins          - Tim Norden Draknästet SK                   WWWWW

2nd  - Wood Elves                 - Per Sigvallius - Warpfuel Gasstation     WLWWW

3rd  - Tomb Kings                 - Marcus Persson                                      WWWLW

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2nd - Wood Elves - WLWWW -Per Sigvallius - (Warpfuel Gasstation)

Here's the list:

The list embodies all the great things about the Wood Elves. Solid shooting, good monsters and high mobility. The Glade Lord on dragon is quite offensively tooled but still has a bit of extra survivability in challenges. The Shadowdancer discourages monsters from getting close due to the Dragon Slayer Sword. I'm not sure how effective it is but it's certainly a deterrent. I'm a big fan of the Oaken Stave on the level 4. That extra dice for dispel can make it really difficult to get spells off into Wood Elves and covers one of the most crucial weaknesses, magic missiles. The list has a fairly standard core, electing for majoritively Bodkins over Hagbane. A beefy unit of 7 wild riders hits very very hard and then the Treeman is one of the few units that can take a punch. I feel like this list has a lot of active threats and excels in the positioning game. 

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Day One:
Round 1 - 14-6 - Win vs Bretonnia - Jonathon Vinqvist - List

Round 2 - 9-11 - Loss vs High Elves - Mans Borgstrom - List 

Round 3 - 19-1 - Win vs Daemons of Chaos - Johannes Skarin - List

A good day 1 for our Wood Elves player. Losing a very close game vs a very fast and punchy high elves list is probably what cost him first. I think Wood Elves struggle more against lists that can match them for manoeuvrability. Finishing it off with a very one sided match vs Khorne Daemons.  

Day Two:
Round 4 - 13-7 Win vs Warriors of Chaos - Mattias Strom - List

We start day two against the infamous Chaos Dragon and win what appears to have been a close game. Wood Elves are quite good into the monster meta game I feel. The Annoyance of Netlings on the Wood Elves dragon make it very tough to deal with in challenges, and therefore quite stubborn against other big character monsters. I think leaning into the Arcane Bodkins here made the matchup a little easier, Chaos Knights are a good target for Bodkins and Per had that in plenty. The big unit of Wild Riders also plays very well into melee lists, especially with counter charge. There isn't much that can survive enough to hit them back in combat. However this is all conjecture and just how I see the game going, regardless, Per ekes out a victory here to go into the final match in a strong position. 

Round 5 - 15-5 Win vs Bretonnia - Linus Wallin - List

Per's second Bretonnia match and the score shows it to be just a smidge closer. Again, I think the Arcane Bodkins are really solid into Bretonnia lists, able to get through wounds onto the heavily armoured Bretonnian Knights. Notably the list does include a Green Knight, which can be very troublesome for some armies to handle. However Wood Elves do not lack magical attacks. Overall I feel that Per's Wood Elf list has a lot of play into the heavily armoured army lists, and whether that be by design or not it paid dividends here. The Dragon is also very difficult to deal with for Bretonnia, especially if not running the Pegasus Duke.  

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A very impressive run by Per, that loss in the third round really hurting him in their run for the title. However, a very impressive and well deserved second place finish. Wood Elves look really good going forward. Able to play all the phases of the game efficiently, with great monsters and fantastic speed. Wood Elves look able to control the battlefield and push quickly on the flanks with a lot of fast unit that hit very hard. The Dragon is also able to stack many negative hit modifiers to make it very difficult to deal with. 

Another huge congratulations to Per for being our runner-up at the very first Old World GT. We'll be back soon to check out our third place Tomb Kings run!

Have a great day everyone!