Wood Elf Starting Rosters Overview
There have been some slight changes to Wood Elf teams, the Thrower and Wardancers have gone up in price and the Catcher has lost Sprint. They are already at a disadvantage when it comes to creating a starting roster as all their players are quite expensive. However the prices changes haven’t really affected too much as all the lineups under the old rules tended to leave some money in the bank anyway. Your choices are much the same as before but with left money saved towards an Apothecary. Wood Elf teams tend to score a lot though and with bonus winnings from touchdowns they should be able to make that back fairly easily.
| QTY | Position | Cost | MA | ST | AG | PA | AV | Skills & Traits | Pri | Sec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-12 | Lineman | 70k | 7 | 3 | 2+ | 4+ | 8+ | – | AG | S |
| 0-2 | Thrower | 95k | 7 | 3 | 2+ | 2+ | 8+ | Pass | AGP | S |
| 0-4 | Catcher | 90k | 8 | 2 | 2+ | 4+ | 8+ | Catch, Dodge | AG | PS |
| 0-2 | Wardancer | 125k | 8 | 3 | 2+ | 4+ | 8+ | Block, Dodge, Leap | AG | PS |
| 0-1 | Loren Forest Treeman | 120k | 2 | 6 | 5+ | 5+ | 11+ | Loner (4+), Mighty Blow (+1), Stand Firm, Strong Arm, Take Root, Thick Skull, Throw Team Mate | S | AG |
| 0-8 | ReRolls | 50k | Apothecary: Yes | |||||||
| Special Rules | Elven Kingdoms League |
Double Wardancer Wood Elves
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Wood Elf Linemen | 630k |
| 2 | Wardancers | 250k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 100k |
| Total | 980k |
This roster was one of if not the most common starting choice for Wood Elves. Wardancers are one of the best players in the game so it makes sense to start with both of them. There is still 20k left in the bank which you can save towards an Apothecary, or get some Dedicated Fans. Either way the Apothecary is going to be your first purchase to help keep death or injury at bay for your Wardancers.
It is possible to spend the extra 20k to upgrade a Lineman to a Catcher. The downsides to that is it will take longer to get an Apothecary, Catchers aren’t very strong (though Dodge is useful) but they can also hog the star player points. If you don’t have a Catcher you can concentrate on skilling up the Wardancers. You would like more rerolls but you can’t afford it. The Wardancers come with their own in built Dodge reroll anyway so in my mind this is clearly the best choice.
Treeman Wood Elves
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Wood Elf Linemen | 630k |
| 1 | Wardancers | 125k |
| 1 | Loren Forest Treeman | 120k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 100k |
| Total | 975k |
As Wood Elf players can be quite fragile, perhaps you want to start with a Treeman. Every other Elf can get star player points very easily and Treemen are very slow to develop. However I’m not sure it’s worth giving up a Wardancer in order to afford a Treeman so I personally would give this a miss.
One Reroll + Treeman Wood Elves
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Wood Elf Linemen | 560k |
| 2 | Wardancers | 250k |
| 1 | Loren Forest Treeman | 120k |
| 1 | Rerolls | 50k |
| Total | 980k |
The other way you could start with a Treeman is to drop to one reroll which gives you the right amount to upgrade a Lineman. This way you keep both Wardancers from the start. The obvious downside is that you now only have one reroll, but as mentioned before Dodge on the Wardancers helps a bit. You are still going to want to get an Apothecary first which delays getting any more rerolls even further. Thankfully Wood Elves do have pretty cheap rerolls compared to most. You could also look to getting a Thrower and getting Leader as well.
Reroll Heavy Wood Elves
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Wood Elf Linemen | 700k |
| 1 | Wardancers | 125k |
| 3 | Rerolls | 150k |
| Total | 975k |
Reroll heavy options would usually imply getting four rerolls, though for Wood Elves three it is. It is possible to get four if you only start with Linemen but then you have an entire team without any skills.
Zero Reroll Wood ELves
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Wood Elf Linemen | 420k |
| 1 | Thrower | 95k |
| 2 | Catchers | 180k |
| 2 | Wardancers | 250k |
| 1 | Apothecary | 50k |
| Total | 995k |
I have played against zero reroll Wood Elf Teams before. The roster starts with four high agility players with Dodge and you have built in rerolls for the passing game. The team also starts with an Apothecary to protect these more expensive players, especially as Wardancers are magnets for a gang foul. You could potentially swap that for a reroll if you wanted.
Previously it wasn’t unusual for Wood Elf teams to not bother with the Thrower. With high speed and agility you could move the ball the length of the pitch without one anyway. Some of the teams that did take one just did so because they could get Leader easily. With the new passing rules though, the Thrower is a lot more important for the passing game as now even doing a quick pass with any of the other elves requires a 4+ rather than a 2+ roll that the Thrower retains.
Having no rerolls on this team is workable but it probably requires a more experienced coach so I wouldn’t recommend it for newer players. The order of player activation each turn is important generally but even more so without any rerolls.
Wood Elf Starting Rosters Summary
As you can see there are quite a few different ways to start a Wood Elf team. Even with the price rises the starting roster options have not really changed much at all. Whilst the value of the Throwers has gone up I’m still not sure I would bother starting with one. Just bear in mind that once you’ve started, if any team needs to get an Apothecary quickly then this is it.
I have played wood elves a lot and I could say that the new rules have penalised their way to play. Catcher are slower (were used to be fast a skaven gutler, now they are useless), passing is a matter of the Thrower (higher in price) now, and no benefits were thought to balance this.
Even compared to other elves teams, also the pricing seems unbalanced. And this is not as a matter of single player cost, but of overall team. And I don’t rhino would elves are a tier 1 team anymore.
Suggestions? As said in the article, apothecary is mandatory for saving your investment.
Wood Elves have been one of the best 2 teams for a long time. They aren’t as good now but they are by no means bad. I think calling the catchers useless is a bit of an exaggeration.
The catcher losing sprint doesn’t make it that much slower also , one less going for it for an 8 mv player isn’t that bad and imo the thrower still being 2+ when other team have thrower at 3+ or all player at 4+ to pass is a benefit in itself
you do realize that the catchers used to have movement 9, they changed that to 8 and sprint and now they dropped the sprint. I see rules being changed based on sore losers complaining, if you start comparing values of different players there is no longer any logic there…you used to be able to calculate a players value…an agility would have a certain value…a movement…an armour value…now depending on where you look same difference may be worth 25.000gp one time and only 15.000gp the next.
The thrower is important now, it wasn’t before. Some coaches omitted the thrower or only took him for easy access to the Leader skill, which isn’t his intended role.
In general the passing game is slightly nerfed, but it was (and to an extent, still is) an incredible efficient way of scoring. It will naturally affect a team that focuses on that play style.
As to benefits, they are a tiny bit harder to kill now, due to the new injury rolls.
Not saying you aren’t right. But balancing of a game will always be of benefit to weak teams, and a penalty to great teams. Balancing is for a greater experience for everyone.
thank you for your comment.
I’ll try harder to get it work and fun for me playing WE still.
There seems to be a small error:
It should have been 0-4 Catchers (unless I missed an update)
Thank you, I’ve updated the table.
I’ve been playing around with quite a few different Wood Elf starting builds in 2020, and the one I like the most is thrower, treeman, 1 dancer, 2RR and 8 linemen.
It gives you 1 dancer for blitzing, a thrower to carry the ball and pass if needed, and a tree to give you an anchor point and soak up hits. Then I prefer to save for the second dancer BEFORE going for the third re-roll. An extra player with dodge will really help – at low TV you are pretty much using all your re-rolls on failed dodges. Apo comes after the re-roll, then you start buying catchers!
I random general skills on the linemen. Any that get Block, Wrestle or Kick then save for Dodge. If you roll Dirty Player you save for Sneaky Git, and pretty much everything else goes on the defensive LoS until it dies.
The thrower takes dodge first skill (opponents love to try and base your ball carrier if they can’t sack), and then either you go full passing meme with Cannoneer etc, or you go Sure Hands to focus on defense and grabbing loose balls.