Realm of the Wood Elves - First Impression

[KAM 2150]

The graphics of the map when you defened the Oak are pretty sick! I did not even had GEM on.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Okay I've played a bit more. Im not sure I particularly care for the Amber system, but I play with larger armies so that could by why. I just don't feel like I really have any Amber to waste on units when I need it for so many other things.

On top of that, I feel like the Elves are too squishy. Maybe Im biased by Tolkien, and I get that they are supposed to be glass cannons, but I feel like the Eternal Guard at least should not be losing to basic Gors with shields. Of course, my old complaint about unit sizes comes into effect here, and I have to once again say that with such limited unit sizes, better balancing is extremely limited. If I could have it my way, for instance, an unit of Eternal Guard would be about 150 strong, while a unit of Empire Spearment or Gors would be 300, and a unit of Goblins would be 500.

Elves should be balanced as extremely capable, disciplined fighters but with low unit sizes. The problem as it stands is that the difference between a unit of ancient, powerful, highly trained Elven spearmen and a unit of slavering beasts who rely on nothing but numbers to carry the day ends up being about 40 men.

[KAM 2150]

Yes, I do agree, that is why for now I hold off any "real" balancing, since you can't make interesting stuff with current size. Sure you can scale it but it will not be as great because with units like 300 zombies per squad you can make Giants still strong and able to kill 4-8 zombies with single strike (eye candy value) while not making everything else super fast kill race.

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Im hoping they will fix it when they release Skaven, because I honestly have no clue how they could hope to portray the endless tide of ratmen if the maximum a stack could have would be 3801.

I fought a battle in Attila once where 40,000 Germans tried to overrun my fort, so this is a bit of a disappointment when it comes to scale.

But I do digress. That complaint applies to all factions, it's just starting to get more noticeable the more varied the factions become. It's a good DLC, and this actually feels like a new faction with an interesting, new playstyle. Beastmen just felt like Chaos with a new paint job, but the Wood Elves feel really different to me.

[KAM 2150]

Yes, definetly enjoyed WE campaign, although both of them were rather short, I was able to finish both under 100 turns each in two days and normally it takes me around 3-4 weeks to finish up one campaign.

[General Sultan V]

Im hoping they will fix it when they release Skaven, because I honestly have no clue how they could hope to portray the endless tide of ratmen if the maximum a stack could have would be 3801.

I fought a battle in Attila once where 40,000 Germans tried to overrun my fort, so this is a bit of a disappointment when it comes to scale.

But I do digress. That complaint applies to all factions, it's just starting to get more noticeable the more varied the factions become. It's a good DLC, and this actually feels like a new faction with an interesting, new playstyle. Beastmen just felt like Chaos with a new paint job, but the Wood Elves feel really different to me.

I agree so much, there won't be much room or slack with the Skaven. They were a faction that really relied on just sheer numbers. Only few clans utilized something more sophisticated like warpstone technology but they still also relied corely on massive numbers to win wars, even their strongest units were just swarm-style ratmen. I hope they don't mess up my dear Skaven.

[jahjeremy]

I'm finding the mini campaign a bit too hard for me, even on Normal. There's very little margin for error, and I'm getting overwhelmed by about turn 20 when 3 Beastmen stacks show up. I'm struggling to field 2 stacks at that point...looks like I need to build-up earlier. *restarts yet again*

[EternalSilence]

God damnit these wood elves are not easy to macro managment on the campaign.
I'm only able to have 1 army / elvish capital. (a tree where i can have more than 1 buildslot).

I have a nice 1 full stack armie, but i lost the control over the OAK TREE.
So i'm not able to upgrade it. Because i cant upgrade it, i cant get it to lvl3. Lvl 3 of the OAK TREE would give me the option to confederate the other elvish factions.
Now i'll need to disband a military alliance and kill one of the elvish factions to regain control over that tree :/

[drillmaster]

You do realize you must NOT upgrade the oak untill you are ready to defend it..... right?

[General Sultan V]

I had one beastman army casually run through my land while my army was showing the Brettonians who's in charge and burn down my oak of ages because my army could'n even catch them.

[Turumba]

I really like it. Due to the building restictions, the campaign is very dynamic, a complete other game experience for me. For the capitol as well as for the outposts. I have a time lapse on my channel, if someone is interested. More important for me though, is that I'm looking forward to play the Argwylon again- that is really the first time for me TW:W at all. Replayability yay! Played with Durthu GC, he is pretty awesome, too. For the army composition: Elven Archers 6-8 ( all three amberless ones), 5 Treekin, 2 Wilddeerthinis (first those w/o shield, later w/ shield), rest was Dragons, Trees, Heroes. Eff the Eagles though... and the Hawkarchers are only usefull vs. Undead/Chaos (but who knows). Cheers.

[Beregond]

am I the only one having this annoying bug when none of my characters get any followers, at all. Just some boring generic banners.

[PrinceofPersia]

So, I have had a few days worth of play, where I managed to complete the GC (only in Hard level) as the Woodelves. I must say, I did end up playing far more than I expected over the weekend, maybe that is why I finished the 'Long Campaign' in around 90 turns.

The campaign itself was pretty straightforward and I had no real issues with Chaos armies or even Greenskins, as the location of the elves is pretty safe from the 'evil factions'. I didn't really appreciate the purpose of Amber, perhaps it was included so that quick expansion and overly powerful armies are kept in check. Having said that, it was not that difficult to accumulate amber, through alliances and land capture. The WE faction does have a unique feel to it, with it's army composition mostly focusing on light armoured units who excel in stealth warfare, especially in the woodlands. I was pretty disappointed with the Elven archers as a whole, as they did feel pretty standard (Maybe I have been corrupted with Legolas and LOTR). The higher tier units are pretty powerful especially the Monsters, which WE have a few of such as 'Forest Dragons', treeman and Eagles.

Once I did manage to level up the 'Tree of Ages' to level 5 the 'Final battle' with the beastmen happened. It was a pretty epic battle, when my one stack faced 4 stacks and just when my battle lines where beginning to shake a well timed alliance joining the battle helped me win the battle. The game just ended then and the game transformed into the standard one from before (stopping the Chaos invasion).

By now my wealth was stable and had 4.5 stacks of solid army, which was more than enough for the Chaos invasion. With the added buffs such as no attrition and super quick recovery, I was taking settlements every turn, mostly auto resolving now as it did become slightly repetitive.

so in a nutshell

pro:
1) nice addition to the WH game with an indepth unique unit roster
2) Part of the map which was fairly empty has now some activity
3) different style battles with more micro management (which is a preference, but I like it).
4) Awesome monster units, especially the Dragons and Tree men.
5) the finance system means, you can't roll over with cash like the dwarfs and early decisions are more critical.
6) Graphical improvements - some settings look great!

Cons:

1) maybe too expensive for the content gained
2) one could argue that this faction should have been in the game from the beginning (especially in the part of the world that has been revealed).
3) replayability is not that high.
4) Slightly pointless 'Amber' system
5) unit size is pretty small - even for WH standards and the great feel of 'A truly epic battle is not there - with the exception of the last battle maybe ( I have been corrupted by other TW titles and love crazy large battles)

Overall I give this DLC a 6.5-7/10 - Good but not great.

[Gavani]

am I the only one having this annoying bug when none of my characters get any followers, at all. Just some boring generic banners.

I noticed this too. But assumed that it was a decision because of all the benefits you get through research and through upgrading the Oak of Ages meant that if they got followers too would be a bit OP?

Never occurred to me might be a bug. Maybe you are right.

[Tullaris]

So, I have had a few days worth of play, where I managed to complete the GC (only in Hard level) as the Woodelves. I must say, I did end up playing far more than I expected over the weekend, maybe that is why I finished the 'Long Campaign' in around 90 turns.

The campaign itself was pretty straightforward and I had no real issues with Chaos armies or even Greenskins, as the location of the elves is pretty safe from the 'evil factions'. I didn't really appreciate the purpose of Amber, perhaps it was included so that quick expansion and overly powerful armies are kept in check. Having said that, it was not that difficult to accumulate amber, through alliances and land capture. The WE faction does have a unique feel to it, with it's army composition mostly focusing on light armoured units who excel in stealth warfare, especially in the woodlands. I was pretty disappointed with the Elven archers as a whole, as they did feel pretty standard (Maybe I have been corrupted with Legolas and LOTR). The higher tier units are pretty powerful especially the Monsters, which WE have a few of such as 'Forest Dragons', treeman and Eagles.

Once I did manage to level up the 'Tree of Ages' to level 5 the 'Final battle' with the beastmen happened. It was a pretty epic battle, when my one stack faced 4 stacks and just when my battle lines where beginning to shake a well timed alliance joining the battle helped me win the battle. The game just ended then and the game transformed into the standard one from before (stopping the Chaos invasion).

By now my wealth was stable and had 4.5 stacks of solid army, which was more than enough for the Chaos invasion. With the added buffs such as no attrition and super quick recovery, I was taking settlements every turn, mostly auto resolving now as it did become slightly repetitive.

so in a nutshell

pro:
1) nice addition to the WH game with an indepth unique unit roster
2) Part of the map which was fairly empty has now some activity
3) different style battles with more micro management (which is a preference, but I like it).
4) Awesome monster units, especially the Dragons and Tree men.
5) the finance system means, you can't roll over with cash like the dwarfs and early decisions are more critical.
6) Graphical improvements - some settings look great!

Cons:

1) maybe too expensive for the content gained
2) one could argue that this faction should have been in the game from the beginning (especially in the part of the world that has been revealed).
3) replayability is not that high.
4) Slightly pointless 'Amber' system
5) unit size is pretty small - even for WH standards and the great feel of 'A truly epic battle is not there - with the exception of the last battle maybe ( I have been corrupted by other TW titles and love crazy large battles)

Overall I give this DLC a 6.5-7/10 - Good but not great.

You know that the Treeman for example has over 70 mo-capped animations? They put so much details in the very varied roster. Its definitly worth your money.

Also the Amber system is really interesting. It had me fail a couple of times on very hard.

[the_mango55]

Love the wood elf campaigns, both of them. The amber costs really make Orion and Durthu feel like different factions that play differently.

Armies in Orion's faction are an elf, a sorceress, a small infantry contingent of eternals and wardancers, 6-8 archers, and a bunch of wild riders.

Armies in Durthu's faction are a tree man general and branchwraith, dryads and tree kin making the front line, 5-6 archers, and then tree men, hawks, eagles and dragons providing the killing power.

[PrinceofPersia]

You know that the Treeman for example has over 70 mo-capped animations? They put so much details in the very varied roster. Its definitly worth your money.

Also the Amber system is really interesting. It had me fail a couple of times on very hard.

The animation and graphics are definitely improved no doubt about that,so I agree,it does look awesome. I must admit that I was one of the first people to hate the Warscape engine the TW is developed on, but I do see the evolution of the engine and now find it perfect to the Warhammer type games.
Amber system is something which I don't feel particularly positive about, as mentioned before I perhaps am not fully appreciating it. especially if you are an aggressive player like me, you can get Amber pretty easily. it feels like it is there just for the sake of being there. Obviously this is just my opinion and you don't have to agree to it.

[Chlodwig I.]

I fought a battle in Attila once where 40,000 Germans tried to overrun my fort, so this is a bit of a disappointment when it comes to scale.

Not sure what kind of CPU and GPU you got but I guess that on an average PC that would only work on lowest details with maximum Zoom distance

[Chlodwig I.]

I'm finding the mini campaign a bit too hard for me, even on Normal. There's very little margin for error, and I'm getting overwhelmed by about turn 20 when 3 Beastmen stacks show up. I'm struggling to field 2 stacks at that point...looks like I need to build-up earlier. *restarts yet again*

Strange when the Beastmen showed up with 4 Stacks I was able to ally with all other wood elf factions and the joined the fights I defeted the beastmen in about 8 Turns.

[craziii]

I have to say I'm dissatisfied how they added something very trivial like wood elves before adding major and very important things like High and dark elves

gotta keep some good races for the next 2 games. there are 2 more games. + their dlcs.