‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Five High Hopes Hopes For The Wood Elf Arcane Journal

Warhammer: The Old World’s forest is calling. Here are a few big things we hope to get out of the Wood Elf Arcane Journal.

Wood Elfs have a brand new Arcane Journal going on pre-order in a week! This is pretty exciting news as for once they aren’t the last army to come out. Now this is a bit surprising, as based on the earlier previews, Beastmen were supposed to come out first, but it looks like the Wild Hunt got a little impatient and jumped the gun this spring. As is usual when we have a new book coming out, we like to take a look at some things we hope to see it do. So let’s dig in.

5. We’d Like It To Not Only Be All Shooting

Wood Elves are well known for being one of the most, if not the most, shoot-y armies in the game. While Empire and Dwarves can both do gunlines, and often do, a lot of that relies on warmachines. Wood Elves don’t, they just do a lot of annoying little and highly accurate shots. They are the masters of the MSU run away and shoot lists. And while these lists can be powerful, they are also some of the least fun lists to play against!

Just like with our hopes (that were dashed) with both Empire and Dwarves, we really hope the book doesn’t just double down on the shooting aspect of the army. The Wood Elves have other aspects, and the core army already shoots very well! Give them something else to do! Luckily, it looks like we are getting a Wild Hunt army of infamy, and that force tends to be a lot more punchy than shoot-y.

4. Something to Make The Trees Good

Another aspect of the Wood Elf army is that of the Treekin. This is a big part of the army, so big that at times it’s managed to be its own army. And yet it feels a little lacking, without a lot of punch or development. I mean, heck, the best Treemen are probably from Blood Bowl! So we are really hoping that something in the Arcane Journal makes them a bit better. The Host of Talsyn AoI is likely our best bet, but it doesn’t look like they are getting a totally tree spirit themed army.

3. A Good Special Character

As cool as they can be, the fact is that most of the named characters in The Old World are kind of bad. Out of all the books we’ve seen really only the Green Knight is any good and made a splash. A few have some corner cases, such as if you want to play a Slayer army, but most of their named characters just aren’t really good.

The issue is that you can typically just build a better and more useful one. It also doesn’t help that most are stuck on foot. But! We are hopeful that it might change with Wood Elves. They are getting Orion, the classic King In The Woods. And he is very much not something you can just build a better version of. We’d really like to see his rules do him justice, while we don’t want him to be broken, a playable and good Orion would be a lot of fun.

2. New Units

So far, all the Arcane Journals have added several new units to the army. A few have had models, but most don’t and are converted from others. I’ve talked a lot before about how I love this and think this is one of the best things The Old World has done. So we are really excited to see what Wood Elves might be getting. We can guess that the soon to be released Wood Elf Beast Pack will be one of these new units, and it will have models. Hopefully it’s good.

Beyond that, we don’t have a lot of information or guesses. Maybe some elite Wild or Glade Riders for the Wild Hunt? Or upgraded Tree Spirits to fix that issue? A new version of the Sisters of the Thorn that doesn’t either suck or break the game? There are many options here, and I’m excited to see what they get.

1. Rewarding Non-Dragon Play

What we are hoping for from Arcane Journals is normally about opening up the army. Providing different ways to play it. That’s a big reason why we don’t want it to just be all more shooting, we already have that army. Likewise, we are hoping that it’s not a book that just makes your dragon better.

Dragons and dragon riders are already really good. We’d like to see the book give you options, and even encourage and reward you, for doing something else. While the Warriors of Chaos were really strong, I think this was an area in which they failed, as it really only made their dragons better. But if this journal takes a look at other aspects of the army, I’m hopeful it will open up some fun non-dragon options.

Let us know what you are hoping for from the Wood Elf journal, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.