When the Ulthuan hosts departed the Old World following their wars with the Dwarves some chose to remain. These elves, the Asrai, forsook their oaths to their Phoenix King and pledged new loyalties to Athel Loren, the mysterious and ancient forest that would from that day on become their home.

In this review we’ll take a close look at the new Arcane Journal which includes new lore, background and of course some exciting new units, army lists and extra gaming content.

Thank you to Games Workshop for providing Sprues and Brews with a review copy of the new Arcane Journal to review. If you want to support the site why not order your Arcane Journal Wood Elf Realms through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

If you’re looking for information about any of the other Arcane Journals we have reviews of all of these on our site, most recently the Arcane Journal High Elf Realms!

Arcane Journal Wood Elf Realms Review

Just like the other Arcane Journals, this one clocks in at around 50 pages and contains a mix of lore and gaming content to give Wood Elf players plenty of additional options when it comes to collecting and gaming with a Wood Elves army. The Arcane Journal does a great job of detailing the origins of the Asrai and their symbiotic relationship with the forest and denizens of Athel Loren. There is some great information with regards Asrai society and history with a big focus on Orion and the ongoing conflict with the Beastmen of Chaos. There is even a nice scenario, “The Prophet & The Hunter”, that you can play through to recreate one of the historic battles between Orion and the Beastmen Shaman Kralmaw!

On the gaming side we get two new Wood Elves army lists to experiment with, a selection of new units and characters (including Orion, the King in the Woods), a new spell lore, a host of new magic items and new Kindred rules for further customising your Wood Elves characters.

Orion’s Wild Hunt

The first of the two army lists presented in the Arcane Journal is Orion’s Wild Hunt which really leans into the mobility and glass cannon themes of a Wood Elves force with a heavy focus on mounted units and close combat. Chieftains of the Hunter-King is the first of the army’s special rules and gives you the option to give your Nobles the Talismanic Tattoos special rule should you wish – representing how Orion’s power and influence affects his followers. The Spirit of Kurnous is a great special rule that allows you to enhance the hitting power of your mounted units such as Glade Riders, Warhawk Riders and Wood Elf Beast Packs. 0-1 of these units can be given the Furious Charge and Impetuous special rules. Finally Worthy of Kurnous is a very thematic special rule that in effect allows you to nominate an enemy character or model as a priority target, allowing your entire army to re-roll To Hit rolls of 1 against that unit in addition to rewarding additional Victory Points should said unit be destroyed or has fled at the end of the game.

The army composition itself is quite restrictive, with Tree Spirits notable absent. The army can be lead by Glade Lords, Shadowdancers, Spellsingers, Waystalkers and Glade Captains and in the Core slot you’re limited to just Wild Riders and Glade Riders. Sisters of the Thorn, Wardancers, Warhawk Riders, Wild Riders and Wood Elf Beast Packs make up Special slot and we find Waywatchers, Great Eagles, Deepwood Scouts and Wildwood Rangers in the Rare slot. Wood Elf Beast Packs are an interesting little unit composed of single Elf, the Beast Keeper, and an assortment of Hounds, Cats, Boars and Bears. Each of the beasts themselves have their own profile and special rules. The Cat for example has Armour Bane (1) whereas the Bear has Cleaving Blow, a special rule that causes to wound rolls of 6 to prevent armour and regeneration saves.

Overall this feels like quite a restricted unit roster and you’ll be forced to play a very aggressive and mobility focussed game when commanding such an army. You’ll have none of the tougher units like Treemen or Treekin to anchor your lines, nor do you have much access the famed Asrai missile units with which to weaken your foe from afar. This is a real glass cannon type army which will hit extremely hard but perhaps not survive much punishment in return.

It’s worth noting that you can include Orion, the King in the Woods in this army (and all other Wood Elves armies too) and he looks incredible, possessing high movement, weapon skill, ballistic skill, initiative and attacks characteristics as well as access to some incredible wargear and army buffing abilities. Thanks to his accompanying Spectral Hounds, Orion can only be wounded by magical weapons making him a fantastic unit to engage with large portions of your opponent’s army. For those wounds that do get through Orion has a 5+ Ward save and a chance to recover wounds each turn. He possesses the Unbreakable and Immune to Psychology special rules meaning you can rely on him to hold his ground. His Spear of Kurnous is a fantastic melee and ranged weapon with a great strength stat, AP-2 and the Multiple Wounds (D3) special rules – Orion really is a threat to most other units in the game! In addition, once per game he can blow his Horn of the Wild Hunt to grant the Frenzy special rule to all friendly units within his Command range!

Overall this army definitely has the mobility to allow you to position your units ready for that the important first strike and I think with the inclusion of Orion himself you’ll be sure to inflict a lot of damage as too!

The Host of Talsyn

The second and perhaps more flexible army list is the Host of Talsyn. This army represents the forces of Lord Araloth, an Elf with an interesting past who seeks to protect Athel Loren from the influence of Morghur the Corruptor. The Ancient Enemies special rule reflects the enmity Araloth holds for the Beastmen and grants the Hatred (Beastmen Brayherds) special rule on every unit in your army. In Tune With Nature opens up a new spell lore, Lore of the Wilds, to the various spellcasters in your army. Protectors of the Ancient Wood grants a nice little buff to units that control a special feature, allowing them to re-roll To Hit and To Wound rolls of 1 in combat. Finally The Awakened Wood allows you to ambush with a Dryads, Tree Kin and Treemen.

As mentioned above, the army composition is much more flexible compared to the Orion’s Wild Hunt list with a much broader spread of units available to fill the various slots (including some new ones!). Glade Lords, Spellweavers, Treemen Ancients, Shadowdancers, Glade Captains, Spellsingers and Branchwraiths make up your Characters slot but we also get a new unit, the Warden of Talsyn, as well. This is a 3 wound Lord level character who comes armed with an Asrai spear and light army by default (but can be given a Great weapon, additional hand weapon and shield if desired. They have a great selection of special rules including Drilled, Immune to Psychology, Strike First and Stubborn in addition to two new rules, Courage Beyond Compare and Parry. The former allows this model to bestow the Immune to Psychology special rule to a unit they join whereas the latter grants an additional +1 to the model’s armour value allowing you to build quite a ‘tanky’ character in an army not normally known for such defensive qualities.

Araloth, Lord of Talsyn himself can also be included here (as well as in other Wood Elves armies). He is a nice, if expensive, Lord level character with an impressive WS8 and I8 stat. Equipped with heavy armour, shield and a 5+ Ward save he’s fairly tanky for an Elf. He has an interesting special rule, Skaryn The Eye Thief, which allows him each turn a chance to inflict some damage on a enemy model within 18″ – if successful said enemy model’s WS and I stats are reduced by D3 for the rest of the game – pretty nice actually!

In the Core slot we’re missing the Glade Riders and can only include 0-1 units of Glade Guard or Deepwood Scouts per 1000 points. You’re forced to take at least one unit of Eternal Guard and can also include Dryads too.

In the Special slot we get Deepwood Scouts, Wildwood Rangers, Sisters of the Thorn, Treekin and also the new Guardians of Talsyn. These are an elite Weapon Skill 5 infantry unit equiped with Asrai spears and light armour. On the face of it they fill a similar role to Eternal Guard with the added bonuses of Stubborn, Drilled and Veteran special rules. They also have Parry just like the Warden of Talsyn and the option to take shields, meaning these elves have an impressive 4+ armour value! They also have the Martial Prowess special rule which allows them to make supporting attacks to the flanks and rear – this is a great unit to anchor your line with.

Kindreds

Presented in the Arcane Journal are a new set of rules to allow you to create characters which represent those elves who belong to either the Alter or Noble Kindreds – these are communities and groups of elves who share certain traits and physical characteristics. For a points cost you could for example upgrade a Noble or Mage character to belong to the Alter Kindred and would choose an aspect, such as that of the Hound or Bear to apply. Each aspect bestows some bonuses to the character. The Aspect of the Cat for example gives the character the Armour Bane (1) special rule and allows them to re-roll To Hit rolls during a challenge whereas the Aspect of the Boar increases the strength and toughness characteristic of the character.

Characters that belong to one of the Noble Kindreds may choose from a selection of Kindreds such as the Glamour Weave or Eternal Kindred. These work in the same way as the Alter Kindred rules and again bestow some bonuses to the character. The Wild Rider Kindred for example grants the Counter Charge, Frenzy, Furious Charge and Talismanic Tattoos special rules but you must mount said character on an Elven Steed or Great Stag.

Lore of the Wilds

The Lore of the Wilds contains six new spells and a signature spell and can be utilised by spell casters in a The Host of Talsyn army. The lore itself has a nice mixture of offensive, defensive and utility spell and looks pretty strong to me. Fury of Athel Loren is a nice Magic Missile spell which can inflict D3+1 strength 5 AP-2 Multiple Wounds (2) attacks on a target unit. Durthu’s Wrath is a strong Assailment type spell that can inflict a number of strength 4 hits with no armour saves allowed against the front rank of an enemy unit. Ariel’s Blessing and Hidden Pathways provide some great defence and utility, the former bestowing 5+ Regeneration on a friendly unit and the latter granting the Reserve Move special rule. The Signature Spell is very nice as well – Swirling Mists is an Enchantment spell that forces enemy units tor re-roll hit rolls of 6 when making a shooting attack against the target unit.

Wood Elf Realms Magic Items

Finally we’re presented with a selection of 18 new Magic Items that can be used in any Wood Elves army. I’ll cover a couple of my favourites here starting with Vaul’s Wrath, a 32″ bow with AP-2 and +1 strength and the Flaming Attacks, Magical Attacks and Multiple Wounds (2) special rules that can be fired as a bolt thrower once per game! Ironically this would be pretty good against Orion himself! Then there is Orion’s Favour is a single use Talisman that allows the bearer to re-roll all To Hit and To Wound rolls during a combat phase – very useful when used at the correct moment.

Summary

Arcane Journal Wood Elf Realms has been my favourite Arcane Journal to review to date. I really like both of the new army lists and whilst you certainly have to make compromises I feel they give the player some exciting and powerful options. Wood Elf armies have never been renowned for their defensive qualities and this is accentuated in the Orion’s Wild Hunt army however to compensate you get an extremely mobile and hard hitting force which is capable of launching an incredibly powerful first strike on an opponent. The Host of Talsyn allows you to build a more traditional rank and file force in line with other factions such as the Empire or the Dwarves – something you don’t really expect to see when facing Wood Elves. It’s also great to see all the other extras such as the new spell lore and the rules for various Kindreds too. My overall impression having digested this new Arcane Journal is that Wood Elf generals now have so many more options in terms of army build, playstyle and character customisation!

The Arcane Journal Wood Elf Realms is available to pre-order today, Saturday 17th of MAy.

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes

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