Here is how to play Sylvaneth in Age of Sigmar, from their third edition Battletome with a focus on all the sub-factions and how to build 2000-point lists!
In this how-to-play review of the Sylvaneth Battletome book, we will examine all the glade factions, that way, you can see which best suits your play style and how you want to construct your army!
To read the separate articles on each of the glades, click on the links below!
- How to Play Sylvaneth: Dreadwood & Gnarlroot
- How to Play Sylvaneth: Harvestboon & Heartwood
- How to Play Sylvaneth: Ironbark, Oakenbrow, & Winterleaf
Battletome: Sylvaneth Retail Price: $55
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How to Play AoS Sylvaneth: Army Wide Rules
Let’s start with what all Sylvaneh gets:
Places of Power:
- After territories are decided, but before faction terrain features are set up you can select 3 terrain features on the battlefield wholly outside the enemy territory to be considered overgrown
- At the start of the hero phase, heal one wound to each friendly Sylvaneth unit wholly within 9” of awakened wood or overgrown territory
From the Woodland Depths:
- Walk the Hidden Paths: Once per turn at the end of the movement phase pick 1 friendly Sylvaneth unit wholly within 9” of an overgrown territory or awakened wildwood. That unit can be removed from the battlefield and set up more than 9” from enemy units and wholly within 9” of another awakened wildwood or overgrown territory that is more than 3” from enemy units.
- Strike and Fade: Once per turn in combat phase immediately after a friendly Sylvaneth unit wholly within 9” of an Awakened Wyldwood or Overgrown Territory fights you can remove it from play and set up more than 9” from enemy units and wholly within 9” of another awakened wildwood or overgrown territory that is more than 3” from enemy units.
- Unique Spell all Sylvaneth Wizards know Verdant Blessing: Casts on a 6 with range 18” if successful set up 1 Awakened Wyldwood terrain feature wholly within range and more than 3” from all other models, terrain features, and objectives.
Pick a Season of War for your army:
- The Burgeoning: All friendly Sylvaneth models that did not charge and are wholly within 9” of a friendly Awakened Wyldwood have a ward save of 6+.
- The Reaping: Add 3” to the range within which you can pick friendly Sylvaneth units with Places of Power and From the Woodland Depths battle traits.
- The Dwindling: In the hero phase you can re-roll 1 casting roll, 1 unbinding roll, and 1 dispel roll as well as the wizard is Sylvaneth and wholly within 9” of an overgrown territory or Awakened Wyldwood.
- Everdusk: Subtract 3” from the range of places of power and Woodland Depths abilities but if a melee attack made by a friendly Sylvaneth unit wholly within 6” of the Awakened Wyldwood or Overgrown terrain makes a hit roll of 6, it counts as 2 hits rather than just 1.
Now let’s dive into the sub-factions specific lists starting with the Ironbark.
How to Play Sylvaneth: Ironbark
Ironbark: Command ability at the start of the enemy combat phase, the unit that receives the command must be a friendly Ironbark unit within 3” of an enemy unit that made a charge move.
Pick one enemy within 3” of that unit and roll some dice on a 2+ it suffered D3 mortal wounds. You can use this ability multiple times in a command phase but can only target each enemy unit once per phase.
- Arch-Revenant: 120 Points, Leader 1 of 6
- Branchwych: 130 Points, Leader 2 of 6
- Treelord Ancient: 360 Points, Leader 3 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- Spirit of Durthu: 370 Points, Leader 4 of 6, Behemoth 2 of 4
- Spiterider Lancers: 210 Points, No Unit Type
- Spiterider Lancers: 210 Points, No Unit Type
- Spiterider Lancers: 210 Points, No Unit Type
- 10 Dryads: 100 Points, Battleline 1 of 3
- 5 Tree Revenants: 110 Points, Battleline 2 of 3
- 5 Tree Revenants: 110 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- Purple Sun of Shyish: 70 Points, Endless Spell
- Total 2000 Points
This is kind of a soup mix for me in that the ability of this army is not incredibly useful unless you have a lot of mobility and a lot of command points. So that is what I went with: you have a mix of hold-the-objective types of troops with the Dryads and Tree Revenants and then some offensive mobility in the Lancers.
You will want to take advantage of your sub-faction ability to dish out some extra damage in your opponent’s combat phase, which could work if they have some low-wound heroes who haven’t had a chance to swing in combat yet.
Use the purple sun to roll the dice and potentially delete some models, but more importantly, get that additional -1 to Rend for your troops.
With so many drops, your better off getting the Warlord Battalion to get the additional artifact and command point. For this army, I will make the Tree Lord ancient my general and give him the Gnarled Warrior Battle Trait, the Vesperal Gem, and Throne of Vines as his unique spell.
Making him a regenerating tank of a character that can hold the line. For my extra artifact, I will give the Arc Revenant the Crown of Fell Bowers since he can keep up with your Spiterider Lancers, which will buff them in combat (especially since they strike first on a charge).
Oakenbrow 2,000 Point Army List
Oakenbrow: The damage table on friendly Oakenbrow, Treelord, Treelord Ancient, or Spirit of Durthu is treated as having suffered half the number of wounds that are allocated to it on its damage table (rounding up). Treelords become battleline.
- Spirit of Durthu: 370 Points, Leader 1 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- Treelord Ancient: 360 Points, Leader 2 of 6, Behemoth 2 of 4
- Treelord Ancient: 360 Points, Leader 3 of 6, Behemoth 3 of 4
- Treelord: 260 Points, Battleline 1 of 3
- Treelord: 260 Points, Battleline 2 of 3
- Treelord: 260 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- Gladwrym: 50 Points, Endless Spell
- Purple Sun of Shyish: 70 Points, Endless Spell
- Total 1990 Points
This is an army that you take if you love big walking trees and smacking your opponents with them. Your models are few and far between, so you’ll be behind on points from the get-go.
However, they can all dish out some nice damage and take even more of a beating, so you can pick and choose your objectives to overcome your opponent, hopefully. Getting the Awakened Wyldwoods up will also be key, as these guys do not have the greatest mobility, so you’ll want to teleport them around to get them where they need to go.
Concentrated firepower, though, will bring your models down, and you don’t have many to play with. Your endless spells can be powerful
For this army, I will make a Treelord Ancient my general and give them the Gnarled Warrior command trait making them incredibly resilient. After that, the general will nab the Vesperal Gem artifact along with the Throne of Vines’ unique spell.
My other Treelord Ancient will take Regrowth with the idea that they will play a healer to your trees. The purple sun can be powerful with this list for its rend and model removal; just make sure to keep your guys out of its range, as losing one of them will hurt much more than your opponent. For a season of war, I will choose Everdusk to increase the damage output of my trees, and for a Battalion, I will select Battle Regiment to make this a three-drop army, hopefully allowing you to decide who goes first or second.
Winterleaf 2,000 Point Army List
Winterleaf: Enemy units within 3” of a friendly Winterleaf unit cannot retreat. If you pick Everdusk from the Seasons of Battle, enemy units within 3” of a friendly Winterleaf unit cannot be removed from the battlefield through an effect that would allow them to be set up again later.
- Alarielle the Everqueen: 840 Points, Leader 1 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- The Lady of Vines: 325 Points, Leader 2 of 6, Behemoth 2 of 4
- Warsong Revenant: 305 Points, Leader 3 of 6
- 20 Dryads: 200 Points, Battleline 1 of 3, Reinforced 1 of 4
- 10 Tree Revenants: 220 Points, Battleline 2 of 3, Reinforced 2 of 4
- 10 Dryads: 100 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- Total 1990 Points
This army is all about model count and bringing in even more models to force your opponent to wade through. So, if you don’t like painting, this isn’t the one for you.
You will have large blocks of troops to push around the table; grabbing and holding objectives won’t be an issue, though your lack of firepower will be an issue. Make sure you use Alarielle and The Lady of Vines to your advantage and don’t sell them short, as your other models won’t be doing as much damage.
You could also use Alarielle to summon in a Treelord or Hunters, which could also add to your damage output.
I will take the Battle Regiment Battalion for this army to make this a three-drop army, letting you hopefully decide who goes first. The Warsong Revenant must be your general to get a unique command trait and artifact, so we will go with them and take Radiant Spirit to give them the Acorn of Ages to be able to set up a Wyldwood automatically and then the Verdurous Harmony spell to bring back you Dryads and Revenants if needed.
For the Lady of Vines, I will take The Dwellers Bellow to give you a shot as some mortal wounds against larger units and at range. For the season of war, let’s choose the Everdusk season to get that bonus of not allowing your opponent to move.
How to Play Sylvaneth: Dreadwood & Gnarlroot
Once per battle, you can use the Walk the Hidden Path twice in the same turn, but at least one of the units must be a sprite revenant unit. Additionally, you can use the Strike and Fade twice in the same turn once per game if one of the units is a sprite revenant unit. Sprite Revenants become battleline.
An interesting army leans on Sprite Revenants and builds into the teleporting mechanic built into this army. So, let’s play with that theme and build a list around it.
- Drycha Hamadreth: 335 Points, Leader 1 of 6
- Spirit of Durthu: 370 Points, Leader 2 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- Arch Revenant: 120 Points, Leader 3 of 6
- Treelord Ancient: 360 Points, Leader 4 of 6
- 15 Sprite Revenants: 315 Points, Battleline 1 of 3, Reinforced 2 of 4
- 15 Sprite Revenants: 35 Points, Battleline 2 of 3, Reinforced 4 of 4
- 5 Tree Revenants: 110 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- Purple Sun of Shyish: 70 Points, Endless Spell
- Total 2000 Points
For this army, you’re all about sprite revenants getting that wound buff from Drycha darting in and dishing out some mortal wounds before teleporting away to safety. The Tree Revenants are basically there to solve that third battleline unit (could go with five sprites or ten dryads as well) and are there to contest objectives or provide a screen.
You can pair the Spirit of Durthu with a Sprite Revenant as well to really hammer a unit using the army ability once per game; if you can time it with a purple sun nearby as well to get the bonus to rend, that is even better. Don’t forget to use the Arch Revenants buff as well on a unit of sprites to get a bonus of 15 attacks for even more mortal wound goodness.
I will put everything but the Treelord ancient into a battle regiment and get a two-drop list. This will generally allow you to decide who goes first, and I would allow my opponent to take the first turn. This will protect your pieces but allow you to teleport around on your turn and potently get a turn two double turn, which would be immensely powerful in this army.
The key, though, is getting those Wyldwoods set up. Hence the Treelord ancient guarantees you get one set up in your opponents’ backfield. For my Season, I will choose the dwindling to give a chance to re-roll some all-important casting rolls I might need to get off. For my command trait, I am going to give my Treelord the Spellslinger trait (maybe cast the purple sun through a Wyldwood) then, for an artifact, Acorn of Ages, allowing your Treelord to get a couple of Wyldwoods set up, turn one.
Then for unique spells, I am giving the Treelord Ancient the Verdurous Harmony, allowing you to return some Spite Revenants and with Drycha getting Treesong to improve all-important rend (try stacking it with the purple sun)
Gnarlroot Faction 2000 Point Army List
Once per turn, when you make a casting or unbind roll for a wizard wholly within 9” of an Awakened Wyldwood, you can roll 3d6 instead of 2d6 and remove one dice of your choosing.
Seems to be a kind of magic-oriented list, so we will take lots of spell casters for our leaders and some endless spells to take advantage of that.
- Warsong Revenant: 305 Points, Leader 1 of 6
- Treelord Ancient: 360 Points, Leader 2 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- The Lady of Vine: 325 Points, Leader 3 of 6
- Arch Revenant: 120 Points, Leader 4 of 6
- 10 Dryads: 100 Points, Battleline 1 of 3
- 10 Tree Revenants: 220 Points, Battleline 2 of 3
- 10 Tree Revenants: 220 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- 5 Gossamid Archers: 220 Points, No Unit Type
- Purple Sun of Shyish: 70 Points, Endless Spell
- Vengeful Skullroot: 60 Points, Endless Spell
- Total 2000 Points
This army is all about using your heroes and the magic phase to dish out some damage. You have a lot of different spell casters here, each with unique spells, but they also are no slouches in melee. You should be leading with your heroes in this list, going for the throat while the archers in the back (try and get them some rend by shooting at a target within purple sun range) take out key units.
One thing that is lacking is bodies to take objectives so make sure you’re not putting your tree revenants or dryads somewhere where they are just going to get cut down. You could table your opponent, but if you’re not scoring victory points, you’re not going to win. If you do find your opponent in your backfield, don’t hesitate to teleport one of your heavy hitters to the back to deal with them, one thing that is great about this army is that it is incredibly mobile around the battlefield.
I will take the battle regiment battalion with this army and put everything but the Treelord Ancient in it to get a two-drop army. This will generally let me decide who takes the first turn, and generally, I am going to let my opponent go first, and hopefully, they get into range of my spells and archers if I take the double turn, that is even better.
For a command trait, I am going to give my Warsong Revenant the Spellsinger allowing him to cast spells through awakened woods, then my Treelord ancient is going to get the Vesperal Gem. For spells, my Treelord Ancient will take Throne of Vines so that he can pop the gem in a pinch and get some massive heals going.
My Lady of Vines will take Treesong to add some rend to her or another friendly unit’s attacks. Finally, my Warsong Revenant will take the Verdurous Harmony spell to help keep my objective grabbers (or archers) alive and claiming objectives. Finally, take the Dwindling as your season of war to hammer in on that spell-casting phase.
How to Play Sylvaneth: Harvestboon
Harvestboon: After deployment but before the first battle round starts you can move each Spiterider lancer and revenant seekers unit up to 12”. Revenant Seekers and Spiterider Lancers become battleline units.
- Alarielle the Everqueen: 840 Points, Leader 1 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- The Lady of Vines: 325 Points, Leader 2 of 6
- Branchwych: 130 Points, Leader 3 of 6
- 3 Revenant Seekers: 235 Points, Battleline 1 of 3
- Spiterider Lancers: 210 Points, Battleline 2 of 3
- Spiterider Lancers: 210 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- Spiteswarm Hive: 40 Points, Endless Spell
- Total 1990
This is a small model count army (at first) but you have a chance to add up to an additional 30 models if you want between Alarielle and the Lady of Vines. Your three battleline units are all incredibly fast, and if you can position them near the Spiteswarm hive you can get a bonus to move and charge for the turn 1 charge threat.
Back up one of them with the Revenant Seekers so that if you do lose a lancer (or seeker) in combat, you can bring them back. Alarielle is a beast herself along with the Lady of Vines, but make sure you get those summons out from both as your army is model light without them. Adding the additional models will let you take and hold objectives in your backfield or in the middle areas. (Or if your super sneaky your opponent’s backfield)
For a Battalion, I am going with the Battle Regiment, making this a one-drop army, which lets you decide if you want to go first or second (probably going to choose 2nd most of the time). With the Branchwhich being the only non-unique leader, we are going to make them you general and give them Spellsinger to add +6 to the range of their spells, and then the Vesperal Gem. For a unique spell, I am going to give her the Verdurous Harmony Spell and use her to return slain models to your units.
As this is a model light army, you need to make sure you can try and summon and bring back as many models as you can with it to hold those objectives. For Alarielle, she knows all the Deepwoods spells, so be sure to be aware of them all, but Throne of Vines might be useful should she begin to take a beating. Finally, for the Lady of Vines, we will also take the Throne of Vines to give her some healing power. Between that and her unique ward save spell, it can make for a pretty tank-like hero.
Heartwood 2,000 Point Army List
Heartwood: After deployment but before the first battleround begins, you can pick three different enemies on the battlefield to become the quarry. Add 1 to hit rolls for attacks made against those units. Kurnoth Hunters become a battleline unit.
- Arch Revenant: 120 Points, Leader 1 of 6
- Treelord Ancient: 360 Points, Leader 2 of 6, Behemoth 1 of 4
- The Lady of Vine: 325 Points, Leader 3 of 6
- Branchwych: 130 Points, Leader 4 of 6
- 3 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows: 230 Points, Battleline 1 of 3
- 3 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows: 230 Points, Battleline 2 of 3
- 3 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows: 230 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- Treelord: 260 Points, Behemoth 2 of 4
- Spiteswarm Hive: 40 Points, Endless Spell
- Purple Sun of Shyish: 70 Points, Endless Spell
- Total 1995 Points
This list is about turtling with your hunters, planting the revenant in the middle of them, and shooting anything approaching you. If you can drop a purple sun next to your target, that is even better, giving them additional rend (or just deleting the unit). Use your Treelords to get between your hunters and enemy forces to keep them shooting and deleting units. If they can take and hold onto the middle-ground objectives, that are even better, but with the quarry and arch revenant bonus, your hunters will be doing most of the heavy lifting in this army.
Keep a command point handy to unleash hell in case your opponent somehow gets a charge in against your hunters, as if you lose some of them, you’re losing a lot of the threat this army has.
I will select Battle Regiment for a battalion, which makes this a two-drop army, which should get you the choice of going first or second in most matches. This will force your opponent to commit to getting in range if they want to threaten your army.
For an artifact, I like to give the Treelord ancient the Vesperal Gem and the Throne of Vines Deepwoods spell to essentially give him a free life if he gets hammered hard while plugging charge lanes to keep your hunters at range. To make him even more of a beat stick, give him the command trait Gnarled Warrior which lets him ignore positive and negative save modifiers. For unique spells, I want to give the Lady of Vines the Dwellers Below for a little bit of a range threat and the Branchwych the Verdurous Harmony spell to bring back any hunters that might get slain.
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
