Balance- Thoresby Woodsmen have several attributes that make them difficult to balance. Evergreen Camouflage, and to a lesser extent Precise Shot, are both map dependent and match up dependent. This can lead to a wide variety of performances. If your opponent can’t reach The Woodsmen, they can kill their points worth and well beyond. But in some match ups they will do little more than serve as target dummies for your opponents. The designer does a good job taking into account both extremes when pricing the Woodsmen. Even at their best, there are still strategies and units that counter them, so they don’t feel broken or unbeatable.
Creativity- The Thoresby Woodsmen have a nice combination of a reused power in tracking, an upgrade of an old power in precise shot and a twist on an old power in Evergreen Camouflage. All this combined makes for a unit that’s original and creative.
Theme- Overall the Thoresby Woosmen are solid thematically. The Woodsmen personality, class, attack, move, defense etc., all fit fine. Their range is a little high compared to other common human squads with bows, but 7 range is not unprecedented in bow squads. The fact their a 2 man squad is enough to justify their range from a game play perspective.
The one semi major thematic concern I have is jungle not working for evergreen camouflage. Of the few figures that have powers that incorporate trees, none make a distinction between the two types of trees. I don’t see a thematic reason to break this precedent. This is far from a deal breaker, and requiring powers to include both types of trees isn't an unbreakable precedent, but it still seems odd.
Playability-There are some intricacies to their design that I enjoyed. The Thoresby Woodsmen don’t always want a large amount of trees on a map. All other figures with a terrain dependent power want as much of the terrain or tile that benefits them as possible. In some match ups multi RttFF maps like Highways and Dieways, Blackroot, and Flash Fire will not be as beneficial as the likes of Marr Highway and Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh. Another thing I noticed was without evergreen trees they are weak versus range and stronger versus melee, but on maps with trees, they become stronger versus range and weaker versus melee. This is an interesting dynamic not seen in other units.
A large driving force for the Thoresby Woodsmen play style is the fact that they are a 2 man squad. This sets them apart from other squads that on the surface may seem similar. Their low base attack and lack of attacks per OM leads to Precise Shot being their most important power. Usually it’s advantageous to forgo the opening attacks so you can track to height. Once on height you’ll find that if opponents are in range there is little incentive to continue reinforcing your position by moving up more Woodsmen. If opponents aren't in range of your forward Woodsmen, you’re usually better off activating other units in your army than chasing the battle with your Woodsmen. If you continue moving up more Woodsmen behind your screen, statistically you won’t be putting many wounds on your opponent. During this time your opponent will have virtually free rein to attack your screen and move about the board with relative impunity. Once your opponent gets through your screen and starts attacking the Woodsmen they aren’t going to last very long, so why invest OMs moving a large force up, when a couple squads suffices. This ratio between the two different tactical decisions of attacking or moving up is unbalanced. It leans too heavily towards the attack portion. This is one of the main problems with the Woodsmen; it leads to the majority of your squads left sitting in your starting zone. Because of this the Woodsmen are one of the few ranged squads that aren’t at their best as bread and butter units. This conservative play style partnered with their almost complete inability to play aggressively means the Woodsmen will need a screen of some sort to be successful. More so then arguable all other ranged common squads. Without it the Woodsmen will have a lot of trouble getting enough Precise Shots to get their points back.
These aspects of their play style on their own aren't wholly negative, but together they pose some serious problems. Their reliance on screens, play style that encourages turtling and their discouragement of activating a large amount of Woodsmen makes for a unit that lends itself to long games with few strategic decisions to be made. The all or nothing aspect of both Precise Shot and Tracking makes for few tactical decisions relative to other ranged common squads. All this to go along with the imbalance between the decision to move or attack, which is in my opinion their most serious flaw. I liked many aspects of the Thoresby Woodsmen, but there are simply too many flaws from a game play perspective.
I vote
to induct the Thoresby Woodsmen.