The Book of Wildwood Monarch

[DanieLoche]

The Book of Wildwood Monarch
Awakened Forest - C3V Wave Exclusive 1



Basic Side Army Card

Spoiler Alert!

PDF download for printing.

The figure used for this unit is a D&D Miniatures figure. The figure name is : Stormrage Shambler from the Unhallowed set.


Biography : The concentrated essence of the forest, a living embodiment of nature, the Wildwood Monarch does two things well. Firstly, it is always growing, birthing smaller Wildwood seedlings all around itself. Secondly, it is a fierce protector of the forest, hitting hard with its vine-covered limbs. The Awakened Forest flows through the Monarch's very being, for the Monarch is its center, its heart, its trunk.

ASCEND 4
Instead of moving normally, a Wildwood Monarch may move one space. That space may be up to 4 levels higher.

TRUNK OF THE AWAKENED FOREST
After taking a turn with the Wildwood Monarch, you may take a turn with a small or medium Wildwood Hero you control.

NATURE'S KEEPER
Wildwood figures you control cannot attack other Wildwood figures you control.

SEEDLING
At the start of each round, before you place Order Markers, if you have not placed the Wildwood Monarch or used a Seedling power this round, you may place one of your previously destroyed small Wildwood Heroes on any empty space adjacent to the WIldwood Monarch.

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- Rulings and Clarifications -

• Wildwoods Growth : Vigorous, Verdant, Seedling...
  QUESTION - How does the Wildwood life cycle work?
  ANSWER - At the start of each round, you can, in any order:
  • Upgrade a Runner to a Sentinel
  • Upgrade a Sentinel into the Monarch
  • Place a Runner adjacent to the Monarch
  You cannot upgrade a figure you just placed, nor can you place a Runner if you just placed the Monarch. So, for example, you cannot upgrade a Runner into a Sentinel and then immediately upgrade it into the Monarch. Nor can you upgrade a Sentinel into the Monarch and then immediately place a Runner next to it.
  Any unit placed must come from your reserves. You may upgrade a Runner into a Sentinel, which puts that Runner into your reserves, then place that Runner from your reserves adjacent to the Monarch.
  
  

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- Combinations and Synergies -

Synergy Benefits Offered:

• TRUNK OF THE AWAKENED FOREST : Small & Medium Wildwood Heroes bonding
  • Wildwood Runner (C3V)
  • Wildwood Sentinel (C3V)

• SEEDLING : Small Wildwood Heroes
  Following small Wildwood Heroes can be resurrected :
  • Wildwood Runner (C3V)
  
  
  

Synergy Benefits Received:

• WILDWOOD SENTINEL : Verdant Growth
  As a Large Wildwood Hero, Wildwood Monarch may be resurrected in replacement of a Wildwood Sentinel, due to its special power.

• ACOLARH : Ullar’s Amulet
  As a unit that follows Ullar, the Wildood Monarch may benefit from Acolarh’s ULLAR’S AMULET movement bonus.

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-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

Power Ranking and Master Index
TBA.

Unit Strategy Review
TBA.

[dok]

Here are some highlights of the discussion between Sir Dendrik and I in the Runner thread, which are obviously relevant here as well:

Originally Posted by dok

Be aware that playing either with the Wildwoods or against them can be tricky. Have you ever played against a Marro Divider army where they kept hitting their divides? Or a Zombie army that was making zombies as fast as you killed them? Or Marro Warriors in late game that keep running away and cloning? Well, Wildwoods can feel similar if you are not careful.

A quick tip: try to "bottom up" the army by killing the Runners first, then the Sentinels, and finally the Monarch. Take advantage of being faster (everything this side of the Marro Hive is faster than Wildwoods) and stay away from the Monarch, or tie it down with cheap figures while your more important figures hunt the other units. If you can wipe out all the Runners, then you only need to kill the one new Runner the next round to keep a Sentinel from forming.

Conversely, when playing with the Wildwoods, the goal is to force your opponent to engage your powerful Sentinels and Monarch early. It's OK to miss out on some Runner attacks; you want to keep them in supporting positions.

Originally Posted by Sir Dendrik

You need to kill everything at once to effectively get rid of the Wildroots, or else they will just spawn back up, losing only a Runner. Once you get rid of all the Runners it is easier to get rid of the rest of the army, but a good Wildroot player will guard their precious Runners so they can regrow what's left of the army.

Originally Posted by dok

This is a really good point. Delaying the killing blow on the Monarch until there's no Sentinel waiting to regenerate is usually good, but if you can snipe the Monarch on OM1 and drain OMs for the rest of the round that's really strong. If this causes your opponent to throw some OMs on Sentinels to avoid losing OMs, that's a win as well.

And to flip that around into Wildwood strategy, if you do have a Sentinel in the wings, it's OK to be extremely aggressive with the monarch as it nears death. For example, don't worry about LEAs or lava damage with a 1-life monarch at the end of the round.

[Cleon]

So I just played these guys in a game vs. the Steamroller+ and to my surprise it took the gladiators down. Armies were Monarch+Sentinelx2+Runnerx4+Raelin and Spartacus+Crixus+Capuansx3+Gladiatrixx2. I think I played it correctly rules-wise other than the fact I forgot to carry over the sentinel’s wounds to the monarch’s. Not sure if it would have been a different outcome had I done that, but I think they might’ve still won which is impressive.

I don’t really know what you would do against range, but against melee they’re nice. A Sentinel and a Runner is PK’s x2 but I’m not sure that completely solves the problem. Raelin was nice, but I’m thinking Marro Warriors are probably these guys’ best friend. Drop a second Runner and you could go Q9. I don’t know but I don’t think sending a Runner in is gonna cut it against a lot of range. I don’t think I’d take them in a format below 500pt.

Is Monarch+Sentinelx1+Runnerx1 playable? That gives you 220pt. to play around with. Could try something like rats x4+Marro Warriors or rats x3+Syvarris. Maybe you need two Runners and drop a squad of rats.

Playing against these guys, other than camping them with range how should you go about dealing with them? It’s an interesting decision between killing the Monarch and erasing order markers or killing the seedlings first so there’s less points/lives being rebirthed. Probably put as many wounds on the monarch as you can without killing it, then go for the seedlings and then sentinels, and put a wound or two on sentinels if you can before going for the seedlings. I tried to go after all 3 at once with the gladiators and that was probably not the way to go lol.

But yeah I was skeptical at first but the Wildwood can be strong. They’re like a higher variance GG’s and I love it. Great job guys.

[coachmuskie]

You are supposed to carry over the wounds? I did not notice that. I read the first part where it said "remove" and assumed that it would stop there. that does make a bit of a difference. I still love playing them! They move slow, but once they get there it is trouble. Twice at the beginning of the round, I was back to full strength (only needing to replace a runner). my opponent was getting quite frustrated.

[Scytale]

Wildwoods are actually nasty against range. Range, in general is less powerful per attack than melee and has trouble cracking the 5 Defense. Of course after a while they do, but the Wildwoods just regrow and head back to the fight. The Wildwoods can do that all day, as long as they keep the Runners out of harm's way. On the other hand, every kill they land on the opponent is permanent. After a while they'll bust down the screen, then move on to the attackers.

Playing against Wildwoods:
Hunt down the Runners, then work your way up. Make sure to take out the respawning Runner each round.

Playing as Wildwoods:
Protect your Runners; they are your lifeline. Use Sentinels as guards. The Monarch is your wrecking ball.

As far as army builds go, for a ~500pt army I recommend all Wildwoods. Any weak points in the respawn chain can be capitalized on to devastating effect. Their units are fairly costly, so you don't get that many of them.

[Sir Heroscape]

Here's a tournament game I played against the Wildwoods.

Let me know what you think?

I found it especially interesting that the Wildwood player used 3 Sentinels, Monarch and 1 Runner and just left the 1 runner in the back of the Startzone.

https://youtu.be/mKuxSNW-rU0?t=3999

[Scytale]

Woah. Wildwoods vs Shadows! Loved it! Wildwoods very nearly fell to the Shadow onslaught, but held out and grew back.

[Cleon]

Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape

Here's a tournament game I played against the Wildwoods.

Let me know what you think?

I found it especially interesting that the Wildwood player used 3 Sentinels, Monarch and 1 Runner and just left the 1 runner in the back of the Startzone.

https://youtu.be/mKuxSNW-rU0?t=3999

I’d have to watch the video again as it’s been a bit (I usually play your vids and listen to them in the background). But yeah that’s interesting to only run 1 runner. I like leaving one back but I don’t think I’d run less than 2 so I can have the flexibility of spawning sentinels around the board easier.

Another cool thing is Theracus and Brunak can carry Sentinels, I thought that was neat