Wood Elves

Titan - Ironbark

Click Ironbark to hear him speak

After the Elven civil wars when the Wood Elves & Dark Elves split from their cousins the High Elves, many of the Wood Elves, led by their Lord Oberon, sailed south east and founded the Citadel of Silvermyr in a secluded mainland forest. It was not long before they met the other inhabitants of this forest - living trees, whom they named Treants. The Treants and Wood Elves immediately became allies, since both sought solitude from the wars that ravaged the rest of Etheria. The leader of the Treants, Ironbark, was as old as the forest itself, and pledged his aid to his newfound friends.

Race

It’s true that the High Elves regarded the Wood Elves as a useful repository for those Elves who just couldn’t learn to write a decent sonnet. It’s equally true that the Wood Elves quietly transferred to the High Elves any of their brethren who couldn’t stay awake all night in forest glades watching acorns grow.

Could it be possible that this amity would translate into a certain cooperation on the battlefield, perhaps an agreement to fight the other races first? Of course not. No student of the art of war has been able to detect the slightest sign of quarter between Elvish sides, and certainly the Wood Elves have historically hurled themselves into any fight, with any foe, with frenzied enthusiasm.

Pros: Upgraded archers are deadly, trade ability, Ancient Wisps generate crystal.

Cons: No poison, no really tough melee units.

To taunt a Wood Elf: Confuse them with Woodcutters.

To make friends with a Wood Elf: Start a compost heap (preferably with a couple of Orcish corpses)

Motto: Vegetables are people too

Wisps:

These engaging little fellows are more useful that the run of the mill builder units. They build, they bob around, they can sort of fight, and four of them can be combined into an Ancient Wisp. The downside is that they can’t be sent down into the mines.

Ancient Wisps:

Ancient Wisps are formed by combining four ordinary Wisps into one. This procedure is apparently quite traumatic, aging the Wisp on the spot. The improved Wisp costs a fair amount of Crystal, but Ancient Wisps have the happy knack of generating Crystal just by sitting around, and will soon pay back their purchase price. Ancient Wisps are still builders, and also possess a decent ranged attack, all useful attributes.

ForestGuard:

Well they’re Elvish Infantry, so you know you can’t expect too much. At least they don’t cost Crystal to build. Forestguard don’t get any upgrades, and so tend to spend the later part of the game acting as involuntary fertilizer.

Gladewarden:

These archers are the real strength of the Wood Elves low level armies. They can be significantly upgraded, and a bunch of Gladewardens shooting flaming arrows can present a significant threat to any unit.

Woodrider:

Woodriders split their time between looking after their trees and looking after their horses. Under armored, they can still be effective in buying time for the Gladewardens to do their job, but should not be mistaken for heavy cavalry.

Druids:

Cheap for a spellcaster, but not especially powerful as a result. Druids are best used in bunches, as their Call Lightning spell is good for getting rid of swarms of low level critters. Their Light/Darkness spell is also guaranteed to give the Undead player fits, as a small number of Druids can virtually guarantee perpetual daylight (it’s good for the plants too).

Treants:

As they never tire of telling the world, Wood Elves love trees. So much so that they use them as shock troops in combat, where they can be stabbed, slashed, crushed, blasted and especially immolated. The Wood Elves maintain that if the Treants weren’t allowed to fight, they would sulk for centuries, and nobody would want that. As fighters, Treants are tough and effective, and have a nifty spell to slow opponents down to their speed, as well as being builders.

Ancient Treants:

Treants are naturally very slow, though the Ancient Treants are at least no slower than the youngsters. Opponents typically take hampers and have picnics while waiting for the Treants to get into battle. However, the Ancient Treants have a trick or two up their branches. If you kill an Ancient Treant, the result is not a pile of firewood but two very much alive ordinary Treants, making Ancient Treants a real bargain for the discerning army shopper.

Dryads:

Dryads are the Wood Elf General, and are better at conversions than any other General. This useful skill does not make up for the fact that they insist on going into battle dressed only in thin white cotton dresses, a practice which sets off their hair nicely, but does nothing for their armor values. Dryads do have a useful air/ground magical attack.

Phoenix:

The legendary Phoenix was immortal, being reborn from its own ashes. The Wood Elf Phoenix is amazingly mortal, but has the useful characteristic of being able to do conversions. You can use this ability to drive other Human players to distraction, converting their mines or even buildings when they’re not looking.

Griffons:

Griffons are an exceedingly useful Level 2 flying army, as they are tough and can hand out lots of damage. They also look pretty cool, which is a prerequisite for a job with an Elvish army. Griffons can be used for base busting, resource wrecking, or tormenting races like Humans who are vulnerable to air attack.

Dragons:

Dragons, or Orc Toasters as they are known in Elvish are highly regarded by the Wood Elves, who are prepared to ignore the frequent forest fires started by the Dragon’s fiery attack.

Sprites and Pixies:

The Wood Elves do let Sprites and Pixies into their army, but probably because they really spice up the post battle celebrations. Pixies are highly resistant to Magic, and may be useful in certain situations.

Ironbark:

Ironbark is the Wood Elf Titan, and as his name suggests, is very heavily armored. Naturally, he ignores armor and causes Terror, unless he hits you, in which case the most likely prognosis is a swift yet painful death.