Sylvaneth are one of the front runners at the moment and are also very popular, so where better to start our new Faction Focus series than with them?
We can see clearly that Sylvaneth players are outperforming their expected results by a large amount. But we can’t tell without digging into the figures whether this is driven by the players or the rules.
There doesn’t seem to be a particular lean towards a large number of 500+ WoElo players, so the faction overperformance does seem to be driven by the faction rules rather than the players themselves.
Tournament Performance
The majority of Sylvaneth players walk away from GT tournaments with three or more wins while almost a quarter of their players achieve 4 or more wins.
Battle Formations
The most used formation so far this battlescroll is Lords of the Clan, though Glade Defenders is only a few pips behind in the win rates and is the second most popular formation.
I should mention that where we see a player with a Sylvaneth list but no obvious battle formation in the list, we class them as unknown. These players are contributing to the faction win rate, but we can’t be certain what battle formation they are using.
Faction Matchups
| Opponent | Games | Win Rate | Expected Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ironjawz | 23 | 82.6% | 52.3% |
| Ogor Mawtribes | 40 | 70.0% | 52.4% |
| Fyreslayers | 10 | 70.0% | 53.3% |
| Flesh-eater Courts | 17 | 67.6% | 47.4% |
| Hedonites of Slaanesh | 12 | 66.7% | 61.0% |
| Lumineth Realm-Lords | 18 | 61.1% | 48.1% |
| Gloomspite Gitz | 12 | 58.3% | 45.9% |
| Maggotkin of Nurgle | 31 | 58.1% | 48.7% |
| Cities of Sigmar | 19 | 57.9% | 47.7% |
| Slaves to Darkness | 41 | 57.3% | 49.4% |
| Stormcast Eternals | 28 | 57.1 | 52.3% |
| Idoneth Deepkin | 18 | 55.6% | 54.6% |
| Blades of Khorne | 32 | 53.1% | 50.8% |
| Skaven | 28 | 50.0% | 50.8% |
| Seraphon | 24 | 50.0% | 55.3% |
| Sons of Behemat | 16 | 50.0% | 55.6% |
| Nighthaunt | 10 | 50.0% | 46.9% |
| Disciples of Tzeentch | 17 | 47.1% | 40.4% |
| Kharadron Overlords | 14 | 46.4% | 45.5% |
| Helsmiths of Hashut | 20 | 45.0% | 54.1% |
| Soublight Gravelords | 37 | 44.6% | 49.6% |
| Ossiarch Bonereapers | 14 | 42.9% | 37.8% |
| Daughters of Khaine | 15 | 40.0% | 52.6% |
| Kruleboyz | 16 | 37.5% | 47.1% |
It would appear that Sylvaneth benefit from a substantial advantage over Ironjawz. The Sylvaneth players who faced Ironjawz players were expected to win around 52% of those games, but actually managed 83%.
While Sylvaneth win around 50% of the time against Seraphon, they’re expected result was around 55% suggesting that Seraphon may have a slight advantage when facing off against the trees.
The likes of Daughters of Khaine and Stormcast also seem to give Sylvaneth a tough time, both being important considering how popular Stormcast are and how often we’re seeing Daughters go undefeated into later rounds of GTs.
Battleplan Performance
| Battleplan | Games | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Treacherous Ground | 11 | 81.8% |
| Curse of the Gnaw | 22 | 63.6% |
| Escape from the Coast | 8 | 62.5% |
| Seize the Embers | 27 | 59.3% |
| Caverns of Slaughter | 30 | 56.7% |
| Avalanche of Ash | 23 | 54.3% |
| Power of the Realms | 26 | 53.8% |
| What’s Yours is Ours | 39 | 52.6% |
| Bloodstained Coasts | 24 | 52.1% |
| Warped Ruins | 31 | 43.5% |
| Into the Fire | 21 | 42.9% |
| Hidden Under Ash-Clouds | 4 | 37.5% |
Sylvaneth have good performance on most battleplans, but particularly favour Curse of the Gnaw and Seize the Embers, two of the most popular ones used at events currently.
That being said, they do suffer when playing on Warped Ruins and Into the Fire, so if you’re a TO and you’re looking to contain a strong cohort of Sylvaneth, these could be two options for your pack.
Battle Tactics
Sylvaneth players favour Blazing Onslaught, Siege of Ashes and the Burning for Vengeance battle tactics currently. But they seem to be capable winning regardless of the tactics chosen.
Most Common Warscrolls
It’s no surprise that the Awakened Wyldwood features on this list, being their faction terrain. But following the terrain up we have Spite-Revenants and the Warsong Revenant as the most common units, with Drycha Hamadreth, Spirit of Durthu and Belthanos all featuring in more than 70% of Sylvaneth lists.
Warscrolls Pulling the Win Rate Up
While only featuring in 7 lists Revenant Seekers have helped pull those players who have used them up by 10.5pp beyond their expected win rates to 57.1% from an expected of 46.6%. Drycha, Spite-Revenants, Dryads, Spirit of Durthu and the Warsong Revenant who all also featured on the most common list have the same effect.
Least Common Warscrolls
Currently Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows (2 lists) and the SoA equivalents (3 lists), Spiterider Lancers (6 Lists) and Tree-Revenants (6 Lists) are all seeing very little play in competitive lists at the moment.
Warscrolls Performing Below Expectations
These Warscrolls are all currently underperforming against their players expected results. With Tree-Revenants and Spiterider Lancers really standing out in this crowd.
Artefacts of Power
Glamourweave is by far the most popular choice for Sylvaneth players, and when it allows the unit taking it to re-roll 1 hit roll, 1 wound roll and 1 save roll for the unit in every phase, it’s easy to see why.
Heroic Trait
Again, there’s only one choice it seems for Sylvaneth players, and that’s the Realmroot Guide which allows the unit and 1 other unit that are within combat range and wholly within Creeping Overgrowth to be removed from the battlefield and set up again wholly within Creeping Undergrowth and 9″ away from enemy units.
Manifestations
Manifestation of the Deepwood is proving to be the most popular choice and is again dragging win rates up from an expected 50.1% to 55.3%, which is really telling when you also compare that to the average WoElo of the players using it at 391.7.
Aspect Enhancements
Full Warscroll List with Battle Formations
