{Treefolk}
(Efflorah)
The great trees changed, transformed with sentience; the brooks and streams came to life and took on beautiful feminine forms in her honor; and Nature’s truest essence became embodied hearts bound to the trees, female companions for life.
What are they?
Treefolk are comprised of elemental Earth and Water. As gentle as the babbling brook and as intractable as the roots of the mighty oak, Treefolk are a true force of nature. Packing some of the most efficient units in the game, with a complement of powerful monsters and the best in defensive magic, Treefolk are not to be taken lightly. Let's dive in!
The Six-sided Units
One of the strengths Treefolk offer is a number of highly-efficient units. Apart from the small and medium mages, none of their six-sided units have a single "stray" icon - missile faces on melee units and vice versa. Each class offers unique strengths to the faction, including a never-before-seen SAI and incredible icon distrubution.
Heavy Melee
The Treefolk heavy melee units bring four non-ID melee faces per point of health, with their large units packing two Smite faces with three points each. To top this off, they hit on melee with five of their six faces. When the heavies start swinging, watch out!
Light Melee
Light melee offers some different advantages to the Treefolk. They have fewer melee faces, which is to be expected, but bring much better speed and defense to the table. With the small and medium units offering 50/50 odds on saves and maneuver, they're a welcome addition to any team. Their large unit brings an all-new SAI to bear - Wild Growth - which offers either saves or allows you to promote your units. We'll cover the details of this later.
Cavalry
As one would expect, cavalry offer the best maneuverability of any of their units. Unlike some factions, none of their cavalry have any missile faces clogging up your rolls, and their large unit is one of the most useful around. It offers a 50% chance of generating melee, maneuver, or saves, and it brings with it one of the best SAIs in the game: Counter.
Missile
Treefolk missile units offer a variety of build options for armies looking to rain death from above. Their small units are dense with missile icons and a single save and maneuver. Their medium units give up a little bit of missile density to grant better saves and twice the maneuver icons, and their large units pack a tremendous amount of firepower while offering eight non-ID saves including the Volley SAI.
Magic
Treefolk mages, much like their missile counterparts, offer some different options depending on how the army is built. Their small units have the fairly-common four magic icons, while their medium units have slightly fewer per-health, but grant better saves in exchange. Their large magic units offer the best magic-per-health, plus the Cantrip SAI common to all other factions.
Monster Mash
Treefolk have some incredible monsters fitting a variety of build strategies. As one of the few factions with access to Dispel Magic, they also have the unique SAIs in Teleport and Wild Growth, along with a plethora of powerful melee SAIs at their disposal.
Unicorn
The rarest of all Treefolk Monsters, the Unicorn sports the Teleport SAI which is found nowhere else in Esfah. This SAI can get your units out of trouble fast!
Along with Teleport, the Unicorn brings with it two Dispel Magic SAIs. Like all Dispel Magic monsters it only shows on two faces, but the chance to negate all spells targeting the unit, its army, or the terrain it occupies is incredible.
With 50% maneuver faces and 40% save and melee faces, plus the incredibly powerful Dispel Magic SAI, the Unicorn is a fine addition to any team.
Strangle vine
The Strangle Vine is a powerhouse for any melee army, with seven offensive faces. The Choke, Double Strike, and Smother SAIs provide targeted removal on four faces, while Rend and Double Strike grant a re-roll on top of their own effects. Bring some saves though, as the Strangle Vine is severely lacking in defensive icons.
Darktree
The Darktree trades the brute melee power of the Strangle Vine for some extra save faces and the very-useful Surprise SAI. This gives your melee army cover when it attacks, protecting your army from counterattacks. It is also packing Smother, which is particularly devastating against slower, heavier units as well as the Undead.
Satyr
The Satyr is unfortunately one of the least useful monsters in the game. While it offers some interesting SAIs in Sleep and Confuse, it doesn't have much in terms of reliability. It may have five faces that work during a missile attack, but only three of those actually deal damage, and in melee it only brings one damaging face.
Redwood
Offering none of the exciting targeted SAIs of other monsters, the Redwood is packing high reliability of speed, damage, and defense. With six offensive faces and four faces each for maneuvers and saves, the Redwood is a well-rounded monster, even if it lacks the flashy and powerful SAIs other units might offer.
Strengths
Treefolk are a strong faction and they do a few things very well.
They are more reliable than many others, with virtually no "wasted" faces with icons that don't fit with the unit. Their melee units hit hard, their cavalry are fast, and their missile units pack plenty of icons to suit.
Treefolk are quite resilient. They have Watery Double and Stoneskin spells which are mainstays (and which work with Cantrip), and their Accelerated Growth spell functions similar to the Undead's Stepped Damage ability. Finally, they have their Replanting faction ability which somewhat mimics the Undead's Open Grave spell.
They are also very good at controlling terrain. Between their Rapid Growth faction ability that grants a re-roll while opposing maneuvers at any yellow terrain, they also have access to several powerful spells to keep terrain where they want it. Transmute Rock to Mud strips away maneuvers, Flash Flood forces terrain down, and Wall of Thorns punishes opponents for attempting to move the terrain either direction. Their light melee and cavalry are quite fast as well.
Weaknesses
Despite their strengths, Treefolk suffer in a few areas.
Their Rapid Growth ability - for all the benefit it gives - doesn't function when the unit rolls an SAI, even if that SAI serves no purpose during the roll in question. This punishes certain units and really hinders the power of the ability.
Replanting is a useful ability as well, but the fact that it is limited to only ID rolls makes it much weaker than it could be. It often feels like a small consolation prize rather than a true faction ability, which is a bit of a shame for an ability that has so much potential.
Their missile units lack the targeted Bullseye SAI which is a critical piece of a missile strategy. The Volley SAI just doesn't do enough to offset the direct-damage and re-roll that Bullseye would provide.
While they can do a lot of work controlling terrain and protecting themselves, their mages have no offensive capabilities. They don't have access to any spells that function similar to Finger of Death, Lightning Strike, Hailstorm, or Firebolt.
Strategies
There are several ways to build an effective army with Treefolk. They bring some of the heaviest hitters, they have the best terrain control in town, and they can be nearly-impossible to keep down.
Heavy Hitters
A few heavy melee units paired with a few light melee units for maneuvers and saves can cause devastating damage in melee with unstoppable Smites left and right.
A Strangle Vine, Dark Tree, or a Redwood can augment this strategy, while mages can offer support in the form of Watery Double and Transmute Rock to Mud.
Straight Speed
Going all-in on a cavalry strategy can offer some strong plays. With the ability to resist opposing maneuvers with Rapid Growth and the threat of the Counter SAI on large cavalry units, opponents will be wary of engaging head-on.
A complement of mages can support this army as well, using that terrain control discussed previously.
Untouchables
Harder to build due to their rarity, this Unicorn-backed army is difficult to engage. Wild Growth and Counter SAIs will deter enemies and recover units, while the mere threat of Dispel Magic can be enough to assuage magic from targeting these forces.
As with most armies, these units can be helped by mages at another terrain casting Stone Skin or Transmute Rock to Mud.
Final Thoughts
Treefolk are a fantastic and robust faction, with some wonderful units and powerful monsters. While their mages may lack in offensive magic, their heavy melee make up for it with crushing SAIs and high damage output.
If you haven't checked out our {DD Boot Camp} section, we have a build centered around terrain manipulation with Treefolk front and center.
Let us know what you think of this primer and be sure to send any requests for future content to info@thedicemustflow.com