Birch Spirits and Beetle Cavalry: Why Sylvaneth Became the Next Army
A second army starts with a dangerous thought
Sometimes a new army begins with deep tactical analysis, careful budgeting, and a sensible long-term hobby plan.
And sometimes it begins with: “Sylvaneth birches would look amazing.”
That was basically where Michał landed, and honestly, we get it immediately.
The whole idea of doing Sylvaneth with a birch-tree vibe just has that perfect mix of eerie and beautiful. It feels fresh compared to the darker, more ancient-tree look we usually associate with the faction. Bright bark, strong contrast, a slightly uncanny forest spirit energy — very, very good.
Calling dips on a second army
Michał called it clearly: he’s putting his dibs on Sylvaneth as a second army.
The reason was refreshingly simple: they just look great. Sometimes that’s the whole decision, and honestly, it’s often the best reason to start an army in the first place. If we’re going to spend hours assembling, painting, and pushing little plastic weirdos around the table, we should actually love how they look.
There was also another angle here: Michał wanted something from Order, which he had mentioned before, and out of those options Sylvaneth felt like the best fit.
And from the outside, that makes a lot of sense. They have a very distinct identity, they don’t look like anyone else, and they bring a lot of character before we even start talking rules.
A faction with style — and apparently a boost in 4th edition
During the chat, Dubry mentioned that he’d read Sylvaneth got a pretty solid boost in Age of Sigmar 4th edition. We’re not turning this into a meta breakdown, but it definitely helps when an army you already like visually also has some momentum on the tabletop.
Even more importantly, Sylvaneth do that very fun thing where they manipulate terrain — or interact with the battlefield in a way that feels very “forest spirits doing forest spirit things.” That sort of mechanic goes a long way in making an army feel unique.
It’s always a good sign when the rules seem to match the fantasy.
Then we got to the important part: bug cavalry
The conversation very quickly reached the true core of the faction:
the cavalry rides giant bugs.
That is an extremely strong selling point.
Whether we call them locusts, beetles, or some other woodland monstrosity, the result is the same: they look fantastic. The color palette on these models especially grabbed us — vivid, striking, and just weird enough to feel magical instead of goofy.
This is one of those moments where an army stops being an abstract idea and becomes very real. You can almost see the project forming in your head: birch bark, cold whites, black markings, bright insect shells, forest basing, maybe some autumn leaves for contrast.
That’s when the hobby brain starts spiraling in the best possible way.
Not every model can be a winner
To be fair, the Sylvaneth range apparently also has at least one model that got a much less enthusiastic review.
Michał described one of them as something like half stool, half Gyarados, which is such a specific insult that we feel it should be preserved for posterity.
And you know what? That’s also part of army building. No faction is 100% perfect. Usually there’s at least one sculpt that makes us squint a bit and go, “…sure, okay.”
Still, if the rest of the range includes haunted birch spirits and beetle-mounted nobles, we can forgive a weird aquatic tree accident here and there.
The expensive lady general on a beetle
Then came the real centerpiece energy: the lady general who costs 680 points.
Almost Nagash territory, which is a sentence that automatically gets our attention.
According to Michał, she can turn enemies into wooded terrain — at least in battle — which is both hilarious and extremely on-brand. But let’s be honest, the key detail was established immediately after:
she rides a beetle.
This is the kind of fact that bypasses rational list-building and goes directly into the “yes, obviously” part of the hobby brain.
A small hobby truth: don’t build a grey pile of shame
The chat took a nice turn into hobby philosophy too. Michał mentioned listening to a podcast with the head of 2d6, and one line clearly stuck with him: collecting a giant grey pile of shame is basically missing the point.
The real idea is simple:
- buy models we actually want to work on,
- paint them,
- and most importantly, play with them.
Dubry added the even more important version of that truth:
we should play with painted armies.
Painful, but fair.
That’s probably the healthiest version of army-building there is. Not chasing boxes for the sake of boxes, but building something we genuinely want to put on the table.
Why people get into Warhammer at all
There was also a really nice observation from that same podcast discussion. Apparently, two common types of people come into the shop:
- people around forty, bringing their kids so the kids can choose an army and they can share the hobby together,
- and people around forty who finally have the money to buy the things they dreamed about years ago.
Honestly? Both are beautiful.
There was also the fun note that younger people sometimes know Warhammer through Total War, which feels very believable these days. The gateway into the hobby is different for everyone, but it all leads to the same place: staring at army ranges at midnight and seriously considering bug cavalry.
Next stop: 2d6
The conversation ended in the most dangerous way possible:
a planned trip to 2d6 for shopping on Tuesday.
And that’s how these things usually go. First there’s a cool visual concept. Then some list thoughts. Then a few screenshots. Then suddenly we’re discussing centerpiece monsters and whether birch bark can be painted convincingly.
And before long, a second army is no longer theoretical.
Final thoughts
So right now the Sylvaneth project is living in that wonderful early phase where everything feels exciting:
- the birch theme is strong,
- the Order slot is covered,
- the 4th edition talk is encouraging,
- the terrain manipulation sounds fun,
- and the cavalry on giant insects is, frankly, absurdly cool.
That seems like more than enough reason to start.
We’ll see what actually comes back from the shop trip — but this definitely feels like the beginning of a very real army-building journey.
And if it ends with a fully painted birch-forest warband led by a beetle-riding lady general, we will absolutely count that as a win.