First of all, do yourself a favour and subscribe to this mod if you haven´t already ( https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=768267107) (Dads Unit Icons Expanded). It will make playing this game prettier and more immersive.

You border Iron Barony, Ladvia and Riesental. Iron Barony didn´t bother me much, but when they did, I dispatched them easily on defence. Ladvia usually just chills in their corner, but they do have two very profitable forest provinces that by rights belong to you. So in a free minute you should snatch it. Now, you are going to learn to hate Riesental with all your heart. They need to go. They are in your woods anyways, so decorate the trees with their entrails as a warning for others and drink your fine elven wines in a cruel toast. Usually they are the first ones to declare war. Stay in your starting position killing fools trying to cross the river (easy-peasy) and go on the offense once you have a respectable army. Take your time and be methodical. Never peace out before you take a province or two, but otherwise accept peace to regroup if you need it. Smashing Riesental will take a while, but once you do, you will have a respectable position (and probably get DoWed by the Boruvian Empire almost as much).

Lumber is relatively easy to come by. Trade with Sirucil for alchemy and build the Dryads Garden in the Capital and Galisong soonish (Tier 3, gives free Alchemy if province has wine, and free wine if the province has alchemy). Save some Alchemy for at least one Treant though. You have a neat advantage over other Realms because you can recruit solid troops with resources you have easy access too, so you only need it to build stuff. The main Resources you will need to import to do anything of use are gems, stone and art, because none of them lie in your ideal conquering path. Crafts are also problematic until you push the Gypsis out of the woods.

In general, you will want ley lines or standing stones in every province, because getting RP through buildings is way more efficient than paying for them (because the more RP you produce, the more expensive each point becomes). Vineyard is another no-brainer, and since you should limit your conquest to forest regions anyways (see Unit section), you can build it pretty much everywhere.
You have NO access to forts, so keep that in mind (not that you would need them anyways).

You start with a free spell point, which should go asap into wood lore (+15 RP in province without landmark). This buff is amazing, lasts whooping 12 turns, and will save you money to invest in troops.

Now, what of the other spells? The left branch can be safely Ignored. Quicksilver (+2 Initiative for one unit) is useless because you already have more initiative than 95% of your enemies. Singing shafts is useless for you because you have more Range than anything in the game bar siege weapons, so you shouldn´t get counter fired. Finally, Wild Hunt is neat, but the fact that it only works in Old Forest is crippling (every old forest in the game is occupied by other elves, which you´re not supposed to fight), and so, all in all not worth investing into.

Herbalism is OK, since a lot of your most used units have only Heal 1, which means that once they do get hit, they will run around crippled for a while. That said, it´s not a priority.

The right branch is pretty solid, starting with River Rapids helping you against early Riesental Aggression (the A.I seems to take it into account and often don´t attack at all when it is active. It has an OK duration of 4 turns.

Roaring forest is neat, but will see limited use due to the Old Forest tag, and the fact that most of Riesentals troops have forester just like yours. It can however, turn an invading Iron Barony army into slugs, giving you a bit more freedom to leave your capital lightly guarded.

Sylvian Rebirth is currently bugged, but sounds OK on paper.

Lifespring is good for the same reason Herbalism is, your most used units don´t heal that well, and having a province turn them into freaking trolls is good. That said, watch out and don´t lose the province, because the enemy will benefit from it, and the duration (10) is long.

Every unit you own has the Forester tag (and so I won´t mention it again in the individual analysis). Paired with pretty fast movement and long range fire support, it makes your army the forest Mongols. Your units tend to have more initiative than your foes´, giving you a subtle advantage when you close into melee for the kill often without getting a scratch back. Aevinwode punches way above its weight, and can win easy victories even while outnumbered.
Outside the forest you are still strong, but the enemies have a way easier time catching up to you, which is no Bueno. Transform anything you encounter into hedgehogs, don´t let them touch you. Give them the rest with some spare melee unit you may have walking around. In an ideal (tactical)battle, you will take exactly 0 damage. On the other hand, Aevinwode absolutely melts on Autobattles, where your archers can only fire twice before getting hit. Since your heal stat is pretty crappy, it will hurt a lot. Thus you have to make the two hero led armies count.

Swordsinger
Marked as elite and with annoying to get resource requirements, these guys will take a while to come online. But oh boy are they worth it! They have Evasion, which is neat on an elite unit, and Overrun as an option on the second promotion. Right now it has no limit to the number of times it can be activated. You can literally kill every single enemy unit with ONE swordsinger in ONE turn, provided you have weakened them before (Archery anyone?) and they are placed moderately close together. I´m pretty sure Overrun will get nerfed sooner or later, maybe to just one activation, which is still superb (kill two enemies in one turn, plus spare movement to fall back).
Two in each of your Hero led armies (so they can shieldwall each other) will make the world go round.

Nymph
Marked as elite and garrison, they won´t see a lot of direct action, but are a solid support unit. Chaos is good too break shieldwall lines and leave enemy infantry at the mercy of your main archers. If they battle enough to get to the third promotion, they´ll get the healer ability, which catapults the utility of nymphs to the stratosphere thanks to their heal 4. Two of them in a defensive army (meaning, non-hero led and thus autobattle), will make it super beefy.

Woodland Minstrel
Never recruit them. They are garbage, at least in the context of your army. Maybe if you need a lot of warm bodies to throw at something, otherwise totally skippable (I could imagine a scenario against Malador and their fearsome/terrifying units, but… meh).

Feybrunn Runners
Another utility unit, they come with scout out of the box, so there is no reason not to have at least one in every army. You will be pretty well informed about army compositions, thus freeing your poor two agents to fetch you resources instead of spying. Runners also have movement 5 and can be purchased without trouble from the get go, making them the main killers in early armies (before swordsingers and stag riders come online). They can be parked at a safe distance from the enemy and hit them in the face once they got enough arrows in them. Solid.

Elven bows
The stars of the show. 5 to 6 of these bad boys in each hero-led army can win you an empire. Out of the box they have 4 range and 5(!) range damage. Let it soak in. Anything with less than 4 defence will be just one (melee) cough away from an early grave. A fully upgraded Elven bow can have 6 range and recon, which means you can send death via whats-app to the enemy. They have however 0 attack and defence, so don´t let them get caught in a brawl. Ever.
Nuff´ said.

Master of the Hunt
A flavourful unique unit, the attack sprite and sound are hilarious (a wolfish scratch and a howl). He can get Overrun on the first promotion, and starts with recon and movement 5 out of the box, making him a dangerous presence basically everywhere on the battlefield. He can shoot things too, with a respectable 4 range attack, but you don´t lack in that department, so it´s kind of situational.

Satyr
Marked as elite and with an annoying wine and craft requirement, they will take a while to come online. They are cavalry, and thus can charge, but they have pretty low movement (in the context of this army) of 4, which leaves them often dragging behind the main army body in tactical battles. They can get more movement and attack and ultimately even Overrun with promotions, but they will never be absolutely necessary, mainly because Aevinwode doesn´t need more punch. Also, by the time you have them it is possible that you will be facing the Boruvian Empire already, and with it, pikes . Take them, or don´t, it doesn´t matter. It´s sad because they would be a star unit in pretty much every other army.

Stag Riders
Another staple of your army, Stag Riders are a multipurpose unit, much in the way of the master of the Hunt (but less powerful, obviously). They can charge from far away, shoot, go back, and be a general pain in the ass. Interestingly they can gain the Mobility trait on the third promotion making them able to charge even into weird places to break shieldwalls. They are also better than Satys against pikes, because of the whole shooting-and-running-away-laughing-thing they got going on. 3-4 in an army will give you the authentic Forest Mongol ™ Experience.

White Hart
It´s meant primarily as a tank, but since your army can kite a lot, it is a unique unit AND has the garrison trait, it won´t necessarily see a lot of action. It can ultimately gain the Phantom ability, which is kinda cool (you can charge into 20 archers like you´re just walking through the mall). You start with the guy, so might as well use him.

Treant
Your only Siege weapon, he is the slowest unit you have (movement 2  ), and the only option against enemy forts, so you will want at least a few. Trade with Sirucil for alchemy, and deploy him in a way that he can reach forts in the least amount of turns possible. Otherwise leave him at home, where he performs performs pretty well in autobattles, so that is cool.

Forest Giant
This guy is only available in conquest mode after having conquered 15 provinces and in the Story mode after conquering a Harbor (info from user Mentant). Sadly, conquering the harbor was the last thing I did before winning, so I never toyed with him. From the game data, he seems to be a treant on steroids, with more movement, more attack and a ranged attack, but I suspect him to be unnecessary, and more flavour than anything else. Now I´m thinking about building a wood elves melee army based around satyrs, swordsingers and this guy…hmmmm

Conclusion
Playing Aevinwode is fun and can feel pretty OP at times, but you do have limitations, only 2 Hero-led armies and cavalry on any terrain that is not a forest being the main ones. You will learn to kite or die trying, so kite away and conquer your foes! :)

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