Good morning gamers,
We're back in Quest of the Ringbearer and discussing lists we can make for Matched Play based on models we've collected from the sourcebook. Last time we looked at Angmar and today we're digging into their ancient foe, Rivendell.
I know what you're thinking though:
You: "Aren't we given basically no Rivendell units in Quest of the Ringbearer - just Gildor, Arwen, and technically Glorfindel?"
Me: "Correct - next to none."
You: "And we've got loads of other factions we could be building for?"
Me: "Absolutely - and we will."
You: "But we're still covering Rivendell today?"
Me: "Yes."
You: " . . . Why? . . ."
Me: "Because of these guys . . ."
The List
If you limit yourself to just the models from Quest of the Ringbearer, your Rivendell collection is . . . depressingly small:
- Gildor Inglorion is used in one mission (Shortcuts Make Long Delays);
- Arwen Evenstar is used in one mission (Flight to the Ford);
- You have the option to use Glorfindel in Flight to the Ford instead of Arwen; and
- You have 6 Wood Elf Warriors in the Lothlorien scenarios (and probably have 18 other Wood Elf Warriors if you bought the plastic box) who could be used as Noldorin Exiles.
This doesn't give you much
to go on - so go purely from Quest of the Ringbearer, you need to a)
collect models for Fantasy Fellowships, and b) be okay allying with
Lothlorien and the Fellowship. Some of the members of the Fellowship
(Aragorn, Boromir, and Legolas in particular) are powerful heroes who
can increase your damage output (up-close or from a distance) and
Aragorn/Boromir have March for your army (so Gildor doesn't have to
spend his Might point doing that). With Fantasy Fellowships, you get
access to:
- An armored-version of Haldir (and Celeborn, actually); and
- 12 Galadhrim Warriors (though you probably have 24 if you picked up the plastic box).
- Gildor Inglorion
- 1 Noldorin Exile with throwing daggers
- 5 Noldorin Exiles with Wood Elf spears and throwing daggers
- 4 Noldorin Exiles with Elf bows
- HISTORICAL ALLY: Haldir with heavy armor and Elf bow
- 5 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
- 5 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
- 5 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
- HISTORICAL ALLY: Aragorn - Strider with armor and bow [ARMY LEADER]
- Boromir of Gondor with shield
With
29 models, 11 fast infantry with a free Heroic March from Aragorn (or 6 Might for March on Boromir if you run Glorfindel instead of Aragorn), and 13 Might points (plus Mighty Hero if you run Aragorn), this is a truly terrifying list
(vulnerable to archery, perhaps, but a terrifying list all the same).
However, it doesn't feel very Rivendell-like - AND it doesn't really
give Gildor or Glorfindel the time to shine that they really deserve. So
instead, I've recently been trying something else out (plus most of my
Galadhrim Warriors have Elf bows and spears . . . so I can't play this
list right now).
Most Rivendell lists will
sport a bunch of High Elf Warriors, which we don't have in any of the
QOTR scenarios. Many Rivendell lists will also include at least a few
Rivendell Knights, which we don't have in any of the QOTR scenarios
either. With access to Noldorin Exiles, you probably don't NEED
Rivendell Knights for speed per se, but many players would prefer the
high-Defense, lance-wielding, all-bow cavalry models over their
half-priced, more fragile, all-throwing-weapon-capable infantry models. I
get that.
As was mentioned above, I've sought second-hand models for
Gildor and a mounted Glorfindel for a long time and I was over the moon when I
heard that Gildor and Glorfindel were coming back to the GW store
permanently with the release of Quest of the Ringbearer. I have also
been collecting High Elf Warriors for a while (and if you've followed
this blog for any period of time, you know I love Wood Elf Warriors). As
such, I've had a great desire to throw these models on the table - and
so, to appease my own joy, the list I present to you today includes
these two amazing models, a handful of Wood Elf Warriors, and the
acquisition of Cirdan and 23 High Elf Warriors (which you should
probably pick up if you intend to play Rivendell in any capacity):
- Glorfindel, Lord of the West on Asfaloth with the Armor of Gondolin [ARMY LEADER]
- 1 High Elf Warrior
- 5 High Elf Warriors with shields
- 5 High Elf Warriors with shields and spears
- 1 High Elf Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
- 2 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows
- 1 High Elf Warrior with Elf bow and spear
- Gildor Inglorion
- 4 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers
- 5 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
- 1 High Elf Warrior with Elf bow
- 1 High Elf Warrior with Elf bow and spear
- Cirdan
- 3 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows
- 3 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows and spears
700 points, 35 models, 11 Elf bows hitting on a 3+, 19 D6+ models, 1 mounted model + 10 fast infantry, 5 Might
I
will say that if you can't find Cirdan (who has only been made-to-order
- though he's been made-to-order twice in the past three years), you
could run Arwen on a horse and another High Elf Warrior with shield if
you wanted to - this would use your collection a bit better, but would
deny you access to some pretty great static buffs from Cirdan. Arwen's
Wrath of Bruinen spell (and decent damage on the charge) would be useful
too, but more on an offensive level, instead of a defensive one (which
is Cirdan's strong suit).
Let's dig into what we can do with this list (and what Gildor and Glorfindel provide in particular).
Army Theory
Rivendell
is often run in one of two ways: a) a Rivendell Knight spam list that
sports Elrond (required in order for the Rivendell Knights to not count
towards your bow limit) and usually Aragorn, a High Elf Captain with all
the toys, and/or Elladan and Elrohir (aka "the Twins") in order to race
around the board and smash things to bits, or b) a Gil-Galad list that
sports 18 King's Guard and whatever else you can fit into your list
after you do that. BOTH of these lists were brought to THRO 2021 (the
Gil-Galad list was brought by our alternate player, who I got to play
against for fun with my Balrog after one of my rounds ended early - and
yes, I had to fight both of them with my Balrog . . . not much fun).
Neither
of these lists have much reason to bring Glorfindel - you can probably
slot him into the Elrond list pretty easily, but since you need March in
Gil-Galad's list, you probably want a High Elf Captain in tow to a)
keep the cost of your heroes down, and b) to make sure your F6 infantry
show up in time to whatever fight you're waging. While Glorfindel is
probably a good fit alongside Elrond, he's only slightly cheaper than
Aragorn (who gets a free Might point each turn) and the Twins (where you
get two models instead of one). With no +1 To Wound unless you're
willing to two-hand, most people would prefer to leave Glorfindel at
home instead of bringing him.
Similarly, Gildor
Inglorion is a pretty cheap hero, but he's not THAT much cheaper than a
High Elf Captain and he has lower Defense, access to Heroic Defense but
not Heroic Strike, and he has March but only 1 Might point (and he's 8"
move infantry instead of 10" move cavalry). On paper, most people seem
to prefer to the Captain to Gildor. I get that - I really do.
But
as you all know by now, I'm a huge fan of throwing weapons. Rivendell,
on the whole, doesn't get those - UNLESS you bring Gildor Inglorion. And
with 8" move infantry, you CAN March your troops forward, you probably
don't have to - you've already got a portion of your army that's faster
than normal infantry and they can shoot from 6" away with a good innate
shoot value. Yes, they're D3, but if you've got any kind of terrain on
the board, they're terrifying. And this list has 10 models with 8" move -
nine of which have throwing daggers and one of which has Immobilize.
With 11 fast models out of 35 total models, almost one-third of our army
is capable of moving quickly and ALL of them are a threat if they have
terrain to shield them (woodland terrain preferable).
Glorfindel
doesn't hit as hard as Gil-Galad or Elrond on paper, but he can
two-hand and thanks to having D7 and immunity to brutal power attacks that
target him specifically, he can get away with two-handing against most threats and force
enemy monsters to wound him normally (which some will do easily, but the
more affordable ones will not). As the cheapest of the Lords of the
West available to Rivendell, you can also turn the points saved on
Glorfindel into more troops (something I mentioned in a post not too
long ago on formations). Add in the cost savings from Gildor and you've
probably got +4 models over the equivalent Rivendell army - and I think
that's worth something. With a full warband of 15 models under his
command (who make nearly an 8x2 brick), you have quite a bit of support
for this guy to make sure he's fighting what he wants.
Each
warband has received bows and ALL of the bows are High Elf Warriors so
we can capitalize on our army bonus should we need it. Gildor is allowed
to bring Noldorin Exiles in his warband, but he's required to ONLY take
Noldorin Exiles in his warband, so we've actually assigned two High Elf
Warriors with Elf bows (one with spear) in his warband so that he can
deploy a few archers at an objective or a defensible firing lane when he
and his squad moves out - good for cover fire and for doing objective
hopping.
Cirdan is really the guy who makes
these two heroes shine - not only does he have 6 archers who can be
protected from return fire with Blinding Light and made resilient to
swarming with Aura of Dismay, but he also can augment the damage of
Gildor and Glorfindel with Enchanted Blades. It doesn't go off every
turn, but you don't need it to go off very often for it to do its work. I
recently felled a few Ents with Glorfindel because he was two-handing
while rerolling all failed To Wound rolls (and when you need 5s
rerollable on 8 dice, you're pretty good at killing things).
Okay, with all of these thoughts under our belts, let's look and see how you would use this army in the different scenarios.
Game Play Strategy
Maelstrom & Object Missions (Pools 1 & 3)
In
the maelstrom missions, you have one fast, vulnerable warband and two
warbands with D5-6 troops and a surprising amount of shooting. In any
maelstrom scenario, you want to deploy Cirdan first and then deploy
Glorfindel next and make sure he arrives near Cirdan (pay the Might
required). Gildor doesn't need to be near the others, but he certainly
benefits from being near Cirdan.
In Hold Ground,
you benefit greatly from Gildor's warband racing for the middle, using
terrain to shield them from reprisals from the enemy. If enemy models
attempt to beat you there, the 8" move on these guys and the throwing
weapons everywhere (not to mention the Immobilize if you get a charge
in) will be a nasty, horrible surprise. Glorfindel can race in on
Asfaloth as well, but you want his warband and Cirdan's troops to arrive
slowly, providing cover fire with their bows - and even be willing to
hold up an enemy warband or two from getting to the center.
In Heirlooms of Ages Past,
you can place your objectives 8" from the board edge so that your
opponent can't walk onto the objectives with his 6" move units, but you
can still reach them on the first turn if you want to. Gildor's warband
can be used to March (if you want to) to other objectives, which means
you can place objectives near the center of the board as well. Cirdan
and Glorfindel should arrive together, though again, Glorfindel can go
save Gildor if you need to.
Command the Battlefield
is your favorite maelstrom mission, since you can park Gildor's guys
behind terrain on different quadrants so that you can make your opponent
commit resources to hunt them. Glorfindel is fast and can race to
quadrants that aren't well defended, while Cirdan and your bowmen
advance towards wherever your opponent's greatest mass is located - even
cutting through the "no man's land" in the center so they can reach out
and contest all quadrants if required. Between the high-strength bows,
the fast-moving throwing weapons, and the mass of heavy infantry (to say
nothing of the big Elven lord racing round), he'll need to come deal
with you - and when he comes, squish whatever comes.
Of the object-related missions, you have 10 8" move models that can pick stuff up easily. In Seize the Prize,
you could March towards the middle on the first turn, but I think
you're better served by having the Noldorin Exiles coming up one flank
of the Prize (with throwing weapons to shoot at anyone who actually got
to the center line), Glorfindel riding up on the other flank, and your
11 bows (with Cirdan) looking right up the center, able to send a hail
of shots at whoever made it to the Prize. If Gildor or one of your
Noldorin Exiles can dig up the Prize, you can use their speed (and Elven
Cloaks) to avoid getting shot if you can get a break-away. With a lot
of spears for shielding at F5, throwing weapons to harass anyone who
pursues you, and of course Glorfindel to potentially get the hand-off, I
think you can win the scenario easily should you pick up the Prize.
In Destroy the Supplies,
your fast troops help you again - your archers will be protecting your
objectives, while your fast-moving Exiles move around your block of
heavily-armored troops to clear out enemy objectives. Having a big hero
like Glorfindel (or Glorfindel supported by Cirdan) is really good in
this scenario, as you can draw out enemy resources to stop him from
getting to their supplies OR use his speed to "wag" to another flank to
stop the enemy from rushing one of your supply areas. You want this game
to end quickly if you can - hit hard and hold the enemy up until you
clear out their supplies.
Retrieval is
theoretically not hard, as you have plenty of speed, but your holding
power will depend greatly on how well Cirdan does. You have a nice anvil
that can hold an area around your flag against most things, if you
cause terror and can't be shot to pieces. With Glorfindel and Gildor's
team able to strike into the enemy area and seize the flag, I don't
think you need to worry about grabbing it and getting it back to your
own area. However, with only average numbers and fairly low Defense, you
could be in trouble against a high-Strength horde (like Azog's
Hunters).
Control Missions (Pools 2 & 5)
Your strategy for the three "objectives" scenarios is fundamentally the same. In Domination,
you want to place your two objectives as close together as possible to
the center so that Cirdan and all of your archers can guard the center
of the map, while Gildor and Glorfindel threaten the periphery
objectives. Your Noldorin Exiles can be invaluable assets at holding
objectives because of their Elven Cloaks - and as your enemy nears the
objectives, you can use your throwing weapons to deal damage while still
being in range of the objective yourself.
In Breakthrough and Command and Control,
you don't get the choice of where the objectives are, but you do get to
deploy on the center-line if you want to, so Cirdan and most of the
archers can deploy right on the center line (Gildor's archers should
deploy at your rear objective, with Gildor's guys within reach of one of
the side objectives). Your infantry anvil of melee troops should
support the flank of the archers that Gildor's troops are not
supporting, with Glorfindel tucked behind the ranks enough not to be
charged, but able to charge anyone who engages your ranks (and ideally
able to charge at least one enemy model should you win priority). It's
most important that he isn't so close to the front lines that you risk
him getting tagged on the first turn. Unlike scenarios like Destroy the
Supplies, you're playing a long game here - you can't win the game
necessarily by slamming the enemy quickly, so do your best to control
where your opponent is, harass him where possible, and overwhelm when
you have numerical advantages (heroic combats from Glorfindel can help
with that tremendously).
Reconnoitre is
a nightmare for most armies, but not this one - with 10 fast infantry
and Glorfindel, you have plenty of options for scoring with fast troops.
The risk you run, of course, is that you can't quarter yourself if all
of these guys get off the board. With 35 total models, if 8 models
escape off the enemy board edge, every other model you have needs to
die. So do that - with Glorfindel and 7 Noldorin Exiles (or Gildor)
getting off the board edge. With 8 models off, your opponent will need
to get 3 models off the board to deny you the full 7 VPs and will need
to get 5 models off the board to deny you the 5 VPs (to say nothing of
getting 8 models off the board to deny you getting 3 VPs and 9/16/24
models off the board to get 3/5/7 VPs himself).
Actually
getting your models off the board is tricky and requires patience, as
your fast troops can't move too quickly ahead of the rest of your battle
line without drawing the enemy's full attention (though honestly with
Gildor's Immobilize supporting Glorfindel and 9 throwing weapons that
expect to deal 1-2 wounds/round when charging and 1 wound/round when
skirmishing, there isn't much you're afraid of). Still, if 20 models
descend on these 12 models (and 1-2 of those are decent heroes), you're
running an awful risk. As such, spread out your archers, get your melee
troops spread out near Cirdan to hold the center, use bowfire and the
threat of throwing weapons to corral your opponent's troops, and when
you see an open gap, race around with Gildor and Glorfindel (heroic
combats are great here) to get to the board edge. Eventually, your
opponent may give up pursuit and throw himself towards your board edge.
If he doesn't have shields on all of his guys, you can two-hand and
feint with your Elves in order to lose fights (and since you two-handed,
your High Elves will all be D5 regardless of whether they have shields
or not). If your opponent kills them, you get closer to breaking. Cirdan
can be useful in making sure you get match-ups you want, but this is
one scenario that casting Aura of Dismay might not be the best idea
(though Blinding Light and Aura of Command can be useful early on,
consider dumping all of your will into an Enchanted Blades spell when
you're ready to quarter yourself so people start running).
Seize the Camp
is one of those scenarios that's also a nightmare - but not really for
this army. Your archers are guarding your camp from near the center of
the board, using their bows to harass anyone who avoids your anvil or
fast troops. Glorfindel will need to engage wherever the mass of the
enemy is centered, but Gildor and his boys can race for the enemy camp
once they have a free path. Use terrain to your advantage on the
approach as best you can, get a few guys back there, and then hold out
as the enemy attempts to reinforce - with any luck, Glorfindel will cut
them off and keep them from arriving.
Divide and Conquer requires
you to alternate deployment, so like we talked about in the maelstrom
scenarios, you want Cirdan and Glorfindel to arrive together, leaving
Gildor and his boys to fend for themselves. If one of your corners has
more terrain for cover, make sure Gildor goes there (thankfully, there's
no rolling involved). Approach the middle cautiously, with your archers
laying down fire and eventually hedging on a side objective, while your
melee anvil, Glorfindel, and Gildor's team make their way to the
center. Ultimately, the Noldorin Exiles are probably going to harass the
side objective that doesn't have the archers on it, but they should
keep the anvil from being overwhelmed.
Killing Missions (Pools 4 & 6)
Most of the killing missions are great for you - scenarios like To The Death and Clash by Moonlight
are great for armies that shoot at lot and you shoot a lot (with an
anti-archery bubble from Cirdan to reduce the threat of reprisals).
Though your heroes are vulnerable in Clash by Moonlight, actually
getting to your heroes is going to be hard for your opponent - and with
your bows able to rain down pain on enemy heroes, your goal is to kill 2
heroes quickly to force your opponent to kill all three of yours
(something that will hopefully be hard to do). Above all, break the
enemy - it's worth 3 VPs in these missions (5VPs if you break the enemy
without being broken yourself).
Lords of Battle
is trickier, as you don't have good Defense, but you also have a great
amount of offensive power. With Gildor able to neutralize one big hero
and Glorfindel able to rack up kills quickly with a Heroic Combat or two
(and, of course, lots of shooting), I'm not that worried that you can
outkill your opponent. Don't start on the center-line though - make him
come to you and get some kills in early.
You don't have the option of holding back in Contest of Champions,
so don't even bother - start right on the center-line with Glorfindel
1.5" behind the front line, with his archers drifting to one side
(leaving a 40-45mm hole for him to pass through) and his melee anvil on
the other side (with the banner in range of him). Cirdan's archer band
deploys in lock-step with Glorfindel's archers and Gildor's deployment
should be reactionary to your opponent's deployment. Cirdan is focused
on getting Aura of Dismay up as quickly as possible UNLESS your opponent
has a terror line (with a harbinger debuff) - at which point, it's
better to just cast Aura of Command and have done with that. Get in some
kills, Immobilize the army leader over time if you can, and get a lead
on kills as quickly as possible. Here you want your Elves racking up
kills quickly against grunts - Feint/two-hand with the front rank while
the back-rank supports and do your best to keep your opponent from
tearing you apart.
Assassination will
be predictable for you - Gildor will probably be a better assassin than
Cirdan and your opponent will probably go for Cirdan (because he's so
important). He could go for Gildor, though, and there's not much you can
do about either of them being the target. One thing you might consider
doing is using Glorfindel to kill your target, scoring 5VPs, and hiding
both Cirdan and Gildor safely behind your lines. If you can keep these
two guys safe, your opponent doesn't have a lot of options for points,
so just make sure Glorfindel stays alive and you break the enemy and you
can win.
Conclusion
Fog of War will similarly be
tricky but certainly doable. Your opponent will need to select either
Gildor or Cirdan to kill - and if he starts a merry chase with Gildor,
just run away - your 8" move throwing weapon teams can do murder to most
forces that pursue them. Cirdan is probably a good model for you to
protect - keep him near Glorfindel so you can get Enchanted Blades on
Glorfindel for extra damage, and make sure Cirdan is always protected
(especially on the flanks). Rely on your shooting to soften the enemy so
you can break him and pick a piece of terrain that Glorfindel (or
Gildor's Exiles) can clear and claim late in the game. As far as picking
heroes to kill, you want to pick someone you can shoot to death (or
run-over last minute with Glorfindel).
There
will be a few posts in this mini-series where I borrow models that
aren't in Quest of the Ringbearer, but I don't feel like this one
featured an unreasonable amount of extra purchases. In our next post, we
will be looking at the faction of Isengard! With Uruk-Hai Scouts and some great named heroes available to you, there are questions about what list to use? With Fantasy Fellowships filling out our roster a bit, there's actually some nice choices we get for the kind of list we want to run. Curious where we'll land? Find out next week and until then, happy hobbying!
Are y'all gonna do legion reviews for Fall of the Necromamcer?
ReplyDeleteI plan to - gotta test them out first, though. :-) As we find time to meet up over the holidays, I hope to get a few tested so I can get some varied thoughts (already played one game with the Vanquishers - which was an eye-opening experience).
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