Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: Rivendell Revisited

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 . . ."

Yes, I've been searching high and low for these two models for AGES and now that I have them, I'm getting them on the tabletop! So strap in - we're going to see how we can finnagle Quest of the Ringbearer to suit our needs (and maybe purchase a few more models along the way).

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). 

With the knowledge that you could do a direct swap of Aragorn for Glorfindel, the list you could run looks like this:

• 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.

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).

Conclusion

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!