First Impressions: The Elven Kingdoms, Part II

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's article is provided by Red Jacket (the TMAT team's biggest Elf fan) and he's diving into the "Rivendell" faction - which will cover both the profiles available to  the Lindon, Rivendell, and Last Alliance army lists. Red Jacket has been playing with these guys from the beginning of his venture into SBG and boy have they undergone some changes over the years.

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Today, I’m comparing and contrasting the Rivendell profiles in the 2024 edition with their

counterparts in 2018. While I learned to play the game with Isengard, Rivendell was the first

faction I invested in on my own. They are my favorite. Peter Jackson’s take on the high elves struck my fancy from the very first moment I saw them on screen, and they are a challenging and rewarding faction to bring to the table. I’m very excited to dig into the new edition’s treatment of this, the best of factions.

Before diving in, a few housekeeping things. First, as per my last article on the carry-over Rohan profiles, I won’t be commenting on the new intelligence stat. Second, all profiles switched to hand weapons, and removed special strikes. I will only be commenting on this in as much as I feel it truly impacts how the model regularly interacts with the game on the tabletop. Finally, in the case of heroes, I will not be commenting on heroic tiers.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at these new profiles.

Gil-Galad, High King of the Noldor

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Stats:

Gil-Galad didn’t receive any change in his stats, though his fight value was functionally buffed quite a bit, as I will outline later in the heroic actions section.

Wargear:

No functional change to his wargear, including Aiglos’s special rule.

Heroic Actions:

• Heroic Challenge
• Heroic Resolve
• Heroic Strength

This is where we start to see the first differences in the profile, most obviously, removals. In the 2018 edition, Gil-Galad also had access to Heroic Strike and Defense. I don’t mind the loss of Strike in this new edition. With the vast majority of heroes capping out at F6, and Strike now only being a D3 role, his F9 is actually much more powerful now than it was

in the previous edition. It was often hard to justify spending might on Strike before, and now, it’s even less worth it. While technically it’s a loss because you can’t match some of the biggest models in the game, (the Balrog, Sauron if he Strikes, and a handful of monster heroes with a chance to reach F10 if they Strike), in general you are actually much more likely to find yourself secure in the face of Striking heroes.

Defense is a bit of a loss, especially with changes to the options section we will discuss later, but if you are in the position of calling a Defense with your F9 Lord of the West, then there were probably some pretty significant errors somewhere along the line. However, the subtractions aren’t the only changes. All three of the remaining heroic actions have seen significant revisions in the new edition, and some of them present some very intriguing

possibilities. 

First, I like the new Heroic Challenge with this edition’s profile. While this is absolutely still a niche use item, the new Challenge rules allow you to call it without being locked in single

combat. That is significant and helpful. It also grants an additional attack and +1 to wound

against the enemy hero target, whether they accept the challenge or not. This means that when fighting your enemy’s hero of legend (almost certainly their army general), Gil-Galad along with his Lord of the West special rule effectively has 5 dice to win at F9, and 4 dice (plus a re-roll of one failure) with +2 to wound. That sounds like a great way to put wounds on an army general to me.

Even more significantly, this can be done on any turn in which you are within 6” of the enemy Hero of Legend. So you still have the potential to call one of the other heroic actions on a turn in which you intend to actually engage your opponent in combat (say, Heroic Strength for example). Imagine you are able to finally corner your enemy’s army general after calling a Challenge a few turns ago. Now, you have the option to call a Heroic Strength, which in the new edition doubles your strength stat for the turn. Strength 4 becomes Strength 8, and if you win the fight, you are now wounding Dwarven lords on a 2+. You auto wound a hero with defense 6 or lower.

Lastly, if you kill them, Challenge now allows you to reclaim a point of might you have spent previously in the battle (in the same way the old Blood and Glory special rule did in the 2018 edition). Even without the Heroic Challenge bonus, Heroic Strength is still a great option for him. There is not much that will hold up against 3 (up to 4 rolls) Strength 8 strikes with a +1 to wound. It’s a great option to deal with the likes of Trolls or other monsters.

Lastly, Heroic Resolve has also been buffed in this edition, allowing heroes who call it to still activate as normal during the turn. Additionally, heroes can call a Stand Fast even when engaged in combat. These are all significant changes to the 2018 edition which make it much more interesting.

On the whole, I think that the heroic actions that were lost are not dramatically problematic,

given the changes to those actions, and the massive buffs to the actions that were left. Despite the loss of two special heroic actions, I think that the profile received a notable buff in the heroics section on balance. Which is good. Because it took a huge hit in the next one…

Options:

In terms of options… he has no options.

Okay, technically he does. The ability to upgrade High Elf Warriors in his warband to King’s

Guard for +1 point still exists - and it’s more important than ever with the proliferation of F6 in this new edition. However, that is itself a bit of a debuff. Whereas before, it was a fun option to consider, because your regular warriors could tie the Fight Value of any hero that wasn’t truly elite, and your King’s Guard could stymie them; now there is a good chance you need to pay for King’s Guard to have the same effect as standard High Elf Warriors had before. Nice that you have a chance to see that Elves Fight Value is still potent. Not nice that it’s now even more expensive.

But the actual options for Gil-Galad himself… lost to the sands of time.

And this is a huge deal. First, the horse option. I understand it. There was no horse in the

movies. There was no model with a horse produced by GW. Both are things GW stated they were making decisions with when adjusting profiles. But this really does bite. Virtually every other true power hero in the game comes with a mount (Elrond, Aragorn, King Ellesar, Boromir Captain of the White Tower, Gandalf the White, Eomer, Helm, Azog, Bolg, Witch King, Gothmog). For a model that is clearly oriented around combat and nothing else, the lack of ability to keep up with the raw damage output of other power heroes, especially for his cost, is pretty hard to swallow.

The second option is also difficult, particularly because it’s even less consistent. He now can’t take a shield. This very pricey, 1 fate hero now maxes out at D7, no longer has Heroic Defense as an option, can no longer shield, and the only legitimate reason in my opinion is that you don’t see him with one in the 1.5 seconds that he is in the movie (let’s ignore the fact that there is behind the scenes footage and movie stills of him with a shield - it wasn’t there, it doesn’t count I guess). The fact that they didn’t make a model with it holds no water with me at all, since they didn’t make High Elf warrior models with just shields either, but it’s still an option for them (thank Illuvatar). So apparently we are fine with modeling and conversions for warrior models, but not heroes.

Both of these hits are pretty brutal in my opinion.

Special Rules:

But wait... there's more... While the two unique special rules remain unchanged, and he still retains Terror and Woodland Creature, he does lose Blood and Glory which I find to be quite interesting. Again… when you think about truly big-name heroes (160 points +), they usually have a way to extend their might beyond the standard three. Whether its heroic actions to call for free, Master of Battle, a larger than usual store to start, or just straight up free points of might, I think it’s a little surprising that they removed his version of might mitigation.

Cost: 175 Points

This is a 5 point increase in cost over 2018, and at face value I’m fine with that. His F9 stayed the same, but was effectively buffed. The Heroics were a wash to a slight positive, and the special rule loss while significant, was probably not that devastating. I’m not sure the point bump was necessary. But I don’t think it’s crazy in practice. On the whole however, this profile was definitively nerfed. The loss of the horse’s mobility and hitting power, the increased vulnerability from losing the shield and Heroic Defense, and the removal of any might use mitigation are all serious blows to the effectiveness of this extremely costly hero. He has a role (obviously since he is required in one of two lists he is eligible to be taken in). He is still a powerhouse. But he is not the powerhouse he was in the 2018 edition, and I regularly found it hard to justify bringing him, even in that edition. I’m going to be very surprised if the Lindon list gets played even a fraction as often as the Rivendell list in this new edition.

Elrond, Master of Rivendell

Stats:

We do see a boost in Fight from 6 to 7, which I strongly approve of. Not only does this make

complete sense in this new edition’s “expanded fight values” environment, but I always felt that even at F6 Elrond was probably a better warrior than your average Elf Captain. We also see a +2 bump in defense, but that’s not really a change, as will be noted in the wargear section.

Wargear:

The most obvious change is that now Elrond comes with heavy armor by default, which accounts for the defensive stat change. Vilya and Hadafang remain the same, including their associated special rules.

Heroic Actions:

• Heroic Channeling
• Heroic Defense
• Heroic Resolve
• Heroic Strike

These are the same special actions as the previous edition, though all but Defense have had

modifications in 2024. The only one we haven’t covered already is Heroic Channeling.

In this edition, they have done away with the concept of boosting a spells effectiveness or

duration with heroic channeling. Now, Heroic Channel just guarantees you a successful cast and the spell will count as having been cast on a 6. This is significant, in that it allows casters to be certain that a spell will be particularly hard (or costly) to resist, and it decreases the necessity of expending multiple will points to ensure a successful cast.

I will discuss the ramifications of this change in the Magical Powers section later, but on the

whole, the changes in heroics here are all about a wash. Strike is worse, Resolve is better,

defense is the same, and Channeling is probably a toss-up.

Options:

Because he already comes with heavy armor equipped, horse being the only option is not a

functional change. As you may be aware, in this new edition, the cost of all mounts has

increased to 20+ points for heroes. So this is a change, but I think a perfectly reasonable one. The additional hitting power a mount provides is well worth the extra 10 points they now cost.

Special Rules:

There are one or two changes here of note. First, Elrond picks up the Expert Rider special rule, which makes sense, given that Rivendell Knights have always had the rule. While this is not a massive buff, it’s certainly not nothing.

Second, there is a minor change to Foresight of the Eldar but not a functional one. You may no longer spend foresight points to modify priority rolls down. They may only go up. But with the new priority rules, there is no reason you would ever want to modify down anymore because the winner chooses who has priority. So functionally no difference.

He retains Terror, Woodland Creature, and Lord of the West which had no meaningful

updates. Finally, this isn’t listed as a special rule, but there is nowhere else to put it… He does lose the bow limit exemption for Rivendell Knights. That is now a special rule for the Rivendell army list. In many ways that makes this a minor change, but it does mean that while Rivendell Knights can be taken in the Lindon list, the exemption doesn’t apply. Clearly a debuff.

Magical Powers:

Elrond has access to the same two spells as the previous edition: Renew, and Wrath of Bruinen. Renew remains unchanged, however the channeled option is obviously removed in the new edition. While the channeled Renew was very helpful in niche situations, I really am not sure that I have ever cast it with Elrond. With a spell like Wrath of Bruinen, and with the need to make resist attempts, I don’t usually find healing one wound - or even D3 wounds - on another hero to be that worth it. Therefore, I don’t feel the loss of the 2018 buffed spell much.

Wrath of Bruinen is a different story. And my analysis is a bit more complicated. The base spell remains unchanged, and it’s safe to say that the key feature here is knocking enemies Prone, not the chance of doing damage. The damage is a nice side benefit, but for the most part, at Strength 2 (99% of the time you opponent isn’t in water) you are statistically unlikely to remove more than one or two models. Therefore, I love the new channeling rules, because it means that on three Will, I have a guaranteed cast on a 6, and a 75% chance of a second successful case. Before, you had a 75% chance of a successful cast, and then a 50% chance at a second (or obviously three 50% chances). I think that when you are just looking at the base version, the new channel is really great (add to that the new Rivendell army rule where you get a free cast once your army is broken, which with Elves’ low model counts can happens pretty often, and now you are really off to the races).

But of course… that’s not comparing apples to apples, because you are talking about spending might to get *almost* guaranteed two castings, but not looking at what might used to get you - and that was Strength 3 hits, not Strength 2. The math on this changes pretty quickly depending on the army you are facing. It is rare to be facing large quantities of D4 in my group's meta, though they do exist. But plenty of lists have copious amounts of D5. Strength 3 starts to look really good in those situations. Still, I go back to the main strength of the spell: disrupting lines and knocking people on their butts. And I think I’d still rather have two reliable casts, than the potential for one cast that could do 3 wounds on average instead of 1 in a well-positioned casting of the spell, and then a coinflip on the second. Therefore, the loss of the channeled version here, again, is not as bad as it felt at first blush.

Cost: 170 Points

I was honestly surprised and pleased at this. Elrond’s base cost remained the same despite what I believe to be a substantial profile buff. He picked up +1 Fight, Heavy Armor, Expert Rider, and in my analysis, didn’t really lose much to speak of in terms of heroics, or magical powers. The only real loss is the Rivendell Knight exemption, which is mitigated 50% of the time it would even be an issue (more than 50% of the time if my hunch about the Lindon list is correct).

To be honest, I don’t know why they decided to buff him so much. Everyone runs Elrond. He is the meta for High Elves. He is the smart choice. He is mobile, provides battlefield control, priority control, is resilient, and is powerful in combat; he is the complete package. He WAS the complete package before they made him better. Why’d they have to do Gil-Galad dirty like that? Gil-Galad gets a huge nerf, when he was already the “solid alternate” choice to Elrond. And now they buff Elrond even more? Somebody was watching Rings of Power when they were working on these profiles (except not… because in RoP, Gil-Galad has a horse). Yes. I am complaining because they made one of my favorite profiles better. No, you may not have the buffs back, thank you very much. I fully intend to enjoy them while I complain.

Arwen Undomiel

Stats:

We see whole lot of changes here - all of them good for Arwen. She gains +1 Strength, bringing her to par with Elf heroes. She also netted +1 defense, and even more significantly, +1 Attack. That alone would have been sufficient to make people think twice about her for lists, but now she has an additional might and fate point as well. All I have to say is, someone decided in this edition, Arwen wasn’t going to be left behind when the Elves marched off to Helm's Deep.

Wargear:

No change.

Heroic Actions:

• Heroic Channeling
• Heroic Defense
• Heroic Resolve

No change, in the actions themselves. But of course, there are several changes to the text of the actions as we have already outlined. This is another buff for Arwen, with Resolve being a clear buff, and the discussion of Channeling Wrath of Bruinen already being outlined.

Options:

• Asfaloth
• Hadafang (If Elrond isn’t in the same army)

I will go backwards. The addition of the Hadafang option is an interesting touch. It really had to happen with the iconic river scene, sword raised in defiance against the Nazgul. I do wish they had given Arwen her own unique weapon, as there is nothing in cannon anywhere to say that she was using Elrond’s sword… but honestly, what am I complaining about. They have done enough (too much?) to help out this profile already.

Asfaloth isn’t an option change, but there are some things to note about this editions take on the legendary horse, and it gives me the opportunity to wax eloquent about one of my favorite things about the new edition: Unique Mounts!

In 2018, several unique mounts existed, but they were few and far between. Asfaloth happened to be one such mount. This edition, there are more of them, and I love that. Their bonuses are rarely massive or impressive, but they really to help add some depth and flavor, and they help differentiate some heroes from the next.

Asfaloth is different from a standard horse in several ways. First, he has a 12” rather than 10” move (same as 2018). Second, Asfaloth is Courage and Intelligence of 6+, rather than the standard 7+. This is a buff. No functional change in the special rule department, as Fleetfoot simply became Woodland Creature which has virtually the same effect and I’m glad they streamlined the terminology. Last, but certainly not least, Asfaloth gains a Will and a Fate point. This is massively helpful. Arwen is not a Horse Lord so the chance of losing Asfaloth was very real. This helps retain Arwen’s Will for casting purposes, allowing Asfaloth to make a resist test, and also helps keep Arwen mobile, and on a bigger base for the purposes of Wrath of Bruinen.

The final change, which is a minor debuff, is that Arwen loses the option to take an elven cloak. You can take or leave this. It really isn’t an important difference to me because Stalk Unseen only applies to Infantry models, and Arwen should definitely be mounted as much as possible. However, the -1 to ranged attacks which Elven cloaks now provide would have been very useful for the purposes of making a D4 model with a D4 horse more protected. It would have been nice to keep, but there is really no room for complaint.

Special Rules:

No change.

Magical Powers:

Arwen still had Wrath of Bruinen like in the previous edition, but has also gained Renew, so she has the same spells as Elrond. I pretty much copy paste everything I said regarding Renew and Wrath from that previous discussion except to say that with Asfaloth possibly being able to make resist tests, and Arwen having one additional Will point, I can see the utility of Renew being higher on her than Elrond (though I still am not sure it’s particularly high).

Cost: 70 Points

Let’s just be honest. This is ridiculous. This may be one of the most “cost efficient” a.k.a.

underpriced profiles in the game. Don’t get me wrong. There are serious tactical drawbacks. At D4, she is a glass cannon. But for 70 points, you get so much. This is a 10 point increase in cost over the 2018 edition. I always believed that the previous profile was probably a little steep. But they overcompensated. 

For a 10 point increase, they gave what would traditionally be considered 25 points in stat bumps alone! That’s potentially mitigated by the loss of the cloak, and the sword almost never actually being an option except at very low points levels. But with the boosts in her stats, heroic actions, and the addition or Renew, the days of Arwen being relegated to peeking out shyly from behind banners in your display cabinet are over.

Cirdan of the Grey Havens

Stats:

No change.

Wargear:

No change.

Heroic Actions:

• Heroic Channeling
• Heroic Resolve

These are the same heroic actions as the 2018 editions, but they have been updated as previously noted. Unlike Elrond, this is a case where the new heroic channeling and the loss of the channeled effects of spells comes as a hit against a profile. I will outline in more detail later in the magical powers section, but suffice it to say, with the differences between the magical powers available, and the changes to those powers themselves, Cirdan is a very different, and in my opinion, weaker caster.

Options:

None/No change.

Special Rules:

Cirdan retains all his special rules, which remain functionally unchanged.

Magical Powers:

This is going to be a long discussion. Let’s begin by listing the spells available to him in the new edition. Then we will compare the spells the two editions gave him in common and discuss any changes to those spells. Next, we will move to the spells the new edition gave him. After that, we will transition to the spells the new edition took away, and finally we will attempt to do a round up and overall power grade discussion.

Cirdan’s Magical Powers:

• Fog of Disarray
• Blessing of the Valar
• Call Winds
• Enchanted Blades
• Aura of Dismay

First, the two spells on the list for both editions, namely, Enchanted Blades, and Aura of Dismay. Enchanted Blades remains largely unchanged in its base form. It now only conveys benefits when you are making strikes (i.e. not for brutal power attacks, etc.) but that’s not really a relevant distinction for Rivendell. It would be tactically questionable to use Cirdan’s 1 might point to have channeled this spell, so losing the boosted version is not much of a loss. 

Aura of Dismay however, is completely changed, and in my opinion is the single greatest nerf to this profile. In the 2018 edition, this magical power made all friendly models within 6” of the Cirdan to cause Terror. The channeled version, which I almost always used, made that a 12” bubble. In this edition, Aura of Dismay causes all enemy models within 6” of Cirdan to suffer a -1 penalty to any courage tests they are required to make. While that is a helpful bonus in some circumstances, only some of the Elven heroes cause terror. They have no access to terror otherwise. And you have to have Cirdan within 6” of them, which leaves the potential for him to be much more vulnerable. The utility drop of having 6” of terror, vs. 6” of enemies at -1 to courage tests is dramatic. The only minor plus is that with this casting on a 5+ you now only have to spend one Might point to ensure it goes off, leaving your reserves full for casting, rather than using 2-3 dice and subsisting solely on your free will point. That is a paltry consolation to the loss however.

Now let’s discuss the spells the new edition added to the profile, namely Fog of Disarray,

Blessing of the Valar, and Call Winds. Fog of Disarray is a new spell to this edition. It’s an exhaustion spell, and similar to the new version of Aura of Dismay, it causes all enemy models within 6” of Cirdan to suffer a -1 penalty to Intelligence checks. I’m going to be honest: I have no idea what this is good for. Nothing in the Lindon list (the only list Cirdan can be taken in so far) requires enemies to make Intelligence checks.

I am not familiar enough with all the armies to know if there are some special rules that require models to take their own Intelligence checks or something, but as far as Cirdan is concerned, unless the enemy is inflicting an Intelligence check on themselves somehow, this is a pointless spell. It seems odd that the game designers would do something like that. I give them too much credit for it. So, I am curious to see if there is something coming out in the Armies of Middle-Earth book that will help this become relevant. If you can think of reasons why this spell would be useful, please mention it in the comments - I am currently at a loss.

Next, we have Blessing of the Valar. This is a new spell to Cirdan, allowing the target to regain 1 Fate point spent earlier in the Battle. This could be quite useful. With the debuff’s Gil-Galad took, and him only having one fate to begin with, being able to give him that chance to shrug more than one wound might become very valuable. Additionally, giving Elrond back some re-rollable fate could be fairly demoralizing to an enemy.

Finally, we have Call Winds. This spell has some interesting utility options. It received a buff and a debuff in the new edition which may amount to about a wash in terms of the power of the spell. In the previous edition, a model was blown back D6” and was knocked prone. If it was blown into another model or obstacle, then it would stop 1” away. If it was in combat at the time it was hit with the magical power, all other models in the combat were knocked prone. In the new edition, the knock back is D3+3” meaning that you are guaranteed 4” knock back which is statistically better than the average distance of the previous spell. This is particularly true because the 2018 version stopped the targeted model 1” short of the obstacle, but this version does not. You stop only after making contact. This knock back clearly has better range.

However, a situational debuff is that in the new edition, a model can be blown out of combat, but the rest of the models engaged in the combat do not get knocked prone. This may help you, because it means you aren’t knocking your own models prone if you are blowing opponents away. It may also hurt. Now, if your model is surrounded, and you can only knock one enemy back,  the rest are still able to fight. Of all the new spells, this one is the most exciting. The opportunity it provides for battlefield control, and possibly also dismounting heroes is not to be underestimated.

Now, let’s look at the spells Cirdan lost: Aura of Command, and Blinding Light. Aura of Command was a 6” (channeled to 12”) bubble of effectively fearless. Friendly models passed any courage tests they were required to make. This is substantial, but with Elves high courage, the usefulness of this specific spell was always a little marginal. If you are facing an all Terror armor like Angmar or something, undoubtedly there was utility, but it was hardly a staple spell. Still, there is no question that people who run Cirdan will feel the loss.

Blinding Light is tactically a huge loss. While the Aura of Dismay nerf was a greater tactical loss in my opinion, this is huge. Basically enough said. This was perhaps the number one reason most people brought Cirdan in their lists before. All but eliminating your opponent’s ability to inflict damage at range while your elven archers are able to fire away was an incredible bonus. I appreciate wanting to limit the spell because of its potency, but one of the most convincing arguments to bring Cirdan evaporated like just that much smoke.

Cirdan is a dedicated caster. In the 2018 version, he was useful pretty much exclusively for his buffs. He made your troops very hard to get to, and gave you a ton of control over the battlefield, occasionally, in very select situations helping you heroes get the priority kills that had to happen. In this edition, he is a dedicated caster, but his buffs went from potentially overpowered for his cost, to borderline useless. The new Aura of Dismay is a huge debuff and requires him to be in the thick of the fighting, which is exactly where he doesn’t want to be. Fog of Disarray, added this edition ostensibly as the replacement debuff for Blinding Light is situational at best (I hope). 

The further removal of Aura of Command while not a huge loss, is not made up for by any of the other spells provided. Enchanted Blades is a wash. None of the new spells he wields offer anything even remotely like the battlefield control he used to exert. Blessing of the Valar is a nice addition, as is Call Winds. Blessing is not flashy, but could have some clutch moments, if Cirdan happens to make his way into your list, and I think Call Winds adds a new dimension to Cirdan as a caster. But on the whole, it’s a consolation prize for what amounted to a complete nerf of one of the games most cost effective spell casters.

Cost: 75 Points

I don’t know if this is a bad price or not. It’s 5 points cheaper than the 2018 edition. There is no questions that the profile is significantly debuffed, so the cost reduction tracks. Having said that, I think Cirdan is now primarily a high points hero you bring for fun. I don’t think he offers 70 points of benefit. While a strong case could be made that Call Winds as a way to control and or dismount enemy heroes is very powerful (and I don’t disagree), how many turns will you have to snipe at that hero before you burn through their Will and Might? I can’t write Cirdan off entirely - there is enough there to be worth a look. But the nerfs leave such a bitter taste in my mouth, and the uninspiring nature of the list he is allowed to be taken in generally make me feel like this was the most brutalized profile of the faction in the new edition.

Lindir of Rivendell

Stats:

Lindir gains +1 attack, which is a nice edition. This alone will help make him a lot more

interesting when considering lists.

Wargear:

No functional changes.

Heroic Actions:

He gains Heroic Channeling, which is a nice add, given that he is now a minor spellcaster.

Options:

He loses a lot of ground here when it comes to his efficacy. While the +1 attack is huge for the purposes of making him worth looking at, he is no longer able to take heavy armor or a horse. As we will discuss later in the special rules section, his lack of mobility will really be a problem. His fragility is also troubling (something we will touch on again, in the special rules and magical powers sections).

Special Rules:

Lindir retains Woodland Creature (obviously) and his two unique special rules, with only

the first having any changes. Songs of Elbereth now provides only a 3” radius Resistant to Magic bubble, instead of the previous 6”. Clearly this is a substantial debuff. This model basically has two purposes in life: give troops magic resistance and give Elrond Will. It now does the first of these only half as well.

Wise Counsel is the second part, and on paper it stays the same. If Lindir is within 6” of Elrond, Elrond gains a free point of Will for the turn. Here’s the challenge: it is very hard to not take Elrond on a horse. But if Elrond has that mobility, and Lindir no longer has the horse option, you might very well find yourself in a situation where Elrond needs to outpace Lindir, and there is nothing he can do about it.

In a world in which one might consider Lindir a minor combat hero with his second attack, that might be ok. Maybe he still has some utility with his anti-magic bubble, and can be worth the points in combat. But at F5 and only D4, that seems unlikely to hold water. This is not the same as the 50% reduction in special rule value of Songs of Elbereth. There is a lot that you can decide to do with Elrond. Maybe you choose the horse for hitting power and decide that keeping him nice and close is worth it. Decent chance you can still be in important place with a 6” radius. But your mindset going into the game must be that Lindir’s free Will is a tactical option, not something you're tied to. Otherwise you will end up being fairly hamstrung.

Magical Powers:

Lindir is new to the world of magic casters. As far as caster’s go however, it’s a niche, support rule and a small aspect of the profile. He gains the following magical powers:

• Foil Magic
• Renew

Foil Magic is interesting. It allows the caster to target an enemy caster with an active exhaustion spell which you may end. It is worth noting, this can be resisted, and it only has a 6” range. I see potential for decent utility here keeping Elrond "unparalyzed" and on the move. Potentially taking out some enemy bubble buffs or debuffs, but with it being cast on a 4+ you probably only get two spells off. This could come in clutch, but he can’t keep your heroes out of trouble forever.

Renew has already been outlined in this article. This is a nice add, but with only a 6” range, and again, cast on a 4+, its usefulness will be limited.

Cost: 70 Points

This is a 5 point bump up from the last edition, which tracks with the +1 attack. Presumably that means that the rest of the changes to the profile are considered a wash. I’m not sure that two spells and the addition of channel is something I would have traded for the 3” of magic

resistance. The magic resistance is good for more models, lasts the whole game, and is useful against any magic wielding army. Foil magic offers a chance to disrupt a few select spells. Renew will help if you whiff a roll with your hero and somehow still survive. Two things that happen, but not that often. And when they do, how often is one wound going to be the difference? Again, sometimes but not often. Having said that, my playstyle prefers reliability and consistency. Some might prefer more high-risk, high reward.

It feels like they took this profile and tried to keep it in the same weight class as it had been in previously, but they realized that it was not particularly used or relevant, so they tried to add interest. The cost matches what it provides. It makes sense. I understand the debuffs that were required to keep him in the 60-80 point range. However, they failed to breathe life into this profile. They tried to make him more combat oriented (+1 Attack) without making him a combat hero (F5, D4, 1 Might). They tried making him a caster but his spells are short range, fairly niche, and on the difficult side to cast (statistically you will get two off, if you use your might point; otherwise it’s a 50% chance you get 2 off if you attempt 3 independent casts, or only a 36.5% chance of getting two off, if you do a two die cast, and a 1 die cast).

Lastly, because they took the two things the model is really designed to do, and debuffed them either on paper, or in practice… I’m just not sure that Lindir will show up much. If I know I’m facing Angmar, yes, I’m bringing him. But if I’m just trying to build a balanced army, I don’t think the profile offers me something I find important enough to sink 70 points into.

Rivendell Captain

Stats:

No changes (This is not a legitimate criticism, but I do find it a little funny that the captain is

more intelligent than Lindir, the “wise counselor”).

Wargear:

No changes.

Heroic Actions:

No change.

Options:

There is not a major change here in terms of options available, but there are changes to cost and flexibility. As we all know, this edition raised the cost of mounts, so that is reflected. The other change that has happened is that wargear options are often grouped together. This means instead of being able to add options a la carte, you now will need pay for a horse, lance, and elf bow all in a batch. Gone are the days of foot archer captains, or mounted captains with no lance to try to squeeze under a points cap. 

Ultimately, this is a loss in flexibility, but it doesn’t dramatically changes much about the calculus of when you would bring a Captain or not.

Special Rules:

No change

Cost: 70 Points

This is a 5 point reduction over the previous edition, with no changes to speak of other than the loss of flexibility with wargear. This is good in my opinion. Pound for pound, I always thought that the Rivendell Captain was just a bit too expensive, and while I don’t prefer the loss of the pick-and-choose options, I think that the “Knight Captain” version is what most people would land on anyway, if they are going to bother mounting him at all.

Rivendell Warrior

Stats:

No change. This is actually a bit of a hit. With the proliferation of F6 amongst named heroes, and several elite units getting boosts up to F5, the famed Elven Fight Value has been a casualty of inflation. That’s a tough situation to be in.

Wargear:

Heavy Armor remains unchanged.

This is the one place where it is worth mentioning special strikes. Previously, Elves were equipped with a hand-and-a-half sword with the opportunity to Feint. Now, with the removal of weapon type specific strikes, they are simply equipped with a hand-and-a-half weapon. For Elves with multiple models in the fight, Feinting was an excellent option, particularly when two-handing. So while not devastating, this is a loss (admittedly a fairly minimal one).

Options:

Here we see a similar change to the captain profile in that loadouts are more standardized. You may only take 1 of the following options:

• Banner
• Elf bow
• Shield and Elven Spear
• Shield

Ultimately, this is once again not a huge deal. However, the tactical advantages of being able to equip archers with spears, or giving your banner the ability to shield to stay alive, or spear support to contribute in combat was always nice. One important thing to note is that in the new rules, any change that would put a model in a situation where they have wargear that is not in conformity with one of the options listed in their profile requires them to drop the wargear of their choice until they come into compliance with one of the options. This is relevant for passing banners, or as we will see in the next profile, becoming dismounted as a knight, and now needing to conform to the options for regular elf warriors (listed in this profile).

Special Rules:

No change.

Cost: 9 Points

I can’t honestly say I think these models should be cheaper. However I think it’s undeniable, that the F5 of the elves, which is one of the two hallmarks that make them unique has taken a hit in this edition.

Rivendell Knight

Stats:

No change (same fight value notes as before, though admittedly, F5 cavalry is still almost as rare as ever).

Wargear:

Only one minor change here. The lance is now elven made. This is helpful for a situation where you might charge into, or be counter charged by an enemy hero.

Options:

You are no longer allowed to take a war horn. In the previous edition, this wouldn’t be a huge loss. In this addition, with horns granting Dominance (2), and stand fast extension of 3”, there is a little bit more sting in it. However, it seems unlikely that most people would opt to use it. Additionally, you must now exchange your lance for a banner if you pay for one. This is an actual debuff, though not devastating, given that unless you are going mostly mounted, you usually want your cavalry to be charging, and that’s not great for a banner bearer in general. I also wouldn’t mind if the banner was cheaper, since you are paying for the lance in the profile and now you have to exchange it. But for the sake of standardization, keeping it 25 points is completely reasonable. The Shield option remains the same.

Special Rules:

No change.

Cost: 20 Points

I am surprised they reduced the cost. I would have been happy if they left the cost the same, but I’m quite pleased with the reduction, and it seems bourn out by the slight changes to the wargear options, but even more notably, that much of the value of the wargear in the actual cost of the model is lost should it become dismounted (either the lance and bow if you bought a shield, or just the lance if you chose to keep the bow and didn’t buy a shield).

Conclusion

So what is the takeaway on the Elves in this new edition? Of the profiles so far released, what is the consensus? In short, they have gotten weaker. Not a lot, not horribly. But as a faction holistically, they are weaker. Gil-Galad and Cirdan have been significantly nerfed. Elrond and Arwen have been boosted certainly, and Lindir and the captain have pretty much stayed the same. Elven rank and file however have suffered under the expanded fight value of the new edition, and I think that will show.

Elves have always had to stone-wall with their high fight and defense, picking their battles while their heroes grind. By dramatically decreasing one of those heroes ability to dish out damage, and by making warriors much less resilient by stepping down Cirdan’s spells, the faction is really going to struggle to even the numbers. While elven cavalry hit hard, it’s a lot of points to invest in models, and that will only further increase the disparity in model count. Minus one point to the cost of knights isn’t a response. They really seemed to double down on the idea of Wrath of Bruinen, buffing Arwen and making it a central theme of the Rivendell list. Thematic no doubt, but also not the same as two truly reliable combat heroes.

Is this decrease in overall power problematic? Debatable. For me, much depends on what

happens with Glorfindel and the Twins. I think the new lists make things challenging to justify fielding the two nerfed heroes, and the two buffed heroes are both Rivendell. Rivendell as a list suffered a lot less than the faction as a whole did, so I anticipate at least that list will remain quite competitive. I still love them, and fully intend to have them as a staple. Anyone who fancies the age of Elves being over, they are free to cross my river and say it to my face any time.

~Red Jacket