Rivendell

Hey Reader!

Some factions caught my eye in the new edition, on of them being none other than Rivendell. I believe that this faction has gotten a bit of a glow up in the new edition, so let’s dive in and see what has changed!

Army bonus:

Old edition – “Tangado Haid, leithio i philinn!” – While within 6″ of the army’s leader, friendly Rivendell models may re-roll failed To Hit rolls when making shooting attacks in a turn in which they do not move.

New edition – Protection of Imladris – Friendly models gain a bonus of +1 to any Courage Tests they are required to take.
Defensive Stance – Friendly Elf Warrior models may re-roll To Wound rolls of a natural 1 when making Strikes so long as they have not Moved during the preceding Move Phase.
Invoke the Bruinen – Once per game, so long as either Elrond or Arwen are alive and on the battlefield, you may use this special rule at the start of any Move Phase in which your Army is Broken. Place a 25mm Marker anywhere within 12″ and Line of Sight of Elrond or Arwen, and then roll a D6 for each enemy model within 3″ of that Marker. If the roll is equal to or over the Strength of the model, or is a natural 6, then the model immediately suffers a Strength 4 hit and, if it survives, will be knocked Prone. Remove the Marker after every affected enemy model has been rolled for.

The first thing to note would be the amount of rules which have been added to the army in general. All that while “Tangado Haid, leithio i philinn!” has been completely removed from the Rivendell army list. Granted, some of the army bonusses are not so glamourous, looking at you reroll 1’s to wound, but there is some fun stuff in there which we will talk about in detail later.

Protection of Imladris:

+1 Courage might not seem like much of a bonus while playing elves, but I believe the opposite to be true. It is a common known fact that if you have courage 5+ you will fail more courage checks than with courage 3+ or 4+. This is countered by the courage value of 6+. All jokes aside, having regular warriors running around with courage 6+ is quite handy. It is extra reassurance that the warrior holding that very important objective in the back will stay on it, or that the scary monster in your backline will actually get charged and locked down for another turn.

Oh did I mention that this is not like other courage bonusses in the new edition? Mostly referring to the bonusses which only give you courage when charging terror or for courage checks. Well this one does both, which makes it even more consistent and valuable.

It’s also nice to have heroes running around who can now guaranteed, while there is no harbinger or similar rules, or almost guaranteed pass their courage. True, these heroes did not fail their courage checks much anyway, but do you really want to take that risk when you would much rather use your will to cast Wrath of the Bruinen instead of using it to bump your fudged courage roll?

All in all I think this to be an underrated army bonus. We have all had “one of those” games, so in my opinion there is no such thing as overkill in this game, it’s just more reassurance, and that is priceless.

Defensive stance:

Not much to say about this one. You see it basically everywhere in the new edition. So as not to go on too much of a tangent on how it’s unoriginal and boring, let’s just focus on what it actually does for this army.

It’s true that their Mirkwood counterpart outshines Rivendell hard, +1 to wound 3″ near Thranduil, but at this point it is canon that elves are unable to kill stuff, they are just too friendly! So any bonus which helps them in that regard is always welcome. Even though it is just a small increase in killing power…. which they only get when standing perfectly still…. Yeah it’s still not too great.

Invoke the Bruinen:

Yeah! Now let’s get into the fun stuff. First of, man what an army bonus, I think this is what really drew me to the army in the first place. I’m normally an evil player (lots of expandable dudes with a few big pieces), so I was a bit surprised when I took an interest to this army. I think that because, unlike with most good battleline armies, this army actually has tools and interesting ones at that, and this army bonus is one of them.

It’s not as strong as it looks, but man is it fun. Only procs when you are broken which you don’t want to be. You can look at it as a fail safe to knock that big hero on his ass so you can have a “safe” turn. It also requires you to have Elrond and Arwen alive and on the battlefield. If you’re playing Rivendell you are probably taking these two anyway. And if you don’t have at least one of them alive on the battlefield, well…. then this army bonus probably would not have won you the game anyway.

How the effect works is pretty clearly described in the rules itself. There is something interesting in the application of it though. Because you place a 25mm base and then measure 3″ from that, the range of it is slightly bigger than you might image. Especially nice if your opponent is playing in a death ball or turtle formation.

Unit profiles:

Let’s start with the big man himself, Elrond. One of the few models which did not change too much in the new edition, and he did not need to. They did bump him up to fight 7 which is only fair. He also got assigned an intelligence value of 3+, too bad he can’t hurl. Also, Elrond actually got a bit cheaper since he did not use to come with heavy armour included and now just gets if for no points increase.

An interesting point to note is that two-handing is a lot better now. Namely, a natural 6 will still count as a 6 when two-handing. It is true that this is the case for every unit in the game now, but characters like Elrond, who had trouble wounding things at only S4 and no modifiers, especially benefit from this change. With 4 attacks on the charge and lord of the west + a banner you have a good chance of rolling that 6, so it might not be a bad idea with him anymore.

Arwen is a different story, this profile changed a lot and in all the good ways. Let’s start of with the points, she used to be 60 base and this increase with 10 points to 70, what she got in return is totally worth it though. To sum it up, she received: 1+ strength, +1 defense, +1 attack, +1 might, +1 fate, can now cast Renew and is bumped up from a minor hero to a Hero of Fortitude.

Pretty crazy, right? It does not stop there though, Asfaloth (her mount) also got a bit of a buff. He received a will and a fate point, while staying at the same price as a normal horse (now 20pts). This does make him an elegible hero to pick in Fog of war, just something to keep in mind.

Lindir has always been a bit of an odd one out. He is not bad for his points and, like the other heroes in this list, has only gotten better in the new edition. He is still the same points and can now actually do something with the 3 will he has, cast spells! He received the new, and pretty amazing, spell of Foil magic. Also he has renew which seems to be a trademark spell of Rivendell at this point. On top of that, he also received Heroic channeling, but I don’t see you using that with only 1 might to spare and the spells that he has available. His resistant to magic bubble did get decreased to 3″ though, but I still think this is a net positive for Lindir.

Sadly for Lindir, I still can’t imagine him seeing much play. It’s not like he is a bad model, it’s just a lot of points to spend on a support piece which hugs Elrond all game when you don’t have a lot of might to go around. Additionally, if you take Elrond, Arwen, and Bilbo you’re already easily hitting the 700 point mark with full warbands. Maybe above that there is a place for Lindir? I might still prefer the captain though…

Now would be a good moment to talk about the heroes which are sadly still missing or have been removed entirely. There is currently still no news from the twins, Erestor, and Gildor?????. Models which will be leaving the Rivendell range are Glorfindel (you will be missed), Cirdan (new one is kinda eh, so you might not be missed), High elf stormcaller (you will not be missed). Okay that last one was kinda mean, but I don’t think anyone was playing them right?

Let’s continue with the trustworthy captain. This model has not changed at all except for getting an intelligence value of 4+ and a name change from High elf captain to Rivendell captain. I know right, thrilling stuff. The wargear you can select for him did change a bit though. He still kept all the options, but they are grouped together now. You’re allowed to take a lance, horse, and elf bow for 30pts and a shield for 5pts.

Now we arrived at a model which in my opinion is oh so important for this list and relevant in the new edition, Bilbo! He did see a small points increase (5pts), but for that he gains a very neat special rule, Slip Away (Passive) – Whilst Bilbo is wearing the One Ring and is invisible, enemy models Engaged in Combat with Bilbo will halve their Fight Value even if there are other models friendly to Bilbo Engaged in the same Combat.

Thats right, Bilbo is officially cheating. In the new edition, the one ring got nerfed so you can not dog pile AND half the fight value of a model. With Bilbo, you still can. I think he is an auto-take for list above and around 600pts, for he allows this list to much better deal with the big stuff. This is especially relevant because strike has been nerfed so it is a lot harder to deal with high fight value.

We have wrapped up all the heroes, so let’s take a look at the other stuff in this list. You don’t have much options in terms of warriors, but they are solid choices nonetheless.

The Rivendell knight has not been changed in the new edition. They received an intelligence value of 5+, which is fair. They are still your mounted skirmishers which also pack a punch when they charge into melee with their lance. Oh, and they also still don’t count towards your bow limit if you take Elrond, so Rivendell knights only lists could still be a thing.

The Rivendell warrior has also received an intelligence value of 5+ and no further changes. Which is a bit weird since they are still allowed to take just a shield while having no official model for it, but let’s not open that can of worms.

It might not seem like these warrior profiles hold up in the new edition since most profiles warrior profiles received a slight buff. However, it is because of this buff to other profiles that I think these warrior have actually become stronger. Plenty of other warrior profiles have received a way to get to or a straight buff to fight 4, while not being able to get to fight 5 with, for example, Boromirs banner. We still have to see how the dragon emperors legion holds up, as that could potentially throw some soot in Elrond’s dinner, as we say in Dutch. So, in my opinion, fight 5 has become much more valuable a commodity, and elves have a good stock of it.

Also, as mentioned before, two-handing has become a lot better in the new edition. Even the elven warrior certainly benefit from this. You do want watch out two-handing against S3 armies since you cannot use your shield anymore and therefore become D5. S4 armies are fair game though, as two-handing won’t matter against them.

I feel like a small Halleluja! is in place. The spears made by the elves are now finally Elven spear! This means that even if you spear support with an elf you will get the elven-made-weapon bonus, which now applies to all weapons with the keyword Elven. Not super relevant to this list as it’s mostly all elves anyway, but Last Alliance might benefit from it. Although, I hear that you want to put your elven warriors on front anyway, so let’s just get back to Rivendell for now.

The war gear change is also an indirect buff for the Rivendell archers. Since most units, especially evil ones, cannot take a shield AND a spear anymore, so D5 has become a lot more prevalent in this game. Therefore, S3 shooting has become much more deadly.

Army list ideas:

List A
List B
List C?

Conclusion:

All in all, Rivendell looks properly solid in the new edition. Most of their profiles have received a buff and others have become more valuable due to changes in the game. It definitely has become much more of an interesting army. It feels like, and still is, a defensive battle-line army, but now it has a few more interesting tricks up it’s sleeve.

It has also become a lot killier, which is something elves canonically struggle with. Their army bonus, defensive stance, helps a bit, as well as the changes to two-handing.

I think we will see the pure list a lot more on the tabletop than before, instead of only Rivendell knights or allied in with Numenor.

Let me know in the comments what you think about Rivendell!