Good morning gamers,
This post kicks off a new series where we revisit a series we did back in 2012 on the
Fellowship of the Ring – and we’ll be covering the Auric heroes of the
fellowship first (old post here).
Gandalf the Grey has already been covered on this blog (since the new rules
were released, I covered him in the context of Thorin’s
Company and Rythbryt covered him in his post on the Fellowship
of the Ring), so we’ll only be covering his tactical uses briefly. While we
covered Gandalf the White last time, he’s no longer part of the list. Whether
this was the right call or not, we won’t be covering him (though those who like
Gandalf the White should read our
posts on him). We’ll be spending a good bit of time covering Bill the Pony
and the tactics for using the “tenth” member of the Fellowship of the Ring.
Gandalf the Grey
Of all the wizards in the game (Saruman the White, Radagast
the Brown, Saruman, and Gandalf the White), Gandalf the Grey is on the
less-expensive side (though very pricey at 170 points) and might be the worst
of them (here are three examples):
- All of the other wizards have some kind of offensive spell they can cast on a 2+ (Saruman/Saruman the White/Gandalf the White can cast Immobilize, while Radagast can cast Panic Steed), while Gandalf’s easiest offensive spell is cast on a 3+ (Immobilize);
- All of the other wizards have damage spells that can be cast on a 4+ (Saruman/Saruman the White/Gandalf the White have Sorcerous Blast, while Radagast can channel Nature’s Wrath - though I should note that Gandalf the White can cast Banishment on a 3+), while Gandalf the Grey has 2 damage spells that are both cast on a 5+ (Sorcerous Blast and Collapse Rocks); and
- Many of the other wizards provide some kind of lasting auric ability that helps their teammates in powerful ways that don’t require channeling to be effective (Saruman the White has Aura of Command, Gandalf the White has Fortify Spirit, Radagast the Brown has Terrifying Aura).
While Gandalf the Grey might not be the best wizard in the
game, he’s still very good – and to understand that, we need to look at what
his magic arsenal gets us that the other wizards (including his whitened future
self) don’t provide.
Cast to Last: Channelled Blinding Light and Terrifying
Aura
Blinding Light has
always been a great spell – nice 6” protective bubble against good enemy
archers. I mentioned in my post on using Gandalf
the Grey in Thorin’s Company that you want to channel this spell with your
free die AND a die from your Will store just to make it all-but-impossible that
you’ll need to spend a second Might point to make it work (getting a 1 on your
free die only is just sad…). Since most of the Fellowship characters have
terrible Defense (3 Hobbits + Bill at D3, Legolas at D4-5, Gandalf at D5, Frodo
at D3-D6, Aragorn + Boromir at D5-D6, Gimli at D8), anything you can do to make
arrows hit you less often is good. This is particularly true if trying to deal
with Elf bows/Esgaroth bows/Great bows in the hands of models with a 3+ Shoot
value (the reduction in hits is felt almost instantly). While you could try to
get by without this spell by buying Elven cloaks, if you’re not guaranteed to
have terrain to hide behind (and terrain seems to be the last thing that new
players really want to deal with), you’ll want Gandalf around. This spell is
unique to one of the two Gandalf profiles as far as wizards go (though Cirdan and both Galadriel versions have it or something like it).
Terrifying Aura is
less team-oriented and more self-oriented for Gandalf. While I don’t recommend
channeling this spell if you’ve already channeled Blinding Light, it’s a good
deterrent on Gandalf’s behalf against low Courage models – and even against
high Courage models, it does make it more difficult to charge Gandalf. I
recommend casting it second round if you’re not already fighting. All wizards
have this – and since most wizards only have 1 Attack, it makes sense to have
some way to keep people from charging you.
Together, these two spells (best cast on the first two turns
of the game in most cases) deal with two key problems: your army leader getting
swamped and your army getting shot. In an all-hero list, any Wounds suffered
matter – when heroes start to take damage (or get killed), it means your other
heroes need to work harder (and it adds stress to you as a player). Reducing as
many threats as possible is a good thing – and both of these spells do that.
Down Boy: Immobilize and Command
Two of the most ubiquitous spells in the game and still
solid go-to spells (in my estimation – lots of people disagree with me),
Gandalf the Grey has both of these spells and they’re not cast on “bad” levels
(unless you compare the difficulties to other wizards). Immobilize on
a 3+ can still be cast reliably on a single die (with the knowledge that it may
fail – just have a Might point lying around that you’re willing to use to boost
it). Command is more risky – I recommend using 2 dice to cast it
(which means casting it should only be done if the movement is going to really
matter – not willy-nilly).
Whichever spell you choose to cast, you hinder an important
model in several key ways (the biggest of which is that they can’t move and
they can’t kill anyone if they win their Fight). There are some foes (Azog,
Mordor Troll Chieftains, The Three Trolls) that are going to be tough for your
team to carve through because they have a Fight Value higher than Fight 6 – and
while it’s always fun to burn through Might on Heroic Strikes, Might for most
of your heroes is a limited resource. As such, sometimes the best option for
you is to just Immobilize the target (Azog might resist it once or twice, but
the rest will be hurting) and let that guy win the fight if he wants to (and
will be unable to do anything if he does). If you move first, it allows you to
root a model you don’t want to deal with in place and you can just avoid it.
Perfect!
Give Me A Boost: Protection of the Valar and Strengthen
Will
These are Gandalf the Grey’s two most powerful spells
(though Blinding Light/Terrifying Aura are also quite good). Protection of the
Valar is unique to Gandalf the Grey
and as a single spell is probably one of the best spells in the game. I like to
run spell-casters and most armies that run spell-caster heroes do so in the
hopes that they can look at the biggest, strongest hero on the other team and
say “sit this one out” and by crippling him, they cripple the effectiveness of
the enemy force. While the Fellowship certainly has multiple threats that might
be candidates for enemy magic, Protection of the Valar can make any one of
these guys (or several of them if they’re near each other) immune to magic and
other weird special rules. If you need to guarantee that you can carve through
the center of an enemy formation on a given turn, popping this spell is a great
start as you back up the likes of Aragorn, Boromir, and Gimli.
But Gandalf’s best spell (whether you take the Grey variant
or the White variant) is Strengthen Will. Why? Because under the new rules,
Gandalf can cast this spell on himself. There are some rounds (especially if
you’re marching across the field at the enemy) where you’re like “I don’t have
anything to do” – and on those turns, you can point your wizardly staff at
yourself (or Boromir or Gimli or Legolas . . .) and cast Strengthen Will to
store up more Will for later in the battle. I like to cast it on Gandalf since
you’ve only got so many turns where you can throw 1-2 dice from your Will store
at a spell before you run out of dispensable Will. Using your free die to cast
this spell is “risky,” but the die was free and you didn’t have anything else
to do, right? Might as well see if you can turn that free Will point for the
turn into a permanent Will point. Besides, if you’re going to bring Gandalf the
Grey to battle, it’ll be best if he shows up with as much Will as he possibly
can.
BOOM: Sorcerous Blast and Collapse Rocks!
Both of these spells are difficult to cast (5+) and I don’t
recommend casting them very often (aka, only when it matters – you’ll know when
that is). While Aragorn with Anduril usually has no problems wounding things,
some of your other heroes will benefit from charging models that have been
knocked on the ground. Sorcerous Blast will
probably not kill the models it targets, but it can be used to put a few people
on the front ranks on the ground – and that makes them easier to kill with
Heroic Combats (called by Aragorn, Boromir, or Sam perhaps?) or by models who
aren’t great at killing in the first place (Merry, Pippin, Sam, Frodo). Collapse Rocks should really only be cast if channeled (to do an
area-of-effect damage on the enemy as they approach . . . while in/near rock
terrain . . . and not near any of your guys - read a post from February 2019 for why this is). A really rough spell to get off,
but glad it got added because it's in the movies! Doing damage with these spells is
great, but their biggest contribution will always be how they tee up later
turns.
Bill the Pony
Ah, Bill. The under-appreciated backbone of the Fellowship
as they made their way from Rivendell to Moria. The one abandoned to the
Watcher in the books. The one everyone took advantage of and few thanked. Bill
the indispensable – I still remember when they gave him a profile in the
Warband era of the game . . . and the
profile has basically not changed with the new release.
Bill allows Hobbits near him to benefit from banner rules.
As any Khazad-Dum Dwarf generals know, when you don’t have spears, you take
banners (because if you’re not winning the fight, you want a do-over). Banners
are rare in all-hero armies and since Bill barely costs more than a normal
banner upgrade, he’s definitely worth it. Sure, he doesn’t give banner rerolls
to any of the members of the Fellowship over 3’8”, but for these heroes, he
provides a greater benefit: the potential to regain Might, Will, or Fate points
that have already been spent via a Second Breakfast.
As Rythbryt mentioned
in his
post on the Fellowship, there are two main ways you can use Bill the Pony:
up-front supporting the Hobbits as a banner (and lending a large extra control
zone) or in the back keeping Legolas fed and sniping. In either configuration
(and you can probably change which role you need mid-game if you keep Legolas
close), Bill tends to provide benefits to your team just by hanging around.
Should he be charged, he’s fairly weak, but he fairly comparable to most of the
Hobbit heroes in the force (we’ll be covering them in our next post on the
Fellowship).
Where he really comes into a world of his own is when he’s
supporting a mounted hero – whether it’s Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir, or Gandalf
the Grey (on his cart, perhaps?), you’ve got a mobile Might replenishing
machine that can (for the most part) keep up with your heroes as they charge.
The trick is getting Bill ALMOST into the control zone of the enemy ranks and
then slamming the hero into the front lines and ending his movement touching
Bill (so he can grab a bite on the run before fighting). While Gandalf is great
at restoring Will, Bill is unmatched in his ability to regain other useful
stats (except by Tom
and Goldberry of course).
Sample lists: Gandalf the Grey and Bill the Pony
Point Limit
|
Army List
|
What’s in this list?
|
450pts
– The Journey to Rivendell
|
Gandalf the
Grey
Aragorn
– Strider
Frodo
Baggins
Samwise
Gamgee
Meriadoc
Brandybuck
Peregrin
Took
|
In a small game, it’s hard for powerful heroes to die – so we’ve
opted for numbers and included all four Hobbits and their two escorts on
their way to Rivendell: Gandalf the Grey and Strider. If Gandalf had actually
been at the Prancing Pony, this would be the party that marched to Rivendell.
Gandalf is expensive to have in a small point game, but he’ll be very
hard to kill – especially with Aragorn hacking through enemy models, Frodo cutting
enemy Fight values in half, and Sam getting free Heroic Combats. If we
weren’t going for theme, I would have left Merry and Pippin at home and given
out armor and a bow to Aragorn and probably a horse to Gandalf (or Aragorn).
|
700pts
– The Ring Goes South
|
Gandalf the
Grey
Aragorn
– Strider with bow
Frodo
Baggins with Sting and the Mithril Coat
Samwise
Gamgee
Meriadoc
Brandybuck
Peregrin
Took
Legolas
Greenleaf
Gimli,
Son of Gloin
Bill the Pony
|
This includes the whole Fellowship sans Boromir as they were when
they left Rivendell. Bill enters the line-up, alongside Legolas and Gimli,
both of whom provide a lot more power and threats to your opponent. The
Hobbits are enhanced by the appearance of Bill and Aragorn becomes a bit more
lethal by giving him a bow. Personally, I’d preferred to have left Merry or
Pippin (or the Mithril Coat?) at home and given Aragorn and Legolas armor,
but we’re going for theme here, remember?
|
Conclusion
The auric heroes of the Fellowship are great because they
can protect their friends, neutralize enemies, make enemies more vulnerable,
make their friends better in combat, and regain lost Might, Will, or Fate
stats. While Gandalf does more of this than Bill, he also costs a lot more.
Still, leaving home without these two is a real risk – don’t rule them out from
your army creation thoughts as you won’t find these kinds of tricks in any of
the other members of the Fellowship.
In our next post, we’ll move on to discussing the five
“Hobbit” characters in the list. Some are easily auto-includes, while others
require some consideration. This post will revisit a
post we did back in 2012. Until then, happy hobbying!
Sorcerous Blast is also useful for taking heroes off horses. You can target someone in front of them and they can't resist the subsequent contact. Wish I'd remembered that when I played against Rohan!
ReplyDeleteThis is very true - though I will note that the rule says you stop moving when you come into contact with another model, but if you run into two models at the same time (targeting a model in a shieldwall at a 45degree angle, for example), you can knock over more than one guy...and while knocking over cav models this way (especially hero cav models), hitting a cav model with a larger base size can sometimes mean hitting more models at the same time.
DeleteSorcerous Blast has lots of intricacies to it - got a bit of a nerf, but I don't think it's a bad spell.
I’m sure you’re saving him for your post on combat heroes, but I can’t help feeling like at least some discussion of Aragorn belongs in a “tactical” discussion of the Fellowship. ;-)
ReplyDeleteBeyond that, I was glad for the Bill shout out. Did Gandalf the White used to be a Fellowship Profile?
Back in the Legions of Middle-Earth days, he only showed up in the White Tower of Ecthelion list (maybe in the Wizards list, but I don't think so). In the Warbands book, he got added to the Fellowship list (since, as "Gandalf", he was technically part of the Fellowship, even though he only joined them as Gandalf the White after they had broken). I assume that moving him out is to keep in the spirit of "timing" that seems to be prevalent now (the "Fellowship" only counts from the forming of the group at Rivendell and ends at Amon Hen - hence their alliance list).
Delete