Quest of the Ringbearer: What To Think About For Fantasy Fellowships

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

In today's article, we'll be talking about Fantasy Fellowships and what to think about when making your Fellowship. While we're all probably excited to try out models that we want to use more, the restrictions on what models we can get into a Fantasy Fellowship CAN be a limiting factor. Does it matter if I place someone like Elendil in the spot of Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli? What about Boromir's spot? And are the Merry and Pippin spots interchangable? Well today, we'll be answering all of these questions by understanding the path that each member takes on this journey - it was enlightening for me to actually do the review of them and hopefully you learn something too.

Let's get stuck in!

Fantasy Fellowships: The Restrictions

There are actually a lot of restrictions for making your Fantasy Fellowship - here are the general ones:

• The entire Fellowship's starting gear cost needs to be no more than 750 points (for reference, the original Fellowship with the shield on Boromir and no extra gear costs you 750 points);
• NOTE: There are different rewards that you'll get for free during the campaign - your Ringbearer will get Sting and the Mithril Coat after Weathertop (one exception, more on that later), everyone gets Elven cloaks after Moria, Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli will get armor if they don't have any after the Warg Attack, Aragorn gets Anduril for the last mission, and your wizard will get an upgrade for Ride Out.
• Everyone needs to have the Infantry keyword (which means models like Bullroarer Took, Eorl the Young, and Dernhelm are not valid options, since they start with the Cavalry keyword);
• Only unique, named heroes are allowed in your Fellowship - and (with one exception) all heroes you choose need to be from the Forces of Good;
• You need to pick one of four models to be your Ringbearer (Frodo, Smeagol, or Bilbo - either Old Bilbo from the Shire or Young Bilbo from Thorin's Company, but NOT the Master Burglar one from Lake-town);
• You need to pick a pre-destruction-of-the-Ring Hobbit to be the Ringbearer's Companion, replacing Sam (or one of the cheaper Dwarves from Thorin's Company if you take Thorin's Company Bilbo);
• You need to pick two heroes who each cost 50 points or less to take the Merry and Pippin slots;
• You need to pick a wizard character (list provided later) to take Gandalf's slot (NOT Gandalf the White, Galadriel Lady of Light, Tom Bombadil, or Goldberry); and
• You need to take four other heroes (no limits besides the points limit and the Infantry-Good-Named stuff we've already talked about) to replace Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir.

Depending on who you choose, certain other options might open up for you - for example, taking Saruman the White allows you to take Grima in your Fellowship (the only Evil-exclusive hero you're allowed to have). Additionally, if you want to take Elladan in your Fellowship (or any hero who is purchased with another hero), you'll need Elrohir (or whoever the paired model is) to take another slot.

Okay, so with some of the general thoughts under our belts, let's take a look at the nine roles we have to fill, what to think about with each slot, and five (or so) heroes that might fill those slots well.

The Bare Necessities, Part XXXII: The Fiefdoms

Good morning gamers,

Today we resume our series on list building with the "bare necessities" you need for an army to potentially score maximum victory points in any scenario. As a review, the five critical elements of list building are as follows:

• Fast models (usually cavalry, minimum of 4);
• At least one actual banner (the least necessary requirement if you're able to kill all of the enemy banners before the game ends);
• Enough models (I have a "Rule of 30" at 700-points);
• Ways to neutralize enemy models (especially heroes); and
• Ways to augment your own models (especially heroes).

Today, we delve into the remaining factions in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit and we begin with an army that I've looked through many times. The models look great, the theme of the army is wonderful, the allies of this faction are awesome - but the models THEMSELVES are REALLY EXPENSIVE (in actual money, sometimes points in-game). That's right, we're looking at the Fiefdoms!

Photo Credit: lotr.fandom.com

The Fiefdoms: Balancing Hero Synergies And Masses of Troops

The Fiefdoms was the first faction that really emphasized hero positioning to take advantage of crazy good synergies. Like the Army of Dunland, where you place your heroes (and some supporting troops) matters a lot - it either makes or breaks your army. The Fiefdoms has one of the best spreads of named heroes - four Heroes of Legend/Valor - which means you can form a Horde with minimal investment in heroes. Two of those heroes (Imrahil and Forlong) are 3 Might heroes and by buying them, you not only get a War Horn to supplement your Courage (might be unnecessary - more on that later), the ability to reroll 1s to Wound for models within 6" of Forlong to augment your damage, F5 Knights of Dol Amroth and Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth if they're near Imrahil (and F6 Captains of Dol Amroth), and a 12" banner buff from Imrahil (that doesn't count as a banner for the purposes of Victory Points). For 250 points (or less, I guess), you could certainly do worse.

The synergies from the other named heroes include a 6" Fearless buff from Angbor (who is treated as a banner by his fellow Clansmen of Lamedon - again, doesn't count towards Victory Points) and rerolling failed To Wounds for your Blackroot Vale Archers if a Heroic Shoot is called near them (and rerolling 1s To Hit with your Blackroot Vale Archers if Duinhir is nearby and the Archers don't move).

All of this is good - but buying all four of these named heroes will cost you over 350 points - which is a LOT invested in heroes for an average-Defense, average-to-above-average cost army. And none of these guys have March, so you might need a Captain of Dol Amroth in your ranks as well. Angbor and Duinhir only give you 2 Might each, so despite having four named heroes, you only have 10 Might (which is a lot, but not as much as you'd get if you allied with Minas Tirith or Rohan). As a result, if you desire numbers, you probably only need three of these heroes if you're running Pure Fiefdoms, while you could get away with two heroes if you wanted to ally with Minas Tirith and/or Rohan. There's a lot you can do with this army - hence why I avoided writing this post for a while.

Today's list will be a pure list, though we'll address some allied combos later in the post. The list I'm presenting today is something I wouldn't mind collecting (but it's definitely coming after I've wrapped up getting the models I need for the Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook).

Quest of the Ringbearer: What Models Do You Need For Fantasy Fellowships?

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

If you've been following our blog for the last few months, you know that I'm gearing up for the Quest of the Ringbearer campaign and trying to collect everything from it over the next few years. In the pursuit of that, I've done posts on what models you need to buy and what terrain you need. After you've spent a ton of money on models and terrain, you're good to go (though if you're willing to proxy/borrow models from friends, you can probably play the campaign for much, MUCH less money).

I was talking to my son the other day and I asked him if he wanted to do a Fantasy Fellowship campaign with me and he said he'd love to. That got me thinking though - since you don't do certain scenarios in Fantasy Fellowships from the Quest of the Ringbearer book (and you grab nine scenarios from War in Rohan/Gondor at War), I was curious how the models that you need (and the terrain that you need) changes. Today we're going to focus on the models that you need - let's start off by looking at the scenarios you play in Fantasy Fellowships!

What scenarios do you play (and don't play)?

Here's the list of scenarios that you play in order - Quest of the Ringbearer scenarios are in blue, War in Rohan scenarios are in red, and Gondor at War scenarios are in green:

• Buckleberry Ferry
• Fog on the Barrow-Downs
• Weathertop
• Wargs in the Night
• Balin's Tomb
• Escape from Dwarrowdelf
• The Bridge of Khazad-Dum
• Ambush at Amon Hen
• Ambush at Night (War in Rohan)
• Warg Attack (War in Rohan)
• The Deeping Wall (War in Rohan)
• Ride Out (War in Rohan)
• Eomer's Return (War in Rohan)
• The Dead Marshes
• Osgiliath
• Shelob's Lair
• Cirith Ungol
• Atop the Walls (Gondor at War)
• Charge of the Rohirrim (Gondor at War)
• Denethor's Madness (Gondor at War)
• The Docks of Harlond (Gondor at War)
• Plateau of Gorgoroth
• The End of All Things

Back To Basics: The Fight Phase

Good morning gamers,

Well, today is our fourth post in this how-to-play-MESBG series and we're covering the Fight phase. We've already talked about building an army, the Priority and Move phases, and the Shoot phase. While maneuvering your troops is an important part of the game, most of the action (and removing of models) happens in the Fight phase - so for most armies, it's kind of important to know how it works (and often times, you're maneuvering your army to either get a better combat match-up - or trying to avoid combat entirely). Let's get stuck in!

Quest of the Ringbearer: Model Collection Update, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Last year, I wrote a post on the models you need to collect in order to play everything in the Quest of the Ringbearer supplement. My goal over the next few years is to collect them all (you gotta catch 'em all, or so I'm told) and today is the mid-2021 update for where I am with that. Let me lead off this post as follows:

I'm not a great painter.

I'm not - I'm just not. I DO take my time and I DO experiment with new techniques. What you're about to see is the progression of a painter - some of the models I'm showcasing today are older models from when I started in the hobby, while others are newer. I think learning to paint well is a process - something we get better at with repetition and experimentation (both of which can mean that models will look bad on the way to getting to something good). So, be kind out there and let's get stuck in!

Part I: The Shire to Rivendell

This first bit of the journey doesn't require a lot of models, but many are used for a single mission. This means that collecting everything for this bit isn't that hard, but might not be a high priority until after you've collected a few of the other bits.

Purchase #1: The Fellowship of the Ring

I started off my journey in the hobby back in 2010 and got the Mines of Moria starter kit (which I loved very much - not as good value as the Battle for Pelennor Fields box set, but about one-third the price, so . . .). This means I started with the Fellowship. I have since collected at least one new copy of each member of the Fellowship (though my "new" Gandalf went to my son, who likes Gandalf), so I painted up a new Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion core and just use my old Gandalf.

The Breaking of the Fellowship LL is one of my favorites right now . . .

I also have my original Moria-themed Fellowship, which I have no intention of repainting - always keep your old work, since it shows how far you've come in your painting journey.

Some of the first models I painted - though the Aragorn, Sam, and Legolas are newer . . .

These guys are beloved - and if you're just getting started in the hobby, I highly recommend the Fellowship blister. They're a cheap army, fun to play, and like all lists, you'll find some missions to be more challenging than others (and some missions to be very, very easy).

Back To Basics: The Shoot Phase

Good morning gamers,

We're in our third post on how to play the game and we're tackling one of my favorite aspects of the game: the Shoot phase. This phase of the game is the only phase where your opponent doesn't really get a say in what happens - sure, he can maneuver his troops during the Move phase to make his units harder to hit (or impossible to see) OR even use special rules that make shooting at his troops harder, but once he's done moving, it's all in your hands. For a game that is heavily dependent on "rolling better than your opponent," it's nice that at least one aspect of the game doesn't involve that kind of competition. This also makes armies that focus too heavily on shooting hated by some members of the community, so just be aware of that before delving headlong into it. Let's understand what you can do in the Shoot phase!

Unexpected Military Formations: Epic Movie Moments Edition!

Good morning gamers,

Have you ever watched the Lord of the Rings movies or the Hobbit Movies and been like, "That would be so cool to do in MESBG?" I mean, you're watching the movie, you see something REALLY cool, and you're legitimately feeling either, "I SOOOO want to do that on Monday night" or "I really wish that worked as well in MESBG". In recent months, I've done posts that looked at real historical formations that don't really work in MESBG (but CAN work - kind of) and formations that, by all rights, shouldn't work in MESBG but do. Today, we're tackling something entirely different (and yet, completely similar): things that we KNOW worked in the movies, but by all rights, should not - may I even say CANNOT - work in MESBG.

I'm going to begin by saying two things on this subject: first, not everything from the movies should be in Matched Play. Legolas shouldn't be able to place a token on the ground whenever he kills someone with a shield and be able to "surf" on that shield (being able to move full and shoot so long as he's going downhill) - that's good for scenario play, but less so for Matched Play (too many things to think about - and by the way, it is a special rule in the deeping wall scenario in the War in Rohan supplement). 

However, some Legendary Legions have brought elements of "movie magic" into the game - like Lurtz's ability to throw a shield at someone. What we're aiming for isn't to add rules to MESBG so we can do stuff in the movies (though I think that could be included in Legendary Legions or scenarios in sourcebooks), but rather to find ways to use the existing MESBG rules to make the movie moments happen (or at least, something like them).

Second, MESBG isn't designed to work like real-life. It just isn't - real-life action is far too complicated to replicate on the tabletop. Why don't bow-armed models need to take time to drop their bows and draw their swords? How can a model carry a bow, spear, shield, and banner all at the same time? Where are all those throwing spears kept? While the rules could address these things (the carrying-so-much-gear thing actually WAS accounted for when I first got started in the game), it adds unnecessary complications and record-keeping (is this Warrior of Rohan the guy who threw the spear on the previous round, or was it this guy?). If something works in real-life a certain way and MESBG has ignored that benefit for the sake of simplicity, so be it. I do think things like hitting a target that has moved should be harder, and I think spears and pikes should have some benefit in the front rank - more on this later - but it's okay to me that these things don't mirror real life perfectly.

With these two thoughts in mind, let's start looking at a movie moment that we all love - the charge of the Elves towards the Uruk-Hai pike block at Helm's Deep!

Back To Basics: The Priority Phase and Move Phase

Good morning gamers,

In our last post, we talked about how you build an army and what a model's profile looks like. Today we're covering the first two phases in a battle round: the Priority Phase and the Move Phase. While these two phases are technically separate, they often flow together because the player who wins priority on certain turns can dictate how the round goes. So, let's dig in and learn how to play!

Fleshing Out the Faction: Arnor

Hey Reader!

As you probably know, not all of the factions in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game have the variety of choice as the "big factions" like Mordor, Minas Tirith, and Isengard. And while that's not necessarily bad (in truth I'm amazed we have some of the factions we do have in the line, as they get little time in the books and less to no time in the movies), it would be nice if some of those smaller factions got a bit more love to make them more playable on the table.

Today our posts is one of those attempts to correct this, offering homebrew options for new warriors and heroes for the faction of Arnor.

The ideas for these units can also be found in our new adventure module, The Dark Age. It covers the rise of the Witch-King of Angmar to prominence in the north and the fall of Arnor, with the players serving as agents of the Witch-King as he conquers the lands of men. For more on this and to download the free module, visit the downloads page here.

I.  Three Kingdoms: Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur

By the early Third Age, the Kingdom of Arnor was comprised of three regions: Arthedain to the west, Cardolan to the south, and Rhudaur to the east. The topography varies for each of them, resulting in variance in military development and needs for each portion of the faction. This will serve as the basis for our development of the faction: each of these will provide different units for Arnor.

Currently Arnor gets access to three warrior choices: the Hobbit Archer (which technically comes from west of these regions), the Warrior of Arnor (which will come from Arthedain), and the Ranger of Arnor (which will come from Rhudaur).

For the new models, we make the following assumptions based on the history of the region. First, Arthedain had the largest cities, giving them option to lots of trade, metalworking, and strong leadership (which is why it lasts the longest of the factions). The remnant of Arthedain would become the Dunedain that we know so well from the travels of Aragorn.

Second, Rhudaur is on the frontier against the Ettenmoors, with watchtowers but no major settlements, and their people are primarily guardians along the road leading east to Imladris. With woods and frequent troll incursions, all of their warriors are prepared to meet large, bulky threats in the field. Third, Cardolan is primarily hill country and downs, with few large settlements or industry. This means Cardolan units will be more lightly armed, and will be almost completely devoid of armor.

The captains will be similarly built, following the same guidelines. You'll have a mix of lesser captains and "Kings of Men"-style profiles, but no new named characters.

So with this in mind, here's our crack at fleshing out the Arnor faction.