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.

Roles To Fill

The Ringbearer (14/23 missions)

While he's listed as a participant in 14 missions, he doesn't do anything in Cirith Ungol and doesn't do much in Shelob's Lair. As such, I'm only counting him in 12 scenarios. The Ringbearer will have minimal help for the first 2-3 missions (your Aragorn model will assist in one of those, hopefully), then have the full Fellowship for 5 missions, then have minimal help for 4 missions, so he has to do his own work in about half of the missions he's in. Let's look at your options:

• Young Bilbo is your most flexible option, since he has 2 Might with options for Heroic Strike (with the Ring) and Heroic Defense. 1 Attack isn't great, but is standard for this slot. His Defense 3 will hurt for the first three missions, but then he'll get the Mithril coat for free and be D6. Adding to his flexibility is his choice of Companion, which can be a Hobbit hero (not the Scouring of the Shire members or Bullroarer) or a member of Thorin's Company (not Gandalf, Thorin, Dwalin, or Gloin).
• Frodo is the classic choice and costs the same as Young Bilbo (60pts). Without access to Heroic Strike (and no other innate benefits), he looks to be a suboptimal choice compared to Bilbo - and unless you take Sam as your Companion, I think he is. Still, Frodo won't be any worse of a fighter than Bilbo, so taking him for thematic reasons would be just fine.
• Old Bilbo is only 40pts, but has 1 Might point and has Heroic Resolve instead of 2 Might and Heroic Strike/Defense compared to his younger self (he's also D2 instead of D3 for the first three missions). This makes him much squishier than the other two, though for their same price, you can start with the Mithril coat and Sting (which you'll get for free after the first three missions - only worth it if you have the points lying around).
• Finally, Smeagol is an entirely different kettle of fish. Unlike your other Ringbearers who are F3/S2 (+1S after they get Sting) with 1 Attack, Smeagol is F4/S4 with 2 Attacks. On Defense he's about the same with D4 and 2 Wounds, but he only has 1 Fate point while the others are D3 and 2 Wounds with 3 Fate. While the other Ringbearers get Sting (+1S) and the Mithril coat (+3D) after the third mission, Smeagol gets +1 Might (2M) and +1 Fate (2F). At 30pts, he's the cheapest option, but with no Will, no Resistant to Magic, and a capped Defense, I think he's the hardest Ringbearer to keep alive. One last thought: because there is no indication of what happens in missions where Smeagol is with your Ringbearer and Companion (Dead Marshes and Osgiliath), I think you get two copies of Smeagol for those missions . . . and two F4/S4/2A heroes in those missions is pretty good.

It's important to keep in mind that this hero will always have your Companion with him, so none of these choices are auto-includes. Young Bilbo is probably the best option if you're being competitive about it, but if you want 0-30pts for other heroes, you can go with a different Ringbearer.

The Companion (14/23 missions)

The actual most-used hero in your campaign, your Companion needs to be able to get your Ringbearer to Mount Doom alive AND be able to cut his (or her) way through Cirith Ungol more or less on his (or her) own. Like the Ringbearer, the Companion will have minimal help for 2-3 missions, then get lots of help for 5 missions, but then has to do nearly all the work for 6 missions. This guy should be as tough as possible.

As has already been stated, the Companion slot needs to be filled by either an Infantry Hobbit hero during the War of the Ring or by a cheaper member of Thorin's Company. Let's look at a few good options:

• Samwise Gamgee is the classic choice and probably the best Companion for Frodo since he can get free Heroic Combats to get to Frodo. Early in the campaign, this can fuel the other members of the Fellowship, but late in the campaign it can allow Sam to get some extra movement to guard Frodo. Sam also has 2 Might and access to Heroic Strike, both of which are rare for Hobbits (outside of the Hobbits we are forbidden to take).
• Farmer Maggot may not come with his dogs (the sample Fellowship with him in it in Quest of the Ringbearer doesn't say), but if you get them for free (in Battle Companies your pets don't take up slots in your Battle Company) they'll give you a numerical advantage at Weathertop and the Barrow-Downs and a way to get traps off throughout the campaign. Maggot himself has one of the best Hobbit combat profiles in the game (F3/S3 with 2 Attacks and a two-handed pick, effectively making him S5-6). Late in the campaign he'll have Sting, which can make him very deadly (doesn't need to two-hand, will have 2A at F3/S4). At 5pts more than Sam, I think he's a better alternative if Frodo isn't your Ringbearer (even without his dogs).
• Holfoot Bracegirdle grants you something only three other Hobbits have (and two of them aren't available): Heroic March. Late in the campaign, you probably won't want to spend your only Might point on Marching, but if you need some extra speed, it's an option. His combat profile is nearly identical to Maggot's (F3/S3 with 1 Attack and a hand-and-a-half club that he can wield without penalty), making him a decent killer if you can win fights.
• Baldo Tulpenny does something similar to Maggot (if he gets his dogs): he brings extra stuff with him. Do you know what can buy you a turn or two at Weathertop? Pit traps. Do you know how you can keep Spectres from chasing you in the Dead Marshes? Snare traps. With eight markers to place on the board, Baldo is an amazing choice for a companion - and if he can shoot at a model that was slowed by a trap and get a natural 6 to hit, he deals a Wound to it - BOOM!
• Dori the Dwarf (Young Bilbo only) is easily the most optimal choice of Companion for Thorin's Company Bilbo, since a) he's just under 60pts, b) Bilbo can borrow his Might to call Heroic Strikes or Defenses, and c) he has 3 Attacks at F5/S4. He has the best combat profile we've seen so far, though he will struggle in the resisting magic department (and there are lots of wraiths and Barrow-Wights in his future).

Thing 1 and Thing 2 (11-12/23 missions)

Merry might be a carbon copy of Pippin in the Fellowship profiles, but they are on two slightly divergent paths in the campaign - Pippin shows up in one extra mission (both in Fantasy Fellowships and the normal Quest of the Ringbearer campaign) and Merry's role requires him to support the Rohirrim in one scenario while Pippin has to support Gandalf on the walls of Minas Tirith and to free Faramir. With a 50pt maximum, let's look for models that would make good substitutes for the original models (they need an upgrade more than anyone):

• Meriadoc, Knight of the Mark and Peregrin, Guard of the Citadel are only marginally more expensive but get proper Heroic stats and have higher Defense. If you have 30-40pts available, get these guys (you can wait to get the armor boost for these guys for free, but you only have 2-3 missions left for these guys when you do, so I would consider getting these guys at the get-go).
• Kili and Fili the Dwarves are exactly 50 points each, so if you're running Bilbo as your Ringbearer, they're not bad options. I would put Fili in Pippin's spot so he can use his throwing weapons to kill Orcs on the walls of Minas Tirith quickly and level Citadel Guard quickly two. Kili can dismount early in the Charge of the Rohirrim mission and support your riders with his bow (or can ride with Eowyn as part of the Dernhelm model I guess).
• Bifur and Ori the Dwarves provide more tactical options for your team than Kili and Fili do - Bifur can call free Heroic Moves once he gets the axe head out and Ori has 1-2 shots from his sling that can auto-wound on a natural 6. If you run Thorin's Company Dwarves, I'd recommend having Ori (and probably Bifur) for sure somewhere in your Fellowship (not necessarily in these slots though).
• Haleth, Son of Hama is a cheap 2A Hero (he becomes 2 Attacks when engaged in combat), has a bow, and a little Might to call Heroic Defense. The main reason you would run Haleth, though, is to buff Aragorn up to F7 in Moria, at Amon Hen if Aragorn can reach him, and at the Black Gate (so only run him if you're bringing Aragorn OR if you're bringing other Rohan heroes).
• Anborn, Ranger of Ithilien is only 35 pts, but gives you a free Might point for his shooting rolls each round - which allows him to clear out chaff (or wound Ringwraiths more easily). He's not great in combat, but he's better than your average warrior.
• BONUS ENTRY - Bill the Pony was a late-game addition for me, as I completely forgot that he's Infantry (and not Cavalry)! Bill joins your Fellowship for the Wargs in the Night scenario, which is the only time you can regain heroic stats with his Second Breakfast rule on your Fellowship apart from Rest Points (and this mission comes right after a Rest Point, so you'll start the mission with full stats and he's really only there to help you keep your stats as you go into Moria). BUT if you take him as either Merry or Pippin, you can have an AMAZING source of heroic resource regeneration through ALL of the early scenarios up through Amon Hen. Pair him in the Merry slot with a Hobbit in the Pippin slot and you'll have a banner reroll whenever they're together (and Bill can ride alongside Theoden in the Charge of the Rohirrim).
• NOTE: it's unclear who can benefit from Bill's rules - whether it has to be members of the Fellowship army list or whether anyone in your "Fellowship" would benefit. For the purposes of this article, I assume that he'll be able to benefit everyone (though there's always a member of the actual Fellowship army list in each list, so even if it's more restrictive than that, I think you're good).
  

The Wizard (8/23 missions)

The Gandalf role plays a surprisingly small part in the story when you look at the mission count - four missions leading to/through Moria, one mission during the Helm's Deep sequence, two missions in the Minas Tirith sequence, and the final mission. However, some of those missions have this character as one of the only named characters you have - and having a good model in this role could be the difference between victory and defeat. 

For example, in the Denethor's Madness mission, Gandalf is one of three models you control (alongside Beregond and whoever is in your Pippin spot) - and whoever is filling this role will have already spent some resources to stay alive in the Atop the Walls scenario that precedes the mission (with no rest point in between). Maybe fighting off some Citadel Guard with three models doesn't sound hard, but consider also that destroying the Bridge of Khazad-Dum at the end of the Moria sequence is a prerequisite to victory (and this may require you to cast a spell successfully 1-3 times with most of your party safely across the bridge). The scenario allows models to cast the Sorcerous Blast magical power even if they don't have it, so I assume that's on a 5+ if they don't have it innately (like Gandalf the Grey or Saruman the White would). If you don't plan ahead and keep enough Will on your character, you could be in some trouble (and some have so little Will anyway that getting the spell off twice might be hard to do - if not impossible). Of course, there are no bonuses to winning missions in this format (and no penalties for losing), so maybe this is just one of those scenarios where you accept that you'll be taking a loss and you play as well as you can (and have as much fun as you can).

One other thing to keep in mind is what happens to your wizard after they "return from the grave" - Gandalf the Grey will become Gandalf the White and Galadriel will become Galadriel, Lady of Light, but most of the other hero options get better too. Whatever spells they cast get improved by 1 (to a maximum of a 2+) and they get +1 Attack (to a maximum of 2 Attacks - no, Thranduil doesn't get to 5 Attacks on foot this way with his extra sword!). Functionally, this means the following:

• Gandalf the Grey becomes Gandalf the White;
• Galadriel becomes Galadriel, Lady of Light;
• Saruman the White will have 2 Attacks and will cast Immobilize, Command, Aura of Command, and Terrifying Aura on a 2+ and Sorcerous Blast on a 3+;
• Radagast the Brown will have 2 Attacks and will cast Immobilize, Renew, Panic Steed, and Terrifying Aura on a 2+, Nature's Wrath on a 3+, and Aura of Dismay on a 4+;
• Elrond, Master of Rivendell will have his normal 3 Attacks and will cast Renew on a 2+ and Wrath of Bruinen on a 3+;
• Celeborn will have his normal 3 Attacks and will cast Aura of Command, Immobilize, and Enchanted Blades on a 2+;
• Cirdan will have 2 Attacks and will cast Aura of Command and Blinding Light on a 2+, Enchanted Blades on a 3+, and Aura of Dismay on a 4+;
• Arwen Undomiel will have 2 Attacks and will cast Wrath of Bruinen on a 3+;
• Gildor Inglorion will have his normal 2 Attacks and will cast Immobilize on a 2+; and
• Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm keeps his normal 2-4 Attacks (depending on the gear you give him) and will still auto-cast Nature's Wrath and Aura of Dismay without spending Will . . . which is to say he doesn't benefit at all from coming back.

So given all that, let's look at what each character brings to the slot (yeah, I couldn't talk about just five):

• Gandalf the Grey is the original character - and he's really good in this spot. Sure, he's expensive, but since he can get Will back by casting Strengthen Will on himself (and can do that for free each turn with his Staff of Power), you can prepare for a tough mission coming up one or two missions ahead of schedule. Furthermore, his improvement to Gandalf the White improves his spell array - something only Galadriel would otherwise do.
• Saruman the White costs as much as Gandalf the Grey does and he's AMAZING. With a 4+ Sorcerous Blast (and a reroll - don't forget that reroll), he's more reliable at doing magical damage and is about as good as Gandalf is in melee combat. When he upgrades to "Saruman the Really White," his spells get ridiculously easy to cast and he's . . . well, kind of like Gandalf the White. Sure, he doesn't provide anti-archery/anti-magic buffs to his friends, but in this campaign, you won't need them that much.
• Radagast the Brown might benefit the most from the upgrade to "Radagast the White," since almost all of his spells will be cast on a 2+ (only Nature's Wrath and Aura of Dismay excepted) AND he can have 2 Attacks + Sebastian. His spell array is powerful and can deal with large groups or pin-point attacks on a single big thug (though his need to fight cavalry is non-existent in this campaign - and many foes he fights will be Fearless, so there's not much need for Aura of Dismay).
• Celeborn and Elrond, Master of Rivendell are great choices - they're not only great combat heroes, but being able to cast Immobilize/Enchanted Blades during three of the final four missions on a 2+ (or Wrath of Bruinen on a 3+) is crazy. Sure, they can't get Will back mid-mission with Strengthen Will (hope you recover it at the end), but they'll carve up the enemy pretty quickly if they need to (and that is invaluable in missions like Eomer's Return and Atop the Walls). Consider running Bill the Pony (or Lindir if you run Elrond) in your Fellowship to get them Will back so they can continue to be devastating as the missions progress (and if Bill is in the Pippin slot, he'll be able to join you for the two missions in Minas Tirith to get your Will/Might/Fate back too).
• Galadriel is also a great choice - her Immobilize is quite useful against the Cave Troll in Moria, she can weaken the Wild Warg Chieftain in the Wargs In The Night scenario, and when she comes back in her war aspect, she's ready for brawling with Instill Fear (flee from me you Orc scum!). She's not great in combat originally, so she'll be a big points sink before she gets "good" if you aren't restoring Fate or neutralizing a big piece.
• Gildor Inglorion and Arwen are good budget magic casters at 60-70 points and Gildor has a decent combat profile (Arwen's combat profile is meh) and both have a good spell to cast. With 4 Will in their stores, they has a decent chance of casting Sorcerous Blast on the Bridge of Khazad-Dum twice - hopefully you get a 6 for the bridge breaking (or a 5+ on the second roll after getting a 2-5 on the first roll). When they come back, they can both hit hard if their fights are managed. I would recommend having Bill the Pony in your Fellowship if you happen to run these heroes, as you'll want as much Will as possible (and both are 1 Might heroes, so that could be good too).
• Cirdan makes for a surprisingly good substitute for Gandalf if you're on a budget - with a free Will point each turn, he CAN destroy the Bridge if you buy him enough time - and with the ability to allow friendly models to reroll failed To Wounds with Enchanted Blades, he can turn so-so wounding heroes into REALLY good heroes. On his own, he's not great at fighting, so make sure your Pippin character can carry the weight in the later missions (someone like Fili or Anborn).
• Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm . . . confuses me. Honestly, if you pay 170 points for a maxed-out-as-infantry Thranduil, you're doing it to have an extra melee killer (who happens to be able to shoot/cast-a-few-spells) on your team. You won't be casting much (just the two one-time casts) and you won't be breaking the bridge (unless you get really lucky with your 3 Will) - but you WILL be killing everything. Not sure he's well-used in this slot - probably better replacing one of the next three heroes.

Aragorn (11/23 missions)

Aragorn is present for just under half of the missions in Quest of the Ringbearer - and in all-but-two scenarios, he's accompanied by Legolas and Gimli (and sometimes more of the Fellowship). I'm going to hazard the ire of the internet here and say that it doesn't actually matter which hero you put in the Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli slot relative to the others EXCEPT that you need to be able to play on Weathertop with whatever hero you choose for Aragorn. Weathertop, of course, features five Ringwraiths (one of which is the Witch-King) and none of these wraiths have Fate, so taking someone who has a ranged attack COULD be really useful (since it would allow you to do something on the first turn). Having a fair bit of Will would also be good, since you'll probably get a barrage of magic your way on the turn after you arrive (assuming that you don't have priority and can't charge most of the wraiths first).

In the other ten missions, you have the full Fellowship around you (for four missions), all-but-Gandalf (Amon Hen), all-but-Boromir-Frodo-and-Sam (The End of All Things), and Legolas and Gimli (three missions in Rohan - Gimli is missing from one of them - and one mission at Minas Tirith). While Aragorn isn't "alone" in any of these missions, you'll need to be able to chop through a lot of guys with him, so don't be sparing with the hero in this slot. Here are a few characters that jump off the page as good choices:

• Aragorn - Strider himself! Aragorn gives you versatility in movement, lots of options for heroic actions to call in the Fight phase, and will turn into Aragorn, King Elessar in the End of All Things (vs. just receiving Anduril). What sets him above other options, though, is Mighty Hero and Heroic March, which means you can move the Fellowship quickly without tapping into your actual Might store.
• Important note: unlike Gandalf the White and Galadriel, Lady of Light, you are NOT prohibited from bringing Aragorn, King Elessar in your Fellowship. If you have 225 points lying around, you can do that - and he will be an AMAZING improvement over Strider, since you'll have Anduril for the whole journey AND a 6" banner AND be Defense 7 instead of Defense 5-6. So . . . there's that.
• Helm Hammerhand gets free Heroic Combats in his profile and (correction: as pointed out in the comments, this is actually a Legion bonus so he doesn't get it here - thanks Sharbie!) has a two-handed sword and Burly, which does amazing damage. But do you know what is even better? Having Anduril when Burly, since you can wound everything on a 3+ AND have the Elven-made weapon advantage. In Matched Play, Helm is often run in the Helm's Guard Legendary Legion because he gets Mighty Hero, but he will not have that in Fantasy Fellowships, so he is just a 3 Might hero (with free Heroic Combats). Most of the time, though, your Aragorn figure will be chopping through warriors, not heroes - so having free Heroic Combats is pretty good for getting more mileage out of your guys.
• Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain also gets free Heroic Combats, but can do so with some stat improvements over Helm at a price REDUCTION. Thorin is F6/D8 vs. Helm's F5/D7, which can give him an edge over a Cave Troll without having to Strike (and is pretty resilient against Goblins). He's only S4, isn't Burly, and doesn't begin with a two-handed weapon (though if you give him Orcrist, he can go two-handed and will have Orc/Uruk-Hai/Goblinbane and cause Terror against Orcs/Uruk-Hai/Goblins, which you'll be facing a lot of in this campaign). I'm not sure that Thorin is necessarily "better" than Helm, but he is 40-50 points cheaper than Helm and with a points ceiling of 750, that has to count for something.
• Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm is an Attack-generating monstrocity with the extra sword (and as we've said above, he's not great in the wizard slot). If you've got F7 with 4+ Attacks with Anduril, chances are good that you're beating whatever you're facing. He's not Burly, but with enough dice you may not need it. If you only take the heavy armor and the extra sword, he's 140 points (20pts cheaper than a basic Aragorn), which could make him a very appealing purchase.
• Dain Ironfoot in either of his forms would also be an interesting choice - both begin with two-handed weapons that they wield without penalty and both have F6/3A and 3-Might-and-Strike, so they're pretty lethal in combat. No free Heroic Combats, but both are resilient and fairly inexpensive. If you were running a bearded Fellowship of Dwarves, he'd be a good option no matter how you cut the pie. You will need to make sure Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain has Might in his store for the Stairs of Dwarrowdelf mission so he doesn't fall in a crack, but those are details . . . :)
• BONUS ENTRY - Glorfindel, Lord of the West maxes out at 160pts and he won't be calling as many heroics as Aragorn, but with F7 base and 2 free dice to resist magical powers, he's a powerhouse at Weathertop (you don't really need the magical resistance in any of the other missions - unless the Mouth of Sauron targets you with something, I guess). Besides Weathertop, his free reroll on his dueling and wounding rolls is really nice - as is having immunity to brutal power attacks (take that Cave Troll, Balrog, or Mordor Troll Chieftain).

Two Other Hunters (9-10/23 missions)

Like Merry and Pippin, it might appear that it doesn't matter who has Legolas's spot and who has Gimli's spot - and that's mostly true. Gimli doesn't participate in the Ride Out scenario, but is present in all of the other scenarios that feature Legolas. Both heroes always have your Aragorn character with them and their job is mostly to keep him safe. The big concern is their cost, since you will probably have less than 100pts for each (the four Hobbit slots should be under 200pts, your Wizard will be at/under 170pts, and your Aragorn slot will be under 200pts - but that could leave you about 80pts for each of these guys AND Boromir). Here are some great combat pairings to stay under budget:

• Legolas and Gimli are the original members - and frankly they're great choices. For around 200pts, they're a bit pricey, but they pack a big punch and will give you a lot of options for dealing with enemy models. You could save a few points and take Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood, but you may want to swap out Gimli at that point, since he won't get the bonus +1 To Wound (see a few other options below).
• Elladan and Elrohir are slightly cheaper than Legolas and Gimli and can bring a variety of tactical options to the team thanks to their special twin blades (+1 Attack, shielding, or two-handed weapon). With options for bows and heavy armor (you'll get Elven cloaks automatically before Amon Hen), they can be reasonably tough and can carve up enemy models between the pair of them.
• Dwalin and Gloin in either form are excellent in these spots, since both are brutal killing machines and can tear through troops and heroes alike. For +5 points, I think the Champion of Erebor version of Gloin is much better than his Thorin's Company version, while Dwalin is a bit of a toss-up ONLY because his greater expense may cause you to sacrifice on other slots (+20 points for +2 Defense, a Fate point, and the option to get +1 Attack instead of +1 To Wound). Since Legolas participates in one extra scenario, it may be better to put Dwalin in Legolas's spot.
• Decently-costed heroes like Eomer can do good damage against warrior hordes while still keeping their cost down. While Eomer is quite good at 100-110pts, other good options include Theodred (80-90pts) and Boromir of Gondor (95-100pts). 
• Any big hitter if you're willing to take cheaper options elsewhere can also do the trick - the stronger these guys are, the fewer stats you need to spend to win their games. Resources not spent are resources you don't have to risk recovering, so maybe you want these slots to have good guys in them. When given the choice of which heavy hitter to put in each spot, put the strongest heavy hitter in Legolas's spot (since he'll get one extra game of playing time than Gimli's character will).

Boromir (5/23 missions)

If you've followed my review of the Fellowship in our Bare Necessities series and my review of the Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion (and a post I did a while back on why Gandalf the White was a good choice relative to Mega-Boromir), you might think I come down too hard on Boromir. While I often choose Gimli over Boromir when pressed for points in Fellowship lists, I don't think Boromir of Gondor is a bad character - he's quite good! Recently I've been playing the Breaking of the Fellowship Legion at 550 points to gear up for our next big event (hitherto unscheduled) and having Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, AND Boromir is pretty tough for most armies to face at that points level.

But in Fantasy Fellowships, if you like Boromir, you need to slot him into one of the Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli slots - because this guy isn't allowed to participate beyond the Amon Hen scenario, regardless of whether he lives or dies in the scenario itself. Personally, I would have allowed him to journey with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli after the Amon Hen scenario if he survives it, but the rules very clearly state in several places that no matter what the outcome of the Amon Hen scenario is, he won't be advancing. As such, since the Boromir slot is limited to only five scenarios, this is probably the most forgiving place to have a "dump character."

That said, whoever this is will be the primary protector of your Merry/Pippin characters at Amon Hen and will need to be fairly resilient to survive the three missions in Moria (since you get not rest, you're in for a long haul by the time the Balrog shows up). For the Wargs in the Night scenario . . .  yeah, it doesn't matter who you have in this slot, I think. Here are some good options:

• Nori the Dwarf is too expensive to be in the Merry or Pippin slots, so he gets to be Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, or Aragorn (or Sam, if you don't want Dori). Nori has a decent combat profile with a two-handed weapon that suffers no penalty to winning the fight in his Thorin's Company form, while his Champion of Erebor version costs +25pts for +1 Attack, +3 Defense, and trades his two-handed weapon for a shield and mace. If you need to save money, I think the Thorin's Company version is just fine.
• Dori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor (or whatever Champion of Erebor you don't want late in the campaign) is a good option too, since he gets +1 To Wound without penalty to supplement his F5/S4 profile. Other good options include Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor or Ori the Dwarf, but no matter who you choose, just remember this character is not present in most of the scenarios, so don't build your strategy around their presence.
• Haldir is one of those cheap heroes who can Strike, shoot twice, and can auto-charge people if Aragorn or Theoden are on the field (and benefit from a banner). Yep, he's good - and thematically, he dies in the movies, so letting him die early is a bit fitting.
• Lots of Rohan heroes are F5/2A and are incredibly affordable. If you have someone like Eowyn (who could slot in as Merry or Pippin - being Merry would mean that you have two Eowyns riding out in the Charge of the Rohirrim . . . that could get awkward), Deorwine, or Theoden, these guys all cost under 90pts and can do tolerable damage to the enemy. If Rohan doesn't appeal to you, models like Faramir, Arathorn, or Arvedui are good options too.

Okay, so with this in mind, let's look at a few Fantasy Fellowships that show off each of the different Ringbearer choices and how you might form "thematic" armies around them (either based on an actual time-period OR a unifying theme for models that were TOTALLY not related to each other in the books or films).

Thorin's Company+ (750)

If you're not going to run the Fellowship itself, probably the most thematic group of adventurers to run would be Thorin's Company. An important thing to note is that if you go with just the Thorin's Company versions of the characters, you'll actually max out at 740 points after giving out as much gear as you can, so I've decided to take a few of the heroes in their Champions of Erebor forms to maximize on our points level (thematically-inclined people can skip this with my blessing and play a few points under the cap).

In a world that couldn't be (given the actual timeline), we join Bilbo Baggins as a few of the Dwarves he meets in Bag End join him on his quest. Dori, Ori, and Fili fill our opening slots because a) they're cheap enough to meet the requirements and b) because they give us LOTS of options in missions like Weathertop and Fog on the Barrow-Downs for dealing with Ringwraiths and Barrow-wights. 1 Will each will be a problem, but dying with these models is quite hard.

Once they reach Rivendell, they add Gandalf the Grey as the wizard (because why not), Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain as Aragorn (who has a decent Will store for stopping Nazgul spells at Weathertop), Dwalin and Gloin (champions both) replace Legolas and Gimli (because they're the power heroes), and Nori the Dwarf replaces Boromir (because of the four models that could be Boromir, Nori is by far the weakest and so should only play in 20% of the campaign - sorry mate).

• Ringbearer: Bilbo Baggins
• Companion: Dori the Dwarf
• Merry: Ori the Dwarf
• Pippin: Fili the Dwarf
• Wizard: Gandalf the Grey
• Aragorn: Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain
• Legolas: Dwalin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• Gimli: Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• Boromir: Nori the Dwarf

There and Back Again . . . Reunion Edition (750)

To show off Old Bilbo, we have the following Fellowship, which presents a War of the Ring reunion of Thorin's Company. At the time of the Council of Elrond, only six members of Thorin's Company would have been able to participate in the quest: Thorin/Kili/Fili had fallen at the Battle of Five Armies, Balin/Oin/Ori were on the Moria Expedition (and had fallen, unbeknownst to the rest of the group), and Bombur was too fat to move on his own.

This list runs Old Bilbo alongside an old friend (Farmer Maggot - I can't choose a member of Thorin's Company because I have the wrong Bilbo) who saw him traveling with two older Dwarves and figured he'd lend a hand. The Merry and Pippin slots are filled by Bofur and Bifur in their Thorin's Company versions (because of the 50pt limit - both are better as Champions of Erebor, but also cost 65pts each). 

For my big four, I originally had Dwalin, Gloin, Dori, and Nori in their Champion of Erebor forms, which left me enough points to get Gandalf and all the starting gear for Bilbo. Thematically, this probably would have been the right choice, but I decided to make a small change: swap Nori for Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain. For 50pts more, he gets you a fourth model with a free +1 To Wound on 3 Attacks (with Dwalin, Dori, and Gloin), which will spell doom for wargs, Goblins, Orcs, and Uruk-Hai. Dwalin has taken the Aragorn slot (because Burly Anduril) while Dain and Gloin play the parts of Legolas and Gimli respectively. Dori is by far the weakest of the bunch, so he gets to be Boromir. The points increase to get Dain I think is worth it, but it did mean I had to revisit my wizard choice.

For our wizard, with 155 points available, I chose to go with Radagast accompanied by Sebastian instead of Gandalf. If I wanted Gandalf in my list, I could have dropped Sting and downgraded Maggot to Holfoot Bracegirdle (but I really like Radagast - and he can be the eccentric uncle who crashes the reunion).

• Ringbearer: Old Bilbo Baggins with Sting
• Companion: Farmer Maggot and Dogs
• Merry: Bofur the Dwarf
• Pippin: Bifur the Dwarf
• Wizard: Radagast the Brown with Sebastian
• Aragorn: Dwalin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• Legolas: Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain
• Gimli: Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• Boromir: Dori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor

The House of Elrond Joins The Ragamuffin Band (750)

You know how the Fellowship was formed in Rivendell, right? And Elrond was like, "Hey, we need to do this thing" and didn't help at all? Well, what if Aragorn had said, "You have my sword," and Elrond immediately said, "And we'll go with him because this guy might make a half-way-decent son-in-law." And everyone else was like, "Alright, I guess that's enough." Well, then you'd have the following Fantasy Fellowship: Frodo and Sam come to Rivendell, but instead of running into Merry and Pippin in Farmer Maggot's field, they instead run into Haleth, Son of Hama (who is WAY lost looking for Edoras) and a sorry nag named Bill that he purchased in Bree when his horse died. They escort Frodo and Sam to Bree (because "it's on the way to Rohan") and get caught up in an adventure that takes them to Rivendell.

Joining the Fellowship is Elrond as their wizard, Aragorn with bow and armor as himself, Elladan and Elrohir with bows and armor replacing Legolas and Gimli, and Arwen joining the group as Boromir (she won't die though - she'll just go home). I am curious though: what if we made Elrohir or Elladan take the Boromir slot? Would the other twin always be going ballistic? Would that hurt us? I don't know - could be pretty fun though. :) The other change that could be made is swapping Arwen for Lindir so that Elrond has a better chance of breaking the Bridge of Khazad-Dum without having to rely on Bill to replenish your stats (though you'd need to drop some gear).

• Ringbearer: Frodo Baggins
• Companion: Samwise Gamgee
• Merry: Haleth, Son of Hama
• Pippin: Bill the Pony
• Wizard: Elrond, Master of Rivendell with heavy armor
• Aragorn: Aragorn - Strider with bow and armor
• Legolas: Elladan with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Gimli: Elrohir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Boromir: Arwen Undomiel with Elven cloak

How's This For Theme - We Shoot Everything (750)

If you've followed this blog for any period of time, you know I love shooting. I LOVE shooting. As a result, one of the first Fantasy Fellowships I imagined was one that did a TON of shooting. It turns out that some of the most lethal shooters in the game are under 50 points (and one of them is a Hobbit). So, accompanying our Ringbearer is Baldo Tulpenny as our Companion and Anborn, Ranger of Gondor and Ori the Dwarf as Thing 1 and Thing 2 (35-40 points each). While we could have gone with Thranduil as our wizard (since he's the only one with a shooting attack), for the same amount of points we can get Saruman who is "just better" in that role.

For our four beaters, we've chosen to go with Haldir in Boromir's slot (because he shoots twice and dies in the films), Aragorn with bow and armor in the Aragorn slot (because it's Aragorn), Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood in the Legolas slot, and Girion, Lord of Dale with Great bow in the Gimli slot (because we didn't have the points for Bard thanks to taking Saruman and Aragorn - we're breaking the timeline by taking Girion, but Bard was dead by this time too, so who cares). :)

Now here's where the customizability comes in: currently we have 40 points left over so we could take Old Bilbo as our Ringbearer and call it a day. But for the purposes of this post, we need a list that shows off Smeagol as our Ringbearer, so I've gone with him and given Legolas Orcrist. I would probably go with Old Bilbo if I were to run this, but if you can shoot the enemy before they come to you, you may not care that Smeagol is weak. Baldo also brings traps to keep Smeagol safe in later missions (and can auto-wound a Ringwraith on Fell Beast in the Dead Marshes scenario - THAT would be good - and is a pretty decent fighter for being a Hobbit (though he doesn't have Strike).

• Ringbearer: Smeagol
• Companion: Baldo Tulpenny
• Merry: Anborn, Ranger of Gondor
• Pippin: Ori the Dwarf
• Wizard: Saruman the White
• Aragorn: Aragorn - Strider with bow and armor
• Legolas: Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood with Orcrist
• Gimli: Girion, Lord of Dale with Great bow
• Boromir: Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor

Okay, last Fellowship - and this one breaks the timeline BIG TIME in pursuit of "theme" . . .

Old Dogs Don't Need New Tricks (750)

As much as I like shooting and while I like the thematic reunion list, I think this is the ACTUAL Fantasy Fellowship I want to try. The game designers do note that for thematic reasons, you should probably avoid taking heroes who didn't exist at the same time as everyone else. However, there are three really good models (Top 10 Slaying Heroes, in my opinion) and several pretty good fighters who are left off the table if you follow this recommendation, so our unifying theme for this list is that we're going to take "old models."

Our Ringbearer, of course, is Old Bilbo Baggins (because he's the oldest looking - Smeagol is actually the oldest by a LONG shot). Joining him is Farmer Maggot (who is also old) and assisting in the two cheap hero slots are Paladin Took as Merry (objectively old) and Bill the Pony as Pippin (who is old for a pony). I am assuming that you'd be able to regrow stats on anyone with Bill in this list - and if it doesn't affect everyone in your Fellowship, I'd probably swap him out for a cheap hero (Denethor is a little more expensive and better as a fighter - would require you to downgrade Maggot to someone else if you wanted to do that though).

Our wizard slot required some cost savings, so we've gone with Gildor Inglorion, who isn't great in this role (and will struggle in the Bridge of Khazad-Dum scenario for sure - why we brought Bill), but saves us a ton of money (so we can have over 400 points left for our four beater heroes). If you wanted to run Cirdan for +10 points or Arwen for -10 points, you'd still have an "old" group of people. 

Our four big beaters begin with Arvedui, the Last King of Arnor who takes Boromir's slot. Arvedui is a pretty good 3A hero for his cost, bringing the all-important Heroic Strike/Defense combo with 3 Might for only 80 points (you could replace him with Arathorn for -5 points if you wanted). Replacing Legolas and Gimli are Gil-Galad, High King of the Elves and Elendil, High King of Gondor and Arnor. Why? Because they're really, REALLY good heroes (and we're not that worried about Amon Hen, Moria, or the Docks of Harland). For Aragorn's slot we have Isildur, who we chose because if any of the heroes is going to get Anduril for the final mission, we want it to be the guy with the ordinary hand-and-a-half sword (not the guy with Aiglos or Narsil). One other option would be to replace Gil-Galad with Glorfindel (saves you 10 points), which would give you a more magic-resistant hero to deal with Ringwraiths and a more monster-resilient hero to deal with trolls and the Balrog. You could also take Elrond for +5 points, but that would require downgrading your Wizard to Arwen, your Ringbearer to Smeagol, or your Companion to someone else (like Farmer Cotton). All told, I think we have an old bunch with any purchase - and a fantastic group of killing heroes! 

• Ringbearer: Old Bilbo Baggins
• Companion: Farmer Maggot 
• Merry: Paladin Took
• Pippin: Bill the Pony
• Wizard: Gildor Inglorion
• Aragorn: Isildur
• Legolas: Gil-Galad, High King of the Elves
• Gimli: Elendil, High King of Gondor and Arnor
• Boromir: Arvedui, the Last King of Arnor

Conclusion

Hopefully you enjoyed this as much as I did - my son and I are getting ready to do some Fantasy Fellowship work, so expect to see some of that content come out in the coming weeks (he's leaning towards Thorin's Company and I'm leaning towards some variant of the Old Dogs one, though the Thorin's Company Reunion is tugging at me too). :) Until next time, happy hobbying!