Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: The Breaking of the Fellowship LL

Good morning gamers,

As we close out the year, we'll be looking at 700-point lists that are built around models you collect from the Quest of the Ringbearer book. If you haven't seen the articles recently, I've been collecting all the models from that book and since I've been working on painting up a bunch of models toward that end, I figured I should get them on the tabletop and start using them. The first list that we have is . . . well, not at 700 points, but it works just fine with a 100-point handicap for your opponent. It's the Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion - a Legion that has rapidly risen to be one of my favorite Legions in the game!

The List

This list, as we've mentioned in the Stuff of Legends series, writes itself at/above 600 points:

• Aragorn - Strider with Elven cloak [ARMY LEADER]
• Frodo Baggins with Sting, Mithril coat, and Elven cloak
• Samwise Gamgee with Elven cloak
• Meriadoc Brandybuck with Elven cloak
• Peregrin Took with Elven cloak
• Boromir of Gondor with shield and Elven cloak
• Legolas Greenleaf with Elven cloak
• Gimli, Son of Gloin with Elven cloak

This list may not look like much (only 8 models, half of which are D4 and below), but the Legion rules for this list are bonkers:

• Those Elven cloaks are free, so this army has built-in defense from long-range archery and magic so long as there's some terrain in the way;
• Each model counts as a banner for friendly models;
• Each model counts as having the Fortify Spirit magical power on them (+2 free dice to resist magical powers, which means the Hobbits are all rolling 3 free dice thanks to Resistant to Magic); 
• The army is Fearless and doesn't count as being broken while Frodo is alive (the usual Fellowship bonus); and
• Each model has a "gift of Lothlorien" to help them be better:
• Aragorn has an Elven-made Dagger with Uruk-Haibane (the Elven-made keyword is quite useful, Uruk-Haibane is often overkill, but means you can kill an Uruk hero with a single successful wounding roll most of the time);
• Frodo gets the Light of Earendil which allows him to cast a normal version of Blinding Light on a free dice while not wearing the Ring on a 3+ as a means of minimizing enemy archery damage (no channeling to keep it up forever - this is probably the best gift in the bunch);
• Sam has Elven Rope that makes him automatically pass jump, leap, and climb tests (used it once only because I could - not because I had to);
• Merry and Pippin have Noldorin Daggers that allow them to reroll failed To Wound rolls (but don't count as Elven-made weapons - sad, but really good value on them);
• Boromir has a Golden Belt that gives him the Woodland Creature special rule (very situational, but occasionally quite good to have - better than Sam's gift at any rate);
• Legolas has the Bow of the Galadhrim, which allows him to reroll failed To Hit rolls so long as a friendly model is within 3" of him (this is the only gift that really vies for first place against Frodo's Light of Earendil); and
• Gimli has the Three Locks of Hair from Galadriel - each of which can be spent once per game to reroll all of his dueling dice (this was viewed by me to be incredibly good and it can be, but because he already gets 1 reroll if someone is nearby, the value of this is really 1-2 more dice rerolled depending on the weapon you choose to use and what you get on your first 3-4 dice).

These bonuses are great - but let's see the kinds of things we need to be able to do with this army in practice.

Army Theory

Fellowship lists (especially those that run Boromir) have a lot of Might - I mean, A LOT of Might. There are three combat-heavy models in this list who we shall refer to as "The Big Three" (Aragorn - who has no bow option, Boromir, and Gimli). Together they have 12 Might and a free Might point each turn (in practice, if you don't take risks with Aragorn, this turns into 18+ Might over the course of the game). You also have Legolas, who gets you 3 more Might (15+ Might), as well as Frodo (17+ Might), Merry and Pippin (who don't have any Might) and Sam (19+ Might and potentially free Heroic Combats if you're okay with Frodo fighting). With easily 25+ Might over the course of the game, this army gets to dictate whether it wants to move first in the late game really, REALLY well.

Might can be used for lots of things but the most common uses of Might for this list are Heroic Marches, Heroic Moves, and Heroic Combats (though Heroic Strikes can be called by 5/8 models in the list if you have to). Aragorn and Boromir have access to Heroic March, which allows you all-infantry army to move 7-9" each turn (which is pretty good for nearly half your models, though not as fast as an all-cavalry army will be). Marching does prevent you from charging enemy models, but if you can throw your heroes into the path of the enemy (blocking them from where they need to go), not being able to charge won't matter - they have to get locked in with you or delay their progress (both of which are bad).

Heroic Moves speak for themselves - this army wants to dictate where its vulnerable pieces are fighting and keep their models close together. As such, moving first is a big deal - and while Might is a limited resource, this is one of the factions that I'd say can risk counter-calling Heroic Moves without "wasting" Might (you can call Moves with Aragorn if you want, but I generally use Sam and Boromir so Aragorn can save his free Might for the Fight phase).

Heroic Combats are how you deal with the biggest downside to running this Legion: the numbers disadvantage. At 700 points, most armies will have 30-35 models, but the recent UK meta seems to indicate that armies are getting larger, relying on spams of warriors and captains instead of a collection of hardy heroes and enough troops to buy the heroes time to work. I've used this list at the 550-point level against a 50+ model Goblin-town list and managed to break it - and that was mostly due to Heroic Combats.

What you want to do is engage with the enemy on a turn when you don't have priority - watch your opponent move and then charge Aragorn, Boromir, and Gimli into two warriors each (no heroes, unless they're unable to call Heroic Strike/Defense and are below F6 - in which case, engage the hero alone). You want your other models helping these three guys out, so one Hobbit (I'd recommend either Merry or Pippin) sits near Legolas as he shoots at unengaged models, while the other three Hobbits tag one model each. This usually means that you'll have engaged 6-9 enemy models (depending on what your opponent has in their front line). All of your models should be within 3" of a friend and Sam should definitely be within 3" of Frodo.

When the Fight phase begins, you call a free Heroic Combat with Sam (since Frodo is nearby). After your opponent calls something (or passes), you call a Heroic Combat with Aragorn for free. Then you call a Heroic Combat with Boromir after your opponent passes. Finally you call a Heroic Combat with Gimli. You COULD call a Heroic Defense with Frodo, but I've generally not had a problem with him surviving for one round against 1 enemy warrior (maybe with a spear-supporter). His survival is important, so make sure his match-up looks manageable.

You have four Heroic Combats you can do - I'd recommend doing Sam first if he can get into Frodo's fight. Sam might have 2 Might left (depending on whether you needed to call a Move before - hopefully not), so his chances of getting a 6 with his banner reroll is pretty good (75%). If your opponent's warrior can't get a 6, then Sam's F3 isn't a big deal. If you win and if you wound (S2 isn't great for that, but again, you have Might if you didn't need to spend it to win the duel), Sam runs off to help Frodo - if he fails, though, it's not a big deal.

Then the Big Three get rolling - with 4 dice (3 Attacks + banner reroll on the lowest die), Aragorn has an 80% chance of getting a 5 or 6 as his high roll, which means he wins a lot against warriors (who need to actually beat his roll). Be sure to Feint with Aragorn if you're fighting F1-3 warriors, as that Elven-made dagger will give you the edge against F3 warriors if you drop your Fight Value to F3. Aragorn has 3 dice to try to kill 2 models (probably wounded on 5s - rerolling 1s if you Feinted), which he can do (26% chance of dealing 2+ wounds to D5/6 models without spending Might, 50% chance of doing it if you're willing to spend Might). If the two models you fought had spear-supports, charge them next.

Then you've got Boromir - declare that you're Feinting (if fighting F1-3 models or models with abysmal Courage), blow the Horn of Gondor, and see if your opponent can pass a Courage test. If he doesn't, you win automatically and try to kill 2 models with 3 Attacks at S4 (and potentially Feinting to reroll 1s). Boromir has the same chance of wounding two guys as Aragorn (though with more Might in his store, he can boost his rolls a lot longer than Aragorn can - especially if the horn is winning fights for him). If there were two spear supporters in the fight, charge into them next (but stay within 3" of either Merry or Pippin - whichever one isn't with Legolas).

Next, we have Gimli - who requires a bit more thinking about when it comes to dueling. Because he can either roll 3 dice with no bonuses To Wound (probably +1 To Wound because Legolas has been busy) or 2 dice with +1 To Wound (probably +2 To Wound because Legolas has been busy), you need to think about whether you want to make the dueling roll more difficult so the wounding roll is easier OR if you're okay with making that wounding roll harder so that you can better guarantee winning the fight. In most cases, I use his two-handed axe because I have access to 4 dice to win the fight with the Three Locks of Hair. Against warriors, you just have to tie/beat their high roll (and so getting a 5 or 6 is usually all you need). Without access to Feint, you want to determine if Piercing Strike will help you out (sometimes you don't need to - lots of enemies will Piercing Strike against you so they have a better chance of wounding you should they win). Kill the two guys you're fighting and then charge into two more (assuming Gimli is being outkilled by Legolas when he engages, Gimli can wound on a 3+ with his two-handed axe for a 44% chance of dealing 2 wounds without spending Might OR wound on a 4+ with his two hand axes for a 50% chance of dealing 2 wounds without spending Might).

After four Heroic Combats (assuming they're all successful), you should have three big heroes engaged with two models each, Sam and Frodo ganging up against one guy (maybe with a supporter - assuming Sam's combat went off), and Merry or Pippin engaged with one model. At the end of that round, you very well could win all five of your fights and have killed up to 8 more models (in addition to the 6-7 models you killed during your Heroic Combats). Even if you don't kill everyone, killing 10-15 models will bring armies in the 30s close to breaking - and even armies with 50+ models can't sustain that kind of damage for another round. Keep in mind also that we haven't looked at how many models Legolas killed as the enemy approached - against a fast opponent, there may not be many kills, but against average Defense, average speed models, there could be an additional 3-7 kills from Legolas at this point. Your opponent might be getting scared.

The one thing to keep in mind while you're doing this is that you need to remember how to win the scenario you're playing. To see this, let's look at the three kinds of scenarios you could be dealing with (including the six scenarios that were introduced with the Matched Play Guide).

Game Play Strategy

Maelstrom & Object Missions (Pools 1 & 3)

For starters, this army deploys as a single warband, so Maelstrom missions will require you to come down in one place. This is good in Hold Ground, but means you have your work cut out for you in Heirlooms of Ages Past if you don't find the Heirloom quickly (or if your opponent discovers it near the other side of the board - deploy your Heirlooms as close to the middle of the board or clustered around other objective markers your opponent places so you can get to one area). In both of these missions, you need to use Aragorn's free Heroic Marches early in the game to leg it to the center (though I often leave Legolas and either Merry or Pippin behind to shoot at people as they approach the center). Eventually, you probably need the bodies, so don't be afraid to move 3" and shoot with Legolas (hitting on a 4+ rerollable while Merry/Pippin are within 3" is pretty reliable).

Command the Battlefield doesn't have objectives you get to place - it's about controlling quadrants. You want to arrive on the center of a board edge, which means being willing to spend Aragorn's free point of Might (since you can't call anything on the turn you arrive anyway) to get a 4+ so you have some say over where you arrive. This is easy - if you get a 1-2, you can use your free point to go down 1 so you don't arrive. If you get a 3, you up it to a 4. Arriving where you want is easy - once you arrive, however, you need to use Legolas (rerolling failed To Hits so long as someone is within 3" of him) to clear far-flung objectives. The game can't end until one side is quartered, so that means your opponent has to come to you (especially since both magic and archery are hard to make effectual against your force). For most armies, charging Aragorn, Gimli, and Boromir is a nightmare - and charging them when it's harder to neuter them with magic, pluck wounds off with archery, and them all having a banner is an even worse nightmare.

For the object-related missions, you want to start as far up in your deployment zone as possible in both Seize the Prize and Retrieval. This army wants to get locked in quick - one round of Heroic Combats from the "big three" melee heroes can see a devastating amount of damage unfold and you need to get somewhere fast. With both Aragorn and Boromir able to call Heroic Marches, you have some options for moving your army up quickly. In Seize the Prize, Legolas will want to be staring right at the Prize and you'll want to keep his firing lane open so he can shoot up to 3 times to clear out models hedging around the Prize (or shoot once hitting on a 2+ rerollable to hit the one guy who picked it up). Hop on the Prize, get it, hand it to Frodo, put the Ring on, stay away from the enemy while you break him, game is won. Retrieval is similar - punch a hole to the enemy's flag, hand it to Frodo with the Ring on, get out. If you need some extra movement, check out a recent post I did on the Ring to see how to give Frodo the burst of speed he needs to get away from trouble (it does line you up for a pretty good Hurl, so be mindful of that). 

Destroy the Supplies is the only one you're really concerned about in this section because it's the only one you can't "just stay together" to win. With three stashes on your side that your opponent is going to try to destroy and with three stashes on your opponent's side that you are trying to destroy, you need models that can play both offense and defense. Or do you? Legolas and a Hobbit can easily stay near one objective and shoot at whoever comes - that will work for a while as you run your big three at wherever the largest concentration of your enemy's troops are. With Heroic March on Aragorn, you can cut off anyone on their way to one of your objectives and if they try to tag you and move around you, you can call three Heroic Combats and charge after whoever escaped (hopefully slaying a few more). Once one side is crippled, you March over to another side and do the same thing again.

Chances are good, though, that you're going to lose a stash (unless you can guard two with Aragorn, Gimli, and Boromir and probably 2-3 Hobbits to help them hedge). If you break the enemy, though, you can deny him points for breaking you just by keeping Frodo alive (this assumes he can kill 5 models, of course). If Frodo is near the Big Three, his survival is quite likely - and he helps them quite a bit with the Ring. As far as destroying enemy stashes go, Frodo can make for a pretty great stash hunter, since he can approach without fear of attack if he's got the Ring on and swarming him is quite difficult. Anyone your opponent holds in reserves are models that Aragorn, Gimli, and Boromir don't have to fight right away, so you can have Frodo hovering near a stash - ready to sail in when models flee from the objective or when they're moving to shield the objective from the Big Three.

Control Missions (Pools 2 & 5)

You would think that an all-infantry, low-model-count army would struggle with control-based missions. While they certainly can, most of these missions end when one side has been quartered, which means that an army that has been broken needs to distribute its heroes across multiple objectives just to hold them (and if they leave a few warriors behind, those warriors might flee and the game will end with no one controlling an objective). Rythbyrt played with the Grey Company in our most recent THRO tournament and went undefeated in practice with it against a variety of lists - all of which were bigger than his (some were MASSIVELY bigger than his). Why? Because when you break someone, their stuff runs away - and with Heroic Combats, you can get some incredible speed out of your models.

The three primary control missions are Domination (5 objectives - one in the center, four placed by the players), Command and Control (5 objectives - one in the center, four others 12" away from it on the compass points), and Breakthrough (4 objectives on the compass points, worth varying amounts of points for each player). In Domination, you want to place your objectives just barely outside of 12" of the center so you know where you need to be. In the other two, you're traveling from objective to objective and clearing models away from the objectives. Using your Heroic Combats to race through a huge chunk of guys (while Legolas guards the center with Frodo and shoots at models trying to hold other objectives) can help you immensely. Use your Heroic Combats to sling your heroes towards objectives and force your opponent to respond. If he amasses a lot of troops in one place, you can use a good round of Heroic Combats to decimate it, bringing your opponent closer to breaking.

In Command and Control, your opponent doesn't need to stay and fight you - he just needs to tag objectives, so don't stay on objectives either - just tag them and pursue his guys. When you catch them, decimate them. Protecting Legolas is the key here - he can sit on your rear objective with a Hobbit, but you need to manage what models are able to charge him (and with three big hitters to intercept whatever your opponent has, you should be able to keep Legolas alive). If you're worried about him surviving, keep all four Hobbits near him so that he has a good screen of models. The Hobbits in this list kill pretty well (and don't lose many fights against 1-2 dice attacks thanks to their banner rules), and Legolas can always shoot into a fight to even something out if you need to (with a 2+ rerollable To Hit roll).

Breakthrough is a slightly different beast, but you can use Legolas and the Hobbits to keep your rear objective (which is worth next to nothing to you, but is worth a lot to your opponent). You probably want 2 of your Big Three to advance towards the objective that's worth a lot to you, but you want at least one of them to hang back and play the mid-field to shield Legolas and the Hobbits (I'd use Boromir so Merry and Pippin are a bit better at fighting). If you can clear out everyone on the objective that's worth 4 points to you (if you have sole control - which is likely if it's Aragorn and Gimli charging it) and if you can deny your opponent 4 points for controlling the one in your starting zone, you can win the game just by breaking him and wounding his army leader (if you can keep Aragorn alive). With Legolas shooting at models that are hanging out at the side objectives, you can deny your opponent even more points, getting you to victory.

Divide and Conquer is normally a tricky mission for bubble armies, but this Legion deploys as a single warband. With Aragorn leading your army with free Heroic Marches to the center, you want to station as many of your models as possible on the center objective to hold it. Legolas can advance 4.5" each turn while you March (have him start as close the front of your deployment arc to give him the most time possible to benefit from the extra movement), but you don't want him falling too far behind because he'll get swarmed. If he can weaken one side of your opponent's force, you can sweep in with the Big Three, finish off that force, and then swing everyone the other way to deal with the rest of the enemy. Your Hobbits are bodies in this mission - one should be near Legolas (always), while the others help screen your big heroes. A good Heroic Combat round or two and you should be able to keep the enemy away from two of the objectives (which is all you need) - especially if Frodo is alive and you aren't broken.

Storm the Camp is always tricky - don't even try to get into your opponent's camp with most of your troops. Legolas and Merry or Pippin should advance to a position where they can guard models getting past the Big Three towards your camp, but otherwise should just focus on breaking the enemy. Your Big Three are going to contribute, using their speed to catch models that are racing around their flanks (Amon-Hen-style). Meanwhile, you can try to get Frodo (with the Ring on, of course) towards your opponent's camp, just to make him place a garrison in it. I wouldn't have Frodo fight if possible - but having a threat in the camp is better than having nothing. If you can hold your camp (3 points), break the enemy without being broken (3 points), and wound the enemy army leader (1 point), you can win the game.

Reconnoitre is a nightmare for low-model-count armies, but the strategy here is the same as it was in Storm the Camp - you don't want to quarter yourself, so your goal is to break the enemy without counting as being broken (3 points if Frodo is alive), kill the enemy army leader (2 points), keep Aragorn unwounded (no points to the enemy) and if you can do that, you can allow 2 models to escape to pull a draw or you can win if 0-1 models escape. Use those Combats (and Legolas's shooting) to catch models that escape you, but the real objective is to race up the field quickly with the Big Three and carve the enemy up as far away from your objectives as possible. By charging at models that are getting away from you and pulling closer to your board edge, you can use Combats to deny your opponent the ability to get models off. This will be a hard scenario, but we all knew that going into it, right?

Killing Missions (Pools 4 & 6)

THESE missions are your bread and butter - you're good at these ones. When preparing for our last THRO tournament, I considered three different lists with Legolas in them and he's great at killing stuff. In Assassination, he's the perfect assassin for good, since he can reliably shoot into a friendly combat (2+ rerollable To Hit) and can spend his Might to boost his wounding rolls. Since you don't have to deploy on the center line, hold back and let your opponent come to you (you're resilient against archery and magical attacks, so you're not too worried about your opponent when he's far away). Once any non-leader hero gets close, Legolas starts shooting at them (or just killing warriors if you're bored). 

Fog of War is pretty good too - chances are good your opponent will try to kill Merry or Pippin on a lucky roll (or just a press of bodies), so you want both of these guys guarding Legolas with the Big Three and Sam in between them and the horde of enemies that are coming. You, of course, want to protect Frodo, since he can get you points for breaking the enemy without being broken if you can keep him alive. Legolas should target whatever hero he can to get points - and if your opponent has heroes that aren't easily killed with archery, you want to pick someone that the Big Three can gang up on instead. Holding an objective piece can be useful, but I wouldn't push for it too much - pick something near the centerline that you can retreat to if you have to.

Clash by Moonlight is pretty good for you too - you want to break the enemy without being broken, so make sure you break the enemy and Frodo stays alive. This is one of those missions you could quarter yourself (keep Legolas and Frodo alive) and you can win - though you will likely cough up 3 points to your opponent if he kills 6 heroes and you don't kill that many. Still, with 1 point for having at least one hero alive and 5 points for breaking the enemy and not being broken, you just need to wound the army leader to ensure that you don't lose (worst case is a 7-6 victory).

Lords of Battle is a great mission - one good round of Heroic Combats will mean your opponent needs to chew through your Wounds and Fate just to catch up. With 16 Wounds and 15 Fate points in this list, if you can rack up 31 Wounds/Fate points spent, you can't lose in the count. Once you break the enemy, the game can end - which means if you've dealt ~20 wounds to the enemy, you're pretty close to the impassible mark. If you can keep Frodo alive, you're golden.

To The Death is also great for you - once again, you want to break the enemy without being broken, so make sure you kill enemy banners, break him, and you win. If you want to go after his army leader, go for it - but your primary objective is to break him. You don't have to come out and meet him, so retreat, stay hidden, and use Legolas to make him come to you.

Contest of Champions is your best draw - your enemy army leader can score only 8 kills (and the game ends when one side is quartered, so 6 is more likely), so make sure Aragorn gets 7 kills. If Frodo survives (he should be NOWHERE near the fighting), you can also get points for breaking the enemy without being broken if Legolas and Gimli are helping. Boromir should be tying down the enemy army leader - if he shields with Heroic Defense, he is a PAIN to deal with. Against low Courage army leaders, he can also auto-win with his Horn . . . that'll be insulting.

Conclusion

This list is amazing and I've really enjoyed using it over the last year. If you can get past having a handicap, I think you'll agree it's fun to play and surprisingly competitive. In our next post, we'll be turning to the dark side and looking at the faction of Angmar. When I reviewed Angmar in the Bare Necessities series, it included the Witch-King and two Barrow-Wights. While the Witch-King does show up in the Quest of the Ringbearer series, I'm taking a leaf out of Sharbie's book and seeing how we can employ not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Barrow-Wights in an Angmar list at 700 points (because we need four in the Fog on the Barrow-Downs scenario). Check it out next time - until then, happy hobbying!