Back to Basics: The One Ring in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

This is our last post in this round of "back to basics" and we're covering one of the most exclusive pieces of wargear in the game: the One Ring. You can't have a game based on the Lord of the Rings without the Ring in it and it's perhaps fitting that the Ring has several pages of rules dedicated to it. I've written two articles on the One Ring since the updated rules came out in 2018 (one in 2019 and one in 2021), but both of those articles were focused on how the Ring had changed from previous editions - or as a means of bringing together previous FAQs into one place. What our focus will be in this article is to summarize the rules for the Ring, breaking things down so someone who's new to the game can get their head around how the Ring works. With that, let's talk about the Ring!

Who Can Wear the One Ring?

There are only a handful of models who can wear the One Ring - we all know that the main stories of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings focus on Bilbo and Frodo. We also know from the story that other characters have carried the One Ring, including Sauron, Isildur, and Gollum. In MESBG, this translates into seven profiles that can carry the One Ring: The Dark Lord Sauron (who made it), Isildur (who took it from Sauron), Gollum (who "was given it" after Isildur lost it - but this is not the Smeagol profile), Young Bilbo Baggins (from Thorin's Company - he "stole" it from Gollum), Bilbo Baggins-Master Burglar (from the Survivors of Lake-town), Old Bilbo Baggins (from either the Shire or Rivendell - not sure which is more common on the tabletop), and Frodo Baggins (who, of course, destroyed it . . . sort of . . . he was heavily involved in its destruction, at any rate).

At first blush, you might think, "Well, how often am I going to fight these guys? I mean, they're only from a few factions, right?" Well yes - and often times these guys won't be allied with too many people because their alliance matrix stinks (Barad-Dur and Numenor are basically Impossible Allies with everyone) or because they themselves are really expensive and don't feel like they're worth taking "just" to get the Ring (like Bilbo in Lake-town or Frodo in the Fellowship). One would think this is a set of rules you don't need to know.

And yet, many players view the benefits of the Ring as highly valuable in a competitive setting - Numenor may have a very restrictive alliance matrix, but a F6 Isildur with the Ring is not something you want to trifle with (more on that in a bit) and can be allied historically with Rivendell to make up for some of the list building limitations of Numenor. Barad-Dur might not have allies, but since they have most of the profiles available to Mordor, they're pretty well developed on their own. The Fellowship usually doesn't see Frodo allied around, but if you're playing at lower points levels, the likelihood of running into either the Breaking of the Fellowship LL or the Rangers of Ithilien grows dramatically.

Seeing Bilbo from Thorin's Company is unlikely (one might ally him into an Army of Lake-town list, but up until recently, most competitive players would prefer a Convenient Alliance with Gwaihir or Legolas with a bunch of Elves over a Historical Alliance with Thorin/Dwalin/Bombur/Dori and Bilbo). An allied Burglar Baggins is a bit more likely if someone is bringing in a Survivors of Lake-town contingent (maybe a Captain and Bilbo with 24 cheap grunts) to flesh out a Battle of Five Armies list, but still not common. Still, you might find a Ringbearer or two at a tournament - and they can make all the difference.

If both players have models that could have the Ring (or if you happen to run a list with two models from the list above), there's a hierarchy for who gets to have the Ring - you can't have two Rings in your army, after all! The list is more or less based on when someone had the Ring (with one big exception):

1. The Dark Lord Sauron
2. Isildur
3. Young Bilbo Baggins or Bilbo Baggins, Master Burglar
4. Frodo Baggins
5. Old Bilbo Baggins (who I guess comes below Frodo because he gave the Ring - and with it, his spot on the hierarchy - to Frodo)
6. Gollum (who really should be in slot #3 if you go with a strict timeline, since he's only available in the Goblin-town list and so is not Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

If one player has Sauron, he has the Ring - period. If no one has Sauron, then Isildur has the Ring. If no one has Isildur . . . you get the picture. If both players have the same model, then you actually CAN have two copies of the Ring and both Ringbearers have it (funnily enough). I will make the caveat here, however, that Sauron is a bit of an oddity on this list, since the rules we see below don't apply to Sauron. 

If you like Sauron (or run into Sauron), you don't need to know anything that appears below because you're never going to have to face them. Instead, Sauron gets a 2+ save against all wounds that would be the last wound he needs to take (which can be promoted with Might). If he passes the roll, he keeps his last wound and doesn't die. If you're thinking, "Well, I guess I should save my Might so I never die," you wouldn't be alone - it's definitely a good strategy (albeit the temptation to use all his Might for Heroic Combats, Heroic Strikes, and other things is very great). Still, having the Ring on Sauron is awesome - but we're going to spend the rest of the post talking about what it does for everyone else.

When Can You Put the Ring On?

Like most things, putting on the Ring happens during the Ringbearer model's Move phase. This is key: if the Ringbearer is charged before he can put on the Ring, he can't put it on. Moreover, if the Ringbearer is charged and calls a Heroic Combat, he can't put the Ring on while moving as part of the Heroic Combat (since it's the Fight Phase). When the Ring is put on, if the model is mounted, the mount bolts and a Thrown Rider test is taken - so if you happen to be able to take a mount for your Ringbearer (Isildur can take a horse, Thorin's Company Bilbo can take a pony), be sure to dismount first. 

What Can You Do With the Ring On?

The main draw to putting on the Ring is (unsurprisingly) that it makes you invisible. There are lots of rules that accompany invisibility (which you can get by wearing the Ring or by having the Shroud of Shadows spell cast on you) - you can't be targeted by magic/shooting, you ignore control zones (and have no control zone), and you can move through models (but can't end by overlapping bases with any model). All in all, your movement options open up quite a bit and you become immune to most shooting attacks (you'll still be affected by area effect siege weapon fire) and most magic (more on that in a minute).

There are some non-movement-related things you get as well: in order for enemy models to charge the Ringbearer, they have to pass a courage test (no auto-passing rules allowed, such as Bodyguard or Fearless) with a -1 penalty per full inch of distance between the charging model and the Ringbearer. Failing the test doesn't root the charging model in place like a Terror test does, but the test has to be taken before they move and you can't test again after you've moved closer. This can make charging the Ringbearer quite difficult for models that are 3" or more away from the Ringbearer and if they have a low Courage rating, but since you can get a natural 10+ one-sixth of the time anyway, charging a Ringbearer from 3-4" away is difficult, but not impossible.

While wearing the Ring, you can declare heroic actions, but friendly models won't benefit from those actions. This means that:

• Heroic Moves called by a Ringbearer cannot use the "With Me!" section;
• Heroic Shoots called by a Ringbearer will only allow the non-Gollum Hobbit Ringbearers to throw their stones first;
• Heroic Combats will only allow the Ringbearer to move after the foe is slain;
• Heroic March from Gollum will only give himself +3" of movement;
• Heroic Resolve on the Ringbearers who have it will only provide them with magical protection . . . seems a bit unnecessary, given the immunity to most magical powers; and
• Heroic Strike/Strength/Defense will behave exactly as they normally do (since they don't have a group-sharing element).

Ringbearers in combat gain two key benefits: first and foremost, other models (enemy models at least, possibly friendly models) can step on the Ringbearer's current position in order to move him - but if he's engaged in combat, they can't do this. For more on how to make this work for you, check out my last article on the Ring - though in the comments section of that article, it was mentioned that friendly models may not be able to step on the Ringbearer (the wording of the rule is very unclear to me and I've submitted it AGAIN to the FAQ team to rule on - hopefully more on this in February).

Secondly, any enemy model engaged with a Ringbearer who is wearing the One Ring halves their Fight Value (rounding up), so by putting on the Ring, you make the Fight Value you're facing cap out at F5 unless there's a spearman or pikeman who can lend a higher Fight Value (which will usually be F6, but theoretically an Isengard Troll could spear-support to provide F7 and Gil-Galad could spear-support to provide F9 . . . both of whom would only contribute 1 Attack instead of 3 Attacks, so there's a penalty involved for doing this).

This all seems really powerful (except for potentially being able to force a Ringbearer who got too close to a cliff off of it), so are there any downsides to wearing the Ring? Actually, yes. First off, none of these penalties apply to Ringwraiths (the rules specifically say this doesn't apply to Sauron either, but that makes sense since if Sauron is present . . . no one besides another Sauron will have the Ring on - unless this also includes the Necromancer of Dol Guldur?). Ringwraiths can target Ringbearers with their magical powers, don't have to test for Courage to "see" the Ringbearer, and thanks to their Will of Evil special rule, they don't have to spend Will to fight Ringbearers. If you're up against the Black Riders LL, they can also call free Heroic Combats in order to charge the Ringbearer model . . . case in point: don't tackle Ringwraiths with the Ring on.

The last part of the Ring's rules we need to talk about is the Sauron's Will rule: at the start of the Ringbearer's move, if the Ringbearer is wearing the One ring, he needs to roll a die to see who has control of him. On a 3+, the Ringbearer is under the control of his player as normal, but on a 1-2 (this can be promoted with Might), the opposing player gets to move him. The opposing player can't do any weird moves with him (like jumping off a cliff - though you can put him in a position where he can be stepped on and fall off a cliff, as discussed in the article above) and can't make him take the Ring off and reverts to the control of the owning player afterwards. The opposing player also can't call Heroic Actions with him (specifically called out, but also because it's too late to do so) or fight models that would be friendly to him (they're not Denethor-crazed, just conflicted). Functionally, this rule makes it so that the longer you have the Ring on, the harder it is to make the hero go where you want him to (or fight what you want him too).

This rule doesn't apply to either version of Young Bilbo - if you're playing with Isildur, Old Bilbo, Frodo, or Gollum, just know that you might not have control of your Ringbearer all the time (and if Isildur is your work-horse killing hero, that could be really bad). If you've brought Young Bilbo from Thorin's Company or the Survivors of Lake-town, however, you can wear the Ring as much as you want and not have to worry about a thing. All of this is moot, of course, if Sauron is on the other side of the board, but in all other situations, Young Bilbo is where it's at for reliability with the Ring.

When Can You Take the Ring Off?

Taking the Ring off is "simple enough" - during the Ringbearer's move (recall that you don't get a "move" if you've been charged already), the Ringbearer takes a Courage test. If passed, you take it off; if failed, you keep it on. Not only can you not take the Ring off if you've been charged already, but you also can't both put on the Ring and take the Ring off in the same round. As fun as it is to use the Ring for a moment to pass through an enemy battleline and then pop it off so you're under your control for the next turn, you'd have to do this over two turns.

There are two risks to leaving the Ring on: first and foremost, for most Ringbearers, you run the risk of them not being under your control thanks to the Sauron's Will rule. While a Ringbearer can be really useful in holding an objective or racing towards a gunline (only Isildur wants to do that - maybe Gollum), the fact that they might walk away from an objective or walk away from the enemy could be a liability (and oh how many times Isildur has chosen to walk into a pub for a drink right as I needed him in the front lines!).

The second risk is far worse: if the Ringbearer is wearing the One Ring and is the last friendly model on the board, he flees in despair and counts as a casualty. Not only will this mean your army has been tabled (which might affect your final scoring), but it's kind of a bummer because he could be perfectly healthy, perfectly safe, and would STILL be taken as a casualty. Watch the game, figure out what you need your Ringbearer to do, and don't always keep the Ring on.

Okay, with all this discussion about Ringbearers behind us, let's talk about how to fight against Ringbearers.

How Does One Fight Ringbearers?

I've already talked a bit about how to fight Ringbearers in the article above, but it bears repeating here in brief: step on the Ringbearer to move him out of the way. Even if you can't get him to fall off a piece of terrain or into deep water, just moving the Ringbearer out of the way can be incredibly useful - and so long as he's not already engaged in combat, anyone can step on him (no courage test is required). 

If you are fighting a vulnerable Ringbearer, attempt to charge him and if you fail the Courage test, move within 1" of him so you can charge him without a penalty on the following turn if he hasn't moved (and with the possibility of a slight penalty if he has yet to move). Charging a Ringbearer is good - even if it's just with a single model - since it will keep him in a known place and away from your heroes. Yes, Isildur might be able to call a Heroic Combat to get somewhere else, but no one else will be able to move with him, so that's not so bad. 

Speaking of Heroic-Combatting-Isildur models, place models behind or around the important models in your army so there's no room for a 25mm base to fit in contact with those important models. Models can displace an unengaged Ringbearer, but an unengaged Ringbearer cannot displace other models. You don't want to trap your own models, but just having models take up space can keep a Ringbearer from sneaking in and ruining your day (even if it's not Isildur).

Another strategy for dealing with weak Ringbearers who intend to join another big hero (like a Gollum-Goblin King combo or an Old Bilbo-Glorfindel combo) is to charge the big hero who is counting on the help of a Ringbearer with two models - ideally two who can deal with the big hero on their own. Why two? Because models in MESBG break off into one-on-one fights where possible, a Ringbearer who tries to join the fight will have to fight alone against at least one model who he charged, leaving his big hero friend to fight at least one model on his own. In order for the Ringbearer to get into the fight, he'll need to call a Heroic Combat (which he might not be able to pull off) just to get into the fight - boom, Ringbearer problem solved. :)

If you're playing with an Evil force (specifically those from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book), bring a Ringwraith. Because the Ring doesn't help you when fighting a Ringwraith, doesn't protect you from magical powers from a Ringwraith, and doesn't make Ringwraiths spend Will points after they fight, a Ringbearer will be hard-pressed to get any benefits from the Ring - and Ringwraiths have benefits on their own, even if there isn't a Ringbearer on the other side of the board.

Whether you're running Good or Evil armies, in most cases, you should count on the Ringbearer failing his test for Sauron's Will to be controlled by his player - this may not happen very often, but it should happen at least once in a game. When it happens, move the Ringbearer to an exposed/innocuous position and capitalize on it as fast as you can. If you're lucky, they'll have to burn Might just to be under their player's control and that's useful. If you're very lucky, they'll be under your control for one or more turns and unable to further the goals of the opposing player. Sometimes your opponent will be good at rolling a 3+ - that does happen - but you SHOULD have the ability to exert some control over a Ringbearer. So when it comes, make the most of it.

Finally, consider running Sauron - I mean, he's the ultimate cheat-code when it comes to fighting Ringbearers who aren't also Sauron. If you've got the big man, you've got the Ring. Period. The end. And if your opponent was counting on Isildur doing lots of damage without needing to call Heroic Strike or having Bilbo sneak around to claim objectives and be where he wants to be . . . well, think again. With 18" range on Chill Soul, it's not hard for Sauron to bring the pain on whatever model was planning to be safe - and unlike all the other strategies listed above, this is the only guaranteed option for dealing with Ringbearers. It's also . . . well, it's an incredibly costly points investment and locks you out of most alliances (and all Legendary Legions). So . . . this may not be for everyone. :)

Conclusion

So that's it for our discussion on the Ring - the only change I'd make is for Samwise Gamgee to be able to pick it up if he's in the same army as Frodo (see my recent article on profile changes for more info on this). Besides that, the rules for the Ring are a bit complicated if you read them, but once you get to using the Ring, they're not so bad. This wraps up this next slew of "Back to Basics" posts - if you have other things you think we should cover, let us know in the comments below! We're changing gears next week with an article by Rythbyrt and then starting a new series on tackling the nastiest foes on the block - until then, happy hobbying!