Fantasy Fellowship Deep Dive, Part 6

Good morning gamers,

We come to it at last, the big battle of our time! Indeed, in Fantasy Fellowships, the saga of the siege of Gondor is actually split into four missions (all of which are found in Gondor at War and NOT in Quest of the Ringbearer). While our last segment focused on the journey of Frodo and Sam through the Dead Marshes, Ithilien, the pass of Cirith Ungol, and the plains of Gorgoroth, our journey today returns to the six other living Fellowship members and their part in the struggle at Minas Tirith. Let's dig into it!

Part 6: The Pelennor Sequence 

Photo Credit: Gondor at War

We're almost done with Fantasy Fellowships and this part, like Part 3 (the Amon Hen to Helm's Deep missions) basically has 1-2 missions for different groups of your Fellowships. As such, this is one of the few parts where your scenarios can be played out of order and everything is fine (just remember to play Atop the Walls before Denethor's Madness). Certain scenarios in Part 3 can be played out of order (whether you do Warg Attack before Ambush at Night doesn't actually matter) and you can play Eomer's Return from Part 4 before the other two scenarios if you want to (The Deeping Wall is Breached and Ride Out), but Part 6 is by far and away the most flexible - which is good if you need to juggle tables among several players. Our four scenarios are (mostly) filled with allies and we get to use the following models: 

• Merry (1 scenario) 
• Pippin (2 scenarios) 
• Aragorn (1 scenario) 
• Legolas (1 scenario) 
• Gimli (1 scenario) 
• Gandalf (2 scenarios) 
• ALLIES: 
• Irolas (1 scenario) 
• Beregond (2 scenarios) 
• Theoden with everything (1 scenario) 
• Eomer with everything (1 scenario) 
• Dernhelm (1 scenario) 
• Gamling with everything (1 scenario) 
• Deorwine (1 scenario, probably supposed to have a horse) 
• Elfhelm with everything (1 scenario) 
• Captain of Rohan on horse (1 scenario) 
• The King of the Dead (1 scenario) 
• 24 Warriors of Minas Tirith (standard gear) 
• 24 Riders of Rohan (1 scenario, standard gear) 
• 20 Warriors of the Dead (1 scenario, no war gear) 
• 6 Riders of the Dead (1 scenario) 

That's a lot of guys - most of the scenarios have 24+ warriors and all have 1+ allied heroes. The foes we'll be facing are (mostly) F3 warriors and F4 heroes (mostly without Heroic Strike): 

• Zagdush (1 scenario, F4 with Strike) 
• Gothmog (1 scenario, F5 with Strike) 
• Gothmog's Enforcer (1 scenario) 
• 2 Orc Captains with shields (1 scenario) 
• 3 Morannon Orc Captains with shields (1-2 scenarios) 
• Denethor (1 scenario, F5 without Strike) 
• Guritz (1 scenario) 
• 36 Orc Warriors (1 scenario, standard gear) 
• 36 Morannon Orcs (2 scenarios, standard gear) 
• 4 Citadel Guard (1 scenario, F4) 

Let's start with Merry: Merry will be fighting on the back of the Dernhelm model and will be surrounded by a bunch of other heroes. Together, they need to roll over a horde of Morannons and a few heroes, but since the "Charge of the Rohirrim" scenario special rule always gives them Priority, Evil is likely to be burning their Might for Heroic Moves to try to shut down your cavalry charges. This leads to the first rule of this scenario (and Merry in general): shoot to weaken the enemy (since your Riders of Rohan can all shoot and the Morannons can't shoot back) and then use your Might to call Heroic Moves. 

Good is trying to quarter the enemy and keep Gothmog from escaping the board edge - a mean opponent could just keep Gothmog touching the board edge (he's on foot, after all - no reason to have him exposed and killed) so that once the army breaks, he can just walk off, so determine whether you're okay with a draw (if Gothmog walks off) or if you want to Heroic Combat towards him with your heroes. Chances are good your opponent won't think of just making a concave crescent with his guys to hedge Gothmog in, but if he does, getting a draw is just fine in this scenario. 

Your Merry character just needs to kill warriors - and if he's a decent combat hero (like a member of Thorin's Company), dismount once you're near the enemy and have Eowyn fight on her own with her standard profile (which is still good) while you chop up warriors on foot. If you've followed the previous advice about having a F4/2A hero, you should be fine. All that said, the Dernhelm combined profile is really good - so WHEN you choose to dismount to split your dakka in two places is probably something to consider (if you do it at all). 

Photo Credit: Gondor at War

Now let's talk about Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli: like the Deeping Wall/Warg Attack scenarios, we have all three of these guys working alongside a good crew of allies (27 Dunharrow models) and we need to kill off 4 F4 Orc heroes and 36 F3 warriors. Since the Morannons will wound your Dunharrow models on a 6, the main thing is to make sure the Dead get to double-up in their fights and are within 6" of Aragorn (who counts as a banner) so they can win a decent number of fights. Aragorn is just trying to get up the board, but with the evil models not getting a reinforcement rule, you can probably chop a hole in the center and Heroic March Aragorn up (assuming he has Heroic March) so he can escape quickly. Sure, the enemy has Heroic Marches they can call as well, but if you get a good look (or maybe a Heroic Combat with Aragorn that slingshots him forward), you can probably get him away from the enemy and secure a win (or at least a draw) quickly. The draw is possible if two of the remaining three heroes are killed - so just make sure that doesn't happen. 

But this highlights two things about the heroes from this scenario: Aragorn benefits from getting free Heroic Combats or Heroic Marches and your Gimli slot only needs to have a hero that's "good enough" at killing and "good enough" at staying alive. Having a "great hero" in this slot is ultimately unnecessary since he'll be working with lots of allies and both your Aragorn/Legolas characters all the time. Having those two slots filled out with good heroes is far more important. Plus, if you're okay with a draw, you don't even need him to be that survivable - you just need him to contribute to chopping a hole through the enemy lines. 

Photo Credit: Gondor at War

Finally, let's talk about Pippin and Gandalf. In the last section, we emphasized that your Gandalf character needs to be able to do work - and that hasn't changed. The Eomer's Return scenario can be pretty tough, but these two are no easier. Your Gandalf character needs to survive for you to win the scenario - and since you need to kill 30 Orcs to win, it helps if he can kill stuff. Your Gandalf character will have 2-3 Attacks at this point in the campaign depending on who you picked (usually - Thranduil can have 4+ Attacks if you gave him the extra sword) and will count as a banner for friendly Gondor Warrior models within 12" of him on a turn in which he charges, so manage Gandalf's match-ups well.

Pippin, Irolas, and Beregond should do what they can to assist in these match-ups - the game doesn't have to take very long if your four heroes are putting up 1-2 kills each every turn. If you've taken a F4+/2A hero for your Pippin slot, you've got a good chance of killing at least one model each turn - and that means that with minimal contributions from the Warriors of Minas Tirith, you could end the game within 4-5 rounds. Pretty quick game on a pretty small board! 

The main thing to keep in mind is that you should burn through your resources with your Gandalf character. In an odd turn of events, you want your Pippin character to be deemed the Bravest Companion if possible, since your Gandalf character will be forced to have 1 Might/1 Will/1 Fate in the Denethor's Madness scenario (no matter what his resources would otherwise be).

Photo Credit: Gondor at War

Denethor's Madness is weird, since you have 8 turns to drag Faramir more than 1" away from the pyre. Faramir is a heavy object and so anyone dragging him is likely to be moving at half-speed (since you only have 3 models). Besides the limit to Gandalf's Might/Will/Fate (oh, and no Staff of Power if you're using one of the three wizards), Pippin begins as a passenger on Shadowfax (good for speed) and good models can't make shooting attacks or Strikes. What ISN'T prohibited in this limitation, however, is the use of magical powers, so you can actually kill the Citadel Guard with Sorcerous Blasts, Wraths of Bruinen, or channelled Nature's Wraths. If you took Celeborn, Thranduil, Gildor, Galadriel, or Cirdan, you don't have this option (though you might have other options). 

Your primary objective is going to be to tie up the Citadel Guard - which is actually quite difficult without the ability to deal wounds. Your Gandalf character (if unable to deal wounds with magic) will want to charge into two Citadel Guard each turn to get them on the ground - THAT will limit their movement/charging abilities so you can free up some space to draw Faramir off. Don't underestimate the power of a good Command spell (or Immobilizing someone in place if you don't have Command) to get some extra breathing room. 

Your Pippin character will want to Bash if possible - putting guys on the ground is the best way to free up room - and if you're able to race forward, knock someone over, then go dragging Faramir away from danger, you're in good shape. Once Faramir is off the pyre (which takes up the rest of one model's movement), the other models need to hedge around Faramir so he can be dragged several inches away. Once THAT happens, just keep battering guys to the ground and hold out for the remaining turns.

How Do Our Fellowships Compare?

We don't really have anything to strategically evaluate - our Gimli-slot characters are good and my Pippin character can Bash. As a matter of fact, our Pippin character choices are going to provide some very interesting choices to be made:

• Gorgoroth: Damrod is standing in as Pippin, but Denethor is in his Fellowship! Since he's elsewhere, Denethor will ACTUALLY be a Captain of Minas Tirith, making all of the enemy models in the scenario F4 (either tying or losing in FV to his other models).
• Centaur: Centaur has Beregond in his Pippin slot, which means instead of having Beregond as an ally, he'll have a Captain of Minas Tirith as an ally for Beregond and Gildor - this army could be Marching into the action very quickly and get past the guards pretty well (if the Captain shields).
• Tiberius: I must confess, I put Bifur in my Pippin spot strategically - I figured Bofur wouldn't mind riding with Eowyn and Bifur will make sure that I always move first in the Denethor's Madness scenario (since there's no Might on the other side of the board). Plus I can cast Sorcerous Blast once during the game (or risk channelling a Strengthen Will) to try to clear some of the Citadel Guards . . . lots of decisions here . . .

Conclusion

Well, we've been at this for months, but we're almost there - just one last scenario to review (and this one takes ALL DAY TO PLAY)! If you're enjoying this content, let us know below - I've had a blast playing through the Fantasy Fellowship scenarios so far and it's been good to actually walk through these scenarios as a culmination of the past few years of work. Until next time, happy hobbying!