The Board Is Set: How to Play Fog of War

Good morning gamers,

We're starting our last pool of scenarios for Matched Play (singles Matched Play, that is) and it's definitely one of my favorite pools. If I had to guess, it's a favorite pool for a lot of players, with lots of guessing and surprises that can make the games memorable. Of the three scenarios in this set, the scenario we're covering today was my favorite of the scenarios released in the MESBG revamp back in 2018 and it's always a joy to play: Fog of War.

Before we delve into the specifics, let's talk about the distinctives of this pool - especially in the context of the preceding five pools. If you've already read this part in a different post, you can skip it by clicking here.

Pool 6: Killing Enemy Heroes

We've seen four scenario pools that ultimately come down to being able to get somewhere (whether that's with maelstrom deployments in Pool 1, holding multiple objective markers in Pool 2, getting to different objects in Pool 3, or starting from a corner/walking onto a board in Pool 5). We've also seen one pool that's all about killing more of the enemy than you lose in Pool 4 (which could be limited to kills by your army leader or just mass killing with your army).

Pool 6 is more like Pool 4 in that it's about killing things - but how many enemy models total you kill is usually not weighted as strongly as being able to kill enemy heroes (either one specific hero or all enemy heroes). Since heroes are generally speaking better than warriors, killing enemy heroes in Pool 6 requires some planning in the list building stage in order to avoid a "no win" scenario.

Two of the three scenarios in Pool 6 involve secretly picking an enemy hero that you want to kill - and unless your opponent has exactly one hero in their force, you'll need to pick a hero who isn't the army leader. In the third scenario, you get VPs for having at least one hero alive but additional VPs if you have at least one hero alive and you killed more enemy heroes than your opponent killed (or all enemy heroes). Lists that are good at killing enemy heroes have an advantage in these scenarios.

This leads to my first conclusion about these scenarios: as fun as they are, these scenarios are not good at low points levels. If you're playing below 700pts, chances are good you might very well have 1-2 heroes in your army - and if you only have 1-2 heroes, then the hero your opponent is trying to kill is not going to be a surprise. If you're playing at 500pts and below, you could have a really, REALLY expensive Hero of Legend who is your only hero . . . and if that's the case, your opponent has to try to wound/kill this hero in order to score VPs . . . and this too is not going to be a surprise. If your objective as a Tournament Organizer is to avoid unfun match-ups, I'd highly recommend that this pool be avoided at points levels below 700, where most factions can get 3+ heroes (but more on this later in the strategy section).

The other thing to know about these scenarios is that most of the other points available to both players are tied to breaking the enemy without being broken. In the scenarios in this pool, anywhere from 6-12 VPs (or half-to-all) are tied to wounding/killing a specific hero, wounding/killing the enemy army leader, or breaking the enemy without being broken - so in some respects, killing enemy models is even more important in this scenario than in the Pool 4 scenarios. While there can be other factors in play, you need to be able to kill both heroes and warriors in order to do well in these scenarios.

Finally, Pool 6 involves a lot of cunning - players have to secretly select heroes to kill (and in one of those, a hero to keep alive) and this is done after deployment but before the first turn. The secrecy of these objectives not only makes the game fun (since you don't know if a hero that you wounded was the hero your opponent was trying to keep safe - and your opponent doesn't know if the hero you just wounded was the hero you were trying to kill). The scenarios are great - and this pool is often one of the most loved scenario pools in the game. While there are certainly places for strategy once you're at the table, there are also a LOT of strategic choices that can be made in the list building stage of the game (which we'll talk about in the strategies section).

Okay, with this as a general back drop, let's talk about one of my favorite scenarios in the game: Fog of War . . .

Fog of War

When Fog of War was released during the MESBG revamp, I know I wasn't the only player to be like, "Yep, this is my favorite scenario." Since that time, I've gravitated more to Pool 2 than Pool 6, but if there was any pool that was a close second, it'd be Pool 6 - and mostly because of Fog of War. There are four scoring categories in this scenario and basically any list archetype can play this scenario well (though some lists might find it easier to play against some archetypes more than others).

The only non-secret part of the scoring is simple: both players can score 1-3 VPs for breaking the enemy without being broken (or more appropriately, one player can score 3 VPs for breaking the other without being broken or both players can score 0 or 1 VP by not breaking the other player or if both players break each other). If you brought a killing army, you'll be rewarded - and if you can kill the enemy army and not be slaughtered in return, you can get an edge over your opponent (or make up for a mistake you make in any of the other scoring categories).

There are three secret objectives that make up the rest of the available VPs: each player will pick a) a friendly hero who isn't their army leader if there are 2+ friendly heroes that they want to keep unwounded (3 VPs) or alive but wounded (1 VP), b) an enemy hero who isn't their opponent's army leader if there are 2+ enemy heroes that they want to wound (1 VP) or kill (3 VPs), and c) pick a terrain piece on your opponent's side of the board that you want to have more models (1 VP) or double the enemy models (3 VPs) touching the terrain piece.

With three secret objectives (each worth 1-3 VPs) and one known objective (worth 1-3 VPs), there's quite a few ways this game can score - and lots of ways that this scenario can take a sudden turn for the worst. But there are also lots of tricks you can play in order to confuse your opponent's perception of your plans. Probably the easiest way to do this is with the terrain piece you're trying to control: if you race a few models towards a single terrain piece, your opponent is likely to think, "That's the terrain piece he's going for." And your opponent might be right.

However, if you have two or more groups of models racing for terrain pieces in different parts of the board, your opponent has to make a decision about chasing ALL of your models to ground or letting some of them go . . . and if the models who are going for your ACTUAL objective make it through unscathed to the end of the game, you've gotten some solid VPs.

There are fewer shenanigans that can be played with your selection of heroes - but my general rule for picking heroes to protect and to kill goes like this:

Choose a hero to protect that you already needed to protect; choose a hero to kill that you already need to kill.

Perhaps this is a bit elementary, but there it is - if you take a hero like Cirdan or Frodo of the Nine Fingers who's providing you with some good auric value and your army will suffer if they die . . . choose to protect that guy . . . and then protect the heck out of that guy. If your opponent has a killing hero like Mauhur, Gorbag, or Zagdush who isn't the enemy army leader . . . choose to kill that guy. I mean, any of these heroes are going to come right for you - and if your opponent doesn't send them in to fight out of fear that they're your target, you've been spared having to fight a killing hero - shoot at that hero if you can and otherwise just focus on killing the enemy army.

Deployment for this scenario is within 12" of your board edge, so both armies have some space they need to cross to get to each other - and this also means that shooting armies can get some kills in (hopefully) before the melee begins, which can help to not only breaking the enemy faster, but it could also mean scoring a wound on one or several heroes to score a quick VP or scare your opponent into holding a hero back because that might be your target . . . do you see some sneaking options here?

I love this scenario and there are lots of strategies you can use to play it. Here are a few - we'll start with one of the most sneaky ones . . .

Strategy #1: One Big Hero (or One Kinda Small Hero)

As I mentioned at the beginning in the general commentary on Pool 6, low point levels can absolutely ruin the surprise in a game of Fog of War. However, with certain army builds, you can actually get a single hero in your army at higher points levels. Let's walk through some examples and see how this strategy works.

Our first stop is a common problem for anyone who's running a 700-point tournament: someone brings just Smaug. Smaug is a super powerful hero who costs exactly 700 points - and if you're playing Fog of War with Smaug, your opponent will have to wound Smaug to get 1 VP and kill Smaug to get 3 VPs because you don't have any other heroes to choose. Additionally, your opponent can't score any VPs for breaking you unless he kills Smaug . . . so half of his available VPs are tied to dealing with Smaug - and the other half will be dependent on keeping his most vulnerable hero alive (because you can choose whoever you want - and probably reach whoever you want with fly/fire/Compel/Barge) and keep a cluster of units alive while sitting on an objective. The latter is probably pretty easy - but if the max VPs your opponent can score is 6 VPs and you can get that much by breaking the enemy and killing one hero . . . I mean, that seems like an uphill battle to me.

But if we back away from Smaug and go to other big heroes (like the Balrog in the Depths of Moria Legendary Legion or the Dark Lord Sauron in the Barad-Dur army list), it's entirely possible that you could still have only one hero, and if that's the case, our opponent has to kill that hero to get 3VPs - and in these two specific cases, both heroes will need to suffer half their wounds in order for their armies to break normally. Since Sauron, 10 Morgul Knights, and 10 Black Numenoreans (one with a banner) costs 695 points and the Balrog, 3 Cave Trolls, 1 drum, and 7 Goblins costs 700 points, running a single big hero at 700pts - even without Smaug - might be difficult, but it's certainly possible for a select few armies.

The strategy remains the same for these more traditional (but still pretty unconventional) forces: use your big hero to smash up the enemy force and happen to kill one vulnerable hero (with the hero or the rest of your army). If you don't cough up max VPs for your army leader or breaking, your opponent has to work hard to do the other two things (keeping a vulnerable hero - and that targeted hero might not even be a given - from being wounded and getting double the enemy models on a terrain piece). If you can harass the enemy hero and break the enemy (and use those grunts to take out any stragglers who are running for objectives), you're in a good place.

Finally, there are some lists that can run leaderless warbands and a single hero - the Dead of Dunharrow, the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood, the Wildmen of Druadan, and Sharkey's Rogues if they don't take Sharkey and Worm (this is not an option for the Chief's Ruffians LL). If you're running one of these lists, your hero to keep alive and your opponent's hero to wound/kill are going to be the same - and if you're running the Spider Queen, you can kind of do what Smaug/Sauron/the Balrog do, but you're a lot more vulnerable due to having lower defense, generally worse combat stats, and no Fate points (though to be fair, these other guys don't have Fate in a traditional sense either . . . they just don't take damage that easily AND they can take damage for days).

If you're running one of these lists, keeping that one hero out of danger (which could mean out of combat - but could also mean in very, VERY managed fights) secures you 3 VPs - and if you have a super horde from Druadan or Sharkey's Rogues, you very well might not have enough time to be broken by the enemy. If you can get enough killing in, get a few models around to a terrain piece (the Riders of the Dead and Spiders/Bats/Wargs have an easier time of this than the Woses/Ruffians do), and deny your opponent the ability to outnumber you on any terrain pieces . . . I mean, you could win in a much less oppressive (but not any less strategic) way.

But few - very few - armies can play this way (at high points levels, that is - lots of armies can do this at low points levels). If you're running a more traditional army that's got 2-4 heroes in it, you might want to consider . . .

Strategy #2: Puny Hero + Big Army Leader

This is one of very few scenarios where wounding or killing the army leader isn't worth any VPs. As a result, any list that has a big army leader (Aragorn, Azog, Gil-Galad, Sauron, the Balrog, Helm Hammerhand, Gwaihir - you get the picture) is going to have complete impunity to drop their big, expensive beatstick right in the middle of the enemy and not have to worry about VPs being coughed up. These beatstick heroes become your primary tool for killing enemy heroes - or just breaking the enemy - while some lowly hero is kept in the back to "just stay alive."

There are TONS of heroes who are good for "just staying alive" - but I'll use four as examples of how to do this. The first (and one of my least favorite heroes to fight) is the Goblin Scribe. If you're fighting Goblin-town, the Goblin Scribe is probably on the board - his ability to bring new models onto the battlefield is just too powerful in most scenario pools to pass up! Since he doesn't have to see anyone or be close to anyone, he's usually tucked away in a safe spot on the board. Unless you can break the Goblin-town horde, this guy is not going anywhere . . . 3 VPs in the bag unless you've got some shenanigans to play.

The second hero you could choose is the White Warg if you're running Azog - yes, the White Warg and Azog count as a single model, but the White Warg is also a Hero of Fortitude, which means he can be chosen to be the hero you protect in Fog of War . . . and while Azog might be smashing through things, your opponent is probably going to forget that the White Warg is even an option for you to pick (and he might be trying to stay away from Azog in the first place). If you can get Azog into combat quickly (and keep him shielded from arrows on his approach), chances are good that the White Warg will arrive alive and stick around until the end of the game. If you race Azog off to claim a terrain piece, it's entirely possible that your opponent will say, "Fine, have it!" By doing so, you score 6 VPs . . . I'd take that. There is more danger of the White Warg taking damage than the Goblin Scribe (unless your opponent can break away and attack the Scribe), but it's still a solid option. Similarly, you could pick Merry or Pippin sitting on Treebeard's shoulder, Merry riding with Eowyn as part of the Dernhelm profile, or even a Mumak Commander who's safely in a howdah - all of these guys might be easily forgotten or dismissed by your opponent as "unreachable".

Third, there are lots of low-cost archer heroes available to Minas Tirith. Damrod, Beregond, Anborn, and Mablung are 25-35 points each and can contribute to the kill counts of their army with their bows, all while staying safely out of the way of harm. In the case of Mablung, he's probably also joined by some Rangers - or even a Bolt Thrower - and Beregond's Bodyguard rule might mean that he's immune from fleeing the field should your army break (and your army leader still be alive). Similar things can be done with Aldor in a Rohan list, a Hobbit Ringbearer, or Narzug in an Azog's Hunters list.

Our final choice is the siege veteran of a siege engine. Siege engines have to be deployed within 6" of your board edge, which means the rest of your army will be able to screen that hero and his crew from harm . . . in all my years of playing this game, getting to siege veterans in Fog of War is one of the hardest things for most armies to do. So . . . if you have a siege veteran, pick him.

There's one final strategy I wanted to highlight - and it can actually be done in tandem with either of these other two strategies . . .

Strategy #3: Pick Three

This scenario has four scoring areas - and some armies will be able to score in all four of them. Chances are good, however, that you might only be able to do three. And that's okay. If you've got a slow infantry army, you may not be able to get any models to an enemy terrain piece - and that's fine (though picking a terrain piece that's just across the centerline would be better than choosing something far, far away). If you only have two heroes and think that your non-army leader will die . . . that's fine. If you aren't sure that you can kill any of the enemy heroes (or the enemy's only hero) . . . that's fine. If you don't think you can break that superhorde before they run you over . . . that's fine. If any one of these situations is true for you, everything can be just fine . . . but you don't want to have all four of these situations be, "I can't do that."

Part of the reason why the Smaug/Sauron/Balrog scenarios in Strategy #1 work so well is because they deny the opponent the ability to get 9 VPs. If you have a beatstick army that can break the enemy without being broken, keep a hero alive, and kill an enemy hero who needs to be fighting, you can win the game on 9 VPs (because your opponent will only have 9 VPs to play for if you broke him without being broken). If you get 7 VPs for both armies breaking, killing a hero, and keeping your guy unwounded, your opponent will need to kill your guy, keep some hero unwounded, AND get to an objective piece . . . that might not be possible. Shooting for 7-9 (with some of those VPs being tied to sitting with a heap of guys in one place or breaking the enemy without being broken) is pretty reasonable for most armies to try to do. You might show up against a skew list that makes getting 7-9 VPs hard, but even if you're facing a Sauron list, you just need to focus on what you have to do (in this case, wound Sauron 3 times and kill 11 warriors).

This strategy is a good starter plan, but adapting which objectives you plan to go for should be a fluid thing. If you can get VPs from all four categories, go for them - but don't stretch yourself too thin trying to go for all four when going for three will lead to a more secure path to victory.

Conclusion

Fog of War is a great scenario - and lots of people like it. Next time, we'll continue the game of bluff (or not-bluff, depending on your army list construction) by looking at Assassination. I also love this scenario - and like Fog of War, there are some interesting shenanigans you can do with it. If you have thoughts on how to play Fog of War, let us know what they are in the comments below! Until next time, happy hobbying!