The New Age Is Begun: The Fellowship Army List

Good morning gamers,

In case you're new here, the TMAT team loves to do list-building. Back in October 2018, I embarked on a "first impressions" series to evaluate the factions from the revamped Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game (aka, the previous edition - and hereafter MESBG). In July 2019, Rythbyrt began his Armies of Middle-Earth series, walking through many of the factions in MESBG. In January 2020, I started my "Bare Necessities" series, which walked through how to build balanced lists that optimized for possible VP scoring with each faction in the game. In 2021, I started our "Stuff of Legends" series, where we walked through most of the Legendary Legions that were released in the various sourcebooks (we're getting the last few out this year, despite a new edition eclipsing our timeline).

So naturally, when the new edition of MESBG dropped last December, I started planning out the next series of list-building reviews by "faction" (or more appropriately, "army list") and so begins a new series specific to the 2024 revamp of MESBG. I've entitled it "The New Age Is Begun," which comes from a line in the Return of the King, where Aragorn is talking with Gandalf about rebuilding Middle-Earth after the defeat of Sauron. While overlooking the realm of Gondor, Gandalf says,

This is your realm, and the heart of the greater realm that shall be. The Third Age of the world is ended, and the new age is begun; and it is your task to order its beginning and to preserve what may be preserved. For though much has been saved, much must now pass away . . .

The new edition does feel like the older edition, but it also feels new (and some things have been lost), so the quote above seemed to be a fair summation of where we're at. In this series, I'll be walking through the various army lists that are now available to us (roping in my fellow admins to weigh in on their favorites) and talking not only about how the list works, but also how it's changed from the previous edition of MESBG. We start off where it all began for me: with the Fellowship of the Ring.

I covered the Fellowship of the Ring previously in a tandem Bare Necessities post with Thorin's Company back in April 2020 and Rythbyrt covered them in the Armies of Middle-Earth series WAY back in July 2019 (basically when he started the series). Despite their ages, both articles aged well with very little changes that affected them since their writing (which is also a bit of an indictment, but whatever - we're in a new age right now, remember?). I got my start with the Fellowship back when I started playing SBG in September 2010, so these guys have always been near and dear to me. Let's see what they're up to and how the list has changed . . .

The Fellowship of the Ring: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

In the previous edition, the original listing of the Fellowship of the Ring contained eleven models: the nine proper Fellowship members, Bill the Pony (who required you to bring Sam along), and Smeagol (who required you to bring Frodo along - and did some weird things with the warband rules if you brought anyone other than him, Frodo, and Sam along). In a later errata, Arwen was added to the list, so long as you included Aragorn in your list.

This army list is focused on the Fellowship of the Ring as it leaves Rivendell and heads for Moria, though the "start" of the Fellowship list is unclear to me. Most of the members of the Fellowship appear as you would expect when leaving Rivendell in the film - Frodo can take the Mithril Coat and Sting, Aragorn can take his bow (but not the armor, Brego, or Anduril that he acquires later in his journey), and Boromir can take his shield. But Boromir can also take a horse, which I assume reflects the fact that he was riding a horse when he arrived in Rivendell . . . but so was Legolas? The only explanation I have for the inclusion of Boromir's horse and the exclusion of Legolas's horse is that the mounted Boromir of Gondor model is clearly him on his horse in Rivendell, while the mounted Legolas model is him on Arod in Rohan . . . so yeah, that's what I'm sticking with.

Whatever the reason, the Fellowship has lost its other equipment choices - Gandalf has no mount options, Aragorn's upgrades have been heavily streamlined, and everyone has lost access to their Elven cloaks. The list is also missing Smeagol (he's limited to working with Frodo and Sam in the Garrison of Osgiliath army list - more on that in a future post) and Arwen (who is available to run with Aragorn and the Hobbits in the Road to Rivendell army list - more on that too in a future post). The ten profiles will net you a max cost of 815 points, which means you can run the full Fellowship in an 800-point game if you leave Boromir's horse at home (5pt handicap for your opponent) or if you leave the Mithril Coat at home (which is probably the better plan). Technically, you could leave Pippin at home (he's very situationally worse than Merry - more on that in a minute) along with either Aragorn's bow or Sting and still get to 800pts, but I'm not sure this is better than leaving the Mithril Coat at home (but it's an option and to each his own).

Army List Bonuses

The previous Fellowship army bonus was good, but also completely irrelevant if you allied with anyone. If your list only contained models from the Fellowship, you wouldn't count as being broken if Frodo was alive - this was a very thematic rule that could also save your bacon in a tough match-up that involved a lot of killing and not a lot of hope. If you allied historically with Rivendell/Lothlorien/The Misty Mountains or ran the Fellowship pure, all members of the Fellowship got the Fearless special rule, which was really helpful for keeping the Hobbits on the board when things got tough, but as allies, you'd be providing Stand Fasts for C5+ Elves or C6 Eagles . . . so functionally it didn't matter that much (just kept you from failing an embarrassingly easy Courage test).

The new army bonus for the Fellowship of the Ring preserves both of these rules - The "You Have My Sword" rule gives everyone Fearless and keeps you from being broken if Frodo is alive and on the board/escaped off the board in Reconnoitre. Making sure you don't have to worry about passing Courage tests and denying breaking VPs is huge for this list and I'm glad they both carried over to the new edition.

Additionally, the Fellowship picked up two new rules - "The Bond of Fellowship" allows friendly models within 3" of another friendly Fellowship model to re-roll a single failed To Wound roll when making Strikes, which is good because any failure to kill something is going to be helpful when you're outnumbered. While there isn't a "count as being in range of a banner" rule like the Breaking of the Fellowship LL had in the previous edition (more on this revamped army list later in this series), rerolling To Wound rolls is much more useful because you have easy access to Bill in this list (who counts as a banner - more on this next) and rerolling To Wound rolls is something you didn't have before. All in all, this is a really good addition!

The other army list rule is "Traverse the Wilderness", which gives everyone the Woodland Creature and Mountain Dweller special rules, which means you can move through various kinds of difficult terrain without penalty, but can also reroll your Jump, Leap, and Climb tests . . . situationally quite useful all around - we will take it for free happily. :)

Like it did before, the Fellowship will deploy as a single warband, which is great in the current set of six scenarios - though you will telegraph to your opponent where your army is going to be after your first deployment opportunity. It is what it is - and honestly, it isn't that bad.

Profile Adjustments

The profiles have all gone under the knife - mostly in very good ways. I will direct your attention to some wish-listing I did for profiles generally in 2023 and the Fellowship in particular in 2024 before the new edition dropped and simply point out that they basically read my mind and gave me the changes I wanted. Here's the top-level overview by character:

• Frodo's cost went down by 5pts - though not exactly what I asked for, he was (and still slightly is) too expensive for the F3/S2/1A profile that he has. Yes, he has the One Ring, but since you can't halve Fight Values with it if you have a high-Fight friend in the same fight anymore, the Ring isn't quite what it used to be. Still, a F3 model effectively becomes a F5-6 model with the Ring on against an unsupported foe, so that's something, I guess (and a F5-6 model with Heroic Defense and a lot of Fate points shouldn't be underestimated). Otherwise, Frodo is the same Hobbit he always was (just a little cheaper).
• Sam got his Frying Pan (which I thought should give him the old Stun rules, but now does something very similar). His "Longshanks" rule is about the same as it used to be (6" radius now). He also got upgraded to having 2 Attacks, which is awesome for actually getting your Longshanks Heroic Combat to work (and hopefully this is a preview for Samwise the Brave in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement - golly, that list could do with a few more 2-Attack heroes in it). All in all, a much better profile for 40pts (though the F3/S2 is still a bit of a let-down - but I won't complain).
• Merry and Pippin got an extra Fate point each for free and Merry has a slightly better Intelligence characteristics (Pippin apparently doesn't fall into the category of "people of intelligence on this sort of mission . . . quest . . . thing . . ."). I love this change and having 2 Fate each is particularly useful in keeping them alive (which you really want to do - they're very much the weak-link in the chain). I would have very much liked if their throwing stones were a bit more potent (or if they could move-and-shoot, like some other army lists allow), but I'll take extra Fate points.
• Gandalf got an extra Attack and a greatly adjusted Spell suite - he lost Command, gained Foil Magic (5+), got a reduced difficulty on Protection of the Valar (3+), got an increased difficulty on basically everything else (Terrifying Aura on a 3+, Blinding Light on a 4+, Transfix on a 4+), got increased range on Collapse Rocks (12" range instead of 6" range), and still casts Strengthen Will on a 4+/Sorcerous Blast on a 5+ (though Strengthen Will has done the pendulum swing again and can't be used to give you more Will than you started with - it changes with each edition, it would seem). Without an increase in cost, the boost to 2 Attacks is a really good change and the adjusted spell suite still looks good - he's still going to be starting with Terrifying Aura, doing Transfix for the most part once battle is joined, occasionally doing Blinding Light now that it isn't permanent, and on very select occasions, he might throw a Sorcerous Blast out there (Heroic Channelling, anyone?). I'm happy with the change (and REALLY happy with what's happened with Gandalf the White, but more on him in a later post).
• Aragorn saw . . . a lot of changes. First and foremost, I asked TWICE (and many times via email) for Aragorn's sword to become a hand-and-a-half sword and by golly they did it. :) Aragorn also got the boost to F7, has the Ring of Barahir now for some added magical resiliency, added Resistant to Magic for even MORE magical resiliency to his already impressive set of special rules, and (wait for it) didn't increase in price at all . . . take Aragorn, everyone, take Aragorn . . .
• Legolas got a 2+ shoot value (so he's gonna be hitting a lot - as usual), he ignores the moving-and-shooting penalty while he's got the Infantry keyword (that's . . . really cool), he can shoot while Engaged in Combat (up to three times - including shooting at the guys that he's Engaged with . . . also very cool), and his Final Count rule got changed to boosting his To Wound roll while Gimli is ahead on the kill count, which is WAY better than boosting his To Hit roll in the previous edition. It's arguable that his Pinpoint Shot is less powerful than it used to be, since he doesn't Hit on a 2+ into Blinding Light anymore (but will still pass any in-the-way tests he needs to take if he passes the To Hit roll). This applies to a single-shot only, not to his usual three shots . . . thank goodness. Take Legolas, everyone, take Legolas . . .
• Boromir's horse got more expensive (20pts), he got a boost to Fight 7 (which I'm fine with, but it also might not matter if he's fighting low-Courage units), and picked up a new special rule (Protect the Little Ones) that allows him to reroll failed To Wound rolls when he's within 3" of a friendly Hobbit model. This not only makes him an excellent companion for Sam's free Heroic Combats, but also means that fighting alongside Merry and Pippin (who might leach a Might point here or there to stay alive) benefits him as well. While I'm partial to my recommended change of boosting his Fight Value and giving him free Heroic Combats when near Merry and Pippin in particular (or never losing his Control Zone), I basically got what I wanted from him, so I'm happy. He's still D6 with the shield and he's only got 1 Will point with no other way of neutralizing magic, but now that the Horn of Gondor counts as a war horn (which means he gains Dominant (2) in addition to boosting the Courage of his friends within 24"), Boromir is an insanely good deal. Take Boromir, everyone, take Boromir . . .
• Gimli is basically unchanged, but got a third Fate point (which is helpful) and still boasts a very strong profile. Like Legolas, he avoided a price-hike, which is also really good. He's the hard-hitting melee tank that we know and love . . . but at the same time, with all of the improvements to Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, and Gandalf (to say nothing of Sam), having basically the same Gimli profile does feel a bit like someone got left behind . . . must be his short legs or something. Still, a third Fate point on a high-Defense model in an era where Piercing Strike isn't a thing is most welcome.
• Bill has always been the secret weapon of the Fellowship and in this edition, he got a second Fate point, counts as a banner for everyone nearby including himself (instead of just Hobbits - who, in truth, were and are the ones who needed his banner the most), and picked up the Fearful rule, which doesn't matter in this list because he's Fearless. He also can't pick up objectives because he's got the Beast keyword, but frankly, I think you're better off having someone else pick-up objects. Bill's 40mm base makes him the perfect choice for taking up space, protecting flanks, and keeping Legolas from being overwhelmed (both Legolas and Gandalf benefit greatly from Bill's Second Breakfasts and would certainly welcome some screening once melee is joined). He's also a great way for getting Will points back on Boromir (though the banner reroll might be unnecessary if your Horn of Gondor is seeing lots of good use). All in all, Bill's price stayed the same and he's able to do a lot for your team. If you can . . . take Bill (especially since you no longer have the Samwise tax).

With these updates to the army rules, profile options, and profile rules out of the way, let's look at what the Fellowship does well and where they're going to struggle a bit . . .

The Fellowship of the Ring: Strengths and Weaknesses

The Fellowship is - and always has been - a collection of heroes and in this iteration of the game, the heroes from the Fellowship feel like the power-heroes you'd expect to represent the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth at the end of the Third Age. With half of their roster being Hobbits and a pony, you get an even grouping of "really good, beater heroes" and "guys to sit on objectives," but with some of the changes that have been made to the army list bonuses (and the profiles of the units), there's plenty of reason to have at least a few of those Hobbits (and definitely the pony) near your beaters.

The biggest weakness of the Fellowship is - and has always been - that it has a small roster. This is even more true now that allying with other factions (especially Rivendell and Lothlorien - but also Rohan/Minas Tirith, if you didn't mind losing your army bonuses) is no longer a thing. The limited number of models means that controlling places on the map is going to be harder, though your army general receiving Dominant (3) and Boromir receiving Dominant (2) is a nice help to this list, as is the potential resilience of your heroes (mostly by just not losing fights).

One of the other strengths of this list is that it has so many Might points. At full strength, the list has 22 Might points in it, without counting the free Might point each turn that Aragorn can spend with Mighty Hero, free Heroic Combats from Sam if Frodo is fighting nearby, and the regeneration of previously spent Might points from Bill's Second Breakfast rule. Like most all-hero lists, you have plenty of Might, which means you can win a lot of fights and kill a lot of dudes.

There are some strengths mixed with weaknesses as well - the list has limited access to "fast" units (Boromir if he's mounted and Bill) but also gets free Heroic Marches with Aragorn (if Mighty Hero is used for Marches). 7" move Hobbits are good, but they're also not going to move THAT much faster than normal people (and you definitely don't want these guys falling behind). So they're fast, yes, but they're also not fast.

Similarly, the list has some very strong redundancies baked into their list - Fearless is a great counter for fighting Terror lists, Legolas and to a lesser extent Aragorn/Gimli/Gandalf/the Hobbits provide you with extensive access to shooting, Gandalf can choose not to "shoot" in order to make hitting you more difficult with Blinding Light (though it's not nearly the all-but-guaranteed proposition it used to be), and you've got many combat threats who can get good use out of cascading Heroic Combats (and Legolas can even dive-bomb into a bunch of people, get surrounded, and potentially ease his distress by shooting at the people he's fighting). 

There's a lot going for this list, but there is a limit to their redundancies working. Yes, you can ignore Terror . . . so long as Frodo is with you (which is not a given until you hit ~550pts). Yes, you can reduce the archery that's coming your way . . . so long as you have Gandalf (there's no cheap option of buying Elven cloaks in this list). Yes, you can beat your way through a lot of things, assuming that there isn't an oppressive magic team trying to wreck your day (*mutters something about a cart*). The redundancies are good, but they won't always work - and most of them are going to be tied in some way to Might points still being on the board. Once you run out of those . . . well, you're in the hands of the dice gods.

The Fellowship of the Ring: Strategies for the Tabletop

As has always been the case (or is generally always the case), the Fellowship wants to stay together - don't split the party. This is particularly true now that each member of the Fellowship can reroll a failed To Wound roll if they're within 3" of a friendly model ("side-by-side with a friend", as it were). You can probably distance yourself from Merry and Pippin if you need to hold an objective in Domination (and Legolas can hide with Bill on another if you really need it), but the mass of your army should stick together as much as possible. 

The adjustments to the available scenarios encourages this - To The Death can be won simply by keeping Frodo alive and breaking your opponent (and killing any banners that are larking about on the other side - Bill doesn't count for VPs, sadly), Fog of War can be won by keeping Frodo unwounded with all his Fate and killing an enemy hero/breaking your opponent, Hold Ground rewards you for being in the middle with everyone, Reconnoitre works well if your entire army can surge up the board and control the middle of the board. Only Domination and Destroy the Supplies really reward spreading out (Reconnoitre a little bit, too) - and with these, you can probably drop a few models (Legolas and Bill, Merry and Pippin) to defend key spots while the rest of your army rams into the parts of the board that will get you lots of points. On the whole, though, most of your army or all of your army is going to be together - and they're better if they do that.

Second, you want to be able to soften up the enemy a bit with your shooting - but you can't shoot all day. Aragorn, Gandalf, and Gimli might have shooting options available to them (Gimli at very close range, Aragorn at longer range, Gandalf in the middle), but they're all going to be more effective if they're fighting in melee. Since the design team did not see fit to make Merry and Pippin better shooters, all four Hobbits are in the position of being able to shoot, but not being able to do reliable damage while shooting. Don't get me wrong - I lost plenty of models to Hobbit stones in our recent Scouring of the Shire campaign walk-through, but in general, Hobbit shooting is most effective when there are lots of bows and LOTS of stones being thrown . . . three shots from Legolas, one shot from Aragorn, potentially more damage from Gandalf and Gimli, and a few stones from Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are not the same thing. Also, Legolas can shoot in combat against the models he's Engaged with three times OR one model Engaged with someone else . . . so that's a thing and yet another reason for you to not sit back and shoot unless the scenario encourages it.

Whether it's by shooting or fighting in combat, you DEFINITELY want to prioritize killing enemy banners. Like in the previous edition of the game, you don't have any units that will give you VPs for having a banner alive at the end of the game - and this means, among other things, that killing any enemy banners that show up to play is essential. Yes, Legolas might be your man here, but in other situations, you'll need to brawl your way into the enemy banner - something that Aragorn, Boromir, and Gimli (with so-so capabilities from Legolas, Gandalf, and Sam as well) do very well. If your scenario rewards players for having a banner, head-hunting that banner is going to be essential - just make sure Frodo is safe while you do it.

Finally, while you can certainly hide him, the safest place for Frodo is probably wherever your big fighters are. Boromir gets to re-roll all failed To Wound rolls if Frodo (or any other Hobbits) are nearby - so having Frodo around is good. Sam can get free Heroic Combats for himself and maybe others if Frodo is nearby and fighting - so having Frodo around is good. Any Fellowship member near Frodo gets a single re-roll To Wound, which is good on all of them - especially Merry, Pippin, and Bill (and if anyone is near him, Frodo benefits greatly from a reroll as well). If Frodo gets surrounded, Legolas can shoot into Frodo's fight without having to roll for in-the-ways, which is awesome and really, REALLY good (and Sam might be able to power through to him as well). With lots of Might on Boromir and Aragorn and a decent amount of Might on Gimli, you can use Heroic Combats to clear some breathing room for your team and keep your opponent struggling to get to gang up on your most important piece.

Sample Lists

Our first stop is a 500-point list, which is (I think) the lowest you'd want to play this list. Yes, you can go lower, but the changes to Legolas, Aragorn, and Boromir are so good that I think you want all three of them (and Gimli, if you can fit him). At 500-points, however, we can get a 7-model list with Frodo, Sam, and Merry representing the Hobbits, Aragorn and Boromir representing men, and Legolas representing the Elves. Bill the Pony rounds out the list and we're leaving Gandalf, Gimli, and Pippin at home:

• Aragorn - Strider with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• Boromir of Gondor with shield
• Legolas Greenleaf
• Frodo Baggins with Sting
• Samwise Gamgee
• Meriadoc Brandybuck
• Bill the Pony

500pts, 7 models, 1 D6+ model, 1 fast model + free Heroic March, 16+ Might points

This list could have been really similar to the Breaking of the Fellowship list choices in the previous edition (leave your choice of Boromir or Gimli at home), but since we have a Breaking of the Fellowship army list coming up next in this series (and there are some VERY good changes to that list), I figured that we should take advantage of Bill in the list while we had him. 

We could have also taken Gandalf, but even with 2 Attacks now instead of 1 Attack, an unmounted Gandalf is going to struggle to kill enough stuff - and we'd need to drop Legolas or Boromir and Frodo (and probably Merry too) in order to get him into the list (that or drop Aragorn and Merry . . . which we're just not doing). I have chosen to NOT take the Mithril Coat on Frodo, counting on Heroic Defense, the Ring in a pinch, and heroic actions from his friends to keep Frodo safe. You could drop Merry and Aragorn's bow to get the Mithril Coat if you want (or swap Bill for Pippin), but I think this will work out better than either of those options.

Gandalf is good at higher points levels, which includes this 700-point list:

• Gandalf the Grey [ARMY LEADER]
• Aragorn - Strider
• Boromir of Gondor with shield
• Legolas Greenleaf
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Frodo Baggins with Sting
• Meriadoc Brandybuck

700pts, 7 models, 2 D6+ model, no fast models but free Heroic March, 20+ Might points

We don't have Bill in this list, but taking Gandalf requires a few sacrifices (like basically ALL of our Hobbits). The list is punchy, though, with Frodo able to float safely behind our five "big heroes" and Merry to do objective stuff (or he and Frodo can swap places - we don't have Sam in this list, so Frodo can hide with Legolas if he wants). Boromir needs to be near either Frodo or Merry to get maximum use of his new rules, so I wouldn't hide both of them.

Taking Gandalf hasn't increased our model count at all, but he has increased our tool kit options - most notably, we have the ability to reduce enemy archery near him, protect key units from magical assaults (hey, Boromir!), remove negative magical effects with Foil Magic, neuter big heroes with Transfix (sort of unreliably unless we're using 2 Will), or deal with a critical threat by channelling Sorcerous Blast. All in all, we've got options - but more on this topic when we revisit magic in MESBG.

Our final list is an 800-point list that features, well, everyone - and I've opted for a 5pt bid instead of leaving the Mithril Coat at home:

• Gandalf the Grey [ARMY LEADER]
• Aragorn - Strider with bow
• Boromir of Gondor with shield
• Legolas Greenleaf
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Frodo Baggins with Sting and the Mithril Coat
• Samwise Gamgee
• Meriadoc Brandybuck
• Peregrin Took
• Bill the Pony

795pts, 10 models, 1 D6 model, 1 fast model + free Heroic March, 22+ Might points

Call all the heroics, stay together, pick the enemy apart, and have a good time - this is an 800-point list that is to be reckoned with in many scenarios (especially if you use your long-range shooting to clear off lonely models)! It'll also be very thematic and fun, which is a nice bonus.

Conclusion

This list feels very much like the Fellowship of the Ring in Moria (or in the book when they're wandering through Eregion on their way to Caradhras) - it's a fun list and seems decently competitive with the current reduced set of scenarios. I'm keen to give it a try and it's one of those lists that you can field at a 750-point event with a $50-60 purchase - that's not bad for wargaming. Next time, we'll be looking at the OTHER Fellowship-heavy arm list, the Breaking of the Fellowship. This Legion will look very similar to its previous iteration, but it got a few really good changes that make it far more enjoyable to play (and removes the 600-point cap that used to be in play). See what fun there is to be had without Gandalf and with more total bodies next time, and until then, happy hobbying!