The New Age Is Begun: the Road to Rivendell Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're delving into another army list today and this one I'm SUPER excited about. Why? Because the Road to Rivendell army list (our topic for today) is a list that I have been running for AGES. I've run them as:

• A battle company (the Wanderers in the Wild);
• A low-points level historical alliance between the Fellowship and Rivendell;
• A mid-points level historical alliance between the Fellowship, Rivendell, and Lothlorien;
• A mid-points level convenient alliance between the Fellowship, the Shire, and the Wanderers in the Wild (Barliman and Bill); and
• A high-points level convenient alliance between Rivendell (Glorfindel, Gildor, Arwen), the Fellowship (Aragorn, Hobbits), and the Wanderers in the Wild (Tom and Goldberry) . . .
• . . . oh, right, and I made up a custom legendary legion for them a few Christmases ago.

Yeah, I've played this list kind of a lot. When I saw that it was becoming its own thing, I was both very excited AND very pleased that this list got Gildor and Noldorin Exiles from the Legacies document and picked up Tom Bombadil and Goldberry from the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement! All told, this began as a low-points level, all-hero list and with the two newest adds, it can now reach high points levels too! Let's see what's new in 2025 with this army list . . .

The Road to Rivendell: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Five of the heroes in this list have already been reviewed not once, but twice in the Fellowship and Breaking of the Fellowship articles - check those out for the full run-down. One other hero has been reviewed once, and the remaining three profiles are "brand new". Here's how the profiles have been adjusted without rehashing all that I've written there:

• The list is focused on the Fellowship coming to Bree, leaving Bree, and journeying to Rivendell - so naturally, we have Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin with very little gear available. Amazingly, Frodo has access to Sting and the Mithril Coat, which he certainly didn't have in the films (Weathertop would have gone VERY differently, I think, if there was Mithril between Frodo and the Morgul Blade - or was it a spiritual piercing?);
• You also have Aragorn in the list, which is good because without him, you couldn't kill much of anything with this list (one model excepted);
• From the Bree contingent, we have Barliman Butterbur, Harry Goatleaf, and Bill the Pony - all of which were either previously in the Fellowship army list or were part of the Wanderers in the Wild list and historical allies with the Fellowship;
• We have Arwen, who was both historical allies with the Fellowship in the Rivendell list and was later errata'd to be part of the Fellowship list if you had Aragorn in the list:
• New to the scene are Tom and Goldberry, who were Convenient Allies with everyone in the old edition - they were an expensive dynamic duo, but oh so much fun; and 
• If your tournament setting allows the Legacy documents, you have access to Gildor Inglorion and up to 12 Noldorin Exiles (because they are the only Warrior models in the list, if you have at least 10 of them, you can have 4 with bows and 4 with throwing weapons).

The original nine characters come in with all their available upgrades (bow for Aragorn, Sting and Mithril Coat for Frodo) at a tidy 500 points, but Tom and Goldberry allow you to hit 700 points and Gildor and Company can hit 222 (very satisfying) with a banner, 3 Wood Elf spears, 4 throwing daggers, and 4 Elf bows. 

Army List Bonuses

In the previous edition, if you ran Arwen in the Fellowship list (which you could do if you had Aragorn in the list), everyone would be Fearless and you wouldn't count as being Broken if Frodo was alive and on the board. This list doesn't have those rules - and that's a shame, but also okay as we'll see in a minute. If you ran Barliman, Bill, and then-Harry Goatleaf with the Fellowship, you'd keep your Fellowship army bonus (previously mentioned) but add nothing new. If you slapped Tom and maybe Goldberry in the list, you'd lose all the special rules, which might be fine because of how they regenerated resources and tied down troublesome pieces.

Due to Arwen's demotion early on in that edition to a Minor Hero, there was no historical allying with Rivendell just to get her in the list (hence her delayed addition to the Fellowship list), but in a book-accurate attempt to capture the journey to Rivendell, you could ally historically with Gildor and some Noldorin Exiles (I will note that due to the way that keywords didn't change for Noldorin Exiles, the Rivendell army bonus would be completely worthless to you). Case made simple, if you ran this before, you had Fearless on everyone in the Fellowship and couldn't count as being broken if you took Frodo and kept him alive if you didn't ally with people.

The current list says, "nah" to all that and gives some really nice bonuses instead. First off, you have the choice of forming your army into one warband of up to nine models OR have multiple smaller warbands, which could be as many as eight warbands (more on why this isn't nine in a minute). Obviously Merry and Pippin don't want to come on as single warbands in a maelstrom mission (especially not with the first army list rule, more on that next) and you might not want them to come on late in Reconnoitre (again, doubly so with the first army list rule), but the deployment advantages you'd have in all the other scenarios might make multiple warbands appealing for some players. I think Tom and Goldberry can be in this warband (Tabletop Admiral says no, but the rules appear to say yes), and if you take Gildor's warband, you should be able to deploy them too (this isn't in TTA yet either).

Aragorn picks up some nice buffs with the We Do Not Stop 'Til Nightfall rule, which allows him to call a free Heroic March each turn and also gives friendly models within 6" of him when he starts his activation the Woodland Creature special rule. The free Heroic Marches will only be of value as you're maneuvering towards (or away from) the enemy, but having a 7"+ move army pays dividends in any list that wants to choose when and where it engages with its foes. The Woodland Creature buff can be triggered even if Aragorn doesn't call a March, so your army shouldn't have issues using cover to avoid engagements that it doesn't think it can win (which is good when half of your list is Hobbits and most of the other half is from Bree).

Arwen got two rules to make her amazing - and that rely on using the "Arwen and Frodo" model that previously had no place in the game. The first rule (I'm the Fastest Rider. I'll Take Him) allows Frodo to start as a passenger on Asfaloth (that 145+ points available thing I was talking about earlier) - if he does, Arwen has Resistant to Magic (which she didn't have before), 3 Attacks (instead of 2), can borrow Frodo's 2M/3W/3F without limits, and Frodo can't put on the Ring. Another rule (If You Want Him, Come and Claim Him) gives Arwen Fearless and a re-roll of any casting dice she uses when casting a magical power so long as Frodo is a passenger or within 6" of her. This is . . . pretty baller crazy! For 90 points, a 4M/7W/5F model that can reroll any casting dice she wants is gonna slay a LOT of people with Wrath of Bruinen, even with a 3" radius. This is doubly true since the list maxes out at 500pts, so unless you're playing down-handed in the points department, your opponent's model count is likely to only be in the 20s or 30s (unless he's running a horde list, which probably isn't going to have an answer for magic or a beater hero like Aragorn).

Finally, there's a special rule that is as awesome thematically as it is in-game (The Cover of Night) which allows you to choose if the game is being played under daylight conditions or nighttime conditions. If you are playing at night, you can choose whether or not not-Harry's lantern is on at the start of each turn, in addition to the usual rules of not being targeted from far away and such. The previous two Fellowship-oriented lists had Blinding Light as an option to protect you from archery (and one of those had Elven cloaks). This list has neither, but can fiat that a long-range shooting-heavy list can't just shoot up your predominantly D3-4 list from the safety of the other side of the table. Also, Harry doesn't ruin the game for you by not being able to turn his lamp off (like he did in the previous edition).

All in all, these are interesting changes to the way the list can be run - and it becomes really interesting as we get into the profiles.

Profile Adjustments

Here's how the profiles have changed:

• Aragorn (Strider) is used to having help from the likes of Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, and Gandalf/Haldir, but in this list, he's basically the only beat-stick you have (there is one other, if you have 145+ points to spare). Aragorn without Anduril might not be as good as Aragorn with Anduril at carrying a team entirely on his back, but he's certainly able to get his teammates where they want to be quickly and he's able to keep the pressure on longer than most heroes. Aragorn is a must in this list.
• The actual "must" in this list is Frodo, since you have to bring him. For 55pts without extra wargear, Frodo appears a bit squishy, but I put it to you that by the time we're done looking at the profiles, you might come to the conclusion that he can be run without extra options (just the One Ring) and be just fine. For 55pts, Frodo brings 2 Might/Heroic Defense to the table, as well as 2 Wounds/3 Fate, which is surprisingly hearty - and more so if you have 15pts for the Mithril Coat to bring him up to D6. He's a tough guy to crack, this Mr. Underhill . . .
• You also have Sam, Merry, and Pippin, who are all good to include in your list if you have the points - see the previous articles on the Fellowship and Breaking of the Fellowship army lists for why this is (though hint: there was a lot less competition in this list than there was in the previous two lists before the new stuff came out - now this list builds a lot like the Breaking of the Fellowship).
• We have Bill again - he's a bargain for 25 points, even in a list where not everyone has the Fellowship keyword. 25pts for Bill is amazing - take him always (see my article on the Fellowship and the rest of this article for why).
• The first "new" profile to view is Arwen's profile. Arwen has undergone a lot of changes in this edition of the game - Arwen is required in this list to take Asfaloth and Hadhafang, which means she always costs 90pts, but her price increase gives her 2 Attacks base, 2 Might/4 Will/2 Fate to keep her alive, and has an Elven weapon that gets a bonus To Wound against Spirit models (just like her dad has). She's still got Wrath of Bruinen, but also picked up Renew (12" range, 3+ difficulty), which is a nice support ability. If you include her in your list, you're probably putting Frodo on Asfaloth as a passenger and then the rules come fast and hard to make her a truly terrifying unit (more on this later). I'd always take Arwen.
• We have Barliman Butterbur available to us in this list and this list alone (at least for now - we'll see if he shows up in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement at all). I talked about the very small changes that were made to Barli in my "first impressions" article, but the pertinent one in this list is that he can make Fellowship models within 6" of himself gain the Dominant (2) special rule. This means that if you have Bill and the four Hobbits near Barliman, they will count as 12 models instead of 6, which is really great if you're playing a control-based scenario (more on this in the tactics discussion later). Barli's pretty cheap and is probably in the discussion about whether to include him before or after Sam, depending on how many other Fellowship members you will have in your list.
• Finally, we have "the Gatekeeper of Bree" (or "not-Harry" as I called him in my first impressions article), who is honestly the last pick you want to make for your list, but as I mentioned above with Sam, Merry, and Pippin, the limited points level for this army makes it so that many of the decisions you have to make will only appear at very low points levels. Is there a case where I'd take this guy over Barli or Sam? No. Is there a case where I'd take this guy over Merry and Pippin? No. Is there a case where I'd take this guy over Bill? Absolutely not. Perhaps the saddest reason for why he's the last pick is because he's one of two models (Arwen is the other) who doesn't benefit from the Dominant (2) keyword bubble that Barliman provides. Part of me wishes not-Harry was better integrated into the list, but alas, it is what it is. If you're playing at 450pts, leave this guy (and probably some gear) at home.
• We also have Tom and Goldberry - boy have they changed! In many ways they're the same as they always were: they basically just have Will points (12 for Tom and 8 for Goldberry now - they used to have 15 and 10 respectively), they can't be charged, shot, magic'd, special rule'd, or lose fights, and they "die" if they run out of Will (which they spend for their buffs and whenever they fight) - but unlike the last edition, they use Will points to sing songs that can't be resisted (they're not magical powers and they pay for each song they sing each turn - but most target a single model, so singing ballads to everyone in one turn is unlikely) and they don't have control zones. Many of the songs have elements of Refreshing Song, Banishment, or the auto-pass courage test bubble rules from the last edition - but Might regen ain't one of them. They also clock in at 120pts and 80pts respectively, which is 100pts less than they used to - a very welcome change. We'll go through the songs in the tactics section below - but suffice it to say that there are some good ones and some niche ones (but they're all useful in some way).
• Finally, we have Gildor (his only change was picking up the Writhing Vines magical power, which is a useful utility spell) and his boys, who are still Lothlorien Warriors with 8" move for +1pt. Still good, still squishy.

Okay, let's look at what this army list is good at (especially given the other Fellowship lists we could run).

The Road to Rivendell: Strengths and Weaknesses

I'm gonna be honest, the "Road to Rivendell" lists in the previous edition never seemed to compare very well to running any number of other Fellowship options (to include the Breaking of the Fellowship LL or "just the Fellowship" or heck, a Fellowship-heavy Return of the King/Defenders of Helm's Deep list). If you're playing to this theme, you know that you want to have the four Hobbits and Aragorn - and once Bill and some upgrades were in your list, you'd invested 300+ points into six models, only one of which was anywhere close to resilient or potent (and he might not have Anduril). Yes, you could get a decent contingent of Elves to support them at 500pts, but these guys would be a low-Defense option and still not net you that many guys considering the points level you were playing at (you could run the Twins - who would also be a thematic pairing in their own way - but you'd be seriously outnumbered).

This army list has done a good job, I think, of trying to make this more playable - mostly by trying to mitigate the two largest weaknesses of the profiles: speed and vulnerability.

The largest limitation to this list is that you really only have two slayer heroes: Aragorn (who is not mounted) and Arwen (who is awesome). Aragorn is great and can get good use out of that new hand-and-a-half sword against low-Fight Value warriors, but he's not going to carve through anything healthy in a hurry. Still, he's a pain to deal with and he'll be your army leader, so there's value in that. Arwen, for her part, is a fabulous killer in this list, but she needs to be with Frodo (preferably as a passenger), so if you accidentally lose your horse, you're in big trouble. Even with Gildor, Tom, and Goldberry in the picture, you still don't have any other killing heroes.

The other limitation is that much of the army has Defense 3 (at least 3 Hobbits and the Gatekeeper, possibly also Frodo and the Noldorin Exiles led by Gildor if you're using Legacies) and have 1-2 Wounds with 1-2 Fate points (1-3 Fate for Frodo). Bill, Barli, and Arwen (and Gildor) are looking "pretty tough" with their pip up to D4, but S2 arrows don't care about that sort of thing, so if you ever get in a position where you can be shot up, you're in a heap of trouble. Aragorn is hardy a bastion of Defense with D5 (though Heroic Defense and Mighty Hero covers a multitude of sins), so once you start taking hits, you're likely to take a LOT of hits very quickly.

The final limitation (which is admittedly a bit of a skew issue) is that the list is fine-not-great at passing Courage tests if Tom and Goldberry aren't present (and if Gildor isn't allowed). Both of the previous Fellowship lists we viewed had Fearless baked into the list by having Frodo around - and Fearless covers all kinds of bases, especially when the guy it's tied to can put on the Ring. Bill's Fearful special rule will kick in with this army list and Merry, Pippin, Barli, and the Gatekeeper will be happy if they can pass the slightly-better-than-average chances of getting what they need. Aragorn, Arwen, Sam, and Frodo will be fine - but the rest are going to struggle. It is in these kinds of situations that taking Tom and Goldberry could be a life saver to you.

All that said, there's a lot going for this army. First off, Arwen is likely to get off a LOT of magic before she runs out of Will. In the previous edition, she had 4 Will points and very little chance of getting it back (unless you ran Gandalf or Tom Bombadil . . . which I did . . . a lot). Starting with 2 Might/4 Will (more Might than she used to, same amount of Will) and having access to Frodo's 2 Might/3 Will, PLUS the ability to auto-cast a spell on a 6 by using Heroic Channelling, she has changed from a hopefully-two-Wrath-of-Bruinen-spells each game to an at-least-four-Wrath-of-Bruinen-spells each game kind of gal - and after that, she's got 3 Will with a reroll of all failed casting attempts for a reliable 6 casts in a single game (four of which will count as being cast on a 6). This is INSANITY!

But wait, it gets better (at least potentially): it's unclear to me if Bill counts as being in base contact with Frodo if he's a passenger on Asfaloth, but I think he does - and he (not Arwen) can regain Will points and Might points from Bill the Pony, so if little ol' Bill follows Asfaloth around, it's possible for Arwen to get still more Might/Will to fuel her magical assault! Even if he doesn't count and has to dismount, he can still hang near her after she's spent all his Might/Will and recoup some of his Might points while staying within 6" of her to give her the re-roll on her casting attempts. Always take Bill, Arwen, and Aragorn with Frodo, guys - always.

The second advantage we get from running this list is that we get still more Might out of Aragorn. It would probably be broken to have the option to call either a free Heroic March or a free Heroic Move/Combat with Aragorn in this list, but I'll take a free Heroic March. Early on in the game, it probably won't matter whether the Heroic March was free or whether we used Mighty Hero to declare it, but as we get closer to the enemy, being able to move the Hobbits up to 7", Barliman/not-Harry up to 9", Bill up to 5.5", and Arwen up to 17" while Aragorn moves 4.5" and shoots his bow if we're within 12" of the enemy is really sweet. Also, everyone gets Woodland Creature if they start within March range (and will have it next turn because they want to/have to end in March range), so the movement through terrain can buy you some much needed breathing room between you and your opponent while you prepare your angle of attack.

The list is also pretty simple in its rules, but the rules they have are very effective. You get to play your way, choosing the time of engagement on the time table you want, unless the scenario is picking it for you. When you arrive, most of the units you have count as 2 units for control-based scenarios and some of them can be quite hard to kill. Barli and Arwen can give you Wounds back (Barli can't help Arwen or not-Harry, Arwen can help everyone) and Bill can give most of your units stats back (again, not Arwen or not-Harry). You have Resistant to Magic on most units, baked-in protection against archery if your opponent brought a lot of it, and you can even the odds against low-Defense horde lists by having TONS of access to Wrath of Bruinen. Manage your match-ups, get priority when you need it, and life is good.

The final advantage that this list used to have was, oddly enough, that it maxed out at 500 points. I don't think this list would fare too well with a handicap (partly why I was so thrilled with the other documents dropping), but between 335-500 points, I think this list was fantastic. It's super fun, super themey, you don't have to know that many profiles, and it's got awesome killing power on two pieces, all with the promise that if your opponent can just beat you in combat, he's likely to strip off lots of wounds against you. With the addition of fifteen bodies and potentially 422 more points, I think it's still super themey and plays well at 500pts still (with or without Gildor).

Let's talk about some strategies to use and then we'll wrap up with some lists.

The Road to Rivendell: Strategies for the Tabletop

Editor's Note: the following (well, the whole article really) was written before Tom, Goldberry, and Gildor were released - and for players who don't own the new supplement and aren't using Legacy stuff, it's all still true. As such, I've left it intact and have added notes below for using the new additions to the list!

Our first stop is easy: after getting the required Frodo Baggins (no gear), always take Aragorn with bow, Arwen, and Bill and have Frodo start as a passenger with Arwen. This is a nice tidy 335 points and requires your opponent to kill all but one model to quarter you. If you have extra points, you can take gear on Frodo or add a few more characters, but this is the bare minimum I would always start with these guys. Arwen and Aragorn get some really nice boosts in the army list and there's no reason to run this list if you don't have both of them - run either of the other two lists if you want Frodo and Aragorn at lower points. If you were playing against either of the other two lists at 350 points, I think they'd be hard-pressed to beat you.

The second strategy that I have for using this list is an echo of what I said in the Breaking of the Fellowship post and that is to take your time in the Move Phase. Look, you're going to have no more than nine models on the board - and in all likelihood, you will start off with no more than eight models on the board because you want Frodo as a passenger right from the get-go. Once you start actually moving your models, it'll only take a minute - so have nine small dice in your hand (GW loves their small dice), measure where Aragorn is going to start and end, then measure where everyone else is going to be, make sure everything looks good, then move the models without too much concern because you've already measured everything out. At 500 points or below, your opponent will probably be taking several minutes to move his models - so take a minute or two to measure everything out, take less than a minute to move your guys, and then thank your opponent (while noting to yourself that your Move Phases take less time than pretty much anyone else's Move Phases).

This is certainly a true statement early in the game - your Move Phases will become more time-consuming as you get into the "I can cast Wrath of Bruinen on you" part of the game, but if you have several colors of dice, you can do your casting rolls quite quickly if you're rolling multiple dice at a time. You don't want to Might the wounding rolls most of the time (each Might point you sink into promoting a wound is a channel that won't happen), but in the odd case where you can kill a banner that's worth VPs or get a wound on an army leader/target hero in Fog of War, you might have to take 5 seconds longer to resolve your Move phase by marking down a spent Might point.

Even when the fighting begins in earnest, there's really only two combat pieces that you want doing much fighting (Arwen and Aragorn), so the rest are mostly going to be angling for a position where they can keep your opponent from swarming those two models OR finding places where they can influence the scoring of the game without exposing themselves to much (or any) danger. It'll go fast - and if you misplay, your Move Phases will go even faster. :)

My final strategy for using this list is to be patient. I learned MESBG with Wood Elf Warriors (now Lothlorien Warriors) and boy did I learn the hard way that taking your time pays dividends. I was excited. I charged into combat to get use out of my throwing weapons. I got charged after losing an "important roll-off". My guys died because they had low Defense and not that many dice. I was sad because my cool army couldn't stay in the position it wanted to. This army . . . yeah, it can have games just like that. So don't do that - be patient. Shoot with Aragorn after moving 4.5" with his free Heroic March. Have Arwen and Frodo seek shelter from enemy units in a forest that brings them roughly 12" away from where the enemy is likely to be at the end of the Move Phase. Keep your other dudes out of danger (and line of sight?) until you've gotten around part of your enemy's force or have strung the enemy army out. Do what you need to in order to bring the roughly 300pts of mass that Aragorn and Arwen have to bear on your opponent - and don't fight the whole army at once.

One final note (not really a strategy tip, just an observation): consider NOT taking the Mithril Coat. Obviously, at 500 points, you're taking everything because otherwise you give your opponent an unnecessary handicap. However, for 15pts, getting +3 Defense on Frodo isn't going to be that valuable. While mounted as a passenger on Asfaloth, it's unlikely that Frodo will take a stray arrow (because nighttime) or be caught up in a fight he can't win (because 3-4 Attack heroes with F6/Strike are quite hard to beat). Once he dismounts, he's putting on the Ring, which should make Engaging him difficult and casting magic/shooting him will be all but impossible. As you'll see in the sample lists below, leaving the Mithril Coat at home at least gives you an extra Hobbit to run around the board and take up space, but it might also give you the points you need to upgrade a weaker Hobbit into a more resilient profile. 

Editor's Note: Now all of this is true, but here's some extra stuff . . . 

Tom and Goldberry have changed a little in how their songs work - that's really the only tactics part we need to discuss with them. Since they no longer have control zones, you can't hide people within their control zones anymore and you can't block off two 3" zones with them either, but they can still restore important stats and now there's no chance that these songs don't go off if you roll a 1 on your casting roll (because they're not spells).

Tom can sing songs that generate the following effects - please recall he still has 12 Will points:

• A friendly model within 6" regains a lost Wound (once per turn per friendly model) - this is part of what Refreshing Song used to do and is definitely less useful than the previous edition, but still VERY useful if you're trying to keep Frodo, Arwen, or Aragorn alive;
• Friendly models within 6" of Tom add 3" to their Move Value and treat all areas of difficult terrain as open ground (functionally once per turn) - this is SUPER useful since it stacks with the free Heroic March and allows you to move through whatever you want;
• A friendly model within 6" of Tom Bombadil recovers from the effects of all Magical Powers that have been cast on them and cannot be targeted by enemy Magical Powers/special rules until the end of the turn - this was also part of Refreshing Song before and is good for keeping someone from being locked down/killed by magic (doesn't work against Gandalf's Cart, though), but also completely irrelevant against lists that don't have Magical Powers or special rules that manipulate people;
• Friendly models within 6" of Tom Bombadil pass their courage tests (functionally once per turn) - this used to be in his profile with a 3" radius, so it's both better and worse than before;
• An enemy Spirit model within 6" of Tom Bombadil suffers a Wound (once per turn) - a not-resistable, auto-cast Banishment is DEFINITELY better than in the old edition and SUPER good for getting a general VPs against the likes of the Balrog, Sauron, or the Witch-King!

Tom's bonus movement song is the best in my opinion - it's extra speed that CAN be used when you Charge (unlike Heroic March) and if you're burning 1 Will/turn singing it, you can still do plenty of other things before you run out. As in a previous discussion about Ringwraiths, however, Will point management is going to be key - having 4 Will set aside for boosted movement, 4 Will set aside for tying down difficult models, 1 Will set aside for staying alive, and 3 Will for other things (more movement, wounding a Spirit model, more fighting, or singing any of the other songs) does mean that you can't "just sing songs". That said, you do have a lot of Will, so if you REALLY need to charge a Terror wall with everyone and there are negative Courage modifiers in play, maybe singing the auto-pass-Courage-test song is worth it (but don't just sing it).

Goldberry only has 8 Will - and many of her songs are different from Tom's:

• A friendly model within 6" regains a lost Wound (once per turn per friendly model) - this is the same as Tom's first song, but they can both sing on someone if you have to regain two wounds;
• An enemy model within 6" may not be Activated but may otherwise act normally in the other Phases (once per turn) - golly, is this is a GOOD shut-down option! Hey, Azog/Aragorn/Gwaihir/Balrog/Sauron/whoever/guy-running-away-with-something-special -  you just don't get to go! This is a really good one, but also VERY niche in its utility;
• A friendly model within 6" of Goldberry automatically passes any Courage Test it needs to take and gets +1 Fight Value if it Charges an enemy model (once per turn per model) - so you can use this to make Aragorn F8, Arwen F7, and Gildor F7 for a single turn at the low-low cost of 3 Will points . . . that's pretty slick. Also, if they've got +3" of movement and ignore all difficult terrain from Tom, they could be slamming into the enemy from 9-15" away! Alpha-strike options are good here, but it will burn Goldberry out pretty quickly - still good though.

Goldberry has two really good songs for her 8 Will points - the one that buffs Fight Value (if you Charge) and the one that locks-in-place an enemy model. If you plan to have one big and glorious turn where you spend 3 Will to buff out the three competent combatants (see note above), 1 Will to stay alive, and 4 Will for further buffing Fight Value on later turns or neutering an enemy model's activation, you'll be out of commission with no auto-passing Courage Test bubble after a few turns - but at least she can still contest objectives (even though she can't carry objectives). For 200pts, I think these two are WELL worth the taking . . . but probably not before you take our Legacies profiles (assuming you're allowed to use them).

Gildor and Noldorin Exiles have basically not changed - Gildor even has "Immobilize" instead of the standardized "Transfix" magical power (I assume there will be no errata for that . . . but there really should be). Gildor picked up Writhing Vines, which would be more useful if models near Aragorn ignored all difficult terrain (though you can get this ability plus extra movement with one of Tom Bombadil's songs), but is still a useful tool for limiting how many people can get around your flank and trap your vulnerable army. For relatively cheap (just over 200pts), you can add 13 models to your army, which for me means you take these guys (all 13 of them) before you take Barliman, not-Harry-Goatleaf, Merry, Pippin, or Sam (who together are just under 150pts). There may be lists where you don't take all 13, but after taking Frodo, Aragorn, Arwen, and probably Bill, you should take Gildor and his buddies if your gaming scene allows the Legacy profiles. With good shooting, good speed (made better with Aragorn's free Heroic Marches), resilience to enemy shooting with Elven Cloaks/potentially a darkness rule, and high Fight Value (with the ability to shield with an Elven weapon if you ignore the throwing daggers and lean into the spears), I'm just saying these guys are pretty flexible options (and honestly better than the three non-required Hobbits and the men from Bree).

Let's look at some of those lists now . . .

Sample Lists

350 is a pretty reasonable lowest end for this list - and it's quite simply the four required characters with Merry and Pippin (and sans Aragorn's bow):

• Aragorn (Strider) [ARMY LEADER]
• Meriadoc Brandybuck
• Peregrin Took
• Bill the Pony
• Arwen Undomiel on Asfaloth with Hadhafang
• PASSENGER: Frodo Baggins

350pts, 6 models, no D6+ model, 2 fast models and free Heroic March, 7+ Might points

I could have dropped Pippin to get Sting and Aragorn's bow, but without the bow, we can always choose to play at night and have no negative impact on our list for doing so. I like having the long-range option on Aragorn, but since he can't shoot farther than normal at night anyway, it's probably not worth keeping it to use as a 12" skirmish weapon than to get an extra body.

I've also split the list into two warbands - one with Frodo and Arwen and the other with the remaining Fellowship members. This is mostly so I have some deployment knowledge - we can always deploy Frodo and Arwen first and have Aragorn deploy second in a maelstrom mission to make sure we arrive together, but in all the other missions, it'll be nice to have at least one enemy warband committed before Aragorn and his Hobbit friends have to deploy. If you'd prefer for everyone to arrive together, be my guest.

Our second list scales up by 100 points and adds most of the other characters - but leaves off the Mithril Coat and gives our opponent a 5pt handicap:

• Aragorn (Strider) with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• Samwise Gamgee
• Meriadoc Brandybuck
• Peregrin Took
• Barliman Butterbur
• Bill the Pony
• Arwen Undomiel on Asfaloth with Hadhafang
• PASSENGER: Frodo Baggins with Sting

445pts, 8 models, no D6+ models, 2 fast models and free Heroic March, 11+ Might points

This list only added two bodies to the mix (Sam and Barli), but Sam gives us a half-way decent fighter and Barli gives us a Heroic Defense tank for at least two turns and the potential for healing three times (assuming Bill is busy giving resources back to Frodo). We once again have two warbands, but we could probably sacrifice Barliman as a third warband if we wanted to. We could also have Bill in Arwen's warband, which would be interesting.

This list has more options and will play control-based missions better because of Barliman, but I feel like the extra 100pts dumped into this list hasn't bought it quite what other lists will gain. At 500 points, we see a slightly different list, this time getting us our Mithril Coat and not-Harry-Goatleaf:

• Aragorn (Strider) with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• Samwise Gamgee
• Meriadoc Brandybuck
• Peregrin Took
• Barliman Butterbur
• Bill the Pony
• Arwen Undomiel on Asfaloth with Hadhafang
• PASSENGER: Frodo Baggins with Sting and Mithril Coat
• The Gatekeeper of Bree

500pts, 9 models, no D6 models, 2 fast models and free Heroic March, 12+ Might points

Yes, I put not-Harry as his own warband - he has no synergies with anyone (not even Barliman) and can, during the Priority Phase, root someone in place that tries to swarm him - that's a pretty good ability on someone who might be trying to quagmire an enemy warband for a turn or two. The rest of the army is exactly like it was in the previous list - except that Frodo is D6 now . . . yaye?

This list has less Might than the previous Fellowship lists have had, but not THAT much less, once you factor in the free Heroic Marches from the army bonus. A 500-point Fellowship list that left Gandalf and Gimli at home will have 16 Might, while a Breaking of the Fellowship list that chose Haldir/Elves over Boromir/Gimli only has 11 Might to start with. Starting with 12 (and going ever higher with Aragorn and Bill) is looking pretty decent . . . and with only 8 or 15 models on the other side, I feel like this list has a place amongst the other Fellowship lists - and particularly so at 350.

Our final list comes in at 700pts - something we can do in a boring way if we have the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement (we won't showcase that list here - it's just adding Tom and Golberry to the last list), but something we can easily do in a fun way if we allow the Legacies profiles. I've taken Tom and Goldberry, the basically-required Aragorn-Arwen-Frodo combo, and Gildor with 9 Noldorin Exiles (opting for a banner instead of Bill the Pony - it pains me that I didn't take him). Should I have dropped Goldberry to get 3 more Noldorin Exiles, Bill the Pony, and Merry/Pippin? Perhaps - but I kinda like the list anyway:

• Aragorn (Strider) with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• Arwen Undomiel on Asfaloth with Hadhafang
• PASSENGER: Frodo Baggins
• Tom Bombadil
• Goldberry
• Gildor Inglorion
• 1 Noldorin Exile with banner
• 2 Noldorin Exiles with Wood Elf Spears
• 3 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers
• 3 Noldorin Exiles with Elf bows

700pts, 15 models, no D6 models, 11 fast models and free Heroic March, 8+ Might points

Conclusion

Well, this collector is quite happy with this army list - and no, it's not going to break the world or anything, but I both love the list as written and am excited to see how/if it changes with the release of the other two promised supplements. If you've run this list already (or have tried to run it in a previous edition using the alliance matrix), let us know in the comments below! We'll be back with another army list review next time - and until then, happy hobbying!