This week’s article is drifting away a bit from competitive play towards the exciting narrative options contained in Quest of the Ringbearer. In particular, I’d like to introduce you to my new Fantasy Fellowship, with which I have begun my journey across Middle Earth. An eclectic band, this Fellowship was formed around the theme of Kingship, with my aim being to include my three favourite royal models to escort Frodo across Middle Earth. So without further ado, let’s jump into The Fellowship of the Three Kings:
Ringbearer: Frodo
Companion: Farmer Maggot
Merry: Haleth
Pippin: Éowyn with shield
Aragorn: Aragorn
Legolas: Thandruil with twin blades
Gimli: Thorin, King under the Mountain with Orcrist
Boromir: Dori, Champion of Erebor
Gandalf: Círdan
Starting from the top, Frodo was included because I just
like him. Young Bilbo is objectively a better choice, especially because he
lets you bring Dori the blender along as Companion, but Frodo is the OG and
he fits my time period better.
My choice of Companion was made for me by my choice of Merry
and Pippin. If I wanted to include Rohirrim refugees in Éowyn and Haleth, then
I would need some way for them to narratively meet with Frodo. Who is there in the Shire
that could serve as a bridge between wandering travellers and Frodo? Clearly
Maggot and his dogs needed to come along for the ride. Plus, getting to field
three dogs is just fun.
Éowyn and Haleth were included to represent the royal
bloodline of Rohan in a way that made sense for my story. As the Westfold was
ravaged by Saruman, Théoden has sent away many of his people to the north,
hoping to find shelter there far from Dunland and Isengard. Plus, both of them
have interesting dynamics with Aragorn, and even some great rules synergy in
the case of Haleth. I could have tried to move some points around and fit in
Théoden elsewhere, but I figured he was probably pretty busy at this time, and
I needed characters with royal links to fill my Hobbit slots anyway.
Aragorn is reprising his role as head of the Three Hunters, because clearly any theme
of Kingship has to include the King of Gondor taking up his throne. He’s also
just a brilliant model for the campaign, with a free Might point helping to
conserve valuable resources and free Heroic Marches allowing him to keep the
Fellowship moving in scenarios like Dwarrowdelf and Khazad-dûm.
Thandruil replaces Legolas because he is the King, and
because he is absolutely bonkers in Fantasy Fellowship. Those two swords and
Fight 7 means that nothing short of the Balrog is likely to slow him down, and
I’ve never felt Legolas really shined in the Fellowship scenarios anyway.
There’s a lot of running and fighting in close combat, and he’s much happier
standing still and picking off enemies from afar. Thandruil, on the other hand,
is in his element in these situations, and I was looking forward to inflicting
him on the Goblin hordes of Moria.
Thorin, having stepped back from the ice and survived the Battle of the Five Armies, made it in as the archetypal King Under the
Mountain. Sure, I could have fielded Dáin, who is pretty brutal himself, but I was
really looking forward to Thorin’s insane Heroic Combats rocketing him around
the field every turn. Gimli stand-ins are often very staid and steady in how
they play, and I wanted a bit more excitement from the last great Dwarven King.
There were a lot of ways I could have gone with my Boromir
replacement, but alas points were beginning to run low. Théodred was an obvious
choice, but his special rule makes him too hot-headed for Fellowship scenarios,
so in went Dori instead. He will serve as a loyal bodyguard to Thorin, and is one
of the Dwarves most likely to have come along to help out Bilbo’s nephew. Well, aside from
Balin, but his appearance in the campaign is already set in stone.
Finally, what powerful magic user could lead this royal
throng into action? None of the Wizards fitted the bill, being decidedly
non-royal. The obvious choices were Elrond or Celeborn, but alas my budget was
running too low to accommodate them after splurging on three of the mightiest
heroes of the West. So humble Círdan, himself of the oldest and noblest
bloodline still running in Middle Earth, will convene the Fellowship at
Rivendell after receiving a message from his old friend Farmer Maggot. With any
luck, his array of auric buffs will give the Fellowship an answer to whatever
they should meet in Moria.
In this version of the story, Frodo has set off alone for Rivendell after Gandalf swung by and warned him of the pursuing horrors. Upon ending up in Farmer Maggot’s fields, he will be greeted by the wise Hobbit and two refugees from the far-off fields of Rohan. Seeing Frodo’s desperate plight, Maggot will lead the three of them east to Bree, where they will meet with a mysterious Ranger by the name of Strider. If they make it through the perils of Weathertop, then they will be joined at Rivendell by an alliance of the two northern Kings and Círdan, oldest and wisest of the Elves. With such a mighty assemblage of heroes, surely none shall stand between the Ringbearer and his quest!
I've very much enjoyed my first few games with this Fellowship, it's got a lot of personality and fun tricks as well as a solid backbone of killing power. Keep an eye up for writeups of those if you're into Fantasy Fellowship, and for an extended upcoming series about how to build a good Fellowship.
Until then, may your heroes never roll a 1 on the Injury chart!
Awesome Fellowship - I think Maggot is one of the best choices for the Companion slot (up there with Dori if you bring Bilbo, Baldo Tulpenny, and of course Samwise Gamgee). I always find myself choosing a cheap hero for Boromir - not only because the character isn't in the campaign for very long, but also because you want those really expensive heroes for the Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli slots.
ReplyDeleteCirdan is an interesting choice, since his free Will point could get you spells working every turn, but you're likely to burn through Will to get off spells like Aura of Dismay (Will you may not get back at the end of each mission). He is cheap though - something most of the wizard choices aren't.
Curious to see how the campaign goes - I've got a Fantasy Fellowship that I'm working on right now (and it takes a VERY different approach to each mission).
Thanks! I absolutely agree re Maggot, I think he's clearly one of the strongest choices for the role. Personally I'm inclined to put a few of the other <60 point Dwarves above him, just because of his fragility (specifically the Attack 2 ones that aren't Bofur), but there's clearly not much between them. It is just so useful having someone you can sacrifice in Fellowship missions without being too stressed about it.
DeleteI think Cirdan is in the top three best Guide options, personally. Aura of Dismay is really just so game-breaking in Fellowship scenarios, and he brings that and Blinding Light so cheaply. I find you can't really count on him for anything other than that (and Enchanted Blades every second turn) but that alone is pretty excellent. He's absolutely not as good as Radagast or Thandruil with Circlet and Blades, but he is half their price, so that's to be expected. And you are right that he does occasionally burn through Will, but in a lot of scenarios you get a few turns of movement before combat, and he can often cast Aura of Dismay for free in those turns. If not, he's so hopeless in combat that you're probably hiding him anyway, so he hopefully won't need to regenerate any other stats. Unless it all goes wrong of course, in which case he's probably stuffed. That's the only time you really end up feeling those 75 saved points.
I'd be interested in hearing about your Fellowship, what sort of theme are you going for?
I told this story in Drawn Combat several weeks ago, hope.you enjoy it:
ReplyDeleteMy theme is around characters I wrote fanfics about in my teens. But my ringbearer. My rb is Old Bilbo. He's not the most cunning choice, but I feel it like the most correct (more even than Frodo).
So, Bilbo came back from Erebor with the Ring, and years went by. He travelled a lot at the beginning, less later, and eventually he left Sting and the mithril mail at Rivendell, feeling he was to old and hoping his times of adventure where gone.
The guardian of Elostirion was the fëanorian scholar Echorion Voronwë, arrogant but (because) powerful. He used to study from his tower and kept an eye on the events of the vast world, mainly Eriador, and eventually found out that Bilbo brought something secret from the East. Finally went to the Shire himself and met with Bilbo, kicking him on the way to Rivendell, while he when to Ost-in-Edhil to look for further clues.
Bilbo left the Shire with some friends.
By him was his nephew, Palin Took. Palin was an apprentice adventurer who travelled a little inspired by the tales of his famous relative.
They joined two friends of Palin. The first one was Blanco Badgers, an official from the Shire, and Fred Chestnut, a burglar from Bree trying to rehab far away from the Big Folk.
So, the four hobbits reached Bree, where they met Thingodhel, the captain of the Third Company of Imladris Guardians. The Third was comprised mainly of rovers and scouts, and Thingodhel was a brilliant strategist and, important, patient enough to be a close friend of Echorion. The scholar send him a message and the captain decided to go to his friend's meeting.
The presence of the Nine forced them to run into the Wild to Rivendell. After several adventures, they reach the House, where they met Echorion and his new discoveries.
Elrond celebrated a council between the elves of his house, and they decided to send a Fellowship to Mordor. The choice of the members is assigned to captain Thingodhel, so he chose his second-in-command in the Company, the grim elf Fanuidhol, the dangerous archer Lindal and the versatile elf maiden Lady Rilwen.
Fanuidhol was an elf from the mountains over Imladris, whose family was slaughtered by the orcs long time ago. After that he committed like no-one before. He hates Dark Lord and orcs more than anyone. More than it's healthy to.
Lindal is quiet and chilling. He never miss an arrow, neither a word.
Lady Rilwen is an old friend (and more) of Thingodhel. She travels usually between Imladris, Lorien and Mirkwood. She is dangerous with the sword, but with her inner power too.
And so it is. The "count as" are:
- Old Bilbo as himself.
- Baldo Tullpeny as Palin Took.
- Sheriffs Holfoot Bracegirdle and Robin Smallburrow as Merry and Pip.
- Galadriel as Echorion Voronwë. Later on, Galadriel II as Echorion the reborn.
- Glorfindel with armour as Thingodhel, the elf captain.
- Legolas as Lindal Culuinen.
- Celeborn full equip as Lady Rilwen.
- Haldir full equip as Fanuidhol.
I know I suffer about losing Heroic March, I know Bilbo is suboptimal, etc. But I have a theme and a reason.
As I said, hope you liked it.
I think this is a great theme, and I love how much effort you've put into it!
DeleteAs far as it being sub-optimal, I'm actually just about to put out the first article in a series on making deliberately sub-optimal choices in designing a Fantasy Fellowship. After all, the 'optimal' Fellowship is probably something like this:
Frodo: Young Bilbo (60)
Sam: Dori (55)
Merry: Bifur (45)
Pippin: Bombur (45)
Aragorn: Thorin King with Orcrist (125)
Gandalf: Thandruil with swords, Circlet, (155)
Legolas: Dwalin (95)
Gimli: Glóin, Champion of Erebor (90)
Boromir: Nori, Champion of Erebor (80)
But would you ever want to actually play against or with that? You'd absolutely slaughter everyone in basically every scenario and have no fun whatsoever. Aside from Bilbo, literally everyone in that Fellowship is a good fighter, most are really excellent, and they've got a Terror bubble and free Nature's Wrath. Ew.
Your Fellowship looks way more interesting than that, so embrace the fact that it isn't optimal! It doesn't look too weak anyway, although I'd be tempted to replace Legolas or Haldir with Tauriel if you wanted to make it stronger (seeing as you're doing 'counts as' anyway). I'm sure it's strong enough anyway though, and looks really fun to play