Separating Companions

[stevehope]

Francesco and Andy Daglish started answering some of my questions about this on BGG, so I figured I'd move the discussion somewhere more appropriate.

What are the considerations associated with separating Companions from the Fellowship (voluntarily) and when do you usually find yourself doing it? In Steve Owens' strategy writeup he advocates keeping Gandalf leading the Fellowship for the the first few turns, then sending him off (or killling him off) so he can return to lead the FP armies. He also advocates splitting off Strider/Aragorn once you're close to Gondor, or Rohan if you have Paths of the Dead.

Andy D. suggested that the best general strategy is to keep the rest of the Fellowship together, so that the other characters can be used as fodder for the Ringbearers. I'm not sure if this holds even if you have one or more of the Army/Recruiting cards which specifically require the presence of certain Companions, but I'd be interested to hear more from others. He suggested that it's pretty uncommon for Companions without an army to justify spending a die on moving them, so that they really have to be dropped where they are going to be useful since they're not going to move afterward.

Steve/Kris/other playtesters or designers, I'd love to hear your thoughts based on your experiences about how often you found yourself using the "lesser" Fellowship members in the military conflict, and how often they escorted F&S to Mordor and their own deaths.

[Veldrin]

If you read my "Free People's strategy" at the web site you will find my view on the matter...

The bottom line is:

Don't separate someone unless you have a solid plan, the extra leader re-rolls they provide can be vital in the right place and the extra army die provided by Legolas, Gimli, Strider and Boromir can also be very useful in the right place.

Unfortunately they are also needed to protect the whimpy little Hafling caring the shiny thing.

In some games I have kept everyone except Gandalf and Strider in the Fellowship and sometimes Gollum took over the role of Guide as early as Emyn Muil.

As for winning or losing I have both won and lost games as the FP with both strategies.

[glow=green,2,300]Veldrin[/glow]

[kwojtasz]

Sending Legalos to the Shire area/Havens can put him two spaces away from The Shire and Ered Luin, which are spots that can push the North or the Dwarves to War via a card. Legalos could then sit in the Havens to promote the Elves to war and be on that side of the board if Isengard decides to go that direction later in the game.

Since both of those cards allow you to move your companions first, Legalos would be within range of either if he was in Arnor, so the card can be used to maximum effect. And Ered Luin is two spaces from the Shire, so Legalos could be moved via the other card to the other spot in the future.

So for one character die, so long as the fellowship is on a 1 or more, you could have a companion available for those two go to War cards, saving a bunch of muster dice or shadow attacks on the North/Dwarves to get them to War.

[eumi]

Separating Strider early is a solid strategy. The sooner you put the pressure on with the extra die, the better off you'll be. In the end, it's faster than waiting for the fellowship to propel him forward.

Bring a hobit along to activate rohan on the way.

[chulainn]

eumi said:

Separating Strider early is a solid strategy. The sooner you put the pressure on with the extra die, the better off you'll be. In the end, it's faster than waiting for the fellowship to propel him forward.
Bring a hobit along to activate rohan on the way.

I agree. When playing the FP i personally try to get Gandalf and Strider (and often some minor companions) to Minas Tirith before it comes under besiege. Minas Tirith is the most crucial loaction for military actions in the game i think.
Unfortunately for the FP this tactic depends a bit to the cards and dice.

Chulainn Greycloak

[Martinger]

eumi said:

Separating Strider early is a solid strategy. The sooner you put the pressure on with the extra die, the better off you'll be. In the end, it's faster than waiting for the fellowship to propel him forward.

Bring a hobit along to activate rohan on the way.

Furthermore you can take casualties without being afraid of losing Strider/Aragorn

[djarv]

My playing buddy almost always uses the same plan (maybe always always) which I think I may adopt because I've only beaten him when he is the FP player once, and that was by dumb luck.

Anyway, he hangs on to Gandalf until killed (with a '2' or '3'); then he hangs on to Striker, usually taking '1' as corruption, and a '2' or '3' as a random kill. He'll pretty much only separate Strider if he has to (through an event card), and use all other companions as cannon fodder.

That's a lot of damage he can absorb (14 pts if you can do it 'right').

Another advantage of keeping Strider as long as possible is that you basically get a free hide every turn, which means you can use the valuable W and C die to for what they are supposed to be used for: Moving the Fellowship.

In one game, I was playing 'Late Minions' to keep his die rolls to '4'. Interestingly enough, he never even used a Will die to bring back Gandalf the White because he didn't want to waste one, and even more interestingly, he dunked the Ring before I even was close to 8 VPs for the SP.

It's a very tough strategy to attack; but I think you just have to hammer the Fellowship pretty hard in order to kill or separate his Companions as quickly as possible.

That, or accidentally bump the table as you're going for another beer.

[SevenSpirits]

djarv,

You can counter the FSP rush strategy by bringing out both minions as soon as possible, and attacking quickly.
You will want to put either 1 or two dice in the hunt.
Use the WK to draw character cards as often as possible. You want to draw stop tiles, Worn With Sorrow and Toil, and Cruel Weather and Nazgul Search. (Both of which can stall for a turn by preventing FSP declaring in Mordor when used as the last action of the turn.)
You should easily get 5-8 points from Gondor and Rohan with just your standing armies plus a few extra Isengard elites. Grab 2-5 more from the DEW-line.

[djarv]

SevenSpirits said:

djarv,

You can counter the FSP rush strategy....

Well, he really doesn't use a 'Rush' strategy, at least not in the sense I understand it. He uses a 'use all the Companions as cannon fodder's strategy. He doesn't usually take risks with the Fellowship, is very conscientious about hiding at the end of every turn and basically plays a very 'tight' strategy. The only time I remember beating him was when he entered Mordor with 3 corruption, got mauled by Shelob (6 damage), and horrible tile draws.

As to the 'Early Minions' strategy, I tend to favor the opposite approach: hold the Minions back until 2 or 3 solid armies are at the borders of the enemy, don't attack or bring any FP nations into war until the initial onslaught, and wait for a good die roll (2 Musters for the SP, no Wills for the FP) to bring the Saruman and the Witch King in.

The fact that I've been less than successful is due mostly to his skilled playing and my feeble tactical ability.

And of course I play Nazgul Search, Cruel Weather, etc. as much as possible but that squirmy hobbit always seems to sneak through.

[kwojtasz]

If the FP try to go it with only 4 dice, I would put 3 eyes in the hunt box a turn. With so few FP dice, bad rolls can really have an impact and if you continually force them to have a high probability of having to hide once a turn, it is tough for the FP to get a nice hidden run on the fellowship track.

I've also experienced heavy hunt dice early (3-4/turn) until the fellowship is revealed outside of Rivendale. Then a shadow army and nazgul moves into the last revealed position to get hunt re-rolls. Forcing the FP to continue to reveal can limit their chances to doing the quick run through Moria.