If Frodo is to reach the Crack of Doom and undo The One Ring he must be looked after and taken care of not only by his trusted and inseparable friend Samwise but also by those representative of the Free Peoples of the West who have chosen to go with him on his perilous journey across Middle-earth. These Companions have many useful abilities, some that work when they are in the Fellowship and some that only work once they have been separated. Let us take a closer look at the different Companions and how to manage the Fellowship as a unit.

Gandalf

  Let us begin with the Guide of the Fellowship; at least he starts the game as it, Gandalf the Grey. Gandalf the Grey has the very potent power of letting you draw a new Event Card if you play one with an Event Action Die (or a Will of the West Action Die). This power should be used to its maximum in the beginning of the game to get access to as many Event Cards as possible. Gandalf the Grey’s other ability, "Captain of the West", can be useful outside the Fellowship as it allows an Army led by Gandalf the Grey to roll an extra attack die when in combat (up to the maximum of five dice). He also has the power to activate any Free Peoples nation. Gandalf the Grey’s best use is however his ability to protect Frodo from a Hunt damage of up to three and as the Guide he can be sacrificed to do this and still be brought back to life as his more potent incarnation, Gandalf the White, with a Will of the West Action Die result.

Gandalf the White is your best Companion and even if he has lost his "Captain of the West" ability he now has the ability to negate all Nazgûl Leadership by forfeiting his own point of Leadership whenever he is in a combat with Nazgûl. This doesn’t only negate the Leadership of those pesky flying wraiths; it also makes several of the Shadow’s combat effects (e.g. "Dread and Despair", "They are Terrible", and "Foul Stench") unusable. Your opponent will most likely try to stay away from Gandalf the White with his Nazgûl and the Witch-king, if possible.

Gandalf the White’s other ability is actually his horse, "Shadowfax". With Shadowfax, Gandalf the White, and a Hobbit, can move four regions on the game board, making it possible to reach most hot spots fairly quickly. If you bring him back in Lorien (or manage to get him there in another way) he can reach Carrock, the Fords of Isen, Helm’s Deep, Edoras, Fangorn, Osgiliath, and Minas Tirith in one move, from Dimrill Dale he can in addition to those Regions listed above also reach the Woodland Realm and Dale. Remember that the Shadow cannot kill him if he is on his own, so placing Gandalf alone in a Region is sometimes the wise thing to do in order to avoid getting him killed (and losing that precious extra Action Die) with an Army.

With Gandalf the White in play you also enable the Ents to come into play through the use of the three "The Ents Awake" Event Cards ("Treebeard", "Entmoot", and "Huorns"). However, to play these cards not only does Gandalf the White have to be in play, you also need a Companion in Fangorn. Having Gandalf himself in Fangorn solves this in a nice way and gives you the added bonus of being able to play them all in one action. Placing Gandalf the White (or any Companion when Gandalf the White is in play) in Fangorn will make the Shadow player uneasy and force him to garrison Orthanc in case of an Ent attack. From Fangorn Gandalf the White can reach Lorien, the Fords of Isen, Helm’s Deep, Edoras, Osgiliath, Pelargir, and Minas Tirith in one move so if you need him somewhere fast that is still a possibility even if you have put him on Ent-rousing duty. The draw-back is of course that with Gandalf the White in Fangorn you are not using him to lead a Free Peoples Army and negate Nazgûl Leadership in combat.

All these powers are very good but we have yet to look at Gandalf the White’s greatest power, the fact that with him you get an additional Action Die. With the extra die you get one more action per turn and one cannot emphasize enough how important this is since you need all the actions you can get in order to keep even steps with the Shadow. Just remember that you will lose the Action Die if the Shadow manages to kill Gandalf the White.

Strider (and Aragorn)

  Strider can be equally good a Guide as Gandalf the Grey since he can hide a revealed Fellowship with any Action Die, saving those precious Character Action Die results for moving the Fellowship or your Companions on the map. If you end a turn with the Fellowship revealed it might be a good idea to replace Gandalf as Guide with Strider, in the Fellowship phase, to make sure that you can hide the Fellowship immediately at the start of the Action Resolution phase. This can save you from some of those nasty Event Cards the Shadow can play on a revealed Fellowship.

Strider, just as Gandalf the Grey, can reduce a Hunt tile with three, but if Strider falls protecting Frodo he is gone for good, so this is generally not a good idea. Outside the Fellowship Strider can be used to strengthen any Free Peoples Army, both with his Leadership and with his "Captain of the West" ability. He can also be used to activate the North nation. These abilities can be useful in the right circumstance but to put Strider to his best use you should keep him as the Guide (once Gandalf the Grey is gone) and then as the Fellowship has moved far enough south you separate him and send him towards Gondor, or Rohan if you have the "Dead Men of Dunharrow" card.

Once Strider reaches Minas Tirith, Pelargir, or Dol Amroth you can crown him as Aragorn, Heir to Isildur with a Will of the West Action Die. As Aragorn, he retains his "Captain of the West" ability and his Leadership rises from one to two, the Leader re-rolls he provides can be very important, especially when defending in a siege. Remember that as soon as Strider becomes Aragorn he gains the ability to activate Gondor (and any other Free People’s nation), so if Strider reaches an inactive Gondor he automatically activates them as he turns into Aragorn, Heir to Isildur. Just remember that in order to crown Strider you must reach Gondor before it falls to the Shadow.

As with Gandalf the White Aragorn’s greatest power is not any of his abilities, or his superior Leadership; it is the extra Action Die he provides. Just make sure he isn’t killed.

Boromir, Gimli, and Legolas

  Boromir’s use in the Fellowship is in reducing Hunt damage by sacrificing himself or by using the Character Event Card "Horn of Gondor". Outside of the Fellowship Boromir has a Leadership of one and can strengthen a Free People’s Army with his "Captain of the West" ability. If Gondor is still passive when the Fellowship has moved far enough for Boromir to reach Gondor you could separate him to activate it. However, that late in the game Gondor could already be active and his presence might be more needed in the Fellowship, unless you also hold the card "House of the Stewards", in which case you might want to put him, and the card, to good use by reinforcing one of Gondor’s Armies.

Gimli, son of Gloin, is somewhat more useful than Boromir, they have the same Leadership, the same "Captain of the West" ability, and can reduce Corruption equally well. However, the protection card associated with Gimli, "Axe and Bow", is also associated with Legolas, which makes it more reliable. And since Gimli can activate the Dwarven nation, which is easier reached early in the game, especially if the Fellowship is taking the route through the Goblin's Gate region, Gimli is more often separated than Boromir.

Of the three level two Companions, Legolas is probably the least useful outside of the Fellowship. The Elven nation is already active at the start of the game and his ability to use any Action Die to advance them on the political track is of small use unless you go for a military win from turn one. Together with Gimli he can maintain the protection card "Axe and Bow" and put it to good use when protecting Frodo. Because of all this Legolas should, once Gandalf the Grey and Strider have left the Fellowship, be the Guide, and sacrificed to protect Frodo unless "Axe and Bow" is in play, and Gimli already has parted.

The Hobbit Companions

  Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took have the Guide ability to separate to reduce Hunt damage with one. Together they can both be separated to reduce the Hunt damage by two without any of them dying (unless the Fellowship is on the Mordor track where all Companions who separate become casualties). It is also important to remember that if any one of them is eliminated while in the Fellowship they are separated instead - this might just give you that Leadership boost that one of your Armies is in need of.

Outside the Fellowship they both can act as Leaders for the Armies of the Free Peoples and have the especially good Combat Effect “Blade of Westernesse” connected to them, but as they can act as Corruption absorbers without being eliminated they should probably stay with the Fellowship for as long as they can.

Gollum

When all other Companions have left, or been eliminated, Gollum shows himself and takes over the role as Guide of the Fellowship. As all Character Acion Die results needed to move the Fellowship are valuable, Gollum’s ability to ignore any reveal icons (unless they are on the Shadow’s special tiles or the “Eye” tiles) is very useful indeed. His other ability is almost as good - being able to reduce Hunt damage by one by revealing the Fellowship, when the tile did not, can literally win you the game in the end.

Strategy Tips

To successfully manage your Fellowship you must assign different tasks to the different Companions. Who is to act as defender of Frodo and who is needed outside of the Fellowship to activate nations or to be promoted to a more powerful Character?

Gandalf the Grey is probably best used to take a "two" or "three" Hunt damage by sacrificing himself early on, since he can then be brought back as Gandalf the White. This plan might not always work since the Hunt tiles drawn might be "zeros" and "ones" and suddenly the Fellowship is half way to Mordor before the opportunity to "heroically sacrifice" Gandalf arrives. If you end up with, or decide to keep, Gandalf in the Fellowship for some time make sure you use his Guide ability when playing Event Cards.

Along with Gandalf, Strider is the only one of the Companions that you want to separate most of the time. Crowning him in Gondor to get that extra Action Die is definitely something you always should try to achieve. However the situation where Pelargir, Dol Amroth, and Minas Tirith all have fallen to the Shadow can happen before Strider can reach these Settlements, and if that happens he is the best Guide available as the Fellowship approaches Mordor.

The rest of the Companions should be considered Corruption shields primarily and only if you have the right Event Card, or are in need of activating a nation, should you separate them from the Fellowship. The exception might be the Hobbits; since they have the ability to activate any Free Peoples nation, one of them might be separated together with Strider if he is heading for an inactive Rohan. You must use your own wits when trying to discern if any of the Companions are better needed outside the Fellowship, but never ever separate anyone unless you have a proper plan for them.

You might be forced to separate some Companions as the result of some Shadow Event Card, like "The Breaking of the Fellowship", and then the separated Companion’s role in the War of the Ring will change. Now you have the opportunity to move them to where you think they are most needed. Leaving them sitting in an empty region is most of the time a waste of your precious resources.

There is a very different approach to the use of the Companions from the one we so far have been examining, and that is the strategy to separate all Companions from the Fellowship from the beginning to have them lead the Armies of the Free Peoples, in an all-out attempt at winning a Military Victory - we will look at that strategy in a later article.

Written by Kristofer Bengtsson

Tags: Kristofer Bengtsson, Strategy, War of the Ring