The "Council of Rivendell" rules from the Lords of Middle-earth expansion can alter the game play of War of the Ring Second Edition quite extensively. With Companions beginning the game outside of the Fellowship, you can make the military aspect of the game easier for Free Peoples of Middle-earth; with the alternate Strider guiding the Fellowship, the Hunt for the Ring can end up being less dangerous.

Let us have a look at how you can use these alternate Companions.

Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli

These alternate versions of Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli all have the Guide ability to separate from the Fellowship to reduce the Hunt damage by one. This means that you are able to both protect Frodo, albeit to a lesser degree than the “normal” version, and to use them outside the Fellowship to strengthen the Armies of the Free Peoples, without spending a valuable action to separate them.

If two, or three, of them are in the Fellowship you could potentially string their Guide abilities together to separate them all, while at the same time reducing Hunt damage with as many points as the number of Companions you choose to separate.

Once outside the Fellowship, they will still add their Leadership to a Free Peoples Army they are with, but they no longer automatically add one to the Army’s Combat Strength, like the “normal” version of these three Companions did, as they only have this ability when defending their home nation. This makes them less useful when fighting outside their nation’s borders, and much less useful in a Free Peoples Military Victory attempt.

Meriadoc and Peregrin, Hobbits of the Shire

If both of the alternate versions of the hobbits are in the Fellowship, and one of them is the Guide, they can be eliminated together to cancel a drawn standard Hunt tile. For this reason you should, if you decide to use one of them as part of the Fellowship, use the alternate versions of both Meriadoc and Peregrin.

Outside the Fellowship, both hobbits have, in addition to the same abilities that Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli have, the uncanny ability to stay alive even when an Army they are with is destroyed. This ability is most useful if you have the hobbit(s) in a Free Peoples Army adjacent to another Free Peoples Army. This should not be underestimated, as the presence of a hobbit will not only increase the Leadership of the Army by one, it will also grant the Free Peoples player access to all the Combat Cards that require the presence of a Companion, including the ever powerful “Blade of Westernesse.”

Strider, Dúnadan

The alternate version of Strider does not have the option of beginning the game outside the Fellowship nor does he have any new abilities once separated from the Fellowship. Strider, Dúnadan’s new Guide ability, however, can make the Hunt for the ring less hazardous as the first Action Die used to move the Fellowship in a turn does not go to the Hunt box, if the Fellowship Progress marker is on step 1 or higher on the Fellowship Track.

As the Fellowship progresses towards Mordor, Strider, Dúnadan’s Guide ability can be put to good use, all the way to Mordor if needed, as fewer dice in the Hunt box can help in keeping the Fellowship hidden. Staying hidden means less Action Dice needed to hide the Fellowship, and can often be worth as much as the additional Action Die Aragorn, Heir to Isildur provides.

However, once the Fellowship enters Mordor, the Guide ability becomes useless as the Fellowship Progress marker is no longer advanced on the Fellowship Track. Therefor you should try to separate him, and try to get him to Gondor, if possible, before the final leg of the Fellowship’s quest is begun.

*This is the third and last article of the Strategy series written by Kristofer Bengtsson for Lords of Middle-earth players.

Tags: Kristofer Bengtsson, Lords of Middle-earth, Strategy, War of the Ring