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The FellowshipThe Fellowship of the Ring is the key to your success as the Free Peoples player. Managed correctly it will assure you a good chance of winning but managed poorly it will be your undoing for sure. As soon as the Fellowship reaches Mount Doom in Mordor you win. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Unfortunately the road is not as easy at it first might seem. The Shadow player will use everything in his power to slow you down and using the One Ring to slip away has its price. Remember that the Companions in the Fellowship are there to protect Frodo. Let them do just that; don't hesitate to sacrifice them to keep the Corruption low and the Fellowship moving. Gandalf is the first one you want to sacrifice, so he can be turned into his more powerful incarnation; just remember not to sacrifice him to avoid one measly Corruption point. The exception to this is of course, Strider, who you want to separate and move to Gondor where he can be crowned as the rightful heir to Isildur. Always hide the Fellowship as soon as you can since the Shadow has a few nasty cards that he can hit the Fellowship with once they are revealed. Strider's ability to hide the Fellowship with any action die comes in handy here. Once you have "heroically sacrificed" Gandalf the Grey, Strider becomes the guide of the Fellowship. Here he should stay until he can reach Gondor or Rohan if you happen to have the card "Dead Men of Dunharrow." Since you must destroy the Ring before the Shadow manages to conquer Middle Earth and capture his ten victory points, you might say that speed is of the essence. Try to move the Fellowship as often as you can; this will depend on the number of character dice you roll and how many dice the Shadow player has in the Hunt box. With three or fewer, try to move twice if you can, and if there are only one or two dice use an Elven ring if possible to hasten the movement of the Fellowship. Another factor is how many Hunt re-rolls the Shadow player has managed to get; flying Nazgūl to the region with the Fellowship is easy, moving an army unit there is not as easy. Please consult the following table when calculating the odds for successfully rolling for the Hunt.
If you concentrate too much on the politics and the armies of the Free Peoples the result will be a slow or nonmoving Fellowship. However there is also a thing as moving the Fellowship too often - it is not only speed but also secrecy that is of the essence. Moving the Fellowship more than once per turn while there are more than three Hunt dice in the Hunt box might prove a grave mistake, since the biggest speed bums for you are the Corruption points you suffer; you can only heal them one per turn when resting in a Free Peoples' City or Stronghold. As we are on the subject of Corruption points, let us take a closer look at how to manage them. The first rule you must learn is that it takes longer for you to heal them than it takes for your opponent to force them on you. Try to use your Companions as shields as often as it seems prudent (i.e. when faced with a "two" or a "three" tile it might be wise to sacrifice the guide, as long as it isn't Strider, or to take a random casualty, but don't sacrifice a randomly selected Companion as a casualty if your opponent draws a "one" tile). The second rule is to plan ahead. Where can Frodo rest and heal to reduce those Corruption points already suffered? Depending on the route you take (which will be discussed later) you will have at least one Free Peoples' City or Stronghold to rest in, unless the Shadow captures it before you get there. If you plan to survive the trek across the plains of Gorgoroth, Frodo cannot have sustained too much Corruption on the way; if Corruption is reaching five or higher you should consider stopping to rest somewhere along the way. Reducing Corruption takes time, but there is no point in rushing towards certain death on the slopes of Mount Doom either. Deciding if and for how long you should rest can be tricky. You must take many variables into consideration: How many victory points has the Shadow accumulated? How long will it take for him to reach ten? How much more Corruption will Frodo suffer before reaching Mordor? What Hunt tiles are left in the pool and which special tiles are in play? All these things must be closely paid attention to in order to make the right choice, as you decide if and for how long you need to and can afford to rest. There are five viable routes for the Fellowship in order to reach Mordor. Let us examine them.
Marked on the map in green is the shortest possible way to Mordor; running through Moria, this is ten Regions on the map and has the friendly Stronghold of Lorien directly in its path if you need to stop to Heal a Corrupted Frodo. The route through the ancient Dwarven mines is a risk though; the Shadow Stronghold of Moria can prove more of a problem than you bargained for. If a Shadow Hunt tile reveals you as you are passing through or entering you will suffer one additional Hunt tile. This can cause enough Corruption to make your chosen path a bad decision, since the time it takes to Heal the Corruption might be as long or even longer than if you had chosen a different path. The worst possible scenario is if you are revealed and you end the Fellowship's move in Moria, since this will generate Hunt re-rolls for the Shadow as well as another additional Hunt tile drawn if you are revealed as you try to sneak out. There is one slightly longer way (marked in blue) that goes through the Old Forest Road in Mirkwood. If you are revealed on the third step out from Rivendell this is most often the wisest choice of direction, since the other option is to end your Fellowship move in the Shadow Stronghold of Moria. The big advantage with this route is that it will easily allow you to separate a Companion to activate the North and/or the Dwarves, and if you need to rest, both The Woodland Realm and Dale are close by, only adding a Region or two to the distance to Mordor. There is however, a big risk in taking this road, since the Shadow will most likely send an army from either Dol Guldur or Rhūn to take Dale before the Fellowship arrives. The Dol Guldur army can also be used to occupy the Old Forest Road from where it threatens both The Woodland Realm and Dale and it will provide the Shadow with some nasty Hunt re-rolls if the Fellowship is revealed. If unable to Heal in The Woodland Realm or Dale, this route might prove disastrous, since no other healing point exists on the way to Morannon. There are also two possible ways (marked in orange) that are twelve regions on the map - somewhat longer than both the Moria route and the way through the Old Forest Road. The first goes through the Goblin Gate to the north of Moria and also has the advantage of having Lorien directly in its way as the Fellowship turns south. Another big advantage is that it will bring the Fellowship not too far from Erebor and the Woodland Realm if you need to send some Companions there, perhaps to use a card or simply to activate the Dwarven nation. The other, equally long way is south through the Gap of Rohan. This is probably the wisest choice if you are revealed early; on step two out from Rivendell and then again as you try to enter Moria. You don't want to end your Fellowship's movement in Moria and you don't want to double back north towards the Goblin Gate, so you decide to head south on the west side of the mountains. This route has one very good advantage: it has both Helm's Deep and Edoras close at hand if you need to rest and heal. Unfortunately it also has a rather nasty side effect: your way will be filled with Uruk-Hais of the White Hand tracking your every move as you move south through Dunland. This could result in several successful Hunt rolls and more Corruption. Finally there is a very seldom-used option (marked in red) and that is to move the Fellowship along the western edge of Middle Earth and then into the land of Gondor from the west. This is fourteen regions on the map and has the same drawbacks as trying to move through Dunland and the Gap of Rohan. However the situation in Rohan could be that it has been overrun by the forces of Saruman and as a result the tracking Uruks might tag along all through Rohan as well and the havens of Helm's Deep and Edoras might no longer belong to the Free Peoples and therefore no longer provide a place for rest and healing. This might force you to choose the somewhat longer route into Gondor for safe passage and somewhere to heal. Remember to keep the Fellowship moving and the Corruption at a minimum, at the cost of the lives of the Companions if need be. With these final words I leave you to go and try to find what strategy works best for you. Written by Kristofer Bengtsson |
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