I love this game, and the way it balances the creation of "plausible" scenarios for the unfolding of the War without seriously railroading the players into certain choices is just doozy. But there is one thing that continues to bug me. Companions always seem to get used as hunt fodder. With the exception of Strider - who usually peels off with the intention of becoming Aragorn - they rarely leave the fellowship and just get eaten up to see off hunt tiles.

This seems a real shame to me, not least because it's not terribly thematic but because there's a decent weight of rules devoted to companions being used to activate/advance Free People nations on the track.

So - does everyone else tend to sacrifice companions to the hunt or is this just some groupthink that's arisen with my opponents? Does anyone have any house rule suggestions to make splitting companions a bit more attractive as an option?

To be honest, I usually separate companions to add combat/leadership dice to strongholds that are about to be beseiged. As your troop number dips below five, Boromir, Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn each keep you rolling 5 dice. Furthermore, there are combat cards that help make the placement of those guys even stronger, saving you hits or preventing the shadow from rolling dice. Even the hobbits can provide valuable leader rerolls in strongholds, and they can be retroactively separated (using their Guide or Taken Alive abilities).

To top it all off, I generally want as few companions in Mordor as possible. Preferably, just Smeagol, so those who aren't killed are generally separated as they pass near the DEWline or Rohan/Gondor (depending on which route I took to Mordor).

Most of the games I've played are fairly cinematic that way, and I've even held The Last Battle while my fellowship motored through Mordor (it was a poor game for the shadow, for Minis Tirith to have been saved by Aragorn and Gandalf, and for an offensive to be launched on Mordor).

If the shadow player is playing a quick military game with minions and such out, while leaving only one eye in the pool, it has been (for me) a good practice to separate companions to help defend. Your mileage may vary, of course.

mattdp said:

Are you using the expansion? In my experience companions are separated a little more often with that. You'll probably want a companion in Fangorn to motivate the Ents, so GtW is free to supprot fights against the Nazgul. Otherwise companions separate mostly to use FP cards like There and Back Again etc. Which is fine by me.

I've seen the companions used as fodder as well - more often than not. It does depend a lot on how aggressive the SP is with his hunts. Personally I was always a little disappointed that Gimli and Legolas didn't have a sort of combo power when in the same battle