Fantasy Fellowship

 With the recent release of Quest of the Ringbearer, the Drawn Combat crew had a think about who they'd want in their Fantasy Fellowship - a great addition to play through the campaign with a Fellowship of your own design. Safe to say it looks like we had some different themes and concepts in mind between the four of us, so let's dive in!

Dave:
As soon as Games Workshop announced Quest of the Ringbearer, I was immediately excited by the idea of Fantasy Fellowship. I remember reading about it in an older issue of White Dwarf and at the time I didn't play SBG, but I remember thinking it was such a good idea!

Well, Jay Clare has outdone himself this time! Fantasy Fellowship is incredibly well put together, and there's been a lot of hype around it already. Naturally, I had to have a go at my own, whilst I love the original Fellowship, I couldn't help but wonder how they would have done on their quest if, lets say Gandalf, was replaced by Radagast! Here's what I put together for mine

Frodo was still my Ringbearer, I love Frodo, so I couldn't get rid of him! Sam was also not replaced, honestly, who could get rid of Sam!? In place of Merry and Pippin I've gone with Gaffer Gamgee and Farmer Maggot... They're just lke Merry and Pippin but older, right? Gandalf was replaced with Radagast, I'd loved to have replaced him with Gildor, but alas that model is long out of production.

In place of Aragron, Legolas and Gimli I've gone for Halbarad (with his Banner), Faramir and Haldir respectively. I absolutely love all 3 of these characters. Halbarad is great in the books, and Faramir is one of my favourite characters in the whole series. Controversially aswell, I really like Haldir from the films, when he shows up at Helms Deep. Finally, in place of Boromir, Prince Imrahil joins my Fantasy Fellowship. Again, he's an absolutely fantastic character!

I can't wait to give these guys a go on the table as soon as I can, I've already painted them all up!

Colm:

The theme of my Fantasy Fellowship is family and how they come together to support each other during their quest. Bilbo decides to take on the quest to destroy the ring after his 111th birthday, and his nephew Frodo comes as his companion to support him. Bilbo’s old friend Gaffer Gamgee won’t let him go alone and Sam won’t let either Frodo or the Gaffer leave him behind. 

Gandalf and Legolas are replaced by the husband and wife team of Galadriel and Celebron, destined to be separated by the Balrog in Moria. Gimli and Boromir’s spots are taken by Elladan and Elrohir with tragedy in store at Amon Hen. Lastly, Aragorn has long been known as a loner patrolling the wilds, but he is the perfect leader to bring the fellowship together as the 9th member and rightful king of men.

When pulling this force together I was struck by how many possibilities there were for fellowship compositions and stories to be told. I almost made Celebron Boromir’s replacement, but his death would be before he discovered his wife had lived was a Shakespearean level of tragedy I couldn’t handle. Elrohir will instead have to spend a large chunk of his quest grieving for his brother. This also allows for some interesting story telling in how the twins’ special rules are carried across the campaign. 

After writing this I’m already itching to get working on the next one! Hopefully some games will be possible before too long to see how this Fellowship gets on.

Dan Slob:

I love the idea of doing a fantasy fellowship campaign, I think it lends itself to doing something theme-y better than anything else in the hobby. With that in mind (and also with the thought that I wanted to only use models I own) I came up with the following:

Frodo with Sting and Mithril Coat

Sam

Gandalf 

Boromir, Captain of the White Tower (Aragorn) with Flag and Shield

Faramir (Legolas) with Bow

Hurin the Tall (Gimli)

Denethor (Boromir)

Beregond (Pippin)

Damrod (Merry)

I call this The Strength of Men. The idea here is that Gandalf has taken Frodo and Sam to Gondor for their aid. Frodo has his gifts from Bilbo who gave them to him before they left. Sam needs nothing more than his frying pan. 

Boromir is, of course, the mightiest warrior Gondor has so he will replace Aragorn. He has brought along his Banner of Minas Tirith because he has heard about “stealth” and wants no truck with it.

Faramir replaces Legolas as he is also pretty hot with a bow and has always felt that he could take down a Mumak single handedly. He’ll be competing for kills with Hurin the TALL who replaces Gimli (see what I did there?). No boxes needed for this giant, and he probably won’t need tossing across the gap to the causeway, he can just stride over it! 

Denethor is replacing his son as the one who goes mad and tries to take the ring. This definitely seemed like something Denethor would do, but at least now he has the chance to redeem himself by protecting the little ones; Beregond and Damrod. These two troublemakers are always smoking on the walls of Minas Tirirth and stealing old farmer Madril’s carrots. 

Gandalf is reprising his role as himself as he’s always enjoyed the bright lights of the big city. 

And so it came to pass that Gondor’s mightiest heroes did sally forth from Minas Tirith to do battle with Sauron. Though their path may be long and treacherous, the strength of men will conquer all. 

Steve:

As I did in our Evil Fellowship article - it's time for a heist.

Bilbo Baggins (Frodo)

Hamfast 'Gaffer' Gamgee (Sam)

Radagast the Brown (Gandalf)

Aldor (Merry)

Denethor (Pippin)

Celeborn (Aragorn)

Eómer (Boromir)

Rumil (Legolas)

Floi Stonehand (Gimli)

Bilbo Baggins is our main man, and he's getting the old gang and a few new faces together for one last job. When I say old, I mean old. The new faces are needed since most of my Fellowship are getting pretty far on in their years and are about to go out in one last hurrah. Gaffer, his long time friend, is along for the ride but he's not all to happy about it - and he'll let Bilbo know it was a bad idea! For a caper like this, you always need a Wizard. Unfortunately Gandalf was needed at the West End so Radagast filled in at the last second - not entirely a bad decision though as he has a guy on the inside...it's Sebastian. Sebastian is his guy on the inside. Who doesn't want to see some fun hedgehog infiltration shenanigans?

For the rest of the crew, they had to wake up Aldor, nearly got shot in the process but who knows when those twitchy reflexes will come in handy? Denethor seems a bit sketchy, but no doubt Bilbo has some plans up ahead for an inevitable double-cross twist regarding his potential liability. Floi, being the longtime bookkeeper for the crews ill gotten gains was brought back on with his encyclopedic knowledge of what they'd have to get through and how to use it against the enemy. Whilst not looking old, he certainly is in years as Celeborn brings some of his stoic-ness and level-headed thinking to the table - but not too bad in a punch up either. 

The young blood is brought in the form of Rumil - the blade man who no-one is taking down in a hurry, and Eómer brought on as the getaway driver in the end (although, as we know with the story of the Fellowship, it was a one way journey - and Eómer's ends sooner than the rest...).

What do you think to our Fellowships? We certainly had fun writing them. Let us know what choices you've made for yours along with any fun themes you're running with!