So i recently purchased the FoTr journey book, im planning on playing through it with some friends and before i do so i would like to know if anyone knows of any scenarios which are particularly unbalanced. I'm guessing that the first few and the last few are bit unbalanced towards the good team, im thinking of replacing some wraiths with castellans and carrying any surviving dunedain/wraiths into future scenarios, as a one trick pony, I.E 5 dunedain are alive by the end of all the dunedain scenarios so they can be deployed in ONE future scenario.

I've found them to be fairly balanced - some are a bit difficult to win for one side, but that's part of what makes them so fun. As you mentioned, scenario 1 is weighted towards the good side, but evil can win it. There is a "linking the scenarios" option in the back of the book that has special rules on carrying things over/replenishing M/W/F. If you want to see the balance, check out the "alternative forces" boxes to give you an idea of the relative points values of the forces involved.

Thanks for the input, i reckon we'll be throwing a few unnecessary trolls into certain scenarios to balance it out and whatnot. Yeah i checked out the replenishing rules but i have no idea if the dunedain in the 2nd scenario are meant to be the same as the dunedain in the first (or the one later with gandalf) so i dunno if replenishing their W/MWF is necessary or not. The "balance" is kinda incorrect at times. Scenario 15 claims that the forces should be of equal value, yet 24 gobbos, 18 wargs, a warg chief and 2 gobbo captains is nowhere near the points value of the fellowship+haldir ans his homeboys.

Here's the one rule that I would use over what's written in the books:

Will you and your opponent have more fun by adding models? If so, GO FOR IT!

I'd suggest that you play them as is as you are only guessing that the scenarios are unbalanced and don't work. And if you feel that one side won to easily then play again, and again and learn by playing and tactics rather than just adding in models.

Agreed. Points matches are appropriate for the scenarios in LoME and OR book, for example, where your goals are pretty even. But in the Journey Book scenarios you have opposing goals. You don't necessarily need a "balanced force" to have a balanced game.

As suggested, try them out. If Evil or Good are won easily, then look at the tactics rather than the force. Did your Goblins charge in one-on-one against any Fellowship powerhouses or try to kill all the enemies when all you had to do was kill a couple Hobbits? Did you send Gimli in solo against a bunch of forces that easily surrounded him? Did you try to stop the Balrog by putting Pippin on the bridge? You get the idea.

Make sure you are focused on the goal of the scenario (it's rarely "kill everything"), and look at your forces strong and weak points compared to theirs. I think you will find all of them can go either way (though obviously there will be some that are skewed in the direction of Good).

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Beowulf

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Okay thanks for all the help, we'll play the scenarios through and edit them for our next playthrough. One last thing, would it be smart to put another "haven" in right before the fog on the barrow downs scenario, since the hobbits stay at tom bombadils, where they heal and whatnot, or should i just play it by the book?

P.S anyone else notice how in the lothlorien scenario, it says the good side should have gandalf, even though he just died in moria

There's a couple of special rules for each scenario that makes the game play interesting with the participants involved. Like the fact that the Ringwraiths act like Sentries in Scenario 3 and the Evil player can still the move of the fleeing Hobbits if they fail their courage....



It's mentioned as a mistake in the FAQ about the sourcebook.

Fellowship of the Ring FAQ