My friends and I have been playing the Lord of the Rings (and Hobbit) SBG for a number of years but have recently embarked upon our first game using the War of the Ring Rules. Following this game, we have a couple of questions about the rules mainly relating to the composition of formations:

• We have made the assumption that formations can split or join during the Move Phase. Is this correct?
• Must formations be made of companies that are exactly the same? There are subset questions about this as examples:
o Example 1: can a High Elf Regiment company be in the same formation as a High Elf Archer Regiment? If this is possible, how is the fight value of the formation determined as the former company has glaives (+1 to Fight value) and the latter does not? This issue could apply to formations of the same race with companies armed with different weapons and armour.
o Example 2: can a Hobbit Archer Militia Company be in the same formation as a Rangers of Arnor Company? If so, again how are the differing values of the companies resolved with regards to the overall values of the formation?
o Example 3: There is a formation of four companies of Warg Rider Warbands and two of the companies are armed with bows and two are not. Firstly, is this permissable or must all companies in the formation be armed with bows (or not)? If it is an allowed formation, must the bow armed companies be in the front rank so they are not firing over their comrades?
• Can a company with half of it's compliment voluntary split from one formation in order to move across the battlefield to join another formation?
o In our game, a Warg Rider Warband company with only one rider voluntarily split from a formation of 3 companies in order to move across the battlefield (in 3 moves) to join another Warg Rider Warband formation which was hard pressed at that time. Is this allowed or would the depleted company be removed as soon as it split?
• Do you suggest any advantages/disadvantages for charging down or up hill? Historically, many battles were determined by who held the high ground. We have suggested a +2 dice bonus to a down hill charge and a -2 dice penalty for charging up hill. This could be varied depending on the degree of slope of the hill. Does this sound like and appropriate rule?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hmm

1. No formations cannot split or join at all. each formation is always separate.

2. Each formation must consist only of companies from the troop type it is made of. You cannot have mix-and-match formations. They also all have to have the same wargear.

3. Both of the above are made very clear in the WotR rulebook. I suggest you reread more thoroughly.

4. The House Rule about hills isn't needed but you can do it if you like as a house rule, but I wouldn't bother with varying hill slope modifiers if I were you.

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