Is it possible to competitively field a fell beast without the Shadowlord? Or will it just get shot down too easily. I really like fell beasts, but really dislike the Shadowlord. Unfortunately it seems that I'll have to use his Appallingness if I want my fell beast to survive till turn four.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Of course you can use him effectively. I know a person who used 4 fellbeasts(Including Witch-king) as his evil force in the tournament and came 3rd...

The Undying or the Knight of Umbar in SBG are good on fell beasts.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

If you don't like him don't use him... (Really it's not only they named them, he is my less favourite...)

Exactly, I have just handed you two alternatives on a plate.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Darkmarshall isn't bad on a fell beast. his banner is bigger on teh beast as the base is wider so while he is behind your lines he covers more men, then when he pounces you have F6 and monstrous mount

I like the umbar dude and the undying on fellbeasts
The betrayer is good if you win combat as the poison rule makes the fellbeast even better.
Kamul... eating people to stay alive is quite cool but not massively effective except vs troops.

The balance is pts and purpose. SL can do many jobs including ride his beast. Normall Ringwraiths mostly do 1 job well. Combat hero. You can't caste effectively while using a fellbeast unless you are the undying and there is another caster around. DM adds banner, betrayer adds poison, umbar adds his cool stat stealer. Kamul eats people to stay alive

I kind of feel that my point has been bypassed. I know that there are other Nazgul who can cause a lot of damage on a fell beast, but that isn't my problem. Rather, my question is will a fell beast without the Shadowlord be durable enough? Or will, as I suspect, get shot down far too easily. I'm not asking for how best to attack my enemy with my fell beast, I'm asking how to protect it best.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

The Undying and the Knight of Umbar are more durable IMO. THe Undying regains will when magic is used and The KoU doesn't lose will if he wins. These will last longer than the Shadow Lord IMO, because they will survive combat.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Khamul on Fell beast ought to work as well, he regains will if he wounds, and he has 2 (3 if he charges) str 6 attacks. He should be able to kill any normal warrior he comes across, allowing him to survive multiple rounds of combat.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
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No, they don't get shot down easily

Thank you, that's what I'm looking for.

However, could you please explain why my fell beast will not be shot. I've calculated that just twelve archers (with normal bows and a shoot value of 4+) will shoot it down in three turns.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Why would you be standing in the open in front of 12 archers for 3 turns? =)

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My LotR and 40k blog, Realm of Battle board, dwarves, gobs, space wolves and battle reports. http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com/

It's nearer 5 turns as a third will hit the rider, you will aslo be shooting his archers and hopefully be using terrain to block shots to reduce hits and depending on rider in combat anyway.

Expect itis elves your fellbeast will survive at least 5 turns(expect if your opponent is lucky)... Don't forget that 50% of them hit your Fell-beast and only 1/6(as it needs 6) will wound it... So 1/6 to 1/3 that shoots him... 1/12 shoots will by statistics wound him... But in reality it usually is even harder than the statistics... So keep it hidden behin and terrain and watch the elves and espesially Legolas

Well, obviously I will try to prevent line of sight between my opponent's archers and my fell beast, but being such a tall model it is difficult.

Perhaps the solution is to stay further than 24in away, but send the rest of my army forward. When my army reaches his, then send my fell beast forward. That way he'll have a maximum of two turns to shoot, and hopefully some of his archers will be occupied in combat.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

I'm not sure that is necessary, but if you think he won't survive otherwise do so

Besides, you shouldn't send it ahead on it's own.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

I hav read reports if a guy that used Giant eagle in tournaments and always sent it first... Such way it is only useful for reconoitre

Yes, I suppose it is scenario specific, most of the time that is not the best idea in the world (unless your flying monster is a dragon in which case, they are so tough anyway, they won't be taking much serious damage)

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Could always make a conversion of the fell beast that is on the ground so as to keep him low in line of sight.

We had a little discussion about that a few months ago. I think that it's illegal for tournaments, but I could be wrong.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings