One of the more confusing and at the same time creative aspects of Middle-earth is which type of character to purchase and why. New players, especially, may have some difficulty with this aspect of the game. There are four single-class characters and ten possible multi-class characters which one may purchase. In addition, the Commander-Emissary-Agent-Mage could, in theory, be a new character by random chance. As no one can specifically purchase such a character, however, I will not discuss it.

In discussing character types, I will, at times, use the abbreviation C for Commander, E for Emissary, A for Agent, and M for Mage. If I speak of CE, this is a multi-class character with Commander and Emissary skill, CAM is a Commander/Agent/Mage, etc . . .

I classify six of the fourteen possible character types as Unequivocally Useful and discuss them under that same heading. The remaining eight of the possible fourteen character types are broken down into three groups. The first group of three I label Trainable, followed by a group of two which I label Colorful, followed by a group of three which I label Also Rans.

Unequivocally Useful:

1. Agent:
   A pure Agent begins the game immediately useful. Even at the beginning strength of 30 the character is useful on guard operations as agent rank is effectively doubled on defense. Agent ability is highly prized for this reason and because Agent ability helps that character escape if held hostage. Having the hope of escaping from a hostage situation is very important. A hostage still costs the owner maintenance, and, more importantly, counts against his character limit. It is much more preferable to have your character assassinated than held hostage indefinitely.

2. Commander/Agent:
   While the naming of multi-class characters always costs 10,000 gold, this is often not a problem for the generally richer Free Peoples and is often done by the Dark Servants anyway. Agent and Command skills are the two most useful skills in a multi-class character. Obviously, then, combining the two in a CA is just the logical thing to do. The CA is the single most useful multi-class character type. The combination is a natural. The Command ability allows the CA to travel with an army and act as a backup army Commander. (A skill 10 Army Commander is not that harmful in terms of combat results, so even a 10 Command skill is immediately useful.) If the Army Commander performs a Train Army order, plus, on the same turn, the character trains troops and performs an agent order, this is two Command and one Agent skill increases each turn! It is not very difficult to see improvements in both skills each and every turn. One can argue that the majority of characters most nations recruit should be CA's--gold permitting.

3. Commander:
   A pure Commander is vulnerable to being kidnapped and held hostage. But the plethora of CA hires helps disguise this fact. So, an enemy Agent given the choice of Kidnap or Assassinate will often choose Assassinate rather than chance that your character is a CA and will use Agent ability to escape. That said, a few pure Commanders are always a good buy! Command is perhaps the quickest skill to increase, even in peacetime. Having the character "Train Troops" while the army Commander issues a "Train Army" allows this character type to get a double dose of training and still have an order left over for other tasks each turn. A quick perusal of the rules will convince the reader that Command ability is one of the most versatile abilities. Leading companies, leading armies, and changing diplomatic/tax rates tops the list. It is mainly in changing diplomatic relations, changing tax rates, and threatening population centers that high Command skill is essential.

4. Mage:
   A pure mage is a very logical choice for a character type. Between casting spells, researching spells, and "Prentice Magery," there is no time for developing other skills. There can be exceptions but mages should generally be totally developed to their trade (i.e. a single-class character) and either stays out of harm's way (perhaps in some obscure camp) or rely on other characters such as agents for protection.

5. Emissaries:
   Although pure emissaries are generally not as vulnerable to being kidnapped or assassinated as Army Commanders, they do tend to make visits to hostile population centers and are vulnerable to agent or otherwise aggressive actions. It is a weakness. But the benefits of a pure Emissary are also important. Remember, Agents have their strength effectively doubled when on guard missions and Commanders are both easy to train and can be useful even at strength 10. In contrast, an Emissary only becomes useful when it reaches a strength of nearly 40. So, a pure Emissary begins performing useful actions a significant number of turns earlier. In the race to place camps in the beginning of the game, this can be very significant. Pure Emissaries have their place in a well-rounded character roster.

6. Commander/Emissary:
   Pay careful note here. While I categorize the CE as being unequivocally useful, I do not recommend the CE in great numbers. The CE is perfect for that out-of-the-way garrison army--train army and improve loyalty each turn. Or "Build Fortifications" and "Improve Pop Center," etc. The point here is that often your characters are so spread out that you can only afford one character to run a garrison army, or whatever. A CE character is very versatile. With some forethought, both abilities can be improved in a turn. And if positioned on the map well, can do quite a variety of tasks in a key population center (as well as lead emissary companies, etc.) But, large numbers of these characters just could not be efficiently utilized or trained.

The Trainable:

1. Emissary/Agent:
   This character has as its eventual goal to be used as a very potent tool versus enemy population centers and characters. For example, as part of a Emissary or Agent company, it can steal gold, influence the enemy population center, and leave in one turn. Similarly, if enemy characters are sighted it can either create a double agent or perform an agent action, or both! To double-agent someone as you assassinate them is a very potent one-two punch that is hard to counter. This character is also very trainable. It can sit in your capital and guard/influence each turn. As skills later increase, it can visit enemy population centers alone or with a CA as a company leader, and do two actions in one turn. All characters, however, have some weaknesses. Aside from the extra training needed to overcome the lower starting values for a multi-class character, this multi-class character will never have a truly awesome challenge rank. Both Emissary and Agent abilities are penalized for challenge rank calculations, plus the available agent or emissary artifacts do not raise the challenge ranks significantly.

2. Commander/Emissary/Agent:
   This is a variation of the EA character above. It is a viable character type as all three skills can be increased every turn. Park the character in a garrison army. As the Army Commander trains the army the character practices the other two skills. The command ability can help the challenge rank somewhat, but it is never likely to be so high as to help significantly. It is possible that the addition of the Command skill will only tempt the player to do Command orders rather than do the Emissary-Mage training. Nevertheless, I view this as the most viable triple- class character available because it retains the double-punch potential of the EA character described above.

3. Commander/Mage:
   The CM is the exception to many rules. Generally, I frown on combining mage skill with any other skills--so I am breaking that rule. Generally, I am not in favor of placing mages in armies--this character breaks that rule as well. Generally, I do not favor Mages casting combat spells--this character bends this rule. Pretty exceptional sort of character! The key to the strategy behind this character is challenge rank. Generally, a Commander can load up on one weapon and just might get his hands on a command artifact. There are about six command artifacts over strength 25. There are about fifteen mage artifacts over strength 25! So, follow the logic. Command is relatively easy to build up. Forget learning all but one or two spells and mainly Prentice Magery with this character. Can you see where we are going? Just 100 strength Command and Mage gets you to 125 challenge rank--add a 2250 artifact to get to 170. Finally, high-strength mage artifacts are 2.5 times more prevalent than command artifacts, so let's multiply by 2.5 just to get a relative value, 63. That adds up to 233. Okay, okay, so both 100 strength Command and Mage may not happen soon, you may want your mage artifacts with your mages . . . but you get the point, right? Now in the meantime, since this character will be pretty handy to have in an army now and then to challenge out enemy commanders (dragons?) in key battles, it is probably worthwhile to have a couple of combat related spells since you are there anyway. Certain protection spells and other spells can be very useful in, say, taking out camps with a small army . . . I'll let you think up some more ideas. In brief, the CM is not really so much a Mage as a Personal Challenge aficionado and Army Commander backup. This character should not even be considered by many positions or playing styles. But it is there for those who wish it. And even they should limit themselves to perhaps one.The Colorful: The following two character types are not terribly practical to buy and try to build up, the Mage rating is particularly difficult to utilize well. But these character types do have four saving graces:
   • As they have Command skill, you can train all three skills each turn by joining them to an army and letting the army Commander "Train Army" to improve the command skill while they improve the other two.
   • Even though I say they are not terribly practical, this is where "colorful" comes into play. if your position has lost all its triple- classed characters, everyone can find the time to build up just one multi-class character-- for fun if nothing else.
   • As the character has three skills, it can use artifacts from three separate skill categories--adding artifacts can overcome some of the difficulties in training up a 10-10-10 skilled character into something useful.
   • Many positions begin with one or more of these characters already trained above the 10-10-10 starting value of a newly purchased triple-class character. A partially-trained triple-class character is an entirely different animal than a new purchase.

4. Commander/Agent/Mage:
   Part of the allure of triple-class characters is that one can mold them to suit many different sorts of uses. I will simply speculate on one use for this and the CEM character and leave it at that. Utilization of this character as an Army Backup Commander with high Agent skill and just one or two combat spells for spice, might be interesting.

5. Commander/Emissary/Mage:
   One imaginative use for this character is as mainly a CE. But learn a heal spell, add a good mage artifact, and have wounded characters visit this out-of-the-way CE to be healed.

The Also-Rans:

1. Agent/Mage: Agent ability is always useful. It is double strength on guard actions and helps if your character is kidnapped. I tend to feel that one Mage and one Agent is better than an Agent/Mage, but a disciplined training regimen and the addition of artifacts could make me eat my words.

   Agent/Emissary/Mage:
   It is impossible to regularly improve all three skill levels. I keep asking myself, what could an AEM accomplish that no other character type could? I can't come up with much. Here are the positive comments I promised: Agent ability is always useful and the ability to add artifacts to any of three skill categories is an undeniable plus. 14. Emissary/Mage: It is reputed to be fact that some Emissary ability helps a Mage to handle the One Ring. Beyond this, we are left with the fact that these skills are hard to mix: both skills need to be fairly high to be useful and Magery is so demanding!