My opinion only:
Parroting John Keegan, I see four types of ways to deploy your "main"
character:
Well, first, main character covers a lot of ground. If you're the Duns, and your "Main character" is a C60, you might as well put him in an army, he's no good anywhere else. The Noldor and the Dark Lts, on the other hand, have about 4 characters that are far more powerful (therefore hunted) than anything most other nations possess. The notes below refer to real main characters, the kind with 2-4 high ranking abilities and maybe stealth or artifacts.
Heroic:(Theoden) Commands from the front, always at the heart of his
main force.
Generally, I don't like this one. In 1650, army sizes are such that even a powerful mage or commander isn't too much of a difference in the combat equation (unless you have Summon Storms). Emmies need to stay away from battlefields. Sticking a killer agent with an army to ScoChar or assassinate enemy characters is something of a ploy, probably not the best place to be, but it can pay off big if you get lucky. I would say the biggest exception is on threatening forces, where a high ranking army comm or a mage summoning hordes can make a big difference. You are more likely to want mages or artifact wielders in an army in 2950, where the smaller army sizes increase their effectiveness, but still, most of the time, there are better places for main characters to be.
Remember that in an army, you are vulnerable to curse teams tracking the army. Advantages like stealth are less valuable, because the enemy will often know where you are (unless you move regularly, wasting orders). Your mages can't prentice or research, and you may wind up in hexes with killer enemy assassins.
Manager: (Galadriel, Sauron, Denethor) Stays at the seat of Power,
improving mage, emmisary, agent skill. (I do understand the need to
move characters to avoid agent action)
Often, capitals arent a good place for top people either. I would usually say that this is my least favorite of the 4 options. Enemy killing teams will go there, with top level scouts looking for targets. Even if they dont know your boss is there, they can guess that other chars will be. Few of the key orders from powerful characters need to be done at the capital, generally a C40-50 will do the job fine. If you want to have your character locating/learning/influencing, pick some lower priority pop center, preferably one that you created after game start that isn't on anyone's map.
Exceptions: On the round when you plan to:
Upgrade the capital to a city
Change from being neutral to an alliance (on the turn of attack), or
Make a major tax shift (which has to be done immediately),
Then you may want a top comm or emmy in the cap. Otherwise, you're better off elsewhere.
Limited Roamer: (Saruman) Explores/wanders/encounters in a limited
area near the base of powerRoamer: (Aragorn, Gandalf) Traverses Middle Earth exploring and
encountering then joins the main force at the decisive point of a
campaign.
These two are kind of together. How far afield you wander will depend on what nation you are, style of play, coordination with teammates and probably other factors. Be careful with encounters, some of them you can win by challenging the monster, but usually this requires a character with a godlike challenge rank, and some encounters can kill characters regardless of their ranks.
Many of the top free characters are Emmies, and 5 top emmies wandering around is WAY less useful than 5 top emmies in a company taking towns and MTs, so some of the choices on where the top guys go will be decided in committee. Similarly, top mages should often be in curse teams, and few nations can build a curse team alone, so again your allies will have a say.
My one suggestion here is, form companies. Almost every game, I see some allies god character wandering alone around the map, giving up 60-90 point mage or emmy orders in favor of a MovChar, and I want to pull my hair out. No character with more than one high level skill should EVER make a movement order after about turn 4, IMHO, unless their company commander just died. Some nations have GREAT company commanders in their starting line-up (Bill Ferny springs to mind), others will have to name them. For the CoComm, you want a Commander or command/agent of relatively low rank (The agent can do skill + orders on quiet turns, but runs the risk of being doubled, different players may tell you different things here). Stealth is a plus. This character will move the company every turn, and refuse challenge if there is the slightest hint of danger. Even single classed supercharacters should usually be in companies, to allow for turns when you want that assassin to Assassinate, Refuse challenge and Move away.
What are the pros and cons of these four character deployments for a
nations lead characters? Which character types best fits each tactic?
Which strategy (if any) should be avoided?
I think I covered all this.
Are there any other deployments I have overlooked?
None which spring immediately to mind.
Hope that helps,
Winn Keathley
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