Oldman Willow wrote:
They are important in some scenarios. I don't think they are meant for competition.
They used to have a point cost of "?", now they have set costs and are presented just like any other figure. It's worth noting that all 6 of the standard point match scenarios end when a side is broken or when a side hits 25%. If you set off with Tom and other stuff and your other stuff dies, Tom doesn't mean a draw. He works fine in competitive play (if anything he's fairly weak as he costs a *lot* of points and won't kill a thing).
In themed play, yes, Tom shouldn't be showing up for random border skirmishes and a major battle would have to be very weird to convince him to show up and take an interest. But, the same could be said of other models. Sauron shouldn't just wander into a 500pt battle either.