I feel like this issue was never truly resolved, and on Gemp it has arisen again:
There is a disagreement on Gemp about how the way Followers are supposed to work. Specifically, whether or not you can transfer them from one companion to another at the start of a second (or third) Maneuver Phase. Aradriss, who says he's a judge on LOTR championships, claims that Followers can only be transferred from your support area to a companion, not from one companion to another. Is he right, or not? Here's what the Hunters Rulebook has to say about Followers (I have bolded what I think are the pertinent parts):
Followers
Follower is a new card type. A follower represents help for
your fellowship that joins for a short time and then departs.
Followers are not members of your fellowship. They are not
allies or companions. They are not characters, although they
are often named and depicted with images of people from
the story. Even though a follower may seem as if it were an
Elf or Hobbit or Wizard, it can't be spotted as such because
a follower doesn't have a race on its card type line. Followers
can't bear other cards, including possessions or conditions.
A follower is played to your support area. While your
follower is in your support area, it has no effect on the game.
Each follower has the keyword "Aid" (see below) which you
can use to transfer that follower to one of your companions. When your follower is borne by a companion, that follower
will provide an ongoing effect or a special ability that
may then be used. A companion may bear more than one
follower. If that companion is killed, all of its followers are
discarded, just like other cards borne by that companion.
During the regroup phase, when the Free Peoples player
reconciles and minions are discarded, each follower is
transferred back to the support area (at no cost). Follower
cards have a gold circle in the upper left to remind you to
return them to the support area.
In later turns, that follower may again be transferred to a
companion (the same one or a different one, your choice)
using the above procedure.
Aid
This keyword has the form of "Aid – X," where "X" is the
cost to use the aid keyword. You use the aid keyword as
a maneuver action.
At the start of the maneuver phase,
you may pay the aid cost to transfer that follower to your
companion. Place it beneath the card, just like a possession
or condition borne by that companion.
The follower is
borne by the companion for the rest of the turn, no matter
how often your fellowship moves. You don't have to pay
the aid cost again for a follower borne by a companion in a
subsequent maneuver phase.
Additionally, many Follower cards have clarification text in parentheses that says, "(
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may ____ to transfer this to a ____.)" No mention of the card having to be in the support area to do this.
So, on the one hand, the definition of "Aid" only specifies "transfer to companion" not "transfer from support area to companion." However, the definition of "Aid" also says, "The follower is borne by the companion for the rest of the turn, no matter how often your fellowship moves," which seems to indicate that it stays on that same companion, you can't transfer it to a different guy during subsequent moves.
I know around here it's generally accepted on Gemp that you
can transfer Followers from one companion to another (or one minion to another, in Saruman's case), but is there actually an additional rules basis for that view? If so, what is it? As various other posters have noted upthread, "The follower is borne by the companion for the rest of the turn, no matter how often your fellowship moves," seems to indicate you can't. That was also the consensus here:
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,5480.0.htmlSo, is Gemp doing it wrong? Considering how massively powerful Followers are when you can transfer them every move, perhaps limiting this to once-per-turn actually makes sense, and is what Decipher intended when they designed them?