The Bare Necessities, Part VI: Minas Tirith

Good morning gamers,

In our last five posts, we’ve gone over the five different elements of an army that can get you victory points in a scenario. We discussed the importance of fast models/cavalry, having at least one banner, having enough models (where we proposed the Rule of 30), ways of shutting down enemy heroes (especially army leaders), and ways to protect your own heroes (especially your army leader). Today, we put those principles to the test by examining a 700-point sample army from one of the most versatile lists in the entire MESBG range: Minas Tirith. If you're unfamiliar with your options for Minas Tirith, check out Rythbryt's review here.

Minas Tirith: Core Choices

The biggest problem that faces most Minas Tirith players (especially those just starting out in the hobby) is the sheer number of choices available in the Minas Tirith list. With three epic heroes (Aragorn, Gandalf, Boromir), a wide variety of lesser-Captain heroes (Faramir, Madril, Cirion, Iorlas, Hurin, Ingold, Knights of the White Tower, Captains of Minas Tirith, Kings of Men if you don’t take any named hereos), and a few cheap-but-basically-glorified-Warrior heroes (Denethor, Damrod, Beregond, Pippin), the choices arrayed for you on just the hero front is astounding (and while you might want to get a good chunk of these heroes for what they provide, getting too many of them will eat through your points limit quite quickly).

Then you get to the warriors: with multiple choices for heavily-armored infantry (Warriors of Minas Tirith, Citadel Guard, Guards of the Fountain Court, Osgiliath Veterans), bow-armed models (Warriors of Minas Tirith, Citadel Guard, Osgiliath Veterans, Rangers of Gondor), cavalry models (Knights of Minas Tirith, mounted Citadel Guard), and siege engines (Bolt Throwers, Trebuchets), getting a good mix of models can be really, REALLY hard. Often times, there’s a trade between a) how high you want a models’ stats to be, b) how many models you want in your army, and c) the money spent acquiring the models that you want. With all of this frustration in mind, the list I’ve chosen today isn’t that expensive to acquire and gives you plenty of room to expand and modify. Know that I’ll be talking about alterations you can make to the list to accommodate different playing styles at the end of the post, but this is the list that’s not only well-tailored to the guidelines we’ve identified in the last few posts, but also fits my personal preference for playing Minas Tirith. With that, let’s look at the list!

The List

700pts of Minas Tirith: The Reclaimers of the Pelennor

• Denethor, Steward of Gondor [Army Leader]
• 5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield, spear, and banner
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• 4 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields
• 6 Rangers of Gondor
• Faramir, Captain of Gondor with bow
• 7 Osgiliath Veterans with shields (convert Warriors of Minas Tirith if you don't want the real ones)
• 6 Rangers of Gondor with spears

37 models, 13 bows hitting on a 3+ and 1 magic caster, 23 D6 models, 5 mounted models, 6 Might points

While this list is pretty low on Might (and will have even less of it after the 1-2 auric spells Gandalf will likely channel in a game), it has good resiliency with nearly two-thirds of its models being Defense 6 and a good third of the army being able to shoot (with anti-archery protection from Gandalf). We have the requisite speed to be dangerous on scenarios that require us to get somewhere, as well as a token banner in one of our warbands to give us points when that’s available. With Gandalf to both neutralize enemy heroes and augment our own, we’ve covered all the bases.

One other note: if you scale this list up to 800 points, we haven’t filled these warbands up to their maximum, so if you had 100 more points to play with, you could add up to 11 more models without having to get another hero. I would recommend getting a second banner and bulking out your Shieldwall brick with more Warriors of Minas Tirith (and probably getting more Rangers as you scale up your army too). My one regret is not having Heroic March in the list - see the end of the post for more info on that. Let’s look at each warband in this 700-point list and see what they do for us.

Warband #1: Denethor’s Guard

Denethor's Guard: 154pts, lots of F3/D7 (except for Denethor).

By statline, Denethor is one of the worst army leaders in the game: he’s only got 2 Wounds with Defense 5 and no Fate points, making him incredibly easy to kill. Add to this that he has no Might and can become an enemy model for a turn if he fails his Courage Test at the start of each turn, and you’ve got not only an unreliable model, but a very vulnerable leader. While substituting Boromir for Gandalf would remove the unreliability of using Denethor (auto-passing his Courage Tests while Boromir is alive), the vulnerability of Denethor is not helped in the slightest (still able to be taken down by a good sniper – be he an archer or damage-mage). By going with Gandalf the White, Denethor can be protected reliably from both archery (channeling Blinding Light) and magic (Fortify Spirit), and he can more reliably pass Courage tests (Strengthen Will).

Surrounding Denethor are 11 Warriors of Minas Tirith, capable of being his heavily-armored guard. The extra slot can allow you to run Denethor in the front line of the warriors (where the banner reroll will help mitigate his lack of Might) and limit the number of models who can get to him without cutting through D6/7 models nearby. Denethor himself is a decent fighter (2 Attacks with F5/S4), so having him in a formation like this isn’t a bad thing (though be careful what the match-ups look like - he has no Might and is the lowest Defense model in the squadron).

One of the advantages of running Denethor as your Army Leader is that, should your opponent be looking to score victory points by wounding/killing him, you can rather safely tuck him away somewhere and avoid using him the entire game without impacting your damage output. While armies like Barad-Dur and Moria (if it’s not running Durburz as its army leader) often have their army leaders doing the bulk of the fighting, Minas Tirith using Denethor as its army leader can afford to leave its Army Leader safely in the back ranks, letting your other heroes do the fighting. It also doesn't hurt that for 35 points, you have the cheapest Hero of Valor in the game (well, I guess Goblin-town Captains with their army bonus are the same cost but can take 18 models with them - but they're a bit of a special case, now aren't they?).

Warband #2: The White Rider

The White Rider: 344pts, a mix of heavy cavalry and light skirmishers.

I got into a discussion a while back on Gandalf the White and why he’s the best all-around hero for Minas Tirith (Part I and Part II) – even over the likes of Aragorn and Boromir. I still hold to that today, especially when running Denethor (for the reasons laid out above). Gandalf’s warband is designed for two purposes: first and foremost, the Knights of Minas Tirith can escort him wherever he needs to go, giving you a company of heavy-hitting cavalry who can route an enemy flank OR race to an objective. Gandalf is also useful to have around to keep their horses from being sniped out from underneath the riders (which is always a good thing). The second part of the warband is a small squad of rangers, capable of being left behind at the starting location (holding an objective or securing a firing lane) and not keeping up with the cavalry. Rangers of Gondor are pretty squishy, but they’re capable fighters – and when supporting Gandalf, they can be really powerful.

Though I’m rehashing a bit of what I covered in the two posts I listed above, Gandalf provides some niche capabilities to the team that the other mega heroes (and any combination of supporting heroes) simply don’t provide:

• While both Aragorn and Boromir can provide 6” banner buffs (increasing your offensive potential), Gandalf can provide a 6” protection from enemy archery, which is huge for an infantry horde and when fighting certain kinds of lists (Mirkwood Rangers, Serpent Horde, Isengard crossbow gunlines). While Aragorn and Boromir are great, some factions can have a hard counter to them with the right kinds of archery (or magic - especially magic).
• Speaking of magic, while both Aragorn and Boromir have 3 Will apiece, they’re very vulnerable to sustained magical attacks that can keep them from killing enemy models for 2-4 turns (which could make the difference between winning a game and losing a game). Gandalf, by contrast, is one of the best anti-magic characters in the game (read my post here on the best anti-casters), thanks to having Fortify Spirit, 2 Will on Shadowfax that can be used to resist spells targeting the model, and a free Will point each turn from his Staff of Power if he really needs a spell to not work. What’s more, having Gandalf the White on your team means that friendly heroes (especially Denethor, but also Faramir) can get Fortify Spirit cast on them too, making them more resilient to enemy magic as well. If you’re concerned about fighting a foe who runs lots of magic, you can also cast this spell on friendly warrior models (your banner-bearer?) to keep them from getting nerfed by enemy mages too.
•  Having Aragorn and Boromir in your army will lead to higher kills in melee, but Gandalf has a pretty good melee profile (3 Attacks with F5/S5 while on the charge) which will be dominant against warrior models and the ability to rapidly deal with enemy horsemen (Sorcerous Blast) and Spirit models (Banishment) in a way that would make Boromir and Aragorn envious. While I’m not going to advertise Gandalf as an on-par damage factory, he certainly has a mixed approach to doing damage that makes him more flexible and less predictable.
• Aragorn and Boromir have very direct ways of dealing with enemy heroes (they have to use the Head-On approach that we talked about in Part IV, unless you take an Avoidance approach). Gandalf has a very reliable way of using the Asymmetric approach, thanks to his 2+ Immobilize and 3+ Command spells, which can see enemy models (especially those with 0-1 Will points) melt away against his forces. These spells also help your army play to an Avoidance playing style, as you can ignore the enemy mega-hero if he’s already been Immobilized (or not worry about his damage output if he’s already charged you).

I could write about Gandalf all day. I’ll stop here. Hopefully, between this post and the previous two posts (and the post on anti-mages I posted recently), you’ll get the message for why I included Gandalf in this list. Since Gandalf is best left as a flexible piece, his warband reflects this need and is flexible as well.

Warband #3: Faramir’s Guard

Faramir's Guard: 202pts, lots of nasty bows protected by lots of nasty F4/D6

I’ve liked Osgiliath Veterans for a long time. While Warriors of Minas Tirith have come closer to eclipsing these models, OsVets are cheap F4 models with above-average Defense and really good Courage (C5 with the army bonus), making them about as good as Citadel Guard (who cost the same points). I’ve gone with these guys because I like Faramir and I knew I wanted him in my army (his bow, good Shoot value, and flexible heroic actions are also a plus).

Escorting Faramir are not only a strong contingent of Osgiliath Veterans, but some Rangers of Gondor with spears to back up the OsVets. Not only does this work well thematically (Faramir arrived in Osgiliath with a company of Rangers, after all), but the Rangers cost the same as Osgiliath Veterans with spears, always lend Fight 4 to the front-line (which is good in case Faramir has to be somewhere else), provide reliable shooting to make an opponent’s shieldwall come to your troops on your terms, and can easily break-off (or get left behind) to get to an objective or some other important part of the battlefield (leaving the OsVets to shield when overwhelmed).

Faramir himself would do more damage if he was mounted – and would definitely be more survivable if I paid for heavy armor. Besides the aesthetic appeal of running him in his ranger garb, mounting Faramir would also make him less reliable, since having Denethor in this list requires him to charge a model if he’s able to (just so he can “prove himself”). This thematic addition to the game is one of the great boosts the new rules provided to give a better feel for the army (and the Denethor-Faramir relationship in particular). Since I don’t want my largest stash of Might points to go running into a Mordor Troll Chieftain, I’ve decided to keep him dismounted to make it easier to predict where my opponent’s army will be and how Faramir will need to behave.

Scenario Overview

Let’s take a look at each of the available scenarios and see some thoughts/considerations for using this list:

• Domination: with five objectives on the map, this army has many ways of getting to them and defending them. Whether you use the 6 Rangers in Gandalf’s squad, keeping Denethor away from the action on one of them (one you start with, probably), racing some Knights to clear one late in the game, using Gandalf to Command enemy models away from far-flung objectives, or using Faramir and his band to hold an objective while shooting at another, you’ve got options. Since your model count is high, you can also force your opponent to spread himself thin trying to deal with all of your threats (and in certain match-ups, you might have a sizable numerical advantage). Beware Goblin-town armies that summon troops near objectives you don’t have a lot of guys near – your best bet is to place objectives as close to the middle of the map as possible to give any Rangers you have on objectives time to shoot at the Goblin reinforcements coming onto the table. It would also help if Gandalf’s mounted escorts dealt with the Goblin Scribe quickly (he himself will probably be busy dealing with the Goblin King).
• Capture and Control: similar to Domination, your goal is not necessary to stand and hold an objective, but rather to tag it and run. Your Knights are great at this, as their speed (and lances if they need to plow into someone) can give you objectives quickly and then allow you to race behind protective terrain or into an enemy flank somewhere else on the battlefield. As with Domination, however, your army has lots of models that can break free from their formations in order to tag objectives, and if they’re Rangers of Gondor, they can march towards other objectives at half-speed, shooting as they go to cover the objective they’ve left and whittle down defenders of objectives they’re approaching.
• Hold Ground: Shieldwall armies love Hold Ground – and this army is no exception. With an anvil of Warriors of Minas Tirith and an anvil of Osgiliath Veterans backed by Rangers, you can deal some massive damage when you get to the center of the board and hold out against an opponent for a while when the inevitable grind begins. Gandalf and his Knights can be devastating on the charge, while Faramir and his Rangers can provide some early kills with their archery to soften up the enemy. March would be a nice addition to this force (consider dropping Faramir and picking up Madril and a few more troops if you want that).
• Seize the Prize: speed is key in this scenario – and with five mounted troops (and Gandalf to make a mess of enemy riders approaching the center), you’ve got a decent shot at winning this one. Your goal will be to run your infantry hard towards the center, waiting to slow down to shoot until the artifact has been unearthed. Should your opponent get the artifact before you do, Gandalf can use Command to keep the model from running away quickly, which should give your archers enough time to shoot down the model carrying the artifact. If Gandalf or any of the Knights can get it, you should be able to race it away quickly (and with good protection against enemy archery, so they can’t use the same strategy against you).
• To The Death: The key to this scenario is not breaking: while your D6 anvils will be useful to this end, keeping your banner alive and keeping Denethor alive are critical parts too. Should you not feel good about the forces charging your anvil units, consider running your banner and Denethor backwards, keeping them safe from harm to deny points. Gandalf will be critical in this game, as Sorcerous Blast will allow models to be Prone at the start of the Fight phase, giving your basic units a better chance of killing them (and no chance of being wounded). Immobilize will also be your friend, as it can keep an enemy power unit (or three) from being able to wound you while your grunts bring them down with a press of numbers (though you also have Gandalf and Faramir as options to deal the killing blow).
• Lords of Battle: This is a good scenario for you: just kill things. While using Aragorn or Boromir would undoubtedly increase your score, Gandalf’s anti-archery/anti-magic buffs can keep damage that your opponent normally relies on from doing extra damage to you, while your own archery/magic can chalk up points early. Once the grind begins, your opponent will likely be outnumbered, which might force him to shield in certain combats (which means he’s not killing anything). This is good for you – do it. Ideally, you face opponents with Spirit models, since Banishment can deal a LOT of Wounds (and clear Fate points out too).
• Contest of Champions: Denethor isn’t great at killing, but he can do it (and he can do it better than some other army leaders, like Galadriel). To win this scenario, make sure Denethor gets a few kills in and use Gandalf to Command the enemy army leader away early (or Immobilize him if he’s locked in combat). Unless he’s got Resistant to Magic/Fortify Spirit, he’s unlikely to shrug off Gandalf’s assault for long. If you can race out with Gandalf ahead of the rest of your army, then fall back for protection, you should be able to chew through the enemy leader’s Will (and possible some of his Might) before the main battle begins. This will not only reduce the kill count of the enemy army leader, but will also allow Denethor time to catch-up. While you could try to shoot the enemy army leader before he gets any kills, consider shooting enemy warriors to drive your opponent to his break point faster – this might cause desperate actions on his part and increased risks.
• Reconnoitre: We’ve got 4 Knights of Minas Tirith for a reason. As I discussed in the post on fast units/cavalry, 4 fast models are the “magic minimum” you want for Reconnoitre, because if you can get them off the board, your opponent needs to get 2 models off the board to keep you from getting max points for models escaped (which will automatically win you the game) and 3 models off the board to keep you from getting medium points for models escaped (which might win you the game). Unless your opponent can get 12 models off he’s unlikely to get max points himself – and would have a difficult time getting brought down to 25% during the game if he did that. The rest of the army is playing Defense – without the 4 Knights and Gandalf, we’ve got the requisite models to make a “thin red line” all the way across the map to keep models from escaping (and spreading ourselves that thin will help us get quartered quickly). Gandalf can not only keep our mounted models protected from archery/magic, but can alternatively be deployed to unhorse enemy cavalry models or push/Command models attempting to race off the board away from the board edge.
• Storm the Camp: Like Reconnoitre, we need to travel in this one. Our Knights (and Gandalf) are certainly fast enough to get to the enemy camp, but we also have plenty of reliable archers that we can leave behind terrain along the way across the field to defend our own camp (without having to leave them inside the camp itself). Denethor should probably be left behind, if our camp provides any kind of protection, as he won’t be needed elsewhere (but you’ll want to make sure a mega-hero doesn’t go racing across the field to get to the camp).
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: The Knights are good at getting somewhere fast, but where possible, place the markers as close to the board edges as possible. While you can get places quickly (especially with Gandalf), much of your army is going to be moving slowly. Once the heirloom is found, cage that model near Gandalf to keep the model alive (and keep Denethor nearby in case the model dies - then run Denethor off and hide)!
• Fog of War: pick whatever terrain piece you want for your purposes and you can even spread your opponent thin by racing your Knights to various terrain pieces (make him guess which one is important). Choose to protect Gandalf, since losing him would be REALLY bad for your team and try to find a hero that Gandalf can kill easily (Spirit models with low Will/Fate/Health) to be your target. With Denethor as your leader, your opponent has the choice between trying to kill Faramir (with Heroic Defense) or Gandalf the White (with 3 rerollable Fate points). Neither are great prospects, but he’s probably choosing Faramir. In either case, defend both well (and play recklessly with Denethor, since him dying doesn’t do anything to hurt you in this scenario).
• Clash By Moonlight: You’ve got Rangers and Faramir, so go get them! As I mentioned in the first of my posts on Gandalf, be careful when you cast Blinding Light, as it will give your opponent normal range (vs. 12”) to shoot at you (even though he’ll only hit on 6s) and retain the +1 To Wound. Besides that, enjoy it and go get the enemy quickly (though keep your Knights within the Blinding Light range, as their mounts are very vulnerable in this scenario).

Modifications

There are five major modifications that I can see most generals considering when looking at this list:

1. Drop Denethor – if you’re concerned about Contest of Champions, Denethor might be able to eek out a win if Gandalf is neutering the enemy army leader, but it’s going to be an uphill fight. Taking Boromir and a middle-tier hero like Ingold or Hurin instead of Denethor and Gandalf would give you more power in Contest of Champions (and probably Lords of Battle) while still augmenting your troops (in a different way than Gandalf does) and give you more Might on the table.
2. Drop Faramir – if you keep Denethor in your list, having Faramir in it is a liability. While not mounting him should keep him from having to charge into a bad situation, you still might lose an important hero (who holds half of your Might points) just because your opponent charged something big towards him. While I love Faramir, Hurin costs about the same amount, doesn’t reduce the Might you bring to the table, is roughly as resilient, and denies your opponent the ability to get Victory Points from killing Denethor unless Hurin is also killed (which means a flash-bang attack against Denethor could be saved by running Hurin away and keeping him alive). As mentioned above, Madril isn’t a bad option either (and you’d be able to get roughly 3 more models into your force OR another banner if you did) - he would give you not only Heroic March on an archer of equal competency, but you'd also get a slight boost to Maelstrom fights (allowing more of your forces to deploy together - which is good when you have Gandalf . . . or Aragorn  . . . or Boromir).
3. Drop Gandalf – with Gandalf on Shadowfax costing the same amount of points as King Aragorn on an armored horse and a bit more than mega-Boromir on horse with a shield and the Banner of Minas Tirith, it would make sense to drop Gandalf in favor of one of these two heroes if you want more killing power. While Gandalf does an amazing job of shutting down Spirit models, protecting your army from enemy archery/magic, and dealing with enemy heroes asymmetrically, most players (I think) find using the more direct approach of slaying with Boromir or Aragorn the more desirable approach. While I’ve discussed the merits of taking Gandalf over Boromir and Aragorn before (here and here), I can very easily see why these heroes float to the top. Note that with the newly-released errata, taking Aragorn would require you to drop Denethor (though you can just replace him with Beregond or Damrod and swap that Shieldwall from Denethor's warband with the Rangers from Gandalf's warband.
4. Get some Fountain Court Guard – you’ll notice that I’ve gone for basic troops almost across the board. Warriors of Minas Tirith are average-cost and high-Defense models, Rangers are average-cost and reliable-Shooting models, Knights of Minas Tirith are average-cost and high-Defense lance-armed cavalry, and Osgiliath Veterans are only slightly more expensive than Warriors of Minas Tirith and boast a very similar profile that gets better when Faramir is nearby (and he leads their warband, so chances are he’s nearby). Fountain Court Guard are good – costing only a little bit more than Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears, but boasting a higher Fight Value, the Bodyguard rule, and they’re always Defense 7 (vs. conditionally D7) if you equip them with shields (which you should). If you chose not to run Faramir (and choose not to run Boromir), dropping a model or two in order to upgrade some of your Warriors of Minas Tirith or Osgiliath Veterans to Fountain Court Guard would be a good bargain.
5. Get some mounted Citadel Guard – you might also be looking at swapping Knights of Minas Tirith for Citadel Guard with Longbows on horses. For +3 points/model, you are -1 Defense, but gain +1 Fight Value, Bodyguard, and the ability to shoot at 24” S3 bow from horseback. Not a bad trade, really – but expensive to spam out. So, I’ve chosen to run just Knights, but know that you could drop a 9-pt model to upgrade 3 Knights to Citadel Guard if you wanted to (you'd also need to change out some of those vanilla Rangers for Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields).

So, that’s Minas Tirith for you. I’m sure there’ll be lots of thoughts about this list – hopefully I’ll have a battle report on it soon (can’t wait to use it). In the meantime, let me know what you think and if you have any other lists that you think would work well meeting the objectives we laid out. Our next post takes us from the white tower of Ecthelion to the obsidian tower of Orthanc, where we look at what kind of list you can build with Isengard to maximize on scoring potential. I’ve taken Isengard to more TMAT GTs than any other list, so what you’ll see there is the result of many, MANY iterations and experiments with Isengard as a faction. Curious what you’ll find (if you have read my recent posts on Isengard, you probably won't be surprised)? Until next time, happy hobbying!