Overly Pedantic Stats: Improving Minas Tirith

 Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! I spent some time tracking the performance of Minas Tirith armies at our tournaments over the years, and it didn't surprise me to find that pure Minas Tirith armies (and even allied Minas Tirith + Fiefdoms armies) didn't perform well in our meta. So I got to thinking, "Why is that? Gondor is such a strong faction with so many options and lots of heroes to round them out, so why don't they win more often?" I can't chalk it up to lack of skill because the players who have used them performed well in other tournaments, so I my puzzlement grew.

And that's when I cracked out the overly pedantic stats spreadsheet, because that's what nerds do.

And would you believe it - I found some answers that might help. The purpose of this post is to help you think through how you can improve your Minas Tirith game purely based off of stats: strategy will matter as will objectives, but since those are intangible variables we won't be factoring those into the stats. Instead we will be looking at small changes you can make to increase the overall effectiveness of the profiles in your army to set you up for success.

And with that, join me in my descent into overly analyzed math.

I.  The Best Statistical Heroes for Minas Tirith

Some of this is not going to come as a surprise, while others might shock you. We will start with your hero choices (both named and unnamed), and then move into the warrior choices that will add extra power to your list.

So for starters, it will not surprise anyone that the two highest ranked heroes for Minas Tirith are Elessar (3.4) and Gandalf the White (4). It will also not surprise anyone that Boromir is also in the top four (3.2). What I didn't realize, though, is how high Faramir places (3.4), suffering in Defense and Utility compared to Elessar, but making up for this in lower cost. And as I looked at the armies that people ran, they would often take 1-2 of the Big Three and leave Faramir at home, or they would take one of the Big Three and ally in Imrahil.

So let me lead off this post by saying that Faramir is dope, and you should consider using him. The stats say that he's a great hero for the cost, and if he's not in your army you might improve your game by adding him. I personally like him in his ranger version with heavy armor for survivability, but you can run him mounted with a lance as well. It is also worth noting that his score drops to 3.2 (same as Boromir) if you don't take the horse, so keep that in mind when you kit him out. This is also why I think he comes in behind Elessar even though their overall score is the same, as the overall for Faramir assumes a horse, heavy armor, lance, and shield, and he is often run with a bow (for good reason), which will either cause his Defense or Mobility score to suffer based on whether you then take him with or without a shield or horse.

Second, Gondor has three really good mid-range heroes: the Knight of the White Tower (2.2, only because of his lack of a mount and low Defense), Hurin (3), and the Captain of Gondor (2.8, if you get him the horse and the lance with the shield for added defense). A lot of people run Captains of Gondor as "bunker captains," and for good reason: they'll hold the line and defend you pretty well against enemy troops for a good long while (not to mention the foot version comes in the command blister, so if you have the model why not use it). 

The issue is that you sacrifice killing power when you do this, so I recommend mounting your captains if at all possible, or taking a Knight of the White Tower or Hurin for some added punch and killing power, as they are around the same cost. There are other really good captain-style models (Ingold is at a 2.6 and Madril is at a 2.8), so if you don't own the previously mentioned heroes you can always try these guys out to see if they meet your needs, as you'll save a few points by running them.

Third, for low-cost heroes you have some really good choices. Beregond is a really good deal for what you pay for (2.6), and while Damrod is not as good (2.4), he is still very good for what you get (a budget Dunedain, basically). So if you have 100pts to spare and you need to add another warband, these guys will get you there with room to customize and upgrade troops in your army.

With the heroes considered, let's look at warrior selections next.

II.  The Best Statistical Warriors for Minas Tirith

As we look at warrior choices, this was perhaps the most eye-opening thing for me. The best two performing troops were the Knight of Minas Tirth (no surprise, as for the points you get a very lethal model) and the Citadel Guard, which you don't tend to see used that often. When armed with a longbow, you get to do your S3 (that you do in melee) at 24" away, which dramatically increases the killing effectiveness of the model over, say, a Fountain Court Guard (who is also F4 S3 with 1 Attack, so the same effectiveness in melee, but lacks a ranged attack). If you take a horse for the Citadel Guard, the killing power goes up even more, both by adding attacks and wounding dice in melee, but also in giving you an effective 29" threat range with your longbow (albeit at a 5+ Shoot if you move).

And would you know it, you almost never see Gondor armies with a good contingent of Citadel Guard. So guess what I'll be working on converting next. 

So the big takeaway for army composition: take more Citadel Guard over Fountain Court Guard. You'll even save yourself some points, assuming you don't mount them all.

There are other good warrior selections, and people tend to take these models. Warriors of Minas Tirith (2.6) do perform better on the stats than an Osgiliath Veteran (2.4) by a shy bit, so you should probably take your standard warriors with their Shieldwall over a troop of Os Vets. But what did surprise me was how poorly the Ranger of Gondor performed (2.2). This means, and the more I think about it the better I feel about this, if you have 8-9pts lying around, you might want to purchase an Os Vet with a bow over a Ranger with a bow, as your chance of hitting isn't that different, your chance of wounding is exactly the same, but your survivability goes up a bit, keeping them alive longer. That's something I hadn't expected, and maybe that will help improve your game.

Naturally siege equipment is powerful, and you get access to two really good ones in the Minas Tirith list. Either will round out your army very well, so tinker with adding 1-2 Avenger Bolt Throwers or 1-2 Battlecry Trebuchets.

III.  Sample Army Lists

So looking at lists that would use these characters, we know we want one of the big guys to handle your heavy-hitting enemy heroes. We also know that we'll want good supporting heroes to hold the line and contribute to the damage total while the heavy hitters are doing their work. And then we'll want to center our corps of our army around our three strong units: the Warrior of Minas Tirith as our "anvil," the Knight of Minas Tirith as our "hammer," and the Citadel Guard as our "ranged threat/flex attacker."

So for the first list we are going to thematically build it around the early days of the siege of Minas Tirith, fleshing out a 500-pt list that sports Faramir leading the men of Gondor to victory, while our 700-pt list will sport King Elessar with a good corps of heavy-hitting lesser heroes to topple the foe.

The Garrison of the Ecthelion (Minas Tirith, 500pts)

Warband 1

Faramir, Captain of Gondor with Bow and Heavy Armor (Army Leader)

4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields

5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields and Spears

4 Knights of Minas Tirith

Warband 2

Ingold

5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields

3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields and Spears

2 Guard of the Fountain Court

1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with Shield and Banner

Warband 3

Beregond

6 Citadel Guard with Longbows

TOTAL: 500pts, 33 models (Break after 17 casualties, Quartered after 25 casualties), 7 Might

Now it's worth noting about this list that had we gone with Boromir instead of Faramir we would have spent about 100 extra points (125 if we fully decked out Boromir), but offensively we actually haven't changed much - we lose 3 Might and an Attack, but we gain a ranged attack and a lot more men. So there's a tradeoff to be sure, but I think this list is stronger and would perform better in combat than if Boromir was leading it. We have a corps of 7 longbows plus Faramir for shooting (which is good at 500pts, as we should reliably be able to do 1-2 wounds each round), 4 horsemen for mobility to reach objectives and run people down, and a solid "anvil" with Ingold and his shieldwall. And with a few Guards of the Fountain Court alongside Beregond and the Citadel Guard providing the Bodyguard rule, even Terror isn't an issue for this force.

So even though we only have 500 pts for this army, I actually feel pretty good about it - it would hold its own and has a lot of ways to cover its bases.

As we look at a 700pt list, we keep in mind the units we need to lend strength to our lines: those budget, high-damage heroes that Minas Tirith has in large quantities.

The Might of Man (Minas Tirith, 700pts)

Warband 1

Aragorn, King Elessar (Army Leader)

3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields

2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields and Spears

4 Knights of Minas Tirith

4 Guard of the Fountain Court

Warband 2

Hurin on Horse

4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields

4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields and Spears

Warband 3

Knight of the White Tower

10 Citadel Guard with Longbows

TOTAL: 700pts, 34 models (Break after 17 casualties, Quartered after 25 casualties), 8 Might*

Now we're cooking with grease: only one more model, but we've upped the killing power of our heroes by several notches. Faramir has been replaced by Hurin, and then we've added Elessar on top of that to double down on heavy-hitting heroes. We've replaced Ingold with a Knight of the White Tower for slightly less staying power but greater damage, and with Elessar's banner bubble he should be able to hold the line for us. Since Elessar is bringing a banner rule we didn't take a banner (the one regret I have), but that freed up the points for us to have a contingent of 10 Citadel Guard with longbows, giving us not only powerful ranged capabilities to support our cavalry (which we still have added to with mounted heroes), but also doing so while maintaining our Gondorian heavy armor, which should keep us safe from return fire. And with a slightly larger contingent of Guard of the Fountain Court to augment the Bodyguard on our now 10 Citadel Guard, we should be in great shape (over a dozen auto-passes while Elessar is alive) in case of Terror checks.

Conclusion

Minas Tirith has some great units, but whether because of model availability or people just thinking that other models look cooler, some of their best choices don't get taken. So if you play Minas Tirith and you are struggling to win, consider making a few swaps to boost your effectiveness. It might increase your love for the faction.

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Centaurs are not the servants or playthings of humans." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix