In Defense Of: Citadel Guard

Beregond and the Citadel Guard stand alert!

Hey Reader!

Today we're continuing the In Defense Of series, and Tiberius asked me to jump in and chat about the Citadel Guard, as Minas Tirith is not lacking in quality infantry, and these guys tend to draw the short straw compared to the Warrior of Minas Tirith (who is about the same cost), the Ranger of Gondor (if you want archery support from your infantry), and the Tower Guard (who are just all-around better in most respects).

And I think this is a shame, because these models look awesome, and are awesome, and fill an often-needed (and much bemoaned) role in the Minas Tirith faction. We will start by looking at why people tell you not to take this model, then we'll discuss why you should take it, and then close out by discussing how to make it work effectively in your army list.

Why NOT To Take Citadel Guard

Citadel Guard are something of a poster child for, "jack of all trades, master of none" units in Middle Earth SBG: everything they offer you can get elsewhere (kind of) in the list, but other units can do it better. Citadel Guard are Fight 4, but so are Tower Guard and (potentially) Osgiliath Veterans and Warriors of Minas Tirith (if you take the right heroes next to them), so they are not an auto-include for high Fight Value armored infantry. They have the Bodyguard special rule, but with most Minas Tirith infantry starting at C3-4, and the army special rule bumping up the Courage value by 1, an army that is predominately C4-5 is basically getting the effects of Bodyguard without worrying about whether the army leader is alive or not. They have heavy armor, but most models in the Minas Tirith list have that, and their inability to take a shield makes them less resilient than most infantry in the list. 

And while they can take spears or longbows, Rangers of Gondor can take both a spear and a bow at the same time, and while their bows are not as powerful (S2 for the ranger, compared to S3 for the citadel guard), rangers sport a 3+ Shoot Value instead of a 4+ Shoot Value, so they are more likely to get a chance to roll said damage roll (which is arguably better for the law of averages).

So right out of the gate, Citadel Guard offer (basically) nothing unique: you are getting very mid-range archery (4+ Shoot), mid-range resilience (D5 with 1 wound, no ability to shield), mid-range utility (might offer a spear and F4 to provide good support to a fight, or you take the longbow and offer a decent frontline fighter with F4 to be backed up by a spearman of some kind), and mid-range melee prowess (F4 with 1 Attack at S3 is fine - not great, but fine).

But it actually gets worse than this: perhaps the single highest contributing factor to these guys not being taken is that they come as a metal blister: 6 Citadel Guard will run you $45 USD as of this writing, while you can get 24 Warriors of Minas Tirith or 24 Rangers of Gondor for $50 USD. And with both of these warrior choices come in the Osgiliath Starter Box, finding these plastic sprues on eBay or other third-party sites for cheaper than the GW price is far, far easier with a far better price point.

So if someone told me, "Centaur: I don't want to buy Citadel Guard because they're basically 4x as expensive as these other profiles that basically do the same thing, but better," I'd tell them, "that makes sense," and I'd let them be. And then, a few weeks later when they tell me that they're struggling to win with Minas Tirith, I'd bring back up the Citadel Guard. And what follows is the reason why.

Why TO Take Citadel Guard

Citadel Guard actually offer quite a bit to a Minas Tirith list - in fact, they allow for very unique playstyles for Minas Tirith that can both take your opponent by surprise and deal with some of the trickiest armies in the game. I'm going to subdivide this section into unit comparisons, just to show you how much more versatility and optimization you get from Citadel Guard compared to every other warrior choice at your command, starting with their most similar counterpart (and the one everyone loves): the Tower Guard.

Citadel Guards: Optimized Tower Guards

First, to get it out of the way, yes: Tower Guard are a good use of points, as they are 1-2pts more expensive than a Citadel Guard, but get better armor (base D6 instead of D5), a shield (so D7 with the Shielding ability), and a spear base in their profile, while the Citadel Guard is paying 1-2pts for a spear or a longbow. Beyond that they are exactly the same: a F4 S3 model with 1 Attack with Courage 4 (5 after the army special rule is added, should you keep that), 6" Move, and Bodyguard. And put in this light, you're getting a lot more value out of the Tower Guard.

But Tower Guard are also highly limited in what they do for you: they're always paying for a spear, but they are also very much rewarded for being frontline troops thanks to that D7, so you're wasting the points on the spear in a lot of cases. Citadel Guard, on the other hand, can always be optimized: you can keep them in the second rank with a spear for 9pts/model to contribute some much-needed F4 while spear supporting (and suddenly their D5 is perfectly serviceable), or you can bump them up to 10pts/model and have them whittle the enemy down (admittedly slightly - don't expect a lot of wounds out of them) before the enemy clashes with them, taking advantage of your Bodyguard to make sure you get the charges when you need them. So while you may not be D7 (which is awesome, by the way, and highly optimal), you can make your Citadel Guard a second-rank unit and use your D7 Warriors of Minas Tirith for cheap resilience in the front rank if that's what's important to you. And now, we're not missing anything from not being D7, while still contributing that useful Fight 4.

Citadel Guards: Dangerous, Durable Rangers

A S2 bow on a 3+ or a S3 bow on a 4+

Citadel Guard also offer a base Fight 4, which makes them excellent objective holders, especially when armed with longbows, as they can support the advance while camping on an objective. Now before you say, "But Rangers of Gondor do this better," the issue that Rangers of Gondor have are three-fold, all of which the Citadel Guard doesn't have. First, rangers are Defense 4, so they can be removed quite easily even with S2 archery, let alone by a ready assault force. Citadel Guard, on the other hand, are going to be wounded on 5s or worse by over 80% of models in the game, as a model needs to be S5+ to wound on better than a 5. This makes them far more survivable, and thus more likely to hold the objective. And at 9-10pts/model compared to the ranger's 8-9pts/model, the cost variance is marginal: your total numbers for your force will likely be within 1 of each other if you choose to take Citadel Guard.

Second, Citadel Guard have Bodyguard and an innate Courage 4 (5 with the army special rule), which means if you start losing large amounts of your force, your Citadel Guard are far less likely to flee the battlefield than a Ranger of Gondor is, so for objective holding they are far better suited for this task. So whether you're looking at being removed by enemy action or removed by breaking from battle, the Citadel Guard covers your objectives better for only a roughly +1pt/model.

And finally, Citadel Guard sport longbows, meaning that they have a S3 shot at 24", compared to the Ranger of Gondor's bow with S2 at 24". This is actually quite significant: the ease of wounding between S2 and S3 cannot be ignored. While yes, D6 infantry (or D4 light infantry) are going to be wounded just as easily, the high number of odd-numbered Defense models that are actually fielded (Riders of Rohan, most Rohan infantry, Angmar/Mordor Orcs, most Warg Riders, basically all Dunlendings, a high percentage of Goblins across both Moria and Goblin Town, Mahud warriors of various kinds, etc.) will be wounded on 5s instead of 6s by a S3 longbow.

This is huge: your chances to wound are situationally twice as good, while your difficulty to hit is only increased by 16(ish)%, which your wounding chance makes up for. 6 Rangers of Gondor firing at a D5 model are going to get about 4 hits, and on average 0-1 wounds, while 6 Citadel Guard are going to get 3 hits, and on average 1 wound. So "they aren't as good at archery" is a bit of a misnomer: you're basically just as good at actually dealing damage as a Ranger of Gondor, you're just paying about 1pt/model more for added resiliency and utility. Which I think is worth it.

For the record I think Rangers of Gondor are very good, and everyone should use some of them. But I found, going to a recent tournament with them, that it's nice to have a mix, and you can send your S2 archery against even-numbered Defense models, and your S3 archery against odd-numbered Defense models. And a lot of people leave that S3 archery at home because "who needs Citadel Guard," right? And I think that plays a factor into why some Minas Tirith armies struggle.

Citadel Guards: Elite Warriors of Minas Tirith

The F3 on Warriors of Minas Tirith causes issues
for Minas Tirith players. Citadel Guard can help

So the lowly Warrior of Minas Tirith may be the baseline infantry for Minas Tirith for most players (mostly because of ease of access and a lower points cost), but I walked away from them years ago, converting all my warriors into Osgiliath Veterans instead. This was before the new edition, but even in the new edition (which gave them Shieldwall), I don't think I'm missing out on much. For 8-9pts you can take a Warrior of Minas Tirith with a shield (and/or a spear), which is 0-2pts less than a Citadel Guard. A spear-wielding Warrior of Minas Tirith is the same cost as a Citadel Guard spearman, and offers D6 (possibly D7), while suffering -1 Courage and no Bodyguard. On its face, this looks to be okay, because with the army special rule, a Warrior of Minas Tirith is C4, which is probably good enough, right?

Wrong - having just come back from a tournament a few months ago where I faced Mordor Black Numenoreans in force and The Balrog of Moria, plus practice games against the Witch-King, Mahud Half-Trolls, the Mumak War Leader, and other Terror models, I can tell you quite certainly that had I been running a C4 army I would have failed far more Courage tests than I did, and my lines would have been wrecked (in some cases more than they were, but that's another matter). The fact that you're playing roughly 50-50 odds against Terror models supported by Harbinger of Evil or a similar special rule is a clear sign that C4 (reducing to C3) is not a sure-fire answer to making charges, avoiding running in fear, etc. And if you play against an army actually designed to take advantage of this (Angmar with the Witch-King casting Instill Fear, Dead Marsh Spectres using A Fell Light Is in Them, all supported by cave trolls to push their way easily through any remaining D6-7 frontlines), the ship will sink very, very quickly. I've been on that ship, and it was frightening.

Citadel Guard solve all of these problems, and for basically the same cost. The benefits of being a Bodyguard unit with C4 (C5 with the army special rule) aside for a moment, you get Fight 4, which makes you far less likely to run into issues because you're just less likely to lose fights in the first place. Auto-passing Courage tests also helps to avoid shenanigans, and the fact that they can contribute that F4 from the second rank makes their D5 (which is really the only drawback they have by comparison) a moot point if you can keep the front lines intact. And if that Citadel Guard doesn't fail an Instill Fear Courage test because of Bodyguard, he's effectively keeping your front rank guy in place too, as that guy will have nowhere to run thanks to the steadfast model behind him.

And even if you have to run Citadel Guard in the front rank (maybe because you are afraid you'll need to charge a line of Black Numenoreans or something like that), D5 is perfectly serviceable: it's a big ask, even for a spear-supported Numenorean, to get a 5+ on 2 dice. It can happen, and it does happen, but not as often as you'd think. And unlike the Warrior of Minas Tirith, you're sitting on an on-par Fight Value with the Black Numenorean. And before you say, "But Centaur: if I have Boromir with a banner nearby, my Warriors of Minas Tirith now tie the Fight Value of the Black Numenorean, so the Citadel Guard is not necessary..."

The Citadel Guard in the same scenario would be Fight 5, so winning ties against Black Numenoreans. Which is better. By a lot. For the same cost as that Warrior of Minas Tirith. While auto-passing any charge attempt they make instead of rolling the dice. So the "Boromir Argument" is dumb. Citadel Guard are still better.

Citadel Guard offer exactly what you want at a price point that most models can't get: getting a F4 model in heavy armor with reliable charging/staying power is insane in this game at only 9pts/model. Most factions are paying 10pts/model or more to get that package. I don't think you should replace every Warrior of Minas Tirith with a Citadel Guard, though: they're elite Warriors of Minas Tirith for a reason. But interspersing them into your ranks, especially in that second rank to add the helpful F4 while holding their ground and helping to keep the rest of your units in formation is a very, very useful thing to do.

Citadel Guard: Better Knights of Minas Tirith

Okay, I'm going to get some flak for this one, and fair enough: from an optimization standpoint the Knight of Minas Tirith, at 14pts with a shield, is one of the best units in the game, bar none. But little known fact that most people skip over: you can take Citadel Guard mounted on a horse! For 16pts (so +2pts) the Citadel Guard offers you F4 (or F5 around Boromir, if you want to steamroll a side of the board with crazy fast quality fighters) and Bodyguard (with a general +1 Courage if Bodyguard doesn't come up), while losing the option of the shield and the lance (more on that below). This is a slightly more fragile cavalry model, to be sure, but I don't see people leaving Riders of Rohan, Warg Riders, Mahud Raiders, or Warg Marauders at home because of their D5, and that's for a good reason: D5, especially with an In the Way roll to see if you wound the horse instead, is an okay Defense stat for a cavalry model. You're going to be fine against most archery, and if you are getting decent fights against the enemy you're probably surviving a fight where you charged even if you lose the duel.

But talk to anyone who has used Knights of Minas Tirith and they'll tell you that these D6 cavalry are not as resilient as you think; when charged they're not likely to win a fight due to their F3, and even though they have a shield they can't make use of the Shielding special rule because they are cavalry. So when countercharged they are actually quite fragile. The Citadel Guard is not any more resilient, but at least he is getting F4 to try to win his way out of a dangerous situation, if not take an enemy with him.

And this brings us to the question of the lance. Lances are great, and they are especially great on something like a S4-5 character (**dwarves and Mahud sounds erupt in the chat**). They are good on a S3 character like the Knight, in that it moves wounding a D6 model to a 5+ instead of a 6, and with the potential for 2 Attacks instead of 1 and doubling your wounding dice if you win the fight, they can be very deadly.

But this, again, assumes you win the duel, and that F3 is not helping you here (unlike, say, the F4 on Mahud Raiders and Iron Hills Goat Riders, let alone the lance on F5 Rivendell Knights). Furthermore, it clearly slots the Knight into a singular role: shock cavalry charging infantry. If they aren't charging, they are not offering anything in terms of offense. At F3 and S3 with 1 Attack, this is the literal baseline for acceptable stats for an attacking model - anything worse than that is considered atrocious. And while yes, it's relatively easy to get charges off, should you encounter, say, an all-mounted Rohan army (which is very, very common), not getting that +1 Attack or doubling your wounding dice makes your 1 Attack wounding on 4s or 5s ineffective for wounding enemies reliably.

The Citadel Guard, on the other hand, offers a completely different approach to cavalry, and really to a Minas Tirith army in general: skirmish cavalry. With a 24" S3 bow, the Citadel Guard does the same damage at range as he does in close combat: S3 with 1 Attack. So why would he need to engage the enemy head-on unless he thought he could win (like clearing out enemy orc archers or a similar lightly armored unit off an objective)? He's actually more likely to wound with archery than he is with melee (as the duel roll mechanic can make winning fights very chancy), so why would he run the risk of getting into a fight unless he felt it was in his best interest? Mounted Citadel Guards with longbows, especially supporting large blocks of Warriors of Minas Tirith, offer you a reliable, consistent way to whittle down the enemy while still being able to charge in and deal damage in melee (because it turns out, if you have 4 dice to wound, you've still got a good chance of it even if you're wounding on 6s).

Should you replace all of your knights with Citadel Guard? No - I think this is a specific playstyle, and it would dramatically change up how your army is played. But I do think it solves some of the issues of Minas Tirith (which is grinding out enemy forces) by giving you harassing capability that might weaken that main body of the enemy in a far more reliable way before they start carving through yours.

Now about Those Osgiliath Veterans...

So I'm not going to do a heavy comparison between the Citadel Guard and the Osgiliath Veteran, mostly because Os Vets are just Warriors of Minas Tirith with +1pt for +1 Courage, and they lose Shieldwall to add Loyal to the Captains. So basically copy-paste most of that commentary here, except that their resilience is basically the same (D5 v. D6), their cost is now exactly the same (if not cheaper for the Citadel Guard), and drop the stuff about the Courage Value (as they are the same) but with the caveat that Bodyguard is still better than Courage 4 (5 with the army special rule), as it's an auto-pass instead of a chance roll. But to save you time, we'll just say the Citadel Guard in general offers more than these guys do for the same cost.

Making It Work

So with the knowledge that an army of pure Citadel Guard is probably not a good idea (though it would be fun!), how do you do them effectively? I think there's a few things to keep in mind, and then we'll show some lists that showcase this.

• Take the longbows: There's a place for spear-supporting Citadel Guard in the second rank, but the biggest hole they fill in the Minas Tirith army list is higher damage output archers. Being able to gimp enemy armies that thought "D5 is enough to stop S2 archery" or "D7 will keep me safe from enemy bows" could be the difference between victory and defeat. And as illustrated above, the 4+ Shoot v. the 3+ Ranger shooting is made up for in the math for wounding rolls. So don't worry about that. Take a mix of Rangers and Citadel Guard, and use the one to clear room for the other to optimize your archery. If the front line has even-numbered Defense, start with the Rangers and then shoot with the Citadel Guard. If the front rank has odd-numbered Defense, start with the Citadel Guard and then follow up with the Rangers.
• Hold Objectives: Use your Citadel Guard as objective holders, as they have all the tools you'd want for taking and holding objectives. Don't forget that mounted Citadel Guard are great for taking and holding far-flung objectives, so you can take a few of those to maximize your chances of breaking through and securing Victory Points.
• Better Dueling: Being able to intersperse that higher Fight Value into your army will help you win more fights and last longer in a scrum with another block of enemy infantry, so if you're worried that you don't have enough Fight 4, you can add Tower Guards, or you can save some points and add Citadel Guards. Both are good options, but I think they're both options, and you should consider both.

So here's two very different 800pt army lists that prominently use Citadel Guard, just to showcase what they can add to your force:

Option 1: Seventh Level Defenders

This is a "stock standard" Minas Tirith list (well maybe; some may say I should be using Hurin instead of Ingold, but the points worked out better this way), but with some Citadel Guards added to supplement what the force is supposed to do: winnow down enemy lines with archery, and then close to melee to finish them off:

Warband 1

• Boromir, Captain of Minas Tirith with Horse, Banner of Minas Tirith, and Shield
• 4 Knights of Minas Tirith with Shields
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields and Spears
• 2 Citadel Guard (with spears)

Warband 2

• Ingold, Warden of Rammas Echor
• 6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields
• 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields and Spears
• 4 Citadel Guard (with spears)

Warband 3

• Cirion, Lieutenant of Amon Barad
• 6 Citadel Guard with Longbows
• 2 Citadel Guard (with spears)
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with Spears

Warband 4

• Captain of Gondor with Shield
• 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields
• 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields and Spears
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with Spears

TOTAL: 800pts, 48 models, 14 Might, 14 Bows (8 at S2, 6 at S3)

So with this list we're optimizing our Shieldwall due to Ingold: if we want to, we can avoid backing up (which I generally don't recommend, but hear me out), which means we can guarantee Shieldwall on everyone as long as the spearmen on the ends are Warriors of Minas Tirith, which is really nice. So his warband is designed to be our "anvil": it will walk up to enemies and fight with a lot of Fight 4, as the Citadel Guard will back up the two closest men on either side of Ingold, while the ends are capped off with our Warriors of Minas Tirith (and don't worry: we'll have a spear for Ingold later). And at D7, most models in the game will be wounding on 6s, which you only have about a 51% chance of getting on 4 dice (which would be two dueling dice doubled for trapping the model), and far less than 50% on 2 dice (if there's no spear supporting). So the odds that you lose a guy are not as high as you'd think.

Deploying near him (and to help cap off his flank) I'd put Boromir with his banner, both because we want the "hammer" near the "anvil" to make sure we can polish off the enemy before they break through our lines, but also because we didn't have enough points to put a banner in Ingold's unit, and we want to give those oh so helpful rerolls (not to mention bumping everyone up to F4 and F5) to our "anvil" to keep it in the fight longer.

The captain is designed to cover the other side of the flank, with the captain, 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields, and one of the Warriors of Minas Tirith with a shield and spear providing the frontage, the Rangers backing them up, and then the extra spearman helping to fill the "spear gap" in Ingold's warband.

The final warband is our "objective claimer" warband, with Cirion (who is a great hero for slaying enemy warriors and a good Might caddy, but not necessarily someone you need in the scrum where the heavy fighting is, and you don't feel bad using his Might to call Heroic Moves) with 6 Citadel Guard with longbows backed up by 6 spears (4 of which are Rangers, contributing their S2 archery to winnow out the D6 guys that might be protecting softer targets). These guys are designed to camp objectives and keep the enemy at bay, winnowing down their ranks before bringing F4 (on all of them) to bear against the enemy.

Is this "the best way to play Minas Tirith"? Probably not, but it has 1) a lot of answers to Terror, 2) a good bit of shooting (14 bows, split between S2 and S3), 3) decent speed thanks to the knights, Boromir, and access to Heroic March from the captain, 4) solid resilience, and 5) almost 50 models while still having heroes that are not slouches in close combat, which is great.

Option 2: The Riders of Boromir

Does the following list hit with more power than the Riders of Theoden?!?!? No, but kind of: this Minas Tirith list focuses on an all-mounted force, showcasing powerful heroes and heavy-hitting warriors, complete with skirmish capability and solid objective holding:

Warband 1

• Boromir, Captain of Minas Tirith with Horse, Banner of Minas Tirith, and Shield
• 14 Knights of Minas Tirith with Shields

Warband 2

• Hurin the Tall, Warden of the Keys with Horse
• 10 Knights of Minas Tirith with Shields
• 1 Knight of Minas Tirith with Shield and Banner

Warband 3

• Beregond, Guard of the Citadel with Horse
• 5 Citadel Guard with Longbows on Horses

TOTAL: 800pts, 33 models, 10 Might, 6 Bows (all S3)

So for starters, if Rohan gets to 33 with all mounted armies they're pretty happy: this is a big group of riders, especially since it's 25 lances and a two-handed weapon with no penalty in it, so it hits with the equivalent of S5 on the knights and even higher with Hurin. The army is pretty simple: Boromir leading a ton of knights in a F4 bubble giving them great Fight Value and banner rerolls, while Hurin leads a smaller batch of knights with a banner as well, so they can work independently to break enemy lines. All the while, Beregond and the Citadel Guards are providing cover fire, prepared to claim objectives at high speed while peppering the enemy (as all of them, including Beregond, have longbows and Bodyguard). And if the enemy tries to reinforce, they have the option of charging out at 10" if they think overwhelming the enemy in close combat would be better/easier than shooting them. And with F4 for all of that objective claiming group, they stand a good chance of winning fights when push comes to shove.

Is this a "Death" Rohan army? No. Would it hit pretty hard against an unprepared opponent? I think so. And unlike most all-mounted Minas Tirith armies, it can soften enemies if it wants to, thanks to the archery it adds from Citadel Guards, plus it has more reliable charging of Terror units thanks to them being in the list. Plus they become F5 near Boromir, so you can even run over F4 elite troops with them more reliably than you can with a pure cadre of knights

Conclusion

Are these guys the best units in the game? No. Do they offer a flexibility that Minas Tirith units generally lack? Yes. And that's what makes them a useful consideration if you're finding that you're struggling with this faction. The most common complaint about Minas Tirith is that it has a wounding problem: all the non-heroes cap out at S3, and that means punching through D6+ armies (which is often the ideal army to face, as they're willing to rank up infantry and fight your shieldwall up close) is very, very hard. But Citadel Guard offer the ability to both win fights up close (which gives you more chances to wound) and to winnow down enemy forces at range, thanks to S3 (the same as in melee) longbows. And I think that merits your consideration.

Until next time, you know where to find me,

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"I watch the stars, for it is mine to watch." ~ Glenstorm