MESBG Christmas Lists, List #4: Minas Tirith

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's list is the first of the TMAT team's lists and per the usual, Centaur is the first of us to submit his list (well, list and article - I was still writing my article, but the list was definitely chosen already). Centaur has chosen his list from our recent THRO 2023 tournament - one that I had the "privilege" of playing against . . .

• Boromir, Captain of the White Tower on horse with the Banner of Minas Tirith and shield [AL]
• 7 Osgiliath Veterans with shields
• 8 Osgiliath Veterans with shields and spears
• Faramir, Captain of Gondor with heavy armor and bow
• 3 Osgiliath Veterans with shields
• 3 Osgiliath Veterans with shields and spears
• 8 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Beregond, Guard of the Citadel
• 6 Citadel Guard with longbows
• Ingold, Warden of the Rammas Echor
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield, spear, and banner
• 4 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields
• 2 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Siege veteran with Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet
• 2 crew
• Siege veteran with Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet
• 2 crew

1000 points, 50 models, 11 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 7 longbows hitting on a 4+ AND 2 trebuchets hitting on a 4+, 30 D6+ models, 5 cavalry, 14 Might

Centaur: I was told this was a siege tournament, and I love trebuchets, so I decided upfront I'd run a trebuchet-heavy list. At one point I had three in the list, but I dropped it to two, because I found I only had like 30ish guys running around beyond the trebs, and that felt unwise. So I dropped it down to two. But I really love how this list plays, because it's a multi-threat list that has good synergy with each other.

A pic of Centaur's ODF in action at TMAT's THRO 2023 tournament

Minas Tirith is a very resilient, and thus forgiving, army: lots of D6+ options, both for infantry and mounted troops, and when you add trebuchets to the list you get really good damage output alongside your heroes, which covers over the fact that your infantry are all S3 and don't tend to contribute as much to the damage total. The trebs provide you with reliable threats against big enemy heroes and monsters, and encourages them to hide behind terrain, which is advantageous for us. But the other thing they do is that they allow you to hang back, soften up for 20 minutes, and force them to take you where you're more defensible, because you have plenty of range, easy access to line of sight thanks to doing Volley Fire, and the weapon itself is pretty resilient, so bringing it to its knees is not easy to do.

So with this list, you've got Boromir and Faramir lined up to deal damage, plus Ingold and Beregond to provide supporting assistance along the lines. And then you have a solid wall of 15 "Heavy Infantry" who are F4 D6 around Faramir and F5 D6 around Boromir, and have that sweet, sweet C5 for getting into Terror models (which I correctly assessed would be all over the place in this tournament). Tack on 4 knights for harassing the flanks, 10 rangers to spear support, some Citadel Guard to give a mix of S3 archery to keep the enemy honest if they chose to skimp on D6 in favor of D5, and a bannerman just to provide a second banner bubble further down the line, and you're golden. Each threat helps each other: whittle away at range, force them up toward us, then hit them with a solid F5 line with plenty of banner support to win the day.

So this is a classic "Centaur-Special" Underdog list: I don't think most people would run this list, and inasmuch as they do, I think they'd run it differently (Warriors of Minas Tirith instead of Osgiliath Veterans, more Rangers instead of Citadel Guard, etc.). But I think I can win with this list, and I pulled a win against a solid Mordor-Easterlings list and a draw against the Balrog. And I'd say that's not half bad, :P 

Tiberius: As the person who got over 30 models SQUASHED by trebuchets while approaching with his Balrog (and a dead siege tower - don't forget about the siege tower), I can say this is a very strong list indeed (and I was very happy to get a draw at the very last minute!). One treb doesn't seem that dangerous, but two trebs (especially if they're both hitting for consecutive turns) can be absolutely crushing (quite literally). Thanks, Centaur, for the list - and we hope you enjoyed reading about it! We'll be back in two days - until next time, happy hobbying!

Thoughts on the War in Rohan Siege Scenarios

Good morning gamers,

The Matched Play scenarios give players a lot of different ways to play an MESBG game - with eighteen scenarios in the Matched Play Guide, you can have scenarios where you try to control parts of the board, kill off certain heroes, or "just kill things." No matter what your preferred style of play is, there's a scenario that's probably going to work out well for you.

But the one kind of scenario that isn't available in Matched Play is a siege scenario. There are rules for fighting sieges in the main rulebook and additional rules that were provided in the War in Rohan supplement, which included two scenarios - but the Matched Play experience is siege-free, and I think most players like it that way. I mean, the walls can make things really one-sided, right?

Well, I decided to test this theory by running a tournament using the siege rules/scenarios provided in the War in Rohan book (with a few modifications) and after MANY games of defending walls and villages (and attacking them), I have quite a few thoughts on how siege games work, what really doesn't work in a siege game, and ideas for how to take what GW has given us and turn it into a fun tournament-play experience. Let's dig in!

Siege Scenarios

There are two siege scenarios in the War in Rohan supplement - one for attacking a wall-less village (Defend the Village) and one for attacking a city with a wall (The Grand Siege). The fact that there are two scenarios you can play (one with a wall, one without one) is incredibly good, as it allows all-cavalry armies to participate in siege events without having to worry about dismounting to carry battering rams or climbing walls.

If you plan to run a siege event, I would highly recommend that you change the scoring requirements - the Grand Siege scenario is not optimized for event play and minor tweaks to the Defend the Village scenario would be recommended as well (though they are much less necessary).

Back to Basics: Siege Engines in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Today we're continuing our "back to basics" series and going over the rules for siege engines in MESBG. Like monsters and war beasts (which are technically monsters), the siege engines of Middle-Earth are some of the most iconic things you'll see in the films - whether it's the ballistas and bombs of the Uruk-Hai at Helm's Deep, the trebuchets and catapults during the siege of Minas Tirith, or the "twirlie whirlies" of the Iron Hills, it's undeniable that the game would be worse off aesthetically if these models didn't exist in some form.

But siege engines aren't like other shooting units (for the most part) and they have their own list of dos and don'ts that can give newer players (and old veterans) pause before fielding them (not to mention a negative play experience if you're not expecting their damage output or special rules). In fact, very few FAQs have been issued where at least one siege engine wasn't addressed in some way (indicating that how a siege weapon is used or how it interacts with other units is up for debate by both new and long-time users).

Furthermore, as I was preparing for this post, I realized that while there are "rules for siege engines," every SINGLE rule for how a siege engine works is broken by at least one siege engine - there is so much diversity amongst siege engines, that the rules for siege engines aren't even universal! So today, we're breaking it down (and get used to the phrase "for the most part" - it's already come up and it's going to be coming up a lot more) and trying to make the rules for siege engines clearer for everyone. Let's dig in!

In Defense of: Gondor Battlecry Trebuchets

Hey Reader!

Photo courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Today we're continuing the In Defense Of series, and Tiberius asked me to jump in and chat about the Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet, as I thought it was the best Forces of Good siege weapon (or "Big Honkin' Things," as we also included things like chariots in our consideration) in the game, and that was controversial among our gaming group. And to be honest, this is likely controversial for your gaming group as well: most people tend to not like trebuchets. 

And I don't understand why, because I think they fix the "Minas Tirith Problem" quite nicely.

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 a Trebuchet

A lot of people on the internet (both trolls and well-intentioned souls) will tell you that there's literally no reason to take a trebuchet.

How Gondor Trebuchets Get Accurate for Free

Hey Reader!

So in our TMAT Talks episode on Big Honkin' Things (mostly siege weapons and war beasts, but also things that act like siege weapons), one of the negatives that was mentioned about Gondor Battlecry Trebuchets was that they scatter 6" instead of 3", making it harder to hit the target that you want. And this is not uncommon: you see this critique in most forums, Facebook groups, and I'm sure gaming groups across the globe, and thus why the treb doesn't tend to rank as high as other siege weapons.

And while yes, the rules say that it doesn't have the Accurate special rule, as I got to thinking about it, I began to realize that, with good tactics and some training, you can get the effects of Accurate on your trebuchet for free a good bit of the time, so you're not actually at that great of a disadvantage.

This post is my argument for why this is the case.

TMAT Talks, Episode 5: Big Honkin' Things for the Forces of Good

Tiberius, Centaur, and Rythbryt return to discuss their top-10(ish) "Big Honkin' Things"... which turns out to be a whole lot of siege weapons, war beasts, and other giant machines of war that they'd otherwise never talk about (just kidding). If you've always craved an extended soliloquy on the [Censored] Bolt-Thrower from Minas Tirith* or a dissection of the Khazad-Dum Dwarf Ballista... well, you may need help--but this is the podcast for you! Plus three more ally-able army lists (450 points or less) in our pocket-full-of-power segment!

Music: Happy Haunts by Aaron Kenny

Intro (0:00)

Good, not best: lots of projectile weapons (6:35)

Good Top-3 (52:38)

Pockets-Full-of-Power (1:35:26)

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