Top Units by Faction: Minas Tirith Troops

Hello again everybody, General Ly Average here, back again to give you the second article in my ‘Top Units by Faction’ category: my top three troops of Minas Tirith; Rangers of Gondor, Citadel Guard and Guards of the Fountain Court. I hope you all enjoy!

Top Three Troops of Minas Tirith

Rangers of Gondor on my painting desk! Image credit goes to me, for once! Note I didn’t zoom in that far, else my distinctly mediocre painting would have been exposed

Number Three: Rangers of Gondor

Just (and I mean ‘just’) sliding in to my top three Minas Tirith troops list are the Rangers of Gondor. You’ve seen them massacred by Orcs in the films, now see them cower behind other warriors to provide Fight 4 spear support and shoot anything that comes near them. Anyway, I digress. First off we need to talk about their stats, and foremost amongst these should be their Fight and Shoot Value: 4 and 3+ respectively. This puts them at a good, competitive Fight Value and enables them to shoot pretty well too, which is a good job as bows are a standard part of their wargear. They are Strength 3, as with the other warriors in the list, but they have a lower defence than most as they only wear Armour, leaving them at one less defence than a Citadel Guard (which *SPOILERS* I will discuss later). This can be an issue, but it’s not a massive downside as most of your army will have pretty good defence (indeed, most of the units you should have on the front line will have much higher defence than this). They have the standard 1 Attack, 1 Wound and Courage 3 that you would expect of your average warrior from the race of men and a points value of 8 as standard. As for equipment, they come with bows as standard in an army with no way to override the bow limit (so only a third of your army can be Rangers at maximum) and Armour,  leaving them a rather fragile unit in a generally quite high Defence army. They are vulnerable to normal bows and will drop at a frightening rate to crossbows, but their good shoot value ought to help you win shooting battles with your enemy or at least kill a few models here and there. All the Ranger models come with swords as standard, so you can Feint if you have a support (such as another Ranger), but your rangers shouldn’t be risking their necks in combat  because they can take spears for a point, meaning they can camp behind a high-defence front line and pop off shots so that they aren’t killed off in combat due to their low defense. This is probably their central function for me, at least; they’re one of two Minas Tirith infantry units sold in plastic box sets of 12 and they are the only ‘standard’, non-elite troop in your army with Fight 4, so you have a way of standing up to most armies in a straight-up fight, with the Rangers transferring their good Fight value to a rank of Defence 6 Minas Tirith warriors with shields in front of them, enabling the Fight 3 warriors to actually win their fights. However, they only make it to Number Three in my list because there are other, better ways of completing this role, such as the next troop I’m going to talk about. When writing this, my big decision was whether Rangers or Knights of Minas Tirith were more worthy of making the Top Three, but the Rangers won out because of their higher, competitive Fight 4 and general ease of use, whereas the Knights are Fight 3 cavalry, which isn’t great, but do have lances to help a lot with the Minas Tirith list’s general problem at getting kills. But with Rangers you don’t have the problems of cavalry everywhere, i.e relying on getting the charge and just being an overpriced infantryman is you don’t and have a simple to use, reliable but not amazing unit,: equip with spears, sit behind the line and shoot, support when combat hits. I always have a few rangers in my force, but only really because I don’t have enough of the next two units.

P.S I didn’t really know where I could fit this in in the above article, but Rangers of Gondor can be upgraded to Rangers of Ithilien for a point, which means that they gain the ‘Woodland Creature’ special rule, which is familiar to anyone that has ever dabbled in Elven armies before. It’s OK for creating themed lists, I suppose, such as a Defenders of Osgiliath army or something like that, but it’s by no means essential. Treat it as a strictly situational rule that could be a method of spending those last few points that we all have left when writing a list (which is nice for those of us that like round numbers, I suppose). Also, Rangers of Arnor use the same models as Rangers of Gondor, so if you’re thinking of starting a Grey Company/Arnor force these models will be useful for that as well.

Number Two: Citadel Guard

A Citadel Guard with Longbow. Image credit goes to J.P.Triffitt

In second position on  my leaderboard we find the Citadel Guard. These guys have a standard man profile with heavy armour and, importantly, Fight Value 4, putting them at a pretty competitive Fight Value. They have the options to take a Spear for a point per model; a strong option, as it lets you pass on the strong Fight Value to a line of higher defence guys in front of them to keep the Guards safe, as they are D5 with no option to take a Shield, leaving them vulnerable to Strength 3 (i.e the majority) of attacks. Secondly, they have the option to take Longbows for 2 points. These count as Elven Bows, meaning that you have a source of Strength 3 shooting in an army of men, which is rare; although they still only hit on a 4+, the higher shooting attack strength is still a huge asset. Their final option is a Horse for 6 points (as with Beregond, a conversion would be required). This is a very interesting option indeed, as it gives Minas Tirith a F4 cavalry option which it would otherwise lack. Although they can’t take lances, the knockdown bonus really helps Minas Tirith troops kill things, which is always and issue with the army as all of your troops have Strength 3 and only one unit, the Knights, have access to lances for a bonus to help mitigate it. Citadel Guards also have the special rule ‘Bodyguard (Gondor), meaning they will auto-pass all Courage checks they have to take while the hero that they are guarding is alive and on the field, which goes a long way to negating their mediocre Courage of 3. This is incredibly useful as you then have some models that are always going to stick around when your force is broken without needing a Stand Fast! from a nearby hero; you can therefore give them Longbows and leave them to hold back-field objectives without having to leave a hero to babysit them. Secondly, it gives you a guaranteed method of pinning a Terrifying model in place, especially if it has Harbinger of Evil/Ancient Evil. Rather like Faramir, the reason I really rate Citadel Guard is that they’re very versatile: you could give them spears for a F4 spear-supporting model that isn’t going to run away and will only die on 6’s to normal bows (even better, give as many as you can Longbows as well so you get a ranged threat out of them as well), you could give them Horses and Longbows to have a fast-moving, ranged threat that can charge into combat and knock down enemy models, leaving you in a much better position to kill them off, or you could just have a group with Longbows left to guard a back-field objective. Their equipment options just give them a huge amount of versatility that the Rangers of Gondor don’t quite have, in my opinion; they can have similar roles, but Citadel Guard do the ranged threat and spear support combo thing just as well for only a few more points while having an equally good statline (in my eyes, at least), a great special rule and the options to fulfil other, different roles as well. For all these reasons (and I really like the models, love the Minas Tirith armour aesthetic) I highly rate Citadel Guard. It takes a very good unit indeed to keep them off the top spot……..

Number One: Guards of the Fountain Court

Some beautifully painted Guards of the Fountain Court with Shields, one with Banner, being led by Beregond. Prepare to see something like this a lot if you play against Minas Tirith regularly. Thank you to ste271276 of the One Ring Forum for providing this image, all credit goes to him.

There could only be one winner, I’m afraid. I thought for a long time about just typing the subtitle, adding a picture and leaving it at that, because everyone save the newest players have seen these guys before. It’s pretty hard to miss a model that makes up the majority of even semi-competitive Minas Tirith lists in the known universe, and probably outside it too. ‘Too few in number to form their own regiments upon the battlefield’? Yeah right, Games Workshop. However, Minas Tirith players are right to spam these guys because they are seriously, seriously good; I’d even take the step of calling them one of the best troops in the game. First off, they have F4: very nice. Their shoot value is irrelevant as they can’t take bows, but you wouldn’t take them anyway as you REALLY want these guys with shields. Strength 3 is the only real downside in this unit, but if you play Minas Tirith this isn’t exactly an alien concept to you, unfortunately. But don’t worry, because even if they’re not killing their opponents their opponents won’t be killing them any time soon as they have a standard Defence value of 6. Yeah, you read that right, 6 (Very Heavy Armour is a wonderful thing). But the deal-breaker is that you can then give them shields for one paltry point to bring them up to Defence 7, meaning that Strength 4 attacks, and therefore the majority of heroes, need 6’s to wound them. 11 points may seem a little pricey for standard infantry in an army of men, but it’s well worth it for this unit. You’ll be able to hear your opponent’s teeth grind together if you manage to pin their prized hero in place with Fountain Court Guard as they realise that their powerhouse combat hero now needs a string of 6’s to even break through your normal line infantry, which can also shield. They are seriously, seriously tough to break through; Heroic Combats through them become very hard to achieve for all but the physically strongest heroes and hits from normal infantry will rarely find their mark.

After all that, you might have been foolish enough to think that the good points ended there, but you were mistaken. One attack and one wound is perfectly normal (Fountain Court Guards with 2 wounds just don’t bear thinking about…) but Courage 3, for a unit that is supposedly the very pinnacle of Gondor’s soldiery, is a bit underwhelming. But luckily for Minas Tirith players this doesn’t matter, because Guards of the Fountain Court have the same Bodyguard rule that Citadel Guard benefit from, so they can charge all Terrifying models without breaking a sweat and automatically pass their Courage checks for your force being broken. So, your opponent will, in most scenarios, have to painstakingly kill 75% of your majority-D7 troops in order to secure the victory, as none of them will run away even with half of their comrades gone; as long as the hero they are protecting is alive, casualty figures are just numbers to them. The final icing on the cake is that they come with spears as standard and can take a banner for 25 points, so you can have a banner that will never run away (highly useful in ‘To the Death!’, where banners alive at the end of the game grant VP’s) and a unit that don’t even need Citadel Guard or Rangers equipped with Spears to support them. Competitive Minas Tirith lists regularly feature several full warbands of these guys, with at least one led by Beregond, and however many more warbands the writer wants led by heroes of his/her choosing. They are by far and away the best troop choice in the Minas Tirith army list and probably one of the best in the whole game as well. The combination of the F4, D7 with shield (which you WILL give them, you’d be a fool not to), spears and Bodyguard gives you a self-supporting, good Fight value block of troops that will almost never run away. Personally, I think the models are lovely too, which stops me hating the sight of 24 or so heading across the table towards me in a 500 points game. Awesome models with an awesome statline to match, there isn’t much more to say here other than ‘take them’ (other than the financial cost of the Finecast sets).

So that’s all everyone, thank you for reading! What are your thoughts on my rankings? Any units you think I’ve looked on unfairly? Any troops you swear by? Let me know in the comments section below! Special thanks goes to J.P.Triffitt and ste271276 of the One Ring Forum for providing some splendid pictures of their Citadel Guard and Fountain Court Guards respectively. Make sure to check out the expert commission painters and modellers Shadow and Flame on their website (link below), it’s well worth a look.

Shadow and Flame Website: http://www.shadowandflame.co.uk/

So, thanks again for reading everybody. I’ll probably be starting another category of articles for my next post or possibly writing more for the ‘Beginner’s Advice’ section. I will be returning to this category at some point to write an article on the best heroes in the Mordor army list; I think alternating between Good and Evil armies will be a good idea for the sake of variety. Any particular topics you want to see or armies you want in the spotlight, let me know in the comments section. And most importantly, Happy Strategy Battle Gaming everyone!

Top Units by Faction: Minas Tirith Heroes

Hello readers, General Ly Average here and welcome to my second article on the Hobbit Strategy Battle Guide (now with pictures!!!). I thought that today’s post ought to be in a different vein to my first article and I was hunting around for ideas. Several people have said that one of their first questions when starting the Hobbit SBG was ‘What’s the best hero/troop in the game?’. This is a tricky one for many reasons, but I thought that tackling it by army could be viable. So this is what I came up with: I would go through the various armies in the game and give you all my views on the top three heroes and troops in each list, one article on heroes, one on troops (spreading out the content so I don’t run out of steam, of course). And so the ‘Top Units by Faction’ category was born…..

So, for my first article in this ilk I decided to start with a truly iconic army straight out of the films, Minas Tirith. So, without further ado, let’s begin with my thoughts on the best heroes in the Minas Tirith army list:

      Top Three Heroes: Minas Tirith

Number Three: Madril

Image credit goes to Middle Earth Wardens

At number three we have Madril, Captain of Ithilien. He’s got your standard captain of men profile with armour and a bow, but a 3+ shoot value and 3 Might. This is very nice indeed, making him a nice little Might caddy which you can use to counter Heroic actions called by your opponent or use to get a cheeky wound with shooting. Other than that his profile is nothing special; Fight 4 is a bit rubbish and only having Defence 5, 2 Wounds and 1 Fate means that he’ll go down if you lose fights, but you don’t take him for combat ability. You take him for his special rule, ‘Master of Ambush’, which allows all warbands entering play as reinforcements to get a +1 modifier to their dice roll and includes scenarios like Recoinnoitre. This, on a model that costs only 55 points, is great. Suddenly your whole army is getting what could be a game-changing bonus in Hold Ground! and Reconnoitre, as your units have that much more of a chance of coming in exactly where you want them to be, which can swing the outcome of the game. Cheap, great special rule and 3 Might (and still available in metal from GW at the time of writing); a solid choice in any Minas Tirith Army.

Number 2: Beregond

A mounted Beregond conversion by ste271276 of the One Ring forum

Clocking in at number 2 we have a model that many Minas Tirith veterans swear by, Beregond. Responsible for showing Pippin round Minas Tirith in the books, he has now taken up the responsibility for leading a warband in almost every competitve Minas Tirith list you see. And not without reason, because this guy is a very, very good choice. On the face of it, Beregond is nothing special. His statline is slightly familiar to anyone that has used Rangers of the North, looking very much like a slightly buffed warrior: F4 is ok but not great, but the 1 Attack, Wound and Fate point mean that he isn’t good in combat; one lost fight will take him down, although Strength 3 troops will need 6’s to wound him as he’s Defence 6. He has a single might point, which is handy, a 3+ shoot value and an Elven Bow, which is nice but not exactly a game changer, a will point to resist spells (woohoo) and the option to take a horse (conversion required). A charging Beregond is alright in combat, especially with the Knockdown, extra attack and Strength 4, but he’s certainly not going to touch anyone remotely combat orientated. Finally, he has Bodyguard for a hero of Minas Tirith in your army, which is actually very useful: have him bodyguard someone tough, auto-pass his courage and use his Stand Fast! to make sure your troops stick around. But none of these things are why you take Beregond. You take him for his points cost: at a paltry 25 points on foot and just over 30 when mounted he’s one of the cheapest non-independent heroes in the game. Hobbit heroes are more expensive than him, for goodness sake, and he can lead troops! What you’re getting with Beregond is a very cheap way to get 12 more Fountain Court Guard/Citadel Guard in the army, and with other heroes of a similar standard and cost in the list Minas Tirith armies can be very large and yet still field excellent troops. Beregond is a staple of competitive Minas Tirith lists, and rightfully so.

Number 1: Faramir, Captain of Gondor

Image credit goes to Shadow and Flame

Finally, my personal favourite from the heroes of Minas Tirith, it’s Faramir, Captain of Gondor! Base, Faramir has Fight 5 with a 3+ Shoot Value, standard hero strength and defense with armour, 2 Attacks, 2 Wounds, Courage 5 and 3 2 2 for Might, Will and Fate. He also has a very respectable points value of 70 points basic. However, Faramir is a very versatile choice: he can take a bow if you feel that you want the Faramir from straight out of the Battle for Osgiliath (as shown in the image above from ‘Shadow and Flame’) or you can kit him out to make him tougher and more combat orientated, which would be my recommendation. He can take Heavy Armour and a Shield to take him to Defence 7, a key point as Strength 4 models (i.e most heroes) will be needing 6’s to Wound him, and can also take a Horse/Armoured Horse and a Lance. Taking all of these makes him very nasty indeed, and for a 2 Attack hero he can kill a surprising amount on the charge with the knockdown and +1 to Wound from the lance. The 2 Wounds, 2 Fate and Defence 7 also make him a pretty good leader and 3 Might is very good. One interesting point to make is that he has Woodland Creature, given to him in an Errata, so you can really surprise your opponent by charging straight through a wood at a target they’d hidden so Faramir wouldn’t be able to get to them. But other than that, he has no particular special function or use beyond being quite survivable and killing 2/3 models a turn on the charge. The reason I really rate Faramir is that he’s a great utility hero: he can dish out a fair bit of damage on the charge, has very good heroic stats and can be a tough nut to crack; and he is always these things in every game. He is always consistently useful for me as a tough leader that can really get stuck in and leaves me lots of points to sink into my very good Minas Tirith troops; even fully kitted out (excluding the bow) he doesn’t break the 100 point mark. I’ve always found him to be that perfectly balanced, mid-level hero who can kill what he needs to kill while leaving lots of points to spend elsewhere. And he works at any points level: even as low as 350 points he is my auto-include hero, because he can still pull his weight while leaving enough for 2 full warbands and a cheap second hero like Beregond. Every game Faramir performs well and earns his points back, hence every game he is in my list.

So there you have it! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it and I’d also like to think that you found this useful or thought provoking. I would also like to thank Shadow and Flame, who kindly allowed me to use their picture of their beautifully-painted Faramir. They do some great conversions and commission painting, I highly recommend checking out their website:  http://www.shadowandflame.co.uk/ for more of their work. Two other big shout-outs go to ste271276 of the One Ring forum for allowing me to use a picture of his excellent mounted Beregond conversion and to the Middle Earth Wardens for letting me use one of their images. You can see more of their work here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Middle-Earth-Wardens/1638386853056125?fref=ts

So that’s all everybody, I’ll be back at some later point with my post on my Top Three Troops of Minas Tirith. Be sure to comment with your thoughts and Happy Strategy Battle Gaming!