Army List Review: The Fellowship

Dan Slob: One of the most valuable pieces of content I came across when starting this game was the Veni Vidi Double blog with its excellent tactical advice and sample lists. Now we are in a new edition and we have had a few months to digest everything we are committing ourselves to reviewing one army list a week until they are all done. Considering how my last attempt at writing a regular blog article went (Hobby Blog episode 2 when?) I will probably fail immediately but joining me on this journey is fellow DC-er Dan Stu so hopefully we will keep each other accountable!

Credit Games Workshop

The sales pitch:

The Fellowship is the most iconic list in the game. It's literally all the main characters of the books in one place. For an army list you just can't get theme-ier than that! Sadly in terms of playing games it does struggle a bit, simply by the nature of it being an all hero list, and especially because half of those heroes are Hobbits! But you aren't in this to be a sweaty power gamer, you are here to embody the spirit of the story!

What makes it tick?

There is some cool stuff going on in this list. Starting with Sam, his Frying Pan being able to stun a model on a 4+ so they can't move next turn is fairly unique. There aren't that many effects that stop movement in the game, and those that exist are generally associated with very high points cost models. Since he's still only F3 he's not super likely to be winning a tonne of fights by himself but if he is in the same combat as one of the big boys then it is a nice addition to have if you fail to kill something. 

Gandalf being F5 and effectively S5 with Glamdring is exciting, especially as he could 2 hand if he wanted to. He would then be wounding a D6 model on 4s and a D5 model on 3s which is quite tasty. Sadly in this list he doesn't get his Cart or a Horse so he is a bit less effective than he is in other places.

Aragorn is still Aragorn. Being F7 is super good and his free point of Might is still what defines him, but you have to be really careful at D5 as he can absolutely go down if he gets overwhelmed. I like the idea of giving him a Bow and being a mini Legolas for a few turns with his free Might but it is often hard to fit that 5 points in.

Legolas is just mental this edition. His special rules should basically just read "I do what I want". I have found that shooting his 3 shots into his own combat makes him really good at killing Captains. He is also only D4 though so again an abundance of caution is needed when the fighting starts.

Gimli is also great this edition, ironically because Legolas is so much better. It means that in practice his +1 to wound is often just always on which makes him a murder machine. Being D8 is also sorely needed for this list as you need someone you aren't afraid to get stuck in. He also has throwing weapons which are nice, and one day I hope to hit with them.

Big Boz is still great with his mighty 6 Might. F7 is also amazing as he can just press the eject button with his Might when he needs to and often auto-win a fight. His horn is nice to have, especially when fighting Evil armies but if you are relying on it going off to get out of trouble then you are probably already on the wrong end of the game.

Finally there is Bill, who is a 25 point Banner that gives you a Might back 1/3 of the time. Excellent at 25 points, and your opponent may even feel too guilty to kill the good boy (probably not though).

I didn't talk about Frodo, Merry or Pippin because I think they are pretty bad. The best thing about them is that Pip's intelligence is 1 worse than Merry'. Frodo used to be great but the One Ring has been super nerfed this edition and now only halves Fight when the Ringbearer is the only model in the combat. Seems very bad for Frodo. 

Credit Games Workshop

Assembling your Army

This couldn't be easier! The plastic Fellowship box is all you need, however if you want to add the noble Bill to your lists you'll need to fork out separately for the Personalities of Bree pack which costs almost as much as the Fellowship box. That being said, it is still by far the cheapest way to get an 800 point list on the board, and definitely the easiest to paint! My own Fellowship got contrast paint slapped on them and were ready to go in pretty short order!

Possible Pivots

 

These heroes feature in a lot of lists, but in particular Road to Rivendell will get use out of 5 of your 9 models, and all of the Personalities of Bree if you picked those up too. Breaking of the Fellowship allows you to expand into a more normal army pretty easily by picking up Haldir and some Lothlorien Warriors. As you have the 3 Hunters already, a box of ghosts and the King of the Dead is an inexpensive way to get a fairly competitive army in the Return of the King too.

Pros:

Cheap

Fun

Thematic

All hero armies always end up with great stories!

Cons:

Will struggle to play objectives

Low defence all round (except Gimli)

Easily broken

All hero armies always end up with horrifying stories!

 

Credit Games Workshop

Lists & Discussion

As with all of these reviews, we’ll start with an ‘entry level’ list that you might want to aim for as you start collecting the army, and then move on to something more fleshed out.

These aren’t necessarily super-optimised lists, but they will be built in a sensible way that capitalizes on what think are the strengths of the list – and where possible, in a way that doesn’t mandate buying a whole box of infantry for a single model!

List #1:

This list is essentially just throwing Might at the problem until it goes away. Use Legolas to soften up targets on the way in and then go to town with you big boys when they arrive. It probably won't win Domination or Recon or Destroy the Supplies, but the other 3 you have a pretty good shot at and that's not bad for an all hero list. There was a real choice between Boromir's Horse or giving him a shield and Aragorn a Bow but I think the flexibility of having a cavalry model is too good (unless you are facing another Legolas in which case it will be dead immediately).

 

List #2:

This was easy, it's just everyone and all their upgrades except the Mithril Coat. Honestly these guys just aren't going to stand up to many other 800 point lists but you will be there hero of everyone's hearts if you take it. At 800 you'll likely be looking across at 40+ models and that's just too many to keep your Hobbits and horsey safe. You'll probably have a blast playing it though and it's just about the cheapest way to get an 800 point army there is so have at it!

On to the scores! Each category is scored out of ten, and we’ll explain below each score what it is we’re looking for.

Theme: 10

How well does this army encapsulate a moment from the books or films? Are all the right models present and does it feel like the moment it’s based on?

Power: 4

How well does it fare against other armies? We’ll be assuming that this is based on the Army’s ‘preferred’ points range, as it’s not very useful to assess how Lurtz’s Scouts performs at 1000pts, or Barad Dur at 300pts.

Cost & Collectability: 9

We’re looking at entry level cost to the army, how many purchases are needed, and are the models available off the shelf?

Hobby factor: 5

How good are the models? Are we dealing with shiny new plastics or stinky old finecast? Does the army require any converting, and does it lend itself to cool and unique paintjobs?

Fun factor: 10

How fun is that army to play, and crucially, how fun is it to play against?

Total: 38/50

Scoring this was fairly easy. It's the theme-iest list you can get, it's very cheap and how can you not have fun playing as the Fellowship? However it is let down by it just being kinda bad and also the Fellowship box is very much showing its age at this point.

So there we go. 1 down, 45 LOTR armies to go. To make it fun we will randomly generate the next lists we are going to talk about each week, but we will force it to be alternating Good and Evil for as long as possible. The first draw for next time was Lurtz's Scouts! See you then!

    

February FAQ: Don't let the Dragon Emperor Drag On, and Ents are OP now

Dan Stu: It's February again, and we all know what that means! 

No, we're not talking about lapsed New Year's resolutions and seasonal depression - it's FAQ time! 

Credit: Warhammer Community

It's quite slim pickings this time around, which we can view as a good sign of the game being in a pretty healthy place. Had we wished for one or two extra bits? We'll bite our tongues on that for now...

HEADLINE - DRAGON EMPEROR GETS COMEUPPANCE

Let's talk first about the one big nerf which I think we all saw coming a mile off, which is that the Dragon Emperor now costs an extra 30pts. This feels like it's been on the way ever since his points cost was first announced, prompting every SBG player to say in unison 'The Dragon Emperor costs HOW MUCH!?'

While it's a pretty decent response to pretty outrageous performance the Easterling Legendary Legion has been putting in at GBHL events, we're not sure many of us predicted a points change, which are very unusual for SBG. In SBG, units are balanced in the context of their armies, and buffs / nerfs tend to take the form of  new releases, Legendary Legions, special rules and modifications to alliances, which are all much more interesting than points tweaks, which GW tend to use as a last resort. 

And let's be honest, the Dragon Emperor was only making waves inside his Legendary Legion. While he was clearly undercosted as a model, this was counterbalanced by the rest of the Easterling faction's 'meh-ness', and it was only in the Legion that things got problematic. So with that said, let's have a look at the various ways in which the community had predicted that Emperor would be deposed:

Solution #1: Remove the +1 Fight bonus

Pros: Emperor is now an expensive paperweight

Cons: Emperor is now an expensive paperweight

Easterlings are bad again

Solution #2: Decrease or remove the banner effect

Pros: Has a big impact on his buffing ability

Cons: The Emperor loses a bit of his identity as a centrepiece support hero

Impacts DE outside of the LL

Solution #3: Increase points cost

Pros: Can be tuned easily

Has a meaningful impact on model count at low points

Cons: Emperor is now dead outside the LL

It's not a very interesting fix

MESBG doesn't really 'do' points tweaks

Might not be enough 

Solution #4: Remove extra reroll in the LL

Pros: Only hits the LL, which is the only problematic incarnation

Cons: Removes one of the few Legion bonuses - it is now basically just the same as regular Easterlings apart from free BDs, which is boring

Solution #5: Remove free BD upgrade in LL

Pros: It was a weird rule to start with and skewed things towards the Legion way too much

Ebay gets flooded with cheap BD models

Cons: Black dragons are now just in the back rank, it only works out at around a 20pt nerf

Everybody who bought 4 packs of Black Dragons writes GW an angry letter

When we spell these out, it's disappointing but not really surprising that GW chose the route of a points tweak. It preserves the character of the model who, while he might be detested by many, still occupies a really interesting and unique niche in the Middle Earth roster. It's a very 'play it safe' way to curb his effectiveness, especially at lower points, where the LL had a shockingly high model count and could be really oppressive to play against.

However, the big casualty here is non-LL Easterling lists which will now never see the Dragon Emperor. Nobody was doing this competitively, but it was a fun and experimental way to play (some of us may have had Emperor & Chariot lists in the works) and the disproportionate hit to these wacky, uncompetitive lists feels a lot like collateral damage. The Emperor will now only even be seen in his most disliked and arguably his most boring incarnation - a big whiff from GW on that front. 

In a vacuum, I think that removing the free Black Dragon upgrade in the Legendary Legion is a much neater fix. It targets only the legion, brings back the 'high fight at the back' playstyle which is a unique Easterling quirk, and let's be honest, the rule was only there in the first place to sell a ton of the very tasty but very expensive FW Black Dragon models that GW oh-so-coincidentally released at the same time. We get it - GW are running a business here, and the game and community we love is built on the back of a successful business model designed to sell toy soldiers. But this kind of shoot first, ask questions later approach is something we're more used to seeing the the more heavily monetised games like 40k, and we'd be lying if we said it didn't leave a sour taste.

But the good news is that the emperor could have been absolutely gutted, and he wasn't. He's still well designed and perfectly playable, even if not top tier any more. Compared to some knee jerk nerfs that makes a unit unplayably bad, or totally remove whatever made them cool in the first place, it could be a lot worse.

Time will tell whether this nerf is enough to bring him in to line, though - it's ultimately around a 3-model penalty to the LL which still functions in exactly the same way. 3 models isn't nothing, but I have a feeling that the list will still be a big shiny brick wall in certain matchups. And the mumak in the room, of course, is that this nerf may just roll out the red carpet for the other list that we've seen dominating GBHL podiums recently... 

Credit: Micheal Bradford

Editor's note: This is all very nice Dan, but can we please address the ACTUAL nerf to the Dragon Emperor?

Dan S: Whoops - my mistake. Let me sort that real quick:

RIP Dragon Emperor, 2022-2024. I for one welcome our new Ent overlords, etc, etc. 

That's your lot for balance updates. On to the rules clarifications and changes.

RULES CLARIFICATION - PAIRING OFF FIGHTS 

Listen, here at Drawn Combat we're a classy bunch, and we don't like to say 'I told you so'.

But in this instance, we totally told you so, so suck it nerds. 

This diagram generated a decent bit of conversation (and dare I say controversy?) back when we posted our 'Upping your Game' article, and it seems that common sense has prevailed. Despite some poor wording, it was clearly intended that the priority player can allocate fights to their advantage and this was the way it was usually played at events. However, the relevant section of the rules was worded clumsily, leading to some overzealous application of 'rules as written', with people saying that having a 1v1 was always mandatory if possible and model C would always have to fight model B, regardless of whether that was advantageous for the player with priority.

Now it's clearly established that the priority player can divide these fights up in to a pair of 2v1s if they like, which is the much more intuitive ruling. In the case of red having priority, this is good, as it evens up fights and gives them a chance to un-trap model B before it has to fight. This is the way it was played in practise 95% of the time, and the competitive community had landed on this as the correct interpretation.

However. It's not all peaches and cream. The change to the wording does introduce some new complications, too, and the ramifications of these may take some time to unpick.

Without the '1v1 where possible' wording, there is no longer a requirement to pair models in to the maximum number of fights, and this could have quite a big impact on the non-priority player's ability to 'peel off' models from fights. This is helpfully illustrated by adding a new red model D to this diagram:

Under the old rules, this would have to be resolved as 3 fights, which may or may not include a trap, depending on the order in which the fights are resolved. Now, may be resolved as only two fights - a 3v1 vs red B,  and a 2v1 with red D and A - which is a potentially massive change. 

Blue having priority here results in a trap as long as they resolve the fight with red B first - same as before - but now that blue C can join the same fight, that's potentially an extra 2 strikes against trapped red B compared to previously. If there are any heroes in the mix, that's an even bigger change and favours the priority player much more. It does make the game more intuitive, as there are no arbitrary restrictions on how fights are paired and the only restriction is that everything in base contact needs to fight somebody - but we'll need to do a bit of work to see just how big this change is. 

However, we've said it before and we'll say it again - movement, control zones and pairing off fights constitutes the bulk of the game's complexity, and they could really do with fleshing out in the rules to make sure this stuff is as clear as it possibly can be. A flowchart or two wouldn't hurt, either. 

BUY ONE AXE, GET ONE FREE (THIS IS A MANDATORY OFFER)

Was anybody doing this? I never saw it and now I guess I never will. If you are the one person who modelled all of your Acolytes to have one sword and one axe - kudos for the effort, and I hope you kept some spare axes lying around. 

IT'S NOT OVER, ANAKIN - I DO NOT HAVE THE HIGH GROUND

This one didn't come up all that often, but it did always feel a bit bad when your opponent had an unscalable cliff or building in their board half and you didn't, resulting in you being peppered by spells or bow fire all game with no recourse. A simple change but a good one. 

However, it's still slightly unclear whether you can deploy in terrain that is theoretically scalable, but that your opponent can no longer climb once your models are deployed - e.g., narrow balconies and trees. Technically it would be possible for a model to reach them over the course of the game if they died to ranged fire, so there still might be some 'feels bad' moments during deployment. 

RULES CLARIFICATION - CONTROL ZONES

I'm not sure this was really ever misinterpreted much, the rules are quite clear on starting a move inside another control zone - just don't move closer and you're golden. Clearly some people were confused on it, though, so there's no harm in spelling it out. 

COME CLOSER, I WANT TO HIT YOU WITH MY BOW

Again, I'm not sure how many people were doing this and I'd hate to be the TO who had to admit that, rules as written, someone carrying a bow is technically not 'unarmed' - but it's no longer an exploitable wording. Lovely.

RULES CLARIFICATION - BLUDGEON

RIP overpowered Ents 2024-2024, it was fun while it lasted. 

That's pretty much it - there were a couple of small rules clarifications but nothing meaty. The main event here was the Dragon Emperor nerf, and time will tell what the effects will be - but early reactions seem to be pretty mixed. Regardless of how you feel about it, get used to seeing an awful lot a certain evil alliance until the next FAQ drops!

2024-th Eorlingas! An SBG Diary Part 1

Dan Slob: I started this blog a long time ago now, and in my keenness to be a content producer I burnt myself out a while back. Since then the blog has been wonderfully run by other talented members of the DC team but recently I’ve felt a hobbit shaped hole in my life. This series of articles is to be my grand return to this excellent game and will also hopefully provide motivation to stick with it when other games are giving me the side eye, looking at you Old World. (By the way, the title is supposed to read Twenty Twenty Four-th Eorlingas…. Sorry).

For this journey I’ve decided to stick with one army in particular, to see if I can also actually get better at the game. I've played a lot of shield walls in my time, what with having a large Minas Tirith and Iron Hills army so that style of play just doesn't appeal any more. The most fun I've had with SBG is playing with my Ents, but they are too heart breaking when you roll a 3 high and they get chopped down. I want something that is hero heavy but also viable and doesn't take too much thought. Those are generally two opposite ends of the spectrum but there is one army that threads that needle quite nicely: Riders of Theoden. 

The army is very mobile and can bide its time to an extent. It then has one explosive round which hopefully punches an un-recoverable hole into the enemy lines and mops up the pieces. There is more to it than this and I am looking forward to learning its nuances over the course of the year. The first proper run out of the army will be at the 7th City Middle Earth Grand Prix which is a 600 point event. So what's in the list at 600 points?

• Theoden with Armoured Horse, Heavy Armour, Shield

     - 2 Rohan Royal Guard on Horse

• Eomer with Armoured Horse, Shield, Throwing Spears
• Gamling with Horse, Royal Standard of Rohan
• Deorwine with Horse
• Dernhelm with Throwing Spears
• Captain of Rohan with Horse, Heavy Armour, Shield and Axe

600 Points, 9 models (Dernhelm counts as 2), 0 bows, 17 Might, Broken: 5 dead, Quartered: 2 remaining.

The logic here is take all the heroes until you can't any more and then start adding Captains and Royal Guard. That's not strictly true as Elfhelm has been neglected but I think I prefer a Captain over him for a few reasons. The Captain is cheaper (which allows the extra Royal Guard), has March and is F5 on the charge. It's true he has one fewer point of Might but this list is not wanting for Might.

So far I have played 3 games with the list and it has done well. the first was against Angmar with Gulavhar (not good for a hero heavy list) but my first charge (with Death) killed so many Orcs that the game was over almost before it began. Gully did then start chomping heroes but the damage was done.

Before the big charge

The second game was against almost all mounted Serpent Horde/Far Harad. Also a very bad matchup with Blowpipes and Impact Hits galore. My opponent should have won this but we were just playing at a club night and instead of him kiting me and killing my horses before engaging, we both quickly got bored and just charged each other. This list wants to do that a lot so I ended up smashing his lightly armoured horses for the loss of a Royal Guard and Merry (RIP). 

After. Yikes.

The third game was against local league organiser Ian who was using a big chunk of pirates backed up by Suladan and various Serpent Horde specialists. We played Hold Ground and since Ian had 44 models I knew I was in trouble. Maelstrom had most of my guys come in from my right corner, with the pirate horde opposite and Suladan from the middle of the left side of the board. I had to choose whether to go after the pirates or Suladan and knowing that Ian would be very happy to sit back and crossbow/throwing dagger me to death from behind I went into the pirates. 

Initially choosing to go after the Pirates

I weathered 2 turns of shooting before I hit his lines and lost a couple of fate. The first charge absolutely bounced, doing virtually nothing and losing a Fate and wound off Gamling to boot. However I just have so much Might that the next turn I called a Move, called Death and absolutley ran roughshod over his line. I think I killed 14 pirates with my 8 models which is insane. After that Theoden and Eomer tag-teamed Delgamar (or maybe Delamir, I dno man they all sound the same to me) and Dernhelm murdered the Bosun. Things went downhill for Ian from there.

Before "Death"

After "Death"

Unfortunately for me the game ended the first time it could have and Ian had had 8 dudes from Suladan's warband just sitting on the objective all game so I lost 7-4. I didn't feel too bad about this as I had not really tried to play the objective at all, and honestly I am not sure I could have given Ian's good placing to make me stay away from the centre. With only having 8 models I can't really afford to split them up. An extremely fun game and I only took 3 wounds the entire game which is crazy! (Though I had spent most of my Fate). 

How the game finished

I have one more practice game before the Grand Prix and I still have dismounts to paint (you think you are getting away with painting 8 models, then you remember the dismounts *groan*). I also challenged myself to do the freehand on Gamling's banner.... in under a minute. In reality I was just sketching out the shape of the horse but it turned out so funny I decided to leave it. The horse's name is Beans and I love him.

I'll maybe report back after the practice but probably not. The hive mind of the GBHL have taught me some good tricks for using Dernhelm and I am enjoying her as a piece. I particularly enjoy the trick of infinite Merry Might using the Royal Standard of Rohan, that's a good one. 

For now, thanks for reading and I am looking forward to more SBG in 2024!

Building on your Battlehost - Minas Tirith

Building on your Battlehost – Minas Tirith

Credit: Warhammer Community

Dan Stu: Part 2 of our new ‘Building on your Battlehost’ series takes us to Minas Tirith, where we’ll be looking at both the Minas Tirith Battlhost and the Minas Tirith half of the Battle of Osgiliath (‘BoO’) Starter set. Part 1 had us looking at Isengard, where there was a complex web of sprawling Legendary Legions and alliances. Fortunately, Minas Tirith is much more straightforward in terms of the number of Legions that you can pivot towards. However – it isn’t perfectly straightforward either, as we'll see!

The ‘starter boxes' as we’ll be calling them, while they offer excellent cash-for-plastic value, aren’t the simplest purchases for new players. What I mean by that is that you can’t just take all the models in a starter box and run them as a single ‘optimal’ army without further purchases. You’ll likely have some redundancy, some models left in the box, and will need to a couple more purchases to round out your forces.

What the starter boxes do very well, though, is give you a cheap way to get playing quickly, and a large set of models for building towards a number of different armies options further down the line – so we’ll be taking that approach here. That means that a lot of the early ‘out of the box’ armies we talk about here will be far from optimal (aka, rubbish) but they will be perfect for getting the hang of the game on a shoestring budget. Later down the line, when you’ve padded out your collection and want to run more ‘optimal’ armies, you may find that you’re only using two thirds of the components in each starter box for your lists, but that’s generally OK – it’s good to have options. If you want to beeline to a specific army list, you can of course forego this approach and just buy the models you need – just keep in mind that any prices listed below that include the BoO represent a ton of additional value beyond what’s shown in our army lists.

To lay things out clearly for any newer players, both the Battlehost and Osgiliath box give you 3 sets of Minas Tirith units – one hero pack and two troop packs. However, the Osgiliath troops are equivalent to half boxes of troops, each containing 12 models rather than 24.

Battlehost	Battle of Osgiliath
Gandalf the White and Pippin	Rangers of Ithilien (Faramir, Madril, Damrod)
Warriors of Minas Tirith (24)	Warriors of Minas Tirith (12)
Knights of Minas Tirith (6)	Rangers of Gondor (12)

It’s got to be said that the MT Battlehost and the Battle of Osgiliath set really pair quite well together, especially if you're a brand new player. You are doubling up on Warriors of Minas Tirith – your rank and file troops, and your bread and butter – so that gives you 36 warriors (12 with shields and 12 with spears), which is great if you ever intend to run some larger MT armies. If you can use the rules manual, terrain and other gubbins, the value is even better - and better still if you have a friend who is interested in the Mordor models. Or, you could always keep them to use at a later date (we may even be writing and article for them soon!) But even with the bit of redundancy, combining the Battlehost box and the BoO starter box offers the best value for money for Mordor and Minas Tirith models at the moment, so if you plan on collecting both armies at any point, or need the rulebook / terrain, the Osgiliath box gets a recommendation from us.

Artistic rendering of what you'll be getting if you purchase both of the starter boxes. 

If you wanted to keep your purchases leaner, there are of course other ways to go. While it’s fine to buy only the Battlehost and not the BoO box, it’s less straightforward to buy the BoO box and not the Battlehost. This is due to the low model count and high proportion of bows included in the Osgiliath box.

Put another way – the Battlehost is a must-buy if you’ve just bought the Osgilliath box, but the reverse is not strictly true. If you’re really trying to keep purchases to an absolute minimum, and care more about a single curated army list than a model collection, the Battlehost is the better box. Buying both will give you versability. And keep in mind that for several of the lists we talk about, if you’ve bought both boxes, you can add extra models or swap troops if you want to play at higher points levels or vary your lists – for example, subbing in a warband of Rangers for some ranged pressure.

For the full preamble and all of the lovely caveats and disclaimers, head over to our previous Isengard BOYB – but the quick hits are that:

• We won’t be considering any third party minis, conversions or proxies, and all listed prices will be GW off-the-shelf prices in GBP as of January 2024 (We are not saying that this is the best way to build an army – but it gives us some common ground to start from. If you want to buy an ebay job lot, use third party minis or convert your own models, go for it!)
• The same goes for wargear – we’ll use what’s modelled, but wargear swaps are a quick and easy way to dip your toe in to the converting pool. This means that we'll some models won't be used much (sorry, Warrior of Minas Tirith with bow) and also that lists may be sub-optimal (Rangers without spears etc). If you want to convert your models to make your purchases more efficient, there are a ton of resources on how to do this.
• Army lists are legal according to the matched play guide and we're adhering to bow and warband limits - but if you want to play casually and just throw all your models on the table, there's nothing to stop you doing just that.

Long story short, try to think of this guide as food for thought, and not as an instruction manual.

Finally – you’ll notice our list formats have changed, and that’s because we’re now using the Tabletop Admiral Modular List Builder, and you should be too.

So without further ado, here’s our purchasing roadmap for the Minas Tirith Battlehost:

You've got two starting points - Battle of Osgiliath and the Minas Tirith Battlehost. Let's start with the Battlehost and break it down one list at a time:

List #1: 400pts Pure Minas Tirith - Battlehost Only

400 points | 16 models

Minas Tirith

Gandalf the White (Leader): Shadowfax (240)

6x Knight of Minas Tirith: Shield (84)

5x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (40)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (36)

Shopping Cart: Minas Tirith Battlehost £55

Why you’d like it: You’re a new player, you want to get some models on the table and can only afford the Battlehost box right now.

Okay, there’s not a huge amount we can say in this list’s favour. It comes to a nice neat 400pts, but we’re really having to work to get here. The fact that Gandalf can only legally bring 15 models with him means that we can’t exceed 400pts even though we have plenty of models going spare from the Battlehost. It's fine for a tutorial, but even then, Gandalf finds it hard to earn his points, especially for newer players, and this list will struggle against similar 400pt intro armies. We suggest moving on after your first couple of games. 

Reddit user JCZinni's lovely Minas Tirith Battlehost (and an extra box of Warriors). Sadly Gandalf can't lead nearly this many models by himself, but it's a great starting point to add extra heroes!

List #2: 264 pts Pure Minas Tirith – Battle of Osgilliath Only

264 points | 15 models

Minas Tirith

Faramir, Captain of Gondor (80)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (32)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (36)

Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien (25)

2x Ranger of Gondor: Spear (18)

Madril, Captain of Ithilien (55)

2x Ranger of Gondor: Spear (18)

Shopping Cart: Battle of Osgilliath £125

Why you’d like it: You’ve just bought the Osgiliath starter box and want to play a game with no additional purchases. There is no other reason.

Oh dear. Sadly we have only 15 models on the table, but another 12 sat in the box, and plenty of unused space in our heroes’ warbands. Why is this? Because you can’t have more than a third of your models with bows in an army, and yet a full two thirds of the models provided in the Gondor half of the box come with bows (including all of the ranger models, who have a bow as a mandatory piece of wargear). See what I mean about it not being a straightforward?

If you’re playing a tutorial game, you could forego the bow limit and just chuck all your models on the table. But really, this ~250pt list would do fine for a tutorial game, after which we suggest picking up the Battlehost box so you can build some more robust (and legal) forces.

Though alternatively – there is a way you can make much better use out of the Minas Tirith models you get in the Osgiliath box. It does require use of the Gondor at War supplement, but if you want to run these models in a single force we'd consider running...

List #3: 400pts Rangers of Ithilien Legendary Legion

Credit: Warhammer Community

The first of our Legendary Legions! This is a way we can use more of the models from the BoO starter set and get up to a points level more seen in usual play (though still on the low end) with only a single extra purchase required - largely thanks to the fact that Rangers don't count towards this legion's bow limit. If you’ve taken the Battlehost purchasing route, you can run this with a much higher head count as you’ll have plenty more Ranger models. 

496 points | 27 models

Rangers of Ithilien

    

Faramir, Captain of Gondor (80)

    4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (32)

    4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (36)

    1x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Bow (8)

    

Madril, Captain of Ithilien (55)

    4x Ranger of Gondor (32)

    2x Ranger of Gondor: Spear (18)

    

Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien (25)

    4x Ranger of Gondor (32)

    2x Ranger of Gondor: Spear (18)

    

Frodo, Samwise, and Smeagol (160)

    

Shopping cart: Battle of Osgiliath, Frodo Sam and Gollum; £146

OR

Rangers of ME, Rangers of Ithilien, Frodo Sam and Gollum £88.50

Why you’d like it: You want to use more of your models from the starter set, or you really want to run a low-points shooting-heavy army.

This is a fun Legendary Legion found in the Gondor at War supplement that used to terrorise low-points tournaments, due to the fact that it can bring a force entirely equipped with bows. It’s now mandatory to bring along Frodo, Sam & Smeagol which has curbed their efficiency somewhat, but they’re still a fun and thematic legion that you can run with a small number of purchases.

Optional Extras: If you didn’t buy them already, a box of rangers will pump up the numbers to around 600pts, which is pretty much where this list wants to be.

List #4: 700pts Pure Minas Tirith – Battlehost & BoO

Now we’re getting somewhere! Combining the two starter sets lets us make something which looks a lot more like something you could expect to see at a tournament table:

696 points | 35 models

Minas Tirith

Gandalf the White (Leader): Shadowfax (240)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (32)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (36)

3x Knight of Minas Tirith: Shield (42)

Faramir, Captain of Gondor (80)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (32)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (36)

3x Knight of Minas Tirith: Shield (42)

Madril, Captain of Ithilien (55)

3x Ranger of Gondor (24)

2x Ranger of Gondor: Spear (18)

Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien (25)

2x Ranger of Gondor (16)

2x Ranger of Gondor: Spear (18)

Shopping list: MT Battlehost & BoO £180

OR

MT Battlehost, Rangers of ME, Rangers of Ithilien £112.50

Why you’d like it: It’s a really robust army with an absolute minimum of purchases. If you’re going down the ‘two boxes’ route, this might be the cheapest way to field the highest number of models that exists in the game – if you wanted to sell the non-MT components of the Osgiliath box, you can field a 700pt army for around hundred quid.

If you’ve come via buying both starter boxes, you can even increase the numbers of Warriors of Minas Tirith and field this army at 750pts. If you’ve only picked up the MT Battlehost and a pack of Rangers, you can instead increase the number of Rangers by a similar amount.

Optional Extras: Literally any Minas Tirith model that you like the look of. This is a super-solid foundation that you can add almost anything to.


List #5: 700pts ‘Competitive’ Minas Tirith

TFW you just spent 4 might to cause the final wound on the enemy leader, and still have 2 left.
Credit: New Line Cinema 

Now we’re getting to the really good stuff. These aren’t just lists scraped together with the models you own – this is close to a full and optimal Minas Tirith army that would be at home on any tournament table. Of course, we’re still working with a small subset of the Minas Tirith roster and there are a ton of additions you can make, but this is a really strong start.

There are really two flavours to choose from here – Elessar and Boromir. Elessar costs a few more points, so you’ll have to lose a couple of models, but the rest of the list can be run identically so we’ve not spelled it out twice.

It’s really worth noting that this list doesn’t feature any models from the Osgilliath box, so if you’ve come via that route, this can easily be increased to 800pts with the extra warriors and rangers you’ll have., You could also switch out some of the heroes for the Ranger heroes if you prefer.

But if you want to beeline to a ‘competitive’ list and don’t care about having a versatile set of models for future listbuilding options, coming here straight after the MT Battlehost is one of the most cost-efficient routes to a competitive list (perhaps in the game).

694 points | 35 models

Minas Tirith

Boromir, Captain of the White Tower (Leader): The Banner of Minas Tirith, Horse, Shield (215)

3x Knight of Minas Tirith: Shield (42)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (24)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (27)

3x Guard of the Fountain Court: Shield (33)

Hurin the Tall, Warden of the Keys: Horse (90)

3x Knight of Minas Tirith: Shield (42)

2x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (16)

2x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (18)

2x Guard of the Fountain Court: Shield (22)

Ingold, Warden of the Rammas Echor (65)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (24)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (27)

3x Guard of the Fountain Court: Shield (33)

2x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Bow (16)

Shopping Cart: MT Battlehost, Boromir / Elessar, 2x Fountain Court Guard, Wardens of Gondor £165

OR

BoO, MT Battlehost, Boromir / Elessar, 2x FCG, Wardens of Gondor £290

Why you’d like it: It’s a super-strong defensive list with a couple of massive playmaking heroes and can be run for under £200. Hurin and Boromir make a up a huge double threat, you have a solid shieldwall which can reach F5, and Ingold provides some really cool bonuses for your troops. This could be a really great gateway list in competitive MESBG, and can be built on in a number of ways.

Optional Extras: More troops from the BoO box if you have them. A warband of rangers led by someone like Madril is a really logical addition if you wanted to add some more list diversity and some shooting. Alternatively, something like an Avenger Bolt Thrower would fit right in and add some serious threat from a distance.



List #6: 700pts Men of the West Legendary Legion

I'm not saying the list is good, but it is very, very cool. 
Credit: New Line Cinema

The second and last of our Minas Tirith Legendary Legions is the much-maligned Men of the West, included in the Gondor at War supplement. Depending on the purchasing route you’ve taken, you might only need one or two extra models to run it. Below is our stripped-back version of the list, but keep in mind that you can tailor it with any Rohan or Fiefdoms models you may own.

We’ve included a Captain of Minas Tirith in the list, which is not something we’ve included in other lists, and is found in the £30 Gondor Commanders pack. In all honesty, this pack isn’t great value for reasons we’ll discuss later – certainly not worth buying just for Men of the West - so you could quite easily use one of the unused warrior models and convert it to a Captain for this Legion. Alternatively, if you have the Osgiliath box, you could use Faramir as a stand-in.

700 points | 25 models

The Men of the West

Aragorn - King Elessar (Leader) (225)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (24)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Spear, Shield (27)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Bow (24)

Gandalf the White (220)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (24)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Spear, Shield (27)

3x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Bow (24)

Captain of Minas Tirith: Shield (55)

2x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (16)

2x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Spear, Shield (18)

2x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Bow (16)

Peregrin Took, Guard of the Citadel (25)

Shopping List: BoO, MT Battlehost, Aragorn (Black Gate) £207.50 (another £30 for Gondor Commanders if not proxying)

OR

MT Battlehost, Aragorn (Black Gate), Gondor Commanders £112.50

Why you’d like it: It recreates one of the coolest moments from the Return of the King. And, depending on the purchases you’ve made already, you might only need to pick up Aragorn. That’s sadly about where the positives end – it’s not got a great reputation, and you have to trade in a ton of perks you’d normally get running Minas Tirith in exchange for the fairly meager benefits the Legion gives you. Still, if you’re a lover of themey lists, it’s worth getting this to the table at least once.

Optional Extras: If you have any Fiefdoms or Rohan models, you can include those for extra flavour. They don’t add much to the list in terms of gameplay options – you’re still limited to dudes on foot with shieds and spears - but if you’re running Men of the West, you’re probably not trying to run an optimal army anyway!


List #7: Minas Tirith & Fiefdoms

Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth. Who could say no to that face?
Credit: Games Workshop

Minas Tirith are green allies (for newer players, that means they can be allied without any penalties and function effectively as one big army) with 3 different forces – Rohan, Army of the Dead, and the Fiefdoms. So why have we only included the Fiefdoms here? It’s not because Boromir and Imrahil are the hottest celebrity power couple since Bennifer, (Borohil? Imramir?) with bags of high-fight offense and the ability to buff your troops to Fight 6 - although all of that is true. It is because the Fiefdoms can make use of the Ranger models which you already own, fielding them as Blackroot Vale Archers. With just a few purchases, you can field a good number of Fiefdoms units alongside your Minas Tirith, which makes for a stylish allied army. And if you enjoy that, it’s easy enough to pivot out into Fiefdoms proper and begin collecting those as a standalone army.

700 points | 44 models

Minas Tirith, The Fiefdoms

Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth (Leader): Armoured Horse, Lance (160)

6x Knight of Dol Amroth (66)

4x Blackroot Vale Archer: Spear (36)

Faramir, Captain of Gondor (80)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (32)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (36)

3x Knight of Minas Tirith (39)

1x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Bow (8)

Madril, Captain of Ithilien (55)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield (32)

4x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Shield, Spear (36)

3x Knight of Minas Tirith (39)

1x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Bow (8)

Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien (25)

6x Warrior of Minas Tirith: Bow (48)

Shopping list: BoO, MT Battlehost, Prince Imrahil, Knights of Dol Amroth £227.50

OR

MT Battlehost, Rangers of ME, Rangers of Ithilien, Prince Imrahil & Knights of Dol Amroth £150

Why you’d like it: Fiefdoms are really cool, have great models, give strong buffs for their own units, and are really good allies for Minas Tirith. You may want to go down this route if you plan on collecting a fiefdoms force in the future. We’ve only included a smattering of them here but you can easily include more.

Optional extras: There’s a strong argument for buying the Lords of the Fiefdoms box – it’s an incredible value proposition and Duinhir will help boost your rangers. And all of the Fiefdoms troop choices are very cool and strong in their own way. But let’s be honest, if you’re taking the Fiefdoms, you’re taking Imrahil, and if you’re taking Imrahil you’re taking his mounted Swan Knights.

Credit: Warhammer Community

So that’s about it! Before we end, here are just a quick hits of things which didn’t fit in to any of the above sections.

• You’ll notice we haven’t included many Warriors of Minas Tirith with Bow in our lists. This is for one good reason – because Rangers exist, and have a superior shooting value. WoMT with bow tend to gather dust on people’s shelves, but they are also very easy to convert to swordsmen with a few snips and a sword arm from your bits box, resulting in something far more usable.
• On the subject of conversions, you’ll most often see Rangers taken with bow and spear – this puts them in a nice position where they can sit behind your sturdier line troops, fire their bows as the enemy approaches, and then spear support in combat with their superior fight value. Most of the Ranger models do not carry spears – but adding a spear to their back is a very easy conversion which anybody can handle.
• We haven’t mentioned dismounts, or listed them in our shopping lists. Technically speaking, each mounted model should have a dismount (e.g. you might need extra Warriors of Minas Tirith in case all of your Knights get dismounted). But for newer players, it’s not the end of the world if you need to proxy your dismounts with a model from your dead pile, or even an empty base – just keep in mind that you may need dismounts if you plan on attending tournaments.

Very cool models for sure, but perhaps less useful that the Commanders box for other armies.
Credit: Games Workshop 

Finally, we touched on the Gondor Commanders box earlier, and how it doesn’t hold great value for Minas Tirith. Normally, an army’s Commander box is a great early purchase, as it contains a some really good utility models you can use in a ton of lists. However, in the case of Minas Tirith:

• The Banner is less useful because 2 of your massive Leader heroes, Elessar and Boromir, have large banners built in to their profile – although it is still useful in Gandalf lists.
• The War Horn is less useful because your army bonus is a board-wide +1 to your courage value.
• The Captain is less useful because Minas Tirith have access to a TON of mid-level heroes that can fill the same role in a more interesting way – Madril, Ingold, Cirion etc.
• This leaves the Knight of the White Tower – who, in fairness, is awesome, but we can’t recommend a £30 box just for one model on foot.

Thank you for reading! We hope these guides are useful as a resource for newer players – I’m having a lot of fun writing them, and will be following up with the Rohan and Mordor instalments shortly.