Creating an Army

As a new MESBG player I find list building one of the more attractive parts of the game. I love finding combinations and synergies within an army list. Theme is less important to me but I have found that a lot of the time sticking to a theme is rewarded with synergy. I also find that having a tournament to work towards keeps me focused, otherwise I end up writing hundreds of lists all at different points levels. With that in mind I signed up for the Tabletop Weekender at Element Games in Stockport on 12th-13th October. This is a fun event that isn't super serious and consists of a one day, 500 point tournament on the Saturday and a Battle Companies event on the Sunday. Having been drawn into this game through Battle Companies this is especially appealing to me! 

For now I will be concentrating on the 500 point tournament as BC tends to take care of itself once you have actually picked a company. I do have a decent sized Isengard army but I have also recently started a Minas Tirith army which I really want to try as I love the aesthetic of heavily armoured troops forming a shield wall. So, with that in mind, let's start thinking up lists!

When I first asked some friends for advice as to how to start building a MT list their advice was to start with one of the Big 3 and go from there. So who to choose; Aragorn, Boromir or Gandalf? Gandalf I ruled out pretty quickly as the subtleties of magic are still a but beyond my skill level. The deciding factor between Aragorn and Boromir came from my experiences in Battle Companies. I played as Warg Riders and so was capped at F3 for the entire campaign. I found this really limiting because it didn't matter how many dice my cavalry threw, all it took was a single 6 from an Elf or Uruk Hai or Dwarf and I was done. So when I read the rules for Boromir's Banner of Minas Tirith I was immediately intrigued. Having my base troops be F4 (and D7 from Shieldwall) was extremely attractive. Not only that but if they are backed up by some of the more elite choices then I would be F5! Sold. I did have my worries though. Aragorn is such a killing machine being able to wound on a 4+ and I did worry that having S3 everywhere except Heroes would mean I had nothing to crack heavy armour. Time and playtesting will tell how much of a problem this will be.

So Boromir can take 15 troops. At first I just stuck 15 Warriors in there (all shields, 7 spears) so as to maintain Shieldwall, but then I started reading some other profiles. If my back rank was Rangers then I would be F5 in combat and also able to shoot over the front line's shoulders. This seemed really good at first but after chatting to friends I realised a few things. First, shooting is not what it is in Battle Companies. When you only have 5 models on the board losing one to shooting is massive. When you have 40 models, not so much. Second, if I lose a fight then I won't have Shieldwall up as the front line will have to retreat into the back line who don't have shields. Third (but less important) my line becomes much more static if I do actually want to shoot. These drawbacks make this formation less attractive as I think a group of Rangers will be more effective as their own unit off on a flank somewhere. 

That brought me to Fountain Court Guard. F4 and naturally D7 if you give them a shield AND they have spears so can support. Admittedly you pay a premium for this but 11 points seems a bargain if they are going up to F5 with the banner. I originally only had 4 in the list as that is how many I owned, but after a single game with them I bought another 4! So that is half of Boromir's warband done. I then put in 2 Knights with shields to be objective grabbers or to try and get some wounds in on tougher models with their lances. That leaves me with 5 spots left which I filled with regular Warriors with shields and spears. Including Boromir that has cost me a whopping 375 of my 500 points! Ouch!

So when filling out the rest of the army my thought process was I need a cheap way of getting more bodies on the board. Luckily MT has this in spades with a wealth of cheap Heroes of Fortitude. Madril, Irolas, Ingold or even Denethor are cheap ways of getting plenty of troops on the board. I went through all the iterations of these guys, and decided that Denethor is too much of a liability in Contest of Champions, Irolas isn't really bringing anything Boromir can't already do, and Ingold is only really necessary when losing fights (which at F5 I hopefully won't be doing too much). Madril was also suggested to me by several people just for his ability alone so in he goes. He will also go well with a group of Rangers which I want to include so I'll take him. The inclusion of Heroic March will probably be useful too! To fill out his warband I have included 5 Rangers and 4 Warriors (4 shields and one spear) just to round out my points. I could replace the 4 Warriors with 2 Rangers and a Knight with Shield which is tempting but I'll try the Warriors first.

So the final list then is:

Boromir with Shield, Horse, Banner: 215
8 Fountain Court Guard with Shields: 88
4 Warriors with Spears and Shields: 36
2 Knights with Shields: 28

Madril: 55
5 Rangers with Spears: 45
3 Warriors with Shields: 24
1 Warrior with Spear and Shield: 9

Total 500, 25 Models, 9 Might, 5 Bows, 3 Horses

This seems like a well rounded force with a bit of everything in it. I feel like I could struggle against the really scary things like Azog or a Balrog but we'll have to see how it goes. I have a few practice games lined up so I will post those and my thoughts once I have played them! Thanks for reading!

Bonus extra pics of my army: