Follow on 50: Minas Tirith

Will: With this article we explore the next £50 you can spend on your Minas Tirith Army. If you haven't seen our 500 under 50 already then please have a look here.

While writing this article I had a real insight into actually how much I can actually put into this army. They have a huge amount of options and with the price point of a lot of the sets from GW you can take this army in many directions. After the last article it has convinced me to embark on this MT journey with you and the following options are all ones that I will be purchasing and putting on the table myself. Also, just a quick note to say that due to the lack in availability of a lot of these models from GW at the moment, we have not included any bundles from our partner at Rebel Base Gaming. Rest assured that when things become more available we will have some discounted bundles for you! (Though they do have Gandalf in stock at RBG for just £21.25 at the moment!)

 List No.1

Working off my initial article, and keeping to the theme, if you wanted to make this easy you could simply buy Gandalf and Peregrine Took for £25 and a pack of Rangers of Gondor for £26 providing the all important Fight 4. To help in this you could also convert some/all of your ranger swordsmen to spearmen by doing a straight weapon swap with the with the spearmen of MT. This would mean  you have 16 swordsmen with Shield for your front line, backed up with Rangers with Spear and bow for hitting power and better accuracy. This list would be pretty simple and could easily give you a 800 point list looking something like this:

War Band 1

Boromir on horse with Banner of MT and Shield

3 Knights of MT with Shield

6 Rangers with Spear

8 Warriors with Shield

1 Warrior with Shield and Spear

Warband 2

Gandalf

3 Knights of MT

6 Rangers with Spear

8 Warriors with Shield

1 Warrior Shield and Spear

Warband 3

Peregrine Took 

798 points -36 warriors- 12 bow - 10 might

With this list across the two warbands you have a good mix of maneuverability, hitting power, and accurate bow shots, with most of the combat all with the Fight 4 capacity. Gandalf more than makes up for the fact you only have 36 warriors on the table using his magic and spells to combat a lot of threats to this list. Sorcerous Blast, Immobilise and Blinding Light will especially come in handy. If you wanted you could drop a Knight and a Spearman or even Pergrine Took from the list and put him on Shadowfax to give him more range on the battlefield which isn't a bad option. All in all i think this is a pretty good list and not too far from what I have seen doing pretty well at events. You are lacking a banner other than Boromir with this list but again you could always drop PT for a banner in Gandalf's warband.

List No. 2 

This goes in a different direction. Due to having the limit of £50 it is difficult to look past Gandalf! I have written plenty of lists that contain all the other Captains but at the minute I personally feel that the way I play I like to have some sort of spell caster. With this slight variation on the previous list instead of Rangers you are getting an Avenger Bolt Thrower (£18), and a pack of Guard of the Fountain Court (£16) this brings the total up a little higher to £59 but still for what you get it's pretty good. 

Warband 1

Boromir on horse with banner of MT and Shield

3 Knights of MT with Shield

2 Guards of the Fountain Court with Shield

4 Warriors with Shield

3 Warriors with Shield and Spear

Warband 2

Gandalf

2 Knights of MT

2 Guard of Fountain Court with Shield

4 Warriors with Shield

3 Warriors Shield and Spear

1 Warrior with Banner and Shield

4 Warriors with Bows

Warband 3

Avenger Bolt Thrower - Minas Tirith Seige veteran, + 1 Warrior

800pts- 28 warriors - 4 Bows - 9 Might

So with this list you have a lot fewer models, hence the inclusion of a Banner. The ABT provides a large area of denial but does require clever placement in the deployment phase. If you wanted you could add more crew at the detriment to the archers from Gandalf's warband, but with the potential of 6 shots in a round you may find enemies not wanting to come near. This weapon is, however, situational, but it only needs to do 50 points worth of work to make its money back. If you do decide to go down this route be aware of where you place both your troops and the ABT in relation to one another to make it effective. 

Both the melee warbands have Guards of the Fountain court which both have the Bodyguard special rule. This can be used to great effect and keep your heroes around for longer.

List No.3

Finally if you want to throw lots of troops at the enemy and you love Gondor specific characters, this last one is the list for you. So with this you want another box of MT warriors (£26), Faramir foot and mounted (15.50) and Cirion and Beregond (£15) all adding up to £56.

 Warband 1

Boromir with Horse, Shield and Banner of MT

8 Warriors with Shield

8 Warriors with Shield and Spear

Warband 2

Faramir with Horse, Shield, Heavy Armour and Lance

6 MT Knights with Shield

Warband 3

Cirion

6 Warriors with Shield

5 Warriors with Shield and Spear

1 Warrior with Banner

Warband 4

Beregond

6 Warriors with Bow

798 points-40 warriors- 6 bows - 13 Might. 

This list is pretty straight forward and I really like the theme and simplicity. You have plenty of powerful characters and lots of Might on the table to go at your enemy full force.  Boromir and Faramir are big hitters and Beregond thematically is with the archers along with his Heroic Accuracy. Not only that he can be around to keep them in the fight for longer with the Bodyguard rule (pretty good for just 30 points). Cirion (my favorite MT sculpt and massively underrated) is not to be underestimated either, with 3 Might and Heroic Strike he can hold his own in combat. 

So in summary you have 3 very different options to go forward with Minas Tirith army. Which one is your favorite? Do you like having a character to gain the advantage with magic or do you prefer to just meet your enemies head on and fight it out? Let us know!