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.

Upping Your Game –SBG’s most misplayed rules

Dan Stu: The MESBG rules are brilliant, there’s no doubt about that. It’s arguably the best, most balanced, most streamlined games that GW produce, and when you’re familiar with the rules, games flow at a nice brisk pace.

However, it’s also no secret that the rules have been cobbled together from various supplements and prior editions – in fact, it’s a miracle that the game is as cohesive as it is, given its history. While its elements have been brought together fairly seamlessly, there are still a few rough spots and rules that might be counter intuitive or tough to pick up for new players.

We asked around the community and have put together a list of rules that we most often see played incorrectly – and what the correct ruling is. In fact, we got so many suggestions that we’ve had to split this out in to two articles (or maybe even more!)

As so much of the intricacy of the game is held in the move and fight phases negotiating control zones, we’ve dedicated the first instalment of this series to look at these rules in particular.

So, in no particular order, here are 5 of the most commonly misunderstood rules in MESBG:

Starting a move inside another model's control zone

A model may begin its move inside the control zone of an enemy model for various reasons – normally because it fell back or made way in the previous turn’s fight phase, ignoring the control zone when it did so.

Model B is starting its move inside model A's control zone. 

When B it begins its move, A's control zone is treated as being a radius the size of the gap between model A and model B.

What this means in practise is that model B is free to move within model A’s normal control zone (the solid line) on the condition that it does not get any closer to the enemy model than when it started – i.e. does not cross the dotted line. If it does this, it must charge the model A as if it had entered its control zone as usual. If it does cross this dotted line, it must charge model A. 

Pairing off fights - '1v1s where possible' does NOT mean 'as evenly as possible'

The movement phase, control zones and pairing off fights are a critically important part of the game - in fact, they're the main part of SBG's unique flavour - but they're given such little real estate in the rulebook. One rule we see misinterpreted a lot is that people assume fights need to be paired off ‘as evenly as possible’, but the rulebook does not say this.

The reason for the confusion is the incredibly vague wording from the rules manual: '[Fights must be] paired in to one-on-one fights where possible'. It is understandable that people would assume the intention here is that fights should be paired as evenly as possible, but this is not what is being said.

Pairing in to 1v1s where possible simply means that you have the maximum number of fights, everything that can fight must fight, and that everything that can be divided in to a separate combat does so (i.e. if it’s possible to divide a 2v2 in to a pair of 1v1s, you must do this). By doing this, every model in base contact must participate in a fight, and nothing is ‘pulled out’ of combat.

For example:

This fight may be resolved as a 3v1 and a 1v1, or as a pair of 2v1s.

In this example, as soon as red models A and B are paired in to a fight with at least one unlabelled model, the requirement to ‘pair in to 1v1s where possible’ has been satisfied. From there, blue model C may join the fight with either A or B, at the decision of the priority player. In this example, joining B is likely preferable for the blue player if they have priority, as they are more likely to kill red model B as  it is trapped- whereas if A has priority, they will likely create a pair of 2v1s and resolve the A&C fight first, as doing so has a chance to un-trap B before the second fight is resolved.

Backing away an inch in a straight line

A fairly quick one, but one we see played wrong very frequently. The criteria for a model being trapped is if they cannot back away a full inch in a straight line. That means no curving around bases, no shuffling back a centimetre – in a scrum, it’s very likely that there will be a good few traps at the start of the fight phase, and it’s in the interest of the priority player to look for these and resolve them first.

The space needed to back away is generally larger than a lot of players give it credit for, and while you ignore control zones while doing so, it’s the ‘straight line’ part that will often trip people up. You need a space the size and dimensions of the dashed areas in the image below and to not be trapped – and once you start looking for it, you might find that models become trapped a lot more often than you’d previously thought.

The surprisingly large space needed behind a model in order to back away and not be trapped. 

Also, it has important implications for the shieldwall special rule. Because you cannot curve your back away move in order to stay in base contact with allies, it’s very difficult to end in base contact with another model that is locked in to combat - unless it was exactly an inch away at the start of your back away move. For instance, if you are backing in to the same space that was left in a previous turn. Alternatively, you may be aided by another model which is making way, which brings us on to…

Making Way and Backing Away

When a model loses its duel roll, it must back away. If it is not able to do so, a single model can make way in order to make space. However, these two actions are not the same. Backing away is mandatory (if it is possible), and follows the rules we spoke about above. However, making way is not mandatory, and does not follow the same rules. That means a few things: 

• You may trap yourself in order to not have to concede ground. If, for whatever reason, holding position is more important - it may be for an objective, or it could be that you were charged by cavalry and would be knocked down and trapped regardless of whether you can back away – it may be preferable to elect not to make way with supporting models, in order to prevent the model in combat from falling back. This only works if there is no other route to back away, but can be clutch for grabbing objectives or keeping your battle line tidy (in the event that the model survives, of course!)
• The model making way does not have to move back a full inch (in fact, it must move the minimum amount needed to un-trap the model that's backing away), and it does not need to be in a straight line. This means that it can be more flexible with its move – if it has not already supported a fight, it may move to a supporting position, or can also back away in to shieldwall formation or use its movement to grab objectives or cause new traps.

‘You must charge the first model whose control zone you enter’

This is spelled out fairly clearly in the rulebook, but is still something that causes some confusion. Once you enter an enemy model’s control zone, you may continue moving freely within that control zone, with the added bonus of ignoring any other enemy control zones. The caveat is that you must end your move in base contact with the model whose control zone you entered first, meaning that you can end your move by charging a second model if desired.

In this example, the blue player wants to charge the red model A with their hero D, ending up in single combat. However, D is prevented from doing this by a piece of terrain, and to get to A, needs to enter control zone of red model B first, and must end up in base contact with B. D can move enter B’s control zone and then move freely within any other control zones, so it may end up in base contact with both A and B, cancelling both control zones.

Blue D wants to end up in single combat with red A, but needs to take control zones in to account to achieve this.

The charging model will not necessarily end up fighting the model it initially charged - if blue is able to get a second model (E) in to base contact with the initially charged model (B), and pair off the fights accordingly, blue’s would-be-assassin D can effectively be ‘pulled’ out of combat with the model it charged in the first place (B) – giving them the best odds of killing model A.

However, it is important to note that the initially charged model (in this case, B) no longer has a control zone, so any further charging models will likely enter other active control zones – in this case, belonging to red model C – so blue E will have to enter C’s control zone, finishing in contact with both B and C.

In these types of situations, it is extremely important to consider who has priority, as they will be pairing off the fights in order to achieve the most favourable result. It’s likely that blue would only attempt this if they are the priority player, and can then pair A with D aiming for the kill, leaving E to fend for itself against both B and C.

Bonus: Prone = No Control Zone

Finally, a quick but often forgotten rule – prone models have no control zones. What’s more, enemy prone models can be hopped over with a jump test. This doesn’t come up often, but I don’t think it’s ever come up in a situation where it hasn’t been brand new information to my opponent!

That will do it for our first instalment of Upping Your Game - we received plenty of suggestions for rules to cover so we'll be diving in to some really nitty-gritty areas in future update.