Hi Guys,

I have a Local WOTR Tournament coming up at the end of August and will be doing a Gondor List and I would like your advice. I am trying to go for theme as well as power, so give me your thoughts.

Battlehost - The Ecthelion Guard:
Boromir with Banner of Minas Tirith
Faramir
Denethor's Guard - 3 companies
Guards of the Fountain Court - 3 companies w/ Captain
Minas Tirith Warriors - 5 companies w/ Captain
Minas Tirith Warriors - 5 companies w/ Captain
Citadel Guard - 3 Companies w/ longbows
= 1235 pts
Osgiliath Veterans - 4 companies = 260 pts

Total = 1495 Points.

Notes:
- I am thinking of ditching 2 companies of minas tirith warriors to get the Desperate Heroics fortune to use for Boromir.
- I have taken the banner of Minas Tirith just for theme and because I like that model of Boromir.
- The Battlehost was taken because of the special rule to allow all formations in the battlehost to automatically pass at-the-double rolls and re-roll failed courage tests, because I feel that I will have to deal with terror causing monsters and Elves.
- Osgiliath Veterans were taken because they auto pass terror and have bows and shields.
- In total I would have 23 companies and 23 points of might.
- Ithink this is a pretty well themed list and fairly competitive but I would appreciate any opinions.

Thanks.

To be perfectly honest, I do don't like it that much. Here's what I'd do to improve it:

Get another Epic Hero, probably by dropping some Captains.
Drop the Minas Tirith Warrior formations to four companies.
Drop Boromir's banner.
Probably drop the Osgiliath Veterans, although they're good I think they might be slightly too expensive (points-wise).
Get some Minas Tirith Knights, in formations of three or four companies and a banner.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

I'm with chucking some cavalry in there, also, the OVs don't seem very thematic in this army so I would drop them too. I might also be tempted to "stick" the formation of CG onto Denethor's guard because then you won't waste the points spent on Denethor and Beregond by having them die quickly from being in a rather small 3 company formation. And finally, get a bolt thrower or two or maybe even a trebuchet.

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

After some play-testing I didn't quite like the first list as well, so with some of your advice my next try for a list is:

Boromir with Banner
Faramir
Warriors x 4 w/captain
Warriors x 4 w/captain
Warriors x 4
Warriors x 4
Knights x 5 w/shield w/Banner
Knights x 5 w/shield w/Banner
Citadel Guard Archers x 2 w/captain
Citadel Guard Archers x 2 w/captain
Desperate Heroics (to be used for Boromir)

The plan is to have the two epics move the infantry forward in to charge range and 4 formation of 4 companies I should be able to block a lot of the board and deny and flank charges, The knights will follow behind the infantry and when the time is right the epics will jump back and heroic move the cavalry into charge the flanks of anything charging the infantry.
The captains are in with the citadel guard to be able to Heroic Move/Shoot when needed and they have long bows which helps a bit.

My second option is to combine the citadel guard archers into one formation with a captain and add a company to each of the knights.

Much better! It would be fun to see some more elites in there. Maybe KoDA as they are now in plastic.

_________________
"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

spuds: It would be awesome to put some SKoDA in there but I have put some restrictions on myself and have been trying to make the list without any of the fiefdoms. I know this may hamper my ability to have some of the better units, but I enjoy building lists that are slightly themed as well as competitive.

What about Aragorn is he good?

I think Aragorn is quite good, but thematically I don't like to use him with Boromir becaue by the time Aragorn gets Anduril, Boromir has died. That's why I won't be using Aragorn.

Only in the movie.

If you don't have time to read the books ( a major loss ) try to pick up or borrow the BBC radio adaptation from 1981. Ian Holm played Frodo. Though still lacking in some details it was able to follow the main story arc a bit closer than PJ's awesome films do.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

ghost27, if you afre indeed willing to do without the Osgiliath Vets (and if you are worried about missile troops, this makes sense), I'd suggest you go all the way and just have baseline troops throughout. I can see the use of Osgiliath Vets for 1500 though.

Citadel Guard in pairs, with Captains, are a lot of points to be paying given what they will achive for you in game.

I don't think you want to do without Bow entirely. Even if you sometimes have to screen it/camp it in defensible terrain, bow in perhaps 3s can last well, throw enough dice and be a constant thorn in your opponent's side. Since your troops are so low strength in melee, it is also a pretty handy option vs monsters, which can otherwise be a real PITA - grinding away turn to turn, getting around flanks and forcing you to keep rolling those terror checks. It just takes so long to kill them when you are str 3 in melee and get only a company's worth of attacks.

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com

For the bow armed troops I've rethought things a bit and I can drop the citadel guards and pick up 2 formations of 3 companies each for Minas Tirith archers instead. and still have points to put two captains in with either the Archers, Warriors or Knights.

Though I still think Longbows might be worth something. Are longbows any better? Also Citadel Guard are higher strength and fight and courage, which may be important for objectives.

Also what do you think of Avenger bolt throwers? Instead of 2 extra captains I could get two of them.

Had all the models out on my coffee table last night and it is quite an amazing group of models all together. With 4 formations of 4 companies of Minas Tirith Warriors and basically cover 4 feet of table with them being two trays deep. Its going to be a massively hard army to fit in a deployment zone.

Beowulf: I have read the books quite a few times, and long before the movie ever came out. Unfortunately I have started to mix up the two when I think about them. So yes I was wrong, because Aragorn received Anduril as the fellowship left Rivendell, but I still wouldn't want to have my Aragorn the King Model in the same army as Boromir of the White Tower because they were never at Minas Tirith at the same time. Its a little nit picky and I never really mind if an opponent does that, but its something I can't bring myself to do. Also I do have the Lord of the Rings on cassette tape and usually put it on when I'm bored of music. Its a great set of tapes.

Avenger bolt throwers are a funny thing. Some people rave about them but I always wonder how it is their opponent lets them really use them properly, given they have a 2' range and such a narrow firing arc. If you can set up your line so they can cover somewhere the enemy has to go, and the enemy doesn't have something like xbow/longer ranged arty to take them out easily, perhaps they could be useful.

Minas Tirith armies do have a big footprint, and I think that is a fearsome thing when they also have the might to rapidly move it all around at once. You can meaningfully operate in two waves (an actual flexible reserve), which is something not many armies can achieve. Terreanin can be a PITA though.

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com

I would use a Strider model since that is mostly when he had Anduril.

Xelee: I've been able to use Bolt Throwers and Trebuchets in a city defense type scenario and they work great when all you need to do is defend something. I am not sure how useful they would be for a tournament where I think I will have to play at least one game where I need to capture objectives, where those points would be much more useful with a captain to at-the double. So I thik I've answered my own question there but I think they would be fun to use.

Elessar: The strider Aragorn still didn't ever fight for Gondor with Boromir and Anduril. If I did take him I would like to take him without Anduril but then he is way to expensive. It's silly of me to restrict myself but I enjoy the challenge. Plus I've used Boromir and Faramir in two of my last few games and they are worth their weight in gold, especially Faramir. He was in a formation of 6 companies of MT warriors which got charged by a 2 stone giants, a balrog and a spider queen. Needless to say he called Epic sacrifice with his last point of might and ended up saving 30 of the 36 wounds inflicted. Plus I used the other points of his might to kill the spider queen and wound one of the stone giants.