Fog of War, Part 7: Gondor

FOG OF WAR

Part 7: Gondor

Few factions in the game are so vast as the Kingdom of Gondor. Between Warriors of Minas Tirith, Osgiliath Veterans, Rangers, Citadel Guards, Fountain Guards, War Machines, a host of Heroes, and a selection of strong allies from the Fiefdoms, it is the second most diverse army in the game with a great number of possible army lists to choose from. For this part of the series, I am joined by a player who won the Kingdoms of Men Faction category at Ardacon in 2017 and ended up in 3rd place, undefeated, at the 2018 World Championships. A gentleman and a Captain of Gondor like none other, David Clubley. 

David: The Kingdom of Gondor and its iconic city, Minas Tirith, has long been a favourite army of mine and many others. However, with the previous ruleset meta they were long considered underwhelming and so often overlooked. But now as our game enters a new era, with new rules and new profiles Minas Tirith is ready to regain its former glory! And here is how you do it. 

- The “Big” Three

In this new edition of the game big heroes have been given the time to shine and Gondor has 3 to pick from. Of course, ideally you would want all of them but that will cost you a lot of points.

1. Aragorn, King Elessar is the only Hero of Legend in the list and has everything you could want in a profile including 1 free might per turn and a sword that allows him to wound on 3s! Make sure you give him an armoured horse for extra effect.

2. Gandalf the White is arguably the best magic caster in the game and has a great arsenal of Spells to choose from as well as being a decent and tough fighter. Make sure to mount him on his trusty steed Shadowfax for maximum impact.

3. Boromir, Captain of the White Tower is definitely my favourite and the one I will be trying out the most. Why I hear you ask? The Banner of Minas Tirith! Boromir with this banner is going to make your Minas Tirith Warriors some of the best troops in the game (more on that below). The other Wargear item I would give Boromir is a shield, as YES he can carry it and the banner for no effect and be defence 7 😉 

I would avoid the temptation to mount Boromir on the horse because he is there to buff your troops primarily and if he has a horse that horse will be the public enemy number one to your opponent (and be very unlikely to survive before combat).

Mik: Having played Gondor as my primary faction for more than a decade I always felt like they were one of the best armies in the game – or at least if not, they had the tools to be if the correct meta existed on the tournament they would be attending. To me their strength always came in their numbers of high Defence (7) troops that Heroes such as Beregond and Damrod allowed you to bring. This changed in the new rules, as the two little stars became Minor Heroes, but I still feel that Gondor has the options to be built in a very elite or a very horde-style and both ways of playing the game work. 

I’ve always used the Guards of the Fountain Court as the primary Warrior choice, supported by Saruman, the White, as the combination of the high Defence of the Guards and the high utility of Saruman (especially his Sorcerous Blast) allowed us to be a very safe and controlling faction. With Magic being generally nerfed, I am actually looking forward to again playing a Gondor force that I used at the start of my competitive career – a horde led by Faramir. 

David’s Lists:

So what has Minas Tirith gained that has made me so excited to play them? Well for starters their army bonus of +1 Courage is pretty nifty and gives your Warriors about an 18% increase in the likelihood of passing their courage checks. Then the average Warrior of Minas Tirith themselves, long considered a bit naff, has gained the Shieldwall special rule making them Defence 7 (making them one of only two non-dwarven warrior profiles to get defence 7, the other being Guard of the Fountain Court).

As you can see if you combine this army bonus, Shieldwall and the Banner of Minas Tirith you can make a 12 inch area of Fight 4, Defence 7, Courage 4 with banner re-rolls to boot. Try bringing that down you filthy orcs!

So let’s look at some sample lists for some standard points match sizes…

List 1: 500 Points

Warband 1:

Faramir, Captain of Gondor (Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance, Horse)

6 Osgiliath Veterans (Shields)

5 Knights of Minas Tirith (Shields)

Warband 2:

Madril

12 Warriors of Minas Tirith (12 Shields, 6 Spears, 1 Banner)

Warband 3:

Damrod

6 Rangers of Gondor (Spears)

Total: 32 Models, 7 Might, Cavalry and 8 Bows. 

This army has the tactical flexibility to take on all comers and if they have a big hero running around then firstly use your bows to take them off their horse. Then use Faramir to hold them up with his Heroic Defence stalling them in their tracks or if you can out Heroic Strike them and use Faramir with a lance to kill them.

List 2: 750 Points

Warband 1:

Boromir, Captain of the White Tower (Banner of Minas Tirith, Shield)

15 Warriors of Minas Tirith (15 Shields, 8 Spears)

Warband 2:

Faramir, Captain of Gondor (Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance, Horse)

15 Warriors of Minas Tirith (15 Shields, 8 Spears)

Warband 3:

Madril

7 Rangers of Gondor (Spears)

5 Knights of Minas Tirith

Total: 45 Models, 12 Might, Cavalry and 8 Bows. 

This army again has great tactical flexibility and a huge pool of Might to use. Both Boromir and Faramir are capable of taking on big threats whilst your super buffed warriors grind the enemy down.

Mik’s Lists:

List 3: 600 Points of Minas Tirith

Warband 1:

Denethor, Steward of Gondor

14 Guards of the Fountain Court with Shields

Warband 2:

Faramir, Captain of Gondor with a Bow 

11 Rangers of Gondor with Spears

3 Rangers of Gondor

Warband 3:

Beregond, Guard of the Citadel on a Horse

3 Knights of Minas Tirith with Shields

2 Warrior of Minas Tirith with Shield

1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with Shield and Spear

Warband 4:

Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien

2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields and Spears

3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields

1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with a Shield, Spear and a Banner

Total: 600 Points, 44 models, 17 Bows

For this army I opted for a horde with a lot of shooting (up to 5 Heroic Accuracies!), a lot of Defence 7, some level of cavalry support and a very bad General. Sadly in Contest of Champions the force will probably not do very well, as Denethor's Special Rule forces him to be our Army Leader, but in all other scenarios the numbers, bows and 5 Might spread across the army’s 4 Warbands should put fear into a lot of our opponents. Whilst lacking the killing power of Boromir, the force is better suited to scenarios requiring a spread of models across the entire battlefield.

This list is inspired by the 2017 Grand Tournament winning list by Dave Nolan, which can be found here:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/03/23/armies-of-the-hobbit-grand-tournament-winner/

Dave at the time used staggering 46 models in 600 points at that tournament to overwhelm his opponents, whose armies would have most often only had 30-35 models in total. Although it looks weak with just Faramir to do the heroic fighting, its sheer numbers case trouble for a lot of enemies. 

List 4: 800 Points of the Fiefdoms

Warband 1:

Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth on an Armoured Horse with Lance

9 Knights of Dol Amroth

9 Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth

Warband 2:

Duinhir

15 Blackroot Vale Archers with Spears

Warband 3:

Forlong, the Fat on a Horse

7 Knights of Dol Amroth

7 Men-At-Arms of Dol Amroth 

1 Man-at-Arms of Dol Amroth with a Banner

TOTAL: 798 Points, 51 Models, 16 Bows, 8 Might

This points level seems perfect for a Fiefdoms list to reach its full potential. Whereas 500 or 600 will be missing Imrahil or the numbers, at 800 points this list is something I would worry about facing. Imrahil provides a very large Banner effect, essentially allowing the Knights in his Warband to roll 3 dice to win combat when supported by 1 pike, or 4 dice to win combat when supported by 2 pikes. Same happens to Forlong’s Warband and the Banner in it will more often than not be there as a Victory Points attribute rather than a useful re-roll. 

Blackroot Vale Archers really caught my eye. In the previous edition of the rules, they were quite underwhelming, but in this edition, their re-roll to wound when under Heroic Shoot is interesting. Imagine that Duinhir stands in the middle of 15 Blackroot Vale Archers and none of them have moved. He calls a Heroic Shoot. You have 15 shots that hit on 3+ and thanks to their Special Rule they re-roll 1s to hit, leading to an average of 11.66 hits (10 hits normally plus re-rolling the 1s). If your targets are all Defence 4 or lower, that leads to 6.5 kills (3.9 normally plus all the re-rolls, plus Duinhir on top of that. Forces of Harad or Wood Elves will tremble. 

In fact, if there’s a 2nd rank hero with D6 and you're willing to use both Accuracy with Duinhir and Heroic Shoot with another hero, you are going to be causing about 2-3 wounds on them on average. I think a version of this may just become my next army project!

ALLIES

David: The White City does not stand alone in its hour of need, many valorous allies rallied to their defence and you should definitely take advantage of them! The best options to take, Rohan and The Fiefdoms, are also Historical Allies with each other too so you can keep all 3 army bonuses. Let me give you a great example of how to benefit from this…

List 5: 750 Points

Warband 1:

Boromir, Captain of the White Tower (Banner of Minas Tirith, Shield)

15 Warriors of Minas Tirith (15 Shields)

Warband 2:

Forlong the Fat (Horse)

15 Axemen of Lossanarch

Warband 3:

Theoden (Heavy Armour, Shield, Armoured Horse)

10 Rohan Royal Guard (5 Throwing Spears)

Total: 43 Models, 12 Might, 12 Cavalry

So why does this army work so well? The answer is SYNERGY! 

Firstly lets look at the battle line of Minas Tirith Warriors backed by Axemen of Lossanarch you will be forming. With Shieldwall every front ranker apart from the end two will be Defence 7, a solid start. Then with Boromir in the centre of this line your Warriors of Minas Tirith will be F4 BUT the Axemen will be Fight FIVE!!! As the Banner of Minas Tirith affects these guys too. But wait, it gets better, as Forlong carries a War Horn, your Warriors of Minas Tirith will be at an insane Courage 5 (because they still get the +1 for their army bonus). A nice little cherry on the cake is that those Axemen will be re-rolling 1’s to wound within 6 inches of Forlong, nothing to shout about but still helpful.

Now lets look at Forlong himself, with a beastly Fight 5, Strength 5 and a horse & Warspear use Forlong and his 3 Might points to tear the enemy to shreds.

And lastly (but by no means least) the Courage 6 Theoden will be causing devastation on the charge with his Body Guard Royal Guard as they will ALL be Fight 5 and Theoden will be Strength 5 and his Royal Guard will be Strength 4. Woe betide any enemy who is on the receiving end of that cavalry charge.

Well that is all the advice I have for you at the moment, as always though the best way to learn and get better is to get out there and play games. Have fun defending the White City 🙂

Mik: The great thing about Minas Tirith to me is that they don’t need allies. They have all the tools. They can get Dol Amroth into the mix and Rohan, as stated above by David, but they can also go it all by themselves. If I were to ally, I would look into something that the army itself is not very good at. Minas Tirith’s Army Bonus of +1 Courage is in my opinion mediocre, so I’m not bothered about losing it. Instead, I wonder about such things as the Eagles of the Misty Mountains. 

List 6: 800 Points:

Warband 1:

Gwaihir

2 Great Eagle

Warband 2:

Madril, Captain of Ithilien

5 Warriors of MT with Shields

5 Warriors of MT with Shields and Spears

1 Warrior of MT with Shield, Spear and Banner

Warband 3:

Cirion, Lieutenant of Amon Barad

6 Warriors of MT with Shields

5 Warriors of MT with Shields and Spears

Warband 4:

Beregond

2 Warriors of MT with Shields

2 Warriors of MT with Shields and Spears

Warband 5:

Damrod

2 Warriors of MT with Shields

2 Warriors of MT with Shields and Spears

Total: 795 Points, 37 models, 4 Monsters, 30+ model Shield Wall.

Perhaps Gwaihir and 2 Eagles are too many. But with Defence 7 across the board, perhaps Gwaihir and 2 Eagles are exactly what the army needs to cut through everything it comes up against. 

Summary

As you can see from the above, we've created 6 lists, all of which are quite significantly different to each other. Whereas David's forces focused on the killing power of the likes of Boromir, Faramir, Theoden and others, my armies win by swarming and rely less on single characters. It’s hard to say right now which is better, or if perhaps something in the middle is the best – only time will tell how the metagame shapes. I hope however that this article has given you some ideas for fighting with Gondorians and inspired you to perhaps start a new army. 

Good Luck!

BlackMist & David