My First Minis Tirith List for SBG - 500pts

[Peregrin]

That should be Minas Tirith list.....
Warband 1
Faramir with Armoured horse, Heavy Armour, Lance, and Shield - 100 pts
10 x Knights of Minas Tirith with Shield - 140 pts
Total 240 points

Warband 2
Cirion - 55 pts
12 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shield - 96
Total 151 points

Warband 3
Damrod - 20pts
8 x Rangers of Ithilien - 72 pts
2 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with Bow - 16
Total 108 points

Grand total 499

I am a little concerned about not having a banner as there is a 1 in 6 chance of the scenario being To The Death. I could drop a couple of the horses and convert one of the warriors to a banner for a total of 495 points. That would also keep Damrod's men below the Bow Limit. I want 10 for vollies.

edited for spelling

[brain_dead_1st]

Volley fire is not particularily useful for good. YOur shoot value means you want to be running forward to get in range.

I would drop 1 bow and 2 men to get a banner (I think this gets you enough points)
You have no spears on foot either according to your list.

[Peregrin]

You would convert some of the men to spears?

[Spiney Norman]

Do you not have any WoMT Spearmen? There are 4 on each sprue, so if you have 12 warriors with shields you should have at least that many with spears.

10 knights is a lot of cavalry for 500pts so you could get away with dropping a couple of them to get a banner in (and yes, I think you need at least 1)

[Peregrin]

Sorry. Didn't mean convert so much as swap out or upgrade. I should have 16 of each.

[brain_dead_1st]

I would just drop one minis tirith dude with bow and stick spears on some rangers (3 perhaps) and warriors of minis tirith with shield (as many spears as points you have left).

More attacks = more chance of success in combat.

[Peregrin]

Fully painted and ready to go for Gondor, I have a box of MT knights, two boxes of MT warriors, and Faramir Captain of Ithilien.
I have a box of Rangers, Madril, Damrod, Cirion, Fellowship Aragorn, and 32 Numenoreans I'm working on. (All of those mentioned were the old boxes. I haven't bought any of the half sized ones). The intention is to build up to a decent Wotr army in time.

I currently have a 1500 pnt Rohan army, so I have most of those movie heroes done, and am working on a regular Rohirim captain.

[Peregrin]

Ok... new list based on suggestions... more thoughts?

Warband 1
Faramir with Armoured horse, Heavy Armour, Lance, and Shield - 100 pts
8x Knights of Minas Tirith with Shield - 112 pts
Total 212 points

Warband 2
Cirion - 55 pts
6 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shield - 48 pts
6 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shield and Spear - 54 pts
Total 157 points

Warband 3
Damrod - 20 pts
4 x Rangers of Ithilien - 36 pts
4 x Rangers of Ithilien with spear - 40 pts
1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with Banner - 32pts
Total 96 points

Grand total 497

I would attempt to deploy the banner closer to the regular Warriors if at all possible, especially if there is woodland terrain on the board, as the Rangers will move faster than the banner.

[Taker of skulls]

I would take out a warrior with shield and give him the banner instead then u still have cirion and 5 guys being supported by the 6 spears and the banner behind them, u could then use the points for the warrior with shield to get another archer for ur ranger unit

ToS

[Peregrin]

I found, in a quick test game, that the warriors were more effective than the rangers.
A line of bows is nice if you can make the enemy come to you, and the Ithilien ability is nice if the board has enough hindering terrain, but the extra defense of the warriors kept them alive a bit longer.

It would be nice to have the banner with the warriors, though.

[Haldir77]

Looks like a lot of cavalry for 500pts, but then again I play elves...
might as well give 3 more rangers spears since you have the points
looks good though.

[Peregrin]

True. I would consider going down to 6 horse, which would save me another 28 points.
Honestly, I tried the rangers and wasn't impressed with their performance. The bow shots didn't kill that many but the archery kept them from joining the fight and supporting with spears. Then, once they did engage, their defence was a bit low and they died much easier than the Minas Tirith. I might try reworking the whole thing.

Question for those with experience with these units: are the rangers more useful than what I'm seeing? Are there scenarios and terrain that they work better in? Maybe I should have pulled the Minas Tirith Warriors back rather than charging in and cutting off the archers' effectiveness.

[Haldir77]

I have not personally played with rangers but have seen then in combat and usually my archers are low defense...so here are some things that I have noticed:
-low defense troops such as rangers usually have better shoot values(always nice) and a higher fight value so if there are enemy soldiers coming at them back off and shoot them, then swarm the survivors
-I do this a lot and it usually pays off, multi combats are very important for you that've for this to work!!!
-you could go with the normal soldiers but for 1 extra defense your not getting too much better, if fact a worse shoot value(and less points?)
-if you want good shots and good defense go with the citadel court guards with longbows that are str3.
all I can think of for now.

[Peregrin]

I was comparing the defense of the rangers with the shielded warriors. Def of 6 makes a decent difference over defence of 4 vs most enemies. Also, the regular warriors, even adding shields, are a point cheaper than the Ithilien rangers. Without the Ithilien upgrade they would have been the same cost per warrior.

I haven't looked at the metals like the Citadel Guards too closely thus far because the army was originally being built for WotR. It's quite expensive to buy at least 16 metals. Now that I'm also playing SBG it may be a little more worth it to pick up a blister or two. I really like the idea of bows with Str 3.
I picked up Angbor and 3 of his clansmen, and with the help of some regular warriors was able to slaughter a bunch of Easterlings and was lucky enough to not lose any of the clansmen.

Interestingly the clansmen have the same defense as the rangers I was complaining about. I had been pitting the rangers against a group of Helmingas, who would all have Str 4. Maybe that was the real issue. I wonder how the same rangers would have done vs the Easterling warband....

[Haldir77]

Oh, I thought you meant def5 for Minas tirith warriors with bows. Str3 bows are great! It makes a really good difference against armies that are usually def5 or ones that have their support troops at def5 or below, like Uruk hai. Rangers are going to die in combat more often than not but having a higher fight value will hopefully allow you to easily win combats.
Easterlings would probably kill off the rangers, but the rangers would put up a good showing.

[Peregrin]

Sorry for the confusion. The comparison was for the rangers once they entered combat, mostly against the armoured Rohan Royal Guards. I really need to try them in different situations before passing judgement. You make some good points.

[Peregrin]

Ok... this list looks interesting to me, but I'll also include a list without the horses next:

Faramir, horse, heavy armour, shield, lance
6 Knights of Minas Tirith with shield

Cirion
5 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield
5 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with spear
1 x Warrior of Minas Tirith with banner

Angbor
5 x Clansmen of Lamedon
6 x Rangers of Gondor with spear and bow

Total is exactly 500, with 3 Heroes and 28 warriors, 6 of which have bows.

[Peregrin]

Faramir, Captain of Gondor with armour and bow
5x Rangers of Ithilien with armour and bow
5x Rangers of Ithilien with armour, bow, and spear

Cirion
6x Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield
5x Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield and spear
1x Warrior of Minas Tirith with banner

Angbor
5x Clansmen of Lamedon
6x Warrios of Minas Tirith with shield and spear

499 points, 3 Heroes, 33 warriors.

[Haldir77]

The first is a little low on numbers. Because of that you are going to need to get a devastating charge or you'll get swarmed and slaughtered. Even Uruk hai could outnumber you. Especially with men you generally want to be over 30 models but the def6 will help. The second is good nice balance with some some heavy hitters and cheap effective heroes. I prefer the second, but I am biased against cav at 500pts and love bows! The first doesn't really need the clansmen because it already has heavy hitters.
Why not give one more spear to the rangers in the second.

[Peregrin]

What is a good point limit, do you think, to start adding cavalry? (I have 12 of them, plus Faramir on Horse for use in WotR. Hate to see them go to waste)

As for the spear, I guess I'm wasting the one point anyway. I was thinking that last spear wouldn't have anyone to support, but of course he can help out Cirion. Thanks.