600 Point Minas Tirith Tournament Battle Report!

A few days ago I got to play in the 2nd "To War!" escalation event hosted by the inimitable Fredericksburg VA crew. The last time around I ran Rivendell and did quite well! For this round I am only able to make the first game (due to getting married in November! Sorry to my friends who are missing the second round on the same day!) I set out to make a list and, to be totally honest, hemmed and hawed until the last possible second. The list I cam up with did not have me super excited, but to War I go!

I decided to go with Minas Tirith, but it's a bit of a weird list! I definitely went full skew with the dual bolt throwers. Will they do the trick??

Lists as always are courtesy of Andrew's excellent Tabletop Admiral

GAME ONE: DOMINATION vs TED's NUMENOR & LOTHLORIEN

For my first game I got paired up with Ted; renowned in the area for being a superb player and scored 4th place at Nova Open with Minas Tirith & Fiefdoms. Today he was running a sort of Last Alliance with just two warbands, led by Elendil and Galadriel respectively.

I forget his exact army composition, but he had a sentinel, one Galadhrim knight, a few archers, and a few Guards of the Galadhrim court in his Lorien warband. Numenoreans were also a mix of archers, spears, and sword and board.

Galadriel's ability to cast Blinding Light obviously shut down my ranged skew pretty hard, which made this a tough fight. My goal was to pepper Ted's forces as much as possible and hope to whittle him down some where my numbers could really come in handy. Ted was excellent at maneuvering but overall my bolt throwers did okay considering the blinding light. They certainly did not make up their points!

When finally the lines clashed, dice were... not in my favor initially. In fact, Boromir's first few fights did not go his way and he of course spent a few turns transfixed.

An amazing Boromir fight phase where he called a heroic combat! I sent 3 knights around to Ted's rear where they died horribly to 2 Numenoreans on foot having done very little.

Right at the very end of the game, both forces were broken. I killed Galadriel with a random Warrior of Minas Tirith and managed to trap Elendil and score a wound on him, but my board presence was too weak. Ted scored 7 VPs for holding 3 points uncontested and breaking me. I scored 4 VPs for holding two points, breaking Ted, and wounding Elendil. 

Game one thoughts: Honestly, I don't feel like I misplayed much here; other than maybe allowing the fights to happen solely on my side of the board. I totally forgot that this match is only 1 VP for holding an objective if your opponent has any models contetsing it; though it still would have been a minor loss even if I fully held my two. My knights gamble I stand by- had they had a tiny bit of luck I would've opened up the backfield. The Bolt throwers were... okay. As I mentioned, blinding light really shuts it down. They did do some damage but probably not enough to really justify them this round.

GAME TWO: HOLD GROUND vs JOHN'S GOBLIN TOWN

I love John. I hate Goblin town. I was very fearful of this particular matchup; and this scenario was even uglier! Minas Tirith really relies on the sturdy battle line and with the scribe able to bring on goblins from all around I knew this was gonna be a longshot. 

After a few rounds of Maelstram to get our lines dressed.

Goblins just pouring in.

Honestly, my bolt throwers were mostly garbage here. They killed maybe a half dozen goblins and that's about it!

HOLD!

Boromir and his Knights were working overtime. In hindsight I really regret splitting my lines- though I still don't think I could have gotten to and held the center with goblins arriving from multiple directions.

The weight of numbers finally just really overwhelmed the Minas Tirith boys. With a second crack at this I would have definitely rushed the middle; though I truly don't see a different outcome overall.

This round was a crushing 10-0 to John. Boromir didn't die which kept John from scoring those last two; but the Goblin King barely ever even made it into combat! Yeowch!

GAME THREE: TO THE DEATH vs ALEX'S BREAKING OF THE FELLOWSHIP

Honestly, this last round was pretty crummy. With a wood on Alex's side of the board, he was pretty content to hide with his cloaks, while I had a banner so I was also not keen to push forward and fight. So, we spent the game jockeying for potshots until right towards the end knowing time was approaching and the odds of either losing Boromir or being broken were slim, I went in hoping to get lucky.

The fellowship hiding in the woods! Can't blame Alex for that; why would he advance?

I see you there, Boromir!

Eventually Alex came out, but those low walls in the center of the board were giving him really good coverage still so very few shots connected. I did manage to skewer both Merry and Pippin with bolt thrower fire.

We wound up having a little scuffle in the center, but I never risked Boromir and neither of us made much headway before time was called. So, with that, it was a 2-0 to me.

We did have a little rules argument about what it means to leave a control zone and whether or not you can charge a different model if you start your turn inside a control zone. The judge ruled that yes you could (and in fact, I think the game maybe really breaks down if you can't?) and apparently this same rule came up at Nova and caused some contention. But, overall, the matchup was a pretty boring game made slightly more interesting by just going for it with nothing really risked.

Closing thoughts: With that I scored a paltry 6 VPs for the entire tournament with 2 losses and a win; coming in at 16th/24 players. Honestly, I think my first two games were both rough matchups AND against superb opponents. Ted went on to place second (I think his minor victory against me in round one cost him the event- sorry Ted!) while John placed 5th. 

The event was awesome as always, and the road trip is what truly makes it so memorable! I loved the chit chat with Chris (who ran Khazad-Dum and the White Council and placed 6th), Connor (who ran Harad and Far Harad and came in 12th) and of course my main Andrew who came in 14th.

Definitely a fun one and can't wait to play my next tournament! Unfortunately it might be a while between wedding and honeymoon but, rest assured reader, I'll get back to creating steady content once that all wraps up.