Minas Tirith Army Organization

Erunion · **Posted:** Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:03 am

Okay, so I am finally starting to assemble and undercoat my Minas Tirith miniatures, and I am trying to wrap my head around paint schemes so I am trying to figure some things out about how the Gondorian military is organized. I find the plain black/silver scheme of the movies and studio miniatures to be rather boring and don't look forward to painting up a bunch of minis in that scheme. So, I am trying to find some rationale to spice things up without going off the deep end.

As far as I can tell, the army of Gondor was made up of Men-at-Arms (your basic WoMT) organized into different companies. Each company would likely have had a Captain leading them, as well as a company banner, musician and if you want to include them, a Knight of the White Tower to serve as a castellan/trainer. I can't figure out if the companies would have been separated into similarly armed warriors (just swordsmen, spearman, bowmen) or if it would have been combined, making each Company a self-sufficient fighting group.

Knights of Minas Tirith would likely have been limited in number and organized into their own Company with a Captain and Company banner.

Citadel Guard would have been the elite soldiers, stationed only in Minas Tirith, unless loaned out as support or to lead other units. As far as I can tell Guards of the Fountain Court are not an independent unit, but rather an honor guard formed of Citadel Guardsmen, wearing ceremonial armor while on this special duty. (Think of the US Marines stationed to guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier or the Beefeaters or whatever you guys call them).

Rangers of Gondor are a specialized company of scouts/woodland commandos, under their own Captain, but unlikely to march to war under a banner, due to their style of fighting.

There would also be Companies associated with the various Gondorian artillery/warmachines.

Osgiliath Veterans (as represented by the GW models) would be the gathered remnants of companies that had been stationed in Osgiliath, and as attrition took its toll, re-assigned into functioning units under Boromir/Faramir's command.

Errand Riders would not be used in open battle, but two or three could be useful for certain scenarios.

Then you have all the Fiefdom warriors marching under the colors/symbols of their lords.

As far as my modeling plans go, here's what I'm looking at painting/collecting:

A Full Company of WoMT -- Captain, KotWT, Banner, Musician, 2 Warbands of Swordsmen/Spearmen, & ???Warband of Archers??? I plan on painting some sort of Company Color or Symbol to spice up the black/silver scheme.

Citadel Guard -- Beregond, Pippin and 12 Citadel Guardsman (Can CG take Sword/Shield or is it just Bows/Spears?), 6 Citadel Guardsman on horseback, and 6 GotFC. I hate the Citadel Guard models, so I'll probably just paint up regular WoMT with Gold and White/Cream accents. As long as they are distinguishable on the tabletop, that's all I care about.

Rangers of Gondor -- Faramir, Damrod, Mablung, and two warbands of Rangers

Knights of Minas Tirith -- Captain, Banner, Musician and 9 KoMT

Warband of Osgiliath Veterans in various company colors

Artillery and Crewmen

3 Errand Riders

Then you've got all the other various Heroes and Fiefdom Troops.

So, what do you guys think. Have I got the right perception of how Gondor's military is organized, or am I off? I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. I like to have a plan before I start and I'm having trouble getting a handle on this.

pokyha · **Posted:** Mon Jan 27, 2014 6:27 am

This sounds quite good and interesting, gives a good feel of what an actual army would look like.

I like the idea of different companies have different symbols to identify them.

Have you considered the idea of inexperienced troops. Mordor and Gondor have been at war for some time and the new recruits/young men could be rushed through training to get the front. I'm not sure how this could be shown in a miniature though. :roll:

Gondor/Minias Tirith is very organised and disciplined so you can imagine that the men at arms (womt) would wear similar uniform unlike Rohan or mordor. The tunics? (or whatever the clothes underneath the Armour is called) colour could vary from company to company to represent what part of the city they come from or if they come from another city or town.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:27 am

You seem to have given this some thought and it has paid off. I think your plan is very realistic and will work.
The colours look good and with Gondor I have always liked the white / cream colour scheme for a captain or fountain guard.
I think on completion these will look stunning.

Erunion · **Posted:** Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:10 pm

Cheers, guys.

@pokyha -- I had not thought of including raw recruits. There's not really a profile or miniature that would fit this idea in game, so I don't think I'll incorporate anything like that into this army.

That does remind me of something my friends and I did once to encourage each other to get all of our minis painted during an escalation league. We made it a rule that any miniature that was not painted with at least three colors and based would suffer a -1 modifier to their Fight value and to their Courage to represent that they were new recruits and thus very inexperienced. It was really funny to see everybody scrambling to get everything painted in time so they wouldn't have to fight with subpar troops.

Galadrin · **Posted:** Tue Jan 28, 2014 2:31 am

Erunion wrote:

That does remind me of something my friends and I did once to encourage each other to get all of our minis painted during an escalation league. We made it a rule that any miniature that was not painted with at least three colors and based would suffer a -1 modifier to their Fight value and to their Courage to represent that they were new recruits and thus very inexperienced. It was really funny to see everybody scrambling to get everything painted in time so they wouldn't have to fight with subpar troops.

Love it

Delirivm · **Posted:** Wed Jan 29, 2014 11:06 pm

Really love the attention you put to it!

Quick question;
I'm painting my WoMT as well, and I'm painting one swordsman as a captain.
Gave him some gold accents on his armour but after reading your post, I might add some cream accents to his robes.
How would I achieve a cream colour?

Rognarr · **Posted:** Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:23 am

Delirivm wrote:

How would I achieve a cream colour?

Use Bleached Bone?

Lord Hurin · **Posted:** Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:24 am

I've been looking into this as well, thinking about how to do "companies" in a wider sense than a War of The Ring company of 8. I settled on 24 or 32 for infantry:

-Company commander (Captain of Minas Tirith)
-Company Colours (Banner Bearer)
-Company Sergeant (Citadel Guardsman)
-Musician (hornblower or drummer)
-4 Warriors of Minas Tirith

3x 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith

Delirivm · **Posted:** Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:16 am

Rognarr wrote:

Use Bleached Bone?

Thanks, it's been a while since I lasted painted some minis and I forgot the simplest things.

Rognarr · **Posted:** Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:18 am

Delirivm wrote:

Rognarr wrote:

Use Bleached Bone?

Thanks, it's been a while since I lasted painted some minis and I forgot the simplest things.

No worries! ^^ Glad I could help

Minas Tirith Army Organization

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