New Rules - Part IV: The Fallen Realms, Part I

Good morning gamers,

In our previous posts, we’ve talked about the general rules changes, and then walked through a few thoughts on the Mordor and Angmar/Moria army lists. Wrapping up our discussion of the armies of evil is the old Fallen Realms book, which include the armies from Isengard, Harad/Umbar, and the Eastern Kingdoms (now seven different lists). I’ve decided that trying to tackle seven armies in one go was going to be too overwhelming, so instead, we’re breaking the Fallen Realms up into two different discussions. Today we’ll focus on the Southron armies (Serpent Horde, Far Harad, Corsairs of Umbar), and next time we’ll conclude our discussion of Armies of Evil by tackling Isengard and the East. As mentioned in our previous posts, you should also check out Mik's Veni Vidi Vici blog for thoughts from the “experts” – though at the time of this writing, none of these lists have been reviewed yet.

1) The New Lists: The Serpent Horde, Far Harad, Corsairs of Umbar

Back in the Legions of Middle-Earth days, there were many different Harad lists – three of which were very similar to what we see in the book today. But there were other lists – a generic Umbar list that allowed you to run generic heroes crossing the Serpent Horde and Corsair armies, allowing for great pairings of cheap spears and high-Fight value skirmish troops.

With the new rules, while the lists have been broken out, the Serpent Horde gives you the unique benefit of being able to ally easily with more civs than any other evil faction. With three historical allies (Corsairs of Umbar, Far Harad, Mordor), the Serpent Horde has the greatest possibility for force diversity of any Army of Evil (and rivals most of the Armies of Good).

The draw-back is that while the Serpent Horde can ally with any one of these factions and retain their army bonus, none of these other nations can ally with the others, so getting a three or four faction alliance will result in none of your beloved army rules lasting. Still, if you’re planning on playing any of these civilizations, you don’t HAVE to be mono-focused in your army creation.

As far as Far Harad and the Corsairs are concerned, they’re not much changed and both can basically be run either mono-focused or with the Serpent Horde. As we’ll see in a bit, taking convenient allies with these civs is not a big deal, since their army bonuses are nice but not necessary for the team’s survival.


2) The Army Bonuses: Shooting and Charging

The Serpent Horde’s army bonus is one of the best in the game – not only can you run 50% of your army with bows (great for those big blisters of warriors that come with 50% bows), but you also get poison across all your Haradrim Warriors and Raiders. I’ll be honest – in the previous editions, there was no reason to take Haradrim Warriors with spears (Serpent Guard cost one extra point, get Fight 4 instead of Fight 3, and had Poisoned Spears vs. the Haradrim Warrior's Poisoned Arrows...which he didn't even have equipped). Now, you can choose to omit the Fight value boost and take normal Haradrim Warriors if you want to and there’s not a big penalty lost (assuming you don’t view Fight 4 as critically necessary). Since Harad has a good assortment of allies, I’m going to posit you want to keep your army bonus in almost all cases.

With weapon swaps being a thing, however, you can actually get MORE out of a Haradrim Warrior than you can out of a Serpent Guard, since you can take a vanilla Haradrim Warrior (6pts) and swap his hand dagger (Stab will get you killed on a 5+, if you're able to Feint, you will likely be Fight 1) for a hand axe (not much lost by going from D4 to something lower, option for S4 in your front line) or a flail (your Feint would bring you down to Fight 1 anyway, but adds wounding rolls you can perform if flanked or outnumbered).

Far Harad’s army bonus is fine – your units auto-pass Courage tests so long as your heroes are charging. I personally don’t think this is a great rule (one of the worst, if I’m honest), but against Terror teams (especially those with Harbinger), this is essential. Unlike the Serpent Horde bonus (very archery-oriented), this rule is more charge-oriented (and that’s reflected in the unit choices available to the army).

Finally, Corsair units (basically everyone except Black Numenoreans) get Backstabbers, making them great killing units if they can trap their foes. With some foes being felled by throwing daggers (if you take them in large volumes), getting a bonus to wounding others is pretty great (but again, not essential to the strategy - especially if you like a front-line of Black Numenoreans).

3) The Lists: The Serpent Horde

As mentioned before, the Serpent Horde benefits from a great army bonus, but it’s not necessary for a solid victory. While there are many different ways you can build a Serpent Horde army (many of which will keep the army bonus), we’re looking at two lists today – one mono-Serpent-Horde, one with a convenient alliance.

List #1: The Viper’s Venom
Suladan the Serpent Lord with bow - 105

The Golden King of Abrakhan - 130

Hasharin - 80

18 Haradhrim Warriors with bows - 126

4 Haradhrim Warriors with axes - 28

4 Serpent Guard - 32

5 Watchers of Karna with twin blades - 45

6 Abrakhan Guard - 54

Let’s look at the understated fact of this list: it has 19 bows with poisoned arrows (and throwing daggers on the Hasharin). The Serpent Horde has some great infantry choices, so to supplement the mass number of bows we’re fielding, we’ve taken a smattering of all of them. As mentioned previously, Haradrim don’t suffer much from the disadvantage of Piercing Strike, and against a Fight 4 meta, the S2 hit you take from Stab is as likely to kill you as your opponent’s weapons. Ergo, we’ve taken a handful of Haradrim with poisoned-axe-conversions, supplemented by Serpent Guard (who lend Fight 4 with their poisoned spears) as the basic infantry in the list. These guys are supplemented by more elite infantry with the multi-attack Watchers of Karna (who are also great for charging Terror units) and Abrakhan Guard (who are … simply devastating). All told, your opponent will be at a loss for what units to target first – the glaringly obvious Abrakhan Guard or Watchers of Karna? Those Haradrim with axes are S4 and can be backed by Serpent Guard, you know? Do you have a plan for dealing with those bows?

In addition to these warriors, you have three epic heroes to deal with. The Hasharin are hard to kill and lethal in close-combat. Suladan has a good combat profile and provides good bonuses to those around him. Between him and the Golden King of Abrakhan, you have banner support for your army (great, since we didn’t take very many spears) and have good heroic actions they can tap into. If you’ve never faced the Golden King of Abrakhan, consider yourself blessed – he’s a pain. The rules alteration that GW made (where you offer the bribe BEFORE the hero you’re attempting to bribe pays Might or Will) is a good touch and makes it a bit more fair in the actual bribing process. In combat, none of these guys are slouches, but as with any mono-Serpent-Horde army, you pay for great offense with an average defense. The entire list (sans some of the heroes who are Defense 5 and the Watchers of Karna who are Defense 3) is Defense 4, making them vulnerable to all kinds of archery and melee damage. Still, you have 40 models (higher than most armies of Good that you’ll face) and plenty of bows to reduce your opponent’s army size, even if you’re moving and shooting.

If the defense of this team is bothering you, you can always ally with Mordor/the Easterlings (Historical allies both) and keep some of the heroes and warriors listed above to get a more solid battle line. I personally think the infantry choices of Harad are very good in their own right and don’t need changes (despite their low defense).

List #2: Cavalry Charge
War Mumak of Harad with Rocks and Rappelling Lines - 305

4 Haradrim Warriors with bows - 28

8 Haradrim Warriors - 48

Ally: Isengard

Sharku with shield and Warg - 65

10 Warg Riders with shields and throwing spears – 130

2 Warg Riders with Shield - 24

I’ll admit, I was thinking about being boring and allying in some heavy Isengard infantry, but then I had a thought: you have the chance to make a Mumak list – MAKE IT! Running a Mumak is kind of like running a Balrog – you don’t do it because it’s the most competitive build, you do it because it’s fun. In this list, we have just enough Haradhrim to fill the Howdah and a full pack of Warg Riders led by their undaunted leader, Sharku. The Warg Riders are fast and can skirmish with their throwing spears (though they’ll only hit on 6s in the Shoot phase if they move and shoot). With a decent defense and S4 on the charge, they’re fantastic cheap cavalry and better choices in my opinion than Haradrim Raiders (capped at D4 and cost-equivalent) or Serpent Riders (cost-equivalent). Granted, the Warg Riders don’t have lances (both Haradrim sets can take War Spears), but the S4 makes the wounding likelihood close and the opportunity to kill someone on the charge with the throwing spear is nice too.

While the Warg Riders are good and can get out of the way of the Mumak easily, the real start of the list is the Mumak itself. Not only did we take the Rocks upgrade (great for short-range archery damage), but we also took Rappelling Lines (allowing our monolith of power turn into a troop transport and drop off melee models near objectives late in the game). The Howdah provides good protection for most of the models in this list and the Mumak itself is … well … beastly to deal with. All told, this is a fun list that isn’t competitive at all but would be fun to see on the board doing its work. It also has a good chance of winning missions where you’re trying to get models off the board (as the Mumak getting off scores you 14 points).

4) The Lists: Far Harad

Far Harad is a very different beast compared to the Serpent Horde – while there are many hero and warrior choices for the Serpent Horde (and a variety of melee and archery choices), Far Harad has two hero choices (basically) and three warrior choices – none of which are particularly good at shooting. Ergo, your strategy with a Mahud army is very, VERY different. So, I think the answer is to keep your army mobile and get the most out of what you do well – charging stuff. So without further ado, let’s look at the lists.

List #1: Cavalry Charge
Mahud Tribesmaster with War Spear and War Camel - 65

War Mumak of Far Harad with Rocks and Rappelling Lines - 330

12 Mahud Warriors – 96

5 Mahud Raiders with War Spears – 90

1 Mahud Raider with War Spear and Blowpipe with Poisoned Darts - 19

Yes, we’re doing yet-another-Mumak-list – he’s a good troop transport for your melee units (who are D5 in the Howdah, great for resisting most archery). I didn't give the guys up top Blowpipes because the difference in range between Blowpipes and Rocks is not that big – just use the rocks. We have room for 1 more warrior in the Howdah, so you could drop the rocks upgrade, add blowpipes to everyone (including your camels), and add one more guy. Your choice.

To support the lumbering Mumak, we have 6 Camel-riding Raiders with a Camel-riding Mahud Tribesmaster. Like any lancer squadron, you don’t want to bull-rush a battle line, but instead come smashing into a flank. If you’re facing an archery team, it would benefit you greatly to run behind your Mumak to provide some cover (as these guys without their camels are pretty unimpressive). On the charge, they’re lethal (so save those Might points for Heroic Moves), with decent Impaler damage on the charge as well as Fight 4 once you’re in the fight. This is a squishy list (and probably not that competitive), but it would be very, VERY fun to run.

List #2: Troll Horde
Mahud Tribesmaster with War Spear, shield, and War Camel - 70

4 Half Trolls - 92

2 Half Trolls with two-handed clubs - 48

Ally: Moria

Cave Drake – 150

3 Cave Trolls with hand-and-a-half hammers - 240

As mentioned before, you don’t need the army bonus for Far Harad – it’s nice, but not necessary. In this list, we’ve decided to focus on the monster element of Far Harad – Half Trolls! These guys (we have 6 of them) provide decent killing power for not that many points. As cheap, terror-causing, high-strength units, they’re perfect for smashing into the side of a line and doing some damage. They’re not Monster models, so you can’t go hurling units around, but they’re still going to do lots of damage. Leading them is a cheap captain kitted out to charge into the enemy and cause some havoc.

The focus of your opponent will probably not be on the Half Trolls though – it’ll be on the Cave Trolls and the Cave Drake allies of this team. Cave Trolls got brutal now with Burly and hand-and-a-half hammers for the same former base cost of the Troll. This not only allows them to roll 3 dice without penalty, but they’ll wound most units on 3s (or even 2s) thanks to that free two-hander bonus. While dealing with one or two Cave Trolls is often incredibly difficult, three is downright impossible to prevent from getting to your ranks and smashing you up. With the Cave Drake also being able to do monstrous mashing, you’ve got four pieces your opponent has to deal with and very few teams will have the archery, magic, or epic melee hero power to combat all four of these things. Whatever’s left unengaged by these four pieces should be easily attacked by the Half Trolls.

While I don’t think Far Harad is as good as the Serpent Horde, I do think they’re fun to play with and interesting to use. I have no intention of collecting them, though I’ll admit that the second list does look tempting.

5) The Lists: Corsairs of Umbar

Ah, the beloved pirates of the Lord of the Rings. Backstabbers is a nice rule, but not very nice. Ergo, we’ll be looking at a few things you can do with the pirate fleets here (though I’ll say upfront that I’m not using any Black Numenoreans – consider substituting Reavers for Numenoreans in the lists below if you want).

List #1: The Pirate Crew
1 Corsair Captain with crossbow – 55

3 Corsair Bo’suns with spears – 138

10 Corsairs of Umbar with shields – 80

10 Corsairs of Umbar with shields and spears – 90

13 Corsair Reavers – 117

12 Corsair Arbalesters - 120

This is a brute-force, high-model-count, charge your guys all over the board kind of list. With a whopping 49 models at 600 points, you’ve got plenty of models to engage the 30-40 man lists that you’ll face (and a good thing too, since most of your units are only Defense 4). As discussed with the Serpent Horde above, your low defense can be seen as a vulnerability, but it’s just part of the experience. Ignore it as best you can and enjoy what your team does. The 20 Corsairs of Umbar have throwing daggers, making charges by these units irresistible (and can further change the disparity between army sizes), though I recommend using the spearmen and the three Bosuns to support the Reavers.

Reavers are great when they go Berserk now (so long as you can control it), as you make your guys more deadly and able to charge Terror units with impunity. Covering these guys are some of the most feared archers in the game: Arbalesters! With D6 against non-melee damage and one point cheaper than their Uruk counterparts, Corsair Arbalesters are a pain to have to shift (just figure out how to place them so they can stay in the fight for as long as possible without moving…personally I hate figuring that out because I’m not very good at it).

I will note in passing that you can part with the Reavers if you want in favor of Black Numenoreans - they'll be more resilient, less punchy, and cause Terror. If you value that sort of thing, swap them (or do part Reaver/part Black Numenorean - for theme, I've kept just the pirates.

List #2: The Black Fleet
Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar – 90

1 Corsair Bo’sun with spear – 46

6 Corsairs of Umbar with shields and spears – 54

6 Corsairs of Umbar with shields - 48

6 Corsair Reavers – 54

8 Corsair Arbalesters - 80

Ally: Mordor

The Shadow Lord – 120

7 Black Numenoreans - 63

5 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears – 45

For thematic reasons, we’ve chosen to ally the Corsairs with Mordor. By giving up both army bonuses, we’ve dropped a bunch of models in order to get two key upgrades: better heroes and more protection overall. Allying in Mordor gives us access to Morannon Orcs, who have D6 with spears, making our anvil more resilient than an all-Corsair list. As discussed above, Black Numenoreans are available in either list, so you could use them to supplement your Corsairs if you wanted to without Mordor.

The bonuses we get from the hero choices work like this: first, we get Dalamyr, who not only provides us with good offensive damage (one thing we were lacking in the generic heroes of the previous list), but also allows you to immobilize people with his smoke bombs (greatly helps him stay alive in combat). We also got the Shadow Lord – the whole reason we allied in Mordor in the first place – to get some protection against archery for our guys as we race across the field. Once battle is joined, you can turn that Will-point-spent-per-turn from providing archery protection to casting (I recommend Drain Courage or Transfix, depending on how dangerous a hero is). Late in the game (assuming he's still around), the Shadow Lord makes it more likely that your foes run from the fight - a great day for Corsairs, who are probably struggling on the numbers count as it is.

Hopefully this gets the creative juices flowing for the Southern realms of Harad and Umbar. In our next post, we wrap up our discussion of armies of evil by covering the other Fallen Realms. Until next time, happy hobbying!