The Stuff of Legends: The Grand Army of the South

Good morning gamers,  

This is the last Legion from Gondor at War - and one of those Legions that looks great on the tabletop (but really restricts your model count). If you like Mumakil, this Legion is probably your first stop (either running a War Mumak of Harad with Suladan OR running the Mumak War Leader with Suladan OR running the Mumak War Leader and ANOTHER Mumak). But how do you make this list work (and since it has the largest Legion tax to date, what's your most important follow-up purchases)? Rythbyrt joins us again to provide his thoughts on this Legion (a Legion that sports a hero that Rythbyrt likes a lot).

Legion Tax: 375-400pts (realistically, much higher than that)

Rythbryt: We come to it at last... the greatest legendary legion tax of our time. Until Sauron gets one (and maybe that's coming), this is it, and it's hard to imagine it'll be topped by any other kind of list. On top of that, it's also the legion that sports the largest model in the range (other than Smaug, of course... but I'd be very surprised if he gets a legion--wouldn't you?). Finally, while it may not be the legion that requires the largest points limit to play (my vote would be for the Grey Company), if you're playing a small points level, building this legion will probably give you the most fits.

So with that ringing endorsement, let's dig in!

Part 1: What do you need?

Your first decision-tree is actually a pretty hard one: there are three required models in this list. You either have to take the Mumak War Leader (400 points) or you can take both Suladan and a Mumak (for at least 375 points if you take a base Mumak plus Suladan on foot with no upgrades; more realistically, 420 points because you'll take Suladan on horse, and at least one 25 point upgrade on your Mumak, like the Beastmaster Chieftain). That's... steep. Don't get me wrong, you're getting good value for those points, either way you go (either a top-5 combat piece--in my opinion--or a 6" banner with a top-30 combat piece). But it's still steep.

Then there's the matter of the howdah, which you will almost certainly want to fill with as many warriors as your points level will allow (capping out at 12 max). You have three options here, too: Haradrim Warriors are the cheapest, at 7 points with a 24" poisoned bow, and also offer the biggest ranged threat. Mahud Warriors are slightly more expensive (8 points), and also only have a max-range of 12" if you give them blowpipes. But at least you don't have to give them spears in a howdah, so that saves a few points. Last are Half-Trolls, which you can put in your Howdah, but unless you're running a regular mumak with Suladan, and are taking the Rocks upgrade or the Repelling Lines upgrade, there's not really much point (for the record, the Mumak War Leader can't take either upgrade, so putting Half Trolls in his howdah is probably not the optimal play). The cheapest option (twelve Haradrim with bows) runs an additional 84 points, which is going to push the actual legion tax close to 500 points either way. And that's assuming you don't put a Banner on either a Haradrim or Mahud in your howdah (which, for what it's worth, is a cheeky way to give your Mumak a free reroll in combat and keep that Banner nice and safe in scenarios where it's worth VPs). But I digress.

Lastly, if you go with just the Mumak and warriors in the Howdah, you'll run into some potential issues. For one, even if your model count is "high" (hey, it's all relative), your model footprint on the board is going to be "low" (because the 14 models you'll have--the Mumak, its driver, and the twelve dudes in the howdah) are confined to a single base... it's a huge base, but it's just one base, and as such, it can only be in one place at a time. So you'll probably want some sort of accompanying contingent to ride along with your Mumak to pull things out of combats (unless you've taken the aforementioned Repelling Lines upgrade). You could go with a foot contingent if you wish--Haradrim Warriors, Serpent Guard, Mahud Warriors, and Half-Trolls are all available to you--but I prefer mounted contingents that can either keep up with a Mumak or run interference for it: Haradrim Raiders (very cheap F3/S3 cavalry with war spears), Serpent Riders (also very cheap F4/S3 cavalry with war spears), and Mahud Raiders (devastating F3/S4 cavalry with war spears, plus a S4 Impaler hit they inflict on whatever they've charged--and its mount, if applicable).

What you can't take are Harad's elite infantry troops--Abrakhan Guard (F4/S4/Burly) and Watchers of Karna (F4/S3 with either 2 Attacks or a poisoned bow with 3+ shoot value)--along with some specialty heroes (the Golden King and The Betrayer, in particular). You can, however, sneak a sneaky Hasharin into this list (which, like I said, is fittingly sneaky). There's also a limit on the amount of Mahud models you can take (since at least 50% of your models must have the Haradrim keyword) which leads me to...

Part 2: Why take this legion over "normal" allied forces?

As I mentioned in my write-up on the Serpent Horde, I'm not sure this legion is a better choice than vanilla Serpent Horde if your goal is to play Serpent Horde. Yes, Suladan picks up a free Heroic Combat or Heroic Strike when he's in combat with the enemy army leader, which is a nice buff. But I'm not sure that's enough of a boost to compensate for the loss of your elite troops (Abrakhan Guard and Watchers of Karna), and to a lesser extent your best magic option (The Betrayer) and a pretty good troop slayer with a second banner (the Golden King)... although to be fair, you're probably not taking either of those heroes in a standard Serpent Horde list at anything under 1000 points.

Similarly, I'm not sure you're running this legion, either, if your goal is to play Far Harad. Yes, the army leader buff to the Mumak War Leader is awesome (and you do have access to all of Far Harad's profiles, including Mahud Tribemasters and Mahud Kings), but you do have to include 50% Haradrim to run this list. At lower points levels (and for this legion, that probably means anything under 750 points), you can usually make it work because you'll almost certainly want 12 Haradrim Warriors with bows in your howdah, which means you can also take a Mahud King and up to 10 Camels before you get to the 50% threshold. But if that isn't how you want to build your list, a pure Far Harad force is pretty good, too.

The third reason not to take this legion is if you were planning to run a Serpent Horde/Far Harad alliance (which are historic allies, by the way), but weren't planning to run a Mumak. Don't get me wrong, Mumaks are great--but 275-400 points will buy you a lot of other great stuff, too. So if Mumaks aren't your cup of tea... you may want to look elsewhere.

Delving into some weaknesses and strengths:

Weakness #1: A low model count (and by "low," I mean "loooooooow"). Having been experimenting a lot recently with the Grey Company, let me caveat this by saying that all-hero armies will have lower counts because (a) there's no option for them to add a few cheap bodies here and there, and (b) most all-hero armies don't have unnamed hero options, so at some point, the list ceases to grow any more. With this legion, you do at least have the option to pad your numbers a bit: you're probably looking at 10-12 Haradrim Warriors with bows anyway, which means even at 500 points on the Mumak War Leader, you're probably looking at 12-14 models at a minimum, which is more than, say, the Broken Fellowship legion will have at that points level, and probably in the same ballpark as elite Hero-Warrior legions like The Return of the King (don't let that fool you, though; both of those legions are really bad match-ups for this one, especially at low points levels).

Weakness #2: Both Serpent Horde and Far Harad keep their standard weaknesses. In addition to the unit selection limitations imposed on the Serpent Horde (more on that in a minute), your rank-and-file troops don't receive any buffs in this legion. Your Haradrim Warriors are still F3 and D4. Your Serpent Guard are still D4. Your Mahud Warriors are still F3 and D5. As for your elite troop option (Half-Trolls), they're still awesome... but you're very unlikely to take them in this list unless you run a generic Mumak with Repelling Lines (or your points limit is huge), because at 23+ points each, they're a luxury you usually can't afford, on a small base that is likely to lag behind your mumak.

Weakness #3: No wraith (especially the Betrayer). Wraiths have gone through some changes in the newest iteration of the rules (although the rules are pushing 3 years now... can we still call them "new"?). A few of them were depowered (the Shadow Lord, Dark Marshall, and Undying come to mind), a few stayed mostly the same (generic Wraiths, and mostly Khamul), and some got some very nice boosts (the Tainted, and especially the Witch-King with the Crown of Morgul). The Betrayer fits in that third category, as Master of Poisons got a huge buff (you now reroll all failed to-wound rolls with Poisoned weapons) despite a small resource tax (it now costs 1 Will per turn to turn on Master of Poisons). In generic Mordor, it's not super special (I think Shelob is the only model in the Mordor list who has Posioned anything, and of course she has Venom built-into her profile). But in the Serpent Horde--especially with its army bonus active--it significantly boosts your killing power, both in melee and at range. And that's in addition to all the other useful things you get with a wraith: magic defense, access to Transfix and Compel, Harbinger of Evil, and the option for a flying monster. Sure, the Betrayer isn't super good at casting. But your odds of getting a Compel with a model who casts it on a 5+ are still better than the odds of getting a Compel from a model who can't cast the spell to begin with. There are no wraiths in this legion (or, for that matter, in any of its sister legions from Gondor at War--The Army of Gothmog and The Black Gate Opens), so if you're in a magic-heavy scene, that could be an issue.

Weakness #4: Low model count means you may struggle with certain scenarios (especially at low points levels). On the one hand, if you happen to draw a kill-count mission with this force (like Lords of Battle), you're in good shape. Spread-out-and-capture missions (like Reconnoitre, or Domination if you spread out your two objectives) are also usually okay if you go with a large mounted contingent (unless there's a ton of difficult terrain on the board). But that assumes you have the points to field a large mounted contingent (which, as you'll see in the sample lists below, usually means 600+ points at a minimum, and probably 800+ minimum to build a list that feels "competitive"). At very low model counts, most of your models are probably going to be in the howdah, just to keep them safe. That makes "spread-out-and-capture" missions much harder. Especially if...

Weakness #5: Very low defense (especially magic defense). For the most part, this army will be D4-D5 all around (unless you invest heavily in multiple Mumaks, Mahud Kings, or Half-Trolls). Yes, the Mumak's Howdah helps, but still: shots get past a 4+ in-the-way 50% of the time, and S2 bows wound D4 models in the howdah 33% of the time once they get through. More troubling, the howdah doesn't protect your important cavalry models (who are either D4 or D5 riders, on D4 mounts), and while you can put a Mumak in the way, shots still get past a 4+ in-the-way 50% of the time (plus if you put your cav too close to a Mumak, an enemy Compel or Command may crush them). Which leads to the bigger issue: since you must take a Mumak in this list, the lack of Will on your driver can become a problem quickly. Yes, you can take Sigils of Defiance on your Mumak (which is a great upgrade, specially since it now gives Mumaks a 6+ save on wounds), and Resistant to Magic means you always get a chance to resist (which is huge). But only the Mumak War Leader offers semi-sustainable magic defense (3 Will, plus Resistant to Magic from Sigils), and once that 3 Will runs out, swatting away Compel becomes a crap shoot. You can play around this, of course (having a bulked-out cav contingent plus a huge archer corps should help pressure most casters), but without access to offensive magic of your own--and without the points to bring along a second or third heavy hitter to distract enemy casters--your options are more limited than what you could get with, say, a Mordor + Serpent Horde alliance.

Weakness #6: You're probably more reliant on your Mumak than you'd like to be (especially at low points levels). This legion was clearly designed to be a Mumak-centric list (yes, Suladan is here, too, but even he must take a Mumak). If you like playing Mumaks, this is great; but if they're not your cup of tea, this may not be the list for you, and if you've never played a mumak before you might want to get up to speed. Dan Entwisle's primer on Mumak Tactics is a great place to start. At low points levels, the Mumak will basically be your army; and even at higher points levels, your performance will usually be capped by how well your mumak performs. And without supporting magic to neutralize big enemy heroes, some of the "normal" tricks to keep Mumaks moving aren't available to you.

Weakness #7: Low points levels are just a struggle, period. For all the above reasons. Tiberius makes a valiant effort at a 500 point list for this legion at the end of this post (and I've built a few at 600), but at the risk of stating the obvious: with a 375-400 point legion tax, playing this legion at anything under 500 points is going to be... well, probably not competitive.

Now lest you think I'm just playing Debbie Downer, the list of weaknesses is long because (a) these are real weaknesses in the force, but more importantly (b) the strengths for this legion are big enough--and increase the higher your skills are as a player--that there have to be weaknesses to balance out the list. So here's what the list does well... arguably, better than any other list that features war beasts:

Strength #1: At a minimum, that steep legion tax is going to buy you a Mumak plus at least three more awesome buffs. If you go with Suladan, you'll have--at a minimum--the following: 5 Might (3 from Suladan, and 2-3 from the Mumak's commander, depending on which one you take), a 6" banner that counts for VPs (which are both awesome), access to Heroic March (on both Suladan and the commander), a 12" Stand Fast! if your troops on the ground happen to break, and a huge combat model that won't flee, even if you break (because Warbeasts, along with all models in their howdah, automatically pass all courage tests they need to take when a force breaks). Oh, and you also get a S9, D7-8 Mumak with 10 wounds who can Trample enemy forces with 3-4 S9 hits each, plus a mobile battle platform / fortress for up to 12 squishy models. I'm not quite sure that's Azog's Signal Tower levels of value for ~400 points, but it's at least in the ballpark. Throw in that the Mumak (which has Terror) picks up a 12" Harbinger of Evil bubble and also counts as a banner for models within 3" of it (on a huge base, albeit one that your warriors may not want to get too close to), and that's quite a few special rules (plus maybe some others, like Resistant to Magic, depending on how you outfit your Mumak).

If you instead opt for the Mumak War Leader, you lose the 6" banner and some Might (both of which are losses). But your Mumak goes to Fight 5... which is kind of insane. You pick up Sigils of Defiance (Resistant to Magic, plus a 6+ save against all wounds on both the Mumak and every model in the Howdah, including the War Leader), Tusk Weapons (4 Strength 9 Trample hits, instead of the normal 3, which pushes your odds of wounding D7 or lower models to an insane 98%), and Gnarled Hide (the Mumak is D8 instead of D7, which is a big deal against almost all shooting and warriors). Your Mumak's driver goes up to Courage 6 with 3 Will points (dramatically reducing the odds of a Stampede!) and keeps the 12" Stand Fast! you'd lost from Suladan. You get a 12" deployment zone (so you can actually take a full warband with the War Leader if you wanted to). And you get Imposing Presence (on a 4+, you cancel the first enemy Heroic Move each round that is called within 12" of the War Leader), which gives you a 75% chance of moving first if you have priority plus Might to call a Heroic Move yourself (50% chance to cancel their Heroic Move, and then an additional 50% chance to win an ensuing roll-off, if they call a second Heroic Move and you counter-call), although you can also use it to protect your own Heroic Move, if you must call one. Plus, your mumak still has Harbinger and still counts as a 3" banner... only now it can Heroic Combat if it kills the enemy army leader in combat.

The point is that however you decide to build this legion, you're getting quite a lot of stuff for the steep legion tax you're paying (which, again, is steep...). 

Strength #2: You keep the strengths of both factions (if not the "best" from both factions). The Serpent Horde still has one of the better gun lines in the game: they're cheap, they have poison, you keep the 50% bow limit in this legion, and now you can mount them in a D8 Howdah where they are perched high above the fray (so you can pour shots into priority back-rank targets). Meanwhile, your Mahud models keep Warrior Pride, which means you can get around their pesky courage problems if you take a Mahud King in your force. No access to Abrakhans, Watchers of Karna, or the Betrayer hurts, but you aren't losing much else from the normal Far Harad + Serpent Horde alliance, and are picking up some nice buffs.

Strength #3: A mumak is a mumak is a mumak. Yes, they're super-expensive. On huge bases. And they can't cross terrain that's larger than 2" tall. And they can't Heroic Strike. And they're only F4 (most of the time). And evil shooting can be fickle. And they're on huge bases. And they're super-expensive. But at the end of the day, a mumak is still a mumak. And as long as you have a mumak, you have a chance, and very few enemies are safe. Which leads me to...

Strength #4: Your damage ceiling is Impaler/Trample devastation on a scale hitherto unknown. Yes, you can take a Mumak in a vanilla Serpent Horde or Far Harad list. Yes, you can pair a Mumak with Camels in Far Harad, or if you build an alliance. You can even have said Far Harad / Alliance list led by the Mumak War Leader if you wish. But you cannot Heroic Combat with said Mumak in any other list. And that--the ability to Trample at the beginning of the Fight Phase, while everyone is locked in combat--is devastation on a scale hitherto unknown. Probably for both sides, but still: devastation on a scale hitherto unknown.

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

I'll resist my urge to say that Far Harad, the Serpent Horde, Mordor, the Easterlings, and Khand should all be historic allies with each other (because... you know... Pelennor) and limit my suggestions to just these two:

• I'd give Haradrim and Mahud some way to buff their Fight Value. Yes, I know these models are already good, but they've got some serious weaknesses built into their profile (low Defense being the major eyesore), and when it comes to Fight, most of them are just "average" (Serpent Guard and Serpent Riders being the exception, and they're only F4). Add to this the fact that (1) the legion tax means your numbers are going to be low anyway, and (2) none of the Haradrim can take shields, and I'm not sure there's a truly "competitive" way to build this faction where you have a large contingent on foot (especially since there's no Betrayer, which you really need to shoot out anything that's D5 or higher, given how few archers you can take once you pay the Legion Tax). You could do this a few different ways, of course. Lots of legions include heroes who give troops fight value buffs when they're within X" of a certain hero (Helm's Guard comes to mind), so something like that for the army leader wouldn't be completely new. But I'd prefer something like a fight-value version of Animosity: if a friendly Haradrim or Mahud model is engaged in the same fight as a friendly model with the other key word, they pick up +1 Fight Value.  It's the kind of rule that still requires player skill to pull off, and given that your model count is going to be on the small-side anyway, it's not something you could get everywhere all the time. But a boost like that would help to off-set the risk that your warriors are going to face if they lose fights (which is dying) by giving them a slight edge against other average troops who probably outnumber them. Plus, it'd give you a potential reason to run Mahud Warriors on foot (which, otherwise, I don't think you have much incentive to run). Yes, it would mean Half-Trolls could potentially get up to Fight 6 (maybe that's enough incentive to cram a couple into this already elite list?), but since Mumaks don't have either the Haradrim or Mahud keywords, they wouldn't gain any bonuses (which I think is for the best).
• Alternatively, I'd give the Haradrim access to their entire warrior suite (which is to say, two more profiles). I can understand the rationale for leaving out the Betrayer (I suppose one could see the Betrayer being off doing other things during this battle). And I wouldn't balk too much if you tell me the Golden King is a GW creation, and this legion is supposed to be built around the films (although I'll just remind you, the Serpent Horde's side of the list includes Hasharii...). But I do think that rationale gets a bit suspect once you look over at the Far Harad portion of the list (which, with the exception of the War Leader, and maybe Mahud Warriors, is entirely a GW creation, and not reflected in the film version of the battle at all). If Far Harad gets all their toys--including their elite Half-Trolls, I might add--would it really break the game to give Haradrim access to two low-defense, glass-cannon elite troops?

There's other quality of life things one could go with (is there a reason why Suladan doesn't have Bane of Kings, while Raza does? Would it break this legion to give it to him?), but overall, I think this force is what it is--a highly elite, high-damage, glass cannon--and once you accept that, the legion is fine.

(But you should be able to put Watchers of Karna in a howdah if you want to...)

Tiberius: I think running camels and Mumaks is insanely good, but has anyone else noticed how hard it is to get them in this list? If you take the Mumak Warleader, it's pretty easy, but if you take Suladan, you need to take a Mahud King or Tribemaster - who has the points for that? I think the simplest fix would be for Mahud Beastmaster Chieftains to be able to deploy models outside the howdah like the Mumak Warleader can - simple.

Part 4: Army Strategies

Again, I'll commend Dan Entwisle's article on mumak tactics to you, because knowing how best to use your mumak is absolutely critical to making this legion work. Once you get that down pat ( ;-) ), here's some other things to think about:

Your Mumak (probably) holds your fate in its trunk (or howdah). Unless you're taking Suladan as your army leader, your Mumak is going to be your most important model (and it may still be your most important model, even if you take Suladan). Everything else in the list should be built around keeping your Mumak alive for as long as possible. That's why you take Repelling Lines. And Sigils of Defiance. And take fast cav over half-trolls. And put a banner in the howdah, even if you have an infantry block. And once you put that list on the table, every decision you make and every risk that you take should be made and taken with an eye to how it will impact your Mumak. If you have the option to pull a F5+ hero out of a fight with your Mumak, do it. If your Mumak will be surrounded unless you repell some archers from your howdah, do it. If you have to choose between Aragorn fighting your Mumak or your Haradrim Chieftain, have him fight the Chieftain. You get the idea.

You don't have any heroes to spare, so use them wisely. As you'll see in the Army Showcase, for the most part you'll want a good-sized cavalry contingent in this legion. Pair that with a Mumak, and the ability to move first (or at least to have the threat of moving first--more on that shortly) is really, really important. As such, losing any heroes with Might still on them is really, really bad.

The good news is that your heroes are either very well protected (i.e., they're riding a giant Mumak) or they're very fast (because they're normally mounted), and therefore hopefully difficult to catch and pin-down. The bad news is that they're all low defense, and none of them are particularly good in a fight (except of course for Hasharii, although they doesn't help your Might issue at all). 

Hiding mounted heroes behind a Mumak helps (because that in-the-way is nice), as does giving them bows (so they can skirmish for a bit before you charge them into fights). But you'll need to keep them alive, so don't sacrifice them (unless it's a choice between them and your mumak, of course).

Might management is key. It's not a secret: mounted heroes tend to die when they stop moving. Cavalry are at their best when charging; if they get bogged down, a cavalry army almost never outlives an infantry army. This cavalry army happens to be exceptionally good on the charge (because poisoned S3 war spears, and/or S4 war spears plus Impaler, is devastating), which means you're going to be tempted to charge early and often. The problem is that it's exceptionally bad if it stalls out: for the most part, your cavalry are only F3, on D4 mounts, with D4-D5 riders. Compounding this problem is your Might pool: with so many points tied up in your Mumak, your Might pool is going to be low, so if you commit too early and you stall for some reason, you may not survive to the end-game (losing priority and/or losing heroic move roll-offs tend to be the main culprits, and you usually can't control either event yourself).

If you're looking to conserve might, don't forget about tried-and-true skirmish cav tactics: Haradrim cavalry are exceptional skirmishers because enemy infantry lines tend to fan out when facing a cavalry army (otherwise they can't catch them). Combine that with your superior movement (plus the fact that having a mumak tends to discourage opponents from "clumping up" within 6" bubble effects, like Blinding Light), and you can usually catch at least some enemy models outside of effects that will debuff your shooting. Mahud Raiders are less effective (because a 12" blowpipe is less flexible than a 24" bow), but they can still do it. And of course, bows in a howdah "skirmish" with the best of them (if "skirmish" is the appropriate word). You don't have to charge early and often if you have ranged superiority to your opponent; you can pick a more opportune moment. And the longer you can put off the Might burn, the less likely you are to run out.

Finally, don't forget about the option of a ranged infantry block. There are some limitations to this kind of a force (mostly because they lag behind your mumak, and at just D4-D5, feel much more fragile than mounted models due to their lack of speed), but a ground-bound infantry contingent is quite a bit cheaper to field than an all-mounted one (plus, if the enemy has the choice to shoot at a Mumak, or mounted cavalry, or an infantry block... they tend not to shoot at the infantry block for some reason). It also gives you access to cheaper Might: Raza, Fang of the Serpent is an appealing choice (even if you're not fielding Suladan), because with 3 Might, Strike, and access to potential F6 (backed by 3 Attacks and Bane of Kings), he's actually pretty good in a scrap. But Haradrim Chieftains on foot are pretty affordable as well if you're looking for cheap Might, and of course the Haradrim Taskmaster offers you a way to "cheat" the Might system by getting some free heroic Moves or Marches. Raza and the Taskmaster can't be mounted, but you don't have to call a Heroic Move with a mounted hero in order for mounted models to benefit. If you manage to pin the enemy's infantry with your own infantry block, your cavalry are free to maneuver around the enemy's flanks to the rear, or to capture objectives, or to do whatever else you need them to do. Plus, having a few more models to pad your break point doesn't hurt.

"Trample" is an alluring bauble... don't be allured by the bauble. If you're eyeing a mumak for the first time, odds are that you've been drawn to one of two things (maybe both): the model is both epic and iconic, and/or Trample is crazy-good (all true, by the way). Once you start playing war beasts, you quickly discover that getting Trample off is hard--mostly because your opponents don't like it very much, and so they'll do everything in their power to prevent it from going off. This is actually a good thing (because it turns out, most armies have to devote a whole lot of resources to stopping a War Beast from trampling, leaving the rest of your army relatively free from molestation... and even so, they may not succeed), but in the moment it can be a bit frustrating to see this huge, expensive, imposing model... getting charged a lot. And if you're not careful, that frustration can cause you to make mistakes (like blowing all your Might in the first two turns on 50-50 Heroic Moves... and still not getting to Trample because Heroic Move-offs are fickle).

I have found playing war beasts to be much more enjoyable if you manage expectations. Most games, I manage to get one good Trample off (and by "good," I mean it kills 2-3 models and/or wounds a hero)--and anything beyond that is gravy. I'm fine with this, because even if the mumak isn't fighting (or crushing), it's still helping my army by attracting so much attention from the enemy, and forcing them to play in ways they'd rather not: they have to spread out instead of clumping, they shoot 15-30 bows into the Mumak (which does minimal damage) instead of 15-30 bows into your Haradrim Raiders (which would do substantial damage), the enemy's big heroes either try to converge on the Mumak or flee from it, combat-oriented armies hang back instead of rushing forward (allowing your archers to whittle them down), etc. 

Here's the secret: you can afford to be patient. Newer players (or veteran players who are new to playing against Mumaks) can overreact, especially if you roll well for Priority. If you win Priority and the opponent calls a Heroic Move to go first, you can counter-call if you wish (sending things to a 50-50 roll-off, and maybe you get lucky). Or you can let them burn that Might, let them move first, counter-charge them elsewhere once that Heroic Move has gone off, and save your Might for a later turn, when the enemy can't call a Heroic Move (giving you free reign, after the enemy has been lured into charging within Trample range of your "pinned" Mumak). On the flip-side, veteran players who have fought war beasts before know how to "bait" a mumak out of position, by offering a tempting Trample (on the surface). Yes, you could crush those 5-6 warriors who are fanning out to the flank... and then spend 2-3 turns getting your Mumak back into the fray. You want to Trample on your terms, not theirs; if they're baiting you, wait them out. It's okay. Your Mumak is still doing something.

Last thought: watch out for enemy all-cav armies. Don't get me wrong: trampling enemy cavalry is fun and all (plus it's great to relive that epic film moment). But don't forget that the Rohirrim beat the mumaks in the film (even before the Dead and Legolas showed up), and if you're not careful they'll beat you in this game, too. Unless you're facing Goat Riders, cavalry move faster than War Beasts (10" to 8"). This means an enemy cavalry force with a supporting hero (who has Might) can line-up 8.5" away from your beast, and guarantee that you can't charge them the following turn:

• If you win priority, and they do nothing, you go first, you move 8", you can't charge them (because they're 8.5" away), and then they charge into you (or move further away). No Trample.

• If you lose priority and then call a Heroic Move... you still go first, you still move 8", you still can't charge them (because they're 8.5" away), and then they still charge into you (or move further away). No Trample. And you've lost a Might point. 

• If you lose priority and call a Heroic March (so you can move 11"), they move first (because a Heroic March isn't a Heroic Move), they move so they're more than 11" away from you, you then charge 11", you still can't charge them, there's still no Trample, and you've still lost a Might point. 

• If you win priority and call a Heroic March (so you can move 11"), they call a Heroic Move... and everything is exactly the same as above (because a Heroic March isn't a Heroic Move). Still no Trample.

• Finally, if you lose priority, and don't call a Heroic Move, the enemy goes first, they charge into you (because they can move 10", and you're 8.5" away), and your Mumak is pinned. So (you guessed it): no Trample.

The moral of the story? It's really hard to Trample enemy cavalry, especially if the enemy has Might (yes, the War Leader helps with a couple of these scenarios where the enemy has to call a Heroic Move... but that only occurs if you win priority, or are spending Might yourself to move, so it's hardly something you can control all the time). Plus all-cav armies have this annoying habit of getting around you, and spreading into smaller forces that you have to hunt down while the rest of them shoot at you or shoot at your other troops or capture objectives, or whatever else. So if you want to Trample enemy cavalry, you have to do what every other army has to do when fighting enemy cavalry: you either have to exhaust their Might store, or you have to pin them first.

Having your own mounted contingent will definitely help with this (hence, why most of the armies we're showcasing today are built the way they're built), but so can an infantry block if it can close into charge range or has bows coming out the whazoo (turns out, cavalry models are much easier to catch if you've shot their horses). The point is, you probably want a plan that's more nuanced than "bull-rush and pulverize them." Because that plan probably won't work (at least not at first). 

And with that, it's on to some lists!

Part 5: Army Showcase

We'll divide this up into two list clusters: one centered around Suladan + Mumak, and the other around the War Leader. For Suladan, here's how I'd start out at 600 points. I chose that points level because I think it's the lowest level you could realistically run this legion and have something semi-competitive. Anything lower, and you really can't put much of anything on the ground with Suladan (and since Suladan is both your army leader and can't go in the howdah, you'll probably want some friends on the ground to keep him safe):

600/600, 24 Models (Breaks at 13 Casualties, Quartered at 18 Casualties)

Suladan on Armored Horse with Poisoned Bow (Army Leader) 

• x2 Hardrim Raiders with War Spears
• x2 Haradrim Raiders with War Spears and Poisoned Bows 
• x5 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears

War Mumak of Harad with Repelling Lines

• x8 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows
• x4 Haradrim Warriors 

Don't get me wrong, our model count is definitely on the low side. But it's on the low-side of average (usually 25-35 at this points level), which I think is pretty good considering we've got 5 Might (low, but fine), a 6" banner (very good), ten cavalry (also very good, and covers a lot of missions we might otherwise struggle to win), and of course a mumak.

To make that work, we've had to keep our Mumak pretty lean (Repelling Lines is the only upgrade we've taken), but I've come around to what Tiberius has been telling me for a while: if you could only take one upgrade on a mumak, Repelling Lines is almost always the one you'd want. Mumaks are only F4, so if a F5+ model gets into them, they'll really struggle. But most F5+ models don't take on a mumak on their own: they do it with friends (who usually aren't F5+). So if you can tag that high-fight model with a cheap Warrior, and pull him out of the fight with the Mumak, that's great. (Coincidentally, it also works great on high-damage models, too). 

In order to get our count to an even number (24 models total), I've also dropped 4 bows from our Howdah Haradrim Warriors (which makes them candidates 1-4 to repel down the lines if the Mumak gets in trouble). The rest of them have bows, and I suppose you could take two bows from the Haradrim Raiders and give them to howdah warriors if you wanted. But I like having a couple of cavalry archers, because if you have to go to a far-flung area of the board to camp on an objective, it's nice to at least threaten things elsewhere while you're camping, and you can do that with a 24" poisoned bow. Speaking of which, we have eleven poisoned bows in total... which, while not a whole lot, is still probably more bows than most standard armies will have at this points level.

The rest of the force are mounted on horses, and form the core of Suladan's bodyguard. His 6" banner means most of them should get a reroll in fights (which is awesome, and almost a must-have in a large mounted force like this where your Fight Value is only "so-so"). And if you have to book it somewhere fast (say, in Reconnoitre), ten cavalry that can move 15" (powered by a Heroic March from Suladan) probably get at least a few models off the board, even if the enemy has a lot of shooting. All of them (except Suladan) also have War Spears, so if the enemy spreads out their infantry in an attempt to block your escape, you can punch through most infantry if you get the charge (plus you have the F4 Serpent Riders if you have to punch through something with above-average fight value).

Finally, while I do think most of these lists are going to rise and fall based on how well (or poorly) your Mumak does, having a large cavalry contingent attached to our army leader means we can do things even if the Mumak gets bogged down or botches. Mumaks tend to attract big heroes, so having a second, fast-moving force doing other stuff elsewhere can either draw those heroes away from the mumak, or do a number on enemy troops if the heroes are otherwise occupied. I suppose one could do something similar with an infantry force (although I'm not sure this legion does it anywhere near as well as vanilla Serpent Horde, with Watchers and Abrakhans), but certainly not at the same speed, and probably not with the same damage ceiling (4 dice to wound, with an effective S5 poisoned warspear on the charge, will kill a lot of things that are D7 and under).

Now let's take the same(ish) list, and bulk it out for a much more reasonable points level--say, 800:

800/800, 30 Models (Breaks at 16 Casualties, Quartered at 23 Casualties)

Suladan on Armored Horse with Poisoned Bow (Army Leader)

• x1 Hardrim Raiders with War Spears and Poisoned Bows 
• x4 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears

Haradrim King on Horse with War Spear and Poisoned Bow

• x2 Hardrim Raiders with War Spears and Poisoned Bows 
• x2 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears

Haradrim Chieftain on Horse with War Spear and Poisoned Bow

• x2 Hardrim Raiders with War Spears and Poisoned Bows 
• x2 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears

War Mumak of Harad with Repelling Lines

• x9 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows [Howdah]
• x3 Haradrim Warriors [Howdah]

30 models is a "small" count at 800 points, and this one is going to feel smaller because almost half of the models are in a howdah (13 of 30). At the same time, this one may actually feel like it has a larger footprint, because 16 of the remaining 17 models have a 40mm footprint (Suladan, the Haradrim Heroes, the Hadrim Raiders, and the Serpent Riders) and the final one is... you know... a mumak. So in terms of the real estate you can occupy with this force, it's pretty big. You can't hold that real estate for very long (like a couple of Troll Chieftains could) because you want to stay mobile (and, in the Mumak's case, must stay mobile unless you're about to run over one of your own guys). But you should have the numbers and the speed (plus the mumak) to flank and overrun (literally, in the Mumak's case) most standard infantry formations. 

This list should also give us a pretty good run at most scenarios. For starters, we've added two additional mounted heroes: a Haradrim King and a Haradrim Chieftain. Neither is stellar in combat (although the King, with Fight 5, is sneaky good), but both have horses, war spears, and Poisoned bows backed by Might, so they can kill heroes if they catch them flat-footed. Two more heroes also means 4 more Might (we've jumped from 5 to 9 total, which is a decent amount), and we can spend all 4 of our new Might on Heroic Marches if we need to move fast (which is great for preserving Suladan's more valuable Might for things like Strike later on); otherwise, we have 4 more Might for Heroic Moves (and, if necessary, Combats). All our cavalry have war spears, and we've upped the number of both our Fight 4 cavalry (from 5 to 8) and our cavalry with bows (from 2 to 5), plus our poisoned bow count overall (from 11 to 17, if you include our three heroes). Ten cavalry with March and war spears can cut their way through most enemy infantry lines; now, we have 16 (and a mumak).

Speaking of mumaks...

Going the Mumak War Leader route actually presents more challenges for building a "complete" list, because (1) he has no banner, and (2) because he's just a single hero, you're looking at just 3 Might if he's your only hero option (and to be perfectly frank, at 600 points or under, it's very hard to swallow taking a second hero). Yes, you can make him work (Imposing Presence definitely helps), but at low points levels, I'm not sure he's the play. Anyway, here's what I came up with, so you can decide:

600/600, 19 Models (Breaks at 10 casualties, Quartered at 15 casualties)

The Mumak War Leader (Army Leader)

• x9 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows [Howdah]
• x1 Haradrim Warrior with Poisoned Bow and Banner [Howdah]
• x8 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears 

Let me start off by saying that we could have squeezed a second hero into this list if we'd dropped the Banner and two of the Serpent Riders. But that would have reduced our model count to 18 (which is okay, not great), and also meant taking that hero on foot (either a Taskmaster or a Haradrim Chieftain). Mounting that hero would have meant dropping a second Serpent Rider (so 17 models total). Is a War Leader, 10 warriors with bows in a howdah, and a mounted Haradrim Chieftain with 5 Serpent Riders more competitive than the list I've drawn up? Maybe, but probably not by much (and if we're playing a Banner-VP scenario, I doubt it). 

That said, there are problems here, too, starting with just 3 Might in the list. At 600 points, most standard enemy armies will have 3 heroes (so 7-9 Might), and even elite armies probably have at least 2 (who are probably bigger, 3 Might heroes). Yes, Imposing Presence means your Mumak may still get to move first. But your cavalry are unlikely to benefit from the War Leader's Heroic Moves (if they can benefit from them at all), and without any other Might on the table to power them, they'll be at the mercy of your priority rolling skills unless your War Leader can do some real magic.

More troubling, if we do have to send a rider off to do objective capturing or to run off the board edge, that's a much riskier proposition without a second hero to help them out. Yes, 8 Serpent Riders can probably cut through most infantry ranks at 600 if the conditions are right. But the absence of a mounted hero and a banner means the conditions have to be right (no losing priority, no botched duel rolls, and no enemy hero with Might in the section of the line we plan to charge). It can still work, but our margin for error has shrunk quite a bit.

Speaking of margins for error, it should go without saying that in this list, there's a ton of pressure on the War Leader to perform. Don't get me wrong, he can definitely do that (and because of his stats, probably will more often than not). But if he botches an Imposing Presence roll, or a Heroic Move, or even an early Trample kill (very unlikely against warriors, but it does happen against multi-wound / multi-fate heroes), it may cost the win. Yes, a Haradrim Chieftain on horse isn't a world-beater, but at least he alleviates some of that pressure and opens up some other tactical options... so I guess I've talked myself into that alternative list (although the lack of that banner definitely hurts). 

Anyway, let's move onto something more pleasant, shall we?

At 800 points (which I think is the spot where you can actually start developing this legion into something cool), you could go several ways with the War Leader. The most important question is who you take as the second hero. 

Given that most armies at 800 are going to be fielding at least two combat heroes, you probably want someone with Heroic Strike in that spot, which means either Suladan or a Mahud King. So here's what those lists might look like:

800/800, 27 Models (Breaks at 14 casualties, Quartered at 21 casualties)

The Mumak War Leader (Army Leader)

• x11 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows [Howdah]
• x1 Haradrim Warrior with Poisoned Bow and Banner [Howdah]
• x4 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears 

Suladan on Armored Horse with Poisoned Bow

• x1 Haradrim Raider with War Spear and Poisoned Bow 
• x8 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears

Our model count (27) and Might (6) are still low, but I do think we've improved our original War Leader list quite a bit. As we've discussed before, the 6" banner is almost a must-have when you're running heavy cav, and now we've gotten it back. 

More sneakily, having Suladan means we also have a second model who can call a Heroic Strike or March (both of which are very handy). This not only means we can do more things with more places, but it also means we actually might be able to get that Heroic Combat off with the War Leader's Mumak (he calls the Combat, Suladan calls the Strike, and we hope no one botches anything important).

Most sneakily, we've retained that banner up on the Howdah, which means if we happen to draw a banner VP scenario, we've got two bites at the apple: yes, we don't want to lose Suladan. But if he must sacrifice himself to save the War Leader, we have a back-up plan (plus, if Suladan must be elsewhere on the battlefield, our War Leader's Mumak is still getting that beautiful reroll). 

Finally, twelve Serpent Riders (which, by the way, we need to keep in order to have those twelve Haradrim Warriors with bows in our howdah) gives us quite a bit of punch to run with Suladan if the scenario--or the situation on the battlefield--demands it. Only this time, instead of leaving a F4 Mumak to fend for itself, we've "left" the War Leader, who can handle most threats on his own. A War Leader in one spot, and thirteen F4 cavalry with war spears and a 6" banner in another spot, will put a lot of pressure on enemy armies.

Alternatively, if we thought one 3" banner was good enough (not sure why we'd think that, but okay), and if we wanted troops with more "punch" (that part I understand), we could go this route instead (at the cost of a couple of models):

 800/800, 25 Models (Breaks at 13 casualties, Quartered at 19 casualties)

The Mumak War Leader (Army Leader)

• x11 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows [Howdah]
• x1 Haradrim Warrior with Poisoned Bow and Banner [Howdah]
• x4 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears 

Mahud King on War Camel with Shield and War Spear

• x8 Mahud Raiders with War Spears 
• x3 Mahud Raiders with War Spears and Blow Pipes 

I've stayed away from taking Mahud in our other lists, mostly because they're really expensive, so stacking them on top of our already steep legion tax means our model counts are really low (as you'll see here). But Mahud Raiders are really powerful (and cool), so I figured I'd lay out how it looks and let you decide for yourself. 

No 6" banner hurts us, especially since the Camels are just F3. But the Mahud King's individual damage output is higher than Suladan's (S5 with 3 Attacks, vs. just S4 on Suladan), and much higher if he gets to charge (Impaler, plus effective S7 on the charge with S5 plus his War Spear). Plus we still have a second Heroic Strike for that free Heroic Combat play from the War Leader, if we can kill the enemy army leader (and let's face it--as long as the Mahud King doesn't botch the strike, there's not much out there that can withstand him and the Mumak War Leader in combat).

The dream scenario, of course, is to get the War Leader, the Mahud King, and a couple of other Mahud Raiders into the enemy army leader. Depending on what you're facing (and how many models they're fielding), this is probably a very late game scenario (especially since you don't have Compel to bring an enemy out to play against your War Leader). But if you get very lucky with Trample and then Impaler, it could happen earlier. And if you do get it to fire, you could be looking at another 20+ kills off of the subsequent moves and combats, which, is not just "nuts": it's devastation on a scale hitherto unknown.

Lastly, similar to what I did when we looked at The Black Gate Opens legion, I thought I'd build out a list that has bulkier numbers, just to see what it looks like. Here's the result for 800 that I thought was most competitive:

 800/800, 40 Models (Breaks at 20 casualties, Quartered at 19 casualties)

The Mumak War Leader (Army Leader)

• x11 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows [Howdah]
• x1 Haradrim Warrior with Poisoned Bow and Banner [Howdah]
• x3 Serpent Riders with Poisoned War Spears 

Haradrim Chieftain with War Spear

• x4 Haradrim Warriors
• x3 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Spears 
• x1 Haradrim Warrior with Poisoned Bow
• x3 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows and Poisoned Spears 

Haradrim Taskmaster

• x4 Haradrim Warriors
• x4 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Spears 
• x3 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows and Poisoned Spears 

Technically, one could argue this list is "competitive." You do have the War Leader, plus two additional heroes. Six Might total is low, but at least with the Taskmaster there's a decent chance you could get some free Heroic Moves or Marches to supplement your store. Three cavalry models is low (no two ways about it), but at least we have something for Reconnoitre or to capture far-flung objectives if the Scenario requires it. We also still have a banner: I've kept it tucked on the Howdah (because I'm a chicken), but if you're braver than I, you could swap the random Warrior with bow in the Chieftain's warband for the one in the howdah with the banner, which would give your infantry block a banner.

The "winner" here is that we've pushed our model count to 40, which is squarely in the "average" range at 800 points, with what I'd consider a well-above-average army leader. The rest of the army is... well, pretty average, except for the number of bows (which, at 19, is actually pretty good--though of course it'd be better with the Betrayer). That's the key to this kind of an army: it's best served if we can force the enemy to come to us, and with 19 bows (plus a a friendly model parked in front of our Mumak to prevent it from running off before we're ready), we can probably do that.

That said, the army's performance is once again going to come down to how well the Mumak War Leader performs (or doesn't). Only now, he has an enormous infantry block to maneuver around (we hope), and if that block evaporates (because, you know, it's Defense 4...) the army could break and the game could end without the enemy having to deal with the Leader. Which is not exactly ideal.

Okay, okay... one more, just for funzies...

800/800, 17 Models (Breaks at 9 casualties, Quartered at 13 casualties)

The Mumak War Leader (Army Leader)

• x3 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows [Howdah]
• x1 Haradrim Warrior with Poisoned Bow and Banner [Howdah]
• x1 Haradrim Raider with Poisoned Bow

War Mumak of Harad with Repelling Lines

• x2 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows [Howdah]
• x6 Haradrim Warriors [Howdah]

This is in case you wanted to go all-in on a very small footprint (or, if you prefer, just two very large footprints). It runs exactly the way you think it does, and has exactly the same strengths and weaknesses you think it will. There is a sneaky Haradrim Raider with bow for capturing a single objective (okay, "holding"... probably not "capturing"), but other than that, everyone's on a howdah (including that sneaky, sneaky banner for VPs and rerolls!). 

The only other "trick" that's different from what we've already talked about is that you do have the ability to spread your Mumaks out, and then call two Heroic Moves far enough apart that only one Mumak can be charged with a single enemy heroic moves (that pesky thing about models needing to end their movement within 6" of the hero who called the Heroic Move). There's a turn-limit on that ability (it lasts until your heroes are out of Might), but hey--if you want to guarantee you get to Trample, this is the way to do it!

Tiberius: I've been chiming in this entire series with 500pt lists and see no reason to stop that now! While I looked at running Suladan and a War Mumak with rappelling lines, I could only get 5 Serpent Riders and 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows. So instead, I looked at the Mumak Warleader . . . and found I could get a good batch of warriors and a banner at 500 pts. While Rythbyrt feels like this isn't a good idea (it probably isn't), you can choose who begins in the howdah based on the scenario - and at 500pts, dealing with that Mumak will be dreadfully difficult:

500/500, 13 Models (Breaks at 7 casualties, Quartered at 10 casualties)

The Mumak War Leader (Army Leader)

• x5 Haradrim Warriors with Poisoned Bows [Howdah]
• x1 Haradrim Warrior with Poisoned Bow and Banner [Howdah]
• x3 Haradrim Warriors with Spears [Howdah/Ground]
• x2 Haradrim Warriors [Howdah/Ground]

Army Summary

Tiberius: In our next post, we'll be covering the last Legion that's been released to date: the Rangers of Ithilien. Originally released in Gondor at War, this Legion saw a huge revamp with the Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook and has caused quite the stir in the community. Is it broken? Should you take Frodo and Sam? What about Smeagol? And can you run this Legion for fun? Find out next time - happy hobbying!