Nemesis: How to Fight Against Mumakil

Good morning gamers,

One of the great things about collecting the models I need for the Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook is that I "need" to buy not one but TWO Mumaks. After having gotten a second-hand Mumak from Centaur (a kingly gift, indeed), I decided to play around with them this year. Our gaming group has actually had a Mumak or two in the mix for a while, but they rarely show up on the table - and the fear of them showing up is often enough to get into the heads of even the most veteran players. So what can you do against such beasts if you see them (especially if there's more than one of them on the table)? Well, these things might not be viewed as competitive options, but they certainly do pose problems to unprepared players - so join us today as we walk through why these things can be deadly (and how to beat them). Let's dig in!

What Makes Mumaks So Hated?

For a refresher on what Mumaks do, you should check out our article from earlier this year on how War Beasts work - it was informative for me to write and hopefully will be informative for you to read. It's no secret - the most dangerous thing about a Mumak is that it Tramples. The Trample rule for Mumaks in particular is nasty - at least three Strength 9 hits to everyone it comes into contact with! If you pay 20pts for the Tusk Weapon upgrade (or have the Mumak War Leader, who begins with the Tusk Weapons upgrade), you increase this to four Strength 9 hits - which may seem like overkill, but it's surprising just how many times not getting that elusive 3+ crops up. 

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Since both the rider and the mount take these hits if it's a cavalry model, it's not hard for most heroes in the game to be killed or very much crippled after a Mumak runs into them. There are some monsters who are less worried about being outright killed (like Sauron, the Balrog, or Smaug), but even THESE guys don't want to be battered by a Mumak over multiple turns - and if it's the Mumak War Leader doing the trampling in the Grand Army of the South Legion, he's quite likely against these specific monsters to be able to call a free Heroic Strike . . . that may not be a guarantee of tying/beating their Fight Values, but it's certainly possible for that Mumak to be higher than F5.

The second complicating factor of Mumaks is that the Mumak itself and its howdah are listed as Siege Targets. Great Beasts of Gorgoroth have been clarified to be battlefield targets, so any siege weapon that can get a direct hit on them and scores a single wound will kill it in one go - OUCH! Mumaks . . . not so much. A 10-wound Mumak will require 10 wounds in order for it to die (for most siege engines this is an expected 22.5-60 turns, depending on the siege weapon being used - the Minas Tirith Bolt Thrower is the only one that can do it in less than 10 turns, but it also has the shortest possible range) - most siege engines aren't going to have that kind of time on their hands. While siege targets aren't harder for normal bows to wound, any D7-8 target (depending on whether the Mumak has the Tough Hide upgrade or not) is going to be hard to bring down with shooting - and if it's good shooting, you can't target the darn thing once it's Engaged with a friendly unit.

On top of all this (literally) is a howdah full of models - up to 12 warriors and a driver, most of which are usually archers. If you took the Rocks upgrade, your short-range shooting (usually at models that are in base contact with the Mumak or are near the Mumak) can be targeted by S6 hits - that's pretty crazy! Whether they're pelting you with large rocks, bows, or blowpipes, the Howdah gives the Mumak the ability to reach out and hit models that are trying to dodge the Mumak's advance - and with a D9 in-the-way for any model in the Howdah all the time (regardless of whether line of sight is blocked), taking out these archers is often very, very hard.

If the Mumak has the Rappelling Lines upgrade, you can also stick melee units in there (who can benefit greatly from the Rocks upgrade too, since they have no shooting attack of their own), with the intent of having them swing out of the Howdah onto the enemy models waiting below - this is my favorite of the Mumak upgrades and is sadly missing from the Mumak War Leader. Whether it's to set up a screen against an impending charge, to hedge off a fight between a Mumak and a vulnerable hero, or to pull models out of combat with an already-charged Mumak, the Rappelling Lines upgrade can really change the shape of the battle - and keeps these guys from suffering falling damage should the Mumak die. Furthermore, because of the Awesome Presence rule, anyone who jumps out of the Mumak and fights near the Mumak will get a banner-like reroll to their fight - perfect for lowering the odds of getting a bad roll!

While normal War Mumaks of Harad (or Far Harad) are great and all, the Mumak War Leader provides some very interesting boosts - especially in the Grand Army of the South Legendary Legion. We've already mentioned that he gets free Heroic Actions when engaged with the enemy army leader in the Legion and that he starts with the Tusk Weapons upgrade, but his Mumak is F5 and starts with the Tough Hides upgrade (D8 Mumak) and the Sigils of Defiance upgrade (a 20-point upgrade that gives the Mumak and everyone in the Howdah Resistant to Magic and a 6+ save against wounds they suffer). Thanks to his High King of the Mahud special rule, he has a 12" Stand Fast and can deploy models outside of his Howdah if he wants (valuable on a model who can take 18 people in his warband - and super valuable since you can choose at the start of the game how many models you want to stay in the Howdah). His Imposing Presence special rule also allows him to cancel the first Heroic Move called by an enemy hero within 12" of himself (which, I'll tell you from experience, is CRAZY big, since it's measured from the Mumak's base instead of his own) - perfect for making those counter-charges oh-so-costly.

Perhaps this goes without saying, but Mumaks also cause Terror - and in the Grand Army of the South Legion, Mumaks pick up the Harbinger of Evil special rule (-1 Courage to all enemy models within 12" of them), which makes charging into them without auto-passing-Courage-test gimmicks just a little bit harder. For some armies (like Elves, the Dead of Dunharrow, or Bodyguard-heavy lists), this won't make a big difference, if any - but against other lists, this will be SO frustrating! If you've never tried playing against a Harbinger-Angmar list with C2 armies . . . yeah, it's a pain.

Finally, and what might actually be the hardest thing about fighting Mumaks, is that they can pivot on the center of their oval base before they move. For most models in MESBG, circular bases are a thing - if you want to stay outside of charge range of the Balrog or Gulavhar, you just have to measure 0.5" more than their max movement and "you're good." Now these two models might have tricks for bringing you closer to them so they can still fight you, but if you can neutralize those, then you're safe. This same strategy works if you measure from the FRONT of a Mumak's base, but if you happen to be on one of its sides, the Mumak can actually gain an extra 1-2" of movement just by turning. Once it turns, it has to walk straight ahead, but there's no complicated movement pattern like you see with chariots for these beasts - and if you just measure 8.5" away from the side and think you're secure . . . you're not. What's more, Mumaks can declared Heroic Marches in order to increase their movement and while models are normally forbidden from charging while under the effects of a Heroic March, War Beasts don't count as charging when they perform their move - so they can, in fact, get +3" of movement from a March and still walk all over people . . . yikes.

So what's the answer? How does one keep these nasty models from crushing your armies? Well, there are a few different tricks you can employ - let's look at them now . . .

How Do You Fight Back Against Mumaks?

The most universal strategy for dealing with Mumaks is to not give them good options for charging - you spread out. I talked about this in a recent formations post - if you can present bad options for a Mumak to charge, then they'll have to settle for doing less damage than their 300+ points justifies. Remember, with 6+ points invested in each model in their howdah and 275+ points invested in the Mumak itself (a usual build for the Mumaks I like is no less than 285 once you get the Rappelling Lines, but I usually jump for the Tusk Weapons and/or the Sigils of Defiance as well - 305-325pts is a much better baseline), if you're giving them the ability to charge 30-35pts worth of warriors . . . yeah, those bows had better be working for them. If stomping over that group of warriors places them in danger of being counter-charged by other groups of warriors (who are at least F4 - ideally F5-6), the Mumak could be taking damage back (especially if it's just D7).

A slightly more risky option is to go for a one-turn punch, where you have heroes who can charge the Mumak once it commits to stomping a few guys, call Heroic Strengths to get to wounding the beast on a 5+ or better, and then try to deal tons of wounds to the thing in a single round. Since Mumaks have to check for stampeding every time they suffer a wound, if you can get 5-6 wounds in on a single round, have a decent chance of burning through the Might/Will of the driver (who can spend those on behalf of his Mumak's Stampede checks) and potentially causing the Mumak to move where you want it to go next turn . . . to including stomping over any enemy units that are nearby.

The alternate option is to use a "stall-out" method where a big hero who is not the army leader and is unlikely to die (or unable to die) gets right in the path of the Mumak, challenging it to speed-bump into him (and likely lose the ensuing duel if the hero is F6+) or walk somewhere else. This option is often hard for man-sized models to pull off - and has already been mentioned, many big monsters don't really want to suffer a bunch of wounds - but if you have a bunch of tough heroes in your list (Dwarf lists come to mind), you CAN speed-bump for a turn or two with very little investment on your part - and you might even be able to slay the Mumak if you can get some help in the fight.

The next option is to "cheat" with magical powers - specifically by casting Immobilize and Transfix on the driver. Because Immobilizing the driver will keep the Mumak from moving, you can deal with most of the pain of a Mumak with the most common of magical powers (and most of the models who have it cast easily on a 3+ or a 2+). Since magical powers only require line-of-sight to part of the model, just being able to see the head of the target is enough to make them vulnerable to you. Yes, you'll have to get within 12" (sometimes 18") of the driver base-to-base (so closer than 12" to the Mumak), but if you cast the spell on a 4-high or a 5-high, a basic Haradrim Commander has a less-than-likely chance of resisting the spell (even if he has Resistant to Magic from the Sigils of Defiance). If your caster has lots of Will and a mount, it's not hard to buzz in, sting the driver, and buzz away again.

It was pointed out in the comments that you can actually move a War Beast against its will by using Compel/Command or an Eldemar Madrigal/A Fell Light Is In Them special rule if you target the driver, which would allow you to trample models of your choosing . . . that's pretty cool . . .

Another unconventional (and niche) way of dealing with a Mumak is to destroy the howdah. Since the initial driver's courage is usually pretty good (C4/1 Will for a Haradrim Commander, C5/2 Will for a Mahud Beastmaster, or C6/2 Will for the Mumak War Leader), getting a Mumak to panic and Stampede while the hero is still in control is actually quite hard. If the driver were to be killed (or theoretically to dismount with Rappelling Lines for Haradrim Commanders/Mahud Beastmasters), someone else in the howdah can just take over and could have a slightly better Courage value for the Mumak to borrow than its own (C3 for Serpent Horde warriors, C2 for Far Harad units). But if the Howdah is destroyed (a D9/5 Wound siege target is a tall order for anyone), then the Mumak has to test for its Courage on its normal Courage 2 (or C1 if you have a courage penalty effect, like Harbinger of Evil). Beating D9 with most bow-like weapons will be hard, but if you have a siege engine or two, it might be easier to target the howdah instead of the Mumak itself. Without a driver, the Mumak also has to test every turn for its Courage, which could mean that dealing with a 5-wound howdah takes care of a 10-wound unit . . . just something to think about.

Finally, there are a handful of non-siege-engine models in the game with insta-kill rules - and if the Mumak player didn't buy the Sigils of Defiance upgrade, then a single wound from an insta-kill model (that isn't a siege engine) will kill it. This has long been a known strategy for dealing with Mumaks - which made the clarification on Sigils of Defiance affecting the Mumak such a big point in a previous FAQ. While Drain Soul is the ultimate insta-kill rule (since the attacking model will wound the Mumak on its Courage stat - and both of the models with this rule have/can have the Harbinger of Evil special rule), don't underestimate the power of a Morgul Blade (which is surprisingly ubiquitous for the Forces of Evil). Good may not have access to Morgul Blades, but they've got access to a lot of the other stuff we've talked about.

Okay, with all this under our belts, let's look at some models that you can use to fight against Mumaks on the board!

Tiberius's Top 5 Models To Counter Mumaks

We'll begin with our honorable and dishonorable mentions - the first of which is going to look very familiar . . .

Honorable Mention: Basically any Dwarf hero with 2+ Fate or 3 Wounds (and Might to spare)

Last time, when we looked at Legolas, I had "basically any Dwarf hero" as the honorable mention - and it's true here too. In general, Dwarf heroes aren't fast (so they can't get away from a Mumak easily), but it's also generally true that a Mumak is going to kill a Dwarf hero on a 4+ with its Trample hits - and if it's only rolling 3-4 dice (that can't be boosted with Might), the Mumak is likely to do 1-2 wounds to them, which isn't a guarantee if the Dwarf has Fate points left (and Might to boost them). While you can't always stop a Mumak from moving first (especially if it's the War Leader), you CAN limit how far it goes before it comes to a screeching halt - and once in combat, most of those Dwarf heroes are going to be F6 and will be beating the Fight Value of even the Royal War Mumak.

The caveat I must place here is that you don't want your army leader to be one of these speed-bumps. Not only are you likely to cough up a VP for getting wounded by this thing if your army leader is the one stalling it out, but the Mumak War Leader in the Grand Army of the South Legendary Legion might be able to call a free Heroic Strike in the Fight Phase (affecting the Fight Value of the Mumak) - just don't have him in the fight and let your other heroes take the hit (and hopefully give as much back as they took).

Dishonorable Mention: Other War Beasts

I didn't talk about this before, but it turns out that when a Mumak tramples into another war beast (or a piece of terrain) BOTH war beasts (or the war beast and the terrain piece) suffer 3 Strength 9 hits. This could very well be suicide for your war beast, but whichever war beast beats the other in combat is going to have an advantage (as it can smack down some wounds on the other guy without being hit back).

Not all war beasts are created equal - Great Beasts of Gorgoroth are much cheaper and not nearly as good as Mumaks - but regardless of what kind of war beast you are, you still deal 3 S9 hits to yourself and the enemy war beast . . . so if you can get 2 Great Beasts for the same cost as 1 enemy Mumak (or three Great Beasts for the same cost as a Mumak War Leader), you could deal some pretty serious wounds on the enemy's valuable piece . . .

This one plays dirty and basically says, "I won't use my war beast if it means I can keep you from using yours." It's risky and may not even work - but it can work, so it places here today. Okay, let's get into the real list . . .

Pick #5: High-Volume Archery with lots of Heroic Accuracy (or models that can call a lot of Heroic Moves)

Do you know what most of the good guys do in the movies to beat Mumaks? They shoot all the riders on top and then let the Mumaks go where they wanted to go. One of the greatest assets of a Mumak is that it can keep lots of models out of charging range of the enemy - and by shooting all those guys out of it, you can remove a lot of benefits of the Mumak (and protect your most valuable units from being shot at). While I'm generally not a fan of Heroic Accuracy (see my previous works), hitting a D4 Haradrim Warrior (or a D3 Watcher of Karna) who is behind a D9 howdah is definitely preferable for the vast majority of bows. As a result, a well-timed Heroic Accuracy that allows lots of bows to hit D3-4 models in a D9 howdah has value. If you're playing as Evil, however, access to Heroic Accuracy is pretty slim, so the Heroic Accuracy is very much optional if you're okay trying to take out the howdah too (more on this later).

If your list can't get shooting (or the shooting you get is bad - and may not have access to Heroic Accuracy if it's Evil), you can alternatively build lists that can call lots of Heroic Moves. Mumaks have very limited Might points for calling Heroic Moves - and only the Mumak War Leader can cancel enemy Heroic Moves (and even he should only get that off half the time). Eventually the Mumaks gonna be out of Might and if you can charge in with a F5 hero before he gets to go, chances are good you're going to not lose anyone to the Mumak for that round. If your opponent ever gets in that situation, his investment in the Mumak will plummet in value. This is a lot riskier than shooting, but basically every list can do this if they're willing to invest in it. Some lists have heroes who are great at this (Gamling in most Rohan lists, for example, or Aragorn with Anduril) and once they get it working, the Mumak is in trouble.

But just because you can shoot all the guys in the howdah (or a bunch of them) or charge the Mumak doesn't mean you're going to kill the Mumak - if you want to head-hunt the beast, Aragorn might be your man, but you might also want to look into . . .

Pick #4: Azog with the White Warg and the Stone Flail

Azog is a beast - and since Mumaks have the Hero keyword, Azog wounds them on 3s and with the +1To Wound from the Stone Flail, he will wound a D7 Mumak on 4s (see the comment below for why this isn't 3s). Most players don't take the Stone Flail, but since a Mumak can't get higher than F4/5 (unless Azog is your army leader and is squaring off against the Mumak War Leader in his Legion), Azog can use the Stone Flail (which reduces his FV to F6 AFTER resolving any Heroic Strikes) to turn any successful wounds he deals (3-4 expected wounds on the charge - I'd pay Might to boost any 2s into 3s) into D3 wounds each! After a single round of combat, Azog can cripple if not outright KILL a Mumak! If any wounds have been suffered to friends of Azog before Azog starts rolling . . . yeah, that's potentially a dead Mumak in a single turn!

He's also a hefty investment - 245pts when equipped with the Stone Flail, heavy armor, and riding the White Warg. Since he costs nearly as much as the Mumak itself (sans the crew in the howdah), if he gets rammed before he gets a chance to kill the Mumak, there's a good chance that in his attempt to kill a Mumak, Azog could fall himself. As a result, it might be better to rely on . . .

Pick #3: Two Volley-fire Siege Engines

Volley fire siege weapons are great because they don't have to worry about their buddies being in the way of the Mumak - but doubly so because they are great at taking down howdahs as well as Mumaks. Assuming the Mumak doesn't start in your grill, you probably have 2-3 turns to shoot at the guy before he gets within your minimum range (which is 12" for all volley fire siege engines). This works best, of course, if there are two siege engines firing, since you're likely to get 1-2 hits each turn (and without a scatter roll, you're quite likely to deal at least 1 wound each round, but quite possibly 2 wounds).

If you're looking at a Minas Tirith Trebuchet, you can easily include two in your army (see a previous post for a sample list at 700pts) - and you CAN run two Iron Hills Ballistae if you're okay with low numbers or just Captains (see a previous post for a sample list at 800pts). Mordor War Catapults and Catapult Trolls are a lot harder to get two siege weapons in a list, but Mordor War Catapults in Azog's Legion are pretty easy to slot in (see a previous post here) and getting 2 Catapult Trolls in an Azog's Legion list isn't hard either (sample list is available here, but also more on this later).

Non-volley-fire siege engines can kind of do this too, but you have to be very conscious about your firing lanes - spamming things like Dwarf Ballistas and Isengard Assault Ballistas isn't hard to do, but you don't want to be hitting your own guys . . . Now if you're not looking to run siege engines (either because your favorite lists don't have them or because you think they create a negative play experience), might I recommend you look into . . .

Pick #2: Immobilize/Transfix spell casters with unlimited/lots of Will (but especially Radagast the Brown without his Eagle and Saruman)

If you're willing to give up your army bonus, every faction CAN have an Immobilize or Transfix caster in it. For Good, this is easily done by allying in a wizard from the White Council or an Elf hero (like Lothlorien-Galadriel). For Evil, any Ringwraith, Saruman, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, or Sharkey can get an Immobilize/Transfix spell and a host of allied troops to fill out your numbers. Anyone can use this strategy - and in most cases, you'll have more Will at your disposal than the drivers of the Mumaks will have to resist the spells you cast. It would be best if your wizard was mounted so he can move into range, cast the spell, and then get out of range, but you DON'T want to take the Great Eagle mount for Radagast if this is your strategy (as he'll lose his Staff of Power and only have 6 Will for the entire game).

Chief among the Immobilize threats are Saruman (either version - his 18" Immobilize that's cast on a 2+ with a reroll is reliable on just his free Will point each turn) and Radagast (who doesn't have to be able to see the driver in order to cast against him), though Gandalf or the Shadow Lord are also incredibly dangerous (since they can pair Immobilize/Transfix with an anti-archery bubble). If you're tired of having your army stomped to death by a war beast or shot to death by a host of unreachable archers, these two guys are definitely worth looking into.

But with one or two exceptions, none of these guys are going to be able to KILL a Mumak. Sure, Gandalf might be able to hack through the hide of the Mumak eventually with Glamdring and you COULD kill a Mumak over time with a Ringwraith, it would be nice if there was a way to remove the Mumak from the board quickly - and ideally faster than Azog can. For this, we need one of the following models . . .

Pick #1: The King of the Dead, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, Smaug, or any model with a Morgul Blade

Every Mumak player knew these guys were going to be at the top of the list - with a single wound, these models can kill a Mumak dead. The most spammable of these options are Castellans of Dol Guldur, who can be allied with any Evil faction if you bring along a Nazgul of Dol Guldur and who, for 45pts each, can lead 6 troops and carry a Morgul blade - and on the turn you choose to wound with it, those 2 Attacks at S5 can insta-kill anything that suffers a single wound. Perfect!

While they can certainly be allied into lists or run in a pure Dark Powers of Dol Guldur list (Lord knows I've seen Rythbyrt throw these guys in with LOTS of things), you can also run them with the Necromancer of Dol Guldur in the Rise of the Necromancer Legendary Legion, where not only can you have Castellans that are good at killing Mumaks, but you can also have a F7/S6/2A Necromancer who has the equivalent of a Morgul blade every time he tries to wound! Since both Castellans and the Necromancer can use their copious amounts of Will as Fate points, a Mumak is incredibly unlikely to kill them with a trample, so unlike all the other units we've looked at so far, these guys aren't that worried about being rammed into (in fact, they kind of welcome it).

You can also insta-kill a Mumak with the King of the Dead, who has the added advantage of being able to wound against the Courage stat of the Mumak (C2 if you don't have your army bonus/the Return of the King Legion bonus, C1 if you do - but it's wounding on 3s either way). He also has the added disadvantage of only having 2 Wounds/3 Fate (which, when you're wounded on 4s, is still probably enough to survive one trample, but probably not two). If paired with Aragorn (either Strider in the Legion or Elessar in a historical alliance), you can also get the Might you need to get your Heroic Moves off (though they could be cancelled by the Mumak War Leader) and if the King of the Dead does happen to mess up his wounding roll, you've still got Anduril to help you carve off some wounds. Warriors of the Dead may not insta-kill a Mumak with their swords, but they will wound on 4s or 3s (depending on whether that army bonus/legion bonus is active), which is very reliable if you piled in the spear supports or charged in with additional guys.

Our last entry to talk about is probably the best model to kill Mumaks with - and it's Smaug. Smaug's Breathe Fire special rule doesn't require your target to be a battlefield target in order to automatically kill it - you just have to be able to make a shooting attack against it. S10 Set Ablaze hits are going to wound on 3s - and if you get it on a Mumak who left the Sigils of Defiance at home . . . well, that's one dead Mumak.

Sample Lists

For our lists today, I'm going to assume that you're preparing for an 800-point event and expect to see two Mumaks (because you really can't field a "good" list with two Mumaks at lower than 800pts - though I have tried). Our first list runs the double-Catapult-Troll idea - I tried to get Azog AND two Catapult Trolls in there, but 25 models just didn't seem big enough. So instead, I went for 40 models with 2 Gundabad Orc Captains, a Merc-Captain, and the two catapult guys - I decided to not make the Merc-Cap your army leader so you can hide him away in games like Fog of War and Assassination:

• Gundabad Orc Captain with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 5 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields
• 7 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields and spears
  
• Gundabad Orc Captain with shield
• 5 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields
• 6 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields and spears
  
• Goblin Mercenary Captain
• 12 Goblin Mercenary
• Catapult Troll
• Catapult Troll
  

800 points, 40 models, 2 catapults that hit on a 4+ rerollable, 27 D6+ models, no fast models but 6 Might for Heroic March, 6 Might

For the Forces of Good, I've built a Radagast-oriented list (very similar to the "soup list" I practiced with leading up to our THRO 2023 tournament), which is an Impossible Alliance between Radagast's Alliance and the Kingdom of Moria - Radagast gives you the Immobilize option for dealing with the Mumak, but you also have a King's Champion and a Dwarf King to stall-out Mumaks (and deal some damage in the ensuing fight). This is a 41-model list - and against anyone who isn't a Mumak, you're looking at a Dwarf Terror wall too!

• Balin the Dwarf, King of Moria
• 7 Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 6 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows
  
• Dwarf King with throwing axes
• 4 Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 4 Dwarf Rangers with bows
  
• 6 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes
  
• King's Champion
• 2 Heralds
• 6 Dwarf Warriors with shields
  
• 2 Dwarf Rangers with bows
  
• IMPOSSIBLE ALLY - Radagast's Alliance: Radagast the Brown with Sebastian [ARMY LEADER]

800 points, 41 models, 6 Dwarf bows hitting on a 4+ AND 6 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 1 throwing axe hitting on a 4+ AND 6 throwing axes hitting on a 3+, 28 D6+ models, no fast models but 2 Might for Heroic March, 10 Might

Our last list is a pure Dead of Dunharrow list, which features a staggering 43 models at 800 points - and lots of D8 speed-bumps to try to stall out Mumaks (and then deal some cheeky wounds if you can pile the models in). While I could have run the Return of the King Legion, I was struggling to get above 30 models since you can't have leaderless warbands of Warriors of the Dead in that list - and I just wasn't sure the model count would be high enough to survive a double-Mumak-charge:

• The King of the Dead [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 6 Warriors of the Dead with shields
• 5 Warriors of the Dead with shields and spears
• 1 Warrior of the Dead with shield, spear, and banner
  
• 1 Rider of the Dead (as Captain)
• 5 Warriors of the Dead with shields
• 4 Warriors of the Dead with shields and spears
• 1 Rider of the Dead (as Captain)
• 5 Warriors of the Dead with shields
• 4 Warriors of the Dead with shields and spears
• 1 Rider of the Dead (as Captain)
• 5 Warriors of the Dead with shields
• 4 Warriors of the Dead with shields and spears

800 points, 43 models, no shooting, 43 D6+ models, 3 cavalry and 1 Might for Heroic March, 1 Might

Conclusion

Mumaks may not be viewed as competitive, but from experience, they're fun to use (and honestly, they're not that hard to fight . . . which is probably why they're not viewed as competitive). Next time, we wrap up this series (for now) by talking about one of the nastiest heroes in the game: the Goblin King of Goblin-town. This guy's got it all - good offense, a surprisingly good defensive suite (despite how the numbers look), and he can be accompanied by a host of models (including a Ringbearer). Find out what all the fuss is about - and how to beat him - next time. Until then, happy hobbying!