The New Age Is Begun: The Harad Army List

Good morning gamers,

I don't think there are too many army lists that, after the release of the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, have as few profiles as the Harad army list. We looked at the Depths of Moria last time and that list was incredibly constrained, but at least the Balrog was doing a lot to help that list compete with its limited bench. Today, we're looking a list that has two ways to play - and honestly, I'm not sure either are bad (though one is DEFINITELY going to be board-dependent for its ability to be competitive). Let's dive in and see what's up in the southlands!

Harad: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

As was mentioned in the First Impressions article for Harad (and Umbar - Part II of that series will be coming out either late this year or early next year), I mentioned that there were basically no profiles in this army list: the Mumak War Leader, normal Mumaks, Haradrim Chieftains, and Haradrim Warriors. The addition of the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement have grown our options slightly - Haradrim Taskmasters and Haradrim Raiders are also available - but by and large, you can summarize this list simply: you get the basic guys, the command blister, and the Mumaks. That's it.

If you want expanded options for Harad, the Legions of Mordor should be your next stop (more on them next week) - which not only gives you more Harad units to play with, but will also give you a host of Mordor and Easterling units to pick from as well (supplementing Harad's low Defense stat and slotting them into the weak archery slots that both Mordor and Easterling armies have). It's a match made in heaven - but that's enough thunder-stealing for now. :) You can also look at several other alliance options for Harad in the Grand Army of the South (which is now a Corsair/Easterling/Harad alliance instead of what it used to be) or the Umbar army list (for some spicy Harad/Corsair alliance shenanigans). Whatever your preferred Haradrim flavor is, there's probably a Harad list for you now - but today, we're focusing on what basically was the Grand Army of the South LL of yester-year.

Army List Bonuses

Last edition, the Serpent Horde army bonus gave the Haradrim a 50% bow limit and Haradrim Warriors/Raiders "Poisoned Weapons" so all of their weapons got to reroll 1s To Wound instead of just their bows. Whether it was their daggers, weapon-swapped hand weapons, spears/war spears, or bows, they were rerolling 1s - which isn't great at the micro-level, but in aggregate, it was quite strong. The list has basically retained both of these rules, but now all friendly models with Poisoned Attacks (bow) get Poisoned Attacks on everything - so if all of your Haradrim Raiders have bows, then they'll have poisoned war spears as well. If your Haradrim Chieftains have bows, they'll have poisoned melee weapons too. If your Haradrim Warriors have poisoned bows, they'll have poisoned hand weapons. BUT your Haradrim Raiders/Chieftains/Warriors without bows will all be fighting normally. Oh well.

Mumaks in this list picked up two special rules - they have Harbinger of Evil (12") like they had in the Grand Army of the South army list (and which the Grand Army of the South does not have now . . . that list is very, very different now). Additionally, any Mumak commanders (including the Mumak War Leader) may declare a Heroic Combat for free once per game, which allows the Mumak to execute the Heroic Combat (though there's no pivoting if the Mumak wins). While a free heroic action once per game may not normally tip the scales, this does give the Mumaks some tactical options to deal with being pinned down - more on that later in the tactical section.

Profile Adjustments

Most of these profiles have remained unchanged - but for the sake of pedantic-ness, here's the changes that have occurred for each of the profiles:

• The Mumak War Leader is still a hefty 400pts, can still deploy models outside of his Howdah, and still has the ability to cancel the first Heroic Move that an enemy hero declares within 12" of him on a 4+. He still has Heroic Strike, but he does not have the special rule in this army list that allows him to declare a Heroic Strike while fighting the enemy General on behalf of his Mumak that he had in the Grand Army of the South legendary legion, so he's not going to declare any Strikes until he's been dismounted . . . so let's functionally assume that he won't be using it, okay? His Mumak is the same as it was, with the obvious exception that it has Dominant (10), grants a 6" banner radius for Awesome Presence, and needs to be charged by a cumulative enemy Strength of 10 in order to not Trample people. With Sigils of Defiance, Tusk Weapons, and Tough Hide in tow (but alas, no rappelling lines), he's still a force to be reckoned with . . . though everyone who starts in his Howdah will be staying there until the Mumak dies.
• War Mumaks of Harad underwent similarly small changes - they also got Dominant (10) and a larger range on Awesome Presence (6" banner). Beyond that, they're exactly as they were before . . . but are only 250pts base, which is super nice when you're trying to run two of these!
• Haradrim Chieftains got a little more expensive than they used to be (50pts base now instead of 45pts) and they lost their option for a horse and their war spears got downgrade to standard spears . . . which means they are solidly back-rank people, as they always should have been. They're very lean and efficient for their price.
• By contrast, Haradrim Taskmasters dropped by 5pts (to 45pts base) and lost 1 Defense point (D4 now, despite having armor?). They still provide 1 Might base, but can also let you get Heroic Moves/Marches/Shoots for free - all three of which you might situationally do in this list. If he's within 6" of the actual Haradrim Commander on the Mumak (doubtful), this can affect your Mumak commanders too (it's much easier to pull off if you've taken a Mahud Commander on the fork of the howdah or the Mumak War Leader).
• Haradrim Warriors are still the same base units as Warriors of Rohan - and this gives them average stats but with improved shooting abilities thanks to having Poison instead of the option to use throwing spears as standard spears (which two-thirds of your Rohan units won't be able to benefit from anyway). With the option for a 25pt banner and a 25pt war horn (both of which are good investments at certain points levels/list builds), you can run these guys for 7pts each or 31pts each and they are BARGAINS (if you want cheap spears, cheap bows, cheap banners, or cheap war horns)!
• Haradrim Raiders are unchanged as well - they cost 5pts more than a Haradrim Warrior and come with a horse. They also have the option to take a war spear (you might take this option), a war spear and bow (you definitely want to take this option if you have the points for it), or a bow only (don't take this option - find the extra point for the war spear). These guys are cheap skirmish cavalry and if you follow the 2-4-8 principle for fighting with a lower Fight Value, these guys can absolutely WRECK units that are caught on far-flung objectives or that are capping off your opponent's battle lines.

All in all, not a lot of changes - but with a lot of profiles missing, let's see how this has affected the strengths and weaknesses of the Harad list.

Harad: Strengths and Weaknesses

The loss of the specialty Serpent Horde units - most notably Serpent Guards/Serpent Riders and Suladan - is definitely felt. While it wasn't hard to get F4 spearmen/lancers and a 6" banner into basically any Harad list, this list in particular is going to lack all of those options and will be locked into being F3/S3. As a result, you need to focus on getting either large numbers or War Beasts into your list to be a threat to your opponent. When I say "war beasts," I do mean that in the plural sense - you want to either have 30+ models on the board or 2 models on the board (with more on their backs). Both strategies are definitely viable and will force your opponent to play differently: either they have to tackle a horde army that can skirmish a bit with a lot of bows to soften up the enemy OR they can bowl forward with monstrous creatures that can deal damage without having to fight. Either way, the prospect can be really, really tough for your opponent.

The 50% bow limit should be exploited at all costs - you always want 50% of your warriors carrying bows (rounding up, so if you have 7 warriors, that's 4 with bows and 3 with spears), not only because this will probably give you a shooting advantage, but also because taking the poisoned bow also grants you poison on all of your other weapons (hand weapons for infantry and hand weapons AND war spears for cavalry). Since heroes don't count towards your bow limit, get as many Haradrim Chieftains as you can if you're not taking war beasts and give them bows so they can help you with the shooting war and get poison on their hand weapon and spear (Mumak commanders won't get this poison boost . . . Mumak commanders don't need this poison boost).

War Beasts got better in this edition of the game, but whether you take them or not is HEAVILY dependent on both the meta you expect to face and the boards you expect to play on. War Beasts are super powerful, but with a limited footprint on the board, you should know going into the game that you can't be everywhere at the same time. I would never field just one Mumak - too easy to avoid - and fielding two will cost you 500pts base - but you definitely want to have infantry in the howdahs and unless you plan to have a ground contingent (led by a Chieftain, let's say), you will want to have Rappelling Lines on your Mumaks (or choose to put your melee troops outside the howdah if you took the Mumak War Leader). However you choose to do it, taking even a single Mumak (but again, take two) will crush your chances of having a truly terrifying model count - and with that, a truly terrifying bow count. Yes, you can get some bows in your howdahs . . . but they're really not the main event and their best usage will be to lay down fire on units that the Mumaks are unlikely to reach (and that you really need to kill). If you own multiple Mumaks, don't be afraid to run them - but please don't run one and try to get a decent-sized army at the same time (this isn't the list for that).

Finally, if you have the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, don't sleep on the Haradrim Raiders in this list. If you've chosen the horde approach to building this list, they give you excellent speed and some nice killing power if you can get isolated match-ups. I would also take bows on as many of them as you can - but even without the poison reroll, Haradrim Raiders with war spears are plenty dangerous for 12pts each and come in a bit under the cost of Serpent Riders and "only" lack the F4 of those guys.

Let's see how this plays into the strategies for using this list . . .

Harad: Strategies for the Tabletop

If you're not taking the Mumaks, you want to have a banner at any points level and probably a war horn starting around 500pts. While these are usually luxury items, all horde armies sacrifice something to get the cost of their units down - and in this case, Haradrim Warriors keep themselves at average Fight Value (3), average Strength (3), average Defense (4), and average Courage (7+) in order to be 6pts each (+1pt for the mandatory spear or bow, +25pts for the otherwise-mandatory banner/war horn). While F3 was certainly "average" in the last edition, a LOT of factions got access to F4 on their "core" troops - so F3 is actually a bit below average. To get around average Fight Value, you need to roll more dice . . . which means we definitely want a banner.

With Courage 7+, we "should" be fine at passing Courage tests . . . and by this, I mean, we should expect to pass 3-out-of-5 Courage tests on a good day and 2-out-of-5 Courage tests if there's some kind of debuff in play. This . . . isn't great. War horns not only grant Dominant (2) to the holder (situationally quite useful), but they also boost everyone within 24" with a +1 modifier to their Courage test rolls, which means you should expect to pass almost 3-out-of-4 Courage tests on a good day and 3-out-of-5 when a debuff is present - that's MUCH better (and really only costs us two cavalry model to get it). Losing 2 cavalry models (or 3-4 infantry models) is not great when you've only got 300pts or so to work with. If we assume that each warband is going to cost you 55pts for a Haradrim Chieftain with bow and 84pts for 12 Haradrim warriors with either bows or spears, a banner-less, war-horn-less, cavalry-less warband is nearly 140pts. Two of these warbands and a banner will be right at 300pts . . . and we don't want to go under 25 models with F3/D4 just to get a war horn. With 450pts getting us three full warbands (including some cavalry), we can boost our list up to 500pts by getting a war horn and a stronger cavalry contingent. We'll see this more in the lists below - but suffice it to say that we need to be able to tie down monsters that we can't shoot and charge battle lines that have Terror (possibly backed by Harbinger of Evil) . . . so once you hit 500pts, get a banner and a war horn.

If you're running a horde list, be sure to have your bows in the front rank and your spears in the back rank. This should go without saying (now that you can't take dagger-only Haradrim - boy I miss those guys this edition), but you want your spears to be supporting once the fighting starts - and putting your bows in the front rank will subject them to some danger, but will also give your bows maximum visibility. You can also have your banner touching two of your spearmen so you have some redundancy on who can pick up the banner should its bearer be killed. You get cheap battle lines, so there might be a world where you consider getting a second banner, but I think if you're playing at higher points levels, you're better served with a different list that has access to Haradrim OR you're taking multiple Mumaks.

I'd also recommend spreading out a bit to get good firing lanes at first and then drifting together as your opponent closes with you. There may be some foes who think they can outshoot you - and admittedly, there probably are some that can - but most foes will need to charge you and having your units split up might help to split up your opponent a bit (or expose the flanks of enemy formations). Using your bows to harass the enemy as they approach usually requires getting around terrain - and splitting up will make it harder to avoid your bows. When you engage, however, you want your army to fight together - you simply don't have the stats to win a dedicated brawl against most shieldwalls! Start split (a bit), converge together as the fighting nears, then strike together - keeping in mind Centaur's first maxim for SBG: archers are swordsmen.

Finally, if you're running the spam approach to this list, your heroes are slightly better combatants than your warriors . . . so use your Might for Heroic Moves and Heroic Marches and NOT for Heroic Combats (you're not good enough, okay?). Being F4 instead of F3 isn't going to do much for you if your opponent is F4 - and it'll do absolutely nothing if your opponent is F5 or higher. Having your horde in the position it wants to be in is far more important - so focus on doing that instead of fighting.

If you're running the Mumak approach, I recommend keeping your Mumaks together. Yes, there's a risk that one might stampede into the other, but you want your Mumaks to keep enemies off of each other - and that means being at least kind of close to each other (at the very least so units can rappel off one Mumak to get to the other one). In some scenarios, you'll have to split up - but in other scenarios, you won't have to - and when that happens, make sure your Mumaks (like ducks) fly together.

If you're running standard Mumaks, strongly consider getting Rappelling Lines - this is the cheapest upgrade you can get and it allows your Haradrim to pull enemy models off of the Mumaks they're riding on. Yes, there's a chance your Haradrim fall to their deaths, but remember that if there isn't a cumulative Strength of 10 tying down a Mumak, it can move - and charging into a model that's charged a Mumak will necessarily pair off that model into fighting the Warrior instead. These guys are safe in the howdah and if they have spears, they're LITERALLY doing nothing for you except for maybe standing next to your banner to pick it up should a stray arrow kill the banner bearer. Use them to keep your Mumaks going!

Speaking of banners, when you have the points available, get a banner, optionally a war horn, and some mix of Tusk Weapons and Sigils of Defiance for your generic Mumaks. The Mumak War Leader starts with both of these but makes an excellent caddy for a banner if you take him. If you don't, be sure to put both the banner and the war horn (if you took it) on the army General's Mumak - the Dominant (3) from the General, the Dominant (10) from the Mumak, and the Dominant (2) from the War Horn are all on separate models, so if you're counting models near an objective or models that pass over the enemy board edge . . . they'll all count independently. That's pretty cool. Keep the banner on the General's Mumak in case it's worth VPs - and because if you need to get it onto the ground to support a skirmish, it's good if it's helping out near your General.

Finally, have fun with any Mumak list - I don't usually say this kind of thing (there are lots of fun lists in SBG), but seriously, if you're playing with Mumaks there are going to be times where the terrain conspires against you or that you have a HUGE advantage over your opponent. Whatever the winds of fate bring your way, just enjoy it - you're bringing Mumaks to the table, after all, and that's super, super fun!

On that note, list time!

Sample Lists

At 500pts, you can get three full warbands of guys if you utilize the Haradrim Taskmaster and Haradrim Raiders that were added to the list in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement. With 8 cavalry, a banner, and a war horn present, you COULD push this list to just barely 40 models if you stuck to just what's in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and went all Chieftains/Warriors (4 Chieftains with bows, 18 Haradrim Warriors with bows, 17 Haradrim Warriors with spears, 1 Haradrim Warrior with banner). Personally, I think this list is better - but to each his own:

If you don't like the Taskmaster in the list, you can downgrade 2 Haradrim Raiders with war spears (no bows) into Haradrim Warriors with spears and upgrade the Taskmaster to a Chieftain with bow - dealer's choice on that one.

The lowest I'd run a double-Mumak list is 600pts, which would get you 2 War Mumaks of Harad with Rappelling Lines and 11 Haradrim Warriors (5 spears, 6 bows). You get a much better overall list, however, if you run it at 650pts, where you can bulk out your numbers a little and add a banner guy:

I know that this is a bit ridiculous, but since you have to tie down a S10 Mumak with 3-5 models to keep it from charging - and THESE Mumaks get a free Heroic Combat once per game if you try to just tie them up - I don't know what actually threatens them at this points level? If they're able to walk onto an objective and camp there, I think they stand a good chance of winning a lot of scenarios - and good luck trying to beat them In Recon - the list counts as 39 models escaping if both Mumaks just walk off the board!

At 650pts, a non-Mumak list can sport a TON of guys (I hit the full 52 models with 10 cavalry) and presents a very impressive 27 bow-armed models - all of whom have poison on all of their weapons:

Once again, you could downgrade 2 cavalry into spearmen if you wanted 4 Chieftains instead of 3 Chieftains and a Taskmaster - your choice. This list sports pretty big numbers and might benefit from a second banner if you wanted to downgrade some cavalry to get that too.

As you scale up to 800pts, however, your Mumaks can take additional upgrades to make them tougher (Sigils and Tusk Weapons) and can fill out their howdahs as well (you can also pass on a Sigils/Tusks upgrade and take a war horn instead of a spear on someone - which is actually quite useful in this list, as it can give the Leader Mumak Dominant (10) + Dominant (3) + Dominant (2) where it's camped if all three can be in range of whatever objective you're trying to hold):

The model count is low for 800pts, I grant that - but also, this is a tough list to fight and it's surprisingly fast! I'm not going to present a horde list at this points level - like I said in the strategies section above, I think you want to look into the Serpent Horde, the Legions of Mordor, or even the new Umbar list (the options you get are far better than what you have here).

Conclusion

With that, we're done with the best Mumak list in the game (perhaps excluding the Legions of Mordor list - I don't know if Mumaks really work in that one)! If you've played with the Mumaks in this edition, let us know in the comments below how they've worked out for you! Until next time, happy hobbying!