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 (Editor's Note: I failed to add the Legacy profiles when I uploaded this page - it was written after the Armies of Middle-Earth dropped and before the Legacies document was provided. The profiles have been added now.)!

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.

First Impressions: Harad and Umbar, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Today we're combining the factions of Umbar and Harad from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement. When the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement arrives, we should have a lot more to talk about, but right now, we've got four profiles for each faction . . . that didn't seem like enough to justify two posts. As a result, we're lumping the "evil men who aren't Easterlings or Dunlendings or have big mouths" into one post today - but expect Parts 2 and 3 to come out when the new book hits the market.

Umbar Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

We're starting off with Umbar which . . . really need some updating. :) In a way, the Corsairs can still play the game they've always been able to play - spam a bunch of cheapish F4 guys. Each Corsair unit isn't "cheap" exactly, but when you factor in the sub-60pt cost for their Heroes of Fortitude, you can get a full warband of guys for just 158-163pts. Copy/paste that a few times and you've got a horde list (52 models at 650pts).

The Corsairs of Umbar are only available in one list - the Corsair Fleets - which I assume is because they never actually made it to the Pelennor. We'll see if they're integrated into the new "Army of the Red Eye" list from the Armies of Middle-Earth, but I'm only a little optimistic. Their faction also got paired down in this supplement to four models which are . . . possibly still competent.

Top 10 Ringwraith Profile Rankings - Centaur Edition

Hey Reader!

As I was looking at army lists for this year's TMAT Grand Tournament, I took some time to just look over the named wraith profiles again (as it's been a little while since I've looked at any beyond the Witch-King), and I realized that there are some that I really like, and some that I really, really don't like. So as I sat on my couch, and having not used wraiths nearly as much as the rest of the admins, I thought, "Why not: how about we rank these for the fun of it, and see how off we are from he real wraith players," :P

So here you go! I've named this "Centaur Edition" because the other admins may disagree (again: out of all the admins, by far I run these the least), but as a quick note before we begin, here's what I'm ranking them on:

• We are not ranking Dol Goldur Ringwraiths, mostly because 1) none of them can be mounted, so I feel like there are dramatic disadvantages from a combat perspective for these wraiths that are hard to overcome, and 2) because the whole, "We have 2 wounds, but we might come back from the dead" side of things complicates calculations for resilience, so I figure we can do a separate ranking for those in the future if you're interested (as my favorite of those is probably last on most people's lists).
• We will consider the typical considerations (resilience, combat effectiveness, casting capabilities), but we will also look at efficiency: does the wraith offer options that are an effective/efficient use of their resources? Does their ability synergize well with what they are built to do? Because wraiths can look good on paper, but then find they are only good for 3-4 turns because they burn through Will Points too quickly.
• We will not be looking at cost - they are all more or less the same cost, and inasmuch as they are not, it just means more investment if you want the benefits. So yes, that probably gives the Witch-King the biggest boost, but that's fine for this ranking.

And before you tell me, "Centaur, (fill in the blank) wraith is actually great because I played them once and won a match because (insert ability that totally worked and did good stuff for you)," yes: that does happen. That is valid, and I'm glad it worked for you! But I'm judging these based on how likely I think they will be in general to provide you with success, not on one-off exceptional performances. 

And with that, let's get to the rankings!

Tournament Time: Rythbryt's Army Thoughts (Grand Tournament 2024)

Edited May 6, 2024, with tournament results

Bonus post this week. Must be something special going on... ;)

As faithful readers of the blog know, TMAT's annual GT is coming up this weekend. I generally don't post articles on the armies I'm running (I leave that to Tiberius, who's far more practiced--be sure to check out his article from yesterday, if you missed it). Nor do I generally recap how the tournament went (Centaur's your man... er... horse-man... for that). But I'm making an exception this time, for several reasons:

1. I've been light on generating content recently (and feel somewhat guilty about that);
2. I owe Tiberius at least two podcasts on tournaments that have long since wrapped (and, again, feel somewhat guilty about that);
3. I really liked a number of the lists that I batted around (and felt like sharing them); and
4. Perhaps because I really liked these lists, I actually locked into a list earlier than the final day they were due (actually, almost 2 full weeks before they were due), which meant there was actually time to write a prospective post on it. :-P

Along the way, there were twists and turns and trepidations (well, okay, actually less trepidation than usual). So yeah... if you want some musings about heavy/all-cavalry armies (or their equivalent), with a heavy dose of strategy (and maybe some obsession-bordering-on-neurosis), read on. :)

This may be a spoiler...

Photo Credit: cbr.com

Factual Background (because all of life is a story, right?)

First, a digression that's not really a digression.

About two months ago, TMAT hosted a winter "mixer" tournament designed to be a fun, pseudo-competitive way for the people in our gaming group to play some games (always fun), while also introducing new/newer players to MESBG. Because of that, we had a pretty small tournament by most standards: a 350 point cap (4-model minimum), with 5 games in one day (45 minutes per game). The five scenarios were pre-selected (though not their order), and all opponents were randomized. (For about a 72-hour period, we also thought this was going to morph into a funsies doubles-event, but we did end up having enough players for a full singles event--10 players altogether, which is also a weird number for doubles :-P).

For those of you who are familiar with the Matched Play guide, you know that 45 minutes is... kind of tight for a 350 point game (the guide recommends 1 hour 15 minutes for a game of that size, so this was definitely on the "fast" side). The pool of scenarios for the tournament (Hold Ground, Capture and Control, Destroy the Supplies, Lords of Battle, Divide and Conquer) also offered a mix of "capture objectives" and "kill models outright/around objectives," which posed some... interesting choices given the 45-minute time limit. For objective games, you wanted lots of models (and, in general, I think you want more models than less in MESBG). But more models equals longer phases, which means less rounds (which means less moving, less shooting, less fighting, less botching, etc.). And taking an army composed of slower models (goblins? hobbits?), shooting models (a 6-second shoot phase vs. a 10-minute shoot phase makes a huge difference), or models that last a long time but have trouble wounding standard (D6) shieldwalls (S3/D7 dwarves, for instance) could further complicate things.

So with those issues in mind, as I mulled my options for the tournament (and all told, I think I mulled some 200 different list ideas/variations), I kept finding myself drawn to lists that could move fast, kill very quickly, take a beating... and do all the above without relying on a lot of shooting/time-intensive roll-offs. And ultimately, it worked. I won all five of my games at the GT with a list that consisted of the Dark-Marshal on Fell Beast (F6 wraith who casts normally, on a flying monster, who can also be a 6" banner in a pinch), leading eight Morgul Knights (who I've always loved, and never brought to a tournament before), and four Black Numenoreans on foot (which I have brought to tournaments before, and never disappoint me) for a grand total of 13 models at 350. 

A portend of things to come?

2023 Hobby Bingo: Tiberius's Board

Good morning gamers,

Well, 2023 has been a year - and it's been full of hobby fun! With Fantasy Fellowships, the Minas Tirith board, several tournaments, and lots and lots and LOTS of Morannon Orcs, there's been a lot to keep me busy during my off nights. I haven't officially done the hobby bingo challenge before, though I've always looked at the boards and thought, "I should do that." Well, this year, I said, "Darn it, we're gonna do it this year" - and I am proud to say that it turned out pretty well. Let's have a look!

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Row #1: Lots of New Models (and some movies and a tournament)

Our first square in the first row requires us to start a new army, and for me this year, that was easy: Corsairs of Umbar! Throwing weapons are my thing and these guys have them everywhere. I also had these models sitting around for a while, so I don't have all the guys I painted shown here because . . . well, I need a guy for another bingo box:

Box two is easy - watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yes, I watch the extended cuts every year at least once, usually while I'm working on batch painting something or working on a terrain project. It took me longer than usual to watch them this year, since I had to catch up on a bunch of Star Wars shows, but I finished watching the extended editions of The Fellowship of the Ring on June 28th, The Two Towers on August 14th, and The Return of the King on September 9th.

Box three was checked off on June 24th when I attended our annual Grand Tournament - I got last place with a Quest of the Ringbearer Angmar army (you can read about my process of picking that list here and some thoughts on the scoring system - and a brief overview of my games - here).

Box 4 requires scenic bases for one of my armies and I decided to showcase my basing style for my Erebor Dwarves, as shown on Ori. The bases were done by painting white through a dryer sheet, then washing in black, then spot-highlighting in black, and then making piles of gold and emeralds from green glitter, PVA glue, and gold paint:

Finally, I needed to finish a Good army of at least 600 points. Because of the way Hobby Bingo works, I wanted to have a list that "just" reached 600pts (because I need elements of this project to cover multiple boxes, and you can't double-count a model) and since I spent quite a bit of time this year converting up Grim Hammers, Warriors of Erebor, and Thorin's Company heads into a War of the Ring era Erebor Reclaimed list, I figured I'd grab over 600 points from them. You can see here Thorin III Stonehelm, Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Nori, Dori, Gloin, and 7 converted Iron Hills Dwarves with shields and spears:

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.

Nemesis: How To Fight Against Ringwraiths

Good morning gamers,

So far in this series, we've looked at specific monster models (that usually show up in a single list, maybe two) or specific Legendary Legions that everyone seems to hate fighting. Today, we're turning to a model type that's pretty ubiquitous across the forces of Evil and units that don't look all that dangerous until they're neutralizing your heroes and chewing them up. Yep, it's time to turn to the Witch-King of Angmar and all his Ringwraith friends! I love these models (and have written quite a bit about them), so let's go in-depth today (fair warning, this post is LONG) and look at all the grisly bits about Ringwraiths, shall we?

What Makes Ringwraiths So Hated

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Part 1: An Overly Pedantic Study of Ringwraiths

You can't start talking about Ringwraiths without going over a brief taxonomy of the ten Ringwraith profiles that we have and how they're usually fielded. Despite there being nine Ringwraiths in total, the generic "Ringwraith" profile (which you can actually take nine of - you don't have to run the Witch-King!) provides a nice "blank slate" version of a Ringwraith for you to customize to your liking. These guys have decent-not-good combat stats (F5/S4/1A with 0-2 Might) and decent-not-good defense stats (D8/1 Wound/0-2 Fate). As far as Heroes of Fortitude for Evil go, they are great for keeping your army in the field should you break with Courage 6 and with 7-14 Will points, they have the potential to cast magic and/or fight for a long time (but don't think this means they have a lot of Will - read my post on Multi-Purpose Will Casters for more information on this). Though they look fragile, the Terror-Harbinger-of-Evil combo (something we've talked about before) can make charging them particularly difficult.

Besides the Might/Will/Fate on these guys, you can also take mounts for your Ringwraiths in the form of horses (10 points - a good cheap option for increased speed, slightly increased damage when you charge, and an easier time getting the casting direction/look-angle you want on a target), Fell Beasts (50 points - slightly more speed with more maneuverability options, greatly increased damage when you charge, and opportunities to get casting directions/look-angles that are not present when you're on a horse), and Armored Fell Beasts (70 points, which just seems like too much to pay for +1 Defense on your Fell Beast . . .). While you "can" field these guys for 55 points each, I think it would be unwise to leave home without adding 2 Might points, at least 1 Fate point, and a horse (which brings these guys up to 80 points). Personally, I normally throw in 2 extra Will points (9 total) for a tidy 90 points, but 7 Will can be just fine (it just means you're casting for one fewer turns).

When you compare these basic Ringwraiths to the "named" Ringwraiths, there are some differences. First and foremost, each of the named Ringwraiths is a Hero of Valour (or Hero of Legend in the case of the Witch-King in the Mordor/Angmar army lists, as well as in the Black Riders Legendary Legion). While generic Ringwraiths have both Heroic March and Heroic Channelling for their specialized Heroic Actions, most of the named Ringwraiths just have Heroic Channelling. The Witch-King and Khamul are exceptions to this - both have Heroic Strike, and the Witch-King also has Heroic Resolve, Heroic Strength, and Heroic Challenge. For most players . . . yeah, you're probably sticking to Heroic Strike/March and the occasional Channel.

Unexpected Military Formations: 3 Formations for Fighting Against War Beasts

Good morning gamers,

Today we've got a very special formations post for you - different formations you can use to fight against war beasts (and particularly Mumaks)! War beasts are a special kind of unit in MESBG (see my Back to Basics article from a few months ago for what makes these guys special) and it's often daunting to fight them, since you know they could walk all over your army (quite literally!) and wreck your day.

In preparation for our recent The Hunter's Red October (THRO) tournament, I very strongly considered borrowing a Mumak and running two of these things - and BOY was that fun (and scary for my poor testing buddy, Gorgoroth). But as scary as being stepped on is, there are actually some very simple formations you can employ to defeat them - and they're primarily based on the following principle: manage how many models can be stepped on. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Formation #1: The Scattered Triangles

I've referenced an article about running "skirmish triangles" a lot this year - and it's because I love shooting and I love not having my shooting be constricted by the way I deploy/maneuver my models. Any three shooting models that are standing base-to-base in a triangle have 360 degrees of visibility (since you can "look over the shoulder" of a friendly model that you're in base contact with) and so skirmish triangles are a great starting point for whatever archers you want to run to harass a Mumak.

Having three models standing together and moving around the Mumak does a few things for you. First and foremost, they present enough of a threat that the Mumak has to deal with them (either with the guys in the howdah or by moving the Mumak itself). Having a lone warrior here or there isn't going to pose much of a threat, but having two or three triangles (6-9 shots) coming from a single direction can force a Mumak to actually do something (and this is especially true if the war beast is a Great Beast of Gorgoroth, since it has fewer wounds and its shorter height could mean that elevated archers don't have the howdah in-the-way for the Orc archers on its back - I was wrong, the howdah is always counted as in-the-way).

Back to Basics: War Beasts in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we delved deep into the rules for Monsters in MESBG - and what an iconic part of the books and films they are! Today, we look at yet another well-known facet of the Middle-Earth world - and one that has TONS of rules that can scare off new players (and confuse veterans - like me): war beasts.

In theory, these things should be easy to understand - I mean, they affect two different models (War Mumaks of Harad/Far Harad and Great Beasts of Gorgoroth), but with pages of rules for war beasts in general and several-page spreads for the specific profiles (to say nothing of the price of buying them), most players (new and old alike) are happy to wave a hand at these models and move on to other armies. Well, in this article, my goal is to break down the rules for war beasts into a few simple principles so you can not only feel more confident in bringing these models to the tabletop, but also be more confident about their rules should you see one on the other side of the board. Let's get into it!

War Beasts: Monsters that Aren't Monsters

What dominated most of the last post was an in-depth view of the different Brutal Power Attacks (BPAs) that monsters can use if they win a combat (and what helps them dominate the board as tactical pieces instead of just "big, stupid, high-stat models"). War beasts can't perform brutal power attacks. They can't. I'm sorry.

While monsters are usually a single model (or a single model with both a mount and rider profile), war beasts count as two models: the driver and the war beast aren't treated as a single model like cavalry models are. This is important as a spell cast against the war beast (or shooting attacks against the war beast) won't be testing for mount-or-rider like they would against cavalry models. We'll get into a few more of the interactions between drivers and beasts later in the Move Phase discussion.

The war beast also comes with a howdah - which doesn't count as a third model, but does allow the war beast to carry its driver and some passengers. Each war beast has a list of the number of models that can fit in the howdah (however they're stationed) and the kinds of models that can be in it. This will never include enemy models, despite what they may or may not do in the films. Unless a rule says otherwise, models may not exit the howdah and all models included in the driver's warband must be placed in the howdah.

Finally, there are limitations on the heroic actions declared by the driver of a war beast. The most common heroic actions that will affect a war beast are Heroic Moves (so it moves before your opponent) and Heroic Marches (so it goes farther when it moves). In both of these cases, only Heroic Moves and Marches declared by the driver will affect the Mumak - you can't have someone on the ground shouting, "Go!" for it to do anything. Similarly, a Heroic Combat called by the driver of the Mumak will have no impact on the Mumak since the driver is not engaged in the same fight (what with him being a separate model and all), nor will a Heroic Combat called by another hero in the same fight as the Mumak be able to get the Mumak to perform a move after the Combat resolves. The Grand Army of the South has an exception for this, but in general, war beasts can't utilize heroics besides Move/March.

There are other things that make war beasts weird though - let's look at what they do in the Move phase.

Gondor At War Inspired Lists: Mordor Revisited

Good morning gamers (and happy Halloween),

Last time we talked about Minas Tirith - and Minas Tirith has quite a few options available to it in MESBG. But you can probably double your options with a generic Mordor list - and even with the restricted model selection of Gondor at War, there's still a crushing number of models to choose from (at least for heroes - the warriors are pretty stock-standard). Here are the models we have to work with:

• The Witch-King on Fell Beast with the Crown of Morgul and flail
  
• Gothmog (on foot and mounted)
• Guritz and Gothmog's Enforcer
• Zagdush and Goroth
• The Mouth of Sauron (on foot and mounted)
  
• 2 (technically 3) Ringwraiths on Fell Beasts
  
• 3 Mordor Orc Captains with shields
• 3 Morannon Orc Captains with shields
• 1 Mordor Troll Chieftain
  
• 36 Mordor Orc Warriors (12 shields, 12 spears, 6 two-handed weapons, 6 Orc bows)
• 48 Morannon Orcs (12 vanilla, 12 shields, 12 spears, 12 shields and spears)
• 12 Orc Trackers
  
• 3 Mordor Trolls
  

Photo Credit: Gondor At War

While we could certainly kludge together a 700-point list from this, it would probably reflect a list from our review of the Army of Gothmog or perhaps our list from the Mordor army review in our Bare Necessities series. So today, I've decided to tap into allies again and go for something that gets Orc-level cheapness with a bit more punch - let's look at the list!

Quest of the Ringbearer: Model Collection Update, Part IV

Good morning gamers,

From the sections we covered last year, I still don't have the Warg Riders I need for Part II of Quest of the Ringbearer. Today, we'll be digging into the part of the book that I am missing the most from: Frodo and Sam's journey from Amon Hen to Cirith Ungol. Let's dig in!

*** SPOILER ALERT: THERE IS AN IMAGE OF A SPIDER AT THE END OF THIS POST - YE BE WARNED IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPIDERS ***

Part IV: Emyn Muil to Cirith Ungol

This was the section that I flagged in my first post in this series as "the bad one" - but I have a surprising chunk of the models now.

Purchase #21: Smeagol

Smeagol - a "hero" who shows up in more scenarios than Gandalf does . . .

I picked up a second-hand Smeagol from eBay - this one is eating a fish, which I like better than the one on the large rock slab. I am working this year on the Rangers of Ithilien LL, so Smeagol eating a fish seemed the most appropriate sculpt for that army too.

Purchase #22: Ringwraith on Fell Beast

I don't have this guy, but because of some of the other models I will need, I'm planning on getting another Battle for Pelennor Fields box set either this year or next year. We'll see.

Purchase #23: 6 Dead Marsh Spectres

Two down, four to get . . .

I converted 2 Warriors of Numenor into spectres a while ago and need to convert 4 more models into spectres. Once I get another Pelennor Fields box, I plan to convert 4 Warriors of the Dead into spectres as well. Until then, I can just use my Barrow-Wights.

The Bare Necessities, Part XXXIV: The Serpent Horde

Good morning gamers,

We've looked recently at the Fiefdoms (renowned for their elite troops with average Defense and average Cost) and the Rangers (renowned for their ability to spam cheap mini-heroes to flood the board with Might). Today, we look at one of the most competitive armies in the game - and a long-time dominant army here at TMAT: the Serpent Horde. While I haven't played with this army, 50% bow limit (and lots of practice fighting it) makes it an army that I should begin playing soon. Thanks to the Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook requiring two Mumaks, I know I'll be diving into the Serpent Horde eventually, but travel with me through my ever-entangled thoughts about what to pursue with this army. Let's dig in!

The Serpent Horde: Spam Vs. Troop Carriers?

Photo Credit: Tumblr

The Serpent Horde has the ability to spam pretty good troops - their Haradrim Warriors with bows, spears, or weapon-swapped axes are 7 points each, which means you can throw out a lot of these guys if you want to. The down-side to them is that they can't get shields, so your army is going to be vulnerable to archery of any kind (D4). To compensate for this, the army is flush with models who have poison (rerolling 1s to Wound) and you can take 50% of your models with bows (so you can outshoot most armies before they shoot you to death). With pretty cheap light cavalry that hit hard and a few non-poison models who can chop through enemy models with burly two-handed swords or multiple attacks, the army has no limit to good models you can spam out.

And it has Mumaks. Mumaks are some of the most iconic and coolest models in the game - complete with four pages of rules (two for the Mumak itself and two for war beasts), lots of impact hits, and good resilience against siege weapons (since it is explicitly called out as a siege target instead of a battlefield target - no auto-kills here, baby!).

Mumaks are incredibly expensive and often get in the way of spamming out warriors (though it will provide high Defense in-the-ways for those low-Defense troops standing in the howdah). So is it worth it to add a Mumak to your list or just buy a hero and a whole warband of troops? Most competitive players say leave the Mumak at home, but we'll delve into some Mumak lists later in the post. For now, let's look at a spammable Serpent Horde army that emphasizes one thing above all others: poisoned weapons.

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!

The Bare Necessities, Part XXXI: Far Harad

Good morning gamers,

Today we look at the last faction for our Bare Necessities series (at least for now): Far Harad. One of the most expensive armies in the MESBG game (and not currently available in the GW store), Far Harad features an all-Strength 4 faction (or higher!), paired with terrifying infantry (Half Trolls), decent spear-support models (Mahud Warriors), and line-breaking cavalry (Impaling camel riders with war spears). While F3 is pretty standard across the army (and only one named hero), their profile selection is quite small, but their customizability and flexibility is fantastic.

Since the models aren't in the GW store at the moment (and the models themselves are GW creations), those on a budget can get historical Camels and Zulu Warriors for not as much money...

While I don't play Far Harad, Rythbryt does (he faced me in Battle Companies with them, it was very eye-opening), so he volunteered to help me cover this faction - take it away Rythbryt!

The Bare Necessities, Part XXIII: The Corsairs of Umbar

Good morning gamers,

This is the final post for this volume of our series on list building - and we're ending it with an army that I've wanted to collect from the very beginning (just haven't settled on what I wanted it to look like): the Corsairs of Umbar. Corsairs are great troops - F4/4+ for most of their troops with throwing weapons on their most basic troops (Corsairs of Umbar) and their most basic captains (Corsair Captains and Corsair Bo'suns) AND their most killy captains (Dalamyr, Delgamar, and Hasharin). Throwing weapons are my thing - so naturally, I should own some of these guys. So what's the hold up, you ask?

The Corsairs of Umbar: Do You Need Allies (and how important is Heroic Strike when you have lots of throwing weapons)?

Corsairs have a pretty good army: 

• They've got options for cheap heroes (Captains/Bosuns cost under 60 points);
• They've got 3 Attack heroes (Dalamyr and Hasharin - who are Heroes of Valor in this list);
• They've got heavily-armored heroes (Black Numenorean Marshals - who can also be mounted on horses with lances);
• They've got crossbows/normal bows to supplement their throwing weapons; and
• They've got average-cost troops (8-10 points all-around).

What they don't have is what makes the list challenging:

• Most of their models don't have great Defense, capping out at D4 for warriros and D5 for heroes (if you don't include the Knight of Umbar, Black Numenoreans, Black Numenorean Marshals, and the pavises);
• Their 3 Attack heroes are strapped for Might (Hasharin have 1 Might, Dalamyr has 2 Might);
• Their heavily-armored troops can't take spears, so you're likely to have light troops in your army regardless of how you try to run it;
• Black Numenorean Marshals are the only fast/mounted models in this list;
• Your crossbows are great, but unlike crossbows in other armies, the models who carry them are only D3 when they finally get engaged;
• Their troops might be average cost, but that's because they predominantly have average stats (Strength 3 and Courage 3).

While I think having throwing weapons makes up for a lot of these weaknesses (of course I do, right?), not having fast troops is a big problem. Sure, you can March (Corsair Captains, Black Numenorean Marshals, and Corsair Bosuns can all March), but with as little Might as the Corsairs have in their list, I'm not inclined to rely on Marching. 

The question then becomes: how important is it to have fast troops? If that's important, then you need to look for allies (the Serpent Horde is a Historical Ally and has great cavalry options; Mordor is a Convenient Ally and has good cavalry options too).

But there's another question: since you only have Heroic Strike on two models (Dalamyr and Hasharin), how important is it to be able to call Heroic Strike? Most players use Strike as a means of contesting an enemy mega hero who has a higher Fight Value than you have - but if you can use your throwing daggers to shoot a friendly model that's been charged by a big hero (your Mega-Boromirs, King Aragorns, Gil-Galads, you get the picture), do you really need to have it in your army? I'm not convinced you do. Ergo, here's the list we have for today - it has exactly one specialized Heroic Action (and personally, I think it's the most important Heroic Action of all).

Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: The Serpent Horde in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

With the Easterlings and Khand behind us, we're moving down south to the land of the Haradrim. We'll begin with traditional Harad (rebranded the Serpent Horde in the new edition of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game), before moving on to Far Harad and all their camels (so, so many camels) next time. Like any serpent, these guys move fast and strike fast, with venom dripping from their fangs. There may also be mumakil involved...

Photo Credit: upabovetodownunder.blogspot.com