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I've been trying to put together a shopping list of the Harad/Umber stuff I like aesthetically, or thematically, and was wondering if people had thoughts on an army made of their more elite units? Other than being expensive to purchase, any further thoughts?

Specifically I had a couple ideas...

- One warband would be lead by my general, the Golden King, and would have a retinue made up of a Half-Troll bodyguard, and then three Watchers of Karna, three of the bulky Merchant Guard, and three Mahud up front for their slightly better defense.

- Another warband would either be led by one of the named Nazgul on Fellbeast, or a Mahud King on camel (if they ever come back in production), and would have 4-6 camel riding Mahud with war-spears.

That would end up being a hair over 400pts, and we typically play around 600pts, leaving room for another elite unit, possibly led by a Taskmaster.

Thoughts? I mean... the Watchers and Merchant Guard look terrific on paper, the Half-Troll less so, but seems like a fun idea.

I've not used anything from Harad besides basic warriors, and the Mumak, so I'm afraid I have very little expertise to offer you - you might have problems in terms of getting hold of Mahud, I seem to recall hearing a lot of complaints about their rarity and cost.

Have you considered adding some Black Numenoreans? I always like to have some terror-causing troops, and they certainly fit the bill as far as being "elite". I also seem to recall Castellans of Umbar being a thing, though I may be mistaken.

Still, it would be quite an interesting army to play with/against, for casual play at any rate.

The Watcher of Kârna are, I believe, considered extremely good for their points costs!

Well, Watchers being 2A for their points is amazing. Most 2A models are 5-6 points more expensive as a minimum.

That said, 3S would call for some support when dealing with more durable targets, thus the allure of those Abrakhan Guard, Half-Trolls, etc...

Also, as for the Mahud, the generic on-foot ones are still readily available.

The Watchers of Karna are extremely good value for points, and should be maxed if you're running any kind of pure Harad list. A 3+ poisoned shooting ability combined with two attacks is good value in and of itself at 10 points, and they have a handful of other special rules which make it a no brainer. The only potential archery alternative to be considered would be Raiders with bows. If you choose to use Watchers as your front ranker, back them with Mahud Spearmen for the strength 4.

Another option is to have a separate (but cheaper) 'shield' wall of Abrakhan Guard and haradrim spearmen. Those Abrakhans hit hard at Strength 4 fight 4 with no downside to using a double handed weapon.

The final (and unfluffy) 'shield wall' option would be Castellans of Umbar backed by Mahud Warriors with spears. Ranks in at 20 points per pair, but gives you a terror causing fight value 5 Defence 6 frontline with strength 4 in support.

The Golden King is a great model, but works best when used in synch with a wraith for the -1 courage debuff. He can't really powerhouse in the same way many equivalent priced heroes (say Boromir or Shagrat) can, his defence and fight value is too low. But he's pretty good at chopping up rank and file, and his banner effect is excellent.

As such, for your list with what you've highlighted that you want above, I'd do something like:-

Knight of Umbar on Fell Beast
7 Watchers of Karna

Mahud Tribesmaster w/war camel & spear
6 Mahud Raiders w/war spear

The Golden King
6 Abrakhan Guard
6 Haradrim with Spear

Frankly though, I'm of the opinion you're way too low in troop numbers, and should probably be aiming to remove the Golden King, and supplement with more troops. At 600 points I managed to squeeze in over 40 foot troops as mordor, of various sundry types. Your list here woul;d probably be outnumbered by elves, and swarmed under by goblins! If I was building a pure 600 point list along these lines, I'd probably take:-

Knight of Umbar on fell beast
5 Abrakhan Guard
5 Haradrim spearmen

Haradrim Chieftain
4 Abrakhan Guard
5 Haradrim Spearmen
3 Watchers of Karna

Mahud Tribesmaster w/war camel, warspear
6 Serpent Riders
7 Watchers of Karna

600 points on the dot. Cavalry element, monster element, archery element, and two 'shieldwalls' to boot.

If you're open to Umbar, Corsair Arbalests are pretty amazing, to be honest, combining D6 with S4 shooting is disgustingly good! Equally, take a look at Corsair Reavers, they're low on the defensive side but very dangerous on the attack, can't remember the exact stats but they're somewhat famed as dangerous glass cannons.

To answer your original question though, the others have covered it well; those units are indeed good (or in the case of Watchers, very good) value.

 Ketara wrote:
The final (and unfluffy) 'shield wall' option would be Castellans of Umbar backed by Mahud Warriors with spears.

Do you mean Castellans of Dol Guldur?

 mdauben wrote:

 Ketara wrote:
The final (and unfluffy) 'shield wall' option would be Castellans of Umbar backed by Mahud Warriors with spears.

Do you mean Castellans of Dol Guldur?

Nope, not them. IIRC, there's an upgrade for Black Numenoreans that takes them to Fight Value 5 for +2 points. Called Castellans of Umbar.

 Ketara wrote:
Nope, not them. IIRC, there's an upgrade for Black Numenoreans that takes them to Fight Value 5 for +2 points. Called Castellans of Umbar.

Guess I never saw that! I'll have to pull out my army books and look them up tonight.

Another fun unit are the Hasharin (I think that's how it's spelled). Re-rolls to wound, 3 attacks, and elven cloaks plus 3 fate to keep them alive.
They are heroes, rather than elites per se, but they might be a decent fit thematically.

Assuming, of course, they haven't been changed - I'm still working off the stats in the old big blue book, and my experience is from casual play rather than tournaments. So possibly best to take my advice with a pinch of salt.

They're the same Dark Apostle, but they've also been out-of-production for more than a year now, and go for a lot online. I'll keep an eye out for GW reprints though!

Well, you can convert them - My method is to remove the spear from a spearman, and add two knives to the hands.
(It works better with some poses than others, I favour the spearman who looks kind of crouched mid-thrust.)
Then just give him a darker colour scheme and wham - Assassinating time! very simple conversion, but I think it's quite effective.

I'll have to put a picture up sometime.