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Hi,
A while back I bought 2 boxes of Haradrim foot soldiers, some Abrakhan guard and 2 Half-Trolls to use in my 40k Renegade army, but since I've heard good things about the LotR games I'm considering to start building a small Haradrim force. I also really like the look of the Easterling models, and I'm considering to pick up a box of Easterling Kataphracts (I think that's the name) from my local game store.
But before I start investing my money in this, I have some quick questions. Bear in mind I have never played any of the lotr games, so I have no idea what I'm getting myself into, apologies if these questions seem stupid

-How easy is it to ally Haradrim/Easterlings? Is it like in 40k where you have "detachments" etc., or is it just good/evil and I am pretty free to combine the two forces?

-How viable are the Haradrim? Is there a big power gap between various factions?

-Would I use rules for The Hobbit, as its the most recent, or would I have to find an older LotR-rule set to play Haradrim? Is LotR a different game from The Hobbit or are they just different editions?

-Are Serpent Riders any good?

Any tips in general for someone looking to get into these mysterious people from the desert?

Thanks in advance

Welcome aboard the good ship LotR! Always good to see new people interested in what is probably the best of GW's currently available games!

In terms of allying, LotR is dead simple; Good forces can mix and match freely, Evil forces the same, the two can't mix. Armies are built in Warbands which consist of 1 Hero (Captains, Shamans, special characters ect) and 0-12 Warriors (everything else), and so long as you stick to that, you're free to mix and match what you like. For example, you could have a Harad Warband with 6 Spearmen, 6 Archers and a Captian, an Easterling Warband with Khamul The Ringwraith and 6 Kataphracts, and a Mordor warband with a Troll Chieftain on his own all in the same army. The only other restriction is that unless otherwise stated, only 33% of your army can carry ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, slingshots ect)

There's no real 'power gap' except with some of the newer Hobbit stuff (which is really quite limited in what it can actually do, it tends to be mostly the heroes that went a bit mental towards the end). Every army has its strengths and weaknesses, but these are on the whole balanced. In the case of Haradrim, you have pretty much the most reliable Evil shooting going with Haradrim Archers and Corsair Arbalests, Half Trolls which are brutal and decent Cavalry options in the Serpent Riders and Haradrim Raiders, and all reasonably cheap though you lack Heavy Armour in a real quantity. Easterlings on the other hand have rather expensive shooting, though their archers do have more armour, but their heavy cavalry are great and hit like a ton of bricks, their infantry phalanxes are both deadly and tough with the ability to wield both pikes and shields at the same time, and they also have War Priests to buff their guys pretty effectively. Should you want to expand a little wider, you can also bring in the Khandish, fast and powerful light cavalry that are reasonably cheap. Basically, outside of Mordor, a Harad/Easterling army is going to get you more variety than anyone; they can do pretty much anything competently.

The core rules you'll want are the Hobbit ones, the army lists can be found in the Fallen Realms sourcebook (has rules for Harad, the Eastern Kingdoms, and Isengard). All the older LotR stuff is compatible with the Hobbit rulebook, Hobbit is essentially just a new edition with a few changes and tweaks.

Hope that's of some use!

Thanks, that helps a lot! I appreciate the elaborate answer

Like Paradigm said above, you can only have 33% of your army's warriors with bows or similar but the haradrim can get 50% instead IF you use troops from harad (not umbar) only. Nevertheless warbands from armies other than harad and umbar don't affect this number.

If you can check out a sourcebook at a store or friend's, each one of them has "choosing your forces" intro which compiles all the necessary info for "force organization charts" in 40kspeak and allies. Might help you build your army.

In my experience the haradrim are fragile but shoot really well because of their poisoned arrows, watchers of karna and their unique nazgul who makes their poison even better. One could say easterlings are the evil version of minas tirith's knights and the haradrim are pretty much orcs stat-wise.

Lotr sbg doesn't have many special rules for all the units unlike in 40k nowadays. Different units can just differ by a couple stat points and some options. Some might think it's bland but it helps balance issues and learning. It also helps the game adhere to the lore better - all scouts having outflank rules, trolls having feel no pain etc. would be unnecessary additions pretty much. You can always include outflanking, infiltrating and such in your scenarios to add flavor if you wish!

The Hobbit rulebook is the most recent big book so use it. It streamlines the game a bit and keywords and wordings are more like in other modern games by GW. And scenarios make much more sense.

I have some spare MoM rulebooks, not sure what it would take to mail it to you though.