Please post your thoughts on the Serpent Horde. Good units/synergies or tactics, etc.

I predict Abrakhan guard will be the new elite of choice. They are now better then Watchers IMO. I think the meta army will be Suladan + Betrayer, Abrakhan guard backed up by Haradrim with spears and bows.

Mumak with gnarled hide, rappeling lines, stones, sigils of defiance, and Haradrim with how=Death to all my enemies.
Add 12 spearmen on ground with a cheiftan, and wreck some havoc. This way the Mumak can be full of archers.

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

I am going to argue against Cave Dragon with regards to the Mumak here. They were a gimmicky sort of weapon at best before. Very much dependent on terrain and objectives to get the full use of of them. The increase in siege weapon viability and in units with strength or +1 to wound abilities running around makes the Mumak an even more tenuous pick in my opinion. Things like cave trolls are going to have a good shot at pulling a Mumak down and so will a lot of bigger heroes.

In my opinion Harad is back to being a horde + shooting heavy army that should avoid combat for a while to peak down the enemy before sending in a Zulu wave attack or some sort of elite infantry/cavalry core to break down a weakened enemy. That is what I think form seeing them on paper at least. I could be misreading them.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Fair, but good forces tend to have no monsters. And a 'Mumak mkvement means it can outrun all foot units if need be. Strength 8 rocks are useful, and tusk weapons create 4 hits when trampling, which coupled with a brutal power attack such as rend on Aragorn...

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

I certainly believe that mumaks are viable. I have had a difficult time fighting dwarves due to hard as nails heroes, but other than that, they have worked fine.

I do agree that warmachines are an issue, but cavalry can be used as a good flanking force to put pressure on siege engines. The people I play with generally don’t use warmachines, so this might be a bigger issue for other players.

Cave dragon, war beasts can’t use brutal power attacks anymore, so no rending.

As for overall army performance, I play as in theme as I can. So I either go with Suladan or the golden king, and then go from there. I rarely use a ring wraith in my harad list. I am even less likely to use one in this eddition. I then supplement my list with far harad. I take a king on war camel with 12 warriors. This gives me some harder hitting troops with better armor. The king is a beast.

This eddition, I want to try to fit in some assassins. Last eddition made it nearly impossible to bring one. With a slight points reduction and the ability to lead troops, I am going to give them a try.

Add bows, and season with Cav, and rock out. I focus on bringing as many troops as I can do to armor 4. I find that the Mumack draws a lot of fire, so my troops typically make it to combat.

I wrote this between meetings, so sorry for the lack of new info or unique insight.

Wait, how can I not hurl someone? Hmmm... Time to look for loopholes.

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!