Hi guys,

I used to be into LOTR years ago, then sold my books etc... and now decidd to get bck into it again. DOH!

My question is to find out what people prefer t give harad cavalary and why? Bows? Spears? I'm sure this is an easy answer but I'm trying to refresh my memory.

Thanks for anyone that replies, working later so will check in at some point

Harad bows are great due to the poison arrow rule. Otherwise, lances are a near-must in any cav force that can have them (Serpent Riders can, but I can't recall if basic Harad Raiders can). I don't think I'd mix bows and lances on the same model even if it was allowed. Your bow force wants to 1/2 move and harass from the edges while you're going to want to use your lancers to punch.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

Beowulf,

Thank you for that reply. Make sense to me

Yeah, warspears/lance are better for Haradrim Raiders. Bows aren't bad, it's just that Haradrim Warriors can use bows as well, so you might as well give your cavalry a weapon that's limited to them.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

Of course it can be nice to have your raiders with bow and war spear, you have an archer force that can keep up with your infantry block while still shooting, and less archers will die as half the time a horse will get hit rather than the archer. They also have better LOS.
Once combat hits you can whip your cavalry around the flanks and use them to hammer your opponent. You don't want to have your cavalry moving full movement and getting way ahead of your infantry in most cases, so it makes sense to arm them with bows.
Just some thoughts.

From a pure points perspective infantry bowmen are always cheaper to field than cav. The use of cav bows always comes down to tactical and aesthetic choices, rarely "value". There are definitely some times that having a more mobile ranged capability can be important, and sometimes you just want to have some cav archers for theme or fun reasons. Harad are still fine for these as they shoot as good as their footmen counterparts and still have the poisoned arrows.

But if mixing infantry in anyway I would first be sure I had at least enough to volley (and a spare or two) and then consider adding some to my mobile arm if I could do so within the 33% limit.

_________________
Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

An example army of mounted harad archers that I have had floating around in my head for a while is this:

suladan horse/bow
hasharin
harad chieften horse/bow/warspear

11 raiders bow/warspear
22 harad spear
22 corsair shield

700 points, 7 might (if hasharin has 2), 13 mounted bows (volley fire!), 58 units

You have a good mounted archer contingent to harass your opponent, and two mounted hero's so you can split it up and really bonk some heads with the warspears and Suladan's three might. Then you have a fight four frontline of corsairs with throwing weapons lead by a hasharin, who are quite good. To me this seems like a very mobile and fun army, with lots of different combo's and tactics that could be used. When I eventually start collecting harad this is what I will be aiming for.

I personally would agree on the take spears / lances for the cavalry and bows for the infantry. At the end of the day the archers of most forces should be positioned well at the start to give good support to the cavalry and infantry as they close in, the only time they need to move is later on to bring them into LOS with enemies that have broken away from the main force.

The only exception to that is armies made entirely of Rangers like The Grey Company or armies made of low Defence but high skill models like Wood Elves where the bows should be moving with the infantry to bring 3+ Shoot to bear.

'FireKnife'