Hello!

This will be my first post, glad to be here .

I have been trying to find a force I want to play. I like to have bows and some heavy heroes to smack my opponents with.

With that in mind, I have been thinking of a harad force (no umbar or mahud, don't really like the models) or a Lothlorien/Mirkwood force (pure wood elves or a mix of wood elves and Galadhrim).

I will be only playing versus friends, so they will not mind if I would i.e pick up a Glorfindel to my army .

The problem is how I shall have a kinda good time versus dwarves. Me and my friends have just got into the warbands. The dwarven player likes to play Gimli and then spam dwarves. I don't mind that, but it makes it harder to pick up some strategies.

Which force should have a better time agaisnt dwarves? Harad or elves? What should I take advantage of?

Thanks for reading!
Xore

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“I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me!”

I'm inclined to believe that Harad would have an easier time dealing with dwarven units since you have some higher strength units to hand. Even without the stuff from far harad or Umbar you still have merchant guard and serpent riders not to mention the Mumak to smash un the dwarven rank and fill troops. You heroes aren't going to be able to match up to most of the dwarven ones though so you'll need to rely on your wraiths and numbers to tie them down. The elves could do the job as well but it would take a bit more finesse and some specific hero/troop management to effect a similar sort of result.

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

Against dwarfs, just use cavalry with fear.
Works every time, knock em down. Double attacks and if u have spear suppert - its an auto win

Mumaks would smash the dwarves, but I don't like to have big models ;p. They are hard for me to transport and thats also why I would prefer a ringwraith on a horse instead on a fell beast (which is much better, I know).

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“I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me!”

I agree with Wan Shi Tong that Harad will have an easier time against dwarves than the elves. Defense 7 troops will laugh at elven bows, and even your biggest heroes will struggle to work their way through a dwarven shield wall. Abrakan Guard however are STR 4 with chop (burly) and will be wounding the shield dwarves on 5s and the others on 4s, which is pretty demoralizing for an army based on having high defense. Wraiths can effectively neutralize dwarven heroes, and if playing a pure Durin's folk list they have no magic of their own to respond. Wraiths on wings are always competitive.

If you were willing to expand your list to include a few 'Umbar' units, you might consider throwing in a few Castellans of Umbar to add a few high defense, fight 5 models to your line. This beats the dwarves on a tie and allows your heavy hitters to go to work.

Harad also has access to lots of cavalry, so you can out maneuver the dwarves easily. They also have war spears, which again, allow you to partially negate the dwarves' defense.

Cheers!

That seems like a really good strategy! But I love the elven heroes :S. This will be kinda hard to decide, but the harad seems to winning this battle for the moment. Thanks for the replies. No elf advices?

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“I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me!”

And armylists! I feel a harad force will be quite hard for me to make, any advices?

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“I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me!”

Well if your thinking about a Lorien and Mirkwood list then I would suggest building it around the old Thranduil. His one time natures wrath combined with a respectable fight and weapons selection make him a good choice for a general. Follow that up with a storm caller or two for more natures wrath and call wind and to get same troop space. Lastly on the hero front, I would recommend Rumil as your hero hunter since he can go toe to toe with any dwarven hero with the odds in his favor. For troops I would just spam wood elf spearmen, then bring in some Galadhrim and sentinels here and there for support. Maybe ally in a great eagle for some extra hitting power too.

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

For Harad I would recommend building up an army around two heroes, the Golden King and the Betrayer. This is as much for theme as anything else I guess so you could just as easily bring in the serpent lord and the knight of Umbar if you wanted some hero passed killing power. But the Golden King, while not a great fighter, is nothing to scoff at when you don't have any monsters to hand. He has four attacks at strength four, plus one to wound, and counts as a banner for Harad troops. So he can go through dwarven with some reliability. His warband would be best served by adding between six to eight of his merchant guard with the remaining slots used for spear support. This way the warband can act as your armies chief hitting power.

For the Betrayer's lot you would want to take advantage for his bonus poising powers by sending him with either bowmen with spears or serpent guard backing up more merchant guard. If you put him on a horse he could just shuffle around the back ranks dolling out poising and spells at his leisure. After that I would suggest a taskmaster and a basic six by six or harad spearmen and bowmen. If you still have points to work with after that go for some lance armed cavalry led by a chieftain or king and your golden.

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

So far as elves are concerned bows and the ability to shield are your best friends. Elves win by 'not dying', i.e. by winning fights, keeping away from heavy hitters, and using your superior shooting phase to cut down on your opponent's numbers.

Magic and magic-like abilities are key to making this happen. Galadriel comes in several flavors, all of which are useful depending on circumstances. For dwarves I'd recommend the regular 'Galadriel' profile. She gets the best wizard toys while being able to lead troops. I hear old Thranduil is clutch in a fight, but I don't have the model and haven't used him. Wind callers are cool too, but because elves rely upon their heroes to deal damage up close adding too many of them can leave you without the punch you need to win the war of attrition.

I think a Galadhrim shield wall backed up by wood elf warriors with spears and the odd guard of the galadhrim court to annoy dwarf heroes with their fight 6 accompanied by archers would work pretty well. Make sure to max out your bows and consider throwing in the odd sentinel or two for extra magic effects. Galadhrim knights can make effective flankers, and are especially nice with elven bows as they can move 6' a turn and still shoot. They can get expensive points wise and lack the punch of Rivendell knights, so I'd only take 6 at maximum for the added mobility and flexibility.