Greetings good people of Middle-Earth!

I hope to hear some input. I roll with Sauron and his homies fighting against those foul elves and the lackeys of the Valar. I have really been painting up and focusing on the men of Harad in the South where the stars are strange.

I don't have anything too crazy, a few warbands worth of warriors of Harad, half dozen cav, a couple banners, horn blower, two chieftains, a taskmaster, and Suladân (foot and mounted).

I decided that if I aced my first exam of the year (in a class I am nervous about) I would treat myself to a Mumak! An Oliphant to you halflings. So I obviously bought it before I even took my test, let alone saw my score. Good news though! I got a 91% and was able to justify my purchase. Now I'm sitting here with a great beast as tall as house and grey as a mouse.

My question to you fine folks is how do I run this monster? Do I keep the chieftain or upgrade him to a Mahud beastmaster? What other upgrades should I look at? None appear cheap even if they look otherwise appealing. Should I upgrade the courage of the warriors riding it in case the leader is slain? Should I make sure to field that horn? Should I make sure to have warriors around to run interference, especially for higher fight heroes?

I most often play 750pts but there is a lot of wiggle room and we often decide to play a higher point game mid-list writing. If the beast works well alongside other evil forces assume I have those models as my evil collection is extensive and can easily put him alongside just about everything.

Thank you for all your input!

Tell him to put on his Dock Martens and stamp towards the enemy!

I would personally recommend a Mahud Beast Master and "Tough Hide" upgrades!

The most important upgrades to have are the Mumak Beastmaster and the Tusk weapons upgrade. The Tough hide is not completely necessary since it has ten wounds. As long as you can keep passing your courage tests (which is what the Beastmaster is for) then you will be fine. Save your 40 points to upgrade the Haradrim on top to have 3+ accuracy (watcher of karna upgrade). The tusk weapons are important because you never want a chance that you can stop stampeding. It is really important that nothing lives through your assault. A third best upgrade is the rocks but that is only if you have the points for it.

As far as using a mumak, it is best to have the shadow lord around to prevent people from shooting the Beastmaster. If you cant afford this, then you will just have to maneuver your mumak properly to avoid him getting shot. If you are playing a standard match where you deploy halfway up the field, then start the game with a wall of Haradrim in front of your mumak. That way, the enemy cannot charge your beast and stop you from stampeding. If they charge your wall of Haradrim, feel free to walk through them too. Who cares! your enemy will suffer more.

If you end up in a fight with your mumak, you should always Barge. The reason for this is that you get to stampede again. Your stampede attacks are stronger than your regular attacks (especially with Tusk weapons).

Your archers on top should target enemy archers who pose a threat to your beast master. Remember that they never move, so they don't receive accuracy penalties for the Mumak moving. Feel free to also shoot into models who are in combat with the Mumak. Your arrows will hurt them, but likely not damage your Mumak even without Tough hide. IF your fighting Dwarves, then purchase the Rocks upgrade. It is the only form of archery that will hurt them.

Well I have never played one of those sourthron monsters but I have fought a few so I'll tell you what I know.

The beast will kill most everything but its not indestructible and its not above getting a bad role. Always keep that in mind because if you fail a few key roles and it will smash your army just the same as your opponents. I tried to kill the ones I fought with a few special list that had siege engines the dead and black root vale bowmen when I knew I was going to fight it before hand. Didn't always work but if you play the same way every time or with the same list your opponents will build lists just to kill it. At 750 and above you are going to be seeing the bigger hero's, gondor, the fiefdoms, Rivendell and the dwarf hold all have big names that can give you a run for your money in a straight fight. If you find yourself fighting big hero's keep the Mumak away from them, use it to kill the basic troops while your own ground forces tie up the hero's.

For the upgrades, like the dragon, most people are pretty split of the use of them. The ones I fought only used the one that makes your defense and the one that gives you more attacks on the charge. You can make a strong case for the rocks if you want to wade into a large number of enemy troops. The range is not great but the strength is nice to make killing blows on banners and support units. The ropes that let you send men down from the howdah are a nice thought but the practical applications are not that great since the haradrim would be more use with bows or rocks. The haradrim also have a pretty low defense so their is a real chance that if they slip of the ropes they will die. If you could take half trolls or revers in the howdah then it would be worth it. If you have points to burn or are fighting say fiefdoms or dwarfs other than that you'll be fine without upgrading.

The chiefdom is usually good enough to command so you don't need to jump for a Beastmaster. The horn is like the other upgrades if you can get it without cutting into your troops then go for it, but remember that its not going to help the beast itself. I'd say put it on the howdah with an archer but others will likely say give it to a footman and leave him at the back of the board. Either way keep him out of combat and away from the archers. As for the guys in the howdah I think the upgrade would be better spent of making them shoot better, especially if you give them rocks. The courage is nice but is not going to be near a helpful in the long run.

I will let someone else tell you about supporting the thing from the ground. But my advise if you ever run the Mumak with mordor make certain the troops next to the beast have a shamans fury, might just save your hole shield wall.

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

I have to disagree when you say the base Chieftain is good enough. The courage of the Mumak is 2 (3 with a Horn). If the Mumak ever gets wounded (which will happen on 7 defense), you take too much risk of it stampeding around and killing your own army. Also the men on top can fall off in the process. The Courage boost to 5 is necessary. Plus it deters shooting from the mumak as everyone tries to kill the Beastmaster first.

Also another nice note is the extra point of M/W/F that the Beastmaster has

I'm not going so far to say the beastmaster is not a good buy. He is only a little more expensive true has those extra stats. But the Mumak is still formidable and viable without him. The chieftain is good if you are facing archer heavy list because of the garneted in the way, while the beastmaster is more likely to get shot. While it's nice to have a better courage from the beastmaster its by no more necessary than tough hide is. I am pretty shore that the horn doesn't effect the Mumak itself anyhow.

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

LOL, in that case I'd go for the Tattoo and Mohawk upgrades...

Thank you very much for the advice. I didnt make the topic but I have 3 large elephants! Lol.

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