Ok. I'm currently working on painting up a large lot of Harad stuff that I got from a friend for fairly cheap and there's a decent amount of Corsairs of Umbar here including 6 Arbalesters (have picked up another blister at this point so I have 9) and was wondering about the numbers I should use of them at the various major point levels. Those being 350, 600 and 700 points respectively.

Use as many as you can (up to the 33% bow limit of course). They're 90 pts for all nine and they have crossbows. Nine str. 4 shots can be a game changer, and they're high defence in the shoot phase means that even a group of elves will have a hard time killing them from afar.

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I am a major proponent of ranged fire in SBG and almost always max my forces to 33% (some of my Evil armies won't get there, but those all rely on high speed or other specialized tactics). Crossbows however are not always my favorite choice and are not something I fear as much when I see them on the table as some players do. They can be very effective because they wound so easy, but...

1. They cannot move and fire so depending on terrain and deployment you could have a couple turns of getting into position.
2. Also because of the move/fire limit if you are able to leverage terrain or enemy formations you can sometimes limit your exposure forcing your opponent to relocate them again without shooting or at least get an in-the-way option.
3. The accuracy of the shooters is generally "average" only.

Don't take this as saying "don't use crossbows" though. They are awesome for securing an objective or threatening a specific region of a board. When you do deploy them try to stagger them around. They can't use volley fire so they have no reason to be grouped up anyway. If you do group them up then someone could sit back and volley at them. They will be out of range of crossbow retaliation, and even though they would need some luck to get the 6's, 10+ volley shots per turn could soften you up by one or two crossbows. Spreading out makes them much less attractive to this tactic.

And when you spread them out at multiple locations you make it much harder for your opponent to manipulate your use of them. When you have to move them, have a couple advance while the rest keep up the threat and provide coverage fire.

I would suggest though that you consider the scenario objectives heavily in your decision to include them. For many scenarios they can really support your objectives but there are a few scenarios that are far more friendly to a mobile archer force (Haradrim bowmen are decent for their cost and rules).

I think you'll find they work better for you over time as you get used to their unique traits. How effective they are on the table is going to come down to the rest of your army design, the scenario and terrain, how you play them and how your opponent plays far more than it will come down to the strength stat.

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Beowulf

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I run the full 33% as Arbalesters in my corsairs, and even have one of my captains with a crossbow to join them!

D6 against other shooting usually means that the opponent will have to choose between killing one or two Arbalesters or more corsairs. I find a lot of the time they choose the Arbalesters, meaning my squishy corsairs aren't getting shot!
in 500 points you can get 16 Arbalesters, 16 spears and 17 shields and a captian with a crossbow or shield. That's two nice chunky units of 8 to sit on either side of the battlefield, or four units of four. I also give one of them a horn to boost the armies courage.

Everything Beowulf said above is good advice too!

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