In the Mind: The Best Army in the Game??

UMBAR 

Well, there it is folks. Today we will be asking the question: Is Umbar the Best List in the Game?

For criteria we will break down several key things. Playstyle, list build, and overall value and matchup consideration.

When people commonly think of what armies are the best in the game, most instantly look at the outliers. Formerly consisting of Depths of Moria, White Hand ect. and currently the boogey man of the Men of the West and to a lesser degree, Ugluks Scouts. Let us specifically look at the Men of the West for now. (Oh how the mighty have fallen from amazing and such a joy last edition to a boring list that everyone loves this edition). 

What makes it good?
-Buffs for all troops (Fearless, once per game For Frodo)
-Good heroes (Aragorn got significantly better and Gwaihir is so cheap and reliable). 
-Good synergy's (The heroes work well when you give them time to walk through armies by themselves. No troop in the game is better at that then fearless warriors of Minas Tirith which are almost the same as Iron Hills Dwarves for way cheaper)

Now let us compare:

Umbar:
-Buffs (All models gain stalk unseen, meh and fine but sometimes clutch as well as hatred Gondor which in the current state of the game is actually so insanely powerful). 
-Heroes (I would argue they have the best hero lineup in the game other then Fornost but for the cost, they do what they do better then anyone else in the game- More on this later). 
-Synergy (The synergy between the heroes, infantry, and specifically infantry of both types are what really make this list come alive on the board). 

Of course you could make an argument similar for many lists and then try to claim they are on an equal tier, but this list is something else. It is THE Darkhorse. 

First to help provide some support for this claim I will go through three specific recent games I had at a one day event with this army at 700 points. 

Round 1: Army of the Great Eye: Maelstrom
Maelstrom comes up and this is the match that I was expecting round three. It is against the individual who has been showing his mettle specifically of late as he has got back into the game. He had the Witch King on fell beast, Shelob, the Dark Marshal, and the Mouth of Sauron. We go into veto and end up playing Heirlooms of Ages Past. Not great but it is fine. I win priority and give it to him. He sets up spread across the northern board edge with everyone but one warband. His strategy was pretty obvious. Set up, use a warband or two as bait and grab the objective and run it to a corner and quarter himself with it and some decoys. I saw this immediately but still decided to take the bait. Unfortunately my first few rolls were good enough to let me be in the perfect position to ambush his dark marshals warband yet the next few were not so my entire army minus one warband was stuck in one small section of the board. This meant that yes, I could delete a massive piece of his army and a good chunk of his force but that I would not be able to have much play into the objectives. Turn one he compels out Delgamar and then engages my army. I set it up to get a combat off and kill the dark marshal (which I do) and then wipe out about half of the troops. He instantly picks up the objective with the mouth of Sauron and now I am really in a bad spot. I reduce that force and start the long grinding chase where his 32 Mordor orc army cannot break or if it does, I cannot let him take courage checks at all. He sets up all of his orcs in a spread out formation to slow me down and die. I set it up and use my 13 light shields to shield them off while using my heroes heroic combats to slingshot to catch up to the mouth. The Witch King goes and grabs a bunch of decoys making it impossible for me to tie him while he holds the artifact. The last few turns he is one model off of quarter but I hang on and use all of my might for moves to pin his models turn after turn and then the last turn get a move off to engage the mouth of Sauron with Dalymyr (no might no will after spending it all to pass his courage check) and a mightless Hasharin. He rolls the 6 and then thankfully i get one 6 on my 6 dice. I then kill him getting the relic for a 13-5 major win. 

Round 2: Assault on Ravenhill: Kill Pool
This game was bound to be tough as pool 2 came up against an extremely defensive yet hard hitting all hero list. I vetoed Lords and He vetoed To the Death. This meant either Assassination or Contest. We roll into contest and turn one he shoots out all of Dalymyr's fate with a might as well with Legolas. I have set up a funky engagement and he runs into that the next turn. I am able to shoot out all of my troops that are engaged with his heroes and then get Dalymyr and a Hasharin into Kili. I call a combat strike combo and that leaves every other hero in his force looking at this realizing they all have to strike or none of them. Kili strikes as he should and then dwalin who is the only model still engaged with a warrior calls a combat to try to peel the hasharin. Dwalin is his champion. I win the combat rolloff and get into Dwalin and because of his heroic his must go next meaning he is trapped. I win and kill Dwalin giving my champion two kills and the champion kill. At this point I know that the list I will be playing is a Men of the West next round who has had to consecutive 20-3 wins. So victory points mean almost nothing. Thus I have fun and just let the game play out resulting in a 10-4 Major win to me. I also was one model off breaking him after killing several more heroes and having fili and legolas at one wound no fate each. 

Round 3: Men of the West: Pool 6:
Gwaihir, Legolas, Aragorn in a 26 or so model list. All tin cans and very lethal. This list has max VPs and almost max differential. I beat this I win the event. We veto and after deliberation and a rolloff end up in Clash by Moonlight. A scenario about killing heroes, breaking armies, and holding the central objective. He has the advantage of three hard to kill heroes and a defensive list. I have the advantage of night with throwing weapons and some hard hitting heroes. We move up and he marches to gain ground on the objective. Legolas doesn't do much and my counter fire deals some damage to a few troops. Next turn we move up again. He moves first and moves over the objective. I then position to get every possible shot into Gwaihir with large target. I then deal 5 wounds (with 2 might) which he uses 3 fate and 3 might to pass and stay alive on one wound. Next turn we hit combat. I set it up and am able to block out Aragorn unless he wants to run 6 inches off to a flank. Instead he centers himself for next turn and calls For Frodo to throw up Fight 5 to counter the Hasharin. Even with that threat nullified, with my engage and throwing weapons I got off I rack my kill tally up to 16 models by the end of this turn. Gwaihir and Legolas set up a great engage 13 inches away from my archers giving Gwaihir more time and more kills off of a combat. I then am able to simply set up for the kill strike on his army. He gets priority and gets Gwaihir in to troops, Aragorn into Dalymyr and then castles up to mitigate damage. I put my force in readying to use my might for some combats to get some nasty kills. I half move my various 13 archers and delgamar into range of Gwahir to make sure I can get a hero kill and do indeed take him out. I then am able to mitigate and take his force down to quarter with some well placed combats with my Hasharin. Dalymyr then loses his fight and takes 2 wounds from a angry aragorn. I then promptly roll 3 2s on my fate and die giving him a massive dig of victory points. The end result is a 11-7 minor win (would have been a massive major win if Dalymyr had passed but one fate let alone two). 


For that event I took a list with 13 bows, 13 warrior throwing weapons (5 hero), and 43 models with 8 might points and 5 3 attack heroes. 

Now to discuss playstyle and why this list is so effective. The synergy is in my humble and probably wonky opinion, one of the best in the game. The Umbar boys got light armor, and the harad are d4 naturally meaning they are overall not to shabby. You get enough fight 4 to not feel like you are at a disadvantage in nearly any matchups or games when it comes to fight value, the combination of the throwing weapons, bows (poisoned) and Haradrim with spear combo so well it is insane. nearly all have threats then that last 3rd that doesn't supports your flexible threats. The heroes only make this synergy even better. They have tons of attacks and have the same throwing weapon threats. Additionally they all have backstabbers and bane of kings meaning they reliably take down everything they touch with ease. This list is so universal in that it has pieces to bait enemies, force enemies into bad positions and surprisingly is defensive. It has so much defensive abilities through throwing weapons, light shields, and heroic defense. The heroes make the list shine and I would never leave home without at least two hasharin and dalymyr if not three Hasharin. They have the strikes, combats, or defenses at the perfect time to make or break the game. They are the list. Delgamar is the glue that makes it function as a machine with his heroic moves on his mega might packed profile. The final thing is the beauty of the humble Corsair captain or Haradrim captain model. The heroic march. That is something that I did not have at the most recent event but I have found to be a vital piece. Heroic march in this list takes it from solid to next level. 

You can kill anything you touch. You can shoot out your own models who are fighting scary threats, and ultimately you have all of the tools to deal with any game in any situation... and as I learned... hatred Gondor really melts the current meta pick. Get heroes out of might then throw Hasharin into them and watch. The one turn a hero botches, it dies. 

Umbar is a top tier army and I have never even needed the leader killing rule (once I have forgot and it would have been nice). The stalk unseen is particularly nice for objective missions but is essential for your heroes to keep them safe from sniping Legolas's and charging cavalry heroes or flying monsters. It deals with hordes exceptionally well with its decent fight value and throwing weapons and archery and great damage dealing heroes. It is great into small elite forces through its concentration of firepower and again usage of the heroes. It is fine into Crebain or magic as one, Crebain melt to 3 attacks, a spear and rerolls to wound. And magic just never can deal with enough of these threats to stay safe. 

Until next time, this has been the Mind of Moria and next time we will be reviewing my time at Adepticon Masters and the GT. I will be excited to reveal the exact list I bring to both events and how they go down.