Harad guide?

[Rhaenys Targaryen]

Hey can someone give me some tips on playing as Harad? I'm playing on VH/VH because I really like challenges and I get adrenaline rushes while playing on VH. My economy is fine and I'm quite early into the game but I'm wondering what I should do in order to start building up a formidable army quickly.

[Wizad]

Upgrade your barracks and build 2 levels of the archery range in Umbar. Having a higher tier barracks is very important, else you are stuck on spear units. Archery range is less important, it only becomes a must have when you are crossing the river.
Take the shore opposite of Gondor.
Upgrade farms and mines everywhere. You will need lots of money in the midgame.
Create watch towers north of Barad Harn and in South Ithillien (if you're not sure that Mordor will hold E. Osgiliath).
Maintaining a small fleet is advisable. Not only will you be able to rake in cash for completing the blockade port quests, but you can also block the crossing at Pelagir which bottlenecks Gondor should they try to attack.

That's basically it.

[Rhaenys Targaryen]

Alright thanks I'll get on with that.

[Wizad]

To add on the fleet part:
The 'blockade the enemy port for at least 1 turn' quest gives you 500 gold.
The 'blockace the enemy port for at least 3 turns' quest gives you 1000 gold.

Throughout most of my last Harad game, I only had 2-3 ships units at the start, 4-5 in the mid game and 7-8 in the late game. The Gondor AI almost never made ships so I didn't need to worry about losing water supriority. So in your game you need to look at the enemy AI to base the amount of ships that you build on. There is no magic number that always works.
Remember that ships are expensive. Don't build too many ships, better spend that money on economy buildings.