Hey my dear readers! I have noticed that there is no proper guide of Harad and so I have created this one. This is my first guide for an evil faction. I really enjoy playing as Harad because of its potential in Middle Earth. I hope you take my advices into account, but not to such an extent that you feel like someone else is forging your realm for you! I have played the Harad guide once before and found it quite easy to expand. I will try to show you the best way for your realm to conquer and evolve. I hope you enjoy it.
This is your richest city when beginning your campaign as Harad. Umbar will be one of your most powerful cities throughout your campaign. I am telling you this because I want you to know that even though it is one of your most powerful cities, I dont want you to concentrate all your money in this city. You must construct buildings in all of your cities, not just one. It will give you more income, stability, security as well as it does not make you dependant on Umbar. Harad starts off with eleven regions, which immediately makes it one of the most powerful factions in the game. You might suspect that since they have some many regions, the cities are poor, but several of them are actually rich. Particularly cities such as Umbar, Gobel Ancalimon, Hyarmen, Hamen and Urabhaya. The latter city is a village in the desert. Now you might ask yourself, how does this city earn so much money? Well the answer is simple. If you follow the roads west, you will notice that it connects directly with Umbar, giving your village a huge trade income. First off I must say that you could either concentrate on economy, making your faction wealthy which again can allow you to recruit many armies, or my favorite which is to balance it out by having a decent military as well as economy, but by still concentrating more on economy rather than military. When playing as Harad you will not have to meet an enemy for quite a while because your faction is located so far away from any enemies. Gondor will rarely attack you and only if you have captured a city bordering theirs. Construct mines in the cities where it is possible and markets in the rest. If you have some spare money, either recruit some troops or construct a bowyer in Gobel Ancalimon. It is entirely up to you. I usually recruit a Southron Warband unit in Umbar and move my fleet towards the city just named. I empty all of my villages and cities in the southern and eastern part of my realm and move them towards the frontline. If you want to you can try to take the rebel city in the far east, but beware that Rhun will probably capture it before you, forcing you to either go to war or retreating your men which will cost money and time.
It is turn two. Move your chieftain and the reinforcing army from Urabhaya towards Amrun so that they may combine their forces with the ones already present. Nearby Hamen you should have almost half a stack. Move it further west to your frontline. I take it that Rhun has already taken the rebel city to the east like I expected? Recruit two units in Umbar as well as a diplomat in Hyarmen. You will need to establish trade rights with other realms. If you are wondering who you already have trade agreements with, simply press the banner in the bottom right corner and press the diplomacy tab. Now hold your mouse over the different faction banners.
There you will see how your relations with other factions are as well as if you have made trade agreements, alliances or allowed military access. Remember to check in on that often. Sometime you might be surprised by another faction attacking you for no apparent reason. If your relation with another faction is terrible or even worse, abysmal, it is likely that the enemy is planning to attack you. If a foreign diplomat is standing outside your city walls it usually means they intend to declare war to you. That is atleast what I have experienced several times during my campaigns. Ofcourse if it is an ally, do not worry. I have never seen an ally break their alliance with me unless they intendt to support my opposing faction.
At turn 3 you should have your men embark your ships and begin the long journey towards Gondor`s lands. Seeing as you are not bordering Gondor, they will not expect you to attack and especially not so far west of their kingdom. We will assault their most western cities where the garisson is low. By capturing these cities, we do not earn regions and a stronghold in Gondor, we also pressure Gondor to split its forces, allowing Mordor to push the frontier further within Gondor. The first trip can be done without spies, but you could also wait another round and recruit a spy if you want to be safe. Move your men further towards the west and recruit some troops in your northern cities. Send your diplomat towards whatever realm you like. I usually send it to Rhun first because of their wealth. End the turn.
The next couple of turns will be pretty similar. Send your armies further to the west and siege the nearby rebel settlements. Now your frontline should look something similar to the picture above. The army furthest to the right should be sent north to take the rebel city above Harondor. That will enable you to trade directly with Mordor`s cities, that is unless Gondor has pushed them back. The army to the left should be sent to capture the rebel settlement to the west, which has the name Amon Eithel. It does not have much income, but the region is large and allows you to construct watchtowers all across your northern borders. Continue playing two more turns and siege the rebel cities. Do not spend money on worthless buildings such as crop rotations. Yes they do give you a population boost as well as a bit of income, but if you buy them now, your economy will drop quickly. Be careful about accepting adoption proposals as well. Harad has a large population and will because of that frequently receive several generals. Do not accept them unless they are young, are decent commanders and have retinues. Otherwise it will just be a waste of money. They do not come for free you know. You will still have to pay their upkeep and seeing as they are all general units, the prize can be pretty high.
This turn your army should be besieging or already captured the rebel city of Amon Eithel. Play the battle and earn your generals some retinues. Before you move away from the city, use your general to build some watchtowers in the northern parts of the regions. Do not waste lots of money on watchtowers. Two or three watchtowers will cover the entire area. Tir Ethraid should now also be under siege by one of your armies. In the far west of Gondor, your army should also be in reach of an enemy city. It lies by the mountains in the far west. The following turn you will be able to take the Gondor city and claim it for your own. In the north you can now assault the city of Tir Ethraid and thus establishinga a direct trade route between you and Mordor. The downside by taking this city is that you will now border Gondor, but the amount of forces you will be sending north is so great you need not fear any army of Gondor. I suggest that you play the first battles because you must get a feel of how the Harad units are and what they are capable of! We dont want you to one time face a huge army and not know what to do with your men, do we?
The next turn you can move your general who is located in the north towards one of four directions. The first one is the one to your west, which goes by the name Barad Harn. The second one is on the island to your west. The third one is one of Gondor`s cities, Linhir and the last one is to the east, Pelagrir. I do not recommend you attempt to take Pelagrir because Gondor will immediately answer with thousands of troops headed your way. Again it is your choice, but I usually go for Linhir.
Now you can take the city in west Gondor easily. If you have the money, construct The Shrine of Melkor. We need the city`s population to join your culture! If you do not have the money then wait for the next turns as build one as soon as you are able to. It is essential if you want to keep moving. If you fail to do so, the city will rebel unless you have several units garissoned in the city. Move your army further east and take the two other unprotected cities. If you can afford it, construct dirt roads where possible. You need the income as well as the possibility to travel quickly. Try to send some units as reinforcements as frequently as possible.
In Gondor your army should now be taking a village called Pinnath Gelin and quickly move on to the city further south. You need to take it before they recruit more units there! At the same time, your general and his half stack should be close to Linhir by now. I hope you have brought reinforcements. You might not need them at the moment, but having some extra troops is always good. Once you have taken Linhir and Lond Galen Gondor will fall pretty qucikly. Mordor will push onwards, defeating whatever remains of the soldiers left by the outskirts of Minas Tirith and Osgiliath. I think you can take it from here. There will still be some good fights left in Gondor after this, so do not think you can just conquer Gondor that quickly. Once Minas Tirith is taken, an army will appear and it might just be powerful enough to change the tide of war! Good luck my friend!