This is my second favourite neutral position. The one benefit of my favourites, the Corsairs, over this position is the characters. The Harad characters are really bad, the Corsair characters are really good! Harad starts with the worst set of characters in the game. However, you have probably the best economy in the game to make up for it. Considering that you shouldn't be attacked in the first few turns you have the time to make your nation a huge superpower. The only concern for a player of this nation is the actions of the Corsairs and Easterlings. The Corsairs are more than capable of defeating you if they make a surprise attack. With the Easterlings support the Corsairs should be able to completely overwhelm you. However, attacks between the neutrals are rare, you shouldn't have too much to worry about if you get in contact with them and agree to a non-aggression pact. If the two of you go 'toe-to-toe' you will likely ruin both nations.
When playing this position you can have a great time. Increase your economy, recruit huge armies and improve your characters. A declaration by Harad can completely turn the tide of the war. As a consequence, the two alignments should spend a lot of time trying to recruit you and should offer you a selection of artefacts to tempt you over to their side. This is a fantastic nation to play if you can overcome the boredom of the first ten turns!!
Strategy Guide by Brian Mason
Strategy Guide by Tom Walton
The Haradwaith Starting Information
Strategy & Tactics: The Haradwaith
From Brian Mason
The Harad start the game in a unique position. While strategically they are in almost the same boat as the Corsairs they are different in many aspects. They are very strong, economically, like the Gondors, but lack any significant character strength. Before we get a look at this very interesting position, lets take a look at the basic data which I usually present in these articles.
Basic Data
How does the nation of the Haradwaith compare to other nations? At the start of the game they rank as follows (Allegiance Comparison Tables, Tom Walton, "The Mouth," #3):
among all
among Neutrals
Total Tax Base
2nd
1st
Resource Base
2nd
1st
Combat Strength
19th
4th
Character points
tied for last
tied for last
Artefacts
tied for last
tied for last
The Haradwaith have good production. Expected production (Population Centre Development, Brian Mason, "The Mouth," #2) which has not been adjusted for climate for the nation of the Haradwaith would be as follows:
le
br
st
mi
fo
ti
mo
go
production
775
557
371
0
3121
1101
316
8518
The Harad often win the game (Winners and Losers in Middle-earth, Tom Walton, "The Mouth," #8) placing in nine of the thirty-one games there reported. Most often when the go dark, but also when they opt for the free.
The Strategic Situation
The Haradwaith start the game in a very interesting position. Because of their preoccupation with each other, most of the Mordor nations and the Gondors present little risk: they simply cannot afford to spend the troops attacking you. As a military threat, the Quiet Avenger is a non-factor. Her forces start out weaker than yours and you can out-recruit her. The biggest threat you face is from the Corsairs.
The Corsairs are one of the few nations that can out-recruit you. All other factors being equal, the upper hand will probably go to he who strikes first. However, in a war of attrition you would both lose. Despite all this, the Harad must start out preparing for a strike by the Corsairs.
Preparing for a war in Harad
Listed below are key points which will describe preparations which the Harad can make for a war "defending the homeland."
On hiring armies: The ability to hire armies at no cost is, in my opinion, the best special advantage in the game. Only Cardolan, the Fire King, and Rhudaur also have this ability. The Fire King is hampered by not having enough population centres of significant size at which to hire. While the Harad do not have this problem, they do have a problem which Cardolan and Rhudaur do not share: having enough commanders to make this an effective strategy. The only way to do this is to get more commanders. Given your economy invest the money and get commander/agents which, when not into army generating mode can be very effective backup commanders.
Arrange armies intelligently: The major river starting in the 2734/2833 hexside will effectively split your realm into two separate parts. With the Corsairs having a navy better than twice yours in strength, it is important that you have large ready armies and the means to recruit more in both the north and the south.
Bigger navy?: Short answer: no. Long answer: to equal the Corsair navy, in warships alone would require 34000 gold and 51000 timber. This is too expensive.
Improve defensive posture: Eight of your towns lack a tower. You can easily change that. You have six harbours and five ports. Remove most of them. They cost you 4000 gold per turn (the savings here would almost pay for the maintenance cost of the new towers).
Patrol: Give your navy the absolute minimum in troop strength (100 men-at-arms) and patrol your coastline. The objective here is to do as much damage as possible to the Corsair navy if they attack.
Food: Almost all your terrain (and that of the Corsairs) is rough. Use your food properly. An infantry army can move two hexes in rough terrain with food. With a force march it can still move two hexes without food. A cavalry army can move four hexes in rough with food, but only three without. First of all, keep your armies at locations which can feed them, but invest your food reserves in the cavalry armies where they are likely to do the most good.
Other less-salient points
There are other points worth mentioning which are not discussed in the strategic features above.
While you have a need for more commander/agents, you will also need to allow at least one commander to remove harbours and ports, build bridges, and downgrade relations when this becomes important.
If you make your backup commanders 10/20 with the 20 in agent class and ALWAYS have them guard something, it is not necessary to invest the gold in pure agents. At some point, these characters will be good enough to switch over to pure agent actions.
You have more than adequate mages. Have them train in both their emissary and mage skills every turn, if possible.
You have adequate tax base and adequate production, so do you need more? Of course! Make a 30 emissary and send him out. While there is no area on your map not seen by somebody, some places are more inaccessible than others, specifically, the rough hexes along the north side of the Harnen. You also might consider some of the other locations on the map off everybody else's.
Strategy & Tactics: The Haradwaith
From Tom Walton
I've played the Harad twice now, in fact have just completed turn 38 in my most current Harad game (this is the Game That Won't Die). Harad is second only to the Corsairs in terms of which nations I favour, and for very good reason: it's an economic and military monster just waiting to be unleashed.
However, since I've waxed lyrical about Harad before, I'll confine myself to a few points which Brian didn't mention:
With that in mind, always keep capable garrison forces on both sides of the river. Failure to do so will invite opportunistic players to make a quick strike and take your pop centres, which have pitiful fortifications or no fortifications at all.
But be warned: if you start to remove your ports and harbours, an enemy might panic and make a quick strike before you complete the process. Try, if at all possible, to complete the process in two consecutive turns to prevent such a move.
Harad is filthy rich. Indulge yourself by creating split-class characters for the first seven or so open slots. Instead of commanders, go for commander-agents; instead of pure agents, try agent-emissaries. Reserve one slot for a pure emissary to be used to put down camps (the split-class emissary-agents can improve the loyalty of the new camps while guarding them at the same time).
Don't get too attached to your characters. In truth, they really, really suck, and will probably really, really suck for the entire game. If you go good this is especially true as, anyone who's of any note will quickly be assassinated or cursed to death by the Dark Servants.
On the brighter side: as rich as you are, you can easily create new characters to take up the slack. You can't begin to imagine how frustrated the enemy will become when they kill a half-dozen of your characters only to find that you replaced in them in just two turns....
With the strong economy, concentrate on a quick military build-up of properly equipped troops. In my Harad game, the terrain made heavy infantry virtually worthless; so instead of wasting my time on this, I recruited only heavy cavalry with bronze weapons and steel armour. One of these armies was so powerful it actually defeated a large enemy force with a dragon in it.
as Brian pointed out, the Quiet Avenger is laughable at a threat. More so, it's also a tempting target. Adunaphel can't possibly match you in battle, making conquest of her nation easy, fast and lucrative...so long as the other Dark Servants can be convinced that you'll go evil as soon as the campaign is concluded. Or you go Free.
As a final note: if you lean towards the Dark Servants, attempt to put a camp down in the hex opposite of Pelargir, on your side of the river. Gondor will almost definitely blow this bridge and then move to sink your navy, so you'll need a pop centre available to quickly build a new bridge. If you can do this and get a large army across the river on the same turn, you can virtually assure the defeat of the Free Peoples.