A Noob's Perspective: Serpent Horde

Having recently finished my Dwarf project I decided I wanted to next have a go at an army that is very different. Dwarves are fantastically reliable thanks to their high Fight, Strength and Defence. This also makes them incredibly forgiving. The Serpent Horde, on the other hand, couldn't be more high-risk, high-reward. Nothing is higher than F5 or D5, but they do have some incredibly cheap elite troops. They are the epitome of a Glass Cannon. Let's dive in and take a look.

We aren't going to look at each unit in depth here as that has already been done excellently by the guys at Tell Me A Tale, but here is my two sentence review of each choice:

Commanders

Suladan: A cheap hero of legend with stats to match his price. A great way to get plenty of troops on the board but he won't be chopping through the enemy like most other HoLs.

The Betrayer: A middling Wraith becomes top tier in this army. His Master of Poisons rule will define a lot of SH builds.

Golden King: This guy has shenanigans written all over him. I'm not sure he is quite worth his points but he has a pretty decent fighting stat line and can create some funky combos that we will explore later.

Raza: A bit expensive for his stats but pays for it with his special ability to supe himself up against one character (providing some much needed F6). Bane of Kings helps too but overall I am not sure he is worth it over a mounted King with War Spear for the same points.

Haradrim King: A Captain on steroids; F5 S4 and 2A on a horse with a War Spear for 75 points? Yes please.

Hasharin: Possibly the most glass cannon model in a glass cannon list. If he wins the fight he is going to kill stuff, but if he doesn't he's probably going to die.

Haradrim Chieftain: SH's version of a captain. Pay the extra 10 points for the King.

Mumak: How do you review a Mumak in two sentences? Trample trample, stompy stompy? That'll do.

Haradrim Taskmaster: An interesting choice that could potentially save you a lot of might if variance sings your way. Overall not reliable enough though, take a King instead.

Troops

Haradrim Warrior: An Orc with a better shoot value, an extra point of Courage (but no option for a shield) for 1 point more. Their cheap-ness and the army bonus makes them pretty efficient though!

Haradrim Raider: These really cost 12 points because you are never taking them without either a Bow or War Spear. Pretty reliable skirmish cavalry, just don't go throwing them head first into the enemy.

Serpent Guard: A slightly more elite troop (+1F) than the Warriors. They would be an ideal spear support if your front line troops didn't already have F4 (see below) but since they do they probably won't get used much over Warriors.

Serpent Rider: Some of the most efficient cavalry in the game at F4 S5 and 2A on the charge with poison to help wound. Just keep a banner around because if they don't win they will die.

Watcher of Karna (Bow): The only 3+ shoot value in the army and with poisoned arrows to back them up. Probably an inefficient use of of their stats though, unlike...

Watcher of Karna (Twin Blades): Now we are talking! 2A at F4 and bonuses against spirits make these a scary front line, but at D3 they will die quickly if used wrong.

Abrakhan Merchant Guard: Shock troops with F4 and effective S6. They are going to need supporting but have the ability to chop through most things at a bargain price.

So how can we use these troops to build some lists. Well there are a few archetypes that suggest themselves straight away, so let's dive in and take a look.

List 1: A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Suladan with Armoured Horse
3 Abrakhan Guard
3 Watchers with Twin Blades
5 Warriors with Bows and Spears
2 Raiders with Bows
5 Serpent Riders

Raza
3 Abrakhan Guard
4 Warriors with Bows and Spears
1 Warrior with Bow
3 Raiders with Bows

Haradrim King with Horse and War Spear
3 Abrakhan Guard
3 Watchers with Twin Blades
8 Warriors with Bows and Spears
1 Warrior with Banner and Spear

700 points, 47 Models, 8 Might, 12 Cavalry, 23 Bows

As the name suggests, I have tried to include a little bit of everything in here. 47 Models and 23 Poisoned bows is a pretty huge amount for this points level so in scenarios where I can sit back and shoot I certainly will be doing. When it comes to the actual fighting we have almost half of the models being F4 or above. That is also pretty great. 12 Mounted models also provide a great deal of movement potential. Overall I like this list as I am a big fan of mixed arms forces but there are weaknesses. Heroes will be a problem due to the lack of F6. Also the low Defence of any Serpent Horde army has to be mentioned. Even the lowliest Hobbit will be wounding most of the troops on a 5. That is scary stuff.

List 2: You're poison running through my veins.

The Betrayer with Horse
15 Watchers with Bow and Poisoned Arrows

Suladan with Armoured Horse
10 Serpent Riders

Haradrim King with Horse and War Spear
5 Warriors with Spear and Bow and Poisoned Arrows
5 Warriors with Spear
5 Serpent Guard

700 points, 43 models, 7 Might, 20 Bows

41 out of the 43 models here have a Poisoned weapon of some description. That is a lot of rerolls. It is even more rerolls when The Betrayer uses his Master of Poisons special rule to allow you to reroll all failed wounds made with Poisoned Weapons. To put that into perspective, your fire base of 15 Watchers should be doing on average 3 wounds per turn against D5 or 6 (needing 6s to wound). If it takes the enemy 4 turns to get to you that could be 12 models! That is pretty great for shooting in MESBG. The Betrayer is on a Horse too so he can zip off to join Suladan's charge when he needs to and let the F4 2A effective S5 on the charge Serpent Guard reroll their wounds (which will be double strikes against infantry). That is a lot of killing power.

List 3: Shenanigans

The Witch King (3/14/3) with Crown of Morgul and Horse
Mordor Catapult with Severed Heads

The Golden King
Mumak with Chieftain, Gnarled Hide and Sigils of Defiance

800 points, 7 Models, 8 Might

The Witch King drains a hero's courage. The Catapult lands some heads on him and then the Golden King lowers his courage roll so he runs away. Hopefully some troops run too. The troops struggle to charge the Mumak because of Harbinger of Evil. Trample trample win game. Obviously it won't be as simple as this but the point is that there are multiple threats that make the enemy's heroes spend their resources quickly. Once their Will is spent the Catapult and Witch King become even more threatening as it will only take a lucky 6 or a few Black Darts to deal with them. I am under no illusions that this is more of a meme list but I think it looks like a lot of fun!

List 4: An Elephant never forgets (Grand army of the South LL)

The Mumak War Leader
9 Haradrim Warriors with Bows

Suladan with Armoured Horse and Bow
9 Serpent Riders

700 points, 20 Model, 6 Might, 10 Bows, all mounted

If you are going to take a Mumak then it might as well be the War Leader. It means you can't have a few things in the SH roster but that is fine in this case. Everything is mounted and hits like an absolute truck. There are lots of Might shenanigans from the War Leader as well as combo-ing with Suladan's banner to provide 2 rerolls if you are in range of both. Tasty. The list is probably better if you swap Suladan and the Serpent Riders for a Mahud King and a load of Camels but then it wouldn't really be a SH list!

So there we have it. The Serpent Horde is a great army with tonnes of choices. We haven't even talked about the fantastic green alliance choices they have (Mordor, Far Harad and Corsairs) as there would just be too much to go in to! Your games are probably not going to last long as you will likely kill everyone quickly or die quickly but that is part of the fun! I am currently really enjoying painting some bright colours instead of armour for a change! Also, on the hobby side of things, Contrast Paints could have been named Serpent Horde Paints for how perfect they are together. Let me know what you think about our fanged friends in the comments!

Man I love contrast paints