Hi 100% new player, I really want a very flexible army something that is a jack of all traits kind. Don't really know where to start building. Haven't gotten any models yet so hopefully that makes it easier to start a list. Um just any thoughts feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Hi welcome to the game! Before you start any army, I should let you know, Easterlings are pretty models but probably the worst faction in the entire game. As someone with 1000+ pts of them, I can tell you they are garbage. Khand I think is similar. Harad on the other hand is quite good. Of course this doesn't matter if you don't care about competitiveness and are just out to have fun.

To start Harad, I would get 1 set of Haradrim warriors, then either the Golden King or Suladan. After that a Harad Command Set or a Nazgul and then elites like Watchers of Karna of Abrakhan Merchant Guard. That should get you started.

For Easterlings, Khamul the Easterling is a must. Then probably an Easterling command set and as many warriors as you can get.

Hope that helped and wasn't too long

I second Mcgarnacle.

Well Easterlings I love dearly, I tried to main them as my main evil army... now I have an Easterling and Harad army as my main evil force.

Easterlings are not a Jack of all trades, they do Jack at all their trades. That said, Easterlings can be reasonably effective up to 400 points. Beyond that and their lack of options and their opponents having enough points to take their elites mean you'll be outfought. Add to that that their gimmick, the phalanx is likely to trap their own men and that only 2 pikes per box and it becomes even worse.

Harad, on the other hand, is amazing. Even an army of their plastics can be rather brutal. Harad plays differently to a lot of armies in that they die like no tomorrow but they dish out the hurt. A good Nazgul to have in a Harad army is the Shadowlord, he offsets your weakness to bowfire and will let you dictate the pace of the game with your archery. The Harad elites like the serpent guard, abrakhan guard and watchers of Karna are all also powerful additions.

Harad and Easterlings both have a 50% bow limit, so you can really bring the hurt to the enemy. Harad is cheap to field in droves, even the elites are comparatively cheap. Have a think how you'd like to play them, as Harad with Umbar (priates and reavers) can be included together but if they are then you will lose the scorpion sting bonus - that's the 50% bow limit.

As a new player I would recommend starting simple and going pure Harad, without Umbar. You can grab a box of Easterlings Kataphracts if you want to include Easterlings as the box comes with a captain option in the kit. For the haradrim I would recommend 1 or 2 boxes of raiders and 1 or two boxes of haradrim warriors. Raiders you might have to go to gw for but no harm checking eBay especially for the basic warriors, who are there in spades. You could get the haradrim command pack if you wanted but a lot of that can be converted pretty easy from the basic warriors.

After That, adding abrakhan guard and the watchers are a great idea. Serpent guard in my opinion are a waste on foot while the serpent riders are godly. A wraith will help you. Easterlings pikes can be useful but they're so hard to get! If you add Easterlings, use them against S3 opponents and consider them as professional not-diers who's main roll is to walk in front of your army as a meat shield.

Task masters are amazing!

Awesome thanks. I guess another side question. Why is Easternling so bad? Maybe its the fact that I'm a new but they seemed pretty solid. I thought they were on par with armor. is it the lack of spears? Just asking so I can change my play style.

It comes down to the meta, or the standard against which all armies are measured. The "meta" if Fight 4, with Easterlings being Fight 3. Strength 4 is also meta, with Easterlings again coming in with a paltry 3. However, the fact that they are "average" means they are not cheap enough to horde out like Goblins or Hobbits. This puts them in an awkward situation where they are either outfought or outnumbered by pretty much every faction.

Easterlings have no native monsters aside from Khamul - who while good, is expensive, can only be taken once and is shared with other lists (both literally and also in the sense that most evil factions get a wraith).

As mentioned above, the meta is basically 100% anti Easterlings. The game favours high fight, high defence, high strength armies. Against Mordor, Morannons cost the same but hit at s4 - they lose out on one courage for that. One. Add a shaman to channel fury and they are strictly better. Uruks are the same boat but they outright you and will be killing on 5s, same as iron hills. In essence, Easterlings have the exact same statline as a warrior of Minas Tirith. You get a cool special rule but you never get to use it because of how expensive pikes are irl or you need to convert some. If you convert them you're still not in the clear, as a phalanx ends up trapping your own men.

Your black Dragon upgrade puts your pikemen at the same cost of an elf spearman with shield... Which has better fight, equipment, courage and versatility.

D6-8 walls will wreck you as you simply have no way to crack them. Kataphracts have no access to lances, you're paying extra points for an armoured horse which is overdosed and overrated, they cost more than a knight of Minas Tirith or a haradrim raider - both of which perform better thanks to their lances.staying power on cavalry is not as useful as killing power. Heck they're more expensive than serpent riders! With the black Dragon upgrade they're one point less than a Mirkwood cavalry model with shield which has much better stats, woodland creature and a banner effect.

I can't really comment too much on the khandish apart from to say they're similarly pointed and stat to a mildly improved orc with 2 handed weapon and perform like it. They're expensive and OOP.

Harad makes an ideal ally as it is good at everything Easterlings are bad at and the opposite is also true. Easterlings in a combined force can be a holding power that ties the enemy up with their lives while you can focus your Haradrim on specific areas. Rumor is that Easterlings will be boosted with the new Pelennor Fields supplement

I agree with the above poster that the Easterlings are less than top notch but they are not boring to play if you can get yourself a full roster. Still they are expensive and time consuming to amass because of the limited number of pikes per box. If you just want a starting force that can serve as a starting force they are not a bad pick because they make nice allies for Harad and Mordor. Alternatively, you might want to consider Gondor as a starting force. They can make a nice army at smaller point levels thanks to some cheap heroes that allow for larger numbers of high defense troops. Plus they have a good amount for fight four to work with as well as cavalry, siege weapons, and some higher class heroes. They also make serve the position of ally rather well if you want to expand into other faction.

I would also recommend building up both an evil and a good army at the same time. Preferably with different styles of play. Like having both Harad and Gondor or Rohan and Moria, Durin's Folk and Angmar. That might not be something you are interested in committing to but I think it will provide you with a way to change up the pass of your games and painting by switching between the two from early on. Most people collect a fair number of armies for that reason anyway.

Do you have any ascetic preferences at present? What do you think about using proxies for some stuff as well? That can make something like Rohan or the Survivors of Lake Town a lot more interesting to collect.

_________________
"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Awesome thanks for the explanation. Makes a lot more sense now. The only preferance I have is that its a different from the norm but survivable. I just really like different armies for more of a verity. I currently am building both Harad/Easternlings and Durin's Folf/Lake Town Guard. Those were the only real model ranges I really couldn't wait to paint up. Then I found out that not all humans fell into the Kingdoms of Men book lol. But I'm just happy to get a start on this hobby.