Middle-Earth: Strategy Battle Game – War Mumak of Harad

Wow! What a sight to behold! The War Mumak of the Haradrim is the largest model in the whole of Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. It is truly the most impressive. I brought one of these when I was 13 and adored making it. It’s still a very special model to me today, 17 years later. I brought another very recently. The process is just as fun and I enjoy having another model that I will likely keep and love for many years.

Unboxing & Component Quality

As you can imagine, there are a lot of big pieces! And they require a lot of plastic glue and patience. They do however slot nicely. Your imposing elephant comes together nicely and the instructions are clear. You should attempt to remove flash and mould lines left on the parts when removed from the sprue. As the components are large, the imperfections are more noticeable. If you aren’t too bothered about this then crack on to painting. If like me you fuss about every join then you’ll be spending a few more evenings filling and sanding back joins to perfection. This is a typical process on all models, it just takes longer with a beast of this size.

Customizability

As the model is so large and you’ll need a few evenings to assemble it, you might be reluctant to customise. The model does however suit the personal touch. Using green stuff, balsa wood, string, the elephant can be easily and stylishly customised.

During the painting stage, the fabric of the Howdah can be painted to suit your army’s primary colours. The Mumak itself can be decorated with warpaint to glamify or to terrify your opponents!

The Mumak comes with 12 Haradrim Warriors and 1 Mumak Driver. These are among the most colourful of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth folk. You can enjoy applying a myriad of vibrant colour to these warriors. They are basically jewels to dress your Elephant!

I would say that the base is quite unforgiving. With so many bodies, horses and weapons to paint, mostly Rohan warriors, its quite a task. But once painted, you can enjoy placing many tufts of grass all over the huge base. If basing is your favourite bit of modelling, then you’ll love the space offered by this model! But me…I just covered everything over with sand. Is that cheating?…

How Does It Perform In-Game?

In-game, the Mumak does as much damage as you would expect a giant elephant to do. It’s a steamroller! Get it running in the direction of enemy warriors and it can trample them in the Move Phase. It is particularly good for dismounting cavalry units. It can then fight off more determined enemies in the Fight Phases. Your 12 Haradrim Warriors can also shoot your opponent from cover. This moving platform also allows you to sneakily shoot into combat. You might be the Evil side, but you wouldn’t hurt your high defence Elephant! With 12 shots, you are also dealing oppressive damage in the Shoot Phase too. Basically all Phases of the game deal significant damage.

The downside of controlling a crazy giant elephant is when you losing control of your crazy giant elephant! Hero’s can outfight your Mumak. If they score wounds, your beast must pass courage tests. Any failed means that the beast will be controlled by your opponent for the next Move Phase. The Mumak will be set loose on your army instead!

So, Why Pick Up A Mumak?

The model encourages you and your opponent to think carefully about the placement of not just individual troops, but the whole army. Having a Mumak in the game is like no other. It is a powerful creature with exciting rules that make for a great game. Plus it looks amazing on the gaming board, being the biggest of all miniatures in MESBG. It looks so good that its always tempting to get more…