# Versus... Horde Armies



## squeek (Jun 8, 2008)

Hi all,

Continuing with the Fantasy Versus... series, next on the list is horde armies (suggested by Master Andael and Franko1111). If you want to add your suggestions as to who Fantasy Versus should deal with next, go here for the general thread.

So, horde armies, how do you combat these players that bring hundreds of models to the table? They might not be powerful individually, but your mighty knights aren't going to last forever against an endless wall of cheap troops. Aside from the obvious advantage of rolling dice by the bucketful, there is that weakness of all elite units to contend with, Static Combat Resolution.

Whether it is an endless sea of gobbos, huge blocks of rats that can be fired through by their own guns, or a more unusual foe like massed blocks of marauders and so on, the numerical advantage is clearly in your opponent's favour. Even with a 2:1 kill ratio they will just keep piling forwards.

So how do you plan to combat them? Do you have a preferred unit or tactic that works every time? Do you try to shoot them to bits with massed guns or magic, or perhaps you prefer to play them at their own game and mob them with cheap, disposable infantry?


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## maddermax (May 12, 2008)

Large hoards usually have two things going for them: high static combat resolution and enough units to not worry about losing some, and counter charging whats left. They have the down side that they are usually pretty weak and it's harder to manoeuvre lots of large units. 

The thing with hoard armies is to try to take them apart piece by piece, roll them up from one side or put pressure on a point. If you stop them from focusing their numbers on your troops, you can easily beat them off one by one. Have your units supporting eachother, hit him in the side, and he'll have troubles manovering a large mass of troops around to the right spot.

An elite unit (or two) with enough combat res. of its own, or a way to nullify the static res. of the hoard, can usually cut its way though a number of units in a game. My personal favorite is a unit of knights with a BSB, warbanner, 2 or 3 ranks (being brets) and virtue of duty or discipline. This gives enough of a static res. that even if I get charged by a fully ranked block, I'll almost always have the edge in combat res to start, and my more elite troops will usually pull out a win. Marauders with great weapons though are a bit of a different matter, as they have the chance to do some real damage on the charge...


The other thing is psychology, gobbos especially. Terror causing creatures, or just causing panic by routing some of their units can usually cause more than a few units to run. They may be back later, but its less units for you to deal with at one time, so you can pick apart the rest of his army in the meanwhile.

As with any tactics, your mileage may vary, but hoards are usually not so much of a problem. Mauraders especially are nasty, being hoard troops that can also do decent damage in combat, and combating undead hoards has its own troubles, but generally power to a point, and rip them apart from there.


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## Dafistofmork (Jan 9, 2009)

here we go again-organ guns. let me explaine:
its simple realy-cause enough damage to a unit to make it run away(2 can affect twice as many units per turn) or destroy small units-all friendly units within 6" have to take a LD test. do it on some wolf rider flankers, destroy one unit, the other runs away. 2 birds with one stone.
god i love organ guns far to much...


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## bob3472 (Feb 20, 2008)

I agree somewhat with the previous post. Artillery is one of the most effective ways to deal with hordes. Unless youre faving something that can speed across the feild in a couple of turns or are playing on a small battlefeild it can be not merely effective, but a glorious slaughter. This is most true for Empire, and as my friend above has mentioned already, Dwarves. With so many troops on your opponents side, barring dense terrain and the occasional misfire you WILL hit them. With a Helblaster you can take down entire regiments. They say "Time to bring in the big guns" for a reason. This is not to say that this is the only way to go about it, and one should always have something to protect the crews and the guns themselves but it is my firm belief that artillery's potential for annhilating entire units makes it at least one of the better strategies for Horde-Fighting.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

How about a scraplauncher 
Haven't played a lot of hoarde armies yet but I would love to take them apart with my ogres- I'll have the greater mobility, movement rate and I can hit hard enough to cancel out static CR. A unit of bulls can kill 8+ hoard troops in 1 charge, charging through to hit another unit or to avoid counter charges

I would like to use a scraplauncher on a hoard.. S3 large blast could do a lot of damage is it gets a unit dead on...


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

The more hit and miss artillery is good agaist hordes as the scatter is less relevant when your facing half a table full of troops.
Tarpit units are great against hordes as they are unlikely to run due to scr losses and most have a decent output.
Most of the expensive elite units such as chaos knights, blood knights and the like will chop through hordes with impunity and is unlikely to take much damage back due to poor quality of opponents troops.
even low strength missile troops will cut through most of the horde troops as they are normally low toughness and poor armour.
Anything with frenzy is good as your guarunteed to hit something and misdirection is pointless when your army covers most of the board even savage orcs become an option.
Anything that causes fear or terror will probably see half of your opponents army run and its one of the few times that I'd consider putting a lord on scary monster.
Just remember it can be annoying to try and run rings around a horde army as it probably wont care much the best you can hope for is avoiding combat until you've caused enough damage to make it worthwhile.
I always try and take the battle to the horde aiming to disrupt one sides movement while hitting the other with overwhelming force, then just roll up as quick as possible Ideally using a big tarpit unit to split the army in half.


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## zas240 (Apr 3, 2009)

lots of artillery. Simple


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## Vorag of Strigos (Feb 25, 2009)

My tactic is usually to fight fire with fire and create some high number hordes of my own, such as a 5 by 12 zombie horde, (Shambling horde enables a potential 60 S2 hits should they flee) or send in the stormstroopers (by that I mean black knights and grave guard) Killing blow and fear can go a long way, especially with a 4+ or better armour save again hordes like these, bat swarms and fast calvary are also very useful for hammering flanks and rear. altough I prefer to drag them down with a mass of zombies before comitting more expensive troops into the fold


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## Dragearen (Sep 8, 2009)

Units with an area attack are the best things against hordes (e.g. Ancient Stegadon w/ EotG).

Being a Lizzie player, in 1000 points against horde I usually field a AS w/ EotG to annihilate with 2 spells and melee combat all at the same time, a second Skink Priest to nuke enemies from afar, and the rest all Saurus Warriors to hold the tide.

I have only ever played Skaven though, so that's my experience against them.


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## Fen-Dweller (Sep 25, 2009)

Magic seems to be the key against hordes, though when I field a horde I always take all magic characters or gimmicky characters like a BOWB on a Wyvern or something of that nature. If they don't have much in the way of magic defense then good lores are generally Shadow, Death, Slannesh, HE, Heavens (from a hill to take out whatever they have that isn't blocks), and Beasts. The BT spell is a particular favorite of mine. Speaking of that spell, Warmachines/Terror causing MCs are really the way to get it done against a horde. 

If I had to pick one army to fight hordes with it would be Daemons, hands down. Flamers, Screamers, and GDs are how you deal with those pesky gnat-clouds. That or gunlines/bowlines (if you're WE) to watch them die in droves.

Probably my absolute favorite way to deal with hordes, though, is to take a lvl 4 DP of Slannesh (WoC), run him into the center of the enemy, and cast _Hellshriek_. :biggrin: (This works particularly well if you already have the Tzeentch spell _Pandaemonium_ in play, so your enemies can't use their characters' Ld for the Panic-Bomb.)

Edit*: Add the Doom Totem to that mix and they'll all flee like the cowards they are!!! :biggrin:


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Ah the joys of braingobbler (forces panic check), skullmantle (-1 to Ld for test from character/unit) and the brahmir statue (Skaven take -3 to Ld on psychology tests caused by unit/character).
Played skaven the other day and I felt mean- killed 4 massive units of clanrats having only 'killed' 8 of them... 1 unit with brahmir/skullmantle and causing terror basically made the enemy run off the field before I even got within charge range. If I got close or got the chance of charging the enemy would be taking terror tests at -4Ld


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

As a Daemon Player Id probably go for a Slaanesh Heavy list, plenty of daemonettes to shred those hordes, with a couple of Heralds with Ld Bombs so the little blighters cant use the Ld of their characters and a few mutant monstrosities ( +2 attacks = 6 ) and with rares filled with Fiends and Juggers, maybe Beasts with their D6+1.

Or vice versa a Tzeetch heavy and unleash plenty of firestorms:laugh:


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## Freedirtyneedles (Oct 22, 2009)

played a rather nasty one this weekend, my nurgle infantry army versus nightgoblins. it was a bloody slugfest, but I beat them using hounds to pop the fanatics and kill her doomdivers. also went very magic heavy(3 sorcs of nurgle) and fielded a lord with the filth mace, it was close and bloody and downright scary at times but happens to be my favorite battle so far. Those fanatics can win or lose a game for nightgoblins Imo. oh and fear causing(or terror) models def are the way to go if ya lack the boomsticks.:biggrin:


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## Zorenthewise (Aug 7, 2008)

Against hordes I find Organ Guns and mass SCR to be quite effective. Organ guns can take down whole units (or at least break one or two) to spread panic. By the time they reach my Dwarfs, an Oath Stone unit on the flank means they can't get through my high T and AS and can't flank me, meaning the horde starts to fail combat by 3-4 (gotta love SCR). If they're undead, I take MRoValaya on a banner and prevent all magic within 12" of the banner carrier.


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