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If all you have ever played is warhammer and/or 40k hordes will be a very alien game. In hordes model count is smaller than in fantasy (ironic considering the name) and the focus is placed on your leader and his/her warbeasts with units of infantry playing important, but less glorious roles. You may also be comforted to know the army balance is much more stable in PP games and there is no codex creep.
The game is balanced more offensively so that a super offensive unit attacks a super defensive unit the offensive unit will generally come out crippling or outright destroying it's defensive counterpart. In fantasy (and even moreso 40k) armor saves give defenders an edge. The flow of the game is also quite different with things building up to a climax on turn 3/4 rather than being slowly worn down from the start with long ranged attacks. In fact, 14" is rather long range for a ranged attack in hordes, giving players an extra turn or two before the enemy starts shooting them up and then less time closing the gap to get into melee.
In spite of the smaller model count tactical depth is far more expansive on a model-to-model basis. Model activation is a big difference in gameplay. Rather than have phases, you activate each unit or independent model one at a time and complete their whole turn before you move to the next. Imagine if in fantasy you could use your archers to shoot and kill a unit in the way of a charge before you had a little individual musician character give your cavalry +1 str then charged your cav in with the buff to crush their now-exposed squishy back line. That example/analogy is a pretty standard turn in hordes and interactions can get even more complex.
The goals and ideals of the rules themselves also differ greatly from GW's style. Rules in hordes are complex but crystal clear. There is absolutly no room for personal interpretation nor gaps that call for it. The rules are precise and explicit, though at times it can be difficult to string together complex interactions of two or more rules together. There is no "roll off to see who' right" clause in hordes, the right answer is there in the rulebook.
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