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I have created a mission for myself to create a new army. Been playing Marines and Eldar for years and need something a little fresh. My gaming group already has SM, IG, Necrons, GK, Tau and Eldar, so I want to throw a monkey wrench into that. Trying to decide on a Xenos "horde" army to bring to the table and find myself split between Orks and Tyranids. Both have their pros and cons in my eyes. So, my question to you, fellow DakkaDakka members is, if you were in my position, which would you choose, and possibly why? I don't care if I win or lose, I just play to have fun, but I can't financially support doing both (which was my first option), so looking for your insight.

I personally like Nids because they don't have vehicles.
Eveything they have is just 1 organism to counter something else.

Other races build titanic machines with advanced technology?
We'll just make a baby bug big enough to eat it, because feth technology.

If you're looking for fun, then Orks are the better bet. Nids are hurt by 'only 7 units are worth taking'-itis and formations are key. Not sure about you, but that isn't very fun to have my list dictated to me for a hope of winning. And I do sorta envy the Ork players for how much them seem to be having with their ugly green pigs off of the table too.

I have orks, nids and chaos. Orks are by far the most fun. They are fun to model/paint and fun to play. You have near limitless convention options. I have always had a blast playing even when I lose.

Orks are fun to play and play against. I would also add that they're a little less copy/paste when it comes to painting them, which is a plus for me.

Orks are definitely the better Xenos horde army right now.

Necrons can do horde.

100 warriors + overlord + lord wirh res orbs in each squad is I think around 1700 points.

Orks. Orks are the coolest xenos faction. (YMMV, o'course)

Alcibiades wrote:
Necrons can do horde.

100 warriors + overlord + lord wirh res orbs in each squad is I think around 1700 points.

I'd add Ghost Arks to that just to add to the fire power and durability of the units, but that means cutting out some things to make them fit (so maybe only 60-80 Warriors instead).

As a general rule, a res orb + reanimation protocols doubles the effectice wounds of a unit, so that's 200 wounds right there.

There's no stopping that space zombie horde.

The most fluffy horde xeno armies are orks and tyranids. You should probably read their codexes at least - both old and new cause the new ones are not as hilarious as the older ones, for example, ork's 4-th ed codex fluff is a canonical example of pure awesome while the 7-th one is simply fine for my taste.

Orks have a somewhat simple and comical approach to warfare and life on the whole and it's represented well enough on the tabletop. Thus, if you're in for good laughs, you can't go wrong with them. Furthermore, orkses can field a 300-strong single squad with a greentide formation, though, it's advisable to go minimal size of 100 boyz. What's good about orkses is that there are lots and lots of possible viable builds that somehow tend to give even the most dedicated tournament lists a propa run for their money while remaining fun and ballanced themselves!

Tyranids are much less comical than orkses fluffwise. But if you like the idea of rampaging biomass omnoming everything in their path to create even more biomass, they're for you.

Depends. Orks are really good for lots of bodies, with trucks, flyers, and some mechs. Nids are much more bodies, spawners, MCs, and FMCs. It depends what strikes you as more fun, the serious monster Nids or the comical silly Orks.

Personally, I think the Nids can still do really well, despite everyone saying "OMG THEY SUXORZ!11"

Yeah, they struggle at the competitive tournament level, but at most local metas they can definitely hold their own. You just have to play smarter and realize that unfortunately, some of their units are not worth bringing, but they are far from unplayable.

Wait and see if the new dark eldar book has any possible horde options (beast packs maybe). They'd mesh well with your eldar.