Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

3 year 40k player, wanting to expand my TT experience.

I have the Khador Menoth box set, but I don't like the models, I've discovered. Too much Vectorman(Sega) for me.
I'm thinking of going Hordes and I'm looking for advice.
Is there an army philosophically similar to Tyranids (back when they were swarmy, not MC's everywhere)?

Not on the hordes side of things.

Despite the name, Hordes factions tend to have fewer models than Warmachine due to how the Fury mechanic works vs the Focus mechanic.

Also, "swarmy" is too specific of a peg to fit a faction into. Each faction has options for a swarmy list depending on how you build it.


Here are some general faction decriptions.


Trolls: More infantry than most Horde lists. Mostly medium based infantry. They're a very tough faction, literally every infantry model has the tough rule(its basically a 5+ save to not die). They trend towards armor stacking and can run lists of elite infantry packing very high armor(Miserable Meat Mountain) They have fewer beasts than other hordes factions, they're expensive and very durable and have high damage output. Infantry covers the scale from cheap fodder(but more durable than other peoples fodder due to tough) to elite units that are few in number.

Legion: The most beast heavy faction. Beasts are fast, hit hard, ignore most of the terrain and LoS mechanics, but are relatively squishy and expensive. On the flipside, Legion also has a ton of really cheap lesser warbeasts. Thagrosh2 can do a specialization in swarming tons of these lessers, but its an odd skew list. They also have a lot of recursion. They have a unit which collects the bodies of the dead and turns them into lesser warbeasts.

Skorne: This is a versatile faction. They can run a lot of beasts, even more than Legion, but they can also run a lot of infantry. They can turn beasts up to >9000. There is even one beast which has a greater than average chance of killing anything it touches. The Bronzeback is literally the Incredible Hulk(BRONZEBACK SMASH!). They also have a variety of infantry casters. Both cheaper less elite units and elite durable and deadly infantry.

Circle: Circle is the "hit and run"/Glass Cannon faction. Everything in their army is fast and delivers decent damage, but tends towards squishy. Although they do have a class of warbeast(Wolds) which are animated constructs who hav good armor, health, and poor defense. When in contrast Wolves are high defense, low armor, and lowish hit health. they can crank up damage output on their beasts too. Infantry are fragile, hard to hit, and fast as well. Lots of non-linear movement shenanigans.


I would recommend picking a faction you like the look of and then we can discuss the swarmy options you have.

I'm really liking the look of Legion, now that I'm viewing the PP site.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I havent played my first game yet, and all I have is a battle box, so I'm not really sure about army config, but Rhyas and Saeryn look cool, and I hear good things about Hex Hunters

Saeryn is a very strong warlock and indeed hex hunters are quite good as well. Rhyas is not outright bad but she does not perform nearly at the same level as her twin.

An issue you may have with the legion battlebox is excess fury beyond your ability to leech it. That is not normal in the faction, just an unfortunate side effect of the models they chose for the battlebox.

From your earlier posts, it seems you are trying to draw parallels between factions but none exist. It is common for those of us who branch out from 40k to try and find some familiar ground as a starting point, but that stops at command checks. and measuring in inches.

 Dais wrote:

From your earlier posts, it seems you are trying to draw parallels between factions but none exist. It is common for those of us who branch out from 40k to try and find some familiar ground as a starting point, but that stops at command checks. and measuring in inches.

Meh fair enough.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also... But Ryhas is a ninja!

Legion have always reminded me of tyranids (6 limbs, chitinous plates, even the colour scheme) so in terms of models, there's your nids but yeah they're more like 4th Nids, MC as far as the eye can see. I guess trolls would be closest to that swarmy style in hordes but they still run a couple of beasts.

I noticed on tactics and different websites that different warcasters have different "themes" or preferable units that compliment their abilities.

What would you say is the cheapest to get into, over all?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I understand that's very broad question. Assume I needed 35 points.

Well in general Legion as a whole will be cheaper as they use lots of beasts. Infantry heavy lists will be more expensive to buy. So most legion casters (except Kallus who does better with infantry lists I believe) will be cheaper to buy an army for than say a troll army or a Khador army.

I'd say if you run a Kallus list that would be kinda skew as well.

His bread and butter is dark guidance (3 dice to hit in melee), which is usually considered a great spell for infantry (the more models taking advantage of it, the better). His feat also involves incubi, which want lots of infantry and is not normally something legion players have a lot of.

Anyway, Kallus can do a swarm infantry type list (with a crazy chestburster feat), but it'll be different than anything else you'd run (therefore expensive).

Keep in mind, most events call for two lists, so a skew list is always nice if it asks tough questions for other factions to answer.

I bet you could come up with a good pot list to get more lessers in that could be good. And whenever the new swarm beasts come in, they could have that nid feeling.

Legion or Cryx.

Legion for the look. And you can play allot of those little warcaster.

Cryx for the "horde" style of play.

 Pyeatt wrote:
I noticed on tactics and different websites that different warcasters have different "themes" or preferable units that compliment their abilities.

What would you say is the cheapest to get into, over all?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I understand that's very broad question. Assume I needed 35 points.

theme lists are all well and good, but you'd be better advised to building "normal" lists rather than tiers, especially starting out. Some tiers (vayl 2, kaya2, butcher 2) are great, others are not so nice.

regardless of where you want to end up, start with the battlebox, and build up slowly. this isnt the game where you just jump in at the deep end. if possible, try and join a journeyman league, and see if there is a local pressganger who can show you the ropes.

Skorne!!!

 Pyeatt wrote:
I noticed on tactics and different websites that different warcasters have different "themes" or preferable units that compliment their abilities.

What would you say is the cheapest to get into, over all?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I understand that's very broad question. Assume I needed 35 points.

Usually beast-heavy armies are a little cheaper than infantry swarms; you spend $30ish on a ten-point heavy instead of $55 on six points of light infantry. As to the warcasters, ignore the theme lists for now; each warcaster is rigged up to play a particular way, but the theme lists are fairly limiting. Starting out it's almost always best to figure out a battlebox warcaster you like and build around them; each warcaster has an approach to the game they prefer, once you've played enough battlebox games to get a handle on the system and the warcaster what follows from that is usually fairly straightforward. Keep in mind that this isn't Warhammer; you don't need to buy a complete and functional 35pt army before you can start to get games in and practice the system, it's perfectly normal to buy a battlebox and just play that until you've got your feet under you and know more about how you want to play and expand. The battleboxes are all fairly good microcosms of how the army in general likes to play (the Circle one revolves around using the beasts to do maximum damage with minimum retaliation, Skorne is all about delivering the Titan, Legion uses expendable lessers to harass and tie up the enemy with fury-efficiency tricks to set up the Carnivean kill, the Trolls lock down and knock people over with ranged attacks and then hit them in melee while they're down).

If you're interested in running an infantry swarm that's generally something you'd look at a warcaster to do, not a faction (Morvahna in Circle, Kallus in Legion, and Zaal in Skorne all run lots of small-based infantry models, off the top of my head); the factions' approach is a little broader.

Theme lists are optional restrictions you can place on yourself to get some bonuses. They're not all created equal however, some themes are amazing, some are meh, and some are awful.

Avoid them to begin with. Just go normal unrestricted. Once you have a handle on the main game you can begin to expand into the niche theme forces.