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So now that I've painted enough of my Kan Wall to not be embarassed of fielding it (1250 points so far! ), I've started to play a normal amount of games (once to twice a week).

However, I've noticed a lot of hassles when dealing with a horde army, such as:

- Time it takes to deploy 85+ models.

- Time it takes to move said amount of models.


I know about movement trays (but I don't understand how they would function outside of the movement phase due to the assault rules) and already read this article, but IMO it's not very helpful to me because it's things I'm already doing and I'm not the tourney type of player.

So any suggestions?

I've actually not found movement to be TOO bad, once you get used to it. I run foot guard hordes of ~120 models, and yeah, it takes awhile, but learning to move faster can mitigate this somewhat.

The real killer for me, as you note, is setting everything up, and, surprisingly, putting everything away. The only way to set up quickly (other than with a board), is to have your army foam perfectly laid out so you can literally just reach in and take out models by the fistful, and you'll have the correct squads still.

Putting everything away in that meticulous order... what a pain...

I always wanted to eventually do a horde army, most likely Orks. But once i hear stories about taking 5 minutes or more just moving units each turn, and then making like 120 dice rolls for shooting, or 60 for CC, the idea starts to dwindle a bit for me. There is something rewarding, though, watching 60 dice roll and realizing they can't beat 20 armor saves. well...they could, just would be alot of luck.

You all have more patience and dedication than I do. I salute you all, horde army collectors!

Divide them up into Platoons. If you use a template for your army builds, divide them up into a logical order and organize your trays like that. Get a coherency template and place them three at a time. You can set up 30 models in less than 2 minutes.

For moving, move you front to where you want it, move your back the same distance, and fill in with model in between. For even faster movement, get trays that hold 5 models each so you can quickly move hordes.

For fighting, I keep a block of dice next to my models. Generally 30 guardsman, so that's 1 brick of Chessex, minus 6. Remove dice as you remove models. Use a cup to roll with, and pick out your misses. Sure, you may wind up with 6 bricks of dice, but hey, why not?

I generally have my containers open underneath the table. When I start taking off models, they go right back into the containers in the slots they came out of. It also keeps track of how many models you have left.

I like to play hordes. It's fun to see people wonder how many more models you can fit on the board when you've already laid out 90 guardsmen. "2k list? Oh yeah, that platoon's in reserve." Good times, really.

Lonecoon wrote:Divide them up into Platoons. If you use a template for your army builds, divide them up into a logical order and organize your trays like that. Get a coherency template and place them three at a time. You can set up 30 models in less than 2 minutes.

For moving, move you front to where you want it, move your back the same distance, and fill in with model in between. For even faster movement, get trays that hold 5 models each so you can quickly move hordes.

For fighting, I keep a block of dice next to my models. Generally 30 guardsman, so that's 1 brick of Chessex, minus 6. Remove dice as you remove models. Use a cup to roll with, and pick out your misses. Sure, you may wind up with 6 bricks of dice, but hey, why not?

I generally have my containers open underneath the table. When I start taking off models, they go right back into the containers in the slots they came out of. It also keeps track of how many models you have left.

I like to play hordes. It's fun to see people wonder how many more models you can fit on the board when you've already laid out 90 guardsmen. "2k list? Oh yeah, that platoon's in reserve." Good times, really.

I don't understand what you mean when you say "If you use a template for your army builds".

I'll try using a dice cup, it'll also prevent a die or two from dropping out of my hands.

Interesting idea to put models that were casualties right back into the trays. I can see this speeding up the packing up time.


I just did a test run of doing a Movement and a Shooting phase as well as packing up the army.

Here's the list that I tested out (and that I'm playing at 1250):

Big Mek with KFF

5 Lootas
5 Lootas

29 Slugga Boyz, 1 Nob with PK and BP
29 Slugga Boyz, 1 Nob with PK and BP
22 Shoota Boyz, 1 Nob with PK and BP, 2 Big Shootas

3 Killa Kans with Rokkits
3 Killa Kans with Rokkits

For movement, it took me about 2 minutes to move everything except for the Lootas.

For shooting, it also took about 2 minutes.

I didn't test out assaulting since I assume it'll be about the same as movement, or a little longer.

Packing up however, took a massive 7 and a half minutes. This may be due to how I have my foam trays arranged (I'm using a Sabol ArmyTransport with 6 1" trays and 1 2.5" tray). Here's the arrangement from top to bottom:

Slugga Boyz with KFF
Slugga Boyz
Slugga Boyz
Slugga Boyz
Shoota Boyz
Lootas
Killa Kans

I have a feeling that if I put the Kans on top, I'll be able to deploy and pack up faster because obviously packing/unpacking 85+ models is the time consuming part.

I run a hordey ork army its a pain to set up, but I just bought myself a galforce 9 assault template that really helps in the movement phase. Its a time saver.

+1 to GF9 Template.

If you are playing a one-off game, then you are mostly stuck. Make sure to pack up boyz as you go and don't just throw them in the deadpile.

During the game, know what you are going to do before your turn rolls around. Horde players have less time to stare at the board and think.

Practice!!! Practicing movement and playing is huge.

I've played 6 tournament games with my new foot guard (110 models or so) and finished all of my 1.5 hour games and 2 of the 3 2 hour games (versus Nids and ended turn 5 at the 2 hour mark).

It all just comes down to practice and getting into a routine.

If playing more than one game, you MUST have a display board of some kind. I also used fantasy movement trays to arrange my guys between games for easy movement between board and table.

AresX8 wrote:Packing up however, took a massive 7 and a half minutes.

7.5 minutes is "massive"? I think the problem here has more to do with your patience than it has to do with horde armies.

It routinely takes me at least 15 to pack up, and that's when I spend some time during the game putting away units that have already been killed. If you want something that takes less than two WHOLE minutes to move on the field, perhaps you could try something like mechdar, or something with land raiders?

I use magnets on the bottom of mine and a metal toolbox. It's heavier to carry around but I can just grab 4-5 guys at a time and just plop them in. Seems to go pretty fast. I use rare earth magnets they cost about $0.10 each so it adds up though especially lately working on my Ork green tide army and skaven.

I'm thinking of a device similar to the thing that resets the pins at a bowling alley, you know, drops down, grabs a hold and picks up. Then you move the entire machine forward 6" and it drops them down

Alternatively, you could get hold of a load of 2" long 'geomag' sections and magnetise the bases, then stick these sections in between the bases, hopefull when you move the first one, all the rest will be dragged along with it (and should hopefully stay in coherency).

To speed up movement + shooting phases, ask your opponent if you can roll for and move your running troops in the movement phase, that way your movement phase takes roughly the same length of time, but your shooting phase is significantly reduced. Not sure if it holds water in tourneys but in friendly games no-one really cares!

As for un/packing, I currently store my orks in tupperware, so it's a case of turning the containers upside-down onto the table and hoping nothing breaks! or grabbing a handful and shoving them back in!