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So, in loving Khador but I started them because of Big Smasy jacks only to find that they do infantry, fine.
But now I want Big Smashy but everyone tells me no
1:TROLLS!!!!! No they do heavy infantry and have only a few good casters
2:SKORNE!!!!! Nope they do infantry and have no beast casters
3: Circle? No the dont do big smashy
4: No I dont like legion

Who does big smashy?

Skorne has lots of beast control and they do indeed have beast casters.

Skorne does big smashy better than anyone else except Legion.

Epic Hexeris, Rasheth, and pMorghoul, True they're not dedicated "beast" casters, l can all run 3+ heavy beasts with no problems at all. I took an eMakeda list that contained Molik Karn and three heavies to a 50 point tournament and did very well with that list.

Rasheth can easily run 6 heavies and be fairly competative whilst doing it. Whilst pMorghoul can hypotheticall run 5-6, but the most I've ever put on him was 4.

eHexy whilst he doens't run as many heavies he can support them, and is great with the Mammoth, Black Spot an enemy unit and send 4-7 AOE4 POW15s into your opponents lines.

Menoth can run a lot of jacks, but the're not exactly 'Smashy.'

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

2:SKORNE!!!!! Nope they do infantry and have no beast casters

Whoever told you that is either lying or an idiot.

Skorne definitely has beast casters, pMorghoul for one. And ALL of them can run a bunch of beasts because of Paingivers, and there are other built in fury management abilities.

pMorghoul is the only caster who is wholesale in for supporting his beasts as he has 2 spells which do a lot for them. Plus he can technically be Fury 6 if he wants.


Skorne does do infantry better then other horde factions too though. We have several infantry casters as well, and some very nice infantry.

But to say we aren't a beast faction is false.


For example, a Bronzeback has leadership Titans. Which means they don't frenzy when near a Bronzeback. So you can load up all the Titans you want and they won't frenzy while the BB is nearby. And on your turn the Paingivers can take the Fury away and you can do it all again!

Not to mention most of their beasts have decent thresholds as well,.


I've run 35 point lists which were almost nothing but beasts.

I'll chime in on the part of Skorne. There is very little that does smashy better than Skorne. For the longest time I ran Tyrant Xerxis (considered an infantry warlock) with about 40-50 points of warbeasts, and did very well with it. Even when I did add infantry with him, it was about 11-14 points worth (1 unit of Cetrati). With Beast Handlers, you can safely run a ton of warbeasts without frenzying; under perfect conditions, you could have 12 warbeasts fully loaded (likely 36-50 some fury), then take all the fury off those warbeasts with your 12 Beast Handlers, without any warlock intervention.

Skorne also has the most overkill (depending on warlock). As an example, there's not many other factions where your heavy warbeast can charge a colossal, then be sad because you one-rounded it without spending any fury... (my Bronzeback Titan vs. Conquest)

Just realized that I really don't count Beast Handlers as infantry...

Every hordes faction can do beast Heavy, at least under a few different casters.

Skorne stands out as the biggest of the smashiest. While there is some truth to the idea that majority of the caster stable doesn't do anything particular special just for beasts in the sense of a long "Battlegroup" spell list, it doesn't' really matter.

Thanks to righteously strong beasts and good unit based support, they're a bit like protectorate in that their beasts are always going to be great regardless of caster.

Really, it's the faction with the Bronzeback, Molik Karn and The Mammoth. If that isn't smashy enough to for you, you're probably better off just picking up your minis and slamming them on things while making explosion noises than actually playing the game.

One more thing that should be mentioned about Skorne. Their beast lists are disseptively fast. You look at a model with at base SPD4 without reach, and you doubt you will ever get off the charge since almost everything else will out threat you, but then you look at animi and special abilities of the models; things like Fate Walker, Sprint, Rush, Beat Back, Side Step, Flight, and Counter Charge, will surprise any opponent who thinks that your beasts are slow.

Ehhhhhhh...

How are we defining 'big smashy?' If we're defining it as lots of warbeasts, I'd say Circle comes out ahead still, as both Legion and Circle will typically field more warbeasts than both Trolls and Skorne. In a normal two-list setup, you're almost always going to have a pretty infantry-heavy Skorne list in there, and many of their casters focus much more on infantry than warbeasts.

Now, if we're talking about a combination of hitting power, armor, and fieldability, sure, go with Skorne. They certainly have a number of competitive lists that field a lot of warbeasts, and they have much 'smashier' feel than a lot of the Circle stuff.

Mind you, I'd almost certainly say Legion first and foremost if it wasn't off the table to start with.

Cygnar is what you want. Why so I say this? Because:



These fists are even electrified.

 BoardroomHero wrote:
Ehhhhhhh...

How are we defining 'big smashy?' If we're defining it as lots of warbeasts, I'd say Circle comes out ahead still, as both Legion and Circle will typically field more warbeasts than both Trolls and Skorne. In a normal two-list setup, you're almost always going to have a pretty infantry-heavy Skorne list in there, and many of their casters focus much more on infantry than warbeasts.

Now, if we're talking about a combination of hitting power, armor, and fieldability, sure, go with Skorne. They certainly have a number of competitive lists that field a lot of warbeasts, and they have much 'smashier' feel than a lot of the Circle stuff.

Mind you, I'd almost certainly say Legion first and foremost if it wasn't off the table to start with.

Yeah, I was thinking legion for a bit, then I realized I dont like their casters muchs. Lylyth is the only one Im interested in and that isnt much TBH.

I think Skorne hit big smashy well. Beast handlers , will breakers (for an extended control area), extollers. look at most skorne lists, heaps of them (except for zaal and xerxes )have 1 infantry unit for 8 points which leaves a lot of points for beasts and support, that said I still froth at the mouth just reading Incindiarri (however the feth it's spelt) stats.

Yeah, in all honesty, Skorne is by far a pretty smashy set up in the simplest sense. You send your beasts forward, boost their speed as much as you can, and pull out all the movement shenanigans animi you want, and then go to town with a beautiful array of Raging Elephants with Pathfinder.

Rasheth is able to run low infantry and High beasts due to just fielding 2 units of Task Mastered Gatormen, and then flooding the board with as many Titans as you can.

pMorghoul can pull some clever shenanigans and Abuse is a beautiful spell. If you're worried about a tiny control area, toss in 2 points to double it with a Willbreaker which can take some of our beasts, the ranged ones in particular, and make them able to rain an obscene amount of death onto your foes.

eHexeris isn't a beast caster, but he can definitely make our beasts do some work, as he is our most "take-all-comers" type of caster.

Our beasts hit hard, soak hits, and can definitely move up the board. We don't move like Legion or Circle, but we can definitely slam you at unexpected angles to cause some pain.

Yeah, Circle can definitely cause havoc and smash things. At first glance their beasts look pillow fisted, but they have access to easy buffs like primal or warpwolves warping strength, etc. They also have some great beast casters with their own buffs.

I also thought Cygnar. pHaley + 2 stormwalls is pretty smashy AND big. Even though it is a skew list, it can be effective. Not many factions can run 2+ huge based jacks/beasts. And some of the other jacks like a stormclad aren't exactly lightweights. However, as a warmachine faction they don't tend to want to run a bunch of jacks. usually 1 or 2.

I am not as familiar with Skorne, but everything I've seen and heard indicates they can smash face with their beasts as well. I've dealt with Molik Karn and Bronzebacks and they are mean.

 sing your life wrote:
Cygnar is what you want. Why so I say this? Because:



These fists are even electrified.

A Bronzeback kills that thing without spending even half of its Fury.

NOTHING is smashier than a Bronzeback.

 Grey Templar wrote:


A Bronzeback kills that thing without spending even half of its Fury.

NOTHING is smashier than a Bronzeback.

Hell, A Bronzeback with Xerxis can kill two of those things in a single turn if your opponent is foolish enough to put the two stormwalls right next to each other.

So everybody has sold you on Skorne. I'll go ahead and punt out that Circle doesn't really do big smashy, but they can do smashy, and fast smashy. They have some models that can teleport other models and an animus that ensures a warbeast will be a wrecking ball for one turn in exchange for not doing anything the next turn. If you haven't witnessed the carnage that can result from flinging a heavy warbeast halfway across the table into your opponent's face then you are missing out. Best part, who cares if it will be not so effective next turn. The opponent is probably going to kill it anyway, if it survives that's a bonus.

Plus there's a whole other side of Circle that nobody ever talks about. Take a look at this guy and tell me Circle can't be big and intimidating.

See what you started Hotsauce!

My 2 cents... the smashy'ist army is the one who gets the charge off first!

 Grey Templar wrote:


NOTHING is smashier than a Bronzeback.

Yes, but does a bronzback have electric fists and four massive guns?

 sing your life wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:


NOTHING is smashier than a Bronzeback.

Yes, but does a bronzback have electric fists and four massive guns?

No, but his big brother has 4 colossal guns

 Surtur wrote:

 sing your life wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:


NOTHING is smashier than a Bronzeback.

Yes, but does a bronzback have electric fists and four massive guns?

No, but his big brother has 4 colossal guns

the mammoth does have a couple of big guns, but he still can't electrocute enemies. That's why the Stormwall is so cool.

But it's not about being cool is it? Electrocute is weak and low pow. Nothing compared to a ton of pain in the face:



Skorne's infantry is not much compared to their beasts. You have 4 heavy beast titans, Tiberion character titan and Mammoth colossal titan.

Skorne has so many good smashy warlocks. Take Morghoul and you have an army of Titans charging 11" with free charge and +4 STR. Nothing is smashier than that.

Take Xerxis and you have all your titans with additional die for melee damage. Free boost on charge gives Tiberion P+S 23 + 4D6 damage. And take that with MAT7 and a critical slam. Xerxis is specially smashy himself with combo smite to slam enemy models with P+S 20.

Or try LMakeda, super smashy! Add Bronzeback, Molik Karn and other heavies to her list. She makes everything in her melee range die.

 Grey Templar wrote:


NOTHING is smashier than a Bronzeback.

but the Stormwall is also BIG. And the OP asked for big AND smashy. Not just smashy. In that case I'd take bane thralls.

 Mordekiem wrote:
In that case I'd take bane thralls.

Bane Thralls are tiny compared to the other things on the thread.