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I don't see any rule preventing Shambling Horde from being legal in Skirmish. I also don't see how it would make zombies not terrible either. I guess it could be nice to tie up someone and get multiple attacks in at once...?

If you had a Necromancer as your General this could be more useful as you can get them to attack twice... Hmm...

Was just going through Death and looking at combos.

I think the 'each model is its own unit' overrides that. Certainly that is the intent. Merging them isn't a great idea anyway since it means extra damage from multiple attacks, high damage weapons, etc could carry over as opposed to being wasted on just one zombie.

Well after some more research elsewhere, it seems that this is actually a balanced rule. It's actually not really great to put them all into one unit considering they have no save, and damage would spill over.

One kind of sort of neat combo, is you could keep them all separate. Then at a later hero phase, merge them, use your Necromancer to get two attacks, and if you Necro has Inspirational Fighter, they re-roll 1's. I mean... they're still pretty terrible, but if you have some spare renown, it's worth it (maybe?) to throw a few zombies down.

 eekamouse wrote:
Well after some more research elsewhere, it seems that this is actually a balanced rule. It's actually not really great to put them all into one unit considering they have no save, and damage would spill over.

One kind of sort of neat combo, is you could keep them all separate. Then at a later hero phase, merge them, use your Necromancer to get two attacks, and if you Necro has Inspirational Fighter, they re-roll 1's. I mean... they're still pretty terrible, but if you have some spare renown, it's worth it (maybe?) to throw a few zombies down.

Having run into (and right over) this kind of force, I will say that at 1 point each, zombies are a pretty good deal. They caused some initial hesitation from me, and I can imagine their sheer number could cause others the same. even 4 zombies stood little chance against my liberator though. we played at 30 reknown and I was confronted with a necro and 8 zombies. They were not much threat to stormcast, but they did restrict my movement quit a bit by getting gummed up in my hammer while the necromancer went about trying to win the scenario (vortex of power)

So...a zombie mob doing what it is intended to?

rmeister0 wrote:
So...a zombie mob doing what it is intended to?

ultimately it was unsuccessful as the 2 liberators in my force did manage to kill them all, and mr skullhelmet caved in the necro's melon as well. but yeah if used as more area denial and tar pitting zombies can be pretty good. I dont think it fair to expect them to bring down too many folks though, and cavalry will be able to easily ignore them.

 thekingofkings wrote:

rmeister0 wrote:
So...a zombie mob doing what it is intended to?

ultimately it was unsuccessful as the 2 liberators in my force did manage to kill them all, and mr skullhelmet caved in the necro's melon as well. but yeah if used as more area denial and tar pitting zombies can be pretty good. I dont think it fair to expect them to bring down too many folks though, and cavalry will be able to easily ignore them.

Ya... Death in general is really lacking in the 1-2 Renown model arena compared to the other factions.

 eekamouse wrote:
I don't see any rule preventing Shambling Horde from being legal in Skirmish. I also don't see how it would make zombies not terrible either. I guess it could be nice to tie up someone and get multiple attacks in at once...?

If you had a Necromancer as your General this could be more useful as you can get them to attack twice... Hmm...

Was just going through Death and looking at combos.

Not real familiar with Death so I am asking is the Shambling Horde a battalion option? If it is then by skirmish rules it isnt allowed. I played a buddy who plays Grand Alliance: Death and he runs a Wight King with a bunch of skeletons and having the option to ignore wounds on a 6 was extremely frustrating, but eventually my Blght Kings prevailed, but not without losing a unit of my own.

 SGrimhart wrote:

 eekamouse wrote:
I don't see any rule preventing Shambling Horde from being legal in Skirmish. I also don't see how it would make zombies not terrible either. I guess it could be nice to tie up someone and get multiple attacks in at once...?

If you had a Necromancer as your General this could be more useful as you can get them to attack twice... Hmm...

Was just going through Death and looking at combos.

Not real familiar with Death so I am asking is the Shambling Horde a battalion option? If it is then by skirmish rules it isnt allowed. I played a buddy who plays Grand Alliance: Death and he runs a Wight King with a bunch of skeletons and having the option to ignore wounds on a 6 was extremely frustrating, but eventually my Blght Kings prevailed, but not without losing a unit of my own.

Shambling Horde is a unit special rule for Zombies.

...........which allows units of zombies within 1" of each other to merge together to form one unit. BEFORE a FAQ I would create a mega unit of 150 zombies. This way a Vampir elord could give them ALL +1 attack and they could pile in and attack twice from the necromancer. It was glorious. Then GW had come in and ruin my fun. Havent touched my death army since.

Which FAQ was that? As far as I know, that strategy is still viable. Hell, I have a buddy who like to run a skeleton horde with a Wight King and a Necromancer. Uses a Magewrath Throne to allow them both to use their command abilities and basically does the same thing.

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Errata/AoS_Errata/warhammer_aos_death_en.pdf

Q: Can I use the Zombies’ Shambling Horde ability to create
a unit that is larger than the normal maximum unit size for
a Zombie unit in a Pitched Battle? Does it cost reinforcement
points to use the ability?
A: No to both.

 Sal4m4nd3r wrote:
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Errata/AoS_Errata/warhammer_aos_death_en.pdf

Q: Can I use the Zombies’ Shambling Horde ability to create
a unit that is larger than the normal maximum unit size for
a Zombie unit in a Pitched Battle? Does it cost reinforcement
points to use the ability?
A: No to both.

Given the first part of that answer, my leaning towards this not working in Skirmish at all is that much higher, since it does not seem to override unit maximum (which in Skirmish is 1). Yes, I know, this wasn't directed specifically towards Skirmish, but the intent of not violating unit maximums is pretty clear from this answer.

 Sal4m4nd3r wrote:
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Errata/AoS_Errata/warhammer_aos_death_en.pdf

Q: Can I use the Zombies’ Shambling Horde ability to create
a unit that is larger than the normal maximum unit size for
a Zombie unit in a Pitched Battle? Does it cost reinforcement
points to use the ability?
A: No to both.

Ah. Okay. I misunderstood you. You meant you were going over the maximum unit size. Yeah. That doesn't work anymore.