Best anti-hoard unit on the Codex?

[waaanial00]

Thing with the Thunderfire cannon I have found is that its much a mechanism for misdirection as it is a solid anti (almost) everything unit.

 

Place it in ruins slightly away from the main bulk of your forces and the hoard will direct a substantially larger force than is neccessary for its destruction to go deal with it. Once had a Chaos player direct a Demon Prince to ensure my Thunderfire died, complete overkill and because of its position relative to the rest of the army he did nothing but kill the Thunderfire before getting shot to pieces by my other heavy weapons.

 

If you adopt an "everything dies" attitude to 40K you will be surprised by what tactics are opened up. I find that after 2 turns of shooting the enemy is well within range of a Rhino based bolter blitz and flaming so if the Thunderfire doesnt last beyond turn 3 its not a major deal if your list is built around its destruction.

 

In terms of anti hoard one of the best has to be Sternguard, 2 heavy flamers. The amount of death these can cause to a hoard is amazing. Be it at 12" or less they will cause more than enough wounds on anything to ensure your hoard troubles cease to be an issue.

 

Also Vanguard, they might be damn expensive but they are still 4 attacks each on the charge and can easily stack up a load of kills on lightly armoured enemies without starting to pay for more expensive upgrades like lightning claws and Storm Shields.

 

Wan

[Voltaire]

Thing with the Thunderfire cannon I have found is that its much a mechanism for misdirection as it is a solid anti (almost) everything unit.

 

Place it in ruins slightly away from the main bulk of your forces and the hoard will direct a substantially larger force than is neccessary for its destruction to go deal with it. Once had a Chaos player direct a Demon Prince to ensure my Thunderfire died, complete overkill and because of its position relative to the rest of the army he did nothing but kill the Thunderfire before getting shot to pieces by my other heavy weapons.

I agree. Thunderfires are best used as a nuisance for enemy units. A distraction basically, nothing more.

 

In terms of anti hoard one of the best has to be Sternguard, 2 heavy flamers. The amount of death these can cause to a hoard is amazing. Be it at 12" or less they will cause more than enough wounds on anything to ensure your hoard troubles cease to be an issue.

Plus, if you spend the points to by combi-flamers for most of the unit (Dear God thats expensive) you can have 8 single-shot flamers for ork mega hoards. Combine that with the special ammo and the H-flames, and were talking extermination.

 

Also Vanguard, they might be damn expensive but they are still 4 attacks each on the charge and can easily stack up a load of kills on lightly armoured enemies without starting to pay for more expensive upgrades like lightning claws and Storm Shields.

Wan

But with the additional upgrades they can rip through a hoard without delay. No armor saves means close to 20 dead models per assault. Still it's very pricey and I wouldn't recommend it unless you had points to spare...

[Arkios]

Also Vanguard, they might be damn expensive but they are still 4 attacks each on the charge and can easily stack up a load of kills on lightly armoured enemies without starting to pay for more expensive upgrades like lightning claws and Storm Shields.

Wan

But with the additional upgrades they can rip through a hoard without delay. No armor saves means close to 20 dead models per assault. Still it's very pricey and I wouldn't recommend it unless you had points to spare...

 

Meh, If you are using them to charge/counter-charge a mob of boyz with 6+ saves, why waste the points on power weapons? 40 normal attacks on the charge plus the 10 bolt pistol shots if the target is unengaged will do the job just fine at 260 points (10 strong with rhino). Statisticaly, that will rack up 12 dead boyz before they even get to swing back at you. They will lose combat, fail their Ld check (with probably a -8 or more modifier if they are lucky), and get swept with their low initiative.

[Voltaire]

Has anyone considered scouts as being an excellent anti-Hoard unit?

 

I mean think about it. They're cheap, expendable with free assault 2 rifles that shoot at 12'' and can fire small blast templates that wound on 2+.

 

Sure they're not capable of standing alone... or at the very least in small numbers, but for the cost and capability I would say they are well worth it.

[IronDuke]

Well, in my first (and so far only battle) I ran a command squad with 2 flamers in, 2 marines with storm shields and the mandatory apothecary. My captain also runs around with a combi-flamer, so the squad is able to unleash 3 templates a turn.

In said battle the squad hopped out of their razorback and toasted a squad of 15 daemonettes to death. (I actually only fired 2 flamers at the squad, saving my captains for later and the rest rapid fired). Very effective. The squad then got assaulted by Skulltaker and managed to beat the filth down, praise the emperor for storm shields.

If you have the points, look to the command squad. You could get to the point where you are able to lay down 5 templates in your first turn of shooting, throw in a couple of storm shields for the invuln and the FNP from the apothecary and you have a very survivable squad.

ID

[Blood Scorpion]

My suggestion would be to get a squadron of 2 Typhoon Speeders and upgrade one of the Tornado Squadrons to the same - they are probably my favourite unit right now. Next drop the Libby and get a third MM/HF Tornado Speeder for the remaining original Squadron. The third MM shot really makes them much more reliable at taking down an armoured target.

 

Drop the Assault Terminators down to 5 and get a squad of Grey Knights allied in from Codex Deamonhunters. They all come with Storm Bolters and Strentgh 6 close combat weapons, so charging out of a Land Raider they put the hurt on most things from a large mob of Ork Boys to a Carnifex. Lysander can therefore accompany this unit allowing them to bennefit from Bolter Drill and also giving them an even greater edge in combat. You'll need a Crusader or Redeemer for them though as they don't have Frags like normal Marines and as both of these tanks are more suited to delivering your combat specialists why not take one of each for even more anti-horde (but add a MM to both so they can still pop tanks)!

[Roachboy]

In my last game I tabled my friends Ork army, (he runs with LOTS of boyz) and the MVP for me was the chaplain led assault squad (2 flamers).

 

Close second was the ironclad with Hurricane bolter and heavy flamer. Dreads in general can be useful, as long as you can avoid hidden powerfists.

 

Also as waaaanial mentioned, sternguard. True all rounders and I think that most lists should have them.

 

Cheers, Roachboy

[Voltaire]

Hmm... A command squad is capable of significant destruction though as with all things their power is not free.

 

 

 

I've on rare occasion used a command squad with three lightning claws and three storm shields. As well as a standard.

Combine that with a claw armed captain adorn with artificur armor, plus a Librarian.

Give them all bikes and you have....

 

One of the best anti-infantry units available to spacemarines.

[The Normish]

Would a Predator Destructor be a good anti-horde unit? It seems like it would.

 

EDIT: spelling.

[Meatman]

What about the humble land speeder with 2x heavy bolter? 60 points for 6 strength 5 AP 4 shots. Take a squadren and get 18 heavy bolter shots for 180 points!