70 man horde, effective?

[Hrothgar Beastslayer]

Ahhh its totally a list opinion thread, but not on revisions, tactics etc. Im just looking for some thoughts on a list I plan on bringing to a local tournament.

The list consists of:

 

4 Grey Hunter squads of 10 men, powerfist, 2 meltas and wolf standard

2 Blood claw squads of 15 men each, powerfists

and An HQ i havent quite decided on a leader, possibly ragnar or a thunderhammer lord.

 

This is for 1500 pts, and im hoping to simply overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers. Now one thing I could do is lower the number of blood claws to include 2 drop pods for 2 hunter squads to drop in the enemies ranks early on to destroy high priority targets and die horribly the next few turns.

Im not asking for revisions (but by all means if you have an idea, shoot) Just wondering if you think this could be an effective list, I honestly dont think anyone expects 70 marines to deal with. Thoughts welcome and encouraged.

[morehardcore]

70 marines to be honest isnt that scary to me since all of the are only move 6 inches a turn they wont get to threat range very fast, and since i have 15 missiles in my list they will go down fairly well. its a cool list but i doubt its that good in objectives (footslogging never works there) as it is slow and lacks units that can sit and hold objectives. in Kill points it should be fine although eldar and deldar might cause some issues (fast vechiles that will just kite you up and down the board), also the list is fairly low on anti infantry which might be a problem vs orks. if you can include some long range anti tank and add something to cause pressure it should be great!

[muadib02]

Ive been playing footslogging wolves for a year now. i typically fit 40-50 grey hunters and 15 long fangs in my army. And they get around quite well as long as you remember that you can run...be wary of high str, low ap blasts though. I have actually done quite well with this army...Rune Priests with Storm Caller help alot.

 

I do have to agree with hardcore, you have no support so you will spend several turns getting shot without dishing anything out...this will hurt you (especially at leadership 8)

[Silverwolf]

Your forgetting the run move Morehardcore.

 

Space Wolf Blog has a post about the title of an image from one of the US tournies I believe, that read something like "13th Company overwhelm Imperial Fists". Image was basically exactly as you've got, some 68 Space Wolf bodies being thrown at what looked like a mechanised IF list. Swarming it with bodies.

 

I would look at changing two of the squads to twin-plasma squads, to push to mid-field and hold, while the rest continue forwards. With any luck you could secure a midfield terrain piece with each squad in Turn 1, giving you the ability to provide at least some mid-ranged fire support for your other 50 marines.

 

Your looking at a turn 3 assault in most cases, sooner considering the majority of lists at the moment seem to be either SW, BA, or GK.

 

GK will eat you alive if they've done their lists right. BA you'll swarm under in most cases. Mech Tau/Eldar/DE are going to be your big issues, but then I assume you already know the weaknesses of your list :P.

 

Effective? Technically no. Fun? Watching your enemies expression change from glee, to doubt, to fear, as 70 howling Space Wolves run at his lines? Yes :cuss.

 

My general rule of thumb with advice on list building is pick a theme, or core unit, and build your list around it. This doesn't always mean an "effective" list, but it will provide a list that has a job that it can do, and has a purpose to how it is designed to work. Yours is quite simple. Throw bodies at your enemy and hope you get enough of them into combat to cause the real damage.

 

One of my more recent lists that has evolved from the Jump Pack WG thread revolves around a rather expensive group, in 1250pt list, that takes up probably 1/3 of the total points in the list. I know it has weaknesses, and I know it has strengths. I'm deliberately never running it against my mate's brother's GK, as he packs his squads with halberds which will quite simply rip me apart. On the other hand, against my mates BA it should be quite a fun game.

 

4th Ed I used to love taking "Death Star" Crusader lists. 568pt unit in a 1750pt tournament list, that either worked, or failed. Was it effective? Sure... sometimes, if it lived long enough. Was it fun? You better believe it :). Still remember the look on the face of one particular static IG player when I told him there was 14 howling Blood Claws and a WGBL packed into it, quite priceless.

 

 

At the end of the day, if you think it could be fun, and your aim is not to create some super effective monster list, go for gold, and enjoy the laughs that follow :P.

[KGatch113]

A. At the 2004 GT I played the guy who came in 6th. He had all DA tac squads with plasma cannons, a chappy, an assault squad, a scout squad and a dread. His army was brutal. I had rhinoes and assault marines and made it half way across the board. That many bodies is hard to kill.

 

B. On the flip side, I have a friend who bought the Battle Company a few years ago...something like 4 rhinoes and the rest of his points in tac squads with missiles etc. While he is a decent player, That army did not do well. I beat him once with a guard army that had 50 models and 2 demolishers.....

 

 

It sounds like fun though....let us know how you do.

[morehardcore]

I wasn't try to say foot slogging is a bad idea i was just saying if you gonna do it make sure you consider the issues your list will have. you need to plan that the lascannons that will normally shoot you tanks will be pointed at infantry. since footslogging lacks "speed" ( yes im including run moves ) you will need to add that somewhere else, either by packing long range shooting (which is its own kind of speed) or TWC or a land speeder or three. I agree with silver wolf footslogging a really almost anything can be a cool fun list, but just throw 70 marines in there and boom isnt a good strategy you need to consider stuff like, how to get objectives, how to deal with faster armies, what if you can't out assault them? what if they packed plasma out the wazzoo.

 

as far as actaul list comments (something that was lacking in my first post) i would say that you may want to take silverwolf's advice and add a few plasma guns in there, perhaps also include some wolf guard (who get cheaper fists anyways) or wolf scouts as well, you could come up with some points by dropping one GH sqaud to 5 men + plasma gun (in order to sqaut on objectives) also keep in mind the headstrong rule and that blood claws arent the power house they were in 4th this list could be very good if you addressed these issues

 

also 1500 is a good points level for this kind of list as most mech spam armies arent that great there and as such most ppl are packing lascannons and missile launchers everywhere but are instead focusing on troops

 

my 2 main suggestions:

add some speed

consider what to do against armies that out close combat you

[RunningWolfFenris]

The lack of mobility is not good here. Plus with crowding in more into a deployment zone, you can lose a lot to blast/ordinance

[Wysten]

A. At the 2004 GT I played the guy who came in 6th. He had all DA tac squads with plasma cannons, a chappy, an assault squad, a scout squad and a dread. His army was brutal. I had rhinoes and assault marines and made it half way across the board. That many bodies is hard to kill.

 

B. On the flip side, I have a friend who bought the Battle Company a few years ago...something like 4 rhinoes and the rest of his points in tac squads with missiles etc. While he is a decent player, That army did not do well. I beat him once with a guard army that had 50 models and 2 demolishers.....

 

 

It sounds like fun though....let us know how you do.

 

Aye, tacticals were his problem. Tacticals are really general, good at nothing, decent at some things. A single missle for every 10 men is not that impressive, not impressive when there are often nearly twice as many combat phases as shooting phases, and that the bolter will often encounter 3+ armour. You could get away with Grey hunter spam because they are slightly more specialised (no heavy weapon, but good at shooting within their 12 inch window and fighting) and have plenty of combat, but tacticals are simply not as good spammed, though they have their nichle.

 

 

 

70 Man horde could well be effective, all those bodies are hard to kill and Grey Hunters are fairly solid in scrap and 12 inches. Just theres a couple of things you have to keep in mind;

 

1) Lack of Mobility, instead of 12 inches, we get 6 and a D6 with no shooting.

 

2) Lack of supression fire to shake up the tanks and kill lighter targets. Grey Hunters have a limited range. Plasma Guns don't really fix that as you still got Grey Hunters wanting to get within 12 inches.

 

3) Easy to block, armies with high shooting elements can fire away and simply match up guys to tarpit your guys with no real fear of retribution till turn 4, by then, it's probably organised itself to slow down the assualting elements.

 

4) All of the above means greater losses.

 

 

That being said, this could all work, just you would need to set some points aside to compersate for the lack of range you will be having. Space wolves are best known for their hybrid lists, to bring anything to any fight and still be ready.

[Hrothgar Beastslayer]

Thanks for the replies, the lack of mobility is deffinetly something that should be addresed to compensate, or completely ignore for sake of shock and awe. Lowering the claw squads to 10 men could open up enough points to add some hitting power. A rifleman dread perhaps? A good output of S7 shots that can cause enough damage to help, yet not draw all the fire, and if it does, thats less being shot at the infantry. I'll have to consider everything, thanks. If I get to play this list anytime soon I will be sure to update you guys.

[Nrthstar]

I love it, absolutely love it. I'm running footsloggs these days, but I don't have the models for a full horde. I pair up with long fangs, thunderwolves, dreads and lots of termies if points allow. In a swarm like this thunderwolves and wolf guard leaders would be brutal additions. Give your enemy something to fear and focus in on, like arjac, and then deny them the ability to get to him, and then at the last second have his squad run forward and wreck face the last two turns. That's what I love doing at least.

 

 

However, I have two hideous words for you.

 

 

Blender dread. He's part of the reason I run two dreads with dccw and not rifledreads.