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Dealing with hordes and blobs


Zhorzh

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What army do you play i suppose is the big question, i have two 25 strong groups of cultists that can easily be taken down by large amounts of gunfire, blast weapons, flame template weapons ect, but unless your army can effectively use these things then you might have to resort to charging them head on and trying to win the combat before the enemy can strike, dark angel terminators are good at this.....bloody dark angels...

Depends on you version of horde really. I still like the drive by flaming tactic at times (unit with two flamers in a rhino). The burning brand does rather nicely as well and just the humble flamer rips through hordes. Don't forget that you can throw a frag grenade in the shooting phase for a S3 blast which when the enemy is bunched together is better than a bolter. Of course if it isn't Orks or Nids you can just charge in and squish them. Plague marines and CSM are good against Hordes, well PM are good against everything but that's beside the point. either unit with 2 flamers and a combi flamer hits hard and if you are receiving a charge most likely puts out 3D3 S4 hits and in the CSM's case give them MoK and they get counter-attack for that nasty counter-punch. PM of course have defensive grenades denying hordes with rage that +2 on the charge and are fearless meaning you don't have to worry about running away. For the CSM a Fearless character or a Banner is a must if they are going to be a speed bump, however they could get sniped.

 

If you're wanting the extreme response for close range (against horde orks I think this is nice) a unit of Chosen (not Havocs as HS is too valuable IMO for this) armed to the teeth with flamers will wreck any horde unit. A unit of 6 with 5 flamers and a Rhino will cost 168 points, on average I get between 5 and 6 enemy models with a flamer attack so that's between 25 and 30 flamer hits, against guard blob squads they will just die.

 

However, if you're wanting to get them at range then there are a few options. Firstly Havocs with Missile Launchers, excellent against nid and especially in a Bastion or ADL with added emplacement heavy bolters and quad cannon. Have both the blast that will kill a unit of Gargoyles dead or krak which will insta glib a Tyranid warrior or can take out light vehicles. Autocannon is better at light vehicles and stuff however it lacks the instant kill for s8 and cannot kill hordes as easily. Secondly Dakka Preds; autocannon, Havoclauncher, H. Bolters and Combi bolter is 112 points, no good for heavier armour (you need Lascannon sponsons for that). It'll pump out 6 S5, 2S7, a S5 twinlinked blast and 1 S4 (the Combi is simply to be blown off you can drop it it's only 5 points).

 

Spawn are excellent simply to tarpit the big scary unit they will have. Bikes are good, fast moving and can have a lord with a Brand.

 

Against Horde armies I like the Vindicator, it's a terror weapon pure and simple as Orks and Nids have very little to deal with AV13 quickly and it can rip through hordes. It's better against Orks because it's usefullness against Battle wagon armies.

 

Lastly for shooting, Noise Marines. Hordes hug cover, Sonic weaponry has ignore cover, Hordes die easily.

I had a game against a hordy Nid army a few months ago, and I used around 60 cultists lead by a Dark Apostle. Though the Apostle was killed by a hive tyrant, between overwatch and striking first with rerolls to hit, there was really no challenge at all in dealing with the little nids. I mean, assaulting 30 cultists with pistols and flamers saw around 5-6 nids dead from overwatch, and then in close combat (I was in cover) my cultists killed around 15-20 gaunts before he even got to roll his attacks.

 

I guess Orks might be a bit trickier, especially if it's shoota boys, as they might just stand around 12"-18" away and shoot you to bits, forcing you to attack them, and then all your dudes will be killed instead. I'm acually growing a bit fond of the Defiler, as it can deal both with meduim vehicles and hordes at range, whilst being fleet and not to shabby in close combat. A bit frail and expensive though.

5 man squad with a blastmaster is 130 points. 4 squads 250. these guys will sit on an objective pumping out shots and making things cry. Though they are best against marines for AP 3 on that setup. I would personally rate sonic blasters against hordes but the meta is against me on this one it seems....

I was just wondering how do you guys deal with horde armies and/or big blobs. I know that Baledrakes are good against them but are there another choices?

I'm a fan of the basic CSM with a bolter.

They can typically put out enough shots, coupled with plasma or flamers, to thin out most horde squads to a degree that they can finish off the remnants.

5 man squad with a blastmaster is 130 points. 4 squads 250. these guys will sit on an objective pumping out shots and making things cry. Though they are best against marines for AP 3 on that setup. I would personally rate sonic blasters against hordes but the meta is against me on this one it seems....

 

5 Man NM with a Blastmaster is only 125 and 4 squads would be 500 points. I don't want to be that guy but it is very important to manage points in this edition.

 

Sonic Blasters are nice but only if you know you're taking MSU's with the intention of stationary fire support and have hordes in the Meta. Otherwise you'll be shooting the BMs at range with nothing the 24" blaster can hit unless you infiltrate them or deploy them aggressively. The beauty of the BM is it's range, power, AP and ignores cover. Deploy them on objectives or far back. Their target priority drops and their survivability goes up if you have other forward elements.

 

 

 I still like the drive by flaming tactic at times (unit with two flamers in a rhino). 

 

Is it if the rhino moves over 6" that models inside can only fire snap shots, or if it moves at all?

 

After 6" passengers can only fire snap shots, even if its fast.

 

The Black Mace on a Daemon Prince annihilates hordes. The Burning Brand is good as well. Baledrakes are solid. I also like Daemon allies with Horrors and Flamers. Chaos Spawn tar-pit well, especially MoN ones.

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