Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts – Benefits of the Horde
Goatboy here again – while looking at lists online I started to notice a trend. A serious lack of model saturation. More after the jump.
I kept seeing min/maxed units and other army builds that look like an automatic loss from one round of poor shooting/armor saves. To much of the time, I can see just a one maybe two turns of good enemy shooting and the army no longer can win, they can just tie a lot of games. This is why some of my recent builds have started to hit in the 4 to 5 scoring units. These units are either at their max size or at a large enough size that a few failed saves won’t create a worthless unit. In a lot of ways I have pushed towards the idea of a horde of guys to “attack” the table.
Last week I posted some Marine thoughts on my personal 40k blog. I wanted to push the idea of maximum 3+ jerks on the table in order to always have a way to win 2 of the 3 game types. This idea of a horde of genetically manufactured super men seemed pretty neat as well as a way to hopefully change up the game landscape that I locally see. So here is why I think just adding more models on the table might be better in the long run or during an actual tournament.
1. More guys mean I can sacrifice more and still have staying power on the board.
We all know that our models normally do not get exactly their model points worth during a game. Some units earn more and others earn less throughout any dice battle. Having more guys on the table, means that no matter what you should always have something on the table at all times. This gives you the ability to sacrifice more to create a better assault position or more chances to bait your opponent around.
2. More bodies mean more chances to control the table.
The more models you have covering the board, the better board control you have. You can affect more places on the board and have a better chance to control key land marks or other bits and pieces of optimal terrain. I know some tournaments have missions where you have to control a piece of fake rock. Having more guys that you can push and stretch out means that at the end of the game you have a good chance to scoreing those points.
3. I can send waves and still have someone holding the supply line.
How many times have you played Capture and Control and didn’t have a way to leave someone home while still causing problems for your opponents supply base? When you have a ton of guys, you can easily send a good portion of them forward and still have a big enough group that can fall down and hug the supply chest.
4. Having more models on the table top can be intimidating.
I know a lot of opponents will be put off by seeing 50+ power armored dudes across the table. Or what about 150 Orks and IG? That many guys can be very hard to deal with. Mass cover is a scary thing and all of those guys will have a good shot of getting somewhere.
I know that not all the armies have effective ways to create a horde style list. This is something I am starting to see in the future codexes with leanings towards massed savings or benefits from maxed size squads. Most likely the future books coming out will have similar build outs with a push for maxed unit sizes to increase viability (and sales coincidentally). So try out some larger armies and see if you can hopefully control the game a bit better then before. I know playing with larger sized armies lets me play a bit more BoLSy on the table top.
