I dream up a horde from long ago.

Here I go again with another crazy list of fun. I’m thinking creepy crawly buggies again. This time I’m looking at a giant horde of stuff. I miss the giant wave of gribblies and the giant beasts driving them forward. Now they are nothing but small squads of Termagants, Termagant poopers and then some point fill-ins with Zoanthropes and/or Hive Guard. I’m thinking back to the swarms of yesteryear, when a wave of chitin leads the way for the tank busting beasties. No not that Tyrant x2 and Carnifex x6 crap from last codex either. This is proper high model count horde that is either blasted off the table or washes over the enemy force.

Remember tabletop scenes like this? Probably not.

I will start with the troop section and grab a couple of squads of Termagants. They are cheap as hell and a squad of 20 seems appropriate and will only run 100 points. This is just too cheap and large not to take. This screams horde. Hell, I’ll grab two of these units since they are so disgustingly cheap. So for 200 points I will have 40 models and a start of a nice horde.

Well 40 gants will need a bit of help. This horde will need some more numbers, and this time they’ll be stabby and not shooty. A squad of 20 Hormaguants is also disgustingly cheap and fairly stabby. Now they are not great by themselves, but for a couple of points they can get either poisoned attacks or furious charge. I like both options, but just not at the same time on easily killable bugs. I think I’ll go with toxin sacs for that always wound on a 4+. That will make them a threat vs. anything that isn’t armor. That will bump the squad cost to 160 points.  Oh hell, why not grab two squads like this? Having another 40 gribblies can’t be a bad thing. Especially gribblies that have a re-roll to hit if they roll a 1 (scythe talons) and wound on 4+.

So with 520 points spent on my way to 1500 I seem to have a very viable swarm. Now these guys need some synapse help to keep them in line. Nobody wants Hormaguants running all willy-nilly over the battlefield. Plus it helps to have a few tougher models to back up this first wave of gribblies. I’ll add two squads of Warriors. They can keep synapse going for the Guant/Gant squads, hopefully and might even be able to add some punch to any fights. I’ll run them with rending claws and scything talons. Sure rending sucks, but with multiple attacks, it just might work. Two squads of four with rending and scything talons will run 240 points and leaves 740 points for stuff.

I’ll need a HQ and that will be a Warrior Prime. They are cheap and I want boys not toys in this list. A bone sword and lash whip will help if he has to fight something. He can also add some more synapse range if I run him with something other than Warriors, or he can buff the Warrior squad he is with. I guess that is a game time decision.  This is a very cheap HQ coming in under 100 points (95). I guess I’ll grab two of them then. Why not?

With my troop slots and HQ maxed it is time to add some punch to the horde. I'll go to the heavy section and bring out the Carnifex. Yup they are over-costed and full of suck in this codex (well that is the general consensus) but I think one of these will do fine stomping alongside, or behind a wave of gribblies. I'll go bare bones with this guy. I'm not a huge fan of the available upgrades, so I'll pass on them. Heck why only take one Carnifex? They are a descent monster and not to costly if they have zero upgrades. The best thing on them is the dual scything talons they come with. Who doesn't like the chance to re-roll all misses in close combat? Especially at strength 9 and 4 attacks?That gives me a total of 230 points left to spend.

The remaining points are a head scratcher. I could easily add a third Carnifex, or I could look into the elites, or I could add to the horde. The elites section isn't very horde heavy, but I do like the Hive Guard. How can I not? With a two shot strength 8 gun, two wounds and toughness 6 it is a hard unit to pass up. I guess that is why these guys are in every list. I'll add them to mine as well. I think I'll need some ranged armor stoppers and these guys can give me that and walk along with the horde at the same time. Yup two squads of two Hive Guard. That will leave me a piddly 30 points left over.

The last 30 points will go to add 6 more Temagants to a squad. Why not get a few more bodies on the field can never hurt. Especially when they are as frail as Termagants. Another Warrior is another option, but I'll go for 6 bodies over one more with multiple wounds.

The Horde

HQ- Prime- lash whip/bone sword
HQ- Prime- lash whip/bone sword
Troop- Termagant x26
Troop- Termagant x20
Troop- Hormaguant x20 toxin sacs
Troop- Hormaguant x20 toxin sacs
Troop- Warrior x4 rending claws
Troop- Warrior x4 rending claws
Elite- Hive Guard x2
Elite- Hive Guard x2
Heavy- Carnifex
Heavy- Carnifex

Well this is a horde for sure but how would it function? You would need to always be moving forward and keeping that synapse bubble going. Having 106 easily killable bodies that are fearless are better with than without fearless. The Primes can either run with the Warriors to buff them or with the Hive Guard to get the bonus of toughness 6, either way seems viable. They just need to keep moving alongside the horde. The Carnifex could either run forward or follow along to counter. Either way seems viable, just keep him in synapse so he isn't running around the board chasing an empty Rhino. The Hormaguants run forward to get to grips with anything not in a vehicle or in hopes of a vehicle being opened. The Termagants are there to soak wounds, maybe camp an objective (go to ground on it as well since we all put objectives in terrain), work as movement blocking or give the Hormagaunts a pre-charge fleshborer salvo.

Vehicles will be a bit of a pain and then again might not be. Sure there isn't a lot of ranges anti-armor, but I'm not to concerned. If guys want to sit in vehicles and shoot one or two gribblies per turn I'm fine with that. If they get out to face the horde, then all the more fun for me! They will get swarmed by bodies, hopefully. Massed heavy weapons will be an issue, but they are for pretty much everyone. Sticking near cover can help as will the walking tide of cover the Gaunts/Gants can give the Warriors and Guard.

The biggest problem with a list like this is cash. The second problem is time. An army like this can take forever to build and paint, depending on the person. This, and any horde, will be expensive. It can also be a pain to wield on the tabletop. Still it would be nice to see a scuttling horde of gribblies across the table again. It is a fantastic image to see, but not always to play against.