Hordes: How to Choose a Faction- Part II
Following up on yesterday’s Warmachine post we review the five Hordes factions for those who need help choosing a place to start.
Trollbloods: Trolls are the “good guys” of Hordes. They’re nearly all SPD 5, with lower defense and higher ARM. Medium bases and Tough are everywhere, making these guys great at taking and holding ground in scenario play. However, the slower speed isn’t for every player, and I’ve seen a number of people abandon this faction in favor of something more “dynamic”. Ranged attacks are a mix of medium ranged direct fire weapons and short ranged sprays, and serve mainly to supplement the awesome melee capabilities of the army.
Legion of Everblight: Mutated evil draconic elves. This is an alpha strike faction with lots of glass cannons and direct fire ranged attacks. SPD 6 or even 7 is the norm with high DEF and low ARM. This faction has many means of managing Fury, meaning they can run lots of Warbeasts with little or no infantry support. Magical attacks are sparse, though the faction is currently the only one in Hordes to have something akin to Arcnodes. The Warbeasts are all fast; most have a shooting attack, and most are all-terrain. One other defining characteristic is Eyeless sight, and ability which lets the affected model see through cloud effects and forests. Combined with their mobility through terrain and solid ranged ability, there is almost nowhere to hide from a determined Legion army. The weakness lies in weak armor and the need to strike first and strike hard. Legion forces rarely win an attrition game.
Skorne: Skorne is often considered the most “Warmachine-like” of the Hordes armies. With less all terrain, lots of SPD 5, and lots of self-buffing aura’s, the faction tends to brick up in a manner similar to Menoth. As with Trolls, what shooting exists is more of a compliment to the melee abilities of the army. Skorne also has several Warlocks who gain power through the death of friendly models, meaning that an attrition strategy can work well with the right list build. As with Menoth, working out the right mix of main-line units and support models is the key, though with many of the solid buffs coming from Warbeast animi, it’s not as hard as you’d think.
Circle Orboros: High SPD, high DEF, low ARM, and lots of all terrain and teleportation effects make this a true ambush army. You get a nice mix of outstanding Warbeasts along with some solid infantry choices to choose from. What you don’t have much of is long ranged shooting or AOE’s. However, plentiful magic attack spells on the Warlocks and the high speed of the army (to engage the enemy quickly) go some ways towards making up for this. This is another army that relies on striking first and striking hard. An opponent who denies them this ability can really throw a wrench into their game.
Minions: Minions are still being fleshed out as a faction. Right now, you’ve got Farrow Pigs, and Gatormen as the two main groups from which to choose your Warlock. The Farrow are a mix of ranged infantry, with great melee Warbeasts. SPD 5 on nearly every model is average, but means they’ll often get charged first. Fortunately, Tough means they can often withstand the initial onslaught….so long as the dice are decent. The Gators are a melee army with next to zero shooting, but have several abilities which let them be almost completely immune to ranged attacks. However, magic can still get to them, and faster melee armies can often out charge them. As the newest faction in Warmachine and Hordes, Minions have the fewest options available of any faction.
So there’s your faction rundown. As I said in Part I, all of the main factions have exceptions to the “rules” I discussed. Legion and Circle both have a couple high ARM, low DEF multi-wound infantry that can take a hit and keep on coming. Khador has an awesome unit in the Kayazy, which are fast, high DEF, low ARM Stealthed melee infantry. But in general, most of the factions will play the way I described. -Lux
