Hordes: Definitely a Different Game - A Noob's Take

After being a perma-noob in Warmachinef or about 2+ years, transitioning to a Hordes army has been a really enlightening experience for me. Not to say that Hordes is better, it is just much different. This noob will attempt to showcase some of the differences for people who have started in Warmachine and are looking to expand their knowledgebase to Hordes like I did. This is definitely not pro-level tactica, just some noob's thoughts on the game.


Warlocks aren't as fragile
It has been a tough transition for me to go from hiding my caster in the back and occasionally bringing them out to shoot stuff to the Warlock state of mind. You can camp fury and transfer damage! Camping two fury allows you to knock off two large damage attacks on you onto a light warbeast or minor. This means you can move your warlock up and engage without worrying so much about assassination runs. They are still there (grievous wounds and the like) but you can leave your 'lock much closer to the front lines in my experience so far.

Abyslonia, my current warlock, can buff herself up and take a run at infantry or beasts and take them down. She can kill a beast with fury on it then reave that for herself. pVayl, my other caster so far, has to be close to the front lines to use her buffs on her beasts; she can't hang back at all. It is a much different change even from my Khador casters where I didn't want to get assassinated.

Beasts are separate but equal
Beasts generally have lower ARM and less boxes, but they are usually faster (at least compared to my Khador 'jacks!). They also have different methods of taking damage to their 'systems' which takes a while to learn.

The whole idea of your beasts casting animi also opens up a whole new tactical set that I have to keep in my head. I think of WM/H as a very tactical game with a lot of 'levels' of strategy - I currently find myself at a low level of strategy - and animi are part of that. There is just a lot to the game.

Generally it seems like (at least with Legion) you really want to bring a ton of beasts. Beasts give your warlock fury. Without them you have to damage her to get fury, which you definitely don't want to do. Having enough beasts around to survive an attrition game is huge.

Infantry-machine isn't really part of Hordes as much
Perhaps it is just because I'm playing Legion and we have great beasts, but I'm used to playing Khador with my Great Bears, Kayazy, and WGI. I'm used to being able to jam things up and take down infantry pretty fast. With Legion things are different.

I have to bring quite a few beasts to generate fury and so in general I have less models on the board. It is harder to kill jamming (tough!) infantry with beasts as opposed to WGI spraying and Kayazy wiping people out. This has perhaps been my biggest challenge so far - using my beasts to my advantage with relatively little infantry support.

Like I said these are just some of the things I'm struggling with right now when I am thinking about Hordes and playing it. Let me know your thoughts below!