Hordes 101 – The Game

Hello Everyone!

We have had some great success in getting people on board to do write-ups for the various Warmachine and Hordes factions; so far we’re only missing articles for Cryx, Legion of Everblight, and Mercenaries. Which is pretty impressive, considering I was expecting to have to do them all myself! Before we go off guns blazing into the Hordes factions, however, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about some key concepts of the game, and with that in mind, here we go!

Here’s the most important thing to understand about Hordes, especially if you’re used to the great chasm between 40k and Fantasy Battle, never the twain shall meet: basically everything I said about Warmachine applies here, unchanged. 

I left that all alone for emphasis. There are some differences in how the game plays, the “feel” for lack of a better term, and, most pointedly, how the Warlock interacts with his Warbeasts, but mechanically, the game uses the same engine as Warmachine. Across both systems, stats are analogous, as are the rules for moving, resolving attacks, terrain, the types of models, the way units and solos function… everything. I have read before that “Warmachine and Hordes are two different games that happen to play well together”, or somesuch. In some ways that is correct; Warjacks and Warbeasts fill different roles on the battlefield, Warlocks are different in many ways from Warcasters, etc. These are esoteric differences, however. In the beginning, the most important thing to understand is that everyone has a MAT and RAT, models can move a distance in inches equal to their SPD, standing behind a wall makes you harder to hit, and you immediately lose the game if your Warlock dies. If you’ve been following the ‘101’ series here on CNC, all those terms and concepts make perfect sense. If not, check out my discussion of the Warmachine basics and mechanics

With that out of the way, we can start talking about some of those differences between the systems. Foremost of which is the way in which a Hordes Warlock interacts with their battlegroup of Wabeasts. In Warmachine, the Warcaster replenishes a set amount of Focus points each turn, which they can then allocate to their Warjacks or keep for themselves. It’s like having a stipend, and if the Warcaster keeps all the focus their ‘Jacks won’t be doing much that turn, and vice versa. In Hordes, the Warbeasts generate the FURY (I’m not yelling, FURY is a stat like SPD or MAT, and is expressed in all caps) by being ‘forced’ by their controlling Warlock. Where any Warjack can be allocated a maximum of three Focus, all their magical brains can hold, a Warbeast has a FURY stat which basically represents just exactly how pissed off you can make them. A Warjack spends a previously allocated Focus point to gain an effect, like being able to run, boost attack or damage rolls, or buy additional attacks. A Warbeast can be forced a number of times equal to their FURY stat, each time gaining an effect as above. The Warlock then ‘leaches’ that FURY from the Warbeast on their following turn, up to their FURY stat, and can use it in exactly the same way a Warcaster uses Focus. So, instead of arbitrarily getting your resources back each turn, you need to have generated it on your Warbeasts, so that you can pull it off them. It’s like juggling balances between credit cards; you have to make sure you’re not going over the limit (too far) in any one place, and that you still have money to spend. 

Complicated, right? Kinda, but in practice it’s pretty easy to get a handle on. (Just do yourself a favor and don’t play Warmachine vs. Hordes when you’re first learning, as it can get confusing.) This is why Warmachine is a game of resource management, and Hordes is a game of risk management. Or, a game of cash vs. a game of credit.

Here’s a couple examples to frame the concept:

Kommander Sorscha starts her turn. During her Control Phase, she replenishes her six Focus (unless she got shot by Eiryss last turn, but that’s for the Mercenaries article!). She then allocates three Focus to Beast-09; he’s close to the enemy and she wants to make sure he does some damage when he gets there, and keeps the rest for herself. During her activation phase, she activates first and spends two Focus to cast Boundless Charge on Beast-09 so he goes a little further to get stuck in, then keeps the last Focus to add to her ARM in case she takes any damage on her opponent’s turn. Beast-09 activates and charges for free, thanks to Boundless Charge, and ends up engaged with a bunch of enemy models. He uses his Star Attack, Thresher, that allows him to make a melee attack against everyone around him, and, quite naturally, vaporizes all of them. With all those models dead, there’s no longer anyone standing in front of the enemy Warcaster, who just happens to be within the 2” melee range on Beast-09’s axe. Since Beast-09 used a Star Attack, he can’t make any of his basic melee attacks with his axe or fist. But, he can use the Focus Kommander Sorscha allocated him way back in the Control Phase to buy additional attacks. He spends one Focus to buy an axe swing, and uses one more Focus to boost the attack roll, since our hapless, unnamed example Warcaster is a little hard to hit. The attack hits, and since our poor target also conveniently forgot to save any Focus to increase their ARM, the damage from Beast-09’s axe is already more than the target’s ARM, before the dice are even rolled. Beast-09 spends his last Focus to boost the damage roll and really make it count. When it’s all over, our poor example is probably a smear on the pavement, and if not he’s in some seriously hot water.

…Is how it works in Warmachine.

Now, let’s put a name on that hapless example: Let’s say his name is Krueger the Stormlord, a Warlock from the Circle Orboros faction, and let’s pretend he had one FURY point left when he got smacked with Beast-09’s axe. Instead of adding to his ARM, the FURY left on Krueger allows him to do something completely different: he can transfer all the damage from Beast-09’s hit to a Warbeast in his Control Area. There’s more detail to it, but for now, we’ll just say that Krueger sent all that damage to a nearby Warbeast which, while not necessarily dead outright, isn’t feeling very good anymore. Krueger survives to start his turn, and during his Control Phase he leaches Fury from Warbeasts in his Control Area. For the sake of this example, we’ll assume his previous turn was not very exciting and he was smart about his FURY, spreading six points amongst his Warbeasts through a combination of forcing them to run and ‘riling’, which has no other effect than to generate FURY. However, since Krueger didn’t expect to get an axe in his face last turn, he spent the one FURY he had left. When he leaches the six FURY points from all his Warbeasts, he has ends up with one less FURY than his maximum of seven.  He decides that this turn is going to be important and that he’ll need every point he can muster, so he decides to leach that last FURY point from himself. This causes him one point of damage, and is often referred to as ‘cutting for FURY’. Basically, Warlocks can trade health points for FURY, one-for-one, during their Control Phase, if they come up short from their Warbeasts.

With his full seven Fury, Krueger starts his turn. First of all, he needs Beast-09 out of his face. Thankfully, there just happens to be a Gnarlhorn Satyr, a Circle Heavy Warbeast nearby. The Gnarlhorn activates and walks over to Beast-09. Krueger then forces it to perform a double-hand throw Power Attack on Beast-09, and forces him again to boost the attack roll (safety first!). The attack hits, and the Gnarlhorn picks up Beast-09 and tosses him as far away from Krueger as he can. He ends his activation with two FURY points on him. Krueger’s not quite ready to activate himself; first he needs to clear out some Khadoran infantry that’s getting too close for comfort. So, another of his Heavy Warbeasts, a Warpwolf Stalker, activates and is forced to charge into the enemy troops. He charges in, annihilates the poor schmoe he charged, and then kills another nearby model with his other initial melee attack. He is then forced three more times to buy additional attacks, killing three more Khadorans. He ends his activation soaked in gore, and with his maximum of four FURY points. Krueger now has six FURY points floating around on his Warbeasts, which means that he’s going to start red-lining if he wants to do much more this turn. He decides that this is the time, and activates. First, he spends two FURY to cast a spell on his other Heavy Warbeast, a Feral Warpwolf, that places it anywhere within 2” of its current location. The Feral Warpwolf is now 2” closer to Sorscha. Krueger then advances, getting Sorscha in range of one of his spells, and he spends three FURY to cast the spell, as well as one additional point to boost the attack roll. He hits, and Sorscha suffers a damage roll which Krueger declines to boost, as he only has one FURY left and if this doesn’t all work out he’ll need it to transfer damage again. The spell he cast has a neat additional effect: it pulls the model hit d6” toward the caster. Krueger rolls a 5, pulling Sorscha ever closer to that Feral Warpwolf. Krueger ends his activation with one FURY left. The Feral Warpwolf activates, finally, gets forced to charge Sorscha, and has three initial melee attacks and three FURY left to buy additional attacks or boost attack or damage rolls, as necessary.

Now, Sorscha’s pretty hard to hit, but for the sake of this example (and since this article is about Hordes, after all!), we’ll just assume she died a terrible death, torn to shreds on the Feral Warpwolf’s bloody claws.

This example, while intricate (sorry, I just played four games with Hordes back-to-back and it’s all fresh in my mind), should make a few things evident: your heavy Warbeasts, in particular, generally have four FURY, which means they can gain one more Focus effect than a Warjack, and they can use these abilities with much more freedom than a Warjack, since they can be forced by their controlling Warlock as needs require. Warlocks lose the ability to increase their ARM with unspent resources, but gain the ability to transfer all the damage from a hit to one of their nearby Warbeasts. A Warlock probably has more Warbeasts in his battlegroup than a similar Warcaster would, since the Warbeasts are his best way to generate FURY. Overall, in Hordes, you can play ‘on the fly’ with more freedom, adapting to the circumstances of the turn as they develop, but always with the risk of overextending and having too much FURY out there.

Why is that a bad thing?

There are a number of checks and balances that are in place to even out the disparate Focus and FURY mechanics, not the least of which is the potential for a Warlock to push his Warbeasts too hard in a given turn, generate more FURY than they can leach in the following turn, and risk his Warbeasts going into a frenzy. Since forcing a Warbeast for an effect is basically poking them with a stick to make them dance, it’s going to piss them off. And if they don’t get fully calmed down (that is, have all their FURY points leached from them by their controlling Warlock), they have to make a check to see if they will be able to act normally or just go bugnutz from rage and attack the closest thing at hand. This is called making a Threshold check, and is essentially a GW-style leadership test, modified by how much FURY is left when the check is made: more FURY, lower threshold, more chance of frenzy. And if a Warbeast frenzies, it makes a single attack against whatever is closest (enemies first if it’s already in melee, otherwise whichever model is closest, friend or foe, grunt or Warlock!), after which its activation for the turn ends. So if you get too hot one turn, on the subsequent turn you risk losing the activations of some of your most important models, and indeed risk them attacking your army! Warbeasts generally have a powerful suite of attacks and abilities, but are also hampered by the fact that they can only be forced, and thereby utilize their abilities fully, when they are within their controlling Warlock’s command range, whereas a Warjack loaded fully with Focus can go off wherever they like and still run at peak performance.

The Warlock/Warbeast relationship is the biggest difference between Warmachine and Hordes, and it takes some time to get used to the planning that is required to minimize risk. That being said, there’s something very satisfying about going ‘all-in’, and sending all your Warbeasts to do their worst to the enemy, consequences be damned. There are subtle differences as well; Warlocks have the very powerful ability to transfer damage, which insulates them somewhat from enemies that plan to win through assassination. However, it is important to note that the damage doesn’t just go away, indeed it goes to the Warlock’s most useful resource, his Warbeasts. And while a Warlock probably has more Warbeasts in his battlegroup, those same models represent a liability: when they’re all dead, the Warlock’s ability to be effective is severely limited. He can cut for FURY, as described above, but every turn he does so, he gets closer to death’s door, especially since he can no longer transfer damage. Warbeasts tend to have more initial attacks than Warjacks, and heavies have more potential to gain Focus effects, but they are are also generally lower-powered, with less health than an equivalent Warjack. Finally, Warbeasts all come with an innate ability called an Animus that their controlling Warlock can cast as though it were a spell, as long as the Warbeast is in his control range. Animi are generally more localized, smaller effects that provide a one-use buff or ability, but provide a variety of options to a Warlock, beyond what his spell list would imply. Further, bringing a different mix of Warbeasts means different Animi, which can help cover weaknesses and keep opponents on their toes.

Hordes really is the feral twin to Warmachine, and the two are sides of the same coin. Once you are competent with the basics of the game mechanics from either system, you can play them both. The biggest difference is in how the Warlocks and Warbeasts operate, and once you have a handle on that, you can move between factions across both systems easily.

Speaking of factions, now that we’ve talked a bit about how Hordes works and some of the ways its different from Warmachine, stay tuned for overviews of the various Hordes factions out there, starting with the Trollbloods and the Skorne!

I hope this has been helpful reading!

-Dis.