'Space Marine' Army Lists for 'Hordes of the Things'
by James Ewins and Alan Saunders

James Ewins has produced the original Epic army lists, for Eldar and Tyranids:

Epic Eldar

Stronghold: Alien dimensional gate (webway portal).

1 Hero (Avatar of the bloody handed god, with aspect warrior escort) @ 4AP
1 Magician General (Farseer with Warlock escort) @ 4AP
2 Warband (Striking Scorpions or Howling Banshees) @ 2AP
2 Blades (Wraithguard/Wriathlords/War Walkers) @ 2AP
1 Shooters (Dark Reapers) @ 2AP
1 Flyers (Jetbike mounted Guardians or Shining Spears) @ 2AP
4 Hordes (Guardians and the odd Warlock) @ 1AP

Options: Dragon (Phoenix Bomber) @ 4AP, Airboats (Falcons or Wave Serpent transports) @ 3AP, Sneakers (Warp Spiders) @ 3AP, Lurkers (Rangers) @1AP.

Epic Tyranid

Small assault force

Stronghold: Usually none, but for the sake of argument a Mycetic Swarm Pod.

1 Hero General (Hive Tyrant & brood) @ 4AP
1 Cleric (Zoanthrope) @ 3AP 1 Shooters (Tyranids) @ 2AP
3 Warband (Hormagaunt) @ 2AP
8 Hordes (Genestealers & Termagaunts) @ 1AP
1 Lurker (Lictor) @ 1AP

Options: Blades (Carnifex) @ 2AP, Artillery (Biovore & Spore Mines) @ 3AP, Flyers (Gargoyles) @ 2AP, maybe reclass the Lictor as a Sneaker for 3AP?

Planetary Assault Force

Stronghold: Larger pod, or Organic ship.

1 Magician General (Dominatrix) @4AP [Yes, I know it’s big (Behemoth?) and dead ‘ard (Hero?) but it’s an incredibly powerful psyker, so…sue me]
1 Artillery (Dactylis, Biovore batteries etc) @ 3AP
1 Airboat (Harridan) @ 3ÃP
1 Flyers (Gargoyles) @ 2AP
2 Knights (Assault Swarm creatures) @ 2AP
1 Warband (Hormagaunts) @ 2AP
6 Hordes (Genestealers & Termagaunts) @ 1AP

Options: Blades (Carnifex) @ 2AP, 1 Shooters (Tyranids) @ 2AP, Hero (Hive Tyrant) @ 4AP.

I was inspired by James Ewins' lists, and present the following. They are based around a slightly different premise to James' lists, but conversion between them should be possible. James has added a couple of extras to my lists, and some comments from others are included after them: :

Epic Space Marines

1 Hero General (Commander) @ 4AP
5 Blades (Space Marines) @ 2AP
1 Blade (Dreadnaughts) @ 2AP
1 Flyer (Speeders) @ 2AP
3 Knights (Landraiders) @ 2AP

Options: Riders @ 2AP (Bikes), Flyers @ 2AP (Aircraft), Airboat @ 3AP or Dragon @ 4AP (Gunship plus troops), Behemoth @ 4AP (Titan), Artillery @ 3AP (Whirlwinds or Mole Mortars), Cleric @ 3AP (Grey Knights or Chaplain), Warband @ 2AP (Blood Angels)

Imperial Guard

1 Shooter General (Command group) @ 2AP
3 Shooters (Infantry) @ 2AP
4 Knights (Leman Rus Tanks, Gorgons or similar) @ 2AP
1 Behemoth (Super Heavy Tanks) @ 4AP
1 Artillery (Manticores or similar) @ 3AP
1 Lurker (Ratling Snipers) @ 1AP

Options: Riders @ 2AP (Bikes, Rough Riders or Sentinels), Behemoth General @ 4AP (Leviathan Mobile Command Fortress), Behemoths @ 4AP (Knight Paladins or similar), Warband @ 2AP (Ogryns or Beastmen), Hero @ 4AP (Commisar) Cleric @ 3AP (Primaris Psyker).

Ork

1 Warband General (Nobz) @ 2AP
5 Warband (Boyz) @ 2AP
2 Riders (Bike Boyz, Boar Boyz or Buggies) @ 2AP
2 Knights (Tanks or Squiggoths) @ 2AP
1 Behemoth (Gargant or Stompers)

Options: Blades @ 2AP (Dreadaughts or Tinbotz), Behemoths @ 4AP (Battle Fortresses), Flyers @ 2AP (Aircraft), Artillery @ 3AP (Catapults or Hop Splat Guns), Magician @ 4AP (Weirdboy Battletower)

Another possibility is to class all Ork infantry as Hordes, with Warbands reserved for Nobz, Freebooters and other special types.

Troops are mounted on bases with a 6cm frontage (use 25mm groundscale and table). Infantry types are 2cm deep, mounted types 4cm deep and others 6 or 8cm deep. Mount three 2cm x 2cm infantry bases, 3 dreadnaughts or robots, 5-10 smaller vehicles, 2-3 regular vehicles or 1-2 titans or superheavy vehicles per element.

Sebastian Rogers comments:

Simple solution to ranged weapons issue for futeristic troops. Base your 5mm/6mm on 25mm bases at the back and use 25mm movements and ranges. The empty space at the front of the base represents their small arms fire. Now when bases contact each other they appear to be in a firefight rather than a melee.

Shooters become long range/heavy weapons units (mortars and missile launchers and the like). Tanks are classified as either Behemoths (if primarily close combat i.e. flamethrowers and machine guns) or Artillery (FBGs or rockets).

John Leahy adds:

How would you clasify Heavy weapons troops? Originally I thought that they and not the Regular grunts should be classed as shooters. Regular grunts would be classed as blades, warbands,etc. If you throw in a variant for either superior,inferior ratings or Bruce McFarlanes DBA recoils variant you would really be able to tailor each particular army pretty well.

Colin Hagreen adds:

For my three-penneth, I would have gone the whole hog and classified the Imperial Guard grunts as Hordes. The Heavy-weapon squads become shooters and the Artillery stay as they are. I just like to see all those troopers on the field!

A report of a battle between Orks and Space Marines can be found here.

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