"Do you have a favorite horde (thousands of 'em) army?" Topic

WW1 Russians

Zulus and Fuzzy Wuzzys.

Celts too….Celts rock.

Ditto on the Celts.

Dacians & Sarmations

Goblins
Ratmen
Skeletons
Zulus
Mahdis

fow SOVIETS! FULL THREE COMPANY RIFLE BTN, with an smg assault company, seasoned to taste.

WWII Soviets in 28mm. Also undead.

Ancient Brits/Gauls!
Early Libyan in WRG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mongols!

French Line Infantry. Definitely outnumber any other troop type I have.

Bugs!

John, with your icon, what else would you paint?

WWII infantry!

Zulus first.

With regards to Mongols, I know they are called hordes but they are quite more organized that given credit. With commanders for 10, 100, 1000 and 10,000. Quite stringent discipline. Training based on hunting techniques. Woe to the soldier that let an animal escape their great hunts.

I would think that the Huns and other steppe nomads would be more horde like.

My definition of a horde would be a huge body of warriors with no control once released by the commanding general. As such, most 'barbarian' armies would fit and many of the nomadic steppe tribes as well. African and North African armies as mentioned already seem to fit too.

As far as barbarian armies, I always found the Early German tribes to be interesting. Collar wearer beserkers are quite interesting too :-)

As far as non-historical, Orks and Gobbos in Epic are great fun. Tyranids are interesting too.

- Dark Age hairies
- "She Who Must Be Obeyed" Amahaggar horde
- Sci Fi Orks

"My definition of a horde would be a huge body of warriors with no control once released by the commanding general"

But that wouldnt apply to Zulu then!

;-)

Here's another vote for World War I Russians. I've painted over 250 infantry and 90 cavalry (mostly 25mm Old Glory). You can never have enough machine gun fodder!

Indians (from India, that is), Gauls, Scythians

I have always liked the way Mordred's army was depicted in the film Excaliber

In addition to 12 that have been mentioned, I like Geonosians from Star Wars.

While I don't field them into the thousands, I like the following two forces…

Near-future corporate goons/planetary militia
Hydra (superheroes)

Storm Troopers and Snow Troopers for Star Wars, and Celts in 15mm, 10mm, 6mm, 20mm, and 25/28mm. But I have enough legions to deal with all of them.
VR
James Mattes

Well, the Brits for my foray into 15mm colonial gaming are turning into a horde!

5-6 infantry battalions @ ~120ea, 2 cavalry regiments @48 ea, and 2 gun batteries @ 4 guns ea. Plus a pack string of 50-something camels, 12 elephants, and at least 4 6-oxen wagons!

Though I suppose their Afghan opposition would be a better horde… gotta outnumber the Brits at least 2:1 to give a good game.

Orks.

Dervish, zombies and Khurasan Space Demons.

Spearhead WW 2 Russians!

My next horde will be Somalis circ. 1990s
VR
James Mattes

Currently building a horde army (Sea Peoples circa 1200 BCE), so at this particular moment, they are my favorite. However, I've always liked horde armies, and some of my favorites include Gauls, Zulus, 1920s Chinese, and 1973 Arab armies.

I have hundreds of Orcs from LoTR, but I want to do Imperial Chinese and boxers, I already have a healthy collection of the great powers. Some day just for fun i wanna take those orcs against the Great Powers ..

In no particular order:

Warring States/Han Dynasty Chinese/Three Kingdoms:

YouTube link

Sung Dynasty Chinese

Qing Dynasty Chinese/Boxer Rebellion Imperialists and Boxer rebels.. the Taiping Rebellion can be great fun for horde armies, as both sides essentially employed horde armies:

YouTube link

Mexica (aka Aztec) and their enemies

Zulus

Pathans

1920s Chinese warlord armies

WW2 Russian Tank Shock Armies

sci-fi alien bugs of just about any variety

And of course, the armies of Narnia:

YouTube link

And the armies of Mordor and Saruman:

YouTube link

All great fun to push across the table enmasse…

Leland R. Erickson

Imperial Stormtroopers (and yes, I have hordes of them).
Second choice: Feudal Japanese (got a boatload of them, too).

My wifes step sister and her friends. Oh, I'm sorry it says hordes not …

Baluchis and Pathans… Looks like about 1700 (not a typo, seventeen hundred) screaming tribesmen to face my Field Force of 900 or so. Fortunately, the tribes seem to lack any cannon!

Orc's, Gaul's, Byzantines, Romans, Greeks, Dwarves.
I hate to admit how many Byzantines I can field as they are a horde onto themselves!

One can never have enough French. Any period.

Aztecs for me

sauron808 I have Byzantines for every period!

Mahdists

Dothraki

I'm waiting for a plastics manufacturer to produce a building block set of Mexica/Aztec warriors depicting the backbone of any Aztec army, the lower four ranks of their warrior castes:

As you can see a set of basic body types augmented by separate back banners and heads depicting the hair styles and headgear of the various ranks/castes would enable one to to build up an Aztec line of battle quite easily.

As Aztec armies were 100% infantry deployed enmasse, a plastic set of 28mm core infantry would make fielding such an army an affordable proposition IMHO, with the added bonus of being a source for a very different fantasy human force. Follow-on boxed sets of Eagle and/or Jaguar "knights" would finish off this set quite handily and well.

Leland R. Erickson

Love the idea of plastic 28mm Aztec/ generic infantry, as they would go so well with GW's Lizardmen range, somebody get on this quick before GW copywrights the whole thing wit IP and the charges the Earth for it…….excellent suggestion Black Widow !

Another vote for Mahdists.

Got to be Mughals, which I'm still trying to finish. Camels, Elephants Rocketmen, as well as the usual hordes of infantry and cavalry.

Done some Madhists, and they do look good en masse. Occasionally they even win !

Skaven followed by Zulu's and Vikings

Did I mention my Picts in 25? 318 infantry!

@security minister- I made the mistake and bought figures from just about every period of Byzantines from as many manufacturers as possible. I am still adding to them as I find them and there allied armies a Horde onto themselves. I have Then I added the Byzantines enemies and they are also a horde onto themselves. Sassinid Persians, Arabs, Bulgar, Franks, Crusaders, Armenians, Khazar, Hungarians, Normans, Russ, etc, etc as you never know when you may need "allies" for Byzantium.

Then would be my Gauls, Germans, Dacians, Then ROME in all periods. The joy of historical gaming you almost are compelled to build up an army with all the options so you can play on any field. Siege, field battle, etc.

Starguard Dreenoi.
"Bugs, Mister Rico! Zillions of 'em!"

My friends are always saying I have a lot of Gaul.

Gauls, Gauls and more Gauls!!! Celtic tribal hordes!!! With additional help hey can also double as Galatians (with scythed chariots), Britons (with chariots and slingers), Picts (after all the name means "painted", and even Germans (with a wink and a nod--since many scholars propose a continuum between the material culture of Celtic and German speaking tribes. You can paint hordes very quickly in earth tones and simple shields adding naked Gaesati and mailed nobles with more elaborate clothing in the front ranks. Nothing like a large tabletop full of Celts to bring even the most battle-hardened centurion to his senses…
Salve!
El Gran Capitan

SYW French! I have roughly a thousand 15/18mm Old Glory painted when I count all arms.

Ancient Germans.

Raglan