The hordes look a little scary until I realized that they can't hit. BS 25-30(shooting at night)= -5% to hit. Bump this up to 5% at short range, and they are still laughable. The only hordes that might be worth our time are the heavy stubber hordes, which have a full auto option. It seems that having the whole battle before sunrise makes all the human opponents moot, what do you guys think?

If you're familiar with the background material, yes, humans fighting space marines need heavy weapons to do anything. Within the scope of the game, the hordes are there to put pressure on the PDF, not the space marines. The goal is to kill them not so that they don't kill you, but so they don't kill your fragile comrades.

I had two of the three hordes manning the siege guns bring one marine to 1 wound, and another down by 10 in one round of shooting, not too shabby if you ask me.

Are they more a nuisance than a threat? Sure. That's the point. Can they dish it out when they hit? Oh, heck yeah.

So don't make them fight in the dark. It's a warzone in a technologically advanced city. There are areas that will still have power, meaning street lights. If not, it's reasonable to assume that any large military force might wheel around generators and flood lights, or road flares at minimum. There are almost certainly fires burning all over the place. Maybe the moon is out and the clouds part way for that encounter. There's no reason to give them pitch dark -30 penalties just because it's night time. Also add in the fact that power armour makes you a hulking (I believe) sized character, giving +10 to any attack against you. I know that's not in the demo rules, but it's part of the full rules. Instead of shooting one round, make the horde aim. 65% right there (25+10 +20[aim]+10[medium range). Even if they aim and shoot for the turn, it's a **** respectable 45% every turn, before range modifiers. If the challenge or situation isn't working for you or your players, change the challenge or situation to suit your needs. No reason to say they're pointless when you can give them any bonuses you want. Maybe they all broke into a storehouse and grabbed some scopes for an extra +10. Or maybe they upgraded their guns to autorifles. Same damage, just give them a full auto RoF.

Thanks, I forgot about the size bonus. Areas of outdoor illumination also make sense. After a rough start through the demo I stopped using the hordes as anything other than a device to make the marines feel pressured for time.