What do you guys do with hordes once the kill-team gets them below 10 magnitude?

So far I've had just had them keep attacking (I've mostly been throwing 'Nids at the kill-team so having the horde rout doesn't make much sense), but that doesn't do much besides slow the kill-team down as without the +1d10 from magnitude hormagaunts are pretty much harmless. I've considered splitting the remains of the horde into individual creatures but that will probably slow down gameplay far too much and it'll still be useless. I could say the rest are dead once the magnitude drops below 10, but that feels a tad anticlimactic.

So what do you do in this situation?

Well, most anything besides Tyranids will probably have broken by the time you get them that low in Magnitude. As for 'nids, it really depends on how many are left. If it's just 1 or two, I'd say kill 'em off (I don't tell my players the exact magnitudes, so fudging is an option). If it's closer to 10 than 1, have them keep fighting, even if it's not very effective.

Lex1nat0r said:

I make Righteous Fury accessible to them. It gives them a small chance to still do damage.

Alex

Lex1nat0r said:

I add the magnitude value to the damage, i.e. if the Horde has 5 Magnitude remaining, then I add 5 to the damage.

In my games I divide all Hordes in Magnitude 10 sub-Hordes (I use miniatures and scenery, so 1 miniature starts representing a Magnitude 10 sub-Horde). I keep sub-Hordes miniatures 10 meters close to each other, and all of them deal extra damage equal to their Magnitude (so 1-10 points of extra damage) and have access to Righteous Fury... I wrote a post in the House Rules section about these rules... The rules add a lot of extra tactical possibilities as the Hordes last longer and have more manoeuvrability (and if using miniatures all the info is very easy to track), but I would not use them for narrative games, as then they add too much complexity.

If its just hordes couldn't the Hive mind just make them retreat and regroup with other Hordes?

If there are some larger (Elites) around i would them them occupy the marines while the bigger monster bring the hurt.

ak-73 said:

I like this solution. I can't quite think of a fluff reason for it, but I it does let the horde keep their bite.

As for having them break off... I can't actually think of a good reason for not doing it aside from the fact that I like the idea of Tyranid creatures being so mindless that they fight on regardless of casualties. And besides, what does the hivemind care about a half-dozen hormagaunts? There's plenty more where they came from...

Lex1nat0r said:

Well the +1d10 damage horde mechanic does include lucky hits or is due to increased likelihood of lucky hits. A mag 9 horde does have an increased likelihood to score such a lucky hit due to volume of attacks - something that individual NPCs don't have.

Alex