Kings of War/Tactics/Forces of the Abyss

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Why Play Forces of the Abyss

The Abyssal Legions have a great mix of unit options, that allow it to be a highly customizable army. For horde options you have Lower Abyssals, Fleshlings, and Abyssal Guard units. For elite combat units, you have succubi, for shooting you have the lowly Flame Bearers, the Efreet, and Chroneas. The army has a mix of low and high powered flyers, strong combat characters, and hard hitters like Tortured Souls, Mollochs, and Abyssal Horsemen.

This high customization posibilities make the abyssal army a perfect army for beginners.

Army Special Rules

• Sacrificial Imp: An upgrade for a good number of units, this one-use item lets you reroll failed Regeneration dice. You have to declare that you're using this before rolling.

Unit Analysis

Hero

• Abyssal Champion: Your combat hero with CS 1 and 5 attacks hitting on 3+. Decent enough, but for the points you spend you might as well get another unit. Take a Harbinger if you need Inspiring. Both the wings and the Lightning Bolt are not really worth it.
• Abyssal Harbinger: Your army standard equivalent, with a single firebolt attack with Piercing 1. Not amazing, but for 65 points you get what you're paying for. Have one around for Inspiring, and try to keep him out of combat.
• Hellequin Blood-Masque: Your mounted hero. Somewhere in between the Champion and the Harbinger, the Hellequin is meant to use its speed to circle the enemy and hit them where it hurts. A good Defence value helps them with their normal Nerve value, but the issue with the Hellequin is that it just does not hit hard enough. Sure, Fury is nice and Thunderous Charge means that most of the time it'll have Crushing Strength 2, but with only 3 attacks you just won't do a lot of damage. And the lack of Inspiring means it won't serve as a fast buffing unit either. Finally, be wary that the Hellequin is Height 3 and therefore requires suitable screening if you don't want it to be turned into a pincushion.
• Seductress: Your other combat hero. Not as tough as the Champion both in Defence and Nerve, and can only Inspire other succubi, but having Fly and Stealthy can make her difficult to hit. She also has access to a few spells including the cheap Bane Chant and both Enthral and Wind Blast to mess with your opponent's units, but don't take them all.
• Abyssal Warlock: Your primary utility caster. Comes with a free Inspiring and Firebolt, and can be upgraded with Bane Chant to make it an effective support unit. Drain Life and Bloodboil make the Warlock more offense oriented, but note that the Warlock is not particularly tough. While Veil of Shadows can theoretically buy this off, the intent is to make your Warlock more difficult to hit once you start to close in on your enemy.
• Efreet: With Fireball 15, this is your warmachine equivalent. For the price of a Troop of Flamebearers you get the firepower of two on a faster and somewhat tougher platform. Note that the Efreet is only somewhat tougher: Defence 4+ and 11/13 Nerve is still rather fragile, and while it's Height 2 the fact that it has the Fireball spell and not the Firebolt that Flamebearers have it needs to be awfully close to your enemy in order to work.
• Despoiler Champion: More or less a souped up Moloch, the Despoiler is a living batering ram. Crushing Strength 2 and Vicious means that you're likely to hit, and with 5 attacks at 3+ means that you will do some damage. And with Speed 6 and Nimble means that the Despoiler has a reasonable chance to get close to the enemy... if the Despoiler isn't sniped early on because of its Height 4, the fifth-highest value in the army.
• Archfiend of the Abyss: A roided up Abyssal Fiend. For almost twice the cost you get upgrades across the board: it hits harder (more Crushing Strength and attacks) and it will live longer (one additional point of Nerve, more Speed and Nimble). This is nice, but if you look at what you get for the price it might very well be better to go with two Abyssal Fiends instead. As with other big flying monster units in the game, the Archfiend excels at power projection. Rather than rushing it into combat at the first opportunity (where it will likely get surrounded an killed), use its mobility to intimidate and disrupt your opponent, and only pick fights you know it will win. Number-crunchers often miss this, but the threat of a big flying monster landing behind your battle line or next to your war engines can be just as effective (if not more so) than engaging the enemy head on.

Unique Units

• Mau'ti-bu-su: Essentially a Seductress but with extra Nerve and Brutal (D3) without any access to spells at a 30 point increase. If you want to run a Seductress without spells you might as well pick her instead, if you want the spells go with the regular one.
• Ba'su'su the Vile: The living legend that seems to be in half the evil army lists in the core rule book. He comes with Crushing Strength (2), Fly, Individual, Inspiring (Gargoyles only), Mighty, and Regeneration (5+). More or less like a Abyssal Fiend but works best alongside other Gargoyles. It's interesting to note that because he's Heavy Infantry instead of a Titan he fits onto a 25mm base rather than a 75mm one, and when paired with Nimble he's a lot easier to use. So if you want an Abyssal Fiend who's a lot more maneuverable go with him, otherwise go with a regular Fiend if you don't have a specific plan for him and his almost mandatory Gargoyle entourage.
• Manifestation of Ba'el: The big boss man himself. A statline like a battering ram, Ba'el hits like a truck and can tank a few hits as well thanks to his multitude of special rules. Being a Monster and therefore on a smaller base than an Archfiend, it is easier to use but does suffer when it comes to both its Inspiring specual rule and From The Pit I Curse Thee!, causing all enemy units within 6" to become Disordered, which can be a game ender when used properly. He is pricy, but if you were going to consider using an Archfiend anyway you might as well pick up this guy instead.
• Well of Souls: The Well is one of the most under appreciated units in the Abyss. The ability to "suck up" 20 wounds(!) from surrounding units WITHOUT taking a nerve test is absolutely awe inspiring. It has an interesting stat block for its primary gimmick: 10 attacks at 4+ to hit with Crushing Strenght 2 and Lifeleech 3 means that it's quite capable of healing itself in a fight. Just be prepared, because most people quickly realize just how dangerous it is and target it first and fast. It might be very big with its 5 Height, but thanks to Strider it can hide behind something that's bit enough then just charge through to get to the target.

Infantry

• Lower Abyssals: Solid meat shield choice. They come with Fury and Regeneration (5+). You can take them up to horde size and can switch to two-handed weapons to gain Crushing Strength (1) at the cost of 1 point of defence. Take them at horde strength and tar pit a unit for the whole game, although you'll at time unexpectedly punch through and be able to do it again late game.
• Abyssal Guard:
• Succubi: Solid infantry choice for the army. Ensnare allows them to just ruin your opponent's melee phases from the front. Many players use Succubi as the core of their infantry because of this mixed with the other standard demon rules across the army.
• Succubi Larvae: One of the best tarpits in the game, directly tied with zombies. They both cost the same and have the same nerve, but thanks to ensnare and their higher Def, these guys are much harder to kill. Zombies, on the other hand, have-Surge casting necromancers to get around their shambling, more attacks and hit twice as often with them. So while zombies might actually rout whatever gets stuck in them now and then, larvae will simply stand in the way.
• Abyssal Ghouls: Your expendable chaff unit. They are are pretty unimpressive, hitting on a 5+ and having 4+ defence, but they are cheap. These guys are best taken in Troops, where they can be used to screen better units or protect from flank charges.
• Flamebearers: Your main shooting unit. They come with firebolts, which with a range of just 18" means they have a shorter reach than most armies shooting, but they do hit on a 4+ and have Piercing (1), so when they do get in range they're pretty effective. They also have Regeneration (5+)

Heavy Infantry

• Gargoyles: Available in troop size only. They hit on a 4+ with a low defence of 3+, but they gain Fly and Regeneration (3+). You want to use this to harass the flanks of smaller enemy units so you don't get wiped out before you can use your Regeneration. Low model count means you're fleeing on an 11, which isn't very high at all, so you need that Regeneration to reduce your total wounds on the unit.

Monstrous Infantry

• Molochs: Big nasty ogre-like demons, Molochs come in regiments and hordes. They have an impressive amount of attacks (12 for a regiment, 24 for a horde) at Crushing Strength (2) and have Brutal, tempered by an average Melee stat of 4+. Whilst they might hit the enemy like a freight train, they have a low defence of 4+ so they need screening units (or The Fog) to make sure they get to the enemy without taking too much punishment.

Swarms

• Imps: Height 1 swarm unit with weak stats. Virtually no threat on their own, but they could be a useful speed bump to ensure a unit of flamebearers gets another turn of shooting.
• Tortured Souls:

Cavalry

• Abyssal Horsemen:
• Hellhounds:

Large Cavalry

• Abyssal Despoilers:

Monsters

• Chroneas: A pretty unique warmachine,it functions like a warmachine but counts as a monster. Has no melee attacks at all but it doesn't need them, and here's why The monster has Breath Attack(20)[Removed from Clash of Kings 2019] and Tempus. Tempus Is a unique rule that allows the Chroneas to shoot even while disordered. In other words if a Chroneas gets charged it can shoot it's aggressor clean with Breath Attack[now not available] the following turn, since charging units don't Treble attacks while charging The Chroneas (because he Is a monster) and it has defense 5+ The Chroneas has a good chance of surviving and blast it's aggressors off the tablet, canister shot style. Overall an AMAZING warmachine that isn't a warmachine hence being more mobile and durable, unfortunately you can only have one.

Titans

• Abyssal Fiend:

Tactics

A friend and I both play the Abyss, and are both having good success with very different builds. His build focuses more on a hard hitting army that smashes into and through things, while I play the more maneuverable hit and run style force. The army can be anything from a gun line to a fast flying force, to anything in between.

While the army has no actual war engines, the living war engine that is Chroneas gives an adequate secondary shooter that can put a significant hurt on enemy flyers. Flame Bearers with an effective range of 23 inches and pierce(1) make a nice defensive force, accompanied by an Efreet with 20 fireballs with an effective range of 19 inches, the mobile fire base does well in defending objectives, repelling invaders, and even has some survivability.

For an elite combat force, Succubi regiments though technically fragile, have good survivability with ensnare and stealthy. They also hit amazingly hard at 25 attacks on Me 3+, especially when attended by a Temptress with Bane Chant. Abyssal Guard is also a nice elite unit, though it is limited by its Sp of 5. Give them the brew of haste so they can keep up side by side with the Succubi, and you have a strong, hitty mobile infantry force. The Abyssal Horsemen are one of the better heavy cavalry units in the game, with CS(1) and TC(1) they can hit fairly hard, especially at 18 attacks on a 3+.

For meat shields, you have the options for Lower abyssals, which are decent infantry in their own right, Fleshlings, Larvae, and Imps. None of these units is going to win many combats, but they do soak up fire well, which is what you want your meat shields to do.