Kings of War/Tactics/Forces of the Abyss

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.

Army Special Rules

• Abyssal Vengeance: All units in this army have Fury unless otherwise noted.

Unit Analysis

Hero

• Abyssal Champion:

• Abyssal Harbinger:

• Abyssal Temptress:

• Archfiend of the Abyss: Large demonic hero to go with your Lesser Abyssals. Comes standard with Brutal, Crushing Strength (2), Fury, Inspiring, Thunderous Charge (2), but can also buy Fly and Lightning Bolt (5). This thing had a pretty good stat line, but at 250 points base you're paying a ton for something that is going to probably do about 7 wounds per turn. It has 9 attacks that hit on a 3+ and most likely will wound on 2+ with a re-roll, so it will do damage, but you probably want it to fly if you're planning to use it differently than a Hydra, so there's another 50 points put into it. Effective, but very spendy.

• 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), and Regeneration (5+). He also still makes a unit of Gargoyles defence 4+ and gives them Crushing Strength (1) for 20 points. In a lot of ways he fits the same role as an Archfiend of the Abyss, but is more maneuverable on his smaller base and Nimble from his Individual rule. He's still really expensive though, so only take him if you got a specific plan for him and his Gargoyle pals.

• Efreet:

• Lord of Lies:

• Temptress:

• Well of Souls:

Infantry

• Armoured Lower Abyssals:

• Flamebearers:

• Fleshlings:

• 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.

• Larvae:

• Lower Abyssals:

• Succubi:

• Vile Spawn:

Large Infantry

• Imps:

• Molochs:

• Tortured Souls:

Cavalry

• Abyssal Horsemen:

• Hellhounds:

Large Cavalry

None.

Monsters

• Chroneas:

War Engines

None.

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.