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.

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

Army Special Rules

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

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.

• Abyssal Harbinger: Your army standard equivalent, with a single firebolt attack with Piercing 1. Not amazing, but for 60 points you get what you're paying for.

• Abyssal Temptress: Your other combat hero, although much cheaper than the Champ. Compared to the Champ she's faster, has lower defense, lower nerve, is way cheaper, and switches out CS 1 and regen for Ensnare and Stealthy, and she only inspires succubi. The temptress can also be given the Bane Chant spell, which makes it a very useful choice.

• 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. 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. When used in this way, the Lightning Bolt (5) can be an incredibly useful add-on, as it allows the big guy to do some actual damage in addition to its intimidation factor.

• 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.

• Demon Lord Ba'el, Bane of the Mortal Kingdoms (Destiny of Kings): The big bad demon god finally comes to the tabletop in Destiny of Kings. More expensive than anything else in the army, he comes base with Brutal, Crushing Strength (2), Fly, Fury, Inspiring, Lightning Bolt (5), Regeneration (5+), Thunderous Charge (2), and Vicious. So basically he's wounding with at least 6 of his 9 attacks when he attacks anything. Once per game he can also give up his ranged attack for the turn to cause every enemy unit within 6" to become disordered, which can just ruin your opponent's day if you position him right. Lastly he can also buy an upgrade to make his Inspiring effect allied units in addition to your non-allied units, although you're probably not going to be using that much unless you're bringing Forces of the Abyss allies to another army to gain it.

• Efreet: With Fireball 20 (!), this is your warmachine equivalent. Just make sure to not block its LOS, but still keep it protected, since it is rather fragile.

• Lord of Lies:

• Well of Souls:

Infantry

• Abyssal Guard:

• 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+)

• Fleshlings: Your expendable chaff unit. Fleshlings 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.

• 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: 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Large Infantry

• Imps: Height zero 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.

• 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.

• Tortured Souls:

Cavalry

• Abyssal Horsemen:

• Hellhounds:

Large Cavalry

[Clash of Kings 2019] Abyssal Despoilers. Unit Size Sp Me Ra De At Ne Pts Special Regiment(3) 7 4+ - 5+ 9 13/15 165 Brutal, Crushing Strength (2), Fury, Regeneration (5+), Thunderous Charge (1), Vicious Horde(6) 7 4+ - 5+ 18 16/18 255 Brutal, Crushing Strength (2), Fury, Regeneration (5+), Thunderous Charge (1), Vicious

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. [Clash of Kings 2019] Chroneas Stats:- (Sp)6 (Me)4+ (Ra)- (De)5+ (At)D3 +3 (Ne)16/18 (Pts)170 Crushing Strength (3), Fury:- While wavered, this unit may declare a Counter-Charge, Pathfinder:- The unit suffers no movement penalties for difficult terrain, simply treating it as open terrain. Pathfinder units are not Hindered for charging through difficult terrain, Strider:- The unit never suffers the penalty for Hindered charges, Tempus:- When this unit is given an order, all enemy units within 6" of this unit take an immediate point of damage, however they can only be damaged by a single source of Tempus per turn. No Nerve test is required for damage taken from Tempus.

War Engines

None. But who needs them when you have efreets and Chroneas

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.