Hobby Update: Abyssal Flamebearers

While I started my hobbying out strong in 2019, I've since stalled out a bit. It's been over a month since my last post.

I had ordered some stuff (bases, bits, and a few boxes of minis), but there were inventory delays all over the place. Out of the six orders I placed since December, only 2 have arrived. Most look to have caught up, and should be here in a week or so, but it's been hard to get a jump on new projects without having the minis!

Winter has also been here in full force, limiting what I can paint to what I managed to get primed in the fall. Unfortunately, I got through most of that stuff late 2018. Starting off 2019, I was down to two regiments of Mantic Abyssal Flamebearers and two hordes of Ogre Shieldbreakers. WHile the Shieldbreakers still need bases and Big Shields, but I did manage to paint up the Flamebearers!

The first group. I really like the dynamic poses you can get with these minis. Chuckin' Firebolts, powerin' up... Flamebearers as a group look great.

The second group. I think I could dry brush some white onto the flames being tossed, but other than that, these are done. Quite happy with them!

Mantic's Lower Abyssals kit is one sprue of five minis, copied enough times to get to the box-size, and which can be made into either Flamebearers or Lower Abyssals. This simple sprue repetition though means that you'll end up with a lot of extra drums and banners, which is disappointing. The sprue comes with two little imps though, so you do net yourself some for your swarming imp units.

The Abyssals here do have a nice variety of poses, allowing for a nice dynamic unit. The minis also have a nice mix of claws and hooves for your differing demons. However, the models have "lazy" leg sculpts, with greaves often just fading away as they transition from the front of the model to the back. As a painter, this was a little frustrating. Washes and shading helps, as the shadow effect helps mask the lack of detail in this regard, but it is still a little disappointing.

The weapon options for the kit were also a bit lacking in my opinion. I would have loved to see more weapons over the ever-present banner and drum.

The weapons for the Lower Abyssals just seemed... well, not what I would expect the legions of demons to field. There's a two-handed axe (I think typically for the unit champion), a long scythe (which one could probably run as either a one-handed or two-handed weapon), a flail, a pitchfork, a left-handed katar-like double-dagger, and finally a left-handed sword. For a skirmish game like Vanguard, this variety could be ok, and the variety could even be welcome. However, for rank-and-file massed troops, I found myself disappointed with the selection of weapons.

The shields were also lackluster to me. The sprue comes with 5 copies, all with a stylized demon head on the front. They just looked goofy to me, and it seemed odd to have such regularity there with so much variety in the weapons, but maybe I'm being too ornery. I intend to do up my final models as Lower Abyssals, maybe even buying another box or two...  so likely more thoughts on this to come.

With all that said, the Flamebearer options are fantastic, letting you mix and match a number of arms holding the Firebolts, charging them up or tossing them out. You can get some very dynamic minis, and that's great.

That does it for the kit. Game-wise the Flamebearers are pretty cool, and seem like a versatile shooting unit. They have their 18", Piercing 1 Firebolts, and hit on 4's at range. The lack of Reload means they can move and shoot, albeit with a penalty. Still, this opens up some very nice mobility for them, and they should be able to get into good positions and threaten things early from afar.

Their biggest vulnerability is their 3+ defense; just about anything will damage them. However that is tempered. Their Nerve is great (on par with the elite infantry for Kingdoms of Men), so they are unlikely to flee early on, and Regen 5+ will help them recover from any early potshots.

Their melee is only 5+, so you want to keep them out of combat if possible. However, that liability is tempered by Fury. If they get caught by something, Fury should give you one last chance to fight back. It's nice to have, but you probably don't want it to come up too often in games.

Overall, the Flamebearers seem like a nice unit. Their shortfalls are mitigated a little bit, so they should be a surprisingly versatile addition to any force of Abyssals. ...that said, I admit that I have yet to actually play the Abyssals army yet, so you should probably take all this blabbering with a grain of salt. Cheers!