Hobby Update: Redone Abyssal Guard

Back in my Warhammer days, Chaos Undivided and how Chaos was historically treated as a faction intrigued me. I had even picked up a few old faction books from used bookstores for fun. At the time, the factions were split up, so I had a goal of creating at least 2k of Warriors following each god, with each supported by both 1k of Daemons and some Beastmen. I got to play one End Times mega battle with a large contingent of my Chaos Warriors, but the supporting factions didn't make it to the table before 8th literally ended and AoS took over. 

Of the Daemonic contingent, the Tzeentch stuff was first ported into Kings of War and then eventually back onto rounds; the Slaanesh stuff was gifted away; the Nurgle stuff never really got purchased; and Khorne only had a bunch of Bloodletters, which were repurposed into Kings of War Abyssal Guard around 2018 with a regiment and a trio of troops. I don't think they ever hit the table. The minis are so awkwardly ranked I just decided not to deal with pushing them into a melee. 

While browsing ebay this summer, I found a reasonably-priced bundle that would get me up to an even 40 Bloodletter minis, and after hemming-and-hawing for a few weeks, ultimately decided to pounce since the bundle was still available. The minis are broad enough that 10 mostly fill out the regimental base, and I figured 4 regiments of Abyssal Guard could be fun to have down the road. I'm not going to any tournaments, so was fine with using the GW minis and with being below the preferred model count.

First unit.

Second unit.

Third unit.

Fourth unit.

There is nothing really special about the minis. The original kit isn't really customizable much without a ton of effort, so these are mostly just as-is. I did add a number of pauldrons though, to give them a more grounded and terrestrial feeling. I thought about taking the time to add loin cloths, to get them closer aesthetically to something like Mantic's Lower Abyssals, or straps to make the pauldrons look better, but decided it was just not worth the effort to customize 40 minis.

Ranked up about as good as can be. The front-right unit is a bit of a bother. I ran out of minis holding the sword upright, which exacerbates the ranking-up.

For hobbying, I decided to break every mini off the base. I was able to utilize some old regiment bases from the Tzeentch foray, so the bases were ready to go with just a few touchups to disguise where the former minis had been. The original troop bases here will be used with some upcoming Flamebearers. 

All the minis got their minor repaints and touch-ups at once. Then they got roughly sorted into the final regiments, and arranged on the bases. The goal was to try and get things so that the minis could actually reach combat on the table. I tried! Most of the models have a wide stance and haphazard grip on the weapon, pointing it roughly horizontally, so it was hard. I think I will still need some stand in bases on hand for tight quarters just in case, but the end result is so much better than it was! These might actually see the table sometime.

Not quite sure how these will fare on the table when they do. They are roughly akin to the Kingdoms of Men Foot Guard for stats though, and those have served me pretty well overall. With the addition of Regeneration and Fearless to get the -16 Nerve, I think the better call is to probably keep these at Def5 and lean into the tank role, but that wasn't really an option here and I can't bump these up to hordes legally for truly immovable tanks. They've got Me3+, and they've got good offensive stats, so I think their effectiveness will hinge on how good my regen rolls are for them to stick around and continue fighting. Plus using them smartly and all that good stuff. I'll try and get in a good test for them sometime soon, and we'll see how they do!

I'm on a bit of a roll with the new replacement shade paint pot, so more Abyssals to come soon!