Hobby Update: Abyssal Archfiend and Second Abyssal Fiend

I made a number of purchases in November. Honestly, most of these were probably not great or timely acquisitions, though thankfully nothing was particularly expensive. I've been trying to rein in my hobby spending again, especially now since it's gotten colder and started snowing during November... Winter is the time to fight the grey unpainted legions, not add to their ranks!

The Abyssals got the bulk of the recent reinforcements. I saw a used Archfiend, assembled and primed for sale online some months ago. When I stumbled upon him again recently, and even discounted now, I decided to pick him up. I also picked up another 20 used Flamebearers, also assembled and primed, as those have been working for me lately, and would let me use up the last few Lower Abyssal bodies I have sitting around too. All this for under the MSRP of a normal Mantic Archfiend. Used miniatures are great! The Flamebearers will take some time to work through, but since they are already primed, I can hopefully get to those over the winter. For now, I just hobbied up the big things. 

The Archfiend if a very big model!

The mini is made from a hard (but thankfully not brittle) resin, which has proven to be nice. The model has a long, devilish tail which seems like it should snap, but the resin used has enough "give" to have not broken yet. The mini was purchased secondhand so came assembled, but it looks like the pieces needed a fair amount of cleanup that was not done. The upper shoulders have a bit of a gap with the rest of the body, and there were a few small circular spots here and there that looked like leftover nubs to sprue attachments. Just behind the skull was one, so I added a small greenstuff boney spike to disguise it. If you buy this new-in-box, definitely consider dry fitting everything before you glue it together!

The Archfiend is nice, big "heavy flier" for the Forces of the Abyss. This kind of monster is an inspiring flier on a titanic base with great combat stats like CS3 and Me3 and Def5, usually has 17/19 Nerve, about 10 attacks (the Archfiend has 9), and a special ability or two, one of which is usually some kind of ranged attack, like a breath attack. The Undead's Vampire on Undead Dragon is one of these, as is the Elf Dragon Kindred Lord. Many armies have access to a similar heavy flying unit. They all cost about the same, and are one of the few units in any roster to exceed 300 points, weighing in around 305 points usually. They are all big, flying hammers, which will do a lot of damage if you can protect them. 

The second titan was another Abyssal Fiend, made from another Minotaur Labyrinth Guardian. I got mine on sale - it was just too hard to pass up another big toy for $12. I used cheap Reaper Miniatures things for years, but all these newer pre-primed D&D-style minis are pretty slick too. I like purchasing something from the FLGSs I play at, just to support them a bit and thank them for the table. Many shops have had a selection of these kinds of minis these days, so they are definitely worth checking out given their prices. They do technically come primed, but I'd suggest at least giving them a rinse and a dry before you do anything with them. Some have had a bit of hydrophobic ... coating, residue, film, or something on them that interferes with paint thrown directly on them. A rinse and dry has worked, and you can always prime them again if you want to.

Second Fiend.

I have used the lesser Fiend I think at least twice on the table, but neither attempt was noteworthy. They have decent combat stats and abilities and Nerve, but I have tended to over-estimate their combat effectiveness on the table. They only have 7 attacks - so you really don't want them charging something in the front, nor being the main damage dealer in a melee. They just don't have the attacks to swing that in your favor. I think their usefulness might actually lie in them having a Fireball attack, letting then advance and threaten a bit at range (especially in conjunction with things like Flamebearers), though using the Fireball and attempting this approach is something I have yet to really use in-game. I'll just need to test and play more I suppose!

A trio of titans for the Forcess of the Abyss.

The various Fiends are probably too expensive to all run at once, but I would still like to attempt some mega battles at some point, and the Forces of the Abyss seem like great antagonists, so they'll be good to have around I think. I will get some use out of them eventually!

More miscellaneous Reaper Kobolds to run as Imps. 

The last addition to the Abyssals right now are more Imps. This was not a necessary purchase - I don't need more Imps, but I saw a neat pack while killing time in a shop, and decided to pick them up. A lot of Abyssal players don't like the Imps, preferring Gargoyles and other units (like Ghouls, and even more expensive Seductresses and Tortured Souls) to complicate the enemy movement phase and act as chaff to set up good trades, but they are cheap and I have liked having a regiment or two around in my games, so I will continue to run the little guys when I have the points to do so. 

And that's it for the Abyssals for now! I have a few more lists done up to test, so we'll see what December is like for games!