Our schedules haven’t been aligning recently, but I was able to squeeze in one final game in for 2023 against friend and forum-goer Cartwright, who graciously made the trip over to the Madison area to accommodate me and my darn work schedule. We corresponded on the potential match-ups, and settled on a new and unfamiliar one to close out the year. He brought his eldest son’s Abyssal Dwarfs, running the following:
We haven’t seen a “proper” Abyssal Dwarf list yet on the blog. We saw them at a tiny event in 2021, and they have come up a few times in team games, but they have never gone above 1500 points in these reports. Cartwright definitely fit in a lot! For Dwarfs we have two regiments of Blacksouls, the basic infantry option kitted for defense, and a horde of Decimators with Blunderbusses. Supporting the evil dwarfs were two units of chaffy Gargoyles and several scary hordes of monsters, which were likely going to cause me the biggest headaches. Two of these were of Lesser Obsidian Golems with Def6 and Magma Cannons. Thankfully the cannons only have 8 attacks, but these seemed versatile and hard to break. The third horde were Abyssal Grotesques, which were a Christmas addition to the family collection. They looked like a brutal combat unit. As if this wasn’t enough, he also brought a Hellfane shrine, the Infernok / Dravak unique option combo, and two other spellcasters with a wide variety of spells. While the list had a good variety of things to explore (we were both trying to find our footing with a new army), the Abyssal Dwarf list had a lot of Def6 and seemed like it would do well in a grind.
My “new” army was my Undead, an old collection seeing the table in their first big game of 3rd Edition and now sporting a spooky fog effect. I needed to start somewhere for evaluation the army, so I too ran a variety of stuff in this larger game. Up to test is basically everything:
- Wraith Troops. These have been stellar little annoyances in previous games, and surprisingly potent if they can be surged into a flank. I know they can be great, but we’ll see how I am able to utilize them.
- Mummies. The Teutonic Knights take the field! I posited that they should be ok in a grind, but the Abyssal Dwarfs look like they can easily outclass my one regiment. We’ll see how they do and what they get stuck up on.
- Skeleton Archers. Cartwright has used a horde of Brothermark Bowmen against me well, and my own Kingdoms of Men Bowmen were coming into their own the last few games. We’ll see how Skeleton Archers do!
- Wights. The only “real” hammer unit I brought. Unfortunately I don’t have a great way to heal or preserve them, and I have a feeling this unit will make-or-break the game for me. We’ll see what carnage they can do before they are dragged down.
- Revenant Cavalry. I wanted to test out these new units. Unfortunately, against Def6 with just TC2, I don’t think they are going to relegated to delaying actions and tarpit duty.
- Revenant King. I paid for Surge since so much of my list is Shambling. Throwing together my list, I thought they had a few more attacks… but unfortunately they look akin to my Kingdoms of Men heroes. Three attacks gives them good odds to deal 1 to something, but that isn’t great for damage output, and these aren’t the rounded characters I thought they were. The extra points get them Fearless, some Nerve, Inspiring and Lifeleech, making them a bit more tanky. Being tanky is ok, but a disordered spellcaster still can’t cast spells no matter how tough they are, so we’ll see what trouble or utility these can get up to.
- Necromancer. The recent spellcaster revamp is neat, making the Necromancers just 30 points, without spells. This gives them a lot of versatility, letting you pay for just the spell you want, and keeping the overall costs low. I probably should have been brave and taken a different spell, but figured it was best to double down on Surge for the inaugural outing.
- Liche King. The Liche King is also a beneficiary of the spellcaster revamp, but has more potent spells. Being a wimp I again doubled-down with Surge, figuring he might be able to enable some long-surge shenanigans. The revamp saw the Liche lose Fly but retain Speed 7, which is intriguing, but a bit of a nerf still. I don’t think this is the right kit, but we’ll see how he feels on the table.
- Goreblight. It seemed like a nice budget monster, and I had liked it in the demo game, even though I had forgotten all about Cloak of Death. I’ll try to remember it this time, and we’ll see how it feels in a larger game.
- Legions of Zombies. Zombies are classic, so I wanted to try them out, and figured I should go big since I had the models to do so. At Defense 2, I feel like these won’t last long, but with 28 Nerve (29 if run near the Goreblight in the formation!), they may surprise me. I gave them Giant Rats for Lifeleech 2. They aren’t damage dealers, but through weight of attacks I am hoping this can trigger every combat. I am not expecting much, but we’ll see how the throngs of zombies do.
- The Shambling Blight. Running the formation all together is a ridiculous 75 Nerve and 9 Unit strength in one area! Phalanx will only trigger against the Grotesques, so it might not be a big factor this game, though isn’t a bad thing for a tarpit unit to have generally. Iron resolve should be good too. I don’t think the formation is a great buy or all that competitive a pick, but since I had resolved to run Legions of Zombies already, I figured I might as well give it a try.
Table and Terrain
As mentioned, Cartwright graciously made the drive out to the shop to accommodate my darn work schedule. My camera was having some trouble with the lighting, but I should have enough pictures to make an intelligible report. We used his app to set up the terrain, substituting in a third forest when we couldn't locate a pond. We were using typical terrain rules, with the ruins as Height 9 blocking buildings, the forests as Height 6 Difficult Terrain, fences as Height 2 Obstacles, and Hills as Height 3.
We rolled up “Push” for the scenario, which we were a little rusty on. After deployment, we were each to distribute d3 (we got 2) loot tokens to units or just around out deployment zone, and then fight for a central token. Tokens were worth 1 point on your side of the board at the end of the game, or two if you were able to press into your opponent’s side.
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| Most of deployment. |
Left to right, my opponent had Blacksouls, Hellfane, Blacksouls, and the reconfigured Grotesques in reserve. Each Blacksoul unit would receive a loot token. Hiding behind the building was the Hexcaster, a horde of Lesser Obsidian Golems, Iron-Caster, Infernok screening Dravak Dalkan, the horde of Decimators which now have a range of 14”, Gargoyles, more Lesser Obsidian Golems, and Gargoyles on the far flank.
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| The rest of deployment, with the Undead's stacked right flank. |
I had won the roll-off, and did the lazy gamer approach, with the Wights as my final drop. Left-to-right for me we have the Skeleton Archers, Revenant King, Revenant Cavalry, Revenant Cavalry in the woods. The center had Mummies on the obstacle with Wraiths behind, the Liche King, more Revenant Cavalry, the a Legion of Zombies, and the necromancer. On my far flank had Wraiths, the Goreblight, Liche King, Legion of Zombies and the Wights. This far legion would receive both of my tokens, since nothing really opposed me here. My general plan was to Shamble the Zombies up each turn for all-but-guaranteed points, assume my opponent and the Blacksouls would eventually break through for the same, and just focus on trying to contest the middle token for the win.
My opponent won the roll for first turn, and took it.
I was Undead, but the Revenant Cavalry gave me some good threat projection, so my opponent moved up, but remained out of range. It looks like we let the Hellfane shoot at the Revenant Cavalry, scoring 1 damage.
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| The Abyssal Dwarf force moves up! |
The Hexcaster attempted his namesake, and scored a hit on the Liche. Due to the Feedback special rule, this does go on to wound the Liche as well. That's a neat little caster, especially as he has Spellward to thwart his opponent in any wizard duel.
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| The Gargoyles are cautions, staying just out of charge range, as shown by the die. |
The Gargoyles flitted around on my right, and were the speediest things on the table. Their goal was to intercept and delay. My quickest thing on this flank were the Wraiths, so the Gargoyles set down just out of reach and ready to react to my opening moves.
Bottom of Round 1: Undead
The Undead move up as well, with the relatively speedy trio of Revenant Cavalry shuffling about. The unit on the left should have some clear charges for delaying things in the coming turns. The unit in the center in the woods couldn’t quite get out of the woods with their movement. I want to preserve their Thunderous Charge but not be accidentally charged by dwarven infantry, so I hangback a few inches and attempt to Surge myself clear of the terrain. I only get one success for Surge over on this flank, so unfortunately they are held up by the woods.
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| End of movement. The sturdy obstacles looked amazing but proved unwieldy for our game, and were replaced with torn paper. |
Over on the right, the Wraiths hop over the building with Fly, and aim themselves at the Gargoyles. The Necromancer skulks around the building to cast a 6 for 6 Surge spell to get them into the Face of the Gargoyles. We agree I’ll need 2 more inches to connect, and the Revenant King obliges me 3 successes on his attempt. In combat, the Wraiths will score 7 hits which translate into 7 wounds, and the Gargoyles are thumped!
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| Lining things up in the movement phase. |
With the Dwarfs moving up, the Archers loose into the right Blacksouls, hoping to soften them up for my cavalry, or for a lucky waver to really delay the Grotesques. A man can dream, right? Three damage is done, but the dwarfs hold firm.
The Abyssal Dwarfs are unable to charge anything yet, but are able to bring some more dedicated shooting to bear this turn. The Hellfane scores another 2 damage into the Revenant Cavalry, bringing them to 3. The central eat take a Magma Cannon shot for 2, and two Fireballs for 1 apiece, but will hold when all is said and done.
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| Shots and magic fly out from the Abyssal Dwarf battle line. |
With the Gargoyles gone, the Lesser Obsidian Golems find themselves as the flank of the Abyssal Dwarf line. They move and pivot to face the Undead out on the flank, and their Magma Cannons shoot at my victorious Wraiths, though I don't think any damage is scored.
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| The Abyssal Dwarf center move up, menacingly. |
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| The Lesser Golems turn to face the Undead. |
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| Charges on the left. |
Still over on the left, a regiment of Revenant Knights make a clear charge into the front of the Blacksouls hugging the table edge, landing 7 damage against the evil Dwarfs, but they hold, which should allow the Hellfane to flank the knights next turn.
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| A risky hindered charge in the center of the field. |
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| Reforms at the bottom of 2. |
The third regiment of Revenant Knights have a charge into the Gargoyles, and I opt to take it. If I can rout them, I feel like I can back up to get things in my front, and bring the Mummies in to help contest the middle. The Knights only deal 3 damage, and the Gargoyles hold, meaning all three of my Revenant Knights are possibly getting flanked next turn. Yikes.
Top of Round 3: Abyssal Dwarfs
The Abyssal Dwarfs shrug off the strikes from the Undead, and prepare for their counter attacks.
Over on the right, the Golems will counter-charge the Wraiths, who land 16 hits into 10 damage, and smash the ghosts away. The Decimators move up, and shoot into the Goreblight. Given the surrounding melees, the Goreblights gets cover, but the Decimators roll hot, landing 8 damage, a bit less than twice the expected result. Surge got the monster out of Inspiring range, and a lucky 10 for the check pops the undead amalgamation.
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| Changes and such for the top of Round 3. |
Centrally, the Iron-Caster lobs a fireball into the Mummies dealing 3, and Hexcaster again hits the Liche for 1 getting both the Hex and the damage. The Infernok hits the flank of the Revenant Knights, with the Gargoyles clawing at their front. The Gargoyles roll well, dealing 3, and the Infernok contributes 11. The Knights are maybe a quarter of an inch out of Inspiring range, and are smashed back into the dirt on the first Nerve check.
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| More charges for Round 3... |
The second unit of Revenant Knights takes frontal charge from the Golems. The knights hold, but are disordered, so they are not long for this world.
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| Some reforms for Round 3. |
The Hellfane joins the Blacksouls against my left-most Revenant Cavalry, hitting them in the flank. Rampage generates 5 extra attacks… so the Hellfane translates 28 attacks into 17 damage. The Dwarfs do nothing, but an aura for Brutal is in play, and the Knights are obliterated as well.
The Grotesques make it cleanly into the other unit of Wraiths, dealing 10 new damage to them and trounce the second unit of ghosts.
Bottom of Round 3: Undead
My opponent had a phenomenal turn, and I was feeling the pressure, but given the scenario knew I still had a chance.
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| Beginning of the turn. |
The Archers shoot into the remaining unit of Blacksouls, dealing 2 and taking them to 9, but they hold, and are unimpressed.
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| In the middle of the Bottom of Round 3. |
The Zombie Legion with the tokens moves over the center line to be scoring, and then pivots to maybe contribute to a fight later.
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| You know what would have been nice here? A Goreblight. |
The Wights have no charge. We'd need another hot Surge roll reach the Lesser Golems, and I opt not to test fate again. I think everything should be able to survive a hit next turn, and I am hoping I can make something happen here in Round 4.
Top of Round 4: Abyssal Dwarfs
The last remaining regiment of Revenant Cavalry did lifeleech 1 damage back, but the Golems counter-charge again, dealing another 11 damage to the unit and bringing them to 20. I definitely underestimated the Golems, but they are also rolling way above average. They thump the knights, and then reform to look over towards the central token, which is actually unclaimed currently.
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| A big triple charge! |
The Skeleton Archers get charged by the Grotesques (7 damage), the Hellfane (5) and Dwarfs (3), for a total of 15, but they hold strong thanks to Fearless.
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| A surprising hold from the Archers! |
My opponent tries to shoot off the Zombie Legion in the woods. Cannons do 3, Fireball does 3, and the Decimators deal 6, but the Legion holds!
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| Ranged Phase, top of 4. |
The Hexcaster hits the Mummies with Weakness, giving my Liche a respite. The Mummies are weakened, and the spell does two damage. The Infernox then thumps the Mummies for an additional 6, damage, but they hold.
Bottom of Round 4: Undead
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| Desperate one-on-one charges from the Undead. |
Top of Round 5: Abyssal Dwarfs
My opponent makes some tricky moves… the Infernox disengages from the Mummies, and will be Surged into the flank of the zombies, taking the penalty. The Decimators will counter-charge the Zombies, bringing them to 23, but the Zombies hold.
The Mummies are hit with Magma Cannons and Fireballs and they are burned away. Yikes. My note says 11 damage, but that's gotta be the new total otherwise all three units were rolling hot. At the end of the phase, the Infernox is able to claim the central token.
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| The Teutonic Mummies are disrespected and shot up. |
The other Lesser Obsidian Golems countercharge the Wights, continue to roll way above average, and hit them with a stunning 10 damage. Two 8’s on the Nerve check means I lose the Wights in one-go…
It was great to fit in another game before the year ended, and great to branch out into some less typical armies for the report.
Cartwright's eldest ran the Abyssal Dwarfs as dwarfs but there is more going on with them. The Decimator horde was a fun unit to see in practice, and the extra two inches on their ranged attack is a solid buff. The army looks to have some fun options to explore!
I had some blazing hot surge rolls to start, and that’s about when my luck ran out and Cartwright’s took over! The Obsidian Golems rolled very hot in all their fights, consistently delivering double-digits of damage where 6 would be the expected result. The Decimators got some very spiky dice against the Goreblight to remove it without incident, and generally punched above their weight. Giving them Blessing of the Gods might be a good call if Cartwright looks to make this a more regular army.
Trying to learn the army I made some risky plays early on, and by my Round 3 I had lost over a quarter of my army. That deficit was too hard to come back from, and with Cartwright's luck hitting its stride in the midgame, the game quickly spiraled out of my reach.
The Undead were still very fun to pilot though, and I got a lot to ponder. Having a layered battle line didn't work well with Shambling, so I think wider is probably better for next time. Surge was difficult to plan around but I think I have a better idea of how to utilize that now as well. The Undead have a lot of lower-quality units, so I think trying to focus on getting those multi-charges would be a good focus for my next list.
Testing Conclusions
- Wraith Troops. I started out great with these, but my opponent removed them pretty quickly before I could get additional uses out of them. They are versatile and definitely worth taking, but the low Nerve and high Defense makes them a little quirky, and they need a little more finesse than I had on the day.
- Mummies. I did not use these well. I deployed on terrain, and didn’t move them off until they needed to charge, leading to that being a hindered chareg. That itself wasn’t smart, but they got into a pretty tough 1-on-1 fight. Still, they lasted a few rounds, so kudos to them. If I can support them better, they should be a fun unit to bring to the table again.
- Skeleton Archers. I’m not sure brining just the Archers is worth it. I think like my Kingdoms of Men, you will want some additional investment in shooting (for the Undead, either Balefires, or some damaging magics) to help out. Still, they rolled well, dealing an extra damage here and there vs the expected result. Boiling Oil unfortunately didn’t come into play here but it still seems like a good item for bow hordes to pick up.
- Wights. They were may last drop, and I deployed them back, hoping to fly in and start smashing. However, being Shambling, and behind other Shambling units, they got a bit delayed. While flanking something is always better, these just don’t seem maneuverable enough to do that. I think I’d be better running these as a main-line unit and looking for a surged flank charge than running these out on the wings and trying to collapse on my opponent’s line 7 inches at a time. They are a good unit but I used them a bit poorly due to inexperience.
- Revenant Cavalry. I used them more like some of my old knightly regiments from the Kingdoms of Men, but they function a little differently, being a bit more tanky at the cost of their damage output. I overestimated their combat abilities, and used them a bit recklessly. I think regiments need either more supporting hammer units, or Bane Chant support to be effective, otherwise it is too easy to bog them down and strip off the Thunderous Charge.
- Revenant King. They were just ok. I liked that they can potentially do a lot (surging, Inspiring and fighting) but being a bit of a jack-of-all-trades makes them very points inefficient, and unattractive for competitive lists. I think ASBs with Lute and Tome would be more competitive picks, especially if you want to run some skeletons.
- Liche King. While potentially a very strong caster, Surge felt wasted on him. I don’t think long-Surges are all that desirable. I think you want to give him a scary spell and set him loose on the battlefield. Innate Speed 7 + scary spell + Boots of Levitation seems like a better role for him to play in a future list.
- Necromancer. They were the early MVP with that hot 6/6 Surge, and it felt decent to have them skulking around for little surges throughout the game. Paying for just the spells you want opens op some neat possibilities for them.
- Surge-focus. It was done on purpose, but yeah, I over-invested in Surge. This is one of those things experience will help dictate. I had a lot of things that could be surged, but again I don't think long surges are desirable, so just having a few casters is probably ok. On long Surges, even Wights are going to top out around 10 damage maximum, and that isn’t enough oomph to give good chances for a rout against a lot of things. Even here with the Revenant Cavalry, it felt all too easy to get out of inspiring range and lose a unit.
- Goreblight. It was incredibly unlucky here. Worth trying out again in the future for sure though!
- Legions of Zombies. They did ok? Just by virtue of being Legions they were able to take a ton of punishment and then stick around. My opponent pointed out that any TC, Piercing or CS is points wasted on them, making them a pretty efficient tarpit since I wasn’t paying for Defense that would be immediately stripped away. Rats seemed like a decent upgrade for them.
- The Shambling Blight. The formation put the Legions in the best possible light with all the buffs and bells and whistles and stuff, but Phalanx didn’t have much to interact with from the Abyssal Dwarfs and I forgot all about Iron Resolve. I would run it again, but its effectiveness seems limited. Ideally, you want both Legions and the Goreblight together, to get use out of Rallying, but that’s a lot of points and US all in one spot. A lot of Kings of War comes down to good positioning, so it does not seem like a competitive choice.
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