Hobby Update: Abyssal Berserkers

The Forces of the Abyss got a refresh late in 2024. I wasn't a big fan of the changes, the new plastic, or the overally approach (I feel like the Abyssals don't have a consistent design, both on and off the table), but I picked up a pair of the new Ambush boxes so that I could hobby up a few units of each, as I like to run multiples when exploring things. Winter and otherwise inclimate weather were on the horizon though, and I only had enough time to assemble and prime one group of the new minis, and I chose the Nagarri, as the models were more straightforward for assembly, and I figured that the "build-around-me" unit would be more interesting to play around with over the winter months. I've struggled to get good use out of them though, and with Spring speeding away quickly now, I was able to assemble, prime, and now paint up the other big new unit for the Forces of the Abyss. Up now are the new Abyssal Berserkers!

The models are all Mantic, and I do like a lot about them. For starters, they look like beefier versions of the Lower Abyssals, and I liked the boney bits and faces and such. It's a good look, and builds on the established aesthetic. However, every pose is right-leg-forward, making them hard to position, and with long strides and long tails, they certainly take up a lot of space on the base. I like to avoid overhanging model bits in my units, to help with gameplay and with storage, and it's just going to be hard to avoid that here. Additionally, the weapon selection is infuriating. Only the weird, spikey scimitar thing was paired. Most weapons (but not all) had a duplicate, but in the same hand instead of being paired, which is just frustrating. Lastly, the arm joins are not flat, and finding a good connection for the arm bits was much more difficult than it should have been.

The sprue, courtesy of Mantic's website.

These took longer to get to because I wanted to curate the weapon selection, and run the same loadout in each particular unit, to help differentiate them on the table for my opponent, should I choose to give them items and such. Since the weapons were often repeated but not paired, this took a fair amount of extra work for each unit.

A horde of clubbers.

First up are the clubbers. I really liked the weapon bit, and while it did have multiples, it unfortunately wasn't paired. The solution was easy enough, sawing off the club and handle bits, sanding things down, and adding them to other pieces in order to get paired weapons. I did not pin anything, instead trusting in  my flat sanding and Tamiya cement to keep it all together. I like the unit, but the long striding and overhanging weapons are really on display here.

A horde of peelers.

Next up is a horde of peelers. I played/beat Elden Ring when it came out, and enjoyed the Godskin Apostle encounters therein, and this these hook bits reminded me of those weapons. Again things were duplicated but not paired, and again the solution was to saw and sand and swap and then trust in liquid cement. Painting the weapons was just black primer with a gray drybrush and then a white drybrush. I wanted to go back with some kind of wash but thought it would be too much and couldn't quite decide on a color (pale blue?); and also considered a metallic drybrush or highlight, but was unsure if I could pull it off without marring the rest of the paintjob. So it's a little basic with the weapons, but looks fine on the table, and I like the unit since it almost fits within the dimensions of the base. Had some models gone with a different foot forward, these could fit a little better. It's my bad for doing the cork and the bases up before noticing that.

Regiments, for the Cult of Ba'el.

Last up are two regiments of axes. The army revamp gave us a new Formation, which I wanted to try out. I liked the oversized axes, and the bit was repeated a few times between the Berserker and Nagarri kits, and even paired once, but not often enough. I just don't know what they were thinking when it came to the weapon selection. Here I chopped off the axe head and matched it with an arm. I drilled up into the axe and down into the handle and then glued a copper rod to connect the two. I cut a thin strip of paper and wrapped it loosely around the haft, and called it good. These got headswaps from the Nagarri box, as I thought the eye-hole masks helped sell the cultish idea of the formation units, and I still have two more of those heads, some axes, and the last two Nagarri bodies, if I want to go all out and hobby up a special Nagarri formation unit down the road. I have plenty I'd like to paint up before then, but who knows - I still want to play some mega battles, so the idea of a third regiment of Nagarri is still a bit appealing in the abstract.

All three units. Lots of overhang. I will need to bring spare bases to my games...

Upon release I compared them (fairly, I think) as mix between Hellhounds and Molochs, and honestly was a rather befuddled with the newcomers. The Hellhounds are a similarly speedy unit with similar damage output, but don't seem popular (I've had them run against me a few times, and they were only really scary with items and/or BC support... about 100-100 points of support). The Molochs are have even more in common, with comparable stats (Nerve and Defense), similar size (Molochs are 50mm Monstrous infantry while Berserkers are slightly smaller at 40mm) but with CS2 the Molochs seemed like a more potent hammer with their CS2. 

It seemed weird to me to create a brand new unit that was remixing things and not really treading new ground, especially when this takes place during a revamp, and you could just tweak rules for the existing units. (Maybe Molochs will be phased out?) But apparently the remix was indeed the ticket, and even normal hordes have made quite the splash over the winter months.

They first caught my eye near the end of 2024 in a battle report from Master Sight, where both presenters regarded the unit very highly. The unit was speedy, and had built-in Fury. For hammers and fighting units, often one wants either terrain mitigation (J-Boots) or waver mitigation (like the Chalice of Wrath), so this was a nice boon for them, making them easier to use, and then also got me more interested in my Herd Lycans, since the built-in Pathfinder was on the other side of that proverbial coin. The Abyssal Berserkers have an edge in Nerve and damage output over the Lycans, but I've hoping some of the lessons I learn there will apply to the Berserkers whenever these do hit the table.