Hobby Update: Def5 Abyssal Guard

I really enjoyed my forays with the Abyssal Guard last year. I was hoping for a lot from the revamp, and did not really get what I wanted. Still, it has been a fun unit previously, and I really wanted to revisit (and redo) them, so up now are three regiment’s worth of Def5 Abyssal Guard!

All of the new units.

I liked my Abyssal Guard games last year, using Bloodletter minis and going with CS1 for my units. Fearless and Regeneration let it stick around longer that they might normally; hitting on 3’s and with CS1 they could actually land some damage; and it had some fun interactions with the rest of the roster, like with the Abyssal Harbinger granting Rampage 3 via its aura, which was ideal for stomping Brothermark Penitents! The Oathbreakers were fun as well, with a neat Rally aura that really helped when I was messing around with Succubi and Flamebearer units previously.

An eager regiment.

With the army revamp late in 2024, I was really hoping for Mantic to show the Abyssal Guards some love. I wanted to make my own army more Mantic, so was hoping for a new box or maybe just a new, separate upgrade sprue for beefing up the Lower Abyssals, neither of which was released. I was hoping for rules tweaks as well, such as to maybe run them in hordes like the similarly-costed Elf Palace Guard got in a previous Clash update. Unfortunately, that also did not come to pass. However, we did get some special rules tweaks for them.

The Abyssal Guard points cost did not go up, but they received the conditional Rally aura from the legendary Oathbreaker upgrade (now keyworded to Lesser Abyssals, but covering the same infantry units of Guard, Flamebearers, Succubi, and Lower Abyssals it previously covered). Rally is so granular that this isn’t amazing at first glance, and it never feels impactful for my units, but hey, it’s a free buff and worth checking out. Additionally, the Oathbreakers are still around, but now get +1 Rout to reach a -/17 Nerve; a buff to an unconditional Vicious; and can be Def5, all which are all strong bonuses for a meager 15 points. 

A second regiment.

Since we didn’t get a new kit, I decided to hop back to the Frostgrave Demons kit, which I had used for my old Oathbreakers a few years back. Post-revamp, I picked up a few new boxes of the kit over the winter months, and started scheming. The kit was designed for customized skirmish bands, so each sprue of 5 is a bit unique, with only one of each big two-handed weapon, 2/5 big shields, 1/5 little shields, and a lot of one-off hand weapons on each sprue. Running the same weapons is impractical since the models would look so similar, but these purchases did let me acquire enough shields to run my units with matching shield sizes, and enough minis to hobby up a few different units.

A troop, with shorter shields.

Assembly started way back in February, as I took a week to travel home and help my folks deal with after-care for a hip replacement. Snipping and sorting happened then, but it took a few months for the weather to clear up and be good for priming. Once primed, I then really didn’t have much free time to paint until May/June, and progress was sporadic and slow since I was painting up these all up batch-style. For painting, I copied the alternating bronzy and steel pattern I had used on the previous Oathbreaker unit. I remembered weapon orientation being a little weird, so heads and shields were primed and painted separately from the main figure, and the heads glued on at the very end so I could get the shields facing forward for the most part. 

A second troop.

I wanted to try Defense 5 units firstly because I had not done so before, and secondly because of Will’s Abyssal Dwarfs, whose list was making good use of Immortal Guards as little anvils in some of the league games I’ve caught glimpses of. The Immortals are stronger units, but the Abyssal Guard can be decent facsimiles, and little Fearless anvil units should be fun for me to explore and continue with my odd MMU play. Playing him in mid-July in Battle 133 was a nice push and the encouragement I needed to try and actually finish these units up. 

The troops combined as a regiment.

I have a lot of ideas swirling for using the new units, but none really fully crystalizing fully just yet as they don't jive with the aggressive, alpha-strike lists that I've been running the last few months. Still, it’s fun to have new units ready for the table, and hopefully we’ll see them on the battlefield soon!