Hobby Update: FoA Lord of Lies

The Abyssals have been a bit neglected by me this year, with barely over a literal handful of games played so far by me, though we have faced them a few times as well. Early on, this exclusion was understandable - the new edition brought a lot of changes to the game, and my collection and playstyle with the army were not great fits with the changes.

The subsequent update from Fracture is interesting, and full of neat stuff worth exploring, and we've dabbled, but most of the normal lists I had come up with since were intended to be comparing units and slots, and work best for double-header game days, which have unfortunately been more rare over the summer here, so despite a handful of new builds and ideas ready to explore, the army has not hit the table with any real regularity.

This new addition might not fix the lack of games on its own, but might give me some new angles and ideas to play around with, and incentivize me to play the army just a little bit more. Up now is the Lord of Lies!

Not too bad from the front.

The model is a Wizkids Rakdos, Lord of Riots miniature, from their Magic: The Gathering offerings. I like the look of Mantic's model, but am still very much trying to keep to a tight budget, and needed to go the cheaper route here. The model is like many of the other Wizkids offerings, which is to say good, for its price. The scythe top inserts into the hand, but otherwise the model comes as one massive piece. 

Yeah, a very stark transition with the hoof.

Personal hobby time has been pretty nonexistent over the summer, particularly since July, happening most often in sporadic 15 minute intervals. Very few mold lines could be found on the model, so I rinsed it, and did not prime it, as the model comes primed. It sat around for around a month, until I found myself with two relatively quiet, light, work from home days. Reeling a bit from real life, I prioritized some hobby time while waiting for email replies, finally finishing the recently posted Pikes one day, and then painting up the majority of the work for the Lord here on the second day.

And a very plain wing, with a few test streaks I didn't paint over.

It's a tall model, so I left the scythe separate, for ease of future travel considerations. The goal was to knock this out in one day or so, and we did. He's got a lot of sinew, so I went with a darker Screamer Pink base before going with the lighter and brighter Pink Horror color that most of my Abyssals are, and I think that works. The eyes and charred scythe got a few coats of white base color, and then hit with the Zealot Yellow Speed Paint, for a bit of a volcanic effect. It doesn't really match the lava effect, but I don't know if that bothers me yet or not. I tried some layering on the hooves, which I am so-so on, but also don't know if I want to fix. I tried a light shading on the wings with Crusader Skin, which I quickly wiped off as it was looking messy and glossy and too distinctly like that kind of paint. The wings actually have some detail for sculpting, so I could probably do a light, pinky, fleshy, drybrush to bring those details out, but I was out of time. 

Done for now.

Fine-tuning a list has never been my strong suit, and my typical playstyle often leans more towards a Zapp Brannigan approach than anything clever or polished. The Lord of Lies completely opposite of that style, which is why I am interested in him. 

I have identified Ba'su'su as a fun pick, and am quite happy the Abyssal Guard have returned, but we have a local player (Rob) picking the army up competitively, and looking at those units in particular, so I have been hesitating to bring my Abyssals out to the meetups, and am hoping that the Lord of Lies might give me another angle to play around with that isn't making things boring for other attendees.

The Lord of Lies is (I think) the most expensive warlord in the game. Beatsticks like your typical dragons don't seem particularly strong this edition. Previously, fliers succeeded best when run in multiples, applying a lot of pressure and forcing hard angles, and eventually someone would get into a tasty flank or rear or position to bust up your opponent. As a one-off, that is hard to get done now, but he's certainly got the stats and rules to try!

He's got Fly 10, very strong combat stats, and a slew of special rules to help press the attack, along with both Iron Resolve 1 and Regeneration (5+) to aid survivability. As a Warlord, he can't be issued Commands, so Regeneration is nice, but could be very swingy in game. 

The relatively cheaper Archfiend has most of his stats (lacking just the Slayer 3), so the real reason to take the unique Lord of Lies is the Seeds of Distrust special rule, which is a aura-like rule. Enemy units within 6" can't be issued Commands, and if something with a benefit from a Command moves into this range, they lose it. With Commands widespread now, this is some neat design space, and could be fun exploring.

This is becoming a bit of a rambling post, so we'll leave the tactical ideas for the debut game. This was a surprisingly fun model to paint up quickly, and not bad for a day's work. We'll touch him up when we feel like it, but he's ready enough for the table, and we'll try to get him on there soon!