Kings of War V3 Battlereport: Abyssals vs Undead

Another Kings of War game today, with first use of my Abyssals, which have had some newly painted models added over the last couple of months.

My list was:

• 3 x Succubi Regiments with Lurker
• 2 x Flamebearer Regiments with Sacrificial Imp
• Moloch Horde with Sacrificial Imp
• Abyssal Fiend
• Despoiler Champion
• Seductress with Enthral
• Abyssal Warlock with Bane Chant, Drain Life
• Manifestation of Ba'el

Nick's Undead list with Orc Ally was the following I think:

• Skeleton Spearmen Horde
• Skeleton Horde
• Mummy Regiment
• Wraith Troop
• Revenant Knights Regiment
• Revenant Foot Regiment
• Liche King mounted, Bane Chant, Lightning Bolt
• Two Necromancers, Bane Chant
• Orc Axe Horde, Macwars Potion
• Orc Axe Regiment
• Orc Krudger on Chariot
• Giant

Here's the deployment.  The objectives are underlined in white. Scenario is Salt the Earth, which means you can destroy an objective at the end of your turn if you control it (i.e. when you think you won't be able to hold it and want to deny it to the enemy). Whoever controls the most objectives at the end of the game wins.

First turn, Undead move first, and then I advance cautiously and firebolt the right most Skeleton horde with all my firebolt spells, doing 10 damage to them.  Mr Ba'el and Seductress fly over to my left with the vague idea of hunting down the Undead characters.

Turn two and the Revenant Knights and Orc Chariot smash into the Abyssal Fiend on my right, doing an enormous 18 wounds and killing him outright.

The Succubi behind him contemplate how to hold off the breakthrough...

My turn and Mr Ba'el and Seductress fly over the Undead infantry and  into the Liche King who is carelessly in the open (and also painting not finished so he should fight poorly). I figure this pair should rip him to pieces. Mr Ba'el is a giant crushing demon, and Seductress is a character assassin with her duelist ability (double attacks against individuals). Unfortunately rolls are terrible and the Liche survives... oh no!

More positively, firebolts from Warlock and Flamebearers wreck the first skeleton horde and it is removed.

Undead turn and multiple charge on the Succubi on my right. Succubi have ensare (-1 to hit them from front) and are in rough terrain so enemies are at -2 to hit them, except the Giant with Strider ability which ignores the rough terrain. But Succubi take seven wounds and are gone anyway.

Mummies turn around and are surged into rear of Mr Ba'el and and smash him to pieces. 

Seductress miraculously survives though!

It's all a bit grim looking for the Abyssals at this point!

I throw my remaining forces into the hordes ahead and hope for some luck... and on the left a Succubi regiment manages to catch and kill one of the Necromancers.

I do some damage against the hordes but the Revenants charge into the Flamebearers on my right and destroy them.

Skeletons concentrate on other Flamebearers and waver them.

But, my units fight back and break through, managing to turn to face the oncoming rear attack just in time. The Succubi regiment on my left is hit in the rear by surging Wraiths and destroyed. Losing the Succubi to kill the Necromancer wasn't worth it I think.

My Molochs and Flamebearers have regenerated many wounds, sacrificing their Imps. My other Succubi break the Revenant foot regiment with a flank charge.

But the Mummies and Wraiths catch my Succubi, and the Orc Chariot wavers my Warlock...

Never a good situation to be in... and the last Succubi regiment is gone.

In the background my Seductress has been darting about, and uses her Enthral spell to pull the Orc regiment off one of the objectives. They move back to reclaim it and she pulls them off again! The Liche tries to lightning bolt her but fails.

My Flamebearers have the central Dragon Egg objective, but that's it!

End of turn 7 and game is over. Abyssals one objective, the Undead have four objectives (it would have been five except for Enthrall from the Seductress!).

Conclusion

Well a tough but fun first game with the Abyssals. How did they do? My general plan of holding up the right flank and smashing the centre and left wasn't terrible I think, but it could have been better executed. The Abyssal Fiend I put in a poor position, and that quickly lost me the right flank. This Abyssal army can definitely shoot, removing a horde of Skeletons in two turns of spellfire, so that was interesting. I don't think trying to hunt down the Undead characters was necessarily a bad idea either, but a pathetic effort from these two below who couldn't even smash a little corpse on a horse! :) Going behind Undead and too close to them is always risky due to their magic movement with surge of course, as was demonstrated here!

Well, at least we got the Egg as a consolation prize before banishment back to the Abyss. :)

Lastly,  I will mention that Nick has also bought a 3D printer and here's some of the first pieces from it  - a Crypt and Skeleton. Very cool! Printer is a $450 NZ Ender he said.