Forces of the Abyss 2025

Well, I have played approximately 8 games with Forces of the Abyss since their refresh, and I lose more consistently with them than I do with Ogres or Empire of Dust.

They’re a very fun army to play, and I’m not suggesting it’s “them” that’s the problem, necessarily, but more the way I play them.

I’ve tried a variety of lists, and played games at everything from 1000pts to 2300pts+.

Thoughts on PROs and CONs, at least how I play them…

PROs

  • Usually outnumber the opponent. Lower abyssals are so cheap, and I usually have several units crowded in front of a nagarri. One of the bunch will have 2 handed weapons.

  • Fury is found widely and is great.

  • I seem to be dishing out quite a bit of fireball these days.

  • Berserkers are fast and nimble is great.

  • Lots of regeneration in general.

  • Since the errata, I actually find the nagarri substantially more useful as a late-game attacking unit. Side charged a goredrake yesterday and took it off the table.

CONS

  • OK, you have lots of lower abyssals, but my god they’re terrible at actually dishing out any damage.

  • Regenerating really well doesn’t matter that much if you’re just getting killed before you have the chance, or suffering colossal amounts of damage. After playing a lot of Forces of the Abyss it does make me see why playing a really high defence army might feel amazing :wink:

  • Berserkers throw a lot of attacks down, but they’re only CS 1 and hitting on 4+ means you can end up with less than expected. And they don’t stick around. A nagarri can boost their regen, but I find nagarri struggle to keep up, factoring in speed and the larger bases.

  • Overall, maybe a lack of significant CS in my lists in general is an issue…

  • The Chroneas I’ve never managed to get his points worth out of him. Good CS, and I like cloak of death, but just too few attacks, he needs colleagues at all times?

Final thoughts-

Units I am currently not playing… Molochs, Abyssal horsemen, efreet, Despoiler, Abyssal Guard…

Thoughts welcome.

2 Likes

Personally not overly convinced that going lower abyssal heavy is really the way to go with FoA - even though you can do synergy with nagari, chroneas healing & Well - due, as you say, to their poor me5? If going down that route, a regiment or two of abyssal guard for the additional rally definitely helps.

Molochs and abyssal horsemen are a couple of the heavier hitters in the list with me3 and cs2/tc1+cs1 and most of my lists tend to have 2 moloch hordes (with despoiler upgrade) and a cav reg. It’s also easier for them to benefit from the nagari regen buff.

Had decent success with quite a monster mash set up with two chroneas and the well and get the stuck into combat - the well strips damage of the chroneas and recovers with LL5 and 2 lots of temporal ruptures.

1 Like

Reviewing his evening, I think some horsemen and molochs are the way to go.