Edge of the Abyss

It had been a difficult week for Artakl and her troops. After the horrifying events of the previous week, they had finally been able to remove the stench of death from their weapons and armour. Most of the wounded had survived. But it wasn’t just the recovery that had been difficult - the very landscape was a place of despair and shattered hopes. Artakl had pushed her troops on towards the mouth of the Abyss, desperate for the clue that might provide a weakness of the hell that had scourged this place. They passed great pits which lay where the once proud forts of the Brotherhood had stood against the flames. Artakl shuddered to think of the horrors that awaited those humans that had survived the fall into hades. As they passed one such pit, a deep thumping rose from the earth, accompanied by faint screams of both torture and delight. Artakl ordered her troops back from the pit, fearing the worst. As the drone of the drums grew louder, Artakl resigned herself to the inevitable. The Abyss hadn’t stopped pouring out its poison and it was up to the Salamanders to neutralise the demons before they could defile the lands of Mantica.

This was a 2500 point game played over Universal Battle, an online platform for playing tabletop games. One of the best things about playing over Universal Battle is being able to play people from all over the world so lots of different lists pop up all the time. Briohmar has been organising the campaign for those folks on Universal Battle and is a regular opponent of mine. For those interested, he has a great KoW blog with many of his battle reports and modelling adventures (https://briohmarblog.wordpress.com).

We played the Invade! scenario and location was the Edge of the Abyss.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to write up a turn by turn analysis of the game. I have however, indicated unit movement, ranged attacks and melee on the screenshots taken at the end of each turn. Arrows=movement, explosion=combat, lightning=shooting, cross=routed unit)

Lists and Deployment

(Notice the mouth of the Abyss at the top edge of the map, Briohmar did a good job of making this field look as evil – and themed - as possible).

Briohmar loves his Abyssal’s and he has fine tuned them to work with his playstyle very well. With lots of speed, excellent shooting (17LB, 40 breath and firebolts) and decent combat punch, this is a great alpha-strike list. It doesn’t grind as well as other armies but it can’t do everything right? Given that the game is Invade, I will need to work out how to get my high scoring hordes safely to the other end of the table, even if it means losing all of my individuals and monsters. If I can knock out one or two regiments and the tortured souls horde – whilst keeping my own relatively safe, I should be OK. Easier said than done with the amount of shooting and speed in this Abyssal list. If this was a kill scenario, the Salamanders would struggle.

Deployment (from left to right)

Abyssals: hellhounds (courage), 2x succubi (helm of the ram, blood of the old king), abyssal temptress (bane chant), Lord of Lies, flamebearers, harbinger (boomstick), efreet, Chroneas, gargoyles, archfiend (fly, lightning bolt 7), abyssal horsemen (pathfinder), gargoyles, tortured souls (haste)

Salamanders: ancients on rhinosaurs (pathfinder), tyrants (headstrong), herald (rally), lancers (haste), ghekkotah regiment, ghekkotah horde, Orlaf, ghekkotah regiment, clan lord on drake (elite), lekelidon, flying battle captain, mounted clan lord (slashing), lekelidon, Artakl, flying clan lord on drake (courage), unblooded

Game Overview
(Pictures only)

Final Score:
Salamanders with 10 VPs and 960 attrition points
Abyssals with 7 VPs and 1675 attrition points

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Artakl looked into the mouth of the chasm from which the demons had come. The view came dearly however as the brutality of the hellish creatures had sorely tested her troops who had won but a pyrrhic victory. Still, Artakl was able to glean some understanding looking into the great maw that had quietened now that its denizens were scattered above ground. To look into the abyss for too long however would be to invite insanity and Artakl, after a moments contemplation looked away. She knew now that the abyss could be defeated. Though magics dark and powerful had claimed ascendancy throughout Mantica, still, there was hope.