Champion

Harbinger – A
The Harbinger is a very good champion option.  It is your cheapest champion at only 100 points, while also bringing a very inspiring aura.  It comes with regeneration so it can be resilient to stray missile fire.

The issue is it doesn’t do much else.  2 ranged and melee attacks won’t light the world on fire.  I like to take mine with the shroud of the saint, as there can be valuable units like Nagarri or a Chroneas that are hard to heal otherwise.  They are also good naked if you need that cheap inspiring source to hold down your main line while your other heroes go out hunting.

Efreet – B
The Efreet is a very interesting champion, but with niche use.  They are cheap at only 110 points with access to the Arcane Library and they come with Fireball(7).  However they do not inspire, so if you take one you might be tempted to equip it with an Inspiring Talisman.  But if you equip it with an Inspiring Talisman, you start to get more expensive than a Warlock which inspires natively, has regeneration and a default shooting attack.

Speed 7 individual means that this model can slip into cracks in the enemy formation to avoid charge arcs and keep the fireballs coming.  But at nerve 11+, Defense 4+ and no other defensive tech the Efreet is vulnerable to missile fire and won’t last being hit by anything in combat.

I like to include 2 of them if going for a full firebolt/fireball build to try and make the Abyss ranged game a thing.  Otherwise one naked with Scorched Earth can be a cheaper option than the Warlock, but if you are going for cheap skip the inspiring.

The Efreet has a place in the right lists, but is not a general all around good character.  They are valuable if you have a plan, but won’t make it into most lists.

Seductress – B
The seductress is overcosted for what she brings to an army, but she can fulfill an important role in your list so is still worth considering.

First and foremost the Seductress is an assassin style character.  She is a speed 10 flyer with 360 degree line of sight.  She is down to only 5 attacks but she does have Duellist (d3) to help a little bit when fighting characters.  She has a fantastic combination of defensive abilities with individual, stealthy, ensnare and regeneration.  She can tank the enemy for days and she does not have yielding so an opponent has to deal with her.

So what does she do well?  First off, she is your best champion level flyer defense.  She can dependably target an enemy flying threat and lock it down with her amazing defensive profile.  While she is very similar to Ba’su’su and Mau’ti-bu-su, she is cheaper and not a warlord.  Not being a warlord means she is better to throw into an opponent’s back line where she is great at knocking out war machines and hunting enemy blizzard casters.  You will not feel the loss of command dice as much while she is freelancing compared to having a similar function filled by your limited warlords.

The seductress also has the option to take Wind Blast for 20 points, and is your only way to access this spell in the army.  Given her extreme mobility this spell allows her to blow enemy units off of objectives on the last turn of the game to give you a win.  It is hard to put a value on this ability as it only works in some missions, but any piece that can win you games by itself is worth a look.

The big problem is that being a 5 attack individual with only crush 1 means that she will only ever break the lightest of targets.  Yes she can beat a war machine or a wizard, but she might take several turns to kill a single komodon.  Enemy warlords are typically out of the question.  This can be helped a little bit with Blade of the Beast Slayer, but now you are increasing her cost even more.

At 195 points (or 215 with wind blast) she is your most expensive champion option, but she does bring a lot of flexibility in one package.  The problem is her offense is so anemic that she isn’t ever making her points back in combat.  You have to find other ways for her to make back her value.  That is possible depending on the opponent and the mission but it won’t happen every game.

The champion slot is very competitive for this army.  The seductress is very expensive with bad offensive output, but a lot of mobility, utility and defense.  She has a place in some armies, but probably not in most armies.

Warlock – S
The Warlock is an auto-include in almost every Forces of the Abyss list, and many lists will want two of them.  They bring a lot of power but they are not cheap with a base cost of 135 before spells.  So why are they so good?

They start out with a very solid base.  They come with a 5 shot firebolt attack, which means if there is no good target for the spells they cast they have a backup.  They are inspiring.  They are height 3 allowing them to see over your front line of lower abyssals and abyssal guard.  They have built in regeneration allowing them to shrug off stray missile fire and spells.  A dependable base that holds the army together.

On top of this they bring a number of powerful unique options in the form of spells.  Forces of the Abyss is an army that can really be elevated by spellcasting support, and what spells you bring is a major consideration that will directly impact the power level of your overall army.

The first unique spell a warlock can bring is Bane Chant.  Now this is sadly limited to only 2 dice, but it still should go off 75% of the time (even if it feels like it only goes off half the time).  Forces of the Abyss can struggle to bring good hammers, and bane chant obviously increases your offensive output.  It can be very difficult for the Abyss to deal with defense 6 spam without a bane chant in the list.

The second unique spell a warlock can bring is Drain Life.  Drain Life is a little harder to use as it only has a 6″ range.  However Drain Life has excellent synergy with the list as it adds a second form of healing that you can stack on top of regeneration.  By the time you cast Drain Life you already know how your units regenerated, so you can make good decisions on where the healing needs to go.

Then there is also the Arcane Library.  Now both Warlocks and Efreets can use the Arcane Library, but the Warlocks naturally inspire and so generally are the better vessel for thses spells.  In the spells section I already covered the two best options here for this army, which are The Dark Pit and Scorched Earth.

Still, depending on your build there are a number of other interesting options.  Taking Blizzard can really help a firebolt/fireball ranged build.  Barkskin is useful on your low defense units.  Alchemist’s Curse helps you deal with defense 6 which can be a problem for this army.  If you don’t include Nagarri then Bastion can be a powerful spell allowing you to raise the nerve of your army to make better use of regeneration.  Celestial Restoration is a good healing spell to stack with regeneration, or to keep support pieces like the Chroneas and Nagarri in the fight.

The thing to remember is that normally you are only casting for 4 or 5 turns in a game.  The Warlock is already expensive, and every spell you add increases his cost further while having limited turns to use.  In general I think it is best to choose just 1 spell, remembering that you do still have that firebolt backup and are always useful with inspire.

I think that the Dark Pit is so important for the army, and command dice so vital that I currently start every single list with either a Warlock with the Dark Pit and Banner of Command for 185 points or the Dark Pit, Bane Chant and Amulet of the Fireheart for 200.  I only take the second build with bane chant if I have another good target for the Banner of Command, like maybe a Hellequin.  For what this army needs to do one of those warlock configurations fits into absolutely every possible build and scenario.

Then, as already mentioned, the challenge is do you have room to fit in a second warlock, and if so what spells support the army you are bringing?  Only you can answer this question.  I think not taking a warlock at all just makes your army weaker overall.  I don’t typically like auto-includes as it constrains list design, but this champion is firmly an auto-include because it can and will completely transform the power of your list.

The Bloody Cardinal – C
Such a cool model with really bad rules.  The crux of the issue is that the cardinal is only defense 4 with really low nerve at 14+.  He only has speed 5 and is large infantry, so you have to be clever to charge with him as he doesn’t have great vision.  He has lifeleech instead of regen, which is a terrible trade for someone with such low nerve and also means he attracts missile fire.  So he has to survive a hit, and then hit back to heal maybe a couple of wounds.

He is similar to the Despoiler, but the Despoiler unlocks a Moloch Regiment as a specialist unit.  The Cardinal does bring Dread, but you should already have Dread through the Dark Pit.

At the end of the day he is an expensive, squishy hero with only 6 attacks in a faction that has no need for expensive, squishy heroes.  99% of the time you are better off with a lower abyssal horde for about the same price.  The champion slot is very competitive for Forces of the Abyss, and this is not a competitive choice.  Great model though.  If only he was defense 5.

Despoiler – B
The Despoiler is not great on its own but is an interesting choice because it unlocks additional list building options.  The base stat line of Def 4+, Nerve 14+ for 160 points isn’t great.  However, Regen 5+ means the enemy is unlikely to try and wear you down with missile fire, and Crush 2 + Vicious is better than the straight Crush 2 of the Cardinal.

The main reason to take the Despoiler is that it moves one unit of Molochs to specialist instead of support.  This basically lets you take an extra support choice in your list and is a potentially very powerful option.

While an average choice overall, the Despoiler has problems.  It is very squishy in a melee fight.  160 points for an inspiring piece can be on the high end.  He doesn’t provide any flyer defense, with only large infantry line of sight.  He has the Retaliate rule which is a very large nerf not allowing him to Withdraw while providing no benefit.  Without the ability to unlock Molochs I don’t think you would ever choose to include a Despoiler in a competitive list for its stat line alone.  But WITH the new list building option one of these in a list is intriguing.  

Hellequin Blood-Masque – A
The Hellequin is an above average champion that should be considered for most lists.  It is a speed 8 cavalry individual with 5 attacks at crush 1/thunder 1, duellist 2, Defense 5 and Regeneration.  It also has two good secondary abilities.

The first secondary ability is that each Hellequin moves one unit of Abyssal Horsemen to Core.  If you want to go heavy on specialist choices but don’t want an Abyssal Warlord this is a good way to overload the slot.  I don’t think this is normally a game changing ability, but it does give you something to play with.

The second power gives the Hellequin +1 on command orders when commanding friendly units in the same combat.  This is important when the army really wants to be getting off the valuable 5+ command orders.  Anything to help champions cast the 5+ orders is a big deal.

While only speed 8, the Hellequin is your best budget flyer defense.  At height 3 with 360 degree line of sight he is likely to be able to see his target.  The 16″ threat bubble isn’t awesome, but you are getting this cheap and out of a champion slot.  He has enough damage output to normally sit an opponent down, and I often like to equip mine with Axe of the Giant Slayer.  Once in combat he has enough defense and regen that he normally can hold up something much more expensive long enough for you to move another counter unit into range.

A Hellequin is good but not an auto-include.  The main problem is a lack of inspiring.  This can be fixed with an Inspiring Talisman, but then the model is a lot less points efficient.  A big part of his value is what he does for his low cost.  The speed 8 will come up in games as opponents with a 20″ threat range sit 17″ away waiting to strike your lines.  The duellist rarely comes up.

Still, for a champion anti flyer option I find his overall package works better and cheaper than a seductress.  Always worth a look.