Warlords

Abyssal Warlord – A
The Abyssal Warlord is very good for how he changes your list rather than his individual stat line.  Most importantly, the Abyssal Warlord lets you take Regiments and Hordes of Abyssal Guard as core choices.  Abyssal Guard are one of the best units you have available to you.  Moving them to Core allows you to take more than 3 units.  Also, moving them to Core allows you to support Abyssal Guard with Horsemen or Berserkers which can be enticing and unique options.

The Abyssal Warlord is your cheapest warlord option at only 180 points.  That is great as you want as many 3+ command dice heroes in your army to get off those valuable 5+ command orders.  He also can issue commands at 15″ instead of 12″, but that is a minor buff that I guarantee most people will forget about at the table.

On his own he is a slow infantry hero with only 5 attacks.  He does bring a decent defensive statline with Def 5, 16+ Nerve and Regen 5+.  The enemy can avoid him if they want to, and he is only height 2, so even with 360 degree line of sight he doesn’t have much threat range.

But, really, you won’t care about his stats.  He is a cheap 3 command die hero who moves one of your best units to core.  Worth a look in most lists.

Ba’su’su the Vile – A
Half of the Forces of the Abyss warlord choices are Unique flying Individuals.  Of those three options Ba’su’su is the strongest.  It comes in at the cheapest with only a 235 cost.  It has an identical defensive profile as Teynne, and has higher nerve and defense 5 vs Mau’ti-bu-su who tries to compensate with ensnare.  As an individual the 7 attacks can never be improved, so the damage output is low.  But with speed 10 fly, 360 degree vision and crush 2 Ba’su’su is the best flyer defense hero available to the faction.

Ba’su’su also gives you the ability to upgrade one unit of Gargoyles to an unlocking core choice.  Like the Abyssal Warlord or Archfiend this ability is nice because it always works regardless of your opponent.  I rate this better than the ability of Teynne or the Lord of Lies, whose abilities only work against some enemies.  You probably want at least one Gargoyle unit in your list anyway, so this subtle move allows you to spend more points on your expensive hammers.

Forces of the Abyss have very good commands that require a 5+ to go off, so you likely want a warlord in your list.  At one end you have the Abyssal Warlord, who is cheap, offers a unique and powerful list option, but doesn’t give you flyer defense.  Then you have the three mid-costed flying individuals in the middle, of which Ba’su’su is the most effective and the cheapest.  FInally you have the expensive Archfiend/Lord of Lies if you want to spend a lot of points to also make your warlord a hammer.  Given that range of choices Ba’su’su is a very valuable option for anyone that wants to pick from the mid-range warlords.

Mau’ti-bu-su – B
Mau’ti-bu-su is an average warlord choice.  She has good speed and is maybe the best flying assassin in the game, combining Duellist d3 and brutal d3 with 7 base attacks at crush 1.  She also comes with a very good defensive loadout, with stealthy, ensnare and regeneration 5+.

What brings her down to only being average are a few things.  First, flying assassin characters are not that good this edition.  Duellist really doesn’t add much, and her crushing strength of only 1 means she is going to struggle to hurt other defense 5 warlords.  Second, the other options she brings are not great.  She can move Tortured Souls regiments to Core, but Tortured Souls are bad and overcosted, so it is hard to see why you would ever want more of them by moving them to Core.  She also can take the Whispers of Wickedness spell for +15 points, but that spell is terrible so you should never take this option.

If a flying murder girl is your vibe, she fills the role perfectly.  I’m not sure this is a role that you need to fill in this army, especially out of the warlord slot.  Ideally you want your warlord near your army for those sweet 3 command dice, and assassins tend to freelance behind enemy lines far away from their friends.  While a champion seductress is slightly worse than Mau’ti-bu-su I think they make better assassins because you don’t mind them being away from your army.  I think you will often want a warlord that plays near the rest of your army, and that is not Mau’ti-bu-su.

She can be effective, but she is trying to do too much.  You either want an assassin or a warlord, not both in the same model.

Teynne – C
Teynne is the worst warlord choice by a good margin.  Starting off he is a 250 point individual who only has 6 attacks.  His defensive profile is identical to Ba’su’su at Def 5, 16+ Nerve with 5+ Regeneration.  He has Fireball (4) and any unit he damages cannot heal by any means until the end of the unit’s next turn.

What really lets him down is that he only has speed of 8.  Kings of War is a game of inches and for how expensive he is the threat range is just not enough.  It is impossible to look at Teynne without comparing him to Ba’su’su because the two are almost identical.  However Ba’su’su is speed 10 instead of 8, 7 attacks instead of 6, 15 points cheaper and with a power that works against every opponent.

Teynne’s ability to turn off healing is very situational.  You may often face opponent’s with no healing whatsoever and then you are just overpaying for your model.  His fireball 4 does not do enough damage to justify the points, it is just a means for him to apply his no healing debuff at range.  Again, this is only good against some opponents and no one would pay 250 points for a slow flying fireball 4 caster.

Teynne is the same cost as a Void Lurker but with a fraction of the offensive output.  He does not change list building.  He does not offer any other synergy with the rest of the list other than stopping healing.  He seems to be best in a firebolt/fireball build against an enemy that has access to healing?  He could potentially be great in a mirror match.

I think if Teynne was large infantry so he could multiply his attacks he could fill an interesting space between the archfiend and the other individual warlords.  As it is he is just another individual warlord like Ba’su’su and Mau’ti-bu-su but with a higher price tag, lower speed and a very niche use case.

You only get 1 or 2 warlords in a standard list.  Forces of the Abyss has a variety of good options to choose out of the slot.  Also, given that the faction has a number of 5+ commands you are going to want to take a warlord.  There are six available, and I just don’t see as you compare Teynne to the other 5 how he is ever the best option.  He has been a huge disappointment in my games, always due to the slow speed 8, low damage output and high price point.

Archfiend – B
The Archfiend is expensive for a dragon type profile at 315 points, but for the cost you are getting powerful defense and the ability to take unique army builds.  The offense and speed are normal for dragon style units, Speed 10 fly, 9 attacks at crush 3 with vicious and brutal.  The number of attacks is low, but with the speed you have a good chance to catch a flank.

The real value over most dragons is the high defense.  Defense 5+, 19+ nerve and Regen 5+ and Iron Resolve means that an opponent is going to struggle to get to grips with this model.  It can shrug off a lot of shooting, can pick its targets and has the speed and maneuverability to stay out of enemy threat ranges.  This fits in perfectly with the faction.

Where things get really interesting though is that the Archfiend moves all Molochs to Special.  This allows you to build an almost all support army, say 3 units of Molochs, a unit of Nagarri and a pair of Chroneas.  Spicy stuff.  If you like the support slot and want to be running 4 to 6 choices the Archfiend is the warlord for you.  It helps the fiend that Molochs are already a very good hammer choice that you likely want in your list.

The archfiend is also a decent discount between the similar stats for the Lord of Lies, saving you 35 points.  Do you want to pay 315 points for only 9 attacks?  Is the change in army composition worth the cost?  I think for a lot of lists the answer is still yes.  Given the high price tag the Archfiend is not an auto-include by any means, but it is always a solid choice to build a list around.

Lord of Lies – A
The Lord of Lies is the most expensive unit in the entire army list at 350, but he is also potentially one of the best units.  The offense profile is decent, 9 attacks at crush 3 + vicious means that almost every hit wounds.  Slayer 3 means he is especially good at hunting down other large targets.  Flying speed 10 means this is a very flexible model and will often be able to find a flank.

The Lord of Lies is also very difficult for an opponent to neutralize.  Like the Archfiend he is Defense 5, 19+ Nerve with Regen 5+ and Iron Resolve.  That combination makes it very difficult to take him down from range.

The big reason to take (and not take) the Lord of Lies is his Seeds of Distrust rule, which automatically turns off all enemy command orders within 6″.  If you are playing against a “haves” arny that can make good use of powerful orders, then the Lord of Lies is a great counter and a good centerpiece for your army.

If you are playing against a “have-nots” army with poor orders that don’t get used anyway, then he is overpriced.  Against most of the armies in the game you get more value from an Archfiend, and the Archfiend opens different more interesting list builds.

350 points for only 9 attacks is very pricey even for dragon type units, and this type of model is not great into horde spam.  You can get 3 command dice out of the warlord slot for almost half the price with an Abyssal Warlord.  That makes this model not an auto-include which I think is a good thing.  Still, he is very good, exceptionally hard to kill, and a great counter if your opponent’s plan revolves around getting critical orders off.