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This week I decided I wanted to try out a new game, and one thats a bit more competitive than 40k (which I think is a great game, but not well suited towards quicker or more serious gameplay) so after checking out a few options, Warmachine/Hordes it was. I picked up the Hordes 2p box set (awesome deal, BTW) and have begun building a Legion of Everblight force. I've also bought a few other things. My model list so far is

Ogrun Warspears x5
Shredder x4
Carnivean
Seraph/Neraph kit (not yet decided which to build)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd x2
Forsaken x2
Lylyth, Herald of Everblight
Abyslonia. Terror of Everblight

So, my questions are, is Absylonia a competetive choice? On paper (and in my head) she seems like she'd be quite effective. Basically a strong support for the warbeasts, and I do want to run a warbeast-centric army. I was also thinking of picking up a Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight, as I don't really care for Lylyth much (I tend to prefer a melee focused force). Is he a competive option?

Finally, what models should I purchase to help round out my army, and what tends to be more effective, a Seraph or a Neraph? I'm working on building towards a 35pt army. I was thinking about an Angelius, and another Carnivean, or a Scythean.

Abby1 is definitely a good caster, as is pThagrosh.

If you like Absolonia, I would check out her tier list. Its very very good, and very beast heavy.

Yeah, a lot of people run Abby's T4 list because she loves everything that can be taken in it.

If you are running Abby, consider getting Typhon. He is one of the few warbests to use every part of her playing God spell. And he is cheaper under her tier list. Plus he goes very well with Thagrosh, who is his daddy.

Thanks for some input guys. I was looking at her tier list and it's what I wanted to build towards. I'll check out the Typhon.

Absylonia1 is a solid Warlock but she suffers from some pretty rough match ups which isn't always fun as a new player, I started with her myself but quickly moved on to other Warlocks, only coming back to her quite recently.

Both the Seraph and Neraph are quite good, the Seraph is probably more useful in a wider variety of lists but the Neraph has a lot of synergy with Absyolnia1. I would recommend magnetising the kit, it's quite easy, gives you options, saves you money in the long run, and helps with transportation.

My personal favourite way of running Absylonia1 is in her theme list with multiple Ravagores to really take advantage of the Advance Move and throw out some AOEs into my opponent's army on turn 1.

I would recommend taking a lot at Absylonia2 as your third Warlock if you expand into more beasts. She runs beast heavy extremely well and is, in my opinion, the best Warlock for a new player to learn the faction.

Another beast loving caster is Saeryn and she is very competitive. Epic Absylonia also plays beast heavy and is really good.

You'll find in general that the everblight army plays very heast heavy compared to the other Hordes factions.

To flesh out what you have, I'd suggest picking up the all-in-one armybox, it is a really good deal for what you get. It is about $200 in models for about $130 or so retail (I'm sure you can fnd it for much less than retail online).

Even if your casters are not truely designed for beasts. Legion has plenty of ways of controlling focus.