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I'm trying to make an Absylonia theme list, and I find that I'm absolutely useless at it. I know that I need three lesser warbeasts, several Forsaken, and as many heavy warbeasts as I can fit, but I'm having a hard time figuring out which particular choices to make. Has anyone got any advice for building a powerful list with Absylonia and many, many beasts? Which beasts should I go with and why? What ratio of Fury producers (Beasts) to Fury eaters (Aby, Forsaken, and maybe Shepherds) should I try to achieve?

Abby does a few things pretty well and her tier list is pretty amazing, easy to learn, and fun to play.

1. Abby's upkeeps are free after you cast to upkeep and are ALL amazingly good.

2. She loves her beasts and does a great job buffing them up.

3. Legion's fury management (Forsaken/Sheps) are second only to Scorne's Paingivers. Use them.

4. Blight Field is your friend. Use it.

So with those things being said, you'd want to get the most bang from your upkeeps. As a note of caution, her upkeeps rock but against any caster/warlocks that can kill upkeeps she'll have a really tough fight.

Her tier 4 list is attainable at 25 pts and higher. Its greatness. So here is what I go with and why:

35 Pt list:

Abby -6 Tier 4

x4 Shredders 8 (Tier 2 requirement, Tenacity battery, great tie up units, Transfer target).

Scythean 9 -1 (Tier 4) (Carnivore target, gives +2 to hit which makes him a MAT 8! This is good because it enables him to more effeciently use his chain attack, and if he kills things, which he will, he heals.)

Typhon 12 -1 (Tier 4) (yes he's expensive, but with playing god, he turns into a real nightmare. Reach + Open Fists + Typhon wins.)

Angelius 9 -1 (Tier 4) (Slam Forced Evo on this flying beastie and his DEF goes to 16, 17 with tenacity, and his AP attack goes to POW/STR 16! Really brutal)

x3 Forsaken 6 (These guys are Tier requirement and will help push all those beasts to the max.)

Ok, so that list lacks range ability, but packs a super melee punch. With Abby throwing Blight Field crippling retaliation from your opponent it's a good time.

Remember her feat only heals if the beast doesn't die, so keeping them alive is very important. If they focus fire your heavies you'll fall quick so use those extra shredders to throw Tenacity everywhere and disrupt their offense.

Other benefits of the tier, since you have three heavies and 3 Forsaken, those heavies get advance move. This is a great way to move those heavy hitters up the board and prevent much in the way of ranged retaliation. Lessers get Advance Deployment so they assist heavies. Keep Abby back a bit but be aware of her Control range. Sheps help with this but with Abomination all over its hard to keep them useful.

You'll find the lack of range to be a down side against some opponents so I'd recommend the Ravagore for high pt levels with Shepherd buddies.

Hope this helps!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, don't discount a Seraph for her. Slipstream really helps you to pull off the Alpha strike amongst other movement shenanigans. I find it hard to fit one in at lower pt values but you could drop an Angel down to a seraph.

Really depends on your play style and what you enjoy.

Thanks Hivemind. Anybody else got any other thoughts? In happier days I'd just mirror this post on the Privateer Press forums, but since they're down...

Don't feel too tied down to her tier - its not bad, but as in all things you can make some good lists outside of it as well.

I think that Abby would also like beasts that have a good chance to survive as well - remember that she can make you pay for splitting your attacks by full healing all her beasts with her feat, so the Angelius might not be as good an option as another Scythean.

...sadly this is a Legion mantra - there's really not much that's 'better' than running another Scythean in your list. The list up above is sadly 1 over for 35 points - you need to drop a forsaken or a lesser to get to 1 under. Lets you take a Shepherd at least.

I suggest running a mix of lessers and keeping them back if you're running several - 2 shedders and a harrier are good, or you can take the trio (Shedder, Harrier, Stinger). Abby having auto-hit can come in amazingly helpful sometimes, and being able to hand out bushwhack to your beasts can be a huge help if they're already tied up in combat.