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Hail warmaster,

I am wondering how we can use the servants of the abyss in 40k games.
Is there any way to use them in a competive to semi competive setting or any way that is not just a fun way to get traitor guard in a token patrol?

Thank you

edited by ingtaer - please dont write whole posts in coloured text, its a pain to read.

You can run the Traitor Guard as simple cultists, or you run a full detachment of Servants of the Abyss - it'll be a pretty crap detachment, but you could do it.

They share the Chaos keyword and wouldn't benefit from any traits and very few stratagems, but you could do it.

 Elbows wrote:
You can run the Traitor Guard as simple cultists, or you run a full detachment of Servants of the Abyss - it'll be a pretty crap detachment, but you could do it.

They share the Chaos keyword and wouldn't benefit from any traits and very few stratagems, but you could do it.

Thank you for the fast reply

But traitor guard have double the armour save, an extra ld, cheaper and can take a 7 man/women squad so for me seem much better than cultists.
Maybe with deamons so they can use their stratagems and the rogue psychers/mallex to summon, so there is no way to add another hq and make it a battalion? Or any way to use them competively?

The traitor guard from BSF don't count towards your detachment requirements. To be honest the only thing worth taking really is Mallex himself as the only source of thunderhammer for CSM

Abaddon303 wrote:
The traitor guard from BSF don't count towards your detachment requirements. To be honest the only thing worth taking really is Mallex himself as the only source of thunderhammer for CSM

Actually the traitor guard do count in the detachment, it’s only the psychers, beastmen and legionnaires that don’t take up a slot.

I can't get past the fact that everything with the Servants of the Abyss rule has to be set up within 6" of Mallex.

All counts as one 'drop' though, so the lining is at least a bit shiny.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
I can't get past the fact that everything with the Servants of the Abyss rule has to be set up within 6" of Mallex.

All counts as one 'drop' though, so the lining is at least a bit shiny.

Yeah being close to mallex is a tactical hobbling but with the new deployment rules in chapter approved all units are deployed at the same time anyway. The squads are so small would probably bubble around mallex for his buff anyway

Because you want Beastmen behind the guardsmen, infront of them .......

No seriously the bubble deployment is gak and Black legion is Gak without abbadon.

Mallex isn't abbadon therefore it sucks.

Not Online!!! wrote:
Because you want Beastmen behind the guardsmen, infront of them .......

No seriously the bubble deployment is gak and Black legion is Gak without abbadon.

Mallex isn't abbadon therefore it sucks.

The bubble helps better than most and every competive army with marines has atleast 1 thunder hammer says how good they are.

 ulfhednir86 wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:
Because you want Beastmen behind the guardsmen, infront of them .......

No seriously the bubble deployment is gak and Black legion is Gak without abbadon.

Mallex isn't abbadon therefore it sucks.

The bubble helps better than most and every competive army with marines has atleast 1 thunder hammer says how good they are.

The Thunder Hammer is usually in the the hands of a fast moving captain. Mallex isn't fast and will likely only make it to a substantial melee thanks to the crap ton of bubble wrap he can bring, but that eats up points.

HoundsofDemos wrote:

 ulfhednir86 wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:
Because you want Beastmen behind the guardsmen, infront of them .......

No seriously the bubble deployment is gak and Black legion is Gak without abbadon.

Mallex isn't abbadon therefore it sucks.

The bubble helps better than most and every competive army with marines has atleast 1 thunder hammer says how good they are.

The Thunder Hammer is usually in the the hands of a fast moving captain. Mallex isn't fast and will likely only make it to a substantial melee thanks to the crap ton of bubble wrap he can bring, but that eats up points.

True but atleast he can have the cheapest screen in the game

 ulfhednir86 wrote:

HoundsofDemos wrote:

 ulfhednir86 wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:
Because you want Beastmen behind the guardsmen, infront of them .......

No seriously the bubble deployment is gak and Black legion is Gak without abbadon.

Mallex isn't abbadon therefore it sucks.

The bubble helps better than most and every competive army with marines has atleast 1 thunder hammer says how good they are.

The Thunder Hammer is usually in the the hands of a fast moving captain. Mallex isn't fast and will likely only make it to a substantial melee thanks to the crap ton of bubble wrap he can bring, but that eats up points.

True but atleast he can have the cheapest screen in the game

But that screen isn't worth much.

Servants of the Abyss are an anomaly for 40k games, they don't do much offensively and can't be fielded in numbers that can stand up to other armies. Thunderhammers are the perfect example of this, that character isn't getting into combat without a jump pack and those Guard are too small to do much besides screen (and will go down as quickly as any other chaff.)

The one situation where SotA might be useful is in a 500 point game, but the Tau / AdMech armies I see at that level are pretty lethal.

 techsoldaten wrote:

 ulfhednir86 wrote:

HoundsofDemos wrote:

 ulfhednir86 wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:
Because you want Beastmen behind the guardsmen, infront of them .......

No seriously the bubble deployment is gak and Black legion is Gak without abbadon.

Mallex isn't abbadon therefore it sucks.

The bubble helps better than most and every competive army with marines has atleast 1 thunder hammer says how good they are.

The Thunder Hammer is usually in the the hands of a fast moving captain. Mallex isn't fast and will likely only make it to a substantial melee thanks to the crap ton of bubble wrap he can bring, but that eats up points.

True but atleast he can have the cheapest screen in the game

But that screen isn't worth much.

Servants of the Abyss are an anomaly for 40k games, they don't do much offensively and can't be fielded in numbers that can stand up to other armies. Thunderhammers are the perfect example of this, that character isn't getting into combat without a jump pack and those Guard are too small to do much besides screen (and will go down as quickly as any other chaff.)

The one situation where SotA might be useful is in a 500 point game, but the Tau / AdMech armies I see at that level are pretty lethal.

True it’s not worth much but doesn’t cost much and better value than militia and cultist. You are right that the limit makes them incapable of being a stand alone army except for very small games. But it’s better to have 2 decent screens and a bunch of trash ones than just trash.
Also foot sloggers can get into melee.
Traitor guard do have twice the armour, more ld and more ws, bs than militia and cheaper than cultists and again better ld and armour.
So will last longer and take more down with with them.
But you are right. It may not be worth the detachment, except in smaller games.

 ulfhednir86 wrote:

 techsoldaten wrote:
But that screen isn't worth much.

Servants of the Abyss are an anomaly for 40k games, they don't do much offensively and can't be fielded in numbers that can stand up to other armies. Thunderhammers are the perfect example of this, that character isn't getting into combat without a jump pack and those Guard are too small to do much besides screen (and will go down as quickly as any other chaff.)

The one situation where SotA might be useful is in a 500 point game, but the Tau / AdMech armies I see at that level are pretty lethal.

True it’s not worth much but doesn’t cost much and better value than militia and cultist. You are right that the limit makes them incapable of being a stand alone army except for very small games. But it’s better to have 2 decent screens and a bunch of trash ones than just trash.
Also foot sloggers can get into melee.
Traitor guard do have twice the armour, more ld and more ws, bs than militia and cheaper than cultists and again better ld and armour.
So will last longer and take more down with with them.
But you are right. It may not be worth the detachment, except in smaller games.

Feels like we're restating the points made in the OP.

Going to go out on a limb here and say Servants of the Abyss are only decent in 500 point games on a 3x3 table, and even then they are outclassed by Word Bearers and Iron Warriors.

 techsoldaten wrote:

 ulfhednir86 wrote:

 techsoldaten wrote:
But that screen isn't worth much.

Servants of the Abyss are an anomaly for 40k games, they don't do much offensively and can't be fielded in numbers that can stand up to other armies. Thunderhammers are the perfect example of this, that character isn't getting into combat without a jump pack and those Guard are too small to do much besides screen (and will go down as quickly as any other chaff.)

The one situation where SotA might be useful is in a 500 point game, but the Tau / AdMech armies I see at that level are pretty lethal.

True it’s not worth much but doesn’t cost much and better value than militia and cultist. You are right that the limit makes them incapable of being a stand alone army except for very small games. But it’s better to have 2 decent screens and a bunch of trash ones than just trash.
Also foot sloggers can get into melee.
Traitor guard do have twice the armour, more ld and more ws, bs than militia and cheaper than cultists and again better ld and armour.
So will last longer and take more down with with them.
But you are right. It may not be worth the detachment, except in smaller games.

Feels like we're restating the points made in the OP.

Going to go out on a limb here and say Servants of the Abyss are only decent in 500 point games on a 3x3 table, and even then they are outclassed by Word Bearers and Iron Warriors.

Maybe out classed but the armies as a whole but their cultist will be outclassed but sota