Chaos review #30

He is the big bad villain of the 40K universe. His name inspires fear throughout the galaxy. He has assaulted the Imperium thirteen separate times, and failed each and every one. Wait? What? He is the only person to fail ruinous and quick to punish failure Chaos pantheon thirteen times. How is that possible? Well because he is Abaddon the Despoiler and it is fine for him to not win, so says the powers that be!

When it comes to bad guys Abaddon is it. Abaddon having made it through the Heresy now launches multiple Black Crusades into the Imperium to do stuff. Sure he kills, robs a bank, steals a few cars, grabs some babies’ candy and then lights flaming bags of poo on doorsteps in the name of Chaos. Yet, he still can never achieve big victories. Why? Well the G.W. people don’t want him to that is why. This is a rant for another day about advancing the game timeline and such. Until then, Abaddon will always fail and never be punished by those crazy vengeful gods that turn people to boot licking spawn at the first hint of failure.






Well why is Abby such a big threat, well he comes with WS 7, BS 5, strength 4, toughness 5, 4 attacks and wounds, initiative 6, leadership 10 and a 2+/4++ save. He is armed with terminator armor, the Talon of Horus and Drach’nyen. He has the warlord trait, The Black Crusader. He comes with the typical HQ rules: Independent, Fearless, Vets ‘o War, and Champ o’ Chaos. He also has Eternal Warrior, the Mark of Chaos Ascendant and is 1st Among Chosen. Abaddon does cost as much as a Chaos Landraider, plus an additional thirty points. He is quite pricey.

Talon of Horus- is the weapon he took from his dead daddy. This comes with a built in comb-bolter and as a melee weapon grants 2x strength and AP 3. It has the specialist (no bonus attack for two weapons) and shred (re-roll to wound) rules. Strength 8 and goes at initiative 6? Yes please!

Drach’nyen- is Abaddon’s crazy demon sword. It gives him strength +1 and is AP 2. It is also a demon weapon (duh!) and has the specialist rule as well. Sure he might stab himself, but when he doesn’t look out!

Mark of Chaos Ascendant- gives Abaddon all four of the Chaos marks. However, he only benefits from the +1 toughness of Nurgle, the +1 save from Tzeencth, and the +1 initiative of Slaanesh. What benefit does he get from Khorne? No furious charge and no counter attack anywhere to be seen. What a rip!

The Black Crusader- is a warlord trait that allows all friendly models within 12” to gain the rule Hatred (Space Marines). Yeah they hate all kind, shapes and colors of loyalist marines. Look out for the first round of combat!

1st Among Chosen- allows for Chosen Marines to be taken as troops instead of elite. Meh!

I always find Abaddon over priced and underwhelming and this edition is not much better. If he is so bad ass then why does his demon weapon have a chance to attack him? Wait….that is the balance thing right? Why the hell does he unlock Chosen? That seems like a waste of time and points. Let him unlock Terminators! That would be impressive and would give him some guys to roll with in similar armor. Plus it would look really sweet on the table. He still costs way too much and brings nothing super awesome to the table. The sad thing is that he should.

Speaking of on the table, why can they not update the model for Abaddon? He is now smaller than other Terminator models; He also suffers from the lack of upper arms like so many of his older metal brethren. He desperately needs a new model and a new pose. Look at the Frogeworld Abaddon and then not vomit when you look at the G.W. model. I dare you!