Whats what in Abyssinia

[MuMantai]

After the game is out now for a bit, I would like to ask of your opinion on whats good in our faction, what seems a bit underwhelming and what seems really friggin great (borderline overpowered)

I will start, as is tradition.

Good:

- Lord of Steel seems in a really good place, especially combined with The Lion among Gazelles and some defensive Assets.

- Crow Runners, after some getting used to, are fitting really nice in their role as "scheme runner" and harasser.

- Steel Legion packs a punch, but that is to be expected. A bit on the slow side, but when they get there, it is a blast!

- Mechanized Infantry, fully fitted (Prototype Asset plus Engineer). The combination of Tracer Rounds and Versatile Tactics is really strong, in my opinion. When supported correctly, the cannon in glory shoots with AV 13, and every shot that hits with at least 2 margin is a card draw. If everything goes right, it is up to 8 shots in one activations and can kill units in one go. Maybe a bit too good?

- Rail Gunner have a nice balance between shooting and card draw, with a good way to get to glory via the extra power action. The attack with AV 12 is scary, though, for a 2 scrip model.

Bad:

- I never seem to get leverage out of the Mehal Sefari. They are too slow for a counterpunch unit, too fragile for the front line and too expensive to just be bodyguards.

Ugly:

- Unathi with his trigger "It's dangerous to go alone". This trigger alone makes him feel oppressive and mandatory, as as long as one model is alive, any unit can come back to full strength over one to two activations.
- Dreadnought plus Kassa plus Emergency Repairs. Same as above, the thing just doesn't die, and even when it does, it just comes back. This, combined with the point above, makes Abyssinia feel like the better Gibbering Hordes. They may come back, we just never go away.

- Electrocutioners plus Unwaivering Resolve. First, this stratagem is gold for Abyssinia, as it is one safe glory for any unit with prototype asset. But with the 1.21 Gigawatts trigger "We changed history", this can break operations.

[Fenriel]

Good summary - No disagreements. I found I used mehal sefari alot when i started out, but now with access to everything alot less. I think the interaction with champions and tactics tokens is nice in the right situation.

Elite is our thing. I never seem to have as many units as other folks on the board, but they always have a very difficult time killing anything unless they focus a fair amount of effort on it.

I haven't tried this on Electrocutions but now that you point that out....I'll have to give it a shot.

Mauraders - Cheap mobility scheme runner or their heavy machine with base strength 4 is pretty amazing against low df opponents. I really need to pick up a 2nd one for certain situations.

I've yet to field Kasa - all three titan units main stays with her? 

 

 

 

[Nicoderm]

I haven't played too many games yet unfortunately, but I'm shocked to hear that someone doesn't like the Mehal Sefari. I've found them to be fantastic and have immense staying power, and they are nuts with the built in trigger on the gun while in glory.

Never got to try rail gunners because they are always my opponents first target. They read the card and its a 'nope' moment.

Basotho Cavalry I've found to be adequate for their cost, likely a better summon than anything else.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I really don't like crow runners, which sucks because I love the models. I always regret taking them and have yet to see them live past turn two. Really great for scoring early points but not worth losing what I consider an overpriced unit in exchange, compared to nearly anything else, they fold like a wet noodle in a blender. Good summon though.

Lord of Steel is really good, and may well be the best objective runner in the game from what I can see.

Completely disagree with OP on Unathi. Sometimes he can be a bit on the boring side, but is still very good, he embodies our faction perfectly with his play style, our units need the staying power he provides in many circumstances because losing a unit for an elite army like ours is so much worse than any other faction. One of my main opponents is Gibbering Hordes and I can safely say that Unathi =/= better Gibbering Hordes. The mechanics are very different, and you can stop Unathi by murdering him, which the Stormsiren is very well suited to facilitating I might add. The Hordes are truly endless...

Okay the Dreadnaught has been pretty crazy for me, but I don't think that's entirely his fault. Every game I have used it, it has been supremely effective because my opponent was totally unequipped and unprepared to deal with it. Either to not having the correct selection of units to hunt titans, not taking those units, or not understanding how to deal with something that can do so much and take so many hits. Now I've seen the argument in the ongoing Rhino thread (haven't had the displeasure of facing any myself) that a player shouldn't have to build their entire list around a single unit, which I do agree with. But we have three potential titans we can take, so I feel that if the opponent doesn't take into account one of the biggest selling points of our faction, its really on them. With Abyssina, you best prepare for titans of some variety.

Engineers are great, I absolutely love them

Those are all the units that I can speak to because those are the only ones I own (guild envoy is pretty swag tho). Nothing to me stands out as particularly overpowered or particularly bad, and I'm sure even the crow runners are *probably* fine, I just need to play them a bit more (their glory side is pretty crazy, but I've yet to get them there)

[solkan]

8 hours ago, MuMantai said:

- Unathi with his trigger "It's dangerous to go alone". This trigger alone makes him feel oppressive and mandatory, as as long as one model is alive, any unit can come back to full strength over one to two activations.

This is either hyperbole, or you're playing Reinforcing wrong.

When a unit reinforces, it can discard one (1) Reinforcement token to return two (2) models to the unit.  You don't get to discard multiple tokens to bring back more than two models.  That's how it works whether it's a start of the turn reinforcement or a "Target Reinforces" effect in an action.

When you're dealing with squads composed of three model fireteams, spending a commander's activation to bring back four models feels like you're really doing a lot.  But I think that's just on par with what everyone else can accomplish.

[MuMantai]

10 hours ago, solkan said:

This is either hyperbole, or you're playing Reinforcing wrong.

When a unit reinforces, it can discard one (1) Reinforcement token to return two (2) models to the unit.  You don't get to discard multiple tokens to bring back more than two models.  That's how it works whether it's a start of the turn reinforcement or a "Target Reinforces" effect in an action.

When you're dealing with squads composed of three model fireteams, spending a commander's activation to bring back four models feels like you're really doing a lot.  But I think that's just on par with what everyone else can accomplish.

I am aware about the limitations. One action of Unathi gives them a reinforcement token and the trigger lets them use it immediately.

I am mostly speaking about the Combined Arms fireteams. That is seven models, so three reinforcements are necessary to bring them from one model to full again. Also, two are enough to bring them to almost full fighting strength, as the first fills up the fireteam, while the second brings back the titan and the second fireteam. It gets more ridiculous in combination with A Lion among Gazelles, which is a shame. I would really like to use this stratagem on the Lord of Steel, but it is so much better on Unathi, because he keeps my troups alive.

[trikk]

51 minutes ago, MuMantai said:

I am aware about the limitations. One action of Unathi gives them a reinforcement token and the trigger lets them use it immediately.

I am mostly speaking about the Combined Arms fireteams. That is seven models, so three reinforcements are necessary to bring them from one model to full again. Also, two are enough to bring them to almost full fighting strength, as the first fills up the fireteam, while the second brings back the titan and the second fireteam. It gets more ridiculous in combination with A Lion among Gazelles, which is a shame. I would really like to use this stratagem on the Lord of Steel, but it is so much better on Unathi, because he keeps my troups alive.

This trigger requires crows. I don't know how can you manage it multiple times.

[MuMantai]

5 minutes ago, trikk said:

This trigger requires crows. I don't know how can you manage it multiple times.

Have you seen abyssinian card draw? That is a minor issue, to be honest. I have used 13s for this, it is that good in my opinion.

[trikk]

4 minutes ago, MuMantai said:

Have you seen abyssinian card draw? That is a minor issue, to be honest. I have used 13s for this, it is that good in my opinion.

Yes. Maybe not the super-optimal one, and I totally get getting it off once per activation, but getting 3 crows in the crucial turn doesn't seem that reliably.
Don't have Mech Infantry yet, so that might change a bit.

[Fenriel]

6 hours ago, MuMantai said:

I am aware about the limitations. One action of Unathi gives them a reinforcement token and the trigger lets them use it immediately.

I am mostly speaking about the Combined Arms fireteams. That is seven models, so three reinforcements are necessary to bring them from one model to full again. Also, two are enough to bring them to almost full fighting strength, as the first fills up the fireteam, while the second brings back the titan and the second fireteam. It gets more ridiculous in combination with A Lion among Gazelles, which is a shame. I would really like to use this stratagem on the Lord of Steel, but it is so much better on Unathi, because he keeps my troups alive.

Wait you can reinforce and bring the titan back in combined arms fire teams? 

[retnab]

1 hour ago, Fenriel said:

Wait you can reinforce and bring the titan back in combined arms fire teams? 

Yes, CA fireteams can be reinforced but only if they're part of a squad (which currently is all of them)

[Clement]

On 3/13/2019 at 6:53 AM, MuMantai said:

Electrocutioners plus Unwaivering Resolve. First, this stratagem is gold for Abyssinia, as it is one safe glory for any unit with prototype asset. But with the 1.21 Gigawatts trigger "We changed history", this can break operations.

How often do you play against King's Empire?  False Flag Operation and Capture the Flag both do almost equivalently "operation breaking" things without as much effort.

 

I think Mehak Sefari's primary sin is that they're really jazzed to have a champion to babysit, and our champions are sort of ambivalent on them.  They can't keep up with Lord of Steel, Kassa couldn't care less about them, and Prince Unathi will take anyone just fine.  I could see one squad in a 2 commander game to form a core of a melee fighting force with Prince or Thrace, but the 2 we've all got is really a lot.