Monster Hunting - The Abom!

[Jack Shrapnel]

Thought we'd take a look at ways to bring down the big monsters currently (and as we go into 8th)... there's no doubt that people like fielding the big nasty monsters, and especially for a new player, they can be really intimidating to face...

So let's look at a few of these 'big guys' in the various armies, starting with the mighty Abomination from the Skaven Army Book...

This big nasty monster allows you to go pretty wild with conversions, given there's no official model, and the description given in the Army Book leads to some pretty wide scope as to what exactly this thing should look like...

The Abom is a formidible oppenent, with high strength and toughness, regeneration, random movement (so hard to predict where it will end up) and a host of really really nasty attacks (once again random of course!) that can decimate units of infantry, or other big monsters, with ease....

So how do you beat it?? Or worse... what if you're facing two???

This monster has a big reputation (as witnessed by the big hit in comp scores a double abom - or even only one) will net... is this reputation justified or just hype because it's new?

So give your thoughts on facing the abom here! (and more nasty monster hunting threads to follow)

[thesanityassassin]

I think one of the biggest things when dealing with such a monster is to look at what else the Skaven army contains. If you're only looking at an Abom, with luck a couple cannons can sort it out fairly simply, or a bolt thrower or 2 over a couple turns (though flaming cannons are of course the best), or else a good little chunk of magic blasting at it.

The thing is, that assumes you're not looking at other "big nasties" like Plague Furnaces or Bells that you also have to worry about. It also hopes that the Storm Banner is not there....to me that is when it gets very tricky....you can easily have 3 or 4 T6 things in a skaven army, and only a few turns to deal with them before they get to combat and start thrashing you....heck, if even at minimum 1 turn of your potential shooting is taken by the Storm Banner dealing with such creatures becomes VERY tricky.

I've found that smacking one with a couple Lion Chariots has worked OK, 2d6+12 S5 hits puts a decent dent in most things, but again the regen luck hurts there, and the possible attacks back are brutal.

[Jack Shrapnel]

.... another thing to consider is the pretty much mandatory warp spikes upgrade gives magic resistance to the abom!

so at first glance, dwarf flaming warmachines have a decent chance, given the ability to do multiple wounds and negate the regen...

however if you aren't a dwarf player, or are under the effects of a stormbanner (another pretty much standard piece of equipment).. you may not have the ability to do this....

Has anyone had success with volume of ranged fire?

any particular spells that have been effective? (as Matt mentioned magic)

how about close combat (that lion chariot idea seems pretty sound on the charge to dish out some significant damange)?

I was able to pin the abom for a few turns using humble clanrats on the flank... but that relied on Scott having poor luck with his abom rolls, and my continuing to keep the magic CR 5... however no guarentees on this tactic of course (any tactic that relies on luck is not a good one!)

what I have consistently tried to do with big monsters is the redirect - feed the monster cheap expendable troops angled away from my main force... so when they run (which they usually do) they pull the monster away when it pursues them to run them down. This way you keep the monster from eating anything that important, and it doesn't make it's points back during the game...

...of course this relies on having cheap expendable troops that you don't mind feeding to a big monster... but hey, you can't like ALL of your troops right?

In order for a big monster to really make a dent in your forces, they either have to pair with another unit, or take advantage of the charge, break, pursue into fresh enemy... breaking this chain is very important to neutralize a monster. Every turn they aren't charging or eating something, is a turn wasted... given that they won't be charging anything turn one, even one redirect can often reduce their effectiveness quite considerably....

...or you can charge in the lion chariots and get something nice and impressive for the High Elf trophy wall

[thesanityassassin]

Yeah, I have to take a little more aggressive stance with those kind of things, (Hydras, Aboms etc) and try to hit them before they hit me. High Elves have very little that can be an effective re-direct as almost everything I field is EXPENSIVE, and even my fast cav is pricey for what it can do (though I'm considering some anyway).

On the plus side of that, it's rare that if something DOES break one of my units that it will have angles or...well...existent troops to pursue into. At the same time, a good number of my blocks can stand up to those monsters, either through killyness or durability, though they wreck my poor spearmen.

The trouble I run into as well is when monsters start becoming stubborn on an 8-10, so breaking them with resolution is not reliable at all, particularly with a BSB nearby. This makes it VERY hard for different armies to get rid of them.

I've found that Pit of Shades can work quite well against many monsters, depending of course on their initiative, but being able to just remove such a thing without worrying on any of its saves is wonderful. Beast cowers of course stops them from acting, but has the downside of putting you on Lore of Beasts which can often be less than ideal for a high level mage, and is too unreliable to get the spell on a LV2.

Volume of fire can work against large targets with no saves like the Bell or Plague Furnace, but by the time something is getting an armour save and regen (IE Abom or Hydra), there's only so much a bunch of S3 shots can do. Brets can do alright though, with the ability to cheaply put 40-60 flaming longbows on the table....all you need is to take a couple wounds to allow your lances to punch through it. Or just take that super-fun Lord who can killing blow large targets....he can be quite a surprise against monster-heavy lists.

[Tommy]

I think massed fire has a pretty decent chance of taking out the abom, like skinks or Rxb's or something like that as hes likely to regen the big wounds from a warmachine, also a super survivable character (dwarfs, DE, HE etc) with the appropriate equipment, also lore of shadow, or nurgle with the inish tests, and of course the lore of fire, thats how i kiled myself an abom

[thesanityassassin]

Yeah, poison seems like quite a good idea.