[Sgt.Freak]

And there i was, faced with the Warmaster in his latest incarnation. It was with a mixture of dread and anxiety that my partner (playing the new Tzeentch rules) and i (Tyranids) prepared for our 2000 point match-up against the forces of the Black Legion.
Unfortunately, Abaddon has lost none of his former power; instead, his single weakness against cheap hordes such as those of the orks is gone - no longer limited to a single attack with Drachnyen, Abaddon is now capable of releasing a monstrous 12 attacks (max - rolls D6) on the charge, which, unsurprisingly, ignore armour saves AND are conducted at Initiative 6! As if that wasn't enough, he also re-rolls any that fail to wound.

So what is there that can be done against such a foe? I ask this question because the point restriction for an army that may contain Abaddon has been abolished; thus it is possible to find yourself mockingly flattened again and again as he heaps your strongest units in a pile with the least effort. Carnifex are batted to the side no matter how costly an investment; they are simply too slow, regardless of upgrades. The hive tyrant is reserved for the same fate. How about the Broodlord with a 'stealer retinue and implant attack? Perhaps, but only if your opponent is unwitting enough to let such a rare circumstance come about, as the Chaos player has a free reign of the board using deep-strike, which no longer scatters! This means that Abaddon can strike where your defence is weakest and even if you do manage to get the Broodlord into combat with him, the chances are he'll already have cleared much of your side of the table.

Keeping your distance and firing everything in your arsenal seems tempting, but with the lowest AP of Tyranid weapons being 4 (discounting spore mines), it is rare for one of your weapons to fell a member of his hard-as-nails bodyguard.

What is that you say? Tyranid special characters? Ah, the Red Terror. Why not get him to swallow the Warmaster whole and put an end to all your problems? Unfortunately, the Red Terror is unable to stomach any model with a (modified) toughness of 5 or more. Even Old One Eye, my favourite character in 40k because of his outstanding durability, turns pale at the sight of the Warmaster and his bodyguard. Those wicked crushing claws are easily capable of turning the most hardened space marine into pulp with a single blow, but Abaddon is the favoured of chaos, and so is immune to Instant Death! So it's Bye-Bye Old One Eye, perhaps the strongest single unit (out-with ForgeWorld) available to the Tyranid player.

Ok, so Abaddon is costly, totalling 500 points including bodyguard. But nevertheless, that's 500 points of ceaseless annoyance for the opponent! In this particular encounter he walked through Old One Eye, a brood of warriors, a hive tyrant, a Daemon Prince and a Greater Daemon, leading his forces to a 'Victorious Slaughter!' result without sustaining a scratch.

Don't get me wrong, I’m aware that the Tyranids are more than capable of holding their own in the right hands. But what is there to do against the likes of Abaddon? I hate to refuse my opponent the opportunity to use special characters as it goes against the spirit of having fun. I’m not even sure i can in this instance, because there is no requirement to ask the opponent if you can take him prior to the battle listed in his profile anyway.

Any advice would be a huge help, not only for me but for all the Tyranid players out there who will inevitably encounter this menace of ridiculous power!

[sarnas]

Only thing I can say is at least 96 spine gaunts with enough synapse to keep them around. That is a hellova lot of shooting power, and enough wounds to keep Abaddon busy for a while. Either that or Zoanthropes...

[Gada Mazaha]

Well, looking at the choices...

Broodlord and pimped retinue.
Pimped Hive Tyrant.
Walking pimped Tyrant with Guard.
Pimped squad of Warriors.
Pimped Normal Genestealers.

Any of these would really work. I imagine the Broodlord and Genestealers would work the best, just make suer they all have Implant Attack and probably Scything Talons. The best solution to any problem like that.

[GRISGIT-warboss]

Eeek, sounds like Abaddon gets some crazy rules (like the silly 5 special weapon chosen).
Anyway, a big brood of Stealers with the Broodlord sounds like it should do it..though be prepared to lose a bunch from his equal initiave attacks.

[Sgt.Freak]

The problem i'm having is not the units on offer in the tyranid army list, as the broodlord and an uprgraded 'stealer retinue are really capable of causing him some problems. It's getting them into combat with him. He literally has control over the whole board, and can even deep-strike into combat. Also, holding valuable units like genestealers back, that are really intented to be the spearhead of your assault, can be unwise as they will undoubtedly be subject to the majority of your opponent's fire! i.e. Defiler's battlecannon.
I happened to forget to mention (which was probably good for you!) that Abaddon's daemon weapon doubles his strenght, effectively giving him a powerfist with on average about 3 times the number of attacks of an aspiring champion, and with the same speed as a genestealer.

Zoanthropes i have already tested but with a max of 3 in an army and a range of 18 inches your likely to only kill a few of his bodyguard before he slaughters them, breaking the synapse web. Spingegaunts also have a poor range and are likely to be charged and slaughtered the ensuing turn if they prove to be enough of a problem.

Thanks for your advice anyway, but we're still going to have to put our heads together to try and find a near fail-safe plan!

[Abaddon the despoiler]

Fist of all you cant destroy me so easily and with the new rules he is stranger [snipped]( i;m just pointing out his prifle bear with me please) dam and terminators are cheap in points each so if you want do kill me Abaddon you have to may use a trigon (forge world) or a brood lord with Steeler's with inplant attack Masses of steelers. bow be for my greatness.


[size=7pt]Can't post stats. Don't do it again. ~Gada[/size]

[Sgt.Freak]

Well, there you have it. Even Abaddon himself (supposedly!) admits that he's overpowered, and my brother who used him in his last game against me has decided (with mercy) not to take him in any follow-up games.

But seriously, a Trigon? Just looking at the size of the thing on the forgeworld site gives you an idea of the measures needed to take care of this guy.

[Gada Mazaha]

Originally Posted by Sgt.Freak

The problem i'm having is not the units on offer in the tyranid army list, as the broodlord and an uprgraded 'stealer retinue are really capable of causing him some problems. It's getting them into combat with him. He literally has control over the whole board, and can even deep-strike into combat. Also, holding valuable units like genestealers back, that are really intented to be the spearhead of your assault, can be unwise as they will undoubtedly be subject to the majority of your opponent's fire! i.e. Defiler's battlecannon.
I happened to forget to mention (which was probably good for you!) that Abaddon's daemon weapon doubles his strenght, effectively giving him a powerfist with on average about 3 times the number of attacks of an aspiring champion, and with the same speed as a genestealer.

Zoanthropes i have already tested but with a max of 3 in an army and a range of 18 inches your likely to only kill a few of his bodyguard before he slaughters them, breaking the synapse web. Spingegaunts also have a poor range and are likely to be charged and slaughtered the ensuing turn if they prove to be enough of a problem.

Thanks for your advice anyway, but we're still going to have to put our heads together to try and find a near fail-safe plan!

Well, the problem I've had with units like this, is how much of a complete points sink they are. Now, you sound like a pretty strong player that's been playing for probably a while, and has a large amount of stuff. So I'm going to assume you have plenty of models.

Now, One way to completely screw him over is swamp him. Drown him in masses of Gaunts. However strong he may be, he is no the Nightbringer or Deceiver, so he is stuck in combat with cheap units of whatever you have. So try this, take large numbers of gaunts when you play against him, preferably Spineguants, and tie him and his retinue up. I'm talking large squads of 25+ at the minimum. Swamp him with several of these, and he isn't going anywhere for the entire game. If you want to kill him, swamp him first, then when the gaunts get a little thin, set Genestealers after him.

You worry this is bad for your Genestealers, but he has roughly 500 points not on the board, and dedicated to a single unit. By throwing gaunts and Genestealers with Implant Attack at him, he should never earn his points back.

Now, one way of preventing him to deep strike anywhere he wants is by spacing out your large number of gaunts. He cannot deep strike within 1" of an enemy model(or at least not to my knowledge), so denying him key places by this would be a good tactic.

[Sgt.Freak]

Perhaps it’s time to rack up a huge pile of gaunts then!
Sadly, the last tactic mentioned would prove ineffective as Abaddon is protected against such mis-haps as he can deep-strike into combat. However, if you could just get enough gaunts against him perhaps your carnies would be free to justly create havoc amongst the enemy lines further on without the Warmaster’s interference. Don’t be mistaken though, you would need a lot of gaunts. 25 simply wouldn’t be enough - you’d be talking more in terms of about 100+ to attempt to exclude him from the game altogether. He and his (say, five-man strong) bodyguard would amount to about 20-25 attacks per turn; that’s about 80 points worth of gaunts down the pan for each turn of combat after rolling to hit and wound. And considering the average game length is 6 turns, with combat taken on each player’s turn, they’ll kill about 600 points worth of gaunts if you’re lucky enough to engage him early on turn 3, excluding any other models he’ll have slaughtered beforehand.

Perhaps if you had a big brood of genestealers with a broodlord, and engaged Abaddon himself in ensuing turns with relatively useless units such as a non-upgraded zoanthrope or lictor to force his attacks on them, victory could be possible. But those are all pretty candied circumstances if you ask me.

[Gada Mazaha]

Does it really say that? There is a difference between being able to deep strike and then assault, but deep striking within 1" of an enemy model?

But, yes, I was talking about broods sizes of 25+, so you at least need about 75 Gaunts to try and tie him up.