Vanguard Abyssal Dwarfs Preview – Part Two

After yesterday's blog giving a top level view of our latest Vanguard warband (read here if you missed it), today we're delving into specifics with some of the new Abyssal Dwarf units. We're not going to cover everything (we want there to be some surprises, after all) but we'll highlight some of the particularly exciting new stuff!

RATKIN SLAVE

There's been a lot of excitement about the metal Ratkin models and, at just six points, they're useful chaff for your warband. Unfortunately they're unable to capture objectives (because the Abyssal Dwarfs don't trust them) but can potentially be sacrificed to stop Command models taking wounds.

The Overmaster (spotted in yesterday's blog) has four wounds, so keep a couple of Ratkin Slaves near him and that potentially increases to six.

IMMORTAL GUARDIAN

Talking of Command miniatures - the Abyssal Dwarfs have a new command option! The Immortal Guardian is a beefed up Immortal Guard with some very tasty stats. Four D8 for melee? Yes please! Hitting on 4+? Go on then. Able to use Fragstim without the risk of damage? Don't mind if I do.

HEXCASTER

In yesterday's blog we talked about the Abyssal Dwarfs' ability to mess with the Power output of opponents. If you're curious how they do this, then say hello to the Hexcaster! This curious little creature, downgrades the Power Dice of enemies and potentially stops them generating Power entirely. Thankfully (for your opponent, at least) you can only have one Hexcaster in your warband, so use it wisely.

CHARNOX

Today's final preview is the Charnox, a sort of souped-up Golem armed with a Magma cannon... because, why not?! The Charnox is going to be particularly useful for clearing key objectives, thanks to the Magma Blast ability. This is a Breath attack, rather than a standard ranged action, so it will hit everything under the 6" template. So, if a load of enemies are clustered around the portal, for example, give 'em a blast of magma and watch the results. They'll be LUCKY to escape alive...

There you have our sneak peek at some of the new Abyssal Dwarf units for Vanguard. Remember, the Abyssal Dwarfs will be available to pre-order from the Mantic website later this week.