Abadon From Chaos Space Marines

[Thaylen]

I would think that this has probably been discussed but I didn't find anything with the search function.

 

How do you deal with this beast. 4+d6 Str 8 Power Weapon attacks on I6. My Opponent usually only runs him with 2-3 other termies. I don't see a close combat solution (This guy eats lysanders for breakfast). Shooting him sounds good but with 2+/4++ saves and a bodygaurd I don't see it happening quick enough.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

-Thaylen

[Olesh]

Like anybody else, he goes down to volume of fire. Since he has a 2+/4++, you either need two plasma wounds or six other wounds, on average, to make a single unsaved wound. Extrapolating, this means you need 24 or 8 before saves, on average.

 

Since he's T5, S4 will only wound 1/3 of the time. Space marines hit 2/3 of the time, so you need 9 bolter shots to inflict 2 wounds before saves, or 54 marines rapid firing. This is probably more bolters than people have in their entire army, but remember, this is the total number of bolter shots on average needed to take him down from full strength.

 

Now, if you're firing with sternguard, they're still hitting 2/3 of the time but wounding 5/6 of the time, so 2 bolter shots = 1.1 wounds. This is somewhat better, but you'd still need about 22 sternguard rapid firing to kill him on average. Plasma is 3x better, requiring just over 7 plasmaguns rapid firing to do the same thing.

 

In short, the despoiler soaks up quite a bit of firepower on average, and many people underestimate just how much firepower that really is. Because of his 4+ invulnerable save and eternal warrior, you essentially have to inflict 8 wounds on him with any heavy weapon, which means 14 hits with AP2 type weapons. Plasmaguns are the cheapest way to accomplish this, and if you can drop a full squad of combi-plasma sternguard, you can mess him up. But you have to kill his retinue first before you make the big punch, or his bodyguards will soak up firepower well outside their normal ability to survive, because of wound allocation.

[Giga]

When in doubt, throw th/ss termies at the problem and - most of the time - it'll go away. ^_^

[Olesh]

When in doubt, throw th/ss termies at the problem and - most of the time - it'll go away. :)

 

Also true, but he's liable to kill some in the process, so make sure you have enough to get the job done. You'll typically need a minimum of 6 terminators to survive, attacking on the charge (18 attacks, 9 hitting, 8 wounding, 4 failed invulns), to take him out in one turn. A single failed save will prevent him from getting initiative on your guys during his own assault phase.

 

The trouble with engaging him in CC is that no matter how much overwhelming force you point at him, he's always going to inflict a certain amount of wounds on average. You can't stop him; he goes before everyone (are there any marine ICs that go at I6?). Heck, he ties genestealers in initiative. If you apply overwhelming shooting at him, though, ideally, he goes down without ever getting into hand to hand.

 

TH/SS terminators are a great catch-all, though, and Abaddon is unlikely to kill more than two or three before they get attacks back. A full squad should take him down in one assault phase.

[Thaylen]

The only I6 in the Marines dex is Khan on Furious charge, but we all know Abbadon eats lysanders for breakfast and Khans as afternoon snacks.

 

Just found one weakness though. He has no grenades. If I stay in cover I might be able to sic a power weapon squad on him.

[Brother Nihm]

If he's in a raider, knock out the raider.

If he deepstrikes, focus fire him/move away, he's slow.

If he's rolling with a large Berzerker squad, see above.

 

Sadly old Abaddon is so slow that he's easily countered. It's when he's holding objectives that you need to start worrying. :)

 

Also, remember that if Abaddon is attached to a non-fearless unit, he will lose the Fearless USR. So all you have to do is force a morale check on the unit and hope that he fails.