The Lower Abyssals are your bread and butter front line ground pounders. In Troops size, they cost only 75 points, have a movement of 5, a melee of 4+ and defense of 4+ with an attack of 10 dice and they get '
Regeneration'
and also '
Fury'. With a Ne of 9/11 you can't expect a troop to last more than one turn, so putting it on a flank in front of your attacking units makes these chaff cheap and nasty to use. For bigger road blocks, I would not recommend the Regiment as you only get 2 more dice and cost 40 more points, with an increase of Ne of only 4 points respectively, it would be better to instead, pay the points and buy a horde.
The horde does make a good roadblock for around 2 turns, as lower Abyssals get '
Regeneration'
and also '
Fury' and combined with 25 attack dice and the Ne increased to 20/22, these guys can hold a piece of ground and hit back at their assailants with a 50/50 chance of hitting and 50/50 chance of causing wounds each turn they survive.
Another option is to drop the shield in favour of two handed weapons for 10 points(for a horde), giving them a defence of 3+ but gaining '
Crushing Strength (1)' . Throw in '
Bane Chant' for an extra
Crushing Strength (1) and they should be able to be a hard hitter tackling the bigger units of your opponent, providing they survive the first strike.
Not withstanding heroes who inspire any breaking unit, the Lower Abyssals by themselves are really cannon fodder that will be shot at and attacked early in the game. Do not expect a unit to last more than 3 rounds, but if it is supported by a Well of Souls, it could well last 4 or even 5 rounds unless flanked or mugged by several units at once.
Lastly, the Lower Abyssal
Flamebearers come as a build choice from Mantic from the Lower Abyssal weapons choices. A single troop of these, placed strategically, can harass the enemy with 8 dice worth of '
FireBolts' shooting at 18 inches. Again they cost 115 points and a Regiment costing 40 points more, but giving only 2 more dice, and a Ne increase of only 4/4 points, it is not really worth the expense of paying for a Regiment. Having
Steady Aim and
Piercing (1) make for a good addition to move to good shooting angles without the movement penalty.
I have used these units in several or my army build and found that though they don't do much damage(my unlucky dice?), they tend to be ignored by my opponents, so later in the game, they can become emergency roadblocks, sometimes at an important time in a battle.
