The Abominant is one of the toughest models in the Cult, but lacks the damage output his huge hammer suggests he should have. Are his buffs enough to make him worth it?
The Abominant is an odd fish. It feels like he’s intended as a combat monster, and he can be: an unmodified Abominant can destroy a Leman Russ tank in a single round (albeit at around an 11% chance); but there’s also a roughly 25% chance that he won’t cause any damage at all. And at the other end of the scale, against light infantry, the likelihood is that he kills two or three guardsmen (which I can achieve more reliably with a single genestealer). Then again, the Abominant isn’t all about damage – he has a good defensive profile, and buffs nearby aberrants. The question is: does that make him worthwhile?
OFFENCE
The Abominant comes in at 95 points. That’s near enough the same as three aberrants (90 points). So, in terms of damage output, we’re asking if the Abominant brings more damage than the three aberrants we could get with the same points.
[For the purposes of this comparison, I’m ignoring the wound and save rolls. That tilts things slightly against the Abominant (who hits at S10, AP-3 to the aberrants’ S8, AP-2), but I’d like to keep things fairly easy here. For the same reason, I’m using the flat mean average, rather than calculating ranges.]
o 8 aberrants put out 16 attacks at WS3+, which gains them 10.7 hits.
o 5 aberrants have 10 attacks, but benefit from the Abominant’s Chosen One rule for full re-rolls to hit, meaning that they rack up 8.9 hits. The Abominant adds a further 3 attacks at WS3+ (with the Mindwyrm reroll, for 2.5 hits, giving a total of 11.4 hits.
So, the smaller group of buffed aberrants do slightly better overall, and within that, also have two-and-a-bit hits with a better weapon profile via the Abominant (which particularly pays off into big, multi-wound targets like tanks, where S10 and d3+3 damage really make a difference).
With larger groups (like 10 aberrants against 7 and the Abominant), the advantage increases: 10 aberrants score 13.3 hits, whereas 7 buffed aberrants and the Abominant score 14.9 (as we’d expect with a buffing effect – the more models it affects, the more useful it is). In fact, the rate of increase is such that when we get to 12 regular aberrants we’d expect to land 16 hits; but 9 buffed aberrants would also expect to achieve 16 hits (before we even roll for the Abominant’s attacks). So, from here on up, the Abominant is carrying his weight even if he doesn’t make it into combat.
Of course, this is all situational. We’re assuming that the Abominant can buff all active aberrants (which means you couldn’t send units in different directions). We also assuming (for smaller units at least) that the Abominant can get into combat to add his two hits.
But if you are planning to run two big blocks of aberrants alongside each other, the Abominant is worth dropping three of them to fit in.
DEFENCE
The Abominant has the same basic defensive profile as an aberrant: T5, 5+ save, -1 damage. He also gets 6 wounds instead of 3, and a 5+ FNP on top, which effectively gives him 9 wounds. Helpfully, that’s exactly what we’d get by taking the extra three aberrants instead – 8 aberrants have 24 wounds; 5 aberrants have 15, the Abominant has 9 (in effect), so between them they also have 24.
As a character, the Abominant benefits from Look Out Sir, although that doesn’t stop the enemy shooting up the aberrants instead, so it’s not very helpful overall. It could also benefit from Unquestioning Loyalty, but that’s probably dependent on there being other units nearby, as aberrants are a bit too pricey to become meat-shields.
We should also note that, in many cases, aberrants will be getting a buff of some sorts from a Biophagus; and more often than not, that buff is a 5+ FNP. If we do go that route, it would swing things back in favour of the larger, non-Abominant group. Continuing with the example above, the 8 aberrants would jump to an effective 36 wounds, whilst the unit of 5 go to 22.5 effective wounds, adding 9 again for the Abominant for a total of 31.5.
Finally, a further point against the Abominant is that it can be removed with a single shot. Unlikely, in fairness, but possible, especially with some of the big guns that exist now. Whereas there are even fewer weapons that can one-shot three aberrants at once, making them slightly more survivable in a few extreme scenarios.
TRANSPORTS, RELICS, STRATAGEMS AND PLANNING
TRANSPORTS
Using the Abominant instead of three more aberrants opens up a couple of options with transports. The Rockgrinder has a capacity of 6, with allows it to carry 5 aberrants and the Abominant in a single handy package. The Goliath truck holds 10, allowing that break-point of 9 aberrants plus Abominant, which was where the Abominant pays for itself even if it doesn’t make contact in the fight phase.
I‘m not sure either transport load-out is going to be a critical factor when assessing the overall efficiency of the Abominant, but the Rockgrinder option does feel like a neat way to fit the most aberrant punch into a vehicle that could offer them helpful support.
RELICS
The Abominant can access the Amulet of the Voidwyrm relic, giving him a 4+ invulnerable, one automatic successful save, and switching off overwatch. All handy, so if there’s a relic slot going spare and you’re leaning heavily into aberrants, this would tilt things further in favour of the Abominant (although you’d have to charge it in first to benefit from the overwatch effect, so run the risk of leaving the Abominant high and dry if the aberrants fail their charge…
STRATAGEMS
Monstrous Vigour works on both aberrants and the Abominant, which is helpful. It’s perhaps slightly less useful that it initially appears, as there are very few things that will wound aberrants on 2s anyway (S10 or higher, which is rare). By utilising the Abominant, we can get more use from a unit of five, which then means we can trigger this stratagem for just 1CP. It can’t affect both the Abominant and aberrants, but that’s where Look Out Sir would come into play.
Hyper-Metabolism is worth a mention here – it’s another way to boost the survivability of the Abominant. Coupled with the Amulet, you could have a model with T5, 6 wounds, -1 damage, 4+ invulnerable, 5+FNP and regenerating d3 wounds per turn.
PROFICIENT PLANNING
One strong option with the proficient planning traits is A Trap Sprung, which gives us another way to deliver a unit of aberrants. The downside here is that it can’t also apply to the Abominant, so it runs the risk of being left behind if attacking from underground. That said, if we’re bringing in at least 9 models, then (as we’ve already seen) as long as the Abominant stays within 6”, the buffing effect pays off even if it doesn’t make it in.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
So, what have we learnt?
o The Abominant's aura is better than three aberrants offensively, if it gets into combat. If the Abominant is buffing 9 (or more) aberrants, it’s worthwhile even if it doesn’t reach combat).
o It’s a toss-up defensively, but swings in favour of more aberrant bodies if they pick up the FNP enhancement.
o The Abominant allows more effective use of transports by packing the same punch into less models
The Abominant has always had a bit of a reputation. You want it to be good, but it’s just too unreliable. The current version is a touch more consistent now it hits on 3s, and can certainly stack up the defensive layers, but it still feels like it’s there to be a buffing piece first and foremost. It can contribute in combat, but not enough to make me include it for that reason alone.
I think the numbers suggest that it does hold up in a buffing role, particularly if you go deep with the aberrants, or if you want to run a minimum-size brood in a Rockgrinder as roving tank-hunters. But what we’ve looked at here is a direct comparison – given that you’re spending 240 points on eight aberrants, would it be better to spend 245 on five and the Abominant? If you weren’t going to run more than five in the first place, 95 points is a lot to get hold of those re-rolls. Similarly, if you weren’t going to include any, knowing that the Abominant would make them a bit better probably isn’t going to change your mind. And fair enough.
So that’s the bottom line: if you like aberrants enough to have a least eight of them on the table, then you probably want to get the Abominant in there, even at the cost of three aberrants. And if that’s the case, I hope he blatters something for you.