Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Legends/Tamurkhan's Horde

Now in the Legends section of GHB2020.

From out of the short-lived Warhammer Forge book range, here comes the horde of Tamurkhan to bring disease and despair in its wake! One of the two Forge World armies that have been given their own Warscroll collections, along with the Legion of Azgorh. While not recommended as a beginner army, a lot of these units can find their place in other Chaos forces, and they look damn nice...uhh...for Nurglites, anyway.

Tamurkhan's Horde Summary

Warscrolls can be found here within their new compendium: http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/resources/fw_site/fw_pdfs/aos_warscrolls/warhammer-aos-tamurkhans-horde.pdf

A big stompy army of Nurgle-tainted monsters using the expensive Forge World kits. While it lacks in unit variety and has virtually non-existent shooting, its units are either tough, deadly in close combat, resilient, or a mix of all three. Tamurkhan himself is reason enough to give it a shot - the list is probably best used alongside a mixture of Chaos Warriors and Daemons, which given its fluff is only fitting.

• As of AOS2 Similar to how Alliances in the Firestorm book are modified Grand Alliances with additional goodies and Restrictions, Tamurkhan's Horde is an addon to the NURGLE Alliance. You get all the original benefits of a NURGLE allegiance plus the ones featured below, and can take any unit that has or can give itself the NURGLE keyword.

ABILITIES

Battle Traits

• Winds of Corruption: Subtract 1 from the enemy's run and charge rolls.

COMMAND ABILITY

• Shout of Command: You can use this command ability at the start of your charge phase. If you do so, pick 1 friendly Tamurkhan’s Horde Hero. You can re-roll charge rolls for friendly Tamurkhan’s Horde units while they are wholly within 14" of that Hero in that phase.

COMMAND TRAIT

• By choosing this Alliance your general must take the following COMMAND TRAIT.
• Unrelenting Conqueror: Add 1 to run rolls for friendly Tamurkhan’s Horde units while they are wholly within 14" of this general.

ARTEFACT OF POWER

• The first artefact of power to be given out must be the following.
• Daemon Flask: Once per battle, at the start of your hero phase, you can roll a dice for each enemy unit within 12", re-roll for War Machine or if it is within 3" of a terrain. On a 4+ that unit suffers 1 mortal wound or D3 on a 6. While it doesn't look like much, it isn't terrible. Just make sure to place down a lot of terrain (remember that the infamous trees also count!).

Tamurkhan's Horde Warscrolls

Forenote: The following section will be arranged with similar units and formations being grouped together for easier reading.

This is by no means a complete guide (Much of it is very noticeably out of date if you check the compendium). Also due to the relatively recent release of the second edition of Age of Sigmar, most of this is based on theory. Take everything with a grain of salt.

Named characters

Tamurkhan the Maggot Lord: The eponymous character for the army. Big, mean and perfect to destroy the heroes of the other side; send him after enemy characters where the Black Cleaver and its re-rolls can go to work. Even if he dies, he revives with a few wounds rather than letting you get your disgusting cheeto hands on their models. With 18(!) wounds, D3 of which are regenerated per turn, a host of attacks from Bubebolos and a command ability that buffs the many monsters of his Horde he's also well-suited for grinding through infantry, so plonk him into the centre of your line and go to town. If you have him there's no reason not to use him; just watch out for armies with a high proportion of powerful shooting units like Aelves or Duhardin, since he's only packing a 4+ save.

• Matched play puts him though at a whopping 460pts. In a standard 2k point game that may be far too much, especially in Nurgle armies that are already packing a GUO and/or the Glottkin.

Kayzk the Befouled: Tamurkhan's second in command. 7" move, 7 HP, 7 bravery...I think I see a pattern...this chap needs to get into combat against the biggest monsters your enemy has to do his job, which is mainly dealing out mortal wound. Best ran alongside a few units of Pox Riders or (even better) Nurgle Chaos Knights for cover - he has a 4+ save against mortal wounds instead. This along with his 3+ armour save makes him surprisingly tanky, though remember he is almost purely a combat unit and not a particularly scary one either. His Command Ability is a slightly buffed version of Inspiring Presence that works on all Tamurkhan's Horde units wholly within 14". This is nothing special but could be useful for protecting multiple units of Bile Troggoths from battleshock.

Troops

Plague Ogres: Probably the closest thing you have to a 'troops' unit, which should give you a pretty clear indication of what this army is all about. These guys want to be charging to get the most out of their abilities. They hit like a ton of bricks with their re-rolls on the charge, ability to deal out Mortal Wounds to non-Nurgle units within 3", and surprisingly high bravery of 7. The downside comes in the form of their weapons, which only have a 1' range. This can make them vulnerable to spear-armed units and charging cavalry with lances, so even though they can come back from the dead on a 5+ picking your fights is going to be important.

Bile Trolls: Remember how I said this army has nearly no shooting? These handsome devils are the exception. While their vomit attack is short ranged (a fitting 7") it's perfect for melting through the armour of heavy infantry and cavalry as well as monsters, and can even help thin out infantry hordes in a pinch. With their ability to re-knit D3 wounds a turn these guys would be generally superior to Ogres. These are an excellent unit. They shine most when tearing up chaff or medium battleline units like Blood Warriors.

Note: you can save money by converting these two units from GW's plastic Ogre/River Troll kits, some green stuff, some Chaos bits, and a suitably sick imagination.

Plague Toads: An odd little unit that's packing a weak and short-ranged shooting attack, a chance to generate more close combat attacks on the roll of a 6, 4 wounds each. They only get their 4+ save against mortal wounds instead of all wounds. This is very strange as they are more resilient against mortal wounds than normal wounds. In return they gained fly, making them very manoeuvrable with their speedy 7" movement. Still worth it? Maybe. They are far worse at holding positions on the map than they used to be, however they can now be summoned for a mere 14 contagion points making them a very efficient summoning choice in any nurgle list. Being battleline they fill your battleline tax, though there are far better Nurgle units out there that could fill the spot.

Daemon Pox Riders: Adding a Plaguebearer to a Plague Toad leaves them with FIVE wounds each, which already makes them superior to the above. When coupled with the same saves as above, the ability to re-roll saves of a 1 if a Nurgle Hero is within 7" (Epedimius is good for this) and an additional-1 to hit modifier against shooting attacks directed at them.

• Unfortunately in matched play, Pox Riders cost as much as Plague Drones who benefit far more from GUO buffs. 80pts more per unit than a bare toad unit may place toad units as a nice cheaper distraction unit. These also lost their 4+ after save against any kind of wound, making them die surprisingly quickly for a 200 point unit that deals barely any damage.

Monsters

Gigantic Chaos Spawn: A strong but unreliable monster burdened with random movement, random attacks, and random mutations each turn. He can put out a fair amount of damage with a mix of its tongues and maws, but despite having 12 wounds the lack of any regenerating ability actually makes it one of the less resilient creatures in the army. This is offset somewhat by its random mutations, which can either deal damage to itself, increase its combat prowess, let it unbind a spell for a turn (useful if you're playing pure Horde for whatever reason and only wizard is Sayl) or heal wounds. With few ways to influence this outside of Kairos however, these abilities can't be factored into a coherent plan for the unit, although regrowing 11 woods when it was just about to die is almost worth the price of admission. Use with caution. It's worth remembering that he can be given any Chaos God as a keyword, which opens up amusing possibilities like running a Khornate Spawn alongside a Bloodsecrator, but if you're playing mainly Horde then keep him Nurgle for fluff.

Chaos War Mammoth: This monster has 22 wounds! Although it's only packing a 5+ save, re-rolling failures against weapons no rending characteristic helps make it shrug off damage a little better . All of his attacks cause at least D3 wounds, making it an exceptional monster-killer when at full strength. Its real strength lies in supporting a Marauder charge however - as well as imposing -2 to any Battleshock tests to any unfortunate unit that gets charged, the Mammoth can also help Marauder or Marauder Horsemen get in a little extra movement and increase their damage output in combat. Wounding and even killing this thing just makes it cause more damage. If you're playing with a big Chaos horde then there's no finer feeling than running this guy into the enemy's biggest and toughest-looking infantry blob, although expect a few dirty looks for doing so. Keep in mind that he doesn't like magic missiles or war machine fire, however.

Formations

• Sons of the Maggot Lord: A great formation composed of Tamurkhan, Kayzk, two units of Plague Ogres, one unit of Plague Trolls and a choice of a Gigantic Chaos Spawn. Gives +1 to the charge rolls of all the units within the battalion. For 160 points. Amazing. Please do not try this, you already get many ways to reroll your charges in a Nurgle list.

• The Leaping Pox: This formation consists of three units of Pox Riders and two units of Plague Toads.

Unless you really think dealing 1 mortal wound on a 4+ to nearby units is worth 170 points and minimum 5 very mediocre frog based units which lost their 4+++ Disgustingly Resilient after the update, it's really not worth it.

Army Building

Buy Tamurkhan.

No, seriously, after that you're pretty much free to do as you please. While realistically you should think of Tamurkhan's Horde as something to add to an already built Nurgle army, if you really want a pure Tamurkhan list, fill your battleline with Plague Ogors then take as many Bile Troggoths with Kazyk as you can. Kazyk protects both your ogors and trolls from battleshock issues while the big boys go about wrecking shit.