Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Maggotkin of Nurgle

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"Buboes, phlegm, blood and guts! Boils, bogeys, rot, and pus! Blisters, fevers, weeping sores! From your wounds the fester pours."

While both the General's Handbook 2017 and Blightwar took steps to upgrade the army to Nurglite soup, the battletome finally completes the transition.

Note: Please, feel free to add more details regard Nurgle's new battletome. Your help is important.

Allegiance Abilities

If your army consists fully of units with the NURGLE keyword, it can choose to take the Nurgle allegiance, opening all the below battle traits, command traits, spells, artifacts, and spells. Do note that besides the warscrolls presented in the Maggotkin of Nurgle battletome, any unit with the NURGLE keyword is eligible to join the army while maintaining the Nurgle allegiance. This includes many units from Slaves to Darkness (those who can gain NURGLE during deployment), Clan Pestilens, Tamurkhan's Horde, and several others here and there(the Soulgrinder and Archaon come to mind).

Battle Traits

All Nurgle allegiance armies benefit from the following rules:

Cycle of Corruption: Nurgle is life, Nurgle is love, and Nurgle loves to share all his gifts. At the start of the battle - after deployment but before the first turn - the Nurgle player rolls a die to decide where the Cycle of Corruption begins. There are seven Stages of Corruption; the 7th stage being locked from the initial throw (which is good, as it is a healing one you most likely won't need yet).

Each stage will provide you with a buff for your NURGLE units or debuff to your opponent's non-NURGLE units. At the start of each subsequent battle round the Cycle will progress by one step. For example: if your initial roll is a 3, then you will benefit from The Burgeoning during the first battle round, Plague of Misery during the second battle round, and so on. You can either let the Cycle progress or try to change it with spells or abilities. Either way, try to plan ahead because you know which benefits you will get in the following battle rounds.

  1. Unnatural Vitality: The first stage adds 2" to the Move characteristic of all NURGLE units. A really good one to offset your slower units (looking at you, Blightkings) and getting them into battle quicker.
  2. Fecund Vigour: The second stage adds 1 to the wound rolls of all NURGLE units during the combat phase.
  3. The Burgeoning: The third stage is one that affects all units (yours and your opponents) as each unit within 1" of a terrain feature will suffer 1 mortal wound - or heal 1 if they're NURGLE - on a 5+.
  4. Plague of Misery: The fourth stage forces re-rolls of 1 for battleshock tests for your opponent, NURGLE excluded of course.
  5. Nauseous Revulsion: The fifth stage forces enemy units to re-roll wound rolls of 6 during the combat phase. Enemy NURGLE units are, once again, excluded.
  6. Rampant Disease: The sixth stage allows you to pick D3 different enemy units (guess which units you can skip) that are within 12" of each other. Each unit will then suffer D3 mortal wounds.
  7. Corrupted Regrowth: The seventh and final stage will allow all NURGLE units to heal D3 wounds at the start of their hero phase. Note that this does include your opponent's units, even if they don't field a Nurgle army.

The Garden of Nurgle: Mimicking the Sylvaneth, the forces of Nurgle can now plant their own terrain pieces. After setting up terrain but before choosing a territory, each Nurgle army can place one Feculant Gnarlmaw anywhere more than 1" from any other terrain feature. Since they allow all NURGLE units within 7" to both run and charge in the same turn be sure to drop it off where you would benefit from this.

Summon Daemons of Nurgle: Gone are the days of any CHAOS WIZARD summoning hordes of NURGLE DAEMONS to join their ranks and instead there is a new system: collecting and spending contagion points as a Nurgle army.

Each hero phase a NURGLE army collects contagion points in one of the following ways:

  • Any friendly NURGLE models in your own territory nets you 3 points a turn.
  • Any friendly NURGLE models in your opponent's territory nets you an additional 3 points a turn.
  • Being free of enemy models in a territory nets you an addition 1 point for that territory.
  • Each Feculant Gnarlmaw nets you an additional D3 points if there are no enemy models within 3" of it.

Right off the bat, you will most likely be earning 4+D3 contagion points each turn for having no enemies in your territory (you are buying that Gnarlmaw, aren't you?). Coming as no surprise, different abilities will allow you to earn more contagion points during a turn. Some heroes (such as the Lord of Plagues or Epidemius) have been reworked to play into this.

To summon the daemons, all you have to do is look it up in the list and deduct its cost from your total points; unlike Khorne's Blood Tithe, you will be able to keep what you don't spend. There's no cast roll required, just place the summoned unit within 12" of a Gnarlmaw or NURGLE HERO and more than 9" from any enemies. Note that this list contains units in different sizes (Plaguebearers come in 5, 10, or 20), includes nearly all of Nurgle's daemons from Nurglings to a Great Unclean One(sadly no Soulgrinder, boo), and includes new Gnarlmaws (at the cost of Nurgle's favorite number).

Lastly, don't forget that placing new units will cost reinforcement points in Matched Play, though you'll be happy to know the Gnarlmaws only cost contagion points (because you didn't already buy/converted 7, did you?).

Command Traits

Maggotkin Generals can choose their Command Trait from three different tables depending on their Keywords (ROTBRINGER, DAEMON or MORTAL). The first three traits in every table are the same.

ROTBRINGER:

  1. Grandfather’s Blessing: Once per battle, at the start of your Hero phase, you can move the Cycle of Corruption one stage forward or backward if your general has not been slain.
  2. Living Plague: At the start of your Hero phase, roll a dice for each enemy unit within 1" of your general. On a 4+ the unit being rolled for suffers 1 Mortal Wound, and you receive 1 Contagion point.

Artefacts of Power

The Lore of Nurgle

First off, all your Nurgle Wizards get this gem:

  • Foul Regenesis: Relatively high casting value of 7 (go figure) but it allows you to instantly switch to the Stage of Corruption you want. A great way of using it is picking Nauseous Revulsion. You might be tempted to pick Rampant Disease for those tasty Mortal Wounds, but that only activates at the start of the Hero Phase, which has already passed by the time you cast. So you pick Nauseous Revulsion for the extra defense and then, next turn, it automatically goes to Rampant Disease, and you can spell it back to Nauseous Revulsion again after it dealt its damage. Alternatively, set the wheel to Unnatural Vitality because your army is painfully slow without it.

After, each Wizard gets one Lore spell, but which lore they have access to is determined by their Keywords.

Rotbringer Wizards get to pick from these:

  1. Blades of Putrefaction: Casts on a 7+, affects a friendly unit within 14". 6+ To Hit deal a Mortal Wound in addition to other damage, not specifying melee or shooting. This, of course, is best on something with a lot of attacks and/or something with a bonus to their Hit rolls. In other words, Marauders. Or, you know, those tasty Blightkings.
  2. Rancid Visitations: Casts on a 6+, affects 1 enemy unit within 3" of the caster. For each model of that unit within 3" of the caster, the unit suffers a Mortal Wound. Yikes. Do keep in mind though, that this requires your caster to stay alive until he can cast it and that Great Unclean Ones can't pick this. So, in other words, only use on Glottkin and Bloab. So no, named character can't take additional artifacts, spells and command abilities Named characters can take spells, but not artifacts and command abilities. The tome says "As such, these models cannot have a command trait or artefact of power." (pg. 58) says nothing about not taking a spell. Additionally warscroll builder allows you to take spells but not artifacts and abilities.
  3. Gift of Corruption: Casts on a 6+, enemy unit within 18" takes either -1 To Hit, -1 To Wound or -1 to Saves, rolled randomly. Not too reliable, but everything it can do is good, so go nuts.

Daemon Wizards get to pick from these:

  1. Favoured Poxes: Oh lord. Casts on a 7+, pick an enemy unit within 14". It takes -1 to their Hit, Wound and Save rolls until the caster moves, attacks or casts another spell. So, that Herald you cast this with will be useless afterward, but such an utterly crippling debuff means your Herald doesn't HAVE to do anything. Just point literally any unit at the target, and the target is gone. Biggest weakness is its range, but whatever.
  2. Glorious Afflictions: Casts on 5+, affects an enemy unit within 21". That unit halves its Move, the distance it runs, the distance it charges and cannot make use of the Fly rule. What? Was the enemy trying to flank you? Not anymore. Slows enemies down enough so you can get the drop on them instead.
  3. Sumptuous Pestilence: Casts on 6+, each enemy unit within 7" takes a Mortal Wound, unless they have more than 5 models, in which case it's D3 Mortal Wounds. MSU armies beware.

Mortal Wizards get to pick from these:

  1. Magnificent Buboes: Casts on a 7+, pick an enemy Hero. He takes D3 Mortal Wounds and gets -1 to Hit, Cast and Unbind rolls. Neuters fighters and heaps damage onto supporters and all of that from phenomenal range.
  2. Plague Squall: Casts on a 6+. If successful, roll 7D6. For each 6, pick an enemy unit and deal D3 Mortal Wounds to it. You can only pick each enemy unit once. You know what this one doesn't have? A range limit. Even one cast can kill certain artillery crews from the safety and comfort of your own deployment zone. And the best part is, according to the spell description, that missing range limit doesn't seem to be an oversight since it's basically a rain shower made of plague fluids.
  3. Cloying Quagmire: Casts on a 5+, pick an enemy unit within 14" and roll a D6. If this rolls equal to or over their Save characteristic, they suffer D6 Mortal Wounds. So, it gets more reliable on precisely the units you want to affect with it the most. Wow.

Warscrolls

Leaders

Named Characters

Epidemius: A Herald of Nurgle +1, with two more wounds and a Nurgling base's worth of extra attacks. Doesn't sound like much until you get to his Nurgle's Tallyman ability and realize he's the best force multiplier in the game. You keep a tally of how many models your Nurgle models killed, and as it rises, they get bonuses. How's that so great? Because it doesn't specify Nurgle Daemons, just Nurgle. So this guy buffs your Plague Monks, your Blightkings, Glottkin, the Maggoth Riders, Plague Drones, you name it. And since Nurgle has even a few fast hard hitters like Daemon Princes, those bonuses should start adding up fast.

  • If you really want to stack up his bonus fast, bring a couple Clan Pestilens Plague Claws. If the opponent isn't playing a super low-model count army, you'll rack up the model kills fast and apply it to your whole army before they even get to combat.

The Glottkin: This count also as Behemoth. The big bad bad guys of Nurgle are back. And this time, no bullshit Purple Suns exist that can cascade them out of the game in a single turn. And without that annoying weakness, they are absolutely devastating. 18 freaking Wounds with an automatic Regen of D3 Wounds per friendly Hero Phase, basically Terror and the fact that enemies can take Mortal Wounds simply for being charged by the Glottkin combine with magic and very powerful attacks to make something truly nightmarish. Their unique spell is very situational but can make a bunch of Marauders into the single most immovable tarpit in the game - for a turn. They also have a really awesome Command Ability that grants one extra attack to every melee weapon of every Nurgle unit within 14" of them. Yes, this includes Nurgle Daemons and Clan Pestilens. Additionally, they have a shooting weapon that is easy to hit with, has a high Rend and inflicts a whole lot of damage, but unfortunately, it only Wounds on 4+, which makes it quite unreliable.

  • Protip: in the right army, Fleshy Abundance is the best defensive spell of the game. Using it on 1-Wound models effectively means giving them a 4+ save-after-the-save (and unlike it, it doesn't depend on a dice roll, it always reduces your losses to half). And the targets aren't limited to Nurgle units, too, but it's even better if they're because then they will be affected by the Glottkin's awesome Command Ability. Plaguebeareres and Chaos Marauders become much better, but glass cannons like Plague Monks, and specially Plague Censer Bearers become ridiculously good.

Bloab Rotspawned: This count also as Behemoth. Of the Maggoth Riders, Bloab is the only Wizard, but in exchange, he has a worse save than the others, makes fewer attacks with his (still decent) weapon and projects several annoying auras. He has a fly swarm that can cause penalties To Hit enemies in a large area and his bells lower enemy casting rolls by 1. His Maggoth also has by far the best shooting attack of the three. Finally, his unique spell is potentially devastating: It affects one enemy unit. At the end of every phase in which the unit lost Wounds, roll a D6. On 2+, the unit takes another D3 Mortal Wounds. Keep in mind, this happens on a per-phase basis. Basically, if you cast this spells, you need to invest in it. Every phase you have to strip off at least one Wound off that unit. Otherwise, just use Arcane Bolt and have done. Other than that, Bloab is simply very versatile. He is strong in melee but not stellar, good at shooting but not the shootiest Hero in the game, can cast but not terribly well and can fuck with the opponent with all his auras and unbinding.

Morbidex Twiceborn: This count also as Behemoth. The guy who loves Nurglings, because they love him. Of the Maggoth riders, he has the worst shooting attacks, projects Nurgle's Rot and has a regeneration effect in each friendly Hero Phase. On 4-5 he heals a Wound. On 6, he heals D3 Wounds instead. He can also spawn D3 Nurgling swarms per turn, either making new units or adding to pre-existing units and grants a +1 To Wound for Nurglings around him. Considering how hard Nurglings are to kill, this guy can swarm the board with little gribblies. He's pretty good in close combat, arguably better than his boss Orghotts. Use him to lead your charges, because he's tough, powerful and really fast for Nurgle's standards.

Orghotts Daemonspew: This count also as Behemoth. Supposedly the strongest of the Maggoth riders. He damages enemies who punch him, his Maggoth has an okay shooting attack (though with abysmal range), and his Command Ability lets a friendly Nurgle unit reroll To Wound. His main ability is that if he misses with at least half his attacks, he gets to swing D6 more times with his Axes and gains +1 To Wound when doing so. Since you have to miss at least half your strikes for this to happen, just see this ability for what it is: A safety blanket. If you roll real bad, you get more attacks to turn the situation around.

Gutrot Spume: Do you remember Wulfrik? No, not his awful joke rule, don't worry. But do you remember his awesome rule to outflank himself and a unit of Marauders? Well, Gutrot gets to do that now, except he can take a unit of Putrid Blightkings with him instead. That's right, outflanking Blightkings. He can also use his tentacles to wrench enemy weapons off them, making his 7 Wounds with a 3+ Save even tankier. Finally, his already decent attacks gain rerolls of 1s To Hit against Heroes but in exchange, he can only target Heroes if there are Heroes in melee with him. He lost his Command, but all his changes make him into a superb supporter and beatstick, who can not only survive but overcome a lot of powerful Heroes. Nothing quite like holding a Gryphon's beak shut while you hack away at the rider.

Festus the Leechlord: Festus is a support Hero, pure and simple. He heals a Wound a turn and can either heal a friendly model for D3 Wounds or give out D3 Mortal Wounds to an enemy model, though for both he needs to be within 1" of whoever he wants to affect. His unique spell is pretty much a reverse of Mystic Shield, lowering enemy saves by 1 PERMANENTLY. Unfortunately, with the Maggotkin Battletome, this explicitly doesn't stack anymore. However, for all this awesome, his close combat potential can be very generously described as lacking, at least compared to melee characters. Compared to most other Wizards, he's exactly twice as strong.

Rotigus Rainfather: Rotigus is the newly named version of the GUO. At 16 wounds and a 4+ save he's just as resilient as the normal GUO. He also retains the GUO's ability to deal out mortal wounds to units attacking him. Where he differs from the GUO is trading in his shooting attack for the ability "Streams of Brackish Filth." The ability targets each enemy unit within 6" and on a 4+ slaps them with D3 mortal wounds. Flying units only get hit on a 6+ However. Rotigus also has the "Deluge of Nurgle" unique spell (Casting value 7) which is essentially a more damaging and far-reaching version of the GUO's plague wind spell, allowing you to hit as many as 7 enemy units as long as they are visible to the caster. Regarding melee, he is slightly less effective than a standard GUO equipped with the Sword and flail but is still more than capable of holding his own.

Horticulous Slimux: Counts as a Hero. The head gardener of the greatfathers very own garden. Riding into battle on a giant ploughing-snail called Mulch, he lops off the heads of trespassers with his giant shears while Mulch eats the rest with his slime-encrusted jaws. 3+ save 5" move and 8 wounds. He has 3 attacks with his Lopping Shears 3+, 3+, -1 and D3 damage. Mulch has D3 attacks with his jaws. 3+, 3+, -2 and 2 damage. For abilities, he, of course, has Disgustingly Resilient but also Beast Handler which lets you reroll failed charge rolls and hit rolls of 1 for friendly Beasts of Nurgle units within the holy inches. Furthermore every unit also within 7" heals 1 wound every time a unit within 7" inches is wiped out. Lastly, he has the ability Ploughed Slime Trail which makes enemies within 3" take D3 mortal wounds when Slimux makes a retreat.

Lord Skrolk:

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'll be dealing mortal wounds to them with a chance to take control of their dead body as a final insult. 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.

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 wounds. Best ran alongside a few units of Pox Riders or (even better) Nurgle Chaos Knights for cover - although he does have a special 5+ save against shooting to get him where he needs to be, so also consider using him as an archer or wizard hunter. His Command Ability is a slightly buffed version of Inspiring Presence that only works on Tamurkhan's Horde unit, so consider making either the chap above or below your general instead.

Generic Characters

Great Unclean One: (Changed with new Tome, needs updating) Your Greater Daemon and one of the best choices to evoke other units. Your standard general on bigger games. Don't let his meh Wound-count of 10 fool you, the GUO is still one of the toughest fuckers around. He has the same basically-40k's-Feel-no-Pain rule of a 5+ save after his save but for him, if he rolls a 6 and is in melee, he actually inflicts Mortal Wounds. He also has a regeneration of D3 Wounds per turn, has a strong though short-ranged shooting attack and a melee profile worthy of a monster, but what makes him shine is his unique spell, a 14" line that damages enemy units under it and heals Nurgle units under it. It can't resurrect but is perfectly able to make the obscenely tough Plague Drones even harder to remove. Also, his command ability gives every Nurgle Daemon in play an extra melee attack if that unit rolled a 7 when charging. NICE.

Poxbringer, Herald of Nurgle: (Changed with new Tome, needs updating) Your gamechanger. Compared to a Herald of Khorne, he has fewer attacks that are harder to hit and can't deal Mortal Wounds but do D3 wounds if they go through. On average they should do about the same amount of damage, but the HoN will last much longer because he's Disgustingly Resilient and can sometimes get healed by a nearby unit dying. If you play any Nurgle Daemons, at least have one of these guys in reserve so that you can summon him if need be. Beasts of Nurgle especially turn from okay to murder on no legs if a Daemon Hero of Nurgle is nearby. If relying on him for synergy, keep him away from combat(and out of range of enemy ranged units) and take advantage of his synergy bubble.

Slopity Bilepipper, Herald of Nurgle:

Spoilpox Scrivener, Herald of Nurgle:

Lord of Plagues: Oh, dear lord, talk about overcompensating. Before, the Lord of Plagues was extremely underpowered. But now, with a price-bump and some new rules, he's pretty brilliant. First off, he gets the same "6+ To Hit hits D6 times" rule as the Blightkings, but he gets this on top of -1 Rend and D3 damage, so he is potentially murderous. Then, he lets Blightkings around him reroll 1s To Hit, making him into a proper support Hero. Then he can help you rack up contagion points, which is nice, sort of. Finally, his Command is still bad, being a very unreliable way of delivering Mortal Wounds over 21". A whole 1.16 of them on average. All in all, very nice beatstick who can support Blightkings (and only Blightkings) very well. Still slow and with a terrible Command, though.

Lord of Blights Sporting the same stat line as the Lord of Plagues, the Lord of Blights is a new hero for the forces of Nurgle. Gets the same melee as the Lord of Plagues, but without the exploding 6s, so it's alright. His real meat comes from the Death's Heads he can throw. His own is pretty powerful already, but he also allows Putrid Blightkings next to him to throw a bunch. While a shooting attack over 14" sounds incredibly useful, keep in mind it's one shot per Blightking, so not that much shooting at all. His real meat comes from his Command, which grants one Nurgle unit the Plaguebearers' Cloud of Flies rule, so -1 To Hit when shooting them or -2 To Hit while shooting and -1 To Hit in melee at 20+ models. Very powerful. He also has a shield that allows him to reroll Saves of 1 in melee, but whatever.

Lord of Afflictions: And all the Daemons say he's pretty fly for a blight guy. Superbly killy, combining the melee of the Lord of Plagues (sans exploding 6s, sadly) with a Rot Fly's worth of attacks and another damage 2 knock from the underslung bell. For survivability he's also golden, like the other Lords, but with an additional Wound and Disgustingly Resilient. His buff allows all Rotbringers to reroll 1s To Hit but remember this still tends to only affect Blightkings. He also has a bunch of abilities for dealing Mortal Wounds, one of which, the Incubatch, is so deadly it can even damage Nurgle models, albeit only on 6+. Finally, his Command doubles the Move of a Pusgoyle Blightlords unit. All in all, he's just good. He provides good support, especially to the Pusgoyles, he deals a ton of Wounds, both Mortal and otherwise, he's fast and tough and thanks to the Daemon keyword he can trigger Locus effects as well. However, when playing him, remember that for 40 points more, you could have gotten a Maggoth Lord instead (which honestly isn't flattering to the Maggoth Lords at this point).

Harbinger of Decay: Decently killy and with a one-use ability that can cause extra Mortal Wounds. However, despite the mount, his Movement is stuck at 7". He makes up for that with his Command Ability, though, since he projects basically 40k's Feel No Pain to all Mortal Nurgle units within 7". Makes tough Nurgle bullshit even tougher, which is excellent for keeping your Blightkings alive that much longer. Another thing to consider: Thanks to his Mount, he has the DAEMON keyword. His mount lets make him a useful utility hero as he can move relatively quickly to shore up Mortal Nurgle units with his command ability, while also letting him trigger Daemons' Locus abilities, as those only need a NURGLE DAEMON HERO to trigger. Let him run after your Plague Drones, which he can keep up with, and suddenly your Fly Riders deal a bunch of Mortal Wounds in addition to their normal damage.

Sorcerer: Formerly Rotbringer Sorcerer Has access to the unique spells of both ROTBRIGNERS and MORTAL NURGLE Pass. Even worse than the normal Sorcerer Lord in melee (which is saying something) and he gives away the awesome Oracular Visions rule for... the ability to heal/gain a Wound on 4+ after successfully casting a spell. Yeah. His unique spell is also awful, being basically a harder-to-cast, shorter ranged Arcane Bolt with more consistent damage output. However – if you are playing in a game which allows the classic free PDF warscrolls go check out the "Nurgle Chaos Sorcerer" this mini is based on. Now you get all his abilities with one major exception: Your 3 mortal wounds spell doesn't have any range limit as it's based on sight only. Yes – you read this right: Stand at the very back on your side of the battlefield and kill those pesky artillery crew on the far end of the table on a roll of 6. Still, most of the time, you're better served with the support that a Nurgle-marked Chaos Sorcerer Lord from the Slaves to Darkness can dish out.

Daemon Prince: Not technically a Daemon of Nurgle, but he's a Daemon, and if you mark him Nurgle, he basically is. Pretty tough for his price point, and gets 3+ since he's Nurgle. His damage output is pretty solid, so use him to rack up the Epidemius points, and he's fast enough to keep up with (or outpace) Beasts and Plague Drones and activate their abilities.

Chaos Lord on Manticore: Chaos Lord on Manticore: The Lord on Manticore can have a choice between Flail and Sword, with the Sword being better in most circumstances and a choice between Runeshield, Daggerfist, and Lance. The Lance might be awesome, but since everyone and their grandma will be gunning for your Manticore, the 5+ save against Mortal Wounds might be the best choice. Mark of Khorne gives him a 6" pileup which is, something? Ironically enough, the Manticore itself is actually less damaging than the Lord on it, but it does provide some nice special rules, such as rerolls of 1 To Hit against Monsters for its Claws and Jaws attacks and always rerolling when attacking units in your side of the field. His Command Ability allows a unit of Chaos Warriors within 15" to reroll charge, wound, and Battleshock rolls.

Chaos Sorcerer Lord: Yes. You owe it to yourself to at least check this guy out. While he is utter crap in combat, he is amazing at support. First, without even casting anything, he can grant one friendly unit per turn within 10" of him rerolls of 1 on their saves. Then, when he casts, he has a unique spell that provides rerolls of 1 To Hit, To Wound and to their saves for a friendly unit within 18". Just keep him away from the fighting and let him strengthen your front line.

Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore: Blessed with the same awesome "reroll saves of 1" ability as the normal Lord, this here rides a Manticore, who is just as killy as the one the normal Lord gets. Additionally, the Sorcerer Lord gets the Wind of Chaos spell, which is potentially devastating (and potentially utter crap, hope the dice like you).

Exalted Hero of Chaos: A guy with two axes with the nifty ability to attack twice in the turn he charged (he pileups again between the two attack waves), and when he kills a Hero or a Monster he will deal double wounds in the next turn.

Lord of Chaos: Has a brutal pair of weapons, both attack thrice, hitting and making wounds at +3. The Reaperblade has a range of 2", -2 rend and 2 damage, and once per battle he has the option to make one attack, but making 2D6 fucking damage. His Nurgle Mark allows him to reroll every 1 to wound and his command ability lets any Slaves to Darkness unit within 10" with his same mark gets the ability too, it's not really the best command ability you have to be honest... If he kills the opponent general, he becomes a Daemon Prince on a whim, but if he dies he becomes... you know what.

Plague Priest with Warpstone-Tipped Staff: Your standard Pestilens hero. He has the same single 4+/3+/-1/D3 melee knock that any other support hero gets, but with an extra attack on the charge because of Pestilens. His prayer is great too, giving either a bonus To Wound for an enemy unit or tossing out the same Breath Attack the Sigmarine Dracoth gets. His Pestilence-Filled Censer makes all WIZARDS (except NURGLE WIZARDS) closer than 6" subtract 1 from casting rolls.

Plague Priest with Plague Censer: Same prayers and profile as above, included the extra attack on the charge. The weapon this time is 2 attack 4+/3+/-1/1 which, with all the modifier to the hit and wound rolls used in this game is definitely more convenient. His Plague Tome makes you re-roll once for battle all failed wound rolls to a target unit within 13". Don't underestimate the Plague Tome, in an army where your baseline infantry is rerolling all it's failed hits (with the two foetid blades), rerolling wounds as well is absolutely devastating. Consider also that this Priest can use a prayer that makes it even easier to wound with the Wither prayer, this version of the generic priest is always worth taking over the other one. Clip off the brazier and glue on a book from the Plague Monks kit and you're good to go.

Battleline

Putrid Blightkings: The super-hardy infantry Glottkin gave us. Same profile as a Skullreaper but with one more Bravery and Wound (yes, 4 Wounds for each!) and an almost identical weapon. Their shtick? If they score a 6 To Hit, you don't hit once. You hit D6 times. Yes, they don't have Rend on those weapons, but with that many hits, you don't need it. Even more FUN*, every unit within 3" of them (including themselves) rolls a D6 in your Hero Phase. On a 6, they take D3 mortal wounds. Unless, that is, they have the Nurgle keyword, in which case they heal D3 wounds instead. Make sure you let multi-wound Nurgle stuff hug your Blightkings and you're golden. Also remember that this affects Nurgle units, not Mortal Nurgle. Chaos Lord of Nurgle? Great Unclean One? Plague Furnace? All of them can be healed by the aura these guys have. Generally though, unless you're counting on stacking auras with Blightkings and Nurgle's Rot, this is more of a gimmick. Just use these as powerful infantry, leave the healing to Festus. If even just half of your Blightkings make it into melee, they will earn back their cost and then some, so just make sure you get them there.

Plaguebearers of Nurgle: Basic Nurgle troop. Really hard to kill but not so good in melee (average of 0,33 damages). Take 30 in every unit to make them harder to be hit. Reroll 1s in save rolls with Daemon Heroes of Nurgle nearby, which makes them a fantastic bubble wrap for any of the Nurgle Heroes. Keep in mind they actually got a small price bump to 120 for 10. When taking them, remember you could have gotten twice that many Marauders.

Chaos Warriors: We can't talk about the Maggotkin without talking about Nurgle-marked Chaos Warriors. The fact that you can get five of them for a measly 90 points makes them an incredibly effective Battleline unit. Toss in two such squads followed by a big blob of Blightkings, and you had your Battleline for 2000 points over and done with. Especially with the price bump, Plaguebearers have gotten, small squads of Chaos Warriors as backfield objective campers are a perfectly viable strategy.

Chaos Marauders: When marked as Nurgle, these make a great Battleline unit for your purposes. Grab a big squad of them, add Blades of Putrefaction and watch them dish out a rather obscene amount of Mortal Wounds or just buff them with Fleshy Abundance to make into a hilariously tough tarpit. And if you really hate the models, you can always convert up some Poxwalkers.

Pusgoyle Blightlords: Only Battleline with a Lord of Afflictions as your general. To be quite honest, these don't really add much to basic Plague Drones. They are more expensive and are tougher, but while killier per model, they are less damaging point-for-point than Plague Drones. Honestly, their only saving grace is their ability to become Battleline, thus providing you with a frankly obscenely tough Battleline choice that moves quite fast for Nurgle's low standards.

Other Units

Bile Troggoths: 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. They also have force -1 Bravery to any non-Nurgle unit within 3", which is fantastic when combined with a good turn of vomiting. With their ability to re-knit D3 wounds a turn these guys would be generally superior to Ogres, except for one factor - if a Nurgle hero isn't within 14" of them at the start of your hero phase, there's a chance they'll lock up and be unable to move. For a unit that can only waddle 5" a turn anyway and only has a 5+ save god emend it against concentrated shooting, this is not a great situation to be in, so if/when you take them make sure they're babysat. Tamurkhan himself is good of this, although amusingly enemy Nurgle heroes will also let them act freely.

Daemon Plague Toads of Nurgle: 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, and a special 4+ save against wounds after their usual 5+. Crucially, they're also one of the faster units in the army, having a move of 7" as opposed to 5". They have some use as a tarpit, but if you've been reading this guide so far you know that packing a lot of wounds isn't a problem for you. They're also largely overshadowed by...

Daemon Pox Riders of Nurgle: 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, you pretty much have no reason to ever take Plague Toads unless you're using the Leaping Pox formation. Something worth considering is that Chaos Wizards of any allegiance can summon one on a 6 or more one appears, or 3 on an 11 or more. The same applies for Plague Toads, but you'll never bother with that either unless you have no more Pox Rider models available.

Chaos Chariots:

Chaos Chosen:

Chaos Marauder Horsemen:

Chaos Knights:

GoreBeast Chariots:

Plague Drones of Nurgle: Your flyers. Their 8" movement sounds promising, but since they are almost the only Nurgle unit with a missile weapon, they will rarely run, so the movement evens out. The missile weapon is rather meh, but combined with the 5 (!) assured attacks per Plague Drones, it adds up. They also hold the distinction of being ridiculously tough to kill, especially with a Banner or two. Make sure to keep a Daemon Hero of Nurgle close to them for that sweet +1 attack with all weapons (yes, including the Death's Heads)).

Plague Monks: Your basic Pestilens troop, their main perk is that they can have two different sets of equipment for the unit, two different sets of equipment for the champion, two different standards and two different musicians, giving you tons of flexibility. Since FAQ from GW states that you can have more than one kind of standard or musician in a unit and they still have standard weapons unless specifically stated otherwise, give them all, the more the better!

    • Leader: their leader make the unit better at wounding enemies (reroll 1 to wound) or damage the units around, though both are one use only abilities.
    • Standard: the Standards can either inflict mortal wounds while they attack or when they die.
    • Musician: the musicians can either give you a chance for better Rend or slow enemy charges.
  • Let's analyze the two weapons options:
  1. Plague Monks with two foetid blades an average of 0,75 damages per model or 1,12 when they charge
  2. Plague Monks with a foetid blade and a woe-stave an average of 0,66 damages per model or 0,91 when they charge with one of the weapon hitting from 2" instead of 1", so is basically the same when you have a big unit to cover for the second rank attacks. Another bonus of the Woe Stave is that it counts as a separate melee weapon, so buffs that add 1 attack to every weapon are doubly effective on units with Stave (a unit of 20 with blade/stave in two ranks makes, unsupported, 50 attacks on the charge, and 80 with the one-more-attack-for-each-weapon buff, think about that).

Plague Censer Bearers:

Plague Ogors: 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 6+ picking your fights is going to be important.

Nurglings: These things are weak: no save, but they heal every wounded model at the end of the turn. Yes, the opponent either does 4 Wounds on them, or it was for naught. They also have 5 attacks with bad Hit and Wound rolls, but if you manage to inflict a wound they could do D3 mortal wounds after a 5+ roll. So, you have a unit that deals very little actual damage, but is amazing at making the opponent dedicate unreasonable amounts of resources to removing them, because shockingly, their 5" move makes them rather fast for Nurgle. They can also outflank, which means they can be a thorn in the opponent's side (and deployment zone) from turn 1. What's that? You get 3 contagion points if you have models in your opponent's territory? Oh dear, EVEN more incentive for your opponent to get rid of the little bastards, lest they drown you in contagion points and thus him in Gnarlmaws.

Beasts of Nurgle: Fair warning, your opponent is going to hate you for playing these. 7 Wounds and Disgustingly Resilient make for some tough buggers. Additionally, they can run and charge, so they'll be in his face, tying up his favorite units, much faster than he'd like. Their Slime Trail lets them do Mortal Wounds when Falling Back and they can charge right after falling back. Yeah, you can see where this is going. They'll deal tons of damage without ever giving your opponent the chance to get away. Also, since each unit of the Beasts deals Mortal Wounds individually, a couple of lone Beasts will drive your opponent mad.

Behemoths

Soul Grinder: A neutral Daemon that can be marked Nurgle. He doesn't get any bonus for the mark, but he is a nasty model that you should consider. Big, ugly, and killy, he fills the hammer role that Nurgle lacks. Plague Drones and Great Unclean Ones do good damage, but this guy will run roughshod through units and put out good ranged shooting simultaneously. Bonus points if you manage to hit him with Stream of Corruption from a Great Unclean One and heal him while the opponent cries.

Chaos Warshrine:

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.

Warmachine

Plagueclaw: It's 3 Plague Monks with a Plague Priest on a huge censer-thing. It moves only if pushed by other SKAVEN it moves by its own, very slowly, and for every 3 skavens within 1" of it increase by 1" its movement phase. If surrounded bt 10, it makes 2D6 attacks with Rusty Wheels and Spikes instead of D6 when it charges. It boosts bravery of nearby PESTILENS unit by 1 and it damages all the non NURGLE units that approaches it. The Plague Priest on it gets different prayers, boosting Pestilens units either by giving them the same effects as the Death Frenzy spell or by allowing them to reroll wounds. It's clearly a centerpiece. It will pack a punch thanks to the Censer, but it needs Plague Monks to push it around and pushing stuff around and not charging is something Plague Monks with their awful survivability really don't like to do. On the other hand, the Monks do very much like those tasty tasty buffs.

Scenery

Feculent Gnarlmaw: The cornerstone of your army. No, not really, this isn't Sylvaneth. While these creepy trees are useful, they are by no means mandatory. If you're within 7" of them in the Charge Phase, you can run and charge. This doesn't really help you get out of your territory, but if enemies are standing close to them, you can reach them very quickly. They also, in good Nurgle tradition, deal damage to non-Nurgle units around them. Keep in mind that this only activates once no matter how many Gnarlmaws the opponent is close to, so no making one big grove that melts entire units. Still, a Mortal Wound here and there, while also making you run and charge, is pretty amazing for the low cost of some of those contagion points you'll generate automatically.

Battalions

Blightguard:

Found in Grand Alliance: Chaos - min. 1020pt., max. 3080pt.

A Lord of Plagues and a Rotbringers Sorcerer take 4 units of Putrid Blightkings. Everyone can reroll every 1 to wound and gets a permanent -1 to hit (shooting and combat) debuff to attackers. Note that the Rotbringer Sorcerer warscroll has been renamed to Sorcerer, which arguably falls foul of the FAQ'd 'unit name' requirement for battalions.

Blighted Warband:

Found in "Realmgate Wars" - min. 940pt., max. 3100pt. Realmgate Wars Battalions are illegal in Matched Play

A Lord of Plagues takes 4 units of Putrid Blightkings and 2 Chaos Spawn. All enemies have a penalty to hit against these units, and have a chance to ignore (mortal wounds).

Torglug's Foulblessed:

Found in "Balance of Power" - min. 640pt., max. 2260pt. Realmgate Wars Battalions are illegal in Matched Play

A Lord of Plagues 3 units of Putrid Blightkings. The Lord re-rolls to wound, and gains additional damage to his weapon, and heals an additional wound. The Blightkings get a minor bonus to save rolls if they are near the Lord, and are immune to Battleshock if within LoS.

Bloab's Swarmbrothers:

Found in "Godbeasts" - min. pt., max. pt. Realmgate Wars Battalions are illegal in Matched Play

Bloab Rotspawned takes some friends, meaning 2 units of Putrid Blightkings and 2 units of Plague Drones.

Nurgle's Deluge:

Found in "The Quest for Ghal Maraz" - min. 680pt., max. 1940pt. Realmgate Wars Battalions are illegal in Matched Play

Morbidex Twiceborn, a unit of Blightkings and 3 units of Nurglings. The nurglings can 'rain' onto the battlefield, and do damage in the shooting phase for each unit 'rained' unto the battlefield.

Plaguetouched Warband:

Found in "Everchosen" - min. pt., max. pt.

A MORTAL NURGLE HERO takes 7 MORTAL NURGLE units. Any units with 7 models at the start gain an ability to inflict a Mortal Wound to any enemy that wounds them with a 6+, while the leaders of these units (if they have one) inflict a Mortal Wound on any shmucks within b2b on a 4+. To make things even worse, enemies have to suffer -1 to hit these bastards thanks to the flies! Generally, the sacred number buff is not worth it, except for units that come in multiples of 5, where you can buy a unit of 15 and then leave one model at home. Then again, is a low chance of dealing Mortal Wounds worth wasting a Blightking?

This ability is great on large blocks of Chaos Marauders where you pay for 30 but field 28. Thereby only "shorting yourself" a measly 2 marauders. Coupled with a Glotkin's unique spell to add 1 wound for a unit, and they become a defensive unit that also a tarpit and kick back mortal wounds as they take damage.

Army Building

Buying tips

Chaos Daemons should be the easier and cheaper armies to collect, thanks to the Start Collecting! kits. Those boxes have everything you could possibly want except for their Greater Daemons (a fair and valid business method) and surely you will never want to buy the kits that those contain ever again when you can get two or more kits with nifty discounts.

You can also add the fact they are not extremely diverse like other factions, they have simpler color schemes (damn, just paint them green or bone and add some dark shades and you're ready to go), and are miniatures perfectly compatible with 40K.

For Nurglesque Daemons, you get a unit of 10 Plaguebearers, 3 Plague Drones, 3 Nurglings, and a Herald. All of this for £50 (or your local equivalent) per box, saving £33.5 in the process. Just buy as many SC! kits as you require and the big fat heroes you want. Done.

Allied Armies

Slaves to Darkness is the obvious choice here as you can keep the NURGLE MORTAL allegiance. But, if NURGLE is enough for you, consider The Clans Pestilens.

Since the NURGLE keyword is now enough for Putrid Blightkings to be battleline you can add any unit with the NURGLE keyword without spending points for allies. Save those points for units that unable to gain the keyword (IE: mostly the other gods, or gargants, or the goatmen).

External links

Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics
Order
Chaos
Death
Destruction
Others
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