Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle
This is the general tactics page on how to play Nurgle in Total War: WARHAMMER. As the game isn't out yet and we know very little about how the faction will work, this page won't be filled out for a long time. However, we can make some early guesses based on the table top and the trailer.
Why Play Nurgle?
- Because you've always wanted to take a cannon to the gut and say "I'm sorry, did something hit me?"
- You will be a tanky menace. Burning through you is going to be a massive pain in the face for most factions.
- Because you want to worship Chaos but not be a COMPLETE asshole.
- Saying you worship Nurgle is the perfect cover for your horrible B.O. (No it isn't take a fucking shower.)
- You enjoy the irony of playing the God of Disease during/after a certain global pandemic. Bonus points if you actually had it. Double bonus if you were asymptomatic like a true favored one.
Pros
- Durability: You will likely be one of the tankiest factions in the entire game. With high health, defense and regeneration on most of your units you will be a monstrous pain in the ass for most faction to cut through.
- Morale: Nurgle is about toughing it out even when you're a walking mass of pustules and tumors, expect high leadership if not outright unbreakability.
- Poison Aplenty: It'd be a sin if Poison wasn't common in your roster, helping you carve through enemies and make it even harder to take you out.
- Debuffs: The mark of Nurgle gave a reduced chance to hit on the table top, which will likely translate to some nurgle units giving reduced melee attack to units they're in contact with. As such the enemy units will rarely be fighting at full strength. Your plagues can also provide plenty of debuffs, speaking of which...
- Plagues: It is Nurgle, the god of disease, and despair. He can spread plagues better than the Skaven can, allowing you to spread corruption very fast, and soften up enemies and settlements before you pick them off the map like ripe rotting fruit from Nurgle's garden. For the cultists that understand Grandfather Nurgle's love, expect powerful boosts instead from receiving a plague.
Cons
- Slow: Don't expect to be going anywhere fast. Most factions are probably going to have you beat when it comes to mobility so try and get into the meatgrinder as fast as you can.
- Weakness to Fire: With all that Regen comes a weakness to fire, so any faction that has plentiful access to it is going to be your bane. High Elves, Dwarfs, Tzeentch, and really any faction with Lore of Fire may be a rough time.
- Lack of Ranged: I mean, Tzeentch aside Chaos isn't known for being strong in the ranged department, but unlike you they at least have options. Your only unit dedicated to ranged combat is the Soul Grinder. Some units have Death Heads as a precursor attack, but good luck out shooting Elves with only that.
- Lack of Offense: Sure the enemy won't be killing you quickly, but you aren't going to be killing them that much faster. Melee Attack and charge will likely be low for your units. Debuffs will probably be there to make up for it, but expect to either have to rely on monster or magic to delete enemies or prepare yourself for the grind.
- Give papa Nurgle a hug! I promise it's not contagious!: Very few factions are willing to align themselves with the literal personification of plague. Besides the Skaven who also personify it, and your mortal followers in the Beastmen, Norsca, and Warriors, you are unlikely to have too many diplomatic options.
- DLC: Call it a safe bet. Every core race before you had units cut for DLC and you will be no exception. You have the fewest mortal units of all the Monogods, and the two you do have are straight up recolors, so expect Blightkings, Bile Trolls and others in the future.
Faction Traits
- Cloud of Flies: A trait shared by all of your Daemon Units. As your Daemons stay in melee combat, they actively gain Melee Defense, encouraging leaving them in to grind it out against the enemy. As you are supposed to be the tanky Daemon faction, this encourages you to stay in and outlast the enemy as opposed to outfight them. While this doesn't encourage you to be completely passive, it does mean that you don't really need to do any complex pull out game or maneuvers. Not exactly the most complex faction passive in the entire game, but one that does fit the playstyle that Nurgle wants to go for.
Lords
Legendary Lords
- Ku'gath Plaguefather: The one and only. He's a spellcaster of Nurgle (duh) and also works as artillery here like on tabletop. Big Ku'gath has 14,800 HP(!), but is expectantly VERY slow. Like 28 speed slow, Heirotians can outpace this guy. His slow speed combined with only 70 armor means that he will actually be rather susceptible to skirmish fire. While this may sound bad, again, mother fucker has 14k HP and ranged attacks so he should be able to weather the storm and pelt and skirmishers that come his way.
Generic Lords
- Exalted Great Unclean One: If the convention for the Bloodthirster applies to all Greater Daemons, expect the Exalted version to be the lord while the standard Great Unclean One is a recruitable monster. This blubber butt should be a massive regenerating wall of slime with access to poison attacks and the Lores of Nurgle and Death. It should also be slow. Like, I'm talking Hierotitan and Giant levels of slow. I mean if you want to out run your opponent why the hell are you playing Nurgle? This thing will be a tanky monstrosity that should be able to hold out for a while against almost anything.
- Herald of Nurgle: Since Khorne and Tzeentch have theirs, all of the gods are probably going to get theirs as well. Expect Nurgle heralds to have regen and be able to cast spells from the Lores of Death or Nurgle. they will also likely come with buffing abilities and mounts from palanquins to Rot Flies depending on what gets added it. It will likely be slow as sin to make up for this. Appears in a photo in new magic lore blog.
Heroes
Legendary Heroes
Generic Heroes
- Plagueridden: Expect it to be the hero version of the Herald so you can have it if you want the Great Unclean One as your leader.
- Cultist of Nurgle: Your primary spreader of Nurgle's Love, can move onto enemy or neutral armies or settlements to spread a plague, at the cost of the Cultist.
Units
Infantry
- Nurglings: Confirmed in a recent blog post, they will be your chaff infantry, and will likely be one of the best units at the job. Unbreakable, tanky for it's price and with poison nothing short of magic may get these things off of the battlefield quickly.
- Plaguebearers: It's not really speculative to expect Plaguebearers to be the bread and butter of your armies. Slow and extremely tough.
- Forsaken: Basically the same as Forsaken in other armies. They are faster, have frenzy, cause fear and are immune to psychology, but are much more fragile compared to the Plaguebearers. Their best use here is as a hammer, at least until you recruit Spawn.
- Exalted Plaguebearers: Aside from being a standard upgrade, they have the ability to throw a smaller versions of the Plague Drone’s Death’s Heads at foes as they approach, similar to Dwarf Miners and Chameleon Stalkers.
Missiles
Cavalry
- Plague Toads: A surprising addition from the Forge World Throne of Chaos book, but a cool one non the less. Much slower than other cavalry, being giant amphibians and all, but have a very high charge bonus and do well against infantry.
- Plague Drone: An oddity for this faction, being not only fast fliers, but have armour piercing as well. Comes in two variants, standard melee (essentially an upgrade of the uncounted rot flies) and tossing Death’s Heads at their foes.
- Pox Rider: Essentially just an upgrade to the Plague Toads, only with Plaguebearers on top of them instead.
Chariots
Monsters
- Chaos Furies (Nurgle): Khorne has his, so expect the same from Nurgle. These furies will likely be slower than normal ones, but will also be much more resilient and come with poison attacks, which will likely make them the best furies in prolonged combat.
- Chaos Spawn (Nurgle): Aside from having regeneration, they are faster and killier than most other grounded troops in the army. Use them instead of Forsaken if you can.
- Beasts of Nurgle: A big adorable puppy of a single entity unit. Able to slow down units behind and in contact with it, their regen makes them weak to fire, but resistant to Death spells, so use them to blob up infantry for your Lore of Death casters to mop up.
- Rotflies: Judging by the concept art, seems like generic rider less Rotflies will be their own unit. They appear to be melee only, using their flight speed and armour piercing to harass enemy back lines. Use them as a replacement for Furies.
- Soul Grinder of Nurgle: Tzeentch and Khorne got theirs so safe to assume all the gods will get their own version. Looks and acts like a 40K Plague Hulk, only replace the sword with a claw. Essentially the only other artillery the faction has aside from Ku’gath.
- Great Unclean One: Nurgle's big bulbous boys of mass and rot capable of withstanding the blast from a hell cannon and shrug it off. Considering how Khorne and Tzeentch got their greater daemons as unites, it was inevitable that Nurgle would get his. These jolly green giants are casters of the lore of Nurgle and the massive swords they wield can shear through armour.
Artillery
Multiplayer Strategies
You are designed to pretty much out last everyone you fight against, as your Nurglings and Plaguebearers hold the line so your monsters and army abilities give the enemy a slow death. Poison and debuffs are aplenty in your army as you drown the enemies in their own sickness. However, you had best pray your enemies are Anti Vaxxers because if they practice social distancing, it'll be hard for you to do your job. The fastest thing in your army are toad monsters and fat bugs, so yeah you're not exactly a speed demon. Combine that with your lack of ranged units and kiting builds in particular might end up being a big problem for you. Still, if you are able to get into melee, expect the plagues to slowly melt them down. Now go out there and make Papa Nurgle proud!
- Nurgle:
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