Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Chaos/Skaven/Clans Pestilens
Please note: GHB 2.0 will be released on the 26th of August, this is based only in what Warhammer-Community.com has leaked so far. Please feel free to add depth to the article once we get the full release.
Everyone's favourite rat-men, just slightly more ill and covered in suppurating infections, here to kill man-things and stab eachother in the back in the Age of Sigmar. This is a pretty complex army with lots of special rules and abilities that interact with each other, but it can be a deadly one if you learn how to use it.
Warscrolls
The common keywords of these warscrolls are: CHAOS, SKAVEN, NURGLE and PESTILENS.
Heroes
Verminlord Corruptor
He's got 12 wounds and a powerful command ability and therefore, your preferred general. Also that ability combined with the double weapon of the Plague Monks gives them the impressive lot of 4 attacks! He is also the only wizard that you can choose, he's able to cast twice like the Warpseer and his plague spell can cause a horrible chain of death in the enemy units. But in change of that between the Verminlords, the Corruptor is by far the worst in melee. Keep it behind the lines and use it to boost your unit and damage your enemy from the distance.
Lord Skrolk (Compendium)
Named character version of a plague priest, the only other Pestilens unit with a command ability. It's a legacy warscroll but he has all the correct keywords to fit into the army nicely. He gets 2 attacks with a third upon charging at 4+/3+/-1 with a pretty solid 3 damage. His Prayers are all offensive based, but deadly. One of them causes D6 mortal wounds to a target within 13 inches, and the other grants all friendly units a 1+ to wound versus the affected target unit. His command ability blesses a friendly Pestilens unit and makes enemy units hitting them in melee do so at -1. As he has the Plague Priest keyword he may be substituted for any priest required for a battalion, and placing him into the Pestilent Clawpack means any rolls of a 6 to wound with his Rod of Corruption will cause a mighty 6 damage!
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 Pestilens. His prayer are 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 devestating. 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.
Plague Furnace
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.
Battleline Troops
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:
- Plague Monks with two foetid blades an average of 0,75 damages per model or 1,12 when they charge
- 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 Bearer
Get an extra attack when charging, deal a mortal wound to every non-Nurgle unit within 3" on a 4+ and can reroll hits and Battleshocks if they're within 13" from a Plague Monk unit. Basically, Censer Bearers on their own are nigh useless, but with proper support, they are even deadlier wound-per-wound than Plague Monks. The best use for these is swinging over the top of a line of Plague Monks. Yes you won't be getting that charge bonus but these are two expensive point for point to be throwing away like, well, Plague Monks.
Artillery
Plagueclaw Catapult
It's an indirect firing war machine. You know those. They have nice range and can stand waaay back. Just don't shoot it at other Nurgle units and they do just fine. Brutal against big hordes, lame against Monster/Heroes. An average war machine when used to it's fullest potential, and a terrible one when not. 200pts worth of allied Gutter Runners will put in more work than this ever will.
Battalions
From the Skaven Pestilens Battletome
For now those are the only battalions with a point value for pitched battles.
Congregation of Flith
Battalion cost: 60pt. Unit cost: min. 360 pt., max. 780 pt.
A Plague Furnace and 2 or more units of Plague Monks.
Virulent Procession
Battalion cost: 80pt. Unit cost (including the 2 Congregations of Flith battalions cost): min. 1080 pt., max. 1900 pt.
A Verminlord Corruptor and 2 or more Congregations of Flith.
Foulrain Congregation
Battalion cost: 100pt. Unit cost: 610 pt.
A Plague Priest and 3 Plagueclaws.
Plaguesmog Congregation
Battalion cost: 80pt. Unit cost: min. 340 pt., max. 700 pt.
A Plague Furnace and 2 or more units of Plague Censer Bearers.
From Box Set
The Virulent Horde
Found in the The Virulent Horde box set
A Verminlord Corruptor, a Plague Furnace, a Plague Priest, a unit of Plague Monks, a unit of Plague Censer Bearers and a Plagueclaw.
Special - Priest on Plague Furnace can cast Deadly Contagion - 3+ it goes off, on a 1 furnace takes a wound. Causes every unit within 13" of furnace to do 1 mortal wound on wound rolls of 6+ until next hero phase.
Squal's Pestilent Congregation
Found in the Start Collecting! Skaven Pestilens box set
A Plague Furnace a Plagueclaw and a unit of Plague Monks.
From The Realmgate Wars - Vol. 1 - Quest for Ghal Maraz
Pestilent Clawpack
A Plague Furnace, a Plague Priest and 3 units of Plague Monks.
Everyone in the formation deals double wounds on a 6 to wound, and also you can take a scenery that is within 13" from at least two units from the formation as the unit's nest: units from the formation automatically pass Battleshock tests inside it, while other non-Nurgle units have to roll a dice if they begin the turn in that terrain: on a 2+ they're save, otherwise they suffer d3 mortal wounds.
Bringers of the Rotsmog
A Verminlord Corruptor, a Plague Furnace and a Baleful Realmgate
Army Building
Buying tips
Buying The Virulent Horde box and a Start Collecting! Skaven Pestilens box it's an excellent choice as they give you plenty of possibilities with a great discount.
*Disclaimer, Virulent Horde was limited only.
All in all, Pestilens are frankly one of the most easier and stupidly cheap armies to collect. If you run one of each battalion from their Battletome at minimum cost, the four combined only costs 2300 points.
All you need to do is buy 3 Start Collecting! kits and a Verminlord; four boxes at just £205 (or your local equivalent). As bloody easy as that.
Here you will have a Corruptor Verminlord, 3 Furnaces (each one will have a Grey Seer and a Rat Ogre spare to use, mind you), 3 'claws, and 60 Monks. Use some of those as conversion (use Woe-staves and a tiny amount of green stuff) or simple Counts As for the Censer Bearers (this is because the Censer Bearers are finecrap and only come in 5 per box, unlike monks, who are plastic, come at 20 per both regular and Start Collecting box, and are only half pound more expensive than Censer Bearers). If your LGS is Friendly, you shouldn't have problem using one Furnace without a Priest mounted on, while said Priest can be used on foot, mounted on a 32mm round base with a Warpstone-tipped staff.
That has absolutely everything you will need to build said battalions on one same army.
From there, you can keep buying additional boxes to reinforce your infantry and build Warp Lightning Cannons and Screaming Bells (this one giving you a spare plastic Priest with warpstone-tipped staff) to start expanding onto other Skaven clans.
And that's it. Really. Just buy as many Start Collecting! boxes as you want. Done. You win. Oh, yes, and from those three suggested Start Collecting! kits you just saved £85.5 (or your local equivalent). WAIT WHAT? ACTUAL SAVINGS? is this Games Whorkshop? for real?.
Matched points
As mentioned previously, you can deploy the four Battalions from the Pestilens Battletome at 2300, but you don't necessarily need to do this. Remember, take this as a reference, not as the only way to build your army.
1000 points
Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 2 Battleline units. Your minimum tax is 200 points; one Plage Priest on foot and two units of Plague Censer Bearers.
With one Start Collecting! you have enough units to deploy one Congregation of Filth, and adding the Plagueclaw you will have 620 worth in units. Pick a Verminlord Corruptor, a Plague Priest and one Plague Censer Bearers unit, closing at exactly 1000.
An additional Start Collecting! will let you deploy another Congregation of Filth, costing 880, and you will only have enough points to deploy two Plague Priest or two Censer Berars units, or a Plaguesmog Congregation, letting you enough points to deploy two Plague Priests or two battleline units of any kind.
2000 points
Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 3 Battleline units. Your minimum tax is 260 points; one Plage Priest on foot and three units of Plague Censer Bearers.
With two Start Collecting! kits and a Corruptor you can deploy a Virulent Procession. Buy a third Start Collecting! and you will be able to deploy a Foulrain Congregation. All of this for 1880.
Add another Plague Priest, reinforce/add one Monks unit, or add two Censer Bearers units, this last one tops you at 2000 points.
2500 points
Here the core tax is 1 Leader and 4 Battleline units. Your minimum tax is 320 points; one Plage Priest on foot and four units of Plague Censer Bearers.
From the Virulent Procession, Foulrain Congregation, and two Plague Censer Bearers (2000 points), now you can also deploy a Plaguesmog Congregation.
2300 points with the four Battalions at minimum strength. 200 points free to use. Probably the best idea is to reinforce you battleline units.
Allied Armies
Nurgle Rotbringers and Daemons of Nurgle are definitely the first choice, since almost all the abilities of this army that cause area damage do not affect NURGLE models.
External links
Rules are here:
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-plaguepriest-en.pdf
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-plaguefurnace-en.pdf
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-plaguemonks-en.pdf