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Tide of Decay (LF4)


Brother Tyler

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TIDE OF DECAY

Large Formation

 

POINTS: 200 Points + MODELS

 

Beneath mildewed and sagging beams, Nurgle works for eternity at a rusted cauldron, a receptacle vast enough to contain all the oceans of all the worlds of the galaxy. Chuckling and murmuring to himself, the great god labours to create contagion and pestilence – the most perfect, unfettered forms of life. With every stir of Nurgle’s maggot-ridden ladle, a dozen fresh diseases flourish and are scattered throughout the universes to bring low civilisations and destroy the populations of worlds. From time to time the Lord of Decay ceases his stirring and reaches down with a clawed hand to scoop a portion of the ghastly mixture into his cavernous mouth to taste the fruits of his labour. Usually the deadly concoction is swallowed by the Plaguefather, the potent mix being absorbed into his body to be used later. On occasion, however, the Master of Pestilence decides that the mixture is exceptionally potent and worthy of spreading. Father Nurgle will summon one of his mighty champions, assigning that champion the task of visiting the plague upon the universe. The champion will be granted a mass of Plaguebearers to assist him in his mission as he visits the lethal plague upon the mortal realms.

 

FORMATION:

1 Plague Lord (Daemon Prince of Chaos with the Mark of Nurgle, Great Unclean One, or Herald of Nurgle)

7 Plaguebearer packs of 7 models each

(Note that the Plague Lord may be replaced by a named character of the appropriate type at the normal cost.)

 

SPECIAL RULES:

 

SEA OF DECAY: All of the units in this formation count as a single unit when dividing your Daemon force into two groups during deployment for the purposes of Daemonic Assault. When the formation arrives, the Plague Lord is deployed first, using the rules for deep strike. All of the Plaguebearer units are then placed within 7” of the Plague Lord per deep strike, but will not scatter!

 

WINGS OF DEATH: Every Plaguebearer in this formation has the Cloud of Flies Daemonic Gift.

 

PLAGUE LORD: The Plague Lord may use the Plaguestorm strategic asset once per game (even if he is a Daemon Prince). See the Apocalypse Reload rulebook for details on this strategic asset. The Plaguestorm will not affect any daemons of Nurgle or models with the Mark of Nurgle.

 

DESIGNER’S NOTES: This datasheet was partly inspired by a couple of formations that appear in Apocalypse Reload – Skulltaker’s Cohort of Blood and the Great Promenade of Exquisite Excess. Both of those formations are for the Chaos Daemons codex, providing daemons players with a little bit of flavor. The problem I saw was that neither Tzeentch nor Nurgle had similar datasheets – an omission I hoped to correct. In the end, with the restriction to one datasheet in each category, I had to choose one or the other. Since I’d originally started working with the named Heralds as my starting point (like the two datasheets I named above), I felt that the Nurgle version was more acceptable – largely because I found it difficult to figure out why the named Heralds of Tzeentch would lead such a force (of course, I just realized how I could have made a Tzeentchian force believable as I typed that previous sentence). I also drew upon the background material for the Eye of Terror: while Tzeentch’s servants participated in the campaign, the only real Tzeentchian force that came to mind was Ahriman and his Chosen, based on the Chapter Approved rules; Nurgle's servants, however, were very busy during the black crusade. While Typhus and the zombie plague (another official datasheet) is the most well known, the various articles and sources mention how many servants of Nurgle participated in the campaign. So I figured Nurgle’s minions were a bit easier to work into the scheme. As the formation developed further, though, I shifted away from using Epidemius as his background didn’t fit my concept.

 

The basis of the formation was pretty simple. Nurgle’s number is seven, so seven packs of seven Plaguebearers was a given. I debated added in Nurglings and Beasts of Nurgle. In fact, early versions of the datasheet included one or both. Ultimately, though, I followed the precedent of the Skulltaker and Masque datasheets and limited the formation to the leader and the daemons. The key issue I debated was the Plaguelord. I’d originally wanted to make it a Daemon Prince with the Mark of Nurgle. The Plaguestorm strategic asset, however, is for Great Unclean Ones and Heralds of Nurgle. So I debated various combinations of all three. In the end, I went for flexibility. I definitely wanted the Daemon Prince for two reasons. First, I had a nifty idea for a conversion to use in the second part of the contest. Second, the concept of a servant of Nurgle proving his loyalty and serving his master by spreading a new plague seemed appropriate to these once-mortal servants of Papa Nurgle. And both the Great Unclean One and Herald of Nurgle seemed appropriate since these, too, would serve their master loyally. If there is any weakness with this datasheet that I’m focused on, it’s this level of flexibility. If I were going to limit it to just one, I’d pick the Daemon Prince – mostly because the concept of the Daemon Prince and his place in the daemonic hierarchy seems most suitable to the concept of this formation (to me). At this point, I’m debating whether or not I want to use the conversion idea I’d originally had (which uses a Warhammer model) or use the standard Daemon Prince of Nurgle model (which works, and which is a nifty model, but which is just not what I had in mind when I conceived of and developed the formation).

 

I kept the powers of the datasheet simple, using the precedent of the other formations as my guide. While I’d considered giving the Plaguebearers a bit more, I aimed for simplicity – the Cloud of Flies. The Plaguestorm was a given, though I’d earlier considered a variation of this Strategic Asset. In the end, I figured opposing players would more readily accept a Strategic Asset as it appears in Apocalypse Reload over a homegrown variant (though my earlier variant allowed the player owning the model killed to pick the next model affected by the attack – resulting in an interesting tit-for-tat effect if enough models were in proximity to each other).

 

For the second part of the contest, players will only have to paint up eight models – the Plaguelord and a pack of seven Plaguebearers. While this might not appeal to those players that don’t use Nurgle armies, it’s a small investment for those that do (who might already have suitable models) or who are willing to expand their army/collection.

 

Please discuss this datasheet by replying in this topic.

 

If you have any questions about the process, please refer to this discussion.

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Good force multiplier here as the whole formation counts as a single unit... and I like that they dont assault out of DS... Nurgles always been the slow but steady kind of power, and thats a good absence.

 

What Im not sure of is the multiple HQ options... as I recall, Daemons look down on Daemon Princes for once being mortal in most cases... but I suppose it works. If you were to print this one Id expect just the Greater Daemon or the Herald... and probly not a choice of the two. Still, options arent nessecarily a bad thing, and this one scales well.

It's probably just as easy as fitting 64 Bloodletters within 8" of Skulltaker (see the Skulltaker's Cohort of Blood datasheet in Apocalypse Reload). :D

 

I don't know if it's actually possible, but from the wording, it only has to be done at deployment/deep strike. After that, they don't appear to have to remain within 7" of the Plaguelord.

 

Now I'll be interested in seeing if it can actually be done, though.

I just conducted a little experiment and found that 49 Plaguebearers can very easily be placed within 7" of a 40mm base, with lots of room to spare. So the physical requirements for the deployment are entirely achievable.

Yes, the 7" radius circle around the plagfather will be at least 170+ inches square, this means that you could theoretically fit about 170 in there since they are on 1 inch bases.....seems like alot doesnt it?

 

Neway, i would assume you just don't want to miss on your deepstrike. Obviously you are going to know how expensive the formation will be to lose so id rather have it come out in the open a little farther and lose some plaguebearers on the march than trying to make it come in at just the right time right in front of the units you want to kill.

 

In the end the range of the plague bearers charge is going to be up to 19". so you should be able to deapstrike safely while still being in effective range.

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