Nurgle biker lord loadout

[Sepsis the Unclean]

As the title suggests I require a Nurgle lord to make my Plague Marines scoring.

 

As the core of my army, I have opted for the biker lord as toughness 6 feels like the only way that he will be more resilient than the PM (as you all know, a lack of a cult HQ means no option for feel no pain, which for me takes away the appeal to use numerous other builds).

 

So how shall I run him? Shooty with the Brand or more assault orientated? Or perhaps a mixture? & I have 4 spawn as his escort.

[Kraytirous]

Other bikers are actually really resilient as well. At that, putting him with the bikers will make his save and toughness very consistent throughout the unit. The icon of vengeance would toss out a nice Fearlessness bubble to the entire unit, and thus allow you to focus on whatever job you want them to do.

 

A Chaos Lord is a close-combat monster: it's what he does. You want range, nab a sorcerer. If you want to nab a Chaos Lord, I say go all out in close-combat. Black mace, plasma pistol, combat familiar... Hell, at toughness 6 I might just suggest nabbing a power fist or two. Give those bikers he's with a pair of meltaguns and you can both pop a transport as well as assault its innards.

[hornywingythingy]

Fisticlaws (powerfist and lightning claws) is the traditional favourite, can't really go wrong with it tbh!

[Sepsis the Unclean]

The reason why I was thinking the brand was due to the amount of Eldar shooting and running away in my meta. Catching them for assault has proven difficult for even my Slaaneshi daemons. At least the brand with its torrent template would help here, on the other hand this may gimp him in assaults then. Though the fist / claw lord will hit his foes mighty hard, and the black mace helps with the 'champion of chaos rule'. But as I have said catching those pesky Eldar has been an issue.

[Dam13n]

It depends on his intended function in the list.

 

As Hornywingythingy says, assault Lords tend to have a Fist and a Claw.  However the Black Mace isn't a bad choice, if you aren't running a Prince, possibly with a Power Axe for backup in case of 2+ saves.  I wouldn't bother with the Plasma Pistol as it generally represents a waste of points.

 

A key thing to remember is that you don't generally want to wipe out an enemy unit in one round of combat, always aim for a 2 round combat, so you'll avoid your opponents shooting phase.  (you're on a bike, you should get the charge most of the time).  So arming your Lord and his Bodyguard unit should be done with this in mind.

 

My personal favourite is the Brand Lord, he's (IMHO) better than a CC Lord as he can kill stuff without getting bogged down.  He's also great at taking out Firewarriors and Guard (who will be hiding behind an ADL) and even Marines thanks to AP3.  I usually make sure I take a Gift of Mutation on the off chance I get +1S(ranged) or Shred, both of which make him even better.  You still get rolls on the boon table if you kill an enemy character with shooting, and mobility + Brand can often force enough LO,S!s to kill off a Character.

[disease]

I like to keep The Lord cheap and as a harassment unit. Brand is expensive so you need to be sure you fire it a few times. I woundt buy it if I expected to get stuck in combat. The sorcerer can a real a monster if he rolls right, I would wager taking both but keeping them cheap would be a lot more Killy than a lord kitted out hell for leather. Black mace suits the terminator lord best, but with no reliable way to get into combat bar land raider, I'd say bike lord with lightning fist combo would be more effective.

[Sepsis the Unclean]

Thanks for the replies gents, you have definitely given me food for thought. I like the idea of both builds (fist/claw & brand), so there is only one solution - Magnets!

[Warsmith Aznable]

there is only one solution - Magnets!

 

Magnets are never a bad thing to add to a model, that's for sure.

[the jeske]

there is a good anti magnet tactics , I have used at our "everything allowed" yearly tournament . buy one of those braclets that look like celtic necklesses . Replace the metal sphears on on end with the biggest magnet you can wear without too much discomfort . Wear it on your off hand [depands if your left or right handed] . Now the fun beginst . Always use your main hand to move stuff around , but if you think that it is profitable to knock a model over or move it use your left hand . Us this only on your opponents models , unless your a real pro [but if you are your probably not playing w40k tournaments]. the best thing about it is that there are no BRB or tournament rules about allowed jewlery. And there is no way for your opponent to prove that you knew his models were magnetised.

[Sception]

I feel the potential for chipped paint jobs pushes that tactic from 'amusing prank' over the line into 'unfunny dick move'.

 

As for the plague bikers, I like brandlord with fist and plasma on the bikes, or fisticlaws lord with melta on the bikes.  If you want a cult-feeling hq, though, there's always Typhus.  Pricey, sure, but has the cult rules, and makes the cults troops, and zombies ain't half bad, either.

[Sepsis the Unclean]

I feel the potential for chipped paint jobs pushes that tactic from 'amusing prank' over the line into 'unfunny dick move'.

As for the plague bikers, I like brandlord with fist and plasma on the bikes, or fisticlaws lord with melta on the bikes. If you want a cult-feeling hq, though, there's always Typhus. Pricey, sure, but has the cult rules, and makes the cults troops, and zombies ain't half bad, either.

Yeah to be fair Typhus is a beast, and my spawn bodyguard compliments him well (Toughness 6 majority y'know). I am just getting back into Death Guard after a 3 year break from old Papa....... This break saw me scream WAaaaaaaaaaaagghhhhhhh!!! on a regular basis, & then I moved onto a Slaaneshi themed list.

But my point is that I am open to any ideas, I have settled for a magnetised biker lord (though I need some bikers to go with him). But converting my own count as Typhus is also appealing, as he enables the core of my Nurgle army to feel 10,000 years old.

[disease]

You might also want to consider Huron or Necrosius as warlord too. Both can offer similar shenanigans without costing more than 160 Pts each. Huron packs a heavy flamer, ap2 axe, lightning claw, random psychic gifts and allows for infiltrating troops. Necrosius is a sorcerer with arguably the most potent shooting power in the game and the ability to take zombies without typhus high points cost.

 

Also, in my signature link you can see my own brand lord conversion. :)

[Warsmith Aznable]

the best thing about it is that there are no BRB or tournament rules about allowed jewlery. And there is no way for your opponent to prove that you knew his models were magnetised.

I don't have it in front of me, but here is probably something in there about spirit of the game, or sportsmanship or summat. And I think you're confusing the word "tactic" with "cheating".

[Sception]

You might also want to consider Huron or Necrosius as warlord too. Both can offer similar shenanigans without costing more than 160 Pts each. Huron packs a heavy flamer, ap2 axe, lightning claw, random psychic gifts and allows for infiltrating troops. Necrosius is a sorcerer with arguably the most potent shooting power in the game and the ability to take zombies without typhus high points cost.

Also, in my signature link you can see my own brand lord conversion.

Does Necrosius have the plague marine rules (poison melee attacks, FNP, -1 init, blight grenades)? Does taking him make plague marines troops? If yes to both, then definitely, yes, take Necrosius all the way. If no to the latter, then you still have to choose between typhus or a regular nurgle bikelord to get your plague marine troops.

As for huron - great character, but probably not on theme, here.

[Sepsis the Unclean]

Unfortunately Necrosius doesn't make PM troops, but as a supporting HQ in larger games... I would definetly use him. Furious charge on zombies - yes please.

 

And Huron has been overused by myself already in my chaos undivided lists, not to too great affect either, far too many 1's rolled for master of deception infiltrators... Lol!

[Sception]

Then necrosius doesn't necessarily save any points over typhus, since you have to guy a plague lord as well, and while typhus is crazy expensive, he doesn't cost more than a bike lord and necrosius, let alone the bike lord's obligatory retinue, since typhus is happy to hoof it up the board in massive pile of zombies, which you were going to be taking anyway if you're fielding either typhus or necrosius anyway.

 

Not that I'm saying necro's bad, or not a valid alternative or anything.  Just that he doesn't automatically trump typhus on points efficiency in my eyes.

[disease]

I think the idea with necrosius is that you take so many furious charge scoring fearless zombies that you don't need more troops to capture objectives. No-one really uses the elites slot anyway so if you want plagues they are still there, just unable to score.

[the jeske]

no on in their right mind would take a cult unit as elite . You want zombis , you take tyfus and win by tar piting or going to time[if this happens to be a tournament].

[disease]

no on in their right mind would take a cult unit as elite . You want zombis , you take tyfus and win by tar piting or going to time[if this happens to be a tournament].

 

I don't see why not if your maxing out all your troop slots with zombies?  Its not like there is anything else competing in elites section.

 

If all you want typhus for is to take zombies and nothing else, then that's one hell of a tax. For pure zombies Necrosius is the better choice as he is 80 odd points cheaper, can take more (up to 50 in each squad), they are faster assuming normal dice rolls and they all have furious charge. However, If you wanted a mixed force of scoring plagues and zombie tarpits, then yes I would agree Typhus to be more suited.

 

Things are slightly different in Renegades and Heretics lists: Vraks III. Plagues can be taken in hoardes of up to twenty without a champ and at slight discount, but can only be taken as elite.  It's just a nice bonus that Necrosius can also be taken in regular chaos lists with the same rules.

 

In anycase, this is getting off track.  Back to Biker Lords...

[zyl-]

Other bikers are actually really resilient as well. At that, putting him with the bikers will make his save and toughness very consistent throughout the unit. The icon of vengeance would toss out a nice Fearlessness bubble to the entire unit, and thus allow you to focus on whatever job you want them to do.

 

A Chaos Lord is a close-combat monster: it's what he does. You want range, nab a sorcerer. If you want to nab a Chaos Lord, I say go all out in close-combat. Black mace, plasma pistol, combat familiar... Hell, at toughness 6 I might just suggest nabbing a power fist or two. Give those bikers he's with a pair of meltaguns and you can both pop a transport as well as assault its innards.

The chaos lord is already fearless, so the icon would be a pure waste of points.

 

Then necrosius doesn't necessarily save any points over typhus, since you have to guy a plague lord as well, and while typhus is crazy expensive, he doesn't cost more than a bike lord and necrosius, let alone the bike lord's obligatory retinue, since typhus is happy to hoof it up the board in massive pile of zombies, which you were going to be taking anyway if you're fielding either typhus or necrosius anyway.

 

Not that I'm saying necro's bad, or not a valid alternative or anything.  Just that he doesn't automatically trump typhus on points efficiency in my eyes.

In my experience, there are 5 reasons for nurgle to usefully exist in this codex. Obliterators, bikes, spawn, zombies, plague marines. Most people who are playing nurgle are going to look to employ a bike or spawn element just because the rest of the army is slowwww and T6 is monsterous. So biker lord is just a great choice to take... you have good pressure and plague marines. Then let's say you want zombies too. Now Necrosius is paying his way, because Typhus is more for less. Your foot slogging Typhus is just not very fast trying to hit combat, even though he is flat out amazing at combat. I'm pretty sure that if you were going to run 2 HQ anyhow, then Typhus is looking like less of an option (fear as a warlord trait?) unless he's deep striking with terminators.

 

As for a more on topic answer, the 165 point biker lord with power fist, lightning claw, and sigil of corruption has never let me down. The only advice I would have that might be off color is just to run him with spawn instead of bikes. Putting a pure mele character in with bikers forces my fire to split when I take special weapons, so I just use bikes as a seprate unit to carry weapons, and take a tide of T6 wounds to get my challenger into mele asap.

[the jeske]

I don't see why not if your maxing out all your troop slots with

zombies?  Its not like there is anything else competing in elites

section.

why would you take 6 units of zombis , you would be playing 2kpts and have dual foc then . With 2 primary detachments .

6 units of zombis , 2 oblits[no plasma so we need anti teq/meq] 1 unit of havocks and 2 helldrakes are 1449pts . with even pm minimax your going over 1750pts.

 

 

 

Ah and I forgot to add FC sucks hard without the I bonus and even with it it would still be bad for zombis . FC was good when it was making stuff str 5+ and I5+.

[Sception]

Plague marines are great... as scoring troops, whether holding their own or fighting their way onto the enemy's. Plague marines without scoring are like berzerkers without melee weaons, havocs without heavy weapons, raptors without jump packs. It defeats the point of the unit.

 

And also, what jeske said. You will never run out of troop slots in a CSM army. By the time you've wanting to fill six slots, you're playing a big enough game that you get twelve. By the time you fill twelve, you're playing apocalypse. Points are our restriction on troops, points and force org minimums and whatever the fewest number of units we think we need to score is.

 

Even a heavy zombie army below 2k points isn't going to run more than 120 of them, and would still probably want a couple units of scoring plague marines to pack some punch.