Plague Bearer performance right now?

[bozo69pd]

Has anyone gotten any games with blob or MSU PB's in? I have a grip of em, but they seem outshined so much by poxwalkers. The main difference I see is I can support them with nearby HoN to boost their strength but this all may just cost too many points to be efficient enough for victory.

[Warsmith Uveron]

Has anyone gotten any games with blob or MSU PB's in? I have a grip of em, but they seem outshined so much by poxwalkers. The main difference I see is I can support them with nearby HoN to boost their strength but this all may just cost too many points to be efficient enough for victory.

 

I havent played with them yet. 

 

My thoughts are that, poxwalkers are better in MSU, the Plaguebeare is the Blob squad for screening and holding the center of the line. 

 

In my combined Nurgle force Iam putting together I plan for a blob squad of 30 of them with a Herad to be the center of my lines. At that point they have +2 S, +1 T on the poxwalkers. and cause a -1 to hit on opponents. So they will hit a touch harder, and take a little more firepower to kill them. Two units of 10 pox walkers then sit on the flanks to camp objectives.   

[bozo69pd]

 

Has anyone gotten any games with blob or MSU PB's in? I have a grip of em, but they seem outshined so much by poxwalkers. The main difference I see is I can support them with nearby HoN to boost their strength but this all may just cost too many points to be efficient enough for victory.

 

I havent played with them yet. 

 

My thoughts are that, poxwalkers are better in MSU, the Plaguebeare is the Blob squad for screening and holding the center of the line. 

 

In my combined Nurgle force Iam putting together I plan for a blob squad of 30 of them with a Herad to be the center of my lines. At that point they have +2 S, +1 T on the poxwalkers. and cause a -1 to hit on opponents. So they will hit a touch harder, and take a little more firepower to kill them. Two units of 10 pox walkers then sit on the flanks to camp objectives.   

 

That sounds like a sound plan. I have 60 poxwalkers now, so I will be running them in units of 20 then marching them up the board to attempt to scratch some conscripts. When they are in position and things look safe enough Typhus will DS in to buff the pox walkers, but I am hoping a blob of 20 PB with herald support will be able to hold the other side of the board. I plan to round this list out with a Leviathan, 4 blight drones, and 2 nurgle dp's (one with time warp, one with nurgle heal).

 

I just hope this is enough bodies, damage, and durability for a win. My ratio is not doing to hot so far.

[Trollbeard]

I really like plague bearers this edition! I run them as a 30 man squad so that they have a -1 to hit modifier, and the squad is usually big enough that you I can stretch it out to hold 2 objectives if they are close enough. I've found that it's such a big squad that people will ignore it, or it takes so much firepower, my other units are almost free to do as they please!!

 

Nurglings are also very fun! With their deployment shenanigans you can easily get some first turn charges to tie some units up!

 

Overall I think nurgle is good for area denial and holding objectives! I haven't played against many factions though, just eldar and orks, so take that as you will!

[bozo69pd]

They make plague bearers and daemon troops cheaper with the CSM codex soon.

[Xthanitos]

Now that Plaguebearers are only 1 point more than Pox Walkers and they have an Invulnerable save and Toughness 4, I suspect Poxwalkers will get a points decrease in the Death Guard codex. 

 

Right now Plaguebearers for 1 point more are far more economical.

[bozo69pd]

Going to have to wait to see what Morty does then. His DG army synergy will make or break optimal horde troop slot.

[Dallas Drake]

I've used 30 man Plaguebearers and they're alright for area denial and screening, not cost effective as brimstones or cultists but decent and auto-includes in a Nurgle army. in combat they're reasonably killy and with a Herald can hurt stuff.

 

Poxwalkers are immune to morale and replenish with kills made however, which is easily worth an extra few points over cultists and are still cheaper than Plaguebearers. If they drop Poxwalkers down a point and allow them in squads of 30 I think they will totally outperform Plaguebearers (with Typhus). Quite what Mortarion will do to these units we don't know, but if DG could have Plaguebearers as troops at 5-6 points a pop then that would make for interesting options.

 

What I like about Plaguebearers is that large blobs of them don't need babysitting, just take 30 (and a herald if you need to) and they can do any job on the battlefield while the rest of your army opperates around them, Poxwalkers need Typhus and at least 1 blightbringer within 7" at all times.

[MasterDeath]

Got a few games with (almost) pure Nurgle-Daemons under my belt now in 8th, so here we go

 

I used PBs basically in three setups, Mid-Size, Horde and Min-Size

 

Mid-Size: In my case 20 PB with Icon/Instrument (Command from now on). They did well, tied down SW Marines killed a Dreadnought after 3+ Combat Phases and took a lot of fire without really losing much. They also made me a few of VP via snaking backwards. Next time I would use them in a bit smaller size like 15 + Command. Big enough, so they have a chance of triggering the Icon but do not get expensive.

 

Horde: 26 Models + Command in my case. Really tough but kinda unwieldy (purely by many models to move). You kinda have to look out, that they are not tied by a single enemy unit. You want to charge 2+ units. They can even take on Melee specialists, as they do not care for Power Weapons and because of the -1 to hit. Again, can fight and hold via snaking. I would not use more than one Horde in 2000 points and below.

 

Min-Size: 10 Models. Cheap, expandable and not easy to remove. They are a better throwaway unit than poxwalkers by far and just slightly more expensive. Command would increase their cost too much, so  wouldn´t bother. Good for summoning on a VP, sitting on said VP or marching up to a nest of heavy weapons. The enemy can´t ignore them, but he will hesitate to invest to much firepower into them. On the other hand Bolters are not really reliable in killing them. Together with Beasts of Nurgle my favorite unit to summon (+Instrument if I want to charge outright).

 

Now the Problems: I do not think PBs will be very good for competetive gaming (read: tournaments). PBs fight the attrition war and are not the quick killers you need to get that 20:0. If you to go for the 10:10 to 13:10 they can work I assume, but they will not win Tournaments. They can hold their won versus all enemies in melee (even Grey Knights) and have no real hard counters, but are not hard countering anything either and 2+ Armour Saves are their bane.

 

Buffs:

- Re-rolling 1s is ok, because hitting is not the PBs strength, but unless you use a mortal Daemon Prince with Voice of Lorgar (like I do) its hard keeping that DP in range. Nice to have, but not a must.

- Leadership 10. Generally PBs are not losing many models in the first place, but with a GUC nearby Morale even less of a concern. Again nice to have and easier to keep in range than the DP, but If the enemy has enough firepower to kill so many Pbs that Morale is a problem, he will probably shoot the GUC anyway. On the other hand that can help the PBs getting to their target easier.

- +1 Str. The easiest Buff to get, seeing how cheap Heralds are and one of the more important. Horde-size PBs should have dedicated Herald nearby. Str 5 lets the wound MEQs on 3+ with rerolls via Plagueswords thats an ~88% chance to wound. But even more important: It lets PBs wound T8 models on a 5+, thats roughly 55% chance to wound with rerolls giving them a realistic chance of damaging them despite the armour rolls.

- Finally the +1 to wound spell (not an english book sorry). Further increasing the chance to wound and damage. Great for fighting 2 Wound models or things like walkers. With Herald Buff and this T8 can be wounded on 4+, thats 75% with rerolls and a chance of dealing bonus damage.

 

PBs can hold their own vs. anything, but killing things quickly is not their strong side. Their best target if buffed is high Toughness, low Armor. Look out for Weapons with 2 damage (Autocannons) as these basically counter you 5+ FnP. Once you sit on a VP, its yours (well, once PBs get ObSec at least) unless your opponent commits a good amount of force to remove them.

[bozo69pd]

Thanks for that write up. I am leaning towards 1 medium blob of PB supported by herald to march up the board, then 2-3 hordes of poxwalkers supported by Typhus deep striking in. All of my games as a Nurgle player since beginning of 6th has been to focus on grabbing and holding objectives since as you say killing is not Nurgles strong suit. So far I mostly use blightdrones and Nurgle DP's for my damage, but when DG codex drops I will reassess. Maybe Oblits will come back into usefulness.

[Sawtooth]

Thanks for that writeup. I was curious how 10 man squads do just being summoned.