Mono nurgle!

[Trollbeard]

Hey guys, it’s been a few weeks since the codex dropped and I’m wondering how my fellow nurglites are feeling about all the new goodies?

 

I myself am pretty jazzed about all the new synergies for plague bearers, they seem like they could be very quick and dangerous now.

 

What are your guys’ thoughts on all of the new rules and such? What’s working great and what isn’t?

 

I haven’t been able to play since the codex dropped due to a new child and what not haha.

Edited January 29, 2018 by Trollbeard

[Finkmilkana]

Nurglings and plaguebearers are pretty nice. Plaguebearers are obviously better in combat, but in my experience so far have a big morale problem if the enemy focus fires. Instruments help (and can be infuriating for the enemy if your last surviving model suddenly becomes 5), but it is still a problem. I would therefore only take 20 squads, even though it means you loose the -1 to hit fast. This also allows deepstrike for 1. I usually take 2x20 in deep strike.

 

Nurglings can be used to just flood the board before the game even starts, taking objectives, blocking deepstrike and somewhat containing enemies to their deployment zone. They are surprisingly tough and can even whittle down enemies somewhat if supported. Don’t expect them to kill the equivalent of their points though. I usually take 24, in 3 and 6 size squads.

 

A few plague drones are great to get some mobility. They are worse in combat than supported plaguebearers though, so don’t overdo it. I usually take only 1 min squad.

 

Beasts I haven’t found a use for.

 

Demon princes are great as always, especially with the nurgle 5+++. They are also your only really good high strength, somewhat good AP units. Take as many as you can. Deep strike those without wings, don’t deep strike those with wings.

 

Heralds are great on their own too (psyker, high AP attack) and their buff is a must have on nurglings. Take at least 2.

 

A Scrivener make plaguebearers actually deal damage. I would take one per 2 squads.

 

Bilepiper are a bit mixed. The buffs are good, but their completely terrible profile is annoying. I usually only take 1.

 

Epidemius is great in 2000er games, especially if the enemy has many small units. I wouldn’t take him in 1000er games though.

 

Slimux is questionably because the synergy with the trees is limited (trees need to exist at the beginning of the turn to give advance+charge and slimux is too slow to be ahead of the army) and beasts are bad.

 

GUO I feel are too expensive for what they do. As they usually are the only big monster/vehicle in a nurgle army they also have the problem of getting targeted by all the anti tank and die fast. Better take two demon princes.

 

 

In general, as nurgle you will never be able table most enemies, so don’t try. You will often loose more than you kill, but you should also not be tabled before the game ends if you play smart.

If you manage to contain the enemy for a few turns in his deployment zone (nurglings!), you have a pretty good chance to win by points. Don’t get baited to chase fast units and deepstrike as much as you can.

Be warned that games take forever as things on both sides will die very slowly even if you try your best to kill each other.

Edited January 29, 2018 by Finkmilkana

[BlackTriton]

In this game where we see so much "glass canon" list and it seems every one is evaluating lists based of killing power, it looks like nurgle armies play more of a control game.

Play you're objective smart and grind'em down.

How do plague drone and deamon prince with wings interact? Seem like the drones yould be a nice bodyguard for a DP.

[Finkmilkana]

Yes and no. They are great in so far as that they can almost (sadly only almost) keep up with the princes and if you manage to fly over the enemy lines turn 2 to charge his backfield, they do a good job keeping the princes alive. But if you can’t do that (either because the enemy spread out or plays very defensively in the back of his deployment zone) you will often have nurglings between the enemy guns and your princes either way. Nurglings might be slow, but they are already there when the prince comes to visit. So the drones are not needed to stop shooting in that case.

If you don’t bring GUO they also suffer a bit from being the best target in your army for anti tank (though shooting them with anti tank is still hilariously inefficient) and many opponents fear their speed, so they tend to be focused down. Which isn’t too bad with how resilient and cheap they are, but means they often can’t act as a bodyguard anymore if you break through enemy lines later than turn 2.

Edited January 30, 2018 by Finkmilkana

[Trollbeard]

I think drones can be a decent bodyguard unit for a DP, yeah they don’t move as fast as the DP. But you can alwYs advance them first turn, their shooting is pretty crap anyways. And they have a decent amount of attacks that are good for clearing chaff, and they got a decent price drop in the codex!

 

Something I’ve also thought about is an outrider detachment of a DG DP with 3 bloat drones. Gives some decent shooting with those plague spitters 6xD6 flamer shots, that are also bugged by a poxbringer buff. And they are tough units! You can also make the DP the warlord for the armour relic and the 4+++ warlord trait. Would be a quick moving threat that needs to be handled!

 

Although it’s not quite mono nurgle daemon, but each unit is technically a daemon haha

[DuskRaider]

Um... technically yes, it would still be Nurgle. In fact, you could take a DG detachment with Daemon Princes, Bloat Drones, Defilers and Plagueburst Crawlers are still not only be mono-Nurgle but if you're taking Epidemius also help with his tally (and benefit from it too).

[Trollbeard]

I really like the bloat drones and plague burst crawlers as well, which is why I’m considering it lol.

 

Back to main topic, has anyone tried filling a

Brigade with mono nurgle? What are good heavy support choices for them? I usually play 2k game and I find if I try to make a brigade the three heavy support slots seems too expensive. Granted I’m only looking at soul grinders and plague hulks. How are the giant spawn and the spined beast or whatever it is? I think they are gorge world?

[bozo69pd]

I was horribly disappointed by GUO, especially in the world of reaper spam.

 

Everything Fink posted is correct... and to bolster my nurgle daemon killing power I bring a 2 DG detachment with 3x spitter drones, and then a 3rd renegade supreme command detachment with 3x flying daemon princes with warp time shenanigans.

[Trollbeard]

What was your main issue with the GUO? Focused to fast? Didn’t really do much? I think a standard GUO needs to be DSed in for best use, and you also need lots of other nasty threats to take some fire off of him.

 

Curious to hear peoples experience with the big guy.

[bozo69pd]

I did all of the above. I used a Nurgle daemon brigade vs a biel tan Eldar brigade. They shot me with shurikens so bad (which love to shoot at low armor targets) that I got tabled on turn 4. I actually tabled myself when the GUO perils again with his cast and he lost his last 3 wounds. My friend actually lit him up with intercepting dark reapers right when he deep struck for 14 wounds. Then when he realized what garbage he was just ignored him and shuriken'd all 5 of my DP's and spined chaos beasts to death (after obliterating my beasts of nurgle with howling banshees, and nurglings with striking scorpions).

 

The most outstanding units in that game were the nurglings (only for infiltration objective scoring), and the PB's (freakin amazing unit when synergized). I have a post about it in the daemon army lists.

[Panzer]

The GUO has the same issue as 90% of the big single model units in the game. They aren't durable enough in face of Lascannon&Co to be worth their points.

 

Non-characters with <10 wounds may not be able to hide, but they usually aren't that expensive and don't have a degrading profile so those are usually fine, but monsters with >9 wounds are often harder to justify.