2000 PT Plague Marine Spam: Bolters and Blight Launchers

[Dont-Be-Haten]

So you know we need pictures of all those PM on the table top.

 

I've been talking to my group about this list. It seems like it has a lot of resiliency.

 

It's a smashing idea for sure.

[DemetriiTZ]

For sure, Brother. I've actually been in the process of applying paint to every single Nurgle model I own, and while they're nowhere near Golden Demon level, they look quite nice in my opinion. I actually have them on the bases they all came with, so my 77 Plague Marines are a mix of old 3rd, 4th, and 8th edition models, with little Fantasy bits like backpacks from Ratling Globadiers with guitar wire for special weapons, or Chaos Warrior cloaks and helmets and so on.

Currently, I am in the process of building a Nurgle Daemons army to run with in a few upcoming local RTTs, consisting of a massive armada of Plague Drones led by Princes. The centerpiece will definitely be, however, the Plague Toads I'm using as my 3rd squad of Drones -- I like the aesthetic of a bunch of frogs and flies surging up the board, and it gives me all kinds of opportunities to say things like "Hippity-Hoppity, get off my property" when they crash into enemy objective holders.

I wanted to finish up the paint on every single model before I ended up posting them here, but I'll probably go ahead and post whatever I've finished shortly. Once I finish up my last few Plague Drones, they should be at a reasonable stopping point for showing 'em off. Just finished the Toads yesterday.

I've been playing since around the end of 3rd and beginning of 4th, so my wife and I have ended up with around 4 different armies -- Chaos Marines (Death Guard), Chaos Daemons (Nurgle), Tyranids, and Drukhari with a splash of Aeldari for psyker stuff. However, our Chaos and Tyranid collections are definitely the most extensive.

My Nurgle forces, combined, are as follows:

Mortarion
Forgeworld Great Unclean One (Scabiethrax)

Epidemius

Typhus

Lord of Contagion

Malignant Plaguecaster

Daemon Prince of Nurgle (Finecast. Heh. You'll like him -- he has a club that looks like an uprooted tree.)
Daemon Prince of Chaos (3rd Edition miniature)

Converted Daemon Prince counts-as (Chaos Marine Samael on a jetbike filled with decapitated heads, skulls, and a chaos tome, wielding the sword of the Avatar.)

10 Blightlord Terminators (2 Flails, 2 Reapers, 8 Combibolters/Axes)
77 Plague Marines (2 specials, 5 bolters per squad of 7)
30 Plaguebearers

56 Kroot converted into "whatever" -- they look like vultures, so I can use 'em as Cultists, Poxwalkers, Plaguebearers, or whatever else
40 Zombies (more Poxwalkers or Plaguebearers... when you mix PBs, Kroot, and Zombies together with unifying colors, it looks great. I like the variety.)
18 Plague Drones of Nurgle
9 Poxriders of Nurgle
2 Land Raiders
5 Rhinos
3 Bloat-Drones

3 Plagueburst Crawlers

3 Deredeo Dreadnoughts

1 Leviathan Dreadnought
1 Feculent Gnarlmaw (I actually use a chunk of aquarium scenery, which had barnacles in the shape of the Nurgle mark. I like it, because my army is a mix of mud, swamp, and aquatic themes, and the color scheme fit perfectly as well.)

Currently, I only have some Kroot, Zombies, around 8 Drones, and the Dreadnoughts needing some paint, so... almost there! Stay tuned!

[Dont-Be-Haten]

That's *a lot* I'm nowhere near that impressive of a display for my death guard.

 

They are a do it yourself warband known as "The Lords of Rapture" which is a bioshock themed death guard as far as lore goes. They're experts at fighting hive worlds under water. The poxwalkers make for pretty cool splicers and the varying daemon engines make for some really cool security drones.

 

I'm not going overboard on the nautical theme but their armor looks to be rustic and has the formation of patina in the holes, cracks etc. Inside their armor, their skin is all sublimely disgusting with the hints of grey, blue, and whites, which pigment over periods of time in water.

 

It's kinda neat. I'll eventually post some pictures of them up.

[Charlo]

So I'm looking to do something similar to this at 1500pts...

 

What would you trim to take it down and still be effective? Is there a place for any Daemon Engines (Haulers for the cover save? Bloat drones for speed/ harassment?)

[DemetriiTZ]

I've personally considered doing something along the lines of trimming a few squads off -- each one runs around 135 a piece, so dropping 3-4 should bring you down to a more manageable level for 1500 -- the good thing is, the army functions basically the same at all point levels. The only deployments I struggle with, personally, are long table edge deployments, and being able to advance and fire Launchers with no penalty makes up for it, in my opinion -- anything like chaff that doesn't try to keep you at range gets obliterated by bolters, and Knights cannot keep you at arm's length forever. Castellans are around at 1500, but they usually are fairly rare, because they cannot afford as much supporting cast comparatively. Anything below T8 is trivial to mow down with Launchers, and bolters can handle T7 and below no problem.

 

I'm currently running around with another army I am going to be dragging in on Saturday to try out:

Nurgle Outrider: +1 CP

1 x Daemon Prince of Nurgle (Death Guard, Warlord: Supper-Plate, Wings, 2 x Talons): 180

1 x Epidemius: 100

 

FAST:

 

1 x Plague Drones x 9: (Banner, Instrument): 385

1 x Plague Drones x 9: (Banner, Instrument): 385

1 x Plague Drones x 9: (Banner, Instrument): 385

 

ELITE:

 

1 x Foul Blightspawn: 77

 

Daemons of Nurgle Battalion: +5 CP

 

HQ:

 

1 x Poxbringer: 70

1 x Poxbringer: 70

1 x Scrivener: 95

 

TROOPS:

 

1 x 3 Nurglings: 54

1 x 3 Nurglings: 54

1 x 3 Nurglings: 54

 

FORTIFICATION:

 

1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw: 85

 

_____________________________

 

I have considered running a second Daemon Prince of Nurgle as an alternative to Epidemius and the Blightspawn, but I never managed to make Epi work, and no one really believes he's anything more than a "win more" option, so I kinda feel drawn to the challenge. I also feel like the Blightspawn will give me an option to deal with annoying stuff like Genestealer Cults, who like to pop out and overwhelming assault stuff to crush deep pushes into the board, but have armor made of paper. Blightspawn provides me with a charge interrupter that they cannot simply Vect away, and that's probably going to be worth its weight in gold.

The DG Prince runs Blades, and I use 2 Poxbringers who bring Withering Curse and Blessing -- Blessing and Blades stacked on a Prince + Withering Curse on something T8+ means I deal 2 damage on 2-3 Wound Rolls, 3 damage on 4's, and 5 damage on 5+'s. This is typically enough to blender enemy characters and can even one-round Knights on a very good combat round. Scriveners provide Drones with exploding attacks, and Epi's Tally only makes Drones better -- I was struggling with a way to make effective use of the +1 Attack on the Tally, and now that Drones have the Plaguebearer keyword, those equate to even more Plaguesword swings late-game, which can make a full-strength squad even deadlier, and allow a weakened squad to punch a little bit more above its weight.

 

I'll make a separate thread and keep you all posted -- it's not exactly a purely DG army, but Nurgle is one big happy family, and my Warlord is a Death Guard warlord, sooo...

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Any merit to putting plague spewers (the heavy flamer) on an assault type squad?

 

2d6 auto hits could really soften up a squad before the flails start swinging and would also deter counter assaults

[BlackTriton]

Hardly.

While very good, they are expensive, close to the price of 2 flails for a single spewer.

Then they are even hard to use, needing to be within 9" but not in combat.

 

I feel the spewer are very comparable to plague grenade in fonction, upside and downside with grenade being a lot cheaper.

[Charlo]

Aye, sadly they are priced for Bloat Drone it seems and not infantry use. The Blight Launcher is stronger, cheaper and much more versatile across the span of the game and will probably cause more consistent damage overall.

 

A Chaos lord with Arch-contaminator sat between a line of plague marines with launchers is just plain nasty, re-rolling most hits and all wound rolls.

[Dallas Drake]

Any merit to putting plague spewers (the heavy flamer) on an assault type squad?

 

2d6 auto hits could really soften up a squad before the flails start swinging and would also deter counter assaults

 

As already covered the answer is no. Point for point you're better off bringing a Foul Blightspawn than a plague spewer PM.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Well that sucks....

 

I had plans for the left over blightlord weapons. Hey ho