WFB TACTICS: Gifts of the Plague Lord
It’s me again, Kaptin Scuzgob, with the second part of my series on Daemonic Gifts. This one is about that lovable pile of offal, Nurgle.
“Greetings, mortals, to the humble abode of Grandfather Nurgle. I hope the Beasts didn’t slobber you too much. I hope we could discuss the numerous methods I use to spread my delightful gifts in your mortal world. Like the many varieties of blessings I concoct, these methods are as different as they are deadly.”
I prefer variety, so no single Daemon can take the same Gift twice, but they are very hard to cure, so to speak, so things like the Law of Gold can’t stop them. My sons and grandsons, the Great Unclean Ones and Heralds of Nurgle, are blights on the land that cannot be removed, and my Gifts help this dish out as much as they can take.
Balesword (Great Unclean One)
This gift is pretty insane. You’ll likely ignore the victim’s armour save due to the Great Unclean One’s high Strength, and it goes through multiple wound models like a burning chainsaw of justice through butter. You just have to hit them; its only real downsides are the Great Unclean One’s average Weapon Skill. Fortunately, the Great Unclean One is a Level 1 Wizard as basic, and can so take Miasma of Pestilence to counter this. Then the only challenge is getting the Great Unclean One into a fight with a target that you want to die. It leaves just enough points for Noxious Vapours, which combos very well with this Gift.
It’s a toss up between this or the Trappings of Nurgle for what to put on the Great Unclean One. I’d consider taking the Balesword if I expect to fight lots of multi-wound things, like a monster-heavy Warriors of Chaos, Orcs & Goblins, or of course Ogre Kingdoms.
At other times, I’d take Trappings of Nurgle.
Nurgling Infestation (Great Unclean One)
Obviously this Gift is only useful if you’ve taken some Nurgling Swarms, but even then it’s not that useful for its points, especially compared to the other Great Unclean One gifts like the almost mandatory Trappings of Nurgle or the powerful Balesword. Plus, it only generates one base a turn, and it’s not even a solid given that you’ll get a new base.
Add in the fact that, since Nurglings are Scouts, you’ll probably deploy them near the enemy as march-blockers, speed bumps & the like, where the Great Unclean One will be too far away to use the Gift. It’s one of those gifts that need you to build your army around to use to the best of its ability, and for what it does it’s not really worth that.
So not much point in taking this one, unless you want to take advantage of the fact that there is no upper limit to the amount of bases you can add to a swarm, and thus create a massive Nurgling horde for the lulz.
Staff of Nurgle (Great Unclean One & Herald of Nurgle)
This gift has a few uses because of the bound spell contained in it. However, you may note that both its potential bearers also have the chance to get the Rancid Visitation spell if you give them wizard levels (the Great Unclean One is level 1 as basic). It’s a powerful spell, and getting to cast it twice per character (or at least the guarantee of having the spell in your army) is very handy.
The power level is very low, meaning it will be dispelled easily, but this gives it a second use of being a dispel dice magnet, as not many players will allow it to be cast on their units once they see what it can do. You can also save it until the end of your magic phase when your opponent has no dispel dice left for a guaranteed Rancid Visitating. Because Rancid Visitation ignores armour saves and has high Strength, you should aim it at…well, pretty much everything that you want to die. The lower the Toughness the greater the effect, of course.
This Gift, and the Rancid Visitation spell in general, tend to rack up Epidemius’ Tally of Pestilence quite quickly if you get a few successful castings in one Magic Phase, so if you’re going to take the flabby guy you should consider taking this gift on your other characters. They combo very well, and it’s the longest ranged Nurgle anything, so you can rack up that tally before you reach combat.
The downsides? Again, it’s an expensive gift, even more so on a Herald as it denies other gifts. Still very good though, an all Nurgle army based around this Gift and lots of wizard characters could do very well indeed.
Trappings of Nurgle (Great Unclean One only)
Every Greater Daemon has a gift which is almost mandatory (at least in my opinion) and this is the one for the Great Unclean One. The Great Unclean One is ridiculously tough as it is, and this only boosts its incredible fortitude. The low strength attacks of basic infantry will bounce off it; the only things you’ll have to worry about are war machines, flaming stuff & large monsters, like carnosaurs, Lore of Fire Wizards and stone throwers. Fortunately, a well equipped Great Unclean One has the spells and abilities to take care of or at least weaken these foes, and if he doesn’t, well…that’s what you have Flamers and Bloodcrushers for. A solid investment, I’d recommend all Great Unclean Ones take this gift if they’re not going to wave that Balesword about.
Noxious Vapours (Great Unclean One, Herald of Nurgle)
Oh, sorry High Elves, I’ve taken away your main advantage in combat. This gift is awesome, transforming the usually striking-last Nurgle Daemons into guys that get to go first for once. Obviously more effective against those with Always Strikes First, but considering the slowness of Nurgle Daemons and the fact that they get charged more often than they charge, it is very useful no matter what you’re facing. I usually stick it on all my Nurgle characters, and it’s saved their rotten hides more times than I can remember.
Nurgle’s Rot (Great Unclean One, Herald of Nurgle)
Nurgle’s horrifically infectious, incurable and deadly disease amounts to a chesty cough on the tabletop. First, your character has to be in base contact with something, and then you’ve only got a 1 in 6 chance of it taking effect anyway. It’s best to save your points for things which work all the time, rather than only sometimes. Might have been better if it was a 6” area of effect…
Pestilent Mucus (Great Unclean One, Herald of Nurgle)
I like this one. Sure, it relies on getting stabbed for it to work, but the Great Unclean One has so many wounds he just doesn’t care. I find it funny, okay? Not as good on Heralds, but it could be a handy “take that” if slaying your Daemon also kills the thing which did it. Trappings of Nurgle makes your Great Unclean One harder to wound, meaning the effect will happen less, so these two gifts don’t go well together. Be aware that every enemy is base contact takes a test for each wound they cause on your guy; it’s not just the guy who stabs that gets gunked.
A fun upgrade for either daemons, but it might be better to use the points for something that depends on you attacking, not you being attacked.
Stream of Bile (Great Unclean One, Herald of Nurgle)
Breath weapon attacks on a ground-pounder as slow as the Nurgle characters aren’t that useful, as the amount of hassle it takes to get into range without being charged is just stupid. You probably won’t get to use it, so it’s a waste of points most of the time.
Slime Trail (Great Unclean One, Herald of Nurgle)
Because they’re slow & dopey, Nurgle Daemons are likely to be charged by any flanking cavalry or skirmishers, and there’s always the massive multi-flanked scrum of a combat that seems to happen at the end of a game involving Daemons, so this gift is very helpful (especially because Heralds grant the bonus to any unit they join) and its nice and cheap too. Goes well with Noxious Vapours on a Herald, it’s a usual combination of gifts.
ICONS!
Unlike the magic banners of other conventional races, only certain units get to carry certain banners, and only a select few get to be battle standards. This means that your battle standard bearer is going to be very expensive, but will always have a big effect on your games. I’ve grouped the Icons together by what can take them. I’ve also put a list below each of the battle standards going into further detail about certain Heralds.
BATTLE STANDARDS
Standard of Chaos Glory
If the Herald of Khorne can be hard, the Herald of Nurgle can be harder, depending on how many Plaguebearers you surround him with. Such a unit can be hard to shift on its own, even more if the Herald has certain gifts (Slime Trail and Noxious Vapours being the best choices). Add in the fact that this unit is now Stubborn, and it will take charges from anything and still be standing. However, unless you shell out for the single Magic Level for the Herald, this unit has no ranged ability at all and it’s easy for enemy units to slowly wear it down with ranged fire and spells. War machines are even more deadly as the big unit will be an easy target for them. But this is what Flamers are for.
Banner of Hellfire
The spell bound in the banner could easily tip combats to your favour, so it’s a good idea to leave it till last in your magic phase to be sure of casting it, because it will attract a lot of dispel dice & scrolls.
As mentioned before, a big unit of Plaguebearers lead by a Herald with the right gifts is really hard to get rid of. Enemy units will be trapped in combat if they charge, and if your manoeuvring with the many faster Daemon units pay off you can trap multiple enemy units near the banner bearer, allowing you to slowly grind them down with the Hellfire’s spell.
Great Icon of Despair
While the Herald of Khorne can cause enemy units to flee by charging them, a Herald of Nurgle can keep his unit safe with this banner; by making it easier for enemy units to fail their Fear tests to charge the unit. Additionally, many daemon abilities need the enemy to fail Leadership tests, so having a Herald this resilient nearby helps if you’re thinking of using these abilities.
Banner of Unholy Victory
While Chaos Glory stops your Daemons exploding, Unholy Glory will help them win the combat. Given their average fighting skills, Plaguebearers need all the help they can get to tip combats in their favour. The cheapest battle standard, and probably one of the best for that fact.
Great Standard of Sundering
I’ve started avoiding this banner simply because of the sheer amount of arguments at can cause. Yes, Daemons of Chaos are completely insane, but this is pretty much the only thing in the book that can completely shut an enemy army down just by being on the table and that just smacks of blatant unfairness in my opinion.
The Daemons of Chaos FAQ states that the Tomb Kings Nehekharan Incantations and Ogre Gut Magic lores are unaffected because “they are not spell lores in the conventional manner” and that ‘free’ spells (Invocation of Nehek, Dispel Magic etc) are “considered to not be part of any spell lore, and so therefore cannot be affected.” This leads me to believe that you can choose the High Elves’ unique spell lore, but not affect their Dispel Magic, which is weird. Usually stuff like this states “one of the eight Lores of the Warhammer Rulebook” but it doesn’t in this case and…see where the arguments come from?
If you’re anything like me you’ll choose to avoid such nonsense and pick a banner which depends on the composition of your own army rather than your opponent’s.
PLAGUEBEARER STANDARDS
Icon of Eternal Virulence
Depending on how lucky you are when rolling to hit, this banner could net you tons of extra combat resolution. The only downside is that Plaguebearers only have one attack each, and it needs unsaved wounds too. Still, you might get lucky and tip the combat in your favour.
Standard of Seeping Decay
Plaguebearers are somewhat mediocre in combat as I’ve mentioned, so you need to make sure the attacks that hit cause wounds. You can’t go wrong with this banner. It affects any Heralds in the unit too, which is always a bonus.
The Plaguebearer banners are about as good as each other, though Seeping Decay is probably the better option as the effect it give will come into play much more often.
Kaptin Scuzgob has been playing both Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000 for about six years now, after being lured in by insanity and grimdark. As well as using Daemons in both systems, he is amassing a large pile of Space Orkz and Warriors of Chaos.
~Why not leave a comment about the strains of disease you have concocted? Make it fast though, I must get back to my garden…
