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Boccis rubbed at a new irritation forming in the fold of flesh under his chin. "This is a good one" he said with a chuckle as he pulled a flake of dry irritated skin. He stared at it noting how the tiny mold spores were having a necrotic effect on his otherworldly dermis. After a moment he tossed it to the capering nurgling at his feet. The little mite caught it mid air and gobbled it down. The nurgling ran around in circles, clutching his throat like a player in a melodrama. All too soon he fell over and started dissolving.

"Children, attend your papa. I have an experiment to conduct." With that the Great Unclean One led the march through one of the seven lesser rifts followed by his progeny - both greater and small.

I felt like taking a mono Nurgle list for a spin as I am considering taking them instead of Black Templars to the Las Vegas GT. Shep was up for a game and went over there and plague followed with me. I built up 2 new Nurgle Daemon princes to give a shot - I will try and get pics of them up soon - I am VERY happy with how they came out.

Boccis's Cavalcade
Boccis (Great Unclean One) - Cloud of Flies, Breath of Chaos, Aura of Decay, Instrument of Chaos
Epidemius
Herald of Nurgle - Palanquin, Aura, Cloud

Troops
14 Plaguebearers - Icon, Instrument
14 Plaguebearers - Icon, Instrument
7 Nurglings
7 Nurglings

Elite
4 Beasts of Nurgle

Heavy
Nurgle Daemon Prince - Wings, Breath, Aura, Iron Hide, Flies
Nurgle Daemon Prince - Wings, Breath, Aura, Iron Hide, Flies

I was expecting Shep to play IG, but wouldn't really have changed my list at all. Turned out that he felt like playing some orks - so we had some green on green action! Forgive me on Shep's list - it is from memory so I probably don't have it all right.

Da Klanky Waagh (not sure the name)
2x Big Meks with Kustom Force Fields

3x3 Killa Kans

3x30 Shoota Boyz with Nob with klaw and big shootas
2x15 Lootaz

I knew I was in trouble when I looked at his list and compared it to mine. We rolled up a Spearhead Annihilate mission, Daemons won choice and obviously chose to go second.

Ork Turn 1
Shep is wise in the ways of thwarting daemonic invasions and literally filled the entire deployment zone with bodies save about 8"x8" area near the extreme corner. The kans were out in front providing cover in case I had included some of the shootier models available to me. Everything moved out a bit more and that was that.

Daemon Turn 1
I split my list up with both daemon princes, the great unclean one and Epidemius with 14 plaguebearer escort in wave one and the rest in wave 2. Apparently Boccis couldn't quite get his fat bottom through the portal in time so the other wave came. I tried to weight the long flank and hopefully mitigate some of the damage. Realizing I was in trouble, I risked one of the nurgling units in the safe zone in the building occupied by the lootas (the aforementioned "open" space) and got a hit. None of the drifts were two tragic but I did lose 2 plaguebearers from the deepstriking unit going into a building. I spent the turn running to get better positioning and more distance from the Kans since I couldn't hurt them at all. The forward nurglings took up position between the nearest kan unit and the beasts and also the plaguebearers with herald.

Ork Turn 2
Loota shooting kills all but 2 of the bases in the backfield. The kans shoot at the up front nurglings with their grotzookas and every shot but one drifts on to the beasts 5" away. Seriously. I lose 2 beasts and then the nurglings get charged and locked into a fight that they cannot hope to win but fortunately the pain doesn't last and they are just wiped out completely. A unit of boyz shoots at and then charges the big unit of plaguebearers with the herald and the herald dies by failing everyone one of his feel no pain rolls. All but one of the rest of the plaguebearers are killed. I take a look at my watch, realize that I have time for another game if we just reset so I concede - I had killed maybe 4 models and half my army was gone - it was pretty clear what would happen if we continued.

Game 2

We just reset, regenerated mission and went with it. We got another Annihilate but this time had the Pitched Battle deployment. I lost the roll and had to go first. I split my list a little different - basically swapping the GUO for a unit of nurglings.

Daemon Turn 1
Finally, I got my preferred wave. I set the two daemon princes close to the extreme flank unit of boyz so both could hit with their breaths. Epidemius and his squad dropped into a building in my back field and I lost one and the nurglings were in that general area. The Breaths were both really inconsequential despite getting a high number of hits. I killed 4 models out of 12 touched. The nurglings ran into cover.

Ork Turn 1
The unit of kans that had been screening the boyz I blasted moved over to charge one of the daemon princes and the boyz themselves took aim at the other. The boyz shooting did 4 wounds and I only saved 2 with my iron hide. The kans did not shoot for fear of scattering onto the boyz. Both units charged. The daemon prince on the boyz did a couple of wounds and died as I failed 3 out of 3 normal armor saves. The one on the kans did slightly better, shaking one kan and knocking the dreadnought ccw off the other. He took a couple of wounds and failed his inulnerable saves, but he was still in the game. Combat ended up being a draw. The nurglings go to ground and lose a couple of bases.

Daemon Turn 2
Rolling for reserves I get 3 1s and a 2. Man, as if this matchup isn't hard enough... Aura does nothing to the nearby boyz, and we are straight into close combat. The daemon prince does fairly well, destroying one and ripping the CCW off the other. He wins combat and holds.

Ork Turn 2
Da Boyz pile in and charge the prince. He does okay again, but not well enough and ends up dying.

Daemon Turn 3
I fail 3 out of 4 reserves rolls getting only the GUO. He drops in near a unit of lootas, trying desperately to get at least one kill point or see if he can do anything. I get 8 hits and 1, yes 1 wound. I concede at this point.

After Action Review
I knew that taking an all Nurgle list would be rough - even with Epidemius. I also have to say that I got flustered realizing that I had very little that could affect his kans and forgot that nurglings are daemons and should not have been subject to instant death (I was removing the little guys like crazy between grotzookas and lootas and kan dreadnought ccws. I don't know that it would have mattered. Shep was rolling slightly above odds and I was rolling way below them. I honestly think even if that rolling had been reversed that I would have been completely owned.

So what went wrong? Well it all started at list construction. To say that I brought a knife to a gunfight is a huge understatement. More like I brought a radish to a gunfight. I broke my own cardinal rule and paid for it. I spent way too many points on upgrades and didn't really have a focus for each of my units. Plus, I was so worried about keeping Epidimius alive that I had my toughest units out of play. Shep played to his usual high standard and I just stank up the place. Appropriate for Nurgle I suppose. I knew going in that I was weak against mech and Shep had a lot of it. The worst part of the day was not really seeing what the Beasts would do either way as I have been curious what number is the sweet spot for them (or if they are just hopelessly useless - screamers I'm looking at you...)

Eternal Accolades
No one on my side really did anything worth mentioning.

Eternal Enmity
The kans. Awesome how Shep trained his scatter dice to allow him to shoot the hell out of one unit and charge the other ;-)

Plotting The Next Step
Okay after this game I reworked my list considerably. I evaluated the purpose that everything was serving and dropped most of the upgrades. I think that this list is a bit more mean and although the soulgrinder doesn't add to the Tally, it does add to the viability.

Epidemius
Kugath

Troops
14 Plaguebearers - Icon
7 Plaguebearers
7 Plaguebearers
7 Plaguebearers
3 Nurglings
3 Nurglings

Elite
4 Beasts of Nurgle

Heavy
Nurgle DP - Wings, Cloud of Flies
Nurgle DP - Wings, Cloud of Flies
Soul Grinder - Tongue, Phlegm

that is a great report, tough break though on the dice and the results, but very enjoyable to read none the less.

sounds liek Nurgle may not be the way to roll with the demaons, at least not agains tthe Orks.

Nice battle report but it appears that in your attempt to appease the chaos gods, you infuriated the dice gods

i have always loved chaos and especially nurgle i dont really care that you lost
great game anyway

Good report, it's unfortunate your dice turned on you.

I really enjoy using Beasts of Nurgle. However, the only reason I can give for taking them over Plaguebearers is that you max out your Troop choices and can't take any more PBs which is remarkably easy to do).

I'm not too fond of giving Wings to a Nurgle Daemon Prince. My opinion isn't fluff related, I just don't think it's worth the points. Granted, a DP in CC is perhaps the best place for it and Wings will allow you to choose your target properly. However, you need to be able to aquire your tally from the moment they drop, so I prefer a mobile tough firebases that can still eventually assault. I generally run mine with:

Daemon Prince of Nurgle [165]
Mark of Nurgle, Iron Hide, Cloud of Flies, Demonic Gaze

Include Aura of Decay if it's your thing... the fart is quite effective once you hit your 20 kills or if facing T3 Hordes.

I'll agree with you that wings are typically not worth the points. The only ones I give wings to are the nurgle princes. The rest of the army is SOOO slow that you have to have some kind of speed or you will never be able to deal with more mobile shooty armies like bike heavy eldar/marines or suit heavy tau.