Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all. I'm loving the new plague drone models for chaos and will include a unit in the future no matter how good or bad they are. I am interested though in seeing what people's opinion of the unit are. Are they any good, how should they be equipped? Is the rot proboscis a must, it seems like a must but I don't like the look of them. Any input will be greatly appreciated.

I think they are pretty good, bone stock. I would field a big unit of them and see what they can do. Maybe with an escort of Screamers to bust open up vehicles or take on teriminators.

Seem pretty darn good to me. I love Chaos Spawn in my CSM, and these have a lot of the same properties- 3W each, lots of attacks, high speed unslowed by terrain.

They do cost more than Spawn, of course, and are only T5 rather than T6 for Nurgle Spawn, but Shrouded makes them bounce a lot of shots when they move up through terrain. And moving as Jetbikes means they seriously can zip across the table.

At 42pts a model they're not cheap, but I'd still spend the 5pts/model for Poison 3+. 3 S4 attacks each is not that deadly; going from wounding T4 50% of the time to 89% of the time is a big deal.

I thinking they would work well with an Icon. That way you can safely get your GUO or whatever that much closer turn two. It looks to me the upgrades are too expensive at 5pts/ model.

I think the poison upgrade is near-obligatory. You're talking about ~ a 12% price increase to roughly double how many wounds they do against T4 and T5 in combat, and moreso against tougher things.

Thanks for the input. That particular upgrade does seem to good to ignore, it is just a shame I don't like the long nose head. Do you guys think the extra shooting attack is worth it?

I honestly don't think it's worth it. They will get another poisoned 4+ attack, but by then you are putting way too many points into them for them to be really effective. I would look elsewhere for shooting



I would look at the upgraded character in the unit. Take an AP2 weapon (master crafted), and also take the upgrade for insta-death attacks. Use the master crafted to re-roll the one insta death attack and it will be AP2. Might actually be a viable strategy

Taking another look at them today, and after seeing this post, I came up with this:

The shooting attack is worth it, and I would take it.

They can either choose to move like cavelry or jet packs. So trudging through difficult terrain, and you know your going to end your movement phase in it, and take a diff. terrain test, opt to use the cavelry movement.

The shrouding usr and being in cover helps them to sneak around the board without losing too many wounds. And they move fast, better to get them where you need them.

I think I'd always run them with an icon and use them to get accurate deep strikes into enemy territory without much in the way of upgrades. The cavalry/ jet pack thing means they're fast, and if you can have them jumping between cover they're pretty durable from most shooting attacks.

I consider the poison upgrade to be mandatory. With the 3+ poison not being tied to their weapons the champion is free to take an AP2 weapon without worrying about losing the poison part of his attacks. 3+ poison at AP2 swinging before power fists can be really nasty.

Just to check, but in close combat doesn't the poison rule let you reroll to wound if your strength is the same as the opponents toughness or lower? If so, then assuming the majority of the time you're fighting T4, then poison 4+ should be wounding about 75% of the time, and 3+ around 88% of the time, so not that huge an upgrade in wounds.

It's def worth it on the champion to give the AP2 poison 3+ attacks tho.

Fully loaded with rot, death's heads, champ/blade, icon is 186 for three. And yes, it is worth it. I have a Nurgle DP escorting them and turn two I hopefully get grinders and GUO within 6 inches. Scary turn two and three.

Although AP2 weapon is indeed great, wouldn't be the 20 points nurgle isntant death upgrade even more awesome against models with multiple wounds?

im talking about nids wiith loads of wounds and no eternal warrior, or necron wraiths who don't care about AP anyway with their lame 3+ invul save.

5 attacks on charge, reroll to hit with divination, eventually reroll to wound through poison and every single unsaved wound is a kill. plus even more instant death attacks from the Venom sting of the rest of the squad

randomguy8891 wrote:
Although AP2 weapon is indeed great, wouldn't be the 20 points nurgle isntant death upgrade even more awesome against models with multiple wounds?

That's pretty much true, but I think you have to play it by ear depending on what your list looks like. With all rewards costing 10-20-30 points, sometimes you just can't squeeze those points in. That's why I don't run deaths heads on my Drones. Yeah it's an extra few attacks before they charge, but they are already going to rip and tear once they get into CC. I'd prefer to beef up my Heralds or GUO. Or even just squeeze in more Plaguebearers!

I like the lesser reward on my plaguebringer ... It really is a good troop Death's Head, HoW, and then poisoned assault. They can dish out the damage. Three drones with the 'bringer will finish off most tac squads with ease. They can hurt transports. I would rather the AP2 than an extra PB myself.

 felixcat wrote:
Fully loaded with rot, death's heads, champ/blade, icon is 186 for three. And yes, it is worth it. I have a Nurgle DP escorting them and turn two I hopefully get grinders and GUO within 6 inches. Scary turn two and three.

Well, I'd keep the upgrades as low as possible when you use the Drones as an escort.
I find they are a great unit in a mono-god Nurgle list since most of the army is lumbering (GUO and PB). Soul Grinders would be very helpful here too as the army would lack shooting.

Dundas wrote:
Just to check, but in close combat doesn't the poison rule let you reroll to wound if your strength is the same as the opponents toughness or lower? If so, then assuming the majority of the time you're fighting T4, then poison 4+ should be wounding about 75% of the time, and 3+ around 88% of the time, so not that huge an upgrade in wounds.

No, you’re right; for some reason I was overlooking that their Plague Swords already give them poison 4+ to start with. So instead of wounding 50% of the time against T4, and 67% against T3, like my original calculations, and that being buffed to 89% of the time for both by the 3+ poison upgrade, it’s actually 75% and 89% to start, so the poison 3+ upgrade is definitely NOT worth it for general use. My bad.

Ragnar, you're overlooking one key critical point...taking the Rot Proboscis disconnects the squad's poison from its plagueswords, which allows you to upgrade one model to a Plaguebringer, and give him an etherblade. You now have a model that effectively has 6 attacks on the charge (5 + master-crafted re-roll), with an AP2 weapon that wounds on a 3+. That seems to me to eminently worthwhile. If you don't do that, then you've just got the S4 AP2 power weapon.

Nice thought! Of course, it gets to be a lot of points in a large squad. How many models were you thinking in the unit?

It's a shame you need to take the proboscis on all models, unfortunuatly you can't just pick it for the leader, so it's at least a 15 point upgrade on a minimum sized unit.

It's a tricky one, it'd be obviously great against high toughness opponnents, but if you're mostly just ploughing through T4 or less models, it's probably not worth it.

Plague drones seem like a hard counter to the big bug tyranid lists at the moment. With a 3+ poison, insta-death, and the ability of a champ to take an etherblade you can pretty much one shot a tervigon (even with iron arm) or hive tyrant. That is something not to be dismissed based on their speed and survivability.

I run 6, rot probs, and considering the 1 attack that ID. I like the idea of the shooting attack but dont run it...12 shots, 6 hits, 3 wounds, it wont hit much. And over watch is non existent.

I like em, they are fast, tough, and against T3 you get rerolls to wound. Great screening unit also. And you can glance down tanks.