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.

Here's my predicament..

I bought myself a new Daemons army consisting of 30 plague bearers, 1 HoN, 1 GUO, 15 Daemonettes, 30 horros and 5 seekers..

I have 2 Defilers no one in my circle of friends minds me proxying until I can buy the bitz for the upper body portion of a Soul Grinder..

I love the great unclean one, but Im thinking that Epidemius + Herald would be better =/

In anyone elses experience, have they worked better or worse than the GUO? (The Herald + Epi that is)

I have a picture in my mind that running a possibly 4 herald + GUO list at 1500 might be possible with a Screamerstar and 2 Heralds of Tzeentch, but it's untested and the point costs are quite in flux. =/

Anyone want to give out some pointers? My group of friends play mostly DE, Tau, DA, Crons, Tyranids.. I know from my last game, that SM wasnt much of a threat to my GUO as he walked across the board and ate people on the way, but Im feeling like DE and Tau will give me the most problems =/

I also have 10 hounds and Karanak if that might open up some possibilities.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just for more clarification on what my "Master plan" was,

The list I wanted to run was;

Epidemius
Herald Of Nurgle + Greater Reward + Fecundity + Palaquin of Nurgle
Herald Of Tzeentch on Disc + Portaglyph + Mastery Level 3
Herald Of Tzeentch on Disc + Grimoire + Mastery Level 3

20 Plague Bearers + Plagueridden + Greater Reward
10 Plague Bearers + Plagueridden + Greater Reward

9 Screamers

2 Soul Grinders of Nurgle with Phlem Bombardment

D-line

1500 points

So you have 1 big tough unit of plageubearers + herald, but what is it going to do? Walk across the board? They are so slow and not being able to run is a real killer for me. Deepstrike is an option but risky, of course.

I usually run plaguebearers as minimum squads without upgrades now and use them for objectives. And rely on faster units to do the actual damage.

Plaguebearers sit on objectives.

GUO's support and draw fire and kill in close combat (if they get there)

Your slow plaguebearers will never crush anything they can catch in close combat.

I most certainly would go with a GUO honestly. Introducing such a terrifying monstrous creature to the game changes your opponents entire strategy, as anyone who faces them knows.

He can singlehandedly carry an entire game for you if your enemies army isn't prepared for something with 7-10 toughness, and access to things like 4+ FNP and rerolls invulnerable saves is even scarier. In most cases I would recommend deep strike, he's too slow to catch things otherwise. Feel free to drop into cover and stuff too for silly shrouded shenanigans.

Another alternative is to just walk him up to field to soak up shots, which he's really good at doing. Always roll on biomancy and always take two greater rewards for maximum tankiness.

From my experience, it's best to look at Heralds of Nurgle as support units. They are fantastic for buffings your units with Loci and biomancy spells, or the grimiore. But they usually leave the sweeping to others. That isn't to say they CANT. They can get pretty scary with rewards and a palanquin, but unless you get lucky with ironarm they will never be something people will be too worried about.


Oh, and one more thing. Don't listen to people about Plaguebearers not being able to crush things in close combat. They need a little help, but I regularly do work with them. As with all models with one attack, getting the charge is super helpful, doubling your attacks. It's hard to do as Nurgle, being so slow, but it will make a big difference if you can pull it off.

If you want a combat squad of plaguebearers, there are three things that it needs. It needs an etherblade plagueridden, it needs a plague banner, and it needs a herald. The herald gives the unit FNP with his loci, and helps them out with spells, demonic instability, and by having an AP 2 weapon. As is fitting for chaos, the role of your squad changes depending on what your herald gets for his rewards and spells. The plagueridden has two attacks, and giving him a lesser reward gives him AP2 attacks, which is really really something this squad needs. The Plague Banner gives the whole unit 2+ poisoned attacks for one round of combat, but only once per game. Save this for when you think it will be most effective, which is usually the first round of combat whether you get the charge or not. Not a lot of people know this, but the banner effects the attacks from both the herald and plagueridden, even though they arent using their plagueswords. Master crafted weapons that wound on 2+ and are AP 2 is nothing to sneeze at. Especially with the opportunity to reroll to wound if your strength is equal or higher their toughness.

Even if you are taking a bare minimum squad to sit on a point, an etherblade plagueridden can be worth it. If the unit gets charged, it's probably going to die. But being able to take out two or three terminators from luck of the dice because of an extra ten points is so satisfying. Especially when it almost pays off the cost of the entire unit.

Biomancy and Telepathy are playgrounds for Nurgle units. Enfeeble is the best friend of plaguebearers and nurglings alike. Poison doesnt shine until you get that reroll to wound. Telepathy is great too though, as it can help eliminate another weakness of Nurgle, weapon skill. Invisibility, on top of boosting your cover save even more, makes enemies count as WS 1 against you! Terrify also removes the fearless rule, letting you scare things into submission with Fear. Dont forget the Fear rule. Fear is your friend.

Okay I'm done. I should sleep now.

Thank you OOTN, great advice

Good advice.

The one glitch is that Telepathy isn't available to most Nurgle Psykers. I think the only one that gets it is a Daemon Prince.

Everyone else gets biomancy and Plague.

Plague's primaris is pretty good. Nothing like toxic vomit-flamers to ruin a cover-camper's day...

Don't forget to look into Icons and instruments.

If you can get a unit with an icon down it reduces or eliminates scatter depending on daemoninc alignment. An instrument lets you pull other units from deepstrike without needing to roll.