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Hi all.

I'm looking at getting into WHFB and starting an all Nurgle Daemon army.

My question is, will it be any good?

I am not looking at being competitive (yet), just want to start playing and getting into it.

Looking at running about 60 Plaguebearers, Plague Drones, Beasts with maybe some Nurglings and Epidemius

Feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks again!

The list that you describe is top-tier competitive, and is horrible to face. Epidemous himself is the key in that chain. Otherwise, Nurgle Demons are a very solid and powerful choice of army, one that shoudln't present too many problems to learning how to play the game.

Yep, Nurgle Deamons are a solid build, especially in the list you're describing. More competitive lists will pack a Lvl4 (which I'd recommend you have anyway) and two Khorne Skullcannons (which aren't necessary at this stage - especially if you want to stick to Nurgle).

It's perhaps not the best army to learn the game with, since there's no shooting and not many different unit types, but it has a nice learning curve and should serve you well in more competitive games should you want to have any in the future.

Daemons are pretty solid all around

 The Shadow wrote:
Yep, Nurgle Deamons are a solid build, especially in the list you're describing. More competitive lists will pack a Lvl4 (which I'd recommend you have anyway) and two Khorne Skullcannons (which aren't necessary at this stage - especially if you want to stick to Nurgle).

It's perhaps not the best army to learn the game with, since there's no shooting and not many different unit types, but it has a nice learning curve and should serve you well in more competitive games should you want to have any in the future.

Actually, many of the better players are leaning away from the level 4s in the demons book. They're simply too fragile. As they can't join units, they're very vulnerable to cannons and whatnot.

I personally prefer the herald list atm. Sure, it's more vulnerable to superspells, but it's more concise, and has no easy points for cannons to take.

Thanks for the feedback!

@thedarkavenger What do you mean by the Herald List?

What makes Epidemius so great? Second, why is Nurgle top-tier? Is it the Toughness bonus?

 B0NES wrote:
Thanks for the feedback!

@thedarkavenger What do you mean by the Herald List?

The herald list takes advantages of the locii on the units. I.E. 600 points of plaguebearers with regen. Or something to that effect.

 jreilly89 wrote:
What makes Epidemius so great? Second, why is Nurgle top-tier? Is it the Toughness bonus?

It's the -1 to hit that is armywide, combined with the pseudo-unbreakable. And Epi is so good for the tally.

Basically, Nurgle daemons are a bugger to kill, and never run away. This means that they can grind down almost anything. So that makes them a very strong army, especially when nurgle- specific units are among the best in the Daemon book.

When you take Epidemius, you then get a truly disgusting list of bonus rules from the Tally (kill models, get benefits). Soon you end up with units cavorting around with T6 and -1 to hit, basically making them impossible to kill. No fun.

 B0NES wrote:
Thanks for the feedback!

@thedarkavenger What do you mean by the Herald List?

The 'Herald list' is just that, your only characters are simply Nurgle Heralds.

Typical set-up for such a list is;
- Herald of Nurgle w/Lv1 + Lesser or Greater Locus + Fencer's Blades (General)
- Herald of Nurgle w/Battle Standard + Greater Locus + maybe Lv1 is pts allow

Still, for Nurgle the GUO is always a solid choice as a combat beatstick... Just don't sink pts into wizard levels to keep him cheaper, and make sure to give him the Balesword, and then watch as he demolishes most 'Monstrous' type units and lighter monsters. (ie: anything below a Dragon or War Sphinx!)

 jreilly89 wrote:
What makes Epidemius so great? Second, why is Nurgle top-tier? Is it the Toughness bonus?

As mentioned, Nurgle's biggest asset is the -1 to-hit in close combat. Plus, Beasts of Nurgle are flat out broken for their cost, while Plaguedrones are among the better Monstrous Cav units in the game.

Still, with the domination of Elves nowadays, Slaanesh is tops for DoC when it comes to competitive play, due to their speed and Caco Choir being a literal F-you button that can wreck even the stupid 'I-win' Banner unit.
Beasts & Drones still play key roles, but mono-Nurgle has been knocked out of the #1 spot for DoC.

Ignore post, thought we were talking about 40k.


yeah, seems solid. Epidemius is nasty.

Experiment 626 wrote:

 B0NES wrote:
Thanks for the feedback!

@thedarkavenger What do you mean by the Herald List?

The 'Herald list' is just that, your only characters are simply Nurgle Heralds.

Typical set-up for such a list is;
- Herald of Nurgle w/Lv1 + Lesser or Greater Locus + Fencer's Blades (General)
- Herald of Nurgle w/Battle Standard + Greater Locus + maybe Lv1 is pts allow

Still, for Nurgle the GUO is always a solid choice as a combat beatstick... Just don't sink pts into wizard levels to keep him cheaper, and make sure to give him the Balesword, and then watch as he demolishes most 'Monstrous' type units and lighter monsters. (ie: anything below a Dragon or War Sphinx!)

 jreilly89 wrote:
What makes Epidemius so great? Second, why is Nurgle top-tier? Is it the Toughness bonus?

As mentioned, Nurgle's biggest asset is the -1 to-hit in close combat. Plus, Beasts of Nurgle are flat out broken for their cost, while Plaguedrones are among the better Monstrous Cav units in the game.

Still, with the domination of Elves nowadays, Slaanesh is tops for DoC when it comes to competitive play, due to their speed and Caco Choir being a literal F-you button that can wreck even the stupid 'I-win' Banner unit.
Beasts & Drones still play key roles, but mono-Nurgle has been knocked out of the #1 spot for DoC.

The herald list features multiple kinds of heralds. I know quite a few people who include the mage hunter seeker or the autopass dangerous terrain mindrazor seeker unit. Don't underestimate frenzied bloodcrushers either.

As for the most competitive builds, mono god always gets the shaft. Especially with legions, unless you go ascendant nurgle. A Legions army with core made of 3 horror blocks, 3 baby beastmen shamans all camped around a herdstone means that you always win in the magic phase. And also, lore of death is still the best lore in the game, and works wonders with demons.

 thedarkavenger wrote:


As for the most competitive builds, mono god always gets the shaft. Especially with legions, unless you go ascendant nurgle. A Legions army with core made of 3 horror blocks, 3 baby beastmen shamans all camped around a herdstone means that you always win in the magic phase. And also, lore of death is still the best lore in the game, and works wonders with demons.

Mono Slaanesh is really, really solid, though it has a huge learning curve.
Mono Nurgle with the unkillable Epi "tactic" and a pair of MoN Grinders is also top level, being that it only really fears Purplefun.

I'd also argue that the DoC Lore of Slaanesh is the game's outright best magic lore, as it has multiple ways of controlling the Movement phase plus an obscene damage dealer in Caco Choir...
Even the 'I-win' Banner unit can be rendered useless by Lore of Slaanesh, and is more effective at keeping it contained than Final Trans or the Kairos-only Dwellers.

Experiment 626 wrote:

 thedarkavenger wrote:


As for the most competitive builds, mono god always gets the shaft. Especially with legions, unless you go ascendant nurgle. A Legions army with core made of 3 horror blocks, 3 baby beastmen shamans all camped around a herdstone means that you always win in the magic phase. And also, lore of death is still the best lore in the game, and works wonders with demons.

Mono Slaanesh is really, really solid, though it has a huge learning curve.
Mono Nurgle with the unkillable Epi "tactic" and a pair of MoN Grinders is also top level, being that it only really fears Purplefun.

I'd also argue that the DoC Lore of Slaanesh is the game's outright best magic lore, as it has multiple ways of controlling the Movement phase plus an obscene damage dealer in Caco Choir...
Even the 'I-win' Banner unit can be rendered useless by Lore of Slaanesh, and is more effective at keeping it contained than Final Trans or the Kairos-only Dwellers.

Slaanesh magic is better than death? Okay. Sure. Better than Purple sun, or a 24" no go zone for your opponent's characters.

Again, mono god gets the major shaft. Each god offers something. Whilst Tzeentch can't really cast, the horrors add to the magic phase. Whilst Slaanesh isn't very tough, seekers are quite good at getting into positions to threaten mages with the challenge locus. That, combined with Lore of Death makes the army control the entire movement phase. You're complaining about the Wardbanner, and that's valid, but there are ways round it. Demons players have found them, I'm sure others can too.

Sorry to reply after a long absence (working OS..) but I've made good inroads with the army and wondering on best Lord choice.

Obviously thinking about GUO or DP of Nurgle.

At the moment, I have the following units (grew rather quickly).

2x 30 Plaguebearers
3x Nurglings
3x Beasts of Nurgle
3x Plaguedrones (looking at possibly another 3)
Herald of Nurgle
Epidemius

Looking at playing up to 2500 points.