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My never ending list changes continue as I try to get something to work that I actually like, probably just in time for Thousand Sons to come out and ruin everything. But I work with what I have. I'm moving on from the Feculent Gnarlmaw, it is an incredibly good model that has been tied into a useless Detachment or has to pay an enormous tax to be put down and those are just too big of an ask in competitive Matched Play. I have been liking the Plagueburst Crawlers though, that said spamming nothing but them is not the way to go based on my general game theory, playing the army, and seeing the spam version played. So right now I'm looking to augment that spam list and smooth out some of the weaknesses.
Supreme Command Detachment
Epidemius
Poxbringer
Poxbringer
Poxbringer
Spearhead Detachment - Death Guard
Chaos Lord w/ Combi-Bolter (Warlord w/ Arch-Contaminator)
3 Myphitic Blight-Haulers
Plagueburst Crawler
Plagueburst Crawler
Plagueburst Crawler
Plagueburst Crawler
Spearhead Detachment
Sorcerer w/ Combi-Bolter, MoN
3 Nurglings
3 Nurglings
Plagueburst Crawler
Plagueburst Crawler
Plagueburst Crawler
2000/2000 Points | 6 Command Points
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So obviously I have a lot of Crawlers and they're the workhorse of the army. The Flamers solve any horde problems I'll ever run into and each tank has a Heavy Bolter+ on it to boot. While the Mortar often doesn't get love it is important to sniping out small units that like to hide either because they don't need LoS as well or because they're holding an Objective without exposing themselves. The Crawlers are also among the most resilient models/units in the game on their own two treads which means I can go second and not get smashed as most armies kill one of those tanks to one and a half a turn on average. On the table they act as my anvil, an opponent will have to deal with them and break themselves on them and then the other parts of my army can do their thing.
For some flavor I'm running a unit of three Blight-Haulers. I don't see these getting that much love but I think they work very well in this army. For one I'm lacking multiple damage attacks which can make certain types of armies an uphill battle. Blight Haulers are good for this as they have two of my favorite guns in the MM and ML. MMs cut through most saves for Vehicles/Monsters and with the 12" on extra damage they can stay behind my wall and still be reliable. MLs are not as good at anti-Vehicle/Monster but they're still good, however the Frag Missile gives me some more long-range anti-Infantry instead of just relying on Heavy Sluggers. The Haulers also have a decent melee presence which pairs very well with my buffs and is a needed part of my army with how badly an opponent will want to tie me up. The main drawback is they give up 3/4 Gangbuster Points for the ITC but given their resilience, speed, and the fact I can hide them or give them Cover with the Crawlers I think they'll hold up.
The rest of the army is largely support. Epidemius is an easy include for this army since all my work horses are Nurgle Demons, he's also a good Objective holder for my backfield which is something the army can struggle with otherwise. I've also taken three Poxbringers, these guys have been all-stars in every game as they're great in Combat, they buff the Flamers and melee for my other units, and their Psychic Powers are awesome. Very quickly they can get to WS 2+, re-rolling 1's and they walk around at S6, re-roll all wounds with a Power Sword. Usually I'll be taking Fleshy Abundance and Shrivelling Pox but past that I can take -1 to Hit, Mortal Wound output, or even Virulent Blessing which pairs very well with the Nurgle Loci. Having the Loci is not a huge buff but it helps the Flamers since they don't have to worry about hitting and it smooths out that potential lack of multiple damage.
Past that I have a Chaos Lord, he'll take Fugaris' Helm in 99% of my games just to help with re-rolls. The Sorcerer is there to make the Blight Haulers shine, Prescience is great on them as is Miasma of Pestilence. Thanks to the extra Poxbringer I can forego Miasma and grab Warptime, Death Hex, etc. Finally I have two units of Nurglings, these are the thing I'm most on the fence about but I wanted more Deep Strike denial, Objective presence, screening, and they can tie things up quite well. They do tend to die at times but I figure I can hide them and if LoS Ignoring guns are shooting them besides Mortars/Quad-Launchers that's a win for me.
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I think this list is better than the pure spam version of the army, defensively it is a bit weaker but offensively it's more varied and capable. Right now the big worry is Eldar for most competitive armies, as it will be for awhile, but I think the high Toughness, Invulns, and DR really dampens the Dark Reaper party. I wanted d6 Damage Weapons to handle Wave Serpents as they're extremely good at tying tanks up, that with the amount of Smite/Melee I have should really help. I'd love to get The Brass Collar in this list but I don't have access to CSM Strategems and getting them is not viable with this build, just have to make due with Deny the Witch.
Guard is the other worry as Relic of Lost Cadia is pretty stupid, people seem to be mostly running Catachan Leafblowers or the three Baneblade list though and those are much less scary. Multiple Shadowswords getting the Alpha would suck but what can you do about that? Flier Spam is another worry but that's lost a lot of luster, Eldar is running other armies and Hemlocks do not get the job done against me with all the Flamers. Fire Raptors are also bad against me just because I'm running a skew and outside of that you don't see many Fliers. For Chaos I'm worried about the mirror although I think I'm advantaged, mass Obliterators also sucks when they're screened properly but I haven't seen anyone really running that. Past that I can't think of anything else the list really minds, Deep Strike heavy armies are just too easy to play around and Index armies are waiting to get actual books. In general I'd be sad to see any really big time anti-Tank gunlines but again I don't see anyone playing that as gunlines are bad in the ITC and people aren't really playing Tanks/Monsters in abundance, although that can change.
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For changes I considered Hellbrutes or FW Dreadnoughts. The former lacks the Demon Keyword so it doesn't get my bonuses and is much less resilient, kind of harming the build, and the latter doesn't have good anti-vehicle guns like the Blight-Haulers do or just cost way too many points. I also like that the Haulers are a unit for Psychic Powers, I expect I can hide them or at least get them Cover most games so no penalty to move and shoot plus Prescience is pretty accurate, and they can use the Lord. I wouldn't mind some more Combat ability to get tanks unstuck or prevent repeated charges but I think I have enough. Multiple damage could also be higher but I have a lot of very reliable plinks. Plinks are also really good against some of the popular big things out there since they have an Invulnerable that's only 1-2 worse than their normal save so the AP on the Flamers for example is often just right.
Thoughts?
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