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Beasts of Nurgle are Weapon Skill 3, Slow & Purposeful Infantry melee units that cost 35 points per model,

and for 5 points more you can get a Bloodcrusher which has: a 3+ armor save, a 5+ invuln save, 2 more WS, 1 more S, 2 more I, no Slow & Purposeful, and Furious Charge instead of Feel No Pain. For 5 points more.

Beasts or Nurgle's attacks are poisoned(4+). Bloodcrusher's attacks are AP3.

30pts vs. 35pts.

Someone please explain to me why on earth would I want to take Beasts of Nurgle. This seems like a massive oversight error that was made here, that has been flat out ignored by GW through the August update. Beasts have 1 finecast model. Juggernauts have a 3-model plastic kit and a finecast Herald model. Juggernauts of Khorne cost $6.58 LESS per model than Beasts of Nurgle do.

EDIT: All of the stats, saves, etc. that I have left out are the ones that are the same between the two (which are most of them)

This is no secret and has been true since the release of the Daemons Codex. Beasts of Nurgle are simply a bad unit, both in the wider game and when compared with a direct rival in the Elite slot.

Not only do they suck in comparison to Bloodcrushers, but also to the humble Plaguebearer. You essentially take 2 Plaguebearers taped together, replace 2 attacks for a D6, and lose Scoring for a 5pt increase.

Beasts are bad. The only possible way for them to be better that a Bloodcrusher is to involve Epidemius and a big Tally. Of course at that point, they are outshone by Plaguebearers and Nurglings.

Yah every elite chose is better then the beast and charging 2 Plaguebearers are better on average.

deviant cadaver wrote:
Yah every elite chose is better then the beast and charging 2 Plaguebearers are better on average.

Yeah. The extra attack means 4 attacks, and that would be considered fortunate for a Beast of Nurgle what the feth was GW thinking when they made this unit?

Beasts suck. Simple as that. Only reason to take them is if you REALLY like their fluff (miniscule as it is) and are okay with losing/having a useless unit.

I don't know the math but would a large squad of beasts not have a solid number of attacks?
7D6 sounds hopeful right?
Poison let's them tackle high T quite well.
2 wounds per model is good with feel no pain.

But I do feel the other options for the slot are superior.

The only exception could be in A tally list, I'm not sure how they actually play since I'm yet to hear about or see someone actually use them :p

Ok, they're bad, no question. The one use they have is tarpit or firesoak. They have a 5++ then a 5+ FNP role on two wounds with high Toughness. Why use an elite for tarpits? I dunno man, but you can tarpit TEQ, which nurglings can do for cheaper, but with the high attack avg. you can possibly kill some. So one thing i can think, teqpits.

Beasts in a tally list are awesome....two wound, fnp, t5 will wipe the floor with the khorn unit. Add in d6 attacks.... and a unit with noxious(2+).

They are very hard to kill.

Unless in a tally list, just no.

There is no use, what so ever, for Beasts of Nurgle, don't compare them to Crushers. Even with only AP3, Crushers are able to do far better than beasts.

but they are worse then 2 plague bearers for less points in the same tally list . so how are they better ?

They are completely outclass by other units. Now that you can take a double Force Org at 2k, there is no reason to bother with them. By the time you max out your other slots you are playing at least a 2k game anyway.

Fiends are also much better, for 5 points less you get Fleet, Move Through Cover, 1.5 more average attacks, Rending and 3 more initiative, plus WS 4 at the cost of FNP and 1 toughness.

Makumba wrote:
but they are worse then 2 plague bearers for less points in the same tally list . so how are they better ?

Stick one or two in front of a small squad of allied Raptors Marines armed with flamers, when the enemy attacks the Beasts, the Raptors jump and flame, before the Beasts move into combat and hold them up for a few turns.

Erm, why has someone said nurglings are better? 0_o
WS2, S+T3, W3, A3.

Ok, they dont have SaP, they also dont have FNP, and they are a swarm, so vulnerable to blasts.


Beasts of nurgle are nice, but as said, even in a tally list the plagues out do them.
2 Plagues do the same job for 5 points cheaper.
However, the bests will usually get more attacks.
Its easy to say "charging gives an extra attack" but yea, i dont really see SaP units getting the charge off all that often.

Also, if your running a tally list then plagues get buffed fast than the beasts of nurgle do.

To be honest though, they are only really there for possible convertions in my eyes.
Other than that there isnt any real use for them im affraid (which is sad to say)

Beasts used to be undoubtedly bad.

Now, they are a gamble. Against infantry, they can either suck, or instantly kill pretty much any troops they assault, depending on your roll for the attack amount. This is due to them now only rolling one dice for the whole unit. So if you roll a 6, all the beasts can attack 6 times+1 for charging if you did.

With epidemius, they can work. Especially once they get 3+ feel no pain. But without epidemius, yep, there are better options.

 Jackal wrote:
Erm, why has someone said nurglings are better? 0_o
WS2, S+T3, W3, A3.

Ok, they dont have SaP, they also dont have FNP, and they are a swarm, so vulnerable to blasts.

Nurglings can take advantage of the tally offensively better then just about anyone else. They are cheap, EW with 3 wounds and a 5++ save. the consent high number of attacks when you have the tally up is great. When you get to wounding on 2+ and no armor saves number off attacks is all that matter and for points nurglings do better then a beast rolling 6s for number of attacks

Vulnerable to blasts is not hard to work around and as you said they are not SaP so they can run to stop it the turn they come down.

 Jackal wrote:

Its easy to say "charging gives an extra attack" but yea, i dont really see SaP units getting the charge off all that often.

How does SaP effect charging ? You can't run and charge on the same turn so what does it matter?

Nurglings also dont have FNP, which with the tally is what makes most nurgle models so hard to kill.
T3, W3 5++ with VtB really isnt a massive help to anyone.

Your reading into it deeper then i ment.
I was simply stating that nurgle units are painfully slow, so you will usually get assaulted before you get the chance to do it.

They are also the cheapest unit in the book and have 3 wounds. Even things that hit on 3s and wound on 2s after the 5++ it is only a bit over a 1/3 chance to wound. After the daemon princes die it is nice to have a unit that can kill stuff.

They are like every thing else they have something they are good against you just have to pick your target. Why take a best over them when the best just cost more ?