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Hello. I'm currently looking into building a nurgle army with bikes, and plague zombies/general nurgle stuff just because it seems cool. I should note I have a decent amount of basic chaos marines from when I used to play when I was younger, as well as a couple of dreads and Abbadon. So my questions are

- what do you more experienced csm players think would be good for a 500 point beginning force? What
- do you think a bike/zombie list would be viable?

I originally ran full slanesh army... Emperor children...

I came to the conclusion that's without mixing it up a bit I would never win a tourney with my chaos....

So I crossed over to father Nurgle!

Not tested yet ... But close to what I want to run in 2 k... In Orlando shops allow forge world...


Mix Nurgle slanesh with daemon alies...

Hq
Typhus
Epidermus

Troops
5 death guard marines with 2 plasma guns

3 x 30 ish zombies

5 plague bearers

Fast

Storm eagle
3 blight drones

Elite
Slanesh termies with dual lightening claws, excess, lord with chain fist

Heavy
Obits 2 full squad Nurgle ....


Depending on points you can top off with a hell drake or a forge fiend....

Akirakill wrote:
I originally ran full slanesh army... Emperor children...

I came to the conclusion that's without mixing it up a bit I would never win a tourney with my chaos....

So I crossed over to father Nurgle!

Not tested yet ... But close to what I want to run in 2 k... In Orlando shops allow forge world...


Mix Nurgle slanesh with daemon alies...

Hq
Typhus
Epidermus

Troops
5 death guard marines with 2 plasma guns

3 x 30 ish zombies

5 plague bearers

Fast

Storm eagle
3 blight drones

Elite
Slanesh termies with dual lightening claws, excess, lord with chain fist

Heavy
Obits 2 full squad Nurgle ....


Depending on points you can top off with a hell drake or a forge fiend....

With FW allowance this looks intense, I'd probably take the Drake though.
Forge Fiend is a kinda soft target

Than again you have to hope you don't roll a 1-2 with Epi ^^

So I place typhus with a squad of zombies and run that across the board.. With one other squad as back up..


Obits will lay a nasty wall of fire in support of the zombie horde... While typhus makes it across the board with his zombies, oblits will also advance and fire... Advance and fire. I like them up close and personal... The closer they get the more guns they can choose from... And they are no slouches in close combat either.

The death guard marines are multi purpose...they can also act as bullet magnet or hang back on objectives... Only reason I really take them is to unlock the blight drones...

Then reserves hit and that's where the fun starts... Blight drones are very durable and carry a Nasty amount of fire power... With their large blast ap3 weapon they usually target infantry.

When the storm eagles comes out if its survives the interceptor guns that's where your opponent craps his pants. 2 twin linked las cannon, twin linked multi melta, and a vengeance luncher large blast s5 ap 4 assault 2!( (Base price storm eagle 205 points) yes less that land raider, faster more durable and can shoot all of its weapons most of the time... So that's usually going at targets with sky fire if not already neutralized, or where the fight is the thickest... It carries my beloved slanesh termies and drops them where most needed... They can only come out and assault the following turn.

That means storm eagle will have shot 2 times at the intended target and usually the termies will sweep away stranded survivors...
With 4 hull points a 5 up save from evading the storm eagle is very durable... I only lost it once in 7 games... To an lucky snap shot from a las canon shot... All passengers also perished in that tragedy but that day the payload was noise marines with no invuln. Lesson learned...

Finally the daemon allies... Well epidermus I will probably try and deep strike first wave on turn 1 and I ll keep him as far away from combat as possible... . And start counting the dead.... The more my Nurgle followers kill the more goodies epidermus gets me... Best will be feel no pain on 3 ups.

As for the plague bearers hopefully the battle goes well and I don't need them but its nice to have them as back up specially on objective mission... Drop them last min on an objective or some... Feel no pain toughness 5 fearless... They ll be a pain to kill... No pun intended...

I feel you should keep Epi with the PB's they'll count as 1 unit for Daemonic assault and it's some nice ablative wounds.

Really glad you put down some of the stats of that flyer. Sounds really good, and makes me wish it was "standard legal"

Akirakill wrote:


Finally the daemon allies... Well epidermus I will probably try and deep strike first wave on turn 1 and I ll keep him as far away from combat as possible... . And start counting the dead.... The more my Nurgle followers kill the more goodies epidermus gets me... Best will be feel no pain on 3 ups.

As for the plague bearers hopefully the battle goes well and I don't need them but its nice to have them as back up specially on objective mission... Drop them last min on an objective or some... Feel no pain toughness 5 fearless... They ll be a pain to kill... No pun intended...

That´s nto how Daemons work as allies. Check the FAQ, you don´t do waves but rather place them all in standard DS reserve. Also, Zombies don´t count as Followers of Nurgle since they don´t have a Mark of Nurgle (and can´t be given one), so I would seriously reconsider your army list if you plan on using Epidemus.

like i said i didn't try this just yet... and welcome all info.

i didn't know about FAQ so your right i would probably send Epi with the plague bearers... ... that kinda sucks that he might not come in for a while but i will have to try...

as far as Nurgle followers i know zombies don't count but they don't really do much damage, i absolutely wasn't counting on them to do the killing... I use them as a bullet magnet, wounds and shield for typhus to get across the board and objective holder...

the real killers will be Typhus, the oblits and the blight drones. They will make up a fair tally quick quick...

I ll be testing this list very soon... my Typhus is on back order at local store and so are the plague bearers. My blight drones are on the way from Russia... so thats going to take a while, I have converted 40 zombies already and am waiting on 80 more from England... and i pretty much got the rest...

might play test all this crap this week with my bud, and proxy zombies with Necrons soldiers.... etc...

only thing i m worried about now is Epi coming in to late to give me goodies... might have to trow in a AEGIS line with a come array or some... or get rid of allies all togheter...

You´ll have a hard time getting the Tally rolling with so few Nurgle Followers, but try it and let us know how you did!

Honestly I don´t get why people seem so obsessed about using Epidemus and Typhus together in one list since they´re such a horrible fit for each other...

How are they a horrible fit???

 Grimnarsmate wrote:
How are they a horrible fit???

1. They´re both very expensive HQ choices. Typhus at least delivers some punch, but Epidemus basically has to hide most of the game (and that for 110points + his retinue). Both quickly eat into your points, keeping you from taking more Nurgle followers to make use of the Tally.

2. Plague Zombies are good, but they don´t have a MoN. If you invest in Epidemus, you need to use as many MoN CSM as possible.

Unless you use the Destroyer Hive/Zombie/Tally abuse, I don´t see what Typhus gives you that a regular Nurgle Lord can´t provide (generally, but more importantly in an Epidemus list). I think both Epidemus lists and Typhus lists can work well, I just don´t see what the combination of the two provides...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sidguard wrote:
Hello. I'm currently looking into building a nurgle army with bikes, and plague zombies/general nurgle stuff just because it seems cool. I should note I have a decent amount of basic chaos marines from when I used to play when I was younger, as well as a couple of dreads and Abbadon. So my questions are

- what do you more experienced csm players think would be good for a 500 point beginning force? What
- do you think a bike/zombie list would be viable?

Just realized that no one has really answered the OP yet.

Nurgle bikes are amazing, they get into your opponents face real quick, deliver a punch with their special weapons and can take a lot to bring down with the MoN. Zombies are awesome at hanging back and holding objectives (in smaller groups) or providing meat shields for characters or more expensive units. They should work great together.

HOWEVER, in order to take Zombies you also need Typhus, who, at 200+ points is waaay to expensive for small games. I would suggest starting out with a Nurgle Lord (possibly on bike), some Plague Marines as troops and some Nurgle Bikers. Add some Havocs and Cultists with the MoN into your list and then work your way up, and use Typhus + Zombies only from 1250 points upwards.

grifter wrote:

 Grimnarsmate wrote:
How are they a horrible fit???

1. They´re both very expensive HQ choices. Typhus at least delivers some punch, but Epidemus basically has to hide most of the game (and that for 110points + his retinue). Both quickly eat into your points, keeping you from taking more Nurgle followers to make use of the Tally.

2. Plague Zombies are good, but they don´t have a MoN. If you invest in Epidemus, you need to use as many MoN CSM as possible.

Unless you use the Destroyer Hive/Zombie/Tally abuse, I don´t see what Typhus gives you that a regular Nurgle Lord can´t provide (generally, but more importantly in an Epidemus list). I think both Epidemus lists and Typhus lists can work well, I just don´t see what the combination of the two provides...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sidguard wrote:
Hello. I'm currently looking into building a nurgle army with bikes, and plague zombies/general nurgle stuff just because it seems cool. I should note I have a decent amount of basic chaos marines from when I used to play when I was younger, as well as a couple of dreads and Abbadon. So my questions are

- what do you more experienced csm players think would be good for a 500 point beginning force? What
- do you think a bike/zombie list would be viable?

Just realized that no one has really answered the OP yet.

Nurgle bikes are amazing, they get into your opponents face real quick, deliver a punch with their special weapons and can take a lot to bring down with the MoN. Zombies are awesome at hanging back and holding objectives (in smaller groups) or providing meat shields for characters or more expensive units. They should work great together.

HOWEVER, in order to take Zombies you also need Typhus, who, at 200+ points is waaay to expensive for small games. I would suggest starting out with a Nurgle Lord (possibly on bike), some Plague Marines as troops and some Nurgle Bikers. Add some Havocs and Cultists with the MoN into your list and then work your way up, and use Typhus + Zombies only from 1250 points upwards.

I dont see what all the rage about using zombie cultists with typhus is. Typhuses zombie rule removes their weapons, gives them FNP and fearless. Adding typhus to zombies gives them fearless already. So take a large unit of regular cultists, with MoN if you like to go with typhus and then have small scoring units of zombies. Otherwise use them as a bus for a non fearless character you want in combat. But putting typhus with zombies is a waste. They have more attacks with just regular cultists and they can be followers of nurgle to get the buffs from epi.

Akirakill wrote:
That means storm eagle will have shot 2 times at the intended target and usually the termies will sweep away stranded survivors...
With 4 hull points a 5 up save from evading the storm eagle is very durable... I only lost it once in 7 games... To an lucky snap shot from a las canon shot... All passengers also perished in that tragedy but that day the payload was noise marines with no invuln. Lesson learned...

You forgot the time my tank hunting BT termies took it down with the ADL/quad-gun followed with a lucky Krak-missile: it never got to kill anything and the sole survivor was Lucius...

Just thought I'd refresh your memory

Looking forward to shredding some zombies!

No Pity! No Remorse! No Fear!

Sidguard wrote:
Hello. I'm currently looking into building a nurgle army with bikes, and plague zombies/general nurgle stuff just because it seems cool. I should note I have a decent amount of basic chaos marines from when I used to play when I was younger, as well as a couple of dreads and Abbadon. So my questions are

- what do you more experienced csm players think would be good for a 500 point beginning force? What
- do you think a bike/zombie list would be viable?

On question 1, I propose the 2 alternatives :
Typhus
1 squad of plague zombies
1 squad of plague marines (2 meltas or flamers, MB for the champ, rhino)
450 points with flamers and minimum squad size. Upgrade squad size as you see fit.

or

MoN lord
2 squads of plague marines (2 specials, MB for champ, rhino)
400ish points without lord upgrades. Upgrade squad size and lord gear as you see fit.

On question 2, I assume you plan on taking large zombie units to camp the objectives while the bikers do the heavy lifting. If I am convinced Nurgle bikers are really baddass, I am not sure the zombies are very resilient. Sure, they are better than default cultists, but I'd trust plague marines more. If you want to travel that road, I'd go :
MoN lord on bike
PM squad
MoN bikers

Sidguard wrote:
Hello. I'm currently looking into building a nurgle army with bikes, and plague zombies/general nurgle stuff just because it seems cool. I should note I have a decent amount of basic chaos marines from when I used to play when I was younger, as well as a couple of dreads and Abbadon. So my questions are

- what do you more experienced csm players think would be good for a 500 point beginning force? What
- do you think a bike/zombie list would be viable?

Well, at 500 points, you can't do a biker list. Especially not nurgle. Too expensive.

However, I too am looking at adding bikers to an existing army. T6 Nurgle bikers are awesome, hard to wound, 2 can have plasma guns. Just phenomenal.

But here are the real show stealers. Plague Marines (PM). Zombies are too expensive, because you need Typhus, and he's Expensive.

PM though, here's what you get for 25 pts:

T5, FNP
Blight Grenades- offensive/defensive grenades, which take away the charge bonus attack when you are charged
Plague Knife- poisoned weapon. you get to reroll wounds against T4 and below. so good
I3- some people see this as a drawback. this works for me, as I'd rather be shooting my guns, especially rapid firing them. also, I'll take the rapid fire shots when they charge

These guys make a super resilient core for your army. Bikes are great for rapidly getting to those units you want tied up or can assault and win against, especially with them having relentless, and being able to shoot rapid fire bolters and plasma guns and still charge. Pair bikes with T6 spawn, and you can tarpit pretty much anything. I use obliterators to shoot the stuff that plasma won't deal with.

Have fun!

FYI: in the chaos daemon FAQ it says daemon ICs can't join allied units and CSM IC can't join daemon units. The only unit your Epidemus can join is Plaguebearers in your list. but thats ok.

I'm not sure where this talk of 'standard reserves' came from. The FAQ is pretty clear.

Q: If Chaos Daemons are taken as allies, or are purchased as a primary detachment that then has an allied detachment added to it, do they still deploy by Daemonic Assault? (p27)
A: Yes

ThatEdGuy wrote:
I'm not sure where this talk of 'standard reserves' came from. The FAQ is pretty clear.

Whoops, you´re right. Sorry for the confusion.

My experience has been to cut all non Nurgle units from tally lists zombies included.

NBikers are the new cool and can deliver serious and fast hits at a much reduced cost. I like bikes! Run as many as you have the models for!

For serious fun, throw in some Nurglings to the assault and relish their relevance after 25+ tally! They are also great tarpits even if they come down wave 1.

-NM

(nurglings are seriously, seriously fun)