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.

Hey guys so I am sat at my desk staring at some plague marines I brought last year (just cause I liked the models). Now what I want to know is how Viable is Mono Nurgle? I would be more interested in playing a fluffy list than a power gaming list so I will be setting myself a few restrictions

Only 1 unit of plague marines in the entire army (Mainly cause I like the thought of them as Plague Marines who have sworn loyalty to my Plague Lord
No spamming Drakes (will take 1 or 2 AT MOST if I take any)
No special characters (I hate Typhus lol)
So can I still make a viable list or is it going to be a uphil struggle?

A Nurgle-only list is more viable mono-god theme atm. Khorne, Slaneesh and Khorne aren't nearly as good, from a competitive/minmax perspective. A list of Typhus, Plague Marines and nurgle zombies works great, especially if you throw Epidemus in the mix.

BlaxicanX wrote:
A Nurgle-only list is more viable mono-god theme atm. Khorne, Slaneesh and Khorne aren't nearly as good, from a competitive/minmax perspective. A list of Typhus, Plague Marines and nurgle zombies works great, especially if you throw Epidemus in the mix.

Well I will only be running one unit of Plague marines as I dont really like spamming them lol. I wont be taking special characters mainly cause I prefere to make my own

You'd be free and clear without the plague marine restriction. If you're going to have all marked troops, Plagues generally outclass MoN basic marines. At 5 strong, they pay 30 points and a point of I to gain Fearless, Feel No Pain, defensive grenades, and a blight knife, as well as access to a second special. Not paying a hidden 10 for a champion makes the squad more cost efficient than the base ppm would indicate. With the default CSM unit, you're largely going to want to keep them cheap and plentiful, so you're fine if you don't bother marking them.

Obliterators and Spawn actually benefit rather nicely from a Mark of Nurgle, especially the former so they don't just eat one lascannon or melta shot and die. One cute thing you could do is have a Nurgle Lord on Bike with Spawn pals and have a giant rolling mass of T6 wounds with reasonable ability to get to melee.

One potential advantage of the nurgle list is that Plagues are tough enough to demand the high-strength guns to remove them with any speed. Essentially, they provide saturation alongside light mechanized units. Because they should be scoring and can also be made quite threatening with double specials, they become high priority as well, demanding the same weapons as would be aimed at your obliterators and other fire support elements. Basically, small arms like lasguns and bolters have no good targets in your list. This advantage goes away if you don't run all Plagues. However the disadvantage of this list type is the total lack of bodies due to expense, and lists that do bring heavy special weapon saturation, especially plasma, will be able to negate your durability.

Well at 2k im planning to run a Chaos Lord with MoN Termie Armour Lightening Claw and Power Fist along with Sigil alongside A sorceror on a bike with MoN Sigil +2 Mastery Levels and A level 3 Sorceror on bike with sigil and MoN. Im mainly going to be doing the army via sacred numbers so my unit will try to be in multiples of 7 or at 7 man

That is massive overspending on HQ and will only exacerbate the Nurgle list's problem with not having enough wounds on the board. Basic CSM units are also very unimpressive at 7 strong. They morale check at 2 casualties just like 5 strong and have 1 special just like 5 strong. You're buying nothing but a couple bolters and a tiny fraction more durability, and they still just might break and flee at the same damage sustained point. The problem is still present but less of an issue for plague marines as they are Fearless.

I agree Morale will be a problem however I think it is one I can over come. While I can see just how good Plague Marines are I dont really want to have more than 1 unit because I dont want my opponents to get bored of playing me. I also generally play more fun/ friendly games than competitive ones. However I am trying to make my list bith fun to play against but not a breeze in the park to walk over.

You overcome morale issues by making the squads 5 strong and completely disposable. You don't care if one breaks off the board because it cost less than 100 points. Or you make them gigantic and throw a Fearless IC in.

With 7 wounds of HQ costing almost 500 points and many inefficiently structured units, you will lose a lot of games to a single bad turn. You'll also lose to lists that simply took more stuff. If you consider that fun, have at it.

As an aside, the idea that fun and competitive games are mutually exclusive is a particularly irritating fallacy.

Very good. But make use of the chaos daemon book princes. Three of them are pretty cheap and rack up kills. I tried the seven man units....I'm finding nothing can mess with an opponents head like 20 plague marines with t5 and fnp.

Nurgle lists need to be blunt. Their troops are fantastic. USE THEM. Their monsterous creatures and special characters are fantastic. Use them. Since they have no fast attack really the princes with wings need to be a center point.

Mono nurgle is the Only Viable List*

Along with the nurgle mark in general.

My tip for an army General would be the following: Chaos Lord in Terminator armor, sigil of corruption, black mace, mark of nurgle and warp blood.
Hes pretty cheap if I remember correctly, but then again everything is cheap when you mostly Play apoc
For 2k games he should be fine though if you leave the sigil and the warpblood away.
He is retty much invincible if you stick him into a unit of MoN Terminators with power axes.

Virtually any list is 'viable' unless you want to whell up at every tournament and be sure of a win every time. The new codex CSM pretty much allows you to field a perfectly capable mono-god army of any of the four powers. Nurgle is absolutely fine, so are the other three.

I've been running mono-nurgle since 5th.

It works damn good. I simply load up on CSM with two melta guns and charge towards the enemy.

I don't run named characters that often, but when I do it's typhus and/or epidemus. As for my HQ choices, I like to run a nurgle lord on a bike, or a nurgle lord in terminator armor or with jump pack rocking the black mace, sometimes I take a sorcerer as well.

Furthermore I never run zombies. They are completely stupid. My cultists rock mark of nurgle and autoguns and deliver every time.

You can make an excellent list with your restrictions, please keep in mind that you don't need to be meta to win unless you're stupid.

To overcome moral issues, simply add the icon that makes the unit fearless, since nurgle's icon is useless.

I would focus on the usage of normal CSM doing their thing, and to stick to your 7 man units deal, make your sorcerer in terminator armor and attach to your 5 man terminator unit.

Consider the usage of maulerfiends and one unit of obliterators to assist your march across the field.

The current CSM book is a good, balanced codex and easily allows you to have good, fun games.