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I've an upcoming tournament at 1500 Pts. I usually use a Slaanesh-based army, however I want to give a try to a Nurgle-themed list. I also have the time to test it in several friendly matches.
Between models I own and the Christmas season assume I can field every model in the CSM codex.

This is the core of the army I want to try:

Total Roster Cost: 1148

HQ:
. . 1 Chaos Lord, Mark of Nurgle + Lightning Claw + Power Fist + Sigil of Corruption + Chaos Bike

Troops:
. . 7 Plague Marines, Plasma gun x2
. . 7 Plague Marines, Plasma gun x2

Fast Attack:
. . 5 Chaos Spawn, Mark of Nurgle
. . 1 Heldrake, Baleflamer

Heavy Support:
. . 3 Obliterator, Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War


The Lord on Bike goes with the Spawn unit.


How should I spend the remaining 350 points?
I do love redundancy, so I'd love to add another Chaos Spawn unit and another Heldrake, but that would not be legit because of 4 units in the FA slot. Sadly I do not have enough spare points for an ally detachment.

So what do you suggest?
The best bet is probably another Heldrake and some more bodies, however the only prominent CC threat in this list is the Lord + Spawn unit, so they will be targeted by the whole enemy army. I could add another Spawn unit, possibly with an attached Sorcerer, but honestly I do feel that 2 Heldrakes working in pair are so much more painful for the enemy than one single Heldrake, especially at this low point cost.
Suggestions?

Buy a couple of rhinos w/XA, Dozer and Dirge for 110 for the both. Now 240 left.

Exacts what the above said, and I would take 2 units of 2 oblits with mark of nurgle instead. That way you can keep 2 backfield for long range shooting and deepstrike 2 for melta goodness. Also grab a unit of 5 havocs with 4 auto cannons for popping transports and get a unit of 10 cultists for holding your back objective. You want your plague marines going forward taking middle objectives etc. this should bring you close to 1500.

What they said. That's a good example of a to-the-point nurgle list.

Also 2 rhinos with dozer and dirge is only 90 points not 110 so 20 free there.

Honestly I prefer not to use Rhinos, for 2 reasons:

1) To easily give away first blood if the other guy has easy access to Str 7+ weapons (and who doesn't...)
2) They protect Plague Marines from small arms fire. Paradoxically I WANT them to be shot by small arms fire. T5, 3+ and FnP make them really hard to kill with lasguns and bolters. On average, a 10 men tactical squad firing with 10 bolters from short range (20 shots) will kill just one marine. So they may end up soaking up a lot of fire that otherwise would be directed against assault oriented units that must reach close combat with as less harm as possible

But you will need units that can travel the board quickly to take your opponents objectives. The plague marines will be shot down before they footslogg it across.....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But you will need units that can travel the board quickly to take your opponents objectives. The plague marines will be shot down before they footslogg it across.....

That's why my opponent will kill my Rhinos in the first turn, so he will take first blood and my Plague Marines will still need to footslog across the board. In my opinion either you take 4+ Rhinos or you better not take them at all.

That said, I already tried 2x 7 PMs in two friendly games and I never felt they really need that mobility. I prefer to use them to defend mid-field objectives, where I can use both their durability and their decent mid-range firepower (I bet nobody loves to have to deal with 4 more plasma guns in the centre of the field..).

Should I really want to conquer opponent's objective... well, in the worst case scenario I'll start 36" away from the opponent's edge and the game will end at turn 5. 5 turns of movement are 30", not considering run and charges. That's plenty enough movement to capture any objective by turn 5, should I ever want to get enemy's objective (however, as I said, I prefer to use PMs to defend mine)

Yes but it will take them atleast 2 turns to reach the midfield, also what units are you going to use for line breaker? The relic? Etc?

Sad how we prefer them to be wrecked/blown up instead of shaken/stunned because at least we can still shoot.

SpankingApe wrote:
Yes but it will take them atleast 2 turns to reach the midfield

Aaaaand?
Last time I read the rules LineBreaker and objectives where considered at the end of the game, not turn 2

For the relic... well, I wonder how Rhinos can help with them. An AV 11 vehicle with the single most important unit of the game embarked inside?
Did you ever manage to have your Rhino survive the following turn? O_O


Guys don't take me wrong, I really appreciate a lot your input. I just don't think that taking 2 Rhinos in a 1500 Pts game is a competitive choice

I like your list so far. As the people above suggested, I would buy a cultist unit for backfield. Another Heldrake would be a good buy, as would some autocannon Havocs.

As for the Plague Marines, with or without a Rhino I wouldn't expect much out of 2 squads of them. They're too slow to provide early pressure and they don't have the firepower to be a serious threat in the midfield for their points cost. I think most armies will kill them from range or just ignore them. With the abundance of cheap high str, low ap weapons I don't think PM are what they used to be.

Take a heldrake and a nurgle daemon prince with MoN and wings, and that will let you move fast and kill gun lines.

The nurgle prince if will get a 3+ cover save while swooping and can assault turn 2 with your spawn/biker lord.

Rhinos get the 4 plasma guns into the game quicker, firing out of the access points parked in cover. Could drop the squads to 5 man to pay for the rhinos and more and keep the plasma goodness.

rhino's only have 2 fire points on the top hatch so only 2 of the plasmas could shoot? That means that if you sit in your rhino in cover the whole game then you can't bring your whole firepower to bear on your enemy whilst they're in the rhino.

you could disembark at the objective but then you'll be more vulnerable and as diablix mentioned, the rhinos will prob just give first blood to the enemy

Guys it seems that nobody is considering the fact that a unit of havocs, centurion, obliterators or whatever can easily pop a rhino in one turn of shooting without effort.
And I've yet to mention Taus, Eldars and melta drop pods...

But nobody with any sense deploys their rhinos in the open unless they are going first. Which gives you a turn to get first blood first. And I seriously think you are over estimating the power of 5 bolters. They will do nothing against most opponents you are shooting with plasma so loosing the bolter shots from shooting out the top hatch of the rhino isn't really an issue. Anyway it's your decision pal I'm only offering advice at the end of the day. If you don't want to take them then you don't have to and I wish you luck for whatever you go with.

lordra001 wrote:
rhino's only have 2 fire points on the top hatch so only 2 of the plasmas could shoot? That means that if you sit in your rhino in cover the whole game then you can't bring your whole firepower to bear on your enemy whilst they're in the rhino.

you could disembark at the objective but then you'll be more vulnerable and as diablix mentioned, the rhinos will prob just give first blood to the enemy

2x Rhino's, for 2x 5man squads of PM's with 2x plasma guns each.

First blood is a concern, but I think worth it.

Get some cultists adl quad gun and extra helldrake