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I've been thinking about grabbing 6 of them... Or would I be better off just deep striking big blobs of 20 plaguebearers?

I currently run seekers, and have been looking at adding more fast units like drones, and khorne hounds

Considering using Belakor, fateweaver and a bloodthirster as my monsters, and running nurglings as my cheap troops.

Can anyone give me a run down of the best and worst units daemons have? Could you also help point out the best ways to deal with Tau and Eldar? I'm fairly new to the new daemons, so could use as much advice as I can get!

Plague Drones are way better then plaguebearers. Plaguebearers are bad because of how incredibly slow they are so much so that they will never charge anything you need them to. Plague Drones are good because not only do they move 12 but they also get a 2d6 jet jump. Combined with T5 and shrouded they are a good unit. Just take a Champion with an aetherblade of sorts and give them either 3+ poison or the instant death attack to give them an extra punch.

The jet jump would seem to be their major point of difference, presuming you have no other flying daemons. Depending on the type of terrain you normally play in, a jet jump can be super-useful.

I didn't even realize they did a jet jump. That's amazing. You guys should check out the list I brewed up in the army section.

Also pretty nice when the have cursed earth on them giving them a 4 up save

Plague Drones are part of one of the (many) deathstar units that Daemons get. A blob of 6-9 Drones + 2 Heralds of Nurgle, one with the FNP relic, and then they buff the unit up after rolling on Biomancy, fishing for Endurance. The Heralds also get Baleswords for ID so they can fight most things to death. It's weaker now that Stomp and D is more prevalent, but still good.

If you're going to run them on their own, though, I would recommend taking them in groups bigger than just the base 3. Even though they're pretty durable, they'll still go down pretty quick and also won't do much damage until their numbers get up.

I was gonna run 6, with no heralds. Is that viable?

Please check out my current lost in the army thread and let me know what you think!

Heralds slow the drones down a lot, and their biggest thing is their speed, so no heralds is fine. I used to run 2 units of 4 all the time. Tomorrow I am running a single unit of 7, which should be pretty fun. 6 with no heralds should do pretty good.

 gwarsh41 wrote:
Heralds slow the drones down a lot, and their biggest thing is their speed, so no heralds is fine. I used to run 2 units of 4 all the time. Tomorrow I am running a single unit of 7, which should be pretty fun. 6 with no heralds should do pretty good.

This is absolutely not true. If you think it is, please refer to the two Adepticon GTs that Nick Nanavati won with two heralds inside a unit of plague drones. You can conga-line the heralds back just fine and the drones will slingshot them forward into assault. It works perfectly fine. Just try it out instead of dismissing it without any experience. I have run my own daemons many times with the same unit and it is excellent. Absolutely top-tier.

You can run them without the heralds, but getting endurance is a pretty big deal. 4+ FNP and eternal warrior is a lot nicer than you might think. Plus, without the heralds, you can't get FNP on that unit at all. Goes such a long way to increase their survivability. Also, the heralds can bring baleswords for all of the instant death or just an AP 2 aetherblade (I feel like it's actually etherblade but I like the other spelling better)

No matter what you do, make sure you give them the rot probiscus and try and cast prescience on them once they get to combat. They'll pile wounds/hull points on things

So in my game yesterday, they were an MVP. I hit them with Forewarning (forboding?) the ++4 divination, and multicharged a dreadnought, landspeeder and drop pod, killing all of them. Then hopped around the back field, taking objectives and killed devs.

Luke, I'll toss 2 heralds in and give it a shot next week. Rot proboscis for life! Ill also look up those lists in adepticon. Losing fleet seems bad, and would the unit then be slowed by difficult terrain, or would the herald roll and only be able to move that far?

Screamers are better value for points. I may just be biased as a mono god Tzeentch player.


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I can see them bring good accompanied by some Flamers of Tzeentch and Bloodcrushers of Khorne.

I love running a Drone Star. Luke gave a pretty good rundown on the unit but I'd just add one tidbit of advice: Pregame, when you are generating powers and rewards, do you your psychic powers before rolling for rewards. That way if one or the other Heralds gets Iron Arm you can make sure to take the Balesword on that one. S8 AP2 with Instant Death is nasty. Otherwise I almost always go with the aetherblade for AP2.

Legally, you're supposed to roll rewards before powers, fyi.

 gwarsh41 wrote:
So in my game yesterday, they were an MVP. I hit them with Forewarning (forboding?) the ++4 divination, and multicharged a dreadnought, landspeeder and drop pod, killing all of them. Then hopped around the back field, taking objectives and killed devs.

Luke, I'll toss 2 heralds in and give it a shot next week. Rot proboscis for life! Ill also look up those lists in adepticon. Losing fleet seems bad, and would the unit then be slowed by difficult terrain, or would the herald roll and only be able to move that far?

They are not slowed; however the heralds are. So you can move the heralds as far as they're able, and then do the same for the drones (except it'll always be 12 for them) as long as you maintain unit coherency

 Rypher wrote:
Legally, you're supposed to roll rewards before powers, fyi.

Other way around actually. Chaos Demon Codex says to roll for Rewards "at the same time as you determine your Warlord Trait" (pg66 Codex: Chaos Demons). You roll your Warlord trait "immediately before you deploy the first unit your army" (pg124 BRB). Psykers "generate their powers before the game begins" (pg23 BRB). "Before the Game Begins" is defined as happening "before the armies deploy for battle" (pg17 BRB).

RAW you have to roll for Psychic Powers before doing Warlord Trait/Demonic Rewards. That's a pretty strict reading of the rules though, and I certainly wouldn't care if someone did it the other way around. But there's definitely no rule that says you have to do Warlord Traits/Demonic Rewards before Psychic Powers.

As for Plague Drones, the biggest benefit imo is that they are a fast moving Nurgle Unit. Outside of Demon Princes, they're the only other fast option you have for a pure Nurgle force (lol furies...). Their biggest flaw is that they're probably not pointed as competitively against Flesh Hounds or Seekers - they are certainly the most expensive of the Fast Attack slots. Objectively, Flesh Hounds or Seekers are much better costed units but that doesn't make Drones a bad choice at all. If only Heralds could take Drones as an upgrade - yes you can string out the coherency as mentioned above and still be pretty effective, but they would so much more flexible with a Herald that can keep up with them like the other Gods get.

A tried and true exhibit of Plague Drone might comes from their use as Banner wielding Deep Strike Hubs. Right now I have 18 Drones usually running 9 in a single list.

I usually give them a Banner, and the Champ has a Balesword. I usually give them Venom Sting simple because right now they have a better chance at inflicting multiple wounds through ID vs Gargants as they're only poisoned on 6+ these days. So if I roll 6s I want them to at least have a chance to deal 1+ wounds per ID D3 Wounds vs said Gargant.

The Banner works wonders at dropping in Soul Grinders with Torrent, Phlegm or GUOs / Heralds accompanying other Nurgle Units.

Nothing makes an opponent say "Ahh crap.." more like having 9 drones move 14-24" across the board in one turn then bringing in 3/4 of their entire army right onto their doorstep.

I use 2 groups of 3 drones with icon. Roll out 2 group of plague bearers with instrument/icon then they chain in a 2 grate unclean one. Basically lets me redeploys my slow army.

It’s amazing in ZM games!

oftenwrong wrote:
I use 2 groups of 3 drones with icon. Roll out 2 group of plague bearers with instrument/icon then they chain in a 2 grate unclean one. Basically lets me redeploys my slow army.

It’s amazing in ZM games!

Can Plague Drones even fit in a ZM board? o.O

I've only played it once or twice (great fun!), but it's pretty small, no?

Pending on how you do the wings they should. Plague drones are without a doubt, the most annoying models in the game to transport.

If a large base fits, a plague drone should fit.