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He is a daemon, mortal, and skaven bridge to say the least.

The Harbinger itself is a daemon, but the command ability only affects Mortal Nurgle.

 Sal4m4nd3r wrote:
This really just helped sort out a LOT of things that have been plaguing ( ) me.. Things I just couldnt put into words. I recently sold all my khorne and switched to the one true god, Papa nurgle. So swimming in a sea of warscrolls, abilities and options for lists..This helped..me at least. I'm sure others as well.

I'm glad it was helpful! I'll think about starting a Nurgle tactics thread in the near future

By gum you're right!

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Nurgle does have a lot of synergy, but still less than Khorne or synergy-heavy battletomes. There are a ton of abilities that work differently on or don't affect models with the Nurgle keyword, but the actual effect of that is usually small. Mortal Nurgle gets it pretty good with the Harbinger's awesome command ability, while Nurgle Daemons work extremely well with Glottkin as the general (he doesn't work as well with Mortal Nurgle models, interestingly enough). Pestilens is mostly better off on its own, with the plagueclaw catapault as an exception. However, the plagueclaw is costed a bit high and (foulrain battalion aside) isn't as good as some other chaos artillery options, with one extremely notable exception.

Epidemius. This is why people see Nurgle as having synergy. His buffs affect all Nurgle regardless of sub-faction, and while they provide the biggest buff to the more elite Mortal Nurgle models they also benefit daemons tremendously. Pestilens doesn't have much to gain from Epidemius, but he gains quite a lot from plagueclaws. Plagueclaws are very good at accumulating wounds for the tally, and are the only dedicated ranged option with the Nurgle keyword. A maxed-out tally kicking in on round two or three tends to be game winning for a Nurgle player unless the enemy can kill Epidemius within a round or so.

What does this all add up to? Nurgle does have strong synergy and is surprisingly responsive to being played well; it has a great deal of options for mid-range or reasonably competitive games. However, synergy just doesn't cut it against the outright cheese-levels of OP that top tournaments (this is why Khorne falls flat at the highest levels as well). While certain models like the GUO are very cheap (the GUO shows up in tournament lists quite often) the actual troops vary between medium and sub-par for their points. They can more than make up for this in synergy most games, but at the very top they simply can't compete and thus prevent mono-Nurgle forces from really taking the cake. However, the vast majority of us aren't actually aiming for that level, which means Nurgle has quite a lot to offer.

I should probably make a Nurgle guide or something...

Other than Epidemus I wouldn't call any of that Synergy since they are simply command abilties. Every generals command ability in the game affects other units, so at best this puts Nurgle on par with even the worst armies in the game. An buff is not synergy... Synergy is how abilties, units and skills interact with each other to become exponentially more powerful than used separately. One of the best examples is the Sayl, Bloodsecrator, Bloodstoker, WoK Bloodthrister, Bloodletter bomb. Or the Lord Celestant, Lord Castallent, Knight Vexillor, Retributor bomb. Many lists have these synergy combinations (Seraphon, Ironweld, Fyreslayers) that are also crippling. The skills all stack and work with each other to deliever a more powerful blow.

The problem with Nurgle is Epidemus is the only cross mortal/daemon synergy unit. However, he can be hard to use, especially since you likely will get zero bonus until turn 3 (since you only determine his buff at the begining of the hero phase). You will need to fit an expensive plagueclaw (which makes Blightkings no longer battleline) and some luck that you hit and they have units 11+ to do 2D6 damage (They are terrible against multiwound units). Epidemus can be very inconsistent, in some games he is great and other games useless for so many points. In contrast, a good synergy combination (like the ones I listed above) all work regardless of what you are playing against and have no prerequisites.

Other than these Nurgle heroes no units interact with each other that is useful. If given a grade for synergy Nurgle would likely get a D+ to C- when compared to other armies. This is made worse since the mortal/daemon/pestilence units do not work with each other and actually make your list worse if you mix them. However, Nurgle looks so darn cool who cares (especially the FW GUO).

I do appreciate you starting Nurgle tactics thread. I could add some ideas since I have played many tournaments with Nurgle. The entire purpose of previous comments were that someone said that in future books mortal/daemon key words shouldn't work together since there is already massive Nurgle keyword synergy. I hope we can agree they should Nurgle/Mortal/Daemon/Pestilence keywords should indeed work together and hopefully do since they are lacking synergy compared to many armies.


P.S. I don't want to hash out that the GUO is to cheap since as you know I think is complete nonsense and it is actually overcosted and only viable Nurgle daemon hero option.

Not all command abilities are created equal. The ones I mentioned are much more powerful in a nurgle army than the basic inspiring presence, but useless outside of one. That's synergy with Nurgle models. Nurgle has some of the best command abilities in the game, which is what accounts for most of the synergy I am speaking of. You may personally disagree but when I am speaking of Nurgle synergy I am including the command abilities, since on the whole these are included when the community talks about synergy.

Epidemius is not the only cross mortal-daemon synergy unit, the Glottkin and Orgotts Daemonspew both have command abilities to affect any Nurgle. Even those aside, virulent discharge from Putrid Blightkings synergizes with any Nurgle, Morbidex Twiceborn buffs Nurglings, the Lord of Plagues can harm any non-Nurgle models nearby (even your own), the Harbinger of Decay can trigger the locus ability on daemon units, and the GUO's spell can heal any Nurgle.

You're opinion on the GUO is well and good, but I am going to continue saying it is OP for the cost because the evidence I see supports that conclusion, and your previous points to say otherwise were unconvincing to me. I would encourage anyone to try things out on the tabletop if they disagree; something like 750 points of enemies vs 3 GUO (720 pts) should be easy to arrange and more than adequately demonstrate my point.

tactics threads are great. The more the merrier.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Not all command abilities are created equal. The ones I mentioned are much more powerful in a nurgle army than the basic inspiring presence, but useless outside of one. That's synergy with Nurgle models. Nurgle has some of the best command abilities in the game, which is what accounts for most of the synergy I am speaking of. You may personally disagree but when I am speaking of Nurgle synergy I am including the command abilities, since on the whole these are included when the community talks about synergy.

Epidemius is not the only cross mortal-daemon synergy unit, the Glottkin and Orgotts Daemonspew both have command abilities to affect any Nurgle. Even those aside, virulent discharge from Putrid Blightkings synergizes with any Nurgle, Morbidex Twiceborn buffs Nurglings, the Lord of Plagues can harm any non-Nurgle models nearby (even your own), the Harbinger of Decay can trigger the locus ability on daemon units, and the GUO's spell can heal any Nurgle.

You're opinion on the GUO is well and good, but I am going to continue saying it is OP for the cost because the evidence I see supports that conclusion, and your previous points to say otherwise were unconvincing to me. I would encourage anyone to try things out on the tabletop if they disagree; something like 750 points of enemies vs 3 GUO (720 pts) should be easy to arrange and more than adequately demonstrate my point.

I guess as usual we will have to agree to disagree. I think the Nurgle command abilities are above average at best. The Harbinger command ability only has a 7" range, protects only mortal units, and in a game where you are always fighting over spread out 2-4 objectives makes it hard to use. The Glottkin command ability is amazing, however costing 480pts (one of the most expensive in the game) makes his usage very limited. The biggest problem with all these command abilites is you can only use one in a list. This is the reason they shouldn't be considered synergistic. The examples I gave earlier all work with each other and are not command abilties, but hero abilities. This allows rules interaction and multiplies the usefulness of other abilities creating synergy. If for example any of these nurgle command abilities became hero abilities we wouldn't have this problem. However, all these command abilities fight for a single spot in your list. Arguing that command abilties give an army synergy would be like saying Nurgle has synergy because it can use the GHB Unpredictable Destruction. Anyways, lets hope the a new Nurgle battletome will change all of this and give some critical missing unit roles, heroes with non-command abilties, mortal/Daemon interaction, and unit warscroll interaction. These changes with about an average 20-point per unit price reduction might allow them to compete in tournaments again.

Finally, we will both agree Nurgle or GUO's are overpowered when we start seeing them consistently win any tournaments. Or in the case of the GUO we see 3-4 of him being run in any serious tournament lists. I would pray someone would take the 3-4 GUO list, that has the damage output of a wet noodle in a tournament against me. As I have told you many times the only reason we see GUOs in Nurgle Daemons is because literally they are the only option with a command ability and a Tallyband formation requirement. Of course you could always use the 100pt Herald of Nurgle heroically lead your Nurgle daemon army

In regards to your 750-points challenge; off the top of my head test 60 Bloodletters w/ Bloodsecrator, or 20 Wraithmongers, or 80 spear skeletons w/ vampire lord, or 80 meat axe wielding bloodreavers with Bloodsecrator, or 15 Retributors w/ Lord Celestant and and see who wins.

I still think a Nurgle tactics thread is a good idea.

I'm having trouble on figuring out how to respond here.

You said Epidemius was the only Nurgle synergy, that is false.

You said no Nurgle units interact with each other beyond heroes, that is false.

You say that mixing mortal/daemon/pestilens units don't work together after I provided several examples of how they can.

You say that command abilities don't count as synergy because there can only be one of them, which doesn't make any sense when you classify Glottkin or Epidemius as synergy; if someone only has one then I guess it isn't synergy?

You insist that the GUO is mediocre because it isn't seen consistently winning major tournaments, a standard by which nothing in is overpowered because no single unit 'wins tournaments'. Then you follow up saying we only see the GUO because of its command ability and the tallyband battalion, except we have seen it in top tournament lists where it was not the general and not in that battalion; GW's recent tournament showed us that.

I know we had our disagreements in the other thread and I was impolite there, but I really want to put that behind us. If you want to raise some reasoned arguments then please do but this is reading like you are disagreeing with me just for the sake of doing so.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I'm having trouble on figuring out how to respond here.

You said Epidemius was the only Nurgle synergy, that is false.

You said no Nurgle units interact with each other beyond heroes, that is false.

You say that mixing mortal/daemon/pestilens units don't work together after I provided several examples of how they can.

You say that command abilities don't count as synergy because there can only be one of them, which doesn't make any sense when you classify Glottkin or Epidemius as synergy; if someone only has one then I guess it isn't synergy?

You insist that the GUO is mediocre because it isn't seen consistently winning major tournaments, a standard by which nothing in is overpowered because no single unit 'wins tournaments'. Then you follow up saying we only see the GUO because of its command ability and the tallyband battalion, except we have seen it in top tournament lists where it was not the general and not in that battalion; GW's recent tournament showed us that.

I know we had our disagreements in the other thread and I was impolite there, but I really want to put that behind us. If you want to raise some reasoned arguments then please do but this is reading like you are disagreeing with me just for the sake of doing so.

Ok I will be straight forward in my questions/responses.
-Does Nurgle have some synergy? Yes but it is terrible when compared to other armies
-Is Nurgle competitive in tournaments? With the current points values in GHB no not even close
-Are Nurgle armies very cool looking which draws many people to play them? Yes absolutely!

If you want to say command abilites count as synergy, then sure thing, i dont agree, but it doesn't really bother me. However, by that definition then every army in AoS has synergy. Nurgle lists in comparison to other armies are just on the bottom of the synergistic list. is If you know a tournament, competitive, synergistic Nurgle list please post it and give us an example. Maybe there is some Morbidex/Nurgling/Epidemus/Glottkin combination competitive list we haven't seen used yet.

In regards the GUO we are never going to change each other's minds on the topic. I think we have just been playing in different tournaments, against different people and against different lists. I have played in some very large events, against lots of very skilled players, and I just have not seen what you are talking about. The tournament player using the GUO you cite so often (Terry Pike), also thinks the GUO is overcosted, and should be reduced in cost 20-40pts. The only reason he took the GUO to the event was because he did lots of conversion work on it and wanted the extra tournament painting score points. In the next tournament he is replacing the GUO with the much better Verminlord Deciever.

Moving on, I know you are a Nurgle player so if you (and/or other Nurgle players reading this) could respond here about what Nurgle you use, how it does, etc, that would be great. If you could elaborate on what synergy you feel Nurgle does have, and what it's comparable to in other armies, that would be great too (as a sidenote, could you post a link to where Terry Pike was talking about his experience with the GUO? I would be very curious to read what he thought even if I disagree).

As for others, I'm sure there are people out there.who have played against Nurgle, so if someone has experience in that manner I would love to hear a perspective from the other side of the table, so to speak!

Hi! I'm salamander. I'm new to the nurgle club. Just got my
First models in the mail today! Starting out with blightking heavy list. So effective synergy is going to come from +to hit and re-roll to hit. So far, from what I see the only sources are coming from allegiance ability and the command trait (can't decide if great destroyer or lord of war is better), fair sorcerer lord and epidemius. The formations all add re roll to wound which is decent but less effective..plays less to blightkings strengths. Correct me if I am not seeing a to hit synergy.

From a new s perspective, festus seems like a great unit with an awesome spell to decrease rend. He can soften up a target before the baddies close the gap and makes them hit harder! Maybe a Balwind vortex would be nice for him!

But really the chaos sorcere rs demonic power spell is the tits. I wish I could run the blightguard formation with him instead of the rotbringer sorcerer.

The basic Chaos Lord with mark of Nurgle is a great support for blightkings. Daemonic power goes great with them and he can give another unit re-rolls saves of 1 in addition to that.

NinthMusketeer wrote:Moving on, I know you are a Nurgle player so if you (and/or other Nurgle players reading this) could respond here about what Nurgle you use, how it does, etc, that would be great. If you could elaborate on what synergy you feel Nurgle does have, and what it's comparable to in other armies, that would be great too (as a sidenote, could you post a link to where Terry Pike was talking about his experience with the GUO? I would be very curious to read what he thought even if I disagree).

As for others, I'm sure there are people out there.who have played against Nurgle, so if someone has experience in that manner I would love to hear a perspective from the other side of the table, so to speak!

I will post some lists in a bit and share some of my experiences. For Nurgles limited synergy, you really have two options go Daemon or go Mortal. You should pick one or the other then choose either battalion warscroll, Tallyband (Daemons) and Plaguetouched Warband (Mortal). It is best you don't mix Daemon/Mortal Nurgle armies. The exception to this you may get away with is Epidemus and Plagueclaws, but if you take them in a Mortal list you Blightkings no longer count as battleline, which really hurts. Depending on which army you choose I would recommend Harbinger for Mortal lists and GUO for Daemon lists (since you need him for Tallyband).

In regards to Terry I can't share his post since our discussions were messaging each on Twitter. We both know each other previously when I lived lived in the same area of the England and attended the same tournaments. He mainly posts over on the TGA so you could always go over there and ask him his thoughts. However, as I said he would advocate the GUO being 200pts and only took it in the most recent tournament to help his painting/modeling scores. He will be using a different general in future tournaments. I am not sure about his 30 Plaguebears, but I can ask. As far as the GUO goes I think 200 is to cheap and would recommend 220pts for him.

Sal4m4nd3r wrote:Hi! I'm salamander. I'm new to the nurgle club. Just got my
First models in the mail today! Starting out with blightking heavy list. So effective synergy is going to come from +to hit and re-roll to hit. So far, from what I see the only sources are coming from allegiance ability and the command trait (can't decide if great destroyer or lord of war is better), fair sorcerer lord and epidemius. The formations all add re roll to wound which is decent but less effective..plays less to blightkings strengths. Correct me if I am not seeing a to hit synergy.

From a new s perspective, festus seems like a great unit with an awesome spell to decrease rend. He can soften up a target before the baddies close the gap and makes them hit harder! Maybe a Balwind vortex would be nice for him!

But really the chaos sorcere rs demonic power spell is the tits. I wish I could run the blightguard formation with him instead of the rotbringer sorcerer.

Yea this is the problem with the blightkings they have synergy or ways to add +1 to hit. One of the most frustrating things with Nurgle is units seem to be split on getting benefits from 'hit rolls' while other benifit from 'wound rolls'. This makes it very difficult to build lists that support each other.

-------------------------

Here was my list I took using the SCGT comp. I was able to do well with it, winning a warm up tournament, and ranked #6 at SCGT. I have translated the points to show a comparison of how they compare to GHB. In total, this list cost 2,600 SCGT points and you were able to use a side board and allowed to summon in units for half points. Overall, it was a solid list and though it still lacked damage output and speed. In comparison this exact same list in the GHB now costs 3,100 points (approx 20% increase) which has resulted in it not being competitive anymore. With the new GHB points, missions, and rules I struggle to beat my 10-yr old playing his optimized Khorne tournament list.

1x Glottkin (500)
1x The Great Unclean One (220)
1x Epididmus (100)
2x Herald of Nurgle (120)
30x Plague Bearers (300)
9x Plague Drones (540)
10x Putrid Blightkings (320)
2x Plague Claw Catapult (240)
9x Nurglings (120)
3x Beasts of Nurgle (140)
---------------------
2,600 points

SInce the GHB I have been working on a new list and below is the best I have come up with. It maximizes the benefits from Tallyband and focuses solely on Daemons to maximize benefits. It is no where near as good as the previous list, but I hope to take it to adepticon unless GHB2 is released prior to giving a much needed points reduction. If the points move closer to the SCGT comp points then It should allow me to take an additional 260pts to get two plagueclaws. If Nurgle moves closer to the PPC comp points it would then cost 2,345 and I would have to remove several more units.

Tallyband of Nurgle battalion- 100
GUO-240 (Chaos Talisman)
Epidemus-180
Herald of Nurgle-100 (Favour of the Gods)
30x Plaguebearers-
10x Plaguebearers- 100
10x Plaguebearers-100
6x Plague drones-440 (or 2 units of 3)
6x Plague Drones-440 (or 2 units of 3)
----------------
2000 points

OK, the Tallyband and Plaguetouched battalions will certainly be 'touched' on, they definitely seem to be solid options to build from. I'll also look into what's available for maximizing blightkings hit rolls, and I'll have to try out Vortex-Festus myself to see how that works!

I have been working a few hours on a viable Plaguetouched battalion and so far really can't see the path forward to make it a competitive. Right now all I can come up with is:

Plaguetouched Battalion (140)
Harbinger of Decay (140)
Nurgle Warshrine (200)
4x Units of Blightkings (720)
--------
1200pts total

This list has room for 2 more units to be in the formation. I am not sure what other options are good choices to take that help fill out the list. All the units must be mortal to ensure you can keep those blightkings as battleline. You will need more heroes for sure and more troop models are invaluable for grabbing objectives. I can't see this being better than the tallyband list I posted previously.

I have also been looking at the Blightguard formation. It grants a much better benifit since the -1 to hit also works in the shooting phase, you can reroll 1s to wound, and it 40pts cheaper. However, you have to take a Lord of Plagues and Rotbringer Sorcerer as a requirement which are pathetic heroes.

I see the Skaven have run amok in AoS and there are bombs everywhere I think I need a mpore detailled description of those.


I'm not really an Aos player, but I'm slowly (slowly!) working on warbands for all the Chaos deities to use in skirmish systems and Nurgle is my fave in Fantasy and 40k, so I have way more ideas for him and might actually try to make a whole Nurgle army -especially if 40k or AoS gives us some sort of plague zombies- so I'm all ears for a Nurgle Tactica. A good discussion with back and forth already exists in this thread.

I won't ever get really competetive, what with converting a blob of 20 zombies to look like reanimated swamp corpses and five crow...things...to use as furies for the warband since my battlefield is a blighted swamp with a sunken, corrupted village (soon with a flooded Garden of Morr, I.hope) a good model and strong theme is worth it.

But there has to be a way to get a decent but flavourful list out of basically unlimited Blight Kings (hey, they have useful parts for Plague Marines) with twelve or so built, a sorc (with ideas for two more) which looks a lot like Epidemius, the mentioned furies and zombies, a spawn/ogre (with ideas for more if they get recommended, they will be built, just a question of priority), three heroes on foot, Gutrot, regular warriors and hounds I can borrow from Fantasy, a SC Demons of Nurgle, a big (BIG) carrion bird (KD:M Phoenix) without a count-as so far and GuO. Hero on horse, and marauders are spooking through my brain already. I have Skaven, but only plague monks and censer bearers for Pestilens, none of those fancy new plastic kits.

Willing to use count-as and regular Slaves wit MoN and allying in Death/Destruction stuff, though the zombies can just as well be marauders. Or left out, but I like regular humans(ized) models next to big 'uns like BKs, otherwise those look like normal dudes in 32/34 mm scale.

The plague touched war and seems more of s hassle to cram it into a list then a natural formation to me. The blight kings won't ever benefit from the main ability grandfathers favor) as you would need to pay for 15 and use 14 to get the least amount of wasted points in order to achieve the 7 model req. it's to great of a point sink in one unit and you will never ever get all of them into combat. Even though the blight guard uses sub par characters it seems to me to be the superior warscroll. battalion. The rot sorc can just mystic shield his way to the front and the lord of plagues isn't ideal.. but not worthless in combat.

I plan on using mortals and Desmond. But I think I'm going to summon in my demons onto objectives. Use he blightkings as shock troops and see how far I can take that. Use that premise as a starting point. Anybody have success with this strategy? The rot. Ringer sorc can be the one summoning demons/mystic shield, the chaos sorc with MoN can buff blighties and festus can get into the game using his AWESOME leper spell. Maybe he gets a balewind vortex.

@Sal4m4nd3r I personally have never seen a successful Mortal Nurgle list yet. I would like to think there is some hidden gem out there. The biggest problem is that all the units don't really work well together. An example is that a Nurgle warshrine allows reroll to wound, but all the blightking abilites are based on your hit rolls. I will agree the leper spell is pretty cool but I haven't found a way to include him in any of my lists yet.

Also remember that the balewind vortex now costs 100pts so it almost doubles the cost of the wizard that uses it.

The advantage of the plaguetouched battalion is to not be locked into four blightking units and those two hero options; note the 'Nurgle units' in a plaguetouched formation can be characters, allowing someone to get -1 to hit in melee on a Harbinger, maggoth lord, etc. However, Blightguard is also a solid option for reasons mentioned above; an army using Blightguard and summoned plaguebearers (like the strategy you mentioned Sal4m) was the winner of a local tournament I went too. While they won't be topping major tournaments these lists can still be decently competitive for a skilled player, certainly enough to go to a tournament and have a good time!

Are you talking about tournament play or just normal play?

I can't speak for tournament play but I know our campaign guys that field mortal nurgle armies do well. Certainly not getting stomped every game. I'll admit they aren't super easy mode like some other lists, but does a list have to be super easy mode for it to be considered viable?

What I am saying is a mono Nurgle list is unlikely to show up here but a skilled Nurgle player could still go to a tournament and not get totally crushed. Were it a smaller scale or local tournament I could easily see a Nurgle army doing well. Finally, in a normal non-competitive setting Nurgle is perfectly fine if not above-average. I think overall its a solid faction that has a lot of options, particularly outside the competitive scene. There are a few options that IMO cost too much or too little but overall I think Nurgle is a good example of where each faction should be in terms of effectiveness.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
What I am saying is a mono Nurgle list is unlikely to show up here but a skilled Nurgle player could still go to a tournament and not get totally crushed. Were it a smaller scale or local tournament I could easily see a Nurgle army doing well. Finally, in a normal non-competitive setting Nurgle is perfectly fine if not above-average. I think overall its a solid faction that has a lot of options, particularly outside the competitive scene. There are a few options that IMO cost too much or too little but overall I think Nurgle is a good example of where each faction should be in terms of effectiveness.

I don't think saying they shouldn't get "crushed" if you go to a tournament or are "above-average" against non-competitive players are ringing endorsements. I would agree that if you are a very skilled Nurgle player and are in a tournament you can do potentially well at smaller events. However, just be aware that it is like bringing a knife to a gun fight and you are likely putting yourself at large disadvantage. If you want to play Nurgle, you don't do it because it is a competitive army. Most players to include myself just love the models and enjoy the endless conversion opportunities. It absouletly is not a tournament list, but a casual hobby list. Hopefully this will change with a Nurgle Battletome that give it some new units and points reductions

If you want a competitive list as possible, I think Nurgle Daemons using Tallyband is the best option. It does suck when you face armies such as Stormcast/Seraphon that get damage bonuses against daemons. At least Kroak does not get the 3 waves of his spell anymore! Right now until Nurgle gets more mortal options it will likely be a list with numerous holes in capabilities. I do think they have the best modeling/ conversion options. If anyone has some solid MORTAL lists I would love to see them. I do think we can both agree they are a fun army to play especially if you can get Epidemus at 21 kills.

Now I understand this conversation and past conversations a lot better.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
The advantage of the plaguetouched battalion is to not be locked into four blightking units and those two hero options; note the 'Nurgle units' in a plaguetouched formation can be characters, allowing someone to get -1 to hit in melee on a Harbinger, maggoth lord, etc. However, Blightguard is also a solid option for reasons mentioned above; an army using Blightguard and summoned plaguebearers (like the strategy you mentioned Sal4m) was the winner of a local tournament I went too. While they won't be topping major tournaments these lists can still be decently competitive for a skilled player, certainly enough to go to a tournament and have a good time!

Thank you so much for this, ninth. As stated before, I'm a nurgle newb and was hoping the general focus I want to build towards wasn't a dead end. I don't think most care about fielding a list that is cream of the crop of the tournament scene. People that want to build those type of lists already know what armies are capable to doing so. I think, Broxus, that when people ask if such and such is competeive or strong they are referring to if an army can do reasonably well in a local tournament setting or if they could show up at any shop on any given day and put up a good fight against any given list.

I am not trying to throw a wet blanket on this smoldering fire of nurgle talk! Question: which command ability is more useful with a blightguard formation? The offensive buff of the glotkin or the defensive buff from the harbinger? (Regardless of the point costs and other benefits...just the bailities.) I guess it would definitely depend on what else is in the army :/ just trying to keep the discussion going.

I can say with experience the Glottkin's command ability is very good especially with its massive range. The key to using him is to have him stay behind our lines. His army buff is more important than his attacks. He does have a handy ranged attack and good range so he can do some damage. Also, his fleshy abundance spell can turn Plaguebears into an unbreakable wall. Not to mention they get 2 attacks back each!

I have enjoyed seeing people charge their big units into 30 Glottkin buffed plaguebears only to see them do no damage and lose the unit in the return attacks. If you have Epidemus and can get them the +1 save, rerolling 1s to hit and wound, keep them in cover, a Glottkin mystic shield and fleshy abundance they can become an unmovable 300pt unit!

I haven't ever really run the Harbinger even though I own the model. Only having a 7" command ability seems problematic in games with objectives everywhere.

The harbinger will get you a lot more bang for your buck with blightkings. It knocks off not only a third of mortal wounds they would take but a third of regular wounds they would take as well. A 4+ save is solid but even rend -1 'renders' that pretty unreliable. The sheer consistency in that one is exponentially less likely to roll poor saves AND poor 'ward' saves is worth something itself as well. Compared to that, one extra attack on a model that already has 3 isn't quite as good.

Glottkin are much better with daemons than mortals because of that; Blightkings get 33% extra attack power from the command ability, while a plaguebearer's attack power is doubled, and a plague drone's is approximately doubled as well. Similarly, the Glottkin's signature spell is lackluster on 3-wound blightkings but absolutely amazing on 1-wound plaguebearers. (A 30-man plaguebearer unit is probably the most advantageous unit in the game to cast fleshy abundance on.)

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
The harbinger will get you a lot more bang for your buck with blightkings. It knocks off not only a third of mortal wounds they would take but a third of regular wounds they would take as well. A 4+ save is solid but even rend -1 'renders' that pretty unreliable. The sheer consistency in that one is exponentially less likely to roll poor saves AND poor 'ward' saves is worth something itself as well. Compared to that, one extra attack on a model that already has 3 isn't quite as good.

Glottkin are much better with daemons than mortals because of that; Blightkings get 33% extra attack power from the command ability, while a plaguebearer's attack power is doubled, and a plague drone's is approximately doubled as well. Similarly, the Glottkin's signature spell is lackluster on 3-wound blightkings but absolutely amazing on 1-wound plaguebearers. (A 30-man plaguebearer unit is probably the most advantageous unit in the game to cast fleshy abundance on.)

I agree, I wish the Glottkin had been a daemon unit instead of mortal since it works better in those lists. In my opinion The Glottkin is one of the only Nurgle underpriced units. He should likely have a slight cost increase.. In the right lists he can literally double your damage output. Though he is a good value he is still very expensive so you will likely need to find ways to keep him safe against shooty armies. He must always be played very carefully. It may be worth it to take a GUO and Festus to have ways to heal him up in the hero phase.


One unit that I think can potentially do very well in a MORTAL Nurgle list is 40 marauders w/shields. If you have two units of 40, with a Harbinger, a Nurgle warshrine, and Plaugetouched Battalion the result would be a very hard to kill in close combat for only 240pts. The problem becomes if the Harbinger dies then they will quickly fall apart so it would be very important to protect him.

Taking a Plaguetouched Battalion formation 2 marauder units , 4 blightking units, a warshrine, and Harbinger may be a good foundation for a Nurgle mortal list costing only 1680 points. It will require lots of painting however .

For strictly casual play I Like to mix daemon and mortal together, even add beastmen and skaven for an old-school realm of chaos feel, but I do not deny it will not be an amazing army but it will look cool and have a good story and that is really the only reason I play AOS.

What artifacts do you guys like to use?

I'm a big fan of the Chaos Runeblade for the +1 attack.