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Hi everyone,

I'm strongly considering a return to WH40k, and I'm looking to create a competitive TAC list centered around tougher, stompy models.

This is my first stab at a Nurgle-zilla list, centered around Daemons, CSM, and Death Guard, using the Nurgle keyword to link them all together. I took Epidemius, and every single model in the list contributes to, and benefits from, the tally, with the exception of the Chaos Sorc. Beyond the tally, my rationale for the unit selections is about being able to saturate the board with high S, high T, high W threats, neutering small arms fire to a degree, and just being dead hard to lift models through Invulns, Healing, and Disgustingly Resilient.

Rotigus, Spoilpox, and Epi will ride along with the Plaguebearers. Spoilpox buffs their movement, Rotigus buffs, heals, and replenishes numbers via his Horn. They get the Loci bonus as long as 1 of the 3 hangs around. Epi marks the tally, and makes everything in the list stronger.
The nurglings either sit outside the enemy deployment and serve as speed bumps, or go in for late game objective disruption.
The three defilers work their way up a flank and either run as fast as they can to melee scary vehicles, knights, or other high toughness/wounds stuff, and/or use their guns to trim down larger infantry blobs.
The Daemon prince goes and finds something to murder, and serves as primary flyer defense.
The Sorc and mutilators Deep strike into the backfield and chew up something juicy, or chase after vehicles.
The two Lord Discordants either chase larger vehicles or go murder Teqs and Meqs.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I'm missing, or what's going to cause me problems. I expect the list to falter a bit against flyers, but I'm not sure how much of an issue they are these days in the competitive landscape. I'm considering dropping Rotigus down to a Demon Prince, and finding some additional points in order to field a HelTurkey.

Thank you in advance for any advice, comments, and/or criticisms!



++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Daemons) [44 PL, 823pts] ++
+ No Force Org Slot +

Chaos Allegiance: Nurgle

+ HQ +
Epidemius
Rotigus Fleshy Abundance, Nurgle's Rot, Virulent Blessing, Warlord, Warlord Relic: Horn of Nurgle's Rot, Warlord Trait: Tenacious Survivor
Spoilpox Scrivener

+ Troops +
Nurglings 3x Nurgling Swarms
Nurglings 3x Nurgling Swarms
Plaguebearers Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos, 29x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden


++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Death Guard) [42 PL, 630pts] ++

+ HQ +
Daemon Prince of Nurgle Miasma of Pestilence, Malefic talon, Wings

+ Heavy Support +
Defiler Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon
Defiler Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon
Defiler Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Reaper autocannon


++ Supreme Command Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [31 PL, 546pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +
Legion: Red Corsairs

+ HQ +
Lord Discordant on Helstalker Autocannon, Mark of Nurgle, Helstalker: Techno-virus injector
Lord Discordant on Helstalker Autocannon, Mark of Nurgle, Helstalker: Techno-virus injector
Sorcerer in Terminator Armour Chainfist, Death Hex, Force sword, Mark of Nurgle, Warptime

+ Elites +
Mutilators 3x Mutilator, Mark of Nurgle

++ Total: [117 PL, 1,999pts] ++

Not a bad first attempt at a tough nurgle list, just a few things I'd change. I've tried out a couple of Epididimus lists and often use a lord discordant or two.

I'd just swap around a few characters. Swap the termie sorcerer for Huron. He's cheaper, gives re roll ones and make a much better warlord than Rotigus. He gives you 1CP and 2 relics, you can spend the CP on the chaos familiar stratergem if you need warptime and deathhex too. And best of all he's not targetable by shooting.

I'm not sure if deathguard are the best legion for your defilers as you'll be loosing out on buffs from lord discordants. You'd probably be better going full Corsairs.

Sloppity bilepiper will be much more useful than scrivener. He needs to buff at least 60 plaguebearers to be worth it imo. Bilepiper will give you 35 points, an advance and charge on rotigus and will help get that 1 one the banner.

Finally mutelators are just bad in this edition. Go for oblits or grester possessed instead.

Hi Small_Gods,

Thanks for the advice. I like Huron, but he doesn't carry the Nurgle keyword, so won't fit with the army assuming I understand the Keyword/Faction system properly.
Agreed about Deathguard. This was a holdover when I was still considering their FA and HS units.
I do like Bilepiper over the Scrivener, thanks!
I felt like the Oblits were decent, but the ppm seemed high for what you get. 3 Muts for the same(ish) price seemed a better deal.

How about the following:
Dropped the Sorc, Muts, and a Lord Disco
Added another Demon Prince
Added a warpsmith for cheap heals on the Vehicles
Added a bunch of flamers to help with horde management
Added a HelTurkey with baleflamer


++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Daemons) [43 PL, 788pts] ++

Chaos Allegiance: Nurgle

+ HQ +
Epidemius
Rotigus Fleshy Abundance, Nurgle's Rot, Virulent Blessing, Warlord, Warlord Relic: Horn of Nurgle's Rot, Warlord Trait: Tenacious Survivor
Sloppity Bilepiper

+ Troops +
Nurglings 3x Nurgling Swarms
Nurglings 3x Nurgling Swarms
Plaguebearers Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos, 29x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden


++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [40 PL, 685pts] ++

Legion: Red Corsairs

+ HQ +
Warpsmith Bolt pistol, Combi-flamer, Flamer, Mark of Nurgle, Meltagun, Power axe

+ Heavy Support +
Defiler Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Mark of Nurgle, Reaper autocannon
Defiler Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Mark of Nurgle, Reaper autocannon
Defiler Combi-flamer, Defiler scourge, Mark of Nurgle, Reaper autocannon

+ Flyer +
Heldrake Baleflamer, Heldrake claws, Mark of Nurgle


++ Supreme Command Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [27 PL, 526pts] ++

Legion: Red Corsairs

+ HQ +
Daemon Prince with Wings Malefic talon, Warp bolter, Warptime, Wings, Nurgle
Daemon Prince with Wings Malefic talon, Warp bolter, Warptime, Wings, Nurgle
Lord Discordant on Helstalker Autocannon, Mark of Nurgle, Helstalker: Techno-virus injector

++ Total: [110 PL, 1,999pts] ++

No problem man. It looks a lot better. Only thing I'm not sure about is the 1 lord discordant, if he gets picked off all you defilers are worse. Maybe drop the helturkey and add another to the spearhead.

You should look at the soulforged pack specialist detachment from Vigulus Defiant. The warlord trait lets your LDs move 14+d6 and there's a strat to let one of your defilers advance and charge too. So if you have 2 LDs and 3 defilers that's a fairly solid core.

You can take Huron in a Red Cosairs detachment but daemon princes are always a decent choice.

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Daemons) [43 PL, 774pts] ++

Chaos Allegiance: Nurgle

+ HQ +
Epidemius
Rotigus Fleshy Abundance, Nurgle's Rot, Virulent Blessing
Sloppity Bilepiper

+ Troops +
Nurglings 3x Nurgling Swarms
Nurglings 3x Nurgling Swarms
Plaguebearers Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos, 27x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden


++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [45 PL, -1CP, 746pts] ++

Legion: Red Corsairs
Specialist Detachment [-1CP]: Soulforged Pack

+ HQ +
Lord Discordant on Helstalker Autocannon, Mark of Nurgle. Helstalker: Techno-virus injector
Lord Discordant on Helstalker Autocannon, Mark of Nurgle, Master of the Soulforges, Mecha-serpents, Warlord, Helstalker: Techno-virus injector

+ Heavy Support +
Defiler Defiler scourge, Mark of Nurgle, Reaper autocannon
Defiler Defiler scourge, Mark of Nurgle, Reaper autocannon
Defiler Defiler scourge, Mark of Nurgle, Reaper autocannon


++ Supreme Command Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [26 PL, 480pts] ++

Legion: Red Corsairs

+ HQ +
Daemon Prince with Wings Malefic talon, Warptime, Wings, Nurgle
Daemon Prince with Wings Malefic talon, Warptime, Wings, Nurgle
Warpsmith Bolt pistol, Flamer, Mark of Nurgle, Meltagun, Power axe
Warpsmith Bolt pistol, Flamer, Mark of Nurgle, Meltagun, Power axe

++ Total: [114 PL, -1CP, 2,000pts] ++

That looks tons better. Tough and deceptively fast plus almost everything is benifitting from Epididimus. If you het 5 kills (not the hardest thing in the world against most lists) that's t8 defilers and rotigus, t7 LDs and daemon princes and t5 plaguebearers. They're not going anywhere fast! Plus putting daemon forge on any of those daemon engines will turn them into a blender!

My thoughts exactly. The only thing I'm still pondering is Defilers over Maulerfiends. Defilers seem like the winning choice, but I like the Maulerfiend models so much more...

What are your thoughts on anti-horde? I feel like I'm going to struggle against any of the horde meta players out there. Suck it up and understand that you can't ever be truly TAC?

Filthy_Sanchez wrote:
My thoughts exactly. The only thing I'm still pondering is Defilers over Maulerfiends. Defilers seem like the winning choice, but I like the Maulerfiend models so much more...

What are your thoughts on anti-horde? I feel like I'm going to struggle against any of the horde meta players out there. Suck it up and understand that you can't ever be truly TAC?

Well I don't think there's too much in it. Maulerfiends have more attacks, more likely to get into combat quicker because of 10" move and are 10 points cheaper. But defiler has extra shooting, is better anti armour and 2 extra wounds. Because you're moving and maybe advancing you might not be able to shoot or at best hit on 4s with LD support. So I think you could use maulerfiends without it crippling your list. Plus they are great looking models.

Only other option is FW decimators, I like siege claw and strom laser but they aren't as tough as fiends or defilers.

You can never be fully TAC. But you have a lot of attacks in your LD and daemon princes. So it shouldn't be too bad except when someone rocks up with 200 orks or 90 plaguebearers. But then nobody enjoys that!

Yeah, I felt the shooting pushed the Defilers over to the win column. I may never use the shooting, but having the option is important to me.

Thanks again for all of the advice, Small_Gods, I really appreciate you taking the time!

No worries mate, good luck with the list!

Maulerfiends are not good the damage potential is much better with the defiler and you will want the shooting