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Have a bunch of old Nurgle Daemons and was thinking of making an Epidemius list with some of the new Death Guard units

1999 pts

Battalion:

HQ:
Epidemius
Herald of Nurgle
Herald of Nurgle

Troops:
Nurglings x3
Nurglings x3
Plaguebearers x30 icon

Outrider:

HQ:
Daemon Prince of Nurgle, wings, blades of putrification

Plague Drones x6, icon, instrument
Foetid Bloat-drone, blight launcher
Foetid Bloat-drone, blight launcher

Spearhead:

HQ:
Sorcerer on Palanquin, force staff, Miasma of Pestilience, unknown other spell (none seem particularly useful for his role)

Elite:
Plague Surgeon, Fugaris Helm

Heavy Support:
Plagueburst Crawler, Slugger, Entropy Cannon
Plagueburst Crawler, Slugger, Plaguespitter
Defiler, Reaper Autocannon, Heavy Flamer

Plan is park Big E and 1 herald in cover or plaguebearers,bombard form long range with Bloat-drones and Plagueburst Crawlers

Advance with DP, Drones and maybe Defiler depending on enemy, use sorcerer and surgeon to cover the Heavies, when i get the chance summon Other Herald for +1 str

Nurglings to either block deepstrikes, camp/sieze objectives early, or tie up enemy shooting assuming I get first turn.

Not sure which herald to give virulent blessing and which to give fleshy abundance

I have been thinking something similar, but hey why not use nurgle oblits? They are perfect epidemius buffers.
Also a the heldrake is great first turn charger and also a great buffer. Do you have oblits?

Why blight launchers?

I think this would belong to Army lists.

Other than that:
I don't see the use of the surgeon. I'd give the helmet to the Prince to increase his aura.

Also: Be aware that the sorcerer on palanquin does not use the contagion discipline but the Heretic astartes discipline (don't know if battlescribe has fixed that yet). So you can give him warptime, prescience or death hex, which are probably the strongest powers in the game.

I ran something similar recently and won two games. One against a Guard tank regiment. Nurglings are great. Plague bearers are meh unless you can get them into Combat. I’m not sure how the blight drones would work.

Not sure I would take the second herald of Nurgle either. I would also ditch the plague surgeon. Maybe you can fit in a Daemon Prince with wings instead of the sorcerer on palenquine.

Thanks for the replies. The Palanquin sorcerer was primarily to use miasma on the defiler which, in conjunction with smoke launchers would give me a turn to move it to a more strategic position or in general make it tougher as well as smite/bog down deepstrikers and the surgeon was to give the crawlers and sorcerer DR rerolls.

Seeing as my only real melee force was the plague drones I figured being able to space the crawlers out more would let me deny deepstrike more effectively hence the surgeon helm

Idea for the blight drones was mobile fire support for the prince/plague drones that i could park in cover/on objectives No real use for blight haulers as i don't have poxwalkers, PM, or Cultists and the blight drones don't really seem much better then plague drones in cc but I'm open to changes.

Obliterators? Only seen their index sheet but i haven't heard much good about them unless you run them as slaanesh for a double shot stategem

I think the other drone options synergise better. They are S user so can go up by 2 with epi and a herald.

Epidemius is all about getting the tally up ASAP. You NEED alpha strike with him. You need to be able to get a quick kill turn 1 so you can begin the tally. I've ran soup lists with epi a few times and had great luck. I find that the bigger the model, the better the synergy.

Bloat drones with plaguesprayers are going to be much better than blight launchers. The 2D6 shots are S-user, so they will become more potent.
Nurgle oblits are how you get that turn 1 kill, bring 2 units if you can afford to and have them both target easy kills. Don't forget about the FAQ, 4 shots per model. Lucky dice rolls can make them S9 ap-3 and 3dmg. They are also pretty resilient.
Nurgle heralds are slow, and the +1 strength buff on PB isn't that hot, because they already re-roll wounds. They wont be keeping up with anything but the PB.
Plague drones are some of my favorite models, and were my go-to unit in 7th, but right now they are lackluster, with no AP and no -1 to hit, they don't seem worth it.
Daemon prince of nurgle with malefic talons, ether CSM for warptime, or DG for suppurating plate and the +1 to wound. Daemon princes are very, very killy, and very useful.


Recently I ran the list with 3 plagueburst crawlers to help with the first turn pain, and I had a cheap jump pack lord to give them re-rolls for turn 1. Once the tally hit re-roll status, he jumped into the fray to cause some pain. It worked out really well.

Forgeworld options help open things up too. The Decimator daemon engine is a Nurgle daemon, there is some decent long range firepower. The Plague Hulk is better than the soul grinder or Decimator. It's resilience is insane, and it can throw out some nasty damage in CC.
Blight drones are overcosted, and the recent price hike hurts. Bloat drones are great, and plague drones are sub-par.

Lastly, mortarion gets downright silly with these buffs, and is a pretty good way to get the tally going, as he WILL kill what he touches.

I'm 6-1 with this list: 2k points Nurgle Daemons
7CP
Battalion:
Epidemius-100
2x Herald of Nurgle- Fleshy Abundance-140
2x units of 3 Nurglings-108
26 Plaguebearers +instrument-192
2x Spined Chaos Beasts- 300
Mortarion-470
Outrider:
Nurgle Daemon Prince w/ wings and malefic talons-Miasma-180
2x Foetid Bloat Drones w/ plaguespitters and probe-316
Pox Riders-189

Other then the plaguebeaers which just screen Epidemius. Everything else pushes up advancing first turn. Nurglings soak up shots deploying 9" away, and if their ignored they will tie up units. Mortarion casts Miasma, and tends to get focused on while everything else moves up mostly unscathed. The only thing I ever lost to was a Cadian gunline with a Baneblade who got to reroll all hit rolls and wound rolls for 1CP which is disgusting. But I've won a local tournament with this list practically tabling each army I played against. The longer the game goes the worse the army gets. It's not a must to alpha strike to start the toll asap. The toll will grow turn two with how fast this army gets in the face and how hard it hits it's tough to take down. Heralds with Fleshy Abundance are a must, because healing Mortarion for example an extra D3 wounds a turn is downright mean. It's fun, it's strong, and if you are taking Epidemius EVERYTHING in your army better be NURGLE DAEMONS or you are playing it wrong.

This is my 2250 list. Has worked well in the past. I agree with the above poster. ONLY Nurgle daemons should be in your list. The defilers with Daemon Forge can actually get a lot of work done. Nurglings start out up the field and try to tie units up until the main body of your force arrives. Daemonprinces with wings charge up the field with the drones and a defiler. If you can warptime a defiler into the enemy lines turn 1 they can get some serious work done. Obliterators are amazing. They will remove MSU infantry units and can destroy armor. Note. Roll to determine how strong your weapons are befor declaring a target.

++Epidemic horde ++
Deathguard Battalion +3 cp
3 nuglings
3 nurglings
3 nurglings
Daemon prince sword Plague wind
Daemonprince sword Curse of the leper

Alpha legion Nurgle CSM Spearhead +1cp
CSM Prince wings helforged sword 180 warp time or death hex
Defiler las scourge
Defiler twin heavy bolter scourge
3 Obliterators
3 obliterators

Deathguard Outrider +1cp
Dg winged daemonprince sword supturating plate arch contaminator miasma of pestilence
Foetid blight drone Plague spitters
Foetid blight drone Plague spitters
Foetid blight drone Plague spitters
Plagueburst Crawler entropy Cannon heavy slugger

Just a heads up, your death guard battalion isn't forged with death guard. Nurglings are in the book, but lack the DEATHGUARD keyword, so it would be a NURGLE, DAEMON, or CHAOS battalion. It shouldn't matter, because your Deathguard outrider detachment allows you access to stratagems, relics and all that jazz.

I’m aware.

 sennacherib wrote:
This is my 2250 list. Has worked well in the past. I agree with the above poster. ONLY Nurgle daemons should be in your list. The defilers with Daemon Forge can actually get a lot of work done. Nurglings start out up the field and try to tie units up until the main body of your force arrives. Daemonprinces with wings charge up the field with the drones and a defiler. If you can warptime a defiler into the enemy lines turn 1 they can get some serious work done. Obliterators are amazing. They will remove MSU infantry units and can destroy armor. Note. Roll to determine how strong your weapons are befor declaring a target.

++Epidemic horde ++
Deathguard Battalion +3 cp
3 nuglings
3 nurglings
3 nurglings
Daemon prince sword Plague wind
Daemonprince sword Curse of the leper

Alpha legion Nurgle CSM Spearhead +1cp
CSM Prince wings helforged sword 180 warp time or death hex
Defiler las scourge
Defiler twin heavy bolter scourge
3 Obliterators
3 obliterators

Deathguard Outrider +1cp
Dg winged daemonprince sword supturating plate arch contaminator miasma of pestilence
Foetid blight drone Plague spitters
Foetid blight drone Plague spitters
Foetid blight drone Plague spitters
Plagueburst Crawler entropy Cannon heavy slugger

Am I blind? Where is epidemius in your list?

Thanks for all the replys. Do the Plague drones work well as a meat shield for winged princes seeing as their 4w each for 34 pts? I'm mainly focused on them because I have a bunch of the older chaos models (PBs, Princes, PDrones, Nurglings) and would like to use what I already have where possible. Made a new list thanks to your inputs

1998 pts

Daemons: Battallion

HQ:
Epidemius
Herald of Nurgle - Fleshy Abundance

Troops:
Nurglings x3
Nurgling x3
Plaguebearers x 24, Icon

Death Guard: Outrider

HQ:
Nurgle Daemon Prince, Wings, 2x talons, Supporating Plate, Plague Wind

Fast Attack:

Plague Drones x5, Instrument, Icon
Bloat-drone, Plaguespitter
Bloat-drone, Plaguespitter

Heavy Support:
Plagueburst Crawler, Heavy Slugger, Entropy Cannons

CSM: Spearhead Detachment - Alpha Legion

HQ:
Nurgle Sorcerer w Jetpack, Force Staff, Combi-Bolter, Warptime, Prescience

Heavy Support:
Defiler, Mark of Nurgle, Twin Lascannon, Scourge, Combi-Bolter
Defiler, Mark of Nurgle, Twin Autocannon, Scourge, Combi Bolter
Obliterators, Mark of Nurgle

(Combis are mainly just filler points)

Also would warp talons work well in a list like this?

Just a question for those of you with epidemius, what size base is he supposed to be on? And how tall is the model? I'm trying to just build my own since the original one is hard to find and to be quite honest is just ugly. And not in a good way.

Also does the tally continue even if epidemius has been killed?

Dew wrote:
Just a question for those of you with epidemius, what size base is he supposed to be on? And how tall is the model? I'm trying to just build my own since the original one is hard to find and to be quite honest is just ugly. And not in a good way.

Also does the tally continue even if epidemius has been killed?

He goes on a 60mm base, and he is roughly the size of a dreadnought. I was also in a similar pickle as you and hence built my own on the cheap:


Unfortunately, once he dies, the benefits of his tally disappear.

Surround epidemius with poxwalkers or plaguebearers to ensure he lives. Go for out of LoS if possible.

I'd say Plaguebearers over Poxwalkers just because they get Epidemus' bonus plus at larger unit over 20+ they're minus 1 to hit in the shooting phase and for a screen is insanely strong. If you have any plaguebearers your main goal with them to hold objectives and protect Epi.