Hello! In today’s show I give my initial impressions and review of Battletome: Legions of Nagash!  I hope to return to the army in a few months for a more detailed Legions of Nagash review once we have all had a chance to playtest and shake the kinks out.

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The battletome fundamentally changes the Death grand alliance and provides incremental upgrades across the board.  There are a number of changes which seem to return the Death grand alliance towards its narrative roots of strong, but fragile, characters, surrounded by an undying and regenerating rabble.

What is clear after a few days with the book, is that there are few stand-out tier 1 unit choices or army builds – there is plenty of choice here.  The army is going to reward clever list-building and generalship and, if I was to guess, sit in the tier 2 range of armies.

In this show, I’ll cover:

• the structure of the army: the Legions
• Allegiance Abilities
• Gravesites
• the Lores of Death
• Summoning
• the new Battalions
• some warscroll changes and
• some potential army builds

The Legions of Nagash

The Legions of Nagash battletome covers rules for six different allegiances:

• Grand Host of Nagash (Nagash and friends)
• Legion of Sacrament (Arkhan and casting)
• Legion of Blood (Neferata and her attendants)
• Legion of Night (Mannfred and crazy choppy)
• Soulblight (Vamps, vamps and vamps)
• Death Grand Alliance (the hodge podge / everything else)

If you take Nagash, you have to run the Grand Host, he can’t be chosen in any of the other Legions.  In turn, the other Mortarchs must be the generals in their respective Legions (if you have them in the army) – no appointing a Necromancer or Wight King to deputise for them. You can run the Legions without their Mortarchs if you wish.

The Legions only include models from the Battletome.  So you won’t see any Tomb Kings, Mournguls (who are relegated to Death Grand Alliance) and Flesh-Eaters who stay with their own battletome.  Nighthaunt remain in General’s Handbook 2017.

Each of the Legions have Flesh-Eater Courts as their only ally.  If you run Soulblight, you get more choice in that you can ally with Deadwalkers, Deathlords, Deathrattle, Deathmages,  and Nighthaunt.

Allegiance Abilities

Each of the 6 allegiances have their own set of six command traits and six unique artifacts (unlike the Maggotkin of Nurgle or Disciples of Tzeentch books, there are no duplicate or shared command traits and artefacts).   As you would expect, these are all tied to the theme of the army

The Grand Host and the three Legions share two battle traits, an ability and a command ability:

• Deathless Minions – roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to a firendly DEATH unit within 6″ of your general or another friendly DEATH HERO.  On a 6+ the wound is negated.
• Magic: All wizards know an extra spell from the Lores of the Dead
• The Unquiet Dead – the Legions get beneficial terrain called gravesites (more on these later)
• Command Ability – choose a gravesite within 9″ of the general.  You may return a friendly Summonable unit that has been destroyed to the battlefield and set it up wholly within 9″ of that gravesite and more than 9″ away from enemy models – I suspect this won”t see much use as you still need to pay reinforcement points for the unit, but there may be some situations where this gets you out of a pinch.

The Grand Host

With the Grand Host, Nagash can select three further spells from the Lores of the Dead.  Also, any Morghast in the Grand Host get an extra Attack for all their melee weapons.  Finally, in your hero phase, you may roll a dice for each friendly Grand Host Summonable unit on the battlefield.  On a 5+ you can heal up to D3 wounds that have been allocated to it.  For units with a Wounds characteristic of 1 return 1 slain model to the unit for each wound that would have been healed.

Grave Guard are battleline in a Grand Host army and Morghast are also battleline if you have Nagash as your general.

For each of the allegiances, I’m going to pick a few of my favourite command traits and artefacts. I won’t go through the full lists (buy the battletome for that).

Command Traits

• Bane of the Living – re-roll wound rolls of 1 for the general for attacks against non-DEATH units.
• Lord of Nagashizzar – add 1 attack for melee weapons of friendly Deathrattle units within 6″

Artefacts

• Grave-sand Timeglass: useful for sniping away enemy heroes anywhere on the battlefield
• Ossific Diadem: roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to a friendly Deathrattle model within 12″ of the bearer – on a 6+ the wound is negated.
• Amethyst Shard: once per battle, in hero phase, fuse the shard with the bearer’s melee weapon – add 1 to hit and wound rolls for that weapon until the next hero phase.

The Legion of Sacrament

Command trait

• Dark Acolyte: a wizard may take another spell from the Lores of the Dead.
• Mastery of Death: At the start of your hero phase, all friendly Death units within 6″ of the general may make an immediate move up to 3″.

Artefacts

• Shroud of Darkness: subtract 1 from all hit rolls for attacks targeting the bearer in the shooting phase if the attacking unit is within 8″.  Subtract 2 from hit rolls from further away.
• Wristbands of Black Gold:  Roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to the bearer in the shooting phase.  On a 4+ the wound is negated.

The Legion of Blood are Neferata’s court and its traits revolve around getting up close and personal with the enemy.  The main battle traits are that enemy units within 6″ of your army are -1 bravery.  You also get +1 attack for your Vampire Lords and Blood Knights.

Command traits

• Swift Strikes: Each time you make a hit roll of 6+ in the combat phase for the general, you can make an additional hit roll for the same weapon against the same target.
• Aristocracy of Blood: Re-roll failed charge rolls for friendly Soulblight units within 9″ of the general at the start of the charge phase.
• Walking Death : if the hit roll for an attack made with one of the general’s melee weapons is a 6+, then the attack causes a number of mortal wounds equal to its Damage characteristic (rather than needing to roll to wound etc).
• Sanguine Blur: Add 2″ to the general’s move characteristic.  In addition you can re-roll failed charges for the general.

Artefacts

• Soulbound garments: re-roll save rolls of 1 for the bearer.
• Orb of Enchantment: once per battle, at the start of the combat phase, you can pick an enemy hero within 3″ of the bearer.  In that combat phase, that hero may not pile in, attack or use abilities.

The Legion of Night

Artefacts

• Vial of the Pure Blood: once per battle, in your hero phase, you can declare that the bearer will drink the bial.  You can add 1 to hit and wound rolls for the bearer until the next hero phase.
• Shard of Night: subtract 1 from the hit rolls of all attacks that target the bearer in the shooting phase [no use against hero phase shooting though….].

The Legions of Nagash have access to two spell lores – the Lore of the Deathmages (for Deathmages…) and the Lore of the Vampires (for vampires….).  The Deathlords (Nagash and the Mortarchs) can access spells from either lore.

Both lores benefit from the Locus of Shyish – a rule that says if the unmodified casting roll for a spell is a 9+ (and the spell is not unbound) then you resolve the effects of the spell twice.   You can choose the same unit, or a different target.  Because it is the unmodified roll that counts, you won’t be building a list solely around this ability, but it will certainly be a useful boon in the 27% of rolls it goes off.  You can expect to have it work a few times each game.

Each lore has its own character.  The Deathmages lore is all about debuffing the enemy at a 12-18″ range.  Some particular standouts are:

• Overwhelming Dread – cast on a 5 – pick a visible enemy unit within 18″, until your next hero phase that unit is -1 to hit and -1 bravery.  Very useful against anything which receives benefits on 6s to hit.
• Fading Vigour – an enemy unit loses an attack from their melee weapons (down to a minimum of 1) and can only roll 1 dice when charging.
• Soul Harvest (for a combat Nagash) – cast on a 7 – every enemy unit within 3″ takes D3 mortal wounds.  For each mortal wound that was allocated, and not negated, roll a dice.  On a 5+ the caster heals a wound.

The Lore of Vampires is more short range and offensive.  My current favourite is the Amaranthine Orb – you draw a straight line from the caster for 12″ and each unit under it suffers D6 mortal wounds on a 4+.  I suspect this will be a favourite on Arkhan given that he gives spells an extra 6″ range.  The Soulpike may also get some use.

At the end of your movement phase, for each DEATH HERO within 9″ of a gravesite, you may pick a single unit in the grave and set it up wholly within 9″ of that gravesite and more than 9″ from any enemy models.  If a unit is still in the grave at the end of the battle, it is considered to be slain.

Given the restrictions on placing models, I don’t see you leaving large units in reserve in summoning.  Much more likely to see smaller units of 10 Grave Guard or late game objective capturers such as dire wolves.  This will be especially important in scenarios where you get additional points for holding objectives in later turns.

The Legions of Nagash battletome brings a large overhaul to the summoning rules for Death.

Previously, you could set aside a number of reinforcement points and summon the units you needed when you needed them.  The ultimate toolkit to face your opponent’s army (as long as you had the models with you).

Now you have to name the units you intend to summon on your army list (and pay the points for them in your list).  The toolkit is gone.

You can also only summon units with the Summonable keyword.  These are Bat Swarms, Fell bats, Zombies, Black Knights, Grave Guard, Skeleton Warriors, Hexwraiths, Spirit Hosts and Dire Wolves.

In exchange, you no longer have to cast a spell in order to bring the unit on to the table.  You need to have a hero within 9″ of the gravesites and set the unit up wholly within 9″ of that site.

Warscroll Battalions

The warscroll battalions are themed around similar lines to the Legions of Nagash.

I suspect the First Cohort will see the most play initially.  This battalion is 160 points, and requires Nagash, a unit of Morghast and 3 units of Deathrattle.  Once you have filled out those Deathrattle units you won’t have many points left, but you do get a one-drop and abilities to transfer wounds from Nagash to the Morghast and stronger healing of your units.  The army will revolve around Nagash’s output.

If you fancy a crazy combat choice, try the Castellans of the Crimson Keep.

Right, on to the warscroll changes.  There have been quite a few little changes.

The largest change is that most heroes now have the Deathly Invocation ability which allows them to heal Summonable units.  The number of units that can be healed, and the range of the ability varies depending on the strength of the hero.  Nagash can heal five units anywhere on the battlefield, Necromancers are 2 units within 6″ for example.   All this healing stacks so you’ll be quickly returning large numbers of models to the table.

As a result, banners in units now don’t provide healing, but instead provide a bravery debuff to enemy units within 6″ of the banner (so expect units now to have multiple banners in them).  While large battleline units are improved by this change (and skeletons are now cheaper), units like Blood Knights can no longer be healed or returned (although they get an extra attack to ameliorate the loss).

Zombie dragons have now been brought in line with the zombie dragons in the Flesh-Eater Courts battletome.  No more confusion about which scroll is in play.

Terrorgheists have also received a significant buff to their Gaping Maw ability – Each time you make a hit roll of 6+ for this model’s Fanged Maw, the attack is automatically successful.  Determine damage normally (do not make a wound or save roll) but increase the weapon’s Damage characteristic to 6.  Try to pair this with Damned terrain and other ways to buff the hit roll.

There are two new warscrolls –  Prince Vhodrai (special character Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon) and a Bloodseeker Palanquin (combination of the existing big kits).  I suspect we will see a lot of Prince Vhodrai, as I’ll touch on more below.

Possible army builds

And finally, what are we likely to see on the tabletop.  I’m sure I’ll come back to revisit this section in the next week or so, but here are some initial thoughts:

•  Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon – a popular choice for people who don’t want to run Nagash or Mortarchs.  14 wounds, 3+ save, can move up to 27″, fly, and decent damage output.   It also has a great command ability – allowing a friendly Death unit within 15″ to re-roll failed hit rolls until the next hero phase (very useful when paired with a Terrorgheist).
• Prince Vhordrai – the same base as the VLOZD, a 3+ save, heals wounds, does mortal wounds… While the Prince doesn’t have the re-roll failed hit rolls command ability, he can give another unit +1 to hit and +1 to wound rolls, and also select that unit to immediately pile in and attack in the hero phase.
• Necromancers are excellent.  I can see many people running multiple Necromancers.  While the Death army can debuff opponents well, and restore or ressurect its units, it can struggle with producing high damage output.  The Necromancer’s Vanhels ability allows you to have units pile in and attack twice.  Crazy good on a unit of 30 grave guard.
• Grave Guard – massive damage output from a small base size, really allowing you to maximise your attacks from your large units.  The large units will be the most resilient, especially with gravesites nearby but they can also have a role in MSU style units of 10 which can be summoned into small gaps and be healed as required.
• Morghast Harbingers – flying, rolling extra dice for charges and halberds with -2 rend and straight 3 damage.
• Skeletons in units of 40 – lots of attacks if they stay above 30 models (which is even easier now with healing and gravesites).
• Dire Wolves – grab objectives quickly
• Bat Swarms – still useful if you have a strong local shooting meta (-1 to hit for shooting attacks within 12″)

• Mengel Miniatures Review
• Heralds of War Legions of Nagash discussion
• Warhammer Community – Legion of Night
  • Legion of Blood
  • Legion of Sacrament
  • Legion of Nagash

 

Hey guys, welcome to the first AoS Shorts episode for 2018.  With such a great release as Maggotkin of Nurgle, I just couldn’t resist putting out a show.  Twitter is awash with green frothy enthusiasm and the book has been covered in detail by the great Facehammer podcast, Chris Tomlin’s on TGA and Tyler Mengel (links below), so I highly recommend you check them out.  However, as always, I think there is room for the AoS Shorts treatment.  So in the next 20 minutes or so, I hope to cover the key points you need to know – whether you intend to play Maggotkin or will be facing them on the tabletop.

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1. First impressions – Maggotkin of Nurgle playstyle
2. Maggotkin of Nurgle allegiance
3. Allegiance ability – Cycle of Corruption
4. Feculent Gnarlmaw
5. Contagion Points
6. Command Traits
7. Artefacts
8. Lore of Nurgle
9. Warscroll Battalions
10. Allies and Summoning
11. Maggotkin of Nurgle Army List Predictions
12. Which armies will do well against Maggotkin of Nurgle?
13. Conclusion and Further Reading

First impressions – Maggotkin of Nurgle playstyle

Overall, the Maggotkin of Nurgle battletome looks internally balanced with a range of choices for Nurgle generals.  There seem to be few automatic selections and from all the chat that has been flying around, there are a lot of army list ideas out there.  This has to be the just reward of the more extensive feedback and playtesting the book went through.

Resilient

In terms of playstyle, the Maggotkin are still super resilient – whether through debuffs to hit, more widespread methods for ignoring wounds and mortal wounds and through regeneration/healing.  If you don’t apply enough firepower to your target, then you will quickly find those large models will be back up to full strength.

Movement buffs to overcome Nurgle’s slow nature

Characteristically Nurgle armies have been slow and shambling, but the new book allows you a number of ways to counteract that (through the new Feculent Gnarlmaws, the Bell on the Great Unclean One and the Cycle of Contagion).  Don’t underestimate the speed with which you could have Nurgle units in your face early game.

Mortal wound output

Finally, the book is awash with mortal wound output.  Not in a Disciples of Tzeentch way, but in a steadily chipping off a small number of wounds from multiple units kind of way.  There are 2 infinite range spells that do D3 mortal wounds to multiple targets and 1 infinite range ability that does D3 mortal wounds to multiple units.  Nurgle armies will grind you down and knock out your support heroes if you don’t neuter them.

Maggotkin of Nurgle rewards good play

Now, all of these characteristics can be tailored through intelligent use of command traits, artifacts and spells.  However, in the new General’s Handbook 2017 world of higher cost battalions, you will need to make choices.  You can’t have everything, and with the prevalence of special characters in Maggotkin of Nurgle lists (who can’t take generic traits), your available slots are even more limited.

So, in short, Maggotkin of Nurgle will reward top quality list writing and game management.  This is definitely not an auto-win army but in the hands of a skilled general it will perform well.  And there is enough choice that you won’t be bored with being pigeon-holed into one particular build.

Now with that out of the way, let’s look at the battletome in a bit more detail.

Maggotkin of Nurgle allegiance

Just like Blades of Khorne and the Disciples of Tzeentch, the Maggotkin of Nurgle army is split into three factions:  Rotbringers, Mortals and Daemons of Nurgle.

Armies with the Nurgle keyword can have the Nurgle allegiance, and within that, units with the Rotbringers, Mortal or Nurgle Daemon key words can access the command traits, artifacts and spells available to those keywords.  Because the army rests on the Nurgle keyword, you can freely use Pestilens and Slaves to Darkness units that share the Nurgle keyword (or that are given the keyword).

Allegiance Ability – Cycle of Corruption

The key allegiance ability is the Cycle of Corruption – the Nurgle wheel that we first saw in the Blightwar box (so pick one up for handy in-game tracking).  The Cycle of Corruption contains 7 effects, buffs and debuffs that apply to the battlefield for that battleround.  As the Cycle applies to the battlefield, it applies equally to both armies if you are playing against another Nurgle army.

At the start of the game, you roll a dice to determine the starting point on the wheel.  Each turn the wheel moves clockwise at the start of the hero phase.  Now one of the concerns of matched play gamers after seeing the Blightwar box was the difficulty of optimising list builds around a random roll.  However, the battletome contains a number of ways that you can modify the wheel in order to get the bonus you want when you need it (in particular, the Grandfather’s Blessing command trait, and the Foul Regensis spell known by all Nurgle wizards).  Through clever use of these abilities you can have mortal wound output every single turn.

Feculent Gnarlmaw

The second aspect of the allegiance ability is that Nurgle armies come with free terrain, just like Sylvaneth armies.  At the beginning of the game, after rolling for scenario but before picking sides, a Nurgle player can set up a Feculent Gnarlmaw for free.  The Gnarlmaw is an infected wood that has an aura which causes mortal wounds to nearby non-Nurgle units and allows Nurgle units within 7″ of it to run and charge!

More Gnarlmaws can be summoned during the game by using Contagion Points (which I’ll get to) or brought onto the table by Horticulous Slimux, allowing some great board control.   I can also see them being very useful in scenarios which require heroes to hold objectives.  Put a Gnarlmaw on the objective and watch your opponent’s 5 or 6 wound heroes get chipped away by the mortal wound aura.

If you are looking for variations or alternative models for the Gnarlmaw, check out @garrisimo’s over at Age of Hobby.  They are a similar size and volume to the Games Workshop model.  More links and pics below.

Contagion Points

So Contagion Points, Nurgle’s own mechanic similar to Khorne’s Blood Tithe.  Nurgle armies earn Contagion Points in each of their hero phases based on having:

• units in your deployment zone
• units in your enemy’s deployment zone
• Gnarlmaws with no enemies nearby.

New Nurgle summoning rules

These points accumulate during the game and can be spent on summoning Daemons of Nurgle.  The summoning rules for these Daemons have changed.  You can no longer summon Daemons of Nurgle by casting spells (bye bye Plaguebearers in Tzeentch lists for instance) and can only do so by spending Contagion Points.  Because you no longer cast a spell, there is no risk of being unbound, however you still pay reinforcement points for the unit in matched play.  The summoned unit is set-up at the end of your movement phase within 12″ of a hero or Gnarlmaw and at least 9″ away from enemies.

Now, given how the points accumulate, I don’t see mass Nurgle summoning lists being popular or effective – it just takes too long to accumulate points (see JabberTzeentch‘s analysis below).  The best use of the points seems to be to put more Gnarlmaws on the board early, and then perhaps summon a small unit for capturing objectives late game (or not at all).

Expected amount of Contagion Points if both sides have models in both territories on Turn 2 and there is 1 Gnarlmaw on the Board (same numbers based on 2 Gnarlmaws are in brackets).

Turn 1: 5-7 (6-10)

Turn 2: 13-17 (18-22)

Turn 3: 23-27 (30-34)

Turn 4: 33-37 (42-46)

Turn 5: 43-47 (54-58)

Command Traits

In terms of command traits, there are three shared command traits and three unique ones for each of Rotbringers, Mortals and Daemons of Nurgle.

As others have mentioned, I suspect the most common command trait you will see is likely to be Grandfather’s Blessing which allows you to move the Cycle of Corruption one way forward or back once per battle.

Artefacts

There are six unique artifacts for each of the factions.  There is a lot of choice here so I’ll just touch on the most common ones you will likely see.  For me, it is always worth using command traits and artefacts to support your army’s strengths rather than accommodate for their weakness.

Rotbringer

• Rustfang – which when it causes a wound permanently reduces the armour save of an enemy unit for the rest of the game.
• Muttergrub – which allows a wizard to cast an extra spell.

Daemons of Nurgle

• The Endless Gift – In the battleshock phase the model can heal wounds taken that turn.
• The Witherstave – Enemies within 12″ have to re-roll sixes to hit.
• Tome of a Thousand Poxes – +1 to cast for a wizard, non wizards get a spell.

There are also some really powerful, but unreliable choices available:

• Rotbringer: Fecund Flask – Once per game 2+ heal all wounds, 1 you die!
• Daemons: Nurgle’s Nail – If you cause wounds with this weapon, you can roll 2D6 and on a 7 auto kill the model.
• Mortals: The Eye of Nurgle – Once per battle, the nearest model to the bearer dies on a 2D6 roll of 7!

While these appear very powerful, the chance of rolling a 7 on 2D6 is 16.6%, or on average less than once a game if you could use it every turn.

Therefore, you will need to consider if the threat and board control of those artifacts are worth it vs something which may not be so sexy but will have more consistent and synergistic impact for your army.

Lore of Nurgle

The new Lore of Nurgle provides three spells per faction.  Each Nurgle wizard knows the Foul Regensis spell in addition to one from their lore.  This spell allows you to immediately reset the Cycle of Contagion to the stage of your choice (whether the effect goes off that turn, or simply sets you up for the next turn, will depend on the stage you choose).

High casting costs and short to mid range spells

As a general comment, the casting costs are high and the spells predominately have a short to mid range.  Therefore, if you are building an army around the spells you will need to buff the cast.  The Great Unclean One can now cast two spells and can be +2 to cast (using an artefact and the dagger), but is limited to the Daemon spells which aren’t as strong as the Rotbringer or Mortal spells.

Rotbringer spells

Rotbringer wizards can use Blades of Putrefaction which casts on a 7 and is a buff that means a unit inflicts a mortal wound as well as other damage if it rolls a 6+ to hit.  Notable mentions for Rancid Visitations and Gift of Contagion but both are more situational.

Nurgle Mortal spells

The best spell in the Nurgle Mortals lore, if not the book, is Plague Squall which on a casting value of a 6 allows you to dish out D3 mortal wounds to D6 enemy units visible to the caster (unlimited range!)

Daemons of Nurgle spells

There are notable mentions for the Glorious Afflications and Favoured Poxes debuffs in the Daemon spell lore, especially if you are playing a contain list, but now you can’t summon a wizard and then cast the spell.

Warscroll Battalions

I’m not going to go into the warscroll battalions here as I believe Chris covered everything you need to know in his TGA post.  However, I’d suggest that the most common battalion you’ll see is the Plaguetouched warband, which is in the Everchosen battletome.  I’ll discuss why shortly in the potential army build section.

Allies and Summoning

Now on to allies.  Maggotkin of Nurgle can ally with Khorne, Brayherds, Chaos Gargants, Everchosen, Monsters of Chaos, Slaanesh, Slaves to Darkness (excl Tzeentch), Warherds.

Three things to note:

• Hellstriders of Slaanesh could be a useful addition in a stacking debuff Nurgle army due to their -1 to hit 6″ bubble;
• you can still ally in a Gaunt Summoner with Familiars on Balewind thanks to the Everchosen keyword; and
• while you cannot ally in Tzeentch daemons, you can of course still summon them – so if you don’t care about the lore, feel free to summon in some Pink Horrors 😉

NB: I’ll update the Chaos Allies matrix in the Resources section this week.

Summoning choices

In terms of summoning, a pool of about 120 points would work well – you could summon a Beast of Nurgle for some crucial positioning, 10 Plaguebearers, a Balewind, or a Herald of Tzeentch if you want to use the 18″ mortal wound spell.

Maggotkin of Nurgle Army List Predictions

Now I’m going to have a go at predicting some likely Nurgle army builds.  The Blightkings have been getting a lot of love online thanks to them getting cheaper and gaining an extra wound but I want to offer some alternatives.  Both of these have been proposed by local mastermind James Page – so all credit and responsibility lies with him.

“Control and sustain”

The first is a “control and sustain” build which uses Rotigus’ Deluge spell, a Great Unclean One, Glotkin, and support casters to put out a range of buffs and mortal wounds behind a safe wall of resilient troops.  I haven’t got a finished list in mind but the fundamentals are there for a solid list that will grind you down

Plaguetouched warband

The second is a Plaguetouched warband alpha-strike Chaos Knight list which can be one-drop or two.  The Plaguetouched warband contains 1 mortal nurgle hero and 7 mortal nurgle units and makes its units -1 to hit in combat, and can give some units the ability to do mortal wounds back to opponents that attack them.  Now, as we all know, Warhammer Weekly’s Tom writes all the successful lists in Age of Sigmar, and I know he has been a big fan of the Plaguetouched Warband – although I confess I haven’t seen or listened to his proposed list.

The list contains Glotkin, large units of Chaos Knights, a shrine and other support pieces.  The aim is to tie up all your opponent’s resources dealing with a buffed Chaos Knight unit which is in their face turn one.  The unit can be -1 to hit, have extra attacks for both the mounts and riders, re-rolling to wound, cause mortal wounds and be extra quick thanks to the Nurgle allegiance abilities.  With the movement buffs, you don’t need Sayl and don’t have to worry about charging from 9″ away.

One drop Plaguetouched Warband

• Plaguetouched warband 100
• Glotkin 420
• Chaos Sorcerer 160
• 14 Chaos Knights 480
• 14 Chaos Knights 480
• Shrine 180
• 10 Marauders 60
• 10 Marauders 60
• 10 Marauders 60
• 2,000 pts

Two drop Plaguetouched Warband

• Plaguetouched warband 100
• Glotkin 420
• Rotigus 340
• Rotbringer Sorcerer 120
• 10 Chaos Knights 320
• 10 Chaos Knights 320
• Shrine  180
• 10 Marauders 60
• 10 Marauders 60
• 10 Marauders 60
• 1980 pts

This list foregoes the Plaguetouched warband buffs on the Chaos Knights but gives you access to the Rotigus Deluge spell and other mortal wound output to reach your opponent’s backline.

Check out the listbuilding show and the Masterclass podcasts to learn what to take into account when writing effective Age of Sigmar tournament lists.

Which armies will do well against Maggotkin of Nurgle?

Now which armies do I think will perform well against Nurgle?

Shut down the magic phase

Disciples of Tzeentch will of course still be strong – the army can unbind the Nurgle spells, has great chaff lines and can out duel Nurgle in the mortal wound fight (even with Nurgle’s disgustingly resilient saves).  Seraphon lists should also do well at shutting down the Nurgle magic phase.

Pure alpha strike to stop the Nurgle grind

Given the grind nature of many Nurgle lists, it seems like you need a very efficient alpha strike that can take out the Nurgle characters and support pieces before the rest of the army is buffed up.  Kharadron Overlords can achieve this, but if they don’t succeed then they will lose their own heroes very quickly and could be swamped under a green tide.

Pestilens – lovers of filth and weight of attacks

Finally, and don’t laugh, but Pestilens will actually play well against Nurgle.  The army will benefit from all the Nurgle buffs, is protected from Nurgle’s mortal wound output generally, and thanks to the Gnarlmaws could have a massive wave of Plaguemonks in combat turn 1.  If you make Nurgle take enough saves then not even the disgustingly resilient rule will save them.  If you are interested in Pestilens, I highly recommend you check out local New Zealand player Aiden’s TGA blog, the “Acolytes of the Withered Word”.

Conclusion and Further Reading

Thanks for listening – get in touch and let me know what you think.  It will be really interesting to see how the tournament meta changes over the next few months.  I expect we won’t have as long to wait as usual given how quick and easy it is to paint up a Nurgle army!

Further reading, reviews and resources

For all the information you need on Maggotkin of Nurgle, check out all these great reviews and resources.

• Maggotkin of Nurgle with Andy Clark on Warhammer Live (subscription required)
• the Facehammer podcast review
• Tyler Mengel’s blog post review
• Chris Tomlin’s in-depth review on TGA
• Garagehammer podcast episode
• Warhammer Weekly with Paul Conti
• Age of Warhammer blog post review
• Hobbyhammer blog review
• Canhammer YouTube read along
• Let’s Chat Maggotkin thread (skip towards the end)
• Maggotkin of Nurgle Facebook group.
• Guerrilla Miniature Games review and game
• Artstation page for some of the Battletome art
• Games Workshop Miniature Designers’ Notes on the Maggotkin of Nurgle

Contact me on Twitter if you are interested in joining the WhatsApp group too.

Alternative Gnarlmaw models