Nurgle tournament lists

[murf369]

What are the best nurgle lists you've played with or played against in 1000 pts or 2000 pts and what do nurgle struggle against the most.

Cheers

 

 

 

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[shadowgra]

For units that i'd go as must there are:

Plaguebearers, blightkings, harbinger (only mortal lists), the rest is up to ur preference.

Nurgle struggles with several things: high shooting, hero snipe, high quality combat units, mobility. 

At 1000 points is really strong to bring a mortal only with tons of blightkings and an harbinger, at 2000 there are more option, but we also suffer more to enemy bringing better sinergies.

As a tier 2 units i'd put: bloab, sorcerer lord, plaguetouched warband, guo, soulgrinder, plagueclaw, bile trolls, marauders (only inferior to plaguebearers if there is no plaguetouched) and plague monks

Hope i helped

[murf369]

Cheers it's great getting information off players who no different things Iam very new to Nurgle I have a starting pack and a unit of blightkings but speaking to different people I keep getting different ideas and ways to go so thanks. Do you play Nurgle in tournaments


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[shadowgra]

I play local games with friends, still i have to complete my army, staryed last september and i am student do i don't have much money

Nurgle i think is the most flexible among the chaos gods for now, many people like some things, many other don't. Some like daemons, some mortals, some mixed with pestilens too

We all agree tho that plaguebearers, harbinger and blightkings are really good units anyway

 

[sal4m4nd3r]

If we are talking strictly tournaments and nurgle there only three viable options. I'm going to assume 2000 point tournament. Demon tallyband with double GUO, plagetouched warband, and pure pestilens. I can't speak to pestilens but there is an entire thread based on tactics, deployment and strategic deployment. It essentially boils down to blast an enemy with the plageclaws, using small groups of monks or furnaces to screen large blocks of monks to glass cannon the enemy. 

 

ThomasLyons has had some success with the plaguetouched warband which essentially uses marauders to take advantage of grandfathers joy ability in the battalion. Along with a warshine and harbinger and blightkings to make an immovable brick of a force. Low mobility and lack of rend though. 

 

Tallyband seems to be be very strong especially with double guo and a large group of plagedrones and a demon prince combined with lots of plaguebuddies and maybe a few beasts. 

[fued]

3 plagueclaws in formation with priest, epidemus, tallyband and a demon prince seems to work pretty well when ive seen it.

 

plagueclaws buff ur saves up fast, and tallyband then holds everything. Can be slow tho which is an issue vs some

[Taketheskull]

I love the Blightguard formation with a Harbinger as the general. I pump up the Lord of Plagues and Harbinger with Chaos Runeblades and take Great Destroyer as my command trait. Take a few Maggoth Lords and/or the brothers Glott, usually still leaves you with a summoning pool at 2000. 

Can't vouch for its tournament effectiveness, but more often than not gives my mates a good smashing.

The best thing about the Blightguard formation is the rerolling 1s to wound, when you don't have much rend, extra wound dice count, and it feels like it is free as you are taking the formation for the -1 to hit.

Don't get suckered into that Clans Pestilans stuff either, it might be effective but it's not proper Nurgle...

[sal4m4nd3r]

How are giant rats that spread disease by stabbing enemies with foetid blades and launchhing diseased booger balls not "proper nurgle" LOL

 

@Taketheskull you don't find spending 200 points on heros that are woefully mediocre at best, a hindrance to winning games?

[Taketheskull]

10 hours ago, sal4m4nd3r said:

 

@Taketheskull you don't find spending 200 points on heros that are woefully mediocre at best, a hindrance to winning games?

Well, for a start, the Rotbringer Sorcerer is bang average, not woefully mediocre.

In this formation the Lord of Plagues is sweet as:

1. Output; 4A/3+/3+/-1/D3 rerolling 1s to wound, 5A if you are running the Glottkin.

2. Input; 7W/4+ with 1W regen, surrounded by Blightkings, -1 to hit, 5++ if you are running the Harbinger.

And everyone ignores him because they think he's rubbish.

[shadowgra]

Both of the character also to me are pretty rubbish. A chaos sorcerer lord and a lord of chaos would put out way more damage and utility (oracolum visions and daemonic power)

The big boy rerolls to wound just as the other one, but deals way more damage, can pass his buff (small games) and can go for the big swing

Imho They add nothing to a game where every point is important. For their cost u can almost afford bloab which offers invaluable support or a guo, which hits, tanks better and has a way more useful spell

 

Just my thoughts, i didnt meant to be rude or such

[Thomas Lyons]

I went to ACON this weekend and got roped into playing the AOS GT.  I had been waitlisted but a spot opened up and a bunch of community members convinced me to play.  I had brought all my Nurgle stuff but wasn't able to field what I originally planned.  Instead I fielded the slight modified version below:

• 140  Harbinger (Cunning Deciver Trait, Chaos Talisman)
• 120  Mounted Chaos Sorcerer (Crown of Conquest)   
• 540  28 Chaos Warriors
• 60  10 Marauders
• 60  10 Marauders
• 60  10 Marauders
• 180  5 Blightkings  
• 180  5 Blightkings  
• 140  Plaguetouched Warband        
• 240  Belakor
• 160  Sayl
• 120  Reinforcement Points (Options Below)
  • 10 Plaguebearers (100)
  • 10 Chaos Furies (120)

I'm glad I did play because I found myself sitting on Table 2 in Round 5 (final round) playing against Kaleb Walters, who won the GT with an 18 Skyfire list (it didn't help that all the buildings and fences were Damned terrain in the final round... ).  I ended up finishing in 10th place (out of the 100+ people at the GT) and narrowly missed Best Chaos General (since I chose to try to go for the game win instead of my secondary objective).  

This list looks ridiculously mundane at first glance.  @Dan Heelan very confusingly looked over at me at the start of Round 5 from Table 1 this weekend and asked how I got there with this list  The list is a 3 drop inverted alpha strike list that involves flying the 28 Chaos Warriors up, stretching them out 1" apart (with a tail leading back to your line), and charging the enemy's units on the line on turn 1 (with needing a 5 on the charge from the +1 charge on the chaos warriors against anything on the line).  The Chaos Warriors get buffed up with Daemonic Power from the Sorc (reroll 1s to hit, wounds, and saves), Mystic Shield from Be'lekor, a 5++ ward from the Harbinger (who is safe in your back line), and battleshock immunity from the Crown of Conquest.  

The real magic of this combo comes from two things.  First, the Warriors are -2 to hit in melee that entire first combat turn (-1 from plague touched, -1 from cunning deceiver).  Even the best units will struggle to put significant wounds on a 3+ (reroll 1s), 5++, 5++ (against mortal wounds only) when they have a -2 to hit that unit.  Secondly, and more importantly, when you deploy in multiples of 7 with this battalion, every time the enemy rolls a 6+ to wound that unit in melee combat, the attacking enemy unit takes a mortal wound back.  Now, since this is triggering on their wound roll of 6+, I can still negate the actual damage with all the Warrior's defenses while still kicking back mortal wounds as the enemy grinds on the Chaos Warriors. This is doubly (or even triply) effective against Tomb Kings, Pestilens, and Destruction Battle Brew/Wild Fury who are bringing their own bonuses to wound, since it causes the mortal wounds to trigger more frequently (as my 4th opponent so painfully discovered with his double Stonehorns).  Once you have the front line locked, if they don't have movement shenanigans, you can pull models from anywhere in the line and break coherency (as long as you aren't going to pile in at all).  There were points where I had a single chaos warrior back in back field (to receive buffs), with the next closest Chaos warrior in his unit 24 inches away grinding on the remains of their front line.  If I ever needed to reform, I could cast Sayl fly on the back warrior and retreat the unit with an 18" fly move back into coherency.  Essentially, instead of Sayl flying up a hammer like everyone does, this list flies up an anvil, locks down anything on the front line it can charge/pile into and then grinds it down.     

The rest of the list does a variety of supporting functions.  Most of the heroes stay in the backfield spread out to zone the back edge from setups.  Be'lakor serves as the safety for anything that flies over the front line, deal with anything that needs rend (6 attacks, 3+/3+/-2/2 dmg), tank any huge beasties I don't want on that front line (4+, ignores rend, can be mystic shielded with reroll 1's from Oracular visions), and can summon into their backfield when he is near the front line to steal objectives.  His spell seems counterintuitive to the list, but it is great when Archaon hits the table to prevent models auto dying to the Slayer of Kings.  The Marauders are largely present for taking objectives and zoning out areas of the board to prevent people coming on from table edges or being able to be summoned.  The Blightkings provided the extra punch against soft units where bodies were needed to be cleared off objectives in the enemy territory.  I hadn't planned on taking 2 units originally but it ended up being the exact number I needed in many of my matchups (which included Kunnin Rukk, Bloodbound, Phoenix Temple, Beastclaw mixed-Destruction, and Tzeentch 18 Skyfire/Loc/Kairos list).  I didn't see any SCE or Sylvaneth in my matches, although I would have changed tactics accordingly and bubble-wrapped/zoned with the Warriors as well.  @Nico helped me think about some of these matchups before hand, which helped tremendously in piloting my list.  To that I am greatly appreciative.         

Returning to this weekend, immediately after we finished the final game on Table 2, Kaleb interrupted my congratulations and informed me that my list was the hardest list he's played all weekend (I believe including the other AOS events he was in) by a factor of 2.  All of his other opponents he had tabled with an hour or more to spare.  In our game, I led the points (he was in fact shut out) until the bottom of our very last turn.  

The power base of the list is diffuse and most opponents will have no idea what they are looking at when you drop it until you fly the Chaos Warriors forward in their flying "T" formation.  This confusion on target priority and tactics is one of the strongest assets of this list; I'm not sure how well it will fair if it becomes a well known quantity.  I'm doing a video about this list later this week with MC1Gamer and I'll be doing a brief overview of the event and match-ups on my TGA blog.  

The moral of the story is that Nurgle Mortal can be competitive.  

[Nico]

Great stuff Tom. Really pleased that you did well and that the list had legs.

Thanks for the shoutout. 

The Warriors are almost perfect in this role as they have the 5+ vs mortal wounds on top of everything else, that must have helped vs the Skyfires.

Now that pew pew Spam has triumphed in a number of tournaments in the last few months (noting in particular that these have often been Mixed Order Hurricanum Filth - not actual Sylvaneth armies) - perhaps rapid tanky lists (that don't hit that hard but can grind) may have a resurgence. Phoenix Temple, Fyreslayers, Nurgle spring to mind.

[Spiky Norman]

Thanks for the report @Thomas Lyons , it was quite interesting to read, and I'll be looking forward to the show to learn me.

A quick comment & question, though - You list the Sorcerer as 120, but a Chaos Sorcerer Lord is 140?

Also what did you originally plan to field?

[Thomas Lyons]

1 hour ago, Nico said:

Great stuff Tom. Really pleased that you did well and that the list had legs.

Thanks for the shoutout. 

The Warriors are almost perfect in this role as they have the 5+ vs mortal wounds on top of everything else, that must have helped vs the Skyfires.

Now that pew pew Spam has triumphed in a number of tournaments in the last few months (noting in particular that these have been Mixed Order Hurricanum Filth - not actual Sylvaneth armies) - perhaps rapid tanky lists (that don't hit that hard but can grind) may have a resurgence. Phoenix Temple, Fyreslayers, Nurgle spring to mind.

I completely agree about how perfect the warriors are.  Ironically, what most people ****** about with s/s warriors (1" reach) is maximized with this list since almost all of your warriors on the top of the "T" are base to base engaged.  Additionally, they are 3+/4+ base with two attacks and rerolling 1s to hit and wound.  Since they were in combat at the top of 1 most games, it wasn't unusual for them to be at 2+/4+ (reroll 1s on hits and wounds) with the Chaos command ability.  They reliably put 1 wound per model each combat phase that has to be saved against by the enemy.  Between these consistent attacks and Mortal wounds kickback, they were doing normally 5-10 wounds to every unit they were engaged with each round.  I was unsure how well this list would grind down Beastclaw or how it would weather the rain of arrows from the Kunnin Rukk but it did VERY well.  I was pleased for sure.  

31 minutes ago, Spiky Norman said:

You list the Sorcerer as 120, but a Chaos Sorcerer Lord is 140?

  The Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Chaos Steed is on page 151 in the Warriors of Chaos compendium scrolls.  He is 120; the Chaos Sorcerer Lord on foot is 140.  Yes, the new scroll has the Chaos Steed option on it and they are pointed differently; no, I don't know why you gain better movement and more attacks for less points but I'm not going to ask questions.  It is likely an oversight.  This list could easily be dropped down to only 100 Reinforcement points if you were forced to take the other point value and basically lose nothing.  In fact, this is what I did when I was registering (dropped down to only 100 reinforcement points) so that I would gain the bonus Narrative Triumph roll for the event against opponents that deployed 2k points exactly.  The only thing you loose is the ability to drop two packs of 5 furies, instead of one (which I never summoned even one set given that Plaguebearers were always the better option for what I needed).  So you could easily adjust the Sorcerer Lord up to 140 and lose nothing (or play the mounted version if allowed at 120 until it gets corrected in the next GHB).  

31 minutes ago, Spiky Norman said:

Also what did you originally plan to field?

Originally, I had planned on dropped the second set of 5 Blightkings (180 points) for another unit of 28 Chaos Marauders that could trigger the mortal wounds kickback when they got in melee combat.  The idea there would be if the Chaos Warrior line ever broke before the end of the game (only did in my final game against the perm 4+ mortal wounds spam from 18 Skyfires; which means I weathered 18 mortal wounds on average with about as many normal wounds every round of combat from shooting alone).  If the line did ever break,  you could shove them into the gap for a turn to help finish things off or tank a big beasty that gets past your line.  They would also be excellent for zoning out entire sections of the board since 28 models 1" apart and block off huge chunks of territory to prevent people from coming back on from a table edge.  Despite these strengths, having the second unit of Blightkings worked to my advantage in a number of scenarios as they went and cleared off chaff away from objectives (something the marauders would struggle to do).  Another drawback would have been that I would have needed to keep the battleshock immunity on the 28 marauders, and that would have kept it off the warriors who definitely benefited from it.

Additionally, I had plans for more summoning options.  I wanted to have at least a Herald of Tzeentch on Foot and one on Disk (both 120) for those circumstances that needed another Hero or would have benefits from more spell casting.  That said, with my reduced points to 100, I wouldn't have been able to run either.  Another option was dropping the second set of Blightkings to a unit of 10 more marauders and used the remaining 120 points for summoning, which would have pushed the base list to 240 reinforcement points.  This would have allowed me to have a ton of additional reserve options including a Nugle Daemon Prince (3+ save), Plague Drones, or Pink Horrors [that could daisy chain summon a unit of Plaguebearers 54"+ away] or even used Sayl to 3 dice summon more significant units, such as a unit of 20 Plaguebearers, Plaguedrones, or even a Greater Unclean One as needed.  Any of these options would require a lot more mental energy to make use of but they could flat win you the game on occasion.  But I didn't have the additional Marauders or some of the other units to field those alternative summoning options.  

[Spiky Norman]

6 minutes ago, Thomas Lyons said:

The Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Chaos Steed is on page 151 in the Warriors of Chaos compendium scrolls.  He is 120; the Chaos Sorcerer Lord on foot is 140.

Interesting - I've never even looked at the Compendium scrolls for Chaos, but I presume you are right that this is an oversight that will be fixed come GHB2.

[shadowgra]

He took the one from compendium i suppose. 

Really interesting list and report, u have gone for full grinding.

May i ask you if you faced any stormcast? Is the matchup favorable? For me is nearly impossible with new staunch buffing their lines.

Also bloab seems to me like an auto include, but i understand why u chose be'lakor, he is, imho, so underrated. His spell is so useful cause combined with a -1 or more to hit really ****** things around. Also removes those pesky effects on a 6 to wound (also ours tho). Plus his ability can stop big scary unit from going crazy

Congratz for ur result! U revamped my hopes in competitive nurgle 

[Thomas Lyons]

1 minute ago, shadowgra said:

He took the one from compendium i suppose. 

Really interesting list and report, u have gone for full grinding.

May i ask you if you faced any stormcast? Is the matchup favorable? For me is nearly impossible with new staunch buffing their lines.

Also bloab seems to me like an auto include, but i understand why u chose be'lakor, he is, imho, so underrated. His spell is so useful cause combined with a -1 or more to hit really ****** things around. Also removes those pesky effects on a 6 to wound (also ours tho). Plus his ability can stop big scary unit from going crazy

Congratz for ur result! U revamped my hopes in competitive nurgle 

As mentioned in my first post, my match-ups were:

• Kunnin Rukk,
• Bloodbound,
• Phoenix Temple,
• Beastclaw mixed-Destruction
• Tzeentch 18 Skyfire/Loc/Kairos/Gaunt Summoner/TzanShaman/30 Marauders

I did not run into SCE or anyone who outdropped me.  Any player who would let me go first and deploy off the table I would simply zone them nearly off the board in turn 1.  This is what zone control looks like after your first activation with a standard 5" charge (assuming they have something on the line; if they don't move the front of the zone back 6"):

For everyone in the back field/edge, I've only projected 7" bubbles since that is what the new SCE need to come on from an edge.  Additionally, this is missing an entire unit (5 more blight kings or those summons, as noted above).   The leg of the "T" and be moved to any point in that line based on what terrain looks like.  Heroes and Marauders would shift appropriately.  The point is that nothing, not SCE, not Sylvaneth, not summons, are dropping into the back field.  This is why bodies are important to this game.  Bodies not only control objectives, they control the board.  If my opponent sets up off board and decides not to come down right away in their own remaining small backfield, I have a good shot (with my own summons and movement) of locking down the entire table and zoning them off the board completely in turn 2.  I would have enjoyed playing a standard SCE Warrior Brotherhood because they may not have realized what I was doing until they were already screened into their back field.  

[Gauche]

Very cool list, out of the box things like this have a lot more legs in miniatures than they do in TCGs or something because it's much harder to get reps in against the unknown. Wish I could have seen the Kunnin' Rukk game as that's the list I take and I'd feel very advantaged list to list but I'd have to play it out. Wish I had anyone local with Chaos Mortals. :[

Congrats on doing so well and having a good time. :]

[Thomas Lyons]

58 minutes ago, Gauche said:

Very cool list, out of the box things like this have a lot more legs in miniatures than they do in TCGs or something because it's much harder to get reps in against the unknown. Wish I could have seen the Kunnin' Rukk game as that's the list I take and I'd feel very advantaged list to list but I'd have to play it out. Wish I had anyone local with Chaos Mortals. :[

Congrats on doing so well and having a good time. :]

I'll do a brief battle report of it on my blog in the next day or so.  It was a super ugly way to start the tournament and arguably my weakest matchup but still pulled out a minor victory miraculously enough. 

[Gauche]

3 minutes ago, Thomas Lyons said:

I'll do a brief battle report of it on my blog in the next day or so.  It was a super ugly way to start the tournament and arguably my weakest matchup but still pulled out a minor victory miraculously enough. 

I look forward to reading it. :] Tournament Battle Reports are my favorite.

[James McPherson]

Genius , was nice to read as well as I am currently thinking about moving onto N. Mortals when I finish up with my Pestilens in the next few weeks. Been looking at a compendium Archaon list with some Varanguard and CW's but not sure yet what I'll do.

If the fly move is 18 and you need a charge of 5(+1) ,  then how do you get your warriors to spread out like that?

Did you start with them already 20 wide?

[Thomas Lyons]

12 minutes ago, James McPherson said:

Genius , was nice to read as well as I am currently thinking about moving onto N. Mortals when I finish up with my Pestilens in the next few weeks. Been looking at a compendium Archaon list with some Varanguard and CW's but not sure yet what I'll do.

If the fly move is 18 and you need a charge of 5(+1) ,  then how do you get your warriors to spread out like that?

Did you start with them already 20 wide?

Yep, I deploy very wide, with everything behind them.  If I were to be outdropped, they'll still have to deal with a wall of Chaos warriors.  

[James McPherson]

I have about 15 plague toads waiting to try this out some time!

[shadowgra]

3 hours ago, Thomas Lyons said:

As mentioned in my first post, my match-ups were:

• Kunnin Rukk,
• Bloodbound,
• Phoenix Temple,
• Beastclaw mixed-Destruction
• Tzeentch 18 Skyfire/Loc/Kairos/Gaunt Summoner/TzanShaman/30 Marauders

I did not run into SCE or anyone who outdropped me.  Any player who would let me go first and deploy off the table I would simply zone them nearly off the board in turn 1.  This is what zone control looks like after your first activation with a standard 5" charge (assuming they have something on the line; if they don't move the front of the zone back 6"):

For everyone in the back field/edge, I've only projected 7" bubbles since that is what the new SCE need to come on from an edge.  Additionally, this is missing an entire unit (5 more blight kings or those summons, as noted above).   The leg of the "T" and be moved to any point in that line based on what terrain looks like.  Heroes and Marauders would shift appropriately.  The point is that nothing, not SCE, not Sylvaneth, not summons, are dropping into the back field.  This is why bodies are important to this game.  Bodies not only control objectives, they control the board.  If my opponent sets up off board and decides not to come down right away in their own remaining small backfield, I have a good shot (with my own summons and movement) of locking down the entire table and zoning them off the board completely in turn 2.  I would have enjoyed playing a standard SCE Warrior Brotherhood because they may not have realized what I was doing until they were already screened into their back field.  

Oh sry didn't notice that

Well really really cool list and great job of you by ideaing a list like that. Not things u see everyday

Anyway i'll look for that br as soon as it gets out!

[sal4m4nd3r]

This is why I'm terrified of entering in NOVA. I'm not nearly smart enough to critically think these things out this fast. But I want to just for the experience. But I literally live 5 minutes away from the center where NOVA is being held..

 

Thomas.. can you run by me the casualty bit you were talking about. How you maintained the 5+ buff from the harbinger while breaking the coherency bubble. As long as you don't pile in you don't have to move into coherency?