Can pure Pestilens be a thing?

[Simon1971]

Both Nurgle and Skaven are getting a lot of love at the moment, but poor Clan Pestilens.......

They might not be resilient, but they are cheap as chips and the Plague Furnace and Catapult give some decent bonuses and synergy. 

That said they have arguably the worst Vermin Lord, and are squishy as they come

So, what do we think? Are they just support for a Chaos army? Do they need other Nurgle units or can they make it on their own?

 

[Jonatan]

I am buidling a mono pestilence list atm. I will get back to you with the results. But I suspect them to be quite juciy. 

[Andreas]

1 hour ago, Jonatan said:

I am buidling a mono pestilence list atm. I will get back to you with the results. But I suspect them to be quite juciy. 

Very interesting.  

I am almost done painting my fyreslayers so I have been thinking what to do next. I kind of like left field armies that no one else uses but I think are not as bad as people think (i.e. brayherd or fyreslayers). Pestilence have peeked my interest. Foulrain congregation together with 100+ plague monks in MSU I think could be viable. Or at least against certain lists, for example the list that won Warlords. But if you are already building them I might wait and see how you play them.

What have you been planning, is it the same idea: Foulrain and lots of plague monks, and lots of units?

[Wolden Spoons]

Just jamming bodies on objectives will win you games so no need to worry about effectiveness. Plus 100 ramen with plus one to hit will make a dent in something.

[Jonatan]

  
 

Hopefully you will get too see them at Fanatic Andreas! But as you can see I am skipping them MSU. For now...
Just started to paint them, so I am running a tight schedual to get this done

[Andreas]

Cool. My thought process for MSU is that plauge monks does not seem to have many buffs for being in large units and are very easy to kill so having lots of units to block charges and countercharge etc. might be better than having a few large ones, but I dont know.

So I was thinking about a similar list but instead having something like this:

Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 10 (70)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 10 (70)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 10 (70)
- Foetid Blades

I would love to play that list on Fanatic.  It would be the battle of the plagueclaw catapults. They would absolutly wreck my large fyreslayer units but if they go down early the battlefield will be filled with dead rats only. 

[Shane]

Go check out James' blog where he took a pure Pestilens list to the Warlords event at WHW.

[Jonatan]

@AndreasYou will be suprised how much damage the rats can dish out

 

[Andreas]

5 minutes ago, Jonatan said:

@AndreasYou will be suprised how much damage the rats can dish out

 

You will be suprised how much damage fyreslayers can take. 

[Jonatan]

I know they can dish out quite alot of damage aswell! 

[TalesOfSigmar]

I'm just about to start a Pestilence army, think there's some good combos.

Don't think they're going to be a top-tier competitive army but should be quite fun.

Looking at Running either of the following;

Leaders
Plague Furnace (220)
Plague Priest with Warpstone-tipped Staff (80)
Plague Furnace (220)

Units
Plague Monks x 30 (210)
- Woe
Plague Monks x 30 (210)
- Woe
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 10 (70)
- Foetid Blades

Behemoths

War Machines
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)

Batallions
Congregation of Filth (60)
Foulrain Congregation (100)

Total: 1990/2000

or

Leaders
Plague Furnace (220)
Plague Priest with Warpstone-tipped Staff (80)
Verminlord Corruptor (240)

Units
Plague Monks x 30 (210)
- Woe
Plague Monks x 30 (210)
- Woe
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 10 (70)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 10 (70)
- Foetid Blades

Behemoths

War Machines
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)

Batallions
Congregation of Filth (60)
Foulrain Congregation (100)

Total: 1940/2000

 

[Jonatan]

I tried this list at a local one-dayer: 

Leaders
Plague Furnace (220)
Plague Priest with Warpstone-tipped Staff (80)
Plague Furnace (220)

Units
Plague Monks x 30 (210)
- Woe
Plague Monks x 30 (210)
- Woe
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 10 (70)
- Foetid Blades

Behemoths

War Machines
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)

Batallions
Congregation of Filth (60)
Foulrain Congregation (100)

Total: 1990/2000
 

It is really competative. The only game I really struggled was when my catapults did not land a hit before round 4. 

[Andreas]

32 minutes ago, Jonatan said:

....

I really like this list. It will be interesting to see it in action at Fanatic. How is the painting going?

When I theorised around a similar list I put in a werminlord corruptor instead of the second Plauge Furnance (and switched 10 Plauge Monk to 5 Censer Bearers). Not that he is good but neither is the Furnance on paper and you need one of them for the hero battleplan and he has a good command abillity to use in some situations and can cast/unbind spells. That is your thoughts on that?

Edit: I see that tales of sigmar have posted that list (minus 5 Censer Bearers).

[Jonatan]

I actually think you can make them more competative by loosing the catapults. 

You do the verminlord formation, with 2 furnace and 160 monks as a one drop. 

Regarding the painting, I think Im on track. Almost painted all the skins/cloaks on the monks, and I am aming to have them done on sunday, So I can focus on fininshing the lords, warmachines next week. 

You can follow my progress here (it is in swedish doh): 

[Bowlzee]

I love themed armies! Can't wait to see photo's off your army.

Echo what others say, Verminlord is an amazing model, and could help with the likes of Three Places of Power battleplan  

Keep up the good work!

#OnlyTheFaithful

[Andreas]

38 minutes ago, Jonatan said:

I actually think you can make them more competative by loosing the catapults. 

You do the verminlord formation, with 2 furnace and 160 monks as a one drop. 

Regarding the painting, I think Im on track. Almost painted all the skins/cloaks on the monks, and I am aming to have them done on sunday, So I can focus on fininshing the lords, warmachines next week. 

You can follow my progress here (it is in swedish doh): 

Do you think so, I would think 3 catapults makes for a more balanced list, seriously.  

It´s an objecitve based game so maybe 160 does it but I could see them struggeling againt a lot of list that could have been solved by the catapults. For example, armies based on supporting heros that you need to reach out to kill (Bloodbound, kunning rook, etc..), armies that you need rend to kill (not the strongest but for example Fyreslayers with 4+,4+,4+ save) and gunline armies etc..

Regarding your painting, that's impressive. I am done (almost) with my 85 fyreslayers in 4 months and that is nothing I will try again. 

[Jonatan]

Well, currenly we swedes are rollers (atleast in linköping), but if I would be able to pick you would have 160 monks immune to BS and a 6 "save".
I think that it is stronger when playing objectives. But I don't think I ever will find out, since im not planning to paint any more monks in the near future ^^

It will be great to see the little red beards rocking it in Umeå. 4+4+4+ sure souns tasty!

[WSDdeloach]

I like this list. Not too many models, but good standing. Holds ground well, when units pump into you, you start dishing out mortal wounds. 

Leaders
Verminlord Corruptor (240)
- General
- Trait: Cunning Deceiver
- Artefact: Beguiling Gem
Plague Furnace (220)
- Artefact: Crown of Conquest
Plague Furnace (220)
- Artefact: Crown of Conquest
Plague Priest with Plague Censer (80)

Units
Plague Censer Bearers x 10 (120)
Plague Censer Bearers x 10 (120)
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 20 (140)
- Foetid Blades

Behemoths

War Machines
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)
Plagueclaw (180)

Batallions
Congregation of Filth (60)
Plaguesmog Congregation (80)

Total: 1960/2000
 

[Ferrus65]

This post is really interesting, a lot of inputs in building a pure pestilens army. I see no one (except WSDdeloach) use plague censer bearers in list, probably because compared to plague monks they really lack in number of models: what do you think, should I consider them or not?

It also seems to me that one plague furnace, maybe two, and three plagueclaw with foulrain congregation are almost mandatories..

[Jonatan]

I will try them out in the future. I like the stuff the plaguesmog brings to the table. 

However I think the following list is by far the strongest when talking killing power/sustainability. 

It is a 1 drop, so you can in most games take the first turn an do immune to battleshook to the whole army aswell. 

 

Leaders
Verminlord Corruptor (240)
- General
- Trait: Great Destroyer
- Artefact: Crown of Conquest
Plague Furnace (220)
- Artefact: Crown of Conquest
Plague Furnace (220)
- Artefact: Crown of Conquest

Units
Plague Monks x 40 (280)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 40 (280)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 40 (280)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 40 (280)
- Foetid Blades

Behemoths

War Machines

Batallions
Congregation of Filth (60)
Congregation of Filth (60)
Virulent Procession (80)

Total: 2000/2000

 

[Ferrus65]

Mmh.. painting 160 plague monks require for sure a great devotion to the Horned Rat. But I love this version of the list too!

[WSDdeloach]

7 hours ago, Jonatan said:

I will try them out in the future. I like the stuff the plaguesmog brings to the table. 

However I think the following list is by far the strongest when talking killing power/sustainability. 

It is a 1 drop, so you can in most games take the first turn an do immune to battleshook to the whole army aswell. 

 

Leaders
Verminlord Corruptor (240)
- General
- Trait: Great Destroyer
- Artefact: Crown of Conquest
Plague Furnace (220)
- Artefact: Crown of Conquest
Plague Furnace (220)
- Artefact: Crown of Conquest

Units
Plague Monks x 40 (280)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 40 (280)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 40 (280)
- Foetid Blades
Plague Monks x 40 (280)
- Foetid Blades

Behemoths

War Machines

Batallions
Congregation of Filth (60)
Congregation of Filth (60)
Virulent Procession (80)

Total: 2000/2000

 

I like this list. lots of staying power with model count but, it feels soft... Censers hit hard. And the bonus from virulent procession Really only has one ability that's solid.. Verminus infestation seems super situational. 

 

I think ink plague smog is over all a better battalion and more affordable! 

Also! Catapults my dude!!! Great against chaff

[Jonatan]

It is actually not the catapults that does the damage. Let me put it this way, it is possible possible for a unit of 20 monks to have 160 attacks in one round of combat. Hitting on 4+, wounding on 3+, both rerollable, 5's to wound are -1 rend and 5's you roll again and 6's become mortal wounds.

How? I will let you think about it abit

 

[TalesOfSigmar]

With the increase in battleline and troops on the table the Plagueclaws can be valuable to thin the herd so to speak before you get into combat.

With the foulrain as long as you hit with one of the catapults the other re-roll miss hits plus your wounding on 2s and -2 rend.

Do that against a big block of troops with 2D6 Damage on each and you'll soon be thinning that unit down for the Plague Monks to clear up.

Also drop three catapults on a hero who's vital at giving a certain unit or army synergy and that's them neutralised straight away.

Remember the plagueclaws don't need line of sight so even heroes hiding away aren't safe.

[Jonatan]

15 minutes ago, TalesOfSigmar said:

Also drop three catapults on a hero who's vital at giving a certain unit or army synergy and that's them neutralised straight away.

Remember the plagueclaws don't need line of sight so even heroes hiding away aren't safe.

I totaly agree on this.  Plauge claws are excellent tools to get to enemy heroes. They should be able to pick of 1-1,5 heroes per turn.
The list I mentioned lack that potential (unless you want to run your monks from combat, which is a viable option) to get well placed enemy heroes. If you only depend on your catalpults to deal with enemys forces you might get some troubble. After all, if you land all your shoots on your opponents hordes (if they have any 10+ units) and they dont make any saves/"feel no pain" you should end up with 19-20 wounds on that unit on average.