Let's chat : Maggotkin of Nurgle

[hughwyeth]

1 minute ago, sal4m4nd3r said:

When did people all of a sudden start using nagash? Did he get a points reduction? He was 800 points whihc kept him off the table in competitive games. 

I'm surprised by this too. Archaon and Nagash were always friendly games, never GT stuff. Has anything changed to make him harder to kill if you deep strike something near him?

[smucreo]

He now can pick 3 spells from the two new lores and he can redirect wounds to morghasts, so he is basically more worth it for its cost. Plus his battalion makes the army a one-drop.

[sal4m4nd3r]

2 minutes ago, smucreo said:

He now can pick 3 spells from the two new lores and he can redirect wounds to morghasts, so he is basically more worth it for its cost. Plus his battalion makes the army a one-drop.

So he can direct wounds to morghasts.. and then heal them? LOL ok

[smucreo]

Yep, but just using Vile Transference since they are not summonable and as such can't be targeted by Deathly Invocations. It would go like this: Nagash makes the save on a 3+, if it fails or it's a mortal wound it goes to a 4+, if that fails Deathless Minions triggers and you roll for a 6+, if that then fails you roll and on a 3+ you pass it to the morghasts, who have a regular 4+ save, a 5+ invuln and then the 6+ from Deathless Minions. A whole lot of rolling haha

 The good thing about having Nagash as your general is that he makes Morghasts battleline and they gain +1 attack each on their weapons (with halberds you are looking at 4 attacks, 3+/3+ to hit/wound, -2 rend and 3 damage), so you are actually rewarded for taking them. 

[sal4m4nd3r]

Well this invincible death talk has got me depressed so here is what I worked on over the weekend!

Trying to turn poxwalkers in maruaders! Cut of all the tech pieces of covered up what I couldnt with extra pock marked flesh.  I modelled trees growing out of them as I do with all my blightkings and rotbringer heros. Also added shields from the skeleton kit (they are more degraded, ancient and frankly cool looking than the maruaders shields) to MOST of them. Some pictures below. 

[hughwyeth]

39 minutes ago, sal4m4nd3r said:

Well this invincible death talk has got me depressed so here is what I worked on over the weekend!

Trying to turn poxwalkers in maruaders! Cut of all the tech pieces of covered up what I couldnt with extra pock marked flesh.  I modelled trees growing out of them as I do with all my blightkings and rotbringer heros. Also added shields from the skeleton kit (they are more degraded, ancient and frankly cool looking than the maruaders shields) to MOST of them. Some pictures below. 

These look great!

I actually speed modelled 10 marauders from the GW marauder kit for a game today to fill 60 points, but these looks great. Makes me want to nurgle-fy mine a bit. 

Is there any new AoS fluff about marauders? In the end times, they're sort of like these guys:

They will declare allegiance to a god but not necessarily be nurgle-ey at all. 

[annarborhawk]

1 hour ago, smucreo said:

Yep, but just using Vile Transference since they are not summonable and as such can't be targeted by Deathly Invocations. It would go like this: Nagash makes the save on a 3+, if it fails or it's a mortal wound it goes to a 4+, if that fails Deathless Minions triggers and you roll for a 6+, if that then fails you roll and on a 3+ you pass it to the morghasts, who have a regular 4+ save, a 5+ invuln and then the 6+ from Deathless Minions. A whole lot of rolling haha

 The good thing about having Nagash as your general is that he makes Morghasts battleline and they gain +1 attack each on their weapons (with halberds you are looking at 4 attacks, 3+/3+ to hit/wound, -2 rend and 3 damage), so you are actually rewarded for taking them. 

So last week I played a Gore Pilgrims list I've had success with (3x priests,  mortal list with Skull Reapers as the Hammer) vs. Nagash.  His list was Nagash, Arkhan, and 4x2 Morghasts.  He had 10 models.  I was basically tabled by the end of 3.  (I will note that I got a unit of 5x Skullreapers with double Killing Frenzy and  Whipped to Fury into Nagash. They took him down to 2 wounds).  The Loathsome Sorcery 36" bubble did make him fail a good number of spells.   It was still basically a steam roller, though.

 

Now with Nurgle,  I'm not sure what the answer is.  Certainly can't win in a slug-fest.  Maybe blocks of immovable plaguebearers camping objectives and looking to win on points before being whittled down to nothing?  Rotigus back at your own edge casting Deluge and  Plague Squall - out of range of for unbinding rolls? That with cycling back to #6? The problem is we spend a premium on mortal wound output, and Nagash has a great mortal wound defense.  

[Poltron]

Instead of focusing on Nagash, could we just not aim to remove the 9 other models? In most scenarios, you need to grab objectives, I cant believe he's able to win those scenarios with so low of a model count, even if we get destroyed we should be able to win if we keep the objectives for 2-3 rounds more than them. Keep that big boy lonely and aim for the rest.

 

[fredster4050]

24 minutes ago, Poltron said:

Instead of focusing on Nagash, could we just not aim to remove the 9 other models? In most scenarios, you need to grab objectives, I cant believe he's able to win those scenarios with so low of a model count, even if we get destroyed we should be able to win if we keep the objectives for 2-3 rounds more than them. Keep that big boy lonely and aim for the rest.

 

This...

[fredster4050]

Just played a local 26 man tournament in deepest Devon.

Nurgle 1st and 3rd and Kharadron 2nd, Death didn't feature heavily but maybe not optimised by players yet... 

[hughwyeth]

1 minute ago, fredster4050 said:

Just played a local 26 man tournament in deepest Devon.

Nurgle 1st and 3rd and Kharadron 2nd, Death didn't feature heavily but maybe not optimised by players yet... 

Can you recall the nurgle lists?

[Vomikron Noxis]

Yeh it’s essential that we know those @fredster4050...

[Aaron Schmidt]

Last weekend I played in a great 5 game narrative event called Holy Wars. The Maggotkin were a great time to play over these games. My observations were that it was easy to let the bulk of my points sit back too much and not contribute while my hammers were getting whittled down. When I was able to keep things working together the performance was fantastic. Some notes...

• Tarpitting units with Nurglings was amusing/effective
• Drones did a ton of damage. I was only able to use blades in one game (we had change spells, command traits, and artifacts from game to game), but they were still very effective. The were able to knock out a Megaboss and a Mawcrusha boss with some help from lucky Plague Wind casts.
• Heralds do ok at keeping pace with the drones especially when there are movement buffs. Locus was not hard to maintain.
• GUO is mediocre in combat, however combining that combat with traits, magic, and artifacts, he will burn down some solid units. He was charged by 10 buffed up Brutes. They nearly killed him, but his ability to regenerate (with the herald's ability helping), and kick out wounds/mortal wounds in various ways turned the tide. 10 dead brutes, and the GUO got back up to about 13-14 wounds. 
• When everything works together within 7-14" its magic. 

Here are some pics from the event...

 

[hughwyeth]

@Aaron Schmidt Looks amazing! I've yet to have my drones do anything but be cleared off the table, even with 6 of them. That's in 2 games against ironjawz too! Amazing performance by GUO there, surprised he survived 10 brutes to be honest! I'm used to Glottkin melting like butter when anything that's half decent in combat comes near. 

[Aaron Schmidt]

4 minutes ago, hughwyeth said:

@Aaron Schmidt Looks amazing! I've yet to have my drones do anything but be cleared off the table, even with 6 of them. That's in 2 games against ironjawz too! Amazing performance by GUO there, surprised he survived 10 brutes to be honest! I'm used to Glottkin melting like butter when anything that's half decent in combat comes near. 

Thanks! I love working on this army. Still a ton to do. 

I was really sweating it when the Brutes made that charge. It was a hail mary, something like 10". Had they knocked out the GUO, it would have been curtains for me. He was very well supported by nearby Plaguebearers and 2 Heralds. These all worked together to prevent follow up charges from the Megaboss and to put out something like 3-4 D3 mortal wounds on the Brutes. The Heralds also contributed to the combat a lot. They are soft, but not terrible at killing stuff. 

All that being said, I've been too cautious with the GUO. Anytime he's been able to get close to the enemy, supporting other attacks things have gone very well. 

Unsurprisingly my only terrible matchup was against KO around terrain which really prevented charges or running.  I played that game badly. My army was shot to hell, predictably. 

[Aaron Schmidt]

The plague drones do very well when they receive Grandfather's Joy command ability, and have someone around to trigger their locus. The stingers don't hit enough, if there is damned terrain about, take advantage of it!

[hughwyeth]

5 minutes ago, Aaron Schmidt said:

Thanks! I love working on this army. Still a ton to do. 

Yeah this'll actually be my first fully painted army! And I think narrative campaigns like the one you played are where AoS really shines. You can put competitive list building to the side for a bit and field a really nice looking force. 

How did you do the grubs under the GUO?

[Aaron Schmidt]

4 minutes ago, hughwyeth said:

Yeah this'll actually be my first fully painted army! And I think narrative campaigns like the one you played are where AoS really shines. You can put competitive list building to the side for a bit and field a really nice looking force. 

How did you do the grubs under the GUO?

Absolutely. I like really playing the game, and trying to win, but having a variety of styles of events really keeps things alive for me. All the games were very fun and immersive, and that was thanks to the tone that the organizer set. 

The maggots under and coming out of the GUO (Morgo Maggotbelly is his name) were done with greenstuff and a tentacle roller from Green Stuff World. The larger ones were done in a similar way but with a home made roller that I made from Super Sculpy.  

[sal4m4nd3r]

2 hours ago, hughwyeth said:

These look great!

I actually speed modelled 10 marauders from the GW marauder kit for a game today to fill 60 points, but these looks great. Makes me want to nurgle-fy mine a bit. 

Is there any new AoS fluff about marauders? In the end times, they're sort of like these guys:

They will declare allegiance to a god but not necessarily be nurgle-ey at all. 

I think over many battles and being influenced by a palable aura or decay and new life will metamorphose even the staunchest mortals. Or at the very least seeing others with nurgles gifts in the glory of battle will make one more accepting and open to receiving these blessings. 

[annarborhawk]

1 hour ago, Poltron said:

Instead of focusing on Nagash, could we just not aim to remove the 9 other models? In most scenarios, you need to grab objectives, I cant believe he's able to win those scenarios with so low of a model count, even if we get destroyed we should be able to win if we keep the objectives for 2-3 rounds more than them. Keep that big boy lonely and aim for the rest.

 

(Don't have my General's handbook on me) but it was the Scenario with the diagonal deployment and the two objectives where you have to control both after round 3.  I conceded after 3, though I think technically I was still contesting my own objective. But at that point I was down to 2 priests, the sectrator, and maybe a handful of blood warriors somewhere. I had removed two morghasts - that's it. So there was no way for me to control both objectives, meaning he was going to win on points.  There was no ignoring Nagash in the middle of the board destroying everything. I suppose the SkullReapers could have taken out Arkan or a unit of Morghasts instead, but I think the result would have been the same.

 

It was one game , and I was ill-prepared, having not read through the Death book yet, but geez did Death seem strong.

[Vomikron Noxis]

@Aaron Schmidt your army looks awesome dude! What else did you run? 

Glad to see the love for drones tbh, I’ve found them to be awesome. Do you think they “need” Blades, or are they good enough without?

[Aaron Schmidt]

29 minutes ago, Vomikron Noxis said:

@Aaron Schmidt your army looks awesome dude! What else did you run? 

Glad to see the love for drones tbh, I’ve found them to be awesome. Do you think they “need” Blades, or are they good enough without?

My list was...

• GUO, Sword & Blade (controversial I know) - Each round we needed to use a different Command Trait & Artifact
• Sorcerer
• Poxbringer Herald*
• Poxbringer Herald
• 30 Plaguebearers
• 10 Blightkings
• 5 Blightkings
• 6 Plague Drones
• 3 Nurglings

I could only use Blades of Putrefaction in one game all weekend due to the nature of the event. That round the drones actually did very little, they were the victim of a early KO double turn clown car barrage. Every other game the drones did well even without blades. Their performance is diametrically opposed to the level of armor which was being dealt with. When they were on Horde clearing duty they were on fire. They also held up units very well. They kept a 6 strong unit of Kurnoth Hunters with scythes pinned for the entire game which was helpful. The biggest weakness of the drones is their giant base size. It can be hard to maneuver them and get good contact in combat. They should spend a turn getting into a good position for the following turns charge if they can. If you can get Grandfathers Joy on to them, as well as their locus ability, they will grind stuff down. 

*The Heralds were champs all weekend. Better in combat than I expected and their healing and Plaguebearer mortal wound spell were super handy. 

[Poltron]

34 minutes ago, Vomikron Noxis said:

Glad to see the love for drones tbh, I’ve found them to be awesome. Do you think they “need” Blades, or are they good enough without?

Except against heavily armored targets (2+) that can reroll 1, buffed drones  (+2 attacks) should melt almost anything, without blades. Just with dice rolls alone, even a 3+ armor should feel the sting. I've manage to evaporate 10 liberator without even getting to the sting attack. It's a crazy load of attack, and they're not that easy to kill if you put them against weak damage dealers.

Blade is nice, but in most game I couldnt either manage to cast it, or it was dispelled.

[Vomikron Noxis]

Nice man, glad to hear it. Sounds like a very similar list to one that I would bring. Did you regret not taking the bell on the GUO? How were the Blightkings? Better than the same points of plaguebearers?

all the questions @Aaron Schmidt!

everyone else: any ideas for dealing with the new Death with a mostly daemon army?

[Poltron]

1 hour ago, annarborhawk said:

(Don't have my General's handbook on me) but it was the Scenario with the diagonal deployment and the two objectives where you have to control both after round 3.  I conceded after 3, though I think technically I was still contesting my own objective. But at that point I was down to 2 priests, the sectrator, and maybe a handful of blood warriors somewhere. I had removed two morghasts - that's it. So there was no way for me to control both objectives, meaning he was going to win on points.  There was no ignoring Nagash in the middle of the board destroying everything. I suppose the SkullReapers could have taken out Arkan or a unit of Morghasts instead, but I think the result would have been the same.

 

It was one game , and I was ill-prepared, having not read through the Death book yet, but geez did Death seem strong.

Yeah that scenario wasnt easy in that case, it's almost a "Duke it out in the center" scenario. I'm pretty sure that if you manage to stuck Nagash with the plaguebearers, it should be possible to keep him there while your other troops try to do their work. 

My casual opponent lately focus so hard on destroying my drones (even when I mystic shield and cover them) that the rest of my army can go to town almost unopposed. Dont let that tunnel vision get to you, focus your troops where you can deal the most damage, Nagash clearly is a meal better eaten cold.