wander

This is my go at a 2000pts Pestilens List for 2nd edition. I don't own this many Plague Monks yet, though I thought I'd share and see if you could offer ways I could optimise the list, make it a bit more competitive or just general constructive criticism! So there you have my Pestilens list. Uses Ratling Guns as I find them more reliable than a single Plagueclaw. I'm not sure if the single Priest will be decent enough to expand the Heroes roster (also not sure if 4 shots per hero phase to get a Great Plague up is actually adequate). I decided to forgo the Chronomantic Cogs to go for +1 Command Point instead, for extra Gouge-Tear and Inspiring Presence goodness. I honestly find the Cogs, whilst suiting our rat boys, over-priced for it's main pick of +2 Move and +2 to charge rolls. Flaws I know are a lack of real heavy hitters outside the Verminlord and Furnace, plus the odd sized Plague Monk blobs. Though I'm willing to get experimental with how the blobs work in full-scale games though, as discussed above. I also know I don't have many allies and I know Nurgle has some cool (if expensive in points) choices, along with Skaven stuff too. This is a work in progress and I really want to make a great and fun list, so I'd like to know some cool adds. I picked Ratling Guns for a better ranged support than the Plagueclaw would bring to the army. Having some ranged ability is important to me. Okay, let me know what you think!

Really? That's cool, because the banner monk just has the one foetid blade. So if I say the unit has say, foetid blades and woe-staves, the banner monk could attack with a stave too? Even though banner monk clearly isn't holding one? (Though I suppose his banner could count as one... ? ) That the banner monks have the one knife in their hand made me just stick to the one... ?

Small units; generally 20 Monks can take out 3 Mighty Skullcrushers about, though I need a Hero nearby to make sure they keep it together with Inspiring Presence or they crumble, even with the 'Strength in Numbers' buff, as too many dead rats whittles that to nothing and I'm battleshocking on 5 after losing a load. I tend not to take the Icon of Pestilence, favouring the Contagion Banner. For sure Rabid Fever does help, so maybe an Icon atop would push things over (I realise I can take both banners, atm I've been taking the one so an extra Monk can have a 2nd hand weapon). Also as mentioned above, with such a small unit, not every Monk can attack due to them being unable to wrap around effectively at pile-in (even with the improved 2e rules for it), so the buckets of dice really get reduced against such an elitey unit. It does feel like though to delete such a powerful unit, I'm sending a Plague Monk blob as a sacrificial pawn and taking big blobs means I have less units to spare for that kind of Skaven shenanigans.

About the unweildiness of 40 Monks compared to more smaller groups, I hear pros and cons for 20s and 40s, has anyone gone with 30 monks in blobs? I ask as it seems they'd have the lasting effect of often Battleshocking at Bravery 9 when taking a hit and being big enough to objective camp pretty effectively, whilst avoiding the pitfalls of half a blob not being in combat range even with woe-staves when charged. Seems best of both worlds to me. Recently I've been considering what would be good to ally in for some decent Rend (-2 or more), enough to ruin units rather than Heroes. I realise the Plagueclaw is the main Rend we get in Pestilens, though I still find it's single attack per turn unreliable and it's 160pts, which I still find expensive for it. I'd probably say Skryre Acolytes/Globadier units would be pretty good as ten cost only 120pts. 10x 9" Rend -2 attacks is pretty nifty to ally in. Mainly though, I've been fighting elitey lists with high saves. Also I'd like to know what would be a good counter to Mighty Skullcrushers, that have tons of attacks, a 4+ save and 5 wounds each. I'm feeling higher Rend and multiple damage is good, as my Plague Monks can chip them down though they'll fold eventually and I consistently need a Hero nearby incase I need to Inspiring Presence them... Help! ?

Plague reapers for sure are quite nasty when the Corruptor needs to take names, my only qualms would be that as he takes wounds he's rolling less of them (still better than his tail, mind) and whilst fairly tanky, he doesn't get 'Look Out Sir' like the Furnace does and being a bigger model, I see he's going to be losing wounds some. Also usually when he fights with me, often a few turns have gone by and it's never really been fully my choice for him to start killing. So, basically whilst it's fairly cool to give him an artifact to make him more killy, I find you could be suited with something better quite often. I mainly use him for his Wizard ability and to either Gouge-Tear buff Monks or reliably debuff the enemy with Wither (as I have Master of Rot and Ruin on mine).

My friend plays small units of Blood Warriors as a battleline and has very elite Bloodbound Khorne, so whilst my rats were killing Skullcrushers, they were still getting tore up. The Slaughterpriest doing 2 damage with each hit and Monks having no save is nasty! Did get vengeance with Rabid Fever being cast though! I may be cheeky enough to slip an Icon of Pestilence in with a Contagion Banner for some more vengeful acid-blood splashes when monks get ganked! ? I've been recently considering the usefulness of having the Chronomantic Cogs. Whilst 'Speed Up Time' is useful on the surface, +2 Move and +2 to charge rolls for 60pts is probably a little steep and I'm starting to think investing in a different Endless Spell or even an extra Command Point would be better. I don't think much on the other spells for Pestilens, so really veering to tweaking my list up and maybe including that Command Point instead (so starting with +2 when including the Congregation of Filth). I'll talk more on my prospective fluff in a future post, though I was really feeling on doing the Monk robes with some colours like Screaming Skull, Flayed One Flesh etc, then shading tears using Seraphim Sepia and using Agrax Earthshade at the bottoms of their robes to represent trailing dirt. Considered basing them on a Texture Painted base that's highlighted gold, as I've seen some Stormcast on sprayed gold shattered domain bases and felt it made a nice Hyshian look. How do you reckon that sounds for a colour scheme?

I faced Khorne and my Plague Monks fared pretty well, though started eventually to take casualties. I was an idiot though and completely forgot about using 'Inspiring Presence' at one point. I had 2 Command Points also, though it just slipped my mind. I'm coming into AoS from 40k 8th edition, so the extra rules slip my mind often. I actually willingly changed my Verminlord's artefact to the Aetherquartz Brooch partly as before then I used Bilious Bell and always forgot to use the thing, what with Master of Rot and Ruin giving me prayers, then magic, then command ability (Gouge-Tear the Eyes), having a more simple artefact to help refund my Command Point tally was in theory to help allow more Inspiring Presence and Gouge-Tear uses. Anyways, next time it seems like a blob is gonna go down the tubes I'll hopefully now remember to fire off Inspiring Presence and hopefully have a Hero in range! (which is another way I tend to get bit playing my Clan!) My main woe actually with Clan Pestilens is forming my narrative behind my Monks. They're from Hysh and I'm coming mostly blank for any lore or good colour schemes (including basing) for that realm. There needed to be more on it in the Corebook. Closest I've got is noticing the reference to them corrupting 'The Bastion of Ilos' in Hysh and Ilos is the olde name of Troy IRL.

I did do a game once at a small scale for a test-play of what the Plague Furnace can do, where I didn't play the Verminlord Corruptor for it. I found the Plague Furnace to be really fun and Rabid Fever was an amazing lil Prayer. The Great Censer was amazing for mortal wounds until it started to take damage and lobbing it via Plague Monks into 3" away from enemy for the charge later felt really good. I was playing against an army without a Wizard though, so I had no magic woes to try and counter.

Atm I kinda agree that say, one Plague Furnace is probably worth it though. As mentioned it can 'Look out Sir' and otherwise has the same wounds and save off memory as the Verminlord (I'm a fan of the Verminlord as it's our lone Wizard and is decently tanky and killy too, I always take one in any list I make). Rabid Fever guarantees you can do some damage even when the Monks are getting killed by the enemy. Correct me if I'm wrong, though say a blob has been buffed by 'Gouge-Tear their Eyes!', each slain rat can do three foetid blade attacks each. There is the Icon of Pestilence which has a similar mechanic, though I think potentially you're going to do more wounds with Monks in a Rabid Fever that have been charged and the Icon is more of a help for a few cheeky more, rather than a worthwhile full replacement. I wouldn't take atm more than one Furnace, especially as Congregation of Filth not only got a price bump though is worded as '2 or more units of Plague Monks' for it's special rule, so you could technically have four blobs of Monks with 6+ FNP around the solo Furnace. That and Congregation or 50 vanilla Monks is a bit of a debatable choice, though I see a good application of Rabid Fever and 6+ FNP being a great boon to cause more carnage because rats are squishy and sometimes picking our fights isn't an option. Plus it's another tanky model to serve as a distraction carnifex so your Monks can be left alone to Ob Sec an Objective or two make it pretty good IMO. Only need the one though, I'll say that.

I see. I've yet to play with a Plague Priest, so I guess they're pretty squishy. I'll talk more on the Plague Furnace another time. As for the Plague Wind Mortars, they look totally fluffy, thoug Geedubs has stopped producing them, which gives me a bit of a sad. Tempted by Doomwheels though I'll see how the Ratling Guns go. I'm more a fan of them throwing out more dice for hit rolls than gambling on a single attack for multiple damage. And with the Ratling Guns, they make fluffy Skryre thralls seeking amnesty after the Year of the Drowned Rat, plus there's no real reason not to gamble on a d6 for the 4d6 shots, it's only on a 1 that they'll suffer d3 mortal wounds, it's fluffy the Pestilens wouldn't care if they did wounded and it'll happen maybe once a game they'll damage themselves from doing 4d6 shots.

Plague Monks are only Battleline with the Pestilens allegiance however. So running Nurgle Maggotkin allegiance makes a force less about the Monks at that point. Fair point to have Monks maybe not in max unit size. Atm I'm running blobs of 30, just so if they take casualties I can still benefit from the 20+ needed for the reroll charges of a Congregation. I'd much rather save my Command Points for 'Gouge-Tear their Eyes' and Inspiring Presence. I've found against small, for example 5-man units, Monks in the back may not be able to attack as they're outside of 2", really reducing the effectiveness of paying out for big blobs and buckets of dice to attack. That said being able to now wrap around a lil bit in 2nd edition helps get a few more cheeky strikes in. Inspiring Presence is great now if you have the Command Points to pull it off! I did however play a game before and accidentally had a blob of Monks outside the bubble to gain IP and they got decimated, so for sure make sure you got a Hero nearby when you know your Monks are gonna be taking a hit. I feel having 3 Plague Claws in a 2k army is still alot of points on ranged support. 480 atm, that's 1/4 of the list just on three ranged attacks. Range is amazing and so is the damage, though they have to hit first. Anyone know any competitive ranged support that can throw out more attacks? I lean to Skryre for options, as I think the only thing Nurgle has are the Plague Drones. That said, am I missing a Command Ability from an allied Hero that could help out?

Hey there, new poster here. Been getting to grips with Pestilens in an ongoing Escalation League and we're hitting 1,500pts now 2nd edition is out and rolling with those rules for it. I'm going for Pestilens for Allegiance rather than Maggotkin as I'm in more for the Skaven Bravery in Numbers and the Great Plague buffs. I have an army list below I quickly did, quite heavy on support though when 2k rolls around I can put more Plague Monks in. Anyways, lemme know how this looks, I know how the Pestilens feels now after some games, though I feel they needed some support versus melee-centric forces (Khorne, DoK) and figured Ratling Guns allied in would be a good call... 1,500pts Allegiance: Pestilens. Home Realm: Hysh. Verminlord Corruptor (General. Command Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin. Artifact: Aetherquartz Brooch) = 220pts Plague Furnace (Bonus Artifact: Liber Bubonicus) = 180pts Plague Monk = 80pts x3 Battlelines; 30x Plague Monks (plague scroll, contagion banner, icon of contagion, bile-chimes) w/ foetid blades + woe-staves. = 210pts 30x Plague Monks (same as above) = 210pts 30x Plague Monks (same as above) = 210pts Ratling Gun Weapon Team = 80pts (Ally) Ratling Gun Weapon Team = 80pts (Ally) Battalion: Contagion of Filth = 170pts Chronomantic Cogs Endless Spell = 60pts ==== That list brings me to 1.5k on the dot in points. I know I could have gone with blobs of 40 to save points, though I'm gonna take advantage of that come the 2000pt list to end the league with. Things I noticed was the wording of the Contagion of Filth says 2+ units of Plague Monks can be included, not just two, which is pretty neat. Went with woe-staves for the obvious extra dice when the back ranks are charged in and the Verminlord can activate 'Goug-Tear their Eyes!'. They have the Aetherquartz Brooch to help on the 5+ get Command Points back so I can lean on 'Inspiring Presence' more when needed. Him getting the Priest keyword from Master of Rot and Ruin now should mean he can get Echoes of Great Plagues same as the other Heroes. I could have had more Plague Monks, though I feel this list isn't too bad. I got some time to tweak it around though... So... What do you think about it?