Heresy & Heroes

It’s time to get gross and gribbly, folks. Games Workshop were kind enough to send me a copy of the brand-spanking-new Maggotkin of Nurgle Battletome and I’ve now had the time to get my head around this disgusting book and I’ve come up with a stomach-churning army list for all of you nauseating lazy painters out there. 

Before we crack on with the post and the list, a quick word about this book, and that word would be, in the very best way; yuk. It’s a well put together battletome and a book packed with all the grossness you’d expect from a Nurgle product. The list of units is tight, the rules are very fun, and I’ve had a lot of fun reading this book, even if I have to put it down every now and again because it makes me feel queasy. Now, let’s make a list.

If you’ve not read one of these posts before, here’s the deal; I take a brand new battletome and try to create an army that is low on model count, packed full of interesting things to paint and with little duplication. I do this so that all of you lazy painters out there (don’t worry – I’m a lazy painter too) can put together an army that you can paint quickly to enjoy games with it on the tabletop. That’s why I’ll also talk tactics a little bit here and I always try to find some synergy with the units. I doubt I’ll help you win tournaments, but if I can help you pick out a low model count army that will be fun to play with, then I’m doing my job.

Now, you may be thinking that I’ll be going down the “3 Great Unclean Ones and a bunch of plaguebearers” route but I won’t be. For a start, I wouldn’t have the patience to paint 3 Great Unclean Ones, and the 30 Plaguebearers you need to bring for matched play is far too many of the same mini for my liking. Also, if you were running that list at 2000 points (that’s what we aim for here), you could also squeeze in an endless spell and if you take the Befouling Host Plague Legion rules (which you would), you’ll have two Feculent Gnarlmaws to work on too. That’s 36 models! Those are rookie numbers! Also, it’s a bit beardy for me, though it does allow you to use the Thricefold Befoulment Core Battalion (which is pretty decent):

So instead, I’ve put together a list that puts that to shame and gives you a lot of fun painting challenges, variety, and far fewer models too. What’s more, I reckon it will do ok on the tabletop. Let’s take a look…

Leaders

Go big or go home, I say. That’s why the Glotkin is my first pick. They use up a ton of points, but given that this is a Nurgle list, the fact that they clock in at 700 is very pleasing. Also pleasing are the 20 wounds, the sheer damage it can do, and the Abundance of Flesh spell is a particular favourite of mine – on a 6+, one friendly unit within 14” gets to add 1 to their wounds characteristic until the start of the next hero phase. Very tasty (in a vomit-inducing kind of way). I’m also throwing Horticulous Slimux into the mix for the painters to enjoy. His Beast Handler rule is wasted a bit here (as I’m not taking any beasts) but we’re taking him for his ability to help us plant another Gnarlmaw and, well, because he looks cool.

Battleline

We will be taking two units of 5 Putrid Blightkings. These chonky chappies are just nasty (in a good way) and at 4 wounds each, with their 4+ save and of course Disgustingly Resilient, they should be hanging around for a while. And for a bit of variation, we’re going to bring 10 Plaguebearers – they’re literally here so that you don’t have to paint a third unit of Blightkings, you get a third battleline unit, and they look kind of nice too (the models may be old, but I think they’re more ‘classic’ these days).

Other Units

We’re going to take a pair of Pusgoyle Blightlords because anything that moves more than 4” base in this army is a boon, and they can deal out some mortal wounds if you buzz them into the opponent’s chaff units. And because we can take one for free, we’ll have a Feculent Gnarlmaw too – it’ll be handy with how this army plays once we rack up some disease points to bring it forth.

Army List

The Glottkin (Leader, Behemoth)

Horticulous Slimux (Leader)

5x Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)

5x Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)

10x Plaguebearers (Battleline)

2x Pusgoyle Blightlords 

Feculent Gnarlmaw

Points: 1995

Model Count: 26 (25 above and a second Feculent Gnarlmaw that Horti plants)

Army Name: Slow & Spready

Additional Stuff:

This army is really all about sitting back and letting the enemy come to you. Spread out and get the objectives you can, but you will not be racing up the battlefield with this damn slow army. What you have are a lot of wounds, decent saves, ways to improve your units’ durability and an army that your opponent won’t want to get anywhere near. And with Disgustingly Resilient on your side too, you should be able to take a lot of punishment, and once your opponent reaches you, they are in for a really hard time. You’ll be healing your own wounds while inflicting a lot of damage on them. You will need to bring some tracking tools with you to keep an eye on disease points and contagion points, so there’s some maths to be done here, but anything getting too close to you will very much regret it.

I should also say that if you wanted to make it slightly more competitive, I’d probably swap Horti out for a Lord of Afflictions who will give you a bit more movement and buff your Pusgoyles too. But I think that snail riding gardener is one of the most characterful models in the army (maybe even the game) and I’d be loathe to leave him out. Or, if you want to make him play a bit more of a roll, drop the Pusgoyles for a pair of beasts. You’ll lose a lot of manoeuvrability though if you do that, but it might not be a bad call if you’re happy to sit back. Either way, you still won’t need to paint more than 26 models for the army (even if one of those is the monstrous Glottkin).

I’d also give this army the Blessed Sons Plague Legion rules as it will help to infect all of your enemies and when combined with the Spread Rampant Disease Grand Stategy, this could be a real winner in matched play games.  

It’s also worth stating that while this book definitely rewards you for taking either mortal or daemon armies through the buffs and boons characters confer on other units, you don’t get the sense that you lose out by taking a blend of mortal and daemon. There are plenty of buffs in this short but flexible roster. It’s really nicely balanced in that sense, and it gives you lots of options depending on how you want to build things. A very well done to the writers on that score.

One last note from me – I am going to be building myself a Maggotkin army in the new year. My Stormcast are nearly done and I like the idea of not really having to worry about a movement phase. Plus, I have so much fun painting gribbly things, I know I’ll have a blast. When work get under way in the new year, you’ll hear about it all here first. Onwards!