"From your wounds the fester pours."

It seems like it has been a long while since I wish listed a Demonic Legion theme list. I have my own Khorne army nearing completion, and have dreamt up a Tzeecth list. I think it is time to hit the antithesis of the changer, creator and schemer;  with the destroyer, decomposer and corrupter and Lord of Ick…Nurgle. it also fits nicely with the Halloween season. An army of slimy gross monsters from beyond.

This is a very resilient army, being toughness 5 for troops and Feel No Pain on everything that is purely Nurgle. While that is great, it is also Slow and Purposeful, low initiative; low number of attacks and average WS on everything purely Nurgle. With this in mind there are a few must haves for a slow and non-shooty army. I threw out a pure Nurgle army once for fun, it was really slow, but damn hard to remove, until the power weapons and monstrous guys got into them.

The HQ is my first must have. A threat and the first of this army’s heavy liters has to be a Greater Unclean One. Now he has to be here much like a Bloodthirster. He is a big scary thing that people don’t want in their lines, and not just because of the smell. He is monstrous, has Feel No Pain, a descent amount of poison attacks, descent strength and wounds. That makes him a nice big threat. He is also the big threat to armor, if he can get close enough to attack it. I’ll add him and then throw an Unholy Might on him. It is cheap and makes him pretty much a 2+ poisoned, non-armor saving, re-rollable wound causing machine in close combat.

Now the next big threat has to be the Demon Prince. They are multi-attack, wound and can have a descent set of upgrades. I’ll add one and throw on Unholy Might and Mark of Nurgle. This will bump him to strength and toughness 6. Then a few more points to add Iron Hide for a 3+ armor save. Wings would be nice, but I’ll wait to see if I have the spare points after the meat of the list is built. He’ll be joined by another just like him, so I’ll have two similar Demon Princes deep striking in close and walking from there.

Now the meat of the list, troops. Since Plaguebearers are Nurgle’s chosen I’ll run four squads of 7, their chosen number. I’ll need some icons here so I’ll throw in two. Now these are great objective holders, but they are not world beaters by any stretch. They are a weird unit since they have a nice poisoned attack, and Feel No Pain, but their WS 3, initiative 2 and only one attack make them pretty puny. Any dedicated assault unit will rip them up and any pure shooting unit will cut them down. However, the tactics are not the issue here, the theme is. So, four squads of seven ,and two of those squads with icons, for the beginning of the army seems to work. It also gives us a total of 965 points spent.

With the remaining points I’ll add another HQ. A Herald of Nurgle with Unholy Might for some punch vs. transport armor. Now strength 5 isn’t an auto win, but it can really help vs. rear armor 10 (the Rhino being standard). For some added fun I’ll throw on Cloud of Flies to pull the charge bonus off any assaulting units. Then for a paltry ten points I’ll add Noxious Touch for 2+ poison wounding attacks in combat. This added with the strength 5 can only help against most opponents. Heck I think two of these guys as the second HQ will work, and they are pretty cheap, only 150 points for the pair. 



Plus I'd have a reason to buy this model. The newest fantasy Nurgle Champion. Lose the base and he becomes a Herald.



I know Epidemius would fit thematically with this list. However, I’ve used him and was not impressed at all. The tally ability is a great concept, but it is hard to really rack up the kills by Nurgle marked units. Poisoned weapons are great, but they are savable and low in number. I think I hit the 3+ poisoned weapon tally and that was it. Nice to have, but not easy to get. Especially when you want those higher numbers for 3+ Feel No Pain or the pinnacle poisoned power weapons.

Now these guys will need somewhere to be during the game. I think I’ll make a couple of squads for them to accompany. Two more troop squads of six Plaguebearers and add the Herald to get that sacred Nurgle number seven. Probably add another icon in one of these squads for good measure and deep striking safety.

Well with 180 points left until the magic 1500 point mark, I’ll add in another Demon Prince like the other two. Now wings on the two I have would seem ideal, but I’ll take three punchy monsters over two punchy flying monsters.

Well 20 points left to spend. I think the Greater Unclean One needs Cloud of Flies to hinder any charge bonus, and it is only 5 points. The last 15 points will go towards a palanquin for one Herald. Why? Well the additional attack, wound and for modeling fun time. That hits the 1500 point limit exactly!

Nurgle Demon Army

HQ- Greater Unclean One: Cloud of Flies

HQ- Herald of Nurgle: Unholy might, Noxious Touch and Cloud of Flies

HQ- Herald of Nurgle: Unholy might, Noxious Touch, Cloud of Flies and Palanquin

Troop- 7 Plaguebearers

Troop- 7 Plaguebearers

Troop- 7 Plaguebearers: Icon

Troop- 7 Plaguebearers: Icon

Troop- 6 Plaguebearers

Troop- 6 Plaguebearers: Icon

Heavy- Demon Prince: Iron Hide, Unholy Might, Mark of Nurgle

Heavy- Demon Prince: Iron Hide, Unholy Might, Mark of Nurgle

Heavy- Demon Prince: Iron Hide, Unholy Might, Mark of Nurgle

Once again is this an effective list? Probably not. It can be very tough to move as everything has toughness 5 or 6 and Feel No Pain (Demon Princes being the exception). It doesn’t fight very well, but can wound anything in the game on a 4+ or better. Can it catch a movable force? No way in Hell! If you don’t go near Nurgle, they probably won’t get to you. All Demon armies need to be deep strike risky and pure Nurgle would be an almost all the time. Army wide Slow and Purposeful sucks and a bad deep strike will put you out of the game completely.

Still, the time I attempted a Nurgle pure list was fun. This is just a revision of that first attempt.