December Detachment Review: Plague Legion

Ever wanted to blow chunks? I got good news for you. In a few ways.

Today we got all four Daemon detachments! This ones the Nurgle one! Looking for the others? Click Here!

Getting right to the filth the detachment rule is Melancholic Miasma. While an enemy unit is within 9″ of a Nurgle unit, they are in your Shadow of Chaos. In addition, once each Command Phase you can pick an enemy unit to take a battle-shock test who is in your shadow of Chaos.

The theme here is obvious: Battle-shock fails will cause the enemy unit to take mortals from Shadow of Chaos. Slowly getting down with the sickness. It’s neat.

Enhancements

The detachment rule is cool. The enhancements are far more underwhelming. I don’t know, nothing here really calls to me. It feels very uninspired.

Cankerblight is a 15 point 6″ aura which whenever a unit within range of the bearers aura fails a battle-shock test you just destroy a model. Note this doesn’t work on vehicles and monsters and you don’t deal mortal wounds with Daemonic Terror. You’ll be forcing a ton of battle-shock tests. But this is such a small pay off. Your opponent picks which models destroyed by the way. C+

Maggot Maws is 15 points and allows you to pick 1 enemy unit in the shooting phase within 6″ and force a battle shock test. You roll a D6, and on a 3+ they suffer D3 mortal wounds. Again, no mortals from Daemonic Terror. It’s fine for 15 points, I really wish they let the Daemonic Terror mortals to also pop off. B

Droning Shroud is a huge 35 point aura which makes Nurgle units not able to be shot outside of 18″ while within 6″ if the bearer. It goes on a monster, so you know what that means. This is a lot of points and uh, that’s sad. But it’s also Be’lakors aura and you take him just for that, so. Probably an auto-take. A

Font of Spores is a 20 point 6″ aura which goes on a Nurgle Monster and improves the AP of your Nurgle units by 1. I mean really, Nurgle aren’t exactly killers via the blade. So this seems decent for 20 points. B+

Stratagems

The stratagems seem very mixed. While there are some generically good ones like Murkshadows most of them don’t help push the detachments battle-shock focus forward in any meaningful way.

Seeping Virulence is critical hits on 5’s in the fight phase. Like 90% of Nurgle, if not 100% has lethal hits on their melee. In the context of Nurgle, this is very good. A+

Fever Visions is in the shooting or fight phase. It let’s you add 1 to the hit roll and cause a battle-shock test on an enemy unit hit by one or more of the attacks. This seems good, the battle-shock is a nice bonus to go along with +1 to hit. The idea of the whole detachment is battle-shock spam, which I’m personally a fan of and this pushes it. A

Foetid Resurgence is a big ol’ 2 CP lets you return models to Nurgle units. 1 Destroyed model in a normal unit, D3 to battle-line who have no missing wounds, and D3+1 healing to monsters. For 2 CP this is pretty mid. Battleline spam I guess. B

Rot and Renewal is another stratagem that lets units that normally can’t go through walls, go through walls. A Great Unclean One might like this, or Plague Drones. In Nurgle it’s pretty ok. A

Murkshadows lets an infantry unit add an extra 5″ to their move characteristic. This is based for the slow boys on the ground letting you maybe grab an early objective or sling shot across the board in an emergency. Some real Eldar speeds here. A+

Plague of Woes essentially lets you use your Melancholic Miasma twice in the opponents command phase. I actually really like this. It pushes what the army is suppose to do, and that’s slowly chip away with mortals and primary scoring. A

Lists

Today we have J.R. and Mr. Dyllyn Duong putting forth some thoughts.

J.R. (The R stands for Really not a fan of the stench) Thoughts and List

CHARACTERS
Epidemius (80 points)
• 1x Balesword and Nurgling attendants
Great Unclean One (230 points)
• 1x Bileblade
1x Bilesword
1x Putrid vomit
Great Unclean One (230 points)
• 1x Bileblade
1x Bilesword
1x Putrid vomit
Enhancement: Font of Spores
Great Unclean One (265 points)
• 1x Bileblade
1x Bilesword
1x Putrid vomit
• Enhancement: Droning Shroud
Poxbringer (70 points)
• 1x Foul balesword
Enhancement: Canker Blight
Rotigus (230 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Gnarlrod
1x Streams of brackish filth
BATTLELINE
Nurglings (105 points)
• 9x Nurgling Swarm
• 9x Diseased claws and teeth
Nurglings (105 points)
• 9x Nurgling Swarm
• 9x Diseased claws and teeth
Plaguebearers (110 points)
• 1x Plagueridden
• 1x Plaguesword
• 9x Plaguebearer
• 1x Daemonic Icon
1x Instrument of Chaos
9x Plaguesword
Plaguebearers (110 points)
• 1x Plagueridden
• 1x Plaguesword
• 9x Plaguebearer
• 1x Daemonic Icon
1x Instrument of Chaos
9x Plaguesword
OTHER DATASHEETS
Beasts of Nurgle (65 points)
• 1x Putrid appendages
Beasts of Nurgle (65 points)
• 1x Putrid appendages
Beasts of Nurgle (65 points)
• 1x Putrid appendages
Plague Drones (110 points)
• 1x Plaguebringer
• 1x Death’s heads
1x Foul mouthparts
1x Plaguesword
• 2x Plague Drone
• 2x Death’s heads
2x Foul mouthparts
2x Plaguesword
Plague Drones (110 points)
• 1x Plaguebringer
• 1x Death’s heads
1x Foul mouthparts
1x Plaguesword
• 2x Plague Drone
• 2x Death’s heads
2x Foul mouthparts
2x Plaguesword

“Nurgle detachment gets baby chaos knights with a 9 inch always battle-shock, -1 within shadows and for a d3 mortal chance on failure. High toughness, lethal, re-roll wound rolls from Drones, FNP and minus toughness from GUO’s”

Dyllyn “Why did they make this” Duong’s List and Thoughts

CHARACTERS

Great Unclean One (265 points)
• 1x Bilesword
1x Plague flail
1x Putrid vomit
• Enhancement: Droning Shroud

Great Unclean One (250 points)
• 1x Bilesword
1x Plague flail
1x Putrid vomit
• Enhancement: Font of Spores

Rotigus (230 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Gnarlrod
1x Streams of brackish filth

Sloppity Bilepiper (55 points)
• 1x Marotter

Poxbringer (70 points)
• 1x Foul balesword
• Enhancement: Maggot Maws

BATTLELINE

Nurglings (70 points)
• 6x Nurgling Swarm
• 6x Diseased claws and teeth

Nurglings (40 points)
• 3x Nurgling Swarm
• 3x Diseased claws and teeth

Plaguebearers (110 points)
• 1x Plagueridden
• 1x Plaguesword
• 9x Plaguebearer
• 1x Daemonic Icon
1x Instrument of Chaos
9x Plaguesword

OTHER DATASHEETS

Beasts of Nurgle (130 points)
• 2x Beast of Nurgle
• 2x Putrid appendages

Plague Drones (110 points)
• 1x Plaguebringer
• 1x Death’s heads
1x Foul mouthparts
1x Plaguesword
• 2x Plague Drone
• 1x Daemonic Icon
2x Death’s heads
2x Foul mouthparts
1x Instrument of Chaos
2x Plaguesword

Final Thoughts

This could have been the battle-shock army. But Games Workshop once again shows that they don’t want to risk an army which turns off rules becoming dominant.

Fair I guess.

You lose too much from the Index detachment to even consider this one. A GUO without the 4+ Feel No Pain doesn’t do much of anything. Give this one a pass.

That’s all from us today. Want to check out our review of the other 3 detachments? Click here!

Thanks everyone. Be safe.