Thanks to Games Workshop for sending us these rules and the Skaventide box set for review. Over the coming weeks, we will be having experts provide insight into how they are building and running lists with each faction in Age of Sigmar. For this overview, we’re looking at what stands out for each faction, how much has changed, and how we might approach some key challenges on the tabletop.
Faction Overview
The Maggotkin of Nurgle focus on grinding out their opponent’s army by outlasting them and inflicting damaging debuffs that will erode them over time. The entire army has a 5+ Ward and a whole bunch of wounds to go with them. While their offensive abilities aren’t particularly exciting, their Diseased mechanic allows them to inflict mortal wounds over time.
Army Rules
Battle Traits
The Battle Traits in this Faction Pack are all centered around the Maggotkin’s Diseased mechanic. At the end of any turn you can use the Blessed By The Plaguefather ability to spread around the Diseased mechanic, allowing you to either give it to something in melee with any of your units, every unit in combat range of a unit that already has the keyword, or simply do a mortal wound to every Diseased unit if every enemy unit already has it. This means your most effective way to spread disease is to spread from something you already targeted.
Ok so you’ve Diseased a bunch of units, now what? Well Wracked With Disease is another ability you can use at the end of any turn and that does D3 mortal wounds on a 2+ to everything that’s Diseased. This means you have a great way to bust through enemies who rely on characters to buff nearby units, especially if those characters have low wound counts. The only way to remove the Diseased keyword is by healing a model, which removes the keyword instead of providing any regained wounds.
Battle Formations
The Maggotkin get some interesting Battle Formations, two of which are designed around the Diseased mechanic. Tallyband of Nurgle adds one to the number of mortal wounds when you use the Wracked with Disease ability, which doest quite change how they’ll play but lets them do the gameplan better.
Nurgle’s Menagerie on the other hand allows you bring a second Feculant Gnarlmaw. Feculant Gnarlmaws are one of your few ways of spreading Disease without using the Blessed by the Plaguefather ability. At the end of any turn, you roll a die for an enemy unit within 6” and on a 4+ they get the keyword. Unfortunately this ability, in addition to just being inconsistent, is only once per army per turn, so you can’t spread from multiple Feculant Gnarlmaws. This kind of neuters this Formation, although there may be a play with Horticulous Slimux who will let you set up some more trees, just to give you a few more opportunities to spread Disease. It is important to note here that since both these abilities happen at the end of the turn, you could theoretically Disease something with the Gnarlmaw and then use the Blessed by the Plaguefather ability to spread from that unit which could be a strong play.
Plague Cyst is probably the only pure stinker of the bunch (negative connotation). Whenever a Rotbringer model (Nurgle Mortals) dies in combat, you roll a die for each wound that model has to a max of four, and on a 5+ the attacking unit takes a mortal wound. This is probably the weakest of the bunch since it only works on about half of your warscrolls, requires you to lose models, and even then those models generally have more than four wounds so you’re losing value on those. Maybe this has play with a bunch of Blightkings or Rotmire Creed? Honestly though just take Tallyband of Nurgle if you want to do mortal wounds.
Last up is the Affliction Cyst which third edition players will recognize as the new version of the Drowned Men subfaction, if a bit different. During deployment you can pick two units with Fly and remove them from the battlefield and teleport them 9” away from enemy units. This is useful both because your army is so slow but also because if your opponent doesn’t deploy correctly you can start in their backline, potentially giving you good access to important units, even just to spread Disease to them.
Heroic Traits
There’s an interesting fare of Heroic Traits here. First off and probably your default pick, is Gift of Febrile Frenzy which adds 1” of movement to all non-Fly units wholly within 12”. For an army with an average move of 4” adding an inch is a big deal. Next up is Grandfather’s Blessing which allows you to heal D6 at the end of the turn if they’re in combat range with a unit that’s Diseased. What’s notable here is that you can stack the abilities such that you spread Disease to whatever that unit is in combat with and then choose to use this ability. Last is Overpowering Stench which prevents command abilities from being used while in combat with this unit on a 5+. While this is somewhat inconsistent, it can be immensely powerful in the right circumstance.
Artefacts of Power
The artifacts available here are mostly once per game abilities. First is The Carrion Dirge which once per game lets you pick three enemy units within 12” and subtract 3 from their control score. For a once per game ability, this isn’t as splashy as one might hope. Next is Rustfang which lets you select a hero in combat range to have -1 to their save rolls for the rest of the battle. This can be really strong, but getting your hero into combat with the one you want to use it on may be easier said than done. Last up is the Witherstave which lets you impose Strike-Last on a unit that charged this turn in Combat Range. This is probably the best pick only because its the only one that can be useful in almost every circumstance.
Spell Lore
Nurgle gets access to a very powerful spell lore. Fleshy Abundance is your bread and butter spell. It can be cast infinite times and either heals a target for D3 or if they’re not damaged gives them -1 to be wounded. The flexibility of this spell makes it a great one to always have access to and it plays straight into the Nurgle gameplan. Cloying Quagmire halves the movement characteristic of a unit within 18” and if they have a save characteristic of 3 or better, they get -1 to run and charge rolls. This is a great debuff and can shut down entire offensives by clogging up your opponent’s formations. Last up is Magnificent Buboes which gives a nearby hero -1 to hit and -1 to casting and chanting rolls. While this one is situational, it’s a useful one to have in your back pocket.
Warscroll Spotlights
Plaguebearers
Plaguebearers have gotten quite the glow up from 3rd. For one their Cloud of Flies ability, which gives them -1 to be hit by missile weapons, is always on. For another their weapons have the Crit (Mortal) rule. At two wounds per model plus their 5+ Ward these make for a fantastic tarpit that can be absolutely lethal just through sheer number of attacks. In addition to all that there are some great buffs that can be given to them via the Spoilpox Scriviner, most notably +1 attack which can make their mortals get out of control, or the Sloppity Bilepiper which can turn off wards for their attacks.
Rotmire Creed
Nurgle’s War Cry warband has some real value in this army. Their ability allows you to select a unit that was wounded by their ranged attacks to be Diseased at the end of turn instead of one that’s in melee with something in your army. They’re also the fastest foot pieces in your army with a 5” move, which makes them a fantastic piece for objective play too.
Rotigus
Rotigus is a very interesting choice in this army. For one he gets +1 to casting rolls which is great for getting your powerful spells off. His built in spell is the real draw here though, giving all units in combat with Diseased units a D3 heal and D3 mortals to all Diseased units. With all that and a not half bad melee profile Rotigus is a solid pick.
Outro
The Maggotkin of Nurgle have carved out a gross, yet effective niche for themselves as a highly durable army that aims to outlast their opponents through passive damage and continued combat. It seems like an army that can create some potent units using some overlapping buffs while also maintaining a solid defensive presence. Maggotkin players will have a lot of things to try out with the new faction pack.
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