Nurgle vs Nurgle: Bored of the Flies

It's that time of year when we all delight in seeing a jolly fat man who brings gifts for all.

If you think that's disgusting, wait until Slaanesh comes down the chimney,

Paying a visit on Casa Kasfunatu, I partook in a couple of OffBoot games with Generals Kasfunatu and East (and my God, was it really January when I last did that?). Wanting to branch out from my traditional army selection, I was fortunate enough to be loaned a Daemon army to field.

I took the Nurgle faction, as they're my Chaos god of choice (and not because I hear they make the hardest list).

Daemons of Chaos (Nurgle)

• Daemon Prince of Nurgle (General, Level 3)
• Herald of Nurgle (BSB, Lv 1)
• Epidemius, Tallyman of Nurgle
• 27 Plaguebearers
• Beast of Nurgle
• Beast of Nurgle
• Beast of Nurgle
• 3 Plague Drones

-1600pts

Facing them was General Kasfunatu with his newly-acquired Warriors of Chaos army, the core of which were Warriors of Nurgle - so it was to be a dust-up at the Weightwatchers club.

Warriors of Chaos

• Chaos Warrior Lord (General)
• Herald of Slaanesh (BSB, Hellstrider)
• Festus the Leechlord
• 16 Warriors of Chaos (Nurgle)
• 5 Hellstriders
• 5 Chaos Hounds
• 5 Chaos Hounds
• Chimera

-1600pts



(apologies in advance: my memory is not what it was, and I seem to have merged some of the early manoeuvring turns, so that only four turns are displayed. Rest assured, we got in the full six turns and I trust nothing crucial has been omitted)

Deployment

The Warrior of Chaos took the north side: Hellstriders (including Herald), Warriors (including the Lord and Festus), Chaos Hounds 2, Chimera and the Chaos Hounds 1.

On the Daemon side, we lined up Plague Drones, Daemon Prince, Beast 1, Plaguebearers (including Epidemius and Herald), Beast 2, Beast 3.

As vanguard, the Hellstriders moved forward, backed up by Hounds 2. Hounds 1 went around the woods to face Beast 3.

Turn 1 - Daemons

Beast 3 charges Chaos Hounds 1, who flee. Everything else moves forward, Beast 1 faces Hellstriders, while the Daemon Prince and Plague Drones move to flank them.

The magic phase gives all Nurgle deamons (i.e. the whole army) a boosted ward save. The Daemon Prince miscasts and loses most of his spells.

The Herald casts the Plague Wind vortex, which scatters onto Plaguebearers, killing one, which is then recovered because of the Lore Attribute (gaining Plaguebearers for every wound caused). Which makes that last five minutes a complete waste of time.

Turn 1 - Warriors

Chaos Hounds 1 fail to rally. Hellstriders charge Beast 1. Warriors face Daemon Prince and the Chaos Lord leaves unit to go on the flank. Chimera and Chaos Hounds 2 cautiously advance.

In combat, the Hellstriders fail to damage Beast 1, but he takes a wound from combat resolution.

Turn 2 - Daemons

The Plague Drones charge Chaos Lord, the Daemon Prince charges the flank of the Hellstriders. The Plaguebearers and Beasts 3 advance and all the dice of my magic phase are spent removing the vortex.

The Daemon Prince kills a couple of Hellstriders and Beast 1 kills another. The unit fleets and escapes pursuit. The Chaos Lord whiffs most of his attacks against the Plague Drone and even takes a wound in answer.

Turn 2 - Warriors

Chaos Hounds 1 fail to rally, but the Hellstriders manage it. Festus stays in the unit of Warriors, but nudges his way up to get in range of Daemon Prince (whose reckless pursuit left him exposed - this was a recurring error of mine). The Chimera moves across the front to land on the far side of the Plaguebearers

With a lethal combination of Nurgle spells (my own lore used against me!), Festus weakens the Daemon Prince's toughness with Curse of the Leper, then casts Rancid Visitations that wipes him out (as it keeps causing toughness-based wounds until they are saved - and they never were).

For my part, the Plague Drones kill the Chaos Lord, so now both generals are dead.

Turn 3 - Daemons

The Plague Drones charge one flank of the Warriors, while Beast 2 charges the other flank. This would be a great pincer movement, except for the fact that you should never fight Chaos Warriors ever (as the trailer for Warhammer: Mark of Chaos demonstrates: they're damn hard).

The Plaguebearers charge the Hellstriders. Beast 3 continues its advance around the flank and Beast 1 moves to block the Chimera.

The Chaos Warriors win the combat and reform to face the Plague Drones, with the Beast 1 now in their rear (slobbering away, but not really doing much).

Turn 3 - Warriors

Chaos Hounds 1 flee off the table. Chaos Hounds 2 move around Beast 3. Chimera charges Beast 1.

The Chaos Warriors wipe out both Plague Drones and Beast 1, then reform to face forwards again. The Chimera kills Beast 2 and overruns into the Plaguebearers.

Turn 4 - Daemons

Beast 3 moves around Hounds 2. The Plaguebearers win the combat against the Chimera, which flees.

The Plaguebearers pursue (again, not too wisely), which brings them into charge range of the Chaos Warriors.

Turn 4 - Warriors

The Chimera fails to rally. The Warriors charge into the Plaguebearers, kill Epidemius and the Herald, win the combat by a country mile and spend the rest of the battle killing Plaguebearers.

That was pretty much it - the battle ended with maybe eight or nine Plaguebearers and possibly a Beast remaining on the table. Kasfunatu's only losses were his Chaos Lord, one unit of Chaos Hounds and the Chimera which hadn't rallied.

We didn't tot up the victory points, but I'd guess I took a walloping of around 1500 : 500

Lessons from my first try with Daemons:

• I have no idea how to use a Daemon Prince. I'm more used to big blocks of rank-and-file, so a powerful, expensive and, in some ways, fragile, unit is out of my scope.
• Speaking of rank-and-file, I'm not sure Plaguebearers work best in a hoard formation. While being hard to kill, they also don't have much bite, and I think a narrow frontage with lots of ranks would help them act like an anvil.
• The Beasts of Nurgle were good (especially holding up a whole unit of Hellstriders), but they're not great as bait/diverters, given that Daemons can never flee.
• For Epidemius to earn his points, I need to rack up lots of wounds quickly - in that regard, I would have been better picking off the Chaos Hounds, buffing my Plaguebearers until they could stand a chance against the Chaos Warriors.
• I need to stop being so generous with the magic dice - I'm sure I get more miscasts that I need.
• I also need to stop pursuing after every combat (this is pre-8th edition Warhammer - where I had it drummed into my head to always pursue). If I'd held my ground a couple of times this battle, I wouldn't have ended up so exposed.

Still, it was a fun game, different to others I have played, and I may feel the lure of Chaos myself one day...