Everything, no matter how grand or glorious, must eventually decay. Entropy is a cosmic constant in the Mortal Realms, and it is Nurgle who embodies this perpetual truth.
Characterised by a jolly temperament seemingly at odds with the filth and disease that are the tools of his trade, Nurgle is a creature of cycles, for that which rots will eventually sprout and spread new life in the form of moulds, diseases, and maggots. His followers know him as ‘Grandfather’ and he welcomes his congregation with open arms, asking only that they share his gifts far and wide, eventually to infect all of reality with infernal poxes.
The mortals who worship Nurgle see their diseased forms as a blessing, for they are inured to pain and despair – their blood burning with feverish power, their bodies protected by layers of swollen flesh. They march with lumbering purpose amid the peals of dolorous bells, attended by swarms of flies, poisoning the land in their wake.
This corruption thins the walls in reality, welcoming grotesque and bloated daemons alongside seeping acrid filth from the Realms of Chaos. These foul creatures carry with them a portion of their lord’s garden, encouraging the next stage of the great cycle of decay. Such armies are known as the Maggotkin of Nurgle, bringers of rot and ruin.
Overview
While he is known for his mirth, it is despair that grants Nurgle his power. Ever since the first mortal succumbed to hopelessness, Grandfather has plied his trade. The fear of disease and decay, made ever more potent by the teeming masses that cower in the free cities, only empowers him further.
Nurgle’s power waxes and wanes, more than any other player in the Great Game, matching the cycles of despair and decay that grip the realms. So long as the inevitable looms, the Fly Lord can never be truly stamped out – and when people are gripped by lethal epidemics and terrible loss, often in the aftermath of great wars, his might swells.
The Plague God welcomes outcasts wracked by disease into his throng with open arms, and turns their afflictions into blessings if only they supplicate themselves. Where once they were weakened by sickness, rancid flesh sloughs off to be replaced by rotten resilience. His mortal forces are supernaturally tough as a result – the likes of the Putrid Blightkings might be slow, but they can take a beating.
Of his daemonic followers, the Beasts of Nurgle most mirror their master’s jovial nature, irrepressible creatures with sickly smiles who bound into battle, encouraged by convivial Great Unclean Ones and surrounded by capering, foetid imps known as Nurglings. Plaguebearers have a more curmudgeonly disposition, on the other hand. Charged with counting the countless afflictions of the realms, they find the rambunctious attitude of their kin grating – not that such distinctions matter to those they cut down their rusted blades.
When the Maggotkin hosts muster, they bring kingdoms to their knees with unnatural agues and drink deep of their despair. And though Nurgle’s armies crop up in each of the realms, it is twisting the Realm of Life into an extension of his beloved garden that motivates him beyond all else. What is disease if not an all-conquering form of life? If the realms must rot to bring Nurgle’s grand vision into being, so much the better.
Battle Traits
The swollen warriors and noxious daemons of the Maggotkin of Nurgle are all Blessed by the Plaguefather, walking incubators of maladies that spell ruin for those they infect.
Once per turn, any unit in your army can Infect an enemy in combat, giving them the DISEASED keyword. These contagions can quickly Spread to other enemy units within combat range of their infected friends, and when the pox reaches fever-pitch, the Maggotkin can beseech these plagues to Mutate and deal mortal damage across the entire enemy army.
Foes who are Wracked with Disease can do little other than suffer, taking mortal damage at the end of each turn. Only the most Desperate Remedies can cure the diseases concocted by the Grandfather of Plagues, at the cost of not actually healing or returning slain models.
Battle Formations
The Tallyband of Nurgle is one of the four battle formations for the Maggotkin of Nurgle, a carnival of decaying flesh that is Disease and Pestilence Personified. Their reeking presence amplifies the damage done by the Nurgle’s diseases.
Other rancid formations include bloated armies of Nurglite mortals that explode on death, showering enemies with putrid viscera, and legions of droning rotfly cavalry which buzz freely down from the skies. They’re rounded out by a menagerie of horrid horticulturists, which plant Feculent Gnarlmaws to usher Nurgle’s Garden into reality.
Arcana and Incantations
Foul sorcerers obsessed with expressing control over the cycle of life flock to Nurgle's side. He provides his supplicants with mastery over entropy and flesh, offering spells that putrefy, infest, and mutate.
Fleshy Abundance causes eruptions of cankerous flesh to grow from its targets, knitting deep wounds together and healing D3 damage from a friendly unit, or creating festering masses of fat that subtract 1 from wound rolls of attacks that target them.
Unit Focus
The greatest of Nurgle’s menagerie of daemons is the Great Unclean One – a festering mountain of rotten daemonflesh who wades into battle surrounded by an aura that deliquesces flesh and rusts metals.
These bucculent behemoths spread disease by summoning a noxious Plague Wind, and as a Locus of Nurgle they can also conjure reinforcements from the Realms of Chaos. When not smashing through foes with their monumental bulk, they ensure that the Grandfather’s daemonic hosts remain topped up with less-than-fresh bodies.
These towering brutes are accompanied by all manner of lesser daemons, including the Sloppity Bilepiper. As Heralds of Nurgle, these feverishly jovial bards caper with (literally) infectious energy, playing lurching melodies on their Jolly Gutpipes.
Each jaunty tune has powerful effects to bestow upon your daemons – A-Stabbing We Will Go! can enliven even the dourest Plaguebearer, while Early One Evening My Pustule Was Seeping tampers with the enemy’s protective magics. My Love Is Like a Ripe, Ripe Fart is the oft-requested encore, a flatulent overture that confounds those who attempt to strike back.
While many of Nurgle’s servants embody the god of decay’s irrepressible joie de vivre, a Harbinger of Decay is a stooped soothsayer whose mere presence summons an epidemic of woe.
Despite this mismatch in temperament, each Harbinger is a conduit for the divine energy of Nurgle. They scry the Omens of Decay, diminishing an enemy unit’s total control score by double the number of the current battle round – two in the first round, four in the second, and so on. Building up to a chanting roll of 10 can spread this effect even further.
These pestilent priests are accompanied by the corpulent warriors known as Putrid Blightkings, whose filth-encrusted armaments range from scythes to bludgeoning mauls.
They are exceptionally resilient with WARD (5+) and can handily rebuff foes who try and seize objectives they have already firmly planted themselves on with their Bloated Bulk.
The Word from the Studio
Jimbo: “Maggotkin of Nurgle units will try their hardest to spread the mirthful diseases of their Grandfather to their enemies who, if they are sensible, will try their hardest to avoid catching them. This results in some really interesting play where the Nurgle units create danger zones which their opponent will want to avoid like the plague… while still trying to complete their objectives or risk an infection spreading like wildfire through their ranks.
“For example, Putrid Blightkings are excellent objective holders as they are hard to shift. Their Bloated Bulk ability improves their control score while they are contesting an objective the Maggotkin of Nurgle player controls. Getting close to units risks infection, but you can't capture the object unless you get close to the Putrid Blightkings. Throw the Harbinger of Decay in, and enemy forces will find themselves in a losing battle if they don’t act fast. This makes for a cycle of really interesting play and counter-play, which we’re sure will make Grandfather Nurgle extremely happy.”
Spearhead Spotlight
In Spearhead, the Maggotkin of Nurgle unleashes the Bleak Host, a congregation of mortals and daemons brought together by a Spoilpox Scrivener who acts as their wicked taskmaster.
The Spearhead’s forces are divided into smaller units of single Pusgoyle Blightlords and two sets of five Plaguebearers, and half of The Infectious Hosts can only arrive later in the fight, via Daemonic Summoning. Luckily, Nurgle protects his followers, and while there are no units with the REINFORCEMENTS keyword, every unit in this avalanche of flesh is protected by a Ward (5+).
With the Diseased ability and Nurgle’s Embrace allowing you to build up points and inflict mortal damage, attrition is the name of the game.
Pot-bellied Plaguebearers are far more resilient than their sore-covered forms would indicate, and the Cloud of Flies that follows them into battle shrouds them from shooting attacks that attempt to pick them off from a safe distance.
We’re off to take a very, very long shower, as our next Faction Focus goes from gangrene to gargants. We’ll be surveying the biggest, boldest, most belligerent army of them all – the Sons of Behemat.
