This week we take a look at how to play Maggotkin of Nurgle with a focus on making Befouling Host and Blessed Sons 2,000 points lists!
The Maggotkin of Nurgle has been out for some time now, and in my humble opinion, it is a good book and plays Nurgle as it should be.
The units are a bit more costed, but they are much sturdier and more hit hard in the melee phase. Your movement is slow and with the higher costed units, you’re going to rely on summoning to even up the battlefield.
How to Play Maggotkin of Nurgle: Overall Rules
- They can take two out of four units as Slaves to Darkness as units as long as they have the Mark of Nurgle. One out of every four units can be from the Beasts of Chaos book and Clan Pestilens they do not count towards battleline troops but do count towards your army limitations.
- At the end of every movement and combat phase enemy units within 3” with a disease point up to a max of 7. At the end of each battleshock phase roll a dice for each disease mark on a unit on a 4+ they take a mortal wound.
- A natural 6 to hit with melee weapons adds a disease point to a unit.
- Your entire army gains a 5+ ward save.
- Units within 14” of a Great Unclean One, Glottkin, Horticulous Slimus, and Festus can restore D3 wounds in your hero phase.
- Cycle of Corruption (one of the following are active in a given turn): Heros have 4+ Ward Save, All units are considered within 14” for Locus of Fecundity, Roll dice equal to the battleround each 4+ gives you addition Contagion Point, Heroes without Nurgle keyword can not perform Rally or Inspiring Presence, Subtract 1 from non-Nurgle charge rolls and non-Nurgle units cannot end pile ins closer to Nurgle units, Add 1 to disease rolls, Gain addition contagion point for each Feculent Gnarlmaw.
- Then there is a Nurgle Summoning table that lets you bring in anything from a Herald of Nurgle (7 points) to a Great Unclean One (30 Points).
- Your free terrain piece is the Feculent Gnarlmaw
How To Play Maggotkin of Nurgle: Befouling Host
Starting with the Befouling Host, you get 2 Feculent Gnarlmaws and the beginning of the game instead of just one. This is a good jumping-off point for a summoning-themed army, so we are going to build around that.
- Horticulous Slimux: 225 Points
- Great Unclean One: 495 Points: General
- Epidemius, Tallyman of Nurgle: 145 Points
- Lord of Plagues: 145 Points:
- 3 Beasts of Nurgle: 330 Points: Battleline 1 of 3
- 3 Beasts of Nurgle: 330 Points: Battleline 2 of 3
- 3 Beasts of Nurgle: 330 Points: Battleline 3 of 3
This army is all about generating the Feculent Gnarlmaws (you will have three) and then using your general to bring in more corruption points. You’re going to start with a low number of models and then start bringing in more and more bodies with your summoning so you might start off the game from behind on objective points, but hopefully, you can bring in enough bodies to overwhelm your opponents or at least the objectives.
Give your Great Unclean One the Bell so that he adds between 1 and D3 contagion points at the start of your turn and you are going to be filling your ranks fast.
To build on the summoning theme I am going to give my general the Infernal Conduit command trait to keep those contagion points coming in. I am going to give the Great Unclean One Bountiful Swarm to continue to play into the Beast of Nurgle Theme.
With some luck, you can one-shot a hero or larger wound model and get yourself a playful Beast at the same time. For spells, I am going to select Fleshy Abundance with my Great Unclean One and Steam of Corruption with Horticulous Slimux. For my battalion, I would take Warlord to get that bonus enchantment and command point. This army is slow, so it doesn’t matter if you are going first or not, if they deep strike on top of you, all the better.
How To Play Maggotkin of Nurgle: Blessed Sons
The next army we are going to look at is the Blessed Sons. When a Mortal Maggotkin of Nurgle model is slain you roll dice equal to the number of wounds that model has. On a 6 that unit receives 1 disease point.
- Great Unclean One: 495 Points: Leader 1 of 6
- Lord of Blights: 150 Points: Leader 2 of 6
- Lord of Plagues: 145 Points: Leader 3 of 6: General
- Gutrot Spume: 170 Points: Leader 4 of 6
- 10 Putrid Blightkings: 500 Points: Battleline 1 of 3
- 5 Putrid Blightkings: 250 Points: Battleline 2 of 3
- 5 Putrid Blighkings: 250 Points: Battleline 3 of 3
- Total 1960 Points
This is an army where you going to make your opponent pay for hitting killing your Blightkings (exploding every time one bites the dust causing disease. Use Gutrot to deep strike your unit of 10 Blightkings and the Lord of Plagues to mess with their backline, while you hold your objectives with the units of 5 Blightkings and Great Unclean One.
Again, mobility will be rough for you after you set up your reserve models so make sure you get them where they need to be to harass your opponent for the entire game. I like the idea of a melee-heavy Great Unclean One with this list so let’s equip him with the Sword and Flail weapons.
I am going to give my General Overpowering Stench so that anything he and hit Blightking friends are stuck in with cannot use command abilities. After that, I am also going to give my general the Rustfang so that your Blightkings can chew through your enemies faster. For my Great Unclean One, I am going to give him Stream of Corruption to add to his damage output.
For my battalion, I am going to select the Warlord Battalion doing a two-drop list, and hopefully forcing my opponent to take the first turn allowing my Blightkings to get set up and do max damage especially if I get a couple of turns.
That’s it for this week and how to play Maggotkin of Nurgle Befouling Host, Blessed Sons. Click Here for our Droning Guard and Drowned Men lists, and happy dice rolling!
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About the Author: Travis Perkins
