Rounding out the last of the Chaos gods (not including the Horned Rat) is the always jolly grandfather Nurgle. Que dramatic summoning music!
Nurgle summons in his friends using contagion points that are generated from Feculent Gnarlmaws, which accumulate these points every turn. Your summoning table starts at 7, for something like another Feculent Gnarlmaw, all the way up to 28 points for a Great Unclean One. You can set up one Feculent Gnarlmaw for free before the start of the game.
You receive contagion points at the start of your hero phase, first by getting 3 points for having any friendly Nurgle models in your territory. (4 if no enemy models in your territory) Then if you have any Nurgle models in your opponent’s territory you receive an additional 3 points (4 if there are no enemy models in their territory). Finally, you receive a D3 contagion points for each Feculent Gnarlmaw that does not have any enemy models within 3” of them.
You’re essentially guaranteed between 6-8 points every turn on top of additional D3 points from your Gnarlmaws. To maximize your Gnarlmaws we are going to shoot for the Nurgle’s Menagerie battalion which lets Horticulous Slimux set up a Gnarlmaw every battle round rather than just once a game. But to run it you need to sink 1060 points into the battalion without any battleline troops. This is very expensive, but since it’s all about maximizing your summoning potential- let’s go for it!
- Horticulous Slimux: 220 points (Leader 1 of 6)
- 1 Beats of Nurgle: 100 points (no unit type)
- 1 Beats of Nurgle: 100 points (no unit type)
- 1 Beats of Nurgle: 100 points (no unit type)
- 3 Nurglings: 100 points (no unit type)
- 3 Nurglings: 100 points (no unit type)
- 3 Nurglings: 100 points (no unit type)
- Nurgle’s Menagerie: 240 points (Battalion)
The goal of this army is to keep Horticulous Slimux alive and use his Gnarlmaw ability every turn to get you more and more contagion points. You can use the faster beasts of Nurgle and the hidden infestation ability of the nurglings to tie up units (or stop missile weapons) and allow Horticulous to keep setting up more Gnarlmaws.
Next, we need to fill out your battleline troops. Because we spent so much on the battalion we are going to go for cheaper slaves of darkness troops for more presence on the board.
- 20 Chaos Marauders: 120 points (Battleline 1 of 3 required)
- 20 Chaos Marauders: 120 points (Battleline 2 of 3 required)
- 20 Chaos Marauders: 120 points (Battleline 3 of 3 required)
This brings your army up to 1420 points, but it fills in all your battleline slots and puts a lot of bodies on the board to take up space and claim objectives. The marauders are not going to win any one-on-one battles, but they will get you some victory points and buy you some time to acquire the all-important contagion points.
Using our remaining points to add some leader type troops to round out this warband, we’re looking for quantity over quality at this point since you only have 580 points left to spend.
- Nurgle Sorcerer: 120 points (Leader 2 of 6)
- Lord of Plagues: 140 points (Leader 3 of 6)
- Epidemius Tallyman of Nurgle: 200 points (Leader 4 of 6)
- Poxbringer Herald of Nurgle: 120 points (Leader 5 of 6)
This gives you a lot of leader characters to score objectives, dish out some damage, and cast/unbind spells. On top of that Epidemius and the Lord of Plagues both offer you the opportunity to generate more contagion points that you can spend for summoning. If you can slay 21 models the Tallyman will give you a bonus contagion point every turn, and the Lord of Plagues will net you one if you succeed on his Rotten Corpse Mulch roll.
For a command ability, I would give your Lord of Plagues the Living Plague trait which on a 4+ deals a mortal wound to each enemy unit within 1” and you then receive a contagion point. Artifact-wise you’re getting 2 because of the battalion. Definitely give one to the Lord of Plagues as he will be in the thick of things and then maybe a supporting artifact one; your sorcerer or Poxbringer (remember the Tallyman or Horticulous cannot take artifacts).
There you have it. An army of Nurgle that’s all about summoning in daemons to overwhelm your opponent. Is this the most competitive army? Probably not, as you’re sinking a ton of points into a battalion. But, it could work if you are able to delay your opponent long enough to generate 14+ points a turn. This can lead to 20 Plaguebearers at 21 points or some plague drones, etc. basically things that will help turn the tide of the battle in your favor. However, should Horticulous be killed early this army is basically kaput unless you manage to generate 21 points to resummon him again.
To read previous Summoner’s War articles check these out!
