Today we will be taking a look at how to play Maggotkin of Nurgle with a focus on list building for Droning Guard and Drowned Men!
Today we are going to look into building a Droning Guard and Drowned Men list from the Maggotkin of Nurgle Battletome. Last week we covered Befouling Hosts and Blessed Sons, if you’re interested in those two sub-factions you can check it out here!
How to Play Maggotkin of Nurgle: Droning Guard and Drowned Men
Here is a quick recap of what the Maggotkin of Nurgle gets as their army-wide abilities:
- 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
Droning Guard 2,000 Point List
Let’s look at the Droning Guard which gives your Plague Drones a 1 to hit rolls against them in the first round and unlocks them as battleline.
- Lord of Afflictions: 210 Points: Leader 1 of 6
- Epidemius, Tallyman of Nurgle: 145 Points Leader 2 of 6
- Sloppity Bilepiper, Herald of Nurgle: 130 Points, Leader 3 of 6
- Spoilpox Scrivener, Herald of Nurgle 120 Points, Leader 4 of 6
- Great Unclean One: 495Points, Leader 5 of 6
- 6 Plaguedrones: 400 Points, Battleline 1 of 3
- 3 Plaguedrones: 200 Points, Battleline 2 of 3
- 20 Plaguebearer: 300 Points, Battleline 3 of 3
- Total 2000 Points
This army is all about deep striking with your Plaguedrones and the Lord of Afflictions. This will tie up your opponent, while your Plaguebearers and Great Unclean one ramble forward. Pick your battles or claim objectives smartly with them though because your main force is going to take a lot of time to catch up to what you deep strike with.
Having models in your opponent’s backfield will help you generate summoning points so be sure to think about what you can bring in to give you a leg up on points.
For this army, I am going to pick Noxious Nexus for my Great Unclean One’s artifact, and for my command trait the Grandfather’s Blessing. Then I am going to choose Stream of Corruption as my Great Unclean One special spell. For my battalion I am going to select the Warlord battalion making this a two-drop list, giving you hopefully choice of who goes first. Forcing your opponent to go before you lets you drop in your Plaguedrones and maybe get a turn one charge and a double turn.
Drowned Men 2,000 Point List
Then we are going to look at the Drowned Men which gives your Lord of Afflictions and Pusgoyle Blightlords a free 8” move after deployment. Also unlocks the Pusgoyle Blightlords as battleline.
- Gutrot Spume: 170 points: Leader 1 of 6
- Lord of Plagues: 145 points: Leader 2 of 6
- Lord of Afflictions: 210 Points: Leader 3 of 6
- Morbidex Twiceborn: 320 Points: Leader 4 of 6
- Lord of Afflictions: 210 Points: Leader 5 of 6
- 2 Pusgoyle Blightlords: 220 Points: Battleline 1 of 3
- 2 Pusgoule Blightlords: 220 Points: Battleline 2 of 3
- 10 Putrid Blightkings: 500 Points: Battleline 3 of 3
- Total 1995
This is one of the more mobile Maggotkin armies out there letting you move your Blightlords and the Lord of Afflictions before the battle starts. Then you can set up your Blightkings, Gutrot Spume, and Lord of Plagues in reserve and set them up on your opponent’s flank and you looking at combat turn one for an otherwise slow army.
You have a low model count though so be careful that your opponent doesn’t get into your backfield otherwise turning this beast of an army around might be difficult. Though a well-timed summon might help you keep an objective you would otherwise lose.
I’m going to with the Warlord Battalion here for giving you a bonus enhancement and command point to start the game. For enhancements, I am going to select Rustfang as that is just a great tool to have at your disposal, as well as Splithorn Helm to make your hero a little beefier. For my unique command ability, I am going to take Overpowering Stench, so that when your guys are up close and person your opponent can’t use command abilities on the units he is smacking around.
You’re going to be pretty quick with this army with the Blightlords moving fast and then setting up on the table edge with your Blightkings and Gutrot so you need to survive to get your friends into combat.
That is it for this week, next week we are going to look at the Flithbringers and Munificent Wanderers to close out this battletome.
Don’t forget to check out the other How To Play Nurgle sub-faction army lists and breakdowns below from the Maggotkin battletome as well!
- How To Play Maggotkin Nurgle: Flithbringers & Munificent Wanderers
- How To Play Maggotkin of Nurgle: Droning Guard & Drowned Men
- How to Play Maggotkin of Nurgle: Befouling Host & Blessed Sons
More AoS How-To For Beginners & Veteran Players!
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