GW confirmed the new 40k Nurgle Daemons rules along with the Plaguebearer and Beasts of Nurgle statlines, so plenty to sink your teeth into!
We’ve seen a ton of rumors for the new codex, but only a few actually confirmed by GW, so it’s good to get more from them. Plus, there were rumors about how Nurgle would fare, and they are looking pretty good!
This probably means a lot of the other rumors are true as well… as we saw some Plague Drone rules rumors, so we’ll look at those and compare them with these.
Warhammer Community just unveiled the rules, but first, let’s check out the daemon saves and other profiles we’ve seen.
Warhammer 40k Daemon Saves
Conventional armaments use crackling power fields and explosive force to punch through armour and alien hide, yet these munitions have little effect on inhuman horrors from the empyrean. Daemonic Invulnerability provides your seething hordes with two unmodifiable saves. The first represents their durability in melee, and the second offers them a defence against ranged firepower.
As you’d expect, Bloodletters care little about where the blood flows from in melee – and with those new stats, they’re even better at shedding it than before – but they make for a more challenging target at range. It might be their unnatural loping gait, or perhaps Khorne’s just too busy enjoying the spectacle of close combat to lend his protection?
As you can see, they are changing the saves to actually be two-parters (no longer just a single Daemon save) with one for melee and one for shooting. They also say they are unmodifiable, so even things that ignore invulnerable saves do not affect these (they say even Railguns don’t ignore them).
On top of that, Bloodletters are getting way better with extra Strength, Toughness, and an attack. However, it does look like they are all going down by 1 LD.
Pink Horrors
On the other hand(s), Pink Horrors are even squishier than before in close combat – but bullets and flames simply pass through their shifting forms as they blink in and out of existence. As with everything, this is by Tzeentch’s design – slaying one Horror just leaves you grappling with two more.
Pink Horrors having a 3+ invuln from shooting is actually pretty crazy. However, that’s offset by their 6+ in melee. Their profile isn’t changing much other than 3+ BS, which is nice, but again their LD goes down by one.
Warhammer 40k Chaos Nurgle Daemons Rules
This turn of the rotting wheel means the forces of Nurgle lose their Disgustingly Resilient rule, which is replaced with a swollen Toughness stat, more Wounds, and those all-important daemonic saves.
Take the humble Plaguebearer, now more fecund than ever thanks to a hearty dose of Nurgle’s warp-phlegm and polish.
So, going to 2 wounds, Toughness 5, 2 attacks, and a 5+/4+ is a huge improvement! They will be much harder to kill; with a 4+ from shooting and 5 Toughness, they will be even better for absorbing shots and sitting on objectives!
Beasts of Nurgle
Beasts of Nurgle have been lapping at the brackish pool of the Grandfather’s prized poxes, resulting in a boost right across their profile.
They also got way improved! With two extra Strength, one extra Toughness, two more Wounds, basically max attacks all the time, and the 5+/4+! If you love Beasts of Nurgle, then you just got a huge boost!
Just giving them six attacks takes away some of the terrible variances and makes them way stronger, and then when you consider the other profile improvements, just an insane buff.
Grotesque Regeneration fully heals a Beast at the end of each phase, making them exceptionally resilient. Gooey Demise means that if someone does manage to squish one, it has a chance of popping like an acrid boil, dealing mortal wounds to all those unlucky enough to be caught in the foetid blast radius.
Well, with seven wounds, you have to destroy these in one go, or everything is wasted! As of now, they just regenerate to full wounds at the end of every phase! So if you can’t kill them outright, don’t even bother attacking them!
Pretty wild. Then, they can explode, which is always fun.
Feculent Gnarlmaw
They provide a haven for Nurgle’s minions, replenishing models in Plaguebearer Infantry Core units on a roll of 6 in the Command Phase, and reducing the effectiveness of shooting attacks with a thick Shroud of Flies.
Considering all your units just got tougher with better saves, you can also get a -1 to hit. Then, you can keep replenishing those Plaguebearers, making them even better for sitting on objectives and soaking up fire!
RUMORS: New 40k Chaos Daemons Plague Drones Rules
These Chaos Daemons rumors for plague drones come from B&C; let’s check them out!
Statline-wise, they’ve received some minor improvements to most of their stats, but it all adds up to make them very challenging to kill:
- 10″ move, 4+ WS/BS, S5 T6 5w 5+/4+
Well, first, the Daemon Saves match the confirmed rules above, so pretty good to see.
Where things start getting interesting is their damage output and the synergies with said output. Each drone gets:
- D3 shots at s4 ap-1 d1
- 2 attacks at s5 ap-2 d1, 6s autowound (sergeant gets an extra attack)
- 2 attacks at s5 ap-2 d1
- 4 attacks at s3 ap-1 d1
On its own, this is a respectable but not insane output for 45ppm. However, where this gets spicy is the synergies, as Plague Drones have access to many buffs. Some of the more exciting ones:
- If they have an icon, they can use a 1cp stratagem to have 6s to wound deal a mortal wound in addition to damage.
- The virulent blessing psychic power gives them +1 damage on all their melee
- If they’re within 12″ of a great unclean one with a bell, he can resurrect one in the command phase
- They have a strat for transhuman
And then there are herald buffs. All of these are things they could receive:
- +1 to hit in melee and Obsec
- +1 move and +1 to adv/charge
- 6’s to wound do an extra damage
- +1 to hit and reroll charges
And all of that is before talking about the warp storm table, where more powerful boosts live. I’m personally very excited for Plague Drones and expect them to be a core of all Nurgle strategies that may come from this book.
These rumors later on in the comments were even more interesting, as we hadn’t seen this yet, and it helps multiple wound models like the plague drones, etc.
One of the warp storm abilities not mentioned in the article is the most powerful and costly. 5 WS points. Every single wound model unit gets d3 models back, and every multi-wound model gets d3 wounds back.
It seems like they are all about regenerating units (as confirmed above) so if this is true, getting back wounds is quite nice!
While the statline isn’t anything too crazy, when you add in all those possible buffs and synergies, they could be a serious menace! Especially with all the rolls of 6 buffs, they could really dish out the damage.
Here’s all the latest on the upcoming rules updates and points changes for Warhammer 40k.
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View Gallery: 48 Images
Here’s the most up-to-date list of new Games Workshop bits from all preview models that we should watch out for. Click on the gallery above to see dozens of Rumor Engines with new models still left to be revealed!
All the Latest Chaos Daemons Rules & Rumors
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
