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Great Unclean One - Like all Nurgle forces, this thing is SLOW. However, this can be countered by having it as your initial choice for Deepstriking in turn one. These things can be hit with lascannons and
more, and still live. With their six toughness, 4+ save, Feel No Pain, and five wounds, they are near impossible to bring down. They are a great unit to drop down right in front of the enemy, and you can feel safe in knowing they will almost always live to wreak some sort of havok on the enemy, especially with four noxious touch attacks. Add Breath of Chaos, and you have an unstoppable, horde-annihilating beast! I saw a game recently where a Great Unclean One annihilated six out of eight Space Marines in one blast! Don't forget that the GUO eats vehicles for snacks! Anything less than a Predator doesn't stand a chance really, and even the Predators will often be torn apart. This is the cheapest of the Greater Daemons; add Breath of Chaos and it is STILL cheaper than the others! Besides being slow, there really are no negative to this unit. The main factor is doing what you can to get it close to the enemy. The best way is to deploy Plaguebearers with an Icon of Chaos before the GUO, seven inches from the enemy, and then drop the GUO one inch away.
Plaugebearers - These units have lost something with the new codex. While they are great at soaking up damage, they are not useful for much more than being an anvil. If you want to slow the enemy down, go with Nurglings, which do the job much better. The Plaguebearers do of course have their Plague Swords, and can be upgraded. However, the upgrades (instrument of chaos, noxious touch) don't serve this unit very well. The main reason to take them is of course to have an Icon of Chaos. The Plaguebearers are slow, don't dish out much damage with their one attack each and low WS, but can take a beating.Beasts of Nurgle - These are great units, if only their cost was slightly less. They are only slightly better
than the Plaguebearers, having two wounds. The saving grace of the Beasts of Nurgle is their attack method. They get d6 poison attacks. Add in the fact that one model can have noxious touch, and with a full group of seven you could have (theoretically) thirty-six 4+ wounding attacks and six 2+ wounding attacks. That is massive. Of course, this sort of rolling will probably not happen too often, but you can count on a possible average (in a full group w/noxious touch) eighteen 4+ wounds and three 2+ wounds. The downside is that these things are, of course, slow. They make up for it in toughness and Feel No Pain, but it is imperative they get within six inches of the enemy during their move so they can assault. The cost of a full group is enormous, and only something to consider in a larger game. In smaller games, a unit made up of a pair of Beasts is more plausible.
Nurglings - These cute little fellas (and ladies?) are worth their weight in pus. Well, more than that due to their relative low, per-base cost. With up to nine bases in a unit, and three wounds per base, they are an absolute tar pit that is unequaled in the game. To top it off, they can hold points on the map! They may not often do much damage due to a low WS, but with three attacks per base, the overall numbers usually result in some damage. It is important to note that Nurglings are not SnP, and therefore can move like normal infantry, which allows them to quickly engage enemies and lock them in place for the other units to catch up. This is something often overlooked. Yes, Nurgle forces are slow; however, by using Nurglings effectively, you can create a pox-riddled loophole for yourself.
Ku'gath, The Plaguefather - Stat-wise, this guy is just barely better than a regular GUO (extra wound and extra attack). The nice thing about him is that he randomly spawns nurgling bases, which, as stated just above, are great units. He also has "Necrotic Missles" which is a poisoned, large template weapon. It's great to see a built-in ranged attack on a Nurgle Daemon, but it's not quite enough to justify the cost. Overall, I'd rather have a GUO and two Daemon Princes. That combo would cost less than Ku'gath, and have the possibility to do more in the long-run. To me, Ku'gath juts isn't worth the huge point-sink.Epidemius - T
his guy is great. He has just barely higher-than-normal stats compared to the other generic Heralds of Nurgle, but has a special ability that is amazing. He comes with a Plaguesword, Cloud of Flies, and Aura of Decay (great for wiping out weak horde enemies) automatically. In addition, he has "The Tally of Pestilence." Basically, the more models that are killed by Nurgle models, the stronger the Nurgle models get. This starts off with a huge bonus right away, making all plagueswords wound on a 3+ instead of 4+. This greatly improves the killing power of the Plaguebearers. Next, it makes ever single Nurgle model have Noxious Touch, which wounds on a 2+! The next tier makes all FnP models save on a 3+ instead of 4+. The final level, which is the coup de grace, makes all Nurgle model attacks ignore armor saves, effectively equipping every Nurgle model with a Power Weapon! Each teir requires a certain number of kills to become "unlocked." Imagine a group of fourteen Plaguebearers wounding on a 2+, saving with FnP on a 3+, and ignoring amor saves! It's absolutely insane. This makes Epidemius, in my eyes, a must-have unit if you can afford him.Overall - Overall I absolutely love the Nurgle list this time around. While the "Slow and Purposeful" should be renamed "Slow and Ponderous," it can be worked around if you play it right with the Deep Strikes and Nurgling tarpits. Ku'gath is a bit of a dissapointment with such a high point cost, but this is balanced out by the amazing Epidemius. One thing I don't get about Epidemius is that he is not any better than a generic Herald of Nurgle, other than "The Tally of Pestilence." Of course, that isn't much to complain about. I also wish the Beasts of Nurgle were a bit more buffed-up. They are basically just Plaguebearers slightly jacked up on steroids. We've all seen bad roll-streaks, and it is easy to see these things consistently getting only one or two attacks.
Key Points
-Deep Strike close to the enemy. Morseso than with any other army, it is imperative you get into close combat ASAP.
-While expensive, make sure you have chaos icons available to both parts of your army, you dont wanna watch your characters deepstriking off the table (same as with Khorne)
-Fast-moving armies may end up circling you while they shoot you to bits.
-Make sure to spread out those Nurglings like a net to catch them!
-One other loop hole is to make Nurglish flying insect models and use them as "Chaos Furies"! Now you have a fast attack, jump infantry option!
