++NURGLE TACTICS

Tactics For a Nurgle force should be centered around getting in close and overwhelming the enemy. I have founfd that the following tactics and ideas have worked well in my games:

*RHINOS: Use rhinos to increase the mobility of plague marine squads. Use extra armour on rhinos to avoid losing movement. Nurgle infestation is nice as well but costly. The rhinos allow you to get these exspensive and powerful units(plague marines) to where you need them quickly and with added protection. Don't under-estimate their value. An annoying tactic is to drive around with a couple of plague marine squads(five plague marines) in rhinos with nurgle infestation and extra armour. Give each squad a melta gun. Take a couple of sorcerors as HQ choices and don't tool them up alot, just give them the mark of nurgle and the stream of corruption power. Have each one join one of the plague marine squads. Now you can drive around up to 12" and up to three individuals can shoot out. drive up to enemy vehicles and melta them at close range(for added AP), and then in the assault phase instead of moving(which they can't do anyway) have the sorceror "vomit" from within the vehicle at any enemy troops close by(great against marines/terminators)! If you moved over 6" the enemy will need "6"s to hit your rhinos in close combat to boot. Also you can summon daemons off of the rhinos to engage an nearby enemy units as well.

*DAEMONS: Daemons are awesome if used correctly. Plague bearers have high toughness and an invulnerable save which means they are fairly sturdy. They are great for swamping an objective, bolstering your squads involved in close combats already, providing cover for your other units, and engaging enemy shooty units (devestators,havocs, etc.) to tie them up and prevent them from doing what they do best(shoot silly). To be used to best effect you need to get your other units close enough to the enemy so that when you summon them they are able to assault imediately. They get three attacks each when charging and so even a squad of seven (nurgle's daemonic number) can supply 21 ws4 str4 attacks(not bad)!!!

*NURGLE INFESTED DREADNOUGHTS: These are the heavys that kill both in the shooting and assault phase! The added armour point in each section makes them pretty tough, oh and extra armour keeps them moving. I tend to go with heavy flamer upgrades, and keep the close combat weapon to rip up vehicles with. plasma cannon is good, and twin-linked heavy bolters for killing infantry. Deploy these things as close to the enemy as possible and keep them moving forward. If they fire frenzy you want to have as many enemy models nearby as possible so they don't kill your own troops.

*NURGLINGS: Swarms of nurglings are very characterful and appropriate to a nurgle army. Use as many bases as you can. They are cheap and with 3 wounds and a 5+ invul. save they can be a real pain in the rear. small units (three bases min.) are good for holding/contesting table quarters, or large units can be used to swamp objectives, tie up enemy units, or even to screen other units. Have a sorcerer or daemon prince lead a large unit of them, to keep themselves safe from enemy fire or being assaulted directly. Put them around another unit to prevent it from being assaulted, or keep small units of them near your dreadnoughts so that when they firwe frenzy they only kill a bunch of cheap nurglings rather then your more important units.

*CULTISTS: Cultists are a great source of cheap troops. They are weak individually, but can be formed into covens of up to 50 cultists!!! I tend to go with covens of around 25. Add a demagogue to get some cheap characters to possess with your greater daemons. Use flamers, at least one in each coven as you dont need to roll to hit(with bs2 you miss alot!!!). Cultists like nurglings are great to hold/contest table quarters, screen your other units, etc.

*NURGLE-INFESTED PREDATOR TANK: This is one of my favorites as the increased armour makes it rather tough to kill. It can be armed for anti-armour or anti-infantry. I think it is better to go one way or the other rather then to try to arm it for both as you dont utilize it's weaponry to full effect by mixing roles. This vehicle makes a good static fire support unit, or put it in front of your rhinos and cover them as you move up.

*GREAT UNCLEAN ONE(Greater Daemon of Nurgle): Everry Nurgle army should have one of these guys. they are huge and gross and can vomit on the enemy, what more could you ask for? They rip vehicles to shreds in close combat, and do fairly well against standard infantry. The stream of corruption is nice against heavily armoured foot troops as it ignores armour and always wounds on 4+. You have to do your homework and get characters close to the enemy so that when this guy possesses them he can assault right away. BEWARE: The GUO has a couple of big weaknesses that I think GW overlooked compared to the other greater daemons: his toughness is only 5(all other greater daemons have higher which is stupid as nurgle units on average have higher then others)! This means that dreadnoughts, charging blood angels with powerfists and str 10 weapons auto-kill him if they wound him in close combat, and since he only has initiative 2 they will strike first unless your in cover.

*NURGLE SORCERERS: Again who can complain about a guy who can vomit on the enemy? also blight grenades are nice. Give him these and join a unit to bolster there assault ability(make sure the sorcerer gets into base to base contact in the assault). Don't go all crazy with wargear, the stream of corruption, blight grenades and maybe a beast of nurglre and he is good.

*NURGLE TERMINATORS: A very exspensive unit!!! Just a squad of five with no champion and no weapon upgrades except an auto-cannon will cost you 300 pts. The toughness5, 2+ save is nice as is the deepstriking ability and ability to rapid fire on the move and the power weapons are cool. You get alot, but you could buy 15 regular plague marines for the same price, so you will have to decide if they are really needed. I use a squad as described above on occassion(usually in bigger games), and sometimes they kick butt, but when they get slaughtered by genestealers, or a zoanthrope blast it hurts bad!!!

*BEASTS OF NURGLE: These guys are great additions for a character, at toughness5, with a 5+ invul. save and 2 wounds they help a characters survivability at times. As they form a special squad with the character who purchases them they can be used to soak up lascannon shots and other nastiness that would waste your character. They also get 1d6 attacks in close combat which is'nt bad. Besides they make your army look that much creepier.

*DAEMON PRINCES: They are a nice alternative to a lord, and you can go crazy modeling/converting them. They are tough, can have psychic powers, and gifts, and they rip up vehicles in close combat. They also do well against standar infantry. Initiative is higher then a greater daemon and they cause a similar amount of carnage.

*NURGLE LORD AND RETINUE: A Nurgle lord is nice. I tend to upgrade mine to sorcerer lorde so I can vomit on the enemy some more! Blight grenades are nice, and perhaps a beast of nurgle. A power weapon works, and for the extra points the plague sword is a nice character killer. A retinue is nice but be careful, you can spend ridiculous amounts of points on them if you don't watch yourself. I go with about seven plague marines, give one a melta, and upgrade one to a aspiring champion so I can take the plague banner. Blight grenades are also nice. In a large game i may purchase a rhino transport for them, or even a land raider if the game is big enough.

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