This month is bringing a massive host of updates to Age of Sigmar as the setting transitions to Ghyran, the realm of life. Each army is getting two whole pages of additional rules and optional alternative warscrolls for you to use in your games and we are very excited about all of it! Before we get stuck in, a thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with these rules as an early release to review.
Nurgle has seen some marginal success this edition (McAbee if you’re reading this, I’ll never forgive you for Adepticon) but has largely been struggling. Their army ability is inconsistent, their terrain is not really worth taking for the risk of providing an easy charge target, and they don’t score particularly well. Let’s take a look and see if these rules give them the shot in the arm they need.
Heroic Traits
Off the bat, I’m dubious. There are already two solid Heroic Traits; in fact, it’s one of the few places Nurgle doesn’t really need more options in. These will be competing with Gift of Febrile Frenzy and Grandfather’s Blessing. First up is Living Plague which, once per battle, lets you select something in combat if you charged this turn and give it the diseased keyword. I was really excited about this before I saw the “Once per battle” rider. With it, it still has some value since you can set up a nasty spread later in the turn; this can be particularly useful in Affliction Cyst to bust up a castle early. Next up is Corpulent Avalanche which has you roll dice equal to the unit’s move characteristic on the charge, and for each 3+ you do a mortal wound. If you do any mortals you can then move 2d3. This is fine and neat with some movement buffs, but its not as good as its competitors. Last up is Unctuous Preacher which gives the unit Priest (1) and if its already a priest it gains +1 to chanting rolls. Now you may be asking “why would I want to be a Priest? Well…
Prayer Lore
That’s right, Nurgle has a spell lore now. Currently there’s just the one Priest in the faction, the Harbinger of Decay, so there’s not a lot that can use these rules unless you take Unctuous Preacher. As for the lore there’s three prayers and they all go off on 3’s. First is Infectious Surge which adds 2” to the target’s Move characteristic and on a 6+ you also get fall back and charge. This is even better than you may think on the first read, especially considering this is your unlimited prayer (although I’d be surprised to see multiple priests in a Nurgle army) and just how much movement aids the Nurgle gameplan. Use this on Blightkings and power through your opponent’s infantry to potentially get behind them. Or super charge it and use it on Pusgoyles to renew their charge buffs.
Next up is Agonising Vomiting which has you roll 7 dice and on each 5+ (or 3+ if the chanting roll was a 6+) you do a mortal wound to something within 18”. This is… fine? Nice to have I suppose but you could be doing Infectious Surge.
Lastly there’s Frothing Mucus which makes you immune to Charge (+1 damage) abilities and if this goes off on a 6+ you are immune to all weapon abilities outside Companion. This one’s situational but the situations it’s useful in can really help you out. Is this enough to bring a priest along though? Probably not.
Warscroll
Just one Warscroll update here and it’s to our old pal Rotigus. This is an interesting pick because Rotigus has been present in a few lists and has a pretty solid identity as a Disease buffer. Stat wise he stays largely the same, except he gains another 5 Control which is certainly welcome. Ability wise however he’s almost completely different. Bringer of Plenty is still here, giving him +1 to casting rolls but that’s where the similarities end. His first new ability is Befouled Rainfall which subtracts 1 from save rolls while they’re within 6” of this unit. This is the good stuff. One of Nurgle’s biggest issues is its inability to really kill stuff and often this is a 100% increase to the AP of your most lethal units. 6” may not sound like a lot but Rotigus has a massive base and he also has a new spell Virulent Downpour which adds 3” to the range of Befouled Rainfall for the rest of the game, which is cumulative with other casts, and does a mortal to everything within range. This is fantastic, with a few counter casts you’ll be hitting everything in midboard. Last up is his new Rampage, Tentacular Grip which has you pick an enemy in combat and roll a die. If the result is greater than the target’s save characteristic you do a number of mortals equal to the difference. This is fine but nice for busting through heavy armor. Overall this makes Rotigus an auto-include in any lists I make. As a Wizard (2) and now a great force multiplier he slots in just about anywhere.
Final Thoughts
I’m a bit mixed on this. I would’ve really liked to have seen new Battle Formations and a new warscroll for the Feculant Garlmaw or Gutrot Spume. The prayer lore is a bit out of left field and a bit of a head scratcher. Its definitely nice to have a movement buff to make up for the loss of Field Sergeant but it involves using your Heroic trait for something with high variance or spending points on a unit that’s part of a pretty niche game plan. Maybe this is exactly what the army needs, but time will tell.
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