The STD Daemon Prince for Maggotkin of Nurgle

by Patrick Nevan

Not a lot seems to happen in the world of Nurgle. Admittedly I’ve never been particularly active on the Facebook Groups or Whatsups but Nurgle just doesn’t seem to generate a lot of heat in the community. Even when Flies were dominating the top tables they didn’t spill nearly as much beer as Seraphon or Teclis. I’m not sure why myself. Nurgle are fairly common, succesful and a pretty miserable NPE on the table but it doesn’t translate into communal interest. Points go up or down, builds come and go, the new Harbinger of Decay arrives and through it all Papa Nurgle’s children amble ever onwards, creating less ripples in the pond than a 170pt Ironblaster. Nurgle is pretty much the Big Lebowski of the Chaos Pantheon and the Dude really does Abide.

“Strikes and Gutters, ups and downs“

Anyways, as a loyal grandson I’ve decided to devote a semi-regular Column to happenings in the Garden of Nurgle. Nothing too heavy just the odd point of interest. Like hey, you can totally summon in those previously useless Poxbringer Heralds and blast people with Blizzards if that’s something you might be into, or not. So in that spirit let me introduce you to a guy I’ve been kicking it with in my Nurgle lists. I reckon you might like his style.

The STD Demon Prince for Nurgle

TLDR – You take him to turn off ward saves.

A bit of a loser in his own Battletome, the Daemon Prince is tough and fast but ultimately lacking in the sort of damage output to justify his existence. The unit has fallen from an initial 200pts to 150pts and they still manage to slide into the cool model/shit rules category in their own book. Each Daemon Prince comes with a custom heroic action and they are all pretty ordinary except for the Nurgle Daemon Prince:

And that right there is a good enough reason to cough up the 150 points for an ally. Ward saves are always a pain and with 5 up ward saves being as common as enhanced rallies, turning off wards is incredibly valuable. Especially when you are bringing disease to the party.

Unlike most STD allies who slot nicely into any Chaos Army, only the Maggotkin get access to the Nurgle Marked Daemon Prince. We actually can’t take any other kind and it’s kind of nice to have something every one else doesn’t get.

What do you get for 150 points?

Unfortunately he falls into that annoying 10 wound hero bracket were you can’t slap an arcane tome on him and throw him in an Andtorian locust battalion. On the brightside if you want to be Billy Big Balls and start your army without any wizards he can carry a Nullstone artefact.

Realistically he will probably do his best work in a Nurgle Mirror Match but let’s ignore that and focus on the happy thought of charging him into a block of Praetors and switching off their bodyguard saves, while your Maggoth Lords tear Karazai to bits.

What else does he do?

What if my opponent doesn’t have any wards? Well he is still faster than anything in your army, tough and, did I forget to mention Sloppity Bilepiper songs work on him as well? They are keyworded Nurgle Daemon, not Maggotkin.

There’s probably a decent build for taking a wingless Demon Prince with the battleshock immunity bubble accompanied by Censor Bearers and Rotmire now that I think on it.

I haven’t tried it myself this GHB but I have a feeling the Daemon Prince will combo very well with Plague Drone heavy armies. He can keep up with the offense and you will be putting Sloppity Bilepipers on the table anyway, so why not try to maximize their output?

Loadout

He’s not really there to deal damage but he will wind up in combat so it’s worth taking a look at his three weapon options:

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The Downside

There always is one. 150 points is a fair chunk to take out of tightly-costed Nurgle lists and he will probably end up taking the place of a screen or battleline choice. Like all coalition allies he does get the benefit of no pile ins from the wheel but loses out on everything else. You will miss the ward and the healing. The Prince also sucks up a lot of Heroic Actions when you are using him to turn wards off and he will cause a few awkward moments deciding between heals, finest hours and anti-wards.

I’d say he is still worth adding to your bag of tricks though. In a five round event removing ward saves is going to be clutch against a few opponents. This GHB Maggoth Lords are basically premium targets for Blizzards on the top tables and Papa’s children need to find a way to up the output from their less ubiquitous units. If you haven’t turned off wards before you will be surprised at how effective it can be. 150 points isn’t cheap but the look on your enemy’s face will be priceless when you go through his unit of 15 poxy Hearthguard Berserkers like shit through a goose.

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* The points on the screenshot are old and I can’t be assed updating it. If you noticed this and were about to point it out in a comment, congratulations, you win the internet today.

All images credit to Games Workshop. Other than the one from the Big Lewbowski, obviously