A new day – and almost a new year – blessed by the Grandfather, as the cycle of regrowth continues with the upcoming release of Battletome: Maggotkin of Nurgle. This foetid tome is heaped high with a helping of new lore and rules to go along with the fecund bounty of new miniatures trudging into pre-order on Saturday.
All Maggotkin of Nurgle units remain Blessed by the Plaguefather, able to infect, spread, and mutate diseases across the course of the battlefield. Nurgle has improved the efficacy of his poxes, and instead of just spreading Disease to a unit within their combat range, your rotten warriors can attempt to Infect an enemy within 7” of them – if you can nail that 4+ of course. There’s no guarantee your warriors' coughed greetings will always stick (ew). Causing buboes to blossom at a range can be helpful for starting an outbreak in an opponent’s conservatively deployed army.
BLESSED BY THE PLAGUEFATHER
Once Per Turn (Army), End of Any Turn
Every Maggotkin is a walking vector of disease, a willing incubator for maladies that ravage the body and spirit with horrific virulence.
Infect: Pick an enemy unit within 7" of any friendly MAGGOTKIN OF NURGLE units to be the target. You cannot pick a MANIFESTATION or terrain feature.
If the target is in combat with any friendly MAGGOTKIN OF NURGLE units, it has the DISEASED keyword.
If the target is not in combat with any friendly MAGGOTKIN OF NURGLE units, roll a dice. On a 4+, the target has the DISEASED keyword.
CEASELESS INFECTOR
Once Per Turn (Army), End of Any Turn
Upon their deaths, Rotbringers’ bodies will purge their ‘gifts’, infecting those nearby and ensuring the continued propagation of Nurgle’s diseases.
Declare: Pick an enemy unit that was in combat with a friendly ROTBRINGERS unit that was destroyed this turn to be the target. You cannot pick a MANIFESTATION or terrain feature.
Effect: Roll a dice. On a 3+, the target has the DISEASED keyword.
When a unit is Wracked With Disease, they’re now always going to take damage as even a roll of 1 on a D3 inflicts mortal damage, while the new Ceaseless Infectors battle trait ensures that when battle lines do finely meet, your mortal Rotbringers can give a gift that keeps on giving when they die. Surprise, it’s more disease!
A final new battle trait encourages you to get green thumbed and help propagate the Garden of Nurgle. Blighted Regrowth causes Feculent Gnarlmaws to resprout from the soggy, filth-ridden battlefields you fight on, so long as you hold an objective. These trees, with their disconcerting tri-lobe of pustules also have three new rules. They provide Rotbringers a 5+ Ward within a 12” aura (they are on a 6+ Ward now), enable Nurgle Daemon units to rally more efficiently, and can even scuttle around on their Tendrils of Corruption.
BLIGHTED REGROWTH
Your Hero Phase
Feculent Gnarlmaws burst forth from contaminated lands like pus from a rotting wound.
Declare: You can use this ability if there are no friendly Feculent Gnarlmaws on the battlefield.
Effect: Set up a Feculent Gnarlmaw on the battlefield wholly within 12" of an objective you control and more than 3" from all enemy units, objectives and other terrain features.
TENDRILS OF CORRUPTION
Any Movement Phase
Blighted roots worm their way underground as the Feculent Gnarlmaw slowly drags itself across the land.
Effect: For the rest of the phase, this terrain feature has a Move characteristic of 3" and can immediately move 3". It cannot move through or end that move within the combat ranges of enemy units and it cannot end that move on an objective or another terrain feature.
Designer’s Note: This terrain feature cannot use RUN, RETREAT or CHARGE abilities.
Changes aren’t limited to battle traits, either, as Nurgle has given battle formations, heroic traits, artefacts, and spells a remix, and even ladled in a helping of pestilent prayers to go alongside those provided by Scourge of Ghyran. It’s a lot to cover, so here are the highlights.
The Tallyband of Nurgle no longer cause diseases to flourish more violently, and instead get to pick an enemy unit during deployment and make them a Plague Progenitor, riddled with Disease if you can roll either higher than their Health characteristic or a flat 6 on 2D3. The plague progenitor can’t be cured in the first battle round, making them a bit of a problem for your enemies, and if you choose to Spread the disease, nearby units also take D3 damage.
The Lore of Virulence will have Nurgle’s priests chanting up a contagious storm too, after they’ve finished that coughing fit. Gift of Disease makes your priests even more resilient to damage, and has them infect nearby enemies when scoring a chanting roll of 10+.
Favoured Poxes spreads debilitating agues to foes, reducing charge rolls by 2 on a chanting roll of 4, and negating an entire dice on chanting rolls of 10, while Bloated with Sickness causes the first instance of damage dealt to a unit to simply disappear into their disgusting masses of newly acquired flesh (its empowered version allows it to toughen up two units).
FAVOURED POXES
Your Hero Phase (4)
With an overwide grin, the priest generously anoints some unwilling victims with a slew of debilitating contagions.
Declare: Pick a friendly MAGGOTKIN OF NURGLE PRIEST to chant this prayer, pick a visible enemy unit within 18" of the chanter to be the target, then make a chanting roll of D6.
Effect: Until the start of your next turn, subtract 2 from charge rolls for the target. If the chanting roll was 10+, until the start of your next turn, subtract 1 from the number of dice rolled when making charge rolls for the target, to a minimum of 1, instead.
KEYWORDS: PRAYER
BLOATED WITH SICKNESS
Your Hero Phase (4)
The priest hawks a glob of green-black mucus into their palm, leaving fat, writhing parasites in their grasp. With a swift clench of their fist, they grant their followers a putrefying resilience.
Declare: Pick a friendly MAGGOTKIN OF NURGLE PRIEST to chant this prayer, pick a visible friendly non-MONSTER MAGGOTKIN OF NURGLE unit wholly within 12" of the chanter to be the target, then make a chanting roll of D6.
Effect: Until the start of your next turn, ignore the first damage point that would be allocated to the target in each phase. If the chanting roll was 10+, you can pick another eligible unit to be a second target.
KEYWORDS: PRAYER
We’ll leave you to discover the rest of the tweaks to the Maggotkin of Nurgle rules when you’ve got the book in your hands. Tomorrow, we’re sticking a peg on our nose, holding our breath, and taking a closer look at the reeking new units joining the Grandfather’s glorious armies.
