You didn’t think that Gelgus Pust was the only one bringing Nurgle’s blessings to the World Championships Preview did you? There’s more of Grandfather’s blessed children lurching into the fray with renewed, febrile vigour.
Hold your nose, because the Maggotkin of Nurgle are here – and they’re dragging a new Path to Glory supplement set in Ghyran with them.
Festus the Leechlord
The followers of Nurgle are not known for their haste, so isn’t it fitting that their latest champion, Festus the Leechlord, has arrived to the Preview Show on a colossal slug?
In life Festus was a healer who wished to have the knowledge needed to cure all illness, but in his study of disease he became unknowingly trapped within Nurgle’s clutches. His voracious appetite for knowledge saw the Grandfather himself become his tutor, and over seven thousand, seven hundred, and seventy-seven years of learning he became a master of maladies and the cankerous arts, earning the rare right to ascend to daemonhood.
He used his learnings to grow the great beast Gathoblyt, which carries Festus and his foetid workshop into battle. A powerful sorcerer with limitless knowledge of poxes and poisons, he leads the Maggotkin into battle with nauseating exuberance, often campaigning in Ghyran where he poisons waterways with the leech-water plague – one of his prized pestilent creations.
Sloven Knights
Nurgle’s creed requires its followers to embrace the inevitability of rot and decay, and those frustrated with the stress and rigours of life are easily tempted. Let’s be honest, we’ve all been there, and even noble cavaliers are not immune. Those who are worn out by duty and the endless struggle for survival often fall into deep ennui – only to be relieved by the grace of Nurgle and become Sloven Knights.
These bloated gallants are a parody of their former selves, clad in once-fine regalia now threaded with mildew and rot, while their steeds are lumpen and slothful beasts draped in moth-eaten caparisons. The Sloven Knights exude an enervating pall that can reduce the finest warriors to sedentary dullards and, their foe neutralised, they lumber forth with brutal flails and hammers to pummel armour and flesh alike.
Putrid Blightkings
Of all of the Grandfather’s servants, the Putrid Blightkings are his most devoted. Their commitment to spreading the Garden of Nurgle throughout the realm is an all-consuming obsession.
Committed worship of the Lord of Decay has seen their forms bloat into mountains of flesh. So bloated are they that any attempt to hack or bludgeon their bodies is met with a chorus of mirthsome chuckles. They return the favour with weapons steeped in rust and filth, and the favour of their god warps reality around them causing spells and prayers to fail and die in the foetid air.
Rotswords
Though Nurgle is often associated with slothfulness and indolence, his followers represent all aspects of disease – including the mania induced by fever. Rotswords are warriors trapped in a constant state of spasming and twitching, their reeking bodies hot to the touch and covered in the sweat of a terminal ague. With rusted swords they slice open flesh, attempting to proliferate their suffering to others.
Rotswords are oddly belligerent and hasty for followers of Nurgle, and relish wading into the thick of combat where their noisome odour causes foes to recoil and become confused. Unlike their bloated betters, they have yet to burst out of their armour, and so they view the hallowed ranks of the Putrid Blightkings as aspirational, bolting antlers onto their helms in reverence.
Pestigors
Beastmen are mutants dedicated to tearing apart civilisation. In the earliest days of the Mortal Realms, they were some of the first creatures Nurgle communed with and those that immersed themselves in disease became Pestigors.
With hunched backs, gangrenous skin, and bloated bellies, Pestigors travel the realms in great pilgrimages, sowing destruction and disease wherever their hooves tread.
Battletome: Maggotkin of Nurgle
All of these vile warriors make their appearance in Battletome: Maggotkin of Nurgle which covers their background as well as their rules, and will be available in standard and Gamer’s Edition formats – the latter a smaller book that includes a full set of warscroll cards.
The battletome also includes updated army rules for the followers of Nurgle, rules for a new Spearhead, two Regiments of Renown, and two Armies of Renown. One Army of Renown eschews the spreading of disease and lets Rotbringers embrace a seven-step Cycle of Corruption, while the other has Horticulous Slimux lead an extremely green-fingered delegation known as the Gardeners of Nurgle. There’s also a Path to Glory section which lets you craft your own cankerous commander.
Just as the followers of the Grandfather carry with them odd tchotchkes and fetishes, so too can you equip yourself with accessories when playing games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. A set of warscroll cards let you reference key rules without leafing through the battletome mid-game, and a set of pale green dice with brown pips keep the rotten vibe going.
This book also contains rules for using Nurgle's followers from Warhammer Quest: Darkwater – a new entry in the beloved board game series that was revealed at this very Preview Show. Gelgus Pust, his court of supporting characters, the Cankerborn, and Pox-wretches all join the carnival of corruption with their own warscrolls, and standalone boxes that will be released at a later date.
Spearhead: Bubonic Cell
The Bubonic Cell is a new Spearhead, a delegation of both daemons and diseased mortals led by a Rotbringer Sorcerer. They’re out to infect the untouched areas of the Mortal Realms with decay, preparing for the arrival of more major Maggotkin of Nurgle forces. An enthusiastic Beast of Nurgle and two units of three Nurglings are joined by a unit of ten Rotmire Creed, each empowered by a cycle of corruption that debilitates enemy units.
Regiment of Renown: The Pustules
One of the new Regiments of Renown is The Pustules, a gathering of 10 Plaguebearers and a Spoilpox Scrivener, whose pestilent might has summoned a Feculent Gnarlmaw into existence. A new box collects them together, so you can add them to your other Chaos armies, including the Helsmiths of Hashut. After only appearing in the previous Spearhead box, the Spoilpox Scrivener is also returning as a solo release.
Path to Glory: Blighted Wilds
With Ghyran under threat once more, Path to Glory: Blighted Wilds is here to provide new ways to play narrative games in Thyria. Among the greatest of the Jade Kingdoms, Thyria is beset by a stream of relentless and unnatural pollution – will you fight to drown the land in filth, or to save it from the Maggotkin of Nurgle?
New background lore covers the war for Thyria, while a new battlepack lets you add a verdant twist to games. It also includes 12 new battleplans, three new battle scar tables, and four new Paths – Path of the Thyrian Druids and Path of the Sacrifice Master for Heroes, and Path of the Weald-born or Path of the Foresters for non-Hero units – plus new heroic traits, artefacts of power, a spell lore, and a prayer lore to give you new ways to customise your army and units.
Rules for Landmarks of Ghyran let you create your own shrines and strongholds, just like you’d create a custom hero, giving it all sorts of abilities and modifications – including magical weapons so it can defend itself. This will then act as a Regiment of Renown you can deploy alongside your army.
You can also build your own custom Regiment of Renown – a Regiment of Ghyran – with origins and flaws like a Path to Glory Hero. You’ll make a set of warscrolls for heroes and units from a list of abilities bought with destiny points, before selecting Idiosyncrasies which let you give your custom regiment a series of thematic rules.
As you’d expect from the Grandfather, that is a mirthful bounty of new releases to look forward to. Just ignore the itching, the fever, and the smell. If you want to see the rest of today’s reveals, check out the hub below.
World Championships Preview
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