Back to Secret League

Clan Pestilens Teams

Player Pics


Icon
Plague Monks

Plague Carrier

Plague Priests

Plague Censer Bearer


Famous Teams
There are no famous teams mentioned specifically by name but 'Clan Bowl' an article first published in Citadel Journal 46 and later in Blood bowl Annual 2002 contained rosters for all the alternate Skaven Clan teams in this League. Though the rosters here have been changed and improved in many ways.

Background
Clan Petilens teams first formed shortly after the NAF dissolved though they never played on the professional circuit. Instead they played in Skaven only leagues in which more basic Skaven teams from each of the 5 major clans competed. It was originally used to train up Skaven players and the best players each season would be snapped up by the great Skaven teams of the era like the Skavenblight Scramblers, Warpfire Wanderers and the Fifth Column Tunnellers. Though Clan Pestilens players never made it to the big time, most believe that this was because they are just too vile, malodorous and disturbing even for Skaven.

The zealots from Clan Pestilens grew unhappy with their exclusion from the other professional Skaven teams and started forming their own teams that entered in to major tournaments.

Most of the Pestilens teams have had little impact on the game and because of their foul stench and the poisonous cloud that envelops stadiums they play in they have little following. Though a team called Nurglitch Nightmares has started to make in roads, building up a cult like following for their team and their god.

Rationale
Clan Pestilens are essentially the Nurgle of Skaven world. The clan are known for their horrific appearance (even by Skaven standards) and the clouds of poison and disease that follows them, their stench alone is enough to incapacitate a man.

So when designing this roster I wanted their hideous visage to play a part and also I wanted it to be nigh on impossible to play a passing game against them because the whole pitch would be covered in a poisonous fog and foul stench when ever they played.

The first attempt I made at the roster lacked the goals above that would fit the Pestilens character and they just ended up looking like another CPOMB chaos team. So I went back to the drawing board.

First up was the Plague Monk - I moved them from a positional to the linemen of the team, they are essentially Clan Rats but I removed 1Ma and gave them Foul Appearence and Disturbing presence. FA because they are so hideous that it fits perfectly but also with their ties to Nurgle I wanted the team to be a little more robust than standard Skaven, DP I gave as this represents the clouds of filth that follow their team around, every player on the pitch has this with the exception of the thrower who I left as standard.

Then I added the Plague Priest, who is the blitzer of the team, sharing a stat line with a Stormvermin Blitzer, only instead of block they have FA DP(for the reasons above) plus they have Frenzy and Stand Firm. The reason these two skills were given is plague monks and priests are frenzied in WFB however the rule really works more like Stand Firm in many ways. The original version of this roster had Frenzy on the Plague Monks as well but the roster was too Khorne like, although the name Frenzy was in keeping the warhammer background the way the team behaved on the pitch did not feel right. I did not give the Priests Block because the Stormvermin Blitzers of Clan Mors are the best trained players, while Plague Monks and Priests and more like religious zealots.

Finally I added the Plague Censer Bearers, I wanted these to be the centre piece of the team because they are so synonymous with Pestilens. They are essentially the same as Fezglitch the star player, I used that as a template. I removed Secret Weapon from the players though for 2 reasons. First of all the way I envisage the team playing is in a thick green mist with zero viability, the cause of which is largely down to the PCBs, as their ball and chain spew out poisonous gasses, in short the referee cannot send off what he cannot see. The other reason is - Secret Weapon rule is just too drastic, in previous editions there used to be a secret Weapon roll for each weapon which dictated whether the ref sent a player off after a drive, as this has been removed it is now either the player has Secret Weapon and is always sent off, or they don't have it and they are not. I also found after testing that this was in no way broken, the ball and chains burn through re-rolls very quickly and in a team with no Block re-rolls are vital. Finally I decided to allow M access on single rolls for the PCB. This can be imagined in a number of ways. If Tentacles is taken it could be tht the player has mutated and now has tentacles that hold opposition players in place or the effects of the toxins in thurible have stunned the opposition and they cannot move. Similarly if the player gains Claw you can imagine it as if the poisonous gases in the thurible are even more deadly than normal.

Season 2 Changes
In season 1 Pestilens played 515 games, making them one of the most popular teams, their win percentage was 42.1% making them Tier 2. Though anecdotally i think they are more fitting in the tier 1.5 range which does overlap with Tier 2 a bit. Though no change was needed looking at the numbers I did change the ball carrier to a unique positional. Originally it was just a standard Skaven Thrower, but I wanted something more in keeping with the theme of the Pestilens team, which is essentially the Nurgle of the Skaven factions. So I remove Pass and gave the player Foul Appearance and Disturbing Presence and changed their name to Plague Carrier which has a nice double meaning. The change doesn't really effect the teams effectiveness, and it makes it more characterful.

Seasons 3
650 games played, win percentage 44.31%. This puts them in line with tier 1.5 which is what I expected. As opposed to a year ago in which they were looking like a tier 2 team, which at the time I felt were missleading stats. As you can read above.

Roster Design by Garion and Arrested Development
Player art by Knut Rockie, coloured by Garion
Icons by Cowhead, Whatball, Machjacob, and Fanky
Background and rationale by Garion