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Daemons of Nurgle Teams

• Nurgles Rot gives you a Nurgling
  

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Nurglings

Plaguebearers

Great Unclean One


Famous Teams
The Plaguebearers, first mentioned in Blood Bowl Magazine 5

Background
Nurgle was not happy with the progress his teams were making; while the rot was spreading his followers were dying as often as new ones were created. His appetite for decay was not being satisfied. Soon after Khorne sent forth his Daemons Nurgle followed suit. Nurgle’s Daemon teams would be marshalled by Great Unclean Ones who would create hordes of Nurglings to help spread The Rot.

Plaguebearers, Nurgle’s elite, would accompany the Great Unclean Ones and shepherd the plagues and pestilence.

Like the Khorne teams before them Nurgle Daemons have no home, they stalk The World trying to turn all they touch to decay, collecting as many followers as they can.

Rationale
Like the Khorne roster I felt that Nurgle teams didn’t really need mutation access, all the players in the team are basically walking mutations anyway. The Plague Bearers and Great Unclean one are created by Papa Nurgle, at one time they may have taken other forms but they have been looked upon with great favour by their god and rewarded for their destruction and for spreading their great plagues. The Nurglings on the other hand just grow in the rotting bowls of the great unclean one and once they have swollen in size they are born from the greater daemons entrails as a fully formed tiny daemon, also known as Mites of Nurgle.

The Nurglings had to be Titchy because they are basically the size of Snotlings are smaller, though they are more vicious and deadly so I gave them St2 instead of 1 and Av7 because Nurgle are all about toughness and Av7 is as tough as you can get for a Titchy players. I also gave them Foul Appearance as extra protection but also they do not have Dodge like most Stunty and Titchy players. I didn’t give them this because I do not see a puss filled rotten blob being particularly agile. I had to give them A access though because it the only access that didn’t feel totally wrong. I also gave them Nurgles Rot as they have poison attacks and in the existing fluff shows they are spreaders of Nurgles diseases and plagues too.

The Plaguebearers are basically the same as Nurgle Warriors, though I wanted them to be a little tougher as they are the creatures that Nurgle Warriors should aspire to be like so they were given Thick Skull. They also have an increased Ma as well because while they are tarpit type creatures in terms of absorbing attacks they are not slow and move at the same speed as the standard human. I also did not want them to be too similar to Nurgle Warriors and this helps differentiate them a little more.

Finally the Great Unclean One needed to be the toughest of all the Big Guys though not as powerful as the Bloodthirster in terms of causing damage. So St6 Av10 fit perfectly with Thick Skull and Fend for added protection against cpomb and Fouls. This guy should be the toughest thing to hurt in the whole game and this skill set along with the auto picks FA and regeneration make him extremely hard to hurt. Ma3 felt high enough, I didn’t want him to Ma2 like a Treeman because I didn’t want the standup roll and Ma2 is just too debilitating. Ma3 is slow enough meaning if he is knocked over he cannot move without making GFIs.I settled on Bone Head as the negatrait as Really Stupid indicates he is awaiting direction from team mates, Great Unclean One does not need guidance.

The team on the whole has a very high average St once all the positionals are bought, though it lacks any key skills and lacks a reliable ball carrier and is pretty slow. It is basically an exaggerated version of the Nurgle Warrior team.

Season 2 Changes
Daemons of Nurgle teams played 288 games in season 1 with a win percentage of 40%. Which is a Tier2 team, this is essentially where I wanted all Deamon teams to be with the exception of Slaanesh who I felt should be the best at the sport because of their existence Blood Bowl cannon and also their agile nature.

However people wanted something more from the roster. So after listening to the community gave them Right Stuff and TTM, which means The Big Guy can throw Nurglings to score and more importantly at opposing players.

Season 3 Changes
192 games played in Season 2, with a win percentage of 40% again, which is a Tier 2 team. The team is performing around where I want it to, but it lacked flavour, and Nurglings didn't 'feel' right. I reduced their St from 2 to 1, and Av from 7 to 6 as this is a better representation of such a tiny player. I gave them Dodge though to give them a little much needed protection back plus the Guard skill. The reason they have Guard now is because it represents the Nurglings 'gang up' abiliy a version of which is found in every games they appear in. Essentially gang up means Nurglings Strength is equal to the number of Nurglings in base contact with each other. Guard represents this very well, and makes them and the team a lot more unique and fun. This change had a lot of play testing, and inspite this looking like a rather substantial buff, the team is still performing below tier 1 levels.

Finally The Great Unclean One was given Monstrous Mouth instead of Fend. Fend was largely there just to stop they being such an expensive Pile On target during the last edition of Blood Bowl. With this gone the skill was not needed, and Monstrous Mouth was a good fit thematically but also it adds more fun to the roster.

Season 4 Changes
In Season 4 I was finally able to design the roster the way I had always wanted it. The Swarming rule that I had always wanted the Nurglings to have became a reality after Snotling Teams were re-introduced to the game. I removed Guard as this was always a poor stand in skill to represent the old gang up ability. Finally I added Monstrous Mouth to the Plaguebearers, a fluffy skill that not fits the look of the Plaguebearers but it also makes the team slightly less terrible at moving the ball between players, and also adds to the tar pit thematics for the team. Loose scattering balls will more frequently end up stuck in the stomach of a Plaguebearer now.

Team design rationale and background by Garion
Players pics by Knut Rockie, coloured by Cevap
Icons by Misterfurious, Fanky and Cowhead