I’ve been very excited since we got official confirmation of the upcoming new Skaven armybook. The loathsome ratmen are what got me into the hobby (16?) years ago and, even though I’ve ultimately found frustration with Warhammer, I still love the Skaven more than anything else Games Workshop’s produced.
I can’t quite manage enthusiasm to play them again, right now, before the new book’s come out. Every time I grind out a list, it looks remarkably like the lists I’d played with before taking a break from the game… lists that I know will take forever to play and won’t be particularly successful. I’d like to push my ratmen around… but I want something different.
Enter: The Bubonic Court of Nurglitch. I’ve got Nurglitch. I’ve got 25+ Plague Censer Bearers and over 100 Plague Monks. I can do this. I certainly thought about it when I really set into playing WHFB, so why not?
I’ll be fighting my WHFB arch-nemesis, Mike, and his Dark Elves on the fields of Killpeopleburg next week. The list I’m planning to bring is really only half-considered, but could be fun.
StinkclawBubonic Court of Nurglitch – 2,000 PointsLords & Heroes
- Plague Lord Nurglitch
- Plague Priest – BSB, Stormbanner
- Festering Chantor – Plague Censer, Dispell Scroll x2
Core
- Plague Monks x24 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapons, War Banner
- Plague Monks x10 – Full Command, Extra Hand Weapons
- Rotten Rodents x25 – Full Command
- Pusbags x20
- Pusbags x20
Special
- Plague Censer Bearers x10
- Plague Censer Bearers x10
Rare
- Rat Spawn
- Rat Spawn
The Censer Bearers are in larger units than they need to be, but why not? Plus, I’d like to stick Nurglitch in one of them, so bigger means more survivable means better.
Two Rat Spawns should be fun: I’ve got bits for a Chaos Spawn and I don’t know how many Rat Ogres floating around, so I should be able to construct one without any trouble (and will likely have a good time doing it) and will use a Carnifex conversion I got in a bulk trade a couple of years back for the other.
The Plague Priest will go in with the Rotten Rodents; the Stormbanner will buy me at least one turn to close on the enemy; if it persists, I lose nothing, however, since I don’t have a single bit of shooting. The Festering Chantor will go in with the large Plague Monk unit.
We’ll have to see if a block of Plague Monks can survive. Normally, they can’t: T 4 is nice, but it can’t make up for the total lack of armor save, and they’re simply not good enough at killing to offset how easily they die. Since Rotten Rodents, the Clanrat replacement, are pretty much in the same predicament (they’re fundamentally Plague Monks who’ve traded Frenzy for Light Armor), I figure I might as well give it a shot. Might be worth it to try juicing up their damage output by replacing War Banner with Banner of Burning Hatred.
Ultimately, it’s sure to play very, very differently than what I’m used to.