Beast of Nurgle are tough. And it's also tough to know how to play them unless we're using a mono-Nurgle Epidemius list.
Overview.
There are two basic, interlocking points that need to be made about beasts of Nurgle.
(1) Firstly, they are like having 2 plaguebearers on the board, wrapped in in one miniature. That is to say, they have the same statistics line apart from the wounds column and attacks column. They have 2 wounds instead of 1, and d6 attacks instead of 1. Point for point therefore, they are more deadly than plaguebearers in combat due to the extra attacks.
(2) The downside is that they're not troops. They cannot sit back on an objective and hold it -- they can only contest. But they are very good at sitting and contesting! To see this, simply check back on my plaguebearer analysis. Three beasts of Nurgle will suffice for an entire game of contesting (as long as they don't get charged).
For tar-pitting, three or four beasts will be needed against a typical space marine squad (again going by the plaguebearer analysis).
Anti-Monstrous Creature Role?
So, do beasts of Nurgle have a role to play against monsters? Let's put them up against a daemon prince of Nurgle and see what they can do.
The daemon prince will attack first with 4 attacks, of which 2.66 hit, and 1.33 wound. The beast will save a third of them with the invulnerable save (feel no pain won't work against monstrous creatures), leaving 0.89 unsaved wounds. If the prince charged, then let's round up and say 1 wound total.
The beast will get an average of 3.5 attacks against the daemon prince. Of them, 1.17 hit, 0.58 wound (no poisoned re-rolling here!) and 0.19 stick. Hence 5 or so beasts will be needed to just draw even. I think I prefer a large pack of plaguebearers to be honest.
Summary.
They're like plaguebearers, but have slightly more attacks at the expense of not being able to hold objectives. If I'm going to take them, I'll do so only in a mono-Nurgle list. But if I were to take them in a mixed daemons list, then I would take about 4 or 5 -- i.e. about half of the number of plaguebearers that I would put in a pack, due to their similarity to plaguebearers.
Overview.
There are two basic, interlocking points that need to be made about beasts of Nurgle.
(1) Firstly, they are like having 2 plaguebearers on the board, wrapped in in one miniature. That is to say, they have the same statistics line apart from the wounds column and attacks column. They have 2 wounds instead of 1, and d6 attacks instead of 1. Point for point therefore, they are more deadly than plaguebearers in combat due to the extra attacks.
(2) The downside is that they're not troops. They cannot sit back on an objective and hold it -- they can only contest. But they are very good at sitting and contesting! To see this, simply check back on my plaguebearer analysis. Three beasts of Nurgle will suffice for an entire game of contesting (as long as they don't get charged).
For tar-pitting, three or four beasts will be needed against a typical space marine squad (again going by the plaguebearer analysis).
Anti-Monstrous Creature Role?So, do beasts of Nurgle have a role to play against monsters? Let's put them up against a daemon prince of Nurgle and see what they can do.
The daemon prince will attack first with 4 attacks, of which 2.66 hit, and 1.33 wound. The beast will save a third of them with the invulnerable save (feel no pain won't work against monstrous creatures), leaving 0.89 unsaved wounds. If the prince charged, then let's round up and say 1 wound total.
The beast will get an average of 3.5 attacks against the daemon prince. Of them, 1.17 hit, 0.58 wound (no poisoned re-rolling here!) and 0.19 stick. Hence 5 or so beasts will be needed to just draw even. I think I prefer a large pack of plaguebearers to be honest.
Summary.
They're like plaguebearers, but have slightly more attacks at the expense of not being able to hold objectives. If I'm going to take them, I'll do so only in a mono-Nurgle list. But if I were to take them in a mixed daemons list, then I would take about 4 or 5 -- i.e. about half of the number of plaguebearers that I would put in a pack, due to their similarity to plaguebearers.
Ah, that's interesting. I always had given beast slightly more credibility due to number of potential attacks. Makes Plaguebearers look like a smarter choice.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great wrok, I am loving this series.
Yes -- only slightly more attacks given the average (i.e. mean) of a d6 is 3.5.
ReplyDeleteMore articles of this nature on their way :)
Cheers!