I haven’t used my Nurgle Demons in quite some time and felt like giving them a whirl in The Old World. I wrote up a quick list and took them to my local shop where I met up with an old friend and his Empire of Man. Did the Empire suffer a full on pandemic or did they just have the sniffles? Read on to find out!

Daemons of Chaos – Unnamed list – [1994pts]

# ++ Main Force ++ [1994pts]
## Characters [785pts]
Great Unclean One [505pts]: Hand Weapon, General, Wizard Level 4, Battle Magic, Æther Blade, Trappings Of Nurgle
Herald of Nurgle [155pts]: Plaguesword, Daemonic Locus, Sloppity Bilepiper
Herald of Nurgle [125pts]: Plaguesword, Spoilpox Scrivener

## Core [587pts]
Nurglings [135pts]:
• 3x Nurglings [45pts]: Hand Weapon
Plaguebearers Of Nurgle [226pts]:
• 16x Plaguebearer [13pts]: Plaguesword
• 1x Plagueridden [6pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [6pts]
• 1x Musician [6pts]
Plaguebearers Of Nurgle [226pts]:
• 16x Plaguebearer [13pts]: Plaguesword
• 1x Plagueridden [6pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [6pts]
• 1x Musician [6pts]

## Special [124pts]
Beasts Of Nurgle [124pts]:
• 2x Beast of Nurgle [62pts]: Hand Weapon, Writhing tentacles

## Rare [498pts]
Plague Drones Of Nurgle [203pts]: Rot Fly
• 3x Plaguebearer [63pts]: Death’s Heads, Plaguesword
• 1x Plagueridden [7pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [7pts]
Soul Grinder [295pts]: Hand Weapon, Iron claw, Harvester cannon, Heavy Armour, Warp gaze, Daemon of Nurgle

The Empire of Man – Unnamed list – [1955pts] (Note: My buddy provided me photos of his list and I clearly missed something when I entered his army in New Recruit as his total was 1999 on his copy.)

## Characters [648pts]

Captain of the Empire [170pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Battle Standard Bearer (Griffon Standard), Sword of Might, The White Cloak

Engineer [45pts]

Engineer [45pts]

Grand Master [228pts]: Hand Weapon, Shield, Barded Warhorse (Barding, Hand Weapon), Heavy Armour, General, Charmed Shield, Sword of Battle

Wizard Lord [160pts]: Hand Weapon, Wizard Level 4, Battle Magic

## Core [502pts]

5 Empire Archers [35pts]:

5 Empire Archers [35pts]

Empire Knights [110pts]: • 5x Empire Knight [22pts]: Barded Warhorse (Barding, Hand Weapon), Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance

State Missile Troops [80pts]: • 10x State Missile Trooper [8pts]: Hand Weapon, Handgun

Veteran State Troops [242pts]: • 23x Veteran State Trooper [9pts]: Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Shield, Halberd • 1x Sergeant [5pts] • 1x Standard Bearer [30pts]: War Banner

## Special [529pts]

Demigryph Knights [174pts]: • 3x Demigryph Knight [58pts]: Demigryph (Barding, Hand Weapon, Wicked Claws), Hand Weapon, Shield, Heavy Armour, Lance

Empire Greatswords [154pts]: • 14x Greatsword [11pts]: Full Plate Armour, Great Weapon, Hand Weapon

Great Cannon [125pts]: Great Cannon, Gun Crew (Hand Weapon)

Outriders [76pts]: • 4x Outrider [19pts]: Empire Warhorse (Hand Weapon), Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Pistol, Repeater Handgun

## Rare [276pts]

Flagellants [156pts]: • 12x Flagellant [13pts]: Flail, Hand Weapon

Helblaster Volley Gun [120pts]: Helblaster Volley Gun, Gun Crew (Hand Weapon)

I set up my army in a tight formation using terrain and the board edge to help defend my flanks. My inner Dwarf can’t be conquered! Meanwhile my opponent set up his greater numbers taking up a larger frontage.

I won the first turn of the game and advanced my line while my Soul Grinder fired his Harvester Cannon into the Outriders. I guess two hits is better than a misfire, but the 1 to wound hurt my feelings!

On the Empire turn 1 the opposing general began to move his troops up in an attempt to encircle my foul minions.

The Hellblaster opened fire on my Soul Grinder and despite getting 28 shots only did one wound!

Back to gunnery school for you lads!

The Outriders heroically fled from the charge of the Plague Flies which redirected into the Griffon Knights which promptly counter charged! This ended up a slow grinding melee throughout the game, this first turn was no different as the Plague Flies barely lost the combat and were pushed back two inches.

Once again the Demons took a stuttering lumber forward.

The Soulgrinder opened fire on the Flagellents killing five of the nutters as they advanced.

The combat between the Griffon Knights and Plague Flies continued with the knights hacking down one of the foul creatures in front of them.

The Great Unclean One charged the Flagellents figuring it better to be in close combat than taking wounds from cannons, magic, and bow shots. He had taken a few wounds from cannon fire earlier in the game and was lucky to be less injured than he was! Due to a series of poor dice rolls he was only able to kill four!

Meanwhile the slow combat continued with the Plague Flies taking two wounds, one to the champion and one to the trooper.

The Great Swords decided to try to live up to their name and charged the Nurglings while the Knights charged the nice puppies, errrr Beasts of Nurgle, in front of them.

My opponent continued to have terrible luck with his artillery. He had to use his engineer re-roll on the misfire die earlier in the game but on this turn he wasn’t able to save his inept crew as they rolled another misfire, then a 1 to blow up!

The combat continues.

The Griffon Knights were finally able to finish of the Plague Flies but were too excited with their victory and failed to turn around to see the Soul Grinder breathing down their flank!

The Greatswords were more coginzant of their flank and after pushing the nurglings back opted to not follow up and reform to face the Rampaging Great Unclean One.

In what was becoming the theme of the day the Knights pushed back the Beasts of Nurgle but failed to destroy them.

In the Nurgle turn the Great Unclean One, which had not followed up on the remaining Flagellents after squishing a few more last turn, charged the Great Swords, the Beasts of Nurgle continued their fight against the cream of the Empires Knights, and the Soul Grinder charged the Griffon Knights in the flank.

The Soul Grinder was able to kill a Knight and chase the rest off the table.

Meanwhile the Great Unclean One found his groove and started laying the pain on the Great Swords but they fell back in good order.

Looks like the Soul Grinder should have chased the Griffon Knights off the board as he was finished off by the Outriders!

The Knights continued to play with their new friend, failing to kill him once again. Look at that face? How could you hurt him? The Halberdiers finally got into combat with the main nurgle block. Once again another slap fight ensued with no real wounds going either way.

The Great Unclean one was able to break the Great Swords and run them down while making contact with the skirmishing archers.

The Great Unclean One managed to kill off the skirmishers which ended up causing a chain reaction of horror as the two engineers and the Hellblaster Volley Gun crew all panicked and ran off the board!

With that the game came to an end. With the Victory Points coming within 175 points or so in favor of the Empire we declared this a tie. Had the Imperial Gunnery school sent out better trained, or braver men the point differential would have certainly been in the Empires favor. Nurgle Demons are very resilient but their troops don’t put out many kills. I also set up the Beats and the Nurglings to slow down the enemies hard hitters but did not plan on having them just fall back every turn. This caused my main blocks to not do anything all game but soak up points. Even when the main Demon block got into combat they were not very effective. It’s something I’m going to have to figure out. I was glad to get this army in battle again and look forward to trying them again soon!

-Wachtmeister