Age of Sigmar: New ‘Maggotkin of Nurgle’ Battletome Sounds Dreadful
Not dreadful as in bad, but as in “full of dread” and that’s bad news for everyone else. Here’s what we know so far.
The Maggotkin of Nurgle have been on the back burner for a long time. Their current battletome is definitely showing its age but it’s not necessarily a bad book. Heck, just look at the more recent meta stats from GW and you can see they aren’t as bad off as some other books:
They aren’t crushing it, but they aren’t even in the bottom 5 armies. Sure, they are kind of the king of the trash-heap, at least according to the metawatch, but at least they pulled off a 5-win streak which is better that some of the armies ranked above them. Our man Clint already covered some of the things he’d like to see in the new book. Today, I’m going to focus on what we know is actually in the new book based on the teasers from Games Workshop themselves.
A New Hero Approaches
First and foremost, we’re getting a new hero for the Maggotkin.
“This sorcerer, an amalgam of human and fly, is a truly unsettling masterpiece of Nurgle’s dubious generosity. It’s also a brilliant update of a classic model, and it fits in perfectly with the existing Nurgle range. “
This new Sorcerer is certainly a good addition to the Nurgle range. It’s got all the creepy disease/fly stuff going on and I’m sure will be a welcome caster to the fold for the Maggotkin. Could this mean we’ll see some updates to their spell lore? Or maybe some new tricks or abilities this particular Nurgle Sorcerer will bring? Let’s hope so.
New Battle Trait: Diseased
The new battletome is introducing a new battle trait for the Maggotkin. It’s Diseased and is sounding pretty nasty:
“The followers of the Lord of Pestilence have waited a long time for this update, but in return they’re getting some incredibly fun and thematic new abilities. The grossest is the Diseased battle trait, an army-wide ability that withers any enemy units that are nearby or that have taken damage from Diseased Weapons.”
That could be rough to deal with. This sure sounds like some old school Nurgle-rot like powers. Just being around the army generates this damage and if you get cut with one of their Diseased Weapons, it could spell creeping doom for that unit.
I’ll be honest, I’m a little torn on this one. On one hand, it’s a cool and thematic ability. Nurgle spreads disease – we get it it. On the other hand, this has the potential to be very unfun to play against. It doesn’t seem like there is any general counter-play to this ability. Well, other than just sit back and shoot but not everyone can do that in AoS. If you take wounds (or probably mortal wounds) just from getting close to this army, that has the potential to be a very obnoxious ability. If there’s no way to defend against it then the experience playing against it could be frustrating.
Having said all that I’m hoping that all this hand wringing and worrying is for nothing. We’ll have to wait and see the final Diseased rules and how it actually spreads before making that judgement call. Still, it’s going to be a fine needle to thread between ineffectual and completely busted…
Path To Glory
“As with all the new battletome updates for this edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, you’ll find an extensive set of Path to Glory rules that represent the unusual goals of Maggotkin armies. They’re more concerned with spreading the ‘gifts’ of their patron god than conquering territory in the traditional sense. How kind of them. “
We knew this was coming as it’s been the big push with the new books. I’d also expect to see some of the new formatting from the Stormcast/Orruk battletomes to bleed over as well. Hopefully it’s more than just cosmetic changes and we’ll see some good shifts in the army as a whole, too. Hopefully more of the sub-factions become playable and we’ll see some good diversity in the army lists that a Maggotkin of Nurgle army can field. I’m hoping to see more mixed armies of mortals and daemons in the future from Maggotkin.
What are you hoping to see from the Maggotkin of Nurgle’s new book?
