4000 vs 4000 (Special Scenario) Ogres versus Nurgle

Not too much to say here, this was a unit of 60 Plague Bearers. It looks cool. I used a 100mm x 100mm unit filler of a giant Plague Cauldron. You can see it in the middle. It’s a cauldron filled with tentacles and bits and so on, reaching out. Lots of green goo and bubbles. The cauldron is on wheels and being towed by two Orc Plague Bearers.

Part of my army theme (yeah, “fluff”) is to add a few Plague Bearers of all the different races in the Old World. Hence, the 2 Orc type dudes with rotting and diseased flesh that tow said giant cauldron on wheels. It looks really slow and ponderous.

Speaking of slow and ponderous --- this here bus of 60 Plague Bearers was just that. All game. So slow. They did a lot to force some mid-sized ogres units from a whole corner and side of the table, so that was good and impacted the game. Positional, even if not killy. See, they had the BSB with them and were supposed to be within range of a LD9 general (Great Unclean One). But, they step down to LD8 and even with re-rolls, they got positionally march blocked for 3 of 4 meaningful turns, and then went on to fail 2 of those 3 turns. Once, they failed with the dreaded 12-12. Even with re-rolls!

They sucked at charging. They rolled a 4 on 2D6 and then another 4 on 2D6 (I think they only needed a 6 on the second attempt). Uhg. So sloppy, so diseased, so foul… so slow.

But, I count Nurgle’s Blessings here. First, I rolled a 12-12 but it didn’t lead to an 800+ point unit evaporating. Secondly, they did impact the game just be being there. Most things wanted to avoid 30+ poisoned attacks that Wound with a TO HIT roll of 5+. See, I had a Herald in this unit with that Locus. 5+ poison is strong, and against a High Toughness low armor save unit like Ogre Bulls… it could have been a slaughter.

This gets me thinking… is there a way to get Plague Bearers HATRED? If so, a horde of Plague Bearers, with that aforementioned Herald swings with 5+ Poison on the TO HIT roll. Hatred, obv, gives re-rolls. So, 1/3 of your attacks auto wound, then you re-roll some number again with a 1/3 chance to auto wound. This is spicy tech if you want a Hammer Anvil. Y’know?

Thirdly, this unit was useful in that they did not die. They took some scrap launcher hits. They took some other random and small and miscellaneous damage… i.e. whittling down, but they ended the game with 45ish dudes still standing. They lived, and therefore didn’t give up victory points.

TL;DR.

An 800-point weapon that never got truly unsheathed.

But it looked cool.

This scenario ended up allowing a lot of different units to enter the battlefield via a lot of different table edges. To wit, these Plague Drones. They effectively got a very good bit of placement against two different Ogre units. They threatened sides/flanks of both, while at the same time I had a frontal option for combined.

As we all know, Ogre units are big and chunky. They smartly maneuvered to pin the Plague Drones in and down. This picture shows that. I would put a thought balloon in here, for the Plague Drones saying “Ehrmegerd, we’re in trouble” as they face down about 50 wounds worth of Ogre beef. Incoming!

The flying bug dudes were however able to charge out of their pen and get after the single remaining Mournfang Calvary fellow. Escape.

Not much to see here. A big unit of Ogres that my Plague Bearer bus failed to charge. The Ogres then smashed into Hounds and killed them… then smashed into another set of Hounds and smashed them too.

My general (Great Unclean One) was POOF, gone, so the Hounds diminished in value since I couldn’t hae the Hounds flee and regroup. At least not reliably. They were 30-point speed bumps for some hungry hungry Ogres. Woof woof.