Maggotkin of Nurgle vs Slaves to Darkness, 19.11.2022

After a 7 month hiatus, here I am back for Age of Sigmar! The prize of Gallet scenario was played out between my no-Plaguebearers or galetian veterans of any kind Maggotkin versus a horde of Chaos Warriors.

Battle round 1

The Slaves to Darkness made me go first, so I moved up my main units towards the center, taking the one and only active objective Against All Odds.

I infiltrated a unit of Nurglings on each side, diverting the enemy forces. One chariot got in in the first round, dealing 1 wound and taking 3 in return.

One Beast of Nurgle on each side moved up towards yet inactive objectives.

Both sides got max points and achieved their battle tactics.

The highlight of the round (and the game, to be honest) was the Sorcerer rolling on the Eye of the Gods table for taking the middle objective from me, and instantly becoming a Daemon Prince.

Battle round 2

Roll-off won by the Slaves to Darkness.

A unit of Chaos Knights and the Mindstealer Sphiranx charged the other unit of Nurglings, and man, they were heroes. The Nurglings, I mean. Terrible rolls on to hit and wound, especially on the Khorne-marked knights. 

The already-engaged Nurglings were not so lucky, and a unit of 10 Chaos Warriors took them out. Otherwise, stuff advanced towards the middle.

I picked the Daemon Prince to die for Eye for an Eye, but failed to kill it.

Everything I had charged the giant of Chaos Warriors, and man, they were tough. I killed about 10, and got 6 wounds taken off Be'lakor in return.

No battle tactics on either side this battle round, but I got a bit ahead by controlling more objectives.

Battle round 3

Again, the Slaves to Darkness won the roll-off and went first. I then played my ace in the hole and had Be'lakor disable the Chosen. They obediently stood there for the entire turn. On the other hand, the Lord on Karkadrak flew into Be'lakor, fought twice and killed the big man. Much sad. However, no battle tactic scored.

Also it was during this turn, after 3 combat phases, that the hero Nurglings holding down the knights and the cat died.

On my turn, I picked the Chaos Lord to die for Gaining Momentum. He resisted heroically, but with 1 wound left after the combat phase, he died to the disease roll.

With the Chosen disabled, I could safely go and snipe the Daemon Prince with my Great Unclean One.

Spells, Ravenak's Jaws as well as the vomit attack went into the Chosen, killing 4 of them.

Battle round 4

I finally won the roll-off, and decided to seal the deal. Ravenak, and the entire might of the Great Unclean One destroyed the Chosen,

Finally free, the knights scored a Battle Tactic by taking an objective.

At this point I was already at a points advantage, and I had a large reserve of unused summoning points (mostly because I forgot to use them). We rolled off, I won. We shook hands. Maggotkin victory!

Aftermath

I built this list with Be'lakor and the endless spells because I could only complete the army with Plaguebearers, and they seem especially weak now that they are forced to be galetian veterans and take double damage from bounty hunter battalions. Now, this was the first outing of the Slaves to Darkness, so they had no battalions. But we forgot so many nuances, that it didn't really matter.

Overall, I am happy with how the Maggotkin performed. They are severely lacking in rend against a high save army such as this, but the mortal wounds from the disease rolls help a lot. Beasts of Nurgle are mortal wound factories. Drones are basically disease point inflicters with 0 rend. The Great Unclean is a great monster with lots of bells and whistles.

Be'lakor... disappointed in everything he did, except his superb ability to disable a unit for a turn. I actually quit Age of Sigmar when they nerfed Legion of the First Prince to the ground by taking away Be'lakor passing off wounds, and then they made all lesser daemons galetian veterans as well, again taking double damage from bounty hunters. It's not like Be'lakor does a lot of damage. He barely killed 2 Chaos Warriors when charging in. Without his survivability... I just don't see it working. He does bring a lot of utility to the table, with two casts and the ability to shut down a big hammer unit.

The Flaming Skull was OK, but the Jaws were absolutely godlike. To be honest, that was after the Sorcerer became a not-wizard Daemon Prince and they were too busy defending themselves to dispel it with Heroic Willpower. But it did consistent high damage each turn against the 5" move infantry, killing many Chosen.

To replace these, I would need... more Beasts of Nurgle. Perhaps another unit of Drones. And some Gnarlmaws.

On to the Slaves to Darkness, the army seems solid, with good stats and abilities all over. I especially liked the guided missile mounted lord, and the instant Dark Apotheosis was just hilarious. The Chaos Knights also seem good on paper, but you actually do need to roll at least statistically average for them to do something. On the other hand, the brick of Chaos Warriors with all the nurgley buffs was very hard to shift.

Overall the game was very fun. It made all my brain cells move and jiggle. Battle tactics are hard to achieve now, you actually have to think about what to do in what order. Galetian veterans are not a must take. In fact I still think I was better off without them. Too bad all the Maggotkin battle tactics are garbage. Each round I read through them, and each time I came to the conclusion that there's no way I could ever achieve any of them. Monsters are great, with no more pesky Hunters of the Heartlands, and again require thought on where to put which rampage. The game has evolved, and I like the direction it is taking!