What's going on, everybody!
So, the handbook has well and truly hit the Age of Sigmar scene, and the gaming community that I'm luck enough to be a part of are in an absolute frenzy of indecisive enthusiasm! As each player settles upon their chosen faction, I decided that it was time to tackle an army that I'd dabbled in for a few months now. Clan Pestilens.
What originally drew me to Pestilens was the financial cost (being almost completely comprised of very affordable plastic kits), the fact that they had a battle tome (despite it being a little older than many) and finally, that no one else seemed to play them. Sure, a couple of savvy generals had given them a try, but I haven't seen anyone who plays them with determination.
At first glance, Pestilens looks pretty trash on paper. They
have fragile infantry, fragile war machines, very little in the way of rend
from their combat troops, and arguably the worst Verminlord of them all. But
the more I look at this army, write lists and theorize with combos, the more I
realise there is some real strength to this army. So let’s break it down step
by step.
The Verminlord Corruptor is definitely the runt of the
Verminlord litter. He’s not as versatile as the Warpseer, he’s not as mobile
and precise as the Deceiver, and it’s a bit unfair to even compare his pitiful
combat abilities to the Warbringer. His twin Plaguereapers look pretty
intimidating with their re-rolls to hit, but with no rend and only doing one
damage per successful wound, this towering rat-giant is not gonna be doing much
of the heavy lifting when it comes to combat. So, why take him?
This comes down to the same reason that Ironjaws took
Mawcrushas, and why many armies took overpriced, underperforming elements.
Because it’s the best available option; now, sure you could
ally in another, better Verminlord in, but that then stops it from being a
General and taking artefacts. The Corruptor is a natural choice for two
reasons. For one, he is your only wizard within the Pestilens allegiance. He
can only cast once, but Mystic Shield is not the vital piece it usually is,
when you consider none of your infantry have saves. What he does have is an
absolutely mental spell in the form of Plague, which (thanks to the newfound
popularity of Massive Regiments) will now be insanely terrifying; a spell that
can bounce through multiple units, rolling dice for each model in that unit
(30-40 for example) and punching out mortal wounds on 6’s. Yes please!
Secondly, he is the only model in the allegiance with a
command ability. Inspiring Presence will admittedly get a lot of use, but being
able to give an extra attack to every one of the forty frenzied fanatics
charging at the enemy has its uses. It also helps that he had his points reduced
slightly, now only weighing in at 220 points. He’s best used in a supporting
role, only entering combat when survival and victory is already assured, which
is pretty much the most Skaven way to lead an army anyway, am I right?
Next up is the Plague Furnace. It was looking at this unit
for the second or third time that I realised where the strength of this army
lies. This army crushes all before it with a combination of “Death by a
Thousand Cuts” and the sheer number of abilities that can chip a mortal wound
or six off here and there. The Furnace will be a common sight in pretty much
every Pestilens army for very good reason. It’s fairly resilient, it hands out
powerful prayers unique to its scroll (either Re-roll to Wound for a unit that
already re-rolls to hit, or pile in and attack with models from the blessed
unit when they die), can be the recipient of some pretty powerful Artefacts
which we will get to later, emits an ever-so-useful Bravery buff to nearby
units, and most importantly, can generate a truly terrifying number of mortal
wounds with it’s wrecking ball and its lingering aura of mustard gas and bad
wind!
The Furnace is 200 points flat, which is a nice discount as
well, but the reason that it’s likely to be a common sight is its inclusion in
the Congregation of Filth Battalion, which we’ll touch on later, but no decent
sized Pestilens army should be leaving home without one.
This leaves one more Hero to discuss; the humble Plague
Priest. While technically, this hero has two separate scrolls, the difference
is only their weapon and a secondary special rule. These fellas are only 80
points each, and are cheap enough to run in numbers; besides, there aren’t many
other heroes to run…
These chaps are another great source of players, having one
to cripple nearby enemies, and one to just straight up kill them with a burp
that garlic and onion would be proud of. They fill a tricky role, as you need
them right up in the hear of the action to be in range of all their abilities
(most of which are only range 13” because… Skaven!), but they’re not designed
as heavy hitters by any stretch. They do play a vital role in the army though,
as the more prayers you cast, the better chance you have of accidentally
unleashing some pretty potent diseases!
There are a couple of minor differences between the two
variant scrolls for Priests. The Warp-tipped Staff Priest has a single attack
(that Frenzied assault can increase) with the potential of D3 damage per hit.
He also carries a Pestilence-filled Censor, which subtracts 1 from the casting
attempts of any wizard within 6”. The Plague Censor Priest on the other hand
has 2 attacks base (3 on the charge, as his counterpart has) with only one
damage per hit, and he carries a Plague Tome. Once per game, he can essentially
curse an enemy unit within 13”. You can then re-roll all failed wound rolls
against that unit until your next hero phase. There is no trigger for this
ability. It’s not a prayer in the sense that it cannot fail, and cannot hurt
its caster. And most importantly, the effects are not limited to the combat
phase, meaning that the truly horrifying damage potential of Plagueclaw
Catapults is made even more reliable! For this reason, I can’t see myself ever
taking the Warp-tipped Staff Priest. The 6” bubble against wizards is so
situational and so easily avoided by a savvy opponent when compared to the
Plague Tome, which will be used every game (if the priest lives long enough of
course!). And with a growing number of armies who don’t even use Wizards, the
Plague Censor Priest seems a lot more useful and reliable. For me, it’s an easy
decision between the two.
Now come the Plague Monks. These are the building blocks of
your entire army! Every ability in the army usually benefits them, every prayer
is useful to them, all of the auras affect them. They are a platform upon which
to heap the combos! At first glance, they are less than impressive. No save, a
pathetic Bravery 5 and no rend on their weapons… Not a great start. They have
two attacks each (three on the charge) with re-rolls to hit if they have paired
Foetid Blades (my choice over the blade and staff). Alright, so they dish out a
lot of attacks. The champion can carry either an exploding book (each
non-Nurgle unit within 13” takes a mortal wound on a 4+) or a Plague Scroll (a
weaker version of the Priest’s Plague Tome). That sounds pretty solid, right?
Another source of mortal wounds getting chipped off here and there or another
one-use buff. Then (and this has been addressed very clearly by Games Workshop
that it is allowed) you have access to both unique banners and both unique
musicians in every unit of Monks! The combination of these four items gives you
a 12” debuff to enemy units that reduces their run or charge by 1, any wound
rolls of 6 are Rend -1 and have the potential to pop another mortal wound on
top, and every time one of your rats is killed in combat, on a 6 it explodes in
a shower of virulent blood and inflicts another mortal wound.
So, you can see at first glance, they don’t look like
anything special. But once you add in their command group, a prayer or two and
a command ability, they become near-on impossible to deal with in combat! The
sheer number of Mortal Wound triggers is crazy, and they’re all from different
sources! These triggers and abilities can’t be crippled by killing a single
character; they are woven into the fabric of the army! And just to top off,
Monks got some love when it comes to Massive Regiments. A unit of forty of them
is only 240 point! And thanks to the Strength in Numbers allegiance ability, a
full strength unit is Bravery 13, largely mitigating their bravery problem.
These robed fanatics are still going to die in droves, but
they’ve got the mechanics built into them to make their removal from the board
as difficult as humanly possible. And when they’re as cheap as they are,
there’s a lot to kill!
The other infantry unit available to the army are Plague
Censor Bearers. As one of the few sources of Rending combat attacks, these
smaller, more elite combat units benefit greatly from also being near units of
Monks, gaining re-rolls to hit and to Battleshock tests. If they charge,
they’re whipping in with three attacks each, and have the same aura effect as
the Furnace, able to (you guessed it) inflict mortal wounds to nearby enemy
units! Censor Bearers are definitely a handy unit to have in the pocket, and
will excel at mugging characters!
Lastly, but certainly not least, we have the dreaded
Plagueclaw Catapult! Giving some valuable range and brutal killing power to the
army, these will be lurking behind the main battle, lobbing balls of gelatinous
goo high overhead into the masses of enemies! Let’s talk about the bad first.
They only have a movement of 3”, so deploying them correctly is important,
because once they’re on the field, repositioning is realistically not going to
happen in a hurry. They only have six wounds, and even with their save bonus
against shooting, they wont be taking heat for any prolonged period! And
unsurprisingly, the crew couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag.
Now that we got the negatives out of the way, let’s talk
about how good they are. They’re not monsters, so can benefit from cover. They
can shoot targets they cannot see, so not only can you protect them further by
hiding behind a building, their range of 6-31” and the ability to ignore pesky
line of sight issues means that their threat range is bordering on the obscene.
They have Rend -2, which we already know is huge, considering the noticeable
lack of rend in the rest of the army. It’s profile is 3+ 3+ Damage D6, which is
OK. Where it shines however is when it targets a unit of 10 or more models
(really not hard to find… especially when they can’t hide from you), its
profile is increased to 2+ 3+ Damage 2D6. And you remember the Plague Tome?
Your Priests quickly turn into spotters for your catapults, making them truly
terrifying against those high-armour units! Plagueclaws are just awesome! They
are 180, which is pricey, and they do need protecting, but like the Verminlord
Corruptor, they fill a vital battlefield role and they do it well. Any unit
that you’re not confident tackling with your monks looks a whole lot less scary
after most of the unit has been melted into a puddle by a shower of acidic
vomit.
While Pestilens may not have the variety of units that other
factions do, they make up for it well and truly by doing what they do best, and
peppering their opponents with mortal wounds and infected blades.
There is one Warscroll Battalion quickly worth mentioning.
The Congregation of Filth is 140 points and consists of a Plague Furnace and
two or more units of Plague Monks (emphasis on the “Or More” bit). This gives
you an artefact, lets you deploy the majority of your army in a single hit, and
gives you two very useful bonuses. Monks near the Furnace gain a 6+ “ignore
wounds and mortal wounds”, which is an absolute blessing in this army. It also
lets Monk units 20 models or larger re-roll their charges! In any game over
1000, I will be including this Battalion, because it’s actually still very
affordable, and benefits the army greatly! A 6+ is far from reliable, but it’s
better than nothing…
The Foulrain Congregation (based around Plagueclaws) was one
that I think has priced itself out of use for me. At a flat cost of 820, it’s
simply too expensive to be practical, even with the benefits. When you consider
that the whole Battalion can be crippled by killing a single Priest who is
forced to lurk at the back of the board, it’s just not worth it in my eyes.
Everything I’ve talked about so far has been pretty old
news. These scrolls have been around since before the General’s Handbook first
dropped. But GHB17 has heralded in a new day for Pestilens with Allegiance
Abilities! The first of which introduces Strength in Numbers (for every ten
models in your unit, increase the unit’s bravery by 2), and the second of which
is Echoes of the Great Plagues!
Once per turn, on a successful Prayer roll of an unmodified
6, you can manifest of the Great Plagues. Each Plague can only be used once per
game, but there are five in total and they all have their uses. I think the
timing and order of these Great Plagues will swing victory into the hands of
the Horned Rat, because these… are... POWERFUL! Let’s go through them!
The Neverplague adds 1 to all Prayer rolls for your Priests
for the rest of the battle! This is big, because not only will you be getting
more prayers off, it completely negates the possibility of saying the words
wrong on a 1 and copping a mortal wound. Best used early game if no other Great
Plagues are in range to get your true worth out of it.
The Redmaw Plague is one of my personal favourites! Pick an
enemy Hero within 13” of the Priest that manifested the Redmaw Plague and he is
then infected for the rest of the game. A high fever and blurred vision will
send him around the bend, and for the rest of the game, in ANY combat phase in
which he is within 3” of friends and not within 3” of enemies, he’s treated as
part of your army and can pile in and attack his friends. In any combat phase!
This puts your opponent in a particularly tricky situation, where the only real
way to mitigate disruption is to either charge him into the enemy (probably not
somewhere he really wants to be in some cases), or to isolate him from the rest
of the army. He counts as a model from my army until the end of the combat
phase, so can cause absolutely mayhem when you consider the effect that would
have on pile-ins and such. Fantastic Plague!
The Crimsonweal Curse infects the nearest enemy unit to the manifesting
Priest and inflicts a mortal wound upon it. In each of your following hero
phases, the unit and all enemy units within 1” suffer another mortal wound,
continuing the trend of chipping away with those mortals! This one seems a
little underwhelming, but again, it forces your opponent to think about who is
in close proximity for the rest of the game.
The Bubonic Blightplague is a nifty little mortal missile
that if it kills a unit, can bounce to a nearby enemy, at try and kill that,
and so on and so forth. It’s pretty situational to get the chain going from
unit to unit, but that first hit is D6 mortal wounds, which on its own is
pretty awesome for something that can’t be stopped.
Lastly is the Undulant Scourge. The closest enemy model’s
unit suffers a mortal wound, with an additional mortal wound inflicted for
every enemy model within 3” of the first target. Potentially devastating! If
your opponent packs his units too densely, punish him for it.
So as you can see, all five are very strong. Remember that
you don’t get to pick the target; it automatically affects the closest enemy
unit (or in some cases, specifically enemy heroes.), but that’s not to say that
no thought needs to be put into it. I think it’s important to get in the habit
of casting prayers with the priests in the best position first. The last thing
you want to do is roll that elusive ‘6’ with a Priest at the back, and having
to make the decide whether to pop Neverplague and burn your opportunity for the
others that turn, or pass and hope to get another ‘6’ with your limited
remaining chances. That’s not to say that these are a sure thing every turn. It
wouldn’t be any surprise to me if I only manage to get two or even one off in a
five-turn game. And there’ll surely be situations where all my prayer casters
just end up dead in the first turn. Sometimes the dice just don’t go your way.
It wouldn’t be an Allegiance update without Command Traits
and Artefacts, so let’s quickly brush over my favourites. With the Corruptor
being the natural General of the army, I’ve looked at the command traits through
the lens of his Warscroll. The first standout is ‘Master of Rot & Ruin’
which either lets you re-roll prayers or, if you’re not a Priest (which the
Corruptor is not), lets you cast prayers from the Plague Priest scroll. Not
only does this add to his versatility, it increases my chance of popping off
one of those Great Plagues. The second, and the one that I’ll be using until
I’ve got my head around the army, is Verminous Valour; every time my Verminlord
suffers a wound or mortal wound (which is inevitably going to happen a lot), he
can pass the wound off to a friendly Pestilens unit on a 4+. This is a great
ability, because I’d much rather pass on half my wounds to the cheap disposable
infantry units than my crucial General!
Then we get to the Artefacts, and while there’s a couple in
there that I don’t particularly see great things in, there are a few standouts.
The Liber Bubonicus, a shout out to the legendary priest Lord Skrolk, allows the
bearer to cast two prayers a turn! I see this as almost a must-have on a Plague
Furnace, with it’s intensely strong stock prayers. Vexler’s Shroud makes the
bearer -1 to hit in the shooting phase, which is great at preventing those
pesky sniper units from banishing your Verminlord. There’s also an Artefact
censor that dishes out very reliable mortal wounds here and there. All in all,
it’s a very thematic and powerful set of traits, abilities and artefacts. Big
thumbs from me!
So to christen my army, next Saturday, I’m playing in a 1600
point matched play event using the GHB17. This will be my first outing with
Pestilens, and will definitely be a learning experience! I’m busy painting
monks, making tokens and writing up a cheat sheet, so hopefully it’ll be…
educational. I’m expecting to get rinsed, but hopefully I can begin to get a
feel for the army. Here’s what I’m taking.
Verminlord Corruptor w/Verminous Valour & Vexler’s
Shroud
Plague Furnace w/Liver Bubonicus
Plague Censor Priest
Plague Censor Priest
40 Monks
20 Monks
20 Monks
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
Congregation of Filth
This list gives me a taste of every unit except Plague Censor Bearers, but I'm hoping this will give me a lot of experience with the units.
I'll be posting Battle Reports next weekend of my games, so we'll see how that goes!
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
