OVERVIEW:
As of General's Handbook 2020, the Harbinger of Decay will cost you 160pts and fulfill the Leader battlefield role in a NURGLE allegiance army. The model is fine-cast (booo!) and will cost you $40 USD retail. Many people use one of the Varanguard or a Slaves to Darkness Chaos Knight with Putrid Blightking bits to create their homemade, much cheaper Harbinger of Decay. The Harbinger of Decay sits atop a 75x42mm base, the same as Chaos Knights.
THE WARSCROLL:
The Stat Wheel - The Move of the Harbinger of Decay is 7" which is great for our slow marching army. The Feculant Gnarlmaw can help the Harbinger run and charge but unless you're absolutely he can win the day, you shouldn't be taking that change with such a key figure. The Cycle of Corruption's Unnatural Vitality will add 2" Move to the Harbinger but he should be moving behind a line of a horde of Nurgle-marked Chaos Marauders, Putrid Blightkings or a legion of Nurgle-marked Chaos Warriors. The Blessed Sons sub-faction's ability to utilize "At the Double" universal command ability for free on a ROTBRINGER unit will work on the Harbinger of Decay. This is a great idea if the unit he is supposed to support has charged out of his protection range in the previous turn or has moved too far way.
The Wounds characteristic of the 7. Meh. It's great if taken out of context of the other ROTBRINGER HERO units. But. But this matches the same wound count as the Lord of Plagues and Lord of Blights and the Harbinger is mounted. Just a pet-peeve I guess.
The Save characteristic of the Harbinger of Decay is an average 4+. Average. Combined with the high Wound count and he's decently durable. But that's just the beginning. Soulbound Shield and the command ability on the Harbinger of Decay's warscroll will help this bloated vessel survive most games. Some artefacts will also help the Harbinger of Decay survive against any kind of assault he may face, but you'll have to scroll down.
The Bravery of Harbinger of Decay is 8. Which is also a big Meh. It's high enough for him not to worry about too many wounds from 2D6 Bravery bomb mortal wound builds but those armies usually have a way to lower your Bravery by 5 or so.
The Weaponry - The Harbinger is armed with both the Plague Scythe and Daemonic Mount's Flyblown Bite. Although on the warscroll on Games Workshop's website, the Daemonic Mount isn't categorized as a mount. I'm 100% sure that that's a misprint or that policy of denoting mounts was made after the publication of the Maggotkin of Nurgle book. As for the Plague Scythe, its the usual fighty foot Hero profile. 3 attacks at 3+/3+ with -1 Rend and dealing D3 Damage. I'm not sure why the Range is 1", as the scythe is as long as the Daemonic Mount the Harbinger rides but it's just another pet-peeve. Don't get me started on Chaos Chosen! The Daemonic Mount's Flyblown Bite is nothing to worry about and barely does anything. Half the time I don't roll it.
The Hit roll can be buffed by the Lord of Afflictions' Plague Vector agility. This allows the Harbinger of Decay to re-roll Hit rolls of 1 if he is within 7". Just make sure you keep outside of 3" from the Lord of Afflictions if he is equipped with an Incubatch.
The Wound roll can be only be buffed by the Cycle of Corruption's Fecund Vigor gives all NURGLE units +1 to Wound.
The Rend characteristic can be modified in two ways. attacking a unit affected by Festus the Leechlord's warscroll spell Curse of the Leper, causing a target unit to subtract 1 from Save rolls for the whole game, effectively giving every unit in your army -1 Rend. Since the Harbinger of Decay has the ROTBRINGER keyword, he can take the Rustfang which would effectively causes an increase in Rend.
The Abilities- Soulbound Shield is a great ability to have on a support character. Since the Harbinger of Decay's command ability is sooo good, he's going to be top priority for sniping and magical sniping is a thing in Age of Sigmar. The Soulbound Shield let's you roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to this model as a result of a spell; on a 4+ the wound is negated. This is fantastic. With the One Rule that was just implied into Matched Play in General's Handbook 2020, you won't be getting a 4+ then a 5+ to negate a mortal wound from a spell. But still, having a 4+ means that you're opponent will have try twice as hard to remove this vital piece from your army!
The Rotsword. It's certainly interesting. Once per battle you can deal D3 mortals to a Hero you're fighting, and then maybe splash 1 mortal wound to nearby enemy units. It's a Panic Button if nothing else if your Harbinger of Decay is within 1" of an enemy combat Hero. You really don't want to put the Harbinger into any danger, he's just that vital to keep the rest of your army shambling around the board. Although chances are you will survive a combat phase, deal the D3 mortals to the Hero and retreat away behind a line of bloated and corrupted peons... I mean comrades.
Command Ability- This is the reason you're taking the Harbinger of Decay. This is where you're going to be dumping all of your command points. And it's well worth it. Morbid Vigor affects NURGLE MORTALS only. Keep that mind if you include any Skaven Clan Pestilens or Nurgle Daemon models into your army. This command ability WILL NOT affect them. The command ability will also affect most of, if not all the Slaves to Darkness models you may include into your army. So let's look at the text. Until your next Hero phase (so far so good, you dont have to predict what phase you'll be taking the most damage in), roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound (Great, we can use it whenever taking damage) to friendly NURGLE MORTAL units while they are within 7" (pretty standard here and not wholly within) of this model. On a 5+ the wound is negated. Fantastic! Absolutely disgusting! Mathematically this increased EACH unit's survivability within 7" by 1/3. Remember Age of Sigmar is about removing units to capture objectives over the course of 5 turns. If you disrupt your opponent's plans by outnumbering them on an objective due to having more models since yours survived longer, or keeping an objective from being captured but being the anvil you're meant to be, you win.
BATTALIONS:
Blight Cyst - 140 pts. minimum w/HoD 860 pts. The only thing that the Harbinger of Decay benefits from is the Blights on the Landscape. This mean that in the combat phase, enemy units do not receive any benefits for being in cover against attacks made by this battalion.
Plague Cyst - 140 pts. minimum w/HoD 860 pts. The only thing that benefits the Harbinger of Decay in this battalion is the Horribly Contagious battalion ability. In your Hero phase, roll a dice for each enemy unit within 3" of any units from this battalion. On a 6+ the unit being rolled for suffer D3 mortal wounds.
ARTEFACTS:
The Witherstave - Used to be 100% auto-take with me. Enemy units within 12" of the bearer have to reroll hit rolls of 6. This affects melee and missile weapons. This is fantastic! It's a great defensive tool in already defensive army. This also helps to turn off a lot of those abilities that trigger on hit rolls of 6 such as Ossiarch Bonereapers' Nandrite weapons, or Lumineth Realm Lords' mortal wounds.
Rustfang - At the start of combat phase (each combat phase!) pick one enemy unit within 3". For the REST OF THE BATTLE, that unit subtracts 1 from save rolls. If you wanna kill something or thing your damage needs a boost, go this route. If you're taking a Blight Cyst or have Festus you can probably skip this but if you're taking lots of Plaguebearers, this is a must.
Blotshell Bileplate - Reroll save rolls for attacks that target the bearer. This takes your beefy Harbinger up to 11. He's not going anywhere now. Stick him in cover if you can and enjoy a 3+ rerolling Save with a 5++ after-save. This in my mind is a no-brainer because you no longer have to worry about your Harbinger dying until late game.
PROS & CONS:
+ Cool Old-school model
+ Fast
+ Durable
+ Fantastic command ability
- Finecast
- Not great in combat
WRAP UP:
If you're going heavy NURGLE MORTALS or ROTBRINGERS you're going to be taking this guy. It's that simple. If the Chaos Warshrine affected MORTALS or if the faction gets a universal 6+ after-save this guy might no longer see the field but for now, he's in most of those armies.
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