Written by Benjamin Lolmaugh
OVERVIEW:
As of General's Handbook 2020, the Lord of Afflictions will cost you 190pts and fulfill the Leader battlefield role in a NURGLE allegiance army. If you take a Lord of Afflictions as your general, Pusgoyle Blightlords become Battleline. The model can be made from a Pusgoyle Blightlord. Pusgoyle Blightlords will cost you $65 USD ORRRR you can just grab a Start Collecting Maggotkin of Nurgle box and get a Lord of Blights and 5 Putrid Blightkings for $95 USD ($157 USD value). The Lord of Afflictions sits on a 60mm base.
You can grab your own Lord of Afflictions by grabbing a Start Collecting Maggotkin of Nurgle box with the Amazon link below. You support the blog, and get a discount off MSRP.
THE WARSCROLL:
The Stat Wheel - The Move value of the Lord of Afflictions is 8", in addition the model can Fly. This is incredible! This is exactly what your Nurgle force, a fast hitter that can apply pressure where you want. Since the Lord of Afflictions has no missile weapon you can run and charge if you can land near a Feculant Gnarlmaw. Combined with the Cycle of Corruption's Unnatural Vitality that will add 2" Move and using the command ability "At the Double", this bloated Rot Fly can zip around the battlefield at 16" and still be able to charge. So if that's your plan just make sure you go Blessed Sons for the Foul Conqueror command trait that lets you use At the Double for free once each hero phase.
The Wounds characteristic of the 8. This is pretty good. Better than most mounted lord but low enough to avoid getting bracketed in a fight.
The Save characteristic of the Lord of Afflictions is 4+. That's completely normal for a combat Hero on a mount. Disgustingly Resilient will add another layer to the defenses of the Lord of Afflictions dropping 1/3 of the damage off right away. The Wounds, the Save, the Disgustingly Resilient ability and the Rotten Regeneration ability means that this fly ain't shooing any time soon and can take on more than most of your enemies will think to send.
The Bravery of the Lord of Afflictions is 10. It's great. It's expected, as the Lord of Afflictions has the Daemon keyword. He's safe from basically all the mortal wound shenanigans caused by Bravery bombs.
The Weaponry - Lots of attacks. Lots and lots of attacks. This is where the Lord of Afflictions earns his keep. Before we go over these weapons, let's review the Lord of Afflictions' Plague Vector ability. The Plague Vector ability lets all ROTBRINGER units within 7" reroll hit rolls of 1. Keep this in mind when we go over the weapons, as the Lord of Afflictions has the ROTBRINGER keyword. The Festerpike is your bog-standard fighty Hero weapon. 3 attacks at 3+/3+ with -1 Rend and D3 Damage. The little bonus is the extra inch of range. Foul Mouthparts is 1", 2 attacks at 3+ to Hit, 3+ to Wound, no Rend with 1 Damage. A little better than your average horse. The Venomous Sting is a little better at one attack, 4+ to Hit, 3+ to Wound, this time with -1 Rend and another D3 damage. Lastly we have the bell that the Lord of Afflictions is tolling as he strides the battlefield. The Dolorous Tocsin (maybe the same one that the Putrid Blightkings have) is 1 attacks, hitting at 4+, wounding at 3+ with -2 Rend, which is rare in Nurgle and for 2 Damage. All in all its not only good, its great! A potential of 15 damage if you roll perfectly. Lots of attacks, some of which have Rend. Adding any buffs on top of the Lord of Afflictions Plague Vector ability will have a multiplicative effect. For example, the Great Unclean One's command ability, Grandfather's Joy. This ability gives the affected NURGLE DAEMON unit +1 Attack. If you place this ability on the Lord of Afflictions he gets 4 extra attacks, one extra attack for each profile. That's amazing!!! You can always slap the Hulking Physique command trait on this monster or get the Cycle of Corruption's Fecund Vigour to have all of your melee weapons to wound on 2+. Please note that since the Rot Fly is a mount, he's unaffected by the rider's command trait.
The Abilities-The Lord of Afflictions has a whole incubatches worth of abilities. A few we have glossed over. Disgustingly Resilient lets the Lord of Afflictions shrug off a wound or mortal wound on a 5+. Very good on such an important character piece in your army. Rotten Regeneration recovers 1 wound in each of your Hero phases that the Lord of Affliction suffered. Again, this stacks on the defenses. Plague Vector is fantastic! Reroll hit rolls of 1 for attacks made by ROTBRINGER units within 7". In reality that's about 16.36" of the board is covered by 1 Lord of Affliction due to his base size. All the newer and cooler Nurgle mortal units are classified as ROTBRINGERS, that includes the Glottkin. Yes around the Lord of Afflictions the Glottkin gets to reroll hit rolls of 1. Please note that this ability affects missile units too! So the Maggoth Lords and a Putrid Blightkings unit affected by a Lord of Blights' Munificent Bounty ability can reroll hit rolls on these missile attacks.
Incubatch is an interesting ability, that in your Hero phase you roll a d6 for each unit (even yours) within 3". On a 2+ the unit suffers 1 mortal wound, NURGLE units suffer this wound on a 6+. It's okay, it deals a little damage each time but you put your own units at risk. The nice this about this is that it just says "In your hero phase". Many of the regenerative effects that Nurgle has can be used after this ability has gone off, and damaged say a nearby Great Unclean One. You could then roll for the Great Unclean One's Corpulent Mass ability to recover that lost wound. Remember that this includes the Lord of Afflictions himself and he will always heal 1 wound at the START OF YOUR HERO phase, so there is no way for you to kill him. You don't actually have to include the Incubatch with your Lord of Afflictions, that's an option to if you don't want to gamble. But hey, we play a dice game after all, it's all gambling.
Virulent DIscharge is a common ability with the Rotbringers in Nurgle. You can find the same ability on Putrid Blightkings and Pusgoyle Blightlords. In your hero phase, roll a d6 for each unit (yours too!) within 3". On a 6, that unit takes D3 mortals, if its a NURGLE unit that unit heals D3 wounds. This ability is extremely useful but time consuming when around a lot of units. Just keep that in mind, you can kill the last few guys that are blocking in your dudes, freeing them up in the movement phase.
Command Ability- Ah the Spearhead of Contagion command ability is such a disappointment. I guess we can't have it all. The ability can only be used if the Lord of Afflictions is your general. I thought we got rid of this trash requirement in the Daughters of Khaine book. Then it only affects Pusgoyle Blightlords. That's getting expensive in both points and your almighty dollars. It just add 8" to the movement of 1 unit. Honestly its meh. The only time I can see this being useful is that 1 in 50 game where your opponent doesn't shield his crappy support Hero in the back. However if you have a Blessed Sons Host and use the Foul Conqueror command trait to use At the Double for free and use Spearhead of Contagion, while near a tree, 1 Pusgoyle Blightlords unit can move 8 (move) + 8 (ability) + 6 (run) + 2D6 charge. I rather save my command points of the Harbinger of Decay's command ability Morbid Vigour. If you'd like to learn more about the Harbinger of Decay check out his article!
BATTALIONS:
Affliction Cyst - 140 pts. minimum 900 pts! Holy crap, That's a large chunk of your army right there in 4 units and only 57 wounds. The Droning Sky lets you drop in your drones like like the USMC aviation squadron to wreck face. You do have to set up the unit after your FIRST movement phase and has to be set up further than 9" away from an enemy unit. Lots of restrictions on this one. No charge bonuses for the Lord of Afflictions or the Pusgoyle Blightlords means you're not likely to make the 9" charge. Bad, not only that you can probably get closer than 9" if you just move or use the Spearhead of Contagion command ability. The second ability is more useful but we have very low expectations. Diseased Onslaught battalino ability is just some command point efficiency. It lets you affect EACH and ALL units of Pusgoyle Blightlords within 14" when your Lord of Afflictions uses the Spearhead of Contagion command ability instead of just 1. Remember! the Lord of Afflictions HAS to be your general to use his Spearhead of Contagion command ability.
ARTEFACTS:
The Witherstave - Probably the single best artefact to give to the Lord of Afflictions to help your army outlast the enemy force. The Witherstave makes enemy units within 12" of the bearer to reroll hit rolls of 6. This affects missile weapons and melee weapons, so this will definitely help us in 2020 in the Age of Shooting. With the 60mm base, you're throwing this debuff aura 26.36 inches!
Rustfang - At the start of combat phase (and that's each and every combat phase!) pick one enemy unit within 3". For the REST OF THE BATTLE, that unit subtracts 1 from their save rolls. Your bloated lord should definitely be stuck in combat and Any de-buffing is a great way to inch ahead in the damage game. This will also let your Lord of Afflictions be a little Hero hunter. Fly over the screen, Rustfang the Hero and hit him with all your attacks.
PROS & CONS:
+ Great model
+ Fast for Nurgle
+ Fly
+ Tough
+ Lots of attacks, some with Rend
+ Can take any Command Trait or Artefact
+Buffs Rotbringers
- Terrible Command Ability
- Expensive $$$ wise
- Affliction Cyst is a no go
WRAP UP:
Forget the battalion. Forget the command ability. You still have a great platform for a durable general who buffs almost everyone in a ROTBRINGER heavy army, who dishes out mortal wounds and who is ungodly durable for 190 pts. It's a no-brainer for me. I take him, he's my general and he turns my defensive army into an offensive one. Or you can have it both ways 😁 with a Harbinger of Decay with the Witherstave and your Lord of Afflictions with Rustfang and a Blight Cyst...
No comments:
Post a Comment