OVERVIEW:
As of General's Handbook 2020, the Lord of Blights will cost you 140pts and fulfill the Leader battlefield role in a NURGLE allegiance army. The model is a fantastic sculpt that is bursting with bloated blessings, character and full of conversion potential. The Lord of Blights is on a 40mm base, the same one as your run-of-the-plague-mill Putrid Blightking. The retail price of the Lord of Blights is $30 USD.
You can grab your own Lord of Blights 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 of the Lord of Blights is only 4". What did you only expect with a chunky guy like this? The Feculant Gnarlmaw can help though, letting him run and charge. Chances are that if the enemy is within 14" you'll want to throw a severed head instead of running though. The Cycle of Corruption's Unnatural Vitality will add 2" Move, bringing his grand total to 6". If you need a speedy little chunker to keep your auras alive, you might want to consider running the Lord of Blights in a Blessed Sons Host. With the Foul Conqueror command trait you can "At the Double" for free once per turn.
The Wounds characteristic of the 7. Which is fantastic for a foot Hero and one that's only 140 pts. This basically means that you are almost guarantee to have this guy survive 2 turns.
The Save characteristic of the Lord of Blights is 4+. Completely average. What's missing from the Lord of Blights is a mortal wound mitigation. He does have a chaos shield after all. Maybe that's asking too much, maybe not. You can always keep him within range of a Harbinger of Decay for the 5+ save-after-save.
The Bravery of the Lord of Blights is 9. This makes him safe from the vast majority of Bravery-debuffing to deal mortal wounds tactics that are out there.
The Weaponry - The Lord of Blights has a shooting attack, the Thrice-ripened Death's Head. We don't have many shooting attacks in Nurgle but they are usually gross. This is no exception. 14" is great but remember the Lord of Blights can NOT run and shoot. So keep that in mind when closing into the enemy. Hitting on 3+ is good, Wounding on 3+ is good, Hulking Physique and the Cycle of Corruption's Fecund Vigour DO NOT buff this To Wound rating. -3 Rend is fantastic, especially in this faction. D3 Damage, again good. All in all, its good, just remember to do it!
The melee weapon that the Lord of Blights wields in combat is a little, itty-bitty hammer called the Bubotic Hammer. Its super standard for a melee foot Hero. 3 attacks 3+/3+ at -1 Rend and 2 Damage (instead of the bog-standard D3 Damage). Mathematically is the same as every other melee foot Hero. Unlike the missile weapon, the command trait, Hulking Physique or the Cycle of Corruption's Fecund Vigour will make your Lord of Blights wound on a 2+. Add in the Rotbringer artifact, The Rustfang and now you're essentially hitting at -2 Rend. You can get the rerolls of 1 from a Lord of Afflictions since the Lord of Blights has the Rotbringer keyword.
The Abilities- Munificent Bounty is an interesting ability. Your Lord of Blights is so caring for his fellow Putrid Blightkings that he brought some heads to throw at the enemy. I guess he doesn't want them to miss out on the fun. Pick 1 friendly Blightkings unit within 3". They can all throw the Munificent Bounty Death's Heads which are 14" Range, 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound and no Rend for 1 Damage. Not bad if you can remember and haven't run.
Vermid Shield - This ability essentially give your Lord of Blights Mystic Shield in the combat phase. You can reroll save rolls of 1. This brings your save percentage from 50% to 58%. This just adds another layer of defense onto an already sturdy bro.
Command Ability- Plague of Flies lets you pick a friendly NURGLE unit within (not wholly within) 21" of the Lord of Blights. It gets the Plaguebearers of Nurgle buff. -1 to Hit in the Shooting phase, which is big in 2020. Good. Nice protection. But if they have 20 or more models, so we are looking at large blocks of Chaos Warriors, Marauders and Plague Monks. Then the command ability gives the unit -2 to hit in the enemy Shooting phase and -1 to Hit them while in the Combat phase until your next hero phase. Fantastic. This really give those weak units like the Marauders and Plague Monks a defensive boost, so they survive just that little bit more to keep that objective. If you really want to stick it to someone, drop this on a unit of 20 Plaguebearers for a -4 to hit vs Shooting and a -2 to Hit in the Combat phase!
BATTALIONS:
Blight Cyst - 140 pts. minimum 720 pts. This battalion is fantastic and the building block for all of my Rotbringer-heavy lists. The Lord of Blights gives out his okay-ish shooting attack to ALL Putrid Blightking units within 3" instead of just one with the Endless Bounty battalion ability. I guess he brings a whole sack of them. Cool and useful, fine. The Supremely Blighted Weapons gives all Putrid Blightkings -1 Rend, this doesn't affect the Lord of Blights' Bubotic Hammer though, but its always nice to point out. But the other ability does affect the Lord of Blights and the Munificent Bounty Death's Heads that he's passing out like herpes at the Playboy Mansion. That battalion ability is Blights of the Landscape, which allows ALL units from the battalion, no cover saves can be taken from attacks made by this battalion.
ARTEFACTS:
Muttergrub - This artefact is pretty useful if you have a spare artefact. It would let your Lord of Blights to be able to cast Foul Regenesis to change to Cycle of Corruption to whatever stage you want. This does not make the bearer a WIZARD for some strange reason. I guess the grub is the caster.
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. This artefact stacks well with the Blight Cyst battalion for a nice -2 to saves.
PROS & CONS:
+ Beautiful model
+ Durable foot hero
+ Useful command ability
- Slow
- Below average in combat
- Feels like a tax in Blight Cyst
- No save from mortal wounds
WRAP UP:
If you're going Rotbringer heavy and taking a Blight Cyst, you have to take this guy for the battalion. Do I wish I didn't have to? Yes. But he does his job, is useful and can dish out some wounds.
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