Spread glorious rot in Grandfather’s name with our Nurgle guide
Looking for aTotal War: Warhammer3 Nurgle Guide? One of the four brand new chaos monogod factions inTotal War: Warhammer III, Nurgle is a deceptively strong faction, once you learn to compensate for their glaring weaknesses on the battlefield and campaign. Read on to find out the nuances of each unit, hero, and spell, as well as a tactical overview of how the forces of Nurgle compliment each other on the battlefield.
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Nurgle roster guide
You’d be absolutely forgiven for feeling that playing a faction of spluttering, bile-flecked demons that delight in spreading devastating pandemics hits a little too close for comfort. But Nurgle can still be a hugely rewarding and interesting battlefield experience, once you iron out a few kinks. You can find out where Nurgle ranks on ourfaction tier list. For now, Let’s break the roster down.
Nurgle’s sole legendary lord, this biggest of Chungi is effectively a moving artillery piece with some devastating buffs and debuffs close up. Use his nurgling launcher to bait your foe into moving up on your army, negating Nurgle’s slow speed. Keep him close to Nurglings in combat for a passive regeneration aura, and spec him into his ‘Pestilent Decay’ skill to cause constant damage to anything around him. Even with a huge health pool, he’s still a big target for enemy missiles, so keep an eye on his HP and make sure you’re using your mobile contingent to tie up potential threats.
Once your Heralds hit rank fifteen, you’ll be given the option to turn them into an Exalted Great Unclean one, at the cost of half their levels. This is always worth doing, unless you’ve carefully specced out a Herald for a specific purpose. Essentially more melee-focused Ku’Gaths without the artillery weapon, these stinky boys are huge damage sponges, with a range of effective debuffs for swinging melee grinds. We’ll cover their magic lores below.
Your basic Nurgle lord, Heralds aren’t incredible in melee, but do have access to the usual Nurgle survivability. They’re functionally very similar, though slightly better, than the Plagueridden heroes. Swap them out with Exalted Great Unclean One whenever possible.
Hybrid melee/spellcasters with that trademark Nurgle tankiness. You can mount them on a Palanquin for more health, but you’ll find much more utility in their Rotfly mounts. As is true for the rest of the roster, take any opportunity to add more mobility to your army.
The cultist can gain access to a horse mount early, which you should absolutely take for its speed. At higher levels, they can summon a unit of plaguebearers three times a battle, and a great unclean one once. Send them up the flanks then bounce them around between enemy archers, disrupting their lines and summoning in units, to cause real problems.
Nurgle’s basic meat shield/chaff unit, Nurglings can still soak up a lot of damage. Keep them close to Ku’Gath for that regeneration aura, spec into a few early game upgrade techs, and these adorable little pus goblins become very hard to kill. Use them to take charges or tar pit elite infantry.
Nurgle’s standard frontline troop, these melee infantry are lacking in speed but durable enough to make up for it. Vulnerable, like much of the roster, to sustained missile fire, and not the best damage dealers, but able to hold the line like little else. The Exalted are the upgraded version, and come with a ranged attack. I’ve found this very useful for focus-firing down large single entities, like enemy monsters, once tarpitted in combat with your other troops. This is something Nurgle can struggle with in general, so a nice option to have.
Faster, stronger, and with better armour than Plaguebearers, but with less health and a lower model count, Forsaken are best used to support your frontline. Use that increased speed to get some early charges into the flanks of whatever the Plaguebearers or Nurglings engage head on.
These slimy funsters are single entities with a nice bump in speed compared to your frontline, armour piercing, and regeneration. Like all units with regen, they take extra damage from fire attacks, like that ofOgreFirebellies or Exalted Bloodletters of Khorne, so be a bit careful with your engagements. Otherwise, they’re great for supporting your frontline against elite infantry, or harassing archers in a pinch.
The tanks have a huge health pool, which makes them particularly useful with Nurgle’s healing abilities. They’re also unbreakable, making them ideal for tying down key units while others get into place.
With riders or without, these gigantic toads are Nurgle’s monstrous cavalry option. With 60 speed, they’re still slower than your typical heavy cav, but play much the same role. Use them to flank and mulch enemy infantry or light cavalry, but watch out for anti-large cavalry or halberds. The Pox Riders are effectively the same unit, but better.
Nurgle’s flying cavalry, and very fast, perfect for disrupting enemy archer lines. The Plague Drones come in two variants. One has a ranged weapon, great for wearing down those big single entity monsters, and the other is a more dangerous version of the basic Rot Fly. All are armour piercing, though a bit squishy due to a low model count. They’re great for cycle-charging elite infantry from the rear while your frontline keeps them busy.
Your budget flyer option, used for shutting down low tier ranged units or artillery while your main army approaches. They’re cheap to field, but worth replacing when you have access to Rot Flies, funds allowing.
The Great Unclean one is a baby version of their Exalted lord variant, although I use the term baby loosely, as these are still some seriously hefty boys. Vulnerable to missile fire, but able to mulch through infantry and even duel enemy characters due to their enormous HP pools. You can also give them access to Nurgle spells through technology, although your Winds of Magic is usually better spent by your dedicated casters.
With its huge speed, melee prowess, armour, and artillery weapon, the Soul Grinder is a key piece in the Nurgle roster, and no army should be without two or more to shore up its weaknesses. Use that long ranged bombardment to make the enemy move up on you. Once you’ve spent the ammo, put that huge mass to work and tear straight through the frontlines into those squishy ranged units.
Below, we’ll look at Nurgle’s unique lore of magic, the Lore of Nurgle.
We’ve looked at each unit in the Nurgle roster, and the unique lore of magic at their disposal. So, how do you combine it all to make them a formidable force on the battlefield? Here are some general tips to get the most out of Nurgle.
Despite their high melee defence, Nurgle are as vulnerable to sustained missile fire as any other faction, and the glacial pace of most of the army often means weathering all the opposing force can throw at you on the way in. Spells like Fleshy Abundance, alongside the army heal, will help mitigate this, but it’s still best to find alternative ways of dealing with it. Artillery like Soul Grinders and Ku’gath can attempt to force the enemy to move up on you. Rotflies, furies, toads and cultists can disrupt missile lines, and a well placed Blight Boil - preferably from a Plagueridden on a rotfly, can blow a hole in a backline.
While this is good advice for any army with access to AOE spells, likeGrand CathayorKislev, forcing blobs is especially effective for Nurgle. Many of their specialised units, army abilities, spells, or active abilities rely on debuffing or harming units within their sphere of influence. Once stacked together, they can turn dangerous foes into useless clumps of plague fodder. This extends to your own units. Don’t worry so much about maintaining ordered ranks with Nurgle. Once you’ve disrupted those enemy archers, bring your flanking contingent back around into the melee and turn the battlefield into the writing pits of chaos where Nurgle truly thrives.
I mean, they’re everyone’s friend really. Just look at those little guys. As your most basic infantry unit, you might be tempted to replace these diminutive funsters as soon as possible. But, especially combined with Ku’gath’s buffs, they can prove incredibly cost effective, particularly during sieges where you’ll want to focus on capturing points rather than doing damage. Once the nurgling tide gets going, there’s little that stands in its way. Blob them up around Ku’gath for maximum effectiveness.
At the time of writing, Nurgle’s single Legendary Lord is Ku’Gath Plaguefather, so all your Nurgle campaigns will use the same mechanics. Here’s a brief overview of each, as well as how to get the most out of it during your campaign.
That covers it for getting the most out of Nurgle! The Poxmakers are definitely one of the hardest factions to get to grips with, but once you’ve ironed out the kinks, you should find them extremely powerful, able to summon up devastating armies almost instantly. Looking for more tips? Check out ourTotal War: Warhammer 3 beginner’s guideto kickstart your campaign. Or, If you want to know more about the game, here’s ourTotal War: Warhammer 3 review.
