Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/The Clans Pestilens

Everyone's favourite rat-men, just slightly more ill and covered in suppurating infections, here to kill man-things and stab eachother in the back in the Age of Sigmar. This is a pretty complex army with lots of special rules and abilities that interact with each other, but it can be a deadly one if you learn how to use it.

Warscrolls

The common keywords of these warscrolls are: CHAOS, SKAVEN, NURGLE and PESTILENS.

Heroes

Verminlord Corruptor

He's the only model with his own command ability of the army, therefore, your preferred general. Also that ability combined with the double weapon of the Plague Monks gives them the impressive lot of 5 attacks! He is also the only wizard that you can choose, he's able to cast twice like the Warpseer and his plague spell can cause a horrible chain of death in the enemy units. But in change of that between the Verminlords, the Corruptor is by far the worst in melee. Keep it behind the lines and use it to boost your unit and damage your enemy from the distance.

Plague Priest with Warpstone-Tipped Staff

Your standard Pestilens hero. He has the same single 4+/3+/-1/D3 melee knock that any other support hero gets, but with an extra attack on the charge because Pestilens. His prayer are great too, giving either a bonus To Wound for an enemy unit or tossing out the same Breath Attack the Sigmarine Dracoth gets. His Pestilence-Filled Censer makes all WIZARDS (except NURGLE WIZARDS) closer than 6" subtract 1 from casting rolls.

Plague Priest with Plague Censer

Same prayers and profile as above, included the extra attack on the charge. The weapon this time is 2 attack 4+/3+/-1/1 which, with all the modifier to the hit and wound rolls used in this game is definitely more convenient. His Plague Tome makes you re-roll once for battle all failed wound rolls to a target unit within 13".

Plague Furnace

It's 3 Plague Monks with a Plague Priest on a huge censer-thing. It moves only if pushed by other SKAVEN and it needs 3 for every 1" of movement. If properly surrounded it makes 2D6 attacks with Rusty Wheels and Spikes instead of D6. It boosts bravery of nearby PESTILENS unit by 1 and it damages all the non NURGLE units that approaches it. The Plague Priest on it gets different prayers, boosting Pestilens units either by giving them the same effects as the Death Frenzy spell or by allowing them to reroll wounds. It's clearly a centerpiece. It will pack a punch thanks to the Censer, but it needs Plague Monks to push it around and pushing stuff around and not charging is something Plague Monks with their awful survivability really don't like to do. On the other hand, the Monks do very much like those tasty tasty buffs.

Battleline Troops

Plague Monks

Your basic Pestilens troop, their main perk is that they can have two different sets of equipment for the unit, two different sets of equipment for the champion, two different standards and two different musicians, giving you tons of flexibility. Since FAQ from GW states that you can have more than one kind of standard or musician in a unit and they still have standard weapons unless specifically stated otherwise, give them all, the more the better!

• Leader: their leader make the unit better at wounding enemies (reroll 1 to wound) or damage the units around, though both are one use only abilities.
• Standard: the Standards can either inflict mortal wounds while they attack or when they die.
• Musician: the musicians can either give you a chance for better Rend or slow enemy charges.

Let's analyze the two weapons options:

1. Plague Monks with two foetid blades an average of 0,75 damages per model or 1,12 when they charge
2. Plague Monks with a foetid blade and a woe-stave an average of 0,66 damages per model or 0,91 when they charge with one of the weapon hitting from 2" instead of 1", so is basically the same when you have a big unit to cover for the second rank attacks. Another bonus of the Woe Stave is that it counts as a separate melee weapon, so buffs that add 1 attack to every weapon are doubly effective on units with Stave (a unit of 20 with blade/stave in two ranks makes, unsupported, 50 attacks on the charge, and 80 with the one-more-attack-for-each-weapon buff, think about that).

Plague Censer Bearer

Get an extra attack when charging, deal a mortal wound to every non-Nurgle unit within 3" on a 4+ and can reroll hits and Battleshocks if they're within 13" from a Plague Monk unit. Basically, Censer Bearers on their own are nigh useless, but with proper support, they are even deadlier wound-per-wound than Plague Monks.

Artillery

Plagueclaw Catapult

It's an indirect firing war machine. You know those. They have nice range and can stand waaay back. Just don't shoot it at other Nurgle units and they do just fine. Brutal against big hordes, lame against Monster/Heroes.

Battalions

From the Skaven Pestilens Battletome

For now those are the only battalions with a point value for pitched battles.

Congregation of Flith

Battalion cost: 60pt. Unit cost: min. x pt., max. x pt.

A Plague Furnace and 2 or more units of Plague Monks.

Virulent Procession

Battalion cost: 80pt. Unit cost: min. x pt., max. x pt.

A Verminlord Corruptor and 2 or more Congregations of Flith.

Foulrain Congregation

Battalion cost: 100pt. Unit cost: min. x pt., max. x pt.

A Plague Priest and 3 Plagueclaws.

Plaguesmog Congregation

Battalion cost: 80pt. Unit cost: min. x pt., max. x pt.

A Plague Furnace and 2 or more units of Plague Censer Bearers.

From Box Set

The Virulent Horde

Found in the The Virulent Horde box set - min. x pt., max. x pt.

A Verminlord Corruptor, a Plague Furnace, a Plague Priest, a unit of Plague Monks, a unit of Plague Censer Bearers and a Plagueclaw.

Squal's Pestilent Congregation

Found in the Start Collecting! Skaven Pestilens box set - min. x pt., max. x pt.

A Plague Furnace a Plagueclaw and a unit of Plague Monks.

From The Realmgate Wars - Vol. 1 - Quest for Ghal Maraz

Pestilent Clawpack

min. x pt., max. x pt.

A Plague Furnace, a Plague Priest and 3 units of Plague Monks. Everyone in the formation deals double wounds on a 6 to wound, and also you can take a scenery that is within 13" from at least two units from the formation as the unit's nest: units from the formation automatically pass Battleshock tests inside it, while other non-Nurgle units have to roll a dice if they begin the turn in that terrain: on a 2+ they're save, otherwise they suffer d3 mortal wounds.

Bringers of the Rotsmog

min. x pt., max. x pt.

A Verminlord Corruptor, a Plague Furnace and a Baleful Realmgate

Allied Armies

Nurgle Rotbringers and Daemons of Nurgle are definitely the first choice, since almost all the abilities of this army that cause area damage do not affect NURGLE models.

External links

Rules are here:

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-verminlord-corruptor-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-plaguepriest-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-plaguefurnace-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-plaguemonks-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-plague-censer-bearers-en.pdf