Blood Bowl Races: Nurgle

So the first team I will be taking a look at will be the Nurgle team.

Nurgle are essentially a variant of Chaos teams. Nurgle is the God of Disease in the fluff, and as such Nurgle teams are made of of slimy, infectious zombie-esque abominations.

They are one of the best teams in the game for infuriating your opponent. Right from the start they have skills that make passing very hard for the other team, Foul Appearance will sometimes really mess up your opponent's blocking and they only get more irritating as they continue to level. Tentacles will make an Elf cry.

At high level, Nurgle can also be an effective bashing team. Regenerate + AV 9 means their positionals are exceedingly tough, so they can weather an onslaught of hits, then use their own strength and mutation access to really pile on pain in return.

Nurgle are similar to Chaos teams in that they have the same glaring weaknesses and strengths - a total lack of starting skills means the team is very vulnerable to Turnovers and failed actions early on, but universal access to Mutations and a lot of Strength and General access means the team can be very varied and effective once skilled.

They are also very slow, being only marginally faster than Dwarves. This means their offence is extremely weak, and they cannot expect to win by 2 TDs very often if they win at all. Poor speed and Agility is the largest weakness of a Nurgle team.

Nurgle differ from Chaos in that their Big Guy fills a completely different role (and is in fact the centre of their play) and they also focus on a disruptive gameplan rather than purely bashing skulls (though they can be good at that too).

Let's look at the player types:



Rotter


Number Limit: 1-16


Cost: 40,000/Free.

Movement: 5
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Armour Value: 8

Normal Skill Access:
General
Mutation

Starting Skills/Traits:

Decay
Nurgle's Rot


Suggested Skills:
Dirty Player
Wrestle
Fend
Claw
Foul Appearance
Tackle


Suggested Doubles:
Guard
Mighty Blow
Sneaky Git


Unlike Chaos, who have the all-round Beastman, Nurgle teams have a dedicated Lineman known as a Rotter. Rotters are actually damn good for a measly 40,000 gold pieces, packing average Strength, average Agility and respectable Armour. However, they are slow at Movement 5 and have the Decay trait.

The Decay trait means that any serious injury (a Casualty result) will cause 2 injuries instead of one. For this reason, Rotters have short lifespans despite their reasonable AV. Lack of Regen and a doctor on the team means they are down and out when injured. They are the soft target that enemy teams will undoubtedly be trying to get off the pitch.

However, for cheap fodder that can get in the way of the opposition and play the ball in emergencies, they're very useful. They make excellent foulers out of the box and become more deadly with Dirty Player.

Mutation access also means Claw is an option, meaning they can be quite dangerous against high Armour opponents, just don't expect them to last long in a fight.

Foul Appearance en masse can also be used to get your opponent's veins throbbing. If you want to lengthen your Rotters' lifespans (and make them hyper annoying), give them Wrestle and Foul Appearance. Bashing teams will give themselves a hernia.

Finally, they (along with all Nurgle players) possess the "Nurgle's Rot" skill. This means any opponent with a STR of 4 or less killed on a block or foul action by the player will come back as a Rotter for free. The exception is players with Regen or Stunty, who can't be "infected".

This means that you never really have to worry about buying Rotters - just use free mercs if your team is bashed up and/or get replacements from players you kill.



Nurgle Warrior

Number Limit: 1-4

Cost: 110,000



Movement: 4
Strength: 4
Agility: 2
Armour Value: 9

Normal Skill Access:
General
Strength
Mutation

Starting Skills/Traits:
Foul Appearance
Disturbing Presence
Regeneration
Nurgle's Rot 

Suggested Skills:

Block
Mighty Blow
Claw
Tentacles
Stand Firm
Guard
Prehensile Tail
Grab


Doubles:
Dodge
 

Ah, the Warriors! These guys are the killing machines of the team and the central pillars of your defence and offence. With a high Strength rating, two great disruption skills from the start (FA and DP), high AV and Regeneration, they are some of the toughest and nastiest players in the game.

They get access to General, Strength and Mutie skills on normal rolls, meaning you can customise them to be really hard hitters (Block, Mighty Blow, Claw...) or infuriating roadblock players (Block, Guard, Stand Firm, Tentacles, Prehensile Tail).

I like to have at least one killer for making my all around life easier on the pitch, while at the same time really playing to their strengths as an "annoyance" team by giving them roadblock skills as much as possible.

Their only weakness is low Movement and their lower Agility (when compared to Chaos Warriors). For this reason you want to handle them in two ways: firstly, keep them in the thick of the action, beating people senseless.

Secondly, plan where you most need them before you need them there. Their slow movement means you can really be caught out if you're not already positioned where you need to be.

Try and keep their Disturbing Presence auras spread around the pitch (or overlapping on potential pass targets). This will usually wreck any hope of a passing game, even with teams like Elves. Foul Appearance shuts down an opponent's attack 1/6 times and they lose their action unless they try to reroll it.

This means your Warriors are most annoying when just standing in the way, so I wouldn't recommend skills like Piling On if you go the killer route, since you're weakening yourself.

Block is an absolute must on first skill, I'd turn down anything but +1 Strength for it. If you do get a Strength increase, Tentacles is fantastic.Dodge on doubles can be great combined with Block + Guard, but I wouldn't take it early on.



Beast of Nurgle

Number Limit: 1

Cost: 140,000

Movement: 4
Strength: 5
Agility: 1
Armour Value: 9

Normal Skill Access:
Strength
(Mutation & General on doubles)


Starting Skills/Traits:
Disturbing Presence
Foul Appearance
Mighty Blow
Tentacles
Nurgle's Rot
Regeneration
Really Stupid
Loner

Suggested Skills:
Block
Stand Firm
Break Tackle  
Grab
Guard
Thick Skull or Juggernaut (last skill perhaps)


The Beast of Nurgle is the cornerstone of Nurgle play. No other team relies on their Big Guy like Nurgle do.

This ugly mofo's Tentacles make him an absolute nightmare for Elves, Goblins and other dodgy opponents with low to average Strength. He also has the same AV and Regen as a Warrior and DP and FA too.

The Beast should always be positioned in such a way that he is tying up the opposition's most dangerous scorers. If no scorers are around (e.g. you're playing against a slow bash team), try to keep him away from killers on his own, especially if they have Claw.

He is still very tough with AV 9 and Regenerate however, so don't feel too afraid, just be aware that he is an important anchor for your play. Gang him up with your Warriors to create a formidable line, or keep him in a position where he can lock down anyone who gets past your front defences.

While he has Mighty Blow, the Beast also has Really Stupid. This means you will want someone next to him at all times, and even then he will lose his Tacklezones (and thus Tentacles) if he rolls a 1 and goes Stupid. This can be disasterous.

If you have players wrapped up in Tentacles, it may be worth not using the Beast in your next turn, and so avoid rolling for Stupidity. Losing the Tentacles can sometimes mean the difference between winning and losing - and trying to score an Injury by hitting with Mighty Blow is often not worth that. Only hit with him if you have no real risk of losing the ball or giving away a Touchdown if he goes Stupid.

He also has Loner, meaning he has a 50% chance of eating your rerolls. Without Block and with Loner, he is very unreliable when hitting people.

If the ball ever gets loose from your opponent (and it should do with Nurgle - that's your job), get your Beast on it immediately. This will really mess up Dodging teams, and makes life very hard for Strength teams too.

I tend to get Stand Firm on mine as a first skill, to make him near impossible to push away once he is lodged in somewhere. After that Guard is a good pick. Break Tackle is very good for stopping him getting tied up by one crappy opponent. He can also try to shove his way into cages with it and get his Tents around the ball carrier.

On Doubles Block is excellent because it makes his hits less risky and also keeps him stood up and in the way. Pro is also good (for rerolling Stupid). Alternatively you can get him Claw, giving him the Claw + Mighty Blow combo. This will make him very dangerous and a good killer, but it's a dubious skillup for the reasons above - he should not really be hitting often. He is not a Minotaur, and trying to use him as such will usually ruin your game.


Pestigor

Number Limit: 1-4

Cost: 80,000

Movement: 6
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Armour Value: 8

Normal Skill Access:
General
Strength
Mutation

Starting Skills/Traits:
Horns
Nurgle's Rot
Regeneration

Suggested Skills:
Extra Arm
Sure Hands
Two Heads (very good for ball carriers)
Big Hand (for a ball retriever, preferably with +AG)
Block
Wrestle
Tackle 

Pestigors are very, very useful. Rotters make reasonable ball carriers with AG 3, but they are slow. Pests give a much needed speed boost and with Sure Hands or Extra Arms make perfect carriers. They are also tough with Regenerate and with extra skill access and no Decay, they are far preferable to Rotters.

You can also go the "killy" route and take Block, Mighty Blow, Tackle, Claw, Piling On and so on, but I prefer to leave that stuff to the Warriors. And if you want pure killing power, Chaos is likely a preferable team in the first place.

Pestigors are also very expensive for what they are. I usually take two until the team has some skills (in TV matchmaking anyway). This ensures you are not enormously outskilled by your opponent's team too fast.

Since Nurgle tend to lack Tackle early on (another big weakness), I like to build a Pestigor with Wrestle, Tackle and perhaps Strip Ball. Wrestle in particular acts as a kind of "alternate Tackle" early on for you.

This gives you someone you can leave in the backfield - with Horns Pests Blitz with +1 Strength, essentially making them Strength 4 on Blitzes.

Not only is this great if you're cornered in possession, but it's also very useful for Wrackling down Catchers and the like as they sneak into your backfield. Then you can get your Rotters to stamp on them, or wrap some slimy tentacles around the ball!

The lads!

Nurgle Summary:

Nurgle are one of my favourite teams in the game. For all their strengths however, they can be very hard to play consistently with. One tiny mistake can mean the difference between winning or losing. I don't enjoy such a good record with them as I do with teams like Orcs and Norse.

Even so, they are rewarding to play when things go smoothly, have a lot of room for development and watching your skills make your opponent's turn absolute hell is a joy!

Now get out there and infect some pointy-earred pansies!