The idea would be that one of the CSM Sorcerers that knows the secrets of creating Plague Marines is traveling with a Daemon Prince or CSM Lord that is carrying a most interesting creation of Papa Nurgle. This creation is a wasting sickness that kills most, or leaves them begging Nurgle for salvation (for he possesses the cure for all diseases). Most of these they just harvest, but loyal marines/guard the Sorcerer converts to Plague Marines, bloating their bodies back out and outfitting them for battle to die for their "savior".

Those, of any race, that survive the illness are withered, wretched things. The Sorcerer approaches them and offers them into the family of Father Nurgle. If they refuse, they are gathered up and carried on, kept alive until they their suffering bids them accept the offer. Once accepted, the Sorcerer brings them into Nurgle's love. Their bodies, though they remain withered, are infused with daemonic foulness. Their minds are warped, leaving nothing but a devotion to Lord Nurgle. Their flesh rots, continuously, driving them to battle were they can harvest the flesh of their enemies to sustain their own bodies, that they might continue spread the plague Nurgle has bestowed upon them.


Representing this would be a core of Plague Marines, a Sorcerer and lord or daemon prince HQ, and maybe some tanks if I could find a way to like them. Maybe modeled like a carrier of those that haven't yet accepted the offer? I like the idea of modeling one or two tanks with large patches of their armour replaced with the skin of monstrous creatures the warband has taken down)

The real gem of it would be the Raptors and Bikers (rare choices for CSM player, overcosted, but eh).

Raptors: Skeletal, winged, scythe wielding, monstrosities, with patchs of their slain enemies skin stretched across the gaps their disease bores through their power armour.

Bikers: Like the raptors, without wings. The skin would also be stretched across the armour of the bikes, with large containers attached to the back that leave a wake of filth, contaminating the very ground with the creation Nurgle bestowed upon them.

The scythes would all have bolt pistols build into the top of the shaft, and would vary, along with the wings, to represent "relative power". In gaming terms it just represents their beings armed with bolt pistols. I'll also name the HQ and flesh the story out a lot more as I go.

This is mostly a modeling project, though I'd like the list to be as playable as possible. Here's what I've come up with:

1 Chaos Lord (180)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Daemon Weapon
- Bike

1 Chaos Sorcerer (165)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Warptime
- Wings

6 Raptors (220)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/ Power Weapon
- 2x Meltagun

7 Raptors (240)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/ Power Weapon
- 2x Meltagun

6 Bikers (288)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/Power Fist

7 Plague Marines (226)
- 2x Plasma Gun
- Rhino


7 Plague Marines (226)
- 2x Plasma Gun
- Rhino


7 Plague Marines (226)
- 2x Plasma Gun
- Rhino

Goal - 1850
Total - 1771


That leaves 79 points left over. I didn't give anyone melta bombs because, if I do, I can't find anything to do with the 59 points except upgrade the rhinos or give the PMs champions, which hopefully they won't be needing. I do think giving them to the champion in the non-Sorcerer unit would help them in the tank hunting.

The bikers go after their heavy threats. The raptors with sorcerer go after medium threats, support the bikers, or hunt vehicles. The other raptors hunt vehicles. The PMs roll onto objectives and provide a firebase.


I have two concerns:
1. It's not very Nurgle in the sense that it's all Fast Attack, but I really like the larger background I have in my head and have largely come to terms with it. I tried the same idea with Terminators, and it just didn't play very well at all.

2. There is no Heavy Support/weapons. I don't think it fits the fluff of it at all because Heavy Support/weapons would utterly destroy flesh, which they're supposed to be collecting as a secondary objective to spreading Nurgle's plague. Plasma Guns and Meltaguns do this too, but on a much smaller scale; they burn off an arm where a Lascannon incinerates the whole body. I also contemplated flamers on the bikes or one of the raptor units, but, again, this would incinerate the entire body and leave the burnt remains largely useless to them.

Thoughts? Comments and criticism is why I'm here

hmmm. Well what I do is run bikes with flamers and a sorcerer with wind on a bike...and go troop hunting. Raptors I think are much better suited to tank hunting. Two melta guns in each squad should deal with tanks easy enough.

Bikers are basically PM's in a rhino just faster. So use them with your rhino based squads in support. And give them 2 special weapons..i would go with flamers but thats up to what you want them to do.

A lord with fist or twin claws is more consistent than one with a daemon weapon...but i can't fault it as a choice

Overall i love your list.

But as i ALWAYS say...wait for people that no better to have their say

(I tend to be a bit verbose (long winded)...sorry )

This is mostly for the fluff and modeling challenge, but I would really love to do it. My only real wish is that I could have Nurgle Daemons in the army and that CSM had some notion of Sternguard? Vanguard? whichever Space Marine veteran unit has jump packs... so that I could have more of a degree of freedom in modeling the power level of the various models in the raptor units (Leader, Veterans with power weapons, and normals with normal weapons. I wish there was a rending option, like a lesser power weapon. I don't want much .

I understand the consistency of the Powerfist and Lightning Claws, and I really love the dual Lightning Claw look (who doesn't?), but the Daemon Weapons are just cool and I'm okay with this list not being uber competitive (I would like it to "work" though). I tried to make Lightning Claw(s) == Scythe in my head for a little while, even to the extent of trying to model little scythes onto a Powerfist, but overall I just couldn't make it work right.

@nurglephil specifically: You made several "bike army" posts a few weeks ago, which really got me into considering bikes for the list. Originally it was 2 raptor units and a couple of dreadnoughts, which I couldn't get to feel right. Thanks for that

I'm still a bit disconcerted by the lack of armour...but that probably comes from playing mechanized Tau.

(I'm kind of wondering if there is a better forum for things like what's below here, but it's sort of a fluff + list discussion so it's sort of grey area)

I forgot I had photoshop-ed pictures...*checks rules* I don't see anything against it, so rather than re-post pictures from elsewhere, I shall link to my Tau(ish) blog for anyone who's interested in seeing them: (Keep in mind, these are just sort of "proof of concept before I try to paint/model anything I can't undo.)
This is a warband symbol: http://hidden-bunker.blogspot.com/2010/02/sometimes-nurgle-speaks-to-mepictures_25.html
These are the photoshop-ed raptors: http://hidden-bunker.blogspot.com/2010/02/sometimes-nurgle-speaks-to-mepictures.html

The idea would be that the number of wing segments, combined with the look of the scythe, would denote overall power level and add character to individual models. I also considered doing giant scythes for Powerfists, Normal for Power Weapons, and little Kama-esq (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_%28weapon%29) for hand weapons. That way it's still "special" for someone to have a scythe. And by giant scythe I mean what a Buster Sword is to a normal sword (something ridiculous and unwieldy that would obviously be powerful, while still obviously being slow and unwieldy)

[Edit]
I almost forgot, I was considering a Foulspawn conversion for the extra points. Has anyone ever seen a really good one? I'm looking for ideas.

This is the list as final as I can tweak it. I really wish I could a single point so I could give the sorcerer melta, but oh well. I'm going to be playing a few rounds with them against my roommates Overacting Emo Beakies and Tyranids. He's also going to proxy a siege breaker army. He's been wanting to do it and it's sort of the "worst case" heavy armour situation I'm worried about these guys handling.

1 Chaos Lord (180)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Daemon Weapon
- Bike

1 Chaos Sorcerer (165)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Warptime
- Wings

6 Raptors (225)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/ Power Weapon & Melta Bombs
- 2x Meltagun

7 Raptors (245)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/ Power Weapon & Melta Bombs
- 2x Meltagun

6 Bikers (308)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/Power Fist
- 2x Meltagun

3x7 Plague Marines (3x241)
- 2x Plasma Gun
- Rhino w/ Extra Armour

Goal - 1850
Total - 1846
Leftover: 4

What changed: Extra Armour on the Rhinos just to make sure they always drop the PMs where I want them. Added Melta Bombs to the Raptor squads, just increases the tank hunting potential that much more.

As an alternative:
1 Daemon Prince (175)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Wings
- Warp Time

1 Chaos Sorcerer (165)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Warptime
- Wings

6 Raptors (220)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/ Power Weapon
- 2x Meltagun

7 Raptors (245)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/ Power Weapon & Melta Bombs
- 2x Meltagun

7 Bikers (321)
- Mark of Nurgle
- Champion w/Power Fist

3x7 Plague Marines (3x241)
- 2x Plasma Gun
- Rhino w/ Extra Armour

Goal - 1850
Total - 1849
Leftover - 1

Changes in tactics:
- I gain an awesome Daemon Prince for tank hunting, monster hunting, and general mayhem.
- The bikes become more specialized in a tar pit role without the Daemon Weapon Lord and Meltaguns (though they really should win most attrition battles).
- The sorcerer raptors become mildly less effective at vehicle hunting (loss of melta bombs), but generally still pretty okay at it.
- Overall it seems an increase in raw power and a loss in flexibility, to an extent.

Most of the loss in function is made up for by the Daemon Prince (tank hunting) and his power, in concert with the bikes, will most likely be even more of a power house than the bikes with a lord. It actually might be enough that the sorcerer raptors are free to assist in early tank hunting before reverting to a supportive role for whoever is left (bikes and prince). I kind of like the way this force's tactics will evolve, as opposed to the first list, which will most likely be it's strongest in the beginning and just get weaker as things die.

My roommate seems to believe the first list will have more punching power and be the one that needs the sorc+raptor support less, so we're going to play 6 games instead of just 3. I'll let you guys know how it turns out

Well I like the second list but you need to give the bikers flamers as that will really help you thin down the units you assault. I would say drop one extra armour from a rhino to pay for it and use that squad to sit on your closest objective so you don't have to worry about the tank surviving so long.

Otherwise it looks good to me...but then, its just me

So after lurking here for so long, and especially since you're the one that inspired the bike idea to begin with, I'm going to take your suggestion when I play the Daemon Prince list. I can always explain it away as Chem Burners/Sprayers or something

So that is:
- Extra Armour on 1 Rhino
+ 2x Flamers on the bikes
+ Melta Bombs on the Raptor Champion that doesn't have them. (Maybe I should put it on the Sorcerer just in case I want him to bail out of the unit to Melta Bomb a tank while the raptors hit a different one? Plus is I have that option, minus is he could get singled out in CC and I lose the melta bombs.)

That's +15 and -15, so it's still 1849.

Well, i guess you could do that but I wouldn't use a sorcerer to go tank hunting, ever. But you have yours in the raptor squad...still it could work but i think using two melta bombs on one tank means one dead tank...using only one on a tank and attacking two tanks...you could be left with two angry tanks.

also, thanks for the compliment but when it comes to playing the game ...you should ask people like Mabs, pake dezartfox Cass etc

It's actually an either or. The Champion having melta bombs means I'm going to shoot two meltaguns at a tank, and if it doesn't die I can assault and melta bomb it. The sorcerer means the same thing but it also gives me a desperation (or just stupid temptation ) move to break him off to try to melta bomb something while they double meltagun something else.


I also feel like it's worth mentioning the sorc raptor unit is mostly playing an assault squad for monsters, light to medium infantry, and tanks. The tank hunting is an "Early transport popping.", "Holy crap they have a lot of tanks!", or "Ain't got nothin' else to hit." function. The sorcerer adds nothing to tank hunting, unless he's the second set of melta bombs and even then it's a 747 for free peanuts. It's not even close to his primary function.




Yeah, maybe, but they aren't the ones commenting and I'll take input from anyone. No perspective is useless if you take it in the right context And I promise I'm not as optimistic as that made me sound.

Well good luck sir!! Let us know how you get on and what you have learnt