Looking for good Nurgle resources/advice

[Porkus_Maximus]

Here's the thing; even if I wanted to have killer players I'm no where close to having enough skills! Before the match I still didn't even have block on all of my warriors! I think I posted my roster a few pages back and it hasn't really changed since then, the only difference is that now all 4 warriors have block. I have a grand total of TWO players who are above 16spp, a pestigor with sure hands/block and a warrior with block/guard. I'm really starting to think back to when I hired my 4th pestigor, and am not sure if a rookie really contributes enough on the pitch to justify the TV cost. Wondering if I should have just stopped at 3 pestigors and tried to get them to 2-3 skills each before buying the final pestigor.

I did manage to isolate a tomb guard while on defence and fouled him a total of 4 times with between 4-5 assists and using the dirty player skill. Failed armour break, failed armour break, stun, stun and sent off. I couldn't really foul after that point because my players were getting KO'ed left right and centre and I was already significantly under manned.

Hopefully I don't get any more khemri opponents in the near future. At least not until I have my killer beast developed. :p

[Smeborg]

Porkus - you are doing well as your team is still somewhere near rookie level in development terms. On another day, your game against the Orcs will have gone the other way. Against Khemri, I have found the main tactic to be to tie up the TGs (for example by marking 2 TGs with 1 Warrior), so that you can let loose the Pestigors with their Horns and AG3 against the Thro-Ras and Blitz-Ras. On offense, I would not try to stall particularly, just score and trust your defense.

As an aside, my own playing experience suggests that Block + Guard is not ideal on a Warrior if you are trying to play a stymie game. I now prefer Block + Stand Firm. To give an example from your game against the Khemri, a single Warrior with Block + S-Firm can easily tie up 2 TGs (each block against the Warrior has a less than 50% chance of having any effect). It looks like you are playing a stymie game, but, dare I say it, developing the team more in the style of Orcs (!).

Hope that helps.

[Porkus_Maximus]

My train of thought was that while stand firm will have an impact on the result of blocks thrown against me, guard will reduce the number of blocks thrown in the first place. I planned on block/guard/SF, but since 3 warriors are still on their first skill (and 2 of them are still sitting at exactly 6spp) there's plenty of time to switch to SF before guard.

[Lunchab1es]

Thank you to Matt and Smeborg for the advice. I ended up going for FA, to increase the stymie-ness of the team, as well as to frustrate my opponents to no end . Happy to report that it seems to be working on both counts.

Despite my SF B-Tackle Beast being killed on the first turn to a mino blitz , I have managed to turn my 3 game losing streak into a 3 game tie streak. Progress!

Having two of my Nurgle Warriors finally gain block has been an enormous boon to my team. From my (limited) experience, it seems as though their development provides a bigger boost to the overall effectiveness of the team than that of the pestigors.

[Smeborg]

Having two of my Nurgle Warriors finally gain block has been an enormous boon to my team. From my (limited) experience, it seems as though their development provides a bigger boost to the overall effectiveness of the team than that of the pestigors.

I believe your perception is correct. In leagues, I find the team starts to perform when I have 2 Warriors with Block. It does not sound like much, but it seems to transforms the team. In tournaments, I tend to prioritise Block on the Warriors ahead of skills on Pestigors (I make an exception for 1 x S-Hands).

The combination F-App+Block means 2-dice blocks fail 7/27 times (better than 1/4). For Block only, it is 1/9. So a Warrior with Block is a very different creature to a Black Orc with Block.

[number6]

Lunchab1es - a third skill choice you might like to consider is Tackle, since you have made this little guy into a slayer. You can try and protect him with Fend and/or F-App, but I think he will be quite a target anyway, so it may not help much.

OMG DO NOT TAKE Foul Appearance EVER.
Tackle is defensive and offensive.
If you want to protect him take FEND over FA. Do not take Foul Appreance in any way, unless you shit lucky horse shoes.

[Smeborg]

OMG DO NOT TAKE Foul Appearance EVER.

number6 - I regard F-App as an excellent defensive skill. It is a passive skill, to be sure. Nurgle start with 5 x F-App. If you can increase this to (say) 7 players (i.e. 2 Rotters) then it means that (on average) more than 10% of your opponent's blocks will fail on F-App. That is a lot over the course of a game. While Fend is indeed excellent, I am inclining to F-App ahead of Fend (F-App protects against all blocks, Fend protects only against P-On and Frenzy). In any case, I would say that Block/F-App/Fend (or Block/Fend/F-App) is the best 3-skill combo on a Rotter. They are quiet players - it suits them.

[Dzerards]

I got to agree with Smeborg, extra Foul Appearance on a Nurgle team is not a bad thing. Sure some games it never does a thing, but usually you are taking 17% less blocks per player! Which is not insignificant. Especially when Decay is a factor and Regen can be so flakey. With 7 or 8 FA players that is more than a block a turn wasted for the other team. (Assuming he is in a position to block all your Warriors and Rotters in one turn which isn't unreasonable).

Fend is one of my favourite skills, but on a Rotter, how many times will you find yourself standing up and just moving back into the same position to mark the same player? I'm not saying it isn't good, as it will still help the positioning game, but it may not keep them alive as long as FA. Tackle is a nice skill, but the Rotters will probably be marking the types of players not to make it worth its TV. Both these skills probable belong on the Pests to make use of their greater mobility.

[Porkus_Maximus]

So my warrior with guard reached 31spp and took S-firm, and a second warrior finally reached 16spp and took S-firm also. I must admit the frustration they can cause an opponent who happens to roll a lot of pushes is hilarious, although I'm running into some issues on offence vs other strength teams. The fundamental problem is that I'm up against a significant amount of guard now and while stand firm is fantastic at keeping a sturdy cage formation, I end up giving away a lock of 2d blocks. While my opponent may still struggle to crack my cage because of all the S-firm and FA I don't really make any progress and I just get shut out. I know Nurgle are poor on offence but it actually feels like my team is getting WORSE on offence because the other teams have a lead in skills over me. Then again it could just be down to my personal abilities or the abilities of my opponents.

On a more positive note, after 13 or 14 games my beast finally acquired enough spp for his first skill and it was worth the wait. After permanently killing an amazon blitzer in a very close 0-1 turn 16 defeat, the beast learnt the block skill. Soon afterwards in a classic 2-1 grind vs skaven my ball handler gained +ST.

I've also learnt my lesson with taking too many dirty players. I was previously of the opinion that planning rotter development was a total waste of time and so I decided to basically take dirty player on all of them, but I ran into a problem. With a combination of MVPs and the occasional lucky casualty my rotters were reaching 16spp which was something I didn't really plan for. What skill do you give to a dirty player rotter? Is it even worth keeping a dirty player rotter who has the same tv cost as a rookie pestigor? IMO the answer to that is "NO", a dirty player rotter with 2 skills is too much TV to be throwing away by leaving him on the bench or having him sent off on an unsuccessful foul. If I had decided to skill them up as LOS fodder like I should have done, I'd at least have gotten some use out of block/wrestle and fend.

[mattgslater]

If you get 16 SPP on a DP Rotter, that's okay. 80k isn't too much TV to hazard on a DPlayer, and the extra instance of Block or Wrestle is nice to have, if only for a few turns. If you only have one DP, and like to foul every turn, it's a different story, but with two, one of them may stick around for awhile, and it's nice if he's got a skill with good passive use. Heck, even if he gets to 31 SPP, he just can't be your only fouler.

If you're religious about fouling and good at keeping your DP's jersey clean, you might look into a mutation to help him get more mileage out of marginal fouls. You say you're having trouble against bash, so one more Claw instance can get you up numbers and in position to foul effectively. What's more, against AV7 teams, you would have wasted the TV on Claw anyway, and now the gimp skill is on the guy who'll just get kicked out for fouling. You could also give him passive safety skills like Tentacles or another Disturbing Presence to add to your Satanic spam of static.

[Lunchab1es]

OMG DO NOT TAKE Foul Appearance EVER.

number6 - I regard F-App as an excellent defensive skill. It is a passive skill, to be sure. Nurgle start with 5 x F-App. If you can increase this to (say) 7 players (i.e. 2 Rotters) then it means that (on average) more than 10% of your opponent's blocks will fail on F-App. That is a lot over the course of a game. While Fend is indeed excellent, I am inclining to F-App ahead of Fend (F-App protects against all blocks, Fend protects only against P-On and Frenzy). In any case, I would say that Block/F-App/Fend (or Block/Fend/F-App) is the best 3-skill combo on a Rotter. They are quiet players - it suits them.

Smeborg - I agree with your assessment of FA. More = merrier. While it rarely comes into play during key actions, it happens often enough to disrupt what you opponent had been planning.

I was intrigued here by your "best 3-skill combo", as you dropped wrestle, which you had been championing for much of this thread. Did you forget to mention it or did you have a change of heart on wrestle rotters?

[Smeborg]

Porkus - the Nurgle offense is plain weak. I find that against bash teams, a slow caging play will often not work. Instead you have to create a sort of rushing play on one flank or the other, scoring maybe in 4 turns or so. Then trust your defense. The ability to hold up opposing players just long enough (e.g. with S-Firm, Tentacles etc.) helps make this kind of play possible. I expect you will see a positive transformation now that your ball-handler has +ST.

I have found that developing all the Rotters as "fodder" works well. They survive better, it's efficient in TV terms, and you are always happy to have them on the field. They come into their own as you lose positional players, or in end-of-half scrambles. They make good emergency receivers or ball-carriers (especially if your opponent is out of re-rolls). This development path combines very well with a doubles roll (Guard).

I foul plenty when the opportunity presents itself, but I haven't found a lack of D-Player to be a worry.

[Creamster]

Hey guys,

Just for another update 10-4-0 with the online team...


TV - 1740 (3 RR)

Beast - Guard, Standfirm (4 SPP needed)
Warrior - Guard
Warrior - Guard
Warrior - Mighty Blow, Claws
Warrior - Mighty Blow
Pest - Surehands, Block (2 SPP needed)
Pest - +1 A, Dodge
Pest - +1 A, Tackle
Rotter - Dodge, Block
Rotter - Kick
Rotter - Wrestle
Rotter -
Rotter


Still going strong despite the lack of block. The beast is still the MvP pretty much all the time - 14 games, 2 deaths, 10 cas and 10 KO's. Last game with vamps managed to fight through and get next to the ball carrier who couldn't escape (and turn it into a TD for me!). Turning all of my pests into ball handlers and blizters as I am finding 1 cannot be everywhere. Finding this very effective as even when knocked down they can still blitz their way up and still pick up the ball easily.

Still very shaky about the high TV but the warriors have proved to be very difficult to remove from the field. I had to make one of them into a killer role just to scare the opponents and to face dwarfs (I always seem to struggle against them). I am finding they will always risk a dodge away then stay next to him to get hit. This helps form up cages with him and they generally employ their chaff vs him.

Set-up = Having a warrior and pest on each flank (both MB ones and +1A pests), Beast/2 rotters and 1 warrior on the LOS (set-up with the beast to more on one side with the warrior the other), and the rest in midfield. Finding this very successful as I am able to pressure with both pests from the get go and relocate the rest if needed.

[Smeborg]

I was intrigued here by your "best 3-skill combo", as you dropped wrestle, which you had been championing for much of this thread. Did you forget to mention it or did you have a change of heart on wrestle rotters?

Lunchab1es - there appears to be a misunderstanding here. I favour Wrestle on 3 of the Pestigors, but Block on all Rotters. Some coaches like to do it the other way around, but I consider this sub-optimal (albeit much better than no Wrestle on the team). Best 3-skill Rotter combo: Block/F-App/Fend. Best 3-skill Pestigor combo: Wrestle/Fend/Tackle. The Pestigor's combo is more dynamic, the Rotter's relatively quiet.

Hope that helps.

[Smeborg]

Creamster - I'm very interested to know how you get on with this team as you progress. I tried a very similar development path a couple of seasons ago. The team got smashed up after about 20 games, and took another 20 games to recover. I'm not saying this will happen to you - full credit if if doesn't!

All the best.