Plague Drones of Nurgle (Death's Heads)
Monstrous cavalry· Flying Missile War Beasts· Tier 4· 12 models at Ultra size
Duel it in the combat calculator →vs Chaos Warriors, the unit the rankings measure against; pick any other there.
Plague Drones of Nurgle (Death's Heads) are Nurgle and Daemons of Chaos monstrous cavalry: 7,128 HP across 12 models, armour 50, melee attack 36, melee defence 36, weapon strength 105, range 70 m, missile damage 1,350 per 10 s for the whole unit. It costs 1,500 in the campaign (Nurgle factions pay 3,000) and 1,500 in multiplayer. Unit key wh3_main_nur_cav_plague_drones_1. Patch 9.0.4, from the game's data tables.
Health
594 per model
7,128
Armour
50
Leadership
70
Speed
90
Melee attack
36
Melee defence
36
Weapon strength
30 base + 75 armour-piercing
105
Charge bonus
32
Ranged
Range
70 m
Ammunition
10
Missile damage
30 base + 60 AP
90
Reload time
8 s
Damage per 10 s
113
Attributes
- Causes Fear
This unit frightens all enemy units, reducing their leadership when nearby. It is also immune to fear. Fear penalties do not stack.
- Daemonic
Daemonic units cannot be routed, but take damage when their Leadership is low. Daemonic units also have: Physical Resistance Fear and Terror Immunity
- Can Fly
This unit can fly.
- Fire Whilst Moving
This unit can fire while on the move.
Abilities
- Cloud of FliesAugment · +9 Melee DefencepassiveCloud of FliesAugment+9 Melee DefencePassive · Cooldown 15 sThrough His endless pestilent blessings, the Plague Lord's followers thrive and surge forward when others would simply wither and die.
- Daemonic InstabilityDirect Damage · Causes damage to selfpassiveDaemonic InstabilityDirect DamageCauses damage to selfPassiveAs the Daemon's courage falters, their mortal form crumbles and fades from this reality.
- Banished!Direct Damage · Causes severe damage to selfpassiveBanished!Direct DamageCauses severe damage to selfPassiveOnce the Daemon's courage has failed them, they will fall back through the portal to the Chaos Realm whence they belong.
Counters
Good against
- Heavily armoured units — 75 of 105 weapon strength armour-piercinge.g. Steam Tank, Blessed Bastiladon (Solar Engine), Rotting Leviathan · Nurgle: Rot Knights
- Units with physical resistance — magical melee attackse.g. Hexwraiths, Cairn Wraiths, Syreens · Nurgle: Soul Grinder of Nurgle, Great Unclean One
- Lightly armoured units without shields — 1,350 missile damage per 10 s (whole unit)e.g. Curs'd Ettin, Zombies, Zombie Pirate Deckhand Mob · Nurgle: Exalted Plaguebearers of Nurgle, Plaguebearers of Nurgle
- Light infantry-sized units — large, mass 1,870e.g. Zombies, Zombie Pirate Deckhand Mob, Blessed Saurus Spears (Shields) · Nurgle: Exalted Plaguebearers of Nurgle, Plaguebearers of Nurgle
Vulnerable to
- Bonus vs large — large (cavalry-sized or bigger)e.g. Bone Giant, Feral Troglodon, Warp Lightning Cannons · Nurgle: Plague Ogres (Great Weapons), Rot Knights
- Magical attacks — physical resistance +20%e.g. Stormfiends (Warpfire Projectors), Warpfire Throwers, Death Globe Bombardiers · Nurgle: Great Unclean One, Soul Grinder of Nurgle
Computed from base unit-card values (no skills, items or abilities), one rule per line; examples are units with the most of that trait. How counters are worked out · Try it in the combat calculator
Gold for gold
Beats, at a similar price: Luminark of Hysh (836.96× faster), Casket of Souls (261.54× faster), Ironblaster (27.14× faster)
Loses to, at a similar price: Chaos Knights of Tzeentch (5.88× slower), Chaos Knights of Nurgle (5.33× slower), Chaos Knights (4.96× slower)
Equal gold, every model fighting at its weapon's attack interval, combat calculator formulas; no charge, mass, splash, leadership or abilities. “Similar price”: within 30% of its 1,500 multiplayer gold. Nurgle units ranked.
Who can field it
- Daemons of Chaos · Legion of Chaos
- Nurgle · Poxmakers of Nurgle
Custom Battle lists factions under each race; every faction of a race fields that race's units (units_custom_battle_permissions rows of any of its factions). The name after the race is the faction the army builder uses.
The game also has 1 summoned or scripted copy of this unit that no building or mercenary pool recruits (wh3_dlc29_chs_cav_nur_plague_drones_1_summoned).
Where these numbers come from
Read from the game's database tables for patch 9.0.4 (main_units, land_units, battle_entities, melee_weapons, projectiles…) as published in the WH3-Dump export (commit 099796e8). Formulas that turn table values into card values are checked against known units before they are shown — how we verify.