Plaguebearers of Nurgle
Melee infantry· Sword Infantry· Tier 2· 100 models at Ultra size
Duel it in the combat calculator →vs Chaos Warriors, the unit the rankings measure against; pick any other there.
Plaguebearers of Nurgle are Nurgle, Daemons of Chaos and Warriors of Chaos melee infantry: 11,600 HP across 100 models, armour 30, melee attack 30, melee defence 32, weapon strength 48. It costs 700 in the campaign (Nurgle factions pay 1,400 and Warriors of Chaos factions pay 1,125) and 700 in multiplayer. Unit key wh3_main_nur_inf_plaguebearers_0. Patch 9.0.4, from the game's data tables.
Health
116 per model
11,600
Armour
30
Leadership
75
Speed
27
Melee attack
30
Melee defence
32
Weapon strength
33 base + 15 armour-piercing
48
Charge bonus
8
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
- Hide (forest)
This unit can hide in forests until enemy units get too close.
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.
Upgrades
Can become
Exalted Plaguebearers of NurgleNurgle
300 gold · needs rank 4 · loses 4 ranks
COMPUTED recruiting it costs 1,100; this unit + the upgrade 1,000 (−100) · upkeep +100 a turn · lasts against Chaos Warriors 49.3 → 73 s
Technology: wh3_main_chs_belakor_2
Exalted Plaguebearers of NurgleNurgle
300 gold · needs rank 4 · loses 4 ranks
COMPUTED recruiting it costs 1,100; this unit + the upgrade 1,000 (−100) · upkeep +100 a turn · lasts against Chaos Warriors 49.3 → 73 s · its technology: 1,500 research points to reach it (cheapest route)
Technology: Rusted Branding Iron or wh3_dlc29_chs_glottkin_festus_shared_marks_nurgle
Campaign only, from the game's tables (unit_upgrade_to_unit_groups, unit_purchasable_effects), patch 9.0.4. Costs are before skills and technologies that make upgrades cheaper. “Lasts”: the whole unit's hit points (a magic barrier included, taken first) ÷ one unit of Chaos Warriors' melee damage per second against it (combat calculator formulas, base cards). Every mark and promotion compared: best Mark of Chaos.
Counters
Good against
- Units with physical resistance — magical melee attackse.g. Hexwraiths, Cairn Wraiths, Syreens · Nurgle: Soul Grinder of Nurgle, Great Unclean One
Vulnerable to
- Bonus vs infantry — infantry-sizede.g. Doom-Flayers, War Mammoth, Feral Mammoth · Nurgle: Plague Ogres, Toad Dragon
- Magical attacks — physical resistance +20%e.g. Stormfiends (Warpfire Projectors), Warpfire Throwers, Death Globe Bombardiers · Nurgle: Great Unclean One, Soul Grinder of Nurgle
- Missile fire — armour 30, no shielde.g. Ratling Guns, Stormfiends (Ratling Cannons), Chameleon Stalkers · Nurgle: Exalted Plaguebearers of Nurgle, Plague Drones of Nurgle (Death's Heads)
- Heavy large units — infantry-sized, mass 150e.g. Dread Maw, Thunderbarge, Steam Tank · Nurgle: Toad Dragon, Great Unclean One
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: Warp-Grinders (7.81× faster), Eshin Triads (6.88× faster), Syreens (6.80× faster)
Loses to, at a similar price: Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch (1.56× slower), Chaos Warriors of Nurgle (1.43× slower), Chaos Warriors (1.30× 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 700 multiplayer gold. Nurgle units ranked.
Who can field it
- Daemons of Chaos · Legion of Chaos
- Nurgle · Poxmakers of Nurgle
- Warriors of Chaos · Warhost of the Apocalypse · extended roster
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.
Extended roster: Warriors of Chaos has this unit only through campaign_exclusive rows of units_custom_battle_permissions — CA's note: such units are “filtered out of matchmaking and are generally disabled when unit caps setting is enabled” (“Unable to recruit with unit caps enabled”). So: Custom Battle with Unit caps off, at the multiplayer cost, but not in ranked battles. Race rankings and best-unit lists leave such a unit out for those races.
The game also has 1 summoned or scripted copy of this unit that no building or mercenary pool recruits (wh3_main_nur_inf_plaguebearers_summoned_0).
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.