Talk Fantasy Football

I have read post that have specific nurgle questions, but I have yet to find a good thread/discuss that focuses on them as a team and how to take them from the startup through a season or two and how in general to play them. I have a mate who want to play them and was trying to find some good advice. Any and all Rotter coaches are encouraged to throw in their two scents (as long as it is LRB5 advice)

Mrmph, I guess I'll jot down what I learnt from the previous 4 seasons. 2 of which I played Nurgle and 4 of which one of the other guys played Nurgle.

The major strengths of the team is it's ability to halt cages with 5 of the best starting blockers in the game (behind Flesh Golems) and also disrupt any attempts to move the ball around thanks to Disturbing Presense. The other major benefits are the Beast of Nurgle, which is one of the best big guys, focused players who are dedicated to certain jobs and cheap, disposable linemen.

Now the bad part, the team is essentially skillless for key jobs, and the skills it does have are almost passive in nature. Only Horns requires an active aim to use it. But passive doesn't mean you should be passive in using the players with the skills.

I'll now break the team down into it's sections.

1. The Blockers - Beast of Nurgle and Nurgle Warriors.
All of these have Foul Appearance when they start, which makes them very annoying and often tough to knock down. But they're not very agile or fast, so you have to be careful in where you commit them. The Beast of Nurgle is the center piece of any action for the blocking section, it's the one that has the best chance to keep players in range for blocks and is also the best piece to trap problem players like Wardancers and Catcher types. But it's slow, so often what you want to do is push players into contact with it as much as possible and keep them there.
The Nurgle Warriors are also slow, but they don't have tentacles to help pin any players in place. Once someone gets away from them, they're gone and often out of reach, this is why sticking closeish to the Beast of Nurgle helps them continue to Block.
Collectively the 5 of them also provide your anti-passing support, as they have Disturbing Presense. You can space them out against Agility teams a little to try and cover a wide area of the pitch.
Development wise it's key to remember these guys are not Chaos Warriors, they're Blockers and as such slow in development.

Skills:
Beast of Nurgle - Guard, Stand Firm, Grab, Break Tackle - Doubles: Block, Claw
Nurgle Warriors - Block, Guard, Mighty Blow, Stand Firm, Prehensile Tail, Tackle, Claw, Break Tackle. Doubles: Side Step (instead of Stand Firm), some coaches like Jump Up - if you do take it, the guy will want Break Tackle as well.

Stats:
Take +MA, don't take +AV. Skip +AG on the Beast for sure, maybe take it on the Warriors, but imo I think break tackle is better if you want to be agile. You don't want these guys carrying the ball really, they're better at protecting the ball carrier. +ST is a no brainer...

The Runners/Blitzers - Pestigors
These 4 boys are the workhorses (goats?) of the team, as there is for of them you can afford to specialise them into certain types. They're your best runners with MA6 and your best Blitzers with Horns. So divide them into 2 Runners and 2 Blitzers.
On pitch they'll do most of the play making, running around, blitzing and the like. But they'll also draw the most flak, because good coaches will realise that crippling the Pestigors will hurt you more than anything else.

Skills: This is one way I build them.
Pestigor 1 - Runner - Extra Arms first, then Block, Fend, Guard, Foul Appearance
Pestigor 2 - Runner - Block, Sure Hands, Fend, Guard, Foul Appearance
Pestigor 3 - Anti-Agility Blitzer - Block, Tackle, Mighty Blow, Frenzy, Juggernaut
Pestigor 4 - Lethal Blitzer - Block, Mighty Blow, Claw, Piling On, Tackle
Doubles tend to be Dodge or for me Side Step (as I avoid Dodge because I like to make Tackle a dead skill choice against my team.)

The generic pool of good skills for pestigors is: Block, Guard, Sure Hands, Tackle, Mighty Blow, Juggernaut, Frenzy, Claw, Foul Apperance, Fend, Extra Arms, Prehensile Tail with Jump Up, Side Step and Dodge being the Doubles choices.

The reason for taking Extra Arms on one guy and Sure Hands on the other is to try and make up for being so skillless when you start. The Extra Arms player is for use against everyone without Strip Ball, the Sure Hands guy does the job vs Strip Ballers.
Also you want the Extra Arms guy early on as he catches on a 2+, this is huge in moving the ball up to safety fast and also it helps farm SPPs with those Elfball passes.

Stats: Take +AV on the Blitzer types, Consider +MA on the Runners - if you roll a ten twice pick whichever one you didn't the first time, take +AG and +ST are no brainers.

Linemen - Rotters
These guys are slow, and big tempting targets for people who like to kill things. Which is fine, if they're hitting your Rotters, they're not hitting your Pestigors. Hooray. They're fodder, don't get attached to them as they'll rarely last more than 2-3 skills, don't be afraid to score TDs with them if you have too though.

They're pretty simple to develop. You want one with Kick and the other skills are:
Block, Fend, a few Dirty Players and Doubles = Guard, Side Step on Second Doubles (like that's gonna happen!)
Stats: +AV - I don't even think +ST is worth it unless they already have +AV.

One final note with Stat increases, don't go too nuts with them. +MA is the best one for you followed by +ST. Problem is, you really need skills and Stat Increases aren't skills. So think long and hard about what you want the guy to do before you take it.
This is because the team is actually very very good with nothing but Normal skill rolls. You don't actually need any Stat increases or Doubles to build a killer team when you're playing Nurgle (and Chaos).

As for rerolls, the team wants to start with 3 and get to about 5 or 6 in the end.
And with Inducements, Igor is the inducement of choice, Borak is the best Star Player and he combos best with Ripper.

(Edit: Optimal Rerolls is 5 or 6, not 6. Probably best to stick with 5 unless you find you're turning over too much.)

I mostly agree with fen. The points where I don't agree illustrate that there are different ways to play this team and still be effective, not that he is wrong.

For the Warriors taking Guard first is a bonus for the rest of the team (I do this for half the warriors). You only regret that choice when you have used your reroll and have to roll the block dice without block (until you can get him block). Definately a play style preference here. I'll reemphasize that positioning of your warriors is key. Being in a position to hit the oppponents and put Disturbing Presense in areas where ball handling rolls need to be made is how you maximize the effectiveness of these players. This applies to handoffs as well as shutting down the passing game. Your lack of team speed is no longer a big issue if your opponents have no viable handoff (or passing) targets.

For the Pestigors, I don't make any specialized ball handlers. Since they typically only need one or two ball handling rolls per drive I use the rerolls for that. I make all them all good at hitting and protecting the ball. So instead of a good ball carrier I have a better escort and the TD spps get spread around more. It also prevents you from relying on a couple of players too much. Your running is a less effective but your defense is better and the spps are spread out more.

The rotters are my designated damage sinks. If I need someone in a dangerous TZ, I send a rotter. Don't forget that they are AG3 and make capable ball handlers when you need them to step up. This has saved my bacon a few times.

I never specified an order for the Nurgle Warrior skill picks tbh. I just suggested skills that work on them. There's far too many there for them to be in order (I did forget to mention Grab.)

As for the Pestigors the pair are not specialised ball carriers as such. They're mobile Guard assists (Block, Fend, Guard) It's just that each one of the pair has a ball handling skill for a specific situation.

Extra Arms is for farming COMPs (3+ Pass, 2+ Catch = 1SPP!) to skill up Players quickly (especially the ones on 5SPPs) and to collect the ball backfield/recieve it when an opposing team has kicked the ball deep and has fast runners who could cause problems back field before you cage. Having a 2+ and a 3+ roll to pick up and hand off in that situation is a world of difference when compared to the 3+, 3+ roll that you'd normally have to make.

Sure Hands is specifically for dealing with Strip Ball players. Many leagues have Wood Elves in them and one of the most common things to turn up early on is a Strip Ball Wardancer. Other Elf teams set up a strip ball + leap player later on as well. Block + Sure Hands (plus guarders adjacent) is the best solution to that problem.

Just because they have ball handling skills, doesn't mean they're the only players who will score. All 4 Pestigors can and do score TDs, that's the fastest way to skill them up. It's just that later on they all do other things as well.

Nice guide fen. Quick question regarding the kicking rotter: do you more often try to place the ball deep when kicking or close to the LOS so that cumulative DP's can screw up ball exchanges? Basically, how aggressive do you play when defending the first turn?

Depends on the opposing team. Vs Agile teams I'd prefer to kick the ball short, if I can get it to land on the LoS in particular that's ideal. Kicking long tends to assist their strategy if they intend to pull the ball back deep then next turn run forward and pass. If they do manage to pull it back then you want to cover across the Centre Line with your DP players in order to force them to pass from further back, hold up, or dodge through.
A decent spread of your DP players helps do that.

Against bashing teams I think a long ball is better, the Pestigors are pretty fast (considering) and can get 2D Blocks against most backfield players solo thanks to Horns. If you can kick the ball long then you have a shot at dividing the main body of the team away from the ball carrier, or forcing them to make a pass/hand off to get the ball caged up.

Actual 1st aggression is a very case-by-case thing. Sometimes it's worth going for it, sometimes you just hang back, hold the line and try to smash any potential receivers.

Or if you're playing against Wood Elves, just go kick the snot out of one Wardancer and mark the other with the Beast Of Nurgle.

fen wrote:Or if you're playing against Wood Elves, just go kick the snot out of one Wardancer and mark the other with the Beast Of Nurgle.

You know, this was the initial reason I started a Nurgle team.

If I'm honest, if I've not developed a Sure Hands Pestigor and my opponent has a Strip Ball Wardancer, I'll often kick and use the first drive to go hunting for that player.

Otherwise I end up using the Beast of Nurgle next to the ball carrier in order to mark 5/8 adjacent squares with tentacles. Which is one of the reasons I like Break Tackle on the BoN, that mobility combined with tentacles can be very useful at times.

Next Nurgle team I'm going to first pick Break Tackle on my BoN and see how that works, hopefully it should allow me to tentacle annoying players rather than getting tied up by useless linemen. Also it might provide some horrifying moments for opposing cages.
Normally I go with the safe and predictable Guard, Stand Firm & Grab.

Wonderful guide. I played a Nurgle team all last season at our local league, struggling through some foibles (Warriors that never hurt anything, Rotters who are the only players to score then die with my SPPs, 2 posthumous MVPs, etc.) and I can really appreciate a lot of the advice here. There's really nothing more satisfying than watching the expression on an elf player's face when you explain how tentacles work and then start blocking their catchers and line elves in next to your BoN.

I too thank you for the guide...

I am in the middle of building a Nurgle team and cant wait to give it a run... now I actually have some food for thought too!

Cheers

Thanks for the guide also, I will show my friend this site and how to ask his own questions if he needs further details.