Epidemius

This humble proctor of pestilence has been seen as someone who got majorly dicked over in this new book, and I'm not gonna lie he is considerably worse then he was. This does not mean that he is a bad choice, far from it in fact, it just means that you actually have to think about what your going to do with him as opposed to the last book when you put him down and your all nurgle daemon army had the win in the bag.

For 110 points you get a WS5 S5 T5 W4 character with poisoned (4+), very bulky, daemon of nurgle, daemonic instability and a lesser locus. Not too shabby you say, the only thing that you'd want to add in to that is an etherblade which your other heralds can pick up for 10 points. Due to the strange idea that 4 heralds constitute a single HQ choice in a primary detachment fitting Epidemius in along with heralds to babysit your units is simple enough.

For what your paying for that alone your not getting hit too badly but its the talisman that he keeps that makes this guy special. Appointed by the Plague Lord himself it is Epidemius' job to monitor the many blessings Nurgle has bestowed upon an ungrateful universe. On the tabletop this amounts to you keeping a record of all wounds caused by Nurgle daemons through psychic attacks, shooting and close combat and on multiples of 7 (Nurgles holy number) fun stuff happens that boost all models with the daemon of nurgle rule within 6" of Epidemius. After 7 wounds have been caused you get +1S, 14 will give you +1T, 21 bestows Poisoned on a 2+ and the jackpot of 28 gives you a 4+ Feel no Pain.

Tactics wise it suits you to bunker Epidemius in a corner where he can give out his gifts to as many units as possible. Getting the tallt up quickly is essential, which means putting your soul grinders pie plates from phlegm bombardment onto nice squishy units like cultists, guard blobs, power armoured units, kroot, fire warriors....basically everything which isn't rocking a 2+ save. Put him in a nice unit of plaguebearers to soak up bullets for him as he has a major bullseye on him.

Overall Epidemius is still a solid choice and a good choice for warlord as you still get to roll on the delicious chaos daemons warlord traits for him.  While the loss of Eternal Warrior hurts in this new book, as it does for all Nurgle daemons Epidemius is still a solid choice just no longer an incredible one. Overall I'd rate him as 7/10.

Keep checking the site as next time we will be reviewing Ku'gath Plaguefather the GUO special character before a thorough run down of all the nurgle daemons in the codex. Thanks for reading!

As always guys feel free to comment on any experiences you've had with him, any tricks you think I may have missed/overlooked please let me know