Nurgle Plague Fleets
Back in the days of the Horus Heresy, the rebel Death Guard legion was marooned in the warp as the battle
raged on Terra. As their ships struggled to re-enter normal space, the Space Marines became infected with
a vile pestilence that rotted its victims from the inside out. Eventually their Primarch Mortarion was also
infected, and his fevered ravings for salvation by the forces of Chaos was answered by Nurgle, the great
festering abomination and master of all that is unclean. The Death Guard became his champions, and the
disfiguring influence upon their minds and bodies placed upon them by this Mark made them immune to pain
and suffering, giving them an inherent toughness greater than any other legion or chapter throughout the
galaxy. After retreating to the Eye of Terror, they conducted raids over the succeeding millennia, and the
ships they captured began also to exhibit the foul, disfiguring traits characteristic of Nurgle. Sprawling
biological growths began amassing on their ships themselves, forming an impermeable barrier that acted to
strengthen the hull and absorb damage, ablating off to grow again as the corroding hull beneath was left intact.
Typified by the ships Plagueclaw, Infestdead and Carrion Bloom, the followers of Nurgle carried forth a path of
destruction that surpassed most of the other hateful traitorous legions of Chaos, and their murderous swath
left behind millions of helpless victims sentenced to die gruesome deaths by countless horrific plagues and
diseases. No ship was safe from these villains, and the merest hit and run boarding raid could spell the doom
of entire battleships as they left behind their pestilence to attack and destroy the hapless crew, as many
ships such as the merchant freighter Shanxi learned to their sorrow in the opening stages of the Gothic War.
The normal rules concerning Chaos vessels bearing the mark of Nurgle as listed on page 128 of the rulebook still
apply. For an additional cost of +20 points for every capital ship so marked, boarding actions with enemy vessels
immediately cause the vessel being boarded to suffer –1 leadership for the rest of the game after the result of
the boarding action has been determined regardless of the outcome due to portions of the crew falling ill from
the virulent pestilence left behind by the boarders. Hit and run raids by Nurgle-marked ships also have this
effect unless the raid fails (D6 roll of 1). All capital ships carrying the Mark of Nurgle used in the game
must add this +20 points in order to use the rule, not just so-marked ships of the player’s choosing. For the
remainder of the battle, each ship that survives a boarding action by a plague ship must roll 2D6 against
their starting leadership before the boarding action as their medical staff struggles to contain the outbreak
(this is not a Command Check). Surviving escorts so inflicted are affected individually, not the entire squadron
unless the majority of surviving escorts in the squadron are affected. Each time the test fails the ship loses
another leadership point. If this test is passed twice in a row, the medical staff has successfully stemmed the
plague and no other tests are required for the rest of the game unless a plague ship commences another boarding
action. This effect is not cumulative; multiple successive boarding actions on a ship already affected still
only make one roll against leadership per turn, though successive boarding actions are still resolved normally.
A ship so reduced to leadership of 4 or less is effectively crippled, as there is not enough crew remaining to
operate all of the ships weapon systems. A ship reduced to leadership 2 or less is reduced to a drifting hulk.
In order to use this rule, ships bearing the Mark of Nurgle must be painted and modified to exhibit this mark.
Examples of this are shown in Warp Storm p. 42-43.
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