Marauders of Nurgle (Great Weapons)

are a and melee infantry unit introduced in Total War: Warhammer III with Champions of Chaos.
== Recruitment ==
*
** By upgrading Marauders (Great Weapons) or Marauders to Marauders of Nurgle (Great Weapons) with the Warband Upgrades
** By upgrading Marauders of Nurgle to Marauders of Nurgle (Great Weapons) with the Warband Upgrades
*
** Unlocked with: Rancid Aloe (Germinating)
== Description ==
Many Marauders offer sacrifices to the Lord of Decay as precaution against illness, but there are those that completely entrust their souls to His care. When epidemics ravage the northern tribes, some chieftains and shamans decree that their only chance of survival is to devote themselves to the Plague Lord. In return for their lives, they champion Nurgle with sword and flame against rival tribes and the hated realms of the south, the marks of their survival borne by their pallid, pockmarked skin likely to also be branded with His three-circled symbol.
== Attributes ==
== Strategy ==
Nurgle great weapon Marauders are a unit with a variety of alternatives, both within a Nurgle army and especially a mixed chaos army. It can be hard to justify taking them, aside from simply because they are in the summoning pool. As a budget great weapon user, they have surprisingly little total damage, meaning that if their armour piercing is not properly exploited they can perform worse than shielded marauders even before considering their higher cost. Having low melee defense also makes them a bad nurgle unit, as the enemy has such a high chance to hit them that sacrificing melee attack for being slightly less easy to kill is a very bad trade.
One thing they do have going for them is their combination of good speed (for a Nurgle unit) and a decent charge bonus, allowing them to function almost like budget Forsaken against heavy armoured targets, especially if they have armour piercing that Forsaken would like to avoid (Great Swordsmen). Their main problem is that aside from having AP, decent charges, and being reasonably sturdy(ish) they are bad or unimpressive in every other way. They'll primarily want to engage armoured units that are more expensive than themselves, but lack the offensive ability to truly threaten or even trade very well against most of them, the speed to get to them, or the defenses to get there and stay there safely. Meanwhile many Nurgle units have okay armour piercing, and so this unit whose main saving grace is AP doesn't provide a lot of value.
However, just because they aren't very good doesn't mean you can't get use out of them, mainly if you have little in options in the summoning pool. Used similarly to Greatswords (kept behind the frontline and deployed when and where an appropriate target appears, or sent to flank and charge a unit that's occupied, possibly by nurglings) they can do some work while being more disposable than Greatswords and in a way, flexible, as they lack anti-infantry/large (even if that just means they're equally mediocre against both). That means that while they require more babysitting than normal marauders, it's not the end of the world if you are too busy to micromanage and cycle-charge them. Just don't take a lot of them or expect much out of them, and keep them away from anything without much armor and units whose melee stats are much higher than their own unless you desperately need to buy time or protect a more valuable unit. Nurgle's blessings won't help them if they find themself engaged with Wardancers or melee heroes/lords.
Category:Nurgle units
Category:Nurgle melee infantry units
Category:Champions of Chaos units