Getting used to an unfamiliar list

I have done very well with my usual list, but am planning on making some changes for an upcoming tournament.

Here's my typical 1850 list:

and here is what I have been toying with for the past few weeks. I've played it twice. Tied Imperial Guard and defeated Space Marines.

Has anyone ever used Ku'gath, and if so, to what success?

What does he work well with from your experience?

I am enjoying his popping out of Nurglings throughout the game and they have been a great pain in opponent's sides since they use him as an Icon.

Thanks!

Ku'gath, The Plaguefather is a bullet sponge and a regular GUO does the same job for a lot cheaper. His template shoot can't hurt tanks or things in them so he is not really helping with the armies weakness in anti-tank.

The herald of nurgle is just a waste of points. You might want to rethink the instrument on the plague bearers they are great for tar pitting units , but if they flee it is unlucky you will catch them.

On another note you do not need master of sorcery on the daemon prince in your 1st list because MC can fire two weapons.

I appreciate the heads up about not needing Mastery of Sorcery on monstrous creatures. As to Ku'gath, I asked had anyone used him with success and what other units work with him. I plan on using him. Also, from my perspective, I've got plenty of antitank and that's never a concern for me.

So again, to whoever else has used Ku'gath, what units work well with him.

I've tried ku'gath and the idea is for him to threaten opponents to the point of dishing out all their offense into him instead of your other more fragile units. Tough 6, 6 wounds, 4++ sv, and feel no pain is very durable. He's highly resistant to normal gunfire and assault attacks. Even heavy weapons can bounce off his invuln save.

So the idea would be to deep strike him in a threatening position and have him draw fire. While he's alive you can have him dish out some solid damage with his offensive abilities, meanwhile your truely offensive stuff like khorne bloodletters are advancing without resistance.

Ku'gath can work well only in casual games in my opinion as he relies so much on the necrotic missiles that does not do much to tanks. Since almost everything moves in transports (rhinos and razors), are other vehicles (dreads and tanks) or are so small that big template is usually wasted (oblis and terminators). Since Ku'gath is slow as tick in tar, he cannot catch any mobile vehicles and break them and thus he is easily ignored totally useless character for most of the time.

I have used Ku'gath a lot and he is excellent when combined with Epidemius in a mono-Nurgle army.

I have very little experience of using him outside of a mono-Nurgle list so I'm not sure whether he will be that much better than a normal GUO in that context.

Vehicles will limit the usefullness of his main weapon, but not everyone bunkers up in transports (not every army can) and Ku'gath can still use Breath and fight in combat after all. For this reason, he is probably going to very good against Tyranids. Now the C'tan have been made considerably less powerful he is probably the most powerful monster in the game, certainly when pitted against other monsters in a one-on-one fight anyway. Only the Swarmlord can really oppose him. I wouldn't even give DreadKnights much of a chance. Catching fast vehicles like Raiders will be difficult, although if you position yourself near an objective they will have to come to you eventually, but he can move a potential 12" per turn (probably more like 8" on average) so catching Rhinos is far from impossible. And if they move away from him, well that limits the shooting of most tanks and means the passengers will be limited in what they can do too. Plus your Fiends and Daemon Princes are probably better used for transport hunting anyway.

Is he really worth almost 2 basic GUO's without Epidemius? That's a tough call, and depends on how much use you can get out of his special abilities. There is also the extra wound and attack to consider, which can really make a difference to his survivability and how quickly he can clear through cheap units that try to tie him up in combat. Comments above about using him to distract the opponent and draw fire are fair, and he does it a bit better than a normal GUO does.

I have to agree with Deviant C that I can't see much use for the Nurgle Herald, and while Breath of Chaos is good I think you probably have enough already and need Troops more, either Horrors of Plaguebearers will do. 3 small units isn't much for an 1850pt game. If you could find a way to get Unholy Might on a few of the models that can take it (particularly the Fiends) that would be good too. It would help you out a bit more against vehicles in general and walkers/monsters in particular.

Wow, you really think he's that buff? His 2+ poison and MC attacks are scary, indeed. His high wounds and toughness really just put him in the class of big nid creatures. His saving grace is immunity to instant death and 4++ save. FNP won't work against any non-basic troop adversary as they'd either be MCs or have some variety of power weapon.

Does anyone bother with his nurgling spawn? I haven't fielded any nurglings so I haven't really played with his spawn ability much.

In combat against other monsters (assuming neither has taken any wounds already) then yes, he is that good. I think the Swarmlord has the advantage over Ku'Gath, but not by much. A lot of Nid monsters have 6 wounds and the same Strength and Toughness, but Ku'Gath's poison and invulnerable save (plus better WS in most cases) really make a big difference. The only reason the Swarmlord can challenge him is because he has better WS and the only Nid monster to get an invulnerable save (as well as forcing Ku'Gath to re-roll his passed saves).

I have come to think of Ku'Gath as being a bit like a heavyweight prizefighter. He's big, slow, heavy and you pay a lot to get him to fight, but when he lands a punch there is almost no-one that can stand against it.

As for the Nurglings, I always spawn them in objective missions but never in kill point games (because each Nurgling base he creates counts as an extra KP). As with Ku'Gath himself, they are best used in conjunction with Epidemius, but even without him they are still useful for contesting objectives at the end of the game or just moving in front of enemy units to block their movement and limit their advance.

I lke the idea of him but havn't fielded him yet