The Plague Cart

[Belladamma Voltaire]

The return of the Plague Cart is being heralded as a move towards a bit more diversity for the Vampire Counts, bringing them more into line with their Tomb King cousins in terms of how they play. The only problem that has arisen with this is how the beast is actually going to work. Several suggestions have been put forward;

1) It will cause units within a certain distance to have toughness tests. If these tests are failed they take a wound. This would probably not effect the usual suspects of Undead, Daemons etc

2) New Zombies may be made as a result of it. This would mean it is essentially another way of summoning instead of the IoN.

Now, if anyone else knows of any other ways this could work, please inform us below.

Otherwise, the way that the Plague Cart looks like it could be a bit unbalanced when fighting against a lot of the elven races (in particular) because of their obvious T3. This is going to be true of a lot of the armies and will absolutely devastate all skink players of Lizardmen.

Whats your opinion?

 

[FatOlaf]

I think it will be more of a war altar/ Skaven Bell type of machine, increasing range of spells, number of zombies raised etc. Going away from the chariot idea.
Maybe have a good MR as well, I think this is where it should go...

 

[Wolf Fang]

Indeed, the T test thing is way to overpowered against certain armies. (well, if it's range 6" than it's be different) I think something like a mobile Grave Marker like the Carsteins have would be more realistic and fun.

Cheers, Wolfie

 

[Lord Firmshaft]

I think something that aids in the magic phase (bound spell, increased range, larger raises etc) would be much better and in keeping wit the theme rather than a "shooty item". The whole idea of plague carts it that they are full of the dead to be carried away so a mobile grave marker is easy to imagine. Poss only make it do D3 hits on impact so they arent just bought for the shock troops factor

 

[Count Homogenised]

This is interesting news that the Plague cart is returning - I have two of the old models from the 80's.

No reported sightings of the new model yet?

 

[Doc]

Hmmm,

It would suprise me a lot if you'd ask me. I think GW are trying to split chaos/undead from each other, and the plague cart would simply not fit in this design. We are not talking about Nurgle here, but vampires, and I think that its safer fluffwise to keep those plague-things where they belong: in the chaos codexes

 

[Count Homogenised]

Certainly the latest version of the Plague Cart (Mordhiem) is clearly a Nurgle cart

New Plague Cart

But the first version looks more like it was an undead item

Old Plague Cart

Mind you, back in the early days, a lot of units, including undead, could be taken by any army.

 

[Doc]

Agreed, but still, would it still fit in the current WFB universe alongside vampires? I just don't see a Lahmian running in this thing...

 

[Count Homogenised]

Agreed, but still, would it still fit in the current WFB universe alongside vampires? I just don't see a Lahmian running in this thing...

Good point - but maybe a Necrach or a Master Necromancer?

A lot depends on how they organise the themes of the bloodlines in the new book.

 

[Belladamma Voltaire]

The Plague Cart has been as good as confirmed for the new Vampire Counts book anyway.

I would think the idea of it would be as stated earlier - to supplement units with more dead. The plague carts were always brought out in times of blight and disease, but ultimately their purpose was to collect the dead and it would make sense for the Undead to field them instead of Chaos as Chaos only causes the disease, the Undead use the dead.

 

[Edahlo]

Judging by how you talk about it, is this plague cart an old model being ressurected?

 

[Belladamma Voltaire]

The Plague Cart is an old model being resurrected, you are quite correct.

 

[Dracomancer]

The Plague Cart is an old model being resurrected, you are quite correct.

Has this been 100% confirmed by GW, as I plan to attempt scratch-building a plague cart, and would like to be able to use it as such...

 

[Belladamma Voltaire]

Its been as good as confirmed on Warseer by Harry and Hastings. I will double check it for you and then get it back to you all soon.

 

[Skaramak von Carstein]

Scratch built, filled with zombie pieces. Nice thought.

I have a similar thing, with skeletons loading a cart with coffins. Depending on how it pans out, I may use this.

 

[The Dead of Night]

I'm not sure I like the idea, I mean if the necromancer had the bodies available, why didnt he raise them before the battle?

I think I prefer the idea of spreading a plague, creating NEW bodies to be raised. Maybe it would work like a chariot but for each wound it creates a zombie like the tomb blade. Or even a 6" plague effect "at the begining of the combat phase, every unit within 6" takes D6 S3 hits with no armour save, each wound creates a zombie."

And if destroyed it becomes difficult terrain and continues to spead plague around 6"

 

[Sid]

just out in the open a bit let some new ideas in maybe it will work like some sort of extra (like the lizardmen godly spawnings) 1 unit of zombies can take it
all living units within 4 (maybe more) inches rolls a d6 per man (unit of 20 spears men 20 rolls) all 5-6?? are slain instantly and are raised as zombies in the unit
or something like that
as i said just an idea

 

[Master Vampire]

What if the Plague Cart is not a unit, but an option for Characters? :grin:

It wouldn't function as a Chariot, but more into troop enhancing. Something like the Screaming Bell, but then adapted for use in our army. Maybe 1 less death to CR as mentioned before + raising to some kind of extent?

 

[Richie]

One of the rumours I heard is that it has a very similar state line to the black coach and for every kill it makes the slain model becomes a zombie (provided it is man sized)

 

[Edahlo]

Well, the plague cart seems like a very interesting addition and will probably spawn some new tactics and army lists. I hope they will not be restricted to one per army like the black coach is now. I did a quick google search and found some nice conversions. By the looks of it, it shouldn't be too hard to convert. I hope the GW sculpt turns out nice though, and by all means, I hope they make it plastic.

 

[Count Homogenised]

Recently finished painting one of the old models - It is currently filling in as a Chaos Chariot of Nurgle but is available for Undead duty come the release of the new book.

 

[Bug16]

Nice paint job! I've still got to paint mine.

Btw, I have to ask how did you get the wheels on that straight? Even with careful placement of the bones on the back of the cart I still struggled to get my wheels straight.

 

[N.I.B]

What if the Plague Cart is not a unit, but an option for Characters? :grin:

Well as I've heard it from a play testers friend, VC lords would get the option of having a Coach as mount. I guess he could very well meant a Plague Cart instead, who knows?

I really don't see how people can cry cheese at this point, units hasn't even been confirmed yet, let alone powers and point costs.

A toughness test would be cool, I've found that Drain Life at an 18" radius is one of the few things that let me beat Wood Elves consistently.

 

[TheAdmiral]

Coach for Blood Dragons, Lahmia and Von Carstein, Cart for Strigoi and Necrarch perhaps?

 

[Azahul]

except that bloodlines wont exist rule-wise in the new book apparently