Age of Sigmar 4.0: Is Phulgoth's Shudderhood a Midboard Menace?

Age of Sigmar 4.0 is upon us, and with it comes a slew of new rules, reinventing factions for the edition, or giving old favorites some brand-new paint.  While my beloved Beasts of Chaos are on their way out, one aspect holds true even throughout the changing of the guard: For many Chaos factions, “souping” remains supreme.  4.0 may have removed the ability to freely ally units into your army, but not all is lost, given the revolution Regiments of Renown have brought to the game.  One stands above the rest for Grand Alliance: Chaos, and I want to do a deep dive on why you should be considering Phulgoth’s Shudderhood for your army, no matter which army that may be.  After taking a look, it’s for you to decide — Phulgoth’s Shudderhood: A Midboard Menace?

Via Games Workshop

Let’s start with the basics.  Phulgoth’s Shudderhood is comprised of the following: 1 Harbinger of Decay, a 2-model unit of Pusgoyle Blightlords, and a 5-model unit of Putrid Blightkings.  While these models do not benefit from the faction rule from their home army, Maggotkin of Nurgle, they do get two unique abilities provided to every model in the Regiment.  Fog of Despair reduces incoming hit rolls by 1 (that’s melee AND ranged) for attacks targeting Shudderhood units wholly within 9” of the Harbinger of Decay, and Nauseating Convalescence heals each Shudderhood unit (1) during EACH Hero Phase.  What immediately jumps out is that these rules are perhaps better than the actual army rule of Maggotkin of Nurgle, as they lost their free healing in the transition to 4.0, among other things.  Furthermore, with the reduced lethality of an index edition, and tightening of the Command Point economy, a -1 to hit will hit harder, as All-Out Attack is far less practical for constant usage.

Via TheGoldenThrone

All of this comes in a package for a cool 540 points…which is 110 points less than if you had taken those 3 units in Maggotkin.  Prorated, that means you’re getting the Harbinger for ~164pts, the Blightlords for ~214pts, and the Blightkings for another ~164pts.  If we look at the numbers, and how this stacks up against similarly statted units across the board, being either 3+ or 4+ to save, and a 5+ Ward, it’s quickly apparent these units are frighteningly undercosted.  That’s even without mentioning the reduction to be hit, or the heal, and with that in mind, Chaos armies must now weigh the strength of this point-efficiency against the lack of internal synergy with their other models.

Via Putty and Paint

Given this, what would make a list want to leave room for Phulgoth’s Shudderhood?  Well, these models play for objectives exceptionally well — Blightkings have an innate buff to their OC score while holding a point, and Blightlords get additional rend when fighting an enemy stuck on a point.  Furthermore, these models are tanky to a fault, and there are armies where their options to threaten the midboard (aka, opt to vye for control of the objectives surrounding the middle half of the table) are limited to say the least.  If your anvils, units that are expected to get charged and take a beating while they hold objectives, are less tanky for their points than the Shudderhood, there needs to be significant draw from your army’s rules to push you away from playing the more efficient option.  The only real failing with this Regiment is its speed, specifically on the Blightkings; while both the Harbinger & Blightlords have 8” move (and Fly on the Blightlords), your Blightkings trot along at a measly 4”, meaning you’re almost always encouraged to use At the Double to autorun them 6” Turn 1.  If the expected opportunity cost for this choice is 1 CP on the first turn, and 540 points for what is some of the toughest bulk available to Chaos, I’m all for it.

Via Mengel Miniatures

This Regiment of Renown is available to every Chaos faction aside from Maggotkin of Nurgle, hilariously, and that means we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.  Starting off, I can tell you for certain that this Regiment fares the worst in Skaven & Disciples of Tzeentch.  Both of those armies have strong internal synergy, and a pretty wide swath of models.  Critically, in each of those cases, the heft behind the midboard threat each army is generally running benefits more from their home faction, rather than the rules tied to the Shudderhood.  Tzeentch simply needs to be screened off by Tzaangors or Jade Obelisk (or Horrors, if you’re a masochist), and Skaven wouldn’t dream of running fewer than 80 Clanrats.

Where it gets murky is with regards to Blades of Khorne & Slaves to Darkness.  Blades of Khorne actually have a fairly generic Battle Trait, as The Blood Tithe technically does generate 1 Blood Tithe Point when each unit in the Shudderhood is destroyed.  Furthermore, Khorne has issues with presenting tankier pieces with multiple models than 3+/5+++...but this tends to fall apart if you’re relying on any of the army’s Battle Formations, which have strong options for purely-Khorne armies.  Slaves similarly have a high degree of internal synergy, but in truth the Shudderhood is mostly a sidegrade to the Warriors they’re already playing, and going either way leaves you with an unexciting brick that either costs too much, or lacks the juicy benefits from their Battle Traits.

Via TaleofPainters

The Shudderhood thrives, however, in both Beasts of Chaos & Hedonites of Slaanesh.  The Hedonites were provided with a laughable set of options for their anvils, Glutos excluded, and neither Painbringers nor Twinsouls strikes me as particularly appetizing to contest the midboard with.  You want your points to go towards expensive, highly damage-concentrated units to abuse their Battle Trait and deem a Euphoric Killer(s).  Here, the Shudderhood helps relieve some of the point stress surrounding these deathstar units, and even allows Slaanesh to play an exceptionally brutal 2-drop list, seen below.  Slaanesh only really wants to buff a single, maybe 2 of their units per turn with the Battle Trait, and so an independently strong, self-sufficient Regiment of Renown might be just what the doctor ordered.

In that same vein, Beasts of Chaos have always relied on allies, from Grunnock, to Krondspine, to Be’lakor, and this new edition is no different.  Beasts overpay for their units to have universal ambush, so playing units and not ambushing them is essentially burning points; therefore, given how critical objective play is this edition, we want to have a unit(s) onboard that aren’t Beasts of Chaos.  Naturally, given Beasts has essentially no wards, and nothing with a 3+ armor save, Phulgoth’s Shudderhood fixes every issue present in the Battletome.  I cannot overstate how good it feels to stage your Jabberslythe or Cockatrice behind Shudderhood units, and watch opponents crash into the implacable bulk of these units, scattered to the wind by Beasts’ Mortal Wound output.  Below is the list I’ll be workshopping for tournament play in 4.0.

So, after all is said & done, do you believe in the efficacy of Phulgoth’s Shudderhood?  I’ve been loving it in my testing, and while 4.0 is bittersweet, I’ve gotten in nearly a dozen games already!  There’s so much to cover in this edition — what would you want me to touch on?  Let me know any thoughts you have in the comments below, or anything you’d want me to talk about in the next article!