Plague

Were you looking for the spell of the same name? Please see Skaven Spells of Plague#Plague.

Plagues are a gameplay mechanic which occur in campaign mode in the Total War: Warhammer series.

Plague is a sickness that negatively affects settlements and armies. Spreading plagues is currently a campaign mechanic for Norsca and Skaven.

Norsca

When playing Norsca and gaining max allegiance with the Crow, a plague will affect the campaign map.

• Randomly affects many settlements on the campaign map
• Any army passing through these local regions will suffer attrition
• Causes chaos corruption.

Skaven

In Total War: Warhammer II, Skaven factions can spread plague using the special Pestilent Scheme Priest hero unit, who is summoned via The Pestilent Scheme rite. He can choose to spread plague to a single settlement before dying.

Each turn, there is a chance that the plague will spread, to infect a neighbouring settlement.

If an army ends its turn in the local region of an infected settlement, there is a chance the plague will infect the army.

If an army attacks an infected settlement, the army has a chance to become infected.

If an infected army moves to a settlement, the settlement becomes infected.

Each turn, each infected army or settlement has a chance to be cured. On average, an army/settlement will be infected for 6 turns. However, if plagues keep spreading around then they can in theory last indefinitely, though statistically this chance is very small.

Infected settlements suffer the following effects:

• Growth -30
• Income -50% from all buildings in the settlement

Infected armies suffer the following effects:

• Massive attrition (even on Legendary).

Clan Pestilens Tweaks

Clan Pestilens has received a few nuggets of plaguey goodness to spice up their campaign as of the Potion of Speed Update:

• Clan Pestilens now unlocks the Rite of Pestilence when constructing a Pox Cauldron instead of a Pestilent Nave
• -15 turn cooldown on the Rite of Pestilence
• Clan Pestilens now enjoys uniquely large benefits for spreading plagues to their own forces and cities, granting growth and economic benefits for cities and powerful combat bonuses for forces
• Clan Pestilens now has access to a special Under Empire building that continuously spawns a plague in the settlement above
• New faction effect: Chance of a plague spreading +50%

Lizardmen

Lizardmen do not spread plague. However their Alignment of Order commandment has the following effects:

• Reduced chances of a plague spreading (local armies)
• Reduced plague duration

Note that the power of Lizardmen commandments increases and decreases depending on the Geomantic Web. As such, the actual amounts that plagues are reduced by changes.