Bloated Corpse

Bloated Corpse is a Vampire Coast monstrous unit in Total War: Warhammer II. Swollen with volatile, noxious gases, their liquefying tissues strain dangerously under rotten and tattered skin.

Description
A troop of zombie pirates is as macabre a sight as any Necromancer’s ghostly, rotting horde. The bodies of those brought back into existence as unliving automatons continue to rot once they are reanimated, so necromantic admirals tend to raise crewmen from the freshest victims possible. Sometimes a corpse may have spent weeks floating in the ocean before it is raised, however, becoming swollen with noxious gases over time, its tissues seeping from rotten and tattered skin which blisters and turns to a greenish hue. In reanimating such a grotesquery to fight in their horde, a Lord essentially has a walking time bomb in their ranks, and a volatile one at that. It is far preferable to fight against such a creature at a distance, for when attacked, their tortured forms may suddenly disintegrate in a poisonous shower of decomposing internal organs and diseased fluids.

Abilities

 * Noxious Disintegration
 * Gaseous Demise

Strategy
Bloated Corpses are particularly unique in the way that they function since their main purpose is to suicide into as many enemy units as possible (most closely related to the Soopa-Squig!). The unit explodes immediately on contact with an enemy. They do best damage to infantry and little damage to single entity large units. They can also deal good damage to cavalry, but are unlikely to catch such a unit.

Although this might come off as obvious, its important to not group these units up to avoid them blowing up one another before they reach the enemy. It might be incredibly tempting to send one of these units into the enemy's fodder, but their incredibly high burst should be saved for more elite units such as executioners, swordmasters, temple guards, etc.

Bloated corpses have decent speed but don't expect them to chase down cavalry, focus on elite infantry if at all possible. Lastly, take advantage of tree lines between the armies, ambush the enemy on their way to you or use them to attack the enemy backline. Avoid risking your own units' lives by setting Bloated Coprses off near them, they can also be devastated by the friendly fire.

There are basically two ways to use them. If the enemy is lacking for ranged units or a monster to tank them, you can march them in front of your gunline with wide spacing between them. The enemy will either have to sacrifice a few chaff units to clear the way to your gunline, or get shot to pieces by your almost entirely unobstructed gunline. The other way is the sneaky tactics mentioned above. For maximum effect wait until the melee lines are joined and either send them into the thickest and most dangerous bunch of enemy units pressed up against your front line from the rear/flank or go for dangerous back rank units. Ideally you want to hit at least two infantry units close together to kill/rout both. One or two attacks with them can decide an entire battle if they can hit 4 or five units of infantry.

In the campaign there are generally 3 of them in the base raise dead pool for each region. Lizardmen will struggle to deal with them in absence of a dinosaur unit to charge them and tank the explosion.