Welcome back to the Vectorium! This week hobby time has been spent reading through the new Death Guard Codex, and making a concerted effort to finish the Plague Burst Crawler. The Daemon Engine is now complete and I'm happy with the results.
This leaves the Rhino Transport to paint, and I'll have finished up the Death Guard Combat Patrol project. Under the old Codex this would have weighed in at 49 Power Level; under the new book this is 53 Power Level (although I could add some more Plague Marines to bulk the squads and keep the same PL).
I'll have to put some more thought into list building to figure out what to paint next! One of the facets of writing a Death Guard army is the choice of Plague Company; this is to all intents and purposes like choosing a Space Marine Chapter or Imperial Guard Regiment. As well as providing a bit of "flavour" it also provides access to a unique Warlord Trait, Stratagem and Relic. Let's have a little bit of a canter through the options.
Contagions do need a little bit of explaining. A Death Guard unit with a Contagion has an Aura (whose radius increases each game turn), and any enemy unit within the Contagion's area suffers some sort of negative effect.
The Harbingers
Stratagem: The Wrathful Dead. This allows Poxwalkers to re-roll failed Hit Rolls in Combat. I'm not sure I'll use many Poxwalkers (feels too much like a horde army to paint!), so I don't think I'll get much use out of this.
Warlord Trait: Shamblerot. The Warlord gains a Contagion (Aura) which can cause Mortal Wounds on a random dice roll to enemy units. Not terrible, but some of the other Warlord Contagions are better as we'll see.
Relic: Infected Remains. Once per game the bearer can "infect" an Objective and it gains any Contagions (Auras) the bearer has. I quite like this even if it is a bit gimmicky. Giving opposing units sitting on an Objective -1 Toughness (the default Contagion) and potentially Mortal Wounds from Shamblerot sounds fun. I suspect it would end up being situational, but might deter opponents.
The Inexorable
Stratagem: Ferric Miasma. Subtract 2 from an enemy unit's charge roll. I like this one, and could prove clutch at times.
Warlord Trait: Ferric Blight. The Warlord gains a Contagion (Aura) which improves the AP of attacks made against enemy units within the aura by one. This is pretty good; stick it on a melee focused Warlord and it will improve his melee attacks, or run him by a squad of Plague Marines to improve their bolter fire.
Relic: Leechspore Casket. Killing enemy models in melee can heal nearby Inexorable Vehicles (to a maximum of 3 wounds per turn). The wording is a little wonky (I'm not sure if it's 3 wounds per vehicle or 3 wounds total). If its the former it would be worth trying, if the latter then there are probably better uses of the Relic slot.
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| Heal This! |
Mortarion's Anvil
Stratagem: Relaptic Assault. When an enemy unit finishes a charge move, any number of Mortarion's Anvil units within 3" of that unit are eligible to perform Heroic Interventions. I really like this Stratagem, as it can really punish opponents who make poorly placed charge moves, and I'm pretty sure no one expects movement tricks from slow Nurgle forces! Definitely need to tell opponents about this at the start of the game to avoid awkward gotcha moments.
Warlord Trait: Gloaming Bloat. The Warlord gains a Contagion (Aura) which prevents Overwatch/Set to Defend and removes To Hit/To Wound re-rolls. Very strong choice.
Relic: Warp Insect Hive. The Bearer can re-roll To Hit/To Wound rolls in melee. A strong choice for a melee based Character since most Characters don't benefit from Chaos Lord re-roll auras.
The Wretched
Stratagem: Sevenfold Blessings. A pregame choice for a Psyker who gets an extra Psychic Power and can re-roll one Psychic Test per turn. Given that taking a Psyker is practically mandatory because of the silly Infernal Jealousy rule (only one "Lord" type Character per detachment and most HQ choices are Lords), this is an attractive option for 1 CP.
Warlord Trait: Eater Plague. The Warlord gains a Contagion (Aura) which causes any attack roll of natural 6 automatically wound. Again this is quite an attractive option, particularly if you are using units which spam a lot of attacks.
Relic: The Daemon's Favour. A Malignant Plague Caster's ability to cause Mortal Wounds on the basis of psychic test results (in addition to the power itself) is improved. Good choice if the Plague Caster has chosen powers centred around causing Mortal Wounds (which in and of itself is not a terrible strategy).
The Poxmongers
Stratagem: Bilious Blood-Rush. A Daemon Engine may shoot with Blast Weapons against enemies in Engagement Range and attacks made against enemies within Engagement Range are at +1 to hit. Situational, but not terrible. Could be fun on a Defiler which wants to be tearing up units in melee anyway, tearing up stuff with it's Battle Cannon before smacking them with it's claws.
Warlord Trait: Sanguous Flux. The Warlord gains a Contagion (Aura) which causes enemy units to have -1 Leadership and subtract one from Combat Attrition tests. I haven't played enough 9th edition to know if this is good or not, but historically Leadership debuffs have always been a bit meh. Any opinions on this? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Relic: Ironclot Furnace. Choose a Daemon Engine unit each turn and it gains a 4++. Fun on a unit of 3 Blight Haulers. Strong pick if you are intending on using a good number of Daemon Engines.
Relic: Ferryman's Scythe. Basically a souped-up Manreaper which allows the bearer to make extra attacks in Scythe mode. It's an OK choice, although very limited to who can take it. A flying Daemon Prince with The Droning would make for an effective and annoying Warlord, but such a model can't take the Scythe.
Mortarion's Chosen Sons
Stratagem: Plague Brewers. Plague Spewer and Belcher thingies become Damage 2. Very flavourful for Death Guard although I'm not sure there are many units which can spam these sort of weapons to make it obnoxious.
Warlord Trait: Nurgle's Fruit. The Warlord gains a Contagion (Aura) which means affected enemy units don't gain the benefit of cover. This is another decent choice, but doesn't have quite the same coolness as The Droning or Gloaming Bloat. The straight AP-1 of Ferric Blight is probably better in most circumstances as well, particularly as that applies to melee as well as shooting attacks. High Innuendo Value in it's favour.
Relic: Vomitryx. An Assault 7 12" flamer at S7, AP-3 Damage 2. Oh and re-rolls 1s to Wound. Again limited to the models who can take it, but a Foul Blightspawn is a solid pick anyway with his "make an enemy unit fight last" ability.
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