ARMYLIST: 5th Ed. Plaguespear – 2000 pts
Its been too long since I’ve done an armylist post. With 5th upon us, I’ve been holding off on these until I had enough games to get a feel for the new system. This post is part of a series of recommended army lists. It will document an entire list, with a short tactical summary and related notes. I have had requests for an updated version of Plaguespear and here it is.
Army List
1 Typhus (HQ) @ 225 Pts
1 Summoned Greater Daemon (HQ) @ 100 Pts
8 Terminators (Elite) @ 310 Pts
-Heavy Flamer (x1); PowerFist (x2); Chainfist (x2); Combi-melta (x1); Icon of Chaos Glory
7 Plague Marines (Troops) @ 229 Pts
-Flamer (x1)
1 Plague Champion @ [63] Pts
-PowerFist (x1)
6 Plague Marines (Troops) @ 191 Pts
-Flamer (x2); Personal Icon
1 Plague Champion @[38] Pts
6 Summoned Lesser Daemons (Troops) @ 78 Pts
6 Summoned Lesser Daemons (Troops) @ 78 Pts
6 Summoned Lesser Daemons (Troops) @ 78 Pts
6 Summoned Lesser Daemons (Troops) @ 78 Pts
1 Chaos Land Raider (Heavy Support) @ 240 Pts
-Daemonic Possession
1 Chaos Land Raider (Heavy Support) @ 240 Pts
-Daemonic Possession
1 Defiler (Heavy Support) @ 150 Pts
-Dual Close Combat Arms
Models in Army: 52
Scoring Units: 6
Possible Killpoints: 12
Summary
This list is inspired by many of tactical doctrines pioneered on DeathGuard.org. It represents a “pure offense” approach to using the Death Guard. In this list, every point is dedicated to the assault role, with nothing heldback for long-range support. Even the HQ selection of the Greater Summoned Daemon and Typhus, are there to emphasize the “boat anchor” quality of the assault force…once you get this army “stuck in”, it is going to be very difficult for an opponent to get “unstuck”.
The army is designed to deploy with the Typhus and the 8-man unit of Plaguemarines embarked in a Land Raider, with the smaller Plaguemarine squad embarked in the 2nd Land Raider. This assault force, supported by the fleeting Defiler will use cover and smoke to hit the heart of an enemy army with all due haste, and destroy it in a single “alpha strike” consisting of the Typhus and the 3 flamers plus bolters, folowed by assault-ramping plaguemarines and Defiler in HtH. On roughly turn 2-3, you should be in assault and begin to both summon down the four lesser daemons packs, the Terminators and the Greater Daemons which should have good options with most of the first wave squads being equipped with champions or icons for accurate deeptriking and summoning.
At this point surviving landraiders will back off and become bunkers, attempting to take out enemy armor along with the terminators whose anti-vehicle assult options will make very short work of any vehicles they reach. I have been very impressed with both the Land Raider, Defiler and the Greater Summoned Daemon in 5th.
In a way, it is a “pure” army, with few complex tricks up its sleeve. The army wins through sheer shock value and numbers of high lethality units in HtH, and this army is designed to emphasize that element like a ton of bricks. In most cases, the enemy has 1 turn to deal with the smoked Land Raiders. If they are not stopped immediately, they will tend to make the enemy army and engage on turn 2. Its generally downhill for an enemy army at that point. Subtle is not the way of Grandfather Nurgle.
