Goatboy’s 40K: Plagues, Deaths, and Expensive Miniatures
The new Death Guard are coming and today I want to chat a bit about what we might see.
Goatboy here again and we are on the precipice of a whole lot of Chaotic Options available in the new edition of 40k.
The new Death Guard are coming and today I want to chat a bit about what we might see. It was weird that the new White Dwarf just had the Book, Mortarion, and an “expensively exclusive” set of 3 Plague Marines. We still had some pictures of some obviously new Death Guard minis coming, but no information on costs, amount of plastic crack in each box, and more hints about there rules. Its a weird release as I figured the White Dwarf would just be filled with gross plague ridden goodness. Still we did get pictures so at least we can guess on some things.
So Many Death Guard
First – the big thing I saw from the new White Dwarf is there are a ton of new minis for the Death Guard army. You obviously have the same sort of “Thousand Son’s” style release with a cheap troop choice (Pox Walkers), Reworked Chaos Space Marine troop choice (Plague Marines), a Terminator Squad (Some kind of plague ridden squad), a reworked old HQ (Typhus), and of course the Daemon Primarch himself (Mortarion). We got ahold of a new tank obviously, the flying Drone, and a plethora of new “characters” that seem to fit into the Exalted Sorcerer Box mold the the Thousand Sons got. I am guessing a lot of aura based mini characters sitting in the elite slot will be the norm for the Death Guard as we saw a hinted at “tally man” like guy, some crazy tank carrying dudesman, and a reworked Lord of Contagion. The entire release looks pretty large and really showcases that GW has a lot of faith in this Armies release.
Morty
At the top of the army we have Mortarion. It is hard to figure out how he will work as the other “daemon Primarch” is good – but just not nearly as amazing as Roboute. Of course Magnus will need to get a hold of a new book to “update” his rules a bit so we really are staring at a blank slate for Mortarion. I expect him to have something like 18-22 wounds, flies, has some kind of casting power, and has a mean stat line. We know there is a full fledged Plague Discipline with most likely the 3 powers from the CSM book with 3 more added on powers. I am guessing a FNP option or something that makes their FNP better. A curse of some sort against your opponent. Maybe there is a teleport power that Mortarion uses like he has in 30k. Plus I bet there is another nova like power like their kinda mean Stratagem. The lack of being able to hide means he should have some more protection – FNP obviously, hard to head as well, and maybe he heals every round as some of the other Big CSM stuff. Oh and I am sure he has an aura that allows Death Guard to reroll hits and maybe helps with their FNP. Points wise he will be like Magnus as well as it seems fitting for these ultimate bad guys of the 40k universe.
Elites
After that there should be a ton of “elite” characters. Just like the Bell guy from the Index and the Malignant plague caster – there seems to be a few more “aura” type characters. I bet there is an Exalted like champion for Nurgle that does something similar. Maybe he ends up being like a Dark Apostle but there is something about adding a ton of Aura options in the game. The weird Plague Barrel/Goo carrier guy could do something like help the FNP or maybe make their poison attacks better. I also expect some kind of Tally Master that generates extra effects based on how many models die at the hands of Nurgle. I could see a similar effect to what Epidemus has from the Daemon side of things. It will probably feel like a slowly building wave of death as the army starts to break the enemy down bit by bit. I think this army will be the big “aura” matters army and most likely a better example of a “new 8th style” designed army list. Hopefully they are both fun and good as I have collected a ton of Death Guard like stuff lately.
Troops
The Troop choices look to be Plague Marines (matching the new CSM book) and Pox Walkers. I hope we see Pox Walkers going down in points and increasing their unit size. I like them – but at 20 models they feel like you don’t have enough ensure you survive and still become a pain in the butt. The Plague Marines should match the CSM book as they have a ton of options in that book and I doubt will see anything else except their “legion” buffs you would normally see in the book. I am guessing Pox Walkers will be the troop of choice in most armies as you just need bodies to bubble warp, protect your Daemon princes, and hold your objectives. I just don’t know how the Plague Marines will compete beyond just having some amazing weapon options, Legion Tactic interactions, and Stratagems to use.
Tanks
After that it is interesting to see 2 new tank/vehicles coming. The weird tank is interesting as it looks like some kind of Wyvern/no LOS style tank. It could be neat to see a Plague Launcher that gives the Death Guard some long reach firepower that ignores LOS. It would be pretty helpful and means the army can work without having to dip into some Ally nonsense. The Mortid Bloat Drone looks to also have a few upgrades with some kind of Goo Tank like gun and a close combat option. I thought the model was pretty good and any more options could be really interesting. I do wonder if will see a point drop in them or something else. The pics also show a lot of Helbrutes in there too so we know that is an option to throw down with. The drawings also showed some kind of Maulerfiends but I don’t see them in any of the pics. It is two bad as I thought some kind of gross Daemon Engine would be cool as it didn’t look like a fly.
Overall I am pretty excited as it feels like a fully released release. There are ton of “new” models that are not just single pose options from the Starter set and it feels like will have a really interesting army. The Stratagems will be very important as I feel that’s how the CSM army really shines when you start to use the options to make a turn go from being ok and into something amazing. What are you hoping for in the new book?
~Do you think it will be a fully realized army or will it need some ally help to make it work right?
