Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts: Initial Death Guard List “Rick & Morty”
Goatboy here again and just like a lot of people I am pretty enamored with the new Death Guard Codex.
I think it has some legs, plays really differently from other books, and should be a lot of fun to compete with and bring to the table top. It really shows a real top down design with all aspects of the book thought through. Sure there are some sadly missing things (Nurgle Bikers, Nurgle Havocs, Nurgle Maulerfiends) but if you look at what the book has already it makes sense why those guys are not there. They didn’t want just a “green tinged” rehash of the Chaos Space Marine book. Bravo to them and hopefully the return of the Thousand Sons will also bring in a much needed “flavor” to the army. It gives me hope that if there is ever a true World Eaters book to come out we might see something pretty unique beyond “new” Berserkers.
But enough of that – lets look at some Death Guard lists. Will start with the initial Rick and Morty idea I have that slams Morty into an army with some friends to help keep the board controlled. I don’t know if this is any good or not …and I might have messed up some of the points beyond Morty’s… but I think you’ll get the idea.
Rick and Morty – Version 1 – aka Lord of the Flies
Death Guard Battalion
HQ: Typhus, Plague Wind, Miasma of Pestilence
HQ: Daemon Prince of Nurgle, Wings (not in the points, but in the book – points look the same as CSM so there ya go), Malefic Talons X 2, The Suppurating Plate, Putrescent Vitality
Elite: The Death Shroud X 3
Troops: Pox Walkers X 20
Troops: Pox Walkers X 20
Troops: Pox Walkers X 15
FA: Foetid Bloat Drone, Plaguespitters X 2, Plague Probe
FA: Foetid Bloat Drone, Plaguespitters X 2, Plague Probe
Chaos Daemons Patrol
HQ: Daemon Prince of Nurgle, Wings, Malefic Talon X 2 – Nurgle Heal Spell
Troops: Nurglings X 3
Troops: Nurglings X 3
Super Heavy Auxiliary Detachment
LoW: Mortarion, Plague Wind, Curse of the Leper
So the idea is to push, protect, and hopefully murder things with Morty. There are a few other ideas I have along things line – but this felt the most “Nurgle” like. You’ve got a good, strong back base of Pox Walkers with Typhus to keep them enhanced. And they can also cause some damage on things if the enemy gets to close. You have a few “friends” to follow Morty around – like the Death Shroud and Nurgle Daemon Princes. One Nurgle Prince can heal Morty which would be pretty important as he gets mixed up with some bad guys. I think the Foetid Bloat Drones will do wonders to help clean things up as they can keep up with the Prince of Death himself and the 2 Daemon Princes who are there protecting him.
I don’t know how “killy” this will be or if the spell set up is optimized. But, still this looks pretty simple and decently sized enough to be a threat on the table top. The Nurglings can be there to help keep opponent drops from coming in too close to Morty as well as just screw with the opponent. Will see if the Deathshroud are just an expensive set of 6 wounds – but I feel with the proper spell set up they become a real pain in the butt. If you remove the ability to target them unless you are closer – with Morty out front. You could really control what gets over to them – and help keep the king alive as long as you can. Its really just trying to let him survive for at least a few turns so you can truly cause as much havoc in the middle of your opponents army.
Now this next idea is really more of a mechanized monster list. I thought that a ton of the Drones, Haulers, and other stuff could be pretty neat mixed with Zombies milling around their feet. It also doesn’t have Morty either. While he’s good – I think his points cost keeps it hard from adding all of the gross robots as you can.
Death Guard Monster Mash
Death Guard Battalion
HQ: Typhus
HQ: Malignant Plaguecaster
HQ: Daemon Prince, Wings, Malefic talon X 2, The Plate
Elite: Plague Surgeon
Elite: Noxious Blight Bringer
Elite: Tallyman
Troops: Pox Walkers X 20
Troops: Pox Walkers X 20
Troops: Pox Walkers X 20
FA: Myphitic Blight-Hauler X 3 1291
FA: Foetid Bloat Drone, Plague Spitters X 2, Plague Probe
FA: Foetid Bloat Drone, Plague Spitters X 2, Plague Probe
Here to ask some Probing questions…
The idea behind this one is the slow crunch of doom as you have a ton of bodies covering the table with lots of rolls to try and survive. Then, once they get in range, the army will cause the plague to activate. The Drones/Haulers are there to help clean things up as well as the Daemon Prince. The 3 Elite Characters help keep the Pox Walkers alive and just causes problems. If I could choose some decent heavy choices (miss my Havocs) I could do a Brigade and get a ton of sweet Command Points going.
Overall I like the book and look forward to figuring out the sweet spots when I get some time later on this year. Currently my lists for events are looking towards a Renegade list or an Alpha Legion list. It all depends on if I want to pull out my Lord of Skulls and get the blood flowing or not. Until next time (which will most likely be Ad Mech related) – don’t forget to wash your hands!!!
Have you got to play around with the Death Guard yet? What are you thoughts so far?
