Goatboy’s 40K: Death Guard Army – Blight Engines
With Death Guard out let’s throw together some list diseased thoughts. I see two clear winners so far, Daemon engines and Blight Lords.
The update was probably one of the stronger ones as it is really a big overhaul of the army. A lot of things that Chaos Space Marine players had and Death Guard didn’t is now showing up in this update. The update gave us everything but a few new psychic spells to mess around with. Almost every unit got some of benefit from the book – from the simple stuff like being able to grant feel no pain to a unit all the way to giving some options a better invulnerable save. It is a pretty big comprehensive update that makes Death Guard feel right. Mix this in with the 9th edition changes and we start to get an idea for some armies.
Daemon Engines
Right now the big thing I like is a push to making Daemon Engines in the book more viable than just speed traps for the enemy. The Plague Burst Crawler was always an interesting choice in the army. Its weapon load out was good but the better thing it did was get in the way. Now it will continue to get in the way and still be viable once it gets stuck in. On top of that – being able to hit on a 4+ with the cannon is pretty good as you want these guys to drift around the table top laying stinking turds of death on the enemy. Beyond just this guy – the Defiler becomes a very interesting choice as well due to the 4+ hitting option as well just being a fat boi with a ton of wounds. Throw some Feel No Pain on top of it and you get an even more annoying choice. It is an interesting time to be a Death Guard Daemon Engine Player.
I am hoping the Plague Marines do not go up too much in cost. I still felt they were a bit over costed in the current edition but will see if play testing pushes them a bit higher. I have heard some Chatter the Death Guard update makes the army strong in 9th, so we’ll see. Right now the tweaks to plague weapon ranges, damage potential with basic bolters, and just a ton of powerful stratagems has me wondering if will see big piles of these guys in the future. GW talked about Morale doing different things so will see. That new Relic Pistol seems just perfectly matched up with an Arch Contaminator unit and a ton of bolters/range weapons.
Thankfully Death Guard got the powerful Strat that lets you give an other Character a Warlord trait. I think all books should have this as there is a ton of interesting aura options if more armies had the ability to get different “warlord” like abilities. It is the same thing with the Relic strat that Marines got – we need to see this show up in more books. Let a player burn the CP to kit out their army. I have seen a lot of good relics – but non of the crazy broken options we had in the older editions.
On with The Show
Alright onto an army list thought. We’ll build towards 1750-1800 points as we don’t know what kind of point changes we will see. I think we’ll move towards a Daemon Engine List as I really like all the crazy robots and ways to use them. As I am looking at Daemon Engines let’s just go with that idea and see if it works. I will go ahead and throw in a unit of Blightlord Terminators as a way to hold the middle and be a pain in the butt. Plus having Rapid Fire 3 weapons seems pretty good.
Death Guard 9th Idea
Spear Head Detachment – Poxmongers
-HQ-
Daemon Prince of Nurgle – Wings, Warlord, Malic Talons X 2 – Arch Containminator, Relic – Ironclot Furnance – 180pts
Daemon Prince of Nurgle – Wings, Warlord, Malic Talons X 2, Relic – Sup Plate, Warlord – Revoltingly Resilient – 180pts
-Elites-
Blightlord Terminators X 10, Blight Axe/Combi-Bolter X 10 – 410pts
-FA-
Foetid Bloat-Drone – Plaguespitters X 2 – 138pts
Foetid Bloat-Drone – Plaguespitters X 2 – 138pts
-Heavy-
Defiler – Combi-Bolter, Defiler Scourge, Twin Linked Heavy Bolter – 151pts
Defiler – Combi-Bolter, Defiler Scourge, Twin Linked Heavy Bolter – 151pts
Plague Burst Crawler – Plaguespitters X 2, Heavy Slugger – 140pts
Plague Burst Crawler – Plaguespitters X 2, Heavy Slugger – 140pts
Plague Burst Crawler – Plaguespitters X 2, Heavy Slugger – 140pts
1766 Points
Infectious Tactics
We have more points we can look at some other options. Or swap the Terminators for Plague Marines and other stuff. But it is a fun idea using a Defiler as another form of a Plague Burster Crawler. Right now we are burning 2 points right away on Warlord Traits and Relics – and probably another 4 to get the Defilers to have Feel No Pain. Either way – it is a interesting set of thoughts as we use a lot of chunky boi’s that move up, get in the way, and then the Blight Lord terms to hold the middle.
Are you guys excited by 9th edition?
