Goatboy’s 40k: Death Guard Growing Stronger
Goatboy here to go over the Death Guard rules doing the rounds right before War of the Spider hits the shelves.
Until we get 9th edition will have to wait on Armylists. There isn’t a whole lot to do and think about until we see new points, new rules, and just – how are we going to build lists with the shiny new app? So with that in mind – will just use this time to go over the Death Guard leaks that popped up this week. Thankfully someone wrote them up, posted it up on Facebook, and I got my grubby little hands on em. Overall I think they look pretty good and with a smaller table, hopefully decent transport rules from FW, and a forgiving set of point updates we might see a rough little Plague Marine army show up.
Overall I like the update as there are a ton of options. There is a plethora of Stratagems, relics, and warlord traits. It’s a good thing as I was worried will see the update match along the lines of a Thousand Sons with some extra rules but not a real way to rework the army. Thankfully this doesn’t appear to be the case as a lot of what is wrong with DG got some kind of answer from this update. Let’s start with the good stuff and just move down the line.
Tougher
First – they made them tougher. This is a good thing as this is supposed to be the anvil army of the game. They are tough but slow and they work by grinding down your opponent. Thankfully with with the leaked rules changes to tanks and some neat updates to Daemon Engines we start to have a really interesting DG army. The stuff that was good before got better and the other things that were not too good – got better too. I am a big fan of Daemon engines so I really dig the updates to them. The new warlord trait of giving all Daemon Engines a 4++ is great as it gives you a Master of possession power without getting those rules. Just having all your monster engines with a 4++ will be amazing to helping them last longer. On top of that there are ways to give your Chaos Lord Feel No Pain, your PM a 4+ feel no pain, and all the crazy Grenade options to wreck stuff.
More Lethal
On the damage front there is a lot more options to causing more wounds. The new relic pistol that causes a unit to be corroded and then everything shooting at them becomes a Plague Weapon seems pretty amazing. Throw out with some of the new ways to get Rapid Fire 3 bolters and you get a crazy reroll to 1’s to hit and reroll all wounds with Combi-Bolter Blight Lords and some sweet Warlord aura nonsense. Speaking of warlords thankfully the DG get the 1CP get a Warlord trait for a character. I love these things as its a great way to amp up your army. DG are one of the few armies that can easily just use a single Battalion to create a 12 CP starting force in the new 9th edition land.
Everyone Gets Goodies!
Heck it seems everything has gotten some new little thing. I love the new 7 auto hit plague spitter for Daemon Princes. Heck the Daemon Prince updates are great and while trying to fit in more characters might cause some CP loss – it still cool be worth wile. I do think the book always likes to use some Friendly neighborhood Chaos Casters with Warptime and other fun nonsense – so will see if we can find a way to fit them in. Maybe throw in some Word Bearers with their better casting or heck if Red Corsairs keep their bonus CP options they could be something to look at.
Points & the Future
Right now without the point changes it is hard to see what the army will look like. We might get lucky and not see much in the way of point changes as the army as a whole was a bit more expensive then others. If this is the case then they will be poised to do well in the new edition. Heck if their FW stuff stays ok than we could see some real fun come out with Butcher Cannon dreads helping out the army as they move up and get in the way. Or we just continue to see the Rhino Rush options I have built and others are testing/messing with.
The Verdict
Overall the updates seem good as its a true big update. Tons of rules and options are given to an army that has an amazing range of models with rules that felt old when the book came out. Will we see a true just DG army be good? Will we see Plague Marines become something to fear? Am I crazy for making 16 plague flail marines? We got Bile’s army to come out and I have just seen some of the Custodes leaks so I am sure will get a nice quick write up on them in the coming days. Heck I got some Sisters of Silence to paint up for a client this next week too.
All Hail Grandfather Nurgle!
