Goatboy’s Warhammer 40k: Death Guard Terminators are Badass!
Goatboy here to chat about the those amazing new Death Guard Terminators!
I remember starting the game back in the old days of 2nd edition. I got in 2 games of that edition before 3rd reared its head and I remember how amazing terminators were. Well, the one main terminator I played – Abbadon – was a pretty much awesome bad a$$. Like some kind of glorious evil knight fighting against the tyranny of the emperor with his sword, his Cobra Kai skills, and attitude. As time moved on and new editions came and went – the terminator was always just there.
I was always a boss!
Sometimes they were awesome but most of the time they just felt – well just not terminator enough. Thankfully those times have flipped back and we got the terminator back to something to be feared. The new Death Guard updates to their Terminator shells is pretty darn swell. In fact – I think it is on the edge of being really friggin good. So good that I ended up expecting the armies to come out after the love/hate of Morty to come out will be those rocking Terminators and whatever else you want to add to the mix. They are just that good for the cost, damage potential, and survivability.
Hello New Blightlords
With that – let’s chat about why they are so good. First will talk about the cost. At 40 points a model they are pretty dang cheap for a 3 wound, toughness 5, decent damage output, and just being tough. Add a pretty awesome invulnerable save mixed and you start to wonder if these are costed correctly. Personally, I think they are fine as this is a model you want people to buy and play with. Sure it isn’t as flashy as Morty coming at you but these guys completely fill in the role of slow and steady win the race. You will get sick when you are exposed to these stanky boys.
After looking at the swell cost the survivability is another great thing. I already talked about how they have a 2+/4++ save on top of being tougher and reducing damage. All of these things are great but what really starts to take the cake with them is they got an actual Apothecary that added that just nice pink of – screw you with a 6+ FNP. That is a nice bit of cool but really the ability to heal up some of the dying models will be a bigger bonus to add on top of these guys. I think moving Terminators to 3 wounds is a great bump and hoping their other “Bad” guy friends get this upgrade soon too.
Finally, we get to some offensive capabilities and this is where these units get interesting. There are so many tricks to activating their bolters into the Poison category on top of getting them to a 2+ to hit. This is huge as they got the Core keyword so all their friendly Lord of Death’s giving a reroll 1 Aura will benefit these guys. You add in a few other stacked bonus stratagems to give them extra AP and other fun things and you start to get a very brutal little bit of bolter hell. Next, you throw in the fact they can throw out some serious close combat damage too.
Moving On Up
The Death Guard are going to excel with moving up, holding the middle, and being a pain to remove. You don’t want to charge them as you get into range of any contagions they can give out so it becomes a very hard game to remove these scoring ticks off of objectives – especially as zombies are roaming around making sure they got that sweet objective secured stacked on top.
This also includes the Death Shroud as I think they also fit into this grand scheme of amazing Terminator powers. They get to have extra attacks, automatically have all plague weapons, and protect your friendly characters resting in the middle of your gross doom cake that is the Death Guard machine. With all this talk let’s throw out a Terminator Heavy army list to show you guys what might end up showing up to your events.
Death Guard Battalion – 0CP
Plague Company – The Ferrymen
-HQ-
Lord of Virulence – Vicious Death Pathogen, Warlord – Arch-Contaminator – 130pts
Malignant Plaguecaster – Psychic – Miasma of Pestilence, Gift of Plagues – 95pts
-Elites-
Blightlord Terminators X 5 – Plague Flail X 1 – 205pts
Blightlord Terminators X 5 – Plague Flail X 1 – 205pts
Blightlord Terminators X 5 – Plague Flail X 1 – 205pts
Deathshroud Terminators X 5 – Chimes of Contagion, Extra Plagueburst Gauntlet- 270pts
Foetid Virion
Tallyman – Relic – Tollkeeper – 70pts
Plague Surgeon – Relic (Gifts of Decay -1CP) – Fugaris’ Helm – 75pts
Foul Blightspawn – Relic (Gifts of Decay -1CP) – Revolting Stench-Vats, Warlord Trait (Plaguechosen -1CP) – The Droning – 75pts
Biologus Putrifier – 65pts
-Troops-
Poxwalkers X 20 – 100pts
Poxwalkers X 10 – 50pts
Poxwalkers X 10 – 50pts
-FA-
Foetid Bloat-Drone – Fleshmower – 135pts
Foetid Bloat-Drone – Fleshmower – 135pts
Chaos Spawn X 5 – (Grandfatherly Influence -2cp) 115pts
PTS: 1980 CP: +7
Death Guard Termy Tactics
This is a pretty simple idea for the list – a basic Twinkie of doom. You have some tough outer cake, a creamy center of characters, and even some extra cake in the Pox Walkers to go around it. The Drones and Spawn are there to be your speed to move out, contest objectives and be a pain. There could be a thought to fit in more Poxwalkers but will see as testing moves on. The extra Elite Character – the Putrifier – will depend on how everything goes. The Warlord trait on the Foul Blightspawn is there as I expect to let his Aura nets go out wide so having more stackable options seems good. Plus – the Contagion can be moved around as needed. Overall it feels like a pretty simple army designed to move up and hold the middle.
Fear the XIVth Legion!
