Warhammer 40K: Death Guard Combat Patrol Point Breakdown and Next Steps
Mortarion’s boys are here to spread pain and disease with their Combat Patrol Point Breakdown and Next Steps!
When Games Workshop released all the points as a free update we got to thinking — how do the previous Combat Patrols stack-up? In this series we’re going to revisit the older Combat Patrols, breakdown their points, and talk about where to build from that box. For previous breakdowns check the bottom of this article.
The Death Guard Combat Patrol Box is doing something a little different compared to the other boxes we’ve covered up to this point: It’s giving us a Unique Named Character with Typhus. That really unlocks a particular playstyle. With today’s Next Steps we’re going to lean hard into that playstyle. If you’re looking for a more competitive spin, here’s a completely different playstyle list.
So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at what the box is working with!
Death Guard Combat Patrol Point Breakdown
1x Typhus – 165 points
1x Biologus Putrifier – 65 points
7x Plague Marines – 147 points
30x Pox Walkers – 150 points
Points Total: 527
This Combat Patrol is a weird one for a few reasons. First up, there’s not really a lot of Wargear to work with here. Second, we’d have to split those Pox Walkers up into at least 2 units as the max unit size is 20. We’ll go 20 and 10 for now. Aside from that…it’s 527 points to form that core. Would I pick up a second one? Not this time. That’s because Typhus is here and he’s a little hard to ignore!
But let’s talk about him for a second. He’s got a couple of pretty potent auras that we’re going to attempt to take advantage of. First up, he’s got Master of the Dead Who Walk which buffs those Poxwalkers with +1 Strength when their unit is within 6″ of him. He’s also got Lord of the Death Guard which is basically the Captain aura that allows for re-rolls of 1 for friendly Death Guard Core.
We’re not even going to get into the rest of his abilities. But from those two auras and all those Pox Walkers, I think we need to fill out some squads.
Personally, if I’m bringing Typhus, I’m gonna want at least two squads of 20 Poxwalkers. At 5 points a pop, these plague zombies don’t go down easy and will drag down a unit with the right buffs. We only need to add 10 more so that’s just 50 more points. And, if nothing else, they provide one heck of an annoying pair of units to deal with. They can have a big footprint and will take up board presence. And with Typhus around, no one is going to want to get too close. Let’s use that to add some big guns.
Plagueburst Crawlers are probably going to be the MVP of this list in most games. With that wall of plaguebeef in front of them, they can lob shells at the enemy and once they DO get close, you can infect them with those plaguespitters. Those things are gross. We’re gonna take two of these. They are 135 points + 5 if you want the Entropy Cannon. We’ll save some points for wargear at the end. But that’s going to run us 270 points for now.
Foetid Bloat-drones are up next. We want the fleshmower option for +5 points. And we want to run at least 2. Why? Well, you’ve got those two big blocks of Poxwalkers who are going to tie stuff up. Use the Bloat-drones to counter-charge and literally mow down the enemy next! They are just plain nasty, too. At 120 points (with the Fleshmower added), that’s only 240 more points to the list.
So far, we’re at 1087. And that’s a pretty solid core to launch the next 1000 points with. At this point you could just add in Mortarion and a Daemon Prince or three and call it done. We’re NOT going that route. In fact, we’re going to skip out on Mortarion completely. We might add a Daemon Prince because they are just good. We’ll probably want to add wings, too. That’s going to run us 175 + plus any other wargear you want to toss on.
And while we’re adding HQ options I want to toss in the Lord of Virulence. He’s just another good HQ option with a great weapon and aura buff, too.
At 120 points, with the Daemon Prince, we’re up to 1382 points + wargear. At this point I kind of want to add a unit of Death Guard. It feels odd to only have 7 Plague Marines. So let’s toss in another unit of 7. These are just good, general units to have around. And it’s only 147 more points. That brings the total up to 1529 points.
Oh man, I almost forgot to add the Tallyman! For 70 points he’s a bargain. And we’re just now at 1599. What else do we need now. Well, we have a lot of bodies on the tabletop and some firepower with the Plagueburst Crawlers. We’re great at holding an objective but pushing into enemy territory is going to be a challenge. Especially as this army isn’t particularly fast.
Let’s go with some Blightlord Terminators! They’ve got some heavy armor, a good invulnerable save, and you can Teleport Strike with them. And because it’s Nurgle, we gotta go with 7 of them. At 40 points each that’s 280 points + wargear. With there addition we’re at 1879 + wargear. I want to stop there because Death Guard can also buy Deadly Pathogens which is a whole other set of abilities.
The List
Typhus
Daemon Prince
Lord of Virulence
20x Poxwalkers
20x Poxwalkers
7x Plague Marines
7x Plague Marines
Foetid Bloat-drone
Foetid Bloat-drone
Plagueburst Crawler
Plagueburst Crawler
7x Blightlord Terminators
Tallyman
Biologus Putrifier
Points Total: 1879 + wargear
This army is creeping death. You’ve got a wall of bodies that will slow the advance of the enemy and take up space as they get pummeled from range. And then, once they get there, you’ve got ways to tie them up and finish the job. And if the enemy is too dug in you’ve got the Terminators to drop in and cause their own sets of problems, too. Don’t be afraid to advance and let the Plague Marines hold the objectives as the rest of the army moves up. Use those Auras to your advantage!
For more tips and tricks check out our How to Play Death Guard in 9th Edition article
And there’s always Mortarion to add later…
Previous Combat Patrol Point Breakdowns And Next Steps
