Warhammer 40K Meta Hotness: Freeloadin’ Plague Marines!
Plague Marines got one of the best updates in the last points change. It shifted this unit from an expensive brick to a jack of all trades damage unit in one fell swoop.
It is crazy how a few tweaks to a units points can really amp up a unit. Plague Marines got a delicious glow up recently and I expect any regular Death Guard player to be trying out 3+ 10 man units in their army with all the fixin’s. This means you take all the best guns, best close combat weapons, and any other fun upgrade to try and create a powerfully little unit that is ripe to take an objective or two and have their Rhino friend run around the table top.
Plague Marine Basics!
The other troop unit for the Death Guard – this unit got a huge boost by getting free upgrades. This means you can kit them out to be close combat monsters, decent gun toting jerks, and pain in the butt to remove objective secured units. You will see units of 10 riding around in Rhinos as their leadership buddies try to keep them going in the right direction in the middle of the table. It is a lot of wounds to dig thru and a lot of armies find it very hard to dislodge this gross plague ridden tick when they get on a neoprene picture most likely drawn by me.
Why Are Plague Marines Good?
Getting a ton of free upgrades, having a decent output of damage, and being Objective secured gives the Plague Marines a decent edge in a lot of match ups. I think the balance on Death Guard will be just ensuring you have enough other relevant damage to deal with some of the current nasty things in the environment – The Silent King and Knights. Stephen Platten to this to the finals at the Beast in the East Midlands even in England last week and just was stopped when facing the Silent king and his fat butt of board control.
Sample List
++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Chaos – Death Guard) [109 PL, 2CP, 1,925pts] ++
+ Configuration +
Gametype: 4. Chapter Approved: War Zone Nephilim
Plague Company: Mortarion’s Anvil
+ Stratagems +
Gifts of Decay [-1CP]: Additional Relics
+ HQ +
Lord of Virulence [7 PL, -1CP, 135pts]: Gloaming Bloat, Stratagem: Warlord Trait, Virulent Fever, Warlord
Malignant Plaguecaster [5 PL, 90pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 4. Putrescent Vitality
+ Troops +
Plague Marines x10 [12 PL, 210pts]
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 2x w/ blight launcher: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Blight launcher, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 2x w/ cleaver: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Great plague cleaver, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 2x w/ flail: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Flail of corruption, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 1x w/ plague spewer
. 1x w/ special weapon: Plasma gun
. 1x w/ special weapon: Plasma gun
Plague Marines x 10 [12 PL, 210pts]
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 2x w/ blight launcher: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Blight launcher, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 2x w/ cleaver: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Great plague cleaver, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 2x w/ flail: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Flail of corruption, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 1x w/ plague spewer
. 1x w/ special weapon: Plasma gun
. 1x w/ special weapon: Plasma gun
Plague Marines x 10 [12 PL, 210pts]
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 2x w/ blight launcher: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Blight launcher, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 2x w/ cleaver: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Great plague cleaver, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 2x w/ flail: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Flail of corruption, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 1x w/ plague spewer
. 1x w/ special weapon: Plasma gun
. 1x w/ special weapon: Plasma gun
Plague Marines x 10 [12 PL, -1CP, 210pts]
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 2x w/ blight launcher: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Blight launcher, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 2x w/ cleaver: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Great plague cleaver, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 2x w/ flail: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Flail of corruption, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. 1x w/ plague spewer
. 1x w/ special weapon: Plasma gun
. 1x w/ special weapon: Plasma gun
Poxwalkers [3 PL, 50pts]
. 10x Poxwalker: 10x Improvised weapon
Poxwalkers [3 PL, 50pts]
. 10x Poxwalker: 10x Improvised weapon
+ Elites +
Biologus Putrifier [4 PL, -1CP, 65pts]: 4. Arch-Contaminator, Plaguechosen
Foul Blightspawn [6 PL, 95pts]: Revolting Stench-vats, Viscous Death
+ Fast Attack +
Foetid Bloat-drone [7 PL, 120pts]: Fleshmower
Foetid Bloat-drone [7 PL, 120pts]: Fleshmower
Foetid Bloat-drone [7 PL, 120pts]: Fleshmower
+ Dedicated Transport +
Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 80pts]
Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 80pts]
Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 80pts]
++ Reinforcements (Chaos – Daemons) [75pts] ++
+ Configuration +
Chaos Allegiance: Nurgle
+ Reinforcement Points +
Reinforcements [75pts]: 7x Reinforcement Points, 5x Reinforcement Points
++ Total: [109 PL, 2CP, 2,000pts] ++
Plague Marine Closing Thoughts
I think will see Death Guard armies start to try and shift up some of their damage outlets to allow for a better way to control the board. This might mean Blight Haulers as well as mixing back in the Plagueburst Crawlers to give you a better chance to pop a tough big fat monster. I think Death Guard excel when going against some of the other lighter army options. We’ll see if the Silent King gets a knock down a beg and some of their other threats show up less on the tabletop.
Let us know what units you think are hot right now, down in the comments!
