Warhammer 40K: 10th Ed Death Guard Rules Preview – Gifts of Nurgle
Games Workshop has a new preview for the Death Guard. How with they work in 10th Edition? Time to get a tease!
The Death Guard are upon us. Grandfather Nurgle is back to spread his feculent gifts upon his foes. I’m feeling a little queasy. What does it all mean? We’re pretty sure it means the Death Guard are preparing for Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition!
“The Death Guard gleefully embrace all the fevers and agues of Nurgle, advancing inexorably to spread disease and carve their foes apart with poisoned fire and rusty blades. It’s time to find out how these harbingers of rot work in the new edition of Warhammer 40,000.”
Death Guard Faction Rules
Army Rule – Nurgle’s Gift
As the Death guard arrive on the battlefield they bring Nurgle’s gifts of sickness and disease ahead of them like a bow wave. This is represented by an Aura of -1 toughness for all opponents with range of every Death Guard faction unit! Not only is this bad enough, but as the battle wears on, the range increases, going from 3″ to 6″, and finally to 9″ from turns 1 to 3. It remains at 9″ from the third battle round on.
Now GW has tried many different rules to represent Nurgle’s effects over the editions, from modifiers to hit, to increased durability. But negative Toughness modifiers is perhaps the most potent. There are a LOT of T3 armies out there who will suddenly find themselves reduced to T:2 for most of the game. Anything S5 or higher will be wounding on 2+. A nasty piece of work. And let’s not forget that the Death Guard themselves are still remaining as tough as ever.
Detachment Rule – Spread the Sickness
The Plague Company Detachment means objectives stay under Death Guard control after they move away, until enemies claim them. They also give off the Nurgle’s Gift negative Toughness modifier on Death Guard opponents! This rule is there to help mitigate the army’s slow movment rate and is a solid solution.
Stratagem – Sanguous Flux
Did you need to add a little oomph to that one unit to help put them over the top? Sanguous Flux grants a single Death Guard unit’s weapons Sustained Hits 1. It is increased to Sustained Hits 2 if they within range of an Infected Objective Marker. Talk about making Death Guard hard to shift! You can see the multiple stacking effects listed above stacking up to shift the odds in Nurgle’s favor.
Death Guard Unit Rules
Blight Lord Terminators
Hey, it’s everyone’s favorite stinky Terminators! Yes that is T6! Remember what I said about all those soon to be T:2 armies out there facing the Death Guard. Now the Blightlords are slow with a measly M:4″, but they can Deep Strike and when they reach you – it’s gonna hurt.
Their weapons are solid if nothing to write home about, but Blistering Fusilade will help mow down the closest foes. Note the massive simplification of their weapons options and rules compared to 9th. In general look for Blightlords to be very difficult to shift, but easy to outmaneuver.
Malignant Plaguecaster
The ignored Malignant Plaguecaster returns with all new utility! His psychic attacks are quite interesting, with nerfs inflicted to the target unit the next turn. Gift of Contagion inflicts negatives to-wound in melee, while Pestilent Fallout reduces movement by 2″. A nice set of tools to help degrade key enemy units so the Death Guard army can reach out and grab them.
Weapon – Plagueburst Mortar
Here comes the Plagueburst Cannon back again to blast away! It’s still got indirect fire, solid range, and is srong enough to be useful against Infantry and light vehicles. The Spore-Laced Shock Waves hand out Battle-shock tests to infantry who were hit. Again, the trend of the Death Guard handing out nerfs, and lingering next-turn effects to their foes.
The Death Guard are going to be making everyone sick very soon in Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition…
