Warhammer 40K: Death Guard Detachment Previews
Games Workshop is teasing a few upcoming Nurgle Detachments for Warhammer 40,000. Get ready for Numberless Hordes and Miasmic Bombardments!
The Death Guard are mustering for war and that means a brand new codex is coming soon. Today, we’re getting a whiff of the plague wind coming thanks to GW sharing a pair of upcoming detachments. I hope you’re ready for Nurgle’s Gifts to come knocking once again.
“Notorious for their inflexible approach, the sons of Mortarion actually express a fair bit of tactical nuance: there are six Detachments in the new Codex: Death Guard, so strap into the hazmat suit out and take a closer look.”
Death Guard – Army Rules
First up, we need to take a look at the revamped Death Guard Army Rule. This one might look familiar and for good reason.
If you’re thinking “wait, this seems like the same rules as before — what’s different?” Well, the big thing is that a chunk of these rules used to be part of the Plague Company Detachment Rules. Now, they are just part of the Death Guard Army! There’s really no downsides here. At least for the Death Guard. Those potent debuffs to enemies are now just what Death Guard does regardless of the Detachment you’re bringing!
Death Guard Detachments
First up, we have the Miasmic Bombardment Detachment. This particular Detachment tags a number of enemy units at the start of the battle round with the Affliction status. The number of units depends on the size of the game you’re playing. Really, this is just a great way debuff key enemy targets that might be out of range of your units.
To be honest, this one seems a little limited. Or rather it’s designed for a specific play style. If you’re running a lot of tank units that might sit back a bit and want to battle at range this could be a good fit. I think that the rest of the Enhancements and Stratagems might make this one more appealing.
Apparently five of the six stratagems are designed specifically for armored vehicles. So, yeah…this is for the armor fans out there.
While armor is great and all the Death Guard aren’t afraid to send in the ground pounders. When you’ve got Poxwalkers you’re going to want to use them, right?
The Numberless Horde Detachment just adds free Poxwalkers to your list. I hope you’ve got the extra models to spare for them! Sure, it’s “just” a unit of 10 that go into your Strategic Reserves. But they are FREE to include. And, depending on the battle size, you might get two units or up to four extra units! That’s free points, man.
Obviously the Enhancements and Stratagems are going to focus heavily on supporting Poxwalkers and the heroes that care for them. From the GW preview, it also sounds like heroes hanging around these Poxwalkers will get some nasty tricks to use, too. There’s one line that says, “zip behind enemy lines with a rotting tide in tow” — Sounds like a redeploy or some other shenanigan to me.
Other Death Guard Detachments
Now, if you’re curious what the other Detachments are the good news is that GW didn’t leave us completely out to dry. They gave us a quick run down for each:
The Virulent Vectorium retains the old Plague Company’s ability to keep objectives under your control, while the Champions of Contagion get to switch their chosen plague every battle round.
The Tallyband Summoners pair the Death Guard with the Nurgle Daemons included in the Codex to expand their Contagion Range even further, and the Death Lord’s Chosen empowers Terminator companies with a particularly deadly plague and ample Stratagem support.
Sounds like an interesting mix but I would really like to check out these rules. We’ll have to see how potent these updates are the Death Guard when the new codex drops. Could they shake up the meta? Guess we’ll find out soon enough!
Reminder: Order Hazmat Suit…
