Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Death Guard
This is the current 10th Edition's Death Guard tactics. 9th Edition Tactics are here.
Why Play Death Guard
Pros
- Plague Weapons have converted over to having Lethal Hits, making Toughness less of a hassle.
- Army rules are still super simple, making it the best Chaos army for beginners 3 ED's running. Thanks Papa Nurgle. Very cool.
- The army is simple to paint. Just slather dark greens and purples everywhere as well as some flesh tomes and voila! Instant Nurgle army.
Cons
- Movement 4 Terminators are a PAIN IN THE DIIICK.
- Since 8th has seen massive downgrades each edition, gone from universal special rule to a limited and expensive Stratagem. no omnipresent -1 Dmg, no FNP.
Faction Rules
- Nurgle's Gift: Unchanged from last edition, it's a slowly growing bubble on every unit that inflicts -1 to Toughness for enemies inside it.
- On turn 1, the bubble is only 3", on turn 2, the bubble grows to 6", and on turn 3, it reaches its max size of 9".
- For when you're close enough for this to matter, remember how the Toughness chart works. This will have the largest relative impact when a target is at double your S, as it will double your output against it, but you'll still be struggling to wound at that point (1/6 -> 2/6), and if you had Lethal Hits already, the relative impact shrinks.
Detachments
Plague Company
Special Rules
- Spread the Sickness: If you hold an objective at the end of your Command phase, you have infected it. Not only will it now remain capped even if you don't have anyone on it, but it's now able to spread Nurgle's Gift as if it had that rule.
- While an enemy capping the objective will undo the plague, it does put them in a bit of trouble, as they'll be taking anything that contagion will give them for that turn, risking getting blasted off the map.
Stratagems
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- Disgustingly Resilient (2 CP): Since 8th has seen massive downgrades from special rule to limited and expensive Stratagem. During the fight phase when targeted, one Death guard unit takes -1 damage from weapons for the rest of the phase.
- Counterpoint: -1 damage is still a strong durability buff despite the cost.
- Ferric Blight (1 CP): One unit improves the AP of their weapons by 1. If they score a critical hit on any enemies within Contagion range, their AP is improved by 2.
- Lack of AP on Plague marine plague bolters is a shortcoming. Combine Biologus Putrifeir to make a majority of attacks being Auto-wounding AP-2.
- Sanguous Flux (1 CP): Nurgle has infected your enemy with Bloody Shits. One unit that fights gains [Sustained Hits 1] for this phase. This is improved to [Sustained Hits 2] if they're near an objective.
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- Gifts of Decay (1 CP): One model can heal d3 wounds. If they're within Contagion range of an infected objective, that healing maxes out at 3 wounds.
</tab> <tab name="Strategic Ploy">
- Boilblight (1 CP): One unit that shoots at an enemy within Contagion range gains [Heavy] and [Ignores Cover] on their guns.
- Cloud of Flies 1 CP): One unit gains Stealth against enemy shooting.
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Enhancements
- Deadly Pathogen: Bearer adds +1 to Strength and Attacks for melee weapons. These increase to +2 when the bearer is near an infected objective.
- The Droning: Any enemies who fail a battle-shock check while within contagion range of the bearer must roll a d6; on a 2+ they suffer 1 mortal wound, which improves to d3 MW on a 6.
- Living Plague: +3" to the bearer's aura abilities, including Nurgle's Gift.
- Shamblerot: When the bearer's unit is charged, -2 to that enemy charge roll.
Equipment
Unit Analysis
As per the Daemon index, you can have 1/4 of your army in points be Chaos Daemons but only the Nurgle Daemons. As per the Adeptus Titanicus index, you can have up to 1 Chaos Titan model. As per the Chaos Knights index, you can have up to 1 titanic or 3 war dog Chaos Knights models in your army. See those tactica pages for an in-depth analysis, but remember, in both cases anything you field will lose its Faction rules (what happens in terms of Detachment rules will still be Detachment-specific, but you'll have to pick a CSM Detachment).
Characters
- Daemon Prince: A hefty piece of work loaded with a Plague Spewer to melt hordes as well as Hellforged Weapons that let him take on similar-size monsters and tanks without much struggle, especially when you consider Nurgle's Gift into the equation.
<tabs> <tab name="On Foot"> Earns an extra point of Toughness due to not needing to fly. Grandfather's Blessing adds an additional benefit to his contagion aura, letting friendly Infantry units gain a 6+++ FNP to help shrug off enemy attacks. </tab> <tab name="Winged"> Naturally gets improved movement, which it easily puts to use on the charge. Not only does Warp Horror make a charged foe test for Battle-shock, but Devastating Assault makes his Hellforged Weapons gain [Devastating Wounds] so he can more easily carve through bigger foes. </tab> </tabs>
Leader (Plague Marines)
- Biologus Putrifier: Gives his Plague Marine buddies [Lethal Hits] (the only weapon they have that can gain this is their Plasma Guns or, if you're stupid, that 1 Plasma Pistol) and much more importantly hitting critically on 5+ (which applies to Overwatch, don't forget). Fortunately, he can join other characters so this cam combine with other heroes.
- Death Guard Chaos Lord: Provides his Plague Marines with re-rolling 1s to hit, which is worthless. His Contagion bubble for potential MWs might be helpful, but not enough to make him a priority.
- Death Guard Icon Bearer: Gives his Plague Marine buddies +1OC and a single-use ability to boost his entire unit's Contagion range to a monstrous 12".
- Foul Blightspawn: Has 1 job, and does it well: protecting a unit you care about. He gives any Plague Marines he leads the Fights First rule, and he can be paired with any other Leader on the same unit. His Plague Sprayer is a decent gun optimized for Overwatch, a super-flamer with S7 AP-2 D2 with Anti-Infantry 2+
- Malignant Plaguecaster: Plague Wind gives this gross psyker a flamer-like weapon, with the basic version getting S4 AP-1 Dd3 and the overcharged version upping the power to S6 AP-4 with Hazardous, both benefiting from Pestilential Fallout and making anyone wounded by the power take -2 to movement and advance/charge rolls. Gift of Contagion gives you a debuff that makes an enemy within 18" take -1 to wound in melee on a 2+ (with a 1 backfiring and dealing d3 MWs instead).
- Noxious Blightbringer: His Plague Marine buddies can re-roll advances and charges and he can be stacked with a second leader.
- Plague Surgeon: Resurrects one dead Plague Marine in his attached unit each turn and a 1/turn ability to heal 3 wounds on a nearby Infantry Character unit. Fortunately, each squad of Plague Marines can attach two characters for the fun of keeping everyone in one piece.
- Tallyman: If you ever feel useless, remember, you're more useful than this guy. He can stick to Plague Marines and grants his unit +1 to hit, which only really matters if you're dealing with anything using Stealth. This has no synergy on [Lethal Hits], which most weapons have, and has no use on [Torrent] because they don't roll at all. He also has a rule for a 7/12 chance of gaining you 1 CP in your command phase. Strong competitor for least useful character in the faction.
Leader (Blightlord and Deathshroud Terminators)
- Death Guard Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour: Provides his Blightlords or Deathshrouds with re-rolling 1s to hit, which particularly worthless on Deathshrouds - Lords of Contagion do that strictly better.
- Death Guard Sorcerer in Terminator Armour: On top of his Curse of the Leper power, which risks [Hazardous] for more hits and extra AP, he has a traditional psychic power which makes any incoming attacks reduce their damage by 1 - which at least saves you the need to spend on Disgustingly Resilient some of the time.
- He's surprisingly a good bit more combat-oriented than any other sorcerer, as he can swap out his armaments as if he were a Chaos Lord and all of them have some edge over the force weapon he starts with. That said, those weapons can't benefit from his single-use ability to add +2 to the Strength and Damage of his psychic weapons, but you're more likely than not just going to slap this onto the Curse of the Leper.
- Lord of Contagion: Gives his Blightlords/Deathshrouds re-rolls to hit in melee, which is of note on Deathshrouds due to their being WS2+ with [Lethal Hits], meaning you'll often want to re-roll successful hits to fish for crits.
- Lord of Virulence: Now better at his job at being master of ordnance. He gives his Blightlord/Deathshroud terminator buddies re-rolls to wound with ranged attacks, which is particularly incredible on Blightlord Combi-weapons and Reaper Autocannons. He also acts as a spotter, giving [Blast] weapons from your army +1 to hit and ignores cover against units he can see.
Epic Heroes
- Mortarion: An overload of bubbles if one were to think of one. One 6" bubble lets friendly units within it ignore all stat modifiers that aren't for their saves. A second gives you an option between either letting friendly units get cover against enemy guns, giving friendly units re-rolls of 1 to hit, or a 12" bubble boosting the contagion ranges of friendly units by 3". And this is all on top of his own bubble of contagion.
- While he does maintain Silence as his monstrous power scythe and the Lantern as a high-powered Volkite pistol, he also gains Rotwind as a devastating psychic power, combining Lethal Hits and Devastating Wounds to make any crits melt crowds. Your enemy will only be thankful that you can't use one to trigger the other.
- In another fabulous case of GW failing to proofread, that stat-modifier ignoring bubble is listed just above the section for Morty's damage track, which deals -1 to hit for reaching a certain number of wounds. Does the bubble work before the damage debuff? Does it only apply after the damaged statline? Who knows, GW won't bother to fix it!
- Typhus: Toughness 6 is a surprising gift to the world's smelliest degenerate, doubly so when you can attach him to terminators or Poxwalkers and give them protection in -1 to hit. While he lost out on a lot, he does retain one psychic power that's the closest to 9E as we've seen - on a 2+ it deals d6 MWs on an enemy within 18", and a 6 turns it into d3+3 MWs.
Battleline
- Plague Marines: Kinda sad that these guys no longer get any defensive features. After 9E nerfed their FNP to just flat damage reduction, now you've got nothing. No, the universal nerf to AP doesn't really help things. They're just as vulnerable to meltaguns and plasma guns as any other marines. Remorseless only adds +1 to battleshock test while within range of an objective they control, which only lets them keep them in place.
- Their basic bolter is the same as any other, with the addition with Lethal Hits like any other plague weapon, as is their melta and plasma gun. While their Plague Belcher and Plague Spewer can't benefit from [Lethal Hits] due to not needing to roll to hit, they do get [Anti-Infantry 4+] and [Anti-Infantry 2+] respectively to get through any high-toughness units. The Blight Launcher lets them get something in between the basic and charged plasma gun, complete with Lethal Hits. Your squad can pick up quite a few of these guns, with a squad of 5 getting the option for a Plague Spewer, Blight Launcher and a Plague Belcher/Plasma/Melta at the same time - with no way to double up on guns without more models.
- Alongside their sergeant, two of your models can also pick up either an S5 AP-2 Bubotic Weapon (essentially a power weapon with [Lethal Hits]) or S8 AP-2 D2 Heavy Bubotic Weapon.
Infantry
- Blightlord Terminators: Dear lord have these bastards taken a buff, they're now at T6 without needing to take any Primaris gene-seed. The Plague Weapon conversion to (usually) Lethal Hits serves them quite well, as their S5 AP-2 Bubotic Blades now all get to bypass Toughness on a critical hit, as does the Flail of Corruption, which is now more suited for handling multi-wound models, but suffers in AP. Of course, this also means a distinct lack of synergy in melee: whenever Lethal Hits goes off, Nurgle's Gift doesn't matter.
- Blistering Fusillade makes their guns the big selling point, letting them re-roll 1s to wound when shooting the closest target. Between their basic Combi-Bolters gaining [Lethal Hits] and their Reaper Autocannon getting both [Devastating Wounds] and [Sustained Hits 1], they've got plenty to work with. Bear in mind that [Lethal Hits] is better the worse you are at wounding, so re-rolling 1s to wound makes LH less useful overall - basically, always take a Reaper Autocannon over a Blight Launcher.
- Deathshroud Terminators: They've taken to their roles as bodyguards exceptionally well, as they make enemies take -1 to wound them if the enemy's Strength beats their Toughness of 6. Combine this with Typhus and a nearby Daemon Prince and they'll absolutely not be going anywhere. Fortunately, their Manreapers have split profiles with sweeps to cover the GEQs and strikes to take on MEQs and TEQs.
- Death Guard Cultists: The same miserable cultists you can find elsewhere, only now not limited by anything like Mere Mortals.
- Poxwalkers: Slightly tougher than a cultist in exchange for relying on a 5+ FNP to block everything. Fortunately, any non-Monster non-Vehicle model they kill lets you resurrect a zombie - something only slightly helped by their weapons gaining [Lethal Hits] and can be further helped by using Typhus' psychic power.
Beasts
- Death Guard Chaos Spawn:
Vehicles
- Chaos Land Raider:
- Chaos Predator:
- Foetid Bloat-Drone:
- Helbrute:
- Myphitic Blight-Hauler:
- Plagueburst Crawler:
Walkers
- Defiler:
- Helbrute:
Dedicated Transports
- Chaos Rhino: T9 gives the Rhino at least a chance to shrug off handheld meltaguns, but not by much - at least it has the ability to heal a wound each turn. Of course, it can carry up to 12 Infantry units that aren't terminators, cultists (they're somehow too small to fit through the doors, I guess), or poxwalkers and two of the models inside it can fire out of it thanks to Firing Deck 2.
Fortifications
- Miasmic Malignifier: A giant diseased smoke chimney, granting not only cover but also a cloud that gives -1 to be hit any friendly units inside it, making it a worthwhile strongpoint that can also spread Nurgle's Gift without needing another objective.
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