Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Death Guard (section)

==The Seven Plague Companies==
Following the template applied to the Thousand Sons in Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned, Death Guard got their own version in Psychic Awakening: War of the Spider. These new rules allow you to dedicate your detachments to one of seven plague companies, with certain models gaining an associated keyword. Each company gets a warlord trait (each of which grants a new contagion), a relic, and a stratagem. Note that you can only take the relic if your warlord is from the same plague company as the relic. 

===The Harbingers===
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The 1st Plague Company is led by Typhus the Traveler. They are accompanied by vast hordes of plague zombies, and maintain hundreds of strains of zombie plagues. 

Thematically, they are the classic zombie horde. Massive swarms of shambling corpses led by Death guard are pushed into your opponent's lines, while others rise from beneath the ground to strangle their foes. 

Mechanically, they are slightly different from the others. Both Typhus and Poxwalkers gain the Harbinger keyword if included in this detachment, and their rules emphasize taking large hordes of the latter. 

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*'''Warlord Trait - Shamblerot (Contagion):''' When non-{{W40Kkeyword|vehicle}} units are within contagion range at the start of their movement phase, roll a d6 for each unit, subtracting 1 for any {{W40kKeyword|Character}}s. On a 4+ they suffer a MW, upped to 1d3 MW on a 6.
**On average, that's 2/3 of a mortal wound for a non-character non-vehicle, and 1/3 of a character non-vehicle.  
**Since it triggers at the start of enemy movement, the way it will come up the ''most'' is adding output to your warlord's charges, as almost no enemies will have a way to escape contagion range after getting charged but before their movement phase.  Don't count on it too much for persuading the enemy to stay away, as once they've entered their own movement phase, they have both the rest of their turn and all of yours before they have to worry about the mortal wound coming up - e.g. if your Warlord is charged, he'll have to at least stay close through two fight phases before it comes up.
*'''Relic - Infected Remains:''' Once per battle, the bearer can drop this on an objective within 3" at the end of the movement phase. So long as the bearer remains on the board, this objective now counts as having the same contagions as the bearer.
*'''Stratagems - The Wrathful Dead (1 CP):''' Use in the fight phase when a {{W40kKeyword|Harbingers Poxwalkers}} unit attacks. The unit now re-rolls any hit rolls. Pair this with the Mutant Strain Strat, and now even lowly zombies are killing terminators. 
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===The Inexorable===
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The 2nd Plague Company are known as the Inexorable for their favored tactics; they crush their foes beneath lumbering battle tanks and mechanized assaults. Their signature disease is the Ferric Blight, which coats both power armor and vehicles in crawling rust.

Thematically, they hearken back to the good old days of the Horus Heresy, when vast waves of slow-moving tanks crushed loyalists under their treads. 

Mechanically, The Inexorable use infantry to support and screen their vehicles as they advance on their targets. Is actually really nice for plague marine heavy builds.

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*'''Warlord Trait - Ferric Blight (Contagion):''' Any attacks against enemies within contagion range improve their AP by 1. Note that this is now effective on ''everything'', so feel free to shank battlesuits with chainswords and tanks with power swords.
** Pairs really well with literally everything. Zombies are now a -1, grenades are -2 with the biologius, LOC is -4 with his Plaguereaper, LOV is -2 with Twin Spewer, Plague Knives are -2. The potential is everywhere. The only issue is getting your Warlord close enough.
*'''Relic - The Leechspore Casket:''' When a model is destroyed as a result of an attack made with a melee weapon by the bearer, one friendly {{W40kKeyword|Inexorable Vehicle}} model within 18" regains up to one lost wound, maxing out at 3 wounds per turn.
** Could be cool if paired with the Demonic Gluttony strat, but this relic is just kind of ok when compared with the generic book ones. 
*'''Stratagem - Ferric Miasma (1 CP):''' Use in your opponent's charge phase when an {{W40kKeyword|Inorexable}} unit becomes the target of a charge. Subtract 2 from all the opponent's charge rolls that target that unit.  
** Simple but effective. Your tanks roll up the board and you stop a counter charge by a deepstriking enemy. Can easily ruin someone's battleplan, and then you melt them with better AP weapons. 

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===Mortarion's Anvil===
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The 3rd Plague Company are known as Mortarion's Anvil, and they maintain the Death Guard's long standing preference for trench warfare. They dig in and let opponents batter themselves to death against their defenses. Their signature disease is Gloaming Bloat. Symptoms include fever, sweating, speaking with a wet gurgle, and bloating like a week-dead drowned corpse.

Thematically, this Plague Company emphasizes durability and close quarters melee combat.

Mechanically, their warlord trait screws with enemies that rely on rerolls and/or overwatch. Their relic and stratagem help out in melee. 

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*'''Warlord Trait - Gloaming Bloat (Contagion):''' Enemies within contagion range can no longer fire Overwatch or set to defend. On top of this, they can't re-roll any hit or wound rolls they make, shutting down a lot of HQs. This contagion is made just to overrun everything without looking at the resistance. Especially fucks over the [[Tau|blueberries]].
*'''Relic - Warp Insect Hive:''' The bearer re-rolls all hit and wound rolls in melee, making them far more reliable in an age where HQs no longer benefit from their own auras.
** This one seems to be made for a Daemon Prince. Gives him full rerolls and can go toe to toe with most things now. 
*'''Stratagem - Relaptic Assault (1 CP):''' Use in opponent's charge phase, Any number of selected {{W40kKeyword|Mortarion's Anvil INFANTRY}} units within 3" of the enemy can heroically intervene. 

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===The Wretched===
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The 4th Plague Company are disliked for their high numbers of sorcerers and summoning rituals. Known as The Wretched, they are ruled by a gestalt Daemon known as the Eater of Lives, and their signature disease, the Eater Plague, reduces the corpses of enemies into a slimy gruel.

Thematically, they are a company of psykers, witches, and warp-dabblers in a Legion renowned for hating that sort of thing.

Mechanically, the Wretched favor Malignant Plaguecasters, Daemon Princes, and Sorcerers. 

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*'''Warlord Trait - Eater Plague (Contagion):''' Any attacks made against enemies within Contagion range automatically wound on a nat 6 to hit. Makes zombies and mass plague marines a little better. 
*'''Relic - The Daemon's Favor:''' Malignant Plaguecaster only. The bearer replaces their Pestilential Fallout ability with "Torrent of Putrefaction". Instead of 1 mortal wound dealt on a 7 or more to cast within 12", the bearer deals 1 mortal wound within 6" on any successful cast, increasing to 1d3 on a 7+.  Best used with the stratagem 'Sevenfold Blessings' (see below) to increase the chance of rolling a 7 on the psychic test.
*'''Stratagems - Sevenfold Blessings (1 CP):''' Use before the battle. One use per battle. Select one {{W40kKeyword|Wretched Psyker}}. For the rest of the battle, that psyker knows one additional power and can re-roll one psychic test per psychic phase. 
** You could pair this with the Putrid Periapt relic and give your psyker 4 powers, but at the end of the day he can still only cast 2. Still kind of cool if you want to run a campaign or something with a beefy psyker hero. If you go this route, go for the Sorcerer in Terminator armor. You don't want all those eggs in a 4 wound 3+ save basket like a Plaguecaster.
  
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===The Poxmongers===
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The 5th Plague Company are known as the Poxmongers, and they make extensive use of Daemon Engines. Their signature disease, the Sanguous Flux, causes endless, half-clotted bleeding and leaves foul red-black trails.

Thematically, they bring the <s>Bloody Stream</s> Sanguous Flux wherever they go, leaving red trails in the tread of their mighty demon engines.

Mechanically, they buff up Daemon engines, giving them better survivability and making them better at mulching enemy infantry.

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*'''Warlord Trait - Sanguous Flux (Contagion):''' Enemies within contagion range suffer -1 to Leadership and -1 to Attrition checks. 
** Not bad and when it pops off combined with a blightbringer, entire units will run away, but so many armies completely ignore modifiers or are straight up fearless. Honestly, this is one plague company you could get away with taking a generic Warlord trait and being fine.
*'''Relic - Ironclot Furnace:''' During the command phase, select one {{W40kKeyword|Poxmongers Daemon Engine}} unit within 6". Until the start of your next Command Phase, that unit has a 4++ Invuln, quite the gift. 
** This relic is made for a full unit of Blighthaulers. Take 3, give them a 4++, put Miasma on them every turn, and then rush up the board. Even if you get into combat with them, use the next strat to help.
*'''Stratagems - Bilous Bloodrush (1 CP):''' A {{W40kKeyword|Poxmongers Daemon Engine}} unit can shoot Blast weapons while within engagement range and any ranged attacks against enemies within engagement range add +1 to hit rolls. Your engines can now blast things they're face-to-face with. Fun on a Plaguecrawler, crazy on 3 blighthaulers. Haulers go brrrr


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===The Ferrymen===
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The Ferrymen are the 6th Plague Company. Also known as the Brethren of the Fly, they maintain plague fleets and acquire new ships to add to Mortarion's armada. Instead of a signature disease, they are riddled with parasitic plague insects collectively known as the Droning.

Thematically, they focus on obtaining new ships for the plague fleets and fielding large numbers of Blightlord Terminators.

Mechanically, they give tricky tools to buff your auras or slow down enemies.

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*'''Warlord Trait - The Droning (Contagion):''' Enemy units within Contagion range have their movement halved during their movement phase.
**Much harder to use than some of the other contagions, as by the time you get this close your opponent’s speed is less relevant. This makes it harder to impossible for units to meaningfully fall back or escape melee, but most won’t mind (shooting armies will just fire back and melee ones will just counter charge). 
**Best paired with Flash Outbreak and a Bloat Drone. Drive the drone into the heart of the enemy and slow them down for a critical turn.
***RAW does nothing, as units don't have Move characteristics (and as the Space Wolves and Deathwatch can tell you, it's ''very'' possible to have a unit of mixed Move), but ''presumably'' this means halve the Move characteristic of each model in the unit. 
*'''Relic - Ferryman's Scythe:''' Replaces a Manreaper with another Manreaper that gets 3 attacks per scythe instead of 2.
*'''Stratagems - On Droning Wings (1 CP):''' At the start of your Command phase, select a {{W40kKeyword|Ferrymen Foetid Virion}} unit. One of their auras now add +6" to a max of 12" to their range. This trick is pretty decent, as each one model carries a powerful aura, even if it isn't a chaos lord's. This pairs really well with the Foul Blightspawn relic to negate charges, the Living Plague warlord trait to turn off auras, and many others. 

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===Mortarion's Chosen Sons===
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Mortarion's Chosen Sons are the 7th Plague Company and the closest to their primarch's favor. They include numerous alchemists and plague surgeons. The company's signature disease is Crawling Pustulance, also known as boilblight, lumpen splatter, and Nurgle's Fruit, and it causes the bearer to form pustules corrosive fluid across their body. 

Thematically, they are Mortarion's personal boys, a company of dark alchemists and plague brewers in the manner of their patron deity.

Mechanically, they buff plague spewers and similar weapons.

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*'''Warlord Trait - Nurgle's Fruit (Contagion):''' All attacks against enemies within contagion range ignore cover. How utterly dastardly. This one seems boring compared to the others (and it is), but thematically it makes your spewer weapons better against units in cover. (Combine this with the stratagem disgusting force on a PBC to clean out eradicators hiding in cover. The boosted damage means each failed save will be enough to destroy a model.)
*'''Relic - Vomitryx:''' Replaces a plague sprayer (so Blightspawn only) with a 7-shot one, doubling its output.
*'''Stratagems - Plague Brewers (1 CP):''' When shooting with a unit with plague belchers, plaguespurt gauntlets, or plague spewers, increase the damage of those weapons to 2. 
** Drop in 6 Deathshroud for 7d6 autohits, drop LOV next to them, LOV contagion range is boosted to 12" with psychic power and arch contaminator on LOV for full re-rolls to wound, LOV aura gives AP-1 on wounds of 6, and each wound does 2 damage. Not the best, but that's a lot of wounds and a big block of terminators t-posing on the enemy army.  

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