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

==Secondaries==
As will all new codices, Death Guard receive unique Secondary Objectives. These require every model in the army to have the {{W40Kkeyword|DEATH GUARD}} or {{W40Kkeyword|UNALIGNED}} keywords. In addition, you may only take 1 faction specific Secondary, so choose carefully.

<tabs>
<tab name="No Mercy, No Respite">
;Attrition/Grind them Down
:It isn't literally the secondary with your name on it, but it may as well be. You don't have to kill many to make your points on this one, so long as you manage your troops wisely.
;First Strike
:HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA... no.
;Fleeing Vectors
:Death Guard only. Score 3 victory points at the end of the battle round if any enemy units failed Morale tests this battle round that had one or more models destroyed by attacks made with plague weapons this battle round. Death Guard have lots of plague weapons and ways to debuff morale, but you need to ensure you are forcing failed morale tests each turn to max this out, and some armies either don't have enough vulnerable units or are immune to morale.
::The maximum victory points for this is much lower than it appears if you are going against any competent opponent. More than likely you will fail to get this secondary for at least 2 turns. Death Guard don't have the range or speed to reliably get it first turn and can at least once be countered by Insane Bravery unless you are specifically building to be better Night Lords.
;Thin Their Ranks/No Prisoners
:Good if you're up against a melee horde army like orks or nids. Between our vomit flamers and those flails we totally didn't steal from clan pestilens, mulching hordes and even tougher infantry is something we are very, very good at. 
;While We Stand, We Fight/To The Last
:Another excellent choice for the disgustingly resilient servants of Nurgle. Considering our big expensive tanks and daemon engines are also exceedingly hard to put down (particularly with the Poxmongers) and this can also turn into "keep Mortarion alive, the secondary" and if you were bringing Morty, you were building your army around him already.
</tab>
<tab name="Purge the Enemy">
;Assassinate/Assassination
:While you're more than capable of ripping plenty of enemy characters to pieces if you can get into melee with them, the trick is getting into melee. To get to the enemy characters you'll need to spend a turn at least chewing up their screens, and the thing you're trying to get to and beat to death is almost certainly faster than you.
;Bring it Down
:Death Guard are very good at killing tougher infantry, and average at killing vehicles. If you decide to go for this, bring plenty of lascannons, multi-meltas, missiles, and blight launchers. With contagion aura being a thing now, DG can wound almost everything in the game on 5s or better, so fly that drone up in range of their vehicles and hit them with your Entropy cannons now wounding on 3s. 
;Titan Slayers/Hunter
:Same as above: all knights are now toughness 7 in contagion range. Have fun wounding those knights much easier now and watching them melt to even plague knives. 
;Slay the Warlord
:See Assassinate. If he's dumb enough to fight you in melee, free points! But not worth relying on when we're better at so many other things.
</tab>
<tab name="Battlefield Supremacy">
*'''Engage on All Fronts:'''
**An interesting choice if you decide you want to cover the field in zombies like it's the walking dead. However, this does spread your forces out, which can lead to them being systematically annihilated one at a time (and then the ground under them getting scorched, just to make sure)
*'''Linebreaker:'''
**This is one we're halfway suited for. Halfway because if you can get something back there, your opponent is going to have one hell of a time getting you out. The problem lies in getting your forces back there. Nurglings can be useful for this thanks to their ability to deploy outside the zone, and they're obnoxious enough to kill that your opponent is going to have to dedicate more firepower than he thinks to removing them.
*'''Domination:'''
**A bread and butter secondary for this army, doubling down on what they're good at: Standing on an objective and daring anyone to come and get them off it.
*'''Despoiled Ground:'''
**Death Guard only. A complicated end game objective that rewards controlling multiple quarters and objectives with {{W40Kkeyword|Bubonic Astartes}} (ie. everything but poxwalkers, daemon engines, or cultists).    
***Score 4 VP if you have at least 1 unit in each deployment zone with the {{W40Kkeyword|Bubonic Astartes}} keyword. 
***Score 4 VP if you have at least 1 {{W40Kkeyword|Bubonic Astartes}} unit wholly within 3 table quarters and outside of 6 inches of the center of the table. Score 6 VP if you are in all 4 instead. 
***Score 4 VP if you control more than half of the objectives with {{W40Kkeyword|Bubonic Astartes}} units. 
***Score 4 VP if every objective marker is within the Contagion Range of Contagion abilities that units in your army possess. 
**Usually just worse than Engage on all Fronts as this only counts points at endgame whereas EoaF is progressive and you won't lose progress because of a few bad saves on the last turn.
** This is probably our best faction specific secondary given to us because of how easy it is to achieve even some of the points. So long as you are not tabled, which is tough to do to DG, you should get 8 or more points. You will want to run 1-2 squads of 3 deathshroud to deepstrike in and just be annoying by the enemy deployment zone, and then rush them in for the last turn. That alone is worth 8 points for having them in the deployment zone and having units in 3 table quarters or 4 quarters if you get that 2nd squad in. But how do you keep them alive on that last turn? Cloud of Flies or hide them behind terrain. 
**Note that only bubonic astartes can do it, which means that this one is heavily dependent on your list. A plague marine+deathshroud MSU is totally playable and is your best option here.
</tab>
<tab name="Shadow Operations">
*'''Raise the Banners High:'''
**Much like Domination, this should be a bread and butter secondary for most Death Guard armies. Since all it requires is infantry, you can have your useless tarpits like cultists or plaguebearers perform the action, giving time for your marines to let fly downtable.
*'''Investigate Sites:'''
**This one combos well with Psychic Ritual, giving something for the plaguebearers and cultists to do other than get shot at instead of your sorcerer. It might also work with a Mortarion deathstar if you leave something minor behind to handle the action after Morty kills everything within 6" of the center (including Typhus if he happens to be there)
*'''Repair Teleportation Homer/Deploy Scramblers:'''
**Sadly you cannot use Nurglings to repair sophisticated equipment, who knew? Much like linebreaker, if you can get your infantry back there, they can handle the job quite well, the trick is simply getting them back there.
*'''Spread the Sickness:'''
**Death Guard only. Another End game objective, but this one can be performed by Poxwalkers and is basically a better Banners. At the end of your movement phase one and only one {{W40Kkeyword|Death Guard Infantry}} unit can perform this action if they are within 3″ of an objective that is not already Contaminated and no enemy units (excluding aircraft) are within 3″ of that objective. The action is completed at the end of your turn. You can then choose either for the unit performing the action to take d3 mortal wounds, or to roll a d6. If you chose the wound option OR roll a 4+ on the d6 option, the objective is permanently contaminated. At the end of the battle you get 3VP for each objective you have contaminated.
**Probably the best unique one we got. Should be attempted by Poxwalkers or Cultists as taking d3 Mortals on anything more elite costs more and a 50% chance of wasting a unit's turn and flat out missing 3VP just isn't smart.
**Always compare it to raise the banner. If you can keep 2 objectives all game, raise the banner gives 10 points flat, and easily more. But if there are a lot of points that are contested, spread the sickness is better: you just need to keep the objective one turn. It means that for 4 objectives with 2 in the middle or 6 with 2 in the middle, spread the sickness is better... but for 5 objectives with 2 in your space and 1 in the middle, raise the banner is better.
</tab>
<tab name="Warpcraft">
*'''Abhor the Witch:'''
**Flavorful, considering Morty's own view on psykers. But you aren't likely to take it, as you'll want to bring or have to take psykers of your own.
*'''Mental Interrogation:'''
**Depends entirely on how much you think you need your casts. Death Guard do bring a surprising number of sorcerers, but you have to question how badly you want that extra smite or buff for your troops.
*'''Pierce the Veil:'''
**Mostly a matter of getting a caster back there. Can easily be done with a Termy Sorcerer, unless you really want to waste Morty's psychic phases (you dont).
*'''Psychic Ritual:'''
**Potentially one of our better choices. Our casters are tougher than usual and can also summon their own screens of plaguebearers if you don't want to march up some to protect him while he does his work. 
</tab>
<tab name="Faction Specific">
These are listed under their categories as well, but you can only take 1 of these and hence are collected here so you can see them at a glance.

*'''Despoiled Ground (Battlefield Supremacy, End Game)'''
*'''Fleeing Vectors (No Mercy, No Respite, Progressive'''
*'''Spread the Sickness (Shadow Operations, End Game)'''
</tab>
</tabs>