Goatboy here and it is a great time to be a Chaos 40K player. Here’s the top 5 things I liked about the new Death Guard codex. They are back and tougher than ever.
What a time to be a 40K Chaos player. We got an updated Chaos Daemons index, a slew of detachments, and even two new Chaos Cult codex in World Eaters and the Death Guard. Today I want to talk about the top 5 things I liked about the new Death Guard book. Overall the 10th Edition codex appears to be pretty powerful with a Death Guard getting updated dataslates, powerful set of detachments, and getting even tougher.
As usual this is just the top 5 things I like from this codex that stands out to me. Right now I am pretty excited about the World Eaters book but I do think the Death Guard might be the stronger codex based on rules alone. We’ll have to see if points bring things back down but Death Guard now feel like a “Chaos” version of the Adeptus Custodes with a lot more options. The Death Guard were always one of the Chaos Cult Legions books that feel really filled out with unit options. The army has a ton of choices amongst all the “types”. They have good vehicles, good troops, strong “elites”, and powerful characters. Really it is a fully realized codex with a ton of cool options to play with. There’s so many ways a player can take the army! So what’s the best in the codex?
5. Many Potent Characters to Lead the Army
There are piles of options to make your units more powerful. The newest Plague Marine Champion the Lord of Poxes gives the unit an extra 3” to their contagion rule and make it where the unit of Plague Marine he joins can only be shot if you are within 18”. So many characters give extra rules that you can easily “combo” up your units with things like Lance, Sustained Hits 1, reroll all wounds, +1 to OC for the unit, -1 to be hit, and a pile of others. Really the army shines in letting you make awesome options with just your crazy characters.
The Lord of Contagion got a fun glow up with the ability to stand back up on a 2+ which makes it an excellent “singleton” to put in an army and deep strike in to score a mission. You have the same ability to combo up with multiple characters as before which is pretty cool too. The foot Daemon Prince is also good just like the World Eater on with a 12” CP discount aura and Lone Operative if they are near a troop choice. All of these characters seem good and amazing.
4. Contagion Power Updated and Cleaned Up
I am happy they removed the ability to get a double stack -2 to hit and now it is just a flat -1 to be hit. This helps clean up that interaction and lets Warhammer 40K work like we talked about with a maximum -1 to whatever the enemy tries to do. They kept the -1 to save power and a new updated -1 to Leadership, OC, and Move which can be pretty annoying. They have also added a whole new word with Afflicted if an enemy unit is within Contagion range or if something puts you into that like some of the powers and abilities in the book. I would probably get tokens or something to make when someone has gotten sick.
3. Worthwhile Detachments
The book has 6 detachments plus the Flyblown host from Grotms update. That gives you the magic number 7 which is pretty dang awesome for the cult. The ones that I expect to show up a ton would be the Flyblown Host and updated original one now called Virulent Vectorium.
The Virulent Vectorium kept the everyone sticky objective power which is still very good. Just think of how your Rhino could drive up, drop some Plague Marines off, make that objective sticky, and win you the game. The sticky objective starts to pump out Contagion too which is pretty amazing. It also has an auto explode stratagem, -1 damage reduction, and a full hit/wound reroll with shooting versus Afflicted units. Heck the Enhancements are good too a reroll wound if they are near an Objective they control, a 5+ Feel No Pain for the bearer, and plus 1 strength/attacks with devastating wound weapon.
The Shamblerot Vectorium is the Poxwalker detachment that lets you regrow “a 10 Poxwalker unit” units round 2,3, and 4 which seems pretty good. The Poxwalkers are also Battleline too which is pretty neat. There are a ton of enhancements that amplify your pox walkers when you have leaders attached. It is a crazy amount of awesome strats to make your little baby zombies better too. You have things like Mortal wounds being thrown back as you kill Poxwalkers. You can make your Poxwalkers better too with +1 strength and attack. Heck you even get a way to make your Poxwalkers unit deep strike in as well.
2. Deathshroud & Terminators are SO BACK
There is a detachment built for your Terminator boys as they got a nice spicy update. All those bodies got toughness 7 as well as moving 5 inches now. This is a pretty big deal as again that old 4 inch move was so slow. Going to Toughness 7 also means that big fancy anti Knight guns are most likely just wounding them on 3’s.
The detachment is called Death Lord’s Chosen and it gives you a ton of Terminator based enhancements as well as stratagems. Its main rule is the ability to roll a 2d6 for each afflicted unit and if you roll a 6 or less they take d3 Mortal wounds. if the unit is below half strength the check is done at a -1. The enhancements basically build up your Terminator and the bois they join with like giving them a no shooting if you are not within 18”, the ability to go back into Reserves, and even faster movement. All the strats help out Terminator bodies with a fight on death option, amplifying their shooting option, rerolling hits, and ways to cause more Mortal wounds. I don’t think the Detachment is one of the best but Terminators seem amazing.
The Blightlords are a bit too expensive right now but will see as the game continues on. The Deathshroud are amazing again with the ability to get to a 6 man squad, amazing overwatch abilities, and just powerful damage. The Blightlords got a nice bump to damage 2 weapons now for their Melee so will see if they get a nicer bump in the future to have them show up.
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1. The Tallyband Summoners & Deamon Combos
While the Shadow Legion is probably the most competitive detachment both sides of the army don’t really work well together. The Tallyband Summoners are set up to be best friends by a set of rules that chain off of each other. This is pretty dang awesome and makes this a very fun style of army. I don’t think it is the best but at the very least it feels the most “Papa Nurgles” favorite bois detachment.
The army basically is if you have Nurgle Daemons within 7” of your Death Guard units they gain the Nurgle’s Gift Aura ability that matches the Death Guard. Then if a Death Guard unit is near a Nurgle Daemon they push their Contagion range from Nurgle’s Gift out by 3”. It is a pretty neat interaction as it just always works and lets you cover them table in some stank. You could see a lot of the “faster” Nurgle Daemons elements feeding this especially the Plague Drones that could easily cover a lot of real estate between their Plague brothers.
The Verdict
Overall codex: Death Guard seems pretty strong. It is a deep codex with a lot of units, a ton of rules, and it seems to be set up to be a powerhouse in 10th Edition. I expect it to get hit a bit with points increases as time goes on and certain things float to the top. I know it is an exciting book for those who loved to play the Death Guard as you got a ton of ways to get this army on the table top and start wrecking face.
Hail the XIVth Legion!
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Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.
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