New Death Guard in 8th edition

[Prot]

It's something I'm contemplating.... seriously a bad idea but I wanted to see feedback on how they are playing now that the Dark Imperium box set is out and the models should be playable now, and the 'new' faction is now playable.

 

How are you doing with them? What's working for you and what isn't?

[Omni]

For now we don't have many options...

Typhus is great.So are noxious blightbringers.

Bloat drones and blight drones are excellent.

plague marines are very good too.

Don't have opinnion on blightbringer and their other HQs yet. I only know that  I'm going for 2 blightbringers, because of their movement boost.

 

So far my planned list for 2k points is that http://i.imgur.com/6xPxyRI.png + one FW blight drone

For 2500 points I may go for secong blight drone and DG termis, once they hit, and maybe some cultists if  still below 2500p .

 

It isn't a thing yet, I still wait for second bloat and bell guy, plus I need new plague marine box to hit, to have enough of them for 4x7 ssquads

[bozo69pd]

I am still putting my DI models together as we speak. So far they do what they always do, be tough and shoot while moving across the board holding objectives. We will have to see Mortarion's rules to see if they can go toe to toe against the likes of Guilleman or Magnus.

 

I am still just sobbing over my Plague Reaper though...

[Marshal Loss]

The dearth of options hampers the list significantly right now.

 

1. Typhus is really good.
2. The Lord of Contagion is fine, but there is 0 reason to take a Lord of Contagion over Typhus.
3. Malignant Plaguecaster is nice. He meshes well with the list.
4. The Noxious Blightbringer is really good, and an auto-include if you're footslogging.
5. Plague Marines are pretty good, albeit not as good as I'd hoped. They're far weaker in close combat than I am used to them having been in previous editions, they have no defensive grenades and as with much of the list, it doesn't really feel like they do enough damage for their points. They are tough, though, as you'd expect. I followed the S-mohawk's advice and took Blight Launchers and loved them.
6. Poxwalkers are overpriced, but very important. In my handful of games so far having them there to screen my Plague Marine units, keeping them out of combat and firing, was pivotal. But they feel too pricey for what we get from them. Having Typhus to buff them helps.
7. Putrid Boat Drones are fast and tough. They have a little bit less damage output than I'd like, but they're far from bad.

I'm planning on finding some kind of nurgle daemon prince (the Mamon model from FW isn't on sale anymore, typical...) to help me out. Not tried any of the tanks, or the FW stuff. Not too worried right now, so long as that DG codex hits sooner rather than later, to flesh all of this out.

[Prot]

What about Belakor, until the Deathguard codex fleshes out? He looks strong in a list of mainly infantry.

 

Is the best loadout 2 plasmaguns and the specialize weapn(forgot the name)?

 

Poxwalkers looked really good to me. Then again I use Tzaangors so I might be biased. I love the fluffy angel they have on growing in number. They do seem to have a good role though.

[bozo69pd]

Marshal, I recommend the AoS Morghasts for Nurgle DP models. In fact you get 2 in a box and they are the same size as a DP.

 

Now what I want to know is should I be taking pox walkers, cultists, nurglings, or plaguebearers in my troops slot in my Nurgle Keyword army?

[Sonoftherubric21]

Ah Prot my friend; I to have been thinking of dabbling with Grandfather Nurgle's children as of late.....

 

I got the Dark Imperium figures, bought a set of 10 extra poxwalkers and extra set of DG on ebay for 30 bucks for all of it....and that combined with Dark Imperium is very high points (well over 1000 actually!) 

 

I was thinking of mixing Black Legion / Death Guard with a leaning toward more DG.  I have a freshly built Dark Vengance kit for chosen to compensate in Melee, I have an extra Cypher laying around for fun to use with the Black Legion, and the Dark Imperium Plague marines basically brings me to almost 2000....I don't know if nurgle alone would hold my sway for an extended time period, but a mixture of Death Guard and generic chaos may just do the trick. 

 

I wouldn't want to do "straight foot-slogger DG" as a list....because that is functionally identical to many of my 8th edition lists for the Thousand Sons, who can now foot slog hard to kill marines with the best of them in 8th!  Several of my friends pointed it out "like hey cool list idea, but...it sounds like a nurgle version of your thousand sons army lists...." 

Damn it. They are right, so my idea for next best thing is DG with some Black legion smattering for raptors, Chosen, basically "combat" oriented stuff, and allows me to enjoy all the new nasty goodness of the DG without making an identical list to what I currently own. Objective holding would be down to the Death Guard and Pox walkers to intercept. 

[hopkins]

i'm holding out for the new codex, kits and blight launchers

[1000 Sons]

Been looking at the FW book for some punch, Mamon looks good and seems to be a close combat monster, and Necrosius also makes pox walkers a bit more resilient

[SkimaskMohawk]

I tried necrosius the other day and I don't think he's quite worth it for zombie buffing as it only increases their survivability by 11%.

 

That being said his psychic defence is immense and he's decent in combat too.

 

I'm not sure if I'd take him over a backfield lord to buff hits, or a normal sorc though.

[El_Dicko]

Waiting on the dex and new kits too. I'm really curious if the bloat drone will get a proper kit with more weapon options ala the hellbrute. I snagged two extra ones in addition to picking up the nurgle half of the DI set, I'm into the idea of spamming them in an outrider detachment.

[TURBULENCE]

Marshal, I recommend the AoS Morghasts for Nurgle DP models. In fact you get 2 in a box and they are the same size as a DP.

 

Now what I want to know is should I be taking pox walkers, cultists, nurglings, or plaguebearers in my troops slot in my Nurgle Keyword army?

I used alot of morghast parts for my DP and I'd agree that they look great for nurgle uses.

[Lagrath]

I hope FW clears up the issues in their new chaos book regarding that you can't make anything both Death Guard and The Tainted except the two special chars so their auras are useless. As usual FW has to write rules in advance and then at publication stuff doesn't mesh right with the codexes.

 

If you can make poxwalkers both tainted and death guard (which seems like a no brainer that you should be able to do that) then Necrosis can do two buffs to your zombies.

 

Sucks that DG can't take the best daemon engines, I'm so disappointed with GW! Dumb dumb rule. I hope the new codex makes the rest of the units more worth taking.

[Gordon Shumway]

If this email is legit, it seems FW is going to be even better for opening up units to take <whatever> as keywords: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/downloadAttach/267109.page

[DuskRaider]

^That would alleviate a TON of concerns.

[Marshal Loss]

That's fantastic news. Now they just need to post it in a PDF, as being the paranoid sod that I am, I'm still not willing to spend masses of cash unless it's guaranteed to be legal.

[RedFox]

Here's my planned 2.5k list so far

 

21 plague marines

14 terminators (will use the upcoming rules)

Typhus

Dark Imperium characters

30 poxwalkers

3 heavy bolter rapiers

1 contemptor dreadnought with butcher canon

 

Now all my points left need to go into tanks and transport and I'm at lost on what to do. Couple of rhinos with predators? Footslogging my marines with sicaran tanks? Land Raider? Go big with a Spartan (very tempting) ? Help!

[Prot]

So with a list like that, how would you take care of Landraiders/Flyers/Knights, etc?

 

I love the idea of the massed infantry (IDK what heavy bolter Rapiers are though). The Death Guard infantry have a lot going for them, but I'd personally always try to find a way to add a Baledrake in a list that big. ;)

[Prot]

Just an update...

 

Trying a new list tonight and I'm trying to stay within the confines of the "Deathguard codex", small as it may be. 

 

Has anyone found the new Foetid Bloat drones to be good?

[Ashe Darke]

I run 3 and tend to send them in as a group. They were brutal vs non shooting heavy armies. Typically either sending them off the turn 2 take out some backline element I don't want to be alive or behind a screen of poxwalkers who take the charge, fall back and then the bloat drones let rip.

 

Combined with the -1 to hit power it can be pretty nasty if you're rushing up as even at half wounds you're still pretty effective.

 

Against a gunline their damage output was limited due to taking the brunt of the shooting but that in itself was useful.

[Pezza1989]

Has anyone gave the Plague Hulk some table time?

[bozo69pd]

I just lost a game last night due to not being able to take out an imperial knight. Was playing horde backed up by 21 missile launcher havocs. The enemy ignored the horde then killed 20/21 havocs on his first turn before I could even go... pretty sure that cost me the game because I almost brought it back on turn 1 when my blight drone killed 2 flyers ( pus spitters then a charge into the next flyer for the 2nd kill). I like those and I think I will take 3 or 4 from now on. I have Plague Drones that I don't care for and may convert into blight drones.

 

I need to try out a nurgle soul grinder though. I suspect I would prefer a couple of those to the havocs with a screen of as many zombies as possible. So far those guys don't let me down.

[Commissar K.]

I think that Death Guard as a mono CSM army is around but not what you'd say top competitive. However the moment you get Nurgle Daemons in the mix things start to get interesting, really fast even with Heralds of Nurgle combined with things like Plague Drones and other Daemonic Engines (with Daemon and Nurgle Keyword). 

All in all though I think Chaos currently is at it's best when mixed and that applies to everybody within Chaos as we speak. Talon CSM Prince with Warp Time is an excellent assassin to use, Poxwalkers with Thypus are great and untypically Plague Marines units are cool to use but not the main engine I believe Nurgle can be extremely succesful with. Though they remain a tough backbone and having 2 units of 7 still is an excellent additional troop choice. 

So essential key combinations I think make Death Guard worth it:
- Daemon Prince of Nurgle with Wings and Talons and Warp Time
- Thypus with at least 2 units of 20 Poxwalkers
- Heralds of Nurgle with Daemonic Engines with Nurgle Keyword, easy to summon, easy to use Fleshy Abundance, ease to get Blight Drone up to S7 or Daemon Prince with Talons to S8
- Pair of Blight Drones with the above messes up Mob-stuff really well

TLDR; go for it, just don't forget to use Nurgle Deamons to your advantage. Warp Time essentially removes your "weakness", Fleshy Abundance plays well into the strenghts that are allready there. 

[Prot]

Just had a game vs an interesting match up I have not played against in 8th edition.... Genestealer cult. He had a great mix of units, including Goliaths. Prime, lots of bodies, and I forgot how annoying their Psychic phase can be. 

 

I had a very simply list and just wanted to try units we played Maelstrom to keep each other honest (no hiding in corners with pew-pew). My list was based around the new HQ Counts as Typhus (Love the new model, but Typhus is just so much better). Typhus and the Lord of Contagion dude (the guy with the taco bell sign on his back... honestly I just referred to him as Taco Bell guy because the titles were so confusing to my opponent (and me!)

 

The bell dude is something I've heard everyone say you need multiples of. He's not cheap and he really seemed to be the most mediocre part of my list. Him, Typhus , and 20 Poxwalkers and the Plaguecaster walked straight up the middle.

 

I took 2 Foetid bloat Drones which I realized I should have taken advantage of the Taco Bell dude and raced them up for a T1 roasting. But in my defense he was infiltrating all over the place.

 

I took a Landraider, 2 Plague Marine squads with dual blight launchers/Plasma-fist champs in the LR and a Rhino.

 

A Baledrake seemed to fit in with the theme and I've actually been really liking them in 8th.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Notes:

 

- Typhus was good... I think just right for his point level but he felt like 'the' reason you take Poxwalkers is because he makes them nearly as good as Tzaangors. I think Tzaangors are a touch better, for... I think a single point more. Dual Tzaangor blades, and inherent T4 is good. Hitting easier too. But Typhus did some good work he was the one reason the GSC did not want to engage the Poxwalkers.  As a side note the Destroyer Hive has a fun cool factor in CC.

 

- Poxwalkers. Kind of covered above... a really 'fun' unit. Nothing felt particularly strong about them but they just kind of function well enough that you could steer them towards an objective and not worry about them breaking. Fun in turning victims into members... very fun. There were times they dipped down to 5 models, and worked their way back up to 8-9!

 

- Taco Bell dude. I really wasn't impressed with this guy for the points. Maybe this was because I was playing a semi assaulty opponent. 

 

- Foetid Bloat drones. Perhaps my favorite unit... but they feel just about right... speedy dual flame units that can tie up, and run...er, float away. I was in real trouble for a while with a Prime genestealer leading two large squads of some neophyte type guys, and the drones saved my flank. First turn they wiped a large Genestealer squad which may have dictated the outcome of the game.

 

- Plague Marines. Maybe the least impressive part of my list. I think these will get min-maxed by many players. The shooting is okay. I had it in my head that the plasma + fist + dual Blight launchers was going to kick butt, but they did not. Plain bolters really kind of stink in 8th now, the special weapons are okay, but the squad points become very cost prohibitive if you're an idiot like me and take a 10 man squad in a Landraider!

 

- Landraider. These still serve me well. He had a T1 Goliath blow up, and I kept casting a power on him...which leads me to....

 

- Plaguecaster. Perhaps my favorite 'effective' unit. The Deathguard powers are all so good...between this guy and Typhus it was always an internal debate on who is getting to cast what. Plague wind on a large tie up squad is very handy. And back to the Landraider... what a great combo (I think it's called:) MIasma of Pestilence + a hard target/valuable target (Landraider)  = fun for everyone!

 

It was a really thematic feeling army. Quite fun to play out, and of course the new models are really awesome. 

[bozo69pd]

Prot I second the Bell dude did not do much my game... although he did let my unit of plague marines choose between a 1 and a 5 to take an objective and score on turn 1.