New Death Guard in 8th edition

[bozo69pd]

I just have to ask: how are you guys getting any use out of the poxwalkers? they move slow, they can't shoot, I don't even know if they can save with their stats. I know you can enhance them with Typhus or the new elites but how do you actually get something out of them in combat?

They are bubblewrap objective holders. CSM has a lot of important characters, and always have. You need ablative wounds to protect guys like DP's, Abaddon, and Typhus.

 

I am not interested in the rhinos so much with DG because unfortunately the PMs are not great.

[Ashe Darke]

The problem I'm having is keeping Tyhpus catching up with the poxwalkers. He can generally keep up but when they charge they leave his 7 inch bubble.

[Azekai]

The problem I'm having is keeping Tyhpus catching up with the poxwalkers. He can generally keep up but when they charge they leave his 7 inch bubble.

Take a lot of them and string them out a bit?

[Bulwyf]

So basically just grab at least 60 poxwalkers, typhus, the other elites and maybe a helbrute or two and you are good to do?

[bozo69pd]

So basically just grab at least 60 poxwalkers, typhus, the other elites and maybe a helbrute or two and you are good to do?

Maybe 80 poxwalkers. Flying DP are nice as well. So are the blight drones. Oh and 1 Herald to summon in to buff strength.

[Commissar K.]

The problem I'm having is keeping Tyhpus catching up with the poxwalkers. He can generally keep up but when they charge they leave his 7 inch bubble.

Consider Warp Time to be part of your toolbox aswell. Nurgle arguably has the best spells right now with acces to regular Chaos Psycic Powers, Death Guard Powers and Nurgle Daemon Powers. The combination of it should give you whatever you are looking for, speed, durability and increased damage output included.

[Ashe Darke]

I do run two Princes and they actually have to use the normal Chaos powers so Warp Time is in the army. I run 60 poxwalkers and sometimes it's tricky getting him in just the right direction place. When charging are you allowed to not move everyone in as close as possible I.e. leave some stragglers just to stay in range? Much better to have 2 less attacks at s4 than 2 more but at s3.

 

Part of the issue is that the temptation is to get the Princes running Smite instead. Still what I'm doing now seems to be working well.

[Charlo]

 

The problem I'm having is keeping Tyhpus catching up with the poxwalkers. He can generally keep up but when they charge they leave his 7 inch bubble.

Consider Warp Time to be part of your toolbox aswell. Nurgle arguably has the best spells right now with acces to regular Chaos Psycic Powers, Death Guard Powers and Nurgle Daemon Powers. The combination of it should give you whatever you are looking for, speed, durability and increased damage output included.

 

 

Not to mention that is a lot of useful powers that you can attempt to cast per turn, not just smite - so having a lot of psykers is a great boon.

[Commissar K.]

What do you guys think of the new look for the for lack of better name "Death Guard Vindicator"?

[Sception]

It's weird.  I kind of like it, but I can see how a lot of people wouldn't.

[Angrypantz]

Death guard medusa would be a better name for that to be honest. Or even death guard griffon.

 

I love it and want two or three for my Death Guard. My army arrived today and I cannot wait to get started.

[balordazul]

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.

 

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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. 

 

Prot,

 

I came up with similar feedback that I had posted on another thread.

 

I played a 1300 DG vs BA last weekend working with mainly what you can get out of two starters sets.

 

First off do not take the Lord of Contagion he is extremely over costed mainly because of the absurd 45 point cost of the weapon that should be no more than 25 points max.  Use that model as a stand in for Typhus he is cheaper and better.  Hold off buying a Typhus model as we might get a new one soon but there are no hits have been dropped yet.  His model is still fantastic and imo it is better than the new sculpts but on the scale of the older metal CSM terminators.  

 

Typhus pros over Lord of Contagion.

Cost efficient

Better weapons

Psycher

Force multiplier for Pox Walkers

 

I did forget to use Nurgle's Gift in that game.

 

Pox Walkers - These guys look weak at first and they are as you need to advance and charge the enemy.  As I was playing against an aggressive BA player, if he had taken his time and let his Baal Predators do their job he would have wiped out both units of 20 without an issue. Having a larger unit helps as you can hit a little better from a 33% to 50%.  Typhus is huge for these guys as the 7" range buff is nice for +1 S&T.  Now you need to note Typhus is slow as his advance rolls are reduced by half.  The Psychic powers Miasma of Pestilence and Contagion will really help out this unit.  I had two psychers and found the DG is very dependent on these two powers.  

 

This might shock you but I feel so long as you are running Typhus, the Pox Walkers are DG current melee damage dealers.  

 

 

If you are using a Blightbringer he is mainly here to help you advance.  The minus LD is not that big as there are a lot of morale protective abilities in the game.  The minus two LD against Psychers is useless unless you run into psycher units containing more than one model.  As we don't have anything that attacks vs LD and single model units do not take morale tests.  I'm honestly disappointed with this unit as they focused on the cool factor vs something more synergic.  As much as I don't like him you do need to get Typhus and the Pox Walkers across the table so he feels more like a tax to make the army work.  Sadly he has 7 plague bells on him that are doing nothing but making the model stand out.  It would have been nice to have a random buff system off those bells.  

 

Plague Marines - These guys are in a strange place right now.  They no longer have pistols and do not get 2 attacks in CC but re-roll 1's to wound with the plague knife.  They have gone from a great unit to something that is ok.  We lost the punch in CC but we did get a very good ranged weapon with the blight launcher that I tried out in my game.  For weapons go with melta guns and blight lunchers and double up so you can stay consistent and focused in their battle field roll.  If you plan on getting in CC with them and most likely you will, gear the plague champ with PF and plasma pistol for a low cost of 27 points.  If you are going with the starter set models you can easily clip off the plague sword and change out that weapon.  

 

T5 in 8th!

So T5 in 8th is a huge change but if you are coming to DG only in 8th this might not be a big deal.  In the past S3 attack were not that dangerous to T5 but now they are just as deadly as S4.  On the flip side a S7 to S9 now only wounds you on 3+.  

 

Plague Marines have dropped overal in unit quality in part to new to wound and gearing of the unit.  I do believe they have done this to get us to buy more of the new DG units like Pox Walkers and the DG terminators that they have not released yet.  They are fine as a support unit and still ok but not that great unit they were in the past.

 

Malignant Plaguecaster - Love this guy as the DG psychic powers I feel is what will make this force work.  First smite and I'm sure I do not have to explain how good that power is even with the limitation being the closest enemy.  I had Typhus and Mephiston going one on one and Typhus finished off that sparkly space vamp with a smite right to the face.  

 

Pestilential Fallout is a very helpful close range extra attack that is nice and thematic.  If you roll Nurgle's number or higher you can target within Nurgle's number in inches and inflict one mortal wound. (PS that number is 7)

 

Via right from the rules, characteristic modifiers stack!  The key with rules like this you need to check the rules for exclusionary conditions.  

 

Miasma of Pestilence - This thing is your bread and butter as DG has never really been about doing high damage but being a more elite force that is hard to hurt.  Making units harder to hit in both ranged and melee is fantastic and help to offset the power of shooting in this edition.  

 

Gift of Contagion - This is a random negative characteristic modifiers power can reduce the target's offense of defense and best used when are trying to get into CC.  Stack this on the same unit with as many casters as you have when you assault.

 

Plague Wind - The lowest tier of the three imo unless you are running into hordes.  You should get consistently more out of other two powers.

 

Fetid Bloat-Drone - Offense ok but it has good resilience and this is a chaff or announce unit.  Sadly GW made 8th flamers in heavy favor of attacking single targets with high strength weapons.  Looking at you Elder D-scyth and sad favoritism they have for space elfs. You are going to get near 7 hits each turn when you fire the Plaguespitters but I was honestly not impressed with the weapon.  

 

What I found the Bloat-Drone to be good at is drawing fire and taking enemy charges.  Two things here you can advance and still fire your plaguespitters as they are assault and they still auto hit ignoring the penalty.  So start them near a Blightbringer at the start of the game so you can advance as far as you can.  Next once people have assaulted them next turn fallback as you are a fly unit and you can move over units so pick your location and you are allowed to fire those plaguespitters again.  As these are your fast units use them to charge enemy vehicles that don't have the fly keyword or are good in CC.  You can tie them up and annoy the enemy.  

 

Disgustingly Resilient is fantastic and there is only one thing that ignores it that I have found and that is the plasma supercharge failure.  You can even take it on Mortal Wounds, yes check the wording it is after you take the wound you apply Disgustingly Resilient.

 

Overal all DG is good with the rebalancing of unit power.  I hope the Plaguereaper is FAQ's down on cost because at 45 points we are looking at dreadnought weapons and this is not even close maybe equivalent to SM Thunder Hammer.

 

I'm hoping for a new Typhus model and that the DG terminators are going to be good.  Mortarion I have no desire for as I never really got into mega character models but that is just a personal taste. 

[MoGuy]

So what's the go-to loadout for your Plaguemarines? As a newbie to Nurgle's blessed Legion they look like a 24" range firesupport unit that is meant to sit on an objective (which you wisely placed in cover somewhere on your side of the table so that they have a 2+ armour save as well). So... two Blightlaunchers and some Combi-Plasma on the Sarge?

 

How do you deal with tanks? Just Discopreds and Helbrutes or do you drive up some Melta-PMs in a Combi-Melta Rhino as well?

 

A lot of the DG characters and (de)buffs are about that 7" bubble, which seems like the designers want he Death Guard to get close to their foes, which in turn would suggest to me that they should get into CC. So have you tried running some CC oriented PMs with Flamers and a Plaguecaster or Bell Boy as support with their 7" bubbles? 

[bozo69pd]

PM loadout is probably 2 PG or 2 BL. Maybe PF on champ?

[balordazul]

To be honest just have fun with them right now and try out stuff.  Proxy before spending money but the starter sets is good deal.  I believe the Blight Launchers are great as they work well both at the 24" range and close in.  

 

We need to see what the codex gives us in the end.  

 

Prio to this edition I ran the plague spear but it has lost a pit of the punch that it had in the earlier editions.  This was a land raider or two with PMs melta guns and combi-flamer PF champ.  Supported by PMs in Rhinos and Flying DP depending on the edition.  I don't see this working anymore as the points are to heavy for the transports and the PMs have lost a lot in CC with no pistol or extra attack.  I would take a chain sword over the bad plague knife.  Also one of my land raider PM units was double flamer and combi flamer but with the random value of the flamer system flamer style weapons are better vs single model units. Prior to 8th you were able to be much more consistent on getting more hits than the current system for flamer style weapons.  Plus GW has over costed flamers heavily unless you have a cheap 20 point D-syth.  

 

Yes, GW wants the synergistic feel of the auras, plus the stacking negative characteristic modifiers we can do via psychic powers.    

 

I would suggest to read around and try things out before spending money.  There are some great players on here and also a number of gamers that say everything is awesome.  Remember to fear those that only sing praise as they hold more un-truths then a person with a critical eye.  

 

Plus the codex with out soon ish and things could change .... maybe.

[MoGuy]

Thanks for the advice! I ordered the Death Guard part of the Dark Imperium box for 50€ on eBay which is quite cheap. I'll proxy some stuff and probably won't buy any more models until the codex drops. Maybe more Poxwalkers and a second Drone because I love the models...

[balordazul]

Thanks for the advice! I ordered the Death Guard part of the Dark Imperium box for 50€ on eBay which is quite cheap. I'll proxy some stuff and probably won't buy any more models until the codex drops. Maybe more Poxwalkers and a second Drone because I love the models...

 

Good call and yes Poxwalkers have good and bad things tied to them but I'm going to need to pick up more and I have 40 right now.  Note you do have a chance of a poxwalker outbreak to happen in game.  The rule Cure of the Walking Pox does not cap your unit at the unit max of 20 so there is a theory crafting chance of a unit to get large if things go your way.  

 

You would need to build for that sort of game play and have a large amount of things go your way to become an episode of The Walking Dead Poxwalkers once in a 100 games but someone will post about it this edition.  

 

I did run two Drones and as you have seen they are low offense but hard to kill and can annoy the heck out of your opponent.  When the real kit comes out and if they offer a melee geared version they might be DG gold.  

[the jeske]

As some said, if you have an army, play with what ever you want till the codex arrives. If you want to start playing wait for the codex. If you want an nurgle efficient army right now, it can't be a DG one, or to be more precise it can use some DG units[pox, tyfus], but the rest is mostly demons.

[angrom]

I have a question regarding the possibility for the great unclean one deamon to summon other deamon unit.

If you have a foetid bloat drone in your army and it get killed during the battle. can you summon it back even if you don't have allocated summoning reserve points?

[bozo69pd]

I have a question regarding the possibility for the great unclean one deamon to summon other deamon unit.

If you have a foetid bloat drone in your army and it get killed during the battle. can you summon it back even if you don't have allocated summoning reserve points?

Nope. All additional models added (except for rules like poxwalkers) need reserve points.

[Commissar K.]

I have a question regarding the possibility for the great unclean one deamon to summon other deamon unit.

If you have a foetid bloat drone in your army and it get killed during the battle. can you summon it back even if you don't have allocated summoning reserve points?

Foetid Bloat Drone does not have the Daemonic Ritual ability so that is a no.

For example where you can 're-use' models, profided you have enough is when you HAVE put Reinforcement points aside and happen to have sufficient models "killed" to return for another unit.

 

Keep in mind that for the gameplay purposes these models do not count as the same unit.

[angrom]

Also another question,

 

I can't quite find where they say that unit with the mark of nurgle and part of the Death guard army automatically get the disgustingly resilient.

For example in the death guard army list that give all unit that the death guard can have, do I get the disgustingly resilient rule on my deathguard deamon prince if I decide to take one?

same for possessed and cultists?

[Nurgleprobe]

Also another question,

 

I can't quite find where they say that unit with the mark of nurgle and part of the Death guard army automatically get the disgustingly resilient.

For example in the death guard army list that give all unit that the death guard can have, do I get the disgustingly resilient rule on my deathguard deamon prince if I decide to take one?

same for possessed and cultists?

 

Death Guard armies don't get Resilient just for being DG. Each choise either have it or they dont. What you do get: Death Guard legion faction keyword, must take Nurgle Marks, Plague Marines as troops, psychic powers. 

 

And this is of course, for now, until the actual codex comes out and may buff up some of the units that join Death Guard.

 

Also to the rest, so I'm assuming you're not playing with Matched Play rules at the moment? Or am I misunderstanding that you're using the same psychic power several times in a game? (Seeing as you know... you can't ;p)  

[bozo69pd]

Yeah I actually now refuse to use Havoks, bikers, vanillas marines, etc because they do not have disgustingly resilient. It really helps the entire army out having that rule. When I lost all of my Havocs in first turn of shooting while Blight gun PM's survived the entire game showed me the way.

[balordazul]

PM blight launcher havoks .... yes please

 

The lore has changed a few times dealing with heavy weapons and DG but between media like video games and the need for a themed army I do hope that many of the units will be getting +1T and DR.

 

I would love a T8 defiler with DR, or the already good Chaos Spawn with +1T and DR.  

 

I'm also sending GW the math on the Plague Reaper and that it really is equal in killing power to a thunder hammer but 180% of the cost of a character thunder hammer.  I would really hate to see the new DG termies having 45 point melee weapons that will most likely cost more than the DG terminator.