Tactics and dirty tricks

[Wolf Lord Loki]

So i know a lots been said in the run up to the deathguard release. Now has anyone developed any decent combos or synergies for Deathguard/ daemons.

 

Ive read a lot on pox walkers but i dont really consider them deathguard so i shallnt dwell on them.

 

One tactic i was considering was cc equiped plague marine squad with an icon of despair, chaos spawn and a noxious blightbringer

If you assault a unit with the icon and spawn thats -2ld from the outset. Have the plague bell loitering nearby and thats -3

The deathguard wont have to cause many wounds to start to break the target

 

 

Also would you rate 2 blight lauchers or 3 plasma guns for a support type squad

[Cryptix]

If you take a Herald and Death Guard Psyker of some sort with at least two slots you can get Deathshroud to S9 with a +2-+3 to wound swing depending on Veteran of the Long War. The truck gets even more deathstarish with possessed since you can get S7 T5 with the same +2/+3 wound swing and can throw in Epidemius for even more FUN once things start dying.

[SkimaskMohawk]

"Poxwalkers aren't deathguard" k

 

Melee fear bomb is terrible. There's a reason why Night Lords are janky at best, and that's with more ability to stack it and not needing to be in melee. You can do a -3 to their LD and cause a few more wounds than otherwise, or you could have been shooting them with blights or plasma for 3 turns, without needing 3 units worth of investment.

 

The possessed combo is similarly trash because of the overwhelming investment you need to have them perform at a level where they're a threat.

[MasterDeath]

- Foetid Bloat-Drone with Plaguespitter and a neaby Warlord with Arch-Contaminator. 2D6 Autohits with Str 6 and reroll to wound is pretty dangerous. 

- An obvious one: "Blight Bombardement" stratagem with a nearby Biologus Putrifier. Up to 20D6 hits (7d6 realistically) S4 D2, every 6 is a Mortal wound. Add "Veterans of the long war" to deal Mortals on a 5 +, add an Arch-Contaminator (on the Biologus for example) for rerolls to wound. Remember, rerolls before +/- mods, so you can reroll rolls that would wound with the +1 if you want to fish for Mortal wounds. Bonus points if you play a City Fight Scenario. Grenades always cause maximum hits there. 

- Plague Chirugeon with the "Plaguebringer" relic and the "Blades of Putrifaction" spell vs. Adeptus Astartes. Every wound roll on 7+ will cause a Mortal Wound and every wound roll of 6+ will also cause a Mortal wound. You get +1 to wound for Geneseed Thief and +1 for Blades of Putrfaction, so every 4+ is a Mortal wound and every 5+ are actually two Mortal wounds. Add "Veterans of the Long war" for 3+ Mortal Wound and 4+ for 2 Mortal wounds. Add (again) Arch-Contaminator so you can even better fish for mortals, as the Strength of the Chirugeon is rather low. Bonus for having a Death Shroud and/or Chaos Lord nearby for +1 A/rerolls 1 to hit.

- DG Possessed with "Blades of Putrefaction", "Veterans of the Long war" and the Daemon Spell with +1 to Wound. On a 4+ Mortal Wound an Double damage. And you wound allmost everything on a 2+ anyway. (I think there are Buildings with T11+) See below, Possessed cant use Blades of Putrefaction.

Edited October 15, 2017 by MasterDeath

[01RTB01]

How exactly does point 3 work there? I'm super tired and that seems bonkers...

[SkimaskMohawk]

Daemon spell gives +1 to wound and 7s cause double damage. Blades gives +1 to wound and 7s cause an additional mortal wound with Plague Weapons. Veterans gives +1 to wound.

 

So in theory if you find a unit that all three can be stacked on, you get +3 to wound (usually resulting in 2s) with double damage and mortal wounds proccing on 4s. The issue is that for all three the unit needs to be Death Guard, Infantry, Daemon and have Plague Weapons. Possessed don't have Plague Weapons, which means that you don't get the mortal wound portion, which is by far the most useful part.

 

Mortarion is a much better option for the spell-based portion.

[MasterDeath]

How exactly does point 3 work there? I'm super tired and that seems bonkers...

 

A Chirugeon gets +1 to hit and wound in melee vs. Adeptus Astartes model. With Blades of Putrefaction (Spell) he gets another +1 to wound and a 7+ causes an automatic mortal wound in addition to the normal damage. The Plaguebringer relic Blade has an effect that causes a mortal wound on a roll of 6+. Veterans of the long War brings another +1 to wound to the table for a total of +1 to hit/+3 to wound. A roll of 3+ now triggers the Relic blade ability, a roll of 4+ triggers the Spell ability in addition.

If we now add the Arch-Contaminator ability, the following happens. Plaguebringer as a Plague Weapon can now reroll all to wound rolls instead of only 1s. But according to FAQ rerolls are made before the + modifiers. A normal Marine is wounded on a 4+, so you can reroll all rolls of 1-3. After that the modifiers are added, so you can better fish for those 4+ rolls that trigger mortal wounds. The Deathshroud would now add an attack to the chirugeon for even more fun.

Its very gimmicky, but such a chirugeon has a realistic chance to at least heavily damage all kinds of Astartes Infantry. (Is Guillimane Infantry?)

Edited October 15, 2017 by MasterDeath

[MoGuy]

Lord Of Contagion + Living Plague WT + Fugaris Helm. Everything engaged with a DG unit in 10" will suffer a MW on a 4+ and every unit within 6" of the Loc will also suffer a MW on a 4+. This will hurt MSU and melee armies. Add the Nurgles Rot Stratagem for another D3 MW and you can take a good chunk of wounds from an enemy flank.

 

Another tactic I like is using my Helbrutes really aggressively so when they are on their last wounds I can run them into a pile of enemies and use the Putrid Explosion Stratagem to blow them up.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Fugaris helmet only affects auras on the model's datasheet. Warlord traits don't get boosted

[TheMelancholic]

I know you say "Poxwalkers aren't DG" but they honestly have a lot of synergy and cool tech.

 

For example: Recycling Tarpit

 

Take 40 cultists and 20 poxwalkers. Cloud of flies the poxwalkers as well as "the dead walk again" (or whatever it's called). Your opponent now has to deal with an annoying brick of hard to shift chaff. Assuming the cultists are in front of the poxwalkers (ideally, they should surround them) your opponent has two choices:

 

• Shoot and kill cultists, bringing them back as poxwalkers.
• Do nothing as your guys march up the board.

Either way, your getting your value out of the models and CP is something Death Guard should be swimming in due to our good troop choices.

[General Strike]

I have considered several not top board competitive ideas. One was recommended by GW, which is to pour buffs onto PM. Abaddon giving leadership immunity, Bile buffing your units, pass out psychic buffs, and cover them with haulers. This can give them like S6, leadership immunity, and -2 to hit. Or add prescience, giving a +1 to hit.

 

I've also considered a Supreme Command Detachment of jump pack sorcerors using Warp Time and Prescience. Using that to hurl my Pms, Blightlords or Deathshroud into the enemy. This can allow them to keep up with my Drones and Haulers.

[Loar]

I have considered several not top board competitive ideas. One was recommended by GW, which is to pour buffs onto PM. Abaddon giving leadership immunity, Bile buffing your units, pass out psychic buffs, and cover them with haulers. This can give them like S6, leadership immunity, and -2 to hit. Or add prescience, giving a +1 to hit.

 

I've also considered a Supreme Command Detachment of jump pack sorcerors using Warp Time and Prescience. Using that to hurl my Pms, Blightlords or Deathshroud into the enemy. This can allow them to keep up with my Drones and Haulers.

 

How are they getting -2 to hit?

[General Strike]

Miasma of Pestilance and Blight Hauler.

[Loar]

The Blight Hauler gives cover bonus, meaning they get +1 to their saving throw, it's not -1 to hit.

[The Traitor]

Death Guard gets a lot of Nurgle Daemons, so Epidemius can be pretty handy. A friend of mine has been playing Morty, Foetid Plague Drones, Plagueburst Crawlers, DP and allied Nurgle Obliterators allied with Epidemius and a unit of nurglings. They get pretty nasty, specially as the game goes on. Simply the re-roll 1s to hit you get for killing a unit is a free lord for the oblits and crawlers in most cases.

[General Strike]

My bad, I was confusing the +1 to hit for bringing three for the cover rule.

[MoGuy]

When it comes to artifacts, which do you take?

 

I know people are all about the Supporating Plate on a DP. But I find that option to be only worth if you know you will be facing a horde army. Otherwise anything that wants to engage a DP will do so with high S high AP attacks, which in turn means that you will likely only have your 5++ anyway.

 

So I am thinking about giving my Daemon Prince Fugaris' Helm. With wings my DP will be able to get to most places quickly so I can also deepstrike some Blightlords without having to invest into a TDA Lord to accompany them.

[Cryptix]

I take the Fugaris Helm on my Plague Surgeon always, half because its thematic (he's carrying the helm of Mortarion) and half because that 3" reroll bubble is so damn small.

[MasterDeath]

I like the Blade Relic on a Chirurgeon (see above). But thats only for laughs. The Dolorous Knell is kinda cool, the most interesting on the list. Helm of Fugaris is flexible and useful. Generally I am a bit disappointed by the Relics and the Warlord Traits. (The former because only one is interesting, the rest are good to really bad (Skull anyone? No? Thought so), the latter because only one is even in contest, one is interesting, the rest is "survive more")

[Wolf Lord Loki]

So got a game in last week. Observations:

 

For all the talk about blight grenade bombardments it is surprisingly difficult to get marines in range to actually use it!

Veteran of the long war- very useful

 

Lord of contagion - did 2 mortal wounds on units (marine captain and the target squad) before combat even started.

Brilliant!

 

Plague caster. Well i want overly impressed with him at first. Mostly due me failing to make even a 5+ cast but he was clearly saving himself for the main event! With a 9 to cast he score a total of 8 wounds with Curse of the Leper on a terminator squad. They were just removed from play. Boom!

 

Pox walkers- well i didnt have high hopes for them but they tied up a unit of scouts all game and it was always funny watching them kill a scout, raise it again and have it bludgioned back to undeath by the scouts!

 

Does anyone use the multiple relics strategem?

Edited November 13, 2017 by Wolf Lord Loki

[Azekai]

I got in a 1500 point 'take and hold' game on Sunday against the hated Ultramarines led by, who else, Guilliman. I took a poxwalker list, 70 of the things, with Typhus, Necrosius, and a couple of daemon princes as the heavy hitters. I also included a hellfire veil equipped Deredeo, and that thing saved quite a few poxwalker lives (unlives? whatever). The big poxwalker squads trailed back to the Deredeo in the back as it nuked squads of marines off the table with its long range firepower. My opponent took 3 squads of tac marines with missile launchers, a Captain, a Librarian, a Stormraven and a whirlwind, in addition to ol' Roboute.

When the dust settled 7 rounds later, I had an unscratched Typhus, a 3 wound Deredeo, and ~10 zombies left facing down a 6 wound Guilliman who had already died once and gotten better. The whirlwind was still chilling on the objective, unmolested.

We both made tactical mistakes, but I ended up with a win at the end of turn 6 thanks to objective scoring, with the ultimate tally at 14 to 8, since objective victory points were garnered on both player turns. 

I don't know if this qualifies as a 'dirty trick,' but I really like the Deredeo and it's super-fun forcefield. 5++/5+ FnP T5 poxwalkers are pretty dang hard to shift. If not for the Primarch's rerolls, the thin blue line would have been hopelessly swamped. As it was, he couldn't kill me off the objective in the center of the map fast enough, and I held 2 objectives for almost the whole game. If you have enough zombies, movement trays and a Deredeo, I would very much recommend trying it out (or at least proxying it).
 

 

Does anyone use the multiple relics strategem?

I used it once to take the Suppurating Plate and the Pandemic Staff. I got overly cocky with my 2+ save and the DP equipped with it got torn to shreds by Khorne daemons after I overextended to pursue some cheeky berzerkers... but my jump pack sorcerer with the staff was able to keep out of reach and that +1 really helps.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Azekai

[Plaguecaster]

Sounds nice Azekai, never really thought about the Helfire veil as I normally prefer the greater havoc launcher getting more shots in but I usually have the points so may have to try it out myself, what was the main gun your Deredeo was equipped with???

[Charlo]

Using a Deredeo to project a forcefield onto zombies pox walkers is downright disgusting.

 

I LOVE IT.

[Guilliman-89]

I got in a 1500 point 'take and hold' game on Sunday against the hated Ultramarines led by, who else, Guilliman. I took a poxwalker list, 70 of the things, with Typhus, Necrosius, and a couple of daemon princes as the heavy hitters. I also included a hellfire veil equipped Deredeo, and that thing saved quite a few poxwalker lives (unlives? whatever). The big poxwalker squads trailed back to the Deredeo in the back as it nuked squads of marines off the table with its long range firepower. My opponent took 3 squads of tac marines with missile launchers, a Captain, a Librarian, a Stormraven and a whirlwind, in addition to ol' Roboute.

 

When the dust settled 7 rounds later, I had an unscratched Typhus, a 3 wound Deredeo, and ~10 zombies left facing down a 6 wound Guilliman who had already died once and gotten better. The whirlwind was still chilling on the objective, unmolested.

 

We both made tactical mistakes, but I ended up with a win at the end of turn 6 thanks to objective scoring, with the ultimate tally at 14 to 8, since objective victory points were garnered on both player turns.

 

I don't know if this qualifies as a 'dirty trick,' but I really like the Deredeo and it's super-fun forcefield. 5++/5+ FnP T5 poxwalkers are pretty dang hard to shift. If not for the Primarch's rerolls, the thin blue line would have been hopelessly swamped. As it was, he couldn't kill me off the objective in the center of the map fast enough, and I held 2 objectives for almost the whole game. If you have enough zombies, movement trays and a Deredeo, I would very much recommend trying it out (or at least proxying it).

 

 

 

 

Does anyone use the multiple relics strategem?

I used it once to take the Suppurating Plate and the Pandemic Staff. I got overly cocky with my 2+ save and the DP equipped with it got torn to shreds by Khorne daemons after I overextended to pursue some cheeky berzerkers... but my jump pack sorcerer with the staff was able to keep out of reach and that +1 really helps.

Just to double check Azekai, are you conga lining the poxwalkers back the Deredeo, or are the unit wholly within its 6inch aura, because only units that are wholly within its aura benefit from the 5++ save, just double checking

Edited November 14, 2017 by Guilliman-89

[Panzer]

Guilliman-89 is right. The "wholly" got added via Errata.