DeathGuard Codex review

[BlackTriton]

This is my undiluted opinion (and suggestion) about something I truly love.

It was meant to be sent as feedback to GW since it look like they take feedback these days! (what a time to be alive!)

It is now here for all to see and comment, I am very curious about other Deathguard Fan's opinions!

 

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Here I set myself to comment on every unique unit in the DeathGuard codex, with my opinion and suggestion. Then I go through all sections of their special rules outlining the lackluster ones with more suggestion. I consciously try to avoid discussion about points as much as possible, as those are expected to change over time with the game. The suggested changes are there as examples of possibility; they are not meant to be a wish-list.

 

UNIT BY UNIT

Daemon Prince of Nurgle: Perfect as is, easily one of the best unit and best DP in the game.

Chaos Lord / Chaos Sorcerer: alright as-is. Would benefit from a before the game stratagem that give them +1T and DR to make them fit in with DeathGuard better.

Lord of Contagion: Pathetically bad. Change his aura to take effect at the start of the Fight or moral phase and/or make him a 1 power psyker and he becomes a valuable addition to the army. In addition, he should have the Lord reroll aura. Bonus point for the awesome models.

Malignant plague caster: alright as-is. 

Typhus: The good version of the Lord of Contagion. Same problem with the aura.

Noxious Blightbringer: alright as-is. See notes about the dolorous kneel.

Foul Blightspawn: Awesome Plague-machine. The single best non-HQ character in the book. The best use of random stats I have seen. 

Biologus Putrifier: One of my favorite character for how unique is buff is. He is a bit unreliable in how hard it is to get him (and anyone that needs him) in range. 

Plague Surgeon: Mostly useless. Can work with poxwalker spam, but he should be a central part of a plague marine army and he doesn’t do much for them. Change its buff to be: “reroll rolls of 1 for DR of DeathGuard infantry units. Add one to DR rolls for Heretic Astarte DeathGuard units instead.” Making him a valuable addition to plague marine based army without buffing poxwalkers unduly. 

Tallyman: A good piece of design. 

Deathshroud Terminators: alright as-is. Suffers from the same problem all terminator does. Bonus point for the awesome models.

Blightlord Terminators: alright as-is. Suffers from the same problem all terminator does. 

Plague Marines: The reason why most people pick up Deathguard in the first place. They are alright by themselves but all the support the plague marine needs are lackluster. See the notes about Plague Surgeon, Blight-Hauler and stratagems. 

PoxWalkers: alright as-is. The recent FAQ (although it was needed) went a bit far. Make them pay point to have a unit grow above 20. This would allow some value to death walk again in competitive play. It also allows the rhino Pox Rush of disgorging zombies on the enemy line and have them grow off their infantry. Alternatively, allow for bigger units, up to 30-40 Poxwalkers. Then they have a chance to lose and regrow some.

Foetid Bloat-Drone: Amazing unit all around. Best new model in the codex. 

Myphitic Blight-Hauler: Its biggest fault is its lack of options. I stayed away from Points discussion so far, but this guy costing more than some PlagueBursts Crawlers is criminal. He is not bad, but he pays premium for his rules and really deserve a cut. Tri-lobed is too hard and unreliable to be worth it. Tri-tracked feel weak since everything should have inexorable advance anyway. He gets cutest model of the codex award. 

PlagueBurst Crawler: Second best new model of the codex, best synergy with daemon allies. Cruelly missing an option to shoot at 3+ with its guns, but he is aggressively pointed so that makes up for it.

All vehicle option copied from Chaos space marine codex: From the Rhino to the LandRaider and including the HelBrute, a “before the game” stratagem to give them +1T an DR would go a long way for these units to find a place with DeathGuard other toys. 

 

WARLORD TRAIT:

Tainted Regeneration: Fun as it is, models tend to die when they take damage. This is essentially +1W. Its hard to argue over the other “be tougher” trait. Making it something out-standing like recover ”2W” would be interesting, if unnecessary.

Living Plague: The aggressive trait. Even though 3” is small, at least its timed properly (looking at you Lord of contagion). I would make it 7” and make other similar effect work the same way. 

Arch-Contaminator: The only buff we have and arguably the best trait.

All others: None of the other traits stand out in any way.

We have here 4 “Be tough” trait, one aggressive and one buff. While none are really bad, none compare to Arc-Contaminator.

 

PSYCHIC POWERS

Gift of Contagion: without the random element it would be a very good power. A warp charge 7 power does not need to also be random. Rather, make it an all purpose tool unique to the Deathguard by allowing us to choose.

Plague wind & Curse of the leper: They both suffer from being bad smite with a gimmick. At least Plague wind as the courtesy of being Warp charge 5. Curse of the Leper should combo off gift of contagion, but getting off 2 warp charges 7 power in the same turn is really hard on top of being 1/3 chance of working out.

Overall, as it stands, it’s a good buff discipline. The aforementioned powers need a little boost to be as good as Blades of putrefaction or even smite.

 

STRATAGEMS

Nurgle’s Rot: 3CP to get 50% chance to do MWs on very close units, once per game… really? All other marine codexes have a reliable way to deal 1d3MW at range for 1CP, once per turn. This just doesn’t hold up. Remove the 50% and its good to go. Why is this 3CP, once per game stratagem a regular Warp Charge 7 spell for daemon… Its so bad.

Dead Walk again: Was way too good and now need a second life. See poxwalkers note.  Alternatively, it could also be completely changed to a once per game stratagem similar to tide of traitor; when an enemy unit is completely destroyed it gets back up as poxwalkers. I tried to stay away from wish listing, but I desperately want poxwalker to be more than expensive fearless cultists)

Bligh Bombardment: one of the best, and most original, stratagem we have. Given how hard it is to use, it could also give a bit more range to the unit affected. 

 

There is a lack of original and useful stratagem to this wonderful army to take full advantage of its signature unit. Also, DeathGuard has only one defensive stratagem? Here are a few suggestions:

- PlagueBurst Crawler could have a thing similar to KillShot. Help make entropy cannon relevant.

- Blight-Hauler should have a support stratagem that helps Plague marine, and/or one that lets them boost the tri-lobed rule. (shoot twice?)

- The previously mentioned Pre-game stratagem to nurglify a C:CSM character / vehicle.

- Plague marine want to fight close, but not be in melee. They could use something to either make bolter relevant in melee (bayonet? Some model have them!) or fall back and be useful (Grenade when they fall back?)

- I’m puzzled that Deathguard infantry doesn’t have a way to get an invulnerable save. 

 

 

RELICS

 

PlagueBringer: Standard, unremarkable. Could have +1S, even more so if its replacing a balesword. 

Dolorous Knell: Mortal wounds are nice, but such close range and only on a 6 its not great. It also furthers the moral impact of the BlightBringner. Sadly, moral has little impact on the game, and lots of unit are unaffected. I would suggest here a mortal wound on 4+ for units 7” and if you take the mortal wound, you cannot be immune to moral! Now that is fearsome and unique.

Plague Skull of Glothila: I love the effect it has so I wanted to mention it. People tend to forget it exist since Suppurating plate / Fugaris’helm are light years more competitive.

 

To summarise my opinion:

Its hard to play to the strength of the army, it feels like the army doesn’t give you all the tools you need. 

The Death guard are a close-range army but not exactly a melee one. They can hardly catch an enemy that want to stay away, but you don’t want to be in melee when they come for you. 

They are tough, but the units that should synergise and underline that are all lackluster. 

They have low damage, since most of the points is spent to be tougher. I feel this was meant to be compensated by all the rerolls to wounds and constant attrition by close range mortal wounds. However, the abilities that deal these attritional damages are some of the worst in the game. They all are random, close ranged, costly and do not have any timing. So, throughout this essay, I proposed a consolidation of these rules, so that they always take effect on a 4+, cause 1 MW at a range of 7” (Relic/WT) or melee (LoC). They should all happen at the same time too (fight or moral phases).

DeathGuard stratagems are not bad, but we are missing some obvious inclusions. Make bolters relevant in melee. More defensive synergies.  

I love the army, I love what it wants to do and how it wants to play. I feel its just not quite there yet, but its so close! The Bloat-Drone and PlagueBurst are currently the jewel of the codex, because they find synergies with the Daemon codex that DeathGuard other option lack from their own book. And to me this is what is come down to, synergy.

 

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[Wolf Lord Loki]

What about a strategem that makes bolters a Plague weapon for a turn, 'blight bullets' or some such. 1cp up to 10marines or 2cp up to 20marines

[BlackTriton]

Thats interesting, feels a bit weak since it cannot combo with blade of putrefaction.

 

Even if we say it turns all weapon into plague weapon, its still a bad VotLW that has synergie with Arc-contaminator, the already dominant warlord trait.

 

If we want to go in this direction, how about: gas-bolt: all bolters are plague weapon, in addition on a 6+ to wound causes (MW? / 2 damage? / 1 additional W?) If the target is not a vehicul.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Valid point- what about something that sinergises of one of the 'be tough' traits?

Perhaps allows the warlord to share his trait with his followers (or a squad within 7") - that would possibly make people look more at the plague marines

[Schultzhoffen]

Personally, I like the Codex. Yes, some things are more useful than others but this is true for every Codex. The DR trait is awesome, as is T5. The chance to inflict Mortal Wounds when enemy units are in close proximity is awesome. Being able to move and fire HWs without penalty is awesome.

 

All the new Special Weapons are awesome.

 

I think the Codex is a characterful and pretty potent one.

[Raktra]

My only real disappointments with the DG ‘dex are 1- lack of Havocs (or equivalent) to really take advantage of Inexorable, 2- the generic Chaos characters that were copied over not being “proper” DG (no T5 or DR), and the smaller range of stratagems compared to subsequent ‘dexes. But, it’s all stuff I can work with, so no harm no foul :)