Troops of choice

[Barnie25]

Over on the Facebook group there was a big discussion yesterday about whether PM were viable troop choices or not.

 

What is your troop of choice and why?

[Panzer]

Talking strictly Death Guard? Then I'd say Plague Marines = Cultists > Poxwalker.

The main problem of Plague Marines is that they are expensive in a Codex of lots of other expensive stuff so while they aren't bad they take much needed points away from other units you'd like to have more of.

[BlackTriton]

Exactly,

I use plague marine to stand on objective, they do a great job of it. Usually stay there all game since the firepower needed to shift them is targeted at more dangerous thing.

 

Hard to find the point though, at more than twice a 10 man cultist squad!

[DuskRaider]

Yes, they're good. They are a Swiss army knife of a troop choice and can be kitted out for almost any role you need them to fulfill. Of course they're not cheap, they're basically Marines +1 and their durability speaks for itself. I really don't see a point of playing Death Guard without... you know... Death Guard.

[Azekai]

3+ armored troops kinda blow (for a lot of reasons) in 8th, but plague marines are easily best marine profile in the game.

 

Still, this doesn’t make them earth-shatteringly amazing, but a squad or two is certainly worth taking.

[BlackTriton]

There is also an argument to be maide for the plague buss. (Melee marine, in a rhino with a biologus)

 

Its by far the most damage any infantry will ever pull, and work against both hordes or large model.

 

The rhino can also ferry a plaguecaster and/or a blightspawn, making these already good option better.

 

They closed the deal in quite a few game, and violently turned the tide of another for me. Its a good use of a mandattory troop slots and a good tool to have on hand, if not a good core strategy. In my experience, 1/4 game they dont do anything, but are still worth having.

 

 

I make sure oponent know what they do at the begining of every game, still they never see it coming. Its priceless really.

[MyD4rkPassenger]

I can't help but take the grenade bus everytime I play my DG.  Obviously this requires a squad of plague marines and I have no qualms taking 1 simply because of the odds you'll nuke something with the biologis and the grenade+Votlw strategems.

[Prot]

I do very well with my Plaguemarines but for me making a comparison is really hard to do. Firstly, before Pox nerf, there was a clear winner here. Currently I think if we are talking very competitive, most lists will stay with Cultists and Poxwalkers ( min squads) because a lot of the meat in Death Guard comes from bigger units not found in the troop section.

 

In any other situation I think Plaguemarines are decent and flexible. Quite honestly as someone who just loves playing marine infantry, I don’t know if anyone really does it better. But it’s all relative.... marines aren’t winning a heck of a lot these days. I personally think the Codex Astartes ( for example) needs a complete overhaul. So ( again just my opinion) to say Plaguemarines are my favourite out of the bunch may not mean much.

 

The negative and positive that Plaguemarines have is they can become incredibly useful, in the right situation, with the correct support. So my ITC fart grenade Rhino works great, as long as fart grenader lives. Take the same Rhino with 2 toilet cannons and you have a completely different dynamic. Again for fun, a large shooty squad under the umbrella of 3 Fart Karts is another completely different look.

 

What other marine, Astartes troop gives you that? It sure as heck isn’t Ultra.

 

I’d say you can run them full assault if you wish, or just support... that’s pretty darn flexible. Most other armies are using their Astartes troops as Battalion CP tax.

 

So good support is necessary, yet the other side of the story is cheap Cultists will afford you more Daemon Princes, PBCs and Bloatdrones which will still probably hit harder.

[Slan Drakkos]

Plague Marines (like a lot of units in the DG codex) are kind of slow, but their durability and versatility more than makes up for that IMO. Yes, they're costly, but they are very dangerous with the right set up.

 

Plague Marines ≥ cultists > poxwalkers

[Azekai]

In my experience, plague marines aren't actually slow, at all. Our legion trait allows them to advance and fire assault weapons without penalty, which makes PMs comparatively fast for a foot-slogging army. 

Blight launchers are our best weapons, and since they are classed as assault, you can easily scoot around at 5" + 1d6", literally running and gunning.

[McElMcNinja]

Plague Marines are a good troop choice straight out of the box. They come with +1T, DR, and Inexorable Advance which increases their rapid fire by 6" along with no penalties for moving a firing assault weapons.

The thing(s) that make them a solid troop choice is the synergy they have with other units from the codex along with stratagems and spells.

DP's and Lords allow rerolls of 1's to hit.

Casters can increase their S/T, -1 to be hit, and increase their chances to wound while giving the chance to also cause MW's.

Blightbringer gives 2 rolls to see how far they advance.

Blightspawn helps them not get charged and if they do it increases their odds to swing first.

Putrifier = plague bomb.

Surgeon gives rerolls of 1's to DR.

Tallyman gives rerolls of hit rolls in the fight phase.

Blight-Haulers offers a cover save giving them a base save of 2+ in the open.

There's more, but it really comes down to what you want your Plague Marines to do.

Just don't overlook Cloud of Flies, everyone under estimates how good of a stratagem this is. It makes a unit unable to be shot, this includes overwatch (as long as they are not the closest unit).

[Prot]

In my experience, plague marines aren't actually slow, at all. Our legion trait allows them to advance and fire assault weapons without penalty, which makes PMs comparatively fast for a foot-slogging army. 

 

Blight launchers are our best weapons, and since they are classed as assault, you can easily scoot around at 5" + 1d6", literally running and gunning.

 

That's a good point. It's a tricky, unique element to the unit. I actually don't use it as much as you'd think though. Mine are almost always in Rhinos. I think Rhinos are really underused with Death Guard.  Good catch though, it's a really fun aspect of running Plaguemarines with Fart Karts.

[Charlo]

Plague Marines are a rare unit where the "tax" is still an excellent unit that, as others have said, is very versatile with excellent synergy in the book. Look at Tactical Marines of any flavour, they're so much worse I heard that glowing corpse shed a tear!

 

They Shoot, they Chop, they eat bullet and poop grenades.

 

They're also a little Anti-meta, as a bunch of plague marines can eat through a lot more horde and take a lot of punishment from hordes.

 

Foot slogging also gives you an excuse to run Blighthaulers <3

[CMDR_Welles]

I run three squads of Plague Marines

Champ w/Pfist and Plague Sword
Icon Bearer
Blight Launcher
Blight Launcher
3x with Bolters

Champ w/Pfist and Plasma Gun
Plasma Gun
Plasma Gun
4x with Bolters

Champ w/Pfist and Plasma Pistol
Icon Bearer
Meltagun
Meltagun
Flail
2x with Bolters

While they are not what most would consider optimal, they are meant to fill differing rolls. Plus, they are all unique with no duplicates, which makes my OCD happy

[Sheesh Mode]

Looking at reviews like this reaffirms in my eyes why we are a competitive choice as a Chaos Ally.