Expanding on Warhammer: Conquest

[Commissar Molotov]

Hi all, 

 

I've been given some Death Guard miniatures from Warhammer: Conquest and other sources. At the moment, I have:

 

Two sets of the Easy to Build Plague Marines

A box of Plague Marines

A Plague Marine Champion

The seven Plague Marines from Dark Imperium

Six Poxwalkers (Soon to be 12)

 

This gives me 21 Plague Marines, which seems to me to be a solid core to build a small force around. My friend is building a Primaris force out of the other half of Conquest, and I'm a little overwhelmed with the variety of choices available to Plague Marines - from both shooting to close combat. I would love some advice on how best to assemble these Marines to be a useful force that can stand up to Primaris Marines.

 

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

 

 

 

 

[url=https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/catalog/product/920x950/60010199015_40KDarkImperiumENG15.jpg]

[happyslugger]

Hi Commissar Molotov, 

 

I am by no means a competitive player, but I do love my death guard.

 

I would be building my Plague Marines (PMs) for mid range shooting.  I have 2 squads with 3 x plasma (champ also plasma) and 2 squads with 1 x plasma on champ and 2 b.launchers.  I then have a spare 6/7 that I have built with close combat options (but I have never used them).  My reasoning is the fact we get to rapid fire at a longer distance than the marines.  

 

I still love poxwalkers (I wasn't into spamming them previously) and have 60 of them.  If you want large numbers of Poxwalkers then I feel Typhus is a must as he is a great buff for them.  I also take Necrosius (forgeworld) most battles as I believe he is better than our standard M.P.Caster and offers the re roll of 1 on disgusting resilient for Poxwalkers.  He is also very handy in combat and has a 4 plus inv save.

 

If you are planning to run heavy PMs then you may want to consider some rhinos or the myphitic blight haulers for the benefit of cover.  Massed infantry forces would also benefit (if going on foot) from 1 or 2 Noxious Blightbringers - for the advance ability.  I have one and use him when I decide to run my 60 Poxwalkers up the field.

 

Other super units would be Daemon Princes, Blight Drones (I like the spitter versions the most) and Plague Burst Crawlers.  I also have decent luck using Hellbrutes with missile launchers and lascannons and the fire frenzy strat.  

 

Everyone will have their own favourite units and there are others on here with far more competitive play experience than myself. 

[Commissar Molotov]

Hey,

 

Thanks for the input. I've always been a loyalist player, though I did read Chris Wraight's Lords of Silence last month, and I think there's a lot of narrative potential in the Death Guard. Their complicated relationships with their own primarch and internal political divisions (whilst also being the only legion to remain indivisible) is really quite interesting. I also thought the simmering tension between the Death Guard and the Word Bearers was interesting. 

 

At the moment I don't have access to the Codex - that'll come - so all the complex interactions between units and the strategems are a little lost on me at the moment. I've always liked the Typhus model (particularly the GuitaRasmus conversion, which I'm hoping to emulate) - although I'm not likely to run it as Typhus himself, but rather as a DIY lord. I know classically the Death Guard have always been portrayed as a troop-heavy force, and I'm interested in some cultists based on Cawdor models, in a similar vein to Apologist. 

 

Is there still a bonus to having units of 7 and 14, as before? Or should I be aiming for squads of 10?

[CMDR_Welles]

sadly, there is no benefit for Sacred Numbers anymore... Real missed opportunity... 

I made my Plague Marines from the 7 DI, 3 EtB, 3 Plague Brethren, a multi-part box, and the clampack Bannerman. 21 models for three units of 7, each a unique model appealed to me. 

Plasma Guns and Blight Launchers are the most popular options by far, followed by melee with two Flails. 

As to squad size, a lot will go MSU at 5. I do 7 as I am an old-schooler and remember our roots. I also dont care about what is "optimal".

[apologist]

Welcome aboard the Plague Bus, CM; looks like we're both starting out as Death Guard aspirants at about the same time. I can't offer much in the way of advice – or any in the way of experience – but I started a thread a bit lower down in the subforum about Plague Marine heavy armies; and have received some good pointers there. 

 

As CMDR_Welles says, there's no obvious in-game benefit to squads in multiples of 7, but who knows? Perhaps numerology will help your dice rolls. :)  One minor advantage to taking seven marines is that you can fit them into a Rhino alongside some supporting characters that want to be near the front, such as a Blightbringer (the bell-toting chap). Secondly, having a smaller squad footprint will make it easier to fit within auras of things like blight-haulers.

[Commissar Molotov]

Hi all, and thanks once again for the comments and feedback. I got a night where I could assemble some models, and so I started laying out my three seven-man squads: 

 

 

I'm impressed by the Death Guard sprues so far, though they are challenging to convert and chop up! I supplemented the sprues with some bits I'd bought online - some MkIII shoulder pads, the Nurgle icon from the Chaos Space Marines sprue, and a couple of blight kings pieces that I could snag. 

 

Here's some details of my first Plague Marine squad: 

 

 

Some of the conversions are minor, and some won't be noticed once they're painted, but they help to add some variety. I've not given the Sergeant a weapon yet - though the consensus seems to be a plasma gun? 

 

I've also been looking at Kill Team, and the possibility of being able to field one squad is interesting - I'd like to be able to build models that can do double-duty - for example, in the Kill Team forum, it seems to be suggested that the flail is brilliant - is it worthwhile in 40k, also? Any advice on how to add utility between 40k and Kill-Team would be welcomed. 

 

I have to admit that I'm also overwhelmed by how many different (and seemingly very subtly different) HQ options there are for the Death Guard - any advice on this would also be welcomed! 

 

Thanks all! 

[happyslugger]

I have typhus (old and new model), FW Necrosius,

Lord felthius, the lord of contagion from the box set, current daemon prince, old finecast Nurgle Daemon prince, a lord (made from a second blight bringer) a sorcerer in terminator armour (single model chaos one I kept when I started my death guard again) the main man himself Morty (although I don't use him very often) and the plague caster dude from the box set.

 

Most of the time I run princes, typhus and or Necrosius.

 

Morty comes out every now n then and either wrecks face on his own (but I find you have to use the deathshroud to keep him alive) or gets slapped off the table turn one which is a massive dent in a 1750/2000 point list.

 

It really bugs me that girlyboy can hide all game, smash face and then get back up if (and it is an if) you manage to kill him the first time. I think all primarchs should be 10+ wounds....non of this hiding shenanigans and getting back up rubbish....rant over

Played kill team a few times and the flail is great as are the spewers and blightlaunchers.

 

I think T5 and DR is pretty good in kill team settings.

[CMDR_Welles]

Hi all, and thanks once again for the comments and feedback. I got a night where I could assemble some models, and so I started laying out my three seven-man squads: 

 

 

I'm impressed by the Death Guard sprues so far, though they are challenging to convert and chop up! I supplemented the sprues with some bits I'd bought online - some MkIII shoulder pads, the Nurgle icon from the Chaos Space Marines sprue, and a couple of blight kings pieces that I could snag. 

 

Here's some details of my first Plague Marine squad: 

 

 

Some of the conversions are minor, and some won't be noticed once they're painted, but they help to add some variety. I've not given the Sergeant a weapon yet - though the consensus seems to be a plasma gun? 

 

I've also been looking at Kill Team, and the possibility of being able to field one squad is interesting - I'd like to be able to build models that can do double-duty - for example, in the Kill Team forum, it seems to be suggested that the flail is brilliant - is it worthwhile in 40k, also? Any advice on how to add utility between 40k and Kill-Team would be welcomed. 

 

I have to admit that I'm also overwhelmed by how many different (and seemingly very subtly different) HQ options there are for the Death Guard - any advice on this would also be welcomed! 

 

Thanks all! 

 

 

Nice use of changing parts around to make them uniquely your own. 

 

Plasma Gun Champ is usually suggested, but not needed. Depends on what role the squad fills. Having one in the Blight Launcher squad is handy, and if you are running a squad with Plasma Guns, having a third is nice too. I only have the one Plasma Champ, as I'm using all unique models (without any customizing). 

 

If you have extra of the EtB Champ, remember the backpack has the Plasma Gun, so you could give that other backpack to another champ to spread it around.

 

As to flails, yes. They are great for melee. I run a Flail with my Close Support squad (Fist/PlasPistol Champ, 2 Meltaguns), just for the times the unit gets charged. Damage spread is really nice.

 

I cannot speak to Kill Team as I have yet to buy it or play it, but I'm sure the Flail would rock in the close quarters moshpits small squad based games can turn out to be. I'll definitely be taking one for my Kill Team.