Thoughts on the maggotmancers etc.

[apologist]

Re-reading the colour text in the Codex recently, I stumbled over the entries for the Malignant Plaguecaster and Lord of Contagion. They hint at other types of sorcerer and Lord respectively. While I recognise these are likely names that came up during development, I thought it'd be fun to have a place to speculate about them.

 

The named Sorcerer groups are:

• Cadaverous Faminebringers
• Festering Poxshamans ~ Noted as rarely seen – not many of them, or simply avoid the others?
• Malignant Plaguecasters – Noted as common, and familiar to us from the Codex.
• Slopmaw Maggotmancers

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Similarly, the groups of Lords, distinguished by their mantles, are:

 

• Lord of Contagion – the familiar entry from the Codex, these are noted to be unsubtle and favour Terminator armour, perhaps implying the others don't necessarily?
• Lords of Poxes – So fond of spreading disease that it seems to have become a specialism even within the Death Guard.
• Lords of Virulence – Favour massed bombardment. Perhaps some of the Legion's Siege Breakers became Lords of Virulence? I can see this being a good 'counts-as' option for Chaos Lords; their skills being reflected in their re-roll aura.

Finally, the Codex notes that 'Some Mantles of Corruption are taken up only rarely, and by the most unusually gifted individuals. The Mantles of Parasitism, Withering and Flux are some such infrequently bestowed rewards. It is further rumoured that one mantle exists which none have ever been worthy of, and that it would transform its bearer into a being of pure, malefic entropy.'

 

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Just as the Death Guard's techmarines have become quite distinct archetypes, it seems the Librarians and Commanders have diverged, and I wondered if anyone had done anything (background, conversion, rules) to develop them further.

 

[El_Dicko]

Somehow I missed most of this in the book! Interesting stuff, looks like I need to dig deeper into the codex for inspiration!

[Panzer]

Great stuff. Gives lots of opportunity for conversion to make your army more unique compared to other Death Guard armies.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Maggotmanser.... Could it be like a nurgle beast master.

Creatures like the eyestingers, grubs and ticks rather than the daemonic creatures

 

Are we homebrewing rules for these? Lol

 

The Lords of Pox are like those praetors who worked with the auxiliary units

[apologist]

Somehow I missed most of this in the book! Interesting stuff, looks like I need to dig deeper into the codex for inspiration!

I think it's easy to miss the colour text in online discussions. They tend to revolve around the 'crunch', as it's easier to discuss that; and miss the cool world-building bits. Anyway, glad to bring it to your attention! Which bits most appeal?

 

Great stuff. Gives lots of opportunity for conversion to make your army more unique compared to other Death Guard armies.

Yeah, that was my thought. The Malignant Plaguecaster hasn't had the greatest reception; so having some other psychic archetypes to use instead might inspire some conversions. The tall, slender and upright Plague Surgeon might make a good basis for a Cadaverous Faminebringer, for example. Theming things around him might be as simple as using emaciated zombie models in place of the bulkier zombies; or choosing to give your Plague Marines the Mark III chestplates over the distinctive gutplates.

 

Maggotmanser.... Could it be like a nurgle beast master.

Creatures like the eyestingers, grubs and ticks rather than the daemonic creatures

 

Are we homebrewing rules for these? Lol

 

The Lords of Pox are like those praetors who worked with the auxiliary units

Yeah, I'd be happy to see some ideas for rules. I certainly like the idea of the Maggotmancer as a beastmaster. That might be as simple as using the ticks and flies from the Gellerpox infected as counts-as Nurglings; or perhaps something more involved?

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Appologist- I suppose the easiest way to do it would be to put the Gellerpox beasties with a Plague caster in one formation (with creature like the sinned chaos beast or spawn as well)

 

I suppose the plague caster could be used several ways to represent those lesser casters - the mortal wounds they generate are parisites/ starvation

[CMDR_Welles]

I dream of a day when they release a model and rules for the Slopmaw Maggotmancer. I fell in love with the name when I first read it. 

I hope for a Festering Pox-shaman as well. 

With the Maggotmancer, I hope I can use him while singing Maggots by GWAR.

 

 

Maggots are falling, falling like rain!

[Warsmith Annüss]

Something other than a Lord of Contagion or Typhus would be great.

I only use stuff with DR.

[apologist]

Had a little play around with the Chapter Approved character creation rules to make a Lord of Poxes. Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Had a little play around with the Chapter Approved character creation rules to make a Lord of Poxes. Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

I think the flail would be over powered. If you want him to be more cc oriented then perhaps give him the option of the weapons that pair up to give +1a?

[Contaminus]

Had a little play around with the Chapter Approved character creation rules to make a Lord of Poxes. Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

I like where you're going with this, but I think giving him good CC options, a solid ranged weapon, and a debuff ability is OP.

 

The way I see it, there are three main 'Mantles' - Contagion, Poxes and Virulence, and each should fill a distinct battlefield role, suited to your playstyle, without being any better than each other. We've already got the Lord of Contagion, who are stated to be "aggressive and belligerent", favouring "direct strategies with little in the way of cunning or subtlety", hence the close-combat oriented nature of the unit.

 

That leaves Poxes and Virulence.

 

The former "favour the spreading of airborne miasmas and the merciless attritional erosion of the enemy", so that makes me think that the unit should emphasise debuffs to surrounding enemy units, like the Loathsome Miasma above. For loadout, the Lord itself shouldn't necessarily be that good at either CC or ranged attacks, so potentially equipped with standard Chaos Lord gear (combi-bolter upgradable to other combi-weapons, power sword upgradable to Balesword). The idea of a Flail of Corruption is cool, because it does fit with an aesthetic of him waving censors of noxious vapours, but if we give him that, he shouldn't have any other weapon, unless it's maybe a plaguespurt gauntlet

 

The latter are "masters of massed bombardment" and, as the Lord of Contagion embodies "the swift-spreading plague", i.e. a disease that's very contagious, I reckon the Lord of Virulence should embody an extremely potent plague, i.e. one that's very virulent. That screams high damage output, low survivability to me, with a focus on long ranged weapons. A warlord to plonk in your backline and fire off long shots, perhaps equipped with a blight launcher and balesword. For his ability to replace Contagion's Nurgle's Gift or Pox's Loathsome Miasma, maybe the ability to call in an Orbital Bombardment once per game, like a Space Marine Chapter Master.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

 

 

Had a little play around with the Chapter Approved character creation rules to make a Lord of Poxes. Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

I like where you're going with this, but I think giving him good CC options, a solid ranged weapon, and a debuff ability is OP.

 

The way I see it, there are three main 'Mantles' - Contagion, Poxes and Virulence, and each should fill a distinct battlefield role, suited to your playstyle, without being any better than each other. We've already got the Lord of Contagion, who are stated to be "aggressive and belligerent", favouring "direct strategies with little in the way of cunning or subtlety", hence the close-combat oriented nature of the unit.

 

That leaves Poxes and Virulence.

 

The former "favour the spreading of airborne miasmas and the merciless attritional erosion of the enemy", so that makes me think that the unit should emphasise debuffs to surrounding enemy units, like the Loathsome Miasma above. For loadout, the Lord itself shouldn't necessarily be that good at either CC or ranged attacks, so potentially equipped with standard Chaos Lord gear (combi-bolter upgradable to other combi-weapons, power sword upgradable to Balesword). The idea of a Flail of Corruption is cool, because it does fit with an aesthetic of him waving censors of noxious vapours, but if we give him that, he shouldn't have any other weapon, unless it's maybe a plaguespurt gauntlet

 

The latter are "masters of massed bombardment" and, as the Lord of Contagion embodies "the swift-spreading plague", i.e. a disease that's very contagious, I reckon the Lord of Virulence should embody an extremely potent plague, i.e. one that's very virulent. That screams high damage output, low survivability to me, with a focus on long ranged weapons. A warlord to plonk in your backline and fire off long shots, perhaps equipped with a blight launcher and balesword. For his ability to replace Contagion's Nurgle's Gift or Pox's Loathsome Miasma, maybe the ability to call in an Orbital Bombardment once per game, like a Space Marine Chapter Master.

Lord of virulence

 

What about 'boost str + shots of plague burst mortar'?

 

So it is Heavy d6+1 or possibly +d3 mortal wounds to the plagueburst mortar?

Can 'once per game use a CP (or however many) to call down a orbital bombardment with the plague rule'

 

I think there should also be a JEALOUS MANTLE rule

 

JEALOUS MANTLE - the named mantles (contagion, virulence, etc) cannot be fielded together unless Mortarion is also fielded. Mantles interfere with each other and overlapping auras cancel each other out