Impressions of Death Guard in 9th

[jgascoine011]

Managed to finally get in a few games of deathguard in 9th ed, all 2k points

 

First game i was vs black legion with abbadon,

I was probably winning in terms of stuff killed but chose terrible secondaries and was getting hammered in terms of points

 

Second game was vs admech with like 6 robots and i think 4 units if 3 destroyers, and the cool flyer thing....but my god i hate admech, they are stupidly broken right now.

However absolutly crushed him in points.

 

The 1st game i have deathguard in rhinos, 1 squad managed to get out and grenade a 9 man bike squad (with a 5+++) to death (19 mortal wounds lol)

The other squad grenaded a defiler 

The problem was i couldnt get up the field, into his back lines, table is just too small and too many threats running about

I did deepstrike a 10 man terminator squad into his back lines, who shot a sorcerer off the table, but then they just spend ages slooooooooly walking up the board to the middle.

 

2nd game i swapped out the rhinos for termites, dropping the terminators and taking a LoC and dreadnought, also dropped a BPC for a defiler, giving both the dreadnought and defiler a 5+++

My opponent unfortunatly deplyed really poorly, however turn 1 was terrible, with the 2 BPC and a defiler managing to kill one random infantry guy and one destroyer thing

However turn 2, a termite popped up and the guys inside just wipped out the 6 robots with grenades. 

In the end he only managed to kill the defiler and a few plague marines,

 

Anyway here are my thoughts

1) The grenade strat and the +6" is just so usefull, however i expect it to be changed to unmodified 6s cause mortal wounds, however i am hoping the AP gets adjusted for this

2) Arch contaminator is such a crutch, i fully expect this to go in the new codex, its pure insantity not to take it right now. However i hope the LoC gets changed so that he gets it built into his rules, replacing the crappy thing he has now, but only being able to buff 1 unit or something

3) PBC suck. 1st game i ran 3 with the spitters, and 2nd game i ran 2 with spitters. I will try running 3 next game with the cannons and the strat but they need serious buffing in terms of damage output. BS3+ and a flat 6 shots with the mortar and they might become usefull. I also wish they could take a fleshmower, replacing the spade they have and getting WS4+. Yes they dont die but my god they dont kill anything.

4) I also used the 4++ relic for daemon engines. Im unsure if its worth it, I think yes you can build just horrible lists around it but i think it taking terminators either the legions with  -1D or +1 to hit strats are better

5) Although BPC suck, they are the only thing we really have. I wish blightlords could all take blight grenade launchers. I really dont see why they cant as they could all take combi-plasma for much the same damage.

6) Rhinos suck, but again are necessary...unless you have termites which are just sooo much better for deathguard right now. They generally get your marines where they are needed, they are awsome in combat and have good shooting.

7) Daemon princes are amazing

 

 

I was also just wondering, if you take thyphus does he have to be in the poxmongers legion?

[Special Officer Doofy]

My main opponent is my brother who mostly plays his admech, and those robots with the 9 or 18 S6 shots tear plague marines apart. Will be nice when we go to 2W to pad the damage. I think the robots will get the core keyword though, and still get rerolls (dreadnaught are core, they are kinda like those).

 

I've been finding the same in my 9th games. But I've been winning in 9th unlike in 8th, so that's a plus. Just got to pick the right secondaries.