Unit of the week: Poxwalkers

[Plague _Lord]

Welcome to the Unit of the Week Series! 

 

Each week a different unit will be highlighted for discussion until we have amalgamated a full list of our available options and their relevant tactics as 9th edition evolves. This will include not only matched play, but free play considerations as well as Crusade, as these methods of play are just as relevant and exciting.

 

Please keep in mind this isn't to lament the status of featured units or compare them to others but to try and find their potential for all types of gameplay.

 

(Yes I did steal the intro from Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch but it is a fine intro indeeed)

 

This week we will take a look at:

 

Poxwalkers

 

Most of you have probably at least some games with the new codex under their belts at the moment and I'm sure that most lists have at least 1 unit of our other troop unit - the Poxwalkers. Throughout 9th ed these disease spreading hordes were used solely as screens and objective holders but the new buffs and debuffs have changed their role a bit. They now are cheaper, have some lethality to them and are tougher than they used to be, but have lost the ability to perform actions.

 

Some food for thought:

- what is the ideal unit size?

- how many units would you take?

- is it worth using cp on them?

- what role do they function?

- what are the overall strengths and weaknesses?

- what synergies do they have in the different plague companies?

 

Feel free to discuss my blighted lords and ladies.

 

Death Guard Unit of the Week Index

Edited April 9, 2021 by Xenith

[Dark Legionnare]

They can definitely have some use with harbingers, if you can sneak them up onto actually getting an enemy. Strategic reserves or such.

Short of those, I find them best as, I'm sure everybody's come to agree for the most part, objective holders for your side/deployment zone.

I've had good like with running 3 squads of 15 (based on points usage in list not allowing a full 20) holding the 1, 2, or 3 points on my half of the table, while the rest of the army does all the pushing and grabbing.  I definitely think the full 20 is the ideal though, unless you're playing against guard, in which case that will quickly come to be their bane probably from mortars, wyverns, quad launchers, etc....

As for strat usage, their "Roll some dice, 'X' stand back up" is of great use, especially with a Tallyman on the field getting you CP pretty reliably through the game.  Always use it to top them off after they've weathered some shooting. For a slow army like DG, making your holders that much more resilient, perhaps requiring two turns of shooting, or shooting and an assault the next turn, to clean up is a big boon for holding points.

[Tokugawa]

If don't have enough points/models to make every PW unit full 20 strength, I prefer to bring at least 3 units, something like 10/10/20 or 10/10/18. No reason to take a unit with 11-14 models, since it would suffer obvious disadvantages against enemy blast weapons.

[tychobi]

Cheap and cheerful poxwalkers are great for all occasions. They really shine as frustratingly durable objective seccured bodies and while restricted they can easily hit the field in 3 digit numbers and bully objectives with sheer numbers. Powerful fluffy and fun what is not to like? Eradicate that Space marine!

[Debauchery101]

If don't have enough points/models to make every PW unit full 20 strength, I prefer to bring at least 3 units, something like 10/10/20 or 10/10/18. No reason to take a unit with 11-14 models, since it would suffer obvious disadvantages against enemy blast weapons.

the 10/10/20 is what I like and I've been using the Plague Furnace.

 

I usually have at least 1 crawler or defiler and the 20 piece camping my side. The 2 10s I try to hide and screen the tanks and PWs holding the objectives.

The first few games I tried to use a lot of PMs but they ended up being very costly, under utilized and undermanned for needed backfield control. 200 points for 40 works out better. Ok'ish 24 inch range threat for PMs is easy to avoid

[Marshal Loss]

Yeah, I also do the 10-10-20. Wouldn't take any less than that - Poxwalkers are fantastic and have been really useful for me in all my games so far. I'd like to run a full horde of them at some point.

[McElMcNinja]

Poxwalkers, the Necrons of Chaos. If you don’t kill the unit, they will be back.

 

When I first read the limitations set on how many units could be included in an army, I laughed. After playing them, it makes sense, this is a strong unit. Still GW thinks Poxwalkers are game breaking and should limit us while DAs can field an entire army of transhuman super soldiers that also come back from the dead. To be fair we get to randomly roll 7 dice after spending a CP and hope for 3+‘s while the DA player can only get 2 back a round. We also have a 6+++ feel no pain, that’s pretty close to what DAs have access to. But Poxwalkers are immune to moral and can do mortal wounds to both their enemy and themselves.

 

Sorry, got side tracked.

I do like them, I was down to 3 remaining in a unit and in my command phase got 4 back. They were still in combat so I had to run my Blightspawn over wanting to swing first. Between the MW strat and normal melee I was back up to 20.

I have used the strat after getting some shot off the board, it allowed me claim an objective helping me score more points.

They do more then just creep up the board or act as a screen, I feel they have more utility now.

[Balerion84]

Hah yeah, that strat can be so good, shame it's just once per game per unit :(

 

In my game, a unit of 19 poxwalkers (1 died earlier) faced a unit of 4 custodes bikes with bike cap close by, 2 with hurricanes. 4 died in shooting phase. 15 left. Bikes charged, 16 attacks killed 14 poxwalkers. Papa nurgle managed to keep 1 alive in the onslaught. Next turn, 7 dice gave me back 6 poxwalkers. That was great.

 

I agree that poxwalkers seem great for the points. They can do a lot of work. I ordered 40 more of them (hopefully they don't get some stupid nerf, just because they are useful now), they are going to replace PMs in my lists. If my opponent wants to skip on 2d weapons, and take more 1d (and 3d+), even better for poxwalkers I think.

[Plague _Lord]

Hah yeah, that strat can be so good, shame it's just once per game per unit

 

In my game, a unit of 19 poxwalkers (1 died earlier) faced a unit of 4 custodes bikes with bike cap close by, 2 with hurricanes. 4 died in shooting phase. 15 left. Bikes charged, 16 attacks killed 14 poxwalkers. Papa nurgle managed to keep 1 alive in the onslaught. Next turn, 7 dice gave me back 6 poxwalkers. That was great.

 

I agree that poxwalkers seem great for the points. They can do a lot of work. I ordered 40 more of them (hopefully they don't get some stupid nerf, just because they are useful now), they are going to replace PMs in my lists. If my opponent wants to skip on 2d weapons, and take more 1d (and 3d+), even better for poxwalkers I think.

 

 

Well they can't really replace PMs since you have to take one to unlock the other.

 

In my games I've had great success with them, picking spread the sickness in every game. They haven't killed anything for me yet, but have done great at scoring and holding objectives. They are quite tanky for their cost. Can't wait to play an aggressive close combat list with 60 poxwalkers and Typhus.

[Balerion84]

 

Well they can't really replace PMs since you have to take one to unlock the other.

 

In my games I've had great success with them, picking spread the sickness in every game. They haven't killed anything for me yet, but have done great at scoring and holding objectives. They are quite tanky for their cost. Can't wait to play an aggressive close combat list with 60 poxwalkers and Typhus.

Yeah, the plan is to use termies to unlock poxwalkers, instead of PMs.

I also want to try a list with at least 60-70 poxwalkers and typhus with terminators. The idea of painting another 40 poxwalkers is horrible, but hope they'll repay that on the table :D

[Jorgend Lupus]

I tried a single unit of 20 last week, and outflanked them for one CP :

They butchered a Sanguinary guard squad as they miraculously made their charge : the Mortal wound strat on a unit of 20 is amazing because it allows them to be efficient against high armor/toughness targets ; seeing the golden boys fall to their diseased teeth and claws was so good ^^ ! (the Golden boys had just arrived from reserve the round before and killed a 5 men plague marines squad)

 

So I'd say Poxies can make a pretty surprising counter punch unit with the mortal wounds stratagem !
Of course I lost a few to "ones" to hit, but the marines that fell replenished the ranks of the Poxwalkers, leaving me with a confortabe 13 or 14 zombies after 2 rounds of fight, proudly sitting on an objective.

 

So far they look far more point efficient than Plague marines to me...

[TheUnlikelyGamer84]

I like to run them with Typhus and Necrosius. Between the strat, melee and necrosius units shouldn’t be hard to keep alive unless the opponent dedicates to killing them. Throw in miasma and putrescent vitality spell and the malignafier and they are awesome. I love that they are so cheap now too. My opponents have regretted ignoring them as they clog the mid field and murder things that get close. Do they get the contagions ability? Even if they don’t typhus being near by will make them killer too woth the opponent being -1 T.

[Tokugawa]

Sorry. Necrosius is categorized as "legend unit", and removed from 9th edition matched play.

[TheUnlikelyGamer84]

Sorry. Necrosius is categorized as "legend unit", and removed from 9th edition matched play.

The OP said this thread isn’t for only matched play. My group plays matched play rules but since we are not tournament players we include legends units.

[Plaguecaster]

Sorry. Necrosius is categorized as "legend unit", and removed from 9th edition matched play.

There is nothing that is stopping you from using Legends units in matched play games what so ever. They even say you can use them in matched open or narrative, it is only a recommendation that you don't use them in competitive tournaments. Edited February 21, 2021 by Plaguecaster

[Brother Kraskor]

Newbie question here, is there anything to prevent stacking the Mutant Strain MW strat onto a buff from a Biologus? And throw Harbinger PW hit re-roll strat on top for good measure.

 

40 attacks, re-rolling and doing two MW per 6 - sounds like a lot to me!

 

Edit: Misread it, its 6s to wound for the Biologus. Still with the volume of attacks not bad?

Edited April 9, 2021 by Brother Kraskor

[Tokugawa]

Newbie question here, is there anything to prevent stacking the Mutant Strain MW strat onto a buff from a Biologus? And throw Harbinger PW hit re-roll strat on top for good measure.

 

40 attacks, re-rolling and doing two MW per 6 - sounds like a lot to me!

 

Edit: Misread it, its 6s to wound for the Biologus. Still with the volume of attacks not bad?

What are you talking about? Biologus only buff CORE units.

[Brother Kraskor]

Disregard. 

[Balerion84]

Also, don't forget that Poxwalkers' weapons aren't plague weapons, so it wouldn't work anyway with Biologus :)

[Brother Kraskor]

Gah wrong on three counts! 

[KingYertle]

Finally got a pair of 1k Incursion games in post pandemic and my zombies excelled in both.  I fielded 2 units of 10 in both.  Some observations:

 

Despite M4, Advancing Poxwalkers are deceptively quick.  Also, being able to return dead zombies in your command phase is a nice way to push one unit a bit further up the board.

 

Poxwalkers buffed with Vitality are no joke at S4/T5 and cannot be ignored.  In a game vs Imperial Fists, I had a unit of 10 advancing right down the center of the board.  The Fist player pumped all his bolters into them T1 and only managed 4 kills, all of which came back in my T2 command phase.  

 

They are great at tying up units that are weaker in CC.  In that Fist game, they managed to charge a Blade Guard Ancient.  Buffed to T5 the ancient struggled to land wounds, locking him in combat.  This forced the Fist player to decide between keeping his Bladeguard veterans back to support their ancient or move on to charge my objective holding units without the Ancient and its great buffs.  

 

Their low Str takes great advantage of the -1T aura where they can wound T3 units on 3s and T4 on 4s.  Vs new Dark Elder, a unit with 7 remaining managed to eat 4 Blade Brides.  They were butchered the next fight phase, but it was a great moral victory in an otherwise dreadful match up. First time my DG have been tabled in 9th.  Beware Succubi my diseased friends...