How differently do the Plague Companies actually play?

[TheNewman]

This came up in another thread, the long and the short of it is that since Marines are the only army I own with a 9th ed codex I don't have much of a handle on how differently the other 9th ed codexes play if you change sub-factions.

 

I don't want to get off into the weeds of the comparative volume of rules-differences, I'm more interested in the impact of the differences on the table.

 

(I'm finding that despite the many pages of strats/relics/etc difference between the various SM chapters, I can't lean very hard into those differences before it hurts how well the army plays.)

[Special Officer Doofy]

Not that different. Just one different relic, strat and warlord trait, but all the warlord traits are contagions so even those work similar. It's just to give the player the smallest amount of choice.

[Tokugawa]

Not very different. "Good" company choices are good for multiple play style.

 

e. g. If you want a mechanical heavy list, then probably Inexorable is still the pick, not Poxmongers, though the designer might set the latter "the mechanical company" in original design.

[Closet Skeleton]

Inexorable is the Mechanised Company so if you go by fluff like I do it plays differently with all the rhinos that are rare in other companies but the rules work fine with pure infantry. No one is actually going to take Land Raiders and Predators over Daemon Engines in a Death Guard army so that side of the Inexorable isn't going to see play.

 

It goes:

 

First - Harbingers: Pox Walkers

Second - Inexorable: Tanks and Rhinos

Third - Mortarion's Anvil: Siege lines

Fourth - Wretched: Sorcery

Fifth - Poxmongers: Daemon Engines

Sixth - Ferrymen: Blightlord Terminators and boarding actions

Seventh - Mortarion's Chosen: Alchemists

 

You can make very different playstyle fluffy lists based around these specialisations but none of the rules really change what a good Death Guard army looks like. Some of the benefits don't fit so well with a fluffy build but Poxmongers are the best at with daemon engines, Wretched at Psychic and Harbingers with Pox Walkers if only for Typhus.

[Plague _Lord]

Well the only ones that actually change your list building based on the rules are harbingers and chosen sons.

Harbingers - you ideally want to take Typhus and probably the army of renown, just to maximise poxwalker effectivesness (+ typhus also get's and extra warlord trait)

Chosen sons - you want to have at least a few extra flamer units just to utlise the strat + maybe a second flamer dude to use the relic (it's quite strong).

 

The rest won't change your playstyle much - just some extra rules here and there.

 

I actually played chosen sons in 8th and fitted my PBC with the plague flamers and shoved them midboard but now that the entropy cannons are so good they work better as backfield artillery units.

[KingYertle]

 

I actually played chosen sons in 8th and fitted my PBC with the plague flamers 

 

Double check the wording on the Plague Brewers Strat Plague Lord, it unfortunately doesn't work on Plaguespitters, which is the only weapon I really want it on.  

 

I second that the Plague Companies don't change Death Guard that much, however they can impact how you "play"  Each Company has their own unique trick or 2, and you should design your force and your play to make sure you pull off that trick.  

[TheNewman]

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