Unit of the Week series: Biologus Putrifier

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Right up you 'orible lot

You know the drill! What do they do? What's good, what's bad, and how do we get the best out of the bottle janglers?!?

Edited September 29, 2021 by Xenith

[Special Officer Doofy]

My opinion.

 

He's not that bad. They switched around the blight bombardment strat to that pistol 18 but you can sometimes still use it to decent effect. The only reason I don't use him is his soul purpose is kinda to buff plague marines, and plague marines are not that competitive right now. I know we are not supposed to talk about other units in the unit of the week series but his stock goes up and down with some other units as he is a buffer. Maybe people are getting miles out of him buffing possessed or termies with the fishing for mortal wounds.

 

The model looks awesome though!

[Marshal Loss]

Great in mirror matches. I often take him when I know I'm going up against another DG player/DA player, anybody who has an invul-toting elite unit that I'm likely to be encountering around the middle of the table with my own Blightlord/Deathshroud units - and he does very well for me in those sorts of games. Would sum him up as solid but uninspiring. The BP is good but it's hard to justify taking him over the Tallyman or Foul Blightspawn.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

My opinion.

 

He's not that bad. They switched around the blight bombardment strat to that pistol 18 but you can sometimes still use it to decent effect. The only reason I don't use him is his soul purpose is kinda to buff plague marines, and plague marines are not that competitive right now. I know we are not supposed to talk about other units in the unit of the week series but his stock goes up and down with some other units as he is a buffer. Maybe people are getting miles out of him buffing possessed or termies with the fishing for mortal wounds.

 

The model looks awesome though!

Personally I would rather have it included what units he buffs well and ones that he doesn't buff. I haven't got the rules to hand so could someone discuss fought what he does in 9th?

 

I use a lot of plague marines so you say he works well buffing them?

[Special Officer Doofy]

He still has the aura that gives bubonic astartes blight grenades -1AP and 2D, which goes well with the new pseudo blight bombardment strat "The Blightning" which allows up to 3 bubonic astartes models to change their grenades to pistol 6 each that auto hit if in engagement range. The strat is less lethal than the old one but now that you can only take squads of 10 PM instead of 20, and with the double wounds alot of people run min squads of 5, and the new strat does not lose effectiveness with small numbers.

 

The new thing he gained is this:

 

Foul Infusion: Once per turn, at the start of either your Charge phase or the Fight phase, you can select one friendly <PLAGUE COMPANY> CORE unit within 6" of this model. Until the start of your next Command phase, each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack with a Plague Weapon, an unmodified wound roll of 6 inflicts 1 mortal wound on the target in addition to any normal damage. Each unit can only be selected for this ability once per turn.

 

That's his new mortal wounds mechanic. Helps possessed, melee plague marines and even terminators. I bet possessed with all their plague weapon attacks will really benefit from it, but I don't run possessed because I've yet to convert some.

 

But Marshal Loss is right, I feel the tallyman brings more to the table. But I love both models and having a choice is usually never a bad thing.

 

Edit: Grammar

Edited September 29, 2021 by Putrid Choir

[KingYertle]

On Paper there is a lot to like with the BP.

 

Beyond the obvious Foul Infusion:

 

His Blight Racks Aura applies to characters with Blight Grenades, giving our Tallyman and Plague Surgeon additional shooting options at AP-1 D2, and also makes them good targets for the Grenade Strat if they get hung up in combat.  Even Typhus and Plaguecasters can benefit giving them a decent shooting attack, although sadly not a generic Lord of Contagion as he has no Blight Grenades.

 

While his grenades are good, don't sleep on his Pistol which grants a free smite if you wound the target.  Its a plague weapon so for 1cp you can boost the range to 9 inches, giving you a 14 inch targeted smite threat range (note that normal targeting rules apply so no sniping characters protect by Look Out Sir).  

 

Foul Infusion is not an Aura, so performing Actions does not negate his ability to grant this to a nearby Core unit.

 

He Explodes on a 4+ and doesn't harm Nurgle units.

 

He is the 2nd cheapest Virion unit, and a bargain compared to the ridiculous cost of the Blightbringer.

 

For 2CP, our army of renown can deepstrike him in with a unit of terminators.

 

Foul Infusion can be amazing.  On average, 3 Deathshroud will net at least 4 MW, 5 Blightlords with a flail net 3, 7 Plague Marines with Flail & +1A Strat net 4+ and 10 possessed average almost 7 MWs. (No guarantee my math here is correct...)

 

However, despite all this I find he is underwhelming whenever he takes the field.  Some of that is definitely poor play on my part, but I also find that despite the increase in offense he provides, I often don't need it.  What I do need is better defense (which is a really bizarre thing for an army that is supposed to be one of the toughest in the game) so I find the other Virion take priority, or the points go into more bodies.  If our Terminators had Blight Grenades that really would have pushed him to the top of the pack.  I would love to hear how others are finding his play on the tabletop.

[Tokugawa]

The more marine players in your city, the better he is.

[McElMcNinja]

I like running him in my drill with Blightspawn and 10 marines. Sometimes I run 10 or 2x5, depends on my mood, when you run 2x5, you get 5 of his grenades. Put some flamer weapons in the mix and add arch-contaminater and it really can add up. I also run the extra -1AP so that they are -2AP grenades at 2D. Thinking of putting a unit of 7 in a drop-pod with a lord and characters, could be powerful. Maybe not the most competitive thing, but fun to play.

[Special Officer Doofy]

I like running him in my drill with Blightspawn and 10 marines. Sometimes I run 10 or 2x5, depends on my mood, when you run 2x5, you get 5 of his grenades. Put some flamer weapons in the mix and add arch-contaminater and it really can add up. I also run the extra -1AP so that they are -2AP grenades at 2D. Thinking of putting a unit of 7 in a drop-pod with a lord and characters, could be powerful. Maybe not the most competitive thing, but fun to play.

What do you mean when you say "when you run 2x5, you get 5 of his grenades"?

[McElMcNinja]

From the Blight Racks, if both units are within range then each unit can throw 1 grenade and the 3 “pistols” from the strat, which can be any models also within range and equipped with blight grenades. I was not meaning his Hyper blight grenade, sorry if there was some confusion.

[Special Officer Doofy]

From the Blight Racks, if both units are within range then each unit can throw 1 grenade and the 3 “pistols” from the strat, which can be any models also within range and equipped with blight grenades. I was not meaning his Hyper blight grenade, sorry if there was some confusion.

Oh no worries, I was making sure I wasn't missing something haha. That makes sense, didn't even think about counting the ones they can throw.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

From the Blight Racks, if both units are within range then each unit can throw 1 grenade and the 3 “pistols” from the strat, which can be any models also within range and equipped with blight grenades. I was not meaning his Hyper blight grenade, sorry if there was some confusion.

I'd not thought about this before. Because it says 'in engagement range' I've always kinda considered the Blightening Strat as a close combat Strat.

 

But that could really drop the pain on a unit.

 

Do you think that it would be a way of combating units that are generally too tough for normal plague marines? I've treated my plague marines like bullies and gone after things like regular Tactical marines etc but I always worried about terminators and dedicated power weapon wielding squads.

 

With the Purifiers aura in play and his gift to the plague marines weapons this could be throwing down a lot of regular wounds BEFORE I charge and start swinging for Mortals?

 

One other thing I just noticed.

 

This chap has a plage knife - so if we want in up close to where the combat is happening we could trade it out for the Plaguebringer relic to help him hold his own

[KingYertle]

Just to clarify

 

When you use the Blightening, only the 3 models chosen have their Grenades changed from Type Grenade D6 to Type Pistol 6.  So if the Unit is within engagement range then only those 3 models can fire, as the 4th model's grenade is still type Grenade and only weapons with the Type Pistol can be used while in Engagement Range.

 

However if you are not in Engagement Range, then yes, one member of each unit can throw a grenade in addition to the 3 models whose grenades have become Pistol 6.  The grenades would still be D6 shots, while the pistol gets all 6.   To use Ninja's example one squad would have 18+D6 attacks and the second unit would have just D6 attacks.   And of course, the Grenades have Blast, which applies to the D6 roll.

 

Got too love how confusing simple rule interactions can become!