Unit of the Week: Death Guard Chaos Lord

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Back up to the HQs this week.

 

The chaos lord is, at base cost, our cheapest Hq. If you take him as is he starts at 85pts, replace his chainsword or bolt pistol and he can get pricier real quick.

 

A lord of the legion - he enables rerolls of 1s to hit fore CORE models

And he has a 4+ invunerable save.

 

Who uses the basic lord and why?

Edited November 21, 2021 by Wolf Lord Loki

[Tokugawa]

There are some circumstances he become playable.

 

e.g. You feel high possibility to pair with a TSons player in an event, you really want no psyker unit in your list, but all your stuff can't be included in one detachment. Then you need another HQ besides LoC/LoV.

[Marshal Loss]

Haven't used him this edition. While he's not complete garbage (at least all lords have T5/DR now), I don't think he's worth his points. In 8th you'd consider taking him as a cheap source of re-rolls for your daemon engines but none of those have CORE in 9th so why bother with a backline aura-giver these days? He's also not a whole lot cheaper than our other lord options and doesn't possess their utility. Might be worth a look if you're desperately trying to cram in a re-roll 1's aura or are playing a combat patrol but I'd rather try to find the room for another choice.

 

Silver lining (tabletop effectiveness aside) is that the basic lord gives us a lot more room for conversions than the other choices with their preset wargear. Real pity he can't take a manreaper though.

[BrainFireBob]

Can ride in a rhino, termite, or Anvillus.

[Special Officer Doofy]

At least he can take a balesword and have a plague weapon. But now that only core can have rerolls from a lord, his use drops off significantly.

[Metzombie]

There are some circumstances he become playable.

 

e.g. You feel high possibility to pair with a TSons player in an event, you really want no psyker unit in your list, but all your stuff can't be included in one detachment. Then you need another HQ besides LoC/LoV.

The Chaos Lord has the "Lord of the Death Guard" Keyword. So you can not have him in the same detachment with another Lord.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

Thing is my plague marines haven't had any issues battering their way through marines even with out character support

 

I'm not sure what the Lord would bring to the equation. Better shooting as they walk towards the foe?

 

Would possibly be helpful for the 3 plasma gun squads as you could risk going full boar with the plasma

 

Perhaps he has some utility as close combat support for a shooty squad as it marches forward

[McElMcNinja]

I run a Lord and a Tallyman near my three Contemptors, he’s a cheap HQ that lets them re-roll ones to hit. Between him and my Tallyman I get great value out of them and so him. 32 shots hitting on 3’s and 16 hitting on 2’s, all re-rolling 1’s while 6’s do extra hits is a lot of dakka.

 

Edit: plus the missiles.

Edited November 23, 2021 by McElMcNinja

[Cleon]

I don't think I'd ever use him in a normal matched play game, but his power armour letting him hitch a ride with a squad in a Rhino sets him aside as unique amongst the true re-roll granting lords for narrative play games with either a wider turn limit or larger board.

[Iron Sage]

Haven't used him this edition. While he's not complete garbage (at least all lords have T5/DR now), I don't think he's worth his points. In 8th you'd consider taking him as a cheap source of re-rolls for your daemon engines but none of those have CORE in 9th so why bother with a backline aura-giver these days? He's also not a whole lot cheaper than our other lord options and doesn't possess their utility. Might be worth a look if you're desperately trying to cram in a re-roll 1's aura or are playing a combat patrol but I'd rather try to find the room for another choice.

 

Silver lining (tabletop effectiveness aside) is that the basic lord gives us a lot more room for conversions than the other choices with their preset wargear. Real pity he can't take a manreaper though.

I have used him once. The dark Vengeance mini (painted as DG of course). I gave him the relic blade to make him more lethal. My opponent was very nice and allowed me to field him with a bolt pistol instead of a plasma pistol (when do you ever want a plasma pistol on a chaos lord ?).

I used him in a 1K army, gave him arch contaminator, and he was quite decent in that scenario alongside his Plague Marine bodyguards, running out of a rhino. He was probably not the reason why I won , but he was quite okay. A LoC would have been too expensive for my list, as well as the fact that I did not have that many units and wanted slightly more mobility, and he freed up enough points to give me 3 spawns instead of 2 etc. He also killed quite a few primaris around an objective. Note that I played a guy who wanted to field a thematic army more than a min maxed, so I did not go all out to make my list the most efficient it could have been points wise. I still won anyway as my friend is more a Lore-lover and a painter than a player (which is sad at some times, but on the other hand it also allows me to field some fun stuff that I wouldn't do against a "normal" opponent).

 

I do however think that there are not that many scenarios where I would consider taking him in 2k battles. Maybe, I haven't made that may 1K lists, he may be the cheap HQ you need in some scenarios I guess. But of course, normally, a Malignant Plaguecaster is needed. I think he is only useful in some 1K lists and combat patrols.

[Plague _Lord]

He's fine in 1k games and cheapish in 2k games if you need a reroll bubble for your dreads.

I think I'd rather just have a LoC/LoV  for that role since they are well better at CC/shooting.

I don't have space or need for this guy in any of my lists.

 

He would be probably be more useable if he could actually accompany a full squad of plague marines in a rhino...

[Iron Sage]

He's fine in 1k games and cheapish in 2k games if you need a reroll bubble for your dreads.

I think I'd rather just have a LoC/LoV  for that role since they are well better at CC/shooting.

I don't have space or need for this guy in any of my lists.

 

He would be probably be more useable if he could actually accompany a full squad of plague marines in a rhino...

Yes, one of the greatest annoyances I have regarding Chaos Space Marines in general, is the transport cap on Rhinos and Land Raiders. Land Raiders needs a lot of help to be playable (like Disgustingly Res + 1-2 extra transport slots), and having the 10 man cap just kills it as a transport, since you then just can't transport a very heavy hitting squad with characters.

[Xenith]

A DG player in the last local tourney I was in ran a simple lord with sword and I think the Inexorable trait to give shooting to any units in contagion range at -1 AP, on top of the rerolls to hit. He could then also use blight drones and Flash Outbreak to put that aura of essentially -1T and -1 Sv anywhere he wanted in game. That combined with quad bolter rapiers made a mess of a lot of peoples armies, and he came second overall. 

[Verbal Underbelly]

I use one with a (free) plasma pistol and power sword upgraded to the plaguebringer relic. 90 points, cheap and cheerful, can ride any transport and the main reason... I can model my HQ choice however I wish rather than being locked into the monopose, mono-loadout DG HQ choices. That's the greatest shame in recent years, for me, that modelling and customisation are falling away from the GW brand in many areas.