Like the inevitable entropy of time itself, our Faction Focus series soldiers on to meet the pestilent plague worshippers of the Death Guard, with three new detachments.
Contagion Engines
The Death Guard have a sizeable motor pool of daemon-corrupted war machines to wield, and the Contagion Engines detachment takes a generous sweep of them to new heights.
WARPED AND RUSTED ANIMUS
For all their slow degeneration, many of the Death Guard’s warmachines are augmented with a fevered and inexorable urgency that brings their corrupted weapons to bear upon the foe all too quickly.
Friendly FOETID BLOAT-DRONE/FOETID BLOAT-DRONE WITH HEAVY BLIGHT LAUNCHER/HELBRUTE/MYPHITIC BLIGHT-HAULER units have CONTAGION ENGINE.
Friendly CONTAGION ENGINE units’ ranged attacks have [ASSAULT].
This detachment has the ENGINES tag and cannot be taken with another ENGINES detachment.
For all their power and durability, the sons of Mortarion are… not the quickest of chaps, and what mobile units they can muster will welcome anything that helps them zip around spreading poxes. The Assault ability – unchanged in the new edition – is a classic way of keeping the guns firing while moving around at speed, and with some impressive 10” and 7” moves on the units affected, you should have no trouble keeping Nurgle’s Gift spreading across the board.
Speaking of Nurgle’s gifts, the immense durability of these corrupted Vehicles can go a notch higher with the Parasitic Woe-reaper upgrade enhancement, which can let up to three of your units heal a bunch of wounds every time they slug someone in close combat.
PARASITIC WOE‑REAPER (Upgrade)
The diseased suffering inflicted by this war machine establishes an empyric barb in its victims through which it feasts, its bloated form pulsing with new growth after every attack.
CONTAGION ENGINE unit only. When this unit has fought, one model in this unit heals D3 wounds.
If you’d prefer to just shoot your enemies away, that’s fine too. Bloodrust Deluge lets you cast the Death Guard’s deadly aura of contagion all the way to a chosen target for one shooting attack, cutting their Toughness by 1 and even worsening their Save if you chose the Rattlejoint Ague plague.
Did you know Helbrutes add 1 to Wound rolls when they attack an Afflicted unit? Pop this stratagem, and one packing a twin lascannon can wound an Imperial Knight Valiant on a 2+!
BLOODRUST DELUGE (1CP)
CONTAGION ENGINES STRATAGEM
Warp‑tainted saturation oozes through this aggressive vehicle, leeching into its weapons, which spit the infection into foes at a distance.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase, when a friendly CONTAGION ENGINE unit is selected to shoot.
TARGET: That CONTAGION ENGINE unit.
EFFECT: Select one visible enemy unit. That enemy unit is Afflicted until your unit has attacked.
Flyblown Host
You might not think a force you can smell from over the horizon could be sneaky, but Mortarion has all kinds of tricks up his diseased sleeve. By conjuring a storm of buzzing flies, he can obscure the advance of his Plague Marines and sneak a significant force right up to enemy lines.
VERMINOUS HAZE
A cloud of winged insects descends over Mortarion’s pathogenic sons, obscuring their malodorous ranks and shielding them from the eyes and augurs of the enemy. Beneath thrumming storms of fat-bodied flies, Plague Marines stride towards their wavering foes until they are close enough to unleash punishing volleys of killing fire.
In the Declare Battle Formations step, you can select up to two friendly PLAGUE MARINES units. Those units have Infiltrators.
This detachment has the FLYBLOWN tag and cannot be taken with another FLYBLOWN detachment.
Getting close to your foes before they can even move is a great way to ensure they’ll be wrapped in your Contagion Range post-haste. You can even upgrade those advance units of Plague Marines with the Insectile Murmuration enhancement to make them more efficient against anyone caught in Nurgle’s Gift.
INSECTILE MURMURATION (Upgrade)
The buzzing swarms respond to the will of Nurgle’s disciples, sweeping down upon their chosen target, their crawling, biting and droning enfeebling the horrified foe.
PLAGUE MARINES unit only. When this unit’s attacks target a unit within Contagion Range of a friendly unit, those attacks can re-roll wound rolls of 1.
Oh no! The enemy has tried to stop your punishing fusillade by charging their rapidly decaying warriors into your Plague Marines, what should you do? Joke’s on them, the Death Guard thrive in the Eye of the Swarm, and the distraction caused by this detachment’s insectile cloud gives your men time to gun them down at point-blank range.
EYE OF THE SWARM (1CP)
FLYBLOWN HOST STRATAGEM
The vermin swarms intensify as the Death Guard close in upon the enemy. As their foes clutch and tear their crawling skin, pitiless Plague Marines unleash volleys of point‑blank fire into their tormented foes.
WHEN: Your Shooting phase, when a friendly PLAGUE MARINES unit is selected to shoot.
TARGET: That PLAGUE MARINES unit.
EFFECT: Your unit’s ranged attacks have [CLOSE-QUARTERS].
Yes, that says Close-Quarters. It’s the new name for Pistol, but otherwise it works the same as you remember.
[CLOSE‑QUARTERS]
Weapons designed for close-quarters fighting can be wielded effectively even in the press of melee combat.
Units containing one or more models with a [CLOSE-QUARTERS] weapon can shoot using close-quarters shooting (10.06).
When using another shooting type, for each model in that unit (excluding MONSTER/VEHICLE models), you can only select one of the following to make attacks with:
One or more of its [CLOSE-QUARTERS] weapons.
One or more of its other ranged weapons.
Paragons of Putrescence
All kinds of specialist Characters call the Death Guard home, from the psychic Malignant Plaguecaster to the deadly Lord of Poxes, and all of them get spruced up by the Paragons of Putrescence detachment. It starts off with a simple but effective boost – bumping up their Contagion Range – and goes up from there.
HYPERVIRULENT STRAINS
The rancid champions of the Death Guard are blessed with the most virulent contagions of Nurgle, supernatural strains that radiate towards unwilling hosts in floods of foulness.
Friendly DEATH GUARD CHARACTER units have +3" to their Contagion Range (to a maximum of 12").
The maladies caused by Nurgle’s Gift are crippling to the enemy, but if they have one minor drawback, it’s that you have to pick from three great options at the start of the game. A desperate struggle for an objective might have you wishing you had picked Scabrous Soulrot to cut the enemy’s OC. Now, with the Host of the Hybridised Pox enhancement, you can have the best of all worlds when it really matters most.
HOST OF THE HYBRIDISED POX
One plague is never enough for this champion, and their repulsive form is a vessel for a mutated and semisentient disease capable of manifesting in varied contagious forms.
DEATH GUARD INFANTRY model only. (Once per battle, per army) In your Command phase, you can use this ability. If you do, select one of the Plagues listed in Nurgle’s Gift (see Codex: Death Guard). Enemy units within Contagion Range of this unit also have the effect of that Plague in addition to your army’s chosen Plague until the end of the battle.
Hiding from your deathless champions is no good either, as the waft of corrupted miasma is enough to make even the stealthiest assassins give away their position with an inopportune coughing fit. We can’t judge, we’d run for the hills at the first breath.
AGGRAVUS SPASMS (1CP)
PARAGONS OF PUTRESCENCE STRATAGEM
There is no hiding from contagion, and particular pathogens can incite neurological paroxysms that force their victims to give away their positions in painful throes.
WHEN: Start of your Shooting Phase.
TARGET: One friendly DEATH GUARD CHARACTER unit.
EFFECT: Select one visible enemy unit within Contagion Range of your unit. That enemy unit has +6" detection range.
The Flyblown Host and Paragons of Putrescence make an especially good team, as you can attach Characters to your Plague Marine units, Infiltrate them close to enemy lines, and get a good swathe of your opponent’s army under your contagion aura by the second turn. Plus, since they’re only 1 Detachment Point each, you can slip in the Contagion Engines detachment to cause some vehicular chaos as well.
We’re going for the shower of a lifetime after that lot, but we’ll be back on Monday with a tall order – the Imperial and Chaos Knights in a head-to-head, three-detachments-each rumble. Who’ll come out on top?
