After doing way too much ‘Proper Adult Stuff’¹ lately I can finally sit down with the Liber Hereticus and have a look at the Death Guard. That little project I started as a Zone Mortalis force is going to continue to be the side-project for some time. Not that I think they’re bad, on the contrary they have some amazing options. But my first passion project was the Dark Angels, and you can read about my thoughts on them Here.

Legion Trait

Unless the unit is Cavalry, Artillery and not running or activating an alternate form of movement² or disembarking or arriving via Deep Strike we get to ignore the penalties or restrictions to moving in the movement phase. That is a mouthful, but it gets longer. If the unit doesn’t run (or use an alternate form of movement) it counts as being Stationary for shooting attacks until the controlling player’s next turn. Doesn’t mean they can charge and doesn’t allow Vehicles to bypass being immobilised. Now half of this trait is amazing in the Reaping Rite of War, and we will cover that little nugget in a rant later on. The first part I wonder how effective it is going to be. Being able to move freely even while being pinned is going to catch a lot of people off guard as well as not being hindered by terrain penalties. It definitely leans on the theme of a slow infantry force relentlessly drawing closer.

Reaction

Shooting phase reaction that gives a unit Feel No Pain (4+), auto-pass any ensuing morale or pinning checks and then allows a 7" move in any direction. It’s another way of moving as the reactive player and granting a unit a 4+ FNP save can really scupper any plans that the opponent has if they were trying to remove a big block of 20 Tactical marines from an objective.

Warlord Traits

We get access to three of these. One is Traitor only but the other two can be fielded by either side.

• Reaper’s Visage (Traitor). Enemy units within 12" take a -2-leadership penalty for tests, morale and regrouping purposes unless there’s an independent character or Primarch present. Additional Assault reaction. If you want to get up close and start applying pinning or other leadership tests this is going to be a huge bonus, as it drops the average Ld of a tactical marine to 5/6 depending on if the Sergeant is still kicking around.
• Witch Hunter. +1 WS and +1 T when fighting against units with at least one Psyker. Also, Death Guard units within 12" of you get a 6+ invulnerable save against Psychic weapons, powers or Perils of the Warp. Additional Assault reaction. I’m unsure on this one, on one hand the bonus WS and T could be really good if you go duelling Librarians or most Thousand Sons characters ³. Otherwise, I’d probably pass on this.
• Blood of Barbarus. Rending, Murderous Strike, Poisoned and Fleshbane only affects the Warlord or his unit on a 6. Additional Shooting Reaction. To quote the Animaniacs, “Hellooooo Nurse”. I will happily put this on a Warlord and give him a bodyguard or even just a big block of Tactical marines to trudge around the mud with knowing that all those template weapons with Rending are going to be much less effective now.

Legion Equipment

Let’s talk about all those lovely chemical weapons.

Alchem Flamers

These are new. Take an equivalent flamer and swap it for an Alchem flamer for no additional cost. The benefit to this? Fleshbane and Gets Hot.
On a flame template.
Fleshbane.
The Alchem Cannon that replaces the flamestorm cannon as an option has an 18" torrent just to be sure that you’re going to spray flesh melting chemicals all over the place. Congratulations if you take lots of these, you’ve earned your ‘Commits War Crimes as a Hobby’ medal.

Toxin Bombs (Traitor Only)

These are new. Any character can take them and that includes squad Sergeants. Remember that because for +10 pts if the character/unit carrying these gets charged the charging unit rolls some dice for each model. On a 1 the take a wound, invulnerable saves only (it specifically says no Damage Mitigation saves). And you can still Overwatch as well, probably with that Wall of Death Alchem flamer to be even nastier. For any units that you expect to be getting stuck in the mid-board I’d take one every time.

Power Scythes

They’re back and they had a bit of a tweak. AP 3 now, still +2 Str. Rends on 6’s, 1 extra attack if in base-to-base with more than one model. It’s a side grade to what they used to be. They will still Instant Death units affected by Rad-Grenades though and we’re getting ever closed to the Reaping Rant.

The Rites (Or ‘Standard Gaming’ as we’re going to call One of these)

The Reaping

You know what…

A Rant about the Reaping and Legion Trait

I’m just going to get this out of the way now. Heavy Weapons squads as non-compulsory troops choices. Veterans as Troops choices ⁴. Characters can buy Rad Grenades, so that’s Tactical and Despoiler squads with Rad Grenades. Nothing terrible here. Except the second half of the Legion trait only really works with this Rite of War. The Heavy Support slot is packed with options as it is so getting Heavy Weapons teams in Troops is an amazing choice as it opens up those slots for Leviathans, Kratos and Death Wardens. You’re not likely to see a lot of Heavy Weapons teams even though I do think they’re a standout choice now (my Dark Angels uses 10 lascannon Heavy Weapons marines and that comes in at around 275pts for all of them) it’s still a tough sell when a base Leviathan is sitting at 270pts before upgrades. So, we’ll end up using the Reaping Rite of War to gain the extra space for Heavy Weapons squads and to actually utilise the entire Legion trait, and that’s where my problem is. I’ll happily take 2x 10 Heavy Weapons squads with missile launchers or autocannons or the heavy Volkite weapons because those are going to be so effective being able to move and fire them with no penalty. The Reaping just makes that really, really easy to do and I think pushes Death Guard players into taking this Rite over no Rite or another choice unless you have a specific theme you’re building towards.
The only downsides to this Rite are you can’t use a reaction that allows you to move except the Death Guard specific and you can’t start units in Deep Strike / Subterranean / Flanking Assaults. Yeah, I don’t consider this much of a downside really.

Creeping Death

And breath. But don’t breathe too deeply, it might melt your lungs.
Auto-pass Dangerous Terrain tests ⁵ for all Death Guard is great ⁶, all units in your deployment zone get a Shrouded 6+ save and the entire zone counts as Difficult and Dangerous. All area terrain counts as Dangerous, which is making this Rite even funnier still. Oh, and Grave Wardens can be Non-Compulsory Troops choices. I have to take a Siege breaker consul and have to be of the Traitor allegiance for this. But I get Assault Marines that auto-pass Dangerous Terrain backup up by Grave Wardens spamming toxin grenades all over the place while making every piece of area terrain⁷ a no-go zone. I like this Rite of War even if the way I’m thinking doesn’t really align with the rest of the Death Guard package all that much. It’s something new and I started my collection with Grave Wardens so this gives them more opportunity to shine.

Our Units

Mortarion

The Pale King has the usual slew of Primarch rules and bonuses. He’s as ‘bulky’ as Fulgrim though in Mortarion’s case we can put that down to the massive vape tanks he carries around to puff away on.

Statline

He’s tough and strong. In fact the only numbers he has below 7 are BS, I and A (well save but that’s a good thing). It Will Not Die (4+) stacking with this and his Preternatural Resilience rule means it’s going to take another Primarch to put a dent in him.

Sire of the Death Guard

Army wide ignore the Leadership penalties of Fear and Shell Shock and ignore the penalty from casualties suffered during combat. Grants and additional Assault reaction. The Leadership effect he has is insanely good, one of the best ways we’re going to have for dealing with other marine lists now is pinning and casualties. Especially with the now slightly lower leadership values across the board. The only other Legion I’ve reviewed (at time of writing) is the Dark Angels and this blows the Lion’s trait out the water with how immediately it affects the game.

His Weapons

Silence

A scythe that allows him to swing around with at least 6 attacks at Str 8, AP 2 Instant Death and with Sunder. 2 extra attacks if he’s base-to-base with multiple enemy models makes this one of those heavy infantry cleaving choices. He can fight vehicles and other Primarchs but for the most part he’ll just tie them up and not really be pressing the advantage in the duels. Much better if he’s wandering around removing units as he goes.

The Lantern

A Str 8, AP 2 Assault plasma ‘pistol’ with Sunder. It’s alright but nothing amazing.

His Armour

2+, 4++. Nothing extra so pretty standard.

The rest of the Package

Remember I mentioned his Preternatural Resilience rule? That means that fleshbane, poison and rending rules can only affect him on a 6. See the Lion walk around with the Lion Sword and laugh as it literally bounces off how tough Mortarion is. There is one other rule but that comes next.

Shenanigans

Shadow of the Reaper. As long as he doesn’t have a retinue or Deathshroud retinue during the shooting phase he can just teleport himself to be within 10" of his current location as long as it is at least 3" away from an enemy model. You can still charge but it’s Disordered. He has a move of 7" base, teleports 10" and then can charge up to 12". A 29" threat range from a standing start with what is supposed to be a slow Primarch. And let’s not even get into the silliness that is having him arrive out of a Kharibdys or other Assault Vehicle to further extend that distance.

Calas Typhon

As I type this the model is still sat sealed in a box and just begging to be painted ⁸. He has the pretty standard 1st Captain/Praetor profile but where he gets extremely dangerous is that he gets some of the equipment and rules from a Grave Warden and a nifty pair of spells. His Scythe, Lakrimae, is AP 2 and Fleshbane; he has an Alchem Pistol and a Death Cloud to go with Firing Protocols (2) for double the War Crimes template and forces units charging him to become Disordered. Oh and Rad Grenades to just be even more disgusting. Right now you may be thinking, ‘okay he’s good. What makes him silly?’ and the answer is his two spells.

Witchsense (Assault phase power)

Roll to not have a headache (at Leadership 10) for +1WS and +D3 Attacks that phase. Would put his WS on par with Corswain, Kharn, Sevatar (base) and even some of the Primarchs. High WS is really good this edition as even a difference of 1 point can shift you from needing 4’s to needing 5’s to hit.

Toxin Cloud (Psychic Weapon)

24" range, 5" blast Fleshbane and Pinning. Just don’t have a headache.

That’s not the Best Part

We’re still talking about Calas here and we’ve covered a lot. Solid profile, deadly melee weapon, multiple horrible flame templates and a couple of really good spells but we haven’t covered his Warlord Trait. Any unit within 6" of him increases the value of the Poisoned (x) by 1 step. So (3) becomes (2). That’s going to include himself. Oh and you can re-roll Fleshbane to-wound rolls if you’re that close as well.
Poisoned (2) and re-rolling Fleshbane rolls in a 6" bubble is ridiculous especially when we come to the Grave Wardens, or even just look at the Alchem Weapons that the Death Guard are packing. He also gets an additional Movement reaction for what it’s worth.

Deathshroud Terminator Squad

At 70pts a model you would expect these guys to be tough. WS 5, 3 wounds, 3 Attacks each with Power Scythes and Stubborn. Yes, Tartaros armour isn’t the best and yes, 5 of these is going to come in at 350pts but you’re getting 15 Wounds and 15 Attacks for that. Have them bodyguard Calas or another Praetor that’s running the Reaping to get access to Rad Grenades and watch as they Instant Death their way through toughness 4 units. They can also be taken as a Retinue unit if you want to save your Elites slots for Dreadnoughts or something else.

Grave Warden Terminator Squad

The reason I started a side-project for the Death Guard was these models. At 250pts for 5 they come in around the average price for Legion specific Terminators. Power fists or upgrade to chain fists, 1 in every 5 can have an Alchem Heavy flamer which seems nice until you read the Assault Grenade Launcher they carry. It has 2 choice:

• Krak. Str 6, Ap 4, Assault 2. Reasonable.
• Toxin. Str 1, Ap 5, Assault 4, Poisoned (3+), Ignore Cover. 10 of these is spitting out 40 shots that will wound on 2’s if near Calas at an 18" range. I don’t think I can express how silly good I think that is.
  They also have the same poisoned flame template and Shrouded in Death abilities as Calas and firing protocol(2) so you can fire both War Crime guns in the same shooting phase if you really want. Big blocks of infantry may be a good thing for this edition unless you see a big block of these guys walking through the mud towards you.

Didn’t We Have More?

Apart from the Poisoners in the Exemplary Battles I’m struggling to think of units that we’ve lost. If I’ve missed something drop me a comment. ⁹

Wrap it Up

Do I think the Death Guard have some very good options? Of Course. But I can’t let the interaction of the Legion trait that pushes me into taking the Reaping go, nor can I give a free pass just because Creeping Death has some silly interactions that are going to make some people scratch their heads in wonder at just what I’m smoking ¹⁰. The Legion trait is a sleeper by allowing you to ignore the penalties to movement with it not being as overtly good as some of the other Legions traits like the Night Lords or Iron Warriors. Fleshbane flamers are a significant threat, even more so when you realise that they’re classed as a ‘minor’ combi-weapon and don’t have 1-use. It will be interesting to see what can be done with them, I’m thinking massed Terminators and Dreadnoughts.
Or just go completely insane and have 40 Assault Marines ignoring Dangerous Terrain and flying all over the place. Only time (and whatever distracts this hobby butterfly) will tell. Peace out y’all.