Death Guard HQ characters and consul synergy.

Sorry there hasn't been anything in a while, life got in the way (looking at you Betrayal At Calth box set)

Anyway here it is, thought I'd look at something new with the consul types let me know what you think. FYI this is quite a long post. 

Enjoy

So staring off here I just go through and list what each Consul type does and what you can do with them (and any other you should knows). These are just quick overviews as the tactics change dramatically depending on consul type and army build.

Master of signals +1 BS: Heavy support troops
Orbital strike
Nuncio-vox
Support officer (use Death Shroud)
No rite (you'll need another MotL HQ for rite in order to get HS troops)

Vigilator: grants scout to unit (gets grave wardens in range)
If taking rite you don't benefit from move through cover (as the rite give it to everyone natively) but it does grant infiltrate to the centurion and his squad, which is really nasty with heavy squads. (Gets you onto objectives and firing your weapons quicker)
Sabotage attack: D6 str 5 ap6 on a 2+ (deployment phase) take out Rhinos (always hits weakest facing)
First blood in deployment
Can be compulsory

Forge Lord:
Cataphractii + Cyber familiar = 3++
Cortex Controllers: single Castellax
Rad Grenades  (you can get them anyway) 
EH

Primus Medicae: Feel No Pain
Recover VP's from destroyed units
Cataphractii armour (join with your Terminators)
Can be good, attach them where Apothecarys can't go i.e. Terminators
Very expensive 
Support officer

Siege Breaker: Tank Hunter and Wreaker for attached units (heavy support squads who are troops?)
Phosphex shells on Medusas

Praevian: for when you want to play mechanicum AND space marines
Can't be Bulky
Castellax or Vorax 
If he hits the Automata get PE
Combo with Enhanced Targeting for 2+ rerollable 
Can pick: Furious Charge, Tank Hunter or Scout.
Death Guard upgrade doesn't give much so pick one of the options.

Moritat: eh. Doesn't really fit in.

Now we're onto the good stuff, Death Guard special characters and man are these guys awesome.

Crysos Morturg

This guy is essentially a ubber centurion. He is a psyker (super rare in 30k) with the Biomancy power Endurance, this allows you to make your heavy support marines relentless and giving them an amazing 4+ FNP which makes them awesomely durable. Meaning you can fire heavy weapons on the move AND survive almost anything, TRUE DEATH GUARD STYLE. Endurance also applies Eternal Warrior on the target unit so your 2 wound Death Shroud ignore str8 + guns in particular Medusa Siege guns and against str7- you get an amazing 4+ FNP on top of your 2 wounds and 2+ armour. 

As warlord he automatically gets to allow himself and 3 non vehicle units to Infiltrate, which is awesome. Infiltrate Grave Wardens and get in range turn 1, infiltrated Death Shroud so you can apply pressure turn 1.

However he doesn't have Master of the Legion so you can't take a Rite Of War so weigh up what you want to do -guaranteed Inflitrate 3 units or gain the benifits of a rite- and build your list around your decision.

This guy isn't a combat character but with Eternal Warrior he might survive longer than expected. Keep him out of combat end of story. Seriously with only power armour and a power sword he will go down vs any combat character. Use this guy as force multiplier, he does specific things for your army so build around his abilities and buffs.

If you work your list around him, Morturg can and will be an amazing force multiplier.

Durak Rask

This guy is pretty awesome. He is a Master of Ordnance AND Master of the Legion. In other words you get all of the MoO benefits on troop choice Heavy Support Marines. 

This means you can get Tank Hunter & Wreaker troop choice Heavy Support Marines who have move through cover.

He's no slouch in combat either with 1 more wound than normal and Artificer armour and a Thunder Hammer, meaning he can ID enemy characters without having to roll sixes. (with Rad Grenades he can even take on the normally ID immune Bike & Jetbike Praetors of assault armies).

He has the awesome trait of making fiendlies within 12" reroll 1's when targeting enemies who are within 3" of an objectives. This makes your heavy weapon squads EVEN MORE AWESOME. 

As Master of Ordnance he also allows Medusas to take Phosphorex shells, which again is awesome.

Overall this guy is totally awesome and embodies what Death Guard do best.

Calas Typhon

Calas Typhon is a Praetor equivalent wearing Cataphractii Terminator Armour with a grenade harness, a Master Crafted Power Scythe, a Hand Flamer with Chem Munitions, Rad grenades and a Nuncio-Vox.

As a Master of the Legion, Typhon gives you access to Rites of War. However Typhon doesnt give you any special army bonuses like the other two characters. Typhon is effectively just a special combat Praetor.

However he does have 2 extra unique abilities:

A) he has a once per game Ordnance 3 large blast poison (4+) orbital strike with Ignores Cover. However it has a major drawback: it's only ap4, meaning it doesn't do jack against marines compared to normal MoS orbital strikes.

But what this does mean is Typhon is amazing against Auxilia. Auxilia infantry normally huddle behind aegis line fortifications and have 4+ armour save and what does this strike have... ap4 and IGNORES COVER.

B) Typhon is a masterly level 1 psyker who rolls on Telepathy. Coming with the Primarus power (Psychic Shriek) he can and will rip the heart out of TEQ and elite infantry. The rest of the powers are pretty snazzy too. 

He can't be a psyker when Mortarion is around before the Isstvan campaign. (In other words he's a psyker in normal/tournament games)

His warlord trait is situational, no enemy unit may claim an objective if the unit is within 3" of Typhon. Which is nice but there are so many better traits. Where this comes into its own (yet again) is against Solar Auxilia. Auxilia infantry squads are large and spread out to minimize template casualties and to score as many objectives as possible. Because Typhon's rule effects the whole unit you are having a more significant effect. The trait allows you to gain contested objectives but overall isn't that amazing.

If you know you'll be up against Solar Auxilia Typhon might be a good buy, but otherwise the other Special Characters or a upgraded chatacter will be better.

With both Typhon and Morturg as psykers the Death Guard are actually one of the most innately psychic legions (as of writing Thousand Sons haven't been released). While their psychic range is alittle bit more limited in scope compared Word Bearers (who can also make non specific HQs psykers) you have access, you have access to some of the best powers in the game.

That's all from me this time, more Death Guard are coming soon. Thanks for reading and happy war gaming.

Argel Tal