Death Guard Legion Overview

Ok so kicking off with our next legion: the infamous Death Guard.


 These guys bring a new meaning to "Superior Firepower".

Getting right into the meat of it:
These guys have immunity to fear (Night Lords hate these guys) and pinning, meaning they're better able to bring their heavy weapons to bear.

With the Death Guard Rite, Heavy Support Squads become troops. I personally like taking missile launchers on these guys. They come pretty cheap compared to the other weapons and are very versatile, they can take on light-medium armour, hordes and they can straight up ignore 3+ armour which is golden.


Also, these guys re-roll difficult terrain tests for areas of all difficult terrain (finally, we don't have to play on swamp boards anymore!). Extra bonus: successful fleshbane and poison wounds must be rerolled (Suck it dark Eldar!).

All death guard suffer from -1 for sweeping advance rolls but if you're in combat with something that isn't a terminator as death guard what are you doing? This shouldn't be a problem as this army plays a solid static gun line and its heavy assault/assault prevention units are terminators (who mostly can't sweep anyway).   Not any more suckers, our scythe-wielding terminators can now sweep!


Without the specific Rite you're not really gaining a huge advantage over other Legions and there aren't that many combos that stand out (let me know if there's anything you use that works).

Any flamers/heavy flamers/flame weapons in general, may take a 0 point upgrade which gives them SHRED at the expense of Gets hot. This is redundant in Zone Mortalis so if you're playing that don't buy this. Also, twin linked flamers/heavy flamers already have shred so don't get this on them either.


One fun tactic is to buy the way under pointed Promethium Relay Pipes fortification, which gives nearby flame weapons TORRENT (HELL YES BABY), adds some SCORING TROOPS HEAVY SUPPORT SQUADS with Heavy Flamers with Chem Munitions. Then drink your opponent's tears. Bonus points if they were playing a Solar Auxilla or Militia/Cults army.


Again you're really not gaining anything from not taking the specific Rite Of War. Heavy Support troops are where it's at for Death Guard.

With the Rite, you also get a flat Move Through Cover for everyone (feel like Ophra) which is always nice. The only issue is a large portion of your army is going to be static as they will have Heavy Weapons, so try to deploy on your objectives and if you can place the objectives in/as close to the deployment zone as you can. Because of this, you will want heavy assault units such as terminators in transports moving forwards to capture forward objectives. (Do this while you rain cover fire missiles at your opponent).



Deathshroud Terminators, awesome horde/elite infantry cleaners who really live up to their image. with their scythes they can attack as many times there are models in base contact (Tyranids will hate this army, it's like they were designed to combat them...) Edit, they now just add one attack if you're in base contact with more than one model.

Deathshroud in assault land raiders makes great forward objective grabbers.

They are kinda expensive at 2 power fists each, but boy do they get the job done (and they keep their Ap2, unlike certain legion terminators). And the best part? Not only are Terminator-armoured, THEY HAVE 2 WOUNDS EACH!!! One of the best units in my opinion.

They're easy to understand, perform extremely well, are super hard to kill and they synergise perfectly. The only issue is you can't have them as troops if you use the Reaping RoW. *sadface* that would just be broken. Also, they are expensive so don't expect to see them in many -2000 point games unless you are going elite. (Taking Pride of the Legion in a Onslaught Force Organisation for 4 Heavy Support slots for Heavy Support marines isn't actually a bad idea and can work well ((also give you 2 LoWs for extra fun super heavy tanks), only draw back is you must go second unless you seize, which can work for you as they have to burn a game turn or walk into range of your HS squads #indepthmetagaming.) I'm secretly tempted to play Death Guard now haha.


The Death Guard relic is pretty lame, -1T for enemy units within 6", but with Rad Grenades and Power Scythes (see below) your still wounding on 2s, the only benefit is you will instant death them so if you're up against other 2 wound Termies it could be good. Bear in mind it's only 6"s so it's only one unit per turn.


Okay so Death Guard have some nice unique war gear, I've already kinda covered the Power Scythe, but I'll run it down again with better detail; it's a power fist priced power axe, that gain one extra attack if there is more than one enemy model in base contact. (updated)

If you take the specific Rite of War characters can take Rad Grenades which is Awesome (shredding lightning claw terminators that wound on 3s!?)



Grave Warden terminators are good, but honestly with the lower range (24") and ap4 they aren't fantastic. They can be used to hold objectives but I personally think a heavy support squad does it better (I say HS squad because they guys are a heavy support slot choice and therefore don't become troops in a PotL Rite list). However against Solar Auxilla, these guys would be good, with ap4 blasts versus ap5 frag missiles. Effectively these guys are specifically for anti-Auxilla fighting.




Your HQ is nothing jaw dropping like Erebus, Iron Hands Autek Mor or mister Imperial Fist Sigismund.

Crysos Morturg is nice, he's nothing amazing stats wise but the reason you would take him is that he automatically has the Master Of Ambush warlord trait (lets his unit & 3 other unit infiltrate). This means you can throw your Terminators up field really early. Really you want him to infiltrate your nasty squads. One tactic you could use to be really jammy would be to infiltrate 3 CONTEMPTOR DREADNOUGHT TALONS OF 3 DREADNOUGHTS EACH (because they are deployed a squad but can act separately afterwards). This may not buy you many friends but it will ruin anyone's day. The final thing to note for him is he doesn't have Master of the Legion, so no Rites with him. (Also he's a filthy Loyalist XD) Also, he's a Psyker with Endurance (relentless Heavy Support marines with missile launchers anyone?) and Smite for ap2 brain Dakka.




Next, we have Durak Rask (who got killed by our little friend Crysos Morturg). This guy is pretty awesome as he is both a Master Of Ordnance (and all associated buffs) AND a Master or the Legion (rites of war). He confers tank hunter and wrecker to any squad he joins (Troop choice heavy support squad most likely). Also, he makes all friends within 12" re-roll to hit rolls of 1 when you target enemies within 3" of an objective. (Pretty snazzy) Also, note that by making your HS squads troops he lets you tank more choices, like MEDUSA SEIGE GUNS (and as he is a Master Of Ordnance they can take PHOSPHEX SHELLS MUWHAHAHA).

If you were going to be taking The Reaping (pretty much why you play Death Guard in the first place) and you don't want to have to take a Melee character/you wanted a Master Of Ordnance too then this guy is amazing. (Has a thunder hammer for smashing heads too)




Next and finally we have the fat Zombie Lord himself...wait this is 30k... Calas Typhon. Typhon gives you a Praetor in Cataphractii pattern Terminator armour with a master-crafted Power Scythe, a Hand flamer with Chem Munitions, a grenade harness for charging in terrain, Rad grenades for -1T enemies! and a nuncio Vox. Also, he is a Level 1 Psyker (if non-traitor Mortariton is on the same battlefield he pretends he's not a Psyker and you can't use his powers) who can draw from Telepathy powers (which overall are pretty nice).

Keeping with the Anti Auxilla theme once per game Typhon can drop an Orbital Strike that has 3 LARGE BLAST TEMPLATES, Poison 4+ (getting an anti-Tyranid feel again...) Ap4 (more anti ) with NO COVER SAVES! (COME ON THAT JUST SCREAMS "DIE SPACE BUG DIE!!!"). It will always scatter 2D6 (says nothing about scattering in the direction of the small arrow on the hit symbol so assumedly it can be a direct hit). But with 3 LARGE BLASTS WHO CARES! PS, he can't move before he does this.

His warlord trait is iffy: No enemy units within 3" can claim objectives. Means no one can contest your Implacable Advance Deathshroud Terminators (yay). But there's better traits on the table (sacrifices must be made). (It's measured by the unit not by the objective so you can deny objectives which are actually more than 3"s away, but it's still pretty rubbish)

He's quite expensive, but for what he does for your army he's worth it, especially against Auxilla armies. DRINK PETTY HUMAN TEARS.

With Rad grenades and Power Scythes, any attached Deathshroud will wound on 2s and have ap2. Bye bye terminators.



As an overview, Death Guard is a Heavy Weapon based army that tends to work as a gun line (but can work really well with synergised forward elements, I will post on this in more detail later). Your Rite of War limits your manoeuvrability -you can't run, but you shouldn't be running you should be FIRING DEATH APON YOUR ENEMIES, and you only get 1 fast attack slot, but you can take loads of heavy support so EH- but offers you a metric tonne of heavy fire support. Your legion rules help your morale and keep you shooting.

Overall Death Guard is a static heavy army that works at nearly any point level and should achieve a solid win rate. 

Hope you enjoyed reading, more Death Guard is coming.
Also, I've just ordered my Betrayal At Calth box set so I might upload my thoughts on the game. I'd be keen to try out playing Death Guard myself for some fun. Also, I'll then have 3500-3750 points of Word Bearers.


Finally, I'd just like to say a massive thank you to all of you guys and girls that read this blog, it's really awesome to see the numbers from all over the world and to find out that I'm not just totally crazy. XD. Thank you all so much it's really amazing, and I look forward to future blogs.

Have a great week, happy wargaming and see you guys all next time.
Argel_Tal



'Rest? We were not made to rest; we go on, unflinching, unstoppable, unending in our strength. The Emperor did not make us for such mortal concerns as hearth and home, vanity or contemplation; we are his engines of war, his hammers, beating out the fabric of existence into a vessel fit for Mankind to inhabit.'

— Ferrus Manus, as quoted in Shadow of the Gorgon by the Remembrancer Czel Atternus (from Horus Heresy Book 2: Massacre, page 234)