Even though we aren’t getting the full codex this month, we at least get the new Mortarion Death Guard 40k rules to drool over.
With the release of the Death Guard being delayed, Warhammer Community gave us the condolence prize of the new Mortarion rules! We’ve already seen new rules for the Miasmic Malignifier on Warhammer Community. Now we have the rules for the big guy himself. So at least you can kind of play with some new rules. Let’s look at the terrain rules then hop into the new datasheet for Mortarion.
GW Confirms New Death Guard Terrain & 40k Rules!
Here is the video it was spotted in! You can see it is pretty massive compared to those weeny Death Guard! Honestly, it looks about the height of the new Necron Terrain. So they may be trying to bring some continuity to the army line-ups. If you want to see more about what’s going down with the upcoming army releases, check out what we know about what is on the way in 2021.
Here it is in it’s full Nurgle glory. A pretty fun sculpt that captures the essence of a decaying plague furnace! Let’s hear a little what GW has to say about it:
Super-gross, right? And no, we don’t want to think about what sort of vile fluids are being pumped around in there, let alone the toxic fumes being spewed forth from its chimney. But irrespective of your own opinions on the matter, the Death Guard love everything it has to offer! This is no surprise, really, as its presence makes these notoriously tough champions of the Plague God even harder to kill thanks to its Putrescent Fog ability.
Putrescent Fog
Nothing too crazy, but giving your backline units some extra survivability is never a bad thing! You have to be pretty close to get the aura, but it could make for a perfect anchor point for your firing base. Although it looks to be 9-12″ wide so maybe it can project its aura out to 21″ to 24″ in diameter?
This is the only rule revealed, but they did give us a small teaser of what else it can do:
What’s more, the Miasmic Malignifier is so contagious (and stinky) that nearby enemies suffer terribly in its proximity. Even if it’s destroyed, the foetid furnace will likely burst in a Putrid Explosion – how wonderfully Nurgley!
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New Mortarion Death Guard 40k Rules Revealed!
There was an Ikea style sheet of his rules leaked earlier in the week, but now we get the full real datasheet. If you want to download his rules, you can here. Let’s compare it to his old sheet and see what’s changed.
Old rules
New Rules
They only show power level in the sheet but did say his points are staying the same at 490. So, you can start playing with the new rules right away before even grabbing the codex. Let’s look at the differences between the old and the new.
What’s Changing:
- +1 Toughness (up to 8)
- +1 Attacks (up to 7 at the top bracket). This also makes each descending bracket better
- Silence is now 3+d3 damage (up from d6)
- -6″ range on The Latern (now 12″ instead of 18″)
- No more exploding in the fight phase (that we know of yet..), as he could dish out a decent amount of mortal wounds quite easily before
- He can now pick his Warlord Trait at the beginning of the game
- All auras down 1″ to 6″
- Toxic presence says he counts as 4 for purposes of determining Contagion Range and abilities.
- We don’t know exactly what the warlord traits will be. So we’ll just have to wait and see how those can change his play style
Does This Change How He Plays?
Honestly, there is a ton of changes for the big guy, but none really change his style much. Most are small, but no longer having the host of plague is pretty annoying. Still, if you are going to run him, you need some Deathshroud with him. Because he’s still fairly short-ranged and the enemy will just shoot him off the board like usual if you don’t have the Deathshroud around.
With him also staying at basically 500 points, you need to protect him or the enemy can kill a quarter of your army by just getting rid of him. Even with the 4+ Invuln and Disgustingly Resilient, high damage weapons can volley him down.
If you want to download his rules, you can here!
What do you think about the new rules? Will you be playing him with the new datasheet before the codex comes out?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
