Here are all the new Chaos Death Guard army-wide special rules from their new codex book for 9th Edition 40k!
First spotted over on Imgur, now all of these rules can be found in the latest codex reviews on YouTube as well.
40k Death Guard Army Wide 9th Edition Special Rules
Check out all our breakdown of all the new rules below!
- Death Guard Warlord Traits
- Death Guard Stratagems
- Death Guard Army Wide Special Rules
- Death Guard Psychics & Relics
- Death Guard Plague Companies & Secondaries
- Death Guard Codex Datasheet 40k Rules Changes
GW has also covered everything from army-wide rules to individual units with confirmed rules releases, which you can check out here. For now, let’s dive into the latest new rules from the Death Guard codex itself!
Detachment Abilities
Hmm, some interesting restrictions on your army here. Mostly you can’t take more Poxwalkers or Plague Followers than your core DG units. On top of that, you’ll have to take multiple detachments to get more than one Lord or Daemon Princes. It is nice though you can take three Foetid Virion units for a single elite slot though.
Inexorable Advance makes firing heavy weapons way better for infantry! You can just keep pushing forward and not worry bout that pesky minus 1 (it gets better with the rule below, don’t worry). For vehicles, it really makes them far better if your opponent tries to pin them in combat, not getting any modifiers is pretty amazing. Lastly, terrain, special rules, or Stratagems mean basically nothing for their infantry movement now, not even for charging! Overall a pretty sweet rule.
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Plague Company Rules
Malicious Volleys looks to be the DG version of bolter discipline, which basically means all of your Death Guard infantry will get double shots all the time with bolters. With the rule above, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where, when you can actually shoot, you don’t get to rapid-fire. Getting double the shots all the time for infantry is not something to take lightly.
Disgustingly Resilient has been basically analyzed to death, if you want to see more about the discussion on that one, check it out here. On top of that remorseless makes your units not run away as easily and Plague Weapons keep their rerolling of one to wound.
Deadly Pathogens
Deadly Pathogens are going to be optional upgrades to take on plague weapons used by your DG characters. Of course, this will come with a small point increase (similar to like the specializations for Deathwatch Kill Teams). To start, just upgrading a weapon is going to add 1 strength to anything you take it on (Ranged or CC), and then there are going to be some further upgrades.
Viscous Death is quite obvious what type of weapon this is made for! Depending on the cost this could really give you some reliability to your variable attack weapons. If you’re getting +1 strength, rerolling 1’s to wound, and rerolling the number of attacks, this could turn some pretty normal weaponry deadly.
There are also two buffs to either wounding or hitting. One gives you mortal wounds on a wound roll of 6, the other gives additional hits on a roll of a 6.
Contagion Abilities
A huge debuff that only gets better with time, enemy models lose a toughness when within this aura range of such afflicted Death Guard models (which looks to be most of them). As suspected this does not stack with each other, and can not be modified further from other auras, and aura enhancements.
Don’t forget Morty always counts HIS contagion as being turn 4 as well, with Toxic Presence. That’s a spicy 9″ aura for sure!
What are your thoughts on all these special rules? Which is your favorite new rule?
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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!
