It’s Saturday and that means the Death Guard are almost here! Checkout the latest on what’s in the book and images of the Plague Lord himself: Mortarion!
While we may not 100% know what all of these units do yet, we at least know what to look for new release-wise in the near future for the Death Guard. Here’s the unit line up courtesy of sceencaps from the Black Library digital demo copy:
Looks like Deathshroud are confirmed, however the smaller weaponized terminators appear to be Blightlords? Here’s a list of models that stood out to us, can you pick them out of this lineup:
- Biologus Purrifier
- Plague Surgeon
- Plagueburst Crawler
- Myphitic Blight Haulers
- Tallyman
- Foul Blightspawn
Looks like GW alum Jes Bickham let the cat out of the Nurgly bag as well with the first sighting of Mortarion:
And the latest teaser from Games Workshop gave us another look at new features of Codex: Death Guard. Let’s see what they had to say about the new special rules and psychic powers.
Army Special Rules
Inexorable Advance is the Death Guard equivalent to the Chapter Tactics and Legion Traits we’ve seen so far. If you’re using a Death Guard Detachment, your units won’t suffer any penalties for moving and firing Heavy weapons, or Advancing and firing Assault weapons, as well as being able to use your Rapid Fire weapons at a longer range.
In practice, this means you’ll be able to keep your Death Guard bearing down on the foe without blunting your offensive capabilities. This is of particular use to Helbrutes, who possess a range of Heavy weapons, while Plague Marines with Assault weapons like a meltagun or blight launcher will make for a surprisingly mobile fire-support unit.
While it’s not an army special rule as such, it’s worth noting that nearly every new Death Guard unit has Disgustingly Resilient. This includes all the new Daemon Engines serving alongside the Death Guard, as well as both their unique Terminator units (rest assured we’ll be taking a closer look at these soon!). Disgustingly Resilient is an incredibly useful ability, helping your units cope with high AP weapons and even Mortal Wounds that can be deadly for heavily armoured infantry. Older units like Possessed and Helbrutes lack Disgustingly Resilient but will benefit from your Stratagems significantly, meaning they still very much have a role to play in your army.
What units do I get?
Talking of older units, you may be wondering which units the Death Guard can still use – particularly if you’re a long standing fan looking to revamp your army with a new codex! The Death Guard will be keeping access to everything they could use in Index: Chaos – so Chaos Lords, Sorcerers, Chaos Cultists, Helbrutes, Possessed, Chaos Spawn, Chaos Land Raiders, Defilers, Chaos Predators and Chaos Rhinos. In addition, there are 9 completely new units in the codex, datasheets for the 4 new units from Dark Imperium, and an updated datasheet for Plague Marines that gives them some powerful new options – we’ll be previewing these closer to release.
That’s not all – the codex also contains rules for a range of Nurgle Daemons – perfect for summoning into your army if you’re in need of some Nurglings or need some fast-moving Plague Drones in a hurry.
Psychic Powers
The new Death Guard codex also brings an expanded Contagion discipline to the army. As well as the powers from Index: Chaos, there are three new powers to complement them. Blades of Putrefaction makes Death Guard units deadly in close combat and allows you to stack up mortal wounds with your Plague weapons.
Putrescent Vitality is a superb support ability that can easily bring Plague Marines up to Toughness 6, or provide a Lord of Contagion with a handy bump to strength.
The new psychic powers and special rules look like they’re going to help the Death Guard out in both offense and defense. Putrescent Vitality is going to let you add 1 to a unit’s Strength and Toughness characteristics if you successfully get it off, and with a warp charge value of 6 it shouldn’t be too difficult. Combine that with Disgustingly Resilient which lets your roll a dice anytime a unit with that ability loses a wound, and on a 5+ that wound is ignored, and you’ve got yourself one infantry unit that is going to be hard to take down.
Combo-ing the +1 strength buff along with Mortarion’s -1 Toughness aura could make it very hard for anyone to stand against such equipped lords of decay as well.
All in all the new teaser is making the Death Guard look very hard to kill on the table top. This may just be the help that the Death Guard needed to become one of the strongest armies.
What do you think about the latest teaser for Codex: Death Guard?
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About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
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About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
