Unleash the Death Guard’s Flyblown Host Detachment rules in Warhammer 40k as Swarming flies bring Nurgle’s pestilence to the Grotmas Calendar.
If there’s one thing the Death Guard know how to do, it makes an entrance—though “triumphant” probably isn’t the right word when it involves swarms of daemon flies, a reek so foul it could choke a voidship engine, and warriors who look like they’ve been marinating in rot for a few centuries.
Flyblown Host Brings New Horrors to Warhammer 40k
Welcome to the Flyblown Host, the first of the Grotmas Calander rules for December! Whether you’re new to the foul fold or a long-time worshipper of Grandfather Nurgle, this new detachment oozes with lore-rich flavor and battlefield tricks as potent as a particularly rancid cauldron of pus.
In Warhammer 40k’s ever-grim battles, the new Flyblown Host Detachment cranks the nightmare up to eleven, turning the Death Guard’s slow, inevitable advance into a spectacle of disease, despair, and devastating precision. This new detachment offers tactical tricks and lore-soaked options that capture the Death Guard’s disgusting grandeur. You can download the full rules here.
Verminous Haze: A Shroud of Death
At the core of the Flyblown Host is the Verminous Haze, a detachment rule that encapsulates the ethos of the Death Guard: resilience through rot. Plague Marines and their Infantry allies gain Scouts 5″ and Stealth, giving them surprising mobility and durability. This isn’t about a reckless charge; it’s about positioning for a slow, suffocating stranglehold over the battlefield.
Stealth isn’t just about avoiding fire—it’s about making the enemy waste resources. Those few shots that do land? They’re swallowed by the buzzing tide, leaving the Plague Marines free to unleash their corrupted firepower.
A Buzzing Arsenal of Enhancements
For leaders of the Flyblown Host, four new Enhancements offer sinister utility, whether you’re looking to bolster firepower, protect key objectives, or even cheat death itself.
- Droning Chorus gives your ranged weapons the Assault ability, so your units can shuffle forward under their cloud of flies while still unleashing volleys of diseased projectiles.
- Insectile Murmuration lets your units reroll wound rolls of 1 against enemies caught within Contagion Range. It’s a thematic representation of the enemy succumbing to creeping sickness as the flies do their work.
- For the truly grotesque, Rejuvenating Swarm restores all lost wounds to a unit leader at the end of each phase. Picture a Plague Marine champion shrugging off what should have been a mortal blow as a tide of buzzing insects stitches their rotting flesh back together.
- Finally, Plagueveil cloaks objective-holding units in a fog of flies so dense that enemies can only target them with ranged attacks if they’re within 18″. It’s the perfect tool for locking down the board.
Stratagems: Pestilent Shenanigans Galore
No Death Guard detachment is complete without tricks to confound and crush the enemy, and the Flyblown Host doesn’t disappoint. The new Stratagems lean into the thematic power of the swarm, providing utility and brutality at every stage of the battle.
- Nauseating Paroxysms forces enemy units to take Battle-shock tests with a -1 modifier at the start of the Fight phase, representing the sheer horror of being engulfed in a tide of buzzing insects.
- Vermin Cloud turns your Plague Marines into melee powerhouses, allowing them to consolidate and pile in up to 6″. This added mobility ensures no foe escapes their noxious embrace.
- With Eye of the Swarm, your units can fire their ranged weapons in close combat as Pistol weapons, ensuring nothing interrupts their relentless barrage.
- The gruesome Enervating Onslaught piles on mortal wounds during the Charge phase, adding a visceral bite to their lumbering attacks.
- Droning Horror boosts ranged accuracy, with rerolls to hit (and full rerolls within half range), making their plague-encrusted weapons even more horrifyingly efficient.
- Lastly, Myphitic Invigoration teams your Infantry with Myphitic Blight-haulers to subtract 1 from Wound rolls against them, reinforcing the Death Guard’s reputation as unkillable terrors.
Swarms and Strategy: Death Guard Tactics with Flavor
On the tabletop, the Flyblown Host offers a playstyle that marries the Death Guard’s classic durability with enhanced mobility and tactical flexibility. It’s not about speed—it’s about creeping inevitability. Early-game scouting positions your units for mid-game dominance, while late-game durability ensures they’ll outlast and outgrind even the most determined opposition.
Lore fans will appreciate how every rule and enhancement ties back to the themes of disease and decay. The buzzing flies, the rejuvenating swarms, and the fog of rot are all straight out of Nurgle’s plague-soaked playbook. The new detachment rule and stratagems aren’t just mechanics—they’re storytelling devices that make every game feel like a battle fought in the shadow of Nurgle himself.
A New Dawn of Decay
The Flyblown Host doesn’t just bring new rules to the Death Guard—it embodies what makes them unique in the Warhammer 40k universe. They’re not just warriors; they’re an unstoppable tide of pestilence and despair.
From the lore-soaked Enhancements to the gruesome Stratagems, this detachment oozes personality. It’s a love letter to everything Death Guard players adore: the slow, implacable march of corrupted warriors leaving a trail of rotting corpses in their wake.
See All the New 40k Detachment Rules Here
What do you think about the new Death Guard Warhammer 40k Detachment rules from the first Grotmas Calendar?
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!
