Check out all the new 9th Edition 40k Death Guard Rules we’ve seen so far- both rumored, and confirmed!
The Death Guard are finally up for release, so it’s time to go back and check out just everything we know so far about their rules as we head into their pre-order window.
All The New 9th Edition Death Guard 40k Rules So Far!
We’re covering them all here, but if you want to read any article individually, check them out below:
- Deathshroud Terminators
- Contagions of Nurgle Rules
- Disgustingly Resilient
- Death Guard Remorseless Rules
- Deadly Pathogens Rules
- Inexorable Advance & Bolter Rules
- Plague Marines Rules
- Mortarion Rules & Points
- Plagueburst Crawler Rules
- Blight-Hauler & Bloat Drone Rules
- Death Guard Heroes Series 3: Unboxing & Build
- Blightlord Terminators Rules
- Plague Companies Rules!
GW has have covered everything from army-wide rules to individual units, now let’s dive into all the rules!
Deathshroud Terminators Death Guard 40k Rules:
There was an Ikea style sheet of their rules spotted over on B&C so let’s compare it to his old sheet and see what’s changed.
Old rules
New Rules
New Bonuses:
- +1″ Movement (up from 4″, now 5″)
- +1 WS (up from 3+, now 2+)
- -1 Strength (down from 5, now 4)
- +1 Wound (up from 2, now 3)
- +1 Attack (up from 3, now 4, the captain has 5)
- Plaguespurt gauntlet +6″ range (was 6″, now 12″)
- Manreaper now flat 2 Damage (was d3)
What we don’t know:
- Hateful assault? (+1 attack on charge or intervention)
- Cataphractii armor/ Invulnerable?
- Teleport strike?
- Plague Weapon trait?
- Bodyguard rules?
- +1 attack for characters within 3″?
Overall, Deathshroud also looks like they are mostly coming out on top. Perhaps with the addition of a flat +1 attack, hateful assault is getting removed. Either way, that’s an outright buff.
Buffed across their whole stat sheet means if they don’t lose their bodyguard rules (wound soak for characters), the Morty-Deathshroud combos will still be great, and if not, they are better in their own right.
Blightlord Terminators Death Guard 40k Rules:
There was an Ikea style sheet of their rules leaked earlier in the week, so we will look over them now. You can also check out the original source here. Let’s compare it to his old sheet and see what’s changed.
Old rules
New Rules
New Bonuses:
- +1″ movement (up from 4″, now 5″)
- +1 Attacks (up from 2, now 3, the champion has 4)
- +1 Wound (up from 2, now 3)
- Blightlauncher now flat 2 damage (was d3)
- Flamespewer +3″ range (up from 9″, now 12″)
- Balesword now +1 strength (was user)
- Bubonic Axe +1 strength (was +1, now +2)
- Flail of Corruption -1 strength (was +2, now +1)
What we don’t know:
- Unique weapon rules? Will flail still spill overwound wise?
- Plague Weapon trait?
- extra ap on 6s to wound in melee?
- Cataphractii armour?
- Teleport strike?
Overall these are sweet changes. The only NERF coming to the DG terminators looks like it’s the flail, which let’s be honest, was broken. Definitely a warranted change. Even better yet, they still might be good as they kept the 2 damage, if they keep the rest of its rules, they’ll still be very good.
It’s nice to see other weapons get buffed as well to make decision making on load outs more strategic.
Death Guard Contagions of Nurgle:
When you just look at this it doesn’t seem like anything crazy right off the bat, but when combined with all the units that can buff this (that we already know), it’s pretty significant. Also, being able to wound almost every Marine model in the range on 3’s is insanely strong.
If an army tries to alpha strike you with close combat troops, they will be hit by the debuff right away. Also, when you start wounding models on 3’s instead of 4’s with Plague Weapons, you’re chances of wounding go sky high. Because the only thing you won’t be wounding/rerolling with is 2’s. So just program your dice to not roll that pesky number! It gets really interesting though with two model’s rules we’ve already seen.
Synergies with Mortarion and Miasmic Malignifier
Both Mortarion and the Miasmic Malignifier start the battle counting as the 4th battle round for terms of the rule. This means from the get-go every model within 9″ gets the debuff. If anyone wants to push forward on you from the beginning, they are going to have a hard time doing it. Also, you can set the Miasmic Malignifier 12″ from your opponent’s deployment zone, meaning if they move up at all they will most likely get the debuff. Not the craziest rule ever but a cool little army-wide rule that can make a big impact!
Death Guard Disgustingly Resilient Rule:
So this is a giant change! Before they had a 5+ FNP in essence, this is totally different and feels like they are doing this to speed up gameplay. In some ways, this is better because D2 weapons will automatically become only one damage, which statistically is actually better. With Plague Marines going to 2 wounds this is pretty helpful for weapons to not just kill them if the wound gets through.
The Issues:
Where it really gets worse is high damage weapons. Just think about someone getting a Lascannon style weapon attack through on Mortarion or Plagueburst Crawlers. Then they roll a 6, five wounds go through immediately! The second issue here also comes in with mortal wounds.
While it does say any attack, so it may reduce the damage by one, but you no longer have the chance to save mortal wounds, they just go straight through with (possibly) minus one damage. And then single mortal wounds just go straight through. Also, this takes away the possibility of getting lucky and saving a unit with some great rolls.
Lastly, this hurts them really badly with D1 weapons, this rule does nothing for that! So now your opponents can just shoot tons of D1 weapons with decent AP and you will have no chance to get a double save on any of the wounds.
Not Following the Same Precedence
It looks like they are trying to speed the game up by changing the rule for DG, but feel no paint does still exist in 9th Edition, it’s just a little bit more exclusive. This Blood Angel strat allows Death Company to get a whopping 5+ FNP. On top of that, the Death Company retained their 6+ FNP as well in their new codex, so it may seem strange to change the Death Guard’s most iconic rule, but keep the exact same interaction in the game for another faction?
Maybe we’ll see a Death Guard version of Refusal to Die as well in the new book, but for now, it looks like from this preview that things are changing a lot for Mortarion and his crew.
Of course, all of this will become 100% clearer when we have all of the rules and datasheets to examine. For now, we’re just grasping at few rules we have seen previewed, all in the big vacuum of uncertainty.
Death Guard Remorseless 40k Rules:
They mention this will be a rule for all core units, mainly Plague Marines, Death Guard Possessed, Blightlord Terminators, and Deathshroud Terminators. This isn’t quite as game-changing as the rest of the rules they have previewed, but it’s still nice to have.
Death Guard Deadly Pathogens Rules:
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. 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. Today, they only showed one of the possible options, but let’s take a look.
Well, it’s 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. They do say the price will be nominal, so hopefully just a few points. 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. Let’s take a look at what they suggest to take it on and the Twin Plague Spewer Profile.
Twin Plague Spewer
When you take into account the plus one strength, if you upgrade this, and rerolling the number of hits, this can mow down some infantry. Not to mention that you reroll 1’s to wound, if you’re going against some Toughness 3 dudes, this can basically almost take out 7-8 Guardsmen in one shot. Not that killing Guardsmen is a way to gauge your army, but still… Pretty cool little rule! We’ll have to wait and see what the other options are, but it’s pretty fun to just see this one!
Death Guard Inexorable Advance & Bolter Rules:
This 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 Strategems mean basically nothing for their infantry movement now, not even for charging! Overall a pretty sweet rule. Here’s what they have to say about it:
Inexorable Advance is a Detachment ability, which means that it applies to units in Battle-forged Death Guard Detachments. One of the notable effects of this ability is that your Death Guard units will usually be able to move and fire their Heavy weapons without penalty, perfect for bombarding your foes, even as you advance on objectives. It also works hand in hand with the Malicious Volleys ability to ensure that your Infantry can make the most of their Rapid Fire weapons, even while they’re on the move.
Malicious Volleys
So basically 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. Well, if you were looking for an overall buff, there it is!
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!
New Mortarion Death Guard 40k Rules:
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.
New Plaugeburst Crawler Death Guard 40k Rules:
Spotted all over the web, new quick-reference IKEA style 40k rules are here, and there are some interesting changes!
Old Rules
New Rules
So from the looks of his new 9th Edition Datasheet, we can see a few things:
New bonuses:
- +1 BS (Now 3+, was 4+)
- +1 Attack (Now 4, was 3)
- Plagueburst Mortar is D2 instead of D1d3
- Plagueburst Mortar no longer has a minimum distance (Used to have a minimum range of 12″)
- Entropy Cannon is D3+3 instead of D6
- Plaguespitters are S6 (No longer user strength)
- Rothail is rapid-fire 3 (used to be Heavy 3)
What we don’t know:
- Keywords?
- Daemon save?
- Mortar indirect fire still?
Luckily vehicles like this one have most of the power in the statline, which we can see, and it looks great. Improvements across the board. This probably means a point increase is coming as well, but so long as it is reasonable, the changes should all be very welcomed.
New Typhus Death Guard 40k Rules:
Spotted all over the web, Typhus quick reference IKEA style 40k rules are here, and there are some interesting changes!
Old Datasheet
New Rules
So from the looks of his new Datasheet, we can see a few things:
New bonuses:
- +1 movement (up to 5″)
- +2 Attacks (up to 6)
What we don’t know:
- Invulnerable save stat and special rules like Destroyer Hive etc.
- no separate stat line for Blight Grenade
It’s probably worth mentioning that the 4+ invulnerable save for Typhus currently is conferred from Catapharctii Terminator armor, which in the new Space Marine codex is now Relic Terminator Armor with a 5+ invulnerable save.
New Blight-hauler & Bloat Drone Death Guard 40k Rules SPOTTED!
Spotted over on Bolter and Chainsword, both the Blight-hauler & Bloat Drone quick reference IKEA style 40k rules are here, and there are some new changes!
New bonuses:
- +1 to hit and to wound (now 3+, was 4+)
- +1 Attacks (now 4, was 3)
- +1 wounds (was 8, now 9)
What we don’t know:
- Special rules
- +1 to hit bonus while fielding three?
- -1 to hit in melee?
- Grant cover to units within 7″?
- Daemon save?
Overall these are great changes, but when only buffs come to an already good unit… We should expect to see a pretty big point increase as well. Hopefully a balanced one and not one that will nuke them out of playability.
Bloat Drone 40k Rules
New changes to statline:
- +1 to hit and to wound (now 3+, was 4+)
- +1 Attacks (now 4, was 3)
- -1 wound (was 10, now 9)
New changes to weapons:
- Fleshmower: -1 strength
- Heavy Blight Launcher: +1 AP & flat 2 damage instead of D3
- Plaguespitter: +3″ range (now 12″, was 9″) & 6 strength (Was user strength)
- Probe: now 1D, was D3
What we don’t know:
- Special rules
- Extra attacks with mower?
- Daemon save?
- Plague weapons?
It’s important to note that while loses a wound seems bad, getting a non-degrading profile is amazing, so overall this might actually be a buff. Most of the weapons received a slight nerf, so overall the Bloat Drone seems to hover around the same efficiency. GW could do anything with its point values.
Harbingers the First of the Plague Companies
They mention this will not be the only Plague Company, so if you don’t want to play with the OG company there will be plenty of others to choose from. Just to keep in mind also, they say this will be an additional aura, so you won’t lose any of the previous ones we’ve already looked at.
For now, though, let’s break down these new rules. If you run big units of Poxwalkers, getting to reroll all the hit rolls for one CP is pretty useful! Next, we were all upset about Mortarion and him not exploding in combat, but now any Harbinger Warlord can deal mortal wounds, not too shabby.
Lastly, the relic is interesting because you can make an objective harder to capture. But the bearer has to be within 3″ of it and still be alive. So not sure how impactful of a relic it will be overall.
There you have it! This is quite the list of rules and hopefully, we won’t have to wait much longer for the book to come out!
Which rule do you like the most? Are you happy with how the army is looking?
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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.
