Detachment Focus: Death Guard Flyblown Host

Merry Grotmas! Games Workshop is releasing a new series of detachments – one per army, every day until Christmas. In this series we’re looking at these new detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games.

The Death Guard have been pretty happy with their Detachment rules since the Q4 balance update back in late 2023, gaining the ability to pick from a trio of contagion effects that give the army a substantial boost. That said, players have been hoping to add some variety to their lists for some time, particularly those players who want to focus more on the army’s infantry. For those players, there’s the Flyblown Host Detachment.

We’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a preview copy of this Detachment for review purposes.

Detachment Overview

The Flyblown Host Detachment is intended to buff your infantry, giving them an early game speed boost and durability buff – even at ranges they normally wouldn’t get protection from a contagion giving enemy units -1 to their Ballistic Skill. The Stratagems here are all locked to INFANTRY units in the army, making this ideal for an army going heavy on Plague Marines and Deathshroud. The Detachment’s biggest weakness is that you give up too much to take it – losing the versatility of the Plague Host Detachment’s upgraded Contagion rule is just brutal, but the good news is that the Stratagems you get here are much better, and priced more affordably. Unfortunately everything good here just reminds you how important it is to have either Rattlejoint Ague (-1 to saves) or Skullsquirm Blight (-1 WS/BS) active for your army.

The Video Version

You can find our video version of this Detachment focus below:

Detachment Rule: Verminous Haze

Death Guard INFANTRY units from your army that are not embarked within Transports have the Scouts 5” and Stealth abilities.

Mike P: This is a great detachment ability! Both halves are valuable in different ways. Stealth for -1 to Hit in shooting on infantry that are already decently durable is valuable, especially when it stacks with abilities like -1 to Wound from Deathshroud or a stratagem in this detachment. Scouting on lots of units is very valuable for positioning to score early secondaries, grab objectives, apply pressure, and scurry back to safety if needed. Keep in mind that the latest FAQ clarified that you get to Scout the full distance even if your Movement characteristic is shorter than the Scout distance. This means units like Blightlords Terminators that move 4” can still scout the full 5”. 

I just want to make one thing very clear: You don’t get this and your choice of -1WS/BS, -1 Save, or -1OC/LD contagion. The choose-your-own-contagion was added to the detachment rule for the index detachment, not the army rule. The only contagion you’ll get in this detachment is the -1 Toughness aura. 

And with that context, this detachment rule becomes a lot harder to judge. It’s solid in a vacuum, but losing both sticky objectives and the choose-your-own-contagion is a tough sell. 

TheChirurgeon: Yeah this one is rough. Stealth is certainly very good, but my initial response to seeing Scout there was “why can’t I just take a Rhino for my guys?” Ultimately I think this Detachment wants big blobs of Poxwalkers to kick things off – they really benefit from the Scout move and the -1 to be hit in a way that many of the other units don’t – and you’re also partially using it to avoid spending 150 to 225 points on Rhinos. Which isn’t bad, but you’re going to miss the damage output you get from Rattlejoint Ague. There’s a lot of value here for 18 Deathshroud as well, and we’ve seen infantry-heavy lists do well for Death Guard. Though it bears noting that those lists will frequently rely on -1 to saves from Rattlejoint Ague to overcome the army’s lack of high AP.

Enhancements

Compared to the Enhancements you get in the Plague Company Detachment, these are a real step up. They can’t go on a Daemon Prince, but they’re a lot more meaningful than the Plague Company set.

• Droning Chorus (15 Points) – (Infantry model only) Ranged weapons in the bearer’s unit have the [ASSAULT] ability.
• Insectile Murmuration (20 Points) – (Infantry model only) Every time the bearer’s unit attacks a unit within Contagion range of any Death Guard units in your army, re-roll wound rolls of 1. This is a solid way to get this ability without relying on Mortarion or a Lord of Virulence, and in that sense has value on something like a Terminator Sorcerer, where you can get the value he adds to a unit of Deathshroud without losing out entirely on wound re-rolls. 
• Rejuvenating Swarm (10 Points) – (Infantry model only) At the end of each phase, the bearer regains all lost wounds. This would be money on a Daemon Prince but is just OK on anything else. If you’re taking it, the best spot is probably a Terminator Sorcerer or Plaguecaster, where you’re likely to lose wounds once or twice per game to bad casts.
• Plagueveil (25 Points) – (Infantry model only) While the bearer’s unit is within range of one or more objective markers you control, opponents cannot target that unit with ranged attacks unless they are within 18”. This one is money, and worth taking in a world full of Exorcists.

Mike P: This is a great suite of enhancements! These are collectively a big upgrade from the index detachment. Most of these seem like they will go really well on Plague Marines and Deathshroud Terminators especially. 

Droning Chorus will help your Deathshrouds and Plague Marines get in range for their powerful close range shooting. Rejuvenating Swarm seems most useful on a Lord of Contagion, as you can do mortal wounds when he takes wounds and then heal those lost wounds back. 

Insectile Murmuration is an amazing enhancement to pair with a Lord of Contagion leading Deathshroud. You pair reroll 1’s to wound in melee with full hit rerolls, and reroll 1’s to wound in shooting helps your LOC cover some of the role filled by the Lord of Virulence. Insectile Murmuration is unfortunately redundant with the Blightlord Terminator rule, and their datasheet rule remains one of the most useless rules on any datasheet printed in 10th Edition. 

Along with Insectile Murmuration, Plagueveil will be the autotake in the detachment. Not being shot from outside of 18” is valuable on literally everything you can put it on. My favorite use is sticking it on a Tallyman to let him farm CP and hold an objective while staying safe all game, or sticking it on any big brick to keep it safe from your opponent’s long-range shooting. 

TheChirurgeon: Yeah, Plagueveil is absolutely an auto-take and if you aren’t taking it on a Terminator Sorcerer it’s very solid on a Plague Marine unit with a Foul Blightspawn for Fights First. Force your opponent to get in close, then make them pay for doing that. I seldom take any Enhancements with Plague Company unless I have unspendable points; I’m going to start every Flyblown Host clearing 25 points for the Plagueveil. Then Murmuration if I have room.

Stratagems

The Flyblown Host Detachment has some solid Stratagems, all of which are geared toward use on INFANTRY units. They’re stronger and more reasonably priced than the Plague Company set, with none costing you two CP to use. This Stratagem set also features some of the faction’s only re-rolls to hit.

• Nauseating Paroxysms (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – At the start of any Fight Phase, one enemy unit within engagement range of an Infantry unit must take a Battleshock test at -1 to the roll. 
• Vermin Cloud (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – An Infantry unit can Pile-In and Consolidate 6” instead of just 3”. 
• Eye of the Swarm (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – In your Shooting Phase, 1 Infantry unit gains the Pistol ability on all of their ranged weapons, excluding Blast weapons. 
• Droning Horror (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – In your Shooting Phase, one Infantry unit can reroll Hit rolls of 1. If the target is within half range, you can reroll all Hit rolls. 
• Enervating Onslaught (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – In your Charge Phase, you can roll a d6 for every model in an Infantry unit within engagement range of an opposing unit after it ends a Charge Move. For every 5+ (adding 1 for non-Poxwalker/Cultists), the enemy unit suffers 1 MW (to a maximum of 6 MW).
• Myphitic Invigoration (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – In the opponent’s Shooting Phase, one of your Infantry units within 6” of a Myphitic Blighthauler is -1 to Wound as long as the opponent’s Strength is higher than your Toughness.

Mike P: We’re cooking with gas with these stratagems. 

My favorite is Enervating Onslaught. Getting a version of Tank Shock for any of your Infantry opens up some fun plays and extra damage. Just keep in mind that models have to be in Engagement Range to roll for mortal wounds, so it’ll be harder than you expect to get every model in a big brick unit like 10 Blightlords to roll for mortal wounds. 

Myphitic Invigoration is a really powerful tool to have access to. Were your Blightlords getting jealous that your Deathshrouds could be -1 to Wound? Now is your chance to let Blightlords join the fun. Don’t forget that this can be used on units like Poxwalkers. A brick of Poxwalkers that is -1 to Hit from Stealth, -1 to Wound from Myphitic Invigoration, has a 5+++ FNP, and can Scout 5” is going to be a headache to deal with. 

Vermin Cloud is also a game-winner. Extra Fight Phase movement has a million uses, and good players will get a lot of value out of this. 

Nauseating Paroxysms is also a fun toolbox stratagem. Does your opponent have an objective like Storm Hostile Objective and has to charge your unit to get onto the objective? Around half the time they’ll be battleshocked and OC0 so they can’t hold the objective even if they killed your Infantry unit and flipped the point! 

Playing This Detachment

Mike P: One key thing to keep in mind when playing Flyblown Host as opposed to the index detachment is you have no durability buffs for anything besides Infantry, and you have no durability buffs in melee. For example, let’s talk about Mortarion. Mortarion in the index detachment could be -1 BS from the detachment contagion and -1 to Hit from a stratagem, making him effectively -2 to Hit when shot by some ranged weapons. Mortarion has lost access to both of those defensive buffs, so your opponent is rolling attacks into him like normal. That doesn’t mean Mortarion doesn’t have a place in the Flyblown Host; it’s just one factor that you really need to keep in mind. The loss of a -1 Damage in melee stratagem is going to be felt really hard into armies like Custodes and World Eaters. If you’re an army like World Eaters or Daemons, you’ll be extremely relieved to face the Flyblown Host instead of the index detachment. 

The big weakness of the index detachment was getting blasted from long-range by units like Leman Russes and Castigators, and that’s where the Flyblown Host is going to shore up Death Guard’s weaknesses nicely. The combination of always-on Stealth for all of your Infantry and Scout for all your Infantry means you’re going to be a lot harder to shoot, and you’ll be a lot better at scoring and grabbing objectives from the start of the game. 

TheChirurgeon: I think your biggest pickup here is the ability to start Deathshroud Terminators on the board. Getting a 5” Scout move allows you to get them to at least 10” of Movement on the first turn, putting them on objectives early and letting them play more or less the same game as say, Deathwing Knights. 

On the whole, this is going to be a lot slower than most Death Guard lists that rely on transports and vehicles – once you get that initial burst of speed you’re going to struggle to react to an opponent and your damage output buffs are limited (and not as good as -1 to enemy saves), so you’re focusing more on getting your infantry units into melee or going hard on high volumes of short-range firepower. To that end, you’re looking at more of a swarm strategy, branching out and using multiple units to take down targets. If there’s an area you’re going to struggle big with this list, it’s going to be against knights and other vehicle-heavy armies, where you lack the punch to take them down. Against something like Custodes or Deathwing you’ll struggle to do damage, but also bounce them in return, leading to some prolonged tarpits where you’ll need to keep an eye on how you hold the objectives to avoid getting out-controlled by units with higher OC.

Strengths

• Big benefits for Infantry units, especially Deathshroud Terminators
• Strong Stratagems and Enhancements
• Solid burst of speed with Scout and durability buff with Stealth

Weaknesses

• Lose the choice of Contagion from Plague Company
• No buffs for Vehicles or Monsters
• No sticky objectives means you need a backfield objective holder

A Sample List

TheChirurgeon: If you want to look at sample lists built from this, I think the best starting point is to look at the infantry-heavy lists which have recently put up great showings for the Death Guard. It’s a tactic which was already viable, made even moreso by these improvements. The prototype I started working from here was Garrett Stacy’s list from the Rumble on the Rivers GT in late October – Garrett finished 2nd with a list running 20 Plague Marines, 18 Deathshroud, and Mortarion.

The list - click to expand

The general idea here is to rely on that Scout move early to get your models into position on two of the midfield objectives, or at least to let them stage for a counter-attack. Deathshroud become very hard to move with a Terminator Sorcerer in tow, and Stealth just adds to that to make them -1 to hit, -1 to wound when someone tries to hit them with heavier weapons. The Blight-Haulers give you an extra bit of speed to work with and additional protection through the Myphitic Invigoration Stratagem, though this is admittedly more useful on your Plague Marines and Poxwalkers unless an opponent is already rocking +1 to wound and you need to bury them. On that note, I’ve gone big on the Plague Marine units, with two characters each, in order to both keep them tougher and also to take advantage of Eye of the Swarm for when they get stuck in and need to shoot their way out. 

There are a few ways I might tinker with this – it might be worth it to drop to 4×5 Plague Marines, or to find a way to fit in some Nurglings. And you may want Mortarion in here to avoid taking movement debuffs in the odd army that can do them. This really feels like a Detachment you need to test a few times.

Final Thoughts

Mike P: I love this detachment. I’m really happy for all of the Death Guard players who were getting tired of playing the index detachment and wanted to shake up their playstyle. The Flyblown Host detachment is both fun and powerful, and I can’t wait to experiment with it in my own games! 

My only real issue is that this doesn’t really encourage Death Guard players to bring a bunch of units they weren’t already running. The core of index detachment lists are, broadly speaking, Plague Marines and Deathshroud Terminators. The best units in the new Flyblown Host detachment? Plague Marines and Deathshroud Terminators. Lists for the Flyblown Host will, broadly speaking, look like index detachment lists with Myphitic Blighthaulers swapped out for Foetid Bloat-Drones (or maybe in addition–both units are great). 

The biggest winners are going to be Poxwalker aficionados. Poxwalkers are looking incredibly spicy in the new detachment, with a ton of fun synergies. If you’ve been waiting to swarm the field with hordes of Poxwalkers, now is your time to go wild. 

TheChirurgeon: I have my doubts that this will be better than the Plague Company, but there’s some real fire here when it comes to the Stratagems and Enhancements. There were already some strong lists running very heavy on Infantry, and I think this further encourages those. 

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