The first competitive season for 40k has arrived, with War Zone: Nachmund giving us new points, missions, secondary objectives, and rules to contemplate. These rules represent a major shake-up for competitive 40k and to help you make sense of it all, we’re going through each faction and talking about how things have changed for them and how they might compete.
For some additional analysis, we’ve asked Nurgle’s Favored son Don “The Mastodon” Hooson to give some additional thoughts on the faction changes.
Faction Overview
Rob: After a long slide from the upper tiers of competitive play in early 2021, the Death Guard were sitting just above average before the Nachmund update. As an army that does some things very well but has several key weaknesses, the faction often found itself outmatched against armies that just do everything well, and had some tough matchups against the new psychic armies, as it’s very difficult to build effective Death Guard lists without any psychic support.
The outlook for Death Guard in the Nachmund season isn’t particularly great, but it could be worse. There are still some interesting builds for the faction, though their viability will depend in part on how the meta adjusts to vehicle-heavy lists. They still have some good matchups and the ability to tank damage while holding an objective. And some of the other faction’s woes are Death Guard’s gain – nerfs to Grey Knights, the Adepta Sororitas, and Thousand Sons benefit them indirectly.
The Points Changes
Rob: Death Guard received several points changes, with a series of harsh increases and a couple of… interesting drops. Poxwalkers were one of the game’s more points-efficient units and have gone up 1 point per model, while Blightlords went up 2 and Deathshroud went up another 5 (though the champion’s second plaguespurt gauntlet is now free). The Foul Blightspawn went up 15. On the drops end, we were surprised to see Myphitic Blight-Haulers go down 10 and Plagueburst Crawlers drop by 15.
The big net result here is that the Terminus Est list – which can’t take vehicles and instead relies on several max-size squads of Poxwalkers and support from Possessed and Deathshrouds – is now completely dead, costing around 150-170 more points to field. Is the list still competitive if you remove an entire unit of Deathshroud? Maybe, but we wouldn’t bet on it. On the other hand the drop to the vehicles means that vehicle-heavy Death Guard lists – particularly those that relied on summoning Epidemius – now find themselves with 60-100 more points to spend, meaning they can splurge on something extra, like a Tallyman.
One of the more interesting consequences of this is that it has become much harder to use Plagueburst Crawlers as To the Last targets, as they now cost less than 3 Deathshroud or 5 Blightlord Terminators – even three Deathshroud will now cost you 165, 5 points more than a PBC with a pair of Entropy Cannons. That said, they’re still pretty likely to be your To The Last options if you put them in a soup list with Chaos Space Marines or Daemons. And if you thought I was kind of On One putting a Death Guard spearhead of triple PBCs into Chaos lists before…
Don: Where to begin? People can easily identify my list for normally being a hard skew and currently running a lot of daemon engines. Blight haulers coming down 10 points and PBCs dropping 15 points definitely opens up some wiggle room to play with. My usual list dropped 75 points, which is enough to add tallyman or something similar. Although the majority of the Death Guard community will be frustrated with the increase on twin volkite culverins, Deathshrouds, Poxwalkers, and the Blightspawn I do believe this opens up avenues for other builds to start shining though. I definitely look forward to seeing what springs forth from the garden to replace the dying old build.
The New Missions
Rob: The new missions in the GT22 pack are a mixed bag. There are no longer any 4-marker maps, and having not one but two Sweep-and-Clear style deployments – one of which doesn’t allow scout moves – has my Blightlords salivating. On the other hand, the increased emphasis on performing actions in missions is another knock against the mindless Poxwalker hordes, though it gives Foetid Virion more to do while they buff other units.
Don: ObSec finally matters. Yes, you heard me. GW finally made obsec matter thanks to how it affects the CA22 missions and how important control of particular objectives is to performing actions and scoring additional primary points. I do believe that this will alter list construction more than the point changes did. Poxwalkers don’t look like they will be good at the mission because they can’t do actions. Cultists on the other hand may be okay at the missions but don’t have Objective Secured, so it becomes a little more difficult to work with them. I do believe that plague marines are going to be an excellent choice for the CA22 missions. They hit rather hard, have ObSec, can do actions, and are fairly sturdy. I had great success with them in the CA21 missions and can only see them being better in the CA22 missions. Yes, you can bring more haulers and Crawlers, but I think the new T’au are going to make all-engine lists obsolete.
I do also believe I may try to bring a Miasmic Malignifier with the changes to fortifications. The excitement has me humming the Sevenfold chant.
The Lists
So what are we thinking when it comes to lists in the new season of competitive 40k? We sat down and created some lists that we plan to test soon, with some thoughts on how they’ll play.
Don Hooson’s List
Don’s built a list that goes in heavy on the Plague Marine concept, similar to what he’d originally proposed with Terminus Est.
Death Guard Battalion Detachment (-4 CP, 2,000 Points)
Plague Company: Inexorable
Plaguechosen (-2 CP)
Additional Relics (-2 CP)
HQ
90: Death Guard Chaos Lord, Combi-bolter, Power Sword, Warlord: Living Plague, Relic: Plaguebringer
95: Malignant Plaguecaster, Curse of the Leper, Gift of Plagues, Relic: Plague Skull of Glothila
Troops
230: 10 Plague Marines, 7 knife/bolter, 2 knife/greater plague cleaver, Champion with bolter, Plague blade
230: 10 Plague Marines, 7 knife/bolter, 2 knife/greater plague cleaver, Champion with bolter, Plague blade
230: 10 Plague Marines, 7 knife/bolter, 2 knife/greater plague cleaver, Champion with bolter, Plague blade
230: 10 Plague Marines, 7 knife/bolter, 2 knife/greater plague cleaver, Champion with bolter, Plague blade
115: 5 Plague Marines, 3 knife/bolter, 1 knife/greater plague cleaver, Champion with bolter, Plague blade
Elites
65: Biologus Putrefier, Relic: Fugaris Helm, Trait: Arch Contaminator
70: Tallyman, Trait:Ferric Blight
Fast Attack
260: 2 Myphitic Blight-haulers
260: 2 Myphitic Blight-haulers
125: Greater Blight Drone
8CP, 2000 points
Don: The list is designed to hit way harder than it ought to against anything attempting to threaten its objectives. You could definitely run a version of this list with all 5 man squads and that may do better for the mission, but 10 plague marines with 2 cleavers, Arch Contaminator, Foul Infusion, and Haze of Corruption will be able to clear off almost any unit, while being frustrating to remove itself.
Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones’ List
I’ve been thinking about my GT list and how it changes. Overall I’m in a pretty good place in that losing 20 points on Blightlords and 15 points on a Blightspawn is exactly as many points as I gain on Plagueburst Crawlers. On the other hand, the list wasn’t great and the Poxwalkers are no longer really helping it, especially if I want to get away from Spread the Sickness as a secondary I’m working with (and I very much do). So here’s what I’m looking to test in my next game:
Death Guard Battalion Detachment (1,988 points, 8 CP)
Plague Company: Mortarion’s Anvil
+ HQ +
Death Guard Chaos Lord [5 PL, 90pts]: Combi-bolter, Power Sword, Relic: Plaguebringer, Warlord: Gloaming Bloat
Malignant Plaguecaster [5 PL, 95pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 5. Curse of the Leper, Bolt pistol
+ Troops +
Plague Marines [12 PL, 221pts]
. Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife
. Plague Marine w/ 2nd plague knife
. 6x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 6x Blight grenades, 6x Boltgun, 6x Krak grenades, 6x Plague knife
. Plague Marine w/ bubotic axe: Bubotic Axe
. Plague Marine w/ mace and axe: Bubotic Axe, Mace of Contagion
Plague Marines [12 PL, 221pts]
. Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife
. Plague Marine w/ 2nd plague knife
. 6x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 6x Blight grenades, 6x Boltgun, 6x Krak grenades, 6x Plague knife
. Plague Marine w/ bubotic axe: Bubotic Axe
. Plague Marine w/ mace and axe: Bubotic Axe, Mace of Contagion
Plague Marines [12 PL, 157pts]
. Plague Champion: Boltgun, Plague knife
. Plague Marine w/ 2nd plague knife
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 4x Blight grenades, 4x Boltgun, 4x Krak grenades, 4x Plague knife
. Plague Marine w/ flail: Flail of corruption
+ Elites +
Biologus Putrifier [4 PL, 65pts]
Blightlord Terminators [20 PL, -1CP, 440pts]
. Blightlord Champion: Bubotic Axe, Champion of Disease, Combi-bolter, Plague Skull of Glothila
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Reaper autocannon
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Reaper autocannon
. Blightlord Terminator: Flail of corruption
. Blightlord Terminator: Flail of corruption
Foul Blightspawn [5 PL, -2CP, 100pts]: 4. Arch-Contaminator, Plaguechosen, Revolting Stench-vats, Viscous Death
Tallyman [4 PL, 70pts]
+ Fast Attack +
Chaos Spawn [3 PL, -1CP, 69pts]: 3x Chaos Spawn, Grandfatherly Influence
+ Heavy Support +
Plagueburst Crawler [9 PL, 160pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Heavy slugger
Plagueburst Crawler [9 PL, 160pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Heavy slugger
Plagueburst Crawler [9 PL, 160pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Heavy slugger
+++
Similar to Don, I like Plague Marines a lot more now as the army’s baseline troops, and I think that in my current list, trying to get the same value down 40ish points with the Poxwalkers and Deathshrouds just isn’t going to work. I still like the Blightlords as a mid-table holder though, especially now that a whopping six missions have center-of-the table objectives and another one – Tide of Conviction – has two objectives that are pretty close to the middle. Those work well for a massive blob of Blightlords , who aren’t fast enough to move much further beyond that spot. I’ve lost the Poxwalkers, but the PBCs and 5-model unit of Plague Marines can hold the backfield just fine, and now I have two big units of Plague Marines that, as Don notes, can hit much harder than expected, though I like the Mace more than the Cleaver.
I’ve cut the Bloat-Drones; I just don’t think they have enough durability at the moment so I’m removing them until I see how things shake out with the T’au book. I’ve also switched up to Mortarion’s Anvil here. That loses Ferric Blight, which is a shame, but without Bloat-Drones to Flash Outbreak it’s a lot less useful. Meanwhile the ability to intervene against units trying to charge my characters and maneuver around me is something I’ve sorely missed. Gloaming Bloat is also fine here, as turning off re-rolls can significantly help the Blightlords. I considered what Don was doing with Living Plague, and I might revisit putting it and the Fugaris Helm on a character, but I didn’t feel like it was worth having both it and Gloaming Bloat, and I can give Gloaming Bloat to any of my units.
Final Thoughts
Rob: The changes in Nachmund and the new points certainly don’t help Death Guard, but I don’t think the situation is all that dire, either. Nerfs to Sisters, Grey Knights, Orks, Marines, and Thousand Sons are Death Guard’s gain, and it’ll be worth seeing how Death Guard match up against new Custodes and whether T’au lists truly make vehicles obsolete or if that’s overblown and there’s a space for some of their smaller vehicles. Death Guard aren’t going to be top tier as a faction any time soon, but I do think they can still compete at the competitive level. What I’d love to see at this point is a small points drop on Plague Marines and Possessed, which might help make Terminus Est viable again, but that’s wishful thinking at this point.
Don: Take heart, brothers of the 14th. The codex is still in a good spot. I’d wager that it is in a better spot than it had previously been. We are good at the CA22 missions. We just have to adjust. You can go the ObSec heavy route or go for a power route. Either way, you are likely to put up a respectable score while denying what you’re opponent can score. I am eager to see what you all come up with in the coming weeks.
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