Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Death Guard(8E)

Why Play Death Guard

For the first time in 40k's history, Grandfather Nurgle's favorite pus-sacks have gotten their own Codex, and it's a solid mix of the fluffy and crunchy. You might not exactly be zipping across the board, but if you want a footslogging army that can shrug off almost anything the opponent can throw at them and retaliate with punishing short-range attacks, the Death Guard is the army for you.

Pros

• Can fire Assault and Heavy weapons with none of their normal penalties when footslogging, and Rapid Fire weapons can double tap from 3/4 (18/24") max range instead of the usual half range.
• Plague weapons make wound rolls reliable with easy access to re-rolling 1s, and can be buffed in several different ways.
• Excellent Toughness on average, and most of your army has Disgustingly Resilient (including some of your vehicles), allowing you to effectively ignore 1/3 of incoming wounds. I mean, if you did not know this, why are you even here?
• Lots of debuffing auras to discourage choppy armies from getting too close to you.
• As the other army in the starter set alongside the Primaris Marines, it'll be easy to start up a collection.
• Many of your units have ways of dealing mortal wounds, letting them bypass those annoying invulnerable saves.
• They also are the most up-to-date line of Chaos models.

Cons

• The infantry that makes up the bulk of your army is SLOW. Most units have maybe 5" of movement at most, and the Terminators are stuck with Cataphractii armor so they'll move even slower.
• Practically no designated long-range fire units outside of vehicles.
• Elites slot is rather crowded. Not much of an issue since a Battalion detachment has tons of Elite slots to accommodate all those Characters, but you might fill them out to capacity.
• Many of the units that made up the core of a Death Guard army in 7E Traitor Legions are no longer accessible to the new Death Guard. This includes absolutely crucial fire support such as Havocs and Obliterators, as well as Bikers as and pretty much anything that went fast in previous editions. Nurgle armies looking for those will need to use vanilla CSM rules for them.
• Most of the mortal wounds you deal out require you to be very close if not in melee range, putting your units at risk against fast, shooty armies like the Eldar as well as flyers in general.
• Low model reusability. In spite of the fact that they're still technically Death Guard, you're probably not going to find much use for your old Plague Marine minis now. Even if you previously had a DG army, if you want to run DG using THIS codex, you're probably going to have to start from scratch as all the actually good units are new, or equipped with new gear. Just like the Thousand Sons before them.

How to handle these cons

• You should imagine playing a DG army as a slowly growing mold on a cheese. Sure, we are slow, but we can utilize Spawn, Possessed, Tanks or flying DPs to move ahead of the main wave and cause chaos before the rest catches up into mid-range to cause maximum damage.
• If you had Bikers, Helturkeys and Obliterators in 7E and want to use them in a DG army, you still can, but they must be restricted to a separate detachment if you want to be Battle Forged. In addition: nothing stops you from painting your Bikers in DG colors and running them with rules for Khornate Bikers (when those rules will eventually come with World Eaters's codex), so get creative! It's all about your dudes!
• Transports can help our slow-moving troops to get across the board, but most of them don't have Disgustingly Resilient. (Metal Boxes are not as good as they used to be. Taking transports has always been a tactical choise, but now more than ever. This subject is a bit of a skub depending on who you ask and on the kid of terrain you usually play on. I suggest experimenting with having more troops, but no transports OR 2-3 transports, but less troops. There is always a sweet spot in balance that Papa Nurgle would approve.

Special Rules

• Inexorable Advance: If your army is Battle-forged, all Death Guard Infantry and Helbrute units in Death Guard detachments gain this ability. Such units do not suffer a penalty for moving and firing Heavy weapons, or for Advancing and firing Assault weapons. In addition, a unit with this ability can fire twice with Rapid Fire weapons at a range of 18", instead of only being able to fire twice with them up to half the weapon's maximum range. Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds.
• Disgustingly Resilient: Technically not exclusive to the Death Guard but most of your units have it. FNP on a 5+.
• Plague Host: Objective Secured, Death Guard edition (if Battle-forged), to all TROOPS, no matter how many fewer than the enemy. You can litteraly have 1 zombie move in at the last minute and capture an objective from an ork swarm. Fantastic!
• Plague Weapon: A weapon that rerolls to-wound rolls of 1. Incidentally, a lot of your weapons are these.
• Death to the False Emperor: Just like vanilla CSMs, rolling a 6 to hit in close combat against Imperials lets you perform a bonus attack. People usually tend to forget this one but seriously, this little friend could change a loss into a win.

Warlord Traits

1. Living Plague: Any unit within 3" of the Warlord in the Fight phase takes a Mortal Wound on a 4+. Typhus comes stock with this one. Not terrifying on its own, but it allows you to dish out YET more mortal wounds, on top of Typhus' innate ability and a potential Nurgle's Rot stratagem. Makes MSU armies wilt but won't so much as tickle a horde army.
2. Revoltingly Resilient: When using Disgustingly Resilient to resist a non-mortal wound, add +1 to the roll. With a Plague Surgeon nearby, your FNP odds are boosted from 6/9 to 7/9; otherwise, from 6/18 to 7/18.
3. *Better than Constitution against 1-damage attacks, but worse against multi-damage ones. Use this if you're deliberately using a Daemon Prince with the Suppurating Plate to force a horde to kill itself, as hordes are generally swinging lots of low-damage attacks - just remember you are still putting your Warlord at risk by doing so.
4. Tainted Regeneration: Recover a wound at the start of each turn.
5. *Pretty bad; it does "fix" 2 wounds, but as soon as you've been shot 3 or more times, Resilient or Constitution would be better, even without the fact that waiting to fix wounds until your opponent has shot with everything is intrinsically worse than fixing them as they come in.
6. Rotting Constitution: Reduce all damage taken by 1, to a minimum of 1. Less damage taken means fewer chances for Disgustingly Resilient to fail, so it's an even bigger boost than it might look.
7. *Much better than Revoltingly Resilient against anything but a 1-damage attack in general, since that trait only reduces more damage than this one when the incoming damage is 1 or more than 6, and it's incredibly rare to be hit with more than 6 damage at once unless you're fighting a Titan (and if you're doing that then quite frankly you deserve anything that happens to you).
8. Hulking Physique: +1 to Toughness.
9. *Generally bad compared to Resilient and terrible compared to Constitution, although it can be useful on a T5 model if you're trying to wade through S3 spam.
10. Arch-Contaminator: Re-roll all failed wound rolls made with a Plague Weapon within 7" of your Warlord. Mortarion uses this trait. Blatantly the best of the bunch if you want your Warlord to be a force multiplier. Just sit a Chaos Lord (or Mortarion at that matter) with this trait on top of some Blight Launcher Plague Marines and Plagueburst Crawlers and watch the fireworks. Also makes almost every special close combat weapon (including bubotic axes which are hugely available across the codex) into lightning claws for free. In addition, does the same for blight grenades, meaning that this trait is essential for anyone planning to run a biologis putrifier. Add the appropriate relic to boost this to 10" and make Salamanders cry over how many more re-rolls you get than them.

Stratagems

• Cloud of Flies (1 CP): At the start of the movement phase, an infantry unit becomes immune to shooting attacks unless they're the closest unit to the foe (exactly like Characters). Unless your opponent brought an assload of snipers, this makes your footsloggers all but immune to shooting attacks. This also pairs remarkably with a unit or two of Nurglings, who can use their Troublemkers ability to get right up close before the battle even begins.
• Nurgle's Rot (3 CP): Use in the shooting phase, but only once per battle. Select an INFANTRY unit and roll a d6 for all enemy units within 7" of them. On a 4+, the unit being rolled for suffers d3 mortal wounds. Note that this has no effect on units with the NURGLE keyword, so don't use it in mirror matches or against Nurgle Daemons. If the enemy makes the error of bunching up his units then you can punish him pretty hard with this mini nurgly nuke.
• Chaos Boon (1 CP): The infamous boon table returns from the CSM codex, now on 2d6 and triggered after a non-Daemon Prince CHARACTER kills any CHARACTER, VEHICLE, or MONSTER in the Fight phase. A single CHARACTER can benefit from it multiple times, and duplicates turn into 7. Interestingly, Matched Play explicitly does not interfere with your Character transforming; the only restriction is that the transformed unit has to keep the Mark it started with (and since Death Guard can only use the Mark of Nurgle that won't be an issue). Since all of these results are good on a Champion and you can pick and choose who activates this, this is far better than what it used to be.
  • 2: Spawndom. Replace your character with one of the gribbly things, set up within 6" of his former position.
  • 3: All of the character's ranged weapons get a 6" range boost.
  • 4: +3 M
  • 5: +1 S
  • 6: +1 A
  • 7: Pick any result other than Spawndom or Daemonhood.
  • 8: Enemies targeting this character in the fight phase get -1 to hit rolls.
  • 9: +1 to all saving throws.
  • 10: +1 T
  • 11: +1 W
  • 12: Daemonhood. As Spawndom, but replace the character with a Daemon Prince instead.
• Fire Frenzy (1 CP): Use on a Helbrute unit that did not move this turn. It may fire all its weapons twice but can only target the nearest visible enemy unit. Another CSM Stratagem and quite good. Consider a Helbrute with two gun arms to take advantage of this.
• Veteran of the Long War (1 CP): Select a DEATH GUARD INFANTRY unit. They add 1 to all their to wound rolls for the rest of the phase. Same as CSMs but still useful- especially when paired with Blades of Putrefaction.
• Blasphemous Machines (1 CP): Use before a vehicle attacks in the shooting phase. Until the end of the phase, that vehicle can ignore the penalties for moving and firing heavy weapons or for advancing and firing. Identical to CSM version.
• Killshot (1 CP): Use in the shooting phase if a you have a Predator within 6" of 2 other Predators from the same Chapter. Add 1 to the wound and damage rolls (this doesn't appear to add one to fixed damage weapons) for all of its attacks against Monsters and Vehicles. Again, the same as CSMs and regular Space Marines by extension.
• The Dead Walk Again (1 CP): Use at the start of the movement phase. Pick a unit of Poxwalkers and change their Curse of the Walking Pox to the following: "Each time an Infantry (Non-Poxwalker units) model, friend or foe, is slain within 7″ of this unit, add one model to the unit." Pair up with a cultist blob to recycle your tarpit with ease.
• Putrid Detonation (1 CP): Select a vehicle that's lost its last wound; it explodes with no need to roll for it. Useful for one last "fuck you" to the guy who destroyed your Land Raider with his Assault Terminators.
• Chaos Familiar of Nurgle (1CP): Use at the start of your Psychic Phase; a DEATH GUARD PSYKER can swap one power known for another from the Contagion discipline. Very situational, but it can be useful. As written, this allows you to swap Smite for an extra Contagion power.
• Grandfather's Blessing (2CP): Select a DEATH GUARD INFANTRY unit. One model heals d3 wounds. If there is no wounded models in the unit, a single model that was slain earlier in the battle is returned to the unit with 1 wound. You guessed it, another CSM copypaste. The nice part about this one is that you choose which model gets resurrected. Champion blew himself sky-high with his Plasma Gun? Give 'im a second chance.
• Plague Pact (1 CP): Use this stratagem when a DEATH GUARD CHARACTER attempts to summon a unit of NURGLE DAEMONS to the battlefield using a daemonic ritual. The summoning roll uses 4 dice instead of 3, and your character will not suffer any mortal wounds for rolling doubles or triples (no word on what happens if you somehow roll quadruples). Considering how much cheaper Daemons have gotten, this makes summoning a lot more viable.
• Blight Bombardment (1 CP): Use before a friendly DEATH GUARD unit shoots or fires Overwatch; instead of only one model being able to use its Blight Grenades as usual, the whole unit can throw them at once. Hilarious when paired with the Foul Blightspawn and the Biologis Putrefier since they both buff blight grenades even further.
• Gifts of Decay (1 or 3 CP): Use before the start of the battle. You can have a second Relic of Decay for 1 CP, or 2 extra for 3 CP. All the Relics have to be different, and all have to go to different Characters.

Wargear

Weapons

Ranged

• Autogun - 24" Rapid Fire 1 S3 AP0. Got better with Inexorable Advance.
• Boltgun - 24" Rapid Fire 1 S4 AP0. As mentioned above, that extra 6" of Rapid Fire range is a bigger difference than it looks.
• Blight grenade - Frag Grenade (6" Grenade 1d6 S3 AP0 D1) that rerolls 1s To Wound. Just about every unit in your army that would normally take Frag Grenades gets these instead, and they can be buffed from a surprising variety of sources.
• Krak grenade - 6" Grenade 1 S6 AP-1 D d3, always better than the bolt pistol/gun shot it replaces.
• Blight launcher - 24" Assault 2 S6 AP-2 D d3 plague weapon. A hard-hitting anti-infantry weapon that's also good against light vehicles. It can very well substitute plasma weapons if you want some more range in exchange with AP. It also has some really nice combo with Arch Contaminator.
• Plague Belcher - 9" Assault D6 S4 AP0 D1. Standard flamer with an extra inch of range and the plague weapon special rule.
• Plague Spewer - Same as the Plague Belcher but with heavy D6 S5 and AP-1. The plague equivalent of the heavy flamer. Stronger, but keep in mind that you still can't shoot it after advancing, which is pretty important given your slow movement. It also come at an ungodly price.
• Plasma Gun - 24" Rapid Fire 1 S7 AP-3 D1 or S8 AP-3 D2. You know it, you love it, and it is one point cheaper then a Blight launcher. Say goodbye to anything but the toughest units. The decision here is whether you want the launcher, to rip apart infantry units, or plasma for those pesky tanks and TEQ's.

Melee

• Plague Knife - A basic CCW with the Plague Weapon special rule. It is free, so shut up and take it.
• Plaguesword - A straight upgrade for your Plague Champions, stolen from a Plaguebearer. Like a Plague Knife, but rerolls all failed To Wound rolls instead. It's cheap at least...?
• Bubotic Axe - S+1 AP-2 D1, standard power axe but with the Plague Weapon special rule.
• Balesword - S: User, AP-3 D1, so a power sword, but, you guessed it, with Plague Weapon special rule. Note that this is the only plague weapon that chaos lord can have.
• Power Fist - You know it, you love it. -1 To Hit, but doubles your Strength, has AP-3 and deals D3 damage. Your Plague Champions seem to have a fetish for them, but a Chaos Lord can use them, too.
• Flail of Corruption - The new hotness. Up to 2 Plague Marines per squad and 1 in 5 Blightlord Terminators can take these babies. D3 hit rolls per attack, S+2, AP-2, D2, Plague Weapon, and any excess damage it causes rolls over between targets, a tasty morsel of crunch no one else gets, save for the Deathwing, so it has the best of all worlds: Lots of attacks, high AP and damage, and it's not a waste to use against single-wound models. Practically auto-include on anything that wants into melee, really. Pretty sad that characters cannot take it but whatever, not everything is perfect (except Fulgrim id suppose)
• Great Plague Cleaver - A Power Fist but with Plague Weapon and D6 damage. The main reasons not to take it are its horrendous points cost and the fact that only Plague Marines with their paltry single attack can take one. Best skip this, though cleaving a tank in two could be fun. It would be better if Champions had a fetish for this weapon instead of the Power Fist.
• Mace of Contagion - A flat 3 damage, S and AP buffs and, since it comes paired with a Bubotic Axe, also bestows a second attack. The downside is the -1 To Hit, but when hit rolls are that important, you just use the Axe instead. A bit expensive to swing both around, though.
• Manreaper- For a reasonable price we got a S+3 AP-3 D1d3 Plague weapon. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
• Plaguereaper- S+2 AP-3 D3 plague weapon, only Lord of Contagion can have it. But given his hefty price he is probably better of with a Manreaper anyway.

Relics of Decay

Note that Relics no longer cost points. Instead, you get a single free relic per army, and can pay CP to get 1-2 more. However, you can't put more than one relic on one guy. Also, because they mostly replace weapons, you can't give most of them to Daemon Princes.

• Plaguebringer: Replaces a plague knife, plaguesword, or balesword. SUser, AP-2, D1d3, Plague Weapon, and a 6 to wound causes an extra mortal wound. Actually has worse AP than the balesword it could possibly replace, but if you want to improve the melee capability of a Biologis Putrifier, it's a flat upgrade over the free plague knife you could already take. Not so great in other situations.
• The Suppurating Plate: Grants a 2+ armor save, and in the Fight phase, if the bearer passes a save, the unit that caused the saved wound takes a mortal wound on a 4+. GW has noted that against melee tarpits with such as Ork Boyz, this leads to an amusing game of "quit hitting yourself" that combos very nicely with a Daemon Prince's T6, 8 wounds, and Disgustingly Resilient. Also, remember that the wearer of the plate deals mortal wounds on any successful save, including invulnerable ones, which is going to ruin hordes and tarpits.
• The Pandemic Staff: Psykers only. Adds +1 to Psychic tests to manifest Smite. A flat buff that lets you inflict more mortal wounds, especially on a Malignant Plaguecaster, since it makes it easier to get that 7+.
  • Takes the wielder's average output from 1.79 mortal wounds to 2.08, on top of making him harder to Deny and triggering the Malignant Plaguecaster's special rule more frequently.
• The Dolorous Knell: Noxious Blightbringer only. At the start of the morale phase, roll a d6 for every enemy unit within 7"; on a 6, that unit takes a mortal wound. Additionally, when taking morale tests within that range, the opponent must roll 2d6 and discard the lowest. Perfect for when you need just one little push to make a squad break.
• Fugaris' Helm: Improves the range of aura-based abilities by 3". As most of your auras are 7", this will boost them to an impressive 10" . Also, covers your plague ridden face, making you feel pretty.
• Plague Skull of Glothila: A 7" Grenade 1 weapon that can only be used once per battle. If it hits, roll a d6 for each model in the unit that was hit, re-rolling 1s - on a 6, the unit takes a mortal wound, for each 6 rolled. Effectively a single-use Plague Wind that doesn't need a psychic test and is more likely to cause mortal wounds, thanks to that built-in re-roll, so use it on that 50-man conscript blob and watch it melt into disgusting goo.
  • It goes without saying this should only go on a BS2+ model, preferably that re-rolls 1s/misses, as you really, really need this weapon to hit the one time you throw it, if you're going to use it. Assuming it's a Chaos Lord or Daemon Prince throwing this thing, its expected output against that 50-man conscript blob is 9.45 mortal wounds, which gets worse as the target unit's model count goes down, so use judiciously.

Psychic Powers

Keep in mind that you may choose or roll on the tables below!

Contagion Discipline

1. Miasma of Pestilence - Warp Charge 6. Select a visible friendly DEATH GUARD unit within 18". Any attack that targets that unit is at -1 to hit. Note that overwatch hit rolls cannot be modified in any way, so you can't become immune to Tau shenanigans. However, this can cause overcharged plasma shots to overheat on 2s (including in Overwatch), so there's that. With Deathshroud and Blightlord Terminators, this spell will be absolutely horrifying, as it makes the unit you target not so much immune to plasma as it makes opponents shooting them with plasma spontaneously combust even more motivated to fire on safe mode, and thus increase your 'nators durability even further. Alternatively, throw this on one of the FW flyers that you've given a Mark of Nurgle to and laugh as your opponent pathetically attempts to take it down when they have a -2 to hit it; even dedicated anti-aircraft weapons will struggle.
2. Gift of Contagion - Warp Charge 7. Select a visible enemy unit within 18" and debuff them with either -1 Attack, Strength, or Toughness (randomly rolled for.) Since you can't pick and choose which of these happens, this isn't as impressive as it could be. That said, if you plan on going into melee with the target unit anyway, any result is going to be useful to some extent.
3. Plague Wind - Warp Charge 5. Select an enemy unit within 18" and roll a die for each model in the unit; 6s cause mortal wounds. Effectively, this won't ever do much, but as it is one of the very, VERY few things left that scale with target unit size, you should take this if you are seeing tarpits on the other side of the table. And hey, what other Warp Charge 5 power can kill 8 Conscripts (assuming a 48-50 man blob) on average?
4. Blades of Putrefaction - Warp Charge 5. Oh my, this thing. Choose a visible friendly DEATH GUARD unit within 18" and add 1 to all wound rolls it makes in the fight phase. Rolls of 7+ using melee plague weapons inflict a mortal wound. Stab that Land Raider with a rusty knife! It is probably the most synergistic power in the entire codex, since nearly every cool weapon we have is also a plague weapon.
5. Putrescent Vitality- Warp Charge 6. A visible friendly DEATH GUARD INFANTRY unit gains +1S and +1T. Unlike other buff spells, this one affects units and not models, so use it on those Poxwalkers and make them undying. (You did bring Typhus, didn't you?)
6. Curse of the Leper- Warp Charge 7. If manifested, roll 7d6. The closest enemy unit within 14" takes a mortal wound for each roll that exceeds its toughness characteristic. It might not have the potential to cause more mortal wounds than Plague Wind (and won't work at all on units with T6 or higher for obvious reasons), but it's more reliable against units with lower toughness. Like, just as an arbitrary example, the ones that have been debuffed by Gift of Contagion or Mortarion's aura. Generally speaking, only better than Smite against T3 or below; if the caster is carrying the Pandemic Staff, only better against T2 or below (after debuffs, of course).

Unit Analysis

All units without rules listed here can be assumed to use the equivalent Chaos Space Marines rules, with Death Guard as its <LEGION> and NURGLE as its <MARK OF CHAOS>, as well as any special rules applicable to the Death Guard replacing the Legion Trait.

• Important Note on Psykers!: While you're generally better off taking Codex versions of the Daemon Prince and the various non-Plaguecaster Sorcerers, there is one very specific circumstance where you might want the index one instead--they use the Dark Hereticus Discipline, while even the otherwise copy-paste entries in the Codex use Contagion. While most of the Contagion powers are probably better for the Death Guard, certain Dark Hereticus powers (coughWarptimecough) can be VERY helpful. It's also worth noting that when the CSM codex was released, GW specifically said that Psykers from Index: Chaos can use the expanded Dark Hereticus list from Codex: CSM (Magnus was listed as an example) just in case you wanted to be That Guy and cast Diabolic Strength on Mortarion.

HQ

• Daemon Prince of Nurgle - Same as the CSM version, but now it gets Disgustingly Resilient. Can currently take Wings for free, but this will likely be FAQ'd. Other than that, you lose the option for the Warp Bolter, which is a bit of a shame, but not worth forgoing Disgustingly Resilient for. Also loses Dark Hereticus for Contagion.
  • Daemon Prince - Since the Daemon Prince of Nurgle is actually a distinct, named unit, like how Daemon Prince of Chaos is distinct from it or from Daemon Prince, this is still fieldable, using the Index. Hasn't got Disgustingly Resilient, but can take a Warp Bolter, and uses Dark Hereticus, not Contagion, which can be a good way to get Warptime onto the field.
• Chaos Lord - Same stats as CSM version, but replaces frag grenades with blight grenades and can't take a jump pack (if you use the Index to field him with a Jump Pack, he'll go back down to frag grenades). Interestingly he can take a Balesword, but none of the other new Nurgle-only melee weapons. It's also probably one of the better options for him, since with Arch-Contaminator this is basically a Lightning Claw with better AP for two points less.
  • Chaos Lord on Palanquin of Nurgle - Only via Index.
  • Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour - Same as a standard Chaos Lord. He can do a pretty good thing that his little brother can't: deep strike. Blightlords are going to thank you, especially if you give him Arch-Contaminator as well. A balesword is pretty good on this guy too for the same exact reason.
• Sorcerer- See above, particularly if you want a Jump Pack (see below for more on this, as this is one of the better ways to get Warptime onto the field).
  • Sorcerer on Palanquin of Nurgle - Only via Index.
    • If you field a Sorcerer with Jump Pack or Sorcerer on Palanquin, per this ruling, you'll use Codex: Death Guard only for points for things like Wargear - you use the Index's Datasheet, which means the Sorcerer now uses the Dark Hereticus Discipline, not Contagion.
  • Sorcerer in Terminator Armour - Horrendously expensive. This guy is just 11 points cheaper than Typhus. Typhus is tougher, stronger in melee, a better Psyker, and buffs your units more. Yeah. Take only if you already have Typhus and for some reason don't want a Daemon Prince.
    • Also lost access to Dark Hereticus, and now uses Contagion instead.
• Lord of Contagion - Your generic Nurgle-blessed Chaos Lord, with a Plaguereaper, Cataphractii armor, the ability to deep strike, and the Disgustingly Resilient rule. Like Typhus, he has the Nurgle's Gift aura, which allows all Death Guard models within 7" to cause mortal wounds to units they are in melee with on a 4+. They've gotten cheaper and can now take a Manreaper, so they may be worth taking if you're fine with a less shooty HQ than a Chaos Lord.
  • Since Nurgle's Gift triggers at the start of your turn, it is best suited to counter units who charged the previous turn. Put this guy near a Blightspawn if you absolutely don't want a certain unit to be charged.
  • Plaguereapers cost nearly double what a Manreaper does, for -1S (7->6), in exchange for, on average, *1.5 (+1) damage. Think carefully before you spend the points on buying a Plaguereaper.
• Malignant Plaguecaster - Nurgle-themed Sorcerer with a corrupted staff (force staff), blight grenades, and Disgustingly Resilient. He knows Smite and two Contagion powers. Every time he rolls a 7+ on his psychic test, the closest enemy unit within 7" takes a mortal wound, which makes him fantastic in short-ranged firefights, same as the Plague Marines. Keep him in Grenade range and he can unleash a Blight Grenade, Smite, either a buff, debuff, or chance for yet more Mortal Wounds, and then 2 Mortal Wounds from his ability for casting twice. That's quite a lot of dakka, most of which also works in melee.

Special Characters

• Typhus - Grossest living being in the galaxy. Incredibly tanky with a 2+/4++ (with Cataphractii armor, which halves his Advance rolls), the Disgustingly Resilient rule, and six wounds. He gives all Poxwalkers within 7" of him Strength 4 and Toughness 4, as well as blessing any Death Guard models within 7" of him with the ability to cause mortal wounds to units they are in combat with on a 4+, which conveniently stacks with his own Living Plague Warlord Trait. His Destroyer Hive is now a Pistol 2d6 weapon with S4 and AP-3 that always hits on a 5+ (even on Overwatch!), and he knows Smite and two Contagion powers in addition to his S+3 AP-3 D3 MASTER CRAFTED MANRAPER. He can also teleport. He is quite versatile, allowing you to putting him on foot along with poxwalkers and plague marines for a huge blob of nasty space AIDS or send him deepstriking along with blight lords and every good thing you can think. You can also pair him with a chaos lord in terminator armor or a Lord of Contagion and give them the role of general and Arch Contaminator, making Typhus even more killy.

Forge World

• Necrosius the Undying - Necrosius lost his Plague Zombies in favor of Pox Walkers which is not super surprising. T5 W6 A4 Ld9 and a 3+/4++ save. Has Death to the False Emperor and Disgusting Resilience. Buffs friendly units with THE TAINTED keyword by adding 1 to their to hit rolls during the fighting phase (if you take him in Death Guard, he only buffs himself and Mamon Transfigured, but The Tainted is likely a specific Death Guard VECTORIUM keyword so taking it will likely bypass that issue). Also buffs Poxwalker units by allowing them to reroll results of 1 for their Disgustingly Resilient rolls. However unfluffy and abhorrent, combining this with Typhus's +1S/+1T to Poxwalkers buff would be a very interesting combination. He can cast two powers a turn, can attempt to deny 3 psychic powers in each enemy phase (cool!), and knows three psychic powers from the Contagion discipline (also cool!).
• Mamon Transfigured - Named Daemon Prince, but only allows re-rolling misses of 1 in the Fight Phase for THE TAINTED. Has two melee weapons, a kick that really excels at murdering high-wound infantry (it deals 3 more damage to them) but is also his best bet against most targets, and a punch that is usually worse, but has some very specific niche use-cases, like murdering Knights. Also has an auto-hitting 9" Pistol 2D3 S* AP-1 D1 weapon that wounds non-vehicles on a 2+ and Vehicles on a 6+. Not particularly great.

Elites

• Foul Blightspawn - 77 points, 5″, WS/BS 3+, Strength 4, Toughness 5, 3 Attacks, 4 wounds, Leadership 8, 3+ save. His weapon, the Plaguesprayer, is a 9" Assault 1d6 S2d6 AP-3 D3 Plague Weapon that autohits like a flamer, which means that with a good enough roll for its S and number of shots it can trash anything from MEQs to vehicles. The Unholy Death's Head grenade he carries can be used by him (or another friendly DEATH GUARD Character within 3" of him) to upgrade their Blight Grenade/Hyper Blight Grenade to Grenade 2d6 once per game. He's no slouch in assault either, due to his ability Revolting Stench (yep his power is stinking). It causes enemy units within 7" of him to lose the ability to fight first in the Fight phase, even if they charged or have rules that would otherwise allow them to fight first. For glass cannon melee units that rely on being the first to strike in the Fight phase to compensate for their poor durability (like Daemonettes, Howling Banshees, and Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marines), this can leave them defenseless at the worst possible time.
  • Here is a table showing the overall to-wound chance of the Plaguesprayer vs. various toughness values. Note that as a plague weapon it rerolls wound rolls of 1, and in range of the Arch-Contaminator aura it rerolls all failed wound rolls. This is important to keep in mind whether you are fielding this model yourself or playing against someone who is; the random 2d6 Strength characteristic obfuscates how hard this thing hits. At the tabletop, think of it as somewhere between a Plasma and a Melta weapon.

Plaguesprayer To-Wound Chance

Toughness	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	16
Regular	95.1%	89.7%	80.5%	71.8%	63.2%	56.7%	49.2%	44.3%	38.3%	24.8%
Arch-Contaminator	96.1%	93.2%	87.7%	82.5%	75.8%	70.6%	63.3%	59.1%	53.0%	37.5%

• • If you want to go hunt monsters and tanks with him to make the most of his Plaguesprayer's high damage, I'd recommend putting him near a Warlord with the Arch-Contaminator trait. You've got a 40% chance with T7 and a 68% chance with T8 to wound on 5s. Otherwise he's best suited to take care of medium-to-low toughness units with multiple wounds, like Characters or Terminators.
• Biologus Putrifier - Similar to the Foul Blightspawn statwise, but with 3 wounds and 4 attacks. He's only got a plague knife for melee, and his shooting leaves much to be desired- sure, his Injector Pistol is S4 AP-1 D6 damage (1 against vehicles), but it has a pathetic 3" range. It's his grenades that make him worth it: his Hyper Blight Grenades are S4 instead of S3, deal 2 damage, and inflict an extra mortal wound on a wound roll of 6- and any other friendly Death Guard units within 3" get their blight grenades upgraded in the same way. As an added bonus, when killed he explodes like a vehicle on a 4+, inflicting a mortal wound on any non-NURGLE units within 7" of him.
  • It doesn't take a genius to figure out that pairing his Hyper Blight Grenades with the Foul Blightspawn's Unholy Death's Head is a combo that's highly effective for its cost. The combination is also strongly supported by the fluff for good measure.
  • This also goes very well with the Stratagem that lets you throw an ass-load of blight grenades in one shooting attack.
    • Also, while the "ass load of grenades" stratagem is great, you don't necessarily have to do this all the time. Each unit can throw one grenade and the dozens of HQ characters and mini Elite slot characters that DG armies will no doubt end up running, can each throw a blight grenade. So the bulk of your army may well be able to throw half a dozen grenades in a single shooting phase without even using a stratagem.
• Helbrute: Same as the CSM version, but Inexorable Advance makes shooty Helbrutes much more viable than their non-Nurgle counterparts. The scourge-fist combo works well in melee, but why give up the main benefits of Inexorable Advance? note: if you go melee pay the points for a combi-bolter or flamer to potentially fire back if wounded.
  • use putrid detonation to send this bad boy out with a bang in the face of whatever dares halt your rampage.
• Noxious Blightbringer - A debuff machine with a plasma pistol, Disgustingly Resilient, a cursed plague bell (D2 poisoned close combat weapon), and blight grenades. Units within 7" of him are at -1 Leadership, and friendly Death Guard models in the same radius roll 2d6 and pick the highest when Advancing. Would not be surprising to see this model proxied as a Plaguecaster, as it looks magnificent. Being Elite, the Blightbringer also doesn't eat into your HQ budget. That said, being Elite he also doesn't help you fill HQ slots.
• Plague Surgeon - Dr. pimple popper. It's ironic that out of all the Traitor Legions, it was the Death Guard of all people that kept their Apothecaries. Like their Loyalist counterparts, they're mainly intended for support, but instead of reviving dead units, they allow re-rolling 1s for Disgustingly Resilient rolls for units within 3" of them. This may seem underwhelming, but since the benefit is per unit he can buff an entire Poxwalker blob if he's near only one of them- and since several Death Guard vehicles also have Disgustingly Resilient he can buff those too. He also adds 1 to all his hit and wound rolls when targeting ADEPTUS ASTARTES Infantry and Bikers in the fight phase; while it may seem like a bad idea to get him stuck in, he carries a Balesword (a Plague Weapon equivalent of a Power Sword), so he can actually hold his own in close combat with the right support (like that Poxwalker blob he's buffing, for example).
• Tallyman - A cheap (67 points) Dark Apostle-like unit that allows friendly Death Guard within 7" of him to reroll failed hit rolls in the fight phase, but since he only has a plasma pistol and grenades he should probably be kept out of melee himself. His other, odder gimmick is called Seven-fold Chant- every time you use a Death Guard-specific Stratagem with a Tallyman in your Battle-Forged army, roll 2d6; on a 7, you don't spend the CP used for the Stratagem. While this is a nice bonus, you shouldn't count on it actually triggering all that often since it only activates on a specific number - specifically, your odds of this happening are 1 in 6. Still, he's cheap enough to be worth using even with the unreliability of Seven-fold Chant. Just think of him as a more cost effective Dark Apostle (since he's cheaper, his reroll radius is 1" wider, and you really don't need the Leadership buff on your Fearless Poxwalkers anyway) and he's worth it even without the Chant.
• Possessed - You might be tempted to skip past these blokes, but not so fast. Thanks to their two wounds and Daemon save, they are actually about as tough as normal Plague Marines. D3 attacks with what amounts to Power Axes is comparable to a Plague Marine with a Bubotic Axe. In this comparison, the Possessed are cheaper and faster, deal almost as much damage and can be affected by a Herald of Nurgle if you're willing to include one. Small units of them are both cheap and effective, both as melee units and as distractions, and every round they take is not directed at your Blight Launchers.
• Blightlord Terminators - While the Deathshroud is best suited to acting as a bodyguard, the Blightlords act more like classic Chaos Terminators with a few Nurglite twists. Like the Deathshroud, they've got Cataphractii armor with all the benefits and drawbacks that brings them, but instead of buffing Characters, they treat their melee attacks as having -1AP on a 6 to wound (e.g. AP-2 becomes AP-3). While they don't get Manreapers, they can equip just about anything else a Plague Marine can use, as well as Reaper Autocannons, allowing them to fill any kind of niche. Also interesting is that they can take Combi-Weapons, including Combi-Plasma. And there is something to be said for a full squad of Combi-Plasma that can double-tap from 18" away.
• Deathshroud Terminators - A returning favorite from the Death Guard's 30k version, and still a potent bodyguard after 10,000 years. Even more sluggish than the rest of the Death Guard due to their Cataphractii Terminator Armor reducing them to 4" of movement and cutting Advance rolls in half, but they can deep strike to make up for it. Between their 2+/4++, their ability to intercept hits for Death Guard Characters within 3", Disgustingly Resilient, having two wounds, and adding an extra attack to any nearby Death Guard Characters (except for Mortarion), they're practically a requirement for keeping your Warlord as indestructible as possible. In battle, they're no slouches themselves, thanks to their Manreapers and Plaguespurt Gauntlets (a Hand Flamer, but Pistol 1d6, not 1d3). They also cost A LOT. You'd better find a way to send them into close combat (a chaos sorcerer with jump pack and warp time could help).
  • A good way to get these guys into combat is deep strike them with a unit in-between them and their target, use Cloud of Flies and move + charge next turn.
  • Deathshrouds may be incredibly expensive, but it does pay to look at what you're getting with these. The Manreapers are effectively Power Fists without a To-Hit penalty, striking at S8 re-rolling 1s, AP-3, and D1d3. These things will cleave through any tank you point them at, never mind what they'll do to Primaris Marines and other tough multi-wound infantry. And unlike, say, Custodes, who easily get bogged down in numbers, their Plaguespurt Gauntlets provide an answer to that problem.
    • To put these guys in perspective, a squad of 6 of them can easily kill Girlyman in a single turn, delivering 9 wounds. Alternatively, with a bit of psychic support from a Malignant Plaguecaster (Blades of Putrefaction + Putrescent Vitality on the Deathshroud), they can down a Knight in 1 turn, dealing 24 wounds.

Forge World

• Chaos Decimator
• Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought - has the Helbrute keyword, which means it benefits from Inexorable Advance. Load it up with heavy weapons and enjoy being able to fire on the move at full BS.
• Hellforged Predator
• Hellforged Sicaran

Troops

• Cultists - The proof that Grandfather Nurgle loves everyone equally, the humble Cultists are a solid investment in a Death Guard list. What weapon they should take depends on your play style and what else is in your list. "Inexorable Advance" makes Autogun & Heavy Stubbers equipped cultists a pretty nice shooty unit for their cost. On the other hand, a big blob of melee-equipped cultists is a premium target for a "Blade of Putrefaction" psychic power as they'll force a lot of armor saves on whatever they're swarming due to sheer volume of attacks. Keep a Myphitic Blight-hauler in their general area for free cover, and they're pretty decent for their points.
• Plague Marines - At 19 points apiece, these guys are rather expensive troops, but at least cheaper than they were before. With a 5+ save-after-the-save and T5, they are very hardy unless the opponent points multi-damage weapons at them, and then T5 makes it so that even Lascannons don't wound them on 2+. For standard armament they come with the same as CSM, but exchange the Bolt Pistol with a Plague Knife and the Frag Grenades with Blight Grenades, both of which reroll 1s To Wound, except for the Champion, who gets to keep his pistol. Now, these guys have a massive array of options that let you gear them for specific purposes. 2 per squad can take either a Plasma Gun, Meltagun, Blight Launcher (which is a Plague Weapon, remember), Plague Belcher (plague flamer), or Plague Spewer (plague heavy flamer). 2 more can take either a Great Plague Cleaver (basically a plague Power Fist with D1d6) or a Flail of Corruption (S+2 AP-2 D2, makes D3 hit rolls per attack, damage rolls over between models, plague). YET two more can take a Bubotic Axe (plague Power Axe) and Mace of Contagion (plague Power Maul with D3, -1 To Hit, and plague). ANY of the other non-Champion models can lose the Boltgun for either a Bubotic Axe or a second Plague Knife. The Champ retains very few of his options, namely Bolt Pistol, Plasma Pistol, Plasma Gun (!), Plague Sword, and Power Fist. With all this, the unit is extremely flexible, able to be geared for melee or for range. Some of the simplest options include: 5 with 2 Blight Launchers and 2 Flails, 5 with 3 Plasma Guns and 2 Cleavers, 5 with 2 Plague Belchers and 2 Flails.
  • Any Plague Marine with one of the following loadouts gets +1A: Two Plague Knives, a Bubotic Axe and Plague Knife, or a Bubotic Axe and Mace of Contagion.
• Poxwalkers - They're Plague Zombies with a trademarkable name. They are completely immune to morale tests thanks to being mindless, and have the "Disgustingly Resilient" rule to ignore wounds on a 5+. Good thing, as they have a 7+ save, meaning they only can get regular saves if in cover. Though their statline is unimpressive, they are cheap, and make great tarpits, thanks to their resiliency rules. In addition, every time they kill an enemy infantry model, they can add an additional Poxwalker to the unit. Though this might seem difficult to do, in units of 10+ they get WS4+ to help them create self-reinforcing tarpits. Basically, against light infantry, you use them to shred through stuff like Conscripts while being damn near invincible, and against anything tougher, you hold them in place until your next turn, then Fall Back and have your Plague Marines unleash Plasma against them. Because their only regular save is the Disgustingly Resilient, they're vulnerable to weapons with more than 1 damage, since a wound from a D2 weapon causes two Disgustingly Resilient rolls, either of which could kill the model. Be aware that, despite their appearance, they are not a screening unit. With only melee attacks and a 4" movement, they are a slow, lumbering mass for attrition. If you are looking for chaff to take up space on the board quickly, Cultists will be both better and cheaper.

Dedicated Transports

• Chaos Rhino- It's a Rhino. It does everything you'd expect it to do. Keep in mind that it doesn't get Disgustingly Resilient, so it'll technically be squishier than the Plague Marines it's likely to be carrying. On the other hand, this does mean that after disembarking its cargo, it can be repurposed into a suicide bomb thanks to Putrid Detonation.

Fast Attack

• The Thing That Shall Not Be Named -We don't talk about these things, but when we do, we tell you that they aren't horrible but they aren't as good as the other fast attack options that the death guard have available to them. Take another bloat drone instead. That said, if, for detachment requirements, you need a Fast Attack slot filled, a little 33 point Chaos Spawn is a quick way to get it done. Remember though that their main use of keeping up with fast HQs is non-existent in Death Guard armies- you don't have any fast HQs for it to keep up with.
• Foetid Bloat-drone - Close-range and fast (always advance) anti-infantry vehicle with two plaguespitters and a plague probe . With T7, Disgustingly Resilient, and a 5++ daemon save, it's quite tanky. Slightly more likely to explode than other vehicles, too. Always Fall Back and shoot as the Drone's melee is nothing to write home about (it's not that bad A3/2/1 AP-2 D3 will kill some SM). That is, unless if you have its new Fleshmower weapon, which makes it absolutely terrifying in close quarters: S+2 AP-2 D2 is powerful in itself, but as an added bonus it adds a whopping 6 attacks! It can also swap out a plaguespitter for a Heavy Blight Launcher, which is basically three normal Blight Launchers with 12" more range which considering that its got a 4+ to hit is a mediocre option at best.
• Myphitic Blight-Hauler - A speedy (10" movement, lightning-quick by Nurgle's standards) tank that can be taken in squads of 3. Which you will always do since it boosts them to BS/WS 3. 8 Wounds gives them solid durability without subjecting them to a damage table, and with 3+/5++ paired with Disgustingly Resilient, they'll be sure to stick around. Weapons-wise, they come with a missile launcher, a multi-melta, a bile spurt (a 12" Assault d3 flamer with S6 AP-1, and a plague weapon), and a gnashing maw (S User, AP-2, plague weapon). As it ignores the normal penalties for moving and shooting heavy weaponry, it's good at quickly shuttling anti-armor weapons to where they need to be- and more importantly, it acts like cover to any units entirely within 7" of it, allowing to buff your troops and unleash its dakka simultaneously. As one more bonus, all to hit rolls against it in the fight phase are made with a -1 penalty.
  • Remember how Poxwalkers need cover to benefit from their armor saves? Spare yourself the trouble of marching them from one piece of cover to another and have a Myphitic Blight-Hauler escort them instead. Not only does it give them free cover, it also gives them fire support as they move forward.

Forge World

• Greater Blight Drone-for a flat 200 pts you get an extremely fast moving (14" movement with 9" infiltrate) daemon that hits like a ton of bricks and (as long as you keep him away from lascanons and mortal wounds) is one hard dude to put down at 12 wounds with T7 and a 3+/5++ (no disgustingly resilient though). Oh, and he regenerates one wound per turn thanks to infernal regeneration. This beast comes stock with a bile maw (12" range S8 AP-2 D3 pistol 3 with rerolls of 1). Also the drone hits on 3+. Nurgle be praised. At 36" range you get a 4 shot S7 AP-1 D2 gun with 6's increasing the AP to -3. for close encounters you get a plague probe.
• Hellforged Dreadclaw Drop Pod
• Hellforged Kharybdis Assault Claw

Flyers

Forge World

• Chaos Hell Blade
• Chaos Hell Talon
• Chaos Fire Raptor Assault Gunship
• Chaos Storm Eagle Assault Gunship
• Chaos Xiphon Interceptor

Heavy Support

• Chaos Predator - Same as CSM codex. Everything there applies here.
• Chaos Land Raider - Same as CSM codex. Good if you want to get your Blightlords or Deathshroud somewhere fast.
• Chaos Vindicator Laser Destroyer: Per the FAQ, this uses the DEIMOS PATTERN VINDICATOR LASER DESTROYER datasheet from the Space Marines Imperial Armour book, gaining the Hellforged keyword and replacing its Faction keywords with Chaos, Heretic Astartes, Nurgle, and Death Guard. It also gains, for free:
  • Machina Malefica
    • At the end of each Fight phase, roll a number of D6 for this model equal to the number of models that were slain by it during this phase; for each dice that scores a 5+, this model regains one lost wound. This model cannot regain lost wounds by any other means.
• Defiler- Also the same as the Chaos Space Marine version. Not quite as reliable at shooting as the Helbrutes since it lacks Inexorable Advance, but it's got good enough range and hits hard in close combat.
• Plagueburst Crawler

Forge World

• Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought - Has the Helbrute keyword. Who's up for firing Butcher Cannons on the move with full BS?
• Hellforged Leviathan Dreadnought - Has the Helbrute keyword.
• Hellforged Land Raider Achilles
• Hellforged Land Raider Proteus
• Hellforged Scorpius
• Hellforged Sicaran Venator

Lords of War

I have returned...

• Mortarion - Tremble, mortals, the Rotten Angel cometh! After a long teasing campaign by GW, Mortarion is finally here and is probably going to be the centerpiece of many Death Guard or even regular CSM armies. Standing at 18 wounds, a 4++ save, and Grandaddy's trademark Disgustingly Resilient he will prove quite hard to bring down, his survivability can be boosted further with Nurgle's stratagems. He has the best (at the moment) anti-horde weapon in the game, his huge scythe Silence. It can dish out Ax3 (18 base!!!) S:U AP:-2 D1 Plague Weapon attacks per phase of combat, which will annihilate tarpits like there's no tomorrow. To deal with anything requiring more killing, Silence has a second profile being S:x2 AP:-4 D:1d6 Plague Weapon. His 'command aura' affects every enemy unit standing within 7" of him, giving them -1 toughness and they will receive 1d3 mortal wounds on a roll of 4+ (scaling down as he takes wounds, alas). He still carries his old Lantern pistol that can cause quite a bit of damage to lined units for it hits automatically every unit in a straight line between him and the one he aims for, but only once per shot. He still carries nice phosphex bombs that deal 2D6 S5 AP-1 hits (They're not Plague Weapons, though). Cherry on top, he's now a psyker. (Yeah, the very thing he hated back in the days but, hush. No more tears, only Nurgle's happiness now!) He knows 3 powers from the Contagion discipline, he's able to cast two and deny three every turn. All this is in addition to the fact that he is the fastest piece in the army, moving 12" with FLY. All in all a really, REALLY strong big daddy.
  • Unlike Magnus, Mortarion's command aura doesn't boost his sons but weaken his enemies so there's no reason whatsoever to hold him back. Do note however that while he's tanky he's far from invulnerable and always keep in mind that he is a massive fire magnet. Just like in 30k, you'll need supporting units and a plan to get the most of ole Morty. That said, if he does somehow go down he explodes like a vehicle for a few parting mortal wounds.
  • He also loves you.

Forge World

• Chaos Sokar Pattern Stormbird Gunship
• Chaos Thunderhawk Assault Gunship
• Hellforged Cerberus Heavy Destroyer
• Hellforged Falchion
• Hellforged Fellblade
• Hellforged Mastodon
• Hellforged Spartan Assault Tank
• Hellforged Typhon Heavy Siege Tank

Additional units

The following units from the Chaos Space Marines codex may take the DEATH GUARD legion keyword, and so become usable in a Death Guard list. Any unit doing so must have the NURGLE chaos mark keyword.

• Daemon Prince
• Chaos Lord
• Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
• Chaos Lord on Palanquin
• Sorcerer
• Sorcerer in Terminator Armour
• Sorcerer on Palanquin
• Chaos Cultists
• Possessed
• Helbrute
• Chaos Rhino
• Chaos Spawn
• Defiler
• Chaos Predator
• Chaos Land Raider

Forge World

You can only choose for a Chaos Space Marine unit to be from the Death Guard Legion if it has the Nurgle keyword, or if it has the MARK OF CHAOS keyword and you choose to replace that with Nurgle. You cannot choose for a Hellforged Rapier Battery, Chaos Hellwright, or Chaos Hellwright on Dark Abeyant to be from the Death Guard.

This means you can also take:

• Dreadnoughts (which all have the Helbrute keyword, so they will gain Inexorable Advance):
  • Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought
  • Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought
  • Hellforged Leviathan Dreadnought
• Greater Blight Drone
• Hellforged Land Raider Proteus
• Hellforged Land Raider Achilles
• Hellforged Predator
• Hellforged Scorpius
• Hellforged Sicaran
• Hellforged Sicaran Venator
• Hellforged Spartan Assault Tank
• Hellforged Dreadclaw
• Hellforged Kharybdis
• Hellforged Cerberus
• Hellforged Typhon
• Hellforged Fellblade
• Hellforged Falchion
• Hellforged Mastadon
• Chaos Hellblade
• Chaos Helltalon
• Chaos Storm Eagle
• Chaos Fire Raptor
• Chaos Thunderhawk
• Chaos Sokar Stormbird
• Chaos Xiphon Interceptor
• Necrosius
• Deimos Pattern Vindicator Laser Destroyer

Notable Strategies

ZOMBIE HARVEST

Get a big blob of Poxwalkers and Cultists. Move the Cultists in front of the Poxwalkers, then use Cloud of Flies and The Dead Walk Again stratagems on the Poxwalkers. Now your opponent can only shoot the squishy Cultists, and your Poxwalkers become an even bigger tarpit with every Cultist that dies near them. Remember the Cultists doesn't necessarily have to be DG, so you can use Tide of Traitors for EVEN MORE bodies. All smiles motherfucker! Expensive in CP, though.

Grenade Storm

Get a Biologis Putrifier, as many Plague Marines as you can, and use the Blight Bombardment stratagem for an impressive amount of shots, up to 20d6 if the squad is full size. Combine with Veterans of the Long War to get Mortal Wounds on a 5+, in case you want to take down heavy vehicles using only grenades. For extra fun, deep strike a Lord of Contagion with the Arch-Contaminator warlord trait. Since you can take Plague Marines in 7 man squads, one possible delivery method is a Rhino containing seven Plague Marines, a Biologis Putrifier, and two more characters, like a Foul Blightspawn for 2d6 extra grenades or a Tallyman for a follow-up charge.