Starter Death Guard 500 Point Army List

With the School League about to kick off again, I've been busy putting together a starter list for student neophytes who might like to use the contents of Dark Imperium for their tournament army. I will be doing Space Marines a little later on, as they don't fit so comfortably into the usual format.

School League rules so far:

  • 650 points
  • Battleforged (unconfirmed)
So, let's get started!

8th edition 500 point death guard army list starter chaos
Half painted Nurgle's Gardeners Death Guard
Here's the list:

Patrol Formation: Minor Lurgy

HQ


Malignant Plaguecaster: Bolt Pistol, Corrupted Staff 
[110pts]

Troops

Plague marines: Champion (w/ Power Fist. Bolt pistol, Plague Knife), 6 Plague Marines (1x Plasma Gun)
[180pts]

Pox walkers: 20 Pox Walkers
[120pts]

Elites

Noxious Blightbringer: Plasma Pistol
[80pts]

Fast Attack

Foetid Bloat Drone: Plague probe, 2x Plague Spitters
[158pts]

Total: 648 points

To go down to 500 points, drop the Pox Walker unit and two Plague Marines. This will give you a list of 486 points. If you get one of the easy to build packs of Plague Marines, like from First Strike, you can give the Champion a plasma gun to come up to 499 points. 

You can also swap the plasma gun on the regular Plague Marine for a Blight Launcher in both lists... a much better choice in my opinion, as you won't be killing yourself with overcharged shots.

The use of this army is really simple.
  • Move towards the enemy, and don't stop.
Here's the break down for the use of each unit.

Advance the Pox Walkers and Blightbringer until they're in combat. It's a big blob, and your opponent can't ignore a potential 40 attacks landing on them. They won't lose units to Morale failures, and with a 5+ Feel No Pain, they're actually fairly tough as a blob. The Blight bringer will make them zip up the battlefield faster than the enemy will expect.

Zoom and advance with the Bloat drone up to the enemy, and shoot at the enemy (remember, Assault weapons can advance and fire with a -1 To Hit, but Plague Spitters never miss anyway!). Charge if you can. After that, Fall Back and keep spitting plague at the enemy, daring them to charge into your overwatch. Be bold with this guy, as it is ridiculously tough for it's points cost (basically even with a Riptide!!)

The Plaguecaster and Plague Marines form a nice solid base in the middle of your line. Their job is to get objectives whilst the other units distract or kill the enemy. They're very goo at this, as they effectively ignore 1/3 of the wounds they take, and the Plaguecaster can make them even more difficult to hit with psychic powers!

In smaller 500 point matches, the same strategy applies. use the Bloat Drone to distract the enemy. It's so tough that even a Hellblaster squad has difficulty doing damage to it... 5+ invulnerable save and a 5+ Feel no pain care nothing for the good AP and damage output of even plasma guns! That makes this unit a real Distraction Carnifex, and if the enemy chooses to ignore it, you can pump out 2d6 auto-hitting strength 6 shots a turn... which re-roll 1s To Wound.

Conclusion

Death Guard are an uncomplicated, but deceptively strong and quick army. Use them as fluff suggests... an inescapable tide of plague and disease, bringing Nurgle's Tranquillity to them. 

What do you think? Need to make any changes? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time!


Thanks for reading.

If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated.

If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day!

If you want to support me directly, use the affiliate links below. I get a small percentage of purchases you make her, and you get cheaper miniatures! If you really love what I do here, you can make a one off donation at my PayPal, or become a true hero to table top education and make a regular donation to my Patreon. Every Little helps!






Comments

  1. These are great to read, thanks for taking the time with these. I came here after reading your more recent post about the basics of Patrol Detachments. I bought the new 8th Edition Boxed set and will be concentrating on growing the Death Guard army part of it. One of the things I was going to ask related to both your posts - Death Guard seem to lack the equivalent of devastator squads as fire support. Is it possible to create a support unit of nurgle marines using their options? Or do I need to be looking at something else to provide the heavy guns?

    In looking at building my army I've already got hold of 3 Helbrutes - 2 as power fist and multi melta - would setting up the third with lascannons etc as a stand-off support platform work? Or is that missing the point of the Helbrute?

    Thanks in advance!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for commenting! Death Guard have a big edge in surviving damage, so when you see slightly less firepower coming out of them compared to other armies, remember they'll be soaking up more than them as well.

      Death Guard actually have quite a few options for fire support, but they are vehicles rather than infantry. The Plagueburst Crawler works well, but even the Foetid Bloat Drone can do a wonderful job of laying down firepower.

      if you want Infantry fire support though, you can multi-role your Plague Marines. Rather than a power fist, you give the champion a combi-weapon or a plasma gun, giving you two special weapons in a unit. That's not great, but you could field two such units, both doing troop and fire support roles.

      The downside is that you'll have half your firepower stuck in a scrap over objectives rather than doing damage. But as long as you know that'll happen, you can work around it!

      Shooty Helbrutes are actually fairly good thanks to the new crazed rule, which means you may get an extra round of shooting out of them whenever they get hurt! For small lists they'll do a decent job of Fire support with a missile launcher and twin-lascannon.

      Delete
  2. Great lists and well presented so thanks for these! I recently got back into Warhammer and had been beginning to start a nurgle army when I stopped, so to come back to new Death Guard units and codex was a blessing. I think youve hit the nail on the head with the tactics here and whilst its arguably quite basic stuff its certainly worth remembering the core values of a force when scaling it up to a 1000/1250pt force so it doesnt become too lopsided.
    Its easy to get distracted by the vehicles, but ultimately its that body count that can take objectives as well as absorb some damage. Out of interest, how would you scale up this list to 1000/1250points?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Apologies for the hideously late response, and thank you for commenting! My current formula for upscaling the army would be to keep the same ratio of 1 Troop-1 Skirmisher- 1 Fire support.

      For the above army 650 point I would then go for a Plagueburst Crawler and a Terminator unit, to give the army some ranged punch and heavily armoured Deep Strike screen.

      Your lone HQ might be getting a bit stretched in supporting your army, so another leader might be a good investment at that point.

      Delete
  3. Thank you for this article!

    I'm planning to start a second army with which to teach my wife. Is your list above a balanced army to match with this one:

    Custom craftworld. 498 points.

    ++ Patrol Detachment (Aeldari - Craftworlds) [28 PL, -1CP, 498pts] ++

    + No Force Org Slot +

    Craftworld Attribute
    . *Custom Craftworld*: Hail of Doom, Warding Runes

    + HQ +

    Farseer [6 PL, 110pts]: 0. Smite, 1. Guide, 2. Doom, 6: Seer of the Shifting Vector, Craftworlds Warlord, Witchblade
    . Kurnous' Bow

    Warlock [2 PL, 50pts]: 0. Smite, 4. Protect/Jinx, Shuriken Pistol, Singing Spear

    + Troops +

    Dire Avengers [6 PL, -1CP, 69pts]
    . 5x Dire Avenger: 5x Avenger Shuriken Catapult
    . Dire Avenger Exarch: Two Avenger Shuriken Catapults
    . . Exarch Power: Battle Fortune, Bladestorm, Exemplar of the Avenger Shrine

    Guardian Defenders [5 PL, 105pts]: 10x Guardian Defender
    . Guardian Heavy Weapons Platform: Aeldari Missile Launcher

    + Dedicated Transport +

    Wave Serpent [9 PL, 164pts]: Crystal Targeting Matrix, Spirit Stones, Twin Shuriken Cannon, Twin Shuriken Catapult, Vectored Engines

    ++ Total: [28 PL, -1CP, 498pts] ++

    Created with BattleScribe

    I'm looking for a well-balanced matchup; one side shouldn't trounce the other all the time. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, thanks for commenting, and I hoped you've had that match already! Apologies for not replying when you wrote in. It's been a heck of a year, and I'm only now emerging from it (ironically as lock down keeps me inside).

      Your Eldar list may in fact run literal rings around the Death Guard list. In current rile sets the Death Guard list I wrote is hopelessly noncompetitive, not having nearly enough firepower to do anything useful, and not nearly tough enough to take on Eldar Firepower.

      But... this is an old list, and the points values are all out. For 500 points you can take everything there on the 650 point list except for two Plague Marines! Still not the best in the world, but certainly a lot to chew through eventually.

      At 500 points those two forces should have some good games, but the Eldar list scales much better than the Death Guard one. You're definitely better off switching out the Caster and Blightbringer for a Demon Prince, and that will get you some very tight games!

      Best of luck!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Primaris Space Marine Paint Planner

Painting Guide: Blood Angels, perfecting the colour scheme

The Complete Blood Angels Beginner Guide: Troops