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!

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!

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