In the 41st Millennium, a runny nose is real reason for concern. Not only might you be unable to serve the Emperor at full capacity, it may also be the first sign that you have been infected by one of Nurgle’s vile maladies.
The Death Guard gleefully embrace all the fevers and agues of Nurgle, advancing inexorably to spread disease and carve their foes apart with poisoned fire and rusty blades. It’s time to find out how these harbingers of rot work in the new edition of Warhammer 40,000.
Overview
Few armies are as durable as the Death Guard. This corrupted Legion has grown fat on Nurgle’s blessings, mutated and swollen flesh bursting out of armour, the pus-filled excess sloughing off when struck by the enemy. They march to battle with flies buzzing around them, never relenting as they shrug off devastating salvos that would kill mere mortals.Alongside this acrid advance, bloated Daemon Engines rumble forward, belching gouts of explosive fire. The Death Guard’s approach is slow but inevitable, and their enemies fall choking under clouds of diseased smog.
Faction Rules
To battle a Death Guard army is to face a squall of supernatural contagions that contaminate everything they touch. These innumerable infections cause flesh and armour alike to suppurate and rot, softening up enemy defences ahead of the assault.
Nurgle’s Gift blesses every Death Guard unit with an aura that increases over the course of the battle. Enemy units in Contagion Range have their Toughness reduced by 1 as unnatural plagues overwhelm them – a blighted salve to the increased resilience found across the board in the new edition.
These contagions are so powerful that they even bend the landscape to Nurgle’s will, and as the Death Guard Spread the Sickness they cause Nurgle’s garden to encroach on realspace. Any objectives controlled by the Death Guard at the end of their Command phase remain in their control even if they move away, and also gain Nurgle’s Gift, meaning enemies who want to take it back will have to contend with the reality-warping pox weakening them.*
Unit Spotlight
Play Death Guard if you like big guys. The sons of Mortarion are absolute units, walking refrigerators packed with a slurry of rotting innards and mutation, held together by millennia-old ceramite, spit, and a prayer to Nurgle. With the corpse-worshippers making a song and dance about their renewed Terminators, the god of corpulence and fecundity wasn’t going to be outdone – Blightlord Terminators are now even heftier.
Toughness 6! 2+ Save! 4+ invulnerable save! What a bloated banquet of resilience – we need a lie down. These hulking brutes trade a little movement for an extra pip of Toughness, making them some of the toughest Infantry out there. Their Lethal Hits will make short work of tougher targets, while Blistering Fusillade grants re-rolls for Wound rolls of 1 against the closest target – a noxious pairing with the Toughness reduction inflicted by Nurgle’s Gift.
Another facet of Death Guard power manifests in their psychic prowess.** Malignant Plaguecasters reach out and blast the enemies of Nurgle with a Plague Wind made up of corrosive vomit and feculent gas, the resulting Pestilent Fallout causing enemies to falter as they hack up bile and blood.
Weapon Spotlight
The Death Guard trudge into battle with grim purpose, usually flanked by Daemon Engines overripe with disease and corruption. Of these, the Plagueburst Crawlers are the most notable. Devised by Mortarion himself, these tanks are armed with a Plagueburst mortar, a long-ranged weapon expressly designed to obliterate infantry.
On top of its impressive range and attacks, these putrefying bombardments are followed by Spore-laced Shock Waves that cause enemy Infantry units to take Battle-shock tests.
Stratagem Spotlight
Defeat is all but inevitable… and the Plague Company have a few ways of speeding up the inevitable. They’ve got places to be and diseases to spread after all.
Of the many maladies Nurgle has concocted, the Sanguous Flux is one of the nastiest – units blessed by it gain Sustained Hits 1 on their melee attacks, and Sustained Hits 2 when within range of an Infected objective marker. Viciously efficient on the bubotic blades of Blightlord Terminators.
The Word from the Studio
“The Death Guard are a faction long renowned for their undying resolve to spread Nurgle’s gifts to any and all,” says Scott from the Warhammer Studio. "We've kept this ideal firmly in mind when designing the Death Guard, and their Army Rule, Nurgle's Gift, reduces their opponent's Toughness characteristic within an ever-growing range as the battle grinds on. This can often be the difference between life and death in an edition where we see some of the toughest enemies the 41st Millennium has to offer!
“Despite all of Nurgle's grandeur, the one thing his devout followers lack is a sense of speed, but to make up for this the Plague Company Detachment rule will mean that Death Guard forces can move away from objectives safe in the knowledge that they will remain under their control unless their foes can reclaim them. Backed up with some of the toughest units in the game and the Lethal Hits weapon ability common to many of their units, these corrupted Space Marines can overcome even the hardiest of opponents.”
Black Library
Mortarion’s return to the galactic stage was the focus of the Dark Imperium narrative. Taking advantage of his brother Roboute Guilliman heading out on the Indomitus Crusade, the Lord of Decay seized the opportunity to strike at Ultramar itself, drawing his brother into a deadly trap.
The Dark Imperium trilogy by Guy Haley pits these siblings against each other in a truly titanic contest of wills. If you’re still hungry for more of this Legion’s foetid deeds, then Chris Wraight has you covered, swapping to the antagonist perspective from his Space Wolf series, with the short stories Endurance and Unification, along with the novel Lords of Silence.
Take a look at how the other factions of Warhammer 40,000 have had their rules changed in the new edition below. Don’t worry if you can’t see your favourite yet. We’re working our way through them every weekday – Imperial Knights are stomping over the horizon tomorrow.
* Bringing a whole new meaning to the term “sticky objectives”. Gross.
** The psychic prowess of Mortarion is as legendary as it is ironic.