Horus Heresy: Death Guard

Our coverage continues with the Death Guard Legion. 

Assessment of their special Legion Trait (Remorseless):

Very fitting for their Legion. So any model that walks standardly during the movement phase (not jump or Cavalry etc) can move unfettered through cover to their full allowance, and count as stationary when it comes to calculating how effective they can shoot that turn. 

So squads of Heavy Bolters, can walk, fire at full BS and then charge in the Assault phase. 

Assessment of their Advanced reaction (Remorseless Advance):

Get a nice feel no pain roll and automatically pass any Morale rolls. Then walk into the enemies guns 7”. To be played in the enemy shooting. This is just damn nice. Really shows them off. 

Assessment of their Warlord Traits:

The Reapers Visage - quite scary to behold, the Warlord negatively effects the Leadership of enemies within 12” when they make tests upon it. 

Blood of Barbarus - I would say this rule is the best, especially if you are using your Warlord to steam in there and get some kills. He turns several of the special rules like Murderous Strike, Rending etc to (6). So he will be more hardy. 

Witch Hunter - Would be good against foes who bring a lot of Psykers. He gets boobs to his Toughness and Weapon skill when in combat with them and gets a save of 6+ against certain Psychic attacks. 

Blood of Barbarus is definitely my go to Warlord Trait. 

Assessment of their Rites of War:

The Reaping - this was my favourite from the previous edition. So you can load up on standard troops, then have squads of Heavy Weapons and Support squads as non-compulsory troop choices to make your on foot army very dangerous. 

The creeping death - this rule reminds me of Doom of Molech, when the Death Guard come through the woods. So they automatically pass any dangerous terrain tests, and whole area of the battlefield count as dangerous or difficult terrain. The Death Guard also get a 6+ shrouded roll in certain areas. This is a good one to have when defending a position too. 

Assessment of their Armoury/special Consul: 

Alchem weapons - pretty good weapons here. They do get hot, but are well worth considering where not automatically equipped. 

Power Scythes - are just brilliant. So not unwieldy (which is still shocking), have rending 6+ and a +2 to strength. They also have reaping blow. So just get in there and cause as much damage as possible. See more in Deathshroud later. 

Assessment of their Primarch. 

Mortarion - He is a midfield Primarch. He will always lose against Angron (gives him additional attacks due to Bulky 6). He is great at ploughing through ranks of troops (get him surrounded and you can instant death a fair few multi wound characters in one (especially as you can choose your targets). 

Lantern is good too.

He’s a very durable Primarch and I love having him disappear and reappear across the battlefield. 

Assessment of their special squads/units

Deathshroud - I’m a big fan of this squad, but they are 70pts a model. 

Their Alchem Pistols are very effective when attacking hordes of Legionaires, but are also able to stand up in Hand to hand with them too, especially as the scythes are no longer unwieldy and have the Reaping blow special rule. Their stat line almost rivals a centurion in Tartaros armour too, which really showcases the level of legionary they allow in their ranks. 

Grave Warden - another cool unit, though their ranges weapons don’t have the stopping power against terminators unfortunately. 

I do really like the Grenade Launchers they have though. 

They have Firing Protocols (2) which also means they can shoot with their heavy weapons before/after firing with their Death Cloud Projector. So get this unit in a Spartan and pop them out turn 2 near an enemy you want to destroy, and they won’t let you down. 

Calas Typhon - As with the Grave Warden above he is a strong character. He will be hitting at S6 AP2 in melee with his Scythe. 

He has a psychic special rule which will enable him to take a few extra dice in hand to hand too.