Hello fellow 40k fanatics, SaltyJohn here from TFG Radio to bring you a post about the Death Guard and how I see the leaked rules about NewHammer being beneficial to the XIV Legion, the Sons of Mortarion.
With the coming of a new edition of 40k we are sitting upon the precipice of a rebirth of the game. Games Workshop continues to drop rules and confirmations of long rumored changes on a daily basis about the newest edition of 40k. These rules stand squarely in line with the predictions many, including us at TFG Radio, have been espousing as the direction GW would take with 40k for well over 18 months. When you couple this new direction for the game with the new attitude of GW itself we as players have a real reason to rejoice. For those of you who follow my articles here, or the battle reports I do for TFG Radio you’ll know I recently began to play Death Guard with the release of Traitor Legions. As a Death Guard player it would seem I have double the reason for excitement.
First off let me establish that I am taking GW at face value when they say things about having changed, that Chaos will once again be a focal point of the game, and that they are listening to what we as players want. So bear that in mind as I run through how I think the Death Guard will benefit from all these new rules being put out by GW. If you came here to hear whining and complaining about how New Hammer is ruining everything we knew and loved about 40k you should move along now, this isn’t the post for you. Heading on over to Dakka or any of the poorly moderated Facebook 40k groups should provide you with more salt than the Dead Sea.
Terminators:
Is there anyone who doesn’t want Terminators to be better again? The confirmation of 2 wounds and the rumored return of a 3+ save on 2d6 gives great hope. When you couple that with the fact that Death Guard have always been more resilient than the other types of Space Marines and we are looking at a potentially amazing unit in the next edition of Warhammer 40k. The fact they will probably have slow movement compared to other units means that the next point is extremely relevant to Terminators. The return of the Land Raider means a reliable delivery system!
Vehicles:
The rules about vehicles having wounds and declining ability based on damage is great. This mechanic works really well in Age of Sigmar and losing the ability, apparently, to one shot a vehicle is really good. Another important part of vehicles seems to be that every vehicle is now an “assault vehicle” similar to how the new Dwarf Airships work. Rhinos full of Death Guard, or any unit, that is good at both shooting and assault will be good. I can see the Rhino rush of 3rd edition being a viable build again. Resilient marines in Rhinos are good, but resilient Terminators assaulting out of Land Raiders will be even better! I loved running Salamander terminators in 5th edition and their rapid slide into obscurity after the mid point of 5th was sad to witness. Just seeing Land Raiders on the table top again will be a welcome change.
Dreadnoughts:
With the new rules about vehicles I am excited to see Dreads with more wounds. I know that traditionally Chaos players have had to make due with less than stellar Dreadnought options. That said I am taking GW at their word that they’ve been listening to the community, including CSM players, and I am hopeful we will see Chaos with more standard dread options to supplement a boosted Hellbrute. Worst case scenario I run a few Contemptor dreads from Forgeworld. With the decline of melta and a new emphasis on high output shooting I am thinking we could see a return of the super shooting dreadnought. Rifleman dreads would be fun to see again but I can also see a lot of Contemptor dreads with Kheres Assault Cannons being viable. One of the best parts about dreads, particularly Ironclads, has always been their ability to fire at a unit, then clean it up in assault. It is looking like that will be an even bigger part of the equation in this new edition of 40k, it will cool to see non Super Heavy walkers on the table top again.
Assault:
Speaking of assaulting! Death Guard have always been a great tar pit in assault. Super resilient Nurgle Bikers and Spawn made amazing cheap Death Stars at the close of 7th. While the death of the Death Star is being greatly exaggerated in my opinion there is no doubt that it will certainly lose a lot of it’s dominance. I am excited about that. Many out there are claiming that when you combine the new shooting rules with the new morale rules there is a recipe for the absolute destruction of assault as a viable thing in new hammer. I couldn’t disagree more. I do think that surviving in combat will be more important than ever and to that end I am excited as a Death Guard player. GW has always given us the tools to outlast and whittle down our opponents in assault and if that holds true then we could be set to be one of the better all around armies in the game.
Mortarion:
I can’t possibly not talk about Mortarion (although it is still just a guess as to whether he is coming our way or not!). The way characters are set to work in 40k now, much more like Age of Sigmar, is going to be a big boost to units like Magnus, who was already good, and Guilliman. Guilliman was clearly an Age of Sigmar style character thrown into 40k. With his cohort of Veterans who he could throw wounds to because he couldn’t join units he was a clear indication of where the game was headed. If they treat the big Primarch characters in newhammer like they do with the “characters” in Age of Sigmar then we could be looking at a game where Guilliman, Magnus, and Mortarion could be absolute great additions to an army. The leaked photos of what I think is Mortarion coupled with the official leaked images from GW in their promotion material (which look like they could be Mortarion) makes me quite excited to see what the new edition of 40k holds for these living gods of the 40k universe in terms of their viability in game. I don’t know if he is coming our way or not, or when if so, but I have a funny feeling that we’ll be getting him eventually….or that could just be Nurgle’s Rot!
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