Hey everyone, TJ from Art of War here to give you the new scoop on Death Guard in their new Psychic Awakening book War of the Spider. Now to be clear, other factions got rules in this book, but Death Guard definitely got the most to love. Now, these guys have been around the block with a codex that came out very early in 8th edition. I have used some version of them through most of this edition; however, the book needed a serious upgrade. Being an early book, they got very little in the department of stratagems and relics, so this new book is a welcome upgrade. This book allows the Death Guard to finally be competitive while remaining a mono faction build. The book is just that strong. It touches every unit in the codex and makes it better. While there are no codex updates in this book, the additions of the Plague companies boost the army by improving the units and allowing you to take different builds based on how you like to play. Let’s get started at the top…. Relics. 

Relics

This time around, there have been numerous upgrades gifted to the Death Guard, some definitely better than others but all useful. The codex itself gave us only one or two useful relics, but this new book truly delivers. The book gives you six new legion relics, but all the companies come with a unique relic as well, bringing the total to 13. We will get into all that company goodness later.

Ague Stone – Lord of Contagion upgrade that gives nearby enemy units within 3 inches -1 strength. Not sold on this being super useful considering toughness is something that Death Guard does in spades.

Allwyther – Balesword upgrade that gives the bearer +1 strength and damage on the sword as well. Not terrible, but there are better choices that we can spend that relic slot on.

Daemon’s Toll – Noxious Blightbringer model upgrade that gives the user a 5+ invulnerable save as long as the unit stays within 7 inches. Excellent upgrade that gives ground forces much-needed protection. Likely a good choice for people who want to take lots of Marines.

Epidemicyst Blade – Hellforged Sword upgrade that gives the bearer +1 strength and the plague weapon upgrade on the blade. It also gives you additional hits on unmodified 6+. Now, if there was only some stratagem that gave us access to more attacks…

Putrid Periapt – Psyker model knows one additional power and allows the psyker to heal after it casts a power once per round. It would have been much better if it was know an additional power and cast another one as well, but not a bad choice as it stands.

Worm Spitter – A bolt pistol upgrade that increases the range by 3 inches, the strength to 5, and the ap to -2. Oh yeah, and if you hit a unit with it, it causes them to be corroded, which gives all weapons Death Guard units the plague weapon ability. I mean, I guess it’s ok if you have nothing else to take… and by that I mean MY DARK GODS WHAT A RELIC. The possibilities with this relic are endless when you think that most of the small arms fire that you have, bolt weapons and the like, don’t have the plague weapon rule. The other thing to note here is that Cultists and Poxwalkers can also use this super insane weapon upgrade. The only problem you should be having is what your second relic should be after this one. 

The Stratagems

Father Nurgle has gifted the Death Guard this day with over 20 new Stratagems! Some of these new abilities significantly increase the effectiveness of the army. The book has army-wide stratagems, but the Plague companies have two each and bring the total well above 30. The thing to note here is that most of the CP costs are very reasonable, with some small exceptions. I honestly feel that if this was all the book had to offer, I would be a happy man; however, there is so much more. Let’s dive right in, shall we? 

Plaguechosen – Allows one of your HQ’s to become a warlord and receive a bonus trait. What a great time to be a Death Guard character considering the seven new warlord traits we just got. Those will be covered in this article later on, but suffice to say, you will want to spend a CP for this. Another thing to note is there is no cap on the number of times this can be done… before the FAQ, that is. 

Harbinger of Nurgle – Allows for one of your Lord of Contagion to get the extra aura of giving friendly units a reroll on hits on 1s. Now at face value, this is not that useful until you consider two things. The first thing is that for an extra 38 points, you can take him instead of a Lord, which gives you a beefy 2+ armor, one additional wound, and a nice Feel No Pain. Not too bad now for one CP. The second thing to consider is that Typhus is a Lord of Contagion. So for 155 points, you can get a psyker that buffs nearby Poxwalkers and casts two powers. He is also super strong in melee, so it is a pretty solid choice to buff the army all around for 1 CP.

Virulent Rounds – Turns your Plague Marine bolt weapons into plague weapons and also gives them the extra ap on a roll of a 6+. On first look, this seems terrific, but the relic pistol does the same thing as long as you can hit with it. However, this allows you to target two units with plague weapon rounds on bolt weapons, so it definitely has its uses. This can be combined with a host of different stratagems that bump up the damage output. You’ll want to make a point to include Arch Contaminator to increase the CP return on this stratagem.

Soul Harvest – This Stratagem amps up the number of attacks by three for the axe or the balesword for a Demon Prince. However, these attacks can only target infantry with these attacks. What a splendid upgrade for the balesword, especially when you factor in the nice, sweet relic that we just got access to. So now, with the charge, you’re looking at eight attacks that are st 8 -2 and 3 damage, which also provides additional hits on 6+. A very strong choice. 

Foulgush – What a name for such a fantastic ability. This gives your Foul Blightspawn the ability to roll an additional dice for both the strength and the number of shots allowing you to discard the ones you don’t want to use. This amplifies the damage output by reliably getting better shots and strength. At already a super-strong choice for anti tanks, this makes it even more of a solid choice. If only there were a stratagem to make the range of the weapon increase as well…

Relentless Volleys – Allows a unit with Boltguns to gain an additional rapid fire number on their shots, which doubles the number of shots the unit gets. If the unit is more than six models, it costs 2 CP. This is such an excellent stratagem for Death Guard because combi bolters/ bolters are something we have in abundance. Usually, we don’t fire enough shots to make an impact, but double that and now we are talking about some major damage. Couple with the ability to make the bolters plague weapons and full rerolls after that, and you are talking about some major havoc.

Putrid Fecundity – So this stratagem is one that is a significant buff for plague marines. It is effectively bringing their toughness way up. This ability gives your marines +1 to their Feel No Pain. It costs a bit more depending on the unit’s size, but you don’t care if it means your unit is taking fewer casualties. This becomes especially powerful with rerolling 1s and 2s on your FNP..but more about that later. It’s is a must take if you are planning on playing ground forces.

Trench Fighters – Another powerful stratagem for the ground forces of the Death Guard. This new stratagem gives any plague marine with a plague knife an additional attack. Now you might be thinking I don’t want my marines to punch, I want to be able to shoot. Well, what if I told you that you get a bolter and… a plague knife? Now when you couple this ability with maybe a spell to give you mortal wounds on melee, as well as Veterans of the Long War and a warlord trait to reroll your wound rolls, you have a powerful combo indeed.

Creeping Blight – This ability is triggered in the fight phase to add +1 to the damage roll of your weapons and makes the roll of unmodified 6+ -4 AP, which is fantastic. This is yet another way to give a unit +1 to wound, which you can never really get enough of. This is going to be super useful when having multiple combats going on effectively, being able to split your buffs evenly. The other nice thing about this is it isn’t limited by the infantry keyword, though Veterans of the Long War is.

Warp Toll – This is yet another way that the book is upgrading the units in the codex without having to rework all the unit entries. This upgrade allows your Noxious Blightbringer to deal some significant morale havoc by not only forcing your opponent to add 1 to the test but double the number of models that flee. This is going to play a significant role in 9th, and I am very excited to see if this unit plays a part.

Hypertoxic Tinctures – Another upgrade stratagem that allows your Plague Surgeon to allow friendly units within six inches to be able to reroll 1s and 2s on your plague weapons within six inches of him. This is awesome, especially if you don’t have the CP or character slots to give another warlord trait of Arch-Contaminator.

Noxious Rupture – This stratagem allows a nearby unit to give a unit -1 to be hit until next turn. Definitely a powerful ability when you think about this coupled with Cloud of Flies and how you can still make use of the unit in front of you after it is dead. 

Eruption of Filth – Use this ability after a Terminator model from your army dies, and units within seven inches can suffer a mortal wound on 4+. Not crazy effective unless you have a unit with one wound left on it that you don’t want to let get away. 

Mutant Strain – This ability allows Poxwalkers to get a bit of a buff, enabling them to inflict mortal wounds on the enemy unit on an unmodified wound roll of a 6+. However, you can also suffer mortal wounds if you are prone to rolling 1s. This stratagem isn’t bad if you are trying to run large units of Poxwalkers. 

Miasmal Affiliations – This is a fight phase stratagem that decreases the units they are fighting by one toughness as long as Mortarion’s aura is not affecting them as well. This is a pretty expensive ability at 2 CP, but I can definitely see the use in it if you are fighting something more durable, and you want to be able to wound it easier. 

Overwhelming Generosity – This is the strat that is going to get most of the attention. This stratagem allows one unit to increase the range of its plague weapons by 6 inches. Now right off the bat, you can think of some excellent units that this would affect. Increased ranges on you the flamers on the Plague Burst Crawlers are awesome, but there is so much more you can do with this. But the real units that benefit from this are the Foul Blightspawn and the marines/termies that you make their bolters plague weapons. Increasing range on already deadly weapons like the flamer from the Foul Blightspawn that can now fire at 15 inches and remain in the protection of his bodyguards is terrifying. I am excited to see how I can make use of this ability in the coming months.

Fire Fever – This is a Helbrute stratagem that allows your model to get rerolls on the unit it is shooting at as long as it does not split shots. Not a huge fan of where the Helbrute is currently in 8th, but maybe this will change in 9th.

Parasitic Fumes – This is a stratagem that improves your units’ armor penetration when you have a Blight-hauler within 7 inches of that enemy unit. I’m not really feeling this one honestly. Your Blight-haulers will want to be defensive since they have no melee weapons, so I’m not sure how this would work.

Life-Eater – This ability allows a Death Guard unit to score a successful wound if you roll an unmodified hit roll of 6+. Not terrible if you need to put the beating on the unit, but wounding is not something we usually have trouble with. 

Accelerated Entropy – This is another upgrade stratagem this time for one of my favorite units, although I’m not sure you need this one. This upgrade is for a Plague Burst Crawler that gives your entropy cannons a much-needed damage boost. Makes your damage automatically 3 damage if you roll a 1, 2, or 3. It’s a nice upgrade, but as I said, the tank already has amazing offensive weapon options in the form of flamers, so I’m not sure you need this one.

Contaminated Monstrosity – This is the last of the upgrades, and it is an interesting one. This allows you to give one of your tanks the ability to receive a Feel No Pain bonus. Some big units need this. Possessed are the first units that come to mind but not the only one. Plenty of Forgeworld units can be taken for Death Guard but lack the defensive abilities that the Death Guard gets in their codex. I am interested to see what uses I can make out of this.

Plague Companies

If all of those upgrades, relics, and stratagems weren’t enough, we now have access to sub-factions. There are seven Plague Companies to choose from, and while these do not have passive abilities, each one gives you access to a new Warlord Trait, a unique relic, and two additional stratagems. These are great additions to detachments you were already taking, but something to note is that you’ll have to pay with a relic/warlord trait slot or CP if you want to take advantage. Some of these Plague Companies are very good making use of units you were already planning on using thanks to the new Stratagems and relics. Let’s jump in, shall we?

1st Company: The Harbingers

The Harbingers are Typhus’ crew, and if he’s in a Harbingers detachment, he gains the Harbingers keyword. Any Poxwalker units in the detachment also gain the Harbingers keyword. The Harbingers are all about Poxwalkers and buffing them. Their Warlord Trait Shamblerot allows the warlord to add one model to a friendly Harbingers Poxwalkers unit within 7″ every time he kills an enemy unit in melee. You still have to pay reinforcement points for each model you add that takes the unit above starting strength, making this not a very good warlord trait. The main problem with Poxwalkers is that you have to get them into melee and then have the points saved for new models. This company also comes with a relic that replaces your blight grenade with a powered-up one called Rotskull Bomb that does 2d3 that is strength 5 ap-2 and 2 damage that automatically hits. Not bad with it also being a plague weapon. Finally, this company has two stratagems with it.

From the Carrion Heaps -This allows you to deep strike up to two units of Poxwalkers at the beginning of the game, allowing you some flexibility that you didn’t have before. Spending 3 CP on making sure you have your troops not picked off early in the game might be useful, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. 

Life beyond death – The second stratagem is one that we have seen before but with Terminators and tanks. When a unit with the Harbingers keyword dies, you can damage the unit that killed it by dealing d3 mortals. Not the worst trade for a CP if it means you’re going to kill a unit for it but not worth it for having to take the whole detachment. It also suffers from the unit having to be Poxwalkers.

The Harbingers are a solid choice if you like the Day of the Dead feel. Competitively, though, the company does not utilize the units that you want to take, so I would advise another choice.

2nd Company: The Inexorable

The 2nd company is all about mechanized assaults and rolling into battle in heavy tanks. Their Warlord Trait, Ferric Blight, improves the AP of Inexorable models when they attack a vehicle within 7″ of the warlord. The company’s relic, The Leechspore Casket, allows the warlord to heal an Inexorable Vehicle model within 18″ by one wound, to a maximum of 3 per turn per vehicle, when he kills an enemy model. Ferric Blight is a substantial ability that helps Death Guard deal with vehicles that have great saves and a ton of wounds. However, I feel that the units that Death Guard has that task themselves with killing vehicles do it rather well, so maybe not the best choice for a company, but perhaps the stratagems will change my mind.                  

Unholy Essence -This ability gives up to three vehicles in your army the Inexorable Advance ability for a Shooting phase. This ability is all but useless as we move into 9th edition, as vehicles no longer suffer the penalty for moving and firing heavy weapons. With the twilight of 8th edition upon us, I struggle to think why they put this in, considering they designed these books for the new edition. 

Ferric Miasma – This Stratagem gives an enemy infantry unit -2 to its charge rolls for when it charges one of your Inexorable units. This is pretty useful for protecting your screening units or key vehicles like a hellforged Dreadnought from getting charged, particularly from units that can boost their post-deep strike charge with something like the Banner of Blood stratagem.

The Inexorable have a couple of interesting abilities. Still, if you’re looking for a vehicle-heavy strategy, there are better ways to do it, and we are going to cover that later.

3rd Company: Mortarion’s Anvil

This company is more robust than some of the others. The Warlord Trait, Gloaming Bloat, makes its bearer harder to wound, with wound rolls of 1-3 always failing. This is a perfect warlord trait on a deamon who loves to be in the thick of it. The relic, Tollkeeper, is an upgrade for a Tallyman model and gives friendly models within 7″ an extra hit each time they roll an unmodified 6 to hit with a melee weapon. This is a great ability that allows you to get more utility with your melee units to spread the damage further. Considering the Tallyman also allows for rerolls in combat, it is a potent relic indeed. Their stratagems are pretty strong as well. 

Futility Made Flesh -This abilitybuffs a Terminator unit in the opponent’s Shooting phase, reducing the damage of incoming attacks by one for a phase. However, it is very expensive, costing 2 CP if the Terminator unit has five or fewer models and 3 CP otherwise. This is an excellent boost for the unit survivability when going against heavy, multi-wound firepower. It also combines well with Disgustingly Resilient to make a unit of Blightlords insanely brutal to deal with. This is a powerful ability that, even if only used once, will certainly keep that unit alive.

Relaptic Assault – This stratagem is used in the opponent’s Charge phase and lets one unit of infantry perform a Heroic Intervention. This is a super tactical ability that will catch people off guard and allow some heavy hitters, often Terminators, to get into combat. A good point to also realize is that if you are charged, you get to pick the unit that goes first, which could make this even better.

There’s a lot of power in Mortarion’s Anvil, especially if you’re running Terminators. Both Stratagems are very good, as are the relics and warlord traits, making this a solid choice. 

4th Company: The Wretched

The Wretched is all about psychic powers and summoning. Their warlord trait, The Eater Plague, regains the warlord a wound each time it kills a model in melee, up to three per phase. This is another powerful warlord trait for a Demon Prince, especially when coupled with some armor upgrades. The company’s relic, The Daemon’s Favour, upgrades a Malignant Plaguecaster, replacing its Pestilential Fallout ability with the Torrent of Putrefaction. This upgrades the ability to do one mortal wound if you manifested the power with a roll of less than 7, and D3 mortal wounds if your roll was 7+. Unfortunately, Plaguecasters’ Pestilential Fallout ability only has a 7″ range to begin with. However, this doesn’t actually help the casting of powers, and I wish they would have done that instead. 

Sevenfold Blessings -This stratagem allows you to upgrade a single Wretched Psyker before the battle for 1 CP, letting them reroll one of the dice whenever they take a psychic test. This is an upgrade I can get behind. Almost no reroll in an army can feel bad when you’re trying to cast a power that goes off on a five like Blades of Putrefaction. 

The Rotted Veil -This an ability used at the end of the movement phase to perform a Daemonic Ritual. It can be used even if the character has moved or arrived as reinforcements this turn, but instead of the standard roll, you roll a D6 and add 7 to the result. This improves your average outcome significantly but unsure as to what you would even summon at a max PL of 13 because a Great Unclean One is PL 17. So this stratagem isn’t going to help summon anything of note since three dice are more than enough for a herald. 

Overall, there’s some ok stuff here. Summoning in 40k isn’t in the best place right now due to restrictions, but that might change in 9th. The Sevenfold Blessings upgrade is also useful on a Demon Prince, which is great because that is a unit we were already thinking about fielding.

5th Company: The Poxmongers

The 5th company is all about Daemon Engines, and this naturally my favorite because I love Plague Burst Crawlers, and you better believe they got better. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This company’s warlord trait is Sanguous Flux, and it improves the AP of Poxmongers models within 7″ by one when they hit infantry units in melee. It’s a substantial improvement on the melee units you are already using (looking at you, Blightlords and Demon Prince). The real treasure in this detachment is the relic. This company relic is the Ironclot Furnace, which gives Poxmonger Daemon Engine units within 7″ a 4+ invulnerable save. That’s a significant boost in survivability for many units, one of them being you guessed it… Plagueburst Crawlers. This unit was already nigh unkillable, but with this, they are here to stay. It’s a point to note that Defilers can benefit from this as well, which will help these units shrug off half of their incoming attacks. You can also increase the survivability one step further by giving your Defiler a Feel No Pain by using the Contaminated Monstrosity stratagem. Moving and shooting with no penalty in 9th edition boosts the utility of all daemon engines significantly. Another thing to note is that in 9th these tanks will be able to rush up the board with no fear of being wrapped in combat because now they can shoot. The utility of that relic is pretty astounding because, again, these are units that you were already planning on taking. But wait, there’s more!

Bilious Bloodrush – This stratagem allows a Poxmongers Daemon Engine shoot in the Shooting phase even if it Fell Back that turn. This is a considerable benefit in 8th, though it might not be so massive in the new edition, but I guess we will have to wait and see. 

The Flux Abated – This is a stratagem that was designed, in my opinion, to keep my favorite vehicle alive in the game. It allows you to heal a Poxmongers Daemon Engine D3 lost wounds if it destroys an enemy model. This is huge because they are already extremely difficult to remove, and now it can even heal. This will make the PlagueBurst Crawler a very annoying unit to pin down, to say the least. You can also chain tons of other abilities to make the tanks perform even better like two damage flamers on 6+ and another healing ability, and lastly, even the power to advance and still shoot. 

The Poxmongers feel like the clear winners in my eyes. I was already planning on taking tanks and tanks that don’t die are even better. The big thing here as well is that you don’t have any units that are required to make this work like troops. If you were just to take a spearhead, you would be all set.

6th Company: The Ferrymen

This company is all about one of the other powerful units in the faction: Blightlord Terminators. Their Warlord Trait, The Droning, gives enemies within 12″ +2 to their morale tests. This currently isn’t that powerful, but again, given that it was written for 9th edition in mind, this could become very useful. The relic for this company is The Ferryman’s Scythe, which replaces a plaguereaper with one that’s a S+4, AP-3, 3 damage Plague Weapon that does extra mortal wounds each time you roll a 6 to wound with it. The only real downside is that it’s only an option for a Lord of Contagion, which isn’t really taken at all right now. 

Vermid Whispers – This is an ability used in the Shooting phase to give a unit of Blightlord Terminators +1 to their hit rolls for a phase. This is a huge boost, especially when combined with the Relentless Volleys Stratagem to pound on the damage. Blightlords were already dependable damage dealers, and increases to that are much appreciated. 

On Droning Wings– This is a stratagem that is used at the start of the Movement phase to boost the aura abilities of one FERRYMEN unit by 7″ for the rest of the turn. This has some interesting abilities, but the main problem is the CP cost of 2. The thing I am most interested in using this for is in 9th edition, where if you charge, you don’t go first unless you have a Foul Blightspawn’s Revolting Stench. This ability is super strong because it negates the bonus that your opponent would have for getting charged, which is very strong, bringing that aura to 14 inches, most likely protecting most of your units.

There are some good things in this company, especially if you’re running Blightlords. It’s worth as much consideration as our next company. I am intrigued by the things this company offers, considering I am a big fan of Terminators, but I feel that you don’t necessarily need these bonuses to field them.  

7th Company: Mortarion’s Chosen Sons

This company has the chosen elites from the Death Guard ranks. They make all the plagues, and they do the dirty work. Their warlord trait, Crawling Pustulance, gives models -1 to hit the warlord with melee weapons, and when enemy units without FLY try to fall back from this warlord, you roll a D6, and on a 2+ they take D3 mortal wounds. This is a pretty great trait when used on a demon prince because no one wants to be in combat with one. The Company’s Relic, Vomitryx, upgrades a demon prince flamer to an Assault 7, S7, AP-3, 2 damage Plague weapon that automatically hits. Not a bad upgrade for a prince, but there are better relic slots.

Alembichal Narthecium – This is a stratagem upgrade that can be used before the battle. It gives your Plague Surgeon a special Narthecium that lets friendly Mortarion’s Chosen Sons Infantry within 3″ the ability to reroll Disgustingly Resilient rolls of a 1 or 2. It’s pretty great if you are going all infantry or want the elite Terminators you spent all the points on to survive the battle. Something else to note is you can use other boosts like the Hypertoxic Tinctures stratagem to make your troops even better.

Plague Brewers – This is a stratagem used in the Shooting phase to upgrade the plague belchers, plaguespurt gauntlets, and plague spewers of a single unit to damage 2 until the end of the phase. This is not terrible, but it doesn’t really feel like something you would use. Currently, the role of the Deathshrouds is bodyguards, but that might change in 9th. 

Overall Thoughts

So, what does this mean for the Death Guard overall? I think that the overall power of the army has drastically gone up. Maybe even to the point where one might consider trying them as a mono faction competitively, which very few armies can boast the ability to do right now. This book’s power is such a welcome change for other chaos books that have come out in the last few months and even the Fabius Bile portion of this book. Every unit in the codex was looked at and altered effectively, which is something else I don’t believe I have seen in another book in a long time.

I can already see some potent combos from this book, which I am very eager to test. The first things that come to mind are the Blightlords, PlagueBurst Crawlers, and the Foul Blightspawn using the new upgrades and Stratagems to make a deadly core in my new lists. I hope that you will be able to come with me when tournament play resumes and take the plunge with me. I feel like Death Guard will make a big splash in the new edition with chaos, and I hope that I will be able to test all the crazy ideas I have in my head with this faction as the tip of the spear.

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