It has been a long time since I posted an article on here, but I thought the 1st day of Grotmas would be the perfect excuse to start writing again! As luck would have it, I am getting back into playing 40k more and decided just yesterday my new army for 2025 is going to be Death Guard. Then, GW goes and releases an entire new detachment for the army I chose! First off, if you haven’t already heard, GW is releasing a new detachment each day for each 40k army throughout the month of December. This advent-like release is a super cool move by GW and gives something to players who may have to wait for awhile longer before seeing their codex.
I am a little surprised Death Guard dropped on December 1st (the 7th was the correct day come on GW!), but it is nice to get something for an army we know isn’t getting a codex anytime in the near-ish future.
Flyblown Host Detachment Rule- Everyone knows Death Guard is super slow and we see that weakness get addressed in a lot of competitive army lists by players taking a few Rhinos for their Plague Marines to ride in until their marines are ready to jump out and start spreading the sickness. Scouting 5 inches might not seem like a ton, but it definitely will make getting onto those mid-field objectives a lot easier. With the slower move of the Death Guard infantry, getting onto mid-field objectives was not happening until turn 2, or even later in some missions, which could leave your opponent plenty of time to move block or position their units for favorable counter charges.
Not having your infantry in transports to get the 5 inch scout move does come at the cost of durability which will need to be addressed in list building. The Stealth trait from this new detachment certainly will help slightly, but it will not make the difference in a unit of 5 Plague Marines making the sprint for their un-clean lives onto an objective or not. What will make it onto those objectives are big units of 20 Poxwalkers, 10 man Plague Marines, and Blightlords! I am extremely excited to try an army with 60 Poxwalkers Scouting 5 inches and moving into the mid-board extremely quickly. Well, quickly for Death Guard anyway.
Enhancements: As far as the Enhancements go, none of these are build around picks but there are some decent options. I really like Droning Chorus on a Biologus Putrifier in a squad of 10 Plague Marines advancing out of a Rhino to get them a little extra movement. If you have 20pts left in a list you could do much worse than taking Insectile Murmuration (amazing name) to get re-roll 1’s to wound against a unit who will already be -1T for being inside of Contagion range. 10pts to regain ALL lost wounds on an Infantry character is absolutely going to make some opponent tilt with Rejuvenating Swarm. Plagueveil is probably my least favorite option here. 25pts is very steep for something that only protects the unit outside of 18 inches. There are A LOT of ways for your opponent to interact with a unit that can only be targeted inside 18 inches, and I don’t feel like the 25pts is worth it.
Stratagems: I am a huge fan of the stratagems that are available to this Detachment overall, but my favorite has to be Enervating Onslaught. Throwing extra mortal wounds onto a charge target is awesome in this Edition as we have seen with the prodigious use of Tank Shock and Grenade Stratagems in the tournament scene, and this Stratagem just allows the piling on of more mortal wounds. Using this on a unit of 20 Poxwalkers that have Typhus attached will put out a significant amount of unexpected damage between Typhus’ The Eater Plague ability and Enervating Onslaught, and the Biologus Putrifier’s free Grenade Stratagem is also great in combination with the stratagem. I also really love Vermin Cloud since it gives a slow moving Death Guard army some extra movement in the Fight Phase that can be used to pull off all kinds of shenanigans. I used to never get too excited about 6 inch Pile In and Consolidate Stratagems, but once you start using them you realize how insane the movement they generate is. There are also some decent damage buff stratagems mixed in that won’t hurt like Droning Horror and Eye of the Swarm. Oh, and I really like Myphitic Invigoration on a unit of 20 Poxwalkers. Although opponents might realize they can just shoot the Blight Haulers first, but this stratagem will definitely make them think twice about their shooting priorities.
While I am not convinced that this Detachment is better than the current Index Death Guard one (it is hard to beat -1WS/BS or -1 Save), I am genuinely excited to give this Detachment a try. This Detachment opens up an entirely different playstyle for Death Guard, and if this is what the rest of the detachments do for other armis GW will have knocked it out of the park with this fun new holiday idea!
If you are starting a new army like me for 2025, check out the FLG webstore for discounted models or even used models from the FLG Secondhand Shop