QUICK HITS: PLAGUE MARINES AND THE BLIGHT BOMBARDMENT

I have talked about this before in my Death Guard codex review, but after a recent game I really feel the need to go over it again as it was used to DEVASTATING effect.

So, to set this up we need a fair number of things all gathered together for maximum effect.  First, we need a unit of Plague Marines, I like 7 as it leaves room for the other characters you need in the Rhino.  You need a Death Guard Lord, a Chaos Sorcerer with access to Prescience, and a Biologus Putrifer, one of them needs to be your warlord with the Arc Contaminator warlord trait.  Lastly you need 2 command points for Blight Bombardment and VotLW.  Yes that is a lot of things, but the only thing that is not for certain is being able to cast Prescience.

I tend to drive these guys around in a Rhino, maybe getting the Sorcerer out for some psychic support.  But you could also increase the damage and foot print by taking a bigger unit of Plague Marines and running them up the table with a Noxious Blightbringer, to help them advance faster, and Cloud of Flies to keep them from getting shot up.  Throw in a Tallyman to get those CPs back because resource management is hard...

Whatever method you take, once you get them all within 6" you can Prescience them and then use the 2 stratagems and let fly with all the Blight Grenades.  For this example lets say we have 7 PMs.  That's an average of 25 shots, with Prescience and the re-rolls from the Lord you are getting 24 hits.  Now the Arch Contaminator lets you re-roll all failed wound rolls with plague weapons, which blight grenades are, so if you are targeting a T4 unit you will be dealing 12 mortal wounds and your opponent will have to take 20 saves that do 2 damage each.  That's around 9 dead Terminators, 12 dead Primaris Marines or 18 dead regular marines.  This does not include the Lord, or BP's blight grenades which will add 3 more mortal wounds and 5 more saves.  Against bigger things, ironically, it does almost better.  Due to the increased number of to wound dice that can be re-rolled, there are 14 mortal wounds inflicted with 16 saves against a unit with T5-7.  Something T8 will take 10 mortal wounds and have to make as many saves.

Let me leave you with this last little tid-bit, regardless of how rare it may happen, because it HAS happened.  10 Plague Marines, with all of the above buffs, will kill a Knight.  So, 10 PMs will have 35 shots hitting on 2's and re-rolling 1's for a total of 34 hits.  They are S4 so wounding the knight on 6's then re-rolling all of the failed wounds this time keeping 5's and 6's, thanks to VotLW, for a total of 15 mortal wounds in addition to 15 saves, of which he will fail 5 and take a grand total of 25 wounds.  Boom.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

This post has been sponsored by Spellcrow Studios.  They sent me a couple kits to preview and the quality is pretty good, no bubbles in their resin and a really good detailed sculpt.  They have a great selection of upgrades and models for science fiction games and fantasy games.  They sent me their Obliterated Knights, Top Hatch for Light Plague Vehicle, and Doors for Heavy Plague Vehicle which look like this...

$50.00CA

 

The Obliterated Knights are a great kit, and a perfect substitution for Obliterators.  They are only 5 pieces, which make conversions a little tricky, but since they are not a mainstream model you likely won't need to modify them to make them stand out.  I do have one small complaint about the models and that is that the heads don't quite fit in the recess, so a little shaving and trimming needed to be done.

 

$5.00CA

 

The top hatch for light vehicle doors are of equal quality to the Obliterated Knights.  There is a second design for the top hatch as well as a front plate, alternate head lights, side doors, and disgusting little bits for a light vehicle, all of them around the same price.  As you can see the size is off by a little bit which creates a small gap in between the doors.  I could have closed them further and balanced out that gap along the hinge side, but I like the slight gap in the "mouth" design.

$9.00CA

Finally, the last kit I got was doors for a heavy vehicle.  More good quality sculpts and designs.  These ones had no fitting issues and slid into place without a problem.

I would like to thank Spellcrow for taking this opportunity to send me these bits.  For those of you out there who don't play Death Guard, they have a range of upgrade kits for various Chaos Space Marines, Loyal Marines, Orks, Humans and Eldar.  Not to mention their vast and crazily diverse fantasy range for their skirmish game Umbra Turris.