THE PLAGUE COLONY: KNOW YOUR ROLE

Do you smell something?

Good day ladies and gents, today is a fine day to talk about one of the new Formations brought to us by the great and wonderful text that is the Traitor Legions Chaos Space Marines Codex Supplement.  Today we are going to focus on the Plague Colony, as you probably guessed from the name of the post...

So, lets get into the nitty gritty...  Starting off, the Plague Colony consists of a Lord and 3-7 units of Plague Marines.  The special rule that comes with this formation is that all enemy models within 7" in the Fight sub-phase get a -1 modifier to their WS and I.  If you took 7 units of Plague Marines, the enemy models also suffer a -1 modifier to their T.  So, I guess technically they don't have to be IN the combat, but they have to be within 7" of it.

Yeah, that's what I thought at first too.  Unfortunately Plague Marines are slow as shit and aren't likely to see a whole lot of combat even if they are in Rhinos.  Now I don't think that their lack of speed makes this formation useless, its a great counter assault unit, and a great unit to combo with other harder hitting units as I'll talk about in a bit, and Plague Marines are tough as nails, but it did raise a question.  Do I double down and take 7 units of Plague Marines, do I take the middle ground and have a solid threat from this formation, or do I take less than the maximum and use the Formation ability as a close combat deterrent?  Lets go over those 2 options...

First, if you take all 7 units, you are looking at over 1000 points if you keep them at minimum size and give them just enough upgrades to make them capable.  This does not include Rhinos so your slogan it, but this leaves you some room for some playthings.  I like the idea of a couple of Daemon Princes with wings and ML2 which puts them at 250 a piece. They can go for those toughness depleting powers like Enfeeble and Curse of the Leper and you are suddenly causing Instant Death with your normal attacks vs Thunder Wolves and other combat Death Stars who want to get close.
Of course there are several auxiliary formations that can be taken that goes well with the Plague Colony.  The Lost and the Damned adding a screen of bodies slowly turning into Zombies who keep getting back up, and with Stealth from the Vectorium detachment it adds more durability to high AP firepower.  Spawn add mobility and extra wounds to your biker Lord, and Heldrakes are always welcome.  Even the Raptor Talon, while maybe not fluffy, is a good formation nonetheless.

However, if you are not all that interested in taking 1000 points in Plague Marines, you can still make use of this formation with 3-5 units on the lower end of 500 points, and you have points available to give them Rhinos.  -1 to a units WS and I is still a pretty big deal, especially if that evens up the initiative or allows the Plague Marines to strike first and to hit on 3's.  It's probably smart to take only 3 units and keep them small and use them as a deterrent to getting close while having a bunch of heavy hitters near by.  Daemon Princes don't really benefit from this style as their WS and I is already higher than the enemies (in most cases), but with your models getting a hit to their I for being Death Guard, having a the ability to bring the enemy down to your speed makes up for that penalty.  Which is how I see this method being used, spreading out the few Plague Colony units amongst your army ready to move in and spread their noxious fumes.

NAILED IT!!

And there we have another Misfit review.  I think I might have to stop focusing on Chaos as they seem to be getting some serious love from GW and have begun pulling themselves out of the ditches and making a scene.

Chaos all day baby!

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.