Take a look at the upcoming releases of Death Guard and World Eaters with our look into what’s next for Chaos.
Death Guard
The XIV Legion arrives in Codex form for 10th Edition in putrid style. The biggest shift for Death Guard is a move away from melee and towards a bit more of a shooty force. Importantly, they’ve also gotten tougher, which fits their theme quite nicely.
Nurgle’s Gift
Death Guard’s army ability is an Aura called Nurgle’s Gift. This rule is not only very much on theme, but pretty fun as well. Death Guard models have a Contagion Range, which starts at 3″ on turn 1, then becoming 6″ on turn 2, and 9″ on turn 3 and beyond. any enemy unit inside this Contagion Range becomes Afflicted. An Afflicted unit suffers -1 Toughness and an additional effect. These effects are chosen at the beginning of the game, ranging from -1 to Hit, -1 to Save, and -1 to OC, Move, and Leadership.
Detachments
There are six detachments in the Death Guard codex. Virulent Vectorium is a great default detachment, with units gaining sticky objectives and objectives emitting their own Contagion Range. Shamblerot Vectorium makes Pox Walkers battleline, and gives you a free unit of 10 on specific rounds. Mortarion’s Hammer is great for vehicles, and Death Lord’s Chosen buffs Terminators. Champions of Contagion is all about using characters to great effect.
Plague Marines
Plague Marines are the bread and butter of Death Guard. They do the plaguey work that needs doing, and in this codex, can set up some very cool combos. But if they didn’t bring it where it counts, in the stat sheets, they’d be rather pointless. Luckily, they’re quite good. They’re now Toughness 6, which means their march up the board is a bit more reliable. And, they can shoot, with their boltguns hitting on 3s with lethal hits. They’ve still got the usual Plague Marine tool kit, with Meltas, Plasmas, Launchers, and Plague Spewers to deal with any threat they find. But the key to Plague Marines is that when they shoot, the target can gain Afflicted. Yep, ranged Afflicted, which is great for setting up something like Plagueburst Crawler shelling.
Why You Should Play Them
Death Guard are one of my favorite factions. They’re a solid army, with some fun tricks and decent survivability. Death Guard are a midrange shooting army, with the ability to create havoc with specific units and some really fun combos between some of the key units. And, the weathering you get to paint on the models is very fun!
World Eaters
Fast and bloody. That’s how the World Eaters fight. They smash into their enemies with an intense bloodlust, and hack their way through anything in their way. But World Eaters are far from one dimensional melee machines in 10th edition.
Blessings of Khorne
World Eaters army ability is called Blessings of Khorne. At the start of each battle round, the World Eaters player rolls 8d6. The results of this roll can be “spent” to obtain a number of buffs. These include re-rolling charges, a 6″ consolidate, fight on death, and increasing the effectiveness of dealing damage. World Eaters get to “purchase” two of these every battle round, and these work for the whole army.
Detachments
There are five detachments in the World Eaters codex. Berzerker Warband is all about, you guessed it, running Berzerkers. Goretrack Onslaught is all about transports, and buffing units as the exit. Possessed Slaughterband buffs the Eightbound units, and Cult of Blood gives Jakhals bonuses and encourages the use of the Lord of Skulls. And, of course, the Khorne Daemonkin detachment is all about daemons.
Berzerkers
Berzerkers are baseline unit for World Eaters. They’re a bloody distillation of what this army is all about. As you can imagine for a melee-centric army, there’s not a lot of shooting to be had with these lads. They carry bolt pistols, but that’s not why you love them. It’s the chainblades. They’re decent weapons – 4 attacks hitting on 3s with AP -1. They’re also fast, with an 8″ move. And, their special rule is Blood Pact, which gives them a d6 + 2 move towards their attacker if any models was destroyed in shooting. And, this can be used to reach engagement range.
Why You Should Play Them
World Eaters aren’t just smash into things and melee. Their detachments and rules are far more aggressive and barbaric than the Emperor’s Children, but they’re far from one dimensional. However, if you’d like to smash into things and melee, you can for sure to do that. In fact, you’ll have a great time doing just that.
Blood or Poxes?
There’s a lot more for each of these armies in their respective codex books, as well as battleforce boxes, start collecting boxes, dice, and more. For all of your Death Guard and World Eaters preorder needs, check out our webstore by clicking the link below.