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Warhammer 40k Death Guard Models – First of all, being November 1st, today is my birthday! What better way to celebrate than with a showcase post for you lovely people of my latest completed designs. After the jump you can see more angles of these Deathguards, as well as group shots of all the models from the first six issues of Conquest.
It’s no secret that I love Warhammer 40,000 Conquest. I haven’t been this productive painting models in years. So far, so good. I keep up with releases and finish the designs I have before the next set of four issues arrives (subscribers get a monthly delivery of four issues). They have a photo tutorial that you can view here for a complete walkthrough of how to paint them.
Warhammer 40k Death Guard Models
As I mentioned, today is my birthday. I’m 37 years old and still painting models! I don’t think 12-year-old Garfy would have believed that back in 1993 when he started. Here’s to the next 25 years in the hobby.
Warhammer 40.000 Death Guard Plaguereaper
The backs aren’t terribly exciting, I’m afraid. Maybe someone likes the back pictures? Maybe it helps to see the back if you follow my tutorials and can see all the details.
Check back very soon as I share my progress with the Primaris Lieutenant and don’t forget that Garfy’s Get a Grips is available to order with same day dispatch here for non-UK buyers.
Garfy is a hobbyist from the UK with over twenty years of experience. He is a regular contributor to White Dwarf magazine, including 4 Armies of the Month articles, and has written articles for the Warhammer Community website. He holds 3 UK Golden Demon Finalist Pins and 2 Armies on Parade Gold Awards. His other passion is photography and cinematography, which he uses to great effect to provide high-quality blog content. Of all the Chaos armies of Warhammer 40k, the Death Guard are the dirtiest. Cursed by an ancient pact with the plague god Nurgle, each of them is invulnerable to supernatural diseases and insane mutations.
Warhammer 40k’s Death Guard army has a diverse roster of Chaos Space Marine Rebel warriors, offering a diverse (if puking) array of mass possibilities. Read on for our guide to Death Guard lore, tactics and rules – and how you can immerse yourself in the filth.
Death Guard Painting Guide By Chaotea On Deviantart
The Death Guard are walking vectors of every infection imaginable, so sick they shouldn’t be able to live, let alone wage a war in the name of their hideous patron – yet they fight. In fact, paradoxically, their ailments give them strength, making them more resilient to even Primaris Space Marines. And far from resenting their plague-bearing plight, they revel in the disease and delight in spreading their patron’s fecund gifts to an unwilling galaxy.
Shattered, once-human Poxwalkers crowd before the main force, mouths twisted into rictus grins, their bodies warped by strange mutations. Behind them, rumbling vehicles grind through the rotting ground. Some of them are ancient Predator and Land Raider tanks, now corroded and marred by fleshy growths, relics of a war they’ve been waging for 10,000 years.
Others, such as the snail-like Plagueburst Crawlers and the whirlwind, three-way Myphitic Blighthaulers, are so-called “demon engines”—the souls of malevolent warp beings chained to a physical machine.
And amid this cavalcade of madness, the chaos of the space marines of the Death Guard march forward, bodies full of plague, impervious to the weak weapons hurled against them by the terrified defenders.
Grab The Death Guard Codex & New Warhammer 40k Miniatures
The Death Guard is the rust encrusted gauntlet of the plague god Nurgle. If you want an army that laughs in the face of enemy fire and spreads corruption as easily as death, look no further.
This article explains the main information in the Warhammer 40k 10th edition Death Guard rules that you will need to keep in mind when planning your army.
To win with Death Guard, you need to bring your considerable short-range power to bear effectively. You must eliminate threats that can push your resistance, intelligently claim objectives to mitigate your own lack of maneuverability, and carefully position your forces to mitigate the superior long-range firepower of your enemies.
Not all Death Guard units are slow, but none are really fast. Myphitic Blighthaulers and Foetid Bloat Drones have 10” of movement, which is just as good.
Mengel Miniatures: Painting: Death Guard Dreadnought
Plague Marines have a plethora of powerful short-range weapons and deadly plague weapons, but lack any means of charging after advancing and rely on the humble Rhino or magnet-bullet Land Raider for transport.
This is central to the Death Guard’s identity, and you’ll have to embrace it. You don’t have the maneuverability to chase down agile enemies, so you have to find ways to bring them into battle on your terms, teleporting Terminators into position to restrict enemy lines of retreat or projecting an overwhelming force on an objective. When you bring it all down on the enemy, the results can be devastating.
In 8th and 9th edition 40k, the Death Guard had an ability called Resist Disgust which gave them extra survivability. Not the case in 10th edition.
As befits the descendants of Grandfather Nurgle, the burly bodies of the Death Guard are incredibly difficult to destroy. Their standard plague marines have 5 toughness and two wounds, as tough as an ork and as tough as a Space Marine.
Death Guard Model Previews Caught In The Wild
The Death Guard’s famous Blightlord Terminators are even harder to move: with a 4+ invulnerable save, three wounds each, and Toughness Six. Deathshroud Terminators, Mortarion’s prized bodyguard that now serve in many Death Shroud warbands as silent observers, have the “Silent Bodyguard” ability; when an attack hits their unit while being led by a character, if the attack’s Strength is greater than their Toughness, the attacker suffers -1 to Wound.
Death Guard also brings other defensive skills to the field. Daemon engines like Myphitic Blight-Hauler and Foetid Bloat-Drone have a 5+ invulnerable save. The Cloud of Flies stratagem is a powerful defensive buff: for 1CP it gives one of your units the basic Stealth ability during your opponents shooting phase, inflicting a -1 penalty to hit.
The Plague Surgeon, though in the narrative more concerned with treating new strains of disease than curing anyone, can return a destroyed bodyguard model to the unit he joined during the command phase with his tainted Narthecium. He can also join a unit with another character, and Cure Disease allows him to return up to three lost wounds to a wounded character within 3″.
Although they often have to go through barrages of enemy fire, the Death Guard have the strength to survive and close to kill range with the enemy.
Blightlord Terminator. What Death Guard Model Should I Paint Next?
Each Death Guard model projects an aura of contagion around them. This starts 3″ wide on the first combat round and grows by 3″ each combat round, capping at 9″. Enemies within the contagion range suffer from Nurgle’s Gift, suffering a -1 penalty to their toughness.
As you’d expect from the favored servants of the Plague God, Mortarion’s sons are absolutely plagued by the disease. They augment their conventional offensive potential with deadly viruses, radioactive toxins, or other chemical reagents.
Plague Marines, the fetid backbone of the Death Guard, are armed with Plague Pistols and Plague Knives as standard and can trade them for Bubotic Weapons. This unhealthy shell is represented in the game by the Lethal Strikes weapon ability, which turns critical hits – normally natural rolls of six – into automatic wounds.
Many Death Guard are equipped with weapons that spray deadly toxins, such as the Plague Sprayer or Plague Belcher. All of these have the Torrent, Ignore Cover, and Anti-Infantry 2+ abilities, making them lethal infantry removal tools.
Warhammer 40k, Death Guard, Nurgle, Plague Marine, #tz27
Death Guard packs a heavy punch at medium to close range. Foul Blightspawn’s Plague Sprayer is particularly noteworthy: it’s a terrifyingly powerful flamethrower of demonic pus, with D6 Strength 7, AP -2, Damage 2 attacks that auto-hit and wounds infantry on a 2+. Mortarion’s silent bodyguards, the Deathshroud Terminators, carry smaller versions called Plaguespurt gauntlets alongside their vicious Manreaper scythes.
Since their first incarnation in The Lost and Damned, the Death Guard have carried Blight Grenades – tiny heads filled with God’s foulest gifts.
All Plague Marines in power armor have the Grenade keyword, giving them access to the basic Stratagem of the same name. Biologus Putrifier is absolutely attached to Exotic and Esoteric Explosives and can use Stratagema Grenade for free once per turn.
To free up your elite infantry to close in on the enemy, use cheap troops (like Poxwalkers and Cultists) and ranged vehicles (like Plagueburst Crawlers and Predators) that can sit on objectives and lend their fire everywhere.
Custom Death Guard Models
The Death Guard Combat Patrol box contains a wave of 30 poxwalkers, seven plague sailors, a Biologus Putrifier and the dreaded Typhus. This is a solid start to any force: Typhus is a terrifying Warlord that combines psychic power, combat prowess, and an advantage to Poxwalkers in one filthy package.
Although Typhus can join a unit of Poxwalkers, you might want to put him in a unit of Terminators to benefit from Deep Strike.
