Plague of Unfaith : Death Guard Insurgency Army

[mageboltrat]

OK I posted a while back that I was thinking of working on a Nurgle army list based on the Plague of Unfaith during the 13th Crusade.

AIM: To design a list based around some short stories and fluff. It is meant to be based on a planet that has fallen to the Plague of Unfaith, a lot of the population have either started worshipping Nurgle to save themselves from death or have turned into hordes of plague Zombies. Typhus has used the situation to take control of the planet.

Thoughts on formations:

Core: All the core should be traitors or Zombies with the Options of swapping their command stand for a Death Guard stand with Character and a additional 2 stands of Death Guard Bodyguard. I want the Death Guard to very much feel like support in this army. I'm also tempted to split traitor guard and mutants into separate formations, and maybe even cut down and swap some of their options. One other thing I think would seperate this army a bit is havings the option of Ponderous skimmers as transports and support, I'm thinking big bloated blimps and bulbous rotor transports.

Support formations: No Demon Engines, this is a insurgency list rather than a full scale assault from the eye of terror. I'm thinking Traitor tank formations, and Deathguard formations like Terminators and smaller infiltrating Death Guard Units. I'm also liking the idea of having an Objective replacement like the Eldar Warpgate that represents a rift, it would supplement summoning of units within 15cms and have a Nurgling Infestation which would work like the Grot Infestations from the OGBM army.

Anyone got any more ideas.

[Malakai]

One other thing I think would seperate this army a bit is havings the option of Ponderous skimmers as transports and support, I'm thinking big bloated blimps and bulbous rotor transports.

Are you thinking full on Daemon Engines like Blight Drones or just simply corrupted transports, but in the same vein as BDs?

BTW, nice narrative. reminds me of one of the early Horus Heresy novels.

[mageboltrat]

Are you thinking full on Daemon Engines like Blight Drones or just simply corrupted transports, but in the same vein as BDs?

BTW, nice narrative. reminds me of one of the early Horus Heresy novels.

Corrupted Transports, but a similar feel to the Blight drone but less fleshy, and bigger.

[Hena]

Some things. Would Nurgle Insurgency work better as it's about nurgle traitors than DG?

I like the command unit swap. I don't know about giving additional DG units. Think of LatD Aspiring Champ as it's rahter similar and a units worth of marines. I think same would work here. Though adding an upgrade for Death Guard units could allow this?

I would probably leave the Terminators out. I mean that they are the elite so would they really be in a traitor guard army?

The warp gate is interesting. How about allow DG formations to deploy from there as they come in to support the traitors on ground? I would probably allow some daemon things like the walkers (eg. desecrator and defiler) for this as well. So infantry and AV/LV walkers?

[mageboltrat]

Some things. Would Nurgle Insurgency work better as it's about nurgle traitors than DG?

I like the command unit swap. I don't know about giving additional DG units. Think of LatD Aspiring Champ as it's rahter similar and a units worth of marines. I think same would work here. Though adding an upgrade for Death Guard units could allow this?

I was going to make the entire thing a unit upgrade with an associated point cost.

I would probably leave the Terminators out. I mean that they are the elite so would they really be in a traitor guard army?

The idea here is that Terminators can Teleport in from of planet directly into battle. There is a wonderfull short story of a Death Guard Terminator teleporting directly into a trench line being attacked by traitor guard. I was going to leave out the options for Landraiders, They would have to be airlifted in which wouldn't fit what I'm aiming for. Also it's based around a campaign that Typhus was directly engaged in so he would have terminators under his command.

I was also tempted to have Typhus as an option for supreme commander, with the Destroyer Hive Special rule, which would bring in unliving units (with similar rules to Plague Zombies, but with expendable rule, to stop constant renewing of the formation.) when the formation he is attached to removes blast markers, to represent the dying and dead soldiers in the formation getting up to fight again.

The warp gate is interesting. How about allow DG formations to deploy from there as they come in to support the traitors on ground?

Definitely an idea. Not sure how well it would work, it would definitely be a gamble as you don't have Storm Serpents to back the gate up, so you would have to garrison it to make sure it doesn't get blocked.

I would probably allow some daemon things like the walkers (eg. desecrator and defiler) for this as well. So infantry and AV/LV walkers?

I think they would be more likely to have demonically infested versions of PDF tanks.

[Malakai]

Maybe you could make the Terminators a 0-1 choice on the condition that Typhus himself is taken as the commander?

[Chroma]

I was also tempted to have Typhus as an option for supreme commander, with the Destroyer Hive Special rule

I don't believe you should have a "named" Special Character in an actual army list; e.g., the Ork army list in the main rulebook is "Ghazkhull's" army list, but he, himself, is not in it.

Certainly stat Typhus up for use in friendly games or scenarios and include that in your document, but my strong feeling is that a list should be "generic" enough to be used to represent other variants of the same theme and not always be the army following Typhus around.

[Malakai]

I don't believe you should have a "named" Special Character in an actual army list; e.g., the Ork army list in the main rulebook is "Ghazkhull's" army list, but he, himself, is not in it.

It would certainly be a precedent for E:A to have a named character in an army, but I kinda miss the old days of having SCs in armies.

[Chroma]

It would certainly be a precedent for E:A to have a named character in an army, but I kinda miss the old days of having SCs in armies.

Well, there's nothing wrong with Special Characters in EPIC, but I don't think they have a strong place in actual army lists for generic scenario play.

They're great for special scenarios though!

[mageboltrat]

I don't believe you should have a "named" Special Character in an actual army list; e.g., the Ork army list in the main rulebook is "Ghazkhull's" army list, but he, himself, is not in it.

Certainly stat Typhus up for use in friendly games or scenarios and include that in your document, but my strong feeling is that a list should be "generic" enough to be used to represent other variants of the same theme and not always be the army following Typhus around.

I think the ability need to be limited and setting it to a single character is the best way to do this. Though I agree with you to a certain degree, I think it needs to be noted in the list that though the entry is Typhus that it could represent a variety of Generals from Necromantic Sorcerers, to a cauldron of the Dead like in Slaine, attached to a powerful Warlord's retinue.

[nealhunt]

Ratty: I did a similar uprising list led by Alpha Legion. I think it was a little bit more "chaos-y" than you're talking, but it was much along the same lines.

* Traitor covens w/ some AL upgrades as core
* AL formations, limited by number of traitor covens
* Traitor/Daemon/Daemon Engine support, limited by number of traitor covens (only the covens having enough "faith" to support daemons and daemon engines)
* Supreme commander is only available in the AL formations

You'll need to be very careful with plague zombies as core. Big Fearless formations are a problem. At the least, I would say limit them to 1 per coven as core but it would probably be better to have them also be support. If you are looking for zombie flavor, I'd say your best bet is to re-frame Mutants as a non-Fearless plague-driven zombie substitute. Replace the name and description but keep the unit stats.

Without the heavy hitter daemon engines, the army will almost be required to take lots of tanks for massed AT fire if it has any hope of fighting an army with big war engines, so you've got a built in limitation due to a "must have" support requirement.

Maybe something like...

Coven - per L&D, only Aspiring Champions as leaders
0-2 Traitor support per coven - tanks, arty, etc.
0-1 Elite support per coven - DG, Termies, Plague Zombies (the Fearless ones)

You might be able to move the Plague Zombies to the normal support due to the aforementioned need for armor support but if you do that I'd start with a 0-1 per coven restriction in place. You'll need to seriously trim the upgrades as allowed in L&D to keep the list manageable and then add in the DG upgrades.

I like the idea of the rift but you'll need to be careful about the implications and defining all the rules. Just the Nurgling infestation makes the Blitz the obvious choice. The summoning benefit would have to provide substantial incentives to placing it forward or no one will do it. Even then, since the opponent is placing those objectives, they will have a lot of influence over whether anything but the Blitz is feasible. As far as effects, you could make it function like a Pact and Focus for any formation with at least one unit within 15cm of the objective. That would allow anyone near it to summon daemons, but if they moved away the daemons would soon disappear, which I think fits it with respect to flavor.

I think the Rift will take lots of testing, as it will be brutally effective at allowing the Nurgle forces to hold that one objective. Defend the Flag may be markedly easier to achieve.

Daemonically possessed traitor vehicles is interesting. You could possibly do a simple upgrade to represent that - Invulnerable save, Leader, +25 points. Mechanically, it would be a single unit but that could be an abstraction for various minor daemonic presences scattered through the formation.

[Hena]

I think the ability need to be limited and setting it to a single character is the best way to do this. Though I agree with you to a certain degree, I think it needs to be noted in the list that though the entry is Typhus that it could represent a variety of Generals from Necromantic Sorcerers, to a cauldron of the Dead like in Slaine, attached to a powerful Warlord's retinue.

I though that the Typhus would not be there. I agree with Chroma that named special characters should not be there.

[Chroma]

I think it needs to be noted in the list that though the entry is Typhus that it could represent a variety of Generals from Necromantic Sorcerers, to a cauldron of the Dead like in Slaine, attached to a powerful Warlord's retinue.

I believe it should be the exact opposite approach; make it a generic "Necromantic Plague Sorcerer", or something, and mention that the unit can also be used to represent Typhus, or a Black Cauldron or whatever, if the player desires.

[mageboltrat]

I believe it should be the exact opposite approach; make it a generic "Necromantic Plague Sorcerer", or something, and mention that the unit can also be used to represent Typhus, or a Black Cauldron or whatever, if the player desires.

That sounds fine with me.