Auspex put more work into this video than gw did making DG codex

Deathguard won a handful of tournaments at the start of 9th, and Gamesworkshop said, "Never again"

When it costs more than $100 US for a squad of 10 plague marines, "reduced point cost" doesn't make us feel better.

"death decay and despair" sums up the changes pretty well

This is NOT what we meant when we wanted the Death Guard to stink, GW!

As someone who is kinda new to 40k the fact that my DG army lost so many interesting rules from 9th to 10th it really puts me off on playing the game all together

Gw balance team” let’s give some armies a godly amount of mortal wound potential and re rolls but let’s give some armies absolutely nothing “

Dont want points cuts, want interesting faction rules

Yeah I'm shelving my DG this edition. May look at them again if something interesting comes up from their 10th edition codex release. At least I can now focus on my Khorne Daemons.

Something that peaked my interest: the Death Guard Rhino seems to be the only Chaos Rhino with a Firing Deck. Seems appropriate enough that the Death Guard family sedan would want to open up a window :D

Death guard literally look like the army you bring to the table if you want to give your mate a break and easy match to win.

WOOOOOOOO Death Guard i cant wait to walk slowly forward and lose LESSSSSSGOOOOOOOOO

I'm not sure how they thought death guard would stand a chance against armies like eldar. I'm new to the game and I can see that.

Looks like my death guard army is going to be ornamental for the next year.... Glad I spent all that money on it, cheers GW

The one thing that's got me annoyed as much as anything else is this: Why in Nurgle's unholy name are Blight Launchers not blast weapons? They're huge grenade launchers.

Going to be really fun to watch your DG army get tabled turn 1.

My Death Guard army had the largest points rise out of my 26 armies from 9th to 10th. Very odd

nurgle is not pleased

If all else fails, always remember: Papa Nurgle loves you

Space marines, Eldar, Tsons: Lots of invuls and support characters to buff protection for units or res dead models in their unit Deathguard: Crappy 2CP -1 damage in melee stratagem and some surgeon guy that can only be run in plague marines.

I've brought this up before but plague marine melee damage has been gutted. We lost our 6 attack d2 flails, we lost our d6 damage cleavers, we lost our d3 maces and we lost the pip of ap on our plague knives. Lethal hits on everything is nice I guess but it's not like we're kicking out enough attacks for it to really matter. Even when we do get lethal hits with a bolter it's ap0 so it's not like your going to be getting a huge amount of wounds through. We also lost assault on blight launchers so no more advance and shoot at all.

Anyone else notice the "Heavy" Plague Fist is worse than the regular one, weird.

Doing a full codex reset, and then having such a wide range of quality on the indexes is a real problem and disappointment. It feels like they started with Admech and DG with a real commitment to dialing back power creep but lost their nerve and just started moving up the dial as the development cycle moved forward. I remember GW saying, at one point, that they were cutting out damage reduction abilities because they were “a feel bad”. But now it seems like everyone got more damage reduction and feel no pain except the DG.

Slannesh IS pain. Their whole thing is running into battle getting chopped to pieces and loving it. Ridiculous that a mountain of cancer cells is less resilient than an emo sex addict

This entire index is a slap in the face. Mephitics are tank hunters but can't wound a russ on better than 4+, no DR at all, anti-synergies from the detachment rule down to the unit cards. DG are nigh-unplayable.

A joke of an index. Where DG first lost their FNPs because “balance”, now lost their -1D, because “balance”, kept their trash contagion rules, gained nothing else in return, even lost their Inorexable Advance rule, other armies are getting all of these rules where it seems pushed. It’s like GW stole the abilities and gave them to everyone else and told DG to piss off. On the sprues they stay for me. Thank the gods I didn’t keep AdMech after their balance changes

GW REALLY shat the bed with the DG index....

Went to play my first game with my DG after finally getting them at least assembled, and my friend openly told me he brought a backup army for me to play instead… it’s not the best feeling to have someone step in because they aren’t sure you’d have fun getting the short stick in rules changes. :/ Just going to pivot into chaos knights or ‘nids I guess and hope someone wants to army swap

I weep for my faction more than a plague marines bum.

Its basically unanimous that DG and Admech are by far the worst Index of them all closely followed bei Votann. Its not just pessimism, its outright resignition. This is like getting onions for christmas.

Why do DG have worse versions of some of the CSM stratagems? CSM get Stealth AND can't be shot from far away for a Nurgle unit at 1CP, while DG just get Stealth. CSM can regen 3 wounds (and one dead model if Tzeench) for 1CP, while DG get D3 wounds or 3 wounds on an objective at the same cost. Huh? Some rules writer must have had their hot and fun girlfriend stolen by a DG player.

I have played 4 games as deathguard every game was pretty un-winable

So what you're saying is my DG army is gonna collect dust on the shelf?

Thoughts on Fortifications apparently being able to charge? The rules only state that Aircraft cannot charge...

The Death Guard has no need for point adjustments, they need RULES adjustments. Even if made cheaper they'll still be bad as right now they're expensive and bad.

The current edition of Death FRAUDS have no meaningful built in DR or FNP, whereas the World Eaters of all factions can use their faction rule (and have an overwhelmingly likely chance of rolling 2 doubles out of 8 dice) to use the wrathful devotion rule to get a 6+ FNP that stacks with any models built in FNP. Or they can get a 2" move, which is massive given our FRAUDLORD terminators only have a 4" movement, meaning they get outlapped by the space marine gravis captain (6" move) despite having the same toughness. Even worse, our FRAUDSHROUDS can only be paid for in units of 3 or 6, so if you want 5 and a lord or typhus in a land raider prepare to pay for an extra scythe you don't even get to use, unless you want to run the weaker and more expensive FRAUDINATORS in a unit of 3 for some reason given the nerfed melee and shooting rules we have now. We don't even get obliterators or the volkite contemptor anymore, we're not tough, our plague FRAUDRINES lost their good melee plague weapons, and we can't move for shit unless we take the vehicle tax and have to pay more unit taxes for models we can't even take. Thanks for the shit ass rules GW, I'm going to take my FRAUD guard and put them in a box in my closet where they belong until 11th I guess. I'll have to play a real chaos army with proper melee and FNPs like World Eaters, or maybe I can run like 90% of the same vehicle+knights+demon engine list that would only give me a 40% winrate in DG and play CSM where I can actually have shooting, proper killy terminators that can move, possessed, and real units of marines (chosen) that can shoot and melee and aren't sold in boxes of 7. This is truly a Mickey Mouse Army.

-1 toughness is such a pitiful ability for the most vile corrupting force chaos has to offer in the galaxy.

I am so sorry to my fellow chaos players! I thought GW hated Slaanesh for a while. Looks like they shifted gears. 😄😔. Slaanesh is the resilient one, and Nurgle is... well... yeah. Maybe this is some Tzeenchian plot to lure the Astardes into a false sense of security.

Would love if they made them the custodes of chaos with high durability not really feeling the current playstyle

The difficulty with deciding strengths in 10th is the likelihood that a decent detachment rule (say -1 dmg) with good unique toughness strats could make a massive difference to the faction.

They’re supposed to smell like trash not be trash

Flails of corruption have been nerfed super hard in 9th and 10th. What's even the point lol. Dark angels kept their maces which where literally the exact same weapon profile as the flail in 8th edition, but they took away the wound spill over from DG but not DA. That single change always urked me. Such a small change but showcases alot when it comes to who tf is balancing the game... and now flails are basically power weapons.

DG definitely got the short end of the stick in 10th. They should have at least made it -3 Toughness to vehicles and monsters.

Whoever wrote the death guard codex really leaned into the Nurgal's garden got set on fire aesthetic.

Quick note on the DG Sorcerer in Terminator Armor, the Pestilent Familiar rule reads as any psychic weapon, not just melee. So potentially you could beef up his ranged attack to be a 24" 2D6 3+ S8 AP -2 D3. A bit riskier than the force weapon, but I feel that it's use case could be more versatile since you could target a character or especially tough unit without having to engage with them in melee.

DG is by far the weakest army atm. they are supposed to be tough but that is not the case any more, and as mentioned the -1 T just don't cut it, and it's in almost melee range, and that for a very slow army, faster armies can just stay away and shoot them down :(

This army needs -1 to wound on 50%+ of its units or a straight 10-15% points cut off of everything lol.

Trying to soften the blow with "might get a point cost reduction" is akin to video game journalists excusing terrible AAA games with "still in development"😂 As some point, points cost reduction won't fix anything, and seems more like an excuse for bad design.

I genuinely believe they made the new index underwhelming to make death guard players buy dark angels or other armies

They missed the mark compleatly IMO. They went from a though lore heavy army, to a somewhat bad de-buff army. Overall just boring to the extreme.

So wanted death guard as my first army this puts me off sadly. I hope the faction is playable.

Maybe adding additional debuffs like -2", -1 to hit or -1 to Svs would make Nurgle's Gift much more potent

I don’t even play death guard and I can say that maybe Nurgle’s gifts are kind of a let down this time.

Thank you for your dedication and hard work!!!

I just realised... has the plague marine that has the sigil become an icon holder? Thats such a bad change if thats the case, i dont even have a full squad anymore if he doesnt count.

I wonder what (and if) GW will do to help DG. I doubt they would give all the units -1 damage, but maybe they'll give all the units without it feel no pain 6+? (and increase the daemon prince aura to a 5+)

Amazing, just when I painted my first Death Guard army 😩

I like how the csm one is always 3 flat but deathguard only gets that if your in contagion lol wtf who even wrote this

Whelp time to run "Cult Marines" in my Nurgle only "Chaos Space Marines" detachment

We all need to play and lose with DG at tournaments so the embarrassing win percentage slaps the designers I’m the face

My condolences from a necron player to all you deathguard legends. This is so sad what the hell

So I've never played but have been building a deathguard army since November along with a space marine army. I see things that are bad but also seeing things that are good in a way. One thing I don't understand getting rid of disgusting resilience. Like the deathguard are know for not stopping and just walking through. Hopefully they change that or give more price cuts so we can take more.

Well, I was still optimistic after the rule release hoping for cheap points, but the index is just bad through and through. When you compare DG with Necrons, another slow and resilient army, it becomes obvious how lackluster the DG index is. Not only units are weak, but there is little synergies to play with. I had a lot of fun theorycrafting my TS army list despite the fact that TS have very few models to pick from, but for DG it was basically: just take all stronger 'must have' units (Lov, PBC, Mortarion, Deathshrouds) and then take a few cultist units to tag objectives early-ish and that's it. No internal balance in the index, weak units, boring rules, no fun :(

"We've made the game less lethal" *makes the game more lethal than ever* *removes all the abilities that make the tough faction tough*

DG Players - what did you do to deserve such a weak and flavorless index?

Dude you produce so fast at such a high level, its really nuts. well done Auspex!

The Icon Bearer’s once per game ability might have some use that has been missed. It can allow some characters to get their special abilities to be used much earlier in the battle than you might otherwise be able to. (See DG Chaos Lord MW aura and the Noxious Blightbringer’s Toll.)

Good job as always man!

Deathguard must have gave someone at GW PTSD :D

One (positive!) thing worth noting - Boilblight is a lot less situational than a lot of people realize, as the strat itself is worded a little sneakily. It TARGETS one of your units for the contagion range, but it buffs your ENTIRE army, not just your targeted unit. In other words, if you foot slog some chaff into contagion range to an enemy unit and pop Boilblight, all of your (presumably stationary) Plagueburst Crawlers can fire their indirect mortars normally - as [Heavy] and [Ignores Cover] will cancel out indirect fire's penalty. Seems pretty good for focusing something before a charge!

One thing I noticed from my game on Monday was the massive increase in the models you can take in 10th. In 9th, I comfortably had somewhere close to 3000 points. Now my total collection is just over 2200. Basically need more models now!

My poor Death Guard

Death Guard and AdMech seriously need real buffs, and quick. Just add a FNP5+ to DG and everything's fine.

Decided before any rules were released that I was starting a Death Guard army for 10th. Still going for it

Weird that DG cultists merge the range and melee profiles, but the CSM ones have separate loadouts. I think it's a good chance because it doesn't matter which box you pick up (squad numbers aside) but weird it's just for DG.

Boilblight benefits all units in your army against that one enemy unit selected

I considered the plague surgeon plus putrifier for a plasmagun kitted squad to replenish losses from hazardous, letting them fire on hazardous constantly. For a squad of 10, that's 3 plasmaguns and 2 blight launchers with all the bolters firing enhanced lethal hits and slowly moving up the board. It's not much, but if you draw fire away with scary melee threats, the surgeon won't get overtaxed.

Boilblight only needs the one unit in range to use it. But it effects the army shooting at that target not just the one unit you needed in range.

@auspex tactics I've been trying to crack this nut w the demon prince wo wings FNP 6+ bc I feel a lot of ppl overlook it but your video just pieced it together. Plague Marines w plague surgeon leading with demon prince behind. Prince gives the FNP enemy focuses on prince but surgeon gives wounds back to character(which is Prince) could be a nice combo cycle

Been waiting for this, but have to go to sleep. Will be back later

Seems like they're leaning into faster unit carriers to take control of the board. With vehicles harder to kill in 10th it seems, and sticky objectives, the goal is most stuff piles in vehicles at the start and hope they don't get gunned down, rushes towards objectives, gets the sticky objectives and hangs out on them as they start to win by attrition on objectives.

you got boilblight wrong, its for all army attacks, so if you have mortars you can hit on 2 while shooting something in contagion range of one other of your units

I have heavily converted possessed and the Gellerpox in my collection. I'm wondering if it makes sense to use them as a nurgle themed CSM list instead, but then bloatdrones and haullers don't really have an equivalent to proxy them as.

icon bearer makes 12 inch contagion range for blightbringer -2 leadership test aura good?

Would be great if you would put a army list for 10th edition for the main factions like before. It super useful to have some examples of solid build armies for the 10th edition. Thumbs up!

Boilblight requires a model within contagion range and then gives your entire army the buff not just the model who triggers it

Looks to me like Boilblight gives your whole army [heavy] and [ignores cover] against a single unit, you just need one of your units in contagion range to trigger it.

Btw the helbrute puts a units, no specification. So make a plague marine unit that has multiple contagions and apply them to the shot target.

With the Pestilent Familiar, does it only work in the fight phase? It just says Psychic Weapon, isnt Curse of the Leper a Psychic Weapon? Giving you a one time S8 ap2 D3 use of it?

I believe the s and damage buff works on ranged attack as well for the sorc

Points cuts won't help the move 4" and lack of defense against Mortals! I'm thinking squads of 5 Plague Marines with Blightspawn + utility model, like 1 with Tallyman 1 with Putrifier? maybe a third if I pick up a Plaguecaster? 7 dude units, as Nurgle would prefer. Full melee loadouts striking first. Either that or a blob of 10 + Surgeon and Blightspawn with 2 Blight Launchers and melees.

there is despair alright...

With DG as my main army I am DISGUSTINGLY disappointed with how GW handled their rules.... BUT 1 "interesting" thing I realized is they didn't put the "to a maximum of 12" on their contagion range, So in battle round 3, with Mortarion and the Living plague enhancement on the Daemon prince you can have a 15" aura of 6+ FNP... Which is pretty cool. Still not gonna make DG not complete trash but fancy none the less 😅😂

This got loads better with the recent update

We can only attach one secondary leader to a unit, right? So we cant have a noxious Blightbringer, tallyman, foulblightspawn, plague surgeon, icon bearer, and malignant Plaguecaster all on one unit, right?

Now I know were disappointed brothers but think of it this way, some ranged Plague marines camping on objectives with some plague surgeons attached means we have multiple ways of healing/regenerating and debilitating the enemy!

we once were a slow army that hits hard in melee and is tanky now we are just slow. when ive read the index i thought about selling off my 10k points, wont do it since i love the models ill just keep painting them and play my 3 loyalist chapters as whatever is strongest regardless of paint scheme. :) man it feels good.. i feel like the only thing they have to do to make death guard go from shit to okay is to give them back the -1 dmg and then they are fine, id really like to do some test games with and without the -1 dmg once my exams are done.

Please do AdMech soon. They are in dire need of reminding that 36 Kataphron list is legal!

I feel like a simple fix that would massively buff the DG would be: "any plague weapons firing at a target with the - 1 toughness gives a critical hit on a 5 or a 6." Would pretty much reverse their performance and add synergy instead of the anti-synergy they currently have. Idk how OP it would be based on the maths. Would love someone to calculate and compare to other factions.

It's almost like GW fired all their play-testers or something.