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Trying to bring my narrative list over to matched. My narrative list sits just over 2k and is exactly the same as below except with Deathshrouds (who aren't viable w/out T1 DS) instead of the third PBC and Blightbringer. This brings it to 2000pts on the nose.

I'm wondering whether or not it's worth trying to get Epedimius into the list. To do this I could move the DP to the DG detatchment and swap the Plaguecaster for Epedimius instead. My issue with this is that it's harder to get the Poxbringer near Mortarion than the DP for the Locus and Virulent Blessing. If I did this, I'd give the DP the Suppurating Plate instead of giving the Blightspawn the Helm.

Thoughts?



Spearhead Detachment (Death Guard)
HQ
Malignant Plaguecaster - (Miasma, Blades of Putrefaction) (110)

TROOPS
20 Plague Marines - 17 plague knives, 2 flails, champ w bolter/knife/fist (372)

ELITES
Biologus Putrifier (74)
Foul Blightspawn - (Arch-contaminator WLT) Fugaris' Helm (77)
Noxious Blightbringer (65)

HEAVY SUPPORT
PBC - Plaguespitters (140)
PBC - Plaguespitters (140)
PBC - Plaguespitters (140)

Super-Heavy Aux (DG)
LORDS OF WAR
Mortarion - (Miasma of Pestilence, Blades of Putrefaction, Curse of the Leper) (470)

Battalion (Nurgle CD)
HQ
Chaos DP - (Virulent Blessing) 2 talons, wings (180)
Poxbringer (Fleshy Abundance) (70)

TROOPS
3 Nurglings (54)
3 Nurglings (54)
3 Nurglings (54)

Edits: typos & formatting

A few big changes that I would make to this list:

1. I would not recommend running a 20 man plague marine squad. it makes them a big target that is an easy choice for assault cannons or high yield medium strength weaponry. This allows you opponent to easily direct their fire towards that squad and not worry about wasting any shots. Furthermore, I would not recommend you put any melee weapons on your marines, they are too slow without transport, most people would shoot them anyways, and plague knives are already above average for weapons. If you want to run 20 plague marines then run 2 squads of 7 and one of 6 fully kitted with blight launchers for about 400 points total. This forces your opponent to spread their fire, and with DG sustainability they will waste shots, while being offensively powerful and a pain your opponent must deal with. Plus you have extra hardy troops for back and midfield objectives

2. I would drop your Putrifier, and Blightspawn you simply do not have enough chaff (ie Cultists/Poxwalkers) to protect them long enough for them to get into range with their mediocre maneuverability (Even with advance) to use their abilities effectively. Your Blightbringer can add maneuverability but not to the range where your other units will be useful, but it is still good for moving range Plague marines around. I would instead run a plague surgeon to make your DG even more durable and even more of a problem to deal with. And every shot toward your plague marines that is less on mortarion.

3. I would also recommend you drop one plague drone in order to get another Demon prince to upgrade the spearhead to a battalion, this should leave you with about 18 pts which you could spend on your plague marines in the form of a champion with a plasma or meltagun.

4. IMHO epidermis is not a good unit because his buff takes forever to get going and you would get the best effects around turn 3-5 which is far too late and that is highly variable based on who you are facing thus with no consistency it is not a great unit. Plus mortarion provides all the buffs needed to DG with is Warlord trait, and auras. (Certainly your nurglings would not need the buff)

This all in all would leave you with a strong backfield with plague marines with Blightbringer for movement, plague surgeon for increased sustainability, nurglings and 2 casters. And a very strong end field assault group consisting of mortarion, 2 drones, and 2 Demon Princes.

With this you have a fun list that can hold its own against others pretty well. Good Luck

1 & 2. I think you might've missed the point of the marine blob and support. A large part of this list revolves around the ungodly amount of mortal wounds that unit can put out at close range. Between the biologus, the blightspawn's deaths death, and dropping blight bombardment on the PM blob, they're putting out 22D6 S4 shots causing mortal wounds on 6s (5s with VotLW). Yes if you get turn 2 this unit is vunerable to ACs and the like, but after that I'll be paying 1CP to give them cloud of flies each turn until they hit the enemy lines. Whilst expensive the unit is at 20 so that it can afford to take some casualties on turn 1, and in order to make the most of the stratagems and powers (eg. blight bombardment, VotLW, cloud of flies, blades of putrefaction) which would otherwise be less efficient with multiple smaller units. The unit is equipt for melee because it will be advancing every turn until it's within 6", after which every model will be throwing a grenade anyway and then they'll be in combat.

3. I agree a second DP would be nice and if I was going the battalion route this would definitely be the way to go. I could drop a crawler and either a couple of marines or the plaguecaster for a second one (the detachment would just be a vanguard instead). I'll have the think about that.

4. These are kind of my thoughts too - the really good effects only kicking in late(ish) game is what has be doubtful. The flip side is that everything except the marines would be benefiting from his buffs, not just the daemon detachment, and it would be all the daemon models doing the killing up until the plague marines reach the enemy lines so the kill tally may go up quicker than expected.

Thanks for the feedback! Any further comments more than welcome

Trust me I know that kind of attack would be absolutely devastating on paper enough to destroy any unit in the game, but it is just not feasible when applied to the tabletop. To prove my point lets run a small simulation.

If you go turn two there is no doubt that the squad would get hosed to nothing Twin assault cannons are too common (Razorbacks, storm ravens, etc) knights are very popular, and almost every army has something that can blast that squad to hell (eg: Dark reapers for Eldar, Tau fire squads, Any type of artillery from IG etc) so basically is it really a great strategy if it depends on you going first with that may drops? (Note 13 drops is too much to reliably get you first turn) Furthermore with only a LD of 8 you will not survive morale unless you use CP which might not even be worth it after the onslaught. Trust me I have personally killed blobs like these within the first turn with knights/stormravens/Dawnegle jetbikes/deathwatch Primaris marines/ Inceptors Etc.

Lets say that you get turn one and you advance your plague marine squad the maximum distance of 11 inches, that will not be enough to be in range for your combo attack (As I mentioned) the return fire from any decently built army will be significant and damning in which case we repeat the result of going turn 2. Even if you use cloud of flies that will not help because you again do not have enough chaff to block the return fire from killing everything else, or what would be most likely fast units would simply maneuver around what blockers you had and destroy them all the same. Your opponent could also indirectly charge them by charging another unit that is close and then consolidating into the 20 man unit locking them up and many squads such as storm boyz and other jet infantry can do this at a fraction of the points of that squad. Keep what little chaff you have too close and they will use strat 2 keep them too far apart and they will use strat 1. Even when you kill that squad they have already prevented you from shooting with your blob which is still a loss for you.

Mortarion and his squad being used as a "Distraction Carnifex" would not work and here is why. Mortarion and his posse have largely different toughness values compared to your marines. One is only truly vulnerable to medium strength fire, and the other to high strength fire. As a result you opponent will divide his shots by obviously diverting all medium fire to your marines and other fire to mortarion and his crew and thus the same result is achieved.

But lets say with even all that you make it with a full strength squad a weapon of 6 inches would not be able to target multiple squads especially any important ones if their is chaff, so then you nuke one squad/unit, how will you deal with the aftermath which can involve any of the outcomes stated above. This is also taking into consideration snipers which will ruin your whole combo, Large chaff blobs from tyranids, orks and IG, Multiple strategems such as orbital bombardment which ignores targeting, any type of flyer that can bomb or hit the cloud of flies target easily, and various psychic powers that could move units into position to perform a counter attack.

Another huge problem is that the 20 man squad is one entity that must stick close together to maintain unit coherency as a result unlike a strategy revolving around multiple attacks into the opponents army which forces them to dedicate units to different location making some flanks weaker than others, having one massive spike allows the opponent to focus their forces in one place allowing for a much more coordinated defense and attack.

Overall the strategy in my opinion looks awesome on paper but there is no real feasible way to complete it and make it profitable if by some chance it succeeds

I've had pretty good experiences running it in PL games. It relies heavily on hitting the enemy lines with decent numbers but I haven't had too much trouble with that or with protecting the unit once cloud of flies is up. This may well be largely due to the type of lists I've faced in PL games, and I can totally see the merits of a more well-rounded list.

If I were to ditch the Plague Marine blob I would likely ditch all the power-armoured units in favour of a DG DP (to round out the PBC Spearhead), Plaguebearers, and Epedimius - who I think would be worth it then with an all Daemon list. I could see if I could fit 3x cultists and a second HQ to round out a battalion. I'll see what I come up with


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Something along the lines of:

Spearhead Detachment (Death Guard)
HQ
Nurgle DP - (Revoltingly Resilient, Miasma/Blades of Putrefaction) wings, 2x talons, Suppurating Plate (180)

HEAVY SUPPORT
PBC - Plaguespitters (140)
PBC - Plaguespitters (140)
PBC - Plaguespitters (140)

Super-Heavy Aux (DG)
LORDS OF WAR
Mortarion - (Miasma of Pestilence, Blades of Putrefaction, Curse of the Leper) (470)

Battalion (Nurgle CD)
HQ
Chaos DP - (Virulent Blessing) 2 talons, wings (180)
Epedimius (100)
Spoilpox Scrivener (75)

TROOPS
3 Nurglings (54)
3 Nurglings (54)
30 Plague Bearers - icon, instrument (235)
29 Plague Bearers - icon, instrument (228)

Total (1996)

That's ~40 more (faster) bodies and an extra DP. This list should be much more capable of playing the mission. Thoughts?