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Hi there,

I am currently painting up some Chaos Marines and was toying with the idea of fielding an entire Death Guard army rather than simply fielding a unit of plague marines within a larger army. I have a complete chaos army (having bought a couple of job lots off ebay), thing is strictly speaking, can Death Guard units field raptors, havocs, bikes etc etc? I have the models and would like to use them (plus from a gaming perspective they add a degree of tactical flexibility). As far as I am aware, there is nothing in the fluff that says you cant take them, after all you can give them Icons of Nurgle and the rest, but I wondered what you think of the situation. If you feel it isnt right to field them, what would you suggest I replace them with?

Thanks,

Yes you can, because the Death Guard don't exist in the new codex. There's only one kind of Chaos Marine now: the Chaos kind.

If you want the old Death Guard rules (which Gav Thorpe says you can't use) read the previous Chaos codex.

HEY! they are called 'Renegade Marines' Chesse

On Topic time IIRC Death Guard are primairly on foot as in the last, Codex only 2 units in Rhinos could be troops choices the rest where fast attack.
other units you could field for a more 'Death Guard' feel are, Typhus and Plauge Marines or Marines with mark of Nurgle

Hope that helps.

Bah!

Well, to be honest, this is what winds me up about GW (to quote Peter Griffin 'it really grinds my gears'). I have been out of the hobby/scene for a couple of years due to work commitments and now when I come back, I find some codices have been replaced/superceded 2 or 3 times.

For example, I now have 3 different CSM codices (which I am guessing to be 3rd, 4th and 5th ed) but there isnt anything overtly obvious on them to tell you which one belongs to which ruleset, beyond me going onto the GW site and comparing the front covers! Edit - and my Necron codex seems to be 4th edition one, so presumably that means it will be rewritten soon??

So going back to the original question, if according to the rules, CSM are all the same now, presumably I can make up a complete 'standard' CSM army (with havocs, raptors, bikes etc) and paint them all in the same colours as my Plague Marines? It may look a bit crap but I think I would prefer that to having a 'bitty' army made out of different units borrowed from different legions if you see what I mean - I prefer a unified paint scheme.

According to the old codex, Nurgle cant use raptors or bikes. Otherwise theyre fine.

However, you can do what you like now, but Chaos fast attack isnt the greatest so youre not missing much if you choose to follow the Nurgle fluff.

@ filbert
I have to say that yes,GW also "grinds my gears",particularly concerning the mess that is the CSM codex.
That bieng said,Cheese is right,there are no "Death Guard" in the current CSM codex,and as of now the closest you could get to a Death Guard army would be to go heavy on Plague Marines,take some rhinos,Land raiders,some predators or Oblits,throw in some Plaguebears (even though they are "generic" now ) for tar pitting and lead them all with either a "MON" DP or Typhus.
It's a bad time for Legion armies.

It's a bad time for Chaos armies, FITZZ - Legion or otherwise.

H.B.M.C. wrote:It's a bad time for Renegade Space Marine armies, FITZZ - Legion or otherwise.

Fixed that for you.

I've got a Death Guard army - they're tactically inflexible, but I still have fun with 'em! Sure, field bikers and Raptors if you want to - the fluff has changed so many times that nobody should complain too much!

Never let it be said I dont adhere to fluff!

On a more serious note, raptors and bikes just don't feel 'nurgly' enough to me so as much as I want to use them, I'm not going to.

However, having dug through my mini stocks last night, it seems I have enough odds and ends to field 2 x approx 2000 point chaos armies so I will make my DG one and, taking some inspiration from the P&M blogs, will attempt to make a Word Bearers force.

Actually, Bikes with the Icon of Nurgle are super hard (and expensive) - you can actually field meltas, and the toughness bonus stacks with the bike, giving you a T4(6)!