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Hi folks! I'm going to expand on my Deathguard army, which really isn't enough to be called an army at this point! But anyway, I'm grabbing Typhus this weekend, and I'm looking at the Mantic plague zombies for my....plague zombies. Seems like a better deal than mixing GW zombies and Imperial guard to get them. But....how many should I start with? I've read that Typhus isn't that viable until you get into higher point lists, but this is a purely fluff/fun list, so...I might try it at lower points. Now, I will have plague marines with rhinos in the list, as well as demon allies eventually. I was going to order two sets, so that would be 40....is that too few?

When I think of fun, fluffy Typhus lists, I think massive zombie blobs. That means at least one full 35-zombie unit. I think 40 should be enough unless you want a second blob for added kicks

Two units of ~30 should be a good start. You can use them for your minimum troops for a CAD if nothing else. They make good backfield scoring units and occasional tarpits and road blocks.

Also Necrosius from Apoc 2013 by forgeworld also allows plague zombies to be taken. He is much cheaper and buffs the zombies with furious charge so arguably a better choice for most "Zombie Apocolypse" style armies or low point level zombie armies.

Additionally, the Renegades and Heretics army list from Imperial Armour 13 can take a large zombie unit which is very cool. These are probably my favorite 40K zombies as when they destroy an enemy units (or cause it to flee) they generate 1d3 additional zombies.They also get FnP 4+ which feels more shoot them and they get back up.

Some important things to understand about zombie units is that they are so slow that most armies can kill enough models from each unit to undo nearly all of your movement. Additionally after about 150 models your deployment zone starts getting packed and you may have to space them closer together. This means thunder fire cannons and wyverns will chew through ~200 model zombie armies like you cannot believe.

Beyond the first 30-60 zombies you have to ask yourself what you expect/want from this army. I use a zombie Apoc type list to good effect occasionally but the key thing is that all of your killing and forward scoring has to be accomplished by other units. The zombies will only ever provide good board control and scoring in your half of the board. You can never count on them making it into your opponent's deployment zone unless and until you have already done so with your faster, more durable, and more damaging assets. This is why my "Z-Day" lists always start with the most damage dealing units I can get and then add 5-6 units of 20-30 zombies. Units that you should consider to make a Z-Day work from best to worst (IMO);
*Fire Raptor(s); incredible flyer. With the autocannons this thing is a real gunship
*Sicaran; this is your answer to fast skimmers which make a mockery of your zombie units. Try to charge your zombie wave forward against a serpent or venom spam list and you will learn futility, try it with one or two of these and you will never leave home without them.
*Rapier Batteries; tough and very effective long range support
*Hellblade(s); for AA duties. Not needed if you take fire raptors
*Dreadclaw w/ CSM + Kharne
*Last Memory Terminator Sorcerer w/ Nurgle Oblits
*Dreadclaw w/ Chosen w/ meltaguns
*Heldrake w/ baleflamer
*Be'Lakor; shrouding and invisibility can really help the zombie survive but against Tau and Serpent spam the game spins out or control too fast to make use of him and his points would be better spent on some of the above units.

Hopefully that helps as I love my Zed. (yes I did use about half a dozen different zombie media references in this)

 ansacs wrote:
Two units of ~30 should be a good start. You can use them for your minimum troops for a CAD if nothing else. They make good backfield scoring units and occasional tarpits and road blocks.

Also Necrosius from Apoc 2013 by forgeworld also allows plague zombies to be taken. He is much cheaper and buffs the zombies with furious charge so arguably a better choice for most "Zombie Apocolypse" style armies or low point level zombie armies.

Additionally, the Renegades and Heretics army list from Imperial Armour 13 can take a large zombie unit which is very cool. These are probably my favorite 40K zombies as when they destroy an enemy units (or cause it to flee) they generate 1d3 additional zombies.They also get FnP 4+ which feels more shoot them and they get back up.

Some important things to understand about zombie units is that they are so slow that most armies can kill enough models from each unit to undo nearly all of your movement. Additionally after about 150 models your deployment zone starts getting packed and you may have to space them closer together. This means thunder fire cannons and wyverns will chew through ~200 model zombie armies like you cannot believe.

Beyond the first 30-60 zombies you have to ask yourself what you expect/want from this army. I use a zombie Apoc type list to good effect occasionally but the key thing is that all of your killing and forward scoring has to be accomplished by other units. The zombies will only ever provide good board control and scoring in your half of the board. You can never count on them making it into your opponent's deployment zone unless and until you have already done so with your faster, more durable, and more damaging assets. This is why my "Z-Day" lists always start with the most damage dealing units I can get and then add 5-6 units of 20-30 zombies. Units that you should consider to make a Z-Day work from best to worst (IMO);
*Fire Raptor(s); incredible flyer. With the autocannons this thing is a real gunship
*Sicaran; this is your answer to fast skimmers which make a mockery of your zombie units. Try to charge your zombie wave forward against a serpent or venom spam list and you will learn futility, try it with one or two of these and you will never leave home without them.
*Rapier Batteries; tough and very effective long range support
*Hellblade(s); for AA duties. Not needed if you take fire raptors
*Dreadclaw w/ CSM + Kharne
*Last Memory Terminator Sorcerer w/ Nurgle Oblits
*Dreadclaw w/ Chosen w/ meltaguns
*Heldrake w/ baleflamer
*Be'Lakor; shrouding and invisibility can really help the zombie survive but against Tau and Serpent spam the game spins out or control too fast to make use of him and his points would be better spent on some of the above units.

Hopefully that helps as I love my Zed. (yes I did use about half a dozen different zombie media references in this)

YES. Listen to this man, his word is the word of GOD.
Just kidding ansacs, don't be offended
Your advice is absolutely perfect, and will actually let him win a few games, which is always nice.
However, as I'm assuming he meant to play a fluffy list, I doubt he could really accept most of those...

Anyway, In a zombie horde list, I'd play from 60 to 120 zombies (depending on points levels), and associate them with the sort of über-killy units that ansacs mentioned. Furthermore, you've gotta remember that zombies are fluff-wise just useless fodder, that are brought into combat by their master to backup another force. However, you've gotta decide if you're more obsessed with Typhus or zombies in general?

If you prefer the zombies, forget the CSM codex entirely, and use the Renegades and Heretics list with it's FnP 4+ zombies, and back them up with the list's excellent heavy support choices (MOAR PIEPLATES!), and a few outflanking units and stuff to grap some objectives at the end of the game (or find some way to infiltrate zombie hordes, that's always fun (Ahriman ally much? He'll let you take those Sicarans, fire raptors or Rapier batteries that make CSM so awesome)).

If you prefer Typhus, keep your Codex but focus on the one or two "mini-deathstars" (big and killy units) seconded by Zombies that slowly march up the field.
Try hiding shooty HQs like Ahriman in huge blobs of zombies, or putting small squads of zombies and Kharn in a Land Raider (although this breaks the fluff in lists outside of "black crusade" lists with black legion painted units).

 Talon of Anathrax wrote:
YES. Listen to this man, his word is the word of GOD.
Just kidding ansacs, don't be offended

lol, yes my child. Feel free to worship me.

 Talon of Anathrax wrote:
Your advice is absolutely perfect, and will actually let him win a few games, which is always nice.
However, as I'm assuming he meant to play a fluffy list, I doubt he could really accept most of those...

My advice was meant as scalable. So if you want to have a reasonably balanced list that people don't get angry playing against (try playing a 200 zombie list with no killing power and watch the opponent get very very bored). So for a fluffy list he can take 1-2 of those options and vary it a bit (ie Arhiman like you suggest works great DS in as well with a Termi or Oblit unit). If he wants to get more wins he can scale it up. Admittadly I only included a smaller selection of the options. Abadon used right is super effective (harder to use right though). Also daemon allies can be a huge boon to this list and IMO very fluffy.

 Talon of Anathrax wrote:
Anyway, In a zombie horde list, I'd play from 60 to 120 zombies (depending on points levels), and associate them with the sort of über-killy units that ansacs mentioned. Furthermore, you've gotta remember that zombies are fluff-wise just useless fodder, that are brought into combat by their master to backup another force. However, you've gotta decide if you're more obsessed with Typhus or zombies in general?

If you prefer the zombies, forget the CSM codex entirely, and use the Renegades and Heretics list with it's FnP 4+ zombies, and back them up with the list's excellent heavy support choices (MOAR PIEPLATES!), and a few outflanking units and stuff to grap some objectives at the end of the game (or find some way to infiltrate zombie hordes, that's always fun (Ahriman ally much? He'll let you take those Sicarans, fire raptors or Rapier batteries that make CSM so awesome)).

If you prefer Typhus, keep your Codex but focus on the one or two "mini-deathstars" (big and killy units) seconded by Zombies that slowly march up the field.
Try hiding shooty HQs like Ahriman in huge blobs of zombies, or putting small squads of zombies and Kharn in a Land Raider (although this breaks the fluff in lists outside of "black crusade" lists with black legion painted units).

This is another good point. There are many flavors of "zombie" lists with the focus being very different. What part you want to focus on will change the list significantly. Just try to avoid getting too attached to the idea of zombies taking on and killing the opponent. Zombies are always going to be disposable pawns not death dealers.

It is also very fluffy to ally CSM, CD, and Renegades and Heretics as you essentially never see them working without the others. Heck CSM invasion 101 is essentially get the local renegades and heretics to rebel and distract the local Planetary Defense Force and Imperial Guard while the CSM hit important targets and establish a breach into the warp to get Chaos Daemons involved. I avoided listing these options as my list would have been ridiculously long and complicated.