deathguard is bit lackluster this days if you don't align planets.
i can give you few advises since i am a deathguard player myself.
by nature deathguard already lack t1 presence and if you play full melee it's even worst.
You are supposed to be tanky but the meta is so lethal that if you opponent want something dead distinguishly resistant /5++/t5-t7 won't be enought.
you deseperatly need to apply pressure from the start to mitigate early losses and force conservative placements if you want to have a chance to play the objectives.
"Melee centric" doesn't means" full melee".
thyphus + 90 pox would be solid if it wasn't so easy to focus thyphus to neuter your list.
if fact to ruin this list:
-focus down drones with
av t1 => no more mobility,
-take board controll with impunity since there is no firepower and pox + typhus being so slow even with noxious nearby.
-maintain bumper zones with chaff to prevent a good blighlords drop and then ignore them they are too slow to catch up.
-score and ignore/shoot the rest of the list. it should be impossible to catch up for deathguard by the end of turn 3.
everything listed can be achieved by a balanced and casual list.
Now how to build a melee list.
-t1 presence
-resiliance
-threat multiplication
-heavy hitter
in deathguard you have few assets and some difficulties to overcome.
you need something to get rid of screening units if you want to charge juicy targets.
you need projection.
you need to suvive until you make it into combat.
you need to score points concistently
First thing first: deathguard is slow.
Your game plan should be: hold my objective take the center of the board and score without giving too much in return.
Send you projection forces to contest an objective/ create an exclusion zone.
Send your heavy duty melee unit as a missile to gain time and do the more damage possible.
how to achieve this?
first you need to find early board presence:
- bakcline plaguebursters , with budget lord with lord of contagion.
this is classic. Shoot without lign of sight rerolling 1, reroll to wound, clears objectives. t8 5+/5++ . they will mostly get ignored until t3 they are too resilliant for their firepower.
- butchers array levi dread with budget lord .
monstruous firepower. can move and shoot and be in the frontline protecting characters and units under cloud of flies.
will attract firepower, cand be protected by miasma.
- chaos infernal knight with dual gatling/ cerastus castigator, relic for 5+ in
cc, and armiger/moirax.
cannot be ignored. good firepower, can clear chaff with armiger. will drow a lot of firepower.
- mortarion
Do not shoot but cannot be ignored. will drow firepower.
find a source of warptime and throw it in your opponent's face.
Heavy hitters:
-full plague marines squad with flails and knifes
on foot, cloud of flies every turn. 3
cp to make it into combat.
biologus putrifier make them even more dangerous
plague weapon + spell +
votlw
10 is enought and fit into a rhino or termite drill.
- 10 blightlords with 2 flails
projection, plague weapons, good source of dakka. benefit from
votlw, miasma, cloud.
- possessed bomb
they don't have plague weapon but they will utterly destroy everything in close combat. you can fin list on the web and adapt to be more deathguard than soup.
- mortarion
obvious. if he is still alive.
- demon prince with wings
act more like a missile. i am not a fan but solid.
projection:
-blighlords
arrea of denial, dakka, melee if you want, tanky.
- bloat drones
fast, multi purpose units. fleshmower have the best tankiness/points ratio
-demon prince with wings.
- terrax patern drill.
forgeworld, carries 12 models, beast in close combat, t8. synergise with the army. Can detonate with stratagem.
versatile: when you deploy you have room for
cc squad + characters (lord/malignant/tally/biologus in any combination) or dual plasma squads + characters depending on the oponnent.
Very good transport.
-rhino
can detonate with stratagem. stock transport.
There is a trick: turn one you disembark a shooty plague marine squad (gain 3"
, move +smoke.
CC plague marine unit run and embarks (gain 3" +3" next turn).
now you have a t7 chassis with -1 to shoot to protect characters and clouded units.
-2 with miasma.
one very important thing to remember:
you have nothing to ensure reliability of charges outside of
cp reroll once per turn.
go easy on melee projection. Even with reroll, 9" charge is 50%.
objective grabbers.
-5 man pm squad try plasma/ dual blight launcher in cover.
good firepower/points/tankiness ratio
- stock 10 poxwalkers
tax, will die in a breeze
- 20 poxwalkers
they will die in a stronger breeze and can benefit from stratagem to resplenish casualties.
with putrescent vitality they can be a bit stronger.
- foetid drones
they are fast.
-nurglings
technicaly not deathguard.
force multiplier.
-tallyman
reroll in
cc. most preciated by foetid drones (4+ reroll = 2+), terrax patern drill aswell and poxwalkers.
Fair boost for
cc squads but overshadowed by a lord
-lord
cheap, reroll "1", usefull in
cc or for shooting.
can be a beast with plaguebringer + voltw + blades of putrefaction if you want a cheap tricky coutercharge unit in your backfield.
with melta or plasma he can carry budget firepower if you don't want a totem.
-malignant
source of psy, t5, 5++, nothing to add.
you need blades of putrefaction, miasma and putressent vitality
- demon prince with wings
source of psy, reroll "1", missile.
same cost as a budget lord + malignant.
want to be in melee/danger zone.
-biologus
incredible 6" threat range.
blight grenade bombardment with 10 man squad will melt anything but your opponent will see it comming miles away.
it's more a threat overloading than anything.
-foul blightspawn.
cheap for the damage output. anti air solution.
character.
create a zone were you always fight first.
never underestimate this.
with poxwalkers they can recover losses first and survive wich is a huge difference.
i play 2 of them with a cereastus knight castigator wich is no slouch in melee and 2 armiger moirax.
one bring a siege claw and heroic intervene at 6".
Smash captains usualy stays at bay.
And i am fairly melee centric with 10 plague marines with flails and knifes.
Volt:
best used on blightlords storm bolters or in melee , pm in melee, poxwalkers boosted, grenade bombardment.
used in every combo.
putrescent vitality.
not our best steroid but very usefull.
blades of corruption.
powerfull but can be countered.
Against grey knights or anti psy you literaly can't use it.
if you rely on melee pm units, bring a biologus for alternative threat.
in conclusion my most important advise:
build your list with "modules" that can be swaped.
test and see wich ones you like.
Never go full
cc.
Close combat centric means that the heavy duty will be done in melee. you still need chaff, saturation to get rid off screening (specialy with melee), a way to get close, objective grabbers, projection and a plan.
