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I’m looking to invest into a 40k proper list after playing 1st edition Killteam for a bit and lurking on this forum. I would like for this to be a little more of a shooting focused Death Guard army, but I understand that they are fine in CC and won’t shy away from it. I’m not going to try and min max my PM squads, as I already own them, but I’m open to swapping most of the other units. For my strategy I was thinking that my PMs could footslog up the board to some objectives while my termies either teleported in to try and take out some key enemy characters or just to take another objective. Is this a viable strategy? Thanks in advance.

b]++ Arks of Omen Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [58 PL, 1,000pts, 4CP] ++[/b]

+ Configuration +

Arks of Omen Compulsory Type: Elites

Battle Size [6CP]: 2. Incursion (51-100 Total PL / 501-1000 Points)

Detachment Command Cost

Game Type: 5. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen

Plague Company: The Inexorable

+ HQ +

Lord of Virulence [7 PL, 125pts, -2CP]: 1. Revoltingly Resilient, Fugaris' Helm, Stratagem: Relic, Stratagem: Warlord Trait, Viscous Death, Warlord

+ Troops +

Plague Marines [6 PL, 95pts]
. Plague Champion: Daemonic plague blade, Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ blight launcher
. 2x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Boltgun, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. Plague Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun

Plague Marines [6 PL, 95pts]
. Plague Champion: Daemonic plague blade, Plasma gun, Power fist
. Plague Marine w/ blight launcher
. Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ flail
. Plague Marine w/ icon

+ Elites +

Blightlord Terminators [10 PL, 200pts]
. Blightlord Champion: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Flail of corruption
. Blightlord Terminator: Blight launcher, Bubotic Axe
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter

Deathshroud Terminators [10 PL, 160pts]
. Deathshroud Champion: Chimes of contagion, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet, Unstable Sickness
. 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlet

Tallyman [4 PL, 65pts]

+ Fast Attack +

Foetid Bloat-drone [7 PL, 115pts]: Heavy blight launcher

+ Heavy Support +

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 145pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Rothail volley gun

++ Total: [58 PL, 1,000pts, 4CP] ++

It looks ok, but you will find a real amount of variance in success based on your skill, opponent skill, terrain and what they are bringing.

The Lord of Virulence is probably the least "competitive" unit. I would probably drop the warlord trait and relic as neither really helps your basic firebase strategy.

The Tallyman should be taking the Tollkeeper relic for this strategy.

I would also be tempted to drop the FBD, PBC and DST and replace with more Blightlords and a Contemptor dread (Volkite having managed to stay OP all of 9th but surely will be getting nerfed come 10th) for more CORE exploding 6s to hit and +1AP 6s to wound (plague weapon only) action.

Alternatively, drop the Tallyman and Lord of Virulence and replace with a Daemon Prince with Wings and go for a slightly more jack of all trades list.

I'd also maybe be looking at adding a humble Rhino at some point perhaps as you grow the points. Often the value comes in turning M5 Plague Marines into M8 Plague Marines and this is why you'll see a unit get out and move forward and then another unit get in ready for the next turn.

I see your points about the LOV, DST, PBC and Rhino. Currently I’m playing around with the idea of including some Poxwalkers to sit around on objectives/block deep strikes. I’ll have another list thought up pretty soon, so I’ll post that soon.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here is the list I settled on after taking your suggestions into account. After taking what you suggested out and adding the Contemptor and extra squad of Blightlords in, I had an extra 50 points, which I ended up spending on Poxwalkers. I think this is a good choice because, as I stated above, they can help prevent first turn deep strikes and can just sit on objectives while everything else fights. Is there anything you would have taken for those 50 points over Poxwalkers?

++ Arks of Omen Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) [54 PL, 1,000pts, 4CP] ++

+ Configuration +

Arks of Omen Compulsory Type: Elites

Battle Size [6CP]: 2. Incursion (51-100 Total PL / 501-1000 Points)

Detachment Command Cost

Game Type: 5. Chapter Approved: Arks of Omen

Plague Company: The Inexorable

+ HQ +

Lord of Virulence [7 PL, 125pts]: Viscous Death, Warlord

+ Troops +

Plague Marines [6 PL, 95pts]
. Plague Champion: Daemonic plague blade, Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ blight launcher
. 2x Plague Marine w/ boltgun: 2x Blight grenades, 2x Boltgun, 2x Krak grenades, 2x Plague knife
. Plague Marine w/ special weapon: Meltagun

Plague Marines [6 PL, 95pts]
. Plague Champion: Daemonic plague blade, Plasma gun, Power fist
. Plague Marine w/ blight launcher
. Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ flail
. Plague Marine w/ icon

Poxwalkers [3 PL, 50pts]
. 10x Poxwalker: 10x Improvised weapon

+ Elites +

Blightlord Terminators [10 PL, 200pts]
. Blightlord Champion: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Flail of corruption
. Blightlord Terminator: Blight launcher, Bubotic Axe
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter

Blightlord Terminators [10 PL, 200pts]
. Blightlord Champion: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Flail of corruption
. Blightlord Terminator: Blight launcher, Bubotic Axe
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter
. Blightlord Terminator: Bubotic Axe, Combi-bolter

Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought [8 PL, 170pts, -1CP]: 2x Twin volkite culverin

Tallyman [4 PL, 65pts, -1CP]: Stratagem: Relic, Tollkeeper

++ Total: [54 PL, 1,000pts, 4CP] ++

I really would magnetize the Contemptor if you can to future proof for 10th. I've got 3 Contemptors currently that have the wrong load out from 8th.

I like the second list. I like Poxwalkers a lot. But, if you were looking for something else, the missile launcher on the contemptor is 25pts and a Spawn is 21pts.

You probably will want to add 5 more Plague Marines to your collection at some point and I think would be looking for 2 x Axe, 1 x Flail, 1 x Melta and 1 spare body for the future (maybe another Champion with PF + Plasma). But it is not the end of the world as quite often you'll be picking up all 5 of them as casualites without ever shooting or fighting.

Also, one forgotten future upgrade as you move to 1,250 or 1,500 will be the Foul Blightspawn. Especially if you run this list and find you are getting beaten up on in melee by the melee factions.

I'm guessing you might find with the new list that the Contemptor is better shooting than 5 Blightlords, so if you do need to break up your castle of Lord, Tallyman, Contemptor, 2 x 5 Blightlords, you should detach the Blightlords first, but see how it goes.

I do like the Inexorable strat, but if you find yourself not using or needing it much, Mortarion's Anvil has an ok strat but an interesting relic (Lord of Virulence can often be hitting on 3s and wounding on 3s/4s) and warlord trait (no re-rolls is a good defensive buff to have).

Yeah, I was just thinking about magnetizing the Contemptor, as it will be the first big (for me) model I get, so I don’t want to regret my weapon choices. Yeah, I had seen the fact I could take the missiles on the Contemptor, but realized that then the only thing left I could take without changing my list a fair bit was the Spawn, and I don’t really love the Spawn’s stats. Correct me if I’m wrong, but to me it seems like an inconsistent melee unit and a way to get secondaries that require being on multiple parts of the board. Thanks for all of the advice on what to purchase next, I’ll definitely look back on this when looking to make the jump to higher point games.