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I remember in 3.5 edition they mention that the Death Guard eschewed heavy weapons and would always advance in an implacable wave of special and bolter weapons.

But in Heresy...they're specifically given rules to take masses of heavy weapons (rite of war to take as non compulsoryy troops) and have no restrictions on taking them.

Whats up with this?

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
I remember in 3.5 edition they mention that the Death Guard eschewed heavy weapons and would always advance in an implacable wave of special and bolter weapons.

One suspects that was written purely due to the models of the time.

 reds8n wrote:

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
I remember in 3.5 edition they mention that the Death Guard eschewed heavy weapons and would always advance in an implacable wave of special and bolter weapons.

One suspects that was written purely due to the models of the time.

Can you give Mark of Nurgle to Havocs? I can't remember if you could in old dex, was it that if you took the Death Guard rules you had to not take Havocs but an undivided army could take MoN with havocs?

 Totalwar1402 wrote:

 reds8n wrote:

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
I remember in 3.5 edition they mention that the Death Guard eschewed heavy weapons and would always advance in an implacable wave of special and bolter weapons.

One suspects that was written purely due to the models of the time.

Can you give Mark of Nurgle to Havocs? I can't remember if you could in old dex, was it that if you took the Death Guard rules you had to not take Havocs but an undivided army could take MoN with havocs?

If i remember correctly you could give mark of Nurgle to Havocs, byt they could still only take special weapons. They released a nurgle havocs box set that only included meltaguns, plasmaguns and bolters now that I think of it.

Is that still the case with MoN in the new codex?

It's the case in Traitor Legions where the Death Guard have Relentless as a Legion rule.

Nurglitch wrote:
It's the case in Traitor Legions where the Death Guard have Relentless as a Legion rule.

Be neat if they got this in Heresy.

I have the feeling that fluff background was lost / retconned, just like the holy numbers in squad-size. Too bad actually, as squads of 6-9 would be probably much more useful than the 9 squads you have to take for the Tzeentch-bonus.
Mortarion won't be happy with the recent development of his legion: heavy weapons, bikes and raptors everywhere .

Maybe, but I've noticed that certain Death Guard rules means you're not really gaining any optimal advantage by doing so. Bike, for example, already have Relentless. Raptors can take Rapid Fire weapons, Plasma Guns, but don't really benefit from doing so. What really benefits is the masses of pseudo-plague Marines armed with Boltguns. And if you're taking Havocs, you really want to invest in the some extra meat in the squad to absorb any losses.

The 3.5 fluff was always stupid. Fluffwise a Meltagun has a maximum range of about 250 meters. Even with Astartes resilience there is no way a footslogging Death Guard force would ever live long enough to get within shooting distance with it's special weapons in the face of an enemy equipped with tanks or bunkers. I chalk the change up to the silent application of common sense.

I think it barely qualifies as fluff. Or it barely qualifies as background. It's not really the same thing as Clear creating monsters to fight for him and at the end of the war having to execute every one of them personally, or farseers slowly turning to crystal and receding into the garden at the center of their world ships where all departed souls must be interred to keep them from being eaten.

It's just a dumb thing that happened because that's how they thought they had to write the army list. It wasn't significant to the actual background.

Is that still the case with MoN in the new codex?

No, the new supplement and the codex don't do anything to change the options when a unit is marked.

 Totalwar1402 wrote:

 reds8n wrote:

 Totalwar1402 wrote:
I remember in 3.5 edition they mention that the Death Guard eschewed heavy weapons and would always advance in an implacable wave of special and bolter weapons.

One suspects that was written purely due to the models of the time.

Can you give Mark of Nurgle to Havocs? I can't remember if you could in old dex, was it that if you took the Death Guard rules you had to not take Havocs but an undivided army could take MoN with havocs?

Yes you can, 3pts per model.

I actually liked the 3.5 "We won't sit here and do nothing. We won't come running. We're going to walk across no man's land taking pot shots".

It felt very WWI to me... which is why I feel it is important for Death Guard marines to wear spikey helmets.

I also seem to remember that when a Plague Ship is destroyed (and its crew), they are reborn on the Plague Planet. I always figured that they were reborn, but without their former equipment, maybe just power armor (like some insect shell).

This was always my personal head canon for why the Legion lost their heavier weapons and war machines.

Death Guard were also only allowed 2 Troop Rhinos, and any others were instead taken as a Fast Attack unit. This was bevauss they didnt maintain them.

The fluff varies. Sometimes when a plague fleet is exhausted the empty ships just sink into the Immaterium and are guided by Nurgle's hand to a 'fresh' plague world to be recrewed and are sent back into the Materium to crusade once more.