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Title says most of it. I'm thinking of building a pure Deathguard army. I know they aren't the most competitive. I like to make my armies as competitive as I can within the theme I want to run. I would run 3 units of plague marines (probably with Rhinos), 1 unit of Blightlord Terminators, probably 2 Foul blightspawn, various characters. I'm thinking I will probably run 3 crawlers or 3 drones. Either one would have the Plaguespitters. One flies, has decent combat, and is harder to tie up, one is tougher and has other guns (though mostly ineffective if being pushed up the table). Either way, I would rush them up the field and dare people to charge them. I played against a guy using two crawlers in this way and it was a nightmare. I couldn't kill them and he would just back up and wait for me to charge again. I'm leaning toward the Bloat Drones because they get to act in more phases of the game, but would like to hear other points of view.

 BigErn wrote:
Title says most of it. I'm thinking of building a pure Deathguard army. I know they aren't the most competitive. I like to make my armies as competitive as I can within the theme I want to run. I would run 3 units of plague marines (probably with Rhinos), 1 unit of Blightlord Terminators, probably 2 Foul blightspawn, various characters. I'm thinking I will probably run 3 crawlers or 3 drones. Either one would have the Plaguespitters. One flies, has decent combat, and is harder to tie up, one is tougher and has other guns (though mostly ineffective if being pushed up the table). Either way, I would rush them up the field and dare people to charge them. I played against a guy using two crawlers in this way and it was a nightmare. I couldn't kill them and he would just back up and wait for me to charge again. I'm leaning toward the Bloat Drones because they get to act in more phases of the game, but would like to hear other points of view.

Plagueburst Crawler is probably better at its intended purpose than the Bloat Drone is at its intended purpose, but if you want an aggressive unit you are better off with Drones. Have you considered how you will hold objectives? If you have one in your back-field, having even one Crawler might be nice, even if it isn't within range of re-roll 1s to hit and failed wounds with its main gun it'll still probably be more cost-effective than leaving Plague Marines or a Plague Drone on it. Try them out against an opponent that'll let you proxy, try 3 of one and 1 of the other twice and then switch to 1 of one and 3 of the other.

Edit: Disregard that, Plagueburst Crawler is way better outside of cases where you're afraid of it getting tagged and tied up.

The DG list I play against most often brings 3x3 Plagueburst Crawlers, Mephitic Blighthaulers, and Foetid Bloat Drones, with Plague Marines and support characters and it's a tough nut to crack. They're hard to shift, can get to and target what they need, have answers for most targets, and seem very consistent. If anything, they lack CP and area denial options, and tend to hunker and camp, so when I beat them it's on mission objectives and board control, not attrition. I'd say start with 1-2 of each unit type and build your core from there as you find what fits your playstyle and local meta.

I've had more success with Drones. Unlike with crawlers your opponent has to kill them, otherwize he'll just get flamers in the face every round. A Crawler can easily be tied up.
That being said, the crawler isn't bad. It has a higher damage potential, is more durable and cheaper.
Also, you don't need to be fixed on flamers. Mowerdrones are one of the strongest CC units we have and very cheap.
Entropy crawlers can provide long ranged anti-tank which DG usually lacks, though admittedly they're not the best and you might be better of with dreadnoughts for that.

My PBCs are tied up and useless by turn 3 at most. That said, they are still pretty good. They are a tarpit unit that has some decent offensive power. Chaos in general lack alot of non LOS weaponry, so the Plague Mortar can surprise you once in a while. I used to run a Daemon engine DG list before the Marine meta made it impractical.

PBC all the way! Sadly the only DG unit worth using atm. The only faction with a worse Wingate than DG is inqusision...
Play them aggressively and push up board with flamers. And make sure to have a CC character close by to stop them from being tied up. I have come to prefer using a chainlord, but a prince also work.
You want to force your opponent to deal with them before the rest of your army.

Keep on mind the PBC flamers are great for zoning flyers, too.

Don't forget this battalion MPC x 2, Nurglings x3 = 5 CP. THen build around that. You will need those Nurgling bases to set up 9" away from you opponent to give you a change to move up the field.

They do different things for me, so I run both.

PBCs flame, block movement and lock things in combat. Mortar and sluggar are nice if they hit anything, but I don't expect them to.

Foetid Bloat-Drone clear out infantry, especially those in ruins, assassinate characters and act as bodyguards for an offensive daemon prince.