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Hi guys, I'm completely new to the hobby and I'm trying to build few squads of Plague Marines for my future Death Guard army. I have 9th edition codex and I'm confused about various loadouts. I have models from various sets and it looks like some of them do not match current rule set.
- 7 Plague marines from the box with all options
- 7 Plague marines from Dark Imperium box
- 3 easy to build Plague marines from the First Strike box
- 6 Plague marines form Space Marines Heroes 3
- Separately sold Icon bearer
- Separately sold Champion

Regular plague marines
- Codex says that each plague marines is equipped with boltgun, plague knife and grenades by default. What if model doesn't have some of that? I thought that it is good practice to play "What you see is what you get" so how am I supposed to play Plague marines who don't have plague knife on their model? This is even case for multiple marines from the box set with all options.
- What is the point of having 7 marines in the squad?

Icon of despair and Sigil of decay
- Is it defined which model is which?
- What is icon bearer sold separately equipped with?
- What is Plague Marine 1 variant A from the box with all option equipped with?
- What is Clotticus from Space Marine Heroes 3 equipped with?
- Codex says that if plague marine is equipped with any of these, its boltgun cannot be replaced. Clotticus does not have a boltgun. He has holsted bolt pistol which is even not valid weapon option for regular marine. Is it a valid model for 9th edition?

Champion
- Do I understand correctly, that Champion can have daemonic blade (or knife), power fist and ranged weapon at the same time? It is the case for champion sold separately and champions from Dark imperium and Easy to build set but there is no such option to build such champion from box with all options.
- Why would I want to have both power fist and and daemonic blade (or knife) at the same time. I didn't get implication of using multiple melee weapons on single model from the core rules book. Do they get more attacks when they have more melee weapons or is it just to have a choice with what weapon to make model's attacks?

GW changed the rules in the 9th edition codex to strictly enforce No Model, No Rules. The rules now represent solely what can be made with a single, regularly sold, box. Special releases like the Dark Imperium box aren't considered.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ladislav wrote:
- Why would I want to have both power fist and and daemonic blade (or knife) at the same time. I didn't get implication of using multiple melee weapons on single model from the core rules book. Do they get more attacks when they have more melee weapons or is it just to have a choice with what weapon to make model's attacks?

You get flexibility. Each attack can be made with a different weapon if you have multiple attacks and weapons.

Ladislav wrote:
Regular plague marines
- Codex says that each plague marines is equipped with boltgun, plague knife and grenades by default. What if model doesn't have some of that?

You play by the rules on the datasheet no matter what the phys rep (Physical representation, aka the model on the table) of the model is holding. The phys rep can have a book and a cup of tea, and if the dataslate says they are equipped with boltgun, plague knife, and grenades, then they are equipped with boltgun, plague knife, and grenades.

I thought that it is good practice to play "What you see is what you get"

It depends, not everyone is going to know what every weapon option looks like. Newer players may not even know the difference between a standard bolter, plasma gun, plasma pistol, Inferno pistol, melta-gun, or a hand flamer, let alone what a Spike rifle, Spine banks, Spinefists, or a myriad of other Tyranid weapons look like.

So I would not stress about this much.

so how am I supposed to play Plague marines who don't have plague knife on their model?

You go by what the dataslate says.

It does not matter what the phys rep has, as the phys rep does not determine what that model has, the dataslate does.

Ladislav wrote:
Regular plague marines
- Codex says that each plague marines is equipped with boltgun, plague knife and grenades by default. What if model doesn't have some of that? I thought that it is good practice to play "What you see is what you get" so how am I supposed to play Plague marines who don't have plague knife on their model? This is even case for multiple marines from the box set with all options.

It is common that many models do not have all their weapons modeled on them. Generally, people ignore the absence of standard kit on a model and want to see unusual options represented. For Plague Marines this means it doesn't matter if they have a the plague knife or grenades on the model since all models have these unless they are replaced by something.

- What is the point of having 7 marines in the squad?

Having two more bodies that fight and die. Showing homage to Papa's Nurgle's favorite number.

Icon of despair and Sigil of decay
- Is it defined which model is which?
- What is icon bearer sold separately equipped with?
- What is Plague Marine 1 variant A from the box with all option equipped with?

One would assume the Icon Bearer has an Icon, so that must be the Icon of Despair. That means Plague Marine 1A has the Sigil of Decay.

- What is Clotticus from Space Marine Heroes 3 equipped with?

Plague Sword and Icon of Despair. Yes, that is no longer a legal option.

- Codex says that if plague marine is equipped with any of these, its boltgun cannot be replaced. Clotticus does not have a boltgun. He has holsted bolt pistol which is even not valid weapon option for regular marine. Is it a valid model for 9th edition?

A Plague Marine Champion can have a Plague Sword and Bolt Pistol. He however cannot have an Icon of Despair. So this model has a non-legal option.

Champion
- Do I understand correctly, that Champion can have daemonic blade (or knife), power fist and ranged weapon at the same time? It is the case for champion sold separately and champions from Dark imperium and Easy to build set but there is no such option to build such champion from box with all options.
- Why would I want to have both power fist and and daemonic blade (or knife) at the same time. I didn't get implication of using multiple melee weapons on single model from the core rules book. Do they get more attacks when they have more melee weapons or is it just to have a choice with what weapon to make model's attacks?

Yes. The option is legal. You can't build it from the unit box, but it is legal. Having both the demonic p and the power fist allows you to decide between the higher strength of the Power Fist and a plague weapon when attacking.

Regular plague marine questions:

For models that are “fixed” (which the plague marines are, its a major hassle to get bits for marine X to fit comfortably on the torso and under the pauldrons of marine Y) it’s common to just let it be what the unit entry says. I vaguely remember there being an old rule to this effect but I can’t find it in 9th.

There is no point to running 7 man squads sadly. Nurgle’s magic number was not worked into the codex. However! The new rules let you run 3plas, 2 blightlauncher squads at 10 men. Or 2 flails, 2 cleavers, 2 axes, and a PF champ.

Sigils:

The Sigil and Icon are whatever you say they are.

There isn’t a “clotticus” or “stand along icon guy” in 40k, there’s just a plaguemarine with an icon/sigil. Those models will have everything listed on their datasheet available in game. Not your fault GW doesn’t model everything.

Champion questions:

The ETB champ with the plasma gun on its backpack (I will be forever convinced this was a mistake and they changed the codex to compensate because they had already printed that sprue) can be run as having all three. Some people won’t care if the knife on that guy looks the same as everyone else, some people may want to see if colored differently to have it stand out. Ask your local players/TO.

They won’t get bonus attacks for having both but if you’re fighting imperial guard-equivalent statlines, the blade hits on 3’s and probably wound’s/denies saves just as well as the powerfist does, hitting on 4’s.

Trench Fighters also gives every model an extra attack with a plague knife, if they're armed with one. So your champion with fist and knife would have 3 attacks with the powerfist, and one extra with the plague knife.

 MinMax wrote:
Trench Fighters also gives every model an extra attack with a plague knife, if they're armed with one. So your champion with fist and knife would have 3 attacks with the powerfist, and one extra with the plague knife.

That's not a rule in 9th edition. Plague Marines (not the champion) have a rule where they get +1 attack if they have two weapons with the Plague ability. It doesnt have to be made with the Plague Knife.

paladinofoz wrote:

 MinMax wrote:
Trench Fighters also gives every model an extra attack with a plague knife, if they're armed with one. So your champion with fist and knife would have 3 attacks with the powerfist, and one extra with the plague knife.

That's not a rule in 9th edition. Plague Marines (not the champion) have a rule where they get +1 attack if they have two weapons with the Plague ability. It doesnt have to be made with the Plague Knife.

Trench Fighters is a stratagem. Every model in the unit which is armed with a plague knife gets to make an extra attack with the knife.

 MinMax wrote:

paladinofoz wrote:

 MinMax wrote:
Trench Fighters also gives every model an extra attack with a plague knife, if they're armed with one. So your champion with fist and knife would have 3 attacks with the powerfist, and one extra with the plague knife.

That's not a rule in 9th edition. Plague Marines (not the champion) have a rule where they get +1 attack if they have two weapons with the Plague ability. It doesnt have to be made with the Plague Knife.

Trench Fighters is a stratagem. Every model in the unit which is armed with a plague knife gets to make an extra attack with the knife.

The "Vectors of Death" ability increases the Attacks characteristic of Plague Marines (so not the Plague Champion) to 3 and the extra attack that grants is not tied to any weapon, it can be made with anything.

 Uther wrote:

 MinMax wrote:

paladinofoz wrote:

 MinMax wrote:
Trench Fighters also gives every model an extra attack with a plague knife, if they're armed with one. So your champion with fist and knife would have 3 attacks with the powerfist, and one extra with the plague knife.

That's not a rule in 9th edition. Plague Marines (not the champion) have a rule where they get +1 attack if they have two weapons with the Plague ability. It doesnt have to be made with the Plague Knife.

Trench Fighters is a stratagem. Every model in the unit which is armed with a plague knife gets to make an extra attack with the knife.

The "Vectors of Death" ability increases the Attacks characteristic of Plague Marines (so not the Plague Champion) to 3 and the extra attack that grants is not tied to any weapon, it can be made with anything.

True, but MinMax wasn't talking about Vectors of Death, he was talking about the stratagem Trench Fighters. So that's another reason you would want your Plague Champion to have both weapons.