Death Guard - Picking Through the Plague Marine Datasheet

Options - lots of options

 If you've picked up the new Death Guard book, you may have noticed that the Plague Marine datasheet is a wee bit beefy.  It has lots of options - like, a lot.  A potentially overwhelming number of option.  At this point, my plan is to figure out how I'm going to think about thinking about the datasheet.

Question Zero - Am I taking Plague Marines?

Technically, I don't HAVE to take plague marines - I can take terminators and then take pox walkers or cultists - three terminator squads let me grab three non-plague-marine troop squads, so I could leave these guys at home.  Realistically, you'd taking Pox Walkers for immunity to morale and Objective Secured.

For the purposes of this thought experiment, let's assume the answer is 'yes.'

Question 1 - Small unit or large?

You can take 5-10 guys.  Five-man squads fill out slots, or objective-sit.  If a five-man squad goes into assault, it goes into a fist fight with something it's going in as a mop-up or as part of a group.  My first impression is that the five-man squad should consider a ranged option so they can contribute whenever - also, seriously, Death Guard don't have a lot of guns, so you might as well get that wehere you can.

If you're a larger squad, you've decided you're going to do damage - decide if you want a Rhino, or if you're going to walk up the field.  If you're going to jog up the field, consider guns and a couple melee options.

OVERALL - 5 guys bring a gun, sit on an objective and/or sit behind someone and plink.  10 guys do damage and should realistically kit out for shooting and fighting.

Question 2 - Which guns?

We have access to three types of guns - plasma guns, blight launchers, and meltaguns.  The meltaguns look attractive on a squad of 10 that are moving upfield to attack - you might have to crack armor open, and you might want to slag a monster.

The plasma gun and blight launcher are a little bit closer.  The blight launcher beats the plasma gun for damage, plasma gets it in rate of fire.  I'm a little split, as earlier in the game S7 on a ranged weapon is bound to do more damage early on.  Note that the champ can still take a plasma gun as well, so you can double up on aplsma.

I feel like the plague belcher is definitely an option, but I'd rather focus on what we need help with - the meltagun seems like a more useful option for a couple points.  The plague spewer is I guess an option for a rhino-mounted squad, but if it gets popped early you're choosing between shooting and running since it's heavy. (IE - this is the flamer vs. heavy flamer comparison on a squad that cranks out a bunch of WS3+, AP-1 melee attacks against targets at -1 toughness...)

OVERALL - Realistically, a 5-man squad is a toss-up between the blight launcher and a plasma gun or two, or a double plasma gun.  10 guys should think about the meltagun since they're definitely trying to move and get close.

Question 3 - Sarge's Melee Options

Every squad's got a champ.  The champ can bring melee stuff in addition to that potential plasma gun.

Champ can bring one of three melee weapons - the bog-standard plague knife, a daemonic plague blade, or a power fist.  The plague knife is free, and is AP-1.  The daemonic plague blade picks up a +1S bonus, and appears to be free as well unless it gets FAQ'd, so you definitely take that.  The only real question is "do I pay 10 points for a powerfist."

If you're babysitting the backfield, you skip the 'fist.

If you're moving upfield, consider the fist.  There's very little T9 in the game, and with the Contagions of Nurgle ability you're throwing S8 vs T7 max 99.9% of the time.  As long as you hit with those swings, someone's gonna feel it.

Question 4 - The squad's melee options

Now, it gets interesting.  The squad can take several noteworthy melee options - the flail of corruption, the great plague cleaver, and the mace of contagion (and bubotic axe pair).  Hello, analysis.  These all cost about the same; the mace/axe is ~2pts cheaper.

The Short Version - the cleaver has a chance to spike damage vs. vehicles, and if you bring a nice to-hit buff (hello, Mr. Tallyman) and really need anti-vehicle work, consider the cleaver.

THE LONG VERSION - MATH AHEAD

The Flail of Corruption - S5, AP-2, 2 Damage - swings 2x per attack, so 4 attacks on a plague marine

The Great Plague Cleaver - S8, Ap-3, D6 damage, -1 to hit

The Mace of Contagion - S6, AP-1, 3 damage, -1 to hit

Bubotic Axe - S6, AP-2, 1 damage

So again, the question here is - what do we want to kill?  You've already got a bunch of guys with 2 attacks on WS3+, AP-1, S4, -1T (so T4 infantry are taking wounds on 3+.)

Our concern is going to be heavy infantry (like 2-3W beefy melee guys, IE Terminators or Ogryn) and vehicles.  Part of this concern is going to be what else is in the army - see the meltagun argument.

VS T4-5 heavy infantry -

FLAIL - 2.6 hits > 1.7 wounds > 3.5 damage on average - you'll get a couple 2W guys, or one 3W guy

CLEAVER - 1 hit > 0.83 wounds > 2.9 damage on average - you'll probably get the 2W guy, the 3W guy is a 33% miss because of that d6

MACE - 1 hit > 0.66 wounds > 2 damage average - ok, the damage average is weird here, but the AP (which we're not doing here) makes this thing get wonky depending on what you're hitting.

VS Vehicles/Monsters

It gets interesting here, because we've got an S5, an S6, and an S8 weapon.  The cleaver doesn't care because it's always gonna wound on a 3+.  The flail's wound number changes after T6, and the Mace changes after T7.

CLEAVER - 2 Swings > 1 Hit > 0.83 wounds > 2.9 damage

FLAIL

vs. T6 - 4 Swings > 2.67 hits > 1.33 wounds > 2.67 damage

vs. T7+ - 4 Swings > 2.67 hits > 0.88 wounds > 1.78 damage

MACE

vs. T6 - same as vs. infantry; 2 damage average

vs. T7 - 2 swings > 1 hit > 0.5 wounds > 1.5 damage

vs. T8 - 2 swings > 1 hit > 0.33 wounds > 1 damage

So at this point, real talk - the mace is kinda 'meh' - 3 damage is nice, but it's kind of a trap.  I'd rather bring a lot of attacks via the flail, or I'd rather bring the d6 damage and try to spike it.  S8, AP-3 puts the cleaver head and shoulders above the mace in most matchups I can think of.

Question 5 - Icons, etc.

You also have options for the Icon of Despair and Sigil of Decay.  You can technically take both.

The Icon lets you drop a 1d6 in the morale phase, and each enemy you're engaged with eats a 4+ mortal wound.  If you think you're going to stay in the fight for a while, it's an option - but with a 4+, eh.  I feel like I'll spend points elsewhere first.

The Sigil of Decay lets bolt weapons auto-wound on a 6+.  That's legit interesting, but only on a max squad - it could help with chip damage in the first few turns vs T5+ targets, and realistically, any time you skip rolling dice for guaranteed results is good.

Wrap-up - What do squads look like?

Ok, we've considered guns, we've considered melee weapons - now what does all this analysis look like?

The 5-man squads are building blocks; the 10-man squads are things you build around as a theme.

5-man squads

Keep it simple, keep it cheap - grab a gun or two, sit in the back.  Score.  Try not to die or look too threatening.

5 guys, 2 plasma guns - 130 points - you bring this when you're more likely to sit near a re-roll bubble for a couple turns, but it's solid firepower.

5 guys, blight launcher - 120 points - it's cheap, it can contribute.  It doesn't care about babysitters, and it's a little more reliable at popping 2-wound infantry.

Larger Squads

Real talk - go 10 guys for the max options, or go with a weird mix of stuff.  You want to fight, but you also want to be realistic about just how much you can dictate your fight.  Consider a Rhino as well.

10 marines, fist on sarge, 2 flails, 2 meltaguns - 250pts - advance, try to melta armor, then try to charge in and wreck whatever you can.  It's versatile, it's nasty, it'll leave a mark but man you're light on range.

10 marines, fist on sarge, 2 cleavers, 2 blight launchers - 250pts - your ranged weapons are anti-infantry / able to soften up crap, and your other stuff is decent for killing anything else in melee.

7 Marines - Fist on Sarge, Flail, meltagun - 177pts - eh, 7-8ish dudes is a weird spot, but that's what squads look like.  This kind of loadout is a swiss army tool; you've got anti-armor shooting, but maybe not the ability to spike fresh armor off the shot/charge.

10-man Shooty - Plasma on sarge, 2 plasma guns, sigil of decay - 250pts - ok, real talk here - this is a HUGE commitment for a squad that exists to just dump dice at 24."  Can you do it?  Yeah, sure.  I'm not super convinced you should.  Also, real talk, it needs one of your precious LORDS for a re-roll 1 aura to make the plasma worth it.

Conclusions

The 5-man babysitter squads are definitely a solid objective-holder / tool squad.  The 10-man squads are beefy as hell, but are bound to compete with our solid Terminator options.  I'm not quite 1000% sold on larger squads, but I feel like they're worth a test.