POLISHed Faction Focus: Death Guard with Asarnil

POLISHed Faction Focus: Death Guard with the Polish faction specialist - Asarnil

Welcome to the fifth interview in the ‘POLISHed Faction Focus’ series. The intention of this article and the ones to follow is to provide additional insight into the army in question on top of what Games Workshop teases in their Faction Focuses. Here, we take a look back at how the armies fared in 9th and previous editions and we search for trends and hints towards what might come in 10th. These articles are aimed both at new players trying to get more information about specific armies before they choose the one to main in 10th, as well as to provide food for thought for more experienced players who, perhaps, have never given the army a go and are looking for some incentive. Once 10th edition drops we will invite our interviewees to Contact Lost Podcast LIVE interviews to check how their armies have changed!

Today’s interview is somewhat special for me because it not only pertains to one of my favourite factions in the game but, above all, I got to interview one of my favourite people in the Polish 40k community – Asarnil. Although he is not part of Team Poland per se, he is the main go to person for our NT when it comes to DG. Last year he helped crunch, among others, the German Death Guard list for the World Team Championships so our team knew EVERYTHING about what it could do. On top of that, Asarnil is just the nicest person out there and his devotion to DG is infectious (no pun intended). I am the best example – I play DG because of him. Now it is time for you to witness his wisdom! Here we go:

Contact Lost (CL): Hi buddy, I guess no one can introduce you better than you yourself, so tell us your story…

Asarnil (A): Hi, my name is Marcin but most people in the Polish 40k community know me as Asarnil. I started my miniature wargaming addiction almost 20 years ago and as my nickname suggests - Warhammer Fantasy Battle was the first system that got me hooked. After GW had killed WFB, I switched to 40k and after a short adventure with Vanila Marines (weren't we all there at some point?), I found my place among Chaos enthusiasts. Around three years ago I devoted myself to Death Guard exclusively and that's the only army I have been playing competitively since then.

CL: What made Death Guard stand out in 9th edition? The current range was introduced in the starting box of the 8th edition, but has their playstyle been consistent since then?

A: Stinky bois didn't have an easy life in 9th edition. It was one of the first codices that were published and even though it was quite a strong one at the beginning, the power creep was just too much. Even though the standard DG roster stayed pretty similar across both editions (just a mix of everything really), there were a couple of fun and unusual playstyle variations like Poxwalkers horde, Daemon Engines with Epidemius, Contemptors castle or Plague Marines spam to name a few of them.

On the other hand, you can't deny that Mortarion’s sons have a very appealing look to them. The aesthetics are amazing and GW is still the best in the business when it comes to creating beautiful, thematic and dynamic miniatures. Death Guard is not an exception here - whichever model from the newer sets you look at, they are simply stunning - from rank-and-file Plague Marines and elite Deathshrouds to massive Plagueburst Crawlers and the one and only - big boss - Mortarion.

CL: At the end of 9th edition the codex is considered one of the weakest out there. What are the army's strengths and what exactly is the appeal that makes you stick to them through thick and thin?

A: Well, loyalty is the only thing keeping me with DG, to be honest. I still believe it's not a completely trash codex and one that can fight against the top dogs but it is definitely a struggle and an uphill battle. I chose Morty's sons because of the lore and the feeling of the army - I always enjoyed this image of a blob of diseased mass slowly rolling over a battlefield embracing everything in papa Nurgle’s loving hug :) Three years ago I decided to play DG exclusively and this decision really was a pivotal point in my approach towards competitive play. I wanted to master one single army as much as possible and not spread myself thin across several "alt" armies. And I can definitely recommend this way of playing to everyone!

CL: Your love for the faction is undeniable, but you definitely make the army sound like it could use some serious tweaking. What improvements would you like to see that GW should introduce?

A: The main problem of Death Guard, in my opinion, is that its performance on the table does not live up to its own fantasy. Lore-wise they are supposed to be the most durable, hard to kill and relentless faction in the universe. But they definitely aren't - the only thing left from this fantasy is the slowness but we die as quickly if not even quicker than other more regular armies. I sincerely hope that 10ed index brings back the durable, unstoppable Death Guard but seeing the first previews - I am not optimistic.

In terms of what improvement I would love to see in DG, there are many ways Games Workshop could go to help our rotten brothers - from bringing back Feel no Pain 5+ (shrugging off wounds on a roll of 5 or better) or drastically increasing their number of wounds (making us real bullet sponges) to allowing easy resurrection of our troops and "converting" the enemies to the right side…

CL: Do you think GW could be a bit more creative with what our characters do? Some skills among the lords just overlap and do not seem very unique (not to mention 'game-changing') and I honestly can't remember if I have ever seen the Noxious Blightbringer on the table... Such a cool model deserves better rules, don't you think?

A: Oh, I couldn't agree more. And from what I'm hearing in the rumours that just might be the case. The current state of characters both from HQ and Elites is not working in my opinion - usually you either take a bunch of them and build your list around the buffs (which are really separate buffs not in sync with each other) or you don't take them at all. What I would love to see is a codex where you'll take one of the buffers and it will dictate how the rest of the list looks like - so the characters would be "archetype enablers" and not just buffs sticks.

CL: Which units stand out in the DG book? Perhaps there is some hidden tech in that codex that we do not realize?

A: For me, half of the codex consists of staple go-to units - I just love them all. People usually tend to gravitate either towards Mortarion - our big daddy - or infantry units, especially Deathshrouds. In our community you will also find big fans of daemon engines and I cannot blame them - big, tough tanks also have a certain appeal for sure.

In terms of tech - I would say at the end of 9th edition Plagueburst Crawlers were my favourite tech choice. Mainly because of one of the improved secondary objectives (Fleeing Vectors) which against lighter, hidden infantry units can net us a couple of VPs each round.

CL: Argh.. the damned Plagueburst Crawlers. They remind me of that "Goggles" meme from the Simpsons - THEY DO NOTHING! 😃 So in the Polish DG discord I notoriously state that you should start a good DG list with three Helverines and then build on top of that... or bring some Beasts of Nurgle. You don't seem to be that enthusiastic about my ideas... why?

A: Haha, this is more to tease you a bit rather than actually disagreeing with you :) I think assets such as Wardogs (by the way, know your Chaos nomenclature, man, they're Wardogs, not Helverines!), Beasts or even maybe Abbaddon (!) are important pieces of the puzzle we just cannot ignore. And surely, there will be cases where souping is better in the meta than running a pure DG list. With the last changes to secondary objectives I just leaned a bit more towards Crawlers and Plague Marine spam since it's easier to gain VPs with them each turn.

CL: If you were to play, say, at the WTC today, would the choice of the table matter for you?

A: Oh, very much! On a shooting range type of table - DG just doesn't exist. Its low mobility means that we cannot just freely jump across the map and hide in couple of ruins here and there. Papa's favourites need a lot of terrain - especially ruins, especially big ones, blocking line of sight. Not to mention - if you don't have a big wall in your deployment, Morti will die in 9 out of 10 games on the first turn.

CL: And has the introduction of free reserves improved DG's (and Morty’s) situation in any way?

A: Oh, drastically in my opinion. And in couple of areas:

- it fixed the lack of mobility (i.e. for Plague Marines)

- it fixed low range (i.e. for Myphytic Blight Haulers)

- it helps on low-terrain tables (hiding Mortarion first turn)

- it helps with secondaries (Spread the Sickness and Despoiled Ground).

So in a vacuum - it was a huge buff. The question is - have other armies gained as much from it or even more?

CL: And speaking of Morty, do you think that his 9th edition ruleset did him justice? Was he the Primarch you would follow? 😃

A: I would always follow Morti! On a serious note though, I think that our oozy Primarch did quite well in 9^th edition, especially at the beginning - he kinda found a sweet spot in which he wasn't OP and skilled players were able to figure out how to play around him, but on the other hand he had a capability to be a game-changer. Sadly, the power creep at the end was a bit too much, in my opinion, and all the Tau and Imperial Guards "I-see-you-so-you-die" shenanigans booted him from our tables.

CL: I know you play a lot in singles but would you consider taking DG to a competitive teams event? I saw team Germany had taken a DG list to the World Team Championships last year and they were quite successful...

A: It really depends on the meta - and it’s been changing dynamically lately. Sadly, as "being the toughest army in the universe" is just a myth and DG doesn't bring anything more to the table, it is rarely included in top8 armies for team events. Our thing should be - whoever we play, we can withstand enough to bring a couple of points but in the majority of cases there is another army that just does it better. I think the choice of DG in teams’ events is a matter of confidence and experience in playing it. Simple as that. Let's hope it changes in 10th.

CL: Does it take a lot of effort to collect the army and get it to a tabletop standard?

A: Not really, no. I would say DG is in the middle in terms of models’ availability and level of complexity in painting. The army is very pleasant to paint and achieving tabletop standard is not hard - we don't have to be extra careful and neat, after all the messier and the “uglier", the better.

CL: Who should pick this army up in 10th?

A: I would recommend this army to people that don't give up quickly. The start of the 10th edition will be a bumpy one it seems (although we haven't seen everything yet, maybe there will be some hidden gems) and you would have to be prepared to lose a lot at the beginning. But in my opinion it is a rewarding army - the satisfaction of beating some tier 1 armies as an underdog is one of the best ones I have ever had in this hobby.

CL: So rough start leading to heaps of satisfaction right? RIGHT? Still, at the end of 9^th how difficult is this army on a scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is really challenging?

A: In an ideal world where balance is perfect and the difficulty isn't raised because of codices power creep - I would say DG should be an easy army to play, so around 4. But because it is much weaker than the competition, you have to really flex your brain to even out the odds, so in real world - it's an 8 at least.

CL: But is that a bad thing? You yourself said "I really don't want DG to be on par with the likes of Harlies, Tyranids or Tau. A solid B-tier would be more than enough"...

A: It's not a bad thing, no. It's actually something that I find compelling about Death Guard - a difficulty level and the challenge makes winning with this army very rewarding. So a solid B tier - this is my wish and dream for 10^th edition DG. But - seeing what we've seen so far, the nightmares of us being at the bottom of trash tier come back again. I can appreciate the challenge but not if it's impossible to win.

CL: That bad huh? I guess the Polish Death Guard discord was so salty that the salt now spills over to the neighbouring subs of Custodes and even Orks (FnP 6+ heh). What are your thoughts?

A: Not good, I'm afraid. What we've seen so far is that there is no damage reduction, no FnP, slower terminators and Crawlers with lower AP (Armor Piercing). And I don't think some "buffs" compared to current datasheet stat lines and rules can overcome this difference. I cross my fingers and pray to Papa Nurgle but it doesn't look good so far, unfortunately.

CL: Yeah, it seems that a lot of people had higher hopes than what GW showcased. And with the most recent reveals about Adeptus Custodes it felt like they got all the toys we should be getting... Do you see any potential in the "sticky, smelly objectives"? The new Malignant Plaguecaster looks interesting and the D6+3 shots on the Plagueburst Crawlers combined with causing 'Battle-shocked' really seem to be overlooked by many...

A: Is that all worth losing damage reduction? In my opinion - definitely not. Yes, sticky objectives are nice, Plagueburst Crawlers look a bit better (although Ap1 ??), Plaguecasters seem interesting (however some people are saying they're actually worse because of the range) - but these are minor changes. I hate to be a nay-sayer but these faction focus articles should show us the cool and shiny stuff from our army to get us hyped. So either somebody at GW screwed up choosing what to show us or these truly are the coolest and shiniest things in our codex. If that's the case - oh man, we're deep in shit (and not in the way Nurgle would approve).

CL: We have to wait and see then… How about your suggestion of a 2k point list so people might get an idea what investment they would need to make?

A: The last list I played competitively was a Plague Marine spam, I really enjoyed it and went 3-1-1 with it, so here it goes:

==Arks of Omen Detachment - Death Guard - The Inexorable (0 CP)==

==Compulsory slot: Troops==

HQ1: SORCERER IN TERMINATOR ARMOUR: Combi-melta, Warlord: Arch-contaminator (-1 CP), Relic: Plague-skull of Glothilla (-1 CP), Miasma of pestilence, Curse of the Lepper [110][PL:6]

TROOPS1: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS2: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS3: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS4: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS5: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS6: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS7: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS8: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS9: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

TROOPS10: PLAGUE MARINES, Flail of corruption, Great cleaver, Mace of contagion, blight launcher, power fist + plasma gun [95][PL:6]

FAST1: FOETID BLOAT-DRONE [115][PL:8]

FAST2: FOETID BLOAT-DRONE [115][PL:8]

FAST3: FOETID BLOAT-DRONE [115][PL:8]

HEAVY1: PLAGUEBURST CRAWLER [145][PL:8]

HEAVY2: PLAGUEBURST CRAWLER [145][PL:8]

HEAVY3: PLAGUEBURST CRAWLER [145][PL:8]

TRANSPORT1: CHAOS RHINO, combi-melta, havoc launcher [80][PL:4]

TRANSPORT2: CHAOS RHINO, combi-melta, havoc launcher [80][PL:4]

CL: I love it! Apart from the Crawlers that is :D Anyway, thanks a lot for all your inputs, stay strong in your love for all things Nurgly and I hope we can have you on the podcast once the indexes drop…

A: For sure, thanks for having me!