Daemons have seen a pretty large shift
in how their Codex works recently. Possibly one of the greatest
changes in 40k in the last few years. With the removal of Daemonic
Assault and the dramatic change around of points costs especially in
the Troops section, it's like we have a whole different army. Some
people like that, some people don't, but haters gonna hate, and I
like the new format.
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One of the biggest complaints amongst
Daemon players in 5th edition was that our Troops choices
were all bad. And yeah, they were. They weren't very durable (with
the exception of Plaguebearers, who were incapable of actually
damaging anything really) and they were all rather expensive.
Therefore, here seems like a good place to begin this blog's analysis
of the new(ish) Chaos Daemon Codex: Plaguebearers.
Rather than engaging with the new
format for this line, which is building lists around a unit, I am
going to be going through what changes have been made to the Troops
and how they impact their use on the tabletop. Let's face it, as
Troops you're probably not going to build a list around them as they
really don't have a specialist use, they are more there for objective
holding and complementing the rest of the army. This is especially
the case with Plaguebearers.
So, how do they differ. Blow-by-blow
first of all, going into more detail below: They now have a Ballistic
Skill, 3 rather than 0. However, they have also suffered a toughness
nerf from 5 to 4. They are now Leadership 7 rather than Leadership
10, which does matter, as they're now subject to Daemonic Instability
whilst losing the Fearless rule. Their Plagueswords come with a new
rule entitled, 'touch of rust'. They lose Feel No Pain but gain
Shrouded and Defensive Grenades. Their squad size is re-jigged and
they have a Sergeant option, who can take Lesser or Greater Daemonic
Gifts. The Instrument of Chaos is more expensive, but is also
completely different, the Chaos Icon is much cheaper, but works
pretty much the same. Additionally, they can take a Magic Flag. Oh,
and they are now 40% cheaper than what they used to be. See,
overhaul.
In 5th, Plaguebearers were
probably the most common Troops choice for Daemons because, 1. They
were the cheapest, and 2. They were the least terrible at holding
objectives. In the new edition they actually have some competition
for this, and so needed to get better.
The first thing to note is how good
they now are at holding objectives. Well, first off, you're forced to
invest more points into a squad to take them. In the old Codex it was
75pts for a minimum size squad, now it's 90, slightly more expensive,
but they you are getting 5 more Plaguebearers. So much better value
for points, but now you don't have that minimal squad is slightly
more expensive.
As I've mentioned, they do lose Feel No
Pain and they suffer from a reduced Toughness. However, Shrouded is
still absolutely fantastic. When looking to place objectives you're
generally going for terrain, even in area terrain these guys are
getting a 3+ cover save. Then think about an Aegis Defence Line, put
your Plaguebearers behind that and you effectively have 10
Terminators sitting on your objective (2+ cover save). They also
never run as you choose to pass or fail morale checks.
If you want, you can even put a Quad
Gun on that thing too, as Plaguebearers now have a BS, albeit it's
nothing special but with a Quad Gun you're getting on average 3 hits,
which isn't bad at all. Whether this is viable or not is another
matter but you're finding another use for your Plaguebearers for
another 50pts on top of your Aegis. Plus, with the Aegis you can
guarantee that cover save, without looking at the board. I'm not
entirely sure how long it is but I wouldn't be surprised if you could
place 2 objectives behind there if you played the placement right.
So they're pretty durable from
shooting, especially when taken with an Aegis Defence Line, but is
this also the case in combat? Not really no, unfortunately the loss
of FNP and T5 makes them much easier to kill in combat, they're only
T4 and only have a 5++ save. They do have a couple of little tricks
though. Firstly, a large squad will still take a while to eat
through, remember that they can take up to 20 guys, and their save is
invulnerable. They also come with Defensive Grenades, which is a big
boost limiting the amount of damage that your opponent can put out.
Plus your opponent is charging through cover most of the time, and if
they don't have Assault Grenades they're striking at I1, giving you
time to get out 20 4+ poisoned attacks, causing about 7.5 wounds most
of the time, but remember that most assault units will come with
Assault Grenades.
The basic principle here is, don't let
them near combat. Either smash your opponent so hard with the rest of
your army that they can't afford to come over and deal with your
Plaguebearers or try and take a unit to screen them and tie up
advancing units (I opt for smash).
That said, here is a nice point at
which to mention their Plaguesword's new rule, entitled, 'touch of
rust'. This is similar to the Gauss rule, and means that you always
glance vehicles on a 6. With 20 models that not too bad, but I don't
see it being used too often. A bit like Fear, which I probably should
have mentioned in the combat paragraph (and there's my point, it's
quite forgettable).
Plaguebearers also now come with a
Sergeant option, called a Plagueridden, who is only 5pts, and comes
with an extra attack, but most importantly Precision shot, so you can
put your Plagueridden on the Quad Gun on your Aegis and pick out
enemy characters. Ironically BS3 helps with this, as you're getting
more re-rolls and therefore more chances to roll 6s. Not bad for
5pts. I'd probably ignore the gifts though, they're a bit of a waste
on him.
Both the Instrument and Icon of Chaos
are now 10pts, but both now are slightly different. The Icon of Chaos
is pretty similar to last edition, allowing for safer Deep Strikes
for your units. It is also 60% cheaper than last edition, probably
due to the fact that your units are no longer forced to Deep Strike.
I probably wouldn't give this to the Plaguebearers too often if
you're sitting back, as the point of Deep Striking really is to get
into your opponents face fast and start doing some damage.
For those that played the last Codex,
you may remember that an Instrument of Chaos meant that if you drew a
combat then you counted as winning it by 1, a rarely used upgrade.
Here it is completely different. The first thing that it allows you
to do is escort a unit onto the board when Deep Striking. Dropping
down is tempting for Plaguebearers, as you may feel that you can
avoid some shooting that way, but then you risk mishap or scattering
beyond your cover. If you want to reserve them I'd go for the walk on
approach, so that's not particularly useful here. In addition, it has
some effect on the Warp Storm table, but only for certain rolls, such
as with Khorne's Wrath, where you get to re-roll a single dice. I
probably wouldn't take this on the Plaguebearers, it's not useful for
the Deep Strike but for the Warp Storm manipulation it is tempting. I
personally wouldn't take it as it's too specialised and random for
10pts.
No unit would be complete in a Games
Workshop book without a magic flag, and the Plaguebearers are no
exception. They are given the option of taking a Plague Banner, for
an additional 10pts on top of your Chaos Icon. As well as the buffs
given by the Icon, the banner can be popped (like a Wolf Banner) for
one assault phase, making the Plaguebearers weapons Poisoned (2+).
My feeling on this is that it's
actually pretty good. If you could take it without the Icon, I'd be
all over it like a tramp on chips, as your opponent may think twice
about charging them. However, I think that this effect is mainly
psychological. Running the maths. 20 Plaguebearers striking against
T4 power armour with the 2+.
10 hits, 8.3 recurring wounds, 2.7 dead
marines. As oppose to; 10 hits 5 wounds, 1.3 dead marines. Yes you're
doubling the number of dead marines but 2 x 1.3 still isn't very
high. And you have to take the crappy icon as well (crappy in this
context).
So, with the Plaguebearers, much better
than last edition all in all, especially considering that most armies
are shooty rather than choppy nowadays. Keep them away from combat
though, and keep them as cheap as you can, 90pts worth is good
enough. Remember to consider your cover, and don't rule out
Fortifications.
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