A preview of the Warhammer 40k 10th edition Death Guard army rules reveals the servants of Nurgle will continue to rot nearby enemies with their Aura of Contagion ability in the new edition. Other faction rules and toxic weapon and unit profiles were revealed in a Faction Focus article on the Warhammer Community website on Tuesday.
The WarCom article shows that Death Guard units in Warhammer 40k 10th edition project an Aura of Contagion across the battlefield, a toxic zone within which enemies are afflicted by Nurgle’s Gift and suffer -1 Toughness.
This ability existed in ninth edition, but the contagion has evolved to become more virulent and spreads out far wider than it did before. The Aura of Contagion will reach 3” around Death Guard models in the first battle round, creeping out to 9” by the third.
The first Death Guard Detachment revealed for Warhammer 40k 10th edition, the Plague Company, interacts with the Aura of Contagion. When the Plague Company claims an objective marker they ‘Infect’ it until your opponent can retake it. Infected objective markers remain under the Death Guard’s control even if they have no models contesting them, and project their own Aura of Contagion.
The article also shows the first 40k Stratagem for the Plague Company Detachment, Sanguous Flux, which for a single CP grants a Death Guard unit the Sustained Hits 1 Weapon Ability on its melee attacks, granting an additional hit on each to-hit roll of six. That increases to Sustained Hits 2 when the unit is within range of an Infected objective marker.
Datasheets revealed in the article show that Nurgle’s many vile toxins are represented with a variety of Weapon Abilities. The Blightlord Terminators’ Bubotic Blade, Blight Launcher, Plague Flail, and even Plague Combi-Bolter have the Lethal Hits Weapon Ability, automatically wounding on to-hit rolls of six. The flamethrower-like Plague Spewer automatically hits thanks to the Torrent ability, so it has the Anti-Infantry 2+ ability.
The article also shows two debuff abilities that should disrupt enemy plans. The new datasheet for the Malignant Plaguecaster has the Pestilent Fallout ability; should he wound an infantry unit with his psychic Plague-Wind attack, that unit suffers -2 to move and -2 to attack and charge rolls until your next turn.
The Plagueburst Mortar on the Plagueburst Crawler forces any Infantry it hits to take a Battle-shock test, whether or not they suffer casualties.
Most of the Faction Focus articles so far have revealed the datasheet for a battleline unit, but the Death Guard’s Plague Marines are still hiding. We’ve seen that the battleline units for other Warhammer 40k factions will be particularly effective at contesting objectives, and often have special interactions with their faction rules, like the Eldar Guardian Defenders’ ability to generate extra fate dice.