2.5/5 stars, rounded down. Only 1 trait out of 3 will be seen on the battlefield outside of specific builds, and only 1 rite out of 2 will be played at all. That rite is hideously over-powered as well, and only for the traitors.
Warlord Traits.
Death Guard commanders have 3 warlord traits to pick between, with one of them being traitor only.
The Reaper's Visage. They look like death and are able to channel the Primarch's terrible gaze. As a result, the enemy gets -2 to Ld tests within a large bubble. This is surprisingly strong but doesn't affect those accompanied by independent characters or other Primarchs. Nice assault reaction bonus too, but I suspect the utility of this won't be high since it demands an assault based army which the Death Guard are generally not. Suitable for a front line praetor I guess? From experience though, it can shine in lower points value games.
Witch Hunter. Very fluffy for the Death Guard. But also very situational. The bonuses against psykers during combat (WS and T) are great and the large bubble invulnerable save against powers cast at them is superb. But unless you're facing Thousand Sons, or maybe certain Word Bearers builds, its not going to be that great. Bonus for assault is fine, but again, this feels like an assault trait for a gunline army.
The Blood of Barbarus. Fluffy again, and this time much better. This destroys bonuses due to rending, murderous strike, and fleshbane on a roll of anything but a 6 against the warlord and his unit. The bonus in the shooting phase is strong. This will be the default trait for all Death Guard commanders.
Rites of War.
The Reaping. Get heavy support squads as non-compulsory troops as well as veterans as troops. This is a great way of loading up on the heavy weapons as well as toolkit veterans. Beautiful really! Rad grenades for a steal of points available to all characters is amazing - get it on all your terminators. But the problem here are the downsides. No deepstriking, flanking, underground assault, no run moves, and NO REACTIONS IN MOVEMENT are a terrible combination. You're just not going to take this rite of war in anything other than a static gunline army. Perhaps you like the idea of a static Death Guard gunline. I don't - I feel it needs to take advantage of some of its terminators myself. Hence this rite probably won't see much play sadly - the negatives are just far too strong in comparison to the boons.
Creeping Death. The Death Guard bombard the battlefield before play and turn all those nice trees and forests into hideous death traps. The Death Guard don't mind this because they grew up on Barbarus in the main part (certainly after the events of Isstvan 3 where the Terrans were expunged, this became the norm). It results in passing dangerous terrain checks, making their deployment zone difficult and dangerous and those marines in it get a shrouded save; all area terrain becomes dangerous, and grave warden terminators get to be chosen as troops. The army has to have a Centurion or a Siege Breaker, and this rite is for Traitors only. Honestly, this is really strong, and pretty much in the category of you're not making any friends. It is your default choice.
I wish there were a half-way house between the above two, the first is poor, the second is over-powered.
Difference to First Edition.
Lots of change present here since the original Death Guard was released the maximum number of years ago (i.e., in 2014!). I therefore won't be commenting in depth considering those rules were also in 7th edition 40k style. Suffice to say that I'm mainly unimpressed with the selection here and there's only 1 trait and 1 rite you will be taking in the main part unless you're building a witch hunter Death Guard or something?
1 comment:
I agree about the rite of war being overpowered, I think they were trying to recreate at traitor version of the Dark Angels Dreadwing rite of war but went a little OTT
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