Horus Heresy Review: Marshal Durak Rask

The second of the two Death Guard HQ characters (who is not a primarch!) is Durak Rask. From the outset, I'll note that he's the traitor option. This is one of the really nice aspects of Betrayal: for each of the four main legions involved, there's the primarch and at least one loyalist HQ to play around with.

Unlike Morturg, he didn't survive Isstvan III. His background is one of being utterly loyal to Mortarion, and also being a regular of the seven-pillared lodge (the Death Guard analogue of the warrior lodge present in many other legions).

As a Marshal, he was in charge of the legion's Ordnance. Therefore it is of little surprise that the character is geared toward this flavour.

To be perfectly honest, Rask's character is a vehicle wrecker. His wargear (thunder hammer) and special rules (wrecker and tank hunters) back this up 100%. He also grants the warlord trait of target priority which is a real boon (multiplier even) when played alongside friendly units. Although he's probably not as good as a well thought-out praetor, he is worth taking in my opinion. Team him up with some legion tactical support squads or legion heavy support squads and see what happens when you shoot opponents off objectives. Move in to close combat (detaching from the squad in doing so perhaps) to mop up any final resistance. Job done. Worth taking.

Horus Heresy Review: Section Leader Crysos Morturg

Crysos Morturg is a loyalist HQ choice for the Death Guard. He has the unusual distinction of being an Isstvan III atrocity survivor, largely because he simply would not go down. This makes him the epitome of the Death Guard ethos in my book.

Hence as a loyalist Death Guard player, he would make an ideal HQ choice for Betrayal. To be fair, Morturg is a fairly "typical" space marine commander in terms of stats - nothing really note worthy about his stat line stands out to me to be honest. Not even an extra pip in toughness, much to my sadness!

What does set him apart is his combination of special rules. Alongside the usual Death Guard Astartes rules, he gets infiltrate, stubborn and Endurance (from biomancy) as a level 1 psyker. These are an interesting set of abilities, but not outstanding. If he confers the infiltrate to other loyalist death guard, this could be a good move to get some terminators up front and bring some serious hurt to enemy players.

Having said that, I actually think that a specifically tailored praetor would be a better choice all round as Morturg has a seemingly odd combination of abilities to some extent. Cost wise, I think he's about typical for his stats and equipment. The question is: what sort of leader do you want? If its a fluffy choice for an Isstvan III loyalist Death Guard force, then this guy will certainly do rather well. If not, then go for a praetor of your own design.

Horus Heresy Review: Mortarion the Reaper

Mortarion. Of all the primarchs, Mortarion had the toughest time before rediscovery by the Emperor. His time on Barbarous shaped him, his scions, and something of his adoptive homeworld's darkness seeped in to his very soul somewhere along the way.

In the background to Warhammer 40k, Mortarion is portrayed as the toughest of the lot of them. He is readily able to shrug off injury. And just to prove how darn tough he is, he has a greater that emits whisps of Barbarous' atmosphere wherever he goes so he can always smell home. (Yeah, I think that's a bit odd as well).  On top of this, he is also shadowy and rather sinister. With his scythe, he looks like the embodiment of Terran death myths.

Do these facets come across in the rules for Mortarion in 30k? For me, they do.

Starting with his stat line, he has a high toughness that we've come to expect from Death Guard and some select primarchs (T=7), coupled with more wounds than a Great Unclean One (W=7), and a 2+/4+ save. But more than this, he re-rolls any failed "it will not die" rolls! That means that 55.5% of the time, he's regaining 1 wound per turn ... assuming that he somehow managed to take *any* wounds in the first place. On top of this, his immunity to poisons ensure that rules that score wounds on him based on a flat stat line only activate on a 6. So if you want him dead, I hope you've got a titan to tread on top of him. He is also able to employ his shadowry reaper fluff via redeploying a whopping 10" in a shooting phase, lining up his next assault. With The Lantern and Silence, he will slay many a marine who stands in his way.

But more than that, he is a minor force multiplier, adding poisoned to certain weapons (most excitingly for me, havoc launchers and frag missiles!), as well as spreading stubborn to his sons.

In all, this means that Mortarion is a strong assault orientated primarch (not quite Angron, who is a pure melee specialist), and is a minor force multiplier (nowhere near the potential of Alpharius for instance). But he is also going to last the entire game in all probability. This means that defensive manoeuvres can be successfully employed and "Take and Hold" strategies will become very easy. But to be honest, if you're taking Mortarion, he should be getting in to close combat rather than just sitting on an objective inside a land raider. Team him up with some of his body guard (heaps of sweep attacks if possible!) and go hunt anything in the game you like. And see if he can outlast a titan. (Let me know how that goes). 

Horus Heresy Review: Deathshroud Terminator Squad

Every legion has its own iteration on the terminator squad - the Deathshroud are the Death Guard's. More than that though, they form Mortarion's personal guard and are never more then 49 paces away (which is, of course, 7 x 7 paces, and as some of my readers will know: 7 is the "sacred number" of Nurgle -- what a coincidence!).

In essence, they're terminators with 2 wounds, always scoring (despite being HQs) and come armed with deathshroud power scythes (also known as manreapers) and hand flamers with chem-munitions (i.e. a flamer with shred and gets hot!).  The scythes are interesting: the deathshroud may replace their natural number of attacks for a number equal to the number of enemy models in base contact with them and perform a sweep attack.  Lots of S5 AP2 attacks are deadly to most units in 40k and can certainly bust light transport tanks.

I see them in two roles: (a) as shock troops, and an escort for a terminator praetor, even Mortarion himself; (b) a deep-striking nuisance unit that can disrupt back lines and claim objectives with near impunity.

Here's a couple of example builds:

4 Deathshroud terminators, melta bombs, Land Raider Phobos dedicated transport with frag assault launchers (450 points)

This is a real points sink, but could be very worthwhile.  Attach the Death Guard praetor or Mortarion himself and go forth and assault the heart of the enemy, especially large hordes of elites and opposing terminators.  

3 Deathshroud terminators, melta bombs (145 points)

A reasonable price for a small unit of genuine nuisance that demands to be dealt with by any opponent.  Not invincible, but opponents will think twice before charging them.  Run a couple of these squads via deep strike and disrupt the enemy.  Charge any objective holders as Mortarion commands.  Take, control and hold said objectives in the late game.

10 Deathshroud terminators (410 points)
The full squad. All 20 wounds of it. To be used when deep striking is permitted, or if you have a crazily big points limit. Their major problem is being in the right place at the right time, but otherwise this is a very scary unit on the board!

Horus Heresy Review: Death Guard Legion Rules

Victory through attrition, determination, and masters of darker weaponry, the Death Guard fought in the most hellish conditions and forged themselves to be a set of implacable fighters. To me, they have a highly interesting background (since I freely admit I'm a long term Death Guard player / Plague Marine player). Out of all of the legions, they fell hard to become the thing that they most fought against: terrors of the grimdark. But before then, the loyal Death Guard were pretty amazing, as attested to on Isstvan III and other theatres of war. They just don't give up, even in hopeless situations, and will carry on slogging it out.

The special rules for this legion reflect this character.

Firstly, they are remorseless. This is a very strong boon for the legion and means they never need take a fear or pinning test. Remember that in 30k, "And They Shall Know No Fear" is not around, hence the ability to ignore fear effects (as generated by primarchs, and certain other units / cf. Night Lords!) can be very valuable. Considering all the ordnance weapons around, the immunity to pinning is also handy. Clearly its not the full fearless rule that we're familiar with, but its a close second.

Because they are Sons of Barbarus (and even the Terran ones have been forced to participate in battlefields of similar hellishness conditions), they can re-roll and dangerous terrain checks for anything vaguely toxic, sludgish or muddy. This isn't going to come in to play too often, but for Isstvan III campaigns it might prove useful once in the odd while -- particularly if an objective is in the middle of some mysterious terrain (cf. the mysterious river table on page 165 of Betrayal).

To balance out these advantages, they are also intractable which means they have to reduce their sweeping advance rolls.

Much like the World Eaters and Emperor's Children, they also gain access to some unique upgrade equipment.

With their Chem Munitions, they can (optionally) freely upgrade flamers (of all kinds) to be shredding at the peril of gets hot. This is a rational transaction for some units (e.g., Tactical Support squads -- especially if they are drop podding in), and maybe tanks, but it may not be for all units.

And then there are the power scythes. These are not a bad option instead of power fists - especially for handling large blobs of marines, or even terminators. But they're not going to be useful against vehicles much. Hence one needs to think carefully about why you want this upgrade -- especially if its only on the squad sergeant. Sure, the reason may be its fluffy and that's all good! But its worth thinking about.

Horus Heresy Review: Captain Saul Tarvitz

Mounting the defence on Isstvan III, Tarvitz may have been one of the most important loyalists in the traitor forces. Stealing a thunderhawk, he warned the other loyalists and helped them survive the traitor's machinations. In this, he excelled. But unlike the other Emperor's Children, he was mediocre and didn't share their push for betterment -- especially his own betterment as he was fairly content with his lot in the Legion.

Tarvitz is one of the cheaper named characters in the Horus Heresy books, on par with an under-powered praetor. Losing a pip in BS and A, Tarvitz gains a charnabal broadsword, a sniper rifle, and a refractor field. In addition, he has preferred enemies of the traitor Emperors Children. I feel these exchanges almost balance out the stat line losses and his points value is almost comparable to an upgraded praetor with comparable equipment. Almost. In regular games, he is probably over-price slightly. In games featuring Isstvan III legions, he is probably slightly under-costed. Give or take a bit.

Hence, I would regard Tarvitz as a fluffy choice for the loyalists on Isstvan III, and a reasonable alternative to a (not highly upgraded) praetor that also provides Master of the Legion to give access to the rites of war, and with a set warlord trait. One could probably tailor something better to your own play style, but he is certainly an option for those looking to recreate an Isstvan III army.