40K 10th Ed. Discussion Thread

[me_in_japan]

Plague Marines can now be taken in units of 7,

...and there was much rejoicing!

[The Other Dave]

Looks like PBC's are one of the few Indirect models that didn't get a points boost - guess they figured we need all the help we can get. 7-model plague marine units helps my eye-twitching vis a vis my third squad that didn't have enough special weapons for a full 10-pm squad, though.

[me_in_japan]

Hi folks I'm doing my best to wrap my head around how 10th ed works, here. I've been thinking about a DG list for the end of the month, and I'm starting to doubt my own thought processes.

Am I an idiot for running a 10 man Plague Marine squad as a melee choice? Like, give em 4 heavy plague weapons, plus the champion gets a HPW, 3 get Bubotic weapons, and 2 get melta guns (because rhino drive-by), led by a CSM nurgle lord w. lightning claws (because thats what I have) and a Foul Blightspawn (again, thats what I have).

Is this likely to be effective? Or should I be running them as a shooty unit? Or two units of 5? It doesn't need to be optimal, per se, as long as it's not going to be a total bust in terms of effectiveness.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts


ps.

For context, in terms of what minis I have, I'm looking at:

more Plague Marines (I have about 14 painted actual PM minis, but I also have 10 or so unpainted PMs, 7 chosen, 7 havocs and 7 raptors, all very nurgly. I intend to just mix and match these as plague marines, until a better solution presents itself. Weapon wysiwg can go hang.)
poxwalkers (10 painted, 20 not)
cultists (like, infinity, unpainted)
blightlord termis (7)
deathshroud (3)
Assorted vehicles (mostly painted, but no MBHs or lawnmower-variant flying doohickeys. I do have a FW heavy plague drone, though)
Assorted leaders (The ones I dont have are: Lord of Virulence, Tallyman, Biologus Putrifier)
daemons (nurglings, PBs, BoN, soulgrinder)

[The Other Dave]

That's exactly my plan, so I guess we'll see! The Blightspawn is apparently an especially good choice as it seems like Fights First is real good. (That does mean us using them against each other is maybe less of a test, but still. )

I think 10-man squads of plague marines will be better than two 5's with DG's current non-disgusting resilience in general, though.

[Jye Nicolson]

The way 10th is now, you have a tradeoff between taking full units to make the most of your characters , vs taking minimum size to have more units to run around and score points. And it is a tradeoff - I think both are good and a good list will probably have a mix.

Specifically for melee Plague Marines you'll need a plan to get them there to do the meleeing - do you have Rhinos or (even better) Land Raiders in that pile o'vehicles?

[The Other Dave]

Yeah, mine are in a rhino. At move 5 I wouldn't rate their changes of actually getting stuck in otherwise.

I'm sooort of thinking of picking up one of the Heresy-pattern land raiders, but TBH that's a plan that probably won't survive contact with "wanting to spend a bunch of money on Epic over the next few months". (I don't think I'll be able to think seriously about fielding terminators until I get one, though - I just wish the mdf place that made my gribbly rhino and PBC proxies made a similar thing for land raiders...)

[me_in_japan]

Ah, that's somewhat reassuring, at least. If it all goes wrong, I can at least blame it on the dice.

And aye, I have 3 rhinos and a landy*, so all should be fine on that front.

Muchas gracias for the helpful advice

*Not all in the same list, obviously.

[me_in_japan]

um, does this work the way I think it does?

Death Guard Helbrute
Infused with the Blessings of Nurgle: Each time this model
is selected to shoot or fight, after it has finished making its
attacks, select one enemy unit that was hit by one or more
of those attacks. Until the start of your next turn, that enemy
unit is always considered to be within Contagion Range of a
unit from your army.

Death Guard Chaos Lord
Desiccation Conduit (Aura): While an enemy unit is within
Contagion Range of this model, at the end of the turn, roll one
D6: on a 4+, that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

[Jye Nicolson]

um, does this work the way I think it does?

Death Guard Helbrute
Infused with the Blessings of Nurgle: Each time this model
is selected to shoot or fight, after it has finished making its
attacks, select one enemy unit that was hit by one or more
of those attacks. Until the start of your next turn, that enemy
unit is always considered to be within Contagion Range of a
unit from your army.

Death Guard Chaos Lord
Desiccation Conduit (Aura): While an enemy unit is within
Contagion Range of this model, at the end of the turn, roll one
D6: on a 4+, that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

No, because the DG Chaos Lord ability specifies "this model" so he has to do the job himself. The Helbrute just applies the army rule.

[The Other Dave]

About the shenaniganiest thing you can really do there is put the Lord in a unit of Plague Marines with an Icon, boost the unit's contagion range to 12" for a turn, and since he's in the unit spread it around that way. Probably not worth it just for the mortal wounds alone, and if you're going melee certainly not better than putting a Blightspawn in for fights first.

(The helbrute giving one target per turn -1T at range is not bad though! Not as universally good as it once was, but not bad.)