Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
The Better Half was less than impressed when I explained that, yes, I did have this book already, but that this was an updated version with new rules and...stuff.
"Well, at least you'll actually use this one." She said, indicating my growing Death Guard army on my shelves.
"Yeah, and I've got almost all the miniatures I need for it, too!"
"Almost?!!"
"Ooh, look what the cat's doing over there, isn't that cute?!!"
Ahem.
So, having got my hot and sticky little hands* on the new edition of the Death Guard Codex I thought I'd see how it stacks up against the previous edition. For once, I can look at a Codex from the point of view of a proper collector/gamer as I do have a decent-sized Death Guard army that I'm working on (more on that next week) so I figured I could see how the new edition affects the army I am building.
So, first up, a little bit of a review of the new book, and a look back at how it stacks up against its predecessor.
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| See, not the same book at all... |
The first and most obvious thing you'll notice if you compare the two books is the new one is significantly thinner. DG1 is 104 pages, whereas DG2 is 96, and that's a bit of an issue for me. DG2 is £5 more expensive than DG1, which means you're paying 20% more for a considerable cut in content. What's more, when you look at the other Codexes so far released, at the same price as this one, the Necron book is 120 pages, the Adeptus Astartes one is a whopping 204 pages. Even the Space Wolves supplement is 88 pages, and that's only £17.50... You can't help feeling a little short-changed here, especially when you see what's been excised from the book.
DG1 has 51 pages of background: timelines, colour schemes, history, and details of all the troop types and characters; DG2 has just 20 pages. It wouldn't be so bad if some of the descriptive text had maybe been moved to the datasheets section but no, it's just gone. There's one less page in the miniatures showcase section, too, and the example army spread has gone. There's more text in the showcase pages meaning there's less pictures of actual miniatures although there are some individual shots in the datasheets section, which is a little jarring, if I'm being picky. Why stick a whole page of Plague Marine miniature photos opposite the datasheet when it could have gone in the showcase section as it was? Why add photos to the bottom of the Terminators pages, but not to other pages, like the Defiler, where there's a faded illustration instead? Other aesthetic things irritate, too. Some of the datasheets have photos of the miniature to illustrate them, others do not. Okay, some of those that don't have photos don't have Death Guard-specific miniatures available, like th Predator and Land Raider, but neither do the Chaos Cultists, and they get a photo. I know it's a minor, niggling thing but it smacks of a lack of thought and lazy design, and neither of those things should apply when you're paying these sort of prices.
At least in the rules section we get a lot more in this version, with new rules for Matched Play, Detachment Abilities, Stratagems, Deadly Pathogens, Contagion Disciplines and a big chunk of Crusade rules. These are well-presented and easy to negotiate, and give a lot of much-needed flavour to the army. The datasheets are nicely laid out, too, and include one for the new Miasmic Malignifier scenery piece. Don't expect to find the datasheets for any of the Nurgle Daemons though, as they aren't here (which, of course, means you'll have to buy another book later if you want to field Daemons alongside your Death Guard army...)
One major positive change is in the layout of the points tables. Each unit now has associated upgrades listed with it, which means you don't have to keep flipping back to the datasheet to reference your available options when working out your points cost.
So, to sum up: the new Death Guard Codex is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it does contain everything you need in order to field your army (except for all those daemons, of course) it misses out on a lot of the things that should be in there, especially at this price tag. I'm not usually one to complain about GW's pricing choices (although I do think most of the single figures are overpriced) but the price of this book really sticks in my craw, especially when compared to others in the range. Either up the page count to the size of at least the Necron book, or drop the damn price.
So, with that out of the way, what of my own nearly complete army? How does the arrival of the new book change things? Well, not an awful lot, actually, at least in terms of putting units together and getting them ready to paint and play with. My army is probably not very strategically organised (I've not bothered to think about detachments, Pathogens, etc. at the moment) as I'm basically just putting together the miniatures I have, and adding in the other ones I want later**. I've never been one for planning an army based on how to win, rather on what miniatures I want in my collection, so I'm fairly sure that the army I have (and the additions I have planned) isn't even legal but, hey-ho, it's not like I'll ever enter a tournament anyway... If you want to get a really good overview of the tactical and organisational changes, I heartily recommend this article over on Goonhammer. They know what they're talking about much more than I do...
One of the major changes (at least, that has affected the way I organise my collection) has been the change to the way weapon upgrades are available to Plague Marine squads. Whereas before you could have, for example, up to two plasma guns in any Plague Marine squad, now you can have only one per five models. This means that my 7-man squads, one with two Blight Launchers and one with two Plasma Guns, are now illegal, unless I increase the unit sizes to 10 each. It's no biggie, really, as I can just swap one miniature over from each squad, but it has lost a little bit of character to the units, I feel. So, with these things in mind, here's how my army stacks up at the moment:
HQ
Typhus
Lord of Contagion
ELITES
Noxious Blightbringer
Tallyman
Plague Surgeon
Foul Blightspawn
Biologus Putrifier
TROOPS
Plague Marines (7 inc. Champion with Plasma Gun and Power Fist, 1x Plasma Gun, 1x Blight Launcher, 1x Icon of Despair)
Plague Marines (7 inc. Champion with Plague Blade and Power Fist, 1x Plasma Gun, 1x Blight Launcher, 1x Sigil of Decay)
Poxwalkers (20)
Poxwalkers (20)
Chaos Cultists (10 inc. Flamer)
Cultists (10 inc. Heavy Stubber)
FAST ATTACK
2x Myphitic Blight Haulers
2x Foetid Bloat Drones with 2x Plaguespitters
HEAVY SUPPORT
Plagueburst Crawler with 2x Plaguespitters, Heavy Stubber
Plagueburst Crawler with 2x Entropy Cannon, Rothail Gun
TOTAL POINTS: 2289 (I think)
Later on I'm going to add one of the new Lords of Virulence, a squad made up of the Space Marine Heroes set (I also want to get the Malignant Plaguecaster that goes with that set, too, but he's going to be a bugger to get hold of for a reasonable price...) and I'd like to get one squad of Blightlord Terminators and one squad of Deathshroud Terminators. I'd also love a Helbrute and Defiler, but I really wish they'd come up with Nurgle-specific miniatures for them. I also want all my units to be eventually mounted in transports but, being that I'd need at least two Land Raiders and five Rhinos (or equivalent) to mount everything, that may never happen, especially as, again, there's no Nurgle-specific miniatures available, and third-party conversion kits are really expensive. Talking of expensive, there's always Mortarion, too...
Okay, that's it for now. Next week I'll be showing off my first painted Death Guard miniatures, as well as a painting guide for them.
Thanks for reading!
-Stu
*Possibly not the best phrase to use when dealing with Nurgle...
**Don't tell The Better Half...
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