In this article series we’re taking a look at the vehicle options available to each faction, looking at what they can do on the table, and talking about when and how to field them. You can find our Competitive Faction Focus article on the Death Guard here.
After the release of the tenth edition version of Codex: Death Guard, the faction suddenly finds itself in possession of the game’s best vehicles – a slate of cheap, durable, relatively fast vehicles that can punch well above their weight and are ideal for holding objectives, picking off bigger units, and zipping around the table to support what you’re doing. While Death Guard are traditionally a slow army, it’s very easy and rewarding to build an entire list of units which move 10″ or have Transports, making them surprisingly fast on the table. And the Mortarion’s Hammer Detachment gives you all the excuse you need to run the army that way.
The Death Guard monsters and vehicles are presented here in alphabetical order by datasheet name. In this article we’ll look at each of them, examine their value, and talk about when and how to use them.
Changelog
- Update (Latest): 2025-06-27 for the Codex
- Update: 2024-08-15 for the June 2024 Balance Update
- Update: 2024-02-18 for the Q1 2024 Balance Dataslate
- Published: 2023-12-29
Death Guard Daemon Prince
The Death Guard Daemon Prince is one of the game’s most durable units, sporting Toughness 12, 10 wounds, and a 2+/4++ save. And that’s before you add on the fact that he has Lone Operative whenever he’s within 3″ of an INFANTRY unit. The foot Daemon Prince is by far the better of your two options, in part because he gives friendly units within 6″ the benefit of cover but mostly because he can drop the cost of a Stratagem used on a friendly unit within 12″ once per battle round. That’s massive for popping those key 2 CP Stratagems on the first turn of the game, and this is primarily important with Mortarion, where you want him to be able to use Disgustingly Resilient for Damage reduction early and often.
The Daemon Prince is no slouch in combat, either – he sports 7 Attacks with lethal hits on his Strike, and as those only have AP-2 you’ll want Rattlejoint Ague to help ensure they convert into damage. The DP’s sweep is still only 1 damage and so is a bit more limited in value, but on the whole this guy is a must-take in Virulent Vectorium lists, where he can be given Revolting Regeneration Enhancement to gain a Feel No Pain 5+ ability, turning him into a mini Mortarion. This also makes him a great target for Leechspore Eruption.
That said, if you’re taking a Daemon Prince, it’s this one, and it’s for the CP reduction. Having both him and a Tallyman gives you some solid coverage when it comes to Command Points, and that’s about all Death Guard get.
Death Guard Daemon Prince with Wings
The winged variant comes with T11 but 12″ Movement and FLY, and tardes out his Lone Operative, CP reduction, and cover abilities for Horrifying Visage – forcing Battle-shock tests at -1 when he charges, and Enfeebling Miasma – forcing desperate escape tests on units that fall back within 6″ of him. These just aren’t good enough abilities and the Winged Daemon Price just doesn’t offer anything you want compared to the foot one.
Death Guard Defiler
A walking tank that combines the firepower of a predator with the fighting prowess of a Dreadnought, the Defiler is an interesting unit. At T11 and 14 wounds with a 5+ invulnerable save it’s the fourth-toughest unit in the army, and it packs a solid suite of ranged weapons with its Lethal Hits Battle Cannon, Twin Lascannon, and Defiler Claws. The usual loadout you want on this guy is Twin Lascannon + Scourge to give him the best combination of ranged and melee output.
The Defiler comes with two abilities:
- Barrage of Filth removes the benefit of Cover from one unit hit by the Defiler in the shooting phase, which is amazing for powering up the rest of your army and getting even more value out of Rattlejoint Ague.
- Scuttling Walker lets him walk over friendly monster/vehicle units and terrain features that are 4″ or less in height. Moving over your vehicles is helpful, but that 4″ terrain rule will almost never come into play – the only ruins that are 4″ or less in height I’ve seen used on tables are the Ork ruins from the Octarius boxed set, and no one likes using those. This means you’re mostly going to be stuck navigating around terrain with the Defiler.
And that brings us to the Defiler’s biggest weakness: Its base. Following the most recent Tournament Companion, the Defiler now has to use a 160mm base. That’s massive, and adds a good inch or so in length to the model and a half inch to the width, making it much harder for the Defiler to clear terrain gaps with an 8″ move.
If you’re taking a Defiler, you want to take one of them – and at 165 points, they’re pretty efficiently costed – and only in a Mortarion’s Hammer Detachment, where they can move through walls via a Stratagem. That said, even with moving through walls, you’ll struggle to get the entire base across terrain give it’s 6.3″ long. Defilers had a brief run as a 3-of unit in Hammer but with the base requirement you’re better off taking other units.
Death Guard Helbrute
The Death Guard Helbrute is a relatively standard Chaos Dreadnought in terms of statline – 7″ movement, T9, 2+ save, 8W – but comes with a few extra quirks that make it worth consideration as a cheap and versatile vehicle in your arsenal. The Helbrute has two abilities:
- Diseased Malice gives it +1 to wound against Afflicted units, which is particularly great in a Mortarion’s Hammer Detachment where you can afflict units at a distance.
- Froth-spattered Frenzy gives it +2 attacks to each of its melee weapons if it comes equipped with two melee weapons on top of its close combat weapon.
This gives you some versatility to pick whether you want to go ranged or melee, but you can also still benefit from both rules if you give it a pair of power fists with Heavy Flamers, and that’s a fun area where having 2D6 S5 AP-1 TORRENT gun shots with +1 to wound can suddenly be very good when you combine it with Rattlejoint Ague to make it effectively AP-2 with ignores cover and -1 to enemy toughness. It’s pretty easy to get 2+ to wound this way against a target you’re planning to charge, or 4+ against vehicles that are T10 or less.
There are some additional surprises with the Helbrute’s guns as well – he has Lethal Hits on his Plasma Cannon, Multi-melta, and Twin Autocannon, and his Twin Autocannon is inexplicably S10 instead of S9, giving it some added punch at range against Afflicted targets. For my money however the most effective way to run this guy is with a pair of power fists sporting heavy flamers so he can act as a melee threat dishing out 7 attacks after a deluge of heavy flamer attacks.
Death Guard Land Raider
The Death Guard Land Raider offers a tough (T12, 16W, 2+ save) vehicle capable of carrying 14 marines or 7 terminators with a 10″ move and the Assault Ramp rule to let them charge after disembarking. It comes with four lascannons and a twin-linked plague heavy bolter, plus the option for a couple of extra weapons on top. As always the Land Raider has always been too expensive to be a shoot platform with only three guns, too slow to be a good transport, and now that you can deep strike Deathshroud Terminators in from 6″ away and charge, there’s just no reason to field one. It’s not terrible, but you shouldn’t play one unless you’re doing a theme list that’s heavy on Blightlords.
Death Guard Predator Annihilator
If you’re really looking for extra ranged anti-vehicle support, this is an option to consider. A cheap, fast vehicle, The Annihilator comes with two lascannons and a twin-linked S14 lascannon up top. It has some extra punch in that after it shoots an enemy vehicle in your shooting phase they take D3 mortal wounds on a 5+, or a 4+ if they’re Afflicted. This is fine, but realistically you want to take Plagueburst Crawlers for anti-vehicle punch now that Entropy Cannons are 36″ range, or just go with the Destructor, which offers more versatility with its Autocannon (and Lethal Hits helps make up for only being S10).
Death Guard Predator Destructor
The more infantry-focused variant of the Predator, the Destructor trades out its twin lascannon for a S10, 3-damage AP-1 autocannon with Rapid Fire 2 and Lethal Hits. You generally want to give these lascannons in the sponsons but having the extra guns on top – a combi-bolter and a havoc launcher – let you split fire to make the most of its Hail of Corrosive Disease rule. After it shoots, you can pick an enemy unit it hit and attacks targeting that unit from friendly DEATH GUARD units get +1 to their AP. This is huge, and can quickly lead to some very silly results when you combine it with Rattlejoint Ague and stripping cover via a Defiler. Even on smaller units it can be deadly – tag the unit about to be shot by your Deathshroud with a Havoc Launcher and suddenly they’re firing off AP-2 ignores cover snot pistols.
There’s a time coming soon where we’ll likely see Bloat-drones get nerfed and in that world, Predator Destructors become a go-to unit in the army.
Death Guard Rhino
There isn’t much to say about Death Guard Rhinos in particular – they’re amazing transports and well worth their cost. They significantly improve the mobility and durability of your plague marines while acting as amazing decoys and move blockers once they’ve been emptied out. You generally want one for every ten plague marines in your army, and they can hold Poxwalkers now as well, making them even more versatile. They’re also just fine to use with Firing Deck, and taking one with two Malignant Plaguecasters tucked inside to act as a weird murderous razorback isn’t a bad strategy.
The new rule for Chaos Rhinos in Codex Death Guard adds some additional cause to take them: In your Shooting phase, after this model hits something with a ranged attack, you can tag that unit and for the rest of the phase, friendly models that disembarked that turn re-roll wounds against it. This is much better than healing a single wound per turn, and can really up the output of a unit of ten plague marines with two attached characters, letting them punch up into nastier targets.
Generally speaking, you want keep your Plague Marines inside their transport until they absolutely need to exit, either to take out some target, because you are being threatened by a unit who might charge and wrap your transport (and especially if you want to overwatch them), or because you need to split up. Leaving the unit inside keeps them safe and turns the transport into a kind of hateful piñata – an opponent killing one on an objective will suddenly find the objective much harder to take as it now has more bodies and OC on it. Even after your Plague Marines get out, the Rhino still acts as a wonderful, semi-durable, fast unit which can range around the table doing actions, blocking movement, and scoring VP.
Rhinos are great and if you’re taking Plague Marines you want enough Rhinos to fit all of them. Load them up with Havoc Launchers and Combi-weapons and plague bolters and remember to use them for the occasional extra pot shot to chip away at enemy health. Once their passengers disembark, use them to bully opponents, either contesting objectives, charging units that don’t want to be tagged, or running up to project contagion aura on units which otherwise might be out of range.
Foetid Bloat-Drone
The Foetid Bloat-Drone is a 10″ Move Flying vehicle with T9, 10W, and a 3+/5++ save. It’s a relatively fast and feisty vehicle that comes with the ability to shoot and charge after Falling Back. These come in two varieties: The Fleshmower is the melee version, giving you 10 attacks at WS3+, S7, AP-1, 2 damage. While the Two Plaguespitters give you 2D6 S6 AP-1 1-damage Ignores Cover / Torrent / Anti-Infantry 2+ shots at 12″ range.
These are fine, and primarily valuable because they’re cheap and useful. The Fleshmower can feel a bit anemic at times – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve managed to only score five hits on those ten attacks – but it’s still a solid unit for its cost and the twin plaguespitter variant can cause its share of problems as well, and is more or less completely unhindred by charges. At the very least, these guys make great, fast, OC 3 objective holders and action doers.
So Bloat-Drones aren’t incredible fighters or shooters. But for only 90 points, they don’t have to be – they’re well worth that cost for a unit which can move quickly to project a contagion aura, leave combats with no penalty, and fight or shoot just well enough that opponents have to deal with it. Many successful lists have run some of these to support the heavy blight launcher variety, and they’re not bad additions to a list looking for a way to spend its last 90 points without adding another unit of Plague Marines. Did we mention they’re only 90 points?
Foetid Bloat-Drone with Heavy Blight Launcher
This is one of the best units in the game right now. Your army needs three of them. Every Death Guard army. Start your list with three of these. This unit has everything the regular Bloat-Drone brings to the table, but attached to one of the game’s best guns – the Heavy Blight Launcher is now a S10 AP-2, 3-damage gun that fires D6+2 BLAST shots at 36″ range with Lethal Hits. That’s just insanely good on a vehicle which costs only 100 points. It combos with the Lord of Virulence, and it’s just the right damage point for killing the hordes of 3-wound infantry choking up boards while also being able to reliably punch up into vehicles, especially if they’re Afflicted and suffering -1 to their Toughness and saves.
There isn’t a lot to say here – these are mobile enough to zip around terrain and find angles on anything foolish enough to step out, and your only concern should be making sure they don’t get destroyed before they have a chance to focus down a key target. Their Explosive Blight ability can let them potentially afflict units at range near a target they killed, but it’s not something you really need to focus on or think about in most games.
Great Unclean One
The Greater Daemon of Nurgle is one of the most durable units in the game, sporting T13 (with his aura), 22 wounds, a 4+ invulnerable save, and a 6+ Feel No Pain. He’s an OK but somewhat swingy melee fighter with a Bilesword – he only has 6 attacks at AP-2, and those really need the boost from Rattlejoint Ague to get there. The Great Unclean One has two abilities – his Aura improves the Toughness of friendly PLAGUE LEGIONS units within 6″ by 1, making him T13 effectively, and Nurgles Rot lets you pick a unit at the end of the movement phase within 12″ (no line of sight required), and it gets -1 Toughness until the start of your next Movement phase. That’s pretty great, and notably stacks with your Contagion to drop a model’s toughness by 2. This is huge on TITANIC knights and big tanks like Rogal Dorns, where you can drop them down to a more manageable toughness value before just wiping them off the table with focused firepower.
The Great Unclean One is pretty good! But unfortunately the Tallyband Summoners Detachment just isn’t, and it’s primarily because Plaguebearers just aren’t very good in the army. And also because your army is just chock full of other, better options that make it more enticing to take Plague Marines and mortal followers of Nurgle. That said, if you want to run Tallyband, taking one of these is a solid strategy.
Mortarion
The Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard is one of the most interesting units in the game. He’s also one of the most durable – with T12, a 2+/4++ save, 16W, and a 5+ Feel No Pain, Mortarion can be very difficult to shift, particularly if he’s also being protected by the Disgustingly Resilient Stratagem in the Virulent Vectorium Detachment. Mortarion also comes with a 10″ Movement characteristic, FLY, and OC 6, making him one of your faster units and very good at stealing objectives and bullying other units of them. Mortarion saw a bit of a glow-up to his damage output in the Codex, with Lantern going to S10, and his melee weapons going to D6+1 damage on the strike profile with Devastating Wounds and his sweep gaining Sustained Hits 1 and moving to S8, AP-2, 2 damage. This makes Mortarion much, much nastier in melee and able to scythe through hordes of medium infantry fairly easily, especially with Rattlejoint Ague boosting his effective AP.
On top of that, Mortarion’s aura abilities have changed, and they’re still very good, albeit very different from the index:
- Host of Plagues activates at the end of your Movement phase, letting you roll a D6 for each enemy unit within 6″ of Mortarion, adding 1 if they’re Afflicted. On a 3+, that enemy unit takes D3 mortal wounds.
- His Lord of the Death Guard ability activates once per turn, and gives you one of the following abilities, all reactive:
- Diseased Influence gives one friendly Death Guard unit within 6″ the ability to make a 5″ Normal move when an enemy unit finishes a Normal, Advance, or Fall Back move within 9″ of them. This is the best of these abilities, and gives you a ton of versatility and additional movement with what is otherwise a slow army. You can use it to move out of trouble, block movement with units like Poxwalkers or Chaos Spawn, or push Mortarion himself forward.
- Boon of Death lets a friendly Death Guard unit within 6″ fight on death on a 2+ in melee. If you don’t end up using the reactive move, this is a very solid ability to use on Mortarion if you think he’s about to bite it, and a great way to ensure he punishes any unit capable of finishing him off.
- Inflamed Reprisal lets a friendly Death Guard unit within 6″ shoot as if it were the Shooting phase after they’ve been shot by an enemy unit. They have to shoot the unit that shot them. This is probably the least useful of these, if only because it requires you to survive the shooting attack, but it’s good to have if the other two abilities aren’t going to be relevant that turn – though usually you’re pushing forward pretty hard with Mortarion.
Mortarion is very good. He’s priced fairly, and while that’s a disadvantage in an army with so many undercosted units, he’s got a lot of value in a Virulent Vectorium list, primarily because you get access to Disgustingly Resilient (and you’ll want a Daemon Prince nearby to reduce cost on it), and the Leechspore Eruption stratagem, which allows him to heal wounds and deal mortals to enemy units at the same time. There isn’t a more demoralizing play in the game than rolling 10D6 for Mortarion and doing 4-5 mortals to an enemy unit and going back up to 10 wounds as a result.
Myphitic Blight-Haulers
These cute little monsters come in units of 1-2 and while they aren’t as fast as they used to be they still offer mobile (10″ move), durable units (T9, 10W, 3+/5++ save) armed with a multi-melta and a missile launcher. They come with the Tank Hunters rule, which gives them +1 to hit and wound against VEHICLE and MONSTER targets, and that, combined with LETHAL HITS on their Multi-Meltas makes them one of the game’s sneakiest and most reliable big game hunters. They combo well with a Lord of Virulence, where re-rolling 1s to hit is just fine given they’ll be hitting on 2s, and they’re surprisingly good in melee with 4 S6 AP-1 attacks which will typically end up being AP-2 with Rattlejoint Ague.
Blight-Haulers are a remarkably competitive pick and many lists run 2-3 of them. You can run them in units of two as well, and they’re most likely to show up in lists running Mortarion’s Hammer, Flyblown Host, and Virulent Vectorium, but bringing along 1-2 is never a bad call once you’ve got your three Heavy Blight Launcher Bloat-Drones.
Plagueburst Crawler
Last on our list but certainly not least is the Plagueburst Crawler, which is still arguably one of the best vehicles in the Death Guard arsenal. The PBC offers a mobile (10″ move, an upgrade from 9th edition), tough body (T10, 2+/5++ save, 12W) with OC 3 and comes with a Plagueburst Mortar, your choice of rothail volley gun/heavy slugger, and either two entropy cannons or two plaguespitters.
There were to big upgrades to the PBC in the Codex:
- Entropy Cannons now have 36″ range, making them super effective semi-lascannons again, and
- The new Spore-laced Shock Waves ability improves their mortars. Now in the shooting phase, when you target the mortar at an enemy unit, before resolving shots, roll a D6 for each enemy unit within 3″ of that unit, adding 1 if the unit being rolled for is Afflicted, and on a 6+, that unit takes D3 mortal wounds after you finish resolving all of the model’s attacks. This is great. It’s a fun added bonus that will typically net you 6-9 mortal wounds per game with three PBCs firing every turn, and it forces opponents to spread out. It combos amazingly well with the Mortarion’s Hammer Detachment, in which you can afflict units far away and reap the benefits early.
The Plagueburst Crawler’s big downside is that it’s expensive. At 195 points, it’s a lot to run three in your army, and if you’re running them, you want three. The upside is that the Plagueburst Mortar is just an insanely good mortar, and will single-handedly win you games. It’s best used early for killing annoying INFANTRY units that make for good action and objective holding, particularly if they can uppy-downy. Scouts and Flesh Hounds are your first targets when it comes to mortars, and you can typically kill them indirectly with two PBCs firing.
PBCs also don’t have to stay back, and should press forward and find direct targets during a game. They become extra deadly with support from a Lord of Virulence. Their primary place is in Mortarion’s Hammer lists, where you’ll run three of them.
Rotigus
The named Great Unclean One sports the same T12, 22-wound 4++ save, 6+ FNP chassis as the standard Great Unclean One, but comes with different weapons and abilities. Rotigus is a more reliable melee beater than the standard Great Unclean One – the Gnarlrod gives him 7 strike attacks at S10, AP-3, 3 damage with its strikes, and against a target suffering from Rattlejoint Ague that means you’ll get to AP-4. His real value is in his abilities, though – Virulent Blessing lets you curse a visible enemy unit within 24″ in the Fight phase, and for the rest of the phase PLAGUE LEGIONS models will get +1 damage against it. This means Rotigus himself can just be 4 damage whenever he wants, or you can use it to help out some Plaguebearers maybe. Deluge of Nurgle (Aura) reduces the Movement characteristic of enemy models within 6″ by 2″ and drops their OC by 1, with no listed minimum. This combines very well with Scabrous Soulrot to make OC 2 models OC 0.
As with the standard Great Unclean One, the big disadvantage to Rotigus is that you have to run him in the Tallyband Summoners Detachment and that detachment just isn’t very good. Otherwise, he’s pretty great.
Final Thoughts
The Death Guard are spoiled for choice when it comes to good vehicle and monster options, save the Greater Daemons, and that’s only because of the Detachment they require. Any Death Guard list looking to compete is going to run at least three, and chances are you’re going to run more than that. The good news is, you have plenty to choose from and the options you get really help shore up the army’s key deficiencies.
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