Death Guard Contagion Engines Detachment Guide (11th Edition)

Contagion Engines gives your war machines a burst of mobility and firepower. The reported mechanic grants eligible vehicles a new keyword and, crucially, the [Assault] attribute on their ranged weapons - meaning they can Advance and still shoot. Units cited include the Foetid Bloat-Drone, Helbrutes and Myphitic Blight-Haulers, which can now reposition at their full speed and still bring their guns to bear.

For an army whose contagion auras and guns have always arrived a turn too late, this is a big deal: your daemon engines can chase objectives, reposition to keep contagion where it matters, and threaten the enemy without giving up their shooting. It converts Death Guard's plodding vehicles into genuinely mobile threats. Confirm exactly which datasheets qualify and the precise keyword wording on your current Faction Pack.

As a vehicle-focused detachment, expect its stratagems to reward daemon-engine play - broadly, tricks that boost your machines' shooting, movement or survivability at the key moment. Use them to make the most of the Advance-and-shoot rule: the swing turns are when you reposition a Bloat-Drone or Blight-Hauler into a scoring or firing position it couldn't otherwise reach, then spend a stratagem to make that reposition count.

Avoid the trap of using the mobility to over-extend a single expensive vehicle into enemy guns. Costs and exact effects change with errata, so check the current stratagem list on the 40k app before you build a combo around it.

Enhancements in a vehicle detachment typically go on the Characters who lead or support your engines. Prioritise ones that improve your mobile threats' output or durability, or that keep your contagion aura projecting from a fast-moving core.

Because Contagion Engines is a cheap 1 DP splash, you may be running it alongside a bigger core detachment and drawing enhancements from a shared pool - plan which detachment's enhancements you actually want before committing. Verify the current enhancement list and points on the Faction Pack, as these are frequently updated.

This detachment is all about the daemon engines and walkers:

• Foetid Bloat-Drone - a fast, floating gun platform that loves being able to Advance and still fire.
• Myphitic Blight-Haulers - mobile support walkers that reposition to project contagion and firepower.
• Helbrutes - hard-hitting walkers freed up to close distance without losing their shooting.
• Plagueburst Crawler - your artillery anchor, still valuable even if it is less about the mobility rule.

The list wants a real core of vehicles to benefit; running it with only one or two engines wastes the detachment. Pair the mobile engines with enough infantry to hold objectives.

Take Contagion Engines when your list is genuinely vehicle- and walker-heavy and you feel the pain of Death Guard's slow guns arriving late. At a reported 1 DP it is cheap enough to bolt onto a core detachment, or to build a dedicated daemon-engine army around.

It is the wrong pick for an infantry-centric list, or if you only have a couple of vehicles - the mobility rule needs a fleet to matter. If your plan is instead about forward-deploying troops or extending your aura, look at Flyblown Host or Paragons of Putrescence. For a rolling wall of mobile plague machines, though, this is the detachment that finally makes them work. Compare it in the army guide.