Death Lord's Chosen: The 11th-Edition Death Guard Terminator Detachment

In your opponent's Command phase, roll 2D6 for each Afflicted enemy unit, subtracting 1 from the result if that unit is Below Half-strength. If the result is 6 or less, that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

Work through the arithmetic, because it is what makes this detachment different. A 2D6 roll of 6 or less happens about 41 percent of the time, and about 48 percent with the -1 for a unit below half strength. So each Afflicted enemy unit is roughly a coin flip for D3 mortal wounds, every single one of your opponent's Command phases, for free, with no command points and no models committed.

The consequence is that the number of Afflicted units is your damage stat. Three Afflicted units is a bit of chip damage. Seven is a real phase of shooting that costs you nothing. That is why the whole rest of this page is about Contagion Range rather than about Terminators.

The Below Half-strength modifier tells you what kind of damage it is. It gets better against units you have already hurt, so it finishes things rather than opening them, and it interacts well with anything else that punishes a weakened unit.

One more timing detail: it fires in your opponent's Command phase, including the first one. Anything Afflicted on turn one already pays out, which is unusual in a faction whose aura starts at 3 inches.

At 2 DP it leaves 1 DP spare at a 2,000-point game.

Six, all 1CP, and four of them target a TERMINATOR unit.

• Blooming Pestilence (start of any phase). One TERMINATOR unit adds 3 inches to its Contagion Range for the phase. Given what the detachment rule pays for, this is the cheapest damage stratagem in the list even though it deals none itself. Note the 12 inch cap applies after modifiers.
• Signal Pox (your Command). One LORD OF VIRULENCE model names an objective marker within 30 inches and visible; until the start of your next turn, enemy units within range of it are Afflicted. Thirty inches. This is the detachment's own way of Afflicting a unit nowhere near your army, and it feeds straight into Deadly Vectors.
• Undying Spite (the Fight). Just after an enemy unit selects its targets, one targeted TERMINATOR unit rolls a D6 for each model destroyed before it has fought; on a 4+ that model is not removed, fights after the attacking unit, and is then removed.
• Grim Reapers (the Fight). One TERMINATOR unit that has not fought can re-roll the Hit roll against enemy units that are not Monsters or Vehicles.
• Mortarion's Teachings (your Shooting). One TERMINATOR unit that has not shot gains [ASSAULT] and [HEAVY] on its ranged weapons for the phase. Both at once, so it can Advance and still shoot, and it gets the stationary bonus if it did not.
• Sickening Impact (your Charge). Just after a TERMINATOR unit ends a Charge move, roll a D6 for each of your models in Engagement Range of a chosen enemy unit: each 2+ is a mortal wound, to a maximum of 6.

The two to prioritise are Signal Pox, because it manufactures the state the detachment rule charges for, and Blooming Pestilence, because it does the same thing from the other direction.

Four, and every one is TERMINATOR model only, which is the tightest single restriction in the faction and means the detachment will not work in a list without Terminator characters.

• Warprot Talisman (30 pts). Once per battle, at the end of your opponent's turn, if the bearer's unit is not in Engagement Range, remove it from the battlefield and place it into Strategic Reserves. A whole unit redeploying once per game is a mission-winning tool rather than a damage one.
• Helm of the Fly King (20 pts). While the bearer is leading a unit, models in that unit cannot be targeted by ranged attacks unless the attacking model is within 18 inches. On a slow Terminator block walking up the board, that is most of your opponent's shooting phase turned off for two turns.
• Vile Vigour (15 pts). While the bearer is leading a unit, +1 inch Movement and re-roll Advance rolls. On a 4 inch Terminator this is a 25 percent increase, which is a larger change than the number suggests.
• Face of Death (10 pts). At the start of the Fight phase, each enemy unit within Engagement Range of the bearer's unit must take a Battle-shock test.

Helm of the Fly King is the one that changes games, because the detachment's biggest problem is walking Terminators across a board while they get shot.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

Most Death Guard detachments reward you for what your models do. This one rewards you for how much of the board your aura covers, and that changes what you should spend a Detachment Point on.

Work it forward. Contagion Range is 3, 6 and 9 inches across the first three battle rounds. Paragons of Putrescence takes your Characters to 6, 9 and 12. Blooming Pestilence adds 3 inches to a Terminator unit for a phase. Signal Pox Afflicts a whole objective's worth of units 30 inches away. Stack those and the number of enemy units Afflicted at the start of your opponent's Command phase can easily double.

Each one of those units is another 2D6 roll for D3 mortal wounds, at roughly a 41 percent chance. Doubling the number of Afflicted units doubles the free damage.

That is why our recommended pairing here is Paragons of Putrescence rather than anything more thematic. It is the only 1-DP detachment that directly multiplies the detachment rule, and it is also the one 1-DP detachment whose legality is not contested.

The other honest option is Flyblown Host, for a different reason: because the rule fires in your opponent's first Command phase, two Plague Marines units already up the board on turn one convert directly into dice at a point in the game where a 3 inch aura otherwise touches nothing.

• Blightlord Terminators are the block four of the six stratagems name, and the unit an enhancement-carrying character leads.
• Deathshroud Terminators are the other half of the core. The pack rewrote their Death Approaches deep strike ability, so read the current wording before planning an arrival.
• Lord of Virulence is the only model Signal Pox can target, which makes him the detachment's most important non-Terminator purchase.
• Lord of Contagion is the classic Terminator character to carry any of the four enhancements, all of which are TERMINATOR model only.
• Plague Marines are still worth a large share of the list, because Terminators are expensive and few and the detachment rule wants the enemy Afflicted as widely as possible.
• Mortarion is thematic and is not a Terminator, so none of the four enhancements and none of the Terminator stratagems apply to him.

One omission to note: the Death Guard Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour and the Death Guard Sorcerer in Terminator Armour are Warhammer Legends datasheets in 11th edition and do not appear in the matched-play list, so neither is available as an enhancement carrier despite being Terminators.

Take it when you own Blightlords and Deathshroud, when you want a Death Guard list that generates damage without committing models, or when you like the idea of your opponent's Command phase being the worst part of their turn.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. All four enhancements are TERMINATOR model only, so you must own the right characters. Terminators are slow, few and expensive, and the detachment does nothing for vehicles. The rule is a coin flip for D3 mortal wounds per unit, so it is consistent in aggregate and unreliable in any single instance. And it is the weakest-sourced tier in our set, because the pack does not name it.

Sample gameplan: pair it with Paragons of Putrescence (1 DP) and build for aura coverage rather than for Terminators alone. Put Helm of the Fly King on the character leading your main Blightlord block so it survives the walk. Spend Signal Pox every Command phase you can on whichever objective has the most enemy units near it. Use Blooming Pestilence in your opponent's turn before their Command phase if the timing allows, and treat Sickening Impact as your reward for finally arriving.