Paragons of Putrescence: The 11th-Edition Death Guard Contagion Range Detachment

One clause: friendly DEATH GUARD CHARACTER units have +3 inches to their Contagion Range, to a maximum of 12 inches.

To see the size of that, put it next to the base army rule. Contagion Range is 3 inches in battle round one, 6 in battle round two and 9 from battle round three. So this detachment takes your characters to 6, 9 and 12. In the first two battle rounds, when Death Guard are at their weakest, it doubles the radius on every character you own.

That is the argument for the detachment in a sentence. The army rule is a clock, and this is the only 1-DP way to move the clock forward.

Two restrictions to read carefully. It applies to DEATH GUARD CHARACTER units, so a Plague Marines squad with no character attached gets nothing, and a Character who dies takes their extended aura with them. And it is capped at 12 inches, which is the same ceiling Faction Pack v1.2 added to the army rule itself, so stacking this with Plaguesurge, Blooming Pestilence or the Tallyband Summoners rule hits a wall.

One correction, because it is repeated almost everywhere: the detachment rule does not grant a second Plague. That effect exists, but it is the Host of the Hybridised Pox enhancement, it costs 40 points, it is once per battle per army, and it only applies within Contagion Range of the model carrying it. Those are very different things when you are building a list.

Three, all 1CP, and all three target a DEATH GUARD CHARACTER unit.

• Territorial Infection (start of the Command phase). Target one friendly DEATH GUARD CHARACTER unit; it has +1 Objective Control until the end of the turn. This is a scoring tool, not a damage one, and on a big Attached unit contesting a point it is the cheapest way to flip an objective in the faction.
• Aggravus Spasms (start of your Shooting phase). Target one friendly DEATH GUARD CHARACTER unit, then select one visible enemy unit within Contagion Range of your unit; that enemy unit has +6 inch detection range. The trigger sits inside Contagion Range, which is precisely what the detachment rule extends, so the two are designed to be used together.
• Simultaneous Contamination (your Shooting phase). When a friendly DEATH GUARD CHARACTER unit starts an action, that action does not prevent your unit from being eligible to shoot. In a mission pack where actions score, this is the difference between an aura carrier holding a point and an aura carrier doing something useful while holding it.

The habit to build: Territorial Infection at the start of the Command phase on whichever character block is contesting the objective you most need, and Simultaneous Contamination any turn a scoring action would otherwise cost you a shooting phase.

Two, and they are very different purchases.

• Rejuvenating Swarm (20 pts). DEATH GUARD INFANTRY model only, excluding TERMINATOR models. Attacks that target this unit with a Strength greater than this unit's Toughness have -1 to wound rolls. Read the exclusion: neither Blightlords nor Deathshroud can take it, which is deliberate, because it exists to protect the softer character leading a Plague Marines block. It blunts high-Strength weapons specifically and does nothing against massed small-arms fire.
• Host of the Hybridised Pox (40 pts). DEATH GUARD INFANTRY model only. Once per battle, per army, in your Command phase you can select one of the Plagues listed in Nurgle's Gift; enemy units within Contagion Range of this unit then have the effect of that Plague in addition to your army's chosen Plague, until the end of the battle. At 40 points it is the most expensive enhancement in the faction, and it is the source of the widespread claim that this detachment grants a second Plague.

When is 40 points worth it? When you are running this detachment for its rule rather than as a splash, because the enhancement's radius is Contagion Range, and Contagion Range on that model is exactly what Hypervirulent Strains just extended. Used from turn three on a 12 inch bubble in the middle of the board, it is a permanent second debuff on most of the enemy army. Used on turn one from a 6 inch bubble, it is 40 points for very little.

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

Death Guard have one genuinely unresolved rules question in 11th edition, and it does not touch this detachment.

The Munitorum Field Manual v1.3 lists no Unique Tag on any Death Guard detachment and prints an explicit UNIQUE TAG REMOVED note on four of them: Champions of Contagion, Contagion Engines, Flyblown Host and Mortarion's Hammer. Faction Pack v1.2, from the same release, still prints UNIQUE: ENGINES and UNIQUE: FLYBLOWN above the Contagion Engines and Flyblown Host pages and restates the restrictions in their rule text.

Paragons of Putrescence is in neither list. Its pack page carries no UNIQUE banner at all, and the Munitorum Field Manual lists no tag for it. So this is the one new detachment whose pairings are not in doubt under either reading, which is worth something if you are building a list for an event.

That also makes it the most flexible 1 DP in the faction. Every 2-DP Death Guard detachment can take it, and none of them clashes with it.

• Lord of Poxes is a Death Guard Character the rule extends and an Infantry model, so a legal bearer for either enhancement.
• Malignant Plaguecaster is another Infantry Character the rule reaches, with output of his own.
• Noxious Blightbringer is cheap, which is what a detachment that buffs characters rather than squads wants more of. He shares a catalog box with the Plaguecaster.
• Typhus is a Death Guard Character, so Hypervirulent Strains extends his Contagion Range too. As an Epic Hero he cannot take an Enhancement, so plan the 40-point enhancement onto someone else.
• Plague Marines are the bodies your extended aura is projected from and the squad your characters lead, because a character alone on an objective is a character your opponent removes.
• Deathshroud Terminators are the bodyguard for whichever character carries your reach, though note that a Terminator model cannot take Rejuvenating Swarm.

One omission to note: the Death Guard Sorcerer in Terminator Armour and the Death Guard Chaos Lord are Warhammer Legends datasheets in 11th edition and do not appear in the matched-play list, so neither is an aura carrier you can field.

Take it when you want the army rule to do more, when you are learning the faction, or when you want a 1-DP support that is legal with anything. Doubling the radius of Nurgle's Gift on your characters in battle rounds one and two is the single cheapest fix for the faction's central weakness.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. It touches Character units only, so a character-light list gets little. Your characters become the things your opponent shoots first, which is why Rejuvenating Swarm exists. And the 12 inch cap means it stops paying once other effects have already got you there.

Sample gameplan: pair it with Death Lord's Chosen (2 DP). Deadly Vectors rolls 2D6 for every Afflicted enemy unit in your opponent's Command phase, so every extra inch of Contagion Range is literally extra dice. Push a character-led Terminator block into the middle, spend Territorial Infection to win the objective, and take Host of the Hybridised Pox only if you are confident that block survives to battle round three, because that is when its bubble is worth 40 points.