BoLS logo Today's Tabletop & RPG News
Advertisement

Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – 10th Edition Death Guard Blightlord Terminators

3 Minute Read
May 23 2023
Hot story icon
Advertisement

As 9th reaches its conclusion we pull out the crystal ball to look at future 40K Hot Messes based on the GW previews. First up are Death Guard Blightlord Terminators!

Sometimes things that feel crappy even though the new edition promise bounties of awesome and damage aplenty for the masses. Wow was that a rather sad little Blightlords preview for a “cornerstone” unit of the Death Guard.  Here you have the toughest Veterans of the Coughing Fits and they just don’t feel very good.  They just feel like a weird batch of Terminators that look gross and will most likely piddle around the table trying to be relevant.  I won’t go into what I think should fix them as we don’t know enough of the armies and its synergies so will just dive into the muck they have shown us.

Blightlords 10th Basics

I don’t know about you but you will have to save your CP to teleport them closer to the army if you want theme to do anything.  That 4” of movement is going to keep them siting in your box of shame for a lone time unless we throw in some other forms of movement boost.  I am hoping the bell guy kicks them in the butt a bit to let the book it across the field as they currently can’t even get to the second floor to check out the enemy.

The only things I liked in their showcase is they felt like they had a decent amount of attacks and might be able to survive the basic anti infantry fire that comes back to them.

Stinky Weapons

Speaking of Anti-Infantry the Combi-Weapons feel weird too.  Why do they hit on a 4+ while all the other things hit on a 3+?  I know it is supposed to represent the model squeezing both triggers on his Combi weapon but if we are locking it into one profile why not just make it shoot like the regular Combi weapon with one trigger to pull?

Also why doesn’t it have a point of AP?  These are supposed to be archaic weapons of destruction and not having any AP makes it feel like just a souped up Combi-Bolter.  I hope they don’t cost extra to have in your army and the other upgrades are free.  At least having that would make more sense why to have a few in the unit for some chances to spike with Mortal wound output.

Why doesn’t the Reaper Autocannon go to Damage 2 at least?  Chaos gets a cool Havoc Autocannon and the smaller version should not be damage 1.  It can keep the AP of -1 but it should at least go to Damage 2 like all the other “big” bullet options we see.

Advertisement

Speaking of weapons shouldn’t all the Plague weapons have Lethal Hits and Anti-Infantry to showcase they are gross to regular people?  Wouldn’t it be easier and cooler to have them spike when they crowd into squishy targets with their rotten swords, axes, and flails?  It just doesn’t feel right for the unit.

The Verdict – Mixed?

Look I know I have 20 of these guys and really want them to be good. 10th Edition is shaping up from the reveals to be a game with armor hopefully being better and troops who can hold down the fort will be important.  I just didn’t feel these rules and really need to see more options to truly figure out if the Blightslords are a stinky hot mess or actually a decent mess of damage potential.

Do you think Death Guard have enough speed to compete in 10th?

Advertisement

Avatar
Advertisement
  • Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader Will Have A Big Reveal At Warhammer Skulls 2023