I got a game in yesterday, against EpicUK Iron Warriors, with this list.
Rotters 063, 2990 POINTS
Death Guard (NetEA V0.6.3 Taccoms Thread)
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PLAGUE MARINE RETINUE [430]
Plaguecaster Lord, 4 Death Guard Rhino, 4 Plague Marines, 3 Havocs, Daemonic Pact (includes 1 Lesser Daemon), Nurgle's Rotters
PLAGUE MARINE RETINUE [450]
7 Plague Marines, Daemonic Pact (includes 1 Lesser Daemon), Lord of Contagion (Supreme Commander), (Walkers) Desecrator
PLAGUE MARINE RETINUE [490]
7 Plague Marines, Daemonic Pact (includes 1 Lesser Daemon), Death Guard Daemon Prince
[with wings], (Walkers) Desecrator, Nurgle's Rotters
DEATH GUARD CHOSEN [370]
4 Plague Marine Chosen, Daemonic Pact (includes 1 Lesser Daemon), 2 (Walkers) Defiler, 2 Death Guard Rhino
PLAGUE ZOMBIE INFESTATION* [175]
3+2D6 Plague Zombies
CONTAGION TOWERS* [325]
4 Contagion Towers
PLAGUE TOWERS* [350]
Plague Tower
BLIGHT DRONE SWARM* [200]
4 Blight Drones
BLIGHT DRONE SWARM* [200]
4 Blight Drones
DAEMON POOL [0]
This was testing Blight Drones in a smaller formation of four to make them more of a harassing unit by being easier to break, but also cheaper to be able to take them in the first place. Also tested were the Daemon Prince and Lord of Contagion SC 'reduced' to the standard Black Legion versions (so without Nurgle's Rot built-in), and Nurgle's Rot as a 40pt upgrade at formation level.
The game itself was very swingy, with the Death Guard getting beaten in the first three Strategy Rolls for initiative, and only winning the fourth as it was a tie. The DG did win, but it really didn't look like it would go that way in the early game.
Notable moments include enemy the Decimator with it's MW, IC Barrage managing to kill one Plague Marine and one Rhino when the template covered 6-7 units, then in the following turn reducing the formation to a single Rhino and PM.
The Chosen with two Defilers lost a bunch of models to Hell Talon bombers before activating, but later on managed to take a few long-range pot-shots with a Defiler's Battlecannon (one Defiler left at that point), helping break some enemy Basilisks. Although having garrisoned Defilers is scary, it's also a pretty expensive formation. I also need to test 4 Chosen + 3 Defilers at 400pt as that's probably more cost-effective, but still suffers from being very split in role. If going for an all-rounders formation, 4 Chosen, 1 Desecrator and 2 Defilers might be better, as the Defilers can soak up some suppression for the Desecrator's AA.
The two smaller Blight Drone formations did roughly as expected, being noticeably more fragile due to the way 4-strong and 5-strong formations work in EA. One formation managed to reach and break some Basilisks in the late game, while the other got gunned down in one activation by a Ravager Titan.
The Plague Tower doubled forwards in turn one and thanks to getting 6BP managed to break a Vindicator formation, then in a later turn managed to break the Vindicators again, and also catch the Decimator and break it. Then in the late game it failed an activation but still managed to break a mid-table Vindicator formation (and catch-and-kill some broken Terminators) then doubled back to help hold my Blitz objective and to break the remnants of a huge Defiler formation that were getting close to the Blitz.
The Contagions repeatedly failed to activate, even when using the SC's re-roll.
Across 2-3 assaults that involved Nurgle's Rot, a grand total of one Plaguebearer was generated, partly because a prepped assault by the DG failed to activate.
CONCLUSIONSBlight Drones at 4 for 200pt seems to work well, slightly blunting their power level but not nerfing them as severely as the EpicUK version.
Nurgle's Rot at 40pt is just too expensive, even taking into account the poor situations of this game - because it depends on having already tooled up for Daemons, it's effectively a 65pt upgrade, plus potentially buying some Lesser Daemons as well. For the next game (on New Year's Day) I'll be trying it at 25pt.