Warhammer 40K: Typhus Review

Critical Hits: Great synergy with Poxwalkers, effective HQ choice

Critical Misses: Lame model!

Let's get it right out of the way- Typhus is probably the worst miniature that has come out of the new Death Guard range, and in fact I'd go so far as to call it the ugliest, goofiest looking piece Citadel has cooked up in quite some time. This Cataphractii armor clad HQ choice is the very epitome of overdone. Like most of the Death Guard models, there's a couple of recurring themes and motifs and well, Typhus is rocking them all AND he's got a smoky cloud of goofy looking flies that I dread painting issuing forth from the Destroyer Hive on his back. There's a Nurgling messing with a sore or something. Bells are the new skulls for Mortarion's minions, and the unfortunate Travolta-like pose isn't very becoming for a self-proclaimed Herald of the Plague God.

Typhus looks like an explosion at a detail factory.

The kit is also quite uninspiring. It's another completely un-customizable, uninteresting build that should take an experienced modeler about 20 minutes to complete. It's one of those kits where you put it together and think "huh, well, OK I guess." And then wonder why it costs so much before quietly feeling like you could have bought so much more with the money you've spent on a single figure. I actually like the older model better.

So that's the bad news. The good news is that Typhus is definitely worthwhile despite his lame model. He's fun to play with, particularly if you are fielding him at the head of a horde of Poxwalkers. All of your Poxwalkers- those are plague zombies to the layman- within 7" of Typhus get a +1 to their Strength and Toughness. This is not a small buff. This makes big gangs of Poxwalkers surprisingly deadly and even harder to kill, especially with their Disgusting Resilience. I would argue that you really only want to run Typhus with Poxwalkers, and I'd favor at least 40 to pile up with him. I like to stick some Poxies in a couple of Rhinos, ferry them to an objective or a critical target, and then not only unload the clown cars but use the classic Terminator Teleport Strike that Typhus has to stick him in buffing range.

Fortunately, he plays like this.

Typhus is pretty decent with melee in his own respect, with his Master-Crafted Manreaper, a Plague Weapon that takes advantage of his WS of +2, striking with 7 strength while penetrating armor at -3 and dealing 3 wounds. Nice. The Destroyer Hive is a 2D6 pistol-class weapon (meaning you can fire it even if you are in melee) and it hits on 5+, even in Overwatch. So that kind of rules too. And he's got Nurgle's Gift, which gives units within 7" a mortal wound-inflicting aura- and yes, it doubles up with his Poxwalker buffs. To ice the cake, he's a level two psyker so he can smite and squirt Contagion powers. So this is a fairly mighty Lord of Contagion that is well worth the points.

I was really looking forward to trying Typhus with my Poxwalker mob and he definitely did not disappoint. Fluff-wise, I really enjoy that he's a sort of crude zombie-lord. In lower power point games, I've found that he and his retinue can easily carry an army without even bringing along Plague Marines. I just wish he wasn't so damn ugly.