Death Guard is a very effective mid-range army, so yeah, you should try to blast the enemy at range, as you can still have the fallback of decent combat ability- not to mention badass resilience.

 

I did something just for your here : http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/chaos/62266-tactica-death-guard-my-vision.html#post620758

 

Because the Death Guard can't take heavy weapons, our long range capabilities are HORRIBLE. As far as long ranged stuff goes, I usually stick with just a Predator with the tri-las config. or a drednought with a TL las. Defilers are good in certain situations, but typically are too unreliable to depend on.

With T5 and true grit, plague marines are kick butt in cc against most armies. I find that the best strategy is to load as many plague marine squads as you can into rhinos and advance toward the enemy 12 inches at a time. Once within range, pop out behind the rhino, and assault the following turn. Basic DG strategy there. If you keep distance between yourself and your opponent, you'll most likely get blown away by autocannon/lascannon/heavy bolter/(insert any gun here) fire.

Also, a lord or DP with a manreaper, d. str., d. mutation, and d. speed will tear through your opponents infantry squads at a time. I mean, 10 power attacks on the charge? Thankyou Grandfather Nurgle.

-bigPappa

 

With T5 and true grit, plague marines are kick butt in cc against most armies. I find that the best strategy is to load as many plague marine squads as you can into rhinos and advance toward the enemy 12 inches at a time. Once within range, pop out behind the rhino, and assault the following turn. Basic DG strategy there. If you keep distance between yourself and your opponent, you'll most likely get blown away by autocannon/lascannon/heavy bolter/(insert any gun here) fire.

I would have said the opposite to that. The Death Guard's resilience makes them better at absorbing fire- and sure, they're just one blat from a lascannon but so is everybody else. Bog standard infantry will have such a hard time against them- when I play nids I struggle against marines because I can't get through their armour with hordes of gaunts- needing 6s to wound with regular hormagaunts is going to make that even more difficult. I wouldn't use rhinos either, since the DG can get close quick enough saving points on other things, like the 3-las predator you mentioned. They have decent fire support in their havocs, you just need to balance them with the right vet skills. I was probably wrong to say that they were a mid-range army but they certainly aren't easy to out-shoot when they get near enough.

 

I agree, DG can out gun an army like 'nids, but against SM or IG or Tau or anything else with decent weaponry, footslogging is gonna get you rocked.

Personally, I dont use havocs. I think theyre over priced an just take up points that Id rather use on more troops. Sometimes a squad with four plasma guns is tempting, but Id rather just use a dred or pred, or both.

The only armies I would 'stand-back and shoot' against are DH or World Eaters or Orks. With everyone else, the best strategy (generally) is too take advantage of true grit, and get into cc.

And I love rhinos. The only reason why I wouldnt have four or five squads in rhinos every game is if I was infiltrating. Theyre cheap, provide decent protection, get your squads where they need to be, and once their out, rhinos provide great moblie terrain.

-bigPappa