Plague Surgeon
SWORD: what Plague Surgeon kills
Damage for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 50 pts kill ~25 pts in one activation.Typical melee unit: 55 per 100
Best against light vehicles and monsters, weakest against hordes
Into each enemy type
Units near it by SWORD
Across the game· melee units
SHIELD: how hard Plague Surgeon is to kill for its points
Toughness for its points
per 100 pts spent
Its 50 pts take ~156 pts of enemy units to kill.Typical melee unit: 307 per 100
Units near it by SHIELD
In Death Guard
Across the game· melee units
What reviewers say
3 reviewers- Revives marines onto objectives 2 of 3
- Better melee than the other Virion characters 1 of 3
- Rarely worth the slot 2 of 3
- Always over-pointed for its role 1 of 3
Compare
| Unit | Letter | SWORD | SHIELD | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plague Surgeon50 pts | C | Bottom 40% | Top 48% | 2of 119 |
| Noxious Blightbringer50 pts | S | Bottom 5% | Top 48% | 39of 119 |
| Lord of Poxes65 pts | A | Top 18% | Top 25% | 8of 119 |
Leading a squad
| Solo | Leading | |
|---|---|---|
| SWORD | 50 | 59 |
| SHIELD | 312 | 309 |
Per 100 pts: on its own, then for it and the squad together.
How we got these numbers
What we ran
Plague Surgeon, 50 pts, with its datasheet's weapons. On its own: no leader, no stratagems, no other units' auras. Counted as dice: its own abilities.
SWORD
Enemy points it kills in one activation, per 100 pts of its own, against a mix of targets weighted like top tournament lists.
50 pts → kills ~25 pts → 50 per 100SHIELD
Enemy points it takes to kill it, per 100 pts of its own: the points of the cheapest units from top lists that kill it 80% of the time. It's per point, so a costly unit has to be much tougher to score the same.
~156 pts → 312 per 100Top and bottom %
Where each number ranks among the game's 571 melee units. How we score.
The letter
The average of 7 reviewers' newest Death Guard tier lists: The Disgustingly Resilient Podcast (October board) (6 Oct), The Disgustingly Resilient Podcast (July board, daemon allies only) (28 Jul), Goonhammer (Tabletop Battles), faction review and September update (30 Sep), GeneralJannis (1 Oct), Grimdark Breakdown (10 Jul), Zeeto (14 Jun), The Yucky OutBack (three list videos) (3 Aug). A reviewer who would rather not be counted: tell us.
Lists
119 public Death Guard tournament lists, September – November 2026, from grimstat-corpus (CC BY 4.0). Also from Listhammer. Organisers and players: ask us and we'll take a list or an event down. Numbers run 4 Nov.