Thinking of a festering army for 1850 points

Played my 7th game of 40k last night. After that game I'm mulling over losing the unit of Chaos Bikers and the Plague Zombies. While I like the Biker models and they are fast, I'm having difficulty keeping them alive past Turn 3 of a game. They have none of the benefits of the Plague Marines, just a nice toughness and the possibility of getting a Hammer of Wrath or 2 in Assaults. But that's not enough to get me in Linebreaker position before the Unit is blown to hell. I could try to turtle more with them, but most of my games have had my opponent placing a greater number of Primary Objectives than I, so I have to push. And these Chaos Bikers just don't push hard enough.

The only things falling faster than the Chaos Bikers with the list I'd been using were the highly situational corpses, the Plague Zombies.  They can't shoot, get no increase of Toughness as they can't get the Mark of Nurgle, are Slow and Purposeful so can't move across the board at a competitive pace. All they're left with is Fearless and Feel No Pain which only seems worth it in situations where you are in position to tar-pit an important enemy unit. Better get 35 stumbling husks for the number to properly do that for 2-3 turns, and that's if the PZs get to an enemy Unit not entrenched in Ruins before being ripped apart by enemy fire.

What I've found has worked consistently decent, even when they're backed against stiff odds, is Plague Marines. The pros of PMs are many. They can capture objectives with Typhus as my HQ. They have the stats of Space Marines with Fearless, Feel No Pain, Plague Knives (Poisoned 4+), and I'm thinking of getting 2 Flamethrowers along with them. The cons are they're slower than the Chaos Bikers, but they can take a Rhino as a dedicated transport which can bring another Havoc Launcher and Combi-bolta on the field. They aren't twin-linked, so rolling is more of a gamble and fewer hits will matter. I'm taking the belchers of flame as I plan to use these guys as my main defensive Unit for high scoring Objective control. They'll be behind the Aegis Defence Line manning the Quad-gun and roasting Assaulting infantry. So here's the revised list:

1850 total pts

HQ

230 Typhus


Troops 

367 Plague Marines with Rhino (Havoc Launcher) +5 Plague Marines, Flamer x2, Power Fist, Icon of Despair, Melta Bombs, Combi-Flamer, Gift of Mutation, Vets of the Long War x10

377 Plague Marines with Rhino (Havoc Launcher) +5 Plague Marines, Meltagun x2, Power Fist, Icon of Despair, Melta Bombs, Combi-Melta, Gift of Mutation, Vets of the Long War x10

387 Plague Marines with Rhino (Havoc Launcher) +5 Plague Marines, Plasma Gun x2, Power Fist, Icon of Despair, Melta Bombs, Combi-Plasma, Gift of Mutation, Vets of the Long War x10


Heavy

158 Obliterators  +1 Obliterator, Mark of Nurgle, Vets of the Long War x2

79 Obliterator Mark of Nurgle, Vets of the Long War

152 Vindicator Dirge Caster, Dozer Blade, Havoc Launcher, Siege Shield



Fortification

100 Aegis Defence Line Quad-gun


It's been my experience the Plague Marines already make effective tar-pits, and they can actually fight back, even against larger opponents. At least, that's what I'll be trying out as soon as I get a couple Flamers. Until then, see you on the battlefield.