How to play Death Guard

The plague legion of Nurgle: a grindingly durable, slow, attritional army that smothers the board with disease auras, soaks punishment, and wins by debuffing the enemy and refusing to die.

Army rule: Nurgle's Gift (Contagion Range): an aura that Afflicts enemies, growing from 3 inches round 1 to 6 then 9 from round 3, applying -1 Toughness plus a chosen plague (-1 enemy Hit, -1 Save, or -1 Move/Leadership/OC). Overlap auras as range expands and swap the active plague by round, and the -1 T also sweetens your own wound rolls.

Strengths

Exceptional durability: high Toughness, Disgustingly Resilient FNP, and -1-damage tech make it brutally hard to shift
Stacking debuff engine degrades whatever the enemy does
Strong objective-holding and attrition; very hard to table or out-last

Weaknesses

Slow; low Movement is the defining problem for projecting threat or grabbing distant objectives
Ramps up over time and is weakest in the opening rounds before the aura is online
Limited reach and alpha strike, and lower model count thins board coverage vs hordes

Signature combos

Plague Marines with a Biologus Putrifier and Plaguecaster attached as a lethal, resilient core
Mortarion as the anchor with re-roll auras and a screen of flies
Deathshroud and Blightlord Terminators as elite bricks
Foetid Bloat-Drones or Contagion Engine Helbrutes for rare mobile firepower

Gameplan

Walk forward, weather the early game, and turn the midboard into a swamp. Absorb the opponent's best turns with FNP and durability strats, hold objectives with bodies that won't die, and commit when the aura is large in rounds 2 to 3 and the enemy is in your bubble.

Playing against Death Guard

Use speed and range to kite them and stay outside the bubble early, bring high-volume or high-AP fire rather than feeding a grind, and score distant objectives they cannot reach.

Next steps

Browse all Death Guard datasheets → · What to buy → · General tactics →