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I played a testing game against a friend playing a casual (but good) eldar list, running a full nurgle army at 2000 points.
And I was very disappointed.
To be fair, I didn't play well at all either, but looking through the units, I found their rules and power level to be very underwhelming compared to what the other gods have.
And so I feel like Grandpa Nurgle is not getting the love he deserves from GW.

What do you guys think about this ?
Is there a viable way to play a full nurgle daemons list ?
What about the new formations ?

Thanks guys !

(Btw I'm new to the forums, so please notify me if I do stuff the wrong way)

My list was using the two new nurgle formations provided in the new codex. So Plaguebearers and nurglings + Plague drones and beasts.
With two heralds.
I didn't deep strike : that was probably a big mistake, but i thought my stuff was resilient enough to walk ...
It wasn't.
And it didn't hit hard either.

Most nurgle units are only good at sitting in cover and nothing else. Their only bonus is shrouded, but they don't do damage and are too slow to go anywhere

If you want a competent nurgle only list you have to go the MC route. Daemon Princes with wings have the speed to get to close combat and the damage to kill units in close combat while still having the benefit of Nurgle's shrouded. GUO's are slow but deal a ton of damage. Both monstrous creatures benefit immensely from psychic buffs and demonic rewards

Yeah, it's just very sad to me that you can't make a viable list using the other units, bad design from GW.

GreedyPizza wrote:
Yeah, it's just very sad to me that you can't make a viable list using the other units, bad design from GW.

The codex wasn't designed with you playing only mono-god in mind. You're suppose to use all of the units in the army. Of course playing with only 1/4 of your codex isn't very viable

I find it odd you can't play mono god. It isn't like they don't happen.

 CrownAxe wrote:

GreedyPizza wrote:
Yeah, it's just very sad to me that you can't make a viable list using the other units, bad design from GW.

The codex wasn't designed with you playing only mono-god in mind. You're suppose to use all of the units in the army. Of course playing with only 1/4 of your codex isn't very viable

I get that, but the new formations are made for mono-god lists, and for all the other gods they seem to be good.
Also, from the point of view of coherence all lesser daemons should be equally useful. Maybe in different ways, but If plaguebearers are only good to go to ground on an objective, then it's just bad design.
Plaguebearers are supposed to be a very tough force to fight, they should have some punch in CC

i think a codex should provide options for all players to make good if not competitive lists with the units they love.
And for Nurgle it's simply not there.

Nurgle has the huge issue of being a slow close-combat army. Slow close combat armies don't do well in 40k.
In addition to that, some of their units don't have much if any damage output. Nurglings or Plaguebearers will tie with tactical marines on a good day.

Nurgle don't really win games on their own, because they can't kill anything.

The exceptions are:
Plague Drones with Heralds. A big squad of these with Feel No Pain locus can soak a LOT of damage. They're fast and durable and can put wounds on pretty much anything.

Daemon Princes of Nurgle - moderately fast, can be extremely durable, and can take on anything in the game in combat with the right Gifts and psychic powers.


Outside of those, Nurgle is best used as the objective-holding portion for the rest of your army. It might suck if you were intent on a mono-god list, but thats how Daemons play at the moment.

I think using only the 2 Nurgle Formations is not that viable, however, a mono-Nurgle army doesn't have to be bad. Remember, you were playing against the strongest army in the game right now. Daemons have a lot of deep strike mitigation, you should use it.
As has been said, combined arms detachment with GUO and up to 3 Daemon Princes is quite strong, for soul grinders Nurgle is the best mark due to shrouded. The tallyband bonus of preventing overwatch is a nice one, but to keep the formation cheap Nurglings are usually better than plague bearers. Furies of Nurgle are a cheap way to get the Incursion. Plague Drones are good, beasts not so much but a MSU spam of beasts is still something the enemy has to worry about.
So, don't just rely on the two formations, try out other stuff as well.

I've personally had good experiences with the Tallyband and Rotswarm in a list, although I didn't stick to pure Nurgle and had a Tzeentch horror CAD in the back for psychic/summoning support. Last game played to a hard earned draw against Eldar with Wraithknight, Scatbikes, D scythe wraith guard in DE raiders, D cannon wraith guard with DE Archon w Web way portal etc.

A lot of the Nurgle units are indeed slow, but the beasts and drones from the Rotswarm are not, and I usually infiltrate or deep strike the Tallyband nurglings. A big dronestar can become a serious threat to a lot of units and can be made very hard to kill. The detachment and formation bonuses really take the list up a level too.

have you thought about allying in Plaguemarines and a helldrake. Still keeping it Nurgle themed but with a drake a soulgrinder and plaguemarines its not going to be comp but its gonna be scary to face off against.

I dont know what your talking about, nurgle is possibly the most powerful mono-god provided your units don't get insta-deathed which considering your opponent I imagine you did

Hum, food for thought, thank you, I'll try it again !