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Getting back into 40k

Nurgle is good, pure DG is meh but workable. For being the second codex in 8th they've survived power creep pretty well. I would suggest you check out the tactics thread for more info.

In the serious tourney scene, Death Guard are possible, but unlikely to work on their own. But that's the high end tourney scene. In the general "have a game" sense, Death Guard are totally viable. They don't have a huge diversity of units, but what they do have is good, and fulfills the main army functions that makes an army good in most 40k missions.

Poxwalkers are highly durable, and fearless, and are troops - this makes them great at holding objectives. Their ability to resurrect dead models by attacking enemy troops is a hidden gem of an ability for tipping the scales on objective grabbing. Daemon Princes are powerful melee combatants, provide valuable rerolls, and can get some consistent damage through Smite or other powers - always take 1. Blightcrawlers are far more aggressive than you think they are, so dive forward, and their flamers are potent. Mortarion is an absolute beast - if your opponent can't deal with him, he will kill 2000 point armies all on his own.

 Yarium wrote:
In the serious tourney scene, Death Guard are possible, but unlikely to work on their own. But that's the high end tourney scene. In the general "have a game" sense, Death Guard are totally viable. They don't have a huge diversity of units, but what they do have is good, and fulfills the main army functions that makes an army good in most 40k missions.

Poxwalkers are highly durable, and fearless, and are troops - this makes them great at holding objectives. Their ability to resurrect dead models by attacking enemy troops is a hidden gem of an ability for tipping the scales on objective grabbing. Daemon Princes are powerful melee combatants, provide valuable rerolls, and can get some consistent damage through Smite or other powers - always take 1. Blightcrawlers are far more aggressive than you think they are, so dive forward, and their flamers are potent. Mortarion is an absolute beast - if your opponent can't deal with him, he will kill 2000 point armies all on his own.

In a proper competitive meta with everyone tooling against knights, Mortarion will never see past turn 1.

if you're after the "casual" side (god I hate that term) then DG have some really fun combos and possible synergies that you can explore. From a competitive point, you're looking at Nurgle Daemon soup with some elements from DG thrown in (Plagueburst Crawlers are still amazing, as are dual flamer bloat drones)

My favourite build is Plague Marine spam, meta be damned, I just love the idea and image on the table of dozens of plague marines marching up the field.

For the meta, you'll want to look at souping with daemons. FW seems to be a consistent element in competitive lists. Renegade Knights work as well.

Outside of the competitive scene, they're great fun and work well as a mono build. To echo the above, their codex has survived pretty well although the stratagems are meh.

As mentioned, on the casual side they are awesome.
Lots of fun units, self-induced combos and options that make a real flavorful army that feels like a cohesive whole rather than a mishmash of stuff thrown together that some other armies have.

The issue is that many of their cool flavorful options just don't scale well into the competitive scene.
Really, a lot of thier cool stuff feel like either you are paying a tad too much, or are just a bit of a mismatch (for example, the blightbringer. I dont think DG care about improving advance rolls much.
The fact Inexorable Advance is a really lame legion tactic (mostly because DG infantry don't really have weapons that benefit from it) doesn't help.

 BoomWolf wrote:

The fact Inexorable Advance is a really lame legion tactic (mostly because DG infantry don't really have weapons that benefit from it) doesn't help.

What are you smoking? Pretty much all their weapons benefit. Bolters, plasmaguns, blightlaunchers... Even cultists shoot more up to 18", also with no minuses on now pretty much free heavy stubbers. Dreadnoughts love it, especially Contemptors and Leviathans that can still hit on 2+ and thunder forwards.

Mid-tier at best. There were a few really degenerate spammy lists that did well at single events but were fixed with the Rule of Three. The trait is okay, but nothing amazing although the fact it works on Forgeworld dreads (e.g. Leviathan) is pretty good. The bolter beta rules dropped the main benefit of 18" rapid fire (although you get it if you move still, which is a bonus)

Overall though if you want a competitive army, they aren't for you. They are fairly limited in design and options.

The top meta lists tend to have 2 main focuses

Either:
They are very fast and can adapt to Maestrom missions quickly
or
They have a large foot print, excellent board control

and in all cases they have a lot of fire power

Death Guard is neither (in comparison to other armies). They are resilient however, forgiving to play and can be played in a number of different ways which makes them quite good and dependable when playing in local clubs

Death Guard are upper Mid-Tier.

They can work well, although they fall short of the top of the meta. That in itself is not an issue as the top lists will get nerfed time and again and the meta changes.

If your only interest to run a top of meta list then you shouldn't even be asking as you're not in a position to compete without extensive knowledge.