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Okay, so these are my two armies. I have like probably around 4,000 points of FEC (lots of everything except monsters). I have about 1,500 points of Maggotkin and I was planning to do a mix of daemons and Mortals (mostly Blightkings with a Plaguebearer blob and then a centerpiece model like Glottkin or a GUO) for an old-school feel.

The AOS community at my FLGS are fairly competitive but not like super cheese LVO netlists, just strong lists. They are planning an AOS escalation league next month (not sure of the rules yet but I assume normal escalation league stuff, so start probably at 500 and go up to 2000 over a number of weeks) and I'm debating if I should join and if so which army to bring as well as to start playing on game night again.

The pros of FEC is they just got a really strong Battletome, and I have more than enough to not have to buy anything new (I already bought the Archregent, throne and spells). There is already at least one FEC player though, while there are no Nurgle players. However I'd have to buy more stuff for Nurgle, and I'm already spending a few hundred dollars on the Chaos Space Marine revamp for 40k, as well as maybe ending up in the situation where I have to buy more than just a few other things to round out to 2k if the choices I want aren't going to be very competitive (e.g. I was planning on doing like 30 Plaguebearers, 3x5 Blightkings, Pusgoyles, heroes and Glottkin for Maggotkin but apparently that is not really a good list when paired against more competitive lists).

FEC is by far more competitive. If you are playing in a competitive league with players that are strongly competitive, thats going to get you the best games.

The nurgle army will require you to buy more models as you said, paint them, and you will be playing a much more difficult game.

If difficult games are your thing, then go nurgle. If you don't want every game to be a giant struggle, FEC.

Thanks, auticus Yeah, I think FEC might be my best approach just because my wife wouldn't like me spending more money than I already am for CSM. And I would not want to be told like oh drop the Blightkings, go all daemon. or drop the daemons, go 6 units of Blightkings (because I don't want to buy 4 more boxes). Etc. etc. as the entire reason for doing Nurgle was a Realm of Chaos esque list.

If you want competitive, the internet says FEC. Personally, I’d prefer Nurgle though. I’ve never been a big believer in following the opinions of the masses online. If I did, I’d never have bothered with my Daemons in 5th ed 40k. And boy am I glad I did. So do what seems like more fun. Worst case, if they expect a power house army and you bring something to upset the meta, you might catch them with their pants down.

I have a nurgle army that I've used for the past two years.

Player experience and the math behind the stats and point costs says that between nurgle and FEC, that FEC is head and shoulders more competitive and easier to powergame.

That doesn't mean Im saying nurgle is weak and trash tier. I'm saying that in a competitive standpoint that FEC is going to be the easier mode to play in because mathematically it is in a much much better place both in point efficiency and the pool of free points you get from abusing the summoning mechanic of FEC (which essentially further increases points efficiency)

Nurgle definitely does seem to be anything but "trash", since it consistently places. It has the issue though of seeming to require a very specific type of list to do that, which usually means you can't go with your own theme. My theme was an old school realm of chaos style warband with mixing mortals and daemons, but not going too Blightking heavy (I think I only had 15 in my 2k list, and that was 3x5 for the Blight Cyst). Which does not seem to be on the competitive side and I don't want to run like 6 squads of BKs or all daemons.

FEC though the main thing I love is that the army list lets you do whatever you want (in part because the whole range is like 6 units). And then there's the fact I don't have to spend any money at all, just assemble some more Horrors/Flayers/Ghouls and get them painted.

Nurgle is way more fun to paint though but given this is a league and the people tend to lean towards competitive but not cheesey OP broken, it's quite a dilemma.

The good news is that the most competitive way to run Nurgle is this:

mostly Blightkings with a Plaguebearer blob and then a centerpiece model like Glottkin or a GUO

However FEC are just ridiculously broken OP, meaning you can pretty much throw together whatever you want and have a hard time finding something that will not do well.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
The good news is that the most competitive way to run Nurgle is this:

mostly Blightkings with a Plaguebearer blob and then a centerpiece model like Glottkin or a GUO

However FEC are just ridiculously broken OP, meaning you can pretty much throw together whatever you want and have a hard time finding something that will not do well.

I am so confused. Some people I talk to say Bligtkings are junk now because the rend from blight cyst can get shut down and -1 to hit ruins them until they get errata'd to unmodified 6. Other times I see that a list the way I want to run it is the right way. I've been told like conflicting things by so many different people I Have no idea anymore what is a good Nurgle list :(

My 2k list was going to be something like:

Glottkin
Lord of Blights
-Rustfang
Harbinger of Decay
-General (Grandfather's Blessing)
-The Witherstave
3x5 Blightkings
30x Plaguebearers
2x Pusgoyle Blightlords (* Only because I have the models and they are cool)
Blight Cyst
Some endless spell (I don't own Malign Portents)

I could also drop the Blightlords and add a 4th unit of Blightkings and a Spoilpox Scrivener to buff the Plaguebearers

And I have heard 50/50 "This is a good list" to "This is not competitive at all and will get crushed"

FEC is probably better only because I have everything I could want for it. I'd have to buy at least one more Blightking unit and then the Glottkin/GUO/whatever for Nurgle and I'm already spending like several hundred dollars on the new Chaos space Marine stuff so my wife might not like that. But overall I do feel Nurgle has way more variety, perhaps because FEC is like 5 units in the entire faction.

That is a solid list that will do you well for the meta you described. Yes it will get crushed by a top-tier tourney list, but everyone does so nbd. Blightkings undercosted at the least, IMO overpowered; unless your opponent has hit penalties they well outperform their points cost. Hit penalties mean they no longer have good offense but it is still a 21-wound unit with 4+ armor, a small footprint, and virulent discharge. If they didn't have exploding 6s at all people would say they were sub-par but still a decent anvil.

Pusgoyles are a bit overcosted, but not really a bad unit. The problem for them is plague drones are a bit undercosted and perform the same role. Pusgoyles in cover with the harbinger buff are trolol durable. Still, to make the list stronger you would want to drop them and bring plague drones/5 more blightkings instead.

Soilpox scrivener is unfortunately poor; he buffs charges on a unit not meant to charge, and offense on a unit not meant for offense.

Bank the extra points for CP instead of an endless spell. With both glottkin and a harbinger the extra one from the battalion will not be enough.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
That is a solid list that will do you well for the meta you described. Yes it will get crushed by a top-tier tourney list, but everyone does so nbd. Blightkings undercosted at the least, IMO overpowered; unless your opponent has hit penalties they well outperform their points cost. Hit penalties mean they no longer have good offense but it is still a 21-wound unit with 4+ armor, a small footprint, and virulent discharge. If they didn't have exploding 6s at all people would say they were sub-par but still a decent anvil.

Pusgoyles are a bit overcosted, but not really a bad unit. The problem for them is plague drones are a bit undercosted and perform the same role. Pusgoyles in cover with the harbinger buff are trolol durable. Still, to make the list stronger you would want to drop them and bring plague drones/5 more blightkings instead.

Soilpox scrivener is unfortunately poor; he buffs charges on a unit not meant to charge, and offense on a unit not meant for offense.

Bank the extra points for CP instead of an endless spell. With both glottkin and a harbinger the extra one from the battalion will not be enough.

Hmm, that's good advice, Ninth, thanks! I may look into doing something like that. Interesting to play 100 points down to get +2 CP.

Happy to help