STARTING A DEATH GUARD ARMY IN 11TH EDITION: ROT MARCHES AT ITS OWN PACE
The Death Guard are Nurgle's chosen sons: an army that trudges, endures and outlasts, where rust, grime and drips improve the model. This page covers the Plague Marine box, the Bloat-drone and Typhus, and when to buy Mortarion.
Poxwalkers are the fastest win
Buy the current Death Guard Combat Patrol. These starters are built around Plague Marines, the bloated, split-armoured Terminators of decay who define the faction, with a character and a mob of Poxwalkers shambling along in support. Poxwalkers deserve a mention of their own as the cheapest, fastest painting win in the army: base skin tone, heavy wash, drybrush, done. Twenty of them on a table say "plague outbreak" better than any single hero could. Every technique that frightens a new painter, from pooling washes to chipped edges, improves these miniatures, so your tenth model looks great and your first still fits beside it. If deadlines stress you out, these are your people.
Spread the contagion sideways
With a painted core, widen the infection. A Foetid Bloat-drone is a floating horror that breaks up the infantry silhouette and paints in a weekend. More Plague Marines are always the right buy. They are the army. A Terminator-armoured character or an elite squad adds punch, and Typhus, Host of the Destroyer Hive, is both a grim kit and a natural leader for your Poxwalker herds. On the edition: 11th redid points and datasheets for the whole range, and starter boxes rotate, so read the current points before you lock in a list.
Recommended: Foetid Bloat-drone
Mortarion, once the garden is painted
Mortarion. There is no other answer. The Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard is one of the largest, most spectacular character kits Games Workshop makes: tattered wings, censers, scythe, the works. He is a multi-week painting project, which is why he should be the reward at the end. Paint the garden first, then let its keeper descend.
Rot does not stockpile
- Mortarion before a single Plague Marine is finished. The Death Lord does not lead grey plastic.
- A third squad of anything while the first two sit unbuilt.
- Every daemon engine variant at once. Adopt one pet, learn to love it, then expand the menagerie.
- Texture paints and weathering kits beyond the basics. The look comes from technique, and the basic kit is enough.
Counting the garden
Nurgle is the god of cycles, and the useful hobby cycle is a short one: log each kit when it arrives, mark it boxed, built or finished, paint, repeat. The Death Guard paint themselves once momentum starts, and the finished column swells like something left too long in a warm cupboard. The complete catalogue of everything the Plague God's legion fields is on the Death Guard faction page under Data.