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Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition
Codex: Death Guard
The Death Guard advance amidst rolling smog, spore-thick fumes, and whirling flies. Blessed by the Plague God Nurgle, these mutated warriors are incredibly resilient, their diseased bodies bloated with unclean flesh and melded to the plates of their hulking battle armour. They wield plague-ridden weapons that unleash the grim powers of alchemy, sorcery, and supernatural contagion to wither and ruin their foes.
Codex: Death Guard is a vital book for collectors who enjoy setting the chosen of Nurgle upon an unsuspecting galaxy. This impressive tome is packed with debased artwork, plague-fuelled background material, inspiring photography, and the rules you need to unleash your diseased warriors in games of Warhammer 40,000. You'll find datasheets, Detachments, narrative Crusade rules, and a self-contained Combat patrol section to help you fight tight, tactical games with your collection. This book will allow you to live out your worship of Grandfather Nurgle no matter how you like to collect, paint, and play with your Death Guard.
Inside this 128-page hardback book, you'll find:
– Revolting background material for these bile-soaked warriors, including their history and current ruinous activities
– Epic art and photography to inspire you to spread the blessings of Nurgle
– Rules for using the Death Guard and daemons of Nurgle in games of Warhammer 40,000, with 36 datasheets, six Detachments, and two army-wide rules
– A set of rules to launch your own narrative Crusade, brewing Alchemical Pathogens and earning Boons of Nurgle
– A guide to painting your Combat Patrol and rules for fielding the Maggot Lords in skirmish-sized games
Codex: Death Guard is a vital book for collectors who enjoy setting the chosen of Nurgle upon an unsuspecting galaxy. This impressive tome is packed with debased artwork, plague-fuelled background material, inspiring photography, and the rules you need to unleash your diseased warriors in games of Warhammer 40,000. You'll find datasheets, Detachments, narrative Crusade rules, and a self-contained Combat patrol section to help you fight tight, tactical games with your collection. This book will allow you to live out your worship of Grandfather Nurgle no matter how you like to collect, paint, and play with your Death Guard.
Inside this 128-page hardback book, you'll find:
– Revolting background material for these bile-soaked warriors, including their history and current ruinous activities
– Epic art and photography to inspire you to spread the blessings of Nurgle
– Rules for using the Death Guard and daemons of Nurgle in games of Warhammer 40,000, with 36 datasheets, six Detachments, and two army-wide rules
– A set of rules to launch your own narrative Crusade, brewing Alchemical Pathogens and earning Boons of Nurgle
– A guide to painting your Combat Patrol and rules for fielding the Maggot Lords in skirmish-sized games
- GenresScience Fiction40k
128 pages, Hardcover
Published May 10, 2025
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4 people want to read
About the author
Games Workshop
1,011 books108 followersGames Workshop Group PLC (often abbreviated as GW) is a British miniature wargaming manufacturing company. Games Workshop is best known as developer and publisher of the tabletop wargames Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 17, 2025
This is Codex for the Death Guard gives all the usual lore and rules for the Legion of Nurgle.
Although a lot of it has been rewritten and updated, the background section of the book is pretty similar to that of previous Death Guard Codices with a brief history of the legion, as well as lore on the characters and units that can be used by players., and while some of the unit sections are a bit brief, there does seem to be individual entries for the majority of units this time around. It doesn’t, however, have much on the current actions of the Death Guard, which is a little disappointing. Thee two pieces of short fiction included in the section are as good as normal, even if one of them is only a single page in length (as was the case with the Emperor’s Children’s book).
The artwork and model photography were, of course, just as good as always for this edition, even if I do still prefer the former over the latter. I did like that the illustration of a Plague Company’s organisation had a more visually interesting chart than in the previous Codex, and the chart for an example Vectorium’s organisation was nice to see as well.
The rules section of the Codex is the same as usual for this edition with Combat Patrol rules, Detachments, units and Crusade rules all included. The Maggot Lords Combat Patrol seems reasonably good (the more recent Combat Patrols do seem better put together than some of the older ones in general) and I could see myself using it. The Detachments in the book seem pretty average for this edition with basic, vehicle based, character based, daemon based, Poxwalker based, and elite based Detachments. As with the Emperor’s Children (and likely the other Cult Legions as well) Daemons can only be taken with a single Detachment but, which is still a little annoying. The unit Datasheets in the book all seem pretty standard for this edition as well, although the removal of the Sorcerer in Terminator armour and the Cultists for this edition is somewhat disappointing.
The Death Guard get two unique Crusade rules in this edition, the ability to create Grand Plagues that give experience, Battle Traits and Blessings to Death Guard Characters, and the ability to create Pathogens to use in battle. Both of these rules seem quite interesting and nicely lore inspired.
Although a lot of it has been rewritten and updated, the background section of the book is pretty similar to that of previous Death Guard Codices with a brief history of the legion, as well as lore on the characters and units that can be used by players., and while some of the unit sections are a bit brief, there does seem to be individual entries for the majority of units this time around. It doesn’t, however, have much on the current actions of the Death Guard, which is a little disappointing. Thee two pieces of short fiction included in the section are as good as normal, even if one of them is only a single page in length (as was the case with the Emperor’s Children’s book).
The artwork and model photography were, of course, just as good as always for this edition, even if I do still prefer the former over the latter. I did like that the illustration of a Plague Company’s organisation had a more visually interesting chart than in the previous Codex, and the chart for an example Vectorium’s organisation was nice to see as well.
The rules section of the Codex is the same as usual for this edition with Combat Patrol rules, Detachments, units and Crusade rules all included. The Maggot Lords Combat Patrol seems reasonably good (the more recent Combat Patrols do seem better put together than some of the older ones in general) and I could see myself using it. The Detachments in the book seem pretty average for this edition with basic, vehicle based, character based, daemon based, Poxwalker based, and elite based Detachments. As with the Emperor’s Children (and likely the other Cult Legions as well) Daemons can only be taken with a single Detachment but, which is still a little annoying. The unit Datasheets in the book all seem pretty standard for this edition as well, although the removal of the Sorcerer in Terminator armour and the Cultists for this edition is somewhat disappointing.
The Death Guard get two unique Crusade rules in this edition, the ability to create Grand Plagues that give experience, Battle Traits and Blessings to Death Guard Characters, and the ability to create Pathogens to use in battle. Both of these rules seem quite interesting and nicely lore inspired.
July 13, 2025
Overall, the new Death Guard codex is great. Like most of these 10th edition codexes, GW’s artwork has hit its stride after the weirdly bright and cartoonish 8th edition backslide (but for the love of decency, please give credit to the artists, that really is an issue), and the background on each unit and the Death Guard as a whole is stellar. The rules are pretty solid, apart from the rather stringent restrictions on daemons, but that has been par for the course across the Chaos tomes. The one thing that’s really missing is the brief timeline with assorted battle vignettes. That was always one of my favorite bits, but that seems to be going away (for now, at least).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews