With 9th edition rapidly approaching, I thought I would share some of my favorite lists in 8th edition. I’ve tagged these with the name of the player who ran it when I noticed it.
Nick Rose’s 2018 Team America Tyranid Horde
The sheer number of bodies in this list…and the ability to move them all in the right way within a time limit is staggering (I recognize ETC has longer rounds, but still.) This has to be the ultimate board control list of 8th edition. With over 200 bodies this list can be anywhere it wants. The ability of the Zoanthropes to blast out sections of the board with mortal wounds also means it’s not toothless either. Plus, if someone wants to kill those Zoanthropes they’re not doing anything about the bodies scoring objectives.
Sean Nayden’s 2018 Hammer in the New Year Winning List
This was one of the first lists that really made me scratch my head. How the hell did this guy win a GT with this? How did he beat a Fire Raptor spam list in the final round? I really love this list because it inspired me to try and think outside the box more in 40k. Nayden’s pretty well known on the internet for crazy lists, and this was the first one that I encountered personally. I could speculate on what it does. This was the one of many iterations of Nayden’s character spam concept, (Others had more Guardians, characters, and even Windriders.) And this thing has the Yncarne, who I love dearly. Very interesting, fun to play with (of course I did) and unique in the 8th edition 40k landscape.
Colin McDade’s 2017 Character Spam
Well, this is probably the coolest list of 8th edition. I just remember thinking, how the hell do you come up with this idea? Does it grossly take advantage of the character rule, yes. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. Not at a high-level competitive event. Similar to Nayden’s list, I was dumbfounded at how to use this at first, but upon reflection, it’s beautiful simple in the context of 8th ed in 2017. Characters blocked for characters back then, so you’ve got 6 Culexus Assasins you can barely shoot and a bunch of scary beatsticks behind them. That manipulation of the character is so interesting! Sure, it got faqd into oblivion, but while it lasted, it was a pretty damn interesting list.
Genestealer Slingshot (Used by multiple players across the edition)
Kraken Battalion
- Swarmlord
- Broodlord
- 18 Genestealers
- 18 Genestealers
- 27 Hormagaunts
- 27 Hormagaunts
Kronos Patrol
- Neurothrope
- 26 Termagaunt
- 6 Hive Guard
- Exocrine
Mixed Genestealer Cult Battalion
- Magus (4 Armed Emperor)
- Patriarch (Warlord, Twisted Helix)
- 10 Brood Brothers (4 Armed Emperor)
- 10 Brood Brothers (4 Armed Emperor)
- 10 Brood Brothers (4 Armed Emperor)
This list has existed for most of the edition, especially once the Tyranid Codex dropped and gave them access to Kraken and Kronos, double shooting Hive Guard, and all the Nid strats. I’ve used this specific variant of the list (By Nick Nanavati) personally and really love it. I’ve been drawn to the concept for most of the edition, and the idea of shooting Genestealers into someone’s face with Swarmlord while blasting them with Hiveguard has existed and been consistent for three years. It’s a staple, much like Shining Spears and Dark Reapers have been for Eldar.
Thanks for reading through some of my favorite lists of 8th edition. It sounds like 9th will not drastically change the game, so we will probably see some of the same concepts translate into the new edition. A couple of these lists applied to an outdated meta or outdated rules, but that’s the great thing about 40k and it’s players, no matter what state the game is in, there are always gems to be found in the list building. Comment some of your favorites below!
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