Black Blow Fly here to discuss list building for 40k in the 21st century... There are players that want a winning list using only one codex and there are players that have no qualms whatsoever as long as they are winning. One thing I recognize is that GW loves some allied armies going back as far as 6th Edition the worst Edition except for 7th Edition... they went so far as to say Soup is no longer on the menu but in reality if you still play competitively it is still is very much a thing BUT not quite as much so following the second big FAQ for 8th edition. For whatever reason GW is still all up into allied armies. Is it time to turn back the clock for the sake of the hobby ? Mono armies using one codex can do some work and if you don’t believe me just look at Dark Eldar and this is ORKT0BER.
I know what I like to play and I don’t like to design my army lists to chase the meta. Eighth Edition is all about the horde lists that have inherently intrinsic rules that are so much better than elite armies. A basic guardsman is more than twice as good as an Assault Marine when you do the math. That’s doesn’t make any sense to me nor is it properly reflecting the background accurately either. Horde units are very low cost in terms of points and by buffing them with auras, psychic powers and stratagems they are much more powerful than elite units. If you play progressive missions such the ITC or NOVA horde armies can very early rack up lots of the points simply sitting on more objectives because of their inherent low cost. Elite armies cannot compete against horde armies when it comes to holding objectives.
All the best armies can do some horde too just look at Thousand Sons. Take a full squad of 30 Tzrangors with a Twistbray so they can deep strike 1" closer to enemy units. Deploy them on the table some place safe. You’ll need a character with the Dark Matter Crystal that lets you deep strike a unit already deployed (see Tzrangors). Buff the Tzrangors with easy to cast psychic powers for +1 invulnerable save, -1 to hit then cast Warp Time on them... hilarity ensues and you haven’t used any precious command points yet but why not go ahead and burn one for +1 to wound? Seriously GW and you say you have legitimate play testers ??! To me it’s the proverbial case of the foxes guarding the hen house.
GW has unsuccessfully been trying to dial it back down from day one but Horde is still the king and this is ORKT0BER. A lot of people are ready to jump on the mean green band wagon and GW officially said this will be the very best Ork codex ever. So yeah mono faction is still a thing and here we see GW really really wants it’s so bad they straight up tell us publicly... good times for sure. Remember there are people that say more Primarchs can only be good for the game... Fulgrim is just around the corner too.
Ask yourself if that is really a good thing? To those that are truly true to the Waaaaagh they are deserving and good for them. One thing to always keep in mind is that playing Orks means lots and lots of models to purchase, build and paint... enjoy.
Now let’s take a look at the best and most competitive armies in Eighth Edition so far:
At first Ultramarines lead by Guilliman were over the top alongside Smash Brothers. Neither of these type of builds were fun to play against. Do you remember the short term success of Ravenspam? For me the army I personally hated the very most was Imperial Knights-Astra Militarum-Blood Angels with an infinite amount of command points to rock totally absurd strategems for six or more Battle Rounds. And what about Ynnari with Soul Burst and -4 to hit with ranged weapons ? Why does GW not understand ?
By the manner in which armies are designed only a very few select factions can really even be top tier competitively which typically revolves around extremely undercosted overpowered units... no brainer and very abusable - look at Dark Reapers and Shining Spears as two examples. On top of that armies like Ynnari often function on the obscure interaction of certain rules, for example such as being able to field Altioc and Ulthwe units in the same detachment. If you play Eldar you aren’t making any friends at the gaming table... there has always been just something about them. There are only three actual Ynnari models as well and all you ever see is the obligatory Cat Lady... seriously how did this ever get to be a thing ?! I always laugh when I think about GW saying Soup is off the menu... they are truly clueless. Like I said if you ain’t got Horde you ain’t got shite.
So what is the best solution? Will the next Chapter Approved bring the game back in line ? This is ORKT0BER.