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Hello all. I ran a themed list for 7th which consisted of 3 Maxed Sporefield Formations, 3 Sporocysts and some extra spores inc. Meiotic Spores + Old One Eye at 1k pts. Wasn't great but was fun for all involved.

Now I'm trying to convert that list for 8th Edition but struggling. Spore mines alone are 10 'bolt pistols' each!!! Guardsmen have a ranged attack, armour, orders, move faster, are tougher and cost half the 'bolt pistols' which just makes me salty .

At 1k points I'm fielding less spores then I did in 7th (I have 27 less Spore Mines and 14 less Mucolids), without all the support rules that made it viable for 7th (Sporefield gave them infiltrate to start and lost units came back on a 4+).

I'm asking for any and all help to revive this list. Thanks.

To be fair, Spore Mines and their kin are far more dangerous than they were in 7th due to their now inflicting mortal wounds upon detonating instead of regular hits. No invulnerable saves, no armor saves, and toughness is irrelevant.

I think to make the list work while maintaining the feel of the 7th edition version you probably will need to play Power Level games as there are stratagems that allow you to replace mines (using Hive Fleet Hydra) and "infiltrate" up to two clusters at the start of the game before the first game and without the Tactical Reserves matched play rule you could drop everything in via deep strike. For Matched Play the biggest problem is that Mines and the Sporocysts don't count as boots on the ground (due to their special rule in the former case and being a fortification in the latter case) so you technically loose immediately after deploying if you bring nothing but spores and their spawning nodes. That said, if you are willing to extend the theme a bit you could do a list based on the Aeros Air War from the Shield of Baal campaign with swarms of Gargoyles buzzing around a core of Sporocysts and Spores with a couple shooty Tyrants providing synapse coverage (they can technically hide near the back lines and use the Sporocysts to safely extend their broadcast range to the midfield).

Simply run an armylist with a Spearhead with a Neurothrope + single biovores and fill it up with sporocysts. Single biovores give you enough units to deploy on the field so that the sporocyst can "infiltrate".

I got a 2vs2 tournament coming up and we bring 12 sporocyst + 10 biovores. It's devastating.

I'm sort of in love with the idea of using the Swarmlord to move deep striking spore cloud into charge range on the turn they arrive. Their move is only 3" but if you're Kraken you get that sweet 3d6 take the highest advance, and then Onslaught them into the enemy.

Totally a long shot and more resources than it's worth, but possibly a fun hail-mary move.

Best play for sneaking spores in imo is to use Meiotic Spores as infiltrate blockers. If not needed, place 12" from nearest enemy and turn 1 use the move twice strat to almost guarantee their explosion on the enemy. Just need to roll a 2+ on the first advance and since the same value is used for second, that'll be 10" move minimum (assuming the 2+ on advance again). Of course Kraken spores really will be moving fast there.

I don’t think spores are worth taking for the points you pay. However, units that can produce spores are very very good. I run 3 sporocysts and honestly if assembling and painting them wasn’t so awful I’d run a second detachment of 3 more. 6 sporocysts, a hefty selection of biovores, and a neurothrope or two. Add Rippers in reserves to grab objectives.