Thousand Sons and the spring FAQ

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

Magnus is kinda of frustrating because if you go first and get the glamour, and weaver cast on him he is really tough. So I think he is really difficult to give a fair point cost too. I'd say I've used him 20 times this edition (maybe half of those are after the codex dropped) and he tends to die on the first turn before I go about 20% of the time. Otherwise he does amazing about 10% of games (kills twice his point cost) and for the most part feels about right. That said those 4-5 games are brutal.

 

That said I don't think he needs to get fixed, this edition is just so flexible that even with the new faq you only see the broken stuff. I'd rather see tournaments that restrict you to a codex (maybe an exception of Imperial knights, inquisitor style units), and see how the meta would look. 

[Archaeinox]

Magnus works well against new players or players with bad lists and in which case you shouldn't be using Magnus.

 

If you like playing the RNG game and have good luck, Magnus is probably for you XD.

 

Personally, I deliberately avoid him under 5k and EVEN MORE SO with the warptime faq where we can't put even more pressure on the enemy so they don't blow Magnus off the table.

[Raven1]

So run Magnus when you have at least 2 other LoW units I your army...

[Archaeinox]

I just can't recommend him in my group.

 

YMMV as the saying goes

[Raven1]

I just can't recommend him in my group.

 

YMMV as the saying goes

Right now he is an exquisite paperweight for me.

[Heliomanes]

I think Magnus needs a list built around him. We need some target saturation, so I'm pretty happy with how he pairs up with leviathan dreads and deep strikers. He needs to have dibs on warp time, so now, post FAQ, that's less of a tough sell and a small indirect buff to him.

[Panzer]

Magnus and Mortarion are basically gatekeeper in tournaments.

They force people to include a lot more anti-tank in their lists than they'd like to because otherwise when you eventually have to play against a list with them included you'll lose the game and your chance to get one of the top placements. However people who do include enough anti-tank usually don't have much of a problem against those lists (if played properly with a list that isn't lacking otherwise) so they simply beat lists with Magnus and move on.

 

It's basically like with flyer in 7th. Either there are lots of flyer and people start taking anti-air making them useless and 'easy wins' or there aren't many flyer and people leave their anti-air at home because it's not needed. And then you have some very specific list like Daemon flying circus and flyrants who keep getting played but aren't strong or enough to justify including all the anti-air in your lists because it would be useless against every other list you're going to face and others are in he same boat as you anyway. ^^

[Archaeinox]

The list I played for a Grand Tournament did exceptionally well because it didn't have Magnus. For example, I fought an Ultramarine player with a battalion of scouts and lots of terminators in Spartan plus lots of missile launcher devs. He took the bait of webway rubric units and hit them with rapid fire and frag and had no idea they'd get 2+ saves.. These guys are used to cultists and Magnus.

 

Fought a 4 knight list and I am sure he would have killed Magnus had I taken him. I lost the game but I killed 2 knights and did a total of 60 wounds to them all.

[Heliomanes]

I'm glad you're seeing some success. How are you doing against competitive lists?

[Raven1]

https://www.frontlinegaming.org/2018/05/05/thousand-sons-tactica-magnus-and-the-rehati-war-sect-8th-edition-post-faq/

 

Here is an interesting article on the Rehati War Sect. I pretty much have the models, except the Lord of change. I think I'll give it a go

[Ahzek451]

Ran the Rehati in 7th, inspirational article to try again. But I was also considering adding in more shamans for a cheaper way to smite with the new faq.

[Realgone]

Different FLG, different stories. Played two game yesterday at 2000 pts and had Magnus (playing him for the first time since codex). The first one against 4 knights and the other a ITC Mechanicus/Space Wolf soup. By turn 2 the 4 knight were wrecked, as for the second game the opponent concede at the end of turn 2 as well. Granted for the second game I had crazy lucky dice roll. But against the knight with Magnus, 2 las-pred and having turn 1, it felt almost too easy to be true.

 

 

Edit: Just post the list I used in the army list sub-forum if you're curious.

[Sonoftherubric21]

Since the codex came out I have only used Magnus 4 times, but each time he seems to perform. I have never had a situation where he has been just "removed top of Turn 1" like many people say, though to be fair my meta is semi-competitive most of the time, rarely ever seeing a super hardcore tourney list that people actually want to play against. So thats something to bare in mind. 

This Rehati list is very interesting, I only own 1 prince, and 1 "resin" magnus from FW (I use this as a Daemon prince as well when not using big magnus) but it sounds like a very interesting list, I could see using Exalted on discs in their place and getting a very similar effect.  Id save it for more competitive games, as I *NEVER* bring Magnus as a surprise, I always tell my opponent ahead of time "Mind If I take my primarch?" because its immensely unfair to spring him on someone ill equipped, that being said If I play against someone for tourney prep? that sounds like a HELL of a list to play against, may have to give that a shot at some point. 

[Raven1]

I don't have 3 daemon princes either I thought about swapping one for an index sorcerer on jumpack with a familiar for the plus one on the first cast. Less combat power but still 12" move with 2 powers and +1 cast. A demon prince with high magistar and most your powers are at +1.

 

I like the idea of the Lord of Change becuase I think it adds that strong alternative to Magnus that I think he needs. Having one obvious target you can shoot at from across the board its just too big of a target.

[Heliomanes]

I'm working on converting my Osiron contemptor dreadnoughts to deamon princes anyway, so I'd like to try a more pure Ksons version of the Rehati list. Perhaps the Leviathan dread can fill a similar role to the Lord of Change.

[Raven1]

I'm working on converting my Osiron contemptor dreadnoughts to deamon princes anyway, so I'd like to try a more pure Ksons version of the Rehati list. Perhaps the Leviathan dread can fill a similar role to the Lord of Change.

The supreme command detachment certainly has that elite slot in it to throw in a helbrute of somesort or heck the super pppular FW tank.

[Heliomanes]

I'm thinking more of a pure Ksons force, for my own sanity's sake. I have enough with juggling the rules, faction bonuses, profiles, stratagems etc from a single codex and attached FAQs.

Maybe something like this?

Ksons Batallion
Daemon prince with wings
Daemon prince with wings
Daemon prince with wings

10 cultists
20 Rubricae w reapers
28 Tzaangors

Leviathan dread, melee and butcher cannon array

Super heavy aux : Magnus the Red.

It retains the triple princes and Magnus, while using a mix of tzaangors and rubrics to hide them in using the character rules, like the horrors and nurgle deamons in the linked article. Leviathan is there to look treathening and draw fire from Magnus, not unlike the LoC.

[Lustmoerder]

I'm thinking more of a pure Ksons force, for my own sanity's sake. I have enough with juggling the rules, faction bonuses, profiles, stratagems etc from a single codex and attached FAQs.

Maybe something like this?

Ksons Batallion

Daemon prince with wings

Daemon prince with wings

Daemon prince with wings

10 cultists

20 Rubricae w reapers

28 Tzaangors

Leviathan dread, melee and butcher cannon array

Super heavy aux : Magnus the Red.

It retains the triple princes and Magnus, while using a mix of tzaangors and rubrics to hide them in using the character rules, like the horrors and nurgle deamons in the linked article. Leviathan is there to look treathening and draw fire from Magnus, not unlike the LoC.

I’ve been looking at something similar except with Ahriman and a different load out on the dread:

 

 

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Thousand Sons) [84 PL, 1555pts] ++

 

+ No Force Org Slot +

 

Relics of the Thousand Sons (1 Relic)

 

+ HQ +

 

Ahriman on Disc of Tzeentch [9 PL,

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch [9 PL, 180pts]: 5. Otherworldly Prescience, Dark Matter Crystal, Malefic talon, Warlord, Wings

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch [9 PL, 180pts]: Helm of the Third Eye, Malefic talon, Wings

 

+ Troops +

 

Rubric Marines [27 PL, 433pts]

. Aspiring Sorcerer: Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol

. 17x Rubric Marine w/ Inferno Boltgun: 17x Inferno boltgun

. Rubric Marine w/ Soulreaper cannon: Soulreaper cannon

. Rubric Marine w/ Soulreaper cannon: Soulreaper cannon

 

Rubric Marines [7 PL, 107pts]

. Aspiring Sorcerer: Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol

. 4x Rubric Marine w/ Inferno Boltgun: 4x Inferno boltgun

 

Tzaangors [7 PL, 150pts]: Brayhorn, 19x Tzaangor w/ Tzaangor Blades

. Twistbray: Tzaangor blades

 

+ Heavy Support +

Hellforged Leviathan Dreadnought [16 PL, 339pts]: Grav-flux bombard, Grav-flux bombard, 2x Hellflamer

 

++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos - Thousand Sons) [23 PL, 445pts] ++

 

+ Lord of War +

Magnus the Red [23 PL, 445pts]

 

++ Total: [107 PL, 2000pts] ++