GreaterChickenofTzeentch

Warpstrike does seem to need commitment to three things.....lots of Oblits, Terminators and probably Mutilators, lots of Terminator Characters, and the ability to overload the opponent with shooting and charges at point blank. Unfortunately, from what I've seen, Thousand Sons are pretty much the game's dominant force for ranged combat at 18 inches and closer (with Retaliation Cadre being a close rival), and any time they spend a CP for Overwatch, you feel like the roller coaster just hit the peak of the climb before the plunge. Super elite armies DO NOT like this, especially since Warpstrike lacks FNP, which is usually a huge help against their shenanigans. Defensive play and trying to bait them out plus lots of redeployments is a good thing to take from the loss, like you said, but the matchup was just NOT kind. The new Defiler will only make this more of a problem. The TSons one has murderous synergy with the rest of their army and offers a countercharge threat to boot.

And if you're a big fan of the Obliterator Virus, Warpstrike Champions might be your thing.

The ones that said "Skitarii Terminator Equivalent" next to them, supposedly, in the section on what units Duneriders should transport? I'm pretty sure they are. I wonder if they will use the "Hephaeston" name for a choppy variant? Maybe those big guys with the quad buzzsaw arms that the Night Lords were fighting in the ADB books.

I imagine that people who want to swap out heads on the Faultless Blades could use Painbringer heads from AoS with a minimum of fuss.

True, but they also did rate Dread Talons as #5 out of 8 detachments in terms of strength, ahead of Fellhammer, Deceptors, and Chaos Cult. There are others that are far better, but it seems to have more strength than some other lists that are reliant on battle-shock.

Kinda interesting that Nick Nanavati from Art of War won a game on stream with Dread Talons and he seems to think it has at least some merits as a board control army using MSU infantry and Rhinos + lots of Raptors and Warp Talons.

Excited about the updates to Warp Talons and Cypher. The "Night Lord" detachment needs love, but Allies might make it work. Changecasters, Blue Horrors, Bloodcrushers, Skull Cannons, Poxbringers, Sloppity Bilepiper, and the Knight Abominant are all examples. Favorite Detachments by Legion/Warband I play: Black Legion (esp Black Lions): Veterans of the Long War. Interesting Combo: Berzerkers and "Milennia of Experience" moving big distances during opponent's turn to get to grips. We'll see if it works. Iron Warriors: Fellhammer. Interesting Combo: Chaos Lord with Daemon Hammer and Iron Artifice in a 10 man unit of Chosen with a Master of Executions. That will hurt a lot of things, especially getting out of a transport to rocket forward to advance, shoot, and charge to explode whatever they hit, then consolidate forward, let opponents take a swing and pop off other stratagems for payback before blasting their way free via Point Blank Destruction. Night Lords: Renegade Raiders/Deceptors (tie). Both of those work for either the hard hitting, raiding aspect of the Eighth or their trolling shenanigans, especially their comms interference and tendency to raid prisons for recruits/cannon fodder. Interesting Combo: Mark of the Hound + Lord Discordant + Reavers' Haste. "Scout+ Advance + Charge Missile" might be the best job for a Lord Discordant.

For Cypher, Agent of Discord now works on all Stratagems used within 12 in of him (Battle Tactics only, because it doesn't name a Strat). It just doesn't work for whole game or only once per battle. You could increase a Command Reroll and a faction Battle Tactic both by one each if your opponent decided to use both within 12 of cypher at the same time. Plus his offensive output went through the roof. So many gunshots. All it's missing is annoying commentary from Kurt Wimmer.

One cool thing about all this new stuff is that you can build a Black Legion army for each of their warbands and those subfactions can all fight different (based on their actual lore) because you chose different Detachments.

I am certainly excited about running Havocs as if they were "Troops" and testing out my 2 new Defilers or running 3 Preds, 3 Vindis, and a Land Raider for an armored spearhead.

Basic, but fun: Warpsmith w/Mark of Tzeentch and Eye of Tzeentch, Tzeentch Havocs with Heavy Bolters, Slaanesh Vindicator: Slap the Vindicator on the rear with Master of Mechanisms, so that it can advance, shoot, and charge (using Unnatural Swiftness, being Slaanesh) with +1 to hit. Advance the Vindi, move the Havocs/Warpsmith up and open up with the Heavy Bolters on another unit, getting crits on 5's for both Sustained (native) and Lethal Hits (warpfire). Eye of Tzeentch likely gets you the CP for Unnatural Swiftness back. The Vindi, of course, opens fire, calling Sustained Hits with a 2+ and then yells "TANK SHOOOOOOCK!!" and charges to go bowling for Mortals.....then proceeds to sit there in combat, ramming and blasting things at pointblank range while the Havoc unit moves past it looking for other targets, maybe healing the Vindi if needed.

I agree with @techsoldaten. Why no Vindicator? The World Eaters were listed in past fluff as some of the biggest users of the tank among the Traitor Legions. Bizarre.

Another way I've seen Havocs used successfully is to jam a squad or two in a Dreadclaw, drop them in and unload Chaincannons or Heavy Bolters. That's not quite what we're talking about, but maybe it could be adapted to Lascannons or Missile Launchers. On a related note, if using Iron Warriors, the Missile Launcher is an excellent weapon for Havocs specifically. Methodical Annihilation allows them to either smooth out the damage for Krak Missiles slightly by re-rolling one damage roll or max-out hilariously on frag missile shots. When you're already ignoring cover, either can be important. I could see that versatility being important against the new Guard. Firing 24 shots into Roughriders or maybe 12 into each of 2 Infantry Squads could be good. For Word Bearers, you could use a Khorne Apostle with Epistle of Lorgar to give Wrathful Entreaty to one Khorne Havoc Squad and keep them always in Wanton Destruction, while giving another Warp Sight Plea to reroll 1's and ignore cover. Then when the group of them are charged, they're re-rolling hit rolls and maybe taking a couple down with them. Hexagrammatic Ward might help with return fire in a pinch.

On the Havoc note, I've seen their durability issue helped by Rhinos in a few games. Start the Havocs in there, then move out and fire. If you want to run multiple squads, jam two in one Rhino and hide it behind another tank.

The clear front runner is Iron Warriors because of all the damage mitigation they have, the ability to ignore cover, their improved ability to heal vehicles via Technovenomous Mechatendrils, and the possibility of rerolling damage rolls if needed. Runner up might be Word Bearers because of Mortal Wound resistance and the extra durability from Hexagrammatic Ward in a pinch, as well as the fact that it can carry many DAEMONKIN units.