Editing Warhammer 40,000/8th Edition Tactics/Thousand Sons (section)

==Unit Analysis==

===HQ===
*''A NOTE ON DAEMONIC MOUNTS'': Notice that Daemonic Mounts give the model the {{Template:W40kKeyword|DAEMON}} keyword. This is both good and bad. Good, because this means you get buffed by nearby Heralds (+1 Strength is nice) and get affected by several powers that wouldn't normally buff them, so if you want to go Daemonkin you have some synergy right there. (This is absolutely confirmed in the Designers' Commentary.) Bad because things like Grey Knights are that much stronger against you. Keep it in mind when you choose your Lords and Sorcerers. Remember that despite having {{Template:W40kKeyword|DAEMON}} you do not gain god specific bonuses. For example, Ahriman with a disc has both {{Template:W40kKeyword|DAEMON}} and {{Template:W40kKeyword|TZEENTCH}} keywords but he does not gain +1 to his invuln because he lacks the Ephemeral Form special rule. This applies to all mounts.
**Note: Characters on demonic mounts have the Cavalry keyword. This disqualifies them from many stratagems and psychic powers as they are only applied to infantry, bikes, Daemon Princes, and helbrutes. 
**Note 2: This does mean they will benefit from the Locus of Trickery if you brought any tzeentch daemon characters in a daemon detachment. They will NOT generate the aura, but will be able to use the buff if near the daemon character. 
*'''Daemon Prince''' - This entry and the Daemon Prince of Tzeentch entry are treated as the same now with the Rule of Three for Organized Play.
*'''Daemon Prince of Tzeentch''' - No longer the one man army he used to be, though his melee is still rather powerful. Use him to support other units with his 6" bubble and psychic powers. 8 wounds means he can't be targeted by shooting if he's not the closest unit, so keep him behind another unit that can match his 8" move speed. As a psyker, he knows ''Smite'' and two powers, and you have quite the options to pick from; that said, consider focusing on the Tzeentch discipline, since  he's the only guy who can use those powers other than Magnus. He also buffs both models with the same Legion and Daemon Allegiance keywords. 8th Edition made all the melee weapon options for them the exact same cost, so now it's a choice between two more attacks (Talons), doing 1 more Damage per attack (Sword), or having your Strength, AP and Damage by 1 better at the cost of -1 to hit (Axe). The Talons are probably still his best equipment choice unless you're desperate for something to kill vehicles with, but even then, 7 attacks at -2 AP are nothing to scoff at. Like the Death guard daemon prince, the Thousand sons DP apparently sacrificed his gat for more psychic dakka
**Important thing to realise is that these daemon princes can cast 2 powers each psychic phase compared to the traditional 1. At no extra points cost. They still get the ephemeral daemon bonus which is what a normal daemon prince of Chaos dedicated to Tzeentch gets. This makes them seriously worth considering even outside a thousand sons detachment. They also have access to '''All 3 disciplines''' This makes these extremely versatile units with the ability to totally fuck stuff up in psychic and combat and providing useful buffs to other units around them. Consider surrounding them with Tzaangor for a fast screen with some damage output that also fits the requirements for most of their buffing psychic powers.
**Daemon Princes cannot take The Seer's Bane, Coruscator, or Prismatic Staff, as they do not have an inferno bolt pistol, force staff, or power sword to replace. They CAN, however, still take the Dark Matter Crystal, Athenaean Scrolls, or the Helm of the Third Eye. 
** Has very good synergy with a Chaos Daemons of Tzeentch detachment. Use a Pink Horror Bomb (30 Pink Horrors, 1 Changecaster for +1 Strength and '''Daemonspark''' Warlord trait if you feel like making the little guy the Warlord), fly the Daemon Prince over to them, cast Flickering Flames and watch 90 shots decimate or better (you should get about 15% casualties per shot against MEQ, and decimating is 10%....) the enemy on 4+ to hit, re-rolling 1s to hit, strength 4, +1 to wound, re-rolling 1s to wound. If you're lucky, Boon of Change could even make them strength 5 shots, which would wound Marines on 2 and Death Guard on 3.
**Very important difference between this version and his Chaos Space Marine twin is one tiny rule called '''Ephemeral Daemon''' which, instead of the traditional 5++ Daemon Save, gives him a '''4++'''. Combine this with either the Otherworldly Prescience WT or the Weaver of Fates Psychic Power and have a Daemon Prince with an equivalent of a '''Storm Shield'''!
*'''[[Exalted Sorcerers| Exalted Sorcerer]]''' - Knows two psychic powers from the Discipline of Change or Dark Hereticus. Can cast two powers and deny one.  Their main strength is that they have the combat stats (not necessarily equipment, but not far off) of a Chaos Lord with the Psychic power of a Sorcerer. Can't take familiars (so no +1 to cast), but they do get '''Lord of the Thousand Sons''' which provides re-roll 1's to hit to units within 6" which more than makes up for it in most circumstances. Ahriman is a much better version of an Exalted Sorcerer and will therefore likely see a lot more use than they will.
** If you have a few backfield vehicles (predators, for example) then it might be worth taking one of these guys, giving him a disc and giving him Prescience/Temporal Manipulation. It's a lot cheaper than taking a Daemon Prince, he should rarely be the closest target to the opponent and you'll be buffing your ranged troops with the aura, healing some of the damage they sustain and with 24" range you should still be able to prescience anything you like.
** You could buy him a power sword and give him Seer's Bane, combined with Diabolic strength, and you have yourself a highly cost effective close combat monster swinging 5 attacks at S12 AP-3 D1d3 against any psyker or LD 9+ unit.  Is also still swinging at S6 AP-3 D1d3 against other targets, which is still potent. 
*'''Sorcerer''' - The future Exalted Sorcerers. They can cast two powers and deny one. They're as good at casting as '''Exalted Sorcerers''', benefit from the +6" range but have less wounds, worse combat stats and, vitally, no reroll 1s to hit aura. However, they do make a good option for a 2nd psyker character and might be useful if you don't need a 2nd aura.
** Per the datasheet rules, Codex units can take wargear they had in Legends, since this is a Sorcerer, not a Sorcerer of Tzeentch. You can still take things like the Jump pack and Force Axe, but you have to pay the Legends point costs and the cost of a jump pack makes the sorcerer the same cost as a terminator sorcerer, making his utility very niche. Gains a 5++ save and an inferno bolt pistol instead of a normal one. 
**'''Sorcerer in Terminator Armour''' - Heavy duty Sorcerer. Note that this guy costs 20pts more than the vanilla one, but if you fear for his safety this is good investment. The main reason to take this guy is to accompany Scarab Occults or units making use of the Deep Strike stratagem. Can also take a familiar upgrade that gives +1 to the first spell he casts each turn.
***If using a familiar, the 'High Magister' warlord trait and the 'Cabalistic Focus' stratagem, you can have the hardest power to cast (Doombolt) going off on a 5! a 5! You'll Almost automatically pass most others, so the warp is your oyster!
**'''Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch''' - Legends only. Costs 46 points more than a sorcerer with a jump pack, and can't take an Inferno Bolt Pistol or Warpflame Pistol. In exchange you get... the {{W40Kkeyword|DAEMON}} keyword and the functional equivalent of a chainsword . Not a good choice, or even a mediocre one, but a couple quick notes on this guy before you completely dismiss him. One, unlike Sorcerers on Discs that are taken by other Legions, he actually benefits from the Thousand Sons Legion Trait, since Brotherhood of Psykers specifies {{W40Kkeyword|PSYKERS}}, not {{W40Kkeyword|INFANTRY}}, {{W40Kkeyword|BIKERS}} and {{W40Kkeyword|HELBRUTES}}. Secondly, while he is very overcosted, if you so desired to abuse your Smite spam privileges, his existence means that Ahriman can lead a terrifying flying wolfpack of 9 Sorcerers (3 with Jump Packs, 3 on Disks and 3 Exalted on Disks). Though stupidly expensive (nearly 1,400 points with just basic weapons), it might just be worth it for the look on your opponent's face.

====Special Characters====
*'''[[Ahriman]]''' Ahriman is one of the best HQ options that the Chaos faction has to offer, never mind the Thousand Sons. He has three psychic powers, three denials, +1 to cast/deny psychic powers at all times, relatively low cost (166 with disc) and the ability to remain behind a line of his own troops. He also has the '''Lord of the Thousand Sons''' aura, a damage three force stave and a native 4+ invulnerable save (compared to 5+ for Exalted Sorcerers). If he is your Warlord he has to take the +1 to invulnerable save Warlord Trait, but this is actually pretty good given it puts him at 3++. Despite being good in melee you are best off keeping him back so that he can pull the strings of your entire army with his aura, psychic dominance and ability to reinforce if required. Give him a Disc of Tzeentch as the mobility is crucial and you'll almost never want him hiding in a transport, plus many snipers including the vindicare wound infantry on a 2+, Ahriman looses the Infantry keyword on a disc making it far harder to pick him off.

:*He can also be used like the machine gun he was always meant to be, traveling on a disc with a hit squad of Tzaangor Enlightened. Give him all the nuking Psychic Powers (Doombolt, Infernal Gateway and Tzeentch's Firestorm) and laugh as enemy characters flee from your 24" ranged assassin. Add in 1CP for The Great Sorcerer to let him cast Smite as well, for lols.
:* Unlike Magnus, Ahriman did plenty wrong. He's one of the most <s> evil fuckers in all of 40k</s> loving leaders who only wants to right his wrongs and his rules really make you feel like a cackling <s>villain</s> hero --- enjoy!
:*Don't underestimate Ahriman's close combat abilities.  Consider:  Cast Glamour on him for a -1 to be hit, Diabolic Strength for the +2 Strength and additional attack, then have a couple of friendly Mutaliths give him -2 AP.  You now have a tough-as-nails monster hitting 5 times (6 with Hateful Assault) at S8, Ap-3 for a flat 3 damage per attack.  If you want even more attacks, you can press your luck with Boon of Change (although you'll need a friendly Daemon Prince to cast it on Ahriman unless he Familiars his way into it), or gamble with Boon of Mutation.
:*Great news! Ahriman is now available on the new SC! 1K Sons kit. He comes with 10 Rubrics and 10 Tzaangors!

===Elites===
*'''[[Rubric Terminators| Scarab Occult Terminators]]''' - Revenge is a dish best served cold. Terminators are now some of the strongest units a Chaos army can take and these guys? They hit harder, and they're even more durable. Only movement 4", but Teleport Strike counters this a bit. These guys are impressive, though it's harder to make the most of a Deep-Strike if you're trying to stay in the character's auras. Just keep them away from melee units with high toughness, multi-wounds as they lack power-fists. 5 guys lets them make 20 shots at up to 24" with AP-2 bolter shots, which will shred most infantry. Add in Veterans of the Long War and you have an infantry shredding salvo which can threaten light-vehicles. The Occult Sorcerer will also be able to chip in with his Smite power or Cult/Discipline of Change power. Don't forget these guys sport the 'All is Dust' special rule like their Rubric brethren, however with two wounds apiece and 4++ they will be drawing more powerful Dakka their way. You really should be Deep-Striking them wherever you can, and be sure to buff them with the attached Aspiring Sorcerer. They really shine in taking the Soulreaper cannon and/or Missile Rack as they don't suffer the penalties for moving; in this regard, they are like loyalist terminators with more resilience, deadlier guns and a psyker leading them.
**In a post-CA2019, post RotD world, these guys deserve a second look. The strats to double their shots and their sorcerer now knows an additional spell. If you want a hard as nails unit that can deep strike and put dakka to make Orks nod in approval, look no further.
**Sorcerous Facade from the Cult of Duplicity is a great power for this unit; as it effectively allows it to redeploy every psychic phase. This lets the unit drop in, mulch some infantry, then warp away next turn to hit another flank. Also RAW it doesn't prevent you using it if you get bogged down in Melee. So it's alot harder for the opponent to tie up the terminators.
*'''Helbrute''' - A good [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]]. With the new 'all vehicles are MC' approach, a Helbrute now requires a decent amount of applied firepower to be put down instead of being a free victory point. Crazed is now a buff only rule, which makes it better than the loyalist Dreadnought. Note that Crazed is a normal shooting attack. So it can shoot all available ranged weapons at any viable target(s). Kitted for ranged combat, it doesn't seem to put out enough damage to be a credible threat, and the things you'll want to throw one kitted out for melee at are the very things that will tear it multiple new ass-holes in no time. However, Helbrutes do have their advantages. For one; they don't suffer from degrading stats compared to things like Predators and Forgefiends. This means Helbrutes move, hit & shoot just as effective at 1 wound as they do when at full wounds. Secondly there are a few stratagems that are usable by Helbrutes, including a Helbrute specific one. Lastly, Helbrutes are fairly economic on points, especially with changes from Chapter Approved. As for armaments it comes stock with a Multi-Melta and Helbrute fist without a Heavy Flamer or Combi-Bolter mounted to it. Due to poor wording of the Big Rule Book FAQ, every unit has a Close Combat Melee weapon in addition to what is on it's data sheet; Battering Assault gives its bonus attack if the Brute has two melee weapons - and not specifically two of the same weapon, meaning that even the stock configuration is at 5 attacks (and why you should never take double fists). For shooting, you should probably immediately upgrade the Multi-Melta to a Twin Lascannon, Twin Heavy Bolter, Helbrute Plasma Cannon or Reaper Autocannon and drop the second arm for a Missile Launcher - this makes for a surprisingly cheap and durable weapons platform; able to throw out a fair amount of shots across a variety of targets. The Twin Lascannon is best deployed as an anti-tank weapon, so if you were looking at brutes to do some of that for your army, take the las, otherwise for a CP you can upgrade the twin Heavy Bolter to -2 AP. 
**Ranged Opinion:'''Stay away from the Reaper Auto-Cannon, it is trash.''' If it were ''D2'' instead of ''D1'' it would be a good choice, and more than just a glorified 4 shot Heavy Bolter. Take either a Helbrute Plasma Cannon, or if you just can't stand that you lose wounds on rolls of 1's to hit, a Twin Heavy Bolter instead.
**Alternate Ranged Opinion: Taking a Reaper is useful to keep the points of any Helbrute build low and keep your investment in your distraction unit to a minimum. A reaper/missile for example combo comes in at 90pts under Chapter Approved 2019 prices, which though not a significant saving compared to the 96pts and 97pts of the Plasma / Heavy Bolter Builds is still a saving that may allow you to fit in more bodies or other units. In small games, chances are your opponent won't have something to deal with this gun platform.
**Melee Opinion: The hammer will usually under-perform due to the accuracy debuff, but it costs as much as a pair of fists; whether you take a scourge (A8 S8 AP-2 D2 25pts) or a fist (A5 S12 AP-3 D3 20pts) depends on what you plan on fighting. Never take a fist without also grabbing a gun to put in it. With the new Chapter Approved 2019 you can take a second fist for for a mere +10 pts, so now you can dual wield for a total of 90pts for a punishing scrapper in melee.
*'''[[Tzaangor Shaman]]''' - Comes in at  90 pts including his force stave, BS 3+, WS3+/S4A4/T4/W4, Ld8, and 6+ save that you will never use because he has a 5++. They hover about on a disk, they buff up the psychic phase using a one-use magical potion that allows them to re-roll a single failed psychic test. Uses powers from the change discipline, casting 1, and denying 1. They can buff Tzaangor units within 6" with a +1 to all their hit rolls. Because his +1 to hit aura affects all hit rolls made by Tzaangors, this means that your base Tzaangor auto pistols become slightly better, but still can't compete with the blades in terms of effective damage output. Aside from in close combat with ground Tzaangors, this aura also really shines with Tzaangor Enlightened, as it makes them hit with either their great-bows or divining spears on 2+, as well as cause auto wounds on 5+. Also keep in mind the aura affects the shaman, meaning he's hitting on 2s in melee with his force staff, so he can hold his own if need be.

====Forge World====

NOTE - Hellforged Vehicles are particularly awkward in '''Thousand Sons''' armies. When they explode they do d3 mortal wounds to nearby units, except for Psykers, who take d6 mortal wounds instead. That even includes basic Rubrics. Ouch.

*'''Chaos Decimator''' - 8th edition has shown our favourite pseudo-dreadnought some real love. Movement is 10" with WS 3+ BS 3+, S7, T7, W8, A5, SV 3+ 5++ with no degeneration as wounds go down. You regenerate a wound at the start of each of your turns, and still gain +1 attack even if you drop a melee weapon (thanks FAQ). It still has all of its old weapon load-outs while sadly losing its cool flamer special rule from 7e. Stock Claw is +2S AP-3 D3 with a Hellflamer doing Heavy D6 S5 AP-1 D2 Auto Hits. The Decimator Storm Laser is as you would expect from last edition, 24" Assault 5 S6 AP-2 D1. The once horrible Soulburner Petard now has some real use with 24" Assault 2D3 S- AP0 D1, causing auto MORTAL wounds on successful hits, while to hit rolls of 1 cause Mortal wounds to the Decimator. It states that you cannot take more than 1 mortal wound a turn via this rule, so you are fairly safe using it due to your regeneration. Butcher Cannon is still reliable with 36" Heavy 4 S8 AP-1 D2 causing -2 LD to enemy unit should a casualty be sustained. C-beam Cannon has also gotten some new life, 72" Heavy 1 S6 Ap-3 D3, you gain +2S and +D3 for every 24" you are away from the target, AND if the enemy suffers a casualty due to your original shot, the same unit suffers 2D6 additional S6 AP0 D1 damage. Overall the Decimator handled the transition to 8th nicely and are more attractive now than they were in 7th even with the lack of Deep Strike capabilities.
**Note that despite visual similarities to Helbrutes and Dreadnoughts, the Chaos Decimator does not have the {{Template:W40kKeyword|HELBRUTE}} keyword.
*'''Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought''' - S7 T7 W10 A4 Sv 3+ (though we can take more of these 'relics' than imperials can), the Contemptor remains as good as it ever was. It has a huge amount of options with your typical Fist (Deathclaw) and Chainfist (Chainclaw) available, as well as some of the more Chaotic choices. New to the menu is the Kheres Assault Cannon which the Chaos Warpsmiths finally found a working version of. As of the FAQ you can now go double guns, should you feel the need - though the melee potential is wasted if you do. Butcher Cannon (36" Heavy 4, S8 AP-1 D2,  causes a LD -2 debuff on enemy units that it has inflicted casualties on) and the Kheres Assault Cannon are attractive choices. On a 5+ it eats an enemy it killed in melee for healing a wound, it has a 5++ against shooting and Overwatch with a 4++ in melee. A solid choice that is a natural step up from your standard Helbrutes. Just keep it away from, well, most your army due to the Containment Breach rule, which punishes regular units with d3 mortal wounds within 6" and Psykers within 6" with D6 mortal wounds instead.
**FW FAQ: Now the Contemptor can replace both arms for ranged weapons if you so wish, and you can take an Havoc Launcher too.
**Also per the FAQ, Chaos Dreads have the Helbrute keyword.
*'''Hellforged Predator''' - Confused to see this in the elites slot? So is everyone else! Anyway, it's a Predator that's an elite with some extra rules and guns. Standard Pred weapons with the ability to choose Flamestorm Cannons (8" Heavy 2D6 S5 AP-1 D2 Flamer), Magna-melta Cannon (24" Heavy D3 S10 AP-4 D6, roll extra dice if in 1/2 range), C-beam Cannon (72" Heavy 1 S6 AP-3 D3, +2S & +D3 for every 24" between shooter and target, causes 2d6 S6 AP0 1D additional hits if you kill a model with your first shot), and Plasma Destroyer (36" Heavy 2D3, S7 AP-3 D2). Can eat people in melee to regain one wound on a 5+, causes D3 additional attacks when it successfully charges, also has the Containment Breach rule, which punishes regular units with d3 mortal wounds within 6" and Psykers within 6" with D6 mortal wounds instead. It's a fine choice if you feel the need to have those special weapons on a Pred platform. The damage charts for this and other Hellforged tanks are distinctive in that they actually get better in melee the more injured they get, meaning the more you need some wounds repaired the more likely you'll be able to eat some, although your movement does suffer so it gets less able to get into melee.
** Note that the extra damage to your own Psykers from a Containment Breach is pretty bad in a '''Thousand Sons''' army. You're better off taking the cheaper Predator from the codex.
** If kitted with Flamers this tank becomes a pseudo-hellhound. Take heavy flamer sponsors to intensify this and throwing out 4D6 auto-hits at 8" at -1 AP D1/D2. Most people won't want to charge it either.
** Thanks to the FAQ 2019, you can't use Killshot with Hellforged Predators
*'''Hellforged Sicaran''' - An even bigger vehicle in the elites slot? No it's not the Warp-dust kicking in, this is real life. The Sicaran is still a beast at T7 W14 3+, but as always we take it for its main weapon. The Twin Accelerator Autocannon is kicking at 48", Assault 8 S7 AP-1 D2, No penalty to shoot at FLY and every wound of 6 is jumped up to AP-3. It can move 14" between 7-14 wounds; letting you fly around the board shooting those Autocannons on 3+ (remember, it's assault, not heavy), ouch! Can eat people in melee on a 5+ to regain a wound, and has the Containment Breach rule, which punishes regular units with d3 mortal wounds within 6" and Psykers within 6" with D6 mortal wounds instead.

===Troops===
*'''Chaos Cultists'''- Your cheap choice. Cultists can be set for melee or range without paying extra points, which is nice. Flamers make them somewhat more reliable, while Heavy Stubbers are a cheap and useful upgrade if you plan to camp objectives with them. They have some problems though, with poor leadership and the ability to die to a stray fart. They're doing best when the opponent forgets they exist, so try not to mention them. Also, Games Workshop tacitly approved the use of Age of Sigmar's Tzeentch Arcanites as flavourful Thousand Sons Cultists with some art in the codex. Use these if you want them to look more like someone who might have come from Sortiarius.
** Can be used to wrap enemy vehicles into position, but Tzaangors have bigger bases (so need less models to do it) and are much better at getting stuck in.

*'''[[Rubric Marines]]''' - Once unusable, these guys have become pretty good. They have their usual loadout of Inferno Boltguns, which they can replace with Warpflamers for maximum hurt in overwatch, and the Aspiring Sorcerer can take any force weapon and a Warpflame pistol to help them if they get in melee. For every 10 models, one Rubric can take a Soulreaper cannon. The Aspiring Sorcerer got a huge buff with the codex as he is now also a fully fledged Psyker who can cast any of the Spells from the Discipline of Change. These spells are low WC rating (6 or 7, except Doombolt) and are usually the sort of spells you won't take on your HQs because you want them to take Prescience, Warptime, Death Hex, etc. If you take a few 5 man squads (or even 10 man and some Scarabs) you're going to find yourself casting a LOT of psychic powers - which is exactly how it should be! He also knows a "mini" ''Smite'', which does 1 or d3 mortal wounds rather than the normal d3/d6. Rubrics "All is Dust" rule gives them +1 to all saves if the attack does 1 damage, giving them a 2+ save against small arms fire. It is very effective in a lot of situations but opponents grow wise to it.
**As per the 1.3 FAQ, if the Aspiring Sorcerer suffers wounds from Perils of the Warp, you may allocate it to any model in the unit.
**Interesting new addition in the codex, the aspiring sorcerer can take a Plasma Pistol. it's not much but it is at least SOME kind of plasma weapon.
** Consider taking a weapon composition of 6 boltguns, 2 warpflamers and 1 soulreaper, the warpflamers make for good overwatch and the soulreaper makes up for the boltgun shots you lose from the flamers.
** Another solid build is to take a pair of MSU squads, give everyone a Warpflamer or Warpflame Pistol and pack them into a Rhino. Such a package will reliable roast an entire MSU squad per turn, before even taking Psychic Powers or the Rhino's weapons into account and will be suicide for any thing short of a Dreadnought to charge.

*'''[[Beastmen (40k)#Tzaangors.2C Beastmen of Tzeentch| Tzaangors]]''' - 80 points for a unit of 10 close combat monsters that are just as tough as Space Marines, have a 5++ invulnerable save, 2 attacks when equipped with a pair of Tzaangor blades (3 on the Twistbray) WITH -1 AP, a 10 point instrument that adds 1 to their Advance and Charge rolls, as well as rerolling to hit rolls when targeting a character. These guys are an absolute steal for Thousand Sons armies that need lots of fodder to protect their big guns in the back. They do a better job in close combat than Space Marines do. Pistols/Chainswords look cool but are inferior to Tzaangor Blades, as AP-1 makes them dangerous to almost everything in the game (apart from Daemons).
**They're also a surprisingly good [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]], just strong enough that ignoring them will hurt, but just expendable enough that you don't have to feel bad using them as cannon fodder.
**Buy AoS ones as the Autopistol/Chainsword combo is inferior to the Tzaangor Blades and AoS ones do not have the sprue for it, so they are a bit cheaper.
**They have synergy with the Mutalith Vortex Beast, the Tzaangor Shaman (who buffs Tzaangors within 6") and the 2CP Stratagem that lets them attack twice! 30 Tzaangors deepstriking down, assaulting and attacking twice will cost you 3CPs, but that's potentially 122 attacks (less casualties). Cast Prescience for 2s to hit.
**These guys are an excellent use of your Dark Matter Crystal.  Fire a unit of 30 Tzaangors to outside 9" of something, take a Brayhorn for an 8" charge and watch your opponent shit their pants at the birdy blender that just materialized in front of them. TAKE HEED. Dark Matter Crystal re-deploys the unit, but the Big FAQ for the BRB specifically only forbids Warptime from working on units setting up as Reinforcements.
**Make no mistake: with the right psychic powers, buffs and help from a Mutalith Vortex Beast or two these can be turned from above average melee troops to an absolute terror. Use Weaver of Fates to buff them to 4++, Glamour of Tzeentch for -1 to hit, Prescience for accuracy (or just put a Tzaangor Shaman next to them), An Exalted Sorcerer's re-roll aura for even more accuracy, Mutalith powers for +1 Strength or AP or both, and Veterans of the Long War in the Fight phase. At this point you'll have use about half your army for buff a single unit, but it's one your opponent won't soon forget.

===Dedicated Transports===
*'''Chaos Rhino''' - With Webway Strike, sadly these aren't very useful for Thousand Sons. At 67 pts they're expensive in an army that is already struggling to fit things in. Their main use is to get assault troops safely forward, but Thousand Sons assault infantry (Tzaangors) are too cheap to be worth a Chaos Rhino, plus you want to take more than 10 of those. Mean-whilst you want your tanky Rubrics on the field so that their Sorcerors can cast their psychic powers.
** If you ''do'' take one, then add on a Havoc Launcher and Combi-Bolter. This at least puts out a decent amount of small arms fire, to make the price of the METAL BOX feel a bit better.
** For some players, 67 points a piece is a decent price to protect your expensive rubric squads from a harsh Alpha Strike, as any opponent worth his salt (or dust), will know they are going to have to throw a hefty amount of firepower at them. Due to this, think of the Rhino as a disposable bunker, if it dies, so be it, if it doesn't it still served its purpose considering it moves twice as fast as the rubrics.

====Forge World====

*'''Termite Assault Drill:''' It's a neither a drop pod or a rhino, but something of both. Like a drop pod, the Termite can be deployed at the end of a movement phase close to enemy. Once deployed, however, the termite acts like a slow Rhino. At 8 inches, this thing isn't going anywhere fast. Not to mention the Melta Cutter is an Assault D3 Melta Gun. So why bother? Well the termite has some neat little things going for it. First is the transport capacity. At 12 '''HERETIC ASTARTES''' models (not Terminator, Jump Pack or Cult of Destruction), making this little drill is quite the metal box. Add in that it can deep-strike and who cares if this thing only moves 8 Inches a turn? And then there is the subject of the two Combi-Bolters (always take Combi-Bolters and never the heavy flamers) but maybe look into the Twin Volkite Chargers. Additionally, it's equipped with a Termite Drill, it's a Double Strength AP-4 and Damage 3 melee weapon. After you make all of your melee attacks, roll a D6 for every model that suffered damage but was not slain by this weapon, on a 2+ the model suffers a mortal wound. And if the target is STILL not dead, roll again, on a 3+ it takes another mortal wound. Keep doing this, with every roll requirement being one higher than the last, until you fail the roll, or the target dies. 8 Mortal Wounds on average

===Fast Attack===
*'''Chaos Spawn''' - The Flesh Change sufferers you know and love. Movement 7", D6 attacks at -2 AP. Has a chance to be -4 AP, or reroll failed wounds, or get +2 attacks. S5 T5, 5+ save, leadership 9 due to being a mindless pile of flesh and 4 wounds. 5+ save means they're pretty squishy, but they can hit fairly hard. Pretty much the same as before, but there is a Stratagem that can give you one without having to pay for reinforcement points and another one that lets you re-roll their attack number while also picking their bonus effect. The first one makes for a useful surprise when one of your Sorcerers is looking like he'll die anyway so keep a couple in your cases for such occasions. For 20pts a model (post CA19), you might want to throw in a few gribblies in your list if you need a speed bump or meat shield for the Daemon Princes.
*'''[[Tzaangor Enlightened]]''' - Birds on discs.  They have 3 different weapon options, Autopistol and Chainsword, Fatecaster Greatbow, or a Divining Spear. In addition, every 6+ to hit roll counts as a successful wound. Easy to pass over at first glance, but they have a saving grace; speed. With a move of 12", they can add some much needed mobility to your list in a way that doesn't rely on psychic powers or command points. If you take the bows, they become a surprisingly agile harassment unit. With the fly keyword, they can't be tied down in melee, unlike a lot of the rest of the army. They are also dirt cheap in terms of points/power-level.
**They are even better than you think. They get the Daemon keyword thanks to their discs, so benefit from buffs like Flickering Flames, Tzeentch Daemon HQ auras, and Boon of Change.
**The auto-wounding combined with the divining spears' D2 on the charge can be a nasty surprise for vehicles and monsters. The AP of -1 isn't much, but the amount of attacks make up for it, especially if you luck out with Boon of Change for the +1 attack. They won't take down Land Raiders, but crippling big guns on the 2nd turn (or even 1st with Warptime) with such a cheap unit is a viable strategy.
**The divining spears become an even more viable option when taken in conjunction with Mutalith vortex beasts. with their vortex powers giving them either -1 AP, +1 Strength or reroll failed charges, on top of the vortex powers stacking with each other. This can result in anything from two specific powers stacking like +2 strength bringing them up to strength 7 to wound vehicles easier, or -2 AP letting them cut through MEQ's and TEQ's with ease. 
**Enlightened are also able to use the Cycle of Slaughter stratagem, so you can get two rounds of combat out of your 2 damage spears when you charge.
**Enlightened also have the Heretic Astartes keyword, allowing you to cast such classics as Warp Time, and Prescience on them to make them zoom even faster and auto-wound on a 4+ with a Shaman nearby.  If you wanted your Shooty Disc Birds to be even more annoying when it comes to harassing things, auto wounding on 4+'s will please you.

====Forge World====

NOTE - It's worth repeating that Hellforged Vehicles are particularly awkward in '''Thousand Sons''' armies. When they explode they do d3 mortal wounds to nearby units, except for Psykers, who take d6 mortal wounds instead. That even includes basic Rubrics.

*'''Hellforged Dreadclaw Drop Pod''' - This flyer/drop pod/thing is a ball of spiked sex! It can transport 10 models or a Dreadnought/Helbrute and comes in via Drop Pod Assault. Moves 15" which does NOT go down as you lose wounds, though its S and A do. T7 W10 3+ with Blade struts for melee (S User, AP-2 D2) and Thermal Jets for shooting (6" Pistol D6, S6 AP1 D1, which automatically hits all units, friend and foe, within 6" with separate shooting attacks and can only be used if more enemy units are affected than allies. Can eat things in Melee combat for a wound back on a 5+. When it explodes {{W40kKeyword|PSYKER}} units nearby take D6 mortal wounds rather than D3. The Dreadclaw hits you in the groin with 115 pts.
*'''Hellforged Kharybdis Assault Claw''' - Dreadclaw not have enough spikes? Ever wanted to field a model that weighs as much as its point cost? Well here you go! Seriously, it's like Forge World mails you a giant block of resin and you chisel it out and glue some pointy parts on (so that they know it's supposed to be Chaos). Having almost the same stats as a Dreadclaw (except BS4+, T8 and W16) but with more weapons/troop capacity/model weight and of course SPIKES. 325 pts gives you a flyer/drop pod that can carry 20 infantry into battle by either drop pod assault or like a normal transport. A fat 16 wounds and the ability to regain wounds on a 5+ after killing an enemy model in CC. In addition to the blade struts and thermal jet array that the Dreadclaw has, the assault claw can charge something that's Titanic, a vehicle, or a monster, and you have the option to instead use ONE Melta cutters attack, S16 AP-5 hitting on 2+ doing 2D6 damage. Additionally, to soften whatever you're about to forcefully-melta-sodomise, it's equipped with 5 Hvy 3 Storm launchers S6 ap-1.
**Maybe throw it at your opponent. The weight and extending spikes will bring about guaranteed victory! (And assault charges)
**Fill it with 20 Rubric Marines (2 units of 10) and drop them in turn 2 within Rapid Fire range for an auto-disembark.  light up anything you can with your sexy Inferno Bolt guns and some magic since you have 2 Aspiring Sorcerers and then try to make charges with this spiked Butt Plug to really assert your dominance.

===Flyers===

*'''Heldrake''': AKA the Helturkey. No Hard to Hit, no Airborne, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, it still has Infernal Regeneration and it's robust, but not unkillable, and arguably better than later 7th Edition because due to loss of facing it's now a turret weapon again. A price drop has meant the Baleflamer is pretty much an auto-take at this point, as it costs the same regardless. The reason for this is that being a Daemon Engine the Heldrake has a terrible BS of 4+ and moving around bumps that to 5+ on Heavy weapons. Other than shooting, the Heldrake can be used effectively in melee; with 4 attacks, WS 3+, S7 AP -1 Dd3 claws, with a +1 to hit against <FLY>. This makes the Heldrake the best anti-<FLY> Flyer in the game as few flyers can fight back. Also being a unit with <FLY> means it can charge something and then fall back while still melting faces with daemonic fire. A supreme backfield nuisance or tool to shut down an opponents heavy guns for a turn, the drake can even fill the role of flying assassin against exposed enemy characters (though it will probably fail against any TEQ units). Keep in mind the bonus to hit also applies to Jump-Packs and Jet-Bike units.
**The lack of Aircraft rules cuts both ways. It can be charged by ground units, but it can also be used to pin down enemy units as they cannot fall back through its base like they can with Aircraft. Similarly, Knights and other Super-Heavy Walkers cannot fall back across it; watch your opponent flip the table when he realises cannot Fall Back with his Castellan through any of your units pinning it in combat because they all have weird keywords.

====Forge World====
*'''Chaos Fire Raptor Assault Gunship''' - An very powerful flyer that looks immense and fits right into the lore of the Thousand Sons. It particularly benefits from the psychic buffs on a Thousand Sons army, too. Keep Prescience, Glamour of Tzeentch and Weaver of Fates cast upon it to maximise survivability and firepower. Also keep an aura giving HQ nearby to reroll 1s to hit. Avenger Gatling Cannon (10 s6 ap-2 damage 2 shots), Quad Bolter (24 s5 ap-1 damage 1 shots) and 4 Lascannon shots (S9 ap-3 damage d6, though you need to convert on the lascannons) are the best option, even if they bring the price up to 452 pts (Chapter Approved has been errataed, the base cost of the Fire Raptor is now 280 points without wargear, not 190). Hitting on 2s, rerolling 1s, this birdy will blow the opponent away.
** If you take this monstrosity then expect all of the DAKKA to target it on turn one. You might want to take Magnus as well so that one of them gets to survive, but be careful as this might cause an unsuspecting opponent to have a stress seizure and turn into a Chaos Spawn (though only if he/she have the appropriate reinforcement points).
*'''Chaos Storm Eagle Assault Gunship''' - Less useful for Thousand Sons as the transport aspect isn't too helpful. Dark Matter Crystal, Deep Strike Stratagem and the lack of melee capacity of Rubrics takes away the urgency for flying transport.
** Think of this baby as a flying Land Raider with double the transport capacity. While it's not as tough, it's way faster and can take the same weapons, Twin Heavy Bolters, two Twin Lascannons and a Vengeance Launcher  on top for a total of 10 points less than a Land Raider.
*'''Hell Blade''' - Courtesy of the Dark Mechanicus's warped minds comes one of the better anti-flyer units in the game. Only 130 points with twin helstorm cannons (Heavy 2 S6 AP-2 D3 and wound rolls of a 6 cause an additional mortal wound), with a 3+/5++ and Hard to Hit plus a +1 to hit against other units with {{W40kKeyword|FLY}}. Can swap its two Helstorm cannons for two Lascannons. With a 18"-60" movement that doesn't degrade as you take damage and a funky rule that allows it to pivot up to 90 degrees at the beginning AND end of each movement phase, you will be hunting enemy flyers in style. Pairs nicely with the stratagem Warpflame Gargoyles.
*'''Hell Talon''' -  Expensive at 240 points, but considerably tougher than its baby brother the Hell Blade with 12 wounds and T7 as well as its 3+/5++. In addition to the mandatory Helstorm cannon and twin Lascannon, you can choose between three (free) sets of bombs, all used at the end of the movement phase (see below). This is a flying Predator spending 70 extra points to get {{W40kKeyword|FLY}}, Hard to Hit, 20"-60" move, 5++, no penalty to move & fire Heavy weapons and a bomb that will likely do some Mortal Wounds to a unit you fly over.
**Pyrax incendiary bombs: The anti-infantry option. Once per battle, pick a unit you flew over and roll a d6 for each model in the unit up to a maximum of 20d6. Each 5+ (or 4+ if targeting infantry) causes a mortal wound.
**Warp-pulse bombs: Pick a unit you flew over and roll 3d6 for each vehicle or monster in said unit, or 1d6 for each other model, up to a maximum of 9d6. Results of a 5+ cause mortal wounds. In addition, the unit targeted is at -1 to hit and -1 leadership until the start of their next turn. 
**Baletalon shatter charges: The demolition option. Pick a unit you flew over and roll 6d6 for each vehicle, building, or monster in said unit, or 1d6 for each other model, up to a maximum of 6d6. Results of 3+ cause mortal wounds. Pick this one.
*'''Xiphon Interceptor''' - A flyer that the Thousand Sons loved to pieces during the Heresy-Era, to the point that they replaced all of their other Interceptor-Fighters with it. A solid anti-air option. Like the Hell Blade, it has +1 to hit against {{W40kKeyword|FLY}} units, hitting on a 2+ against them at full wounds. It looks cheap from its points value, but once you tack on the two twin lascannons and the Soulstalker missile launcher (Heavy d3 autocannon with AP-2 and wound rolls of a 5+ cause a mortal wound in addition to normal damage), it is well over 200 points.

===Heavy Support===
*'''Chaos Land Raider''' - Make sure to make use of its transport capability, or you'd get more out of a pair of las-Predators or one of the numerous other lascannon platforms. 
**NOTE: while this ''can'' take a Combi-plasma, supercharging it will result in it possibly killing itself in one go. Land raiders are fairly useful for the Thousand sons as their large footprint allows them to cover a lot of space when used in conjunction with the warpflame gargoyles stratagem. Alternatively use the inferno bolts stratagem to buff the twin heavy bolter's AP.

*'''Chaos Predator''' - It does Predator things. Split fire has buffed A LOT. has access to two very relevant stratagems and if you're going with tanks there are two major roles that a Predator can fill. Anti-tank, or anti-infantry (or to a lesser degree, both). Predators hold some extra value in a Thousand sons army as they typically lack heavy firepower, Pred's will be your go-to for Lascannon fire which will prove valuable if babysat by a sorcerer with prescience giving it +1 to hit and re-roll hit rolls of 1.
**For the anti-tank role, starting at 180 points, you can grab a las-pred armed with 4 lascannons. You can give it a combi gun of your choice and/or a havoc launcher if you have the spare points, but it is totally fine as is without them too. 
***For the anti-infantry role, starting at a slightly cheaper 145 points, you can have the Dakka-pred armed with the much improved "predator auto cannon" and Heavy Bolters sponsons. Unlike the las-pred you are definitely going to want to spring for the Combi-X and Havoc Launcher so you will at least add 8 more points, totalling out at 153 points.
*** Predators having Split fire means you can mix N' match the weapons layout and shoot each weapons at whatever its best optimized for. Unlike now, in previous editions doing so was a waste because ALL of your weapons had to fire at the same target. This would lead to frustrating situations where you had to chose between how you were going to waste 50% of your firepower... either by shooting your Heavy Bolters/Autocannon at armor they couldn't penetrate or by shooting the lascannons at troops. That said, mix N' matching is generally still a bad idea. If you split your fire each round it usually means that you're not killing stuff fast enough, or at the very least slower than if you had specialized the pred into anti-tank or anti-infantry.

*'''Chaos Vindicator''' - Heavily nerfed by the changes to blast weapons. A bit of a niche killing very heavy infantry and monsters. Far from useless however, for 125pts you get T8 and D6 Str10 Ap-3 D6 Damage shots. T5 and below infantry are going to suffer, and vehicles are going to take a beating from that much firepower. Benefits from combi-weapons and havoc launcher quite well, and a combi-melta supplements the Vindicator's anti-vehicle firepower nicely. Take it if you want something to spearhead a vehicular assault; the close range firepower will serve you well.

*'''Daemon Engines'''
**'''Defiler''' - Here's the deal, the Defiler is exactly what you expect him to be, he's a big, stompy, killy daemon engine that will inevitably draw in a lot of enemy fire because of how dangerous he is. With vanilla wargear he clocks in at 158 points. Well priced and destructive. 14 wounds, T7, 5++ invuln, '''Strength 16''' melee attacks. Long and short-range firepower with the Battle cannon, Reaper autocannon/Twin heavy bolter and Twin heavy flamer. Smoke launchers for defense and regenerates 1 wound at the beginning of each of your turns. Effective at range and close up but with options to suit your need. Replace the Twin heavy flamer and Reaper autocannon with a Twin Lascannon and havoc launcher and ruin some vehicle's day or bring a Defiler scourge and trounce any units that try to jump you.
***The plethora of psychic powers that can make the fiends scarier can also be used on the defiler, making the Giant Enemy Crab Engine even '''MORE''' deadly and less susceptible taking massive damage in a weak spot.
**'''Fiends''' - Fiends were already a good choice in 7th edition and still are a good choice in 8th. They're durable (12 wounds, 3+/5++ and they regenerate one lost wound at the start of each of your turns) and very reasonable point-wise, they do however still suffer from their drawback of only hitting on a 4+ at the best of time. Either keep an Exalted Sorcerer close and/or target them with Prescience if you can. Fiends will be outshined by more dedicated units at their role, but they're a boon of Tzeentch if you need a solid, dependable unit to shore up your army with. Another fun thing the thousand sons can do is use the fiends (Or defilers) to play mad doctor due to the number of spells that can be used on them. want to turn a maulerfiend into the scariest close quarters monster ever? throw on any combination of Warptime, Prescience, Diabolic Strength Boon of change & the daemonforge stratagem. Want the forgefiend to cut down infantry like a machine gun against paper? give it Prescience, flickering flames, and the daemonforge stratagem, then watch the bodies hit the floor.
***'''Forgefiend''' - Or Dakkafiend. Comes standard with 2 Hades autocannons and a [[Nob|reinforced jaw to chomp harder on anything close-by]]. Can replace everything (including the jaw) with Ectoplasma cannons that have better AP but fewer shots.   Bring a pack of 2 of these things and watch them output a ridiculous amount of firepower on a target. 
****Something worth noting, aside from being buffable by most of the dark hereticus, Tzeentch discipline & Change discipline psychic powers. The daemon engines have the benefit of being able to use both Daemonforge '''AND''' Blasphemous Machines, meaning if someone tries to jump on your forgefiend you can use blasphemous machines to use your 8" movement to retreat, reposition and still shoot back without losing out on ballistic skill. This is still assuming your opponent didn't get the charge off, but its still a useful stratagem to have in your back pocket. Forgefiends work best in an entrenched and fortified position, preferably with a lord to give rerolls without having to use Daemonforge, and a cannon fodder shield unit like cultists. Set them up in a position to take maximum advantage of their range, where you can easily keep them defended or sitting on an objective and I assure you they will put in some work.
****Despite the lacking ballistic skill of the Forgefiend, it is superior to other Heavy support choices like the Predator in different ways. The sheer volume of dice that can be thrown from this beast makes hitting the mark more likely despite the drop in ballistic skill, whereas missing shots on vehicles like Laspreds hurts ALOT. A Dakkapred doesn't have this problem, but the Forgefiend strikes an effective medium between having the strength to destroy vehicles AND the dakka for wiping hordes. Forgefiends are also much more durable due to +1 wound, 5+invuln, plus Infernal Regeneration, AND has access to powerful strats like Daemonforge. In other words, the Forgefiend is a fantastic ranged all-comer that has more powerful assets than other choices at the cost of ballistic skill. With the Daemon keyword, you can buff the Forgefiend's Hades autocannons with Flickering Flames to bring them up to lascannon Strength that deals 2 damage each.
****Never replace the hades autocannons with the ectoplasma.  The hades autocannons statistically equal or beat the ectoplasma against every combination of toughness/save up to 8/2+.  Plus, they have higher range and are cheaper.  Replacing the jaw is fine however as its your only ranged option.
****What buffs do normal CSMs wish they could put on 'fiends? Lords reroll 1s, Warpsmith D3 heals and Sorcerer prescience, right? Exalted Sorceror with Prescience and Temporal Manipulation can do all 3 of those buffs for 120 points.
***'''Maulerfiend''' - Or Choppafiend. They're still fast (10" base movement) and come standard with power fists and 2 Magma Cutters. Magma Cutters are considered Pistols with 6" of range now (S8, AP-3 D3 Pistols!), so the Fiend can start putting the hurt on a target right before they get into base to base contact and still shoot them in close quarters should they start the turn in combat. Pure win. They can also replace the pair of cutters with Lasher Tendrils for 1 less damage each and 6 extra melee attacks, trading punch against heavy targets for more attacks to mulch through infantry a bit quicker. Like the Forgefiends they work better in pairs and tag-teaming a target.
****This beast is basically a giant, well-disguised can-opener. It can and will crack ANY tank open in melee and eat it for breakfast, and the tendrils threaten infantry as well. On the downside, It gets slower and weaker as it takes damage, so it stops being scary at low wounds(though regeneration helps ALOT as the turns go by). It's FAST and can throw down with even dreadnoughts, but it struggles slightly with the unimpressive Weapon Skill of 4+ and with the MASSIVE attention it will draw from any opponent who prefers their tanks unmolested. Overall - not a bad choice. Should totally be a fast attack option. Whether it is better to take the magma cutters or the tendrils is up for debate, but THIS anon likes the tendrils more. Because if you spend a command point on Daemonforge, you get to reroll ALL of your melee attacks. All 10 of them. And they all have good AP.
*'''Mutalith Vortex Beast''' - Another import from Age of Sigmar, the MVB seems like a weird addition at first glance but it brings a surprising amount of buffs for something so ugly. Statistically, it is a close cousin to the Fiends, having +1 strength and +2 wounds but with only a 4+ armor save. It also shares the 5+ invul and the ability to regain a wound each turn, but lacks the mono-focus of its daemon-engine siblings. Instead, its main strength is the warp vortex special rule, which can buff your units or throw mortal wounds at the enemy. During your shooting phase, you can try to manifest a power by either picking one or have some FUN and roll randomly to get two. Even FUNNIER since you can GET THE SAME POWER TWICE AND YOU DON'T NEED TO REROLL (until FAQ'd). On a 2+, the power goes off, otherwise it fails. In combat the MVB can be very deadly, only held back by its weapon skill, but its two attack profiles (Betentacled Maw & Enormous claws) offer some flexibility, the maw grants you 3 hit rolls for each attack made with it instead of 1, giving you 12 attacks at full health albeit at strength user, AP-1, D1. Or you can use the claws which are only 4 attacks, but have the benefit of AP-2 and D2. Just be aware that the difficulty goes up to requiring a 4+ the more damage the Mutalith takes. Once it reaches half health however, the range of its powers doubles, but it also starts taking mortal wounds on a result of a 1. Also beware of its death throes, as it will explode dealing D6 mortal wounds to everything within 6"
*# Each enemy unit within 9" suffers a mortal wound. When the beast drops to 7 wounds, this power turns from a bomb into a supernova.
*# A Tzeentch unit within 9" gets +1 strength. 
*# A Tzeentch unit within 9" gets to reroll charges. If they are within 1", they fight first instead
*# A Tzeentch unit within 9" adds an additional -1 to the ap of their melee weapons
*# Enemy unit within 9" gets -1 leadership (max -3)
*# Roll 3 dice. For each 4+, the nearest visible enemy unit within 18" takes a mortal wound. It's like a smite your opponent can't stop.
**Notably, the buffs it hands out affect ''any'' friendly Tzeentch unit, not just Thousand Sons or Daemons. This opens up a number of combo options for assault units from the Vanilla Chaos codex.
***Potentially terrifying on Horrors.  Have a couple of Mutaliths give a 30-blob unit of Pink Horrors +2 Strength, cast Flickering Flames on the blob, and park a Daemon Prince (or just cast Prescience) and a Changecaster nearby (a Changecaster is dead easy to summon at 4 power, especially with the Sorcerous Pact).  Your weedy Pink Horrors are now putting out '''90''' S6 shots at a 3+ to hit and a +1 to wound.  Hello, target unit; goodbye, target unit.  It'd only get uglier if there was a way to give their shots AP-1 or better, but we can't have everything.  This set-up is equally nasty on a large squad of Flamers; they have less range and less overall shot output (54 max in a squad of 9), but they'll be shooting at S7, not S6, come with AP-1, and they automatically hit (so no need for Prescience or a Daemon Prince).  
** because of its sub-par WS of 4+ but very high amount of attacks, the MVB is a prime target for spells like prescience, it can also buff itself with its own vortex powers of +1 strength, -1 AP or reroll charges if desperate, they also benefit greatly from any characters that provide reroll 1's to hit, just be careful of who is providing that aura, as anyone other than Magnus will be within range of its death throes should it die, and chances are high that anyone other than a daemon prince/primarch won't survive the blast.
**Another thing worth remembering is that the vortex powers stack if you either bring multiple beasts and choose the same power or randomly choose two powers for one beast and they end up being the same. This means that its totally viable to bring more than one beast and throw caution to the wind when choosing powers, you can end up stacking some very large buffs on certain units, or dish out a LOT of mortal wounds to enemies. They also have a 1CP stratagem they can use to randomly generate another power that auto-succeeds, meaning one beast has the potential to use three powers in one turn.
*** Doesn't have the "DAEMON" keyword oddly enough, Grey knights eat your hearts out?

====Forge World====

NOTE - You already know about how Hellforged Vehicles are awkward in this Army.

*'''Chaos Vindicator Laser Destroyer (Deimos Pattern Vindicator Laser Destroyer)''' - Use the Deimos Pattern Vindicator Laser Destroyer datasheet on page 8 of Imperial Armour Index: Forces of the Adeptus Astartes. It gains the Hellforged keyword and must replace all of its Faction keywords with the following: Chaos, Heretic Astartes, MARK OF CHAOS, LEGION. In addition, it gains the following ability: ‘Machina Malefica: At the end of each Fight phase, roll a number of D6 for this model equal to the number of models that were slain by it during this phase; for each dice that scores a 5+, this model regains one lost wound. This model cannot regain lost wounds by any other means.’
*'''Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought''' - Chaos finally got the Dorito Dreadnought! A lot of people have wanted this for a while and rightfully so, it kicks ass. The Butcher Cannon Array is a fantastic weapons platform with 36" Heavy 8 S8 AP-1 D2, -2 LD to any unit that takes casualties from it. The Ectoplasma Battery is less impressive, 24" Heavy 5, S8 AP-3 D3 and causes a mortal wound to the dreadnought on the roll of a 1 (booooo). A third option called Dual Malignatas Saker is 48", Heavy 2 S* AP-5 D6, Roll 3d6 vs enemy LD, if it total equals or exceeds enemy L than the target model is wounded. I.e. choose Butcher Cannon Array. Greater Havoc Launcher is awesome at 48" 3D3 S6 AP-1 D1 that does not need LoS to shoot (heck yes!). Battle it out, then hide behind a rock when you have low wounds to stay relevant. Can eat things in melee combat on a 5+ to get a wound back. Has a 5++ against shooting/overwatch and a 4++ in melee. All friendly units within 5" have a 5++ save (mmmmmm), and a Helical Targeting Array which can be activated at the start of a turn, stopping you from moving, advancing or charging but adds 1 to its hit rolls against things with FLY. Has the Containment Breach rule, which punishes regular units with 2d3 mortal wounds within 6" and Psykers within 6" with D6 mortal wounds instead. And most of all remember, the cool ranch upgrade is better than the nacho cheese one. Has the Helbrute keyword.
*'''Hellforged Leviathan Dreadnought''' - Whatever was sacrificed in the name of Chaos to make these available... it was worth it. This super dreadnought is a monster and priced very well for what it does. T8 W14 A4 2+, comes with Siege claw (fist) and Siege drill (chain), Hellflamer (8", Heavy d6, S5 AP-1 D2 which autohit), Butcher Cannon Array is a fantastic weapons platform with 36" Heavy 8 S8 AP-1 D2, -2 LD to any unit that takes casualties from it. Soulburner Ribaudkin is another arm option at 18", Heavy 2d3 S- AP0 D1 which inflicts mortal wounds, Grav-Flux Bombard is your third option at 18", Heavy D3, S9 AP-5 D2 which actually does D5 wounds against Vehicles, Monster, and Titanic while adding D3 attacks if the enemy target has 5+ models. It can eat people in melee and on a 5+ it gets a wound, it has a 5++ against shooting/overwatch and a 4++ in melee and gains +1 attack if you keep both arms as CCWs. Has the Containment Breach rule, which punishes regular units with 2d3 mortal wounds within 6" and Psykers within 6" with D6 mortal wounds instead. Has the Helbrute keyword. Take the Butcher Cannon array for anti-infantry or anti-light vehicle duties, although in that case, you might be better off with the Hellforged Deredeo. Not anymore. With how cheap the butcher cannon array has become, for 90 more points (about half the cost of a Deredeo Dreadnought) you get double the butcher cannon shots, higher Toughness and better armor save. The Soulburner Ribaudkin will make Storm Shield units cry with its 2D3 Mortal Wounds. Finally, the Grav Bombard is the (interestingly) take all comers option, which can do work against both blobs and heavy targets. 
*'''Hellforged Land Raider Achilles''' - Your land raider on steroid with 2 twin multi-meltas and a massive soulburner bombard that has a range of 48" with 2D3 shots. Not only is it capable of dealing massive damage and mortal wounds, it has an inbuilt 4++ which can be buffed to a 3++ if you cast Weaver of Fates on it. You WILL lose friends playing it this way as I don't have to remind you twice how much of a pain in the arse a land raider with a 3++ is to get rid of. The only downsides are its increased cost and very limited transport capacity (6 infantry models).
*'''Hellforged Land Raider Proteus''' - For a bit more points you get a LR with some fantastic additional abilities. Standard loadout but it can eat enemy units in combat to regain a wound on a 5+. You can choose to take an upgrade called Accursed Phylactery which lowers the transport size to 6, but gives you -1 ld to all enemy units within 9" as well as any unit Deep Striking within 12" must roll a D6 and on a 1 or a 2 suffers D3 mortal wounds. Interesting for sure. Has the Containment Breach rule, which punishes regular units with 2d3 mortal wounds within 6" and Psykers within 6" with D6 mortal wounds instead.
*'''Hellforged Scorpius''' - Chaos finally gets a Whirlwind! Scorpius Multi-Launcher is going to do work at 48" Heavy 3D3 S6 AP-2 D2, shoot targets you cannot see. Can also get a Havoc Launcher, but you aren't going to do that since you want it hiding all game and shooting. Can eat people in melee on a 5+ to regain a wound, may fire twice in the next shooting phase if it did not move!!! This is going to be a Chaos MVP for sure. Has the Containment Breach rule, which punishes regular units with 2d3 mortal wounds within 6" and Psykers within 6" with D6 mortal wounds instead.
*'''Hellforged Sicaran Venator Tank Destroyer:''' The Venator trades the regular Sicaran's quantity of anti-skimmer shots for vehicle annihilation; it has a Malignatas Beam Laser, which is AP-5, Damage 2D6 and you roll 3d6 vs the target's Ld to wound. It has Undying Hatred, which lets it roll a 4th dice (discarding the lowest) to the Malignatas wound roll if it kills any model.

===Lord of War===
*'''[[Magnus the Red]]''' - Magnus is definitely a beast, there is no doubt about that: 18 wounds, strength 8, toughness 7, 3+ armor and 4++. His Blade of Magnus is Sx2 AP-4 D3 and turns characters it kills into spawn (which you need to pay reinforcement points for.) Gets a bonus +2 to casting and deny which decreases with damage taken; that said, with Cabalistic Focus that shoots up to a +4, which may as well be an auto-harness in most situations. His Gaze of Magnus now buffs up his smites to D6 mortal wounds or [[rape|2D6 mortal wounds]] if you get a result higher than 11 (still a little bit more difficult to obliterate a whole terminator unit in 1 shot). He also spreads a re-roll hits of 1 and reroll any 1's rolled during a psychic test, to friendly Thousand Sons units within 9" of him. He can roll a D6 whenever he suffers a mortal wound caused by perils of the warp, on a 2+ he ignores the wound effectively giving him immunity to perils. Expect people to dump a lot of firepower into him very early to try and bring him down, as he is truly a terror if allowed to go unanswered and even worse if he gets a chance to buff himself up first. 
**Surround him with Scarab Terminators or Rubric Marines though, and he's an amazing force multiplier. On the other hand, that's a waste of his close combat potential and you have plenty of other psykers to put on buffing duty. If you're using that setup, have him fly in first and then use him as an anchor for the Terminators so he can still contribute to the battle directly, as opposed to sitting on his crimson ass half the game.  
**Has access to THREE psychic tables for a total of 18 powers (6 Discipline of Tzeentch powers, 6 Dark Hereticus Discipline powers, and 6 Discipline of Change powers) to pick from plus smite.
***Magnus can take Weaver of Fates to relive the glory days of having a '''3++ invuln save''', Glamour of Tzeentch to impose penalties against attackers, Gaze of Fate for free rerolls that don't require CP to use, and Temporal Manipulation to keep his health up far enough to keep damage tables from kicking in. Whichever ones he doesn't take, make sure somebody else does and have that guy cast it on Magnus. Diabolic Strength is also good on Magnus since it gives him '''8 STRENGTH 20 AP-4 DAMAGE 3 ATTACKS!!!''' (Kind of hilarious when you consider that he's punching harder than a freaking titan but only beating the average damage of a vanilla mortal commisar with a power fist by 1 point)
***Offensively, you have a good amount of options available that Magnus is more likely to pull off than your other units in addition to Smite. The most notable of these are Death Hex for stripping invulnerable saves, Infernal Gateway for hitting several units at once (and with his bonus, the extra damage is also more likely to trigger), and Doombolt for crippling units that rely on their speed.
***Warptime, when combined with his high movement, gives him a guaranteed turn 1 charge. With +2 to cast, the chances of it failing are slim at best.
**Consider reserving some points in your list for summoning in the Changeling (not hard to summon at PL 5) and keeping him close to Big Red. Magnus, as a daemon, can benefit from the Changeling's +6 feel no pain aura, making it harder for your opponent to blow Magnus off the table before he wrecks half their army single-handedly. That said, even with that and all his potential psychic buffs Magnus is still at risk of going down simply because of how much firepower your opponent will dedicate to getting rid of him. There's no shame in cutting your losses when that happens and making sure he brings down as many foes as he can before he's beaten.
**Having at least one [[Mutalith Vortex Beast]] can be useful at times. The best buff would be the +1 strength, but having the -1LD makes it easier for enemy units to fail morale tests. Having several close by can turn him into a complete monster, and the wounds they can cause will soften enemy units up to get wrecked by Magnus.
***Or consider the Mutalith's -1 AP buff on top of Magnus' already-beastly AP -4 sword.  Combine that with Death Hex, and the only chance the enemy has not to get auto-Spawned is some kind of save-after-the-save (which, sadly, the wretched Death Guard are lousy with).

====Forge World====

*'''Chaos Sokar Pattern Stormbird Gunship''' - Pretty much the largest flyer/transport/model Forge World offers next to titans. Damn expensive in points and tangible money alike, it can ferry the entire army onto the battlefield. Has like 8 lascannons, a host of various missiles and bombs, void shields, and a few heavy bolters here and there for flavor. The void shields can extend and overlap nearby troops 8" away that jumped out if it has hovered. Has 40 wounds, T9, a 5++ after the void shields.

*'''Chaos Thunderhawk Assault Gunship'''

*'''Hellforged Cerberus Heavy Destroyer''' - Jesus, this thing is expensive but nasty. So on top of the rules we've seen for the other Hellforged tanks, this beast sports T9, 22 wounds, a 2+ save and can always shoot or charge even when falling back. It also hits at S8 from its infernal hunger and rolls D6 for its containment breach mortal wounds (2D3 against psykers). It can take two heavy bolters or lascannons for sponsons and havoc launcher or combi-weapon for the pintle blah blah blah - let's talk about that FUCKHUEG gun sticking out of the front of it. It slings 4 shots down a 6 foot range with AP-6 and dealing an eye-watering 5-10D per shot (aka, 4+D6). The fun part however is how it wounds - it doesn't have a strength characteristic but instead, you roll 3D6 and compare against your target's leadership; if you equal or exceed that value, the target is wounded. This means that on average, you will wound '''ANYTHING''' in the game, which then takes an average 7 damage at -6 to their armour. Oh hey, if you kill anything with this tank in the previous turn with any of your guns, you get to roll 4D6 and choose the highest 3. Obviously, wipe something weak and then focus fire on trouble spots.

*'''Hellforged Fellblade''' - Incredibly expensive, even more so due to the Chapter Approved points Hike it got, but still the Baneblade's exponentially meaner cousin, main cannon fires shells in 2 flavors, AE (your anti-everything shell), 2 shots strength 14 AP -4 and a flat rate of 6 damage per wound whatever you hit with this shell type will die. HE is anti-light/anti-MEQ with 2d6 shots strength 8 ap -3, one damage per shot makes it worthless for TEQ killing, 8 lascannons, 1 demolisher cannon and a twin heavy bolter round the arsenal out (not including your choice of combi-weapon or havoc launcher goodness), all-in all, keep this beast at around 48" range to get the most use out of at least half its weapons, good take for non-apocalypse games just don't expect to be having the room for any other expensive units.

*'''Hellforged Falchion''' - Incredibly expensive, but appears to be one of the best units in the game for deleting titanic targets (I imagine daemon primarchs too, before they're able to buff themselves, should you get first turn). 2d6 strength 16 shots, -5 AP, 2d6 damage. It'll wound anything T8 or lower on 2's, and the few T9 targets out there on 3's. Have a Sorc buff it with Prescience and keep a lord/DP around to re-roll 1's to make the target's death all but a foregone conclusion. 2 quad lascannons = 8 lascannon shots, plus a hull twin heavy bolter add to its already impressive firepower.
*'''Hellforged Mastodon''' - Have you ever wanted to transport 40 Marines at once while trashing flyers and generally being nigh-indestructible? Then the Mastodon is the LoW for you! With 30 wounds and a 5+ void shield, the Mastodon is a fucking tough nut to crack, made even more so if it somehow gets into the 6" range for its siege melta array's reroll to kick in.

*'''Hellforged Spartan Assault Tank''' - Your super LR sadly got moved to the LOW slot, however it's not letting that get it down! T8, W20, Sv2+ and holding 25 Infantry it's going to deliver a lot of <s>paint</s> hurt. Between 12-20w it moves 10", dumping down to 5" at 6-11 and 3" at 1-5... it will likely delivery the payload without fail. Has Quad Lascannons or Two Laser Destroyers (you will want the Lascannons) and Twin heavy bolters. Can eat things in melee and on a 5+ it gains a wound back. At the end of the movement phase when units have disembarked from it, you have to roll a d6. On the roll of a 1, one model from the disembarking unit is slain (chosen by controlling player). OUCH! Didn't think you would get the super LR without a drawback did you? At least the rules let you count the dead guy towards your 5+ heal. It also can Fall Back and Shoot/Charge still. Has Containment Breach when it blows up, causing D6 mortal wounds on units within 2d6", or if it's a psyker, 2d3 mortal wounds instead. It's hard to say if this is really worth it to take, you should probably just reach for a Kharybdis instead...

*'''Hellforged Typhon Heavy Siege Tank''' - Your tank for when you absolutely need 1 unit dead. It comes stock with the infamous Dreadhammer Siege Cannon that dishes out 2d6 S10 AP -5 shots that each do 3 wounds on a failed save, starting at 2+ to hit. The randomness of the number of shots makes it ok at best for dealing with squads that are 10 man or more, but that shouldn't be your priority with this thing. You want to be shooting and those special prize units of 5 or fewer models or rival tanks. This brings us to our next point, wargear. It may also bring Heavy Bolter or Lascannon sponsons and you can give it a Havoc Launcher (if you have the points, just take the Lascannons). Its no slouch defensively either T9, 22 wounds, and a 2+ save will keep it on the board far longer than your enemy will be comfortable with. Oh and it regenerates wounds from Close Combat.