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

===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.