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

===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.