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

===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.