Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Thousand Sons (section)

===Lord of War===
*'''[[Magnus the Red]]''' - Magnus is definitely a beast, there is no doubt about that: M18/16/14(Fly) A8/7/6 Ws2+ S8(16) T7 Sv3+/4++ W18.  He also has a degrading +2/+1 to Psychic and Deny the Witch tests (he doesn't degrade that third one when he's down to 1/4 wounds), and his Blade of Magnus is WS2+ A6-8 Sx2(16) AP-4 D3 and deals an additional d3 mortal wounds to one of the models that survived his beating.  His Gaze of Magnus now buffs up his smites to 1d6 mortal wounds or [[rape|3d3 mortal wounds]] if you get a result higher than 10, spiking his ''base'' Smite output to 4.63 - but he should always have Brotherhood of Sorcerers up, meaning he can't fail the Smite due to his +3 modifier, bringing his average mortal wounds with Smite to 5.15, because he also re-rolls all Psychic Tests. He also spreads a re-roll hits of 1 to friendly {{W40Kkeyword|Thousand Sons Core}} units (all 4 of them) within 6" of him, as well as letting one {{W40Kkeyword|Thousand Sons Core}} or {{W40Kkeyword|Character}} re-roll all hit rolls each turn. 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. 
**Don't feel bad about using his re-roll ability on himself - you won't have a good target for it on the table unless you brought Contemptors, and even then forcing Magnus to be near your dreads is plain unnecessary.
**He knows Smite and 3 powers base from the Discipline of Change and/or the Discipline of Vengeance, but if he's your Warlord (and he nearly has to be - your only current way out is allying in Mortarion to take over) then he knows all 9 from both, bringing his total powers known to 19.  He also has Cast 3 and Deny 3.
**If he's your Warlord, he also re-rolls Deny the Witch tests, can benefit from a second Ritual each turn, and reduces all Damage taken by 1, to a minimum of 1.
**Whether he knows 4 powers or 19, his ability to roll very high on Psychic tests is best on powers that care about the test.  You have 3 of these:
***As mentioned above, Smite in Magnus' hands deals an average of 5.15 mortal wounds.  A normal caster of yours casts it for 2.08.
***Baleful Devolution in Magnus' hands deals an average of 3.51 mortal wounds.  A normal caster of yours casts it for 1.88.
***Tzeentch's Firestorm in Magnus' hands deals an average of 2.19 mortal wounds.  A normal caster of yours casts it for 1.67.
****Firestorm ignores casting modifiers for calculating how many mortal wounds to deal, so your +3 only helps you cast it, but your re-roll raises the expected output.  If you bring along someone else with a re-roll, like Ahriman, you can hand this power off without concern.
***For reference, Magnus' version of Doombolt (which doesn't reward higher test rolls) deals about 3 mortal wounds (the odds of failing the cast are negligible).
****As a corollary, while Magnus is a decent target for Swelled by the Warp, the jump from S16 to S18 will almost never help you, and the jump from A8 to A9 usually deals as much damage as a power would - for example, even against a T4- W3+ Sv3+ target (e.g. a Space Marine Apothecary) for optimal output, the additional attack will only be worth an extra 2.083 points of damage - less than just casting a mortal wound power.  If you're going to throw Swelled by the Warp on Magnus, you usually want to have someone else do it - don't waste Magnus' excellent casting on it.
**Don't let that force your hand, though - Magnus' odds of casting all of your powers are better than normal, so you can use him to cast any power you desperately want up, like Twist of Fate.  Here are Magnus's odds of casting the powers you have, assuming a full +3 modifier:
***WC4 (Empyric Guidance):  100%
***WC5 (Smite, Gaze of Hate, Psychic Stalk, Temporal Manipulation, Pyric Flux): 100%
****This means you should re-roll Smite rolls of less than 8 on the dice - you can't fail the cast, and on an 8+ you get the upgraded output.
***WC6 (Dark Blessing, Swelled by the Warp, Tzeentch's Firestorm, Glamour of Tzeentch, Doombolt, Cacodaemonic Curse): 99.92%
****For Firestorm, re-roll dice results of 8 or less - the odds of you dropping from 1.5 mortal wounds to 0 are negligible, and you might re-roll into 3 mortal wounds.  That drops your odds to 98.00%.
***WC7 (Presage, Temporal Surge, Desecration of Worlds, Weaver of Fates, Perplex): 99.31%
***WC8 (Twist of Fate, Baleful Devolution): 97.22%
**Surround him with Scarab Terminators or Rubric Marines 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.

====Forge World====

*'''Chaos Sokar Pattern Stormbird Gunship (Martial Legacy)''' - 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. Has 40 wounds, T9, a 5++ after the void shields.
*'''Chaos Thunderhawk Assault Gunship''' - The iconic astartes transport, comes with T8 30 wounds and a 2+ save. This behemoth comes equipped with 2 lascannons, Thunderhawk Heavy Cannon, 4 twin heavy bolters, and cluster bombs. The heavy cannon (48" Heavy 2D6 S8 AP-2 D3+2 damage and blast) can be swapped for a Turbo-laser destructor (96" Heavy 3 S16 AP-5 6 Damage) should you feel like focusing on vehicle killing. Once per battle you can open the hangers and drop the bombs, targeting one unit you've moved over, rolling a dice per model (6 instead for every vehicle and monster in said unit) up to a maximum of 18 dice, with each roll of 4+ dealing a single mortal wound. As for transportation, it can pick 30 infantry models for a ride, each terminator model counting as 2 models. 
*'''Chaos Cerberus (Martial Legacy)''' - Jesus, this thing is decently costy but decently killy. So this beast sports T8, 20 wounds, a 2+ save. It also hits at S8 with its Crushing Tracks (SUser AP-3 Damage D3). It can take two heavy bolters or lascannons for sponsons and a heavy hull weapon 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 4 foot range with S14 AP-4 and dealing a painful 2d3 (but full 6 damage if you've not moved this model). 
*'''Chaos Fellblade (Martial Legacy)''' - Incredibly expensive, 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, two damage per shot makes it very effective at annihilating MEQs, 8 lascannons, 1 demolisher cannon and a twin heavy bolter round the arsenal out (not including your choice of combi-weapon or heavy hull weapon of your choice), 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.
*'''Chaos Falchion (Martial Legacy)''' - Also 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). 2d3 strength 14 shots, -5 AP, 6 damage. It'll wound anything T7 or lower on 2's, and the few T9 targets out there on 3's. Have a Sorc buff it with Presage. 2 quad lascannons = 8 lascannon shots, plus a hull twin heavy bolter add to its already impressive firepower.
*'''Chaos Mastodon (Martial Legacy)''' - Have you ever wanted to transport 40 Marines (or a maximum of 2 helbrutes/contemptors, each taking 10 slots) 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 killy with its 24" range siege melta array.
*'''Chaos Spartan (Martial Legacy)''' - 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 crush things in melee and on a 5+.
** You're playing Thousand Sons here, this thing's not really worth your time if you want it for transportation since you can just slingshot infantry across the table with more ways than you can remember. It IS a cool big tank though.
*'''Chaos Typhon (Martial Legacy)''' - 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 -4 shots that each do 3 wounds. 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. Its no slouch defensively either T8, 20 wounds, and a 2+ save will keep it on the board far longer than your enemy will be comfortable with.
*'''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 W20) but with more weapons/troop capacity/model weight and of course SPIKES. 400pts gives you a flyer/drop pod that can carry 20 infantry/1 Contemptor/1 Helbrute into battle by either drop pod assault (which can disembark 9" away from the enemy on the same turn) or like a normal transport after you deep strike it. A fat 20 wounds. In addition to the blade struts and thermal jet array that the Dreadclaw has, you also can use ONE (and only one!) additional Melta array melee attack, S8 AP-4 D6+2. Additionally, to soften whatever you're about to forcefully-blade-sodomise, it's equipped with 5 Storm Launchers (Heavy 2d6 S4 ap-1 1D Blast OR heavy 2 S8 AP-3 Damage D6).
**Maybe throw it at your opponent. The weight and extending spikes will bring about guaranteed victory! (And assault charges)