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

===HQ===

*'''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.
**It should be mentioned that Daemon Princes don't have standard equipment, which means that they can't be given all of the relics since some of them require a weapon to be exchanged.
**With the reshuffling of keywords and buff auras, you now ''need'' to use the TS Prince datasheet because you cannot replace {{W40kKeyword|<LEGION>}} with {{W40kKeyword|THOUSAND SONS}}.
*'''[[Exalted Sorcerers|Exalted Sorcerer]]:''' The strongest sorcerers, and likely your go-to choice for Warlords.  Knows two psychic powers from the Discipline of Change or Vengeance. 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. Like Ahriman and the DP they get a native 4++ and '''Lord of the Thousand Sons''' which provides re-rolls of 1s to hit to {{W40kKeyword|<GREAT CULT> CORE}} units (Rubricae, Scarabs, Helbrutes, and Contemptors) within 6", which more than makes up for it in most circumstances. 
**Ahriman is a better version of an Exalted Sorcerer, casting thrice and getting a bonus to cast, ''but'' an Exalted Sorcerer is an actual Cult member, can be upgraded with Cult Upgrades, and can pick and choose WLT and Relics. Dilettantes have a lot of utility now that they don't pay CP for the relic, and you can easily make them the center of any Egleighen's Orerry/Umbralefic Crysal castle. 
**Can take a Disc of Tzeentch for mobility, gaining M12, {{W40Kkeyword|fly}}, and {{W40Kkeyword|cavalry}} while losing {{W40Kkeyword|infantry}}.
**Starts off with a Force Staff for melee, but you can buy him a khopesh, which is a master-crafted power sword (i.e. a force sword but better, as it doesn't roll for damage), and if you buy him a disc, he gets an extra attack at S4 AP0 D1.  The khopesh doesn't replace the staff, so you can still use it when it would be better (which is at its most common against daemons).
**Starts off with an inferno bolt pistol, but you can buy him a warpflame or plasma pistol instead.  Remember, he doesn't re-roll 1s to hit.
<tabs>
<tab name="Rehati (Upgrade)">
Want to be even more of a super-wizard? Grab this upgrade for an immodest 20 points/+1 PL to let him cast an additional power. Expect to be bullied even harder because you are now in control of the whole magic phase.
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<tab name="Paradigm of Change (Upgrade)">
10 points/+1 PL grants another wound and attack to the exalted lord, which can help if you intend on making him more of a beatstick.
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<tab name="Dilettante (Upgrade)">
This is an ABSURD upgrade. 30 points/+2 PL lets you grab a second relic, something that you used to be able to grab back in the vaguer days of 8E. That said, this is an incredibly costly addition and the points taken could have given you an additional couple tzaangors or a couple guns for your rubricae. Just in case there was any doubt, the FAQ says the relic is also paid for with this upgrade and doesn't cost you an extra CP. Thousand Sons are absolutely spoiled for good relics, and this is a good way to ensure that you bring what you need for as few CP spent as possible.
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*'''Infernal Master:''' It's a unit that uses the pact forging mechanic, which is just priestly prayer, but he has difficulty admitting he's religious - you pick one he knows and it goes off on a 3+ in the Command Phase (so no riding transports if you want the pacting to happen).  They're not considered psychic powers, so they cannot be denied. He has access to 6 Infernal Pacts when you add him to your list, picking 2 of them to know. He also knows 1 psychic power from the Discipline of Change or Vengeance on top of Smite and his Cult power.  Unlike his CSM cousins, he has no access to Dark Disciples to make the roll easier, and unlike his loyalist cousins, he has no access to a command upgrade to get better at it, either.  He has an inferno bolt pistol, a force staff, and frag and krak grenades.
**'''Bladed Maelstrom:''' Pick a visible enemy unit within 30; that unit takes 1MW if it has 6+ models, and subtracts 2 from Advancing and Charging till your next command phase.
**'''Fires of the Abyss:''' Nearest visible enemy unit within 15" takes 1d3 MW. Like another Smite!
***Less range than Smite and fewer expected mortal wounds (1.67 is less than Smite from a normal psyker, let alone from a TSons psyker with +1 to the cast).
**'''Capering Imps:''' Pick one visible enemy unit within 24"; that unit cannot gain cover (of any of the the three types), Overwatch, or Set to Defend until your next command phase.
**'''Diabolic Savant:''' Gain 1 cabal point and re-roll psychic tests for the caster in your next psychic phase.
**'''Glimpse of Eternity:''' Gives you a single die re-roll that you can use on anything other than mission-related rolls until your next command phase. Like Command Re-roll, but better.
**'''Malefic Maelstrom:''' One visible friendly {{W40Kkeyword|Thousand Sons}} unit within 24" adds +1 to their shooting attacks' strength until your next command phase. S5 Inferno Bolters anyone?
***If you're trying to buff a unit's warpflamers, this is less likely to go off than Pyric Flux, ''but you can do both'', nearly (94.44%) guaranteeing one of the +1s happens, and since you'll know when you get to the Psychic Phase if you succeeded or not, you can dynamically decide to cast the power on the same unit to gun for +2S, spread out to a second unit, or swap to Smite or your Cult power. Don't forget about Wrath of the Wronged if you really want to ruin some light vehicles or Death Guard units' days.
**You have no way to give this guy any toys - you can't upgrade his gun from his shitty inferno bolt pistol, you can't upgrade his melee from his shitty force stave, you can't give him a disc or terminator armour, and so on - he ''also'' has no Legion Command upgrades available.  That means he'll struggle to keep up with whatever you wanted him to support unless both are footslogging (remember, he pacts in the command phase, so if he rides a transport, he can't pact).  That means his three offensive pacts are usually a waste of your time - you have no way of getting them where you need to be - and his +1S to ranged shooting buff is only useful on something you intend to either sit in one spot all game or move very slowly, perfect for a large unit of Scarab Occults.  His other two buffing pacts functionally have infinite range, except that if you take the one that generates a cabal point and lets him re-roll psychic, unless you're Cult of Prophecy he'll have to be in range of something to cast on it (he has to be anyway, but that Pact is a terrible choice if you're not casting anything with your re-roll).  That gives a very finite set of useful Infernal Masters:
***Cult of Prophecy Only: Diabolic Savant + Glimpse of Eternity + Divine the Future is nothing but infinite range buffs, so you can pick between Savant and Glimpse depending on how badly you need a Cabal Point vs. a greater chance of useful roll manipulation.
***General Use: Choose any two of Diabolic Savant, Glimpse of Eternity, and Malefic Maelstrom, then for his power pick a buff you're going to put on something that shouldn't be intended to get very far from him: Glamour of Tzeentch (-1 to be hit), Weaver of Fates (4++), Empyric Guidance (+6" range to Rapid Fire and Heavy, ideal on multi-meltas or a cyclonic melta leviathan), or Presage (+1 to hit). Temporal Manipulation (heal 1d3) can also work, provided what he's supporting isn't a Vehicle, and Pyric Flux (+1s to warpflame) can work for foorslogging warpflamer rubricae. Temporal Surge (infantry/cavalry/beasts can move right now) is a special case: you can Malefic Maelstrom whatever you're support before the psychic power goes off, so no worries there, but leaning into this makes it harder and harder for your Pact Master to keep up, so think your plans through beforehand.
****Swelled by the Warp is ''terrible'' for this, as it only buffs melee and nothing melee wants to be static.
*'''Sorcerer:''' Your basic heroes, and likely the ones to pick for budget armies. They have the rule Thrall, which basically means if you have an Exalted Sorcerer from the same great cult, you can take one of these guys without using a slot from your detachment. The future Exalted Sorcerers, they can cast two powers and deny one. They're as good at casting as '''Exalted Sorcerers''', but have fewer wounds, worse combat stats ''overall'', and, vitally, no re-roll 1s to hit aura.  Perhaps most importantly (since the aura only works on a total of 4 units you can field anyway, only 2 of which even have access to plasma and 1 of which loves spamming flamers), they generate fewer Cabal Points as well. However, they do make a good option for a 2nd psyker character and might be useful if you don't need a 2nd aura.  They also have no access to discs of Tzeentch, which paired with their lack of access to jump packs means their mobility is much less than an Exalted Sorcerer's or Demon Prince's.  On the other hand, the Terminator option can deep strike, which is your only way to field an HQ with deep strike baked in (as opposed to burning CP on the Webway Infiltration strat or the like). With Legends, you can swap out your pistol for any normal combi weapon or any normal melee (the free lightning claw might actually be useful, maybe). You also gain access to having a force axe rather than a stave or sword, and most importantly, you can spend a lot of points on having a jump pack, letting you deep strike and move faster and all that jazz.
**Combat stats: your BS gets worse from 2+ to 3+, which doesn't matter if you're packing warpflame anyway.  Your WS gets worse from 2+ to 3+ and your A gets worse from 5 to 4, which is a big deal, and you can't take a khopesh, but you ''can'' choose between a force sword and a force stave, which is ''better'', because taking a force sword is nearly as good as having a khopesh to begin with, and you don't lose your gun to do it.  You also drop from W5 to W4.
**Loyal Thrall is a really good upgrade for him, since he's the cheaper of the two options that can take it.
<tabs>
<tab name="Sorcerer in Terminator Armour">
Heavy duty Sorcerer, ''and a distinct datasheet'', it should be noted. This guy costs 15pts 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. He also has radically improved wargear: his ranged weapon starts off as an inferno combi-bolter (he gets Malicious Volleys, too), and he can swap it for a khopesh (which is a waste of time, as you'll see in a moment) or an inferno combi-melta, which is the real pro move.  His melee is sidegraded, because he loses force sword access but gains force axe access, and while they have different optimal targets both have common use-cases, unlike the stave; point is, you'll always take the axe, at which point the benefit of the khopesh over the combi-bolter is essentially 0 and not remotely worth losing the ability to shoot bitches.
*Alternative opinion: There's no Sorcerous Arcana for a Force Axe; but there are multiple for Force Staves and Seer's Bane for a khopesh. Incandaeum can replace the need for an Inferno Combi Bolter (as it's effectively a Pyris Flux'd Warpflamer) the Stave Abominus can make for a nasty swarm clearer, and Skaeloch's Talon... okay, that's kinda terrible thanks to its lack of AP. Seer's Bane might make for a psyker-hunting weapon. When comparing the standard Force Stave/Incandaeum to the khopesh, the khopesh does better against (non Death Guard) Marines thanks to its automatic damage 2 and AP -3, while the Force Stave/Incandeaum's +3 S does nothing better to wound, and has random damage. The Stave Abominus is very strictly a swarm/Death Guard vs character/elite option. Additionally, the force axe does a somewhat worse job at both roles of the staff and khopesh; with weaker strength than the staff and weaker AP and less consistent damage than the khopesh. With Legends, he gains access to a force sword for his force weapon, and for his inferno combi-bolter gains access to standard combi-weapons as well as a chainfist, power fist, or lightning claw.
</tab>
<tab name="Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch (Legends)">
Its own datasheet, like all legendary variants, but this one is ''insanely'' expensive, and is in every way the legendary sorcerer, with even access to the Dark Hereticus discipline, only on an Exalted's disc and without the ability to buy a jump pack.
</tab>
<tab name="Battle-Psyker (Upgrade):">
Interestingly, this upgrade actually makes the base sorcerer more like a beatstick. For 5 points/+1 PL, they get BS/WS2+ and A5, making them more powerful than Exalted Sorcerers offensively, per point, both because the Sorcerer is cheaper and because of his superior wargear options.  However, the only Sorcerer really worth putting this on is a Terminator Sorcerer with Combi-Melta and Force Axe or khopesh and relic staff, and bear in mind a Daemon Prince's melee still can't be beaten.
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<tab name="Witch-Warrior (Upgrade)">
For 10 points/+1 PL, this allows your sorcerer to re-roll ''one'' of the dice to determine how many MWs he inflicts with Smite or any other Witchfire power he casts. Considering that you'll be spamming Smite a lot, you'll probably want that assurance that your spells can actually be of use rather than just tickling the enemy.  This takes Smite from dealing a base 2.08 mortals (accounting for your +1 to cast) to 2.45 (+.375 mortals, or +3/8).  Because it explicitly works for Firestorm, if you use it on Baleful Devolution you should be able to either re-roll a die that determines if a target suffers mortals or a die that determines number of mortals, as you like, but in either case the ability has ''terrible'' scaling with the power, because it only works on one die.  The only other non-cult mortal wounds power you have access to without rolling a ''lot'' of dice is Dark Blessing, where again, the only possible conclusion from the text assuring you that it works on Firestorm is that it must work on your choice of the Toughness test or the total inflicted after passing the Toughness test.  That's actually interesting, because the Toughness test is half of what cripples Dark Blessing down to unusability. Dark Blessing with this goes from the same 2.08 as Smite vs T3 (where the problem is the cripplingly short range of the spell) or 1.39 vs T4 to 3.26 vs T3 and 2.41 vs T4.  Dark Blessing is still a bad spell even with Witch-Warrior due to the Toughness test and bad range, but at least use-cases for it exist, unlike with the base spell.
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<tab name="Loyal Thrall (Upgrade)">
For 10 points/+1 PL, this allows your sorcerer to sacrifice only one spell to perform an action during the psychic phase. This makes Mutate Landscape and Psychic Interrogation more enticing (the former especially if you're taking Cult of Duplicity) and can be used if you find yourself glutted on Cabal Points and want to spend them on the action for making Command Points.
</tab>
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====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 known, three manifests, three denials, and re-rolls on all Psychic tests. He also has the '''Lord of the Thousand Sons''' aura, but rather than giving re-rolls to core cult units, he gives re-rolls to all {{W40Kkeyword|Thousand Sons CORE}} units and a D3 force stave. If he is your Warlord he has to take the Otherworldly Prescience Warlord Trait, but this is actually pretty good given it puts him at 3++ for one turn; still, you should ''never'' take him as your Warlord without a very good reason, as he cuts off access to your cult relics. Despite being good in melee, you are best off keeping him back so that he can pull the strings of your Rubrics 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 losing the infantry keyword makes it harder for attacks to specifically hurt him (like how Vindicare attacks wound infantry specifically on a 2+).
** He can also be used like the machine gun he was always meant to be, traveling on a disc with 1-3 hit squads of Tzaangor Enlightened. Give him the sniping Psychic Powers (Gaze of Hate (1.49 mortal wounds base for Ahriman) and Tzeentch's Firestorm (2.04 base for him)) and Twist of Fate, and laugh as enemy characters flee from your ranged assassin. Use 4 Cabal Points on Malevolent Charge to deal an extra D3 MW with one of those powers, just to make sure the enemy character dies.
***Bear in mind both of these mortal wound powers can deal 0 mortals even after a successful cast, and even if you could cast both 100% of the time and re-roll, which is relevant for Firestorm, your average mortal wounds dealt would still only be 1.5 for Gaze of Hate and 2.22 for Firestorm, 3.72 total.  
***Because Ahriman is so good at rolling high thanks to his re-roll (not as good as Magnus, but pretty good), if you want him to be a machine gun, he's a lot better with spells where rolling high is better: Smite and Baleful Devolution are better with a higher modified test and Firestorm relies on unmodified.  If you give him ''those'' three to cast, he takes Smite from 2.08 to 2.32, Firestorm from 1.67 to 2.04, and Devolution from 1.88 to 2.66, which is genuinely credible.  He's also good at Twist of Fate, for denying invulns: he succeeds at it 82.63% of the time, up from 58.33% for a non-re-rolling normie.
**'''Alternative Opinion''': problem with Ahriman being used as a Psychic Machinegun is you always need to get him close and within LOS, and Mortal Wounds don't Mortal Wound like they used to anymore. Presage, Temporal Surge, Twist of Fate, any high-casting spell [[JUST AS PLANNED|that's crucial to your]] [[Tzeentch|plans]] is also a good use for Ahriman, especially since you can only attempt it once. You can still have him use Doombolt by casting it with someone else then using Ritual or by Strat-Switching spells, but letting him hang back for the first few turns and buffing Terminators or Daemon Princes lets him survive longer and thus put him to the most use.
** Unlike Magnus, Ahriman did plenty wrong. He's one of the most evil fuckers in all of 40k/loving leaders who only wants to right his wrongs and his rules really make you feel like a cackling villain/hero - enjoy!
** Great news! Ahriman is now available on the new SC! 1K Sons kit. He comes with 10 Rubrics and 10 Tzaangors!