Editing Ahzek Ahriman (section)

==On the Tabletop==
[[File:AhzekAhriman2016.png|thumb|right|300px|His new model. Looks badass.]]
{| class=wikitable
! || Pts || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Ahriman:''' || 230 || 5 || 5 || 4 || 4 || 3 || 5 || 3 || 10 || 3+/4++
|}
Ignore the fact that Ahriman's stat line is no better than that of an average Space Marine Commander; it's not what you're paying for with 230 points. What you're paying for is the following: Mastery Level ''4'', a trait he shares only with the likes of [[Eldrad|Eldrad Ulthran]] and [[Kairos Fateweaver]]; the Black Staff of Ahriman, a S+2, AP4 Force weapon that allows him to [[dakka|cast the same witchfire power up to THREE TIMES in a single turn]]; and psychic powers generated from Telepathy, Telekinesis, Daemonology (Malefic), Divination, Biomancy, Pyromancy, Ectomancy, Geomortis, Heretech, Sinistrum, Tzeentch, and the kitchen sink. No other psyker in the game besides Magnus himself has Ahriman's potential for sheer volume and variety of psychic damage output.

He also has Fearless, Mark of Tzeentch, Aura of Dark Glory, Champion of Chaos, and Veterans of the Long War. The combination of Mark of Tzeentch and Aura of Dark Glory give him a 4++ invulnerable save, which is always nice. However, Mark of Tzeentch can be problematic as it also forces him to generate at least one power from the Tzeentch discipline, and a couple of the powers from that table, including the Primaris, are lame sauce (keep in mind he still has three more power slots, though). But even Tzeentch's Firestorm, if you're forced to settle for it, can attain to a semblance of utility with Ahriman's ability to cast it three times in one turn. And if you get Doombolt or Baleful Devolution, put your troll face on. Ahriman's biggest problem, though, is he doesn't have Eternal Warrior anymore and can be instakilled; rest assured your opponent will try immediately to do that, and those 230 points will have gone down the toilet.

You can have him ride around on a Disc of Tzeentch to up his Toughness to 5 and increase his mobility, which is highly recommended. When on Disc he can also do the "Gunship Sorcerer" trick where he runs alone, fires his witchfires on the guys you want to royally fuck up and then turbo-boosts 24" away, preferably behind a solid LoS in the shooting phase like a Jet-packing Tau Battlesuit on steroids. Be aware that it only works if the enemy have no super-fast units, deepstrikes or barrage weapons, but then nothing stops you from hiding him in a nice tough unit until all reserves are out and flyers are down, your hiding place is not observed by artillery spotters and it's safe to enter gunship mode. If you roll on Biomancy for Iron Arm/Warp Speed the Disc would also allow Ahriman to reach melee faster and be bolter-proof and generally a bitch to kill (T8) while doing so and also kill shit faster when he's in melee due to +1A that would really matter when your attacks hit like a lascannon.

====8th Edition====
3 powers and 3 denies with +1 to both rolls. Average in combat (he has a force staff that deals +1D) and his disc no longer provides him with extra toughness and, funnily, instead gives him an extra weakness and benefit by handing Ahriman the {{W40kKeyword|Daemon}} keyword (thus making him a tasty pastry to GK's and possibly Nurgle daemons but also able to be affected by the auras and spells of daemons of Tzeentch). Also, the Black Staff now apparently adds nothing to his psychic potential - it's just the aforementioned slightly buffed force staff. All in all, he's not what he was (and is far more a support psyker than an attack character, contrary to his entire history of having rules) but he also lost 100+pts from his cost to make up for it. Relative to his peers, GW's approach has not left him weaker, but relative to other units in the game and the current bastardisation of psykers, Ahriman is a much weaker unit as a whole. He has a bubble effect, lending to the idea that a better tactic for Ahriman now may be to stick him just behind the advancing gun line in order to ward off anything too nasty with his ability to throw out some mortal wounds and to use warp time for effective counter attacks.