While I don't like that as a rules design choice, I do like how they have access to the potentially hundreds of points of cannon fodder via the Horrors. So it may be a workable trade off... sort of like running a 6th edition Iyanden army but with access to a horde of free cannon-fodder and objective holders. You also have summoning to supplement any Horrors you may have actually payed for.
It's worth noting that the Ksons do not have *direct* access to Horrors, but would need to take them in a separate formation (like an allied detachment, etc.). Definitely worth trying, though, if only to try and off-set the low model count.
As for Magnus: how does he get himself a 2++? He can't do it himself (he doesn't have the lores with which to do it--he doesn't select his powers as normal but has *all* the powers in two specific lores), he doesn't have any wargear that gives it to him.
No Telepathy. No Divination. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't think this adds up.
Plus, even when pulling warp charge on 2s, he only adds a measly 5 dice to the Psychic die pool. When you factor in his cost, any given army you run is going to be running with a depleted Warp Charge.
As Killersquid says, For Magnus's cost, you could pretty easily squeeze in 12 psychic levels in bog-standard sorcerers (with familiars) and have a cool hundred points left over. Or 8 psychic levels of Exalted Sorcerers. You're pretty close on points to taking the full Ahriman's Exiles formation, which kicks out 10 levels harnessing on 3s, one of which is Ahriman, who is arguably as good a gunboat as any.
I'm just not that convinced on Big Red.
The other cults are amazing.
Hey! This is the Thousand Sons thread! We haven't spent 10,000 years getting the short end of the stick just to have Death Guard hijack our thread! Go start your own!
FormationsAll right, here's what I think of the various formations the Ksons now have. Let's just assume, for the moment, that I think *everything* is overpriced, and move on from there.
War Cabal This has some sweet special rules to make their units a little better in the shooting and assault phases, which is very handy. The required two sorcerers is a bit annoying, though. One of the problems I'm running into with the Ksons is finding units in which to stick all the damned sorcerers. It's looking more and more like a unit of nothing but sorcerers is becoming the best solution, but the lack of bullet-catchers for such expensive models is worrisome.
Sekhmet ConclaveI like this one, except for the fact that the durability boost only works if you're close to *two* other units. Since this thing will probably only consist of 3 units (unless somebody goes Ksons Deathwing), they're going to have to spend the whole game walking around in a damned triangle, which sucks.
War CovenThis is a cheaper version of Ahriman's Exiles, but the boosted warp charge for only *one* discipline is annoying for two reasons. Reason the first is that, should you wind up putting all these guys in the same unit (see above), only a couple of them will practically be generating powers from the same discipline, since GW has ruled you can't double up on powers being cast from the same spot. Reason the second is "Look, it's the Telepathy Brothers!" because anybody who takes this is going to try to generate as much invisibility as possible and then spread them out. This is not bad as a strategy goes, but given that much of the *rest* of Telepathy is kinda lame (Shrouded and Psychic Shriek excepted), you'll wind up with a bunch of guys with Domination and crap.
Tzaangor WarherdI like this one a lot, actually. I think the only real drawback here is that this isn't a core detachment for the Grand Coven formation. Tzaangors get substantially better here--actually worth taking.
Ahriman's ExilesDamn, this one is tempting. I've always liked Ahriman, and slapping him on a disc with three of his best buds in a kind of Legion of Doom super-villain team is very, very cool. Of course, you're dropping at least Magnus + 60 on this thing to field it (more with Discs), which is rough. But the bonus to harness and the 10 Warp Charge dice *base* is pretty damned awesome.
Rehati War SectThere's kinda no way to take this formation without spending a godawful amount of points. And then, if Magnus is flying around all the time (which makes sense), everybody else needs to fly around with him. This would lend itself to Daemon Princes, but a Prince of Tzeentch with wings is a major point investment that suddenly means you've got an army of Magnus and 3 Princes and
that's it. I'd be curious to see what people can come up with using this one, but I'm guessing it won't be much south of a 2000 point army.