Thousand Sons Experimental Lists

I have no idea how to build a Thousand Sons list, but I decided to design it around Daemon Engines because...well, they're cool. I guess. So the first list will look something like this:

Thousand Sons Grand Coven (1,850)

Core: Sekhmet Conclave (1,020)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Mark of Tzeentch (165)
3 units of 5 Scarab Occult Terminators with heavy warpflamer and hellfyre missile rack (3x285=855)

Command: Lord of the Legion (260)
Ahriman with Disc of Tzeentch (260)

Auxiliary: Daemon Engines
2 Forgefiends with 2 Hades autocannon and 1 ectoplasma cannon (2x200=400)
Heldrake with baleflamer (170)

Total: 1,850

The idea behind this list is to make use of Toughnesss 5 Terminators to wade up the table, capturing objectives, flushing Marine and their Equivalents out of cover with the heavy warpflamers, and basically killing everything. If possible, give 2 Scarab Occult Sorcerers Prescience (Divination discipline) so that they can cast it on the 2 Forgefiends to unleash a lot of twin-linked dakka. The alternative is to roll on Sinistrum and hope for Warp Fate, but since that's unlikely I suggest forget it. The 3rd Scarab Occult Sorcerer, the Terminator Sorcerer and Ahriman are your swiss army knives of psychic powers - I'll recommend grabbing Psychic Shriek (Telepathy) most of the time - the exception would be when you're facing a vehicle-heavy list, then rolling on the Heretech discipline would be a good idea. Keep in mind Ahriman has Mastery Level 4 and can fire the same witchfire thrice, so abuse it if possible. I wouldn't worry too much about countering vehicle-heavy lists with Heretech unless you're facing mass Land Raiders (and perhaps Leman Russ tanks) or mass Imperial Knights because quite frankly, with the amount of dakka your Forgefiends dish out, they should tear through any vehicle with AV12 or below.

Oh, and don't forget to abuse Ahriman's Master of Deception, which allows D3 infantry units to Infiltrate. This works great with your Terminators, who probably don't need to trudge up the table on foot, and allow them to get into the enemy's faces almost immediately. If you really need the Astral Grimoire despite having the ability to Infiltrate at least 1 of your Terminator squads up the table (to be honest, the other 2 should stick to where the Forgefiends are), then you can probably swap the Heldrake for a Chaos Predator stock full of lascannons, and give your Terminator Sorcerer the Astral Grimoire.

The total cost of this list is about $454.75, which is on the costly side. Ouch.

The second list is to make use of the War Cabal. There is the option to squeeze in a maxed out list in 2,000 points, but I'm not sure I want to go down that route. I want my Daemon Engines. So what I did was create a list that made full use of the Scarab Occult Terminators while allowing for Daemon Engines to be put inside. As a result I came up with this:

Thousand Sons Grand Coven (1,850)

Core: War Cabal (1,280)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Mark of Tzeentch, Astral Grimoire (195)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Mark of Tzeentch, Staff of Arcane Compulsion (175)
Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Mark of Tzeentch (140)
5 Rubric Marines (150)
Chaos Rhino as Dedicated Transport (35)
5 Scarab Occult Terminators with heavy warpflamer and hellfyre missile rack (285)
5 Scarab Occult Terminators with soulreaper cannon and hellfyre missile rack (300)

Auxiliary: Daemon Engines
2 Forgefiends with 2 Hades autocannon and 1 ectoplasma cannon (2x200=400)
Heldrake with baleflamer (170)

Total: 1,850

And there you have it. Have a couple of the Sorcerers know Prescience and allow them to hang back to cast it on the Forgefiends, then dakka away. Attach the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor to one of the Scarab Occult Terminator squads (preferably the one with the heavy warpflamer) and have them jump up the table to capture objectives. Same with the Chaos Rhino - drive the Rubric Marines up to capture Objectives. Use the Heldrake's baleflamer to flush campers out of cover. Stuff like that, I suppose. As for psychic powers, it's the same. The Terminator Sorcerer with Astral Grimoire and his accompanying Terminator squad for utility - Heretech, or Psychic Shriek. If you split them into their respective squads, you can have at least 3 Psychic Shrieks and 2 Presciences, and the rest as and whatever you wish (or if you need to, swap Psychic Shrieks for Heretech's haywire spells). Again, the Forgefiends should be able to deal with most armor, so most likely you don't need it, but it's always good to have a backup plan. Just in case.

This list would cost about $487.75. Wait, that's even more expensive than the other list. Oh dear. But if I really want to save money, I could just build a list without the Daemon Engines. A super-Psychic list, if you will. It'll look something like this:

Thousand Sons Grand Coven (1,850)

Core: War Cabal (1,680)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Disc of Tzeentch, Seer's Bane (270)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Disc of Tzeentch (230)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar (200)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Mark of Tzeentch, Astral Grimoire (195)
5 Rubric Marines (150)
Chaos Rhino as Dedicated Transport (35)
2 units of 5 Scarab Occult Terminators with soulreaper cannon and hellfyre missile rack (2x300=600)

Auxiliary: Daemon Engine
Heldrake with baleflamer (170)

Total: 1,850

This costs about $367.75. That's a lot cheaper than the other two lists, and resembles more like a Thousand Sons list, with all the psykers and stuff. I think I might like this a lot more, funnily enough. I might be able to make this list cheaper by using Ahriman in place of the Terminator Sorcerer and getting rid of 1 box of Scarab Occult Terminators. The list might then resemble this:

Thousand Sons Grand Coven (1,850)

Core: War Cabal (1,678)
Ahriman with Disc of Tzeentch (260)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Disc of Tzeentch, Seer's Bane (270)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Astral Grimoire (230)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Helm of the Third Eye (220)
5 Rubric Marines (150)
Chaos Rhino as Dedicated Transport (35)
5 Rubric Marines with 4 warpflamers (178)
Chaos Rhino as Dedicated Transport (35)
5 Scarab Occult Terminators with soulreaper cannon and hellfyre missile rack (300)

Auxiliary: Daemon Engine
Heldrake with baleflamer (170)

Total: 1,848

If I do this, then the whole list only costs about $362. Well, it's only a slight difference, but with Ahriman, this might be a much more potent psyker list, especially with his ability to use the same witchfire thrice! We shall see, but this might actually be worth it. The downside is that we no longer have the Forgefiends for the high strength attacks, and will have to rely on Heretch to take out vehicles. But if that's the case, I think I can spend about $29 more ($391) for a Forgefiend and take out one squad of Rubric Marines and the Rhino. Basically like this:

Core: War Cabal (1,479)
Ahriman with Disc of Tzeentch (260)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Disc of Tzeentch, Seer's Bane (270)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Astral Grimoire (230)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Helm of the Third Eye (220)
5 Rubric Marines with 2 warpflamers (164)
Chaos Rhino as Dedicated Transport (35)
5 Scarab Occult Terminators with soulreaper cannon and hellfyre missile rack (300)

Auxiliary: Daemon Engines
Forgefiend with 2 Hades autocannon and 1 ectoplasma cannon (200)
Heldrake with baleflamer (170)

Total: 1,849

If I really want to save money, I can even swap out the Heldrake for a Terminator Sorcerer, and go for an almost complete Psyker list.

Core: War Cabal (1,390)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Disc of Tzeentch, Seer's Bane (270)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Disc of Tzeentch (230)
Exalted Sorcerer, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar (200)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Mark of Tzeentch, Astral Grimoire, Staff of Arcane Compulsion (205)
5 Rubric Marines (150)
Chaos Rhino as Dedicated Transport (35)
5 Scarab Occult Terminators with soulreaper cannon and hellfyre missile rack (300)

Command: Lord of the Legion (260)
Ahriman with Disc of Tzeentch (260)

Auxiliary: Daemon Engines
Forgefiend with 2 Hades autocannon and 1 ectoplasma cannon (200)

Total: 1,850

The total cost of this list is $341.75. That's actually the cheapest of the lot, surprisingly enough. Or maybe I shouldn't be surprised...well, whatever. You know what I mean. Maybe I should go for this list instead...I do like the Heldrake, but if he isn't necessary, then I might as well cut him out. In any case, the last 3 lists are surprisingly mobile, thanks to the Discs of Tzeentch, the Rhino and the Astral Grimoire. It might make jumping around and capturing objectives a lot easier. But the Exalted Sorcerers might be quite vulnerable...well, we'll see how it all work out eventually.

What do you guys think? Which list should I build? Or should I do away with the Daemon Engines altogether and go for a Psyker-heavy list instead?