Hello everyone! Zak Ludick here from Cape Town, South Africa and this is a Warhammer 40k - The Great Unit Review Wheel! post!

However, on the 26th one, I have decided that it is big enough to call this series a Library!

What is it all about? It is not there to just give a stat. It is there to give MY review of the unit!

In this series, I will review one unit at a time, picking them randomly.

So let me spin the wheel again and see what I get:

Thousand Sons, Magnus the Red

10th Edition Index

Number 49 of the reviews and I have landed for the first time on the Thousand Sons. Not only that, but I have landed on their supreme leader: Magnus the Red.

In a sense, this has happened before with me somehow hitting the Epic Heroes of a faction rather early.

In the case of Magnus the Red, he is the Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marine Legion... so he is sort of a big deal.

Magnus was the first Primarch to become a playable character in Warhammer 40k tabletop.

Running Magnus in a standard 2000pts has him take up nearly 1/4 of your army's points at 440pts! He is a Shock and Awe unit.

Thousand Sons are an army devoted to the Changer of Ways, a Legion that has many sorcerors... and he is their daddy.

Let's see the big nerd's stats!

Stats

Stats-wise he is a MONSTER.

Movement 14" (He has wings and the Fly rule)
Toughness 11 (Like a medium to heavy tank/monster)
Save 2+/4++(armor/invul/Feel No Pain)
Wounds 16 (Lots!)
Ld 5+
OC 6

Weapons

Ranged:
Two big shooting attacks, both Psychic in nature

Tzeentch’s Firestorm - 24" Range, D6+3 Shots with the Blast rule, Hitting on 2+, S5 AP-1, dealing 2 Damage Each.
This is good anti-horde and anti-Space Marine

Gaze of Magnus - 24" Range, 3D3 Shots, Hitting on 2+, S9, AP-2 and 3 Damage each.
3D3 is a strange number. At least, 3 shots, at most 9 shots (the sacred number of Tzeetch). The shots can get through most Heavy Infantry and Light tanks and kill most Terminators in one shot each with enough AP to push them to use their invul save.

Melee:

Like most units of this size, Magnus has a Strike and Sweep option in Melee:

Blade of Magnus — strike
7 Attacks, Hitting on 2+, Strength 16, Ap -3, and 3 Damage each.

This can damage heavy tanks easily and kill up to terminators per strike that goers through the armor. 7 attacks at S16 is massive.

Blade of Magnus — sweep
14 Attacks, Hitting on 2+, Strength 8, Ap -1, and 1 Damage each.

The anti-horde attack, great for clearing masses of chaff units that are sent to tie up Magnus.

He is a Monster which means that even while in Engagement, he will use his shooting attacks at a -1 modifier at eligible targets even while he is chopping up units sent to tie him up.

Abilities

Cabal of Sorcerers 4 - Magnus contributes 4 Cabal points to the army every turn.

Lord of the Planet of the Sorcerers

Friendly Thousand Sons within 6" of Magnus that use Psychic Attacks add +1 to the to Hit roll and +1 to the Wound Roll. This directly makes psychic weapons stronger... and this is an army that focuses on Psychic attacks!

Crimson King

This is type of rule you only see on some of the most S-Rank level units. Where they have an ability that is three different abilities. At the start of each Battle Round, they choose one of those three abilities to be active till the start of the next Battle Round.

The Crimson King Abilities are:

Time Flux (Aura, Psychic)
While a friendly Thousand Sons unit is within 6" of this Psyker, add 2" to the Move characteristic of models in that unit.
This includes Magnus himself, so he gets a 16" Move. My only critique of this ability is that with a 16" move Magnus is going to outpace other units easily.
However, what is interesting is that it does not give a timing... which means Magnus can make a move before another unit makes the move and take his auro with him to perhaps boost another unit's movement in a crucial timing. This makes the game very interesting!

Treason of Tzeentch (Psychic)
Select one enemy unit within 24" and make their shooting attacks Hazardous. This causes that player to roll dice per weapons fired and when they roll 1's the shooters die or Characters/Vehicles/Monsters take 3 Wounds.

Its OK... maybe great against scary shooting armies.

Impossible Form (Psychic)
-1 Damage to attacks that hit Magnus, except for Psychic attacks.

A direct durability buff! Wonderful!

So out of these three I feel that Impossible Form is something that the TS player can use without restraint or worry that it was the wrong ability to use. Direct durability buff for a 440pt model is great while the other two abilities can be used situationally as they see fit.

Overall Magnus is a big problem on the battlefield.

I have a Vindicator tank that has killed 3 out of 5 Primarchs in the tabletop... he is out there, looking for Magnus the Red to make it 4 of 5!

Thank you for reading!

Warhammer Review Library

Alphabetical List

Faction	Unit	Review Number
Adeptus Custodes	Prosecutors	#1
Adeptus Custodes	Trajann Valoris	#40
Adeptus Mechanicus	Archaeopter Fusilave	#13
Adeptus Mechanicus	Archaeopter Stratoraptor	#14
Adeptus Mechanicus	Archaeopter Transvector	#15
Black Templars	High Marshall Helbrecht	#38
Black Templars	Marshall	#46
Blood Angels	Baal Predator	#2
Blood Angels	Lemartes	#32
Chaos Daemons	Daemonettes	#29
Chaos Knights	War Dog Brigands	#30
Chaos Knights	War Dog Executioners	#31
Chaos Space Marines	Haarken Worldclaimer	#41
Chaos Space Marines	Khorne Lord of Skulls	#37
Dark Angels	Asmodai	#16
Dark Angels	Azrael	#17
Dark Angels	Belial	#4
Dark Angels	Deathwing Knights	#20
Death Guard	Biologus Putrifier	#5
Death Guard	Blightlord Terminators	#10
Death Guard	Chaos Lord	#36
Death Guard	Tallyman	#39
Drukhari	Grotesques	#45
Drukhari	Haemonculus	#8
Drukhari	Raider	#35
Drukhari	Scourges	#7
Genestealer Cults	Aberants	#47
Genestealer Cults	Reductus Saboteur	#33
Grey Knights	Brother Captain	#25
Grey Knights	Grand Master	#48
Imperial Agents	Callidus Assassin	#9
Imperial Agents	Vigilant Squad	#26
Imperial Knights	Armiger Helverin	#22
Imperial Knights	Armiger Warglaive	#43
Leages of Votann	Brôkhyr Iron-master	#27
Leages of Votann	Sagitaur	#3
Leages of Votann	Ûthar the Destined	#44
Necrons	Obelisk	#11
Orks	Battlewagon	#34
Orks	Hunta Rig	#28
Space Marines	Kayvaan Shrike	#23
Space Marines	Marneus Calgar	#42
Space Marines	Razorback	#21
T'au Empire	Darkstrider	#12
T'au Empire	Kroot Carnivore Squad	#19
Tyranids	Barbgaunts	#6
Tyranids	Screamer Killer	#24
World Eaters	World Eaters Chaos Spawn	#18