GreaterChickenofTzeentch

I imagine that people who want to swap out heads on the Faultless Blades could use Painbringer heads from AoS with a minimum of fuss.

True, but they also did rate Dread Talons as #5 out of 8 detachments in terms of strength, ahead of Fellhammer, Deceptors, and Chaos Cult. There are others that are far better, but it seems to have more strength than some other lists that are reliant on battle-shock.

Kinda interesting that Nick Nanavati from Art of War won a game on stream with Dread Talons and he seems to think it has at least some merits as a board control army using MSU infantry and Rhinos + lots of Raptors and Warp Talons.

Excited about the updates to Warp Talons and Cypher. The "Night Lord" detachment needs love, but Allies might make it work. Changecasters, Blue Horrors, Bloodcrushers, Skull Cannons, Poxbringers, Sloppity Bilepiper, and the Knight Abominant are all examples. Favorite Detachments by Legion/Warband I play: Black Legion (esp Black Lions): Veterans of the Long War. Interesting Combo: Berzerkers and "Milennia of Experience" moving big distances during opponent's turn to get to grips. We'll see if it works. Iron Warriors: Fellhammer. Interesting Combo: Chaos Lord with Daemon Hammer and Iron Artifice in a 10 man unit of Chosen with a Master of Executions. That will hurt a lot of things, especially getting out of a transport to rocket forward to advance, shoot, and charge to explode whatever they hit, then consolidate forward, let opponents take a swing and pop off other stratagems for payback before blasting their way free via Point Blank Destruction. Night Lords: Renegade Raiders/Deceptors (tie). Both of those work for either the hard hitting, raiding aspect of the Eighth or their trolling shenanigans, especially their comms interference and tendency to raid prisons for recruits/cannon fodder. Interesting Combo: Mark of the Hound + Lord Discordant + Reavers' Haste. "Scout+ Advance + Charge Missile" might be the best job for a Lord Discordant.

For Cypher, Agent of Discord now works on all Stratagems used within 12 in of him (Battle Tactics only, because it doesn't name a Strat). It just doesn't work for whole game or only once per battle. You could increase a Command Reroll and a faction Battle Tactic both by one each if your opponent decided to use both within 12 of cypher at the same time. Plus his offensive output went through the roof. So many gunshots. All it's missing is annoying commentary from Kurt Wimmer.

One cool thing about all this new stuff is that you can build a Black Legion army for each of their warbands and those subfactions can all fight different (based on their actual lore) because you chose different Detachments.

I am certainly excited about running Havocs as if they were "Troops" and testing out my 2 new Defilers or running 3 Preds, 3 Vindis, and a Land Raider for an armored spearhead.

Basic, but fun: Warpsmith w/Mark of Tzeentch and Eye of Tzeentch, Tzeentch Havocs with Heavy Bolters, Slaanesh Vindicator: Slap the Vindicator on the rear with Master of Mechanisms, so that it can advance, shoot, and charge (using Unnatural Swiftness, being Slaanesh) with +1 to hit. Advance the Vindi, move the Havocs/Warpsmith up and open up with the Heavy Bolters on another unit, getting crits on 5's for both Sustained (native) and Lethal Hits (warpfire). Eye of Tzeentch likely gets you the CP for Unnatural Swiftness back. The Vindi, of course, opens fire, calling Sustained Hits with a 2+ and then yells "TANK SHOOOOOOCK!!" and charges to go bowling for Mortals.....then proceeds to sit there in combat, ramming and blasting things at pointblank range while the Havoc unit moves past it looking for other targets, maybe healing the Vindi if needed.

I agree with @techsoldaten. Why no Vindicator? The World Eaters were listed in past fluff as some of the biggest users of the tank among the Traitor Legions. Bizarre.

Another way I've seen Havocs used successfully is to jam a squad or two in a Dreadclaw, drop them in and unload Chaincannons or Heavy Bolters. That's not quite what we're talking about, but maybe it could be adapted to Lascannons or Missile Launchers. On a related note, if using Iron Warriors, the Missile Launcher is an excellent weapon for Havocs specifically. Methodical Annihilation allows them to either smooth out the damage for Krak Missiles slightly by re-rolling one damage roll or max-out hilariously on frag missile shots. When you're already ignoring cover, either can be important. I could see that versatility being important against the new Guard. Firing 24 shots into Roughriders or maybe 12 into each of 2 Infantry Squads could be good. For Word Bearers, you could use a Khorne Apostle with Epistle of Lorgar to give Wrathful Entreaty to one Khorne Havoc Squad and keep them always in Wanton Destruction, while giving another Warp Sight Plea to reroll 1's and ignore cover. Then when the group of them are charged, they're re-rolling hit rolls and maybe taking a couple down with them. Hexagrammatic Ward might help with return fire in a pinch.

On the Havoc note, I've seen their durability issue helped by Rhinos in a few games. Start the Havocs in there, then move out and fire. If you want to run multiple squads, jam two in one Rhino and hide it behind another tank.

The clear front runner is Iron Warriors because of all the damage mitigation they have, the ability to ignore cover, their improved ability to heal vehicles via Technovenomous Mechatendrils, and the possibility of rerolling damage rolls if needed. Runner up might be Word Bearers because of Mortal Wound resistance and the extra durability from Hexagrammatic Ward in a pinch, as well as the fact that it can carry many DAEMONKIN units.

The Apostle could have other uses in the list, and I'm basing this on more than one squad. "Lots of free Special Weapons" might actually lead to something interesting, and the WLT could be adding value every turn in that case. A horde list based on covering the table in Guardsmen, Legionaries, and Chosen might work. Benediction of Darkness is an Aura, and that could help add a little durability to multiple Guardsmen units at once. Alternately, you could use a Dark Commune so that Traitor Guardsmen around it reroll 1's to hit, give it the Icon of the Hydra Cult, and use Benediction of Darkness as an aura buff, followed by Prescience from the Mindwitch on a squad that doesn't get Cult Leader. Then run one Marine character with whatever WLT you want and another with Cult Leader. Then spam infantry.....half Guardsmen and half Chosen/Legionaries. You get a lot of board coverage, plus lots of mobile Special Weapons. Will it work? Dunno, but worth at least trying.

Anyone got any ideas for Traitor Guardsmen yet? Since they're CULTISTS, they could benefit from the Cult Leader WLT.....then you could have a Plasma Gun, Meltagun, and Grenade Launcher hitting on 3's with +1AP each turn from one squad, while others do actions, etc. Then you switch squads as they die. Also more durable than Cultists and a good way to represent AL Operators. Nice synergy with the Apostle, too.

Just went back and looked at the "Datasheet Abilities" page on the Sprues and Brews video and it says "If the WARP LOCUS model has an Allegiance keyword (see left), the unit being set up can only use this ability if it has the same Allegiance keyword." The page at left with the Allegiance keywords shows "KHORNE, TZEENTCH, NURGLE, SLAANESH." Allegiance works like <LEGION> and even shows up as <ALLEGIANCE> on the Daemon Prince and Soul Grinder. The Master of Possession does not have <ALLEGIANCE> or, if unmarked, he doesn't have any of those other four words, so if he's kept "CHAOS UNDIVIDED" (not an Allegiance), Daemons of any god can drop in within 6 to use WARP LOCUS. Same goes for the Noctilith Crown, which can't be marked and doesn't even have Undivided, yet has WARP LOCUS. That keyword would be meaningless on the Crown if having no Allegiance meant Daemons couldn't use it. So it looks like you CAN bounce Khorne Daemons off of an MoP, but he has to be Undivided to do it.