Magnus the Red

[Realgone]

Since the change to Magnus in our codex, a lot of people appear to think that he is now worthless. Really I can't understand. Yesterday I participated in a 2vs2 tournament at my local FLG, of all the 14 teams 4 had Magnus if it's telling something. At the end of the day out of the 3 top spot 2 had him in their list. My teammate who played Admech and me finished third. The top spot was a Thousand Sons/Custodes team. Yeah I know...not that fluffy XD, but tournament is where fluff goes out the window...

 

To kill him with toughness 7, 18 wounds and 4++ it's not an easy task. For exemple mine survived with 11 wounds remaining, 72 shot from 4 castellan robot re-rolling hits in a game last week and the next turn I was in his line wrecking them.

 

The best way to kill him imo is the use of Death Hex and again our commander supreme deny with +2.

 

Does he can get kill on turn 1... yes, before codex I was almost shy at how over-powered he was, now he can get kill, Good I say.

 

Would be curious to hear your Magnus story, thanks!

[Raven1]

I'm not exactly keen on spending over 1/5 and almost 1/4 of my points at a 2000 points level that can get removed T1. It's not a good risk/reward for me. You don't just add him to a list, you focus your list around him and when you can target him and see him from basically anywhere on the table its a big gamble that I'm not generally willing to take.

[Realgone]

I'm not exactly keen on spending over 1/5 and almost 1/4 of my points at a 2000 points level that can get removed T1. It's not a good risk/reward for me. You don't just add him to a list, you focus your list around him and when you can target him and see him from basically anywhere on the table its a big gamble that I'm not generally willing to take.

 

I understand totally, it's still personal taste and a bit of a gamble. Imo he's more worthy or at least likely to survive turn 1 in 2000-2500 pts game than larger one as his point cost suggest. For the simple fact that at larger point game your opponent will have more bigger gun too and sheer amount of shot will likey go through the 4++. Played an apocalypse game last month, 12000 pts on each side, Magnus died turn 1 to 2 Tau Y'Vahra...beware those 3d6 auto-hit flamer....on the opposite in 5 games of 2k pts, he died only once first turn and this is in the tournament last weekend to another Magnus who managed to get Death Hex goes off on mine (That team then went on to win the top spot) in that same tournament he survived to 76 hit from a squad of Primaris aggressor equiped with flame gauntlets, won't lie didn't know these guys and when my opponent told me what that unit was able to do I started sweating... but in the end it's was all good. 5 min later that same Aggressor squad was dead and gone.

 

One thing for sure I'm only using him in tournament style game or when my opponent want to try their list against him.

[Tyriks]

I played my first TS game yesterday and brought him. It was against sisters and guard. I got first turn which helped a ton; I was able to remove the melta squads close enough to threaten him and get him buffed up. He did tons of damage every turn, definitely the MVP of the game. Brought down Celestine, a Vulture, two Repressors and some various other stuff.

 

That said, I can see how easy it would be to lose him. In a a game against a list that was not well handled to take him on he still almost died and easily could have. Against more competitive lists I've lost Knights in one turn so I could easily see losing him even with buffs.

[Realgone]

 

That said, I can see how easy it would be to lose him. In a a game against a list that was not well handled to take him on he still almost died and easily could have. Against more competitive lists I've lost Knights in one turn so I could easily see losing him even with buffs.

 

The things is, if someone can take Magnus down first turn. That same person can take anything down. As for Knight they're not what they used to be, hopefully the upcoming codex will bring them up a bit, loosing template weapon hurt them. Depending on the weapon used for now there better shooting high toughness/wounds model than horde type. For the point Magnus is a far better investment than a knight imo. This edition lots of troops seem to do it I think that we can all agree, but bringing big bad monster/unit is thrilling and fun. We're making our opponent day's when they manage to bring Magnus down. ;)

[GreaterChickenofTzeentch]

 

That said, I can see how easy it would be to lose him. In a a game against a list that was not well handled to take him on he still almost died and easily could have. Against more competitive lists I've lost Knights in one turn so I could easily see losing him even with buffs.

 

The things is, if someone can take Magnus down first turn. That same person can take anything down. As for Knight they're not what they used to be, hopefully the upcoming codex will bring them up a bit, loosing template weapon hurt them. Depending on the weapon used for now there better shooting high toughness/wounds model than horde type. For the point Magnus is a far better investment than a knight imo. This edition lots of troops seem to do it I think that we can all agree, but bringing big bad monster/unit is thrilling and fun. We're making our opponent day's when they manage to bring Magnus down.

 

There is one Knight that can often be an exception....the Renegade Knight with dual RF Battle Cannons.

 

4D6 Battle Cannon shots at 72 inches, plus 3 Heavy Stubbers and perhaps an Ironstorm pod for further output at 72 inches and some NLOS hits. Keep a command point and/or Gaze of Fate on hand for consistency, but it usually doesn't need it. On average, you've got roughly 14 Battle Cannon shots going out.

 

That thing quickly deletes entire units and can work against pretty much anything. Even its Overwatch makes people sweat.

 

Sure, it may have a bad turn occasionally, but with that number of dice, it's rare.

 

Between the massive damage output and being a fire sink, it usually pays its points back in 2 turns from what I've seen. Add a Hellwright to repair it if necessary.

 

The guy in my local meta who runs one loses it in roughly half the games it appears in, but it does so much damage that it generally rips the heart out of a gunline and attracts fire from everything that survives....leaving his Khorne army to close in easily and mop up.

[Marshlands]

I still think Magnus is good. Everything that isnt massed infantry, characters or in reserve can shot off the table turn 1. For his points hes still tough and fast and killy. If you have tzeentch daemons the chnageling can protect him a little too.

 

Although if you really want to win i wouldnt take him, massed infantry, characters and reserves seems to be the way to go for that

[GreaterChickenofTzeentch]

I still think Magnus is good. Everything that isnt massed infantry, characters or in reserve can shot off the table turn 1. For his points hes still tough and fast and killy. If you have tzeentch daemons the chnageling can protect him a little too.

 

Although if you really want to win i wouldnt take him, massed infantry, characters and reserves seems to be the way to go for that

Having "threat overload" would help a great deal with making him work. Daemon Princes, Heldrakes, etc. should be used to stress your opponent's target priority to keep him alive.

[Tyriks]

I did have a Daemon Prince with Aetherstride wl trait and warptime who was in the enemy lines turn one to distract a little, and twenty tzaangors in the webway and twenty rubrics in his face with Dark Matter Crystal so there was lots of threat in his face. That helped.

[Raven1]

I'm working on a list that includes Magnus. It certainly has target overload. I'm building and painting it right now. With a Lord of Change in the mail. I'm thinking about a Sicaran so I can fire on the move.

[Marshlands]

Although not thematic and quite an unpopular model, ive always toyed with a lord of skulls for a dual threat with magnus. Theres always double primarch too if unoriginal

[Skallagoose]

Magnus lists aren't bad or even bottom tier. the issue is the ruleset. ITC missions give over points when you have a primarch on the table. They bleed points. Certain armies will be able to kill him off the table turn 1. Gatekeeper armies, such as 2 shadowsword lists, will prevent you from winning a tournament EVERY TIME. YOu can easily go 2-1 or even 3-0 at small tournaments with a magnus list, but at the end of the day he has to be supported by a proper army.

[Sonoftherubric21]

Magnus lists aren't bad or even bottom tier. the issue is the ruleset. ITC missions give over points when you have a primarch on the table. They bleed points. Certain armies will be able to kill him off the table turn 1. Gatekeeper armies, such as 2 shadowsword lists, will prevent you from winning a tournament EVERY TIME. YOu can easily go 2-1 or even 3-0 at small tournaments with a magnus list, but at the end of the day he has to be supported by a proper army.

 

To be perfectly honest I *LOVED* the change in the codex for Magnus. He is not just a door-kicker alone anymore, his aura actually gives something meaningful to his surrounding support sorcerers.... that RR1's aura for tests is stunning on the table if you need to keep Magnus in a more conservative roll (such as against a World Eater type melee list...... Or an Orkish horde where sling-shotting him is akin to suicide)  he can be a great boon to the army and reliably get off a slew of great spells... TBF most of our sorcerers can near him. 

[Heliomanes]

Plan on bringing him today to test this 2kp list;

Magnus the Red
Winged daemon prince, High magister, helm of the third eye
Winged daemon prince, black crystal
Winged daemon prince

10 cultists
10 cultists
17 Tzaangors

10 Scarab Occult Terminators, 2 missiles, 2 reapers
Leviathan dreadnought w melee weapon and butcher cannon array

It's a mix of rule of cool and trying to tune a list to make Magnus work, with multiple big, mobile threats. Termies can be black crystalled in round 1. Wish me luck.

[bozo69pd]

Sadly mine just got murdered super bad to harlequins+Drukhari this weekend turn 1 when he failed a charge. 3x venoms + various splinter rifle infantry unloaded 69 poison shots into him. Then Solitaire blitzed in and removed his last several wounds. Granted I rolled a lot of 1's and 2's for my saves... but holy smokes he dropped fast against that army. Then after he dropped my 3 flying DP's dropped on the next turn. Turn 3 found my deepstriked Rubricae blob and ahriman dead. Then turn 4 the backfield cultists died and I was tabled.

 

Worst beating I ever took in my life.