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First try at a full war cabal list. Wow, so few spare points.
Any and all critisism apprechiated

+++ Grand Coven (Warhammer 40,000 7th Edition v2017) (1850pts) +++

++ CSM Thousand Sons Grand Coven

+ Core +

War Cabal
Rubric Marines [4x Rubric Marine]
Aspiring Sorcerer [Inferno Bolt Pistol]

Rubric Marines [4x Rubric Marine]
Aspiring Sorcerer [Inferno Bolt Pistol]

Rubric Marines [4x Rubric Marine]
Aspiring Sorcerer [Inferno Bolt Pistol]

Scarab Occult Terminators [Scarab Occult Sorcerer, 4x Scarab Occult Terminator]

Scarab Occult Terminators [Scarab Occult Sorcerer, 4x Scarab Occult Terminator]

Scarab Occult Terminators [Scarab Occult Sorcerer, 4x Scarab Occult Terminator]

Sorcerer [2x Additional Mastery Level, Astral Grimoire, Force Stave, Mark of Tzeentch, Melta bombs, Power Armour, Spell familiar, Veterans of the Long War]

Sorcerer [2x Additional Mastery Level, Force Axe, Mark of Tzeentch, Melta bombs, Power Armour, Spell familiar, Veterans of the Long War]

Sorcerer [2x Additional Mastery Level, Mark of Tzeentch, Power Armour, Spell familiar, Veterans of the Long War]

Sorcerer [Chainfist, Combi-bolter, Mark of Tzeentch, Terminator Armour, Veterans of the Long War]

+ Auxiliary +

Legion Armoury

Chaos Predator [Autocannon]

Do you feel like not having the Hellfyre Missile racks are worth having the points for Sorc upgrades? Personally, I think they're pretty decent since they can threaten almost all vehicles and you don't have to rely on Psych alone to carry your anti-tank. If anything, they can help strip the last hullpoint off a rhino or similar. I also toyed around with the idea of taking a couple barebones sorc's in termie armor ... then slinging them at a tank with their Chainfists using the Astral Grimoire - is that the idea here?

That is absolutely the idea.
I only would only be able to model one hellfyre rack. I want them but also want my sorcerers to do something which means psyker levels. Sooo few points

I ran a very similar list to this over the weekend at 2000 points against Grey Knights. The GK Army was termie and Dreadknight heavy with a single Land Raider with a Grand Master inside and friends. My list had the same bones as this, SOT with Hellfyres, Ahriman as HQ, a couple Sorc's in termie armor w/chainfists, and a sorc with the Astral Grimoire.

I rolled up a decent smattering of powers across my Tzeentch table rolls with some Breath of Chaos, Treasons, a single Doombolt, a single Baleful Evolution, and some Boons. Kind of meh for fighting Grey Knights, though I was excited about Doombolt (Who isn't?) and Baleful Devolution did some work. Ahriman got Breath of Chaos, a junk spell on Heretek, Scrapcode Curse (Yay!) and then swapped Mental Fortitude for Psychic Shriek. All SOT Sorcs grabbed Psychic Shrieks, and I can't remember the few other rolls I had on the other sorc (AG guy).

My opponent got first turn, through everything down on their deployment line, spaced rather evenly. I turtled up a little on one side in order to concentrate firepower and try to capitalize on their spread forces and relatively slow mobility. The durability of SOT and even Rubrics with the full formation bonus is crazy. A good 2/3rds of my opponents army was able to get shots on my units and I didn't lose a single model. Even if I had lost a couple, I would have felt ok. I shut down the entire GK Psychic Phase .... some decent Denies on Blessing with mass dice followed by Denies on Maledictions (Banish) and Witchfires (Cleansing Flame) left my opponent very upset ... they normally face-roll the Psychic phase, so this was nice. Since I had infiltrated a couple SOT units, a Dreadknight was in range to charge but failed, which was nice.

My turn came with a slight shuffling, mostly just setting up duplicate targets. depending on how my Psychic Phase went (I had very little faith here). Pyshic went decently; Ahriman stripped a couple hull points from the Land Raider, Shrieked the hell out of the dreadknight that was close, followed by several other Sorcs doing the same ... and causing no wounds! I literally got off 4 shrieks from different units and not a one rolled over 9 on 3d6. Yay RNG. Force activation was also rather lackluster and only 2/3 SOT's got it and one Rubric unit, most casting it off two dice. Shooting was ... well, crap. My opponent has nothing that wasn't 2+ so all the AP3 did nothing. Almost my entire army put shots on the Dreadknight that was close and put 2 wounds on him. I followed this up with a Rubric + SOT charge. The SOT unit had one of the Chainfist Sorcs in there, so I was hoping between him and the Force axe on the Aspiring Sorc, I'd get him finished off. Thankfully, that's exactly how it happened, no casualties.

The following turns mirrored this almost exactly; I'd largely neutralize what my opponent was trying to cast, followed by being almost immune to their shooting, followed by Grey Knights losing to T-Sons in CC ..... which felt really weird, to say the least. Killed a Dreadknight with Force, turned a couple dudes into Spawn, BBQ'd the LR on T2.

While I know GK's aren't top tier and even that list wasn't as brutal as it could be, I felt like I ran every aspect of the game. Shooting was a little lackluster, but then again, I knew it would be when I saw the wave of 2+ armor. I'm not sure if Ahriman was worth it ... he did a TON of work, but most of his power was in my opponent fearing what he COULD do and spending most of their dice to deny him, instead of my other Sorc's spells. If I had gone with a cheaper HQ, I could have had some most mastery levels as well (I had 17 Warp Charges per turn, which wasn't terrible, but I certainly could want more)

I'd try dropping the chainfist (it's not a force weapon, and it's expensive) and the predator, take the extra MLs and a familiar, and just run a war cabal, as opposed to a grand coven. You're not going to be casting many powers that cost more than 1-2 dice, so perils will be fairly rare to begin with, and since your sorcerers are going to be more or less carrying your army, being able to cast everything good will be important. I'd also stick meltabombs on all the sorcs, so they can threaten everything. There's not much room for flex in the list.

I feel like the chainfist is almost mandatory tho. Otherwise I'm bouncing off dreads in combat, and I just can't handle that in a ... 400ptish unit. (A single meltabomb a turn just isn't cutting it sadly )

Dropping the predator does feel worth it. Like. I want more tanks and transports on everything but that's more of a 3k option ha.

Glad to see the warcoven can take on grey knights. Ahriman does become an option at 2k, but 1850 its reallly hard.

I will say, the only psyker that used the casting an extra power bonus was Ahriman .... which was useful. However, being that the Predator would grab three more mastery levels, powers, and warpcharges, I would also agree that it's probably better, even more so if not using Ahriman. I do agree that I liked having the chainfists, even if the list I faced wasn't vehicle heavy, it was nice to know that I -did- have solutions if that was an issue.

A rejiggle. I now have all the models required.
Still frustrating. Every cut hurts, but I want to keep some tactical versatility.


Cabal
Rubric Marines x 3

Scarab Occult Terminators x 3

Sorcerer [2x Additional Mastery Level, Astral Grimoire, Mark of Tzeentch, Spell familiar, Terminator Armour, Veterans of the Long War] - Grimoire Bearer . Probably Warlord.

Sorcerer [Chainfist, Combi-bolter, Mark of Tzeentch, Terminator Armour, Veterans of the Long War] - Mr punchy but rubbish at magic.

Sorcerer [2x Additional Mastery Level, Mark of Tzeentch, Power Armour, Spell familiar, Veterans of the Long War]
Mr just magic.

Sorcerer [1x Additional Mastery Level, Seers bane, Disc of Tzeentch, Mark of Tzeentch, Power Armour, Aura of Dark Glory, Spell familiar, Veterans of the Long War]
Fast choppy choppy man.