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Played a friend of mine last night with my new Magnus Model to get a feel for it and see what he was capable of. Also havent seen many Magnus bat reps so wanted to write up my first one.

We played ITC Mission 6 Crusade.
My list

Lord of the Legion
- Magnus the Red
Omniscient Oracles
- Fateweaver
-LOC with Exalted and Lesser reward
Deamon CAD
3 Tzentch Heralds lvl 3, 1 with paradox
-1 Unit of 10 Brimstone horrors
-2 units of 3 nurglings
-1 unit of 11 Pink horrors
Imperial bunker w/ escape hatch

His list ( I dont know genestealers so this is my best guess)
He had a CAD, and their special formatio with subterranian uprising
2 Magnuses
1 Primarch in a blob squad of 20 pure genestealers
4 10 squads of metamophs
4-6 squads of basic guardsman ( dont remember specific numbers as they where dying and coming off and on the table)
2 5 squads of genestealers
2 Leman russ tanks in a squadren
(Might be missing a unit or two but this is what i remember)
All the units had no shooting upgrades but a healthy smattering of CC upgrades across the board.

I roll pretty good psycic powers Fateweaver gets Cursed Earth, the LOC gets the demononlogy flamer, the Heralds roll some decent powers but its largly irrelivant as all my dice are funneled into the FMC's.
He rolls terrible powers no summoning and 3 Mind controls.
For warlord he gets the 6 which lets him chose his infiltrate result with his psudo-star.
Objectives get put 2 in my table corner and 2 in his table corner.
Night fight is in.
He gets first turn and deploys only the leman russes.
Heres where I have to make what I think is a gamble to rely on the new split rule for bubble wrap. I debate keeping all the FMC's off but I know if i do this Ill never be able to catch up in maelstrom and he gives me -1 to reserves. So I decide to turtle up I put the bunker making a pocket for all the FMC's, put the brimstone horros in the bunker with the heralds and bubble wrap Magnus with the pink horrors.
Magnus is no chump in CC but if you have ever played genestealer cult there is almost nothing in the game 20 genstealers and a patriarch cant chew through.

Genestealers Turn 1 ( I fail to seize even with the Oracles reroll)
He rolls Hold objective 2 and have a unit in my deployment for maelstroms.
He rolls for all his infiltrators and gets 2 squads of 5 which is the free shooting attack and the genestealers come in ready to assault the bunker and bubble wrap. With his free shooting attack and the russes he kills 8 pink horrors, which normally would have been game over for Magnus, also his leman russes Put 1 wound on Magnus. However with the new split rule it spawns me 16 blue horrors and my bubble wrap remains intact to protect magnus. Psycic phase I deny anything he attempts to casts which is the case for the rest of the game, to the point that after 2 turns he just forgo his psycic phase. Assault he cleans up the blue horrors easily and blocks me from spawning brimstone horrors however they served their purpose. He also puts 3 hull points on the bunker which keeps him locked in combat.
First Blood to Genestealers

Magnus Turn 1

I roll 3-4 both destroy a unit and decide to go for broke and go for 3 victory points.
FMC's all fly out of their cover in formation past his lines to unleash a volley of psychic doom. The main workhorse powers this whole game where Summoning flamers + Cursed earth, and the Nova from Change. I dont remember all the powers I cast needless to say Magnus's psychic leech blessing is really good the first two turns while still in formation it generated me an additional 4-6 dice which paired with magnus casting on 2+ goes a really long way. After my psychic phase is said and done I have killed 4 units and (2 guardsman, 1 Metamorphe, 1 5 man genestealer squad) and crippled another metamorph unit. I made the mistake of sweeping him off of my escape hatch then with my run move flying over it instead of next to it, this would have prevented him from blocking it and letting me use it as a exit point when he innevitably destroyed it next turn. Good first turn as my FMS's survived and got 3 maelstrom points

Turn 2 Genestealers
He rolls the same objectives and scores his previous 2.
Pulls off the metomorphs and various other squads, leaving 1 squad of gaurdsman on the "2" in his table side. Psycic phase is a wash, in combat he wrecks the bunker and due to how he positioned he kills everything except for 2 heralds that manage to escape his zoning, he brought one of the other squads over to block the escape hatch again which was my one major mistake in the game. Also he shoots the flamers with the russes and Kills them all. Overall pretty quick turn because he cannot interact with my fliers.
Malestrom score 2-0

Turn 2 Magnus
I score my previous 3, and roll double destroy again but choose to only go for 2.
1 Nurgling squad insist on coming on despite reroll and -1, then promptly mishap and I roll a 1 :(. Formation of FMC's split off with the LOC and Magnus going mid feild on the ground and fatey more back feild but still all within 18' flying. Psycic phase is more of the same Cursed earth and novas etc. after all is said and done though I kill 10 genestealers a full metamorph squad and weaken a 4 man squad he outflanked of metamorphs. All game the warpstom table was unimpressive only killing a paltry amount of stuff which is why i skip over it. I still dont have my 2 KP and knowing I need them in an act of desperation I charge the 1 metamorph with the 4 pink horros left and the 2 heralds. In combat he kills 1 herald and I kill the metamorph, the herald can die knowing he did so for the cause. Also during psycic phase I made a spawn with the focused witchfire power.
Maelstrom score 2-3

Turn 3 Genestealers
He rolls oddly enough the exact same number and scores his previous 2.
More of the same he does the genestealer shuffle bringing some things on and some off, keeps the big genestealer unit on to capture objective and to clean up my heralds squad. Shooting he kills the flamers again with the leman russes and a squad of gaurdsman he brings back on, gets crazy lucky with 5 pistol shots on the spawn and kills it. Genestealers assault the herald and horrors and they die terribly.
Mealstrom score 4-3

Turn 3 Magnus.
I roll capture 2 and destroy a unit, score my 2 from last turn.
Second nurgling squad also wants to come on despite the odds then scatter off of his 1 by 10 in putting them int he open. Magnus breaks off left field to try to capture 2 while destroying a guardsman unit. LOC peels back to harras the Genestealers while still staying 22' away for charge . Psycic phase Magnus summons a chariot, to burn a few gaurdsman ( didnt want to kill to many) fateyweaver and LOC summon flamers to kill a metamorph squad and put some shots into the genestealers. Assault phase Magnus fails a 8' through terrain charge with fleet onto the gaurdsman. So I miss my capture 2 objective because of this. I do have flamers on the other 2 but they wont last.
Maelstrom score 4-5

Turn 4 Genestealers
He gets destroy a unit and have a unit in my deployment scores 2.
He gets a 6 with his one remaining metamoph squad which he brings in primed to multi assault the chariot and the nurglings. Genestealers jump off and the gaurdsman needing to hold 2 had to stay on the board so they stare down magnus. Shooting russes and the one gaurdsman squad kill the flamers, the other gaurdsman shoot magnus and he laughs as they do no wounds. Assault he multi charges the chariot and nurglings with nurglings being primary, and rolls an 11' so he has to consolidate into the nurglings and not the chariot. Nurglings get destroyed terribly.
Malestrom 6-5

Turn 4 Magnus
I get hold 2 and destroy a unit. Score 1 from last turn
With the chariot alive which I didnt expect Magnus flies in the air (to avoid genestealer assault) and moves back to take out the metamorphs hoping the chariot can kill the gaurdsman on #2. Magnus destroys the metamorphs with beam's and nova. Fateweaver weakens the 1 gaurd squad and takes a pot shot at the russes with a beam. LOC also flies to avoid assault. In shooting the flamer kills all 7 guardsman left, luckily didn't need fates reroll It is also able to move onto objective 2.
Maelstrom 6-6

Turn 5
He scores 2, brings the genestealers on and his one remaining squad of meta-morphs onto my objectives the genestealer controlling 1 and contesting 2, the metamorphs surrounding my 2. Doesnt Kill anything but tries to ground the LOC with shooting.

Maelstrom 8-6

Turn 5 Magnus
I score 2, fly magnus onto his 1 and to summon flamers to reinforce which i fail throwing 4 dice the chariot holds 2 and fateweaver and the LOC move to try to sweep him off of 2. Psycic phase goes very well in combo with summoning flamers I manage to kill the meta morphs holding down 2 and enough genestealers so he isnt contesting it.
Maelstrom 8-8
He rolls to see if the game ends. It does. Magnus sqeeks out a win
Total score I win primary 4-0
We tie Maelstrom 2-2
He got FB, Linebreaker, I got Linebreaker

Magnus 7, Genestealers 4

Overall this was an amazingly close game, a few small things won it for me chiefly him not killing the chariot and me going for 3 maelstrom points in round 1. At the end of the game he had his psudo death star and the leman russes and I had all 3 fliers. This was my first time playing this list so I forgot some things mainly warpflame which like every attack I have has. Overall I think the list is great, the new split rule is amazing. I thin it is very powerful but not broken as assault is still its Achilles heel.
This is my first battle report and genestealers are crazy with things coming on and off etc so im sure I forgot some things and exagerated what I killed because things come back on regenerating but thats my best from memory.

Now the question I have been asking myself and what I have heard the most debate about, Magnus is he worth it? With my limited view of 1 game I think yes, we tallied up what he killed and he killed between 400-500 points and summoned 340 points worth of stuff. Granted he didnt get shot much so I did not get to see how durable he truely is, however with the grimore 2++/4++ on a 7 wound T7 model that can fly seems pretty intense. Overall he is a huge force multiplier and even if he stays in the air can dish out serious hurt, but against most things he will go beast mode in close combat killing and summoning spawn. He obvioulsy needs support, however I found that even with just the FMC's which is 15 WC he is still very good, he is so efficient at casting you can do a lot with a fewer dice, I look forward to playing more games with him.
As another aside the Omnicinent Oracles formation is AMAZING, it effectively makes Fatey and the LOC bs10 and the rerolls for psychics and wounds where invaluable, it made them feel much more powerful then they normally are.

Just wondering how did you take Magnus on his own? The rest of your list seems to be a Daemon formation and a CAD. I've used Magnus a couple times and I think the best way js with Daemon support for WC generation but i had to pay a Thousand Sons HQ and troops tax to do it.

Yeah.. Lord of the legion isn't a standalone formation
It's a command option for the detachment.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Loved the batrep, thanks!

Where does it specify that you can't take command formations as stand alone? I have seen this done at big tourrnoments before with royal court with no issue and can't find anywhere in the rules where it says this. A command detachment is a formation just like any other from my understanding. If I need to I'll rewrite my list but I'd like to see where it says that. Thanks for the input.

GunslingerSamus wrote:
Where does it specify that you can't take command formations as stand alone? I have seen this done at big tourrnoments before with royal court with no issue and can't find anywhere in the rules where it says this. A command detachment is a formation just like any other from my understanding. If I need to I'll rewrite my list but I'd like to see where it says that. Thanks for the input.

You can't... You can't take it without a core... Im sorry but you have to pay those useless taxes to play magnus just like me It is clearely stated at p.164 wrath of magnus...

alex0911 wrote:

GunslingerSamus wrote:
Where does it specify that you can't take command formations as stand alone? I have seen this done at big tourrnoments before with royal court with no issue and can't find anywhere in the rules where it says this. A command detachment is a formation just like any other from my understanding. If I need to I'll rewrite my list but I'd like to see where it says that. Thanks for the input.

You can't... You can't take it without a core... Im sorry but you have to pay those useless taxes to play magnus just like me

Why not? I'm not doubting you but see nothing in the rules to validate your agurgument and if I'm going to change my list I would like to know I need to. Can you tell me where it says command have to include a core choice? Because I'm looking and cannot find anything about that.

Units, formations and detachment all have a datasheet. There is no datasheet called Lord of the Legion, sorry. This is the official RAW reason. So what is «Lord of the Legion»? According to p. 164 of WoM, it is an «Army List entry». When you are talking about «command formations», you are misquoting the book in such a way that it appears to be a formation, but it is not (the book says «Command choices»).
(And imo the concept of «formation» and «detachment» implies more than one unit..., but there are exceptions, I concede, like the assassins.)

Yeah I wish it were otherwise but there isn't a stand-alone Lord of the Legion formation. And unfortunately you can't take Magnus as a Daemon LoW. So the cheapest tax is a Sorcerer and 2 cultist units to take him in a CAD.

 RenegadeKorps wrote:
Units, formations and detachment all have a datasheet. There is no datasheet called Lord of the Legion, sorry. This is the official RAW reason. So what is «Lord of the Legion»? According to p. 164 of WoM, it is an «Army List entry». When you are talking about «command formations», you are misquoting the book in such a way that it appears to be a formation, but it is not (the book says «Command choices»).
(And imo the concept of «formation» and «detachment» implies more than one unit..., but there are exceptions, I concede, like the assassins.)

So my buddy is a TO that has run some of the bigger tournaments nationwide so I will get his opinion on this. However there are a couple points that I still don't agree with you. 1) not sure the page because im not at home any more, but in the Traitors legions on the thousand suns sections it says expressly " The following data slates" in reference to the choices listed it does not say army choices etc. so this fact makes me believe that it is indeed a data slate. Along that exact president there are other perfect examples, I can take reharti war sect by its self. It is a command choice, so by your logic I could not do that. They are listed in the same section (command detachments) so they would fall under the same heading data slate or not. The lord of the legion is different for multiple legions which is why it may not have a dedicated page, but there is nothing disqualifying it from being a data slate.

Feel free to get his opinion. Lord of the Legion is NOT a stand alone formation you can take.

Rehati War Sect is explicitly a formation. Lord of the Legion is not a formation, it is a command choice for a detachment.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
This would also be why literally every other Magnus army list is either a TS CAD or a Rehati War Sect. Otherwise people wouldn't be using either, likely.

It's amazing that we're this far into 7th Edition and many people still understand how to play a game, but not how to build a legal army list.

Yeah, the "Royal Court" you mention Necrons playing is an actual Formation, hence why they are able to take it on its own.

Command & Auxiliary choices are sometimes Formations, but not always
Daemons for example, can either take a Tetrad or a Daemon lord as a Command choice
The Tetrad IS a Formation and can be taken outside the Incursion detachment.
"Daemon Lord" is just the name of the slot they allow for the Incursion to take a Greater Deamon or Daemon Prince, and is specific to the Incursion. It is literally just a fancy way of saying "HQ" for this detachment. You cannot take a D-thirster by himself, for example. He either needs to be a "Daemon Lord" choice in the Incursion, or an "HQ" in a CAD.

Mangus can only be taken as a CSM LoW in a CAD, or in the Formation of him & 3-9 DPs/E-sorcerers, or a "Lord of the Legion" in the specific T-sons detachment.
Since were fielding none of the 3, your list was Unbound. Still "legal", just Unbound, so you would have lost ObSec, but all the Formations would have been fine

-

So, unfortunately, you used an Unbound list to combat a GSC army here. Which is fine, I suppose, but it is what happened.

GunslingerSamus wrote:


" The following data slates"

Lord of the Legion is not included in ''the following''.

Agreements and debates about rules cannot be fruitful without both sides having the books in front of their eyes.

Anyway, your (unbound) list is very good, though I think blue horrors are better than nurglings, pink horrors and brimstones horrors.

Thanks for the input everyone. I did some extra digging and you all where right, so thanks for keeping me honest.
Going forward I am going to change my list to the Reharti War Sect with a Daemon Cad. Which honestly might be even better with how stupid efficient it is with its psycic dice. Local tournament this weekend so we will see!

I am curious, how were you able to "deny everything he casts"?

 Kriswall wrote:
It's amazing that we're this far into 7th Edition and many people still understand how to play a game, but not how to build a legal army list.

In his defense, it is incredibly obfuscated now with all sorts of formations, decurions, CADs, stand alone datasheets, pick rules from whatever book you want (Space Wolves Iron Priests). Magnus himself pulls rules from CSM codex, Daemons codex, wrath of magnus....

Fragile wrote:
I am curious, how were you able to "deny everything he casts"?

Because of the way genestealers he only had 1-2 psycers on the board so he had anywhere from 4-10 dice a turn. So the three times he cast powers he if I remember correctly he spent 6 6 and 8 dice on a power. I threw all my dice to deny it so thats 22+ and rolled 6's. I remember one turn he rolled really poorly so it was easy, but when you have 20+ dice to deny your going to stop powers from going off.