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Just some units I like the idea of. They're made with 10th edition in mind rather than 11th.

Thousand Sons Cultists (70 points)
M6", T3, W1, Ld 7+, Sv 6+, OC1
Unit Composition: 9 Thousand Sons Cultists
Loadout:
Each model is equipped with Cultist Weapons and an autogun.

Weapons:
Cultist Weapons: Melee A2, WS5+, S3, AP0, D1
Autogun: Range 24", A1, WS5+, s3, AP0, D1, Rapid Fire(1)

Special Rule - Arcane Ritual:
In your command phase, an unengaged Thousand Sons Cultists unit may perform an Arcane Ritual. If they do so, the unit may not voluntarily move, shoot, or charge for the remainder of the turn. Once per turn when performing a Cabal of Sorcerers ritual, prior to rolling any dice, you may declare that you will bolster the ritual. Add X to the total rolled for the ritual where X is the number of units that performed an Arcane Ritual this turn. (So if you have 3 units of cultists doing a ritual, you can add +3 to a single psychic test that turn, basically.)

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Rubricae Heavy Gunners(130 points?)
Rubric Gunners - Use standard rubric marine stats.
Gunner Sorcerer - Use aspiring sorcerer stats.
Unit Composition: 4 Rubric Gunners and 1 Gunner Sorcerer

Loadout
* The Gunner Sorcerer is equipped with a force weapon and an inferno bolt pistol. He may swap his force weapon for a prosperine khopesh and may swap his inferno bolt pistol for a warpflame pistol.
* The Rubric Gunners are each equipped with a close-combat weapon and a Heavy Inferno Bolter.
* Each Rubric Gunner may swap their Heavy Inferno Bolter for one of the following:
---A Soul Reaper Cannon
---A Lascannon
---A Multi-Melta
---Missile Launcher

Weapons:
* The ccw, force weapon, prosperine khopesh, inferno bolt pistol, and warpflame pistol use the stats found in the rubric marine statblock.
* The lascannons, missile launchers, and multi-meltas use the same stats you'd find on a devastator.
* Heavy Inferno Bolter: Ranged 36", A3, BS4+, S5, AP-2, D2, Sustained Hits 1, Heavy
* Devastating Spellcraft: Ranged 36", A1, BS4+, S12, AP-3, D6+2 (see below), Heavy

Special Rule - Grimoire of Devastation:
At the start of each Thousand Sons command phase, select one of the following rules. The selected rule applies until the start of the next Thousand Sons command phase:
* Shield of the Seraphim: Models in this unit have a 3+ invulnerable save. This becomes a 4+ invulnerable save if the unit moves.
* Telekinetic Arc: This unit's Heavy Inferno Bolters, Soul Reaper Cannons, and Missile Launchers have the Indirect Fire rule.
* Channel the Silver Spire: This unit's Gunner Sorcerer has the Devastating Spellcraft weapon.

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And then a couple of simple Hellbrute variants that fit the Thousand Sons a bit better than some fleshy guy going bonkers in a mutated coffin.

Dread Sorcerer (130 points?)
Take a Hellbrute. Swap out Terrifying Assault (force a battleshock test when you shoot something) for Psyker keyword and the Cabal of Sorcerers rule. Then give it these weapons instead of the usual hellbrute options:

Dreadnought Force Weapon:
--(Standard Profile): Melee, A4, WS3+, S8, AP-2, D3.
--(Juiced Up Profile): Melee, A6, WS3+, S14, AP-3, Dd6+1, Hazardous, Psychic
(The idea here is that it has melee that's a bit worse than hellbrute fist by default, but it can become a bit better than a hellbrute hammer if you juice it up psychically)

Dread Magicks: Ranged 18", A6, S6, AP-2, D2, Anti-Vehicle(4+), Devastating Wounds

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Dustnaught (130 poitns?)
Take a Hellbrute. Give it W12 instead of W8. Swap out Terrifying Assault for the following:

Curse of the Rubric: This model may not target enemies more than 12" away with ranged weapons unless a Thousand Sons Psyker is within 12" of this unit.
(The idea being that this is what you get when a Thousand Son enterred in a dreadnaught gets turned into a rubric marine. So they have access to all the usual weaponry, and the lack of a living body inside makes them harder to bring down, but they're listless and unfocused without a psyker around to direct them.)

Why are cultists both rifles and two-attack CCWs?
Why are they 5+ to-hit?

And I do not like giving a long range firepower unit a 3++.

 JNAProductions wrote:
Why are cultists both rifles and two-attack CCWs?

Because I initially wrote a more elaborate set of wargear options before going, "Wait... These are meant to be crappy nerds who spend the whole game chanting anyway," deleted several wargear options, and then forgot to change the Attacks on the surviving melee weapon back to 1.

Why are they 5+ to-hit?

They probably should be 4+ to hit for consistency's sake. It's basically me being tempted to throw a bone to guardsmen and recognize that their proper military training probably means something. Where most cultists might be gangers or traitor guard, I was picturing these particular cultists as being more like bookish Lovecraft story characters, reading their local brand of Necronomicon just enough to know how to put themselves in a trance and help out with their astartes overlords' psychic spellcraft.

Or in otherwords, these are the nerdiest nerd cultists, and I wanted to acknowledge that WS/BS4+ represents a decent amount of skill/training even if it's not astartes/eldar tier. I wouldn't be opposed to making them 4+ to hit.

And I do not like giving a long range firepower unit a 3++.

Yeah. I was iffy on that one. I'm not opposed to dropping or changing that option if it seems problematic.

My thinking was that, compared to havocs, these guys are less tough (T4 instead of T5) and have worse BS if they move out from behind cover to shoot (Havocs ignore this). And if you start the game with these guys already exposed to shoot at something without having to move, then you're gambling on them being caught with their pants down. So letting them get the same save as a rubric marine with an exalted sorcerer attached on the turn they walk into firing position and then giving them a 3++ if they opt to remain exposed in subsequent turns seemed like it might not be so bad. A 3++ makes opponents want to avoid shooting them with lascannons, but heavy bolters remain pretty effective.

Would changing it to -1 to-wound be better? At that point, they'd essentially be havocs that are less accurate on the move but which have some extra flexibility in the form of the other power options.

If you give them -1 to-wound, make it only when Strength is greater than their Toughness.
Heavy Bolters wounding on 4s and Lascannons on 3s is fine. Lasguns wounding on 6s is not.

For the Heavy Gunners, I'm of the opinion that they shouldn't have so many weapon choices - leave it at the inferno heavy bolters and soulreaper cannons, multimeltas at a push, but not missile launchers and lascannons. In return, the squad leader ALWAYS gets the Devastating Spellcraft ability, give the inferno heavy bolters and soulreaper cannons Indirect as standard, take Heavy off of the multimelta and heavy bolters, and then give them Ignores Cover if they stay still, like Devastators. They're still boasting a 5++ over the Havocs anyways, even if they're down a point of T, and can reposition without any loss of firepower. Hell, they can even shoot around walls with their non-antitank weapons.

I just really prefer units with narrower scope, especially for what I believe Rubricae to be. Lascannons and missile launchers just don't feel like they fit on rubric bodies, but I think that the inferno heavy bolters are awesome, especially the idea of them arcing shots.

JNAProductions wrote:If you give them -1 to-wound, make it only when Strength is greater than their Toughness.
Heavy Bolters wounding on 4s and Lascannons on 3s is fine. Lasguns wounding on 6s is not.

For sure. I like the visual of a mage putting up a Doctor Strange shield to keep some heavy weapon guys alive, but I'm not trying to make these dudes particularly tanky.

Sgt_Smudge wrote:For the Heavy Gunners, I'm of the opinion that they shouldn't have so many weapon choices - leave it at the inferno heavy bolters and soulreaper cannons, multimeltas at a push, but not missile launchers and lascannons. In return, the squad leader ALWAYS gets the Devastating Spellcraft ability, give the inferno heavy bolters and soulreaper cannons Indirect as standard, take Heavy off of the multimelta and heavy bolters, and then give them Ignores Cover if they stay still, like Devastators. They're still boasting a 5++ over the Havocs anyways, even if they're down a point of T, and can reposition without any loss of firepower. Hell, they can even shoot around walls with their non-antitank weapons.

I just really prefer units with narrower scope, especially for what I believe Rubricae to be. Lascannons and missile launchers just don't feel like they fit on rubric bodies, but I think that the inferno heavy bolters are awesome, especially the idea of them arcing shots.

Thanks!

So I'm a little reluctant to ditch the lascannons and missile launchers as part of the goal with this unit was to give thousand sons a non-vehicle way to reach out and threaten tanks/monsters that didn't rely on stacking a bunch of buffs or spamming mutaliths. Can you explain why those weapons don't fit in your mind? I always found it strange that a sorcerer couldn't simply draw his rubric buddies' attention to the giant land raider down the street and tell them to point some heavy weapons at it.

I'm open to breaking this unit up into multiple datasheets if it feels too confused/busy. Heavy bolters and soul reaper cannons were the two that I was worried would have too much overlap both aeshtetically and in terms of role, but I *think* they manage to be sufficiently better into hordes and meq respectively to be okay?
Multi-meltas made the cut because again, part of the goal was to give 'Sons an alternative way to deal with tanks, and the closer range profile made them appealing to shove into a rhino or land raider.
Heavy flamers were left out because flamer rubricae exist.
Lascannons made the cut because anti-tank.
Missile launchers made the cut because I knew i wanted to do the telekinetically-guided projectile thing, and indirect fire gave me a way to give them a niche despite being worse anti-tank than lascannons.

Sorta torn on letting these guys move and shoot without any downside. Rubricae have had Slow & Purposeful in the past, but at the same time, I like that rewarding sitting still and "aiming" helps to make heavy weapons feel more hefty. Similarly, making the sorcerer choose between Devastating Spellcraft and the other options (theoretically) gives it some weight. It becomes a power he has to give some attention to casting rather than something he can do while simultaneously juggling several other spells and solving a crossword puzzle. If the goal there is just to let him be contributing some psychic shooting every turn on top of his other powers, I almost think I'd rather just ditch Destructive Spellcraft and downgrade him to having Malefic Curse like other aspiring sorcerers.

I'm also worried that if I just turn these guys into a (heavy) bolter squad with ignores cover, they sorta end up feeling like a retread of regular bolter rubric marines? And maybe even put those guys out of the job given that bolter rubrics are seen as usually being a bad option next to flamer rubrics.

Note that I'm not trying to shoot down your much appreciated feedback. Just voicing my concerns while considering your suggestions.